grims was an after-thought: In the Prologue to the Legende, the poet mentions the Romaunce of the Rose, and Troylus and Cryseyde (v. 329–332), The Hous of Fame, The Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse, The Parlement of Foules (also entitled The Parlement of Briddes, and The Assembly of Foules), The Love of Palamon and Arcite, (which now stands first in the Canterbury Tales, being that related by the Knight; or, it may be, an earlier version of the same, and probably an inferior effort which did not gain much popularity, as the author says of it in v. 420 of the Prologue, "the storye ys knowen lyte ;") the translation of Boethius, The Lyfe of Seynte Cecile (the subject of The Secounde Nonnes Tale, in The Canterbury Tales), Origenes upon the Maudeleyne (The Lamentation of Mary Magdalene),

"And many an ympne for your haly dayes,

That highten Balades, Roundels, Virelayes," and "many a ley, and many a thynge" (v. 417-430). This list embraces nearly all the poet's works, except the Canterbury Tales.

Allusion is made to the Legend in the following passage from the Prologue to The Man of Lawes Tale, where it is called the seintes legende of Cupide, a title which best expresses the character of the production, in which the poet, as was the usage of his time, has mingled the Christian and heathen forms:

Who so wole his large volume seeke,
Cleped the seintes legende of Cupide;
Ther may he see the large woundes wyde
Of Lucresse, and of Babiloun Tysbee;
The sorwe of Dido for the fals Enee;
The tree of Philles for hir Demephon;
The pleynt of Dyane and of Ermyon,
Of Adrian, and of Ysyphilee;
The barreyn yle stondying in the see;
The dreynt Leandere for his fayre Erro;
The teeres of Eleyn, and eek the woo

Of Bryxseyde, and of Ledomia ;
The cruelté of the queen Medea,

The litel children hangyng by the hals,
For thilke Jason, that was of love so fals.
O Ypermystre, Penollope, and Alceste,

Youre wyfhood he comendeth with the beste.

C. T., v. 4480-4496.

In this passage, two women are omitted who are the subjects of Legends, namely, Cleopatra and Philomela, and eight are mentioned whose stories do not occur, namely, Dyane (Dejanira), Ermyon (Hermione), Erro (Hero), Eleyn (Helena), Bryxseyde (Briseis, called also Hippodamia), Ledomia (Laodamia), Penollope (Penelope), and Alceste. The latter, however, is introduced into the Prologue as the queen of Love, who, as an atonement for his calumniation of the sex, in his poem of Troylus and Cryseyde and in his translation of the Romaunce of the Rose, which last says the God of Love "is an heresye ayens my lawe" (v. 330), imposes the following penance upon the poet:—

"Thow shalt while that thou lyvest, yere by yere,

The most partye of thy tyme spende

In makyng of a glorious legende,

Of good wymmen, maydenes, and wyves,
That weren trewe in lovyng all hire lyves;
And telle of fals men that hem bytraien,
That al hir lyfe ne do not but assayen
How many women they may doon a shame,
For in your worlde that is now holde a game.
And thogh the lyke nat a lovere bee,

Speke well of love; this penance yeve I thee."

v. 481-491.

Tyrwhitt, in a note on the passage from the Man of Lawes Prologue, thinks it probable that the number of legends originally contemplated by Chaucer was never completed; but the inference should rather be, that it was; at least, that more legends were written than those which remain to us.

The poet would hardly have thus anticipated the composition of the histories of the seven women mentioned, that are not contained in the poem as we now have it, but he might easily have omitted some in such an incidental notice. The women, whose virtues and wifely devotion are commemorated in the poem, are, Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle, Medea, Lucretia, Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis, and Hypermnestra-ten in all, though the number of Legends is nine, Hypsipyle and Medea being included in one. These, with the addition of Alceste, and the seven mentioned in the Man of Lawes Prologue, make eighteen in all. There is some evidence that the number was nineteen-see verse 283 of the Prologue to the Legend. And in The Court of Love, verse 108, speaking of the daisies that were painted upon the walls of Love's palace, the poet says:

"But who tho daisies might do signify,

Can I not telle, sauf that the quenes floure
Alceste it was that kept there her sojoure;
Which under Venus lady was and quene,
And Admete king and soverein of that place,
To whom obeyed the ladies good ninetene."

It is most probable that a portion of the poem has been lost. The fact of there being but two MS. copies known to exist, the MS. Fairfax 16, in the Bodleian Library, and Arch. Seld. B. 24, is good evidence that it was never much multiplied in MS., and the chances of its being lost, in whole or in part, were therefore increased.

The text that has been used in this edition is that of the annotated edition of Chaucer's Works by Robert Bell, which is founded upon a careful collation of the two MSS. just mentioned. The Fairfax MS., the editor informs us, "is written in a fine, small hand, is richly illuminated, and the volume bears the autograph of Fairfax, and the date of 1450 on a fly-leaf. In this MS., the grammatical inflections, a point of the greatest moment, are generally preserved with accuracy throughout."

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The elucidations of the text which are furnished in the present edition, will be found, it is hoped, abundantly ample to meet the wants of the student just entering upon the study of early English, for whom they have been specially prepared. If this little volume be the means of adding anything to the growing interest in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, my object in preparing it will be realized.

To A. I. Fish, Esq., of this city, my thanks are due for the free use he has allowed me, of his valuable collection of English poetry, in the preparation of the notes.

H. C.

PHILADELPHIA,
October, 1863.

The Legende of Goode Women.

A

THE PROLOGUE.

THOUSANDE tymes I have herde telle,
That there ys joy in hevene, and peyne in helle,

And I acorde wel that it ys so;

But, natheles, yet wot I wel also,

That ther nis noon dwellyng in this countree,
That eyther hath in hevene or helle ybe,

5

2. ys, is; e, i, and y, c and k, u and w, sh and sch, o and oo, are respectively convertible, and used indifferently, in Chaucer's orthography.

4. natheles, not the less, nevertheless;-wot, pres. tense of witen, know.

5. nis, a contraction of ne is, is not;-nis noon: in early Eng. lish, as in the Anglo-Saxon, two negatives do not annul each other, as in modern English, but strengthen the negation.

6. ybe, past part. of to be, been; the prepositive particle y, generally the sign of the past participle, is the remains of the Saxon ge, which is still preserved in the German language; e. g., loben, to praise, gelobt, praised. Though frequently used by Spenser, who was fond of old forms, it was quite obsolete in his time. It occurs but in five places in all Shakspeare. Milton uses ychain'd, in his Ode on the Nativity, v. 155, yclep'd (still sometimes used), in L'Allegro, v. 12, and star-ypointing, in his Epitaph on Shakspeare, v. 4.