bottle. The care bestowed on the poem is evident from the number of sources from which the poet drew. The medieval machinery of a dream with a description of the temple of Venus offers the opportunity for giving an outline of the story of the Encid. Then follows the appearance of the eagle and the journey to the house of Fame, the description of which is taken from the Metamorphoses xii. 33-63. Professor Ten Brink was the first to point out that in general plan and in a number of individual passages the influence of the Divina Commedia can be traced. Both poems are visions, in both there is a heaven-sent guide who may but accompany the poet in parts of his journey; both are divided into three books. Very probably the importance of Vergil in Dante's poem suggested the story of the Æneid. Certainly the idea of the golden eagle is taken from him (Purgat. ix.). The apostrophe to Thought,' at the opening of the second book, was suggested by the Inferno (ii. 7-9), the invocation in the third book by that at the beginning of the Paradiso (i. 13-27). The philosophy, however, is not Dante's, but rather as the poet himself suggests-that of Boethius (ii. 464 ff.); yet the poem as a whole is Chaucer's, and none but his. The Hous of Fame was not likely to be popular, and there are unfortunately only three MSS. and two editions to serve as authorities. I arrange them as follows: P=Pepys 2006 (Magdalene College, Cambridge), incomplete. Th. W. Thynne's Edition (1532). The better group is B, and MS. P has been used as the basis of the text so far as it is available. From that point on Cx. and Th. were used with the aid of F and B. Th., it should be remarked, is not merely a reprint of Cx., for Thynne certainly had access to and made use of other authorities. 1 Some support appears to be lent to this theory by the Fairfax MS., which commences the third book on f. 169, after a wide space, with a large illuminated capital, similar to that used at the opening of the poem ; whilst the second book, which commences on f. 161, runs straight on after the close of the first without any space, and with a capital, which, though similar in design to that used for the other two books, is not quite so large. THE LEGENDE OF GOOD WOMEN (ALFRED W. POLLARD) The Legende of Good Women, as Chaucer planned it, was intended to consist of a Prologue, the stories of nineteen women who have been true to love, and lastly, the legend of the crown of womanhood, Queen Alcestis, who gave up her own life to save her husband's. Such a series of poems had plainly been for some time in Chaucer's mind. The goodness of Alceste is the subject of two stanzas in the Troilus, and in the Hous of Fame (Bk. i. ll. 388-426), after telling the story of Dido out of Virgil's Eneid, he gives quite a list of other faithful women, to whom, doubtless, he meant to apply the phrase he uses of Dido, that if it were not too long to endite he would have liked to write her love in full. Chaucer was certainly occupied with the Hous of Fame in 1383-1384, and the Legende-in which it is mentioned first in the poet's list of his own writings-must have immediately succeeded it. We know that on 17th February 1385 he obtained permission to exercise his Comptrollership by deputy, and it has been conjectured that the intention he expresses of sending this new poem to the Queen (11. 496, 497), and the probability that she was meant to be identified with the good Alceste, are marks of gratitude for this particular favour, which may have been obtained through her intervention. Lydgate, in the Prologue to his Fall of Princes, even says that the Legende was written at the request of the quene,' but if so it would surely have been duly completed. Everything, however, points to 1385 as the year of its composition. Of the nineteen (or twenty) legends planned, only nine were written. These celebrate (1) Cleopatra, who is represented (not quite in accordance, as Chaucer imagines, with 'storial sooth') as a martyr to her love for Antony; (2) Thisbe, who refused to survive her lover Pyramus (see Bottom's play in the Midsummer Night's Dream; (3) Dido; (4) the two victims of Jason's treachery, Hypsipyle and Medea; (5) Lucretia; (6) Ariadne; (7) Philomela, the victim of Tereus; (8) Phyllis, who slew herself for love of Demophon; (9) Hypermnestra, who accepted death at her father's hands rather than treacherously kill her husband. By the aid of some hints in the Prologue, and of a curious mention of these seintes legendes of Cupide' in the talk which precedes the Man of Law's story in the Canterbury Tales, it is possible to make a fair guess as to the names of the other ten women, in addition to Alcestis, whose praises Chaucer was too tired to sing. They belong to the same class of heroines as the nine he wrote of, and we need not trouble about them here. For the nine legends Chaucer had recourse chiefly to the Metamorphoses and Heroides of Ovid, but he used also two Latin works by Boccaccio, viz. his De Claris Mulieribus and De Genealogia Deorum, while the story of Dido is taken mainly from Virgil, and that of Hypsipyle and Medea from the Historia Trojana of Guido delle Colonne. The only other point that need be mentioned is that the Prologue (much the most interesting part of the poem) exists in two different versions. The one which appears to be the earlier has 545 lines, of which 90-including one long passage on love tales, and a reference to Chaucer's own library of sixty bookes olde and newe' all full of stories-do not reappear in the revised text. In this many lines are altered, the position of others transposed, and the 90 omitted lines replaced by 124 new ones, bringing the number in the second version to 579. Some of the alterations seem intended to make the poem more acceptable to the Queen, the rest are poetical improvements which may easily be studied in the parallel columns in which they are printed in this edition. Nine MSS., besides Thynne's Edition (Th.), have been collated, as printed by the Chaucer Society, for the text of this poem, viz. Gg 4. 27, Cambridge (quoted as Gg); Fairfax (F); Tanner (Tan.); R 3. 19, Trinity College, Cambridge (Trin.); Arch. Seld. B 24, Bodleian Library (Arch. Seld.); Bodley MS. 638 (B); British Museum Additional MS. 9832 (Add.), and 12,524 (Add.); and Pepys MS. 2006 (Pepys). Of these MSS. F and B must be derived immediately from the same original, and Tan., which shares most of their glaring faults, from the original of that. The text of Thynne's edition belongs to the same group, but Thynne must have collated it with other MSS., as he has supplied lines and words which F, B, and Tan. omit. In my notes F2 stands for F and B; F3 for F, B, and Tan.; F4 for F, B, Tan., and Thynne. The leading MS. in a second group is Trin., with which must be reckoned Add., which, however, stops at 1. 1986. These two MSS. are almost as nearly identical as F and B, and contain a number of good readings. The other Museum fragment Add., which only begins at 1. 1640, belongs to the same group, as also does Arch. Seld. The latter, however, is a dangerous MS. to use, as its scribe, who may have worked from the same original used for Trin. and Add., has plainly introduced many emendations of his own to smooth away difficulties of sense or metre. I have occasionally denoted the agreement of Trin. and Add. by Trin.2; of Trin. Add. and Arch. Seld. by Trin.3; and of Trin. Add. Arch. Seld. and Add., by Trin.4 The Cambridge MS. Gg stands by itself, in virtue of its possession of the first draft of the Prologue. Its readings are throughout of great importance, but its spelling is bad, and it lacks 11. 1836-1907. The Pepys fragment, which stops at 1. 1367, though it has the second draft of the Prologue, is linked to Gg by possessing 11. 960, 961, which the other MSS. omit; but it sometimes agrees with the Trin. group against Gg. Its independent readings (with the possible exception of yiftes in l. 1126) are of no value. In making my text I am sorry now that I did not take the Trinity MS. as my starting-point, but I for a long time suspected it of being overmuch edited. Thus the completeness and comparatively good spelling of Fairfax gave it the preference, but in my final revision I have systematically substituted the readings of the Trinity group, or of Gg, i those of the Fairfax where there was any possibility of doubt. In the matter of spelling I have cleared away a good many of the double vowels (especially oo) which re the chief disfigurement of F, and have removed a few eccentricities, though with a very sparing hand. LATER MINOR POEMS (H. FRANK HEATH) TO ROSEMOUNDE To the Troilus period belongs this playful ballade, which, like the preceding poem, is only found in one MS. (Rawl. Poet. 163, leaf 114) in the Bodleian Library, where it was discovered some years since by Dr. Furnivall, and afterwards rediscovered and first published by Professor Skeat. The metaphor with which the third stanza opens, and the ironical humour of its combination with the story of Isolde, unmistakably declare the authorship. THE FORMER AGE This pleasant rhapsody upon the good old times is based upon Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophia (ii, met. v.), with echoes here and there from the Roman de la Rose. It is only found in two MSS., both in the University Library at Cambridge. Their press marks are Ii 3. 21 and Hh 4. 12. The former is the better of the two, and has been used as the basis of the text. four poems cannot be exactly dated. They were written after before 1390. This and the next 1382, and probably FORTUNE Balades de visage sans peinture, as this poem is called in the MSS., are a series of ballades, or rather a triple ballade, with a single envoy of seven, and possibly only six lines, in praise of the friend of the 'unpainted face,' who is faithful in adversity. It was possibly written after Chaucer's loss of office in 1386. There are eight MSS. and one edition of this poem, which I arrange as follows : Ii Cambridge University Library MS. Ii 3. 21. - Harl. Harleian MS. 2251 (British Museum). T Shirley's Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. R 3. 20 (heet 7 lacking). F= Fairfax MS. 16 (Bodleian Library). B= Bodley 638 (Bodleian Library). P Pepys 2006 (Magdalene College, Cambridge). L= Lansdowne MS. 699 (British Museum). Cx. Caxton's Edition (1477-78). Ii is decidedly the best authority, and this has been made the basis of the text. TRUTH This ballade and the next, called Gentilesse, show Chaucer in his gravest mood, nd reveal the finely-tempered spirit which underlay his ironical and sometimes nical humour. Both poems, like the Lak of Stedfastnesse, owe their suggestion, doubt, to Boethius, but Truth (which is the finest) less so than the others, while ey all strike an intensely personal note. There are thirteen MSS. and one printed edition of Truth, which I arrange in the following way :- The dotted line is intended to show that there is evidence of contamination. C=Cotton MS. Cleopatra D vii. (British Museum). E=Ellesmere MS. Add.1 Additional MS. 10,340 (British Museum). Add.2 Additional MS. 22, 139 L= Lansdowne MS. 699 F1 = Fairfax MS. 16 (Bodleian Library). F= Fairfax MS. 16 (Bodleian Library), second copy of the poem. T=Shirley's Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. R 3. 20. T=Shirley's Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. R 3. 20, second copy of the poem. Seld. Arch. Selden B 24 (Bodleian Library). Kk Cambridge University Library Kk 1. 5. Group B is the better of the two main groups into which the authorities fall, and of this group sub-group 6 is the better. I have used Gg as the basis of the text. GENTILESSE This fine ballade on the qualities that make a gentleman reminds one of the speech in which the Wife of Bath discourses upon 'gentillesse' (Wife of Bath's Tale, D 11091176). There are eight MSS. and one printed edition of this poem, which I arrange as follows: X H Tr Harl. Cx. Add C Ha |