No wonder is, for it no thinge of newe is,
A blinde man can not judgen wel in hewis:
Book II, ver. 19.

and again,

СНАР.

XXII.

1359.

For al my wordés here, and every part,
I speke hem al under correction

Of you that feling have in love's art.

Book III, ver. 1337.

In like manner in the Parliament of Birds, written in 1358,

For all be that I knowe not love in dede,
Ne wot how that he quiteth folke her hire,
Yet happeth me ful ofte in bokés rede

Of his miracles.

ver. 8.

In the poem now under consideration however, which was written in less than twelve months after the Parliament of Birds, Chaucer has completely changed his tone.

His pas

sion, con

ceived in

1359.

f their

VOL. II.

XXII.

CHAP. In the commencement he expresses himself beautifully and unaffectedly, in the very style of a man smitten with a genuine passion.

1359.

Of aventure withouten light,
In May I lay upon a night
Alone, and on my lady thought,

And how the Lord that her ywrought,
Couth wel & entaile in imagery,

And shewed had grete maistery,
When he in so litel a space
Made such a body and a face,

So grete beautie with "swiche fetures,
More than in other créatures.

XXII.

1359.

The object troduced sonage in

of it in

as a per

the story.

Nor is Chaucer contented with these inci- CHAP. dental allusions to the lady of his affections, but introduces her as a principal personage in his tale. It is she who has anticipated the heroine in gathering the mysterious apples, who rescues her from the presumptuous attempt of the knight her lover, and who reconducts her in safety to her native dominions. Chaucer was an attentive spectator of the arrival and reception of the princess.

And thus avising, with chere 1 sad,
All sodainly I was right glad,
That greter joy, as I mote thrive,
I trow had never man on live,
Than I tho, ne an herte more light,
When of my lady I had sight,

Which with the quene ycome was there,
And in one clothing both they were.

ver. 299.

Cupid too, when introduced upon the scene, is not more remiss in his attentions to Chaucer's mistress, than to the queen herself.

1 serious.

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XXII.

1359.

And, as me thought, more frendlely
Unto my lady', and godelely

He spake, than any that was there,

Wherefore long in procession
Many a pace arme under other

m

He welke, and so did with none other.

ver. 821.

At length the lady determines to return to her own country. On this Chaucer represents the queen as in the highest degree afflicted, and even proffering to resign her crown in favour of her guest, the better to induce her not to withdraw from her society.

For to the quene it was a paine,
As to a martir new yslaine,

That for her wo, and she so tender,
Yet I oft wepe when I remember;
She offered there to resigne
To my lady eight times or nine,
Th'astate, the yle, shortly to tell,
If it might plese her there to dwell,

walked.

And said, for ever her linage
Should to my lady doe homage,
And hers be whole withouten more,
"Ye, and all thers for evermore :

ver. 1111.

a very extraordinary compliment, when we recollect that this fictitious queen is a lady of the most eminent rank, married to the third gentleman in the island of Great Britain; and that the poem in which this compliment is introduced, is a literary homage intended to congratulate these high personages on their marriage.

We are naturally curious to know who is this mistress of Chaucer, whom he thus with out ceremony places upon an equality with princes: and there will appear sufficient reason in the sequel, to persuade us that she was no other than the lady he afterward married. She was therefore the daughter and coheiress of Paganus [Payne] de Rouet, or Roet, a native of Hainault, and king at arms

CHAP.

XXII.

1359.

Chaucer's

mistress,

her qua

lity and

name.