The complete works of John Gower, volume 1 : $b The French works

15954. Cic. de Off. i. 43, ‘Videndum est igitur ut ea liberalitate utamur, quae prosit amicis, nemini noceat,’ &c.

15963. ‘Attemprance’ however is already in the retinue of Justice, see 15232, and ‘Discrecioun,’ who is the third daughter of Humility, 11562, and therefore herself the mistress of a household, is also in the employ of Abstinence, 16323.

15985. Ps. xx. 4 (Vulg. xix. 5), ‘Tribuat tibi secundum cor tuum,’ the meaning of which is not what our author supposes.

15997. Cic. de Off. i. 21, ‘Sunt autem privata nulla natura ... naturam debemus ducem sequi, communes utilitates in medium afferre,’ &c.

16011. Matt. xiv. 15 ff.

16022. Matt. xxii. 21.

16025. Gen. xxviii. 22.

16026. ainçois, often used, as here, for ‘but.’

16045. Ecclus. xli. 15, but the special application is by our author.

16060. Prov. xxii. 1.

16073. The cry of heralds was ‘Largesce!’ addressed to the knights whose prowess they recorded. Here the poor with their cry of ‘Largesce!’ are the heralds by whom the praise of the liberal man is brought before the throne of God.

16092. ‘By breach of Canon law or Civil.’

16100. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 207 ff., where the ‘letters’ are also mentioned.

16138. The MS. has ‘Sa viele loy,’ which can hardly stand.

16181. de celles s’esvertue, ‘strives after these,’ that is the offspring of ‘Franchise’: cp. 16237.

16192. comblera: fut. for subj. in dependent command, as 416, 1184, &c.

16203 ff. This passage seems to need some emendation. Perhaps we might read ‘est’ for ‘a’ in l. 16203, and ‘Les’ for ‘Des’ in 16206, setting a colon after ‘trahi.’ But I have no confidence that this is what the author intended.

16231. pour temptacioun, perhaps ‘because of temptation,’ i.e. to avoid it.

16285. Quiconque, ‘He whom.’

16288. asseine, ‘approaches,’ i.e. drinks.

16303. des tieus delices savourer, ‘from tasting such delicacies’: cp. 5492, ‘des perils ymaginer’ and often elsewhere.

16327. toute voie, nevertheless, like the modern ‘toutefois.’

16338. parentre deux, ‘between two things’: cp. 1178, Bal. xxvii. 4, &c. In the Table of Contents ‘parentre deux’ seems to be for ‘parentre d’eux,’ and so it might be in some other places, e.g. Trait. xv. 2, as ‘entre d’eux’ in Mir. 874; but this is not the case in 1178, nor probably in the other passages where it occurs.

16347. Greg. Reg. Past. iii. 19, ‘Non enim Deo sed sibi quisque ieiunat, si ea quae ventri ad tempus subtrahit non egenis tribuit, sed ventri postmodum offerenda custodit.’

16360. Isid. Sent. ii. 44. 8, ‘Qui autem a cibis abstinent et prave agunt, daemones imitantur, quibus esca non est et nequitia semper est.’

16381. son pour quoy, ‘his purpose,’ that is, the object of his life.

16425. Ecclus. xxxi. 35 ff.

16506. That is, he will not exceed his income.

16513. Luke xiv. 28.

16524. oultrage, ‘extravagance,’ of boasting or expense.

16532. Cp. 15499.

16535. au commun, ‘for the common good’: cp. 14574.

16539. orine: properly ‘origin,’ hence ‘stock,’ ‘race,’ (‘de franche orine,’ ‘ceux de ourine ou ancieneté,’ Godefr.). Here it is almost equivalent to ‘offspring.’

16541. Qui bien se cure, ‘if a man takes good heed’: note on 1244.

16597 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. i. 299 ff.,

The substance of the stanza is taken from Jerome adv. Jov. ii. 8, ‘Per quinque sensus, quasi per quasdam fenestras, vitiorum ad animam introitus est. Non potest ante metropolis et arx mentis capi, nisi per portas eius irruerit hostilis exercitus.’

16600. par si fort estal, i.e. coming into so strong a position for fighting.

16605. ‘The fortress of judgment in the heart.’

16633. ‘Quae facere turpe est, haec ne dicere honestum puta:’ quoted as ‘Socrates’ by Caec. Balbus, p. 18: cp. 13695.

16646. s’en remort, ‘feels sorrow for its offences.’

16670. Perhaps Ecclus. xx. 7.

16673. A similarly severe moral judgment is pronounced upon Ulysses in Trait. vi. 3; the story of the Sirens referred to below is repeatedly mentioned, e.g. ll. 9949, 10911, Bal. xxx. 2, Conf. Am. i. 481 ff. In all these places the spelling ‘Uluxes’ is the same.

16700. ne fist que sage: an elliptical form of expression common in old French, ‘ne fist ce que sage feroit,’ ‘did not act as a wise man’: see Burguy Gramm. ii. 168.

16701. For this cp. Conf. Am. v. 7468 ff.

16710. ‘Tanque’ here answers to ‘tiele’ in the same manner as ‘dont’ so often does.

16717. I do not know the passage.

16721. ruer luy font, ‘cast it down,’ the auxiliary use of ‘faire’: ‘envers’ is an adjective, ‘inversus.’

16725. pervers, used as a substantive, ‘a pervert.’

16729. Not Isaiah, but Jer. ix. 21.

16740. ‘which cannot be extinguished.’

16741. Job xxxi. 1, ‘Pepigi foedus cum oculis meis ut ne cogitarem quidem de virgine.’

16753. Ps. cxix. 37.

16756. Matt. vi. 22.

16768. Perhaps we should read ‘soul ove sole.’

16769. 2 Sam. xiii. This example is quoted also in Conf. Am. viii. 213 ff.

16797. For the opposite effect produced by love of a higher kind see Bal. l. 1,

16817. 1 Cor. vi. 18.

16875. Bern. Super ‘Missus est’ Hom. i. 5, ‘Pulchra permistio virginitatis et humilitatis.’

16880. meist: this must be pret. subj. used for conditional, as in 16883.

16890. enterine, ‘perfect,’ notwithstanding her motherhood.

16906. clamour, standing for an adjective, ‘loudly expressed.’

16909. serront, ‘should be,’ i.e. ought to be, see note on 1184.

16919. ‘If he have nothing wherewith to give support to his hand’: cp. 13102, where the verb is transitive.

16924. suppoer. This need not be altered to ‘supponer,’ but may be the same as the French ‘soupoier’ ‘to support,’ cp. Lydgate’s ‘sopouaille’ or ‘sowpowaylle,’ in the Tale of Troy: see MS. Digby 232, f. 29, l. 79. (The printed editions do not give it.)

16931. ‘So that she allows not her flower to be found elsewhere and seized.’

16952. Eccles. iv. 10.

16955. N’est autre ... luy puet: relative omitted, ‘there is no other can help him.’ This use of ‘pour’ is rather remarkable.

16957. Gen. xxxiv. 1, 2.

16974. La dist: cp. 13268. Sometimes ‘le’ is used as indirect object fem. as well as masc.; see Glossary.

16980. quoi signefie, ‘what the meaning is,’ that is, what the discourse means.

16987. ‘whether in grief or in joy.’

16990. Cp. Bal. xxv. ‘Car qui bien aime ses amours tard oblie.’

17000. Matt. xxv. 1 ff.

17010. bealté seems here to be counted as three syllables. Regularly it is a dissyllable, as 18330, Bal. iv. 2.

17019. virginal endroit, ‘condition of virginity.’

17020. ‘Candor vestium sempiternus virginitatis est puritas.’

17030. Jerome, Comm. Ezech. xiv. 46, ‘Unde et virginitas maior est nuptiis, quia non exigitur ... sed offertur.’

17041. q’om doit nommer, ‘whom one may mention’: for the use of ‘devoir’ see note on 1193. Just below we have ‘doit tesmoigner,’ which seems to mean ‘may be a witness.’

17044. Rev. xiv. 1-4. Cp. Conf. Am. v. 6389.

17064. endie: perhaps this should be separated, ‘en die,’ but ‘endire’ seems to be used in several passages; see Glossary.

17067. Cp. Conf. Am. v. 6395* ff. Gregory says (i. Reg. Expos. v. 3) ‘incomparabili gratia Spiritus sancti efficitur, ut a manentibus in carne carnis corruptio nesciatur.’ But the quotation here and in the Conf. Am. seems to be not really from Gregory, but from Guibert or Gilbert (Migne Patrol. vol. clvi.), who says of virginity ‘adeo excellit ut in carne praeter carnem vivere ut vere angelica dicta sit,’ Mor. in Gen. v. 17; unless indeed he is quoting from Gregory. For Gilbert see 17113.

17074. Gen. i. 27.

17089. Cp. Trait. xvi. and Conf. Am. v. 6395 ff. The text of the Confessio Amantis makes Valentinian’s age ‘an hundred wynter,’ but the Latin margin both there and in the Traitié calls him ‘octogenarius.’

17103. Num. xxxi. 17 f.

17113. This is the Gilbert mentioned in the note on l. 17067. He was abbot of S. Marie de Nogent in the early part of the twelfth century. His ‘sermoun’ is the Opusculum de Virginitate, to which this is a rather general reference.

17119. Jerome adv. Jovin. i. 41.

17122. See note on 5179.

17125. Cyprian, Tract. ii. ‘Flos est ille ecclesiastici germinis, decus atque ornamentum gratiae spiritualis.’

17149 ff. Cp. Trait. iii. 2.

17166. Soubz cel habit, &c., cp. Trait. v. 2.

17200. Gen. ii. 18.

17208. acompaigner, ‘take as a companion.’

17223. 1 Cor. vii. 9.

17228. ‘which cause us to take matrimony upon us.’

17238 ff. Cp. Trait. iv.

17268. ‘I call in the world as my witness to this.’

17293. ‘If a man thus takes a wife’: cp. 1244, &c.

17308. Cp. Trait. v.

17310. jure avant, ‘proceeds to swear’: cp. 14730.

17336. Compare the popular lines,

Much the same argument as we have here is to be found in Conf. Am. iv. 2204 ff.

17366. ‘the ladies are not of that mind.’

17374. ainçois demein, ‘before the morrow’; ‘ançois’ as a preposition.

17417. Tobit iii. 8, and vi. 13, 14, but nothing is said distinctly of the reason here assigned. It may be thought that it is implied in Tobit viii. 9. The idea is fully developed in the Confessio Amantis, where the whole story is told with this motive and in connexion with the same argument about chastity in the state of marriage. See Conf. Am. vii. 5307-5381.

17450. regent, used here as a present participle.

17469. Naman: more correctly ‘Aman’ in 11075.

17472. retient, ‘saved’: it seems to be a preterite, cp. 8585, 9816, &c.

17484. volt avoir malbailly: so ‘volt avoir confondu’ below; perhaps a translation of the English ‘would have illtreated’ &c.

17497. fait bien a loer: see note on 1883.

17498. ‘it is good to marry the good’: ‘du’ for ‘de.’

17500. Ecclus. vii. 21.

17532. ‘to be companions by Holy Church,’ that is by ordinance of Holy Church.

17593. Ecclus. ix. 2, xxv. 30.

17608. 2 Sam. vi.

17616. puis tout jour, ‘ever after.’

17630. ou, for ‘au,’ see Glossary.

17641. Cat. Distich. i. 8,

17689. ert: future in imperative sense, ‘shall be’; so in the lines that follow.

17702. Anne, called ‘Edna’ in the A. V.

17705. Tobit x. 12. The Authorised English version has but one of the five points, and that in a somewhat different form from our author’s: ‘Honour thy father and thy mother in law, which are now thy parents, that I may hear good report of thee.’ The Vulgate reading is, ‘Monentes eam honorare soceros, diligere maritum, regere familiam, gubernare domum, et seipsam irreprehensibilem exhibere.’

17714 ff. estrive ... quiert ... labourt: apparently present indicative, stating what the good wife does.

17743. ‘For if a woman’ &c. The construction is confused, cp. 89.

17776. n’ait homme tant pecché, ‘however much a man may have sinned.’

17785. Ez. xxxiii. 14 ff.

17801. Cil, i.e. ‘the latter,’ as the following lines show.

17827. The widow’s marriage: cp. 9170 and note.

17845. 1 Tim. v. 3-6.

17864. le vou Marie: see 27734 ff.

17874. Ps. lxxvi. 11 (Vulg. lxxv. 12), ‘Vovete et reddite Domino Deo vestro.’

17876. ‘that purpose has little merit, which’ &c.: ‘decert’ for ‘desert,’ from ‘deservir,’ so also the substantive ‘decerte’ for ‘deserte.’

17882. sanz en faire glose, ‘without need of comment.’

17904. Nevertheless according to 17302 ff. he is bound to do so.

17935 ff. Cp. Trait. ii. 1,

The original of it is perhaps Jerome adv. Jovin. i. 16, ‘Nuptiae terram replent, virginitas paradisum.’ Much the same thing is said by Augustine and by others.

17945. Jerome, Ep. xxii. 20, ‘Laudo nuptias, laudo coniugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant: lego de spinis rosam.’

17948. 1 Cor. vii. 9.

17952. ‘as the highest teaching.’

17996. trestout ardant belongs of course to ‘fornaise’ in the next line. These inversions are characteristic of the author’s style: cp. 15941.

18004. Bern. de Ord. Vit. ii. 4, ‘Et ne incentivis naturalibus superentur, necesse est ut lasciviens caro eorum crebris frangatur ieiuniis.’ De Convers. 21, ‘Quidni periclitetur castitas in deliciis.’

18018. chalt pas, ‘at once.’

18025. Ambr. Hex. vi. 4. 28, ‘Ieiuni hominis sputum si serpens gustaverit, moritur. Vides quanta vis ieiunii sit, ut et sputo suo homo terrenum serpentem interficiat, et merito spiritalem.’

18067. q’est d’aspre vie, ‘which belongs to hard life.’

18097. Matt. xiii.

18154. ‘And then performs the circumstance of it,’ that is the deeds suggested by it.

18159 ff. With this passage on the power of the divine word compare that on the power of the human word in Conf. Am. vii. 1545 ff.

18172. John xv. 3.

18292. Ps. cxxvi. (Vulg. cxxv.) 6, ‘Euntes ibant et flebant, mittentes semina sua. Venientes autem venient cum exsultatione, portantes manipulos suos.’

18301. Val. Max. iv. 5. The story is also given in the Confessio Amantis v. 6372 ff. with a slight variation in the details, and it is alluded to in Vox Clam. vi. 1323. It is to be noted that the same corruption of the original name Spurina, into ‘Phirinus,’ is found in all three.

The lines corresponding to 18301 f. are Conf. Am. v. 6359 f.,

18303. Ot, ‘there was,’ for ‘y ot.’

18317. dont, ‘because of which.’

18324. Celle alme, ‘the soul’: see note on 301.

18329. Dont answering to ‘ensi,’ in consecutive sense, as often.

18348. qant s’esbanoie, ‘in his glory’; lit. ‘when he diverts himself.’

18371. ‘What can I say more except that God honours thee?’

18420. L’escoles, for ‘les escoles,’ ‘li’ (or ‘le’) being used for ‘les’: see Glossary ‘ly,’ ‘le.’

18421. The part of the work which begins here runs parallel with a large portion of the Vox Clamantis, viz. Books iii.-vi. inclusive.

18445. The assertion that he is merely giving voice to public opinion is more than once repeated by our author in his several works, e.g. Conf. Am. Prol. 122 ff.

18451. Simon Magus is the representative of spiritual corruption, called ‘simony.’ His name is similarly used in our author’s other works, e.g. Conf. Am. Prol. 204, 439, and often in the Vox Clamantis. With the argument here compare Vox Clam. iii. ch. 4, where nearly the same line is followed.

18462. deux pointz, ‘two points,’ instead of one: ‘ou ... ou,’ ‘whether ... or.’

18466. ‘Or if not so, then proceed to tell me’ &c. For ‘avant’ cp. 14730.

18469. ‘I cannot believe.’

18505. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 265 ff.,

Here the speech is put into the mouth of a member of the Roman court, for which cp. Vox Clam. iii. 817 ff., where a similarly cynical avowal is put into the mouth of the Pope.

18539. perchera. I am disposed to take this as a future of ‘percevoir,’ in the sense ‘receive,’ ‘collect,’ (‘parcevoir rentes’ Godefr.). Roquefort (Suppl.) gives ‘perchoir’ as a possible form of the word.

18542. serrons, from ‘serrer.’

18553. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 141,

18556. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 206 ff., where the parallel is very close.

18580. The allusion is to the cross upon the reverse of the English gold coinage of Edward III’s time, as also on that of some other countries and perhaps on the pound sterling, see 25270.

18584. cil huissier, ‘the doorkeepers.’

18589. This form of sentence is characteristic of our author: cp. Bal. xviii. 2,

Also Bal. vii. 4, xxx. 2, Conf. Am. i. 718 and frequently in the Vox Clamantis, e.g. i. 499 ff.

18631. Referring to the payments made by Jews and prostitutes at Rome for liberty to live and exercise their professions.

18637. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 283 ff. and Conf. Am. ii. 3486 ff.

18649. John xiv. 27. The discourse however is not to St. Peter alone, cp. 18733.

18663. des bonnes almes retenir, for ‘de retenir les bonnes almes,’ ‘in keeping guard over souls’: cp. 5492, &c. For the substance of the passage cp. Vox Clam. iii. 344,

where ‘Hic’ is St. Peter and ‘alius’ the modern Pope.

18672. ‘As long as physic may avail’ to save us from it.

18673. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 343 ff. and Conf. Am. Prol. 212 ff. In the latter we have a pretty literal translation of l. 18675,

which seems to mean ‘of regular or irregular troops.’

18721. faisons que sage: cp. 16700.

18733. Matt. xxiii. 8-10.

18737. Rev. xix. 10. Precisely the same application of this passage is made in Vox Clam. iii. 957 ff.

18761 f. ‘that he distinguished his cardinals by their red hats.’

18779. With this stanza cp. Vox Clam. iii. 11 ff.

18783. Innocent. This must be taken to be a reference to the Pope generally and not pressed as an evidence of date. Innocent VI, the only pope of this name in the fourteenth century, died in 1362, whereas we see from 18829 ff. that this work was not completed until after the schism of the year 1378.

18793 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1247 ff.,

18797. ‘What think you of whether such an one has yet come? Yes, for truly pride now rises above humility’ &c. That this is the meaning is clear from the above-quoted passage of the Vox Clamantis. I assume that the author is now speaking in his own person again, notwithstanding ‘nostre court’ below, which occurs also in other places, e.g. 18873.

18805. Vox Clam. iii. 1271,

and Conf. Am. Prol. 304 ff.,

18829 ff. A reference to the schism of the papacy, which must have taken place during the composition of this work: see Introduction p. xlii.

18840 (R). solonc ce que l’en vait parlant: cp. 19057 ff. and such expressions as ‘secundum commune dictum’ in the headings of the chapters of the Vox Clamantis, e.g. iii. ch. 15.

18848. Maisque, apparently here the same as ‘mais.’

18876. verra: fut. of ‘venir’ instead of the usual ‘vendra.’ Burguy (i. 397) does not admit the form for the Norman dialect, but it was used in Picardy. Usually ‘verrai’ is the future of ‘veoir,’ e.g. 19919, as in modern French.

18889 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1341 ff.,

18925. 2 Kings v.

18997. The story is alluded to in much the same connexion Vox Clam. iii. 249,

19031. s’il sa garde pance, &c., ‘if he neglects his belly-armour of antidote’: ‘garde pance’ is to be taken as practically one word, though not written so in the MS. The idea is that the Pope has to take the precaution of an antidote against poison with all his meals.

19044. ‘as a chicken does the hen,’ i.e. ‘follows the hen’; a good instance of the use of ‘faire’ often noted before.

19057 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. Prol. 11 ff.,

There, as here, the excuse is prefatory to an attack on Church dignitaries.

19113. persuacioun: five syllables in the metre.

19117. The application of this reference, which is here lost, may be supplied from Vox Clam. iii. 1145 ff., where the instance is quoted, as here, in condemnation of the laxity of bishops.

19315. The leaf which is here lost contained the full number of 192 lines without any rubric, as we may see by the point at which the present stanza begins. The author is still on the subject of bishops.

19333 ff. With the substance of this and the following stanza cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 449 ff.

19345. An unfavourable view of the bee is generally taken by our author: cp. 5437 ff.

19372 f. ‘The wanton prelate, who is bound to God, separates himself grievously from him by reason of the sting’: ‘q’a dieu se joynt’ seems only meant to express the fact that by his office he is near to God.

19377. Referring to some such passage as Gal. v. 16 f.

19380. ‘would be in better case if they had no sting.’

19407. Cp. Chaucer, Persones Tale, 618 (Skeat): ‘And ofte tyme swich cursinge wrongfully retorneth agayn to him that curseth, as a brid that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.’

19411. Du quelle part, ‘in whatever direction.’

19457. S’en fuit: apparently used in the same sense as ‘fuit,’ with ‘sainte oreisoun’ as direct object.

19501 f. Evidently a play upon the words ‘phesant,’ ‘faisant,’ and ‘vin,’ ‘divin,’ as afterwards ‘coupe,’ ‘culpe.’

19505 f. ‘Rather than to correct and attend to the fault of the Christian man.’ This use of ‘pour’ has been noticed before, 6328, &c.

19891. The two leaves which are lost contained the full number of 384 lines, and we are still on the subject of bishops.

19897. Not Solinus, so far as I know.

19907. 1 Tim. iii. 1.

19941. la divine creature, ‘God’s creature.’

19945. 1 Sam. xii. 19 ff.

19948. ‘was not disturbed in his charity.’

19949. ne place a dieu, &c., ‘God forbid that I should not pray for you.’

19957. Jer. ix. 1, ‘Quis dabit capiti meo aquam, et oculis meis fontem lacrymarum?’ &c.

19968. Presumably we should read either ‘du prelat’ or ‘des prelatz.’

19971. Possibly Is. lxiii. 3, 5, but it is not an exact quotation.

19972 f. ‘He looked, but there was none of the people who regarded, or who sighed for his sufferings.’

19981. Val. Max. v. 6, but he does not give the name of the enemy against whom the war was made, therefore the story is perhaps not taken directly from him. The story is in Conf. Am. vii. 3181 ff., beginning,

19984. ceaux d’Orense: in the Conf. Am. ‘ayein Dorrence.’ The war is said by some authorities to have been ‘in Dorienses,’ and this is no doubt what is meant, but there is evidently a discrepancy here between the Mirour and the Confessio Amantis with regard to the name. The MS. reading here is of course ‘dorense.’

19995. proprement, ‘for his own part,’ i.e. ‘himself.’

19996. ‘or suffer his people to be killed.’

20014. mais pour cherir, ‘except for taking care of.’

20016. Judas is the type of those who fall by transgression from their bishoprics.

20019. Luke x. 30 ff. The ‘deacon’ here stands for the Levite of the parable.

20035. Zech. x. 3, ‘Super pastores iratus est furor meus, et super hircos visitabo.’

20042. Perhaps Is. xxix. 15.

20053. This must be a reference to Matt. xxiii. 13, attributed by mistake to Isaiah.

20065 ff. This is also in Conf. Am. v. 1900 ff. with a reference to Gregory’s Homilies, and referred to more shortly in Vox Clam. iii. 903 ff.

20109. de celle extente, ‘to that extent.’ This seems practically to be the meaning; that is, so far forth as the purse extends.

20120. la coronne: evidently this indicates the tonsured priest, whose circle of unshorn hair was supposed to represent the crown of thorns. As to the following lines, we must take them to mean ‘if you read the sequence of the Gospel you will know who is meant,’ the relative being used in the same way as in 1244, &c.

20123. son incest: see note on 9085.

20126 f. ‘offices fall to the lot of different persons at different times.’

20140. ‘There is no one by whom they may be corrected.’

20153 ff. ‘There are those who farm out prostitution as if it were property of land and tillage.’

20161. This stanza is very closely parallel with Conf. Am. Prol. 407-413,

Cp. also Vox Clam. iii. 195 f.

20178. Pour dire &c., to be connected with ‘ce ne te puet excuser’: ‘it cannot excuse you to say’ &c., ‘pour’ standing for ‘de,’ as often.

20195. ma bource estuet: this looks like a personal use of ‘estovoir,’ but presumably ‘ma bource’ is a kind of object, ‘it is necessary for my purse,’ as in phrases like ‘m’estuet.’

20197 ff. Cp. Chaucer, C. T. Prol. 658,

20200. ‘It is of a piece with this, that he uses no other virtue to correct me, provided that I give him my substance.’

20225 ff. The substance of this is repeated in Vox Clam. iii. 1403 ff.

20244. entribole: we might equally well read ‘en tribole,’ ‘disturbs by it.’

20247 ff. To this corresponds Vox Clam. iii. 1351 ff.

20250. puist, properly pret. subjunctive.

20287 ff. Cp. Vox Clamantis, iii. 1375 ff.,

20294. s’absentont. Note the rhyme on the weak final syllable, so below ‘esperont’: the irregularity is perhaps due to the similarity in appearance of the future form, e.g. ‘avanceront,’ ‘responderont.’

20305 ff. With this compare Vox Clam. iii. 1487 ff.

20308. easera: fut. for pres. subj. expressing purpose: cp. 364.

20313. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1509 ff.,

20318. avant, to be taken here perhaps as strengthening ‘Plus’: but see note on 20537.

20344 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1549-1552.

20355. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1519 ff.,

20401. Matt. xv. 14.

20425 ff. Note the loose usage of the conditional in this stanza for future, pres. subj., and in the sense noticed on l. 1688.

20441. au primer divis, ‘firstly’; so ‘au droit devis,’ ‘rightly.’

20449. Cp. Greg. Ep. vi. 57 (end).

20462. Probably Hos. v. 4-7.

20488. s’elle, &c., ‘as to whether she,’ &c.

20492. Perhaps Prov. vi. 27 ff.

20497 ff. The meaning of the word ‘annueler’ which occurs in the heading of the section is sufficiently explained in these lines. The corresponding passage in the Vox Clamantis is iii. 1555 ff.

20527. Vox Clam. iii. 1559, ‘Plus quam tres dudum nunc exigit unus habendum.’

20528. mais, for ‘maisque,’ ‘provided that.’

20537. avant: used often with no particular meaning, cp. 20318. Here we may take it with ‘dirrons,’ ‘what shall we go on to say then,’ &c. It might, however, go with what follows, ‘takes beforehand.’

20539. a largesce, ‘freely bestowed’: it would be of course a provision in the will of the dead person.

20542. ardante, i.e. in purgatory.

20547. Cp. 1194, 10411.

20574. ‘Si diaconus sanctior episcopo suo fuerit, non ex eo quod inferior gradu est apud Christum deterior erit.’

20576. Par si q’: cp. 3233.

20582. ‘that however great his learning may be.’

20594. Matt. v. 13, 14.

20621. fait baraigner: I take fait as auxiliary and baraigner to mean ‘make barren.’

20700. legende. This probably means the passages of the Gospel appointed to be read in the service of the Mass.

20713. The argument used by the priest is that his sin is no worse than the same act in a layman. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1727 ff,

20725 f. Vox Clam. iii. 1761,

20740. Mal. i. 6, 7.

20785 ff. Vox Clam. iii. 2049 ff. The author is here dealing with young students, ‘scolares.’

20793. le meulx: see note on 2700, so ‘le plus’ below.

20798. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 2071 ff.

20827. Vox Clam. iii. 2074, ‘Si malus est iuvenis, vix bonus ipse vetus.’

20832. Qui, ‘whom.’

20833 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 1-676.

20845. This is a very hackneyed quotation, but the origin of it does not seem quite clear; see note on Chaucer, C.T. Prol. 179 in Skeat’s edition: cp. Vox Clam. iv. 277.

20866. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 26 f., ‘Pellicibus calidis frigus et omne fugant.’

20892. mye et crouste, ‘crumb and crust’ in the modern sense of the expression.

20905. See note on 12565. I do not know where this story comes from, but somewhat similar tales of the devil visiting Macarius and his monastery are to be found in the Legenda Aurea and elsewhere.

20952. esloigner, used with a personal object, ‘flee from.’

20989. Jerome, Ep. cxxv. 7, ‘Sordidae vestes candidae mentis indicia sunt.’

20999. Cp. Chaucer, C.T. Prol. 193 f.

21001. I do not know anything about this story.

21061 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 371-388.

21076. cloistrers: i.e. those who remain within the monastery walls.

21094. qui s’est rendu, ‘who has delivered himself to God,’ by his profession: cp. 20988.

21118. mais petit voy, &c., ‘but I see small number of them who,’ &c.

21133 ff. This passage, in which monastic virtues and vices are personified with the title ‘danz’ (Lat. ‘dompnus’) which was given to monks, has a parallel in Vox Clam. iv. 327 ff.

21134. n’ad mais refu: apparently ‘refu’ is here a past participle; ‘has been again no more,’ i.e. has not survived.

21157. The criticism of the life of Canons follows here in the Vox Clamantis also, iv. 347 ff.,

The ‘Canons regular’ differed but little in their discipline from monks.

21166. devant: see 20909 ff.

21181. On the Mendicant orders see Vox Clamantis iv. 677 ff.

21190 f. ‘I have found out this about the order, that friars seek after the world,’ &c.: the perfect is used loosely for present. For ‘querre’ in this sense cp. 21528.

21197. 2 Cor. vi. 10.

21241. ‘The friars go together in pairs’: so in Chaucer, Sompnours Tale, whence we learn that after having been fifty years in the order they were relieved from this rule. In the next line ‘sanz partie’ means ‘without separating.’ The same word used in a different sense is admissible as a rhyme: so ‘mestier,’ 21275, and cp. note on 2353.

21250. Here, as elsewhere, it is implied that the friars made themselves by preference the confessors of women, cp. 9148, Chaucer, C.T. Prol. 215 ff.

21266. The marginal note opposite this stanza has lost the ends of its lines by the cutting of the leaves of the MS. Its purport however is clear enough, and it is certainly from the author. In Vox Clam. iv. 689, we have the substance of it,

The note perhaps may be read thus:

21301. Flaterie professé, i.e. Flattery the friar.

21325 ff. This stanza is nearly a repetition of ll. 9145-9156.

21369. In Chaucer, Sompnours Tale, the sack is carried by a ‘sturdy harlot,’ who accompanied the two friars. At the present day the Capuchin in his begging expeditions often goes alone and carries his own sack.

21373 ff. Observe how clearly this agrees in substance with Chaucer’s humorous description in the Sompnours Tale.

21376. ‘If the woman has little or nothing to give,’ like the widow in Chaucer’s Prologue,

21377. meinz is rather confusedly put in with ‘ne s’en abstient.’ The writer meant to say ‘none the less does he demand,’ &c.

21382. Matt. xxiii. 14.

21399. The quotation is actually from Hos. iv. 8. In Vox Clam. iv. 767, the same quotation is given in the same connexion and attributed rightly to Hosea.

21403. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 1141 ff. The passage of the Plowmans Crede relating to this subject is well known.

21449. An allusion to the story current about the death of the Emperor Henry VII in the year 1313.

21455. s’il volt lesser, &c., ‘if you ask whether he will spare us,’ &c.

21469 ff. Chaucer, C. T. Prol. 218 ff.,

The confessor would claim the right of burial, if it were worth having: cp. Vox Clam. iv. 735 ff.,

21477. For baptism there would be no fee: so Vox Clam. iv. 739 f.,

21481. Matt. vi. 25.

21499 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 815,

21517. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 971 ff.

21536. acomparas: for this form of future cp. ‘compara’ 26578, ‘dura’ 3909, &c.

21544. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 981 ff.

21562. Vox Clam. iv. 991 f.,

21580. Rom. xvi. 17, 18.

21604. Ps. lxxxiii. (Vulg. lxxxii.) 6, 7.

21607. Brev. in Psalm. lxxxii. 6; but our author has not quite understood the explanation.

21610. ou pitz, i.e. ‘au pitz,’ ‘in the breast.’

21625 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. iv. 787 f.,

It seems that the word ‘pseudopropheta’ used Rev. xix. 20 and elsewhere was read ‘pseudo propheta,’ and ‘pseudo’ taken as a proper name. At the same time this was combined with the idea of the wolf in sheep’s clothing suggested by Matt. vii. 15, ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis,’ &c.

21637. ‘The Pseudos whom men call friars.’

21641. ‘Cannot fail to suffer for it’: ‘compere’ for ‘compiere’ from ‘comparer,’ which is usually transitive, like ‘acomparer’ 21536, meaning ‘to pay for.’

21647. The reference is to 2 Pet. ii. 1-3, where ‘pseudoprophetae’ is the word used in the Vulgate.

21663 ff. The same argument as was before applied to the monks, 21061 ff.

21676. n’en puet chaloir: the meaning apparently is ‘it cannot be doubted,’ but I cannot clearly explain the phrase.

21739. The Apocalypse does not exactly say this, but it is apparently our author’s interpretation of ch. viii. 10, 12, or some such passage.

21754. ‘But, before it do trouble us worse, it were well,’ &c., ‘face’ being used as auxiliary with ‘grever.’

21769. m’en soit au travers, ‘should be of the opposite opinion to me on the subject.’

21776. Mais &c.: answering apparently to the conditional clause, ‘s’aucun,’ &c.

21780. Encore ... plus, ‘even more (than I have said).’

21979. One leaf with its full number of 192 lines has here been cut out. We find ourselves in the favourite story of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and punishment: cp. Conf. Am. i. 2785 ff., where it is told in full detail. Here it is one of a series of examples to illustrate the inconstancy of Fortune to those at the head of empires.

22002. The sense seems to require a negative here and in 22004.

22004. de halt en bass, ‘(bringing him) down from his height.’

22009. It is difficult to say what occasion precisely is referred to here.

22026. mella: ‘Fortune’ is the subject of the verb.

22033. With this review of the succession of empires compare Conf. Am. Prol. 670 ff.

22081 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. ii. 93 ff.

22101. Vox Clam. ii. 61, ‘Mobilis est tua rota nimis,’ a nearly exact translation.

22125. mal partie, ‘badly ordered.’

22158 ff. With these references to the former greatness and present decay of Rome cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 834-848.

22159. emperere: apparently used here as a feminine form, but not so in 17120.

22168. Troian: this form of the name is used also in Conf. Am. vii. 3144, and ‘Troianus’ in Vox Clam. vi. 1273. The justice and humanity of Trajan were proverbial in the Middle Ages, owing chiefly to the legend about him connected with Gregory the Great.

22182. ‘Well know I that this has not happened (for nought), but it is because of our wanton life.’

22191. deux chiefs, i.e. the Pope and the Emperor.

22192. ‘The one is he who sets forth the will of holy Church,’ i.e. the Pope.

22201. This stanza seems to be a reference to the helplessness of the Empire.

22273 ff. With these stanzas compare Vox Clam. vi. 589 ff., where there is the same reiterated personal address, ‘O rex,’ ‘O bone rex,’ &c., but the substance of the advice is there specially adapted to the age and circumstances of Richard II, whereas here it is general.

22292. par halte enprise, ‘loftily’: cp. l. 22077, and elsewhere.

22294. ‘and forces him to confess his error’: ‘recreandise’ is properly the admission that one is vanquished, or the faintheartedness which might lead to such an admission.

22333. 2 Maccabees xi. 1-12.

22341. The number given is 11,000 footmen and 1600 horsemen.

22350. Lev. xxvi. 17.

22744. After the omission of 384 lines (two leaves cut out), we find ourselves again in the story of Nebuchadnezzar: cp. Conf. Am. v. 7017 ff. Here it seems to be used as a warning against excess of drinking and other such vices, whereas there it is an example of sacrilege. For the form of sentence here, ‘Mais cil q’estoit,’ &c., cp. Conf. Am. v. 6925, vi. 2250, &c.

22765. 3 Esdras iii. f. The story is told at length in Conf. Am. vii. 1783 ff., where the number of persons who give answers is three, the third giving two opinions, as in the original. Here no doubt the author is trusting to his memory.

22804. Ore, see note on 37.

22819. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 861 f.

22827 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 501 f.,

See also Conf. Am. vii. 3925 ff.

22835. Vox Clam. vi. 498, ‘Nam caput infirmum membra dolere facit.’

22843. 2 Sam. xxiv.

22866. fait blemir, ‘injures.’

22874. The MS. has ‘dix,’ but the author evidently meant ‘six.’

22883. au parler, ‘so to say.’

22894. fait plus ne meinz, ‘does just the same thing.’

22962. ‘There is no one whom David will teach by his example,’ i.e. who will follow David’s example.

22965. That is, for the French the harping is out of tune, because they do not accept their rightful ruler.

22967. With this question cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 1053 ff.,

22975 f. Apparently the meaning is ‘And the sorrow that David felt for his sins is now changed.’

22981. si fretz que sage, see note on 16700.

22982. Perhaps Cic. de Off. i. 68, ‘Non est autem consentaneum, qui metu non frangatur, eum frangi cupiditate.’

22984 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 807-810.

22995. Is. xxviii. 1.

23006. 2 Sam. xvi. 5 ff.

23011. 1 Sam. xxiv.

23021. 2 Kings xix. The number of the slain is given in the Bible as 185,000.

23041 ff. For Justice and Mercy as royal virtues cp. Conf. Am. vii. 2695 ff., where they are the third and fourth points of policy, the first and fifth being Truth and Chastity, which have been dealt with in 22753 ff., and the second Liberality, which may have been spoken of in the lines which are lost.

23053. Sen. Clem. iii. 2 ff.

23055. Cp. 13921 and Conf. Am. vii. 3137.

23059. Cp. 13918 and Conf. Am. vii. 3161.*

23072. 1 Macc. iii. 18, 19.

23082. Ps. lxxxv. 10: cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 109.

23089. Observe the mixture of tenses, present ind., conditional, and imperfect ind., in the conditional clauses.

23116. tant amonte, ‘is in the same position.’

23136. de son aguait, ‘by the snare which he sets for him.’

23149. Cp. Conf. Am. vii. 3891 ff.

23191. Cusy: in the Vulgate ‘Chusai,’ A. V. Hushai.

23216. Cp. 5459.

23370. The quotation is actually from Juvenal, but it is attributed to Horace both here and in Conf. Am. vii. 3581. The lines are Sat. viii. 269 ff.,

Our author no doubt picked up the quotation in a common-place book. He refers to ‘Orace’ also in ll. 3804 and 10948, the true reference in the latter case being to Ovid, while the former quotation is really from Horace.

23393. The ‘pigas’ is the long-pointed shoe worn by fashionable people at the time. ‘Not one of these rich men is born with his pointed shoe,’ says the author.

23413. ‘Much is that bird to be blamed,’ &c. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 835 f.,

23492. si te pourvoie, ‘and provide thyself (accordingly).’

23500. Probably Matt. vi. 19.

23534. ‘That the law excuses you’: ‘despenser avec’ is used similarly in l. 1400.

23573 f. se delitera ... tout avant, ‘will go on taking pleasure.’

23582. a ce q’en ce termine, &c., ‘according as the matter appears in regard to this order,’ i.e. what lies within the limits of this class: cp. 16151.

23607. Qe nous ne devons, ‘so that we may not,’ so also in 23640; see note on 1193.

23638. ‘At the making of the new knight’: a curious use of the gerund.

23659. au prodhomme, ‘to be valiant.’

23671. l’onour de France: the particular name of the country is of no consequence and is determined probably by the rhyme. That the general point of view is not a continental one is shown by 23713.

23683. jours d’amour, ‘love-days,’ for reconciliation of those who had differences.

23701 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 519 f.

23704 ff. ‘If anyone pays him well, he will show himself valiant at the sessions.’

23722 ff. ‘Though the heralds cry little to him for largess, yet he gives the poor reason to complain’: he robs the poor without the excuse of being generous to others out of the proceeds.

23726. un chivaler de haie, ‘a hedgerow knight.’

23732 ff. Terms of war are ironically used: he draws up his court in order of battle and throws into confusion the jury-panell, to support his friends and dismay their poorer opponents.

23755. du loy empereour, ‘by the law of the emperor.’

23815. n’ad garde de, ‘does not keep himself from.’

23844. quatorsze. The precise number is of no importance, cp. 24958. In Conf. Am. ii. 97, the author says ‘mo than twelve’ in a similar manner.

23869. Sisz chivalers. The author apparently will not admit the three pagan worthies, Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar.

23895. Cp. Conf. Am. iv. 1630 f.,

23907. vois, for ‘vais.’

23920 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. iv. 1634 ff.,

also Vox Clam. v. 257 ff.

23922. See note on 10341.

23933 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. iv. 1664 f., and Vox Clam. v. 267 ff.

23982. trop sont petit: probably, ‘there are too few.’

24097. This denunciation of war is quite characteristic of the author: cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 122-192.

24129. voldroiont, ‘ought to desire’: see note on 1688.

24170 f. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 833,

24216. Vei la: so ‘vei cy,’ 23688.

24226 ff. i.e. he will not undertake the cause which is not favoured by fortune. The ‘double ace’ would of course be the lowest throw with two dice, and ‘sixes’ the highest.

24255 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 241-244.

24265. ‘Ne quid nimis.’

24267. Des tieux, ‘such persons,’ subject of the verb.

24272 f. ‘Neither his nature nor his strain is seasoned with justice.’

24290. The word ‘mire’ seems here to be used for a surgeon as distinguished from a physician: that, however, is not its ordinary use.

24325. Qui, like ‘Quique’ in 24313, ‘Whosoever may have to pay, these will get exemption, if they can.’

24326. appaier. I take this to be for ‘a paier,’ like ‘affaire’ for ‘a faire’: ‘estovoir’ is used with or without ‘a,’ cp. l. 42.

24338. volt, imperf. subj., cp. 327.

24362. encharné. The metaphor is from hounds being trained for hunting, as we see from ‘quirée,’ ‘courre,’ ‘odour,’ &c., in the succeeding lines.

24379. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 251,

i.e. ‘in primo gradu,’ which is that of ‘Apprentis,’ the second being that of ‘Sergant.’

24398. Matt. xix. 29, but the quotation is not quite accurate.

24435. Sur son sergant: the double meaning of ‘sergant’ is played upon, as in ‘Qui sert au siecle,’ 24415.

24440. coronne: alluding to the French coin so called from the crown upon it.

24469 ff. I do not know the origin of this curious statement.

24481. Probably Is. v. 21 ff.

24485 f. mais la partie, &c., ‘but as for the side that is poor, justice sleeps.’

24519. Job xxi. 7-13.

24530. Gen. xxxii. 10.

24543. Is. v. 8, 9, ‘Vae, qui coniungitis domum ad domum, et agrum agro copulatis usque ad terminum loci’: &c.

24544. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 141.

24582. la verrour, i.e. the truth expressed in the preceding line, that they make their gains by wrongful means. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 144,

24583. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 145 ff.

24605. a demesure, i.e. at an extravagant price, so that, as the author goes on to say, poor people cannot afford to buy in their market.

24625. For the metre cp. 2742, 26830: see Introd. p. xlv.

24646. ‘But advanced my unjust cause,’ &c. This position of ‘ainz’ is quite characteristic of the author: see note on 415.

24678. Ex. xxiii. 8.

24697. James i. 19.

24715. Gal. iii. 19, and Rom. xiii. 4.

24722. Deut. xxvii. 19.

24733 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 387 ff.

24748. comme tant, ‘how much.’

24769. Is. i. 23.

24782. Ad, ‘there is.’

24817 ff. The Vox Clamantis as usual runs parallel to this, with the heading, ‘Hic loquitur de errore Vicecomitum, Balliuorum necnon et in assisis Iuratorum,’ &c., vi. 419 ff.

24832. For the order of words cp. 24646.

24852. ‘His conscience will not fail him,’ that is, will not be an obstacle.

24858. il n’est pas si nice, ‘he is not so nice,’ i. e. not so careful about it. The word ‘nice,’ meaning originally ‘ignorant,’ ‘foolish,’ passes naturally to the meaning of ‘foolishly scrupulous’ in a half ironical sense, as here.

24917. enmy la main. As ‘devant la main,’ ‘apres la main,’ mean ‘beforehand’ and ‘afterwards,’ this apparently is ‘meanwhile.’

24949. Des soubz baillifs, &c. Cp. 25014. ‘Des’ depends on ‘tout plein’ (toutplein), ‘a quantity’; as ‘toutplein des flours,’ Bal. xxxvii. 2, ‘tout plein des autres,’ Mir. 74. Join ‘soubz’ with ‘baillifs,’ ‘under-reeves,’ the ‘visconte’ being regarded as a superior ‘baillif or reeve,’ which of course in a certain sense he was, witness the name ‘sheriff.’

24955. Vei la, cp. 24216: ‘ministre’ is of course plural.

24958. Cp. 23844.

24962. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 467 f.,

24973. Vox Clam. 463 f.,

24981. ribalds: observe the rhyme, showing that the ‘d’ is not sounded.

24996. A proverbial expression, which occurs also in 15405 f.

25021 ff. I do not clearly understand the first lines of the stanza. Perhaps it means, ‘For the expense to which you go in buying their perjury they pay (or suffer) the burdening of their conscience.’ Then afterwards, ‘The bribe is enough for them by way of evidence, for covetousness dispenses them from anything more’: ‘ove leur dispense,’ ‘arranges with them’ that this shall be enough.

25064. il, for ‘ils,’ cp. 10341.

25071. sanz culpe d’enditer, ‘free from indictable fault.’

25110. tesmoignal: the original idea of a jury, as a body of persons living in the locality and able to bear witness to the facts of the case, had not disappeared in the fourteenth century.

25127. le pot hoster, ‘might have stopped it.’

25151. serra vendu, ‘will prove to have been bought by you’ (at a high price).

25153. ‘Truth is no libel,’ the author’s justification for speaking freely.

25166. Cp. Vox Clam. vi. 439,

25177 ff. With this compare the heading of Bk. v. ch. ii. in the Vox Clamantis: ‘Quia varias rerum proprietates vsui humano necessarias nulla de se prouincia sola parturit vniuersas,’ &c.

25216 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 489 ff.

25239. In the Vox Clamantis also we have cheating personified (under the name of Fraus), and its operations classified as affecting (1) Usurers, (2) Merchants and shopkeepers, (3) Artificers, (4) Victuallers. See Vox Clam. v. 703-834.

25240. pour sercher, &c. For the form of expression cp. Bal. xi. l. 5, Conf. Am. i. 2278,

and other similar passages.

25254. Brutus, i. e. Brut of Troy: so London is referred to in the Confessio Amantis, Prol. 37*,

25261 ff. ‘Fraud may have large dealings, but he has small honesty when he buys and sells by different standards of weight.’ The idea is apparently that the buyer is deceived as to the true market price when wholesale dealings are carried on with weights nominally the same but really different, as when the merchant buys coal by the ton of 21 cwt.

25269. See note on 3367.

25270. la crois, &c.: cp. 18580.

25287. Cp. Bal. xviii. l. 8.

25289. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 749 ff.

25302. ‘Chalk for cheese,’ a proverbial expression used also in Conf. Am. Prol. 415: still current in some parts of England.

25321. John iii. 20.

25327. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 779 f.,

25332. du pris la foy, ‘the true price.’

25333. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 757 ff.,

25350. a son dessus, so ‘at myn above’ in Conf. Am. vi. 221.

25556. tu plederas, ‘you will have to sue him.’

25558. ‘He pays no regard to honesty.’

25569. parasi, equivalent to ‘parisi,’ properly an adjective used with names of various coins, as ‘livre parisie,’ but often also by itself to denote some coin of small value, in phrases such as we have here.

25607. For this function of St. Michael cp. 13302. Here the point suggested is that the seller ought to be reminded by his balance of that in which his merits must eventually be weighed.

25618. enclinez: this is simply a graphical variation of enclines, rhyming with ‘falsines,’ &c.

25631. Cp. 20912.

25657 ff. ‘I would not desire a better stomach than could be ruined by medicines, or a longer purse than could be drained by an apothecary,’ i. e. the best of stomachs and the longest of purses may be thus ruined.

25691. ‘But if they had worn wool,’ &c.

25717 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 793 ff.,

25729 ff. Vox Clam. v. 805.

25753 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 745 ff.

25801 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 111 ff.

25826. ‘Will see their halls carpeted’ (or ‘covered with tapestry’), so ‘encourtiner’ below; a loose employment of the infinitive.

25839 ff. Observe the confusion of 2nd pers. sing. and 2nd pers. plur. in this stanza, especially ‘tu gaignerez’ in 25842. Even if we take ‘baillerez,’ ‘gaignerez,’ &c., as rhyme-modifications of ‘gaigneras,’ &c., this will not go for ‘avisez,’ which must be meant for 2nd pers. plur. pres. subj.: cp. 442, &c.

25853. This would be to avoid arrest. The liberty of St. Peter would perhaps be the precincts of Westminster Abbey, that of St. Martin might be the Church of St. Martin in the Fields: but perhaps no definite reference is intended. He takes advantage of the sanctuary to make terms with his creditors.

25887. Ecclus. xiii. 24 (30), ‘Bona est substantia cui non est peccatum in conscientia.’

25898. Matt. xvi. 26.

25975 f. The author returns to the observation made at the beginning of his remarks on the estate of Merchants, that the calling is honourable, though some may pursue it in a dishonest manner.

26019. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 777 f.,

26112. maisq’elles soient lieres, ‘even though they should be robbers’ (of their husbands): maisque can hardly have here its usual meaning ‘provided that’; cp. 26927.

26120. brusch. The occurrence of this word here in a connexion which leaves no doubt of its identity is worth remark: see New Engl. Dict. under ‘brusque,’ ‘brisk,’ ‘brussly.’

26130. au sojour, ‘at their ease’ in their tavern: ‘sojour’ means properly ‘stay’ in a place, hence ‘rest’ or ‘refreshment’: cp. the uses of the verb ‘sojourner.’

26133. ne pil ne crois, ‘neither head nor tail’ of a coin, i. e. no money: ‘cross and pile’ was once a familiar English phrase.

26185 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 809 f.,

26231. les chars mangiers, &c., ‘flesh will not be food for the common people.’

26288 ff. ‘His conscience does not remind him of the truth until after he has been paid.’

26342 ff. ‘Of all those who live by buying and selling I will not except a single one as not submissive to Fraud.’

26365. This complaint, directed against some particular Mayor of London, whose proceedings were disapproved of by the author, is repeated in the Vox Clamantis, v. 835 ff.

26374. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 1005 ff.

26391. celle autre gent, ‘the other people.’

26401. Matt. v. 29 f.

26427. guardessent, for ‘guardassent,’ or rather ‘guardeissent.’

26477. en orguillant: perhaps rather ‘enorguillant.’

26480. au servir souffrirent, ‘submitted to service.’

26497 ff. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. after l. 498,

26571. Hos. iv. 1-3, ‘non est enim veritas, et non est misericordia, et non est scientia Dei in terra ... Propter hoc lugebit terra et infirmabitur omnis qui habitat in ea,’ &c.

26581 ff. With this discussion cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 520 ff.

26590 ff. Cp. Vox Clam. vii. 361,

26699. la malice seculier, ‘the evil of the world.’

26716. pluvie. For the suppression of the ‘i’ see note on 296.

26737. Commete: the reference is probably to that of the year 1368.

26745. diete, ‘influence,’ from the idea of regularity in the physical effect which the heavenly bodies are supposed to produce, like that of food or medicine: cp. Conf. Am. vii. 633 ff.

26748. Nous n’avons garde de, apparently for ‘que nous n’avions garde,’ ‘that we should not pay regard to.’

26749. Albumasar’s books on astrology, especially the Introductorium in Astronomiam and the Liber Florum, were very well known in Latin translations, apparently abridged from the originals. This reference is to Introduct. iii. 3: ‘Ut vero sol aerem calefacit, purgat, attenuat, sic pro modo suo luna et stellae. Unde Ypocras in libro climatum, Nisi luna et stellae, inquit, nocturnam densitatem attenuarent, elementa impenetrabilis aeris pinguetudine corporum omnium vitam corrumperent.’ (Quoted from the Bodleian copy of the edition printed at Venice, 1506.)

26799. Qui, ‘for whom.’

26810. Referring perhaps to Hos. iv. 3, quoted above.

26830. For the metre, cp. 2742.

26851. ‘For that in which he is alone to blame’: ‘dont que’ used for ‘dont,’ cp. 1779.

26857. Job v. 6, ‘Nihil in terra sine causa fit’: it is different in A. V.

26869. This is a citation which occurs in all the three books of our author: cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 945 ff. and Vox Clam. vii. 639 ff. In both places the argument is the same as here. The quotation is from Greg. Hom. in Evang. ii. 39, ‘Omnis autem creaturae aliquid habet homo. Habet namque commune esse cum lapidibus, vivere cum arboribus, sentire cum animalibus, intelligere cum angelis.’ Cp. Moral. vi. 16.

26885. Et en aler. Similarly in the Vox Clam. vii. 641 motion is made one of the five senses to the exclusion of smelling,

26927. maisq’il le compiere, ‘that he should abye it’: for this use of ‘maisqe’ instead of ‘que’ cp. 26112.

26931. Aristotle speaks of animals as microcosms (e. g. Phys. viii. 2) and argues from them to the μέγας κόσμος, but of course the quotation here is at second hand.

26934. Cp. Vox Clam. vii. 645 ff., ‘Sic minor est mundus homo, qui fert singula solus,’ &c.

26955. The rhyme requires ‘mer et fieu’ for ‘fieu et mer.’

26989. Lev. xxvi. 3 ff.

27001 f. With what follows compare Vox Clam. ii. 217-348, where the whole subject is worked out at length with many examples, including nearly all those which occur in this passage.

27015. Vox Clam. ii. 243, ‘Sol stetit in Gabaon iusto Iosue rogitante,’ &c.

27019. Vox Clam. ii. 247 f.

27022. Vox Clam. ii. 249 f.

27031. Vox Clam. ii. 259 f. The story is in the Legenda Aurea: it is to the effect that in an assembly of prelates Hilarius found himself elbowed out of all the honourable seats and compelled to sit on the ground. Upon this the floor rose under him and brought him up to a level with the rest.

27037. Vox Clam. ii. 253 f.

27040. Vox Clam. ii. 255 f.

27046 ff. Vox Clam. ii. 265-274.

27061. Paul, the first eremite, is said to have been fed daily by a raven for over sixty years.

27065 ff. Vox Clam. ii. 277-280.

27077. Vox Clam. ii. 287 f.

27079. Vox Clam. ii. 315 f.

27081 ff. Vox Clam. ii. 281-284.

27088. soy vivant, ‘while he is living.’

27165. That is, ‘he passes by his death into a life of damnation’: the antithesis ‘vit du mort’ and ‘moert du vie’ is a very strained one.

27367. De Ire: cp. 12241.

27372. ‘With no compensating goodness’: ‘refaire’ must mean here ‘to do in return’ (or in compensation).

27411. que me renovelle, ‘which is ever renewed in me’: for ‘renoveller’ in this sense cp. 11364.

27568 f. vais ... tien: indicative for subjunctive, ‘tien’ for ‘tiens,’ unless it is meant for imperative.

27662. ove tout l’enfant, ‘together with the child’: cp. ll. 4, 12240, &c.

27722. Tiels jours y ot, ‘on some days.’

27814 f. ‘He it is whom you will espouse to the virgin,’ i.e. the bearer of that rod.

27841. a coustummance, ‘after the custom’: the MS. has ‘acoustummance,’ but this can hardly stand. The same in 28190.

27867. Cp. Bal. xxv., ‘Car qui bien aime ses amours tard oblie.’

27935. eustes: apparently 2nd pers. pl. preterite. If so, it is combined rather boldly with the 2nd pers. sing. in ‘as’ and ‘avras’: cp. 442.

27942. Comme cil q’est toutpuissant: a very common form of expression in the Confessio Amantis, e.g. i. 925, 1640, &c. See also Bal. vii. l. 7, xi. l. 16. It occurs more than once in this narrative portion of the Mirour, e.g. 28248, 28883, 28900.

27949. There may be some doubt here as to the arrangement of the inverted commas; but it seems best to take the whole of this stanza as direct report, in which case ‘Il’ in 27950 refers to ‘God.’ The sentence below is a little disordered, as is often the case with our author: ‘He showed thee a special sign six months since in thy cousin Elizabeth, who was barren, but God,’ &c. Cp. 17996, Conf. Am. vi. 1603 ff., and many other passages.

28091. Probably Ps. cxxxviii. 6.

28110. Maisque, here apparently ‘moreover’: cp. 28276.

28112. te lie, ‘binds thee (in swaddling bands).’

28115 f. That is, all these characters, daughter, wife, nurse, mother, sister, &c., were summed up in one woman: ‘forsqe’ here means ‘only,’ the negative being omitted, much as we say ‘but’ in English.

28139. Luke ii. 14, from the text ‘et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.’

28160. y venoit, ‘there came,’ a kind of impersonal expression.

28183. estoit finis, ‘was brought to an end.’

28190. a coustumance: cp. 27841.

28205. Luke ii. 29 ff.

28247. qu’il serroit desfait, &c., ‘planned that he might be destroyed.’

28310. fiere, ‘strange.’

28349. ‘By agreement between thee and them.’

28358. fecis, for ‘fesis,’ 2nd sing. pret.

28383. That is ‘A Nazareth a ton parenté.’

28394. Maisque, ‘except that,’ cp. 1920.

28395. Archideclin: a corruption from ‘architriclinus,’ used in the Latin version of John ii. to represent the Greek ἀρχιτρίκλινος, ‘master of the feast,’ and commonly supposed to be the name of the entertainer: cp. 28762.

28409. fesoiont a loer, ‘were fit to be praised’: cp. 28506, and see note on 1883.

28414 ff. ‘But above all he showed great joy in your lineage, each in his degree,’ that is in keeping company with those of the Virgin’s family: but it might mean ‘he caused great joy to be felt by those of your lineage.’

28475. de son affere, ‘for his part,’ one of those rather meaningless phrases, such as ‘endroit de soy,’ ‘en son degré,’ ‘au droit devis,’ with which our author fills up lines on occasion.

28502. se pourvoit, ‘considers with himself’: cp. 14973.

28547. toute pleine: rather a more unscrupulous disregard than usual of gender and number for the sake of metre and rhyme.

28762. Centurio, taken as a proper name: cp. 28395.

28790. pour estovoir, ‘for their need,’ i.e. to accomplish that which had to be done.

28813. For the form of expression cp. 22744 and Trait. xiv. l. 15: it is common also in the Confessio Amantis.

28847. la sentence, ‘the sentence’ in a judicial sense, i.e. the judgment executed by the spear.

28914. compassioun, used especially of the sufferings of the Virgin during the passion of Christ.

28919. ta meditacioun, ‘meditation upon thee,’ if the text is right, but I am disposed to suggest ‘ta mediacioun.’

28941 f. These two lines are written over an erasure and perhaps in a different hand: cp. 4109, 4116.

29078. Pour ... avoir, see note on 6328.

29178. n’en doubte mie. The author shows here an unexpectedly clear perception of the difference between Gospel history and unauthorized legend.

29222. Qe nous devons, ‘in order that we may,’ so below, ‘Ainçois q’om doit par tout conter,’ ‘but that we may tell it everywhere.’ For this use of ‘devoir’ see note on 1193.

29264. t’encline, ‘bows to thee’: the verb is intransitive and the pronoun dative.

29390. The word ‘pensée’ counts as three syllables in this line, whereas usually the termination ‘-ée’ in Anglo-Norman verse of this period is equivalent to ‘-é’; cp. 29415. Perhaps we should read ‘penseie;’ see Introduction p. xx.

29411 f. ‘Well fitting was the love which he had for thee, through whom,’ &c.

29421. de son halt estage: cp. Conf. Am. iv. 2977,

29585. la disme joye, ‘the tenth part of the joy.’

29604. tu vendretz: see note on 442.

29636. Probably we should read que for qui: ‘(I pray) that thou wouldest send.’

29746. de sa covine, ‘by his purpose.’

29769. pourloignasse: pret. subj. for past conditional, cp. 29778.

29784. Ussont moustré, ‘they ought to show,’ used for conditional in the sense referred to in the note on l. 1688.

29798. ‘Witness thy Gospels,’ i.e. ‘the witness is that of thy Gospels.’

29821. le livre: cp. 27475 ff., where it is implied that the author follows a Latin book.

29869. me donne, ‘tells me.’

29878 ff. ‘But in order that it may perchance please thee, I set all my business, as best I may, to do honour to thy person.’ I have separated ‘Maisque,’ because that seems necessary for the sense. The author hopes that, though his Lady has the crown of heaven, yet she may be pleased by his humble endeavours to do her honour on earth.

29890. t’en fais continuer, ‘thou dost continue in the work,’ a reflexive use of ‘continuer’ with ‘faire’ as auxiliary.

DEDICATION OF BALADES

I. 7. ‘He who trusts in God,’ &c. ‘Qe’ is used for ‘Qui.’

15. Vostre oratour. The poet means no doubt to speak of himself as one who is bound to pray for the king. At the same time it is to be noticed that ‘Orator regius’ was at the beginning of the sixteenth century an official title, borne by Skelton in the reign of Henry VIII, and perhaps nearly equivalent to the later ‘Poet-laureate.’ Skelton was ‘laureatus’ of the Universities, that is he had taken a degree in rhetoric and poetry at Oxford, and apparently something equivalent at Cambridge.

16. The pronunciation of the name ‘Gower’ as a dissyllable with the accent on the termination, which is required here and in the Envoy to the Traitié, is the same as that which we have in the Confessio Amantis viii. 2908, where it rhymes with ‘-er.’

23. perfit: so written in full in the MS. and correctly given by the Roxburghe editor. Dr. Stengel gives ‘parfit’ on the assumption that there is a contraction. That is not so here, but in many cases of this kind he is right.

24. sentence: so in MS. (not with a capital as in the Roxb. ed.). The same remark applies to ‘valour’ in ii. l. 33, ‘s’est’ in Bal. vii. l. 18, ‘lettre’ xviii. l. 24, xx. l. 25, xxii. l. 27, ‘lors’ xxxvi. l. 3, ‘se,’ xxxvi. l. 10, ‘helas’ xliii. l. 6, ‘vous’ xlix. l. 23.

O recolende, &c.

8. After this line probably one has dropped out, for when this piece appears (in a somewhat different form) among the Latin poems of the All Souls’ and Glasgow MSS. we have

and ‘licet’ seems to require some such addition.

The quotation ‘Nichil proficiet’ is from Ps. lxxxix. (Vulg. lxxxviii.) 23, and the other from Ps. xli. (Vulg. xl.) 2.

II. This balade has been printed hitherto as if it consisted of four stanzas only, but in the MS., which is here damaged, there is not only space for another, but the initials of its lines still remain.

20. vendra: the reading ‘voudra’ is a mistake due to the Roxb. edition.

26. For the conjectural ending of the line cp. Mirour 26423.

BALADES

Title.—This is partly lost by the damage to the leaf of the MS., which has been mentioned above. The fragments of the latter part seem to indicate that the whole series of balades was expressly written by the author for the entertainment of the court of Henry IV: cp. D. ii. l. 27 f. The end of it perhaps ran thus, ‘ad fait, dont les nobles de la Court se puissent duement desporter,’ or something to that effect.

I. All that remains of the first stanza is the endings of the first three lines, and more than half of the second stanza is also lost.

16. Moun. Forms such as this, e.g. ‘soun,’ ‘doun,’ ‘noun,’ ‘bounté,’ and the ‘-oun’ terminations in xxi. and elsewhere, usually appear with ‘o̅n̅’ in the MS. Note however that ‘noun’ is written fully in xxi. ll. 25, 27.

17. voldroit: a common use of the conditional in our author, cp. Mir. l. 25. Here it is answered by the future ‘averai.’ The meaning seems to be ‘If God should put an end to my happiness and to my life at once, my faith being unbroken, I should be content; but meanwhile I remain true to thee always, whatever may befall.’

II. 4. q’il s’esjoiera. The Roxb. editor gave by mistake ‘qils’ for ‘qil,’ out of which Dr. Stengel produces ‘qil ssesjoiera,’ with the remark ‘Verdoppelung anlautender Consonanten nach vocalischem Auslaut auch sonst häufig.’ The passages to which he refers in support of this curious statement are ix. l. 13, where the Roxb. edition has ‘tanquil lest’ by pure mistake for ‘tanquil sest,’ and ix. l. 31, where he has chosen to make ‘un ssi’ out of ‘uns si.’ This shows the danger of constructing a theory without ascertaining the facts.

9. come. Dr. Stengel is not right in proposing to read ‘com’ for ‘come’ and ‘ou’ for ‘ove,’ wherever the words occur. These words regularly count as monosyllables for the metre, but the author much more commonly wrote them with the final ‘-e.’ Occasionally we have ‘com’ in the Balades (twice for instance in this stanza), and once in the Mirour we have ‘ou’ for ‘ove’ (l. 8376). Similarly ‘povere,’ ‘yvere,’ are regularly dissyllables by slurring of the medial ‘e,’ and are occasionally written ‘povre,’ ‘yvre.’ On the other hand ‘ore’ is sometimes a dissyllable, as Bal. xxviii. 1, and sometimes a monosyllable, as Mir. 37, 1775, &c., and some words such as ‘averai,’ ‘overaigne,’ ‘yveresce,’ vary between the longer and the shorter form.

12. com: so in MS., wrongly ‘come’ in Roxb. edition, which also has ‘viveet’ wrongly for ‘vive et’ of the MS.

23. Et pensetz, dame. An additional weak syllable is occasionally found at the caesura in this metre: cp. xix. l. 20, xxiii. l. 14, xxv. l. 8, &c., xxxiii. l. 10, xxxviii. l. 23, xliv. l. 8, xlvi. l. 15, Trait. ii. l. 5, &c. In every case the additional syllable is at a break after the second foot (epic caesura). It may be a question, however, whether ‘dame’ should not be taken as a monosyllable in some cases: see Introd. p. xxx.

III. 1. celle, used for the definite article: see note on Mir. 301.

peigne: this form of spelling does not indicate any difference in pronunciation, for the rhymes ‘pleine,’ ‘meine,’ are used to correspond with it in the next stanza. It is intended to produce visible conformity with the verb ‘compleigne,’ to which it rhymes, and so in l. 15 we have ‘halteigne’ pairing with ‘atteigne.’ The verbal ending ‘eigne’ rhymes regularly with ‘eine’ both in the French and English of our author, and the ‘g’ often falls out of the spelling.

10. Milfoitz: one word in the MS.; so ‘millfoitz’ ix. l. 10.

IIII. 3. s’ad fait unir, ‘has united itself’: see note on Mir. 1135.

4. As toutz jours mais: cp. Mir. 2856.

11. sufficaunce: endings of this kind represent the MS. ‘-a̅n̅ce,’ cp. note on i. l. 16.

16. la: so in the MS. The Roxb. ed. gives ‘sa’ by mistake.

IIII*. The number is repeated by inadvertence, so that the whole series consists really of fifty-one balades, apart from the religious dedication at the end and the Envoy.

4. Por toi cherir: see note on Mir. 6328. The address in the second person singular is unusual in the Balades and hardly occurs except here and in the contemptuously hostile pieces, xli-xliii.

11. dont, answering to ‘auci’: see note on Mir. 217.

17. tes: see Glossary under ‘ton’: cp. ‘vos amis,’ ix. l. 5.

22. The MS. has ‘De,’ as Dr. Stengel has rightly conjectured.

V. 19. a tant: cp. vi. l. 16 and Mir. 23953.

Margin: d’amont jesqes enci, ‘from the beginning up to this point: ‘d’amour’ is a mistake of the Roxb. editor.

VI. 6 f. par quoi, &c., ‘wherefore mine eye hath desire, to the end that I may see again your presence,’ i.e. desires to see, &c.

VII. 6. l’estre, ‘habitation,’ i.e. place of abode. ‘I desire your country as my dwelling-place.’

7. Come cil qui: cp. xi. l. 16, and see note on Mir. 27942.

9. Cp. Mir. 5822.

24. Qe jeo n’ai plus, &c., a variation of the form of expression used in xviii. l. 8 f. and common in our author: see Mir. 18589. Usually the ‘plus’ of the second clause answers to some such word as ‘tiel’ in the first.

VIII. 17. retenue, ‘engagement’ to follow or serve: cp. xv. l. 14.

IX. 6. The ‘trescentier’ of the Roxb. edition is a mistake.

16. en voie: see ‘envoie’ in Glossary.

24. sicom jeo songeroie: conditional for subjunctive: cp. Mir. 25.

36. demorir, ‘remain.’ Dr. Stengel wrongly alters to ‘de morir,’ which is nonsense.

37. poestis: cp. Mir. 1222.

41. au droit devis: see note on Mir. 83.

X. 2. The reading ‘jour’ for ‘jeo’ in this line is simply a mistake of the Roxb. editor.

5. Maisqu’il vous pleust, ‘provided that it might please you,’ pret. subj.: ‘maisque’ in this sense is used either with indicative or subjunctive, cp. xi. l. 8, xxiii. l. 10, &c.

7. Q’avoir porrai, ‘so that I may have’: cp. Mir. 364.

13. s’allie, ‘binds itself (to you).’

XI. 5. pour sercher le monde: cp. xxi. l. 18, and Mir. 25240.

23. perestes. The reading ‘par estes’ is a mistake; the MS. has ‘pestes,’ which might be either perestes or parestes, but perest occurs written out fully in Mir. 1760, 2546.

dangerouse, ‘reluctant to love’: see note on xii. l. 8.

XII. 1. Perhaps the author wrote ‘Ma,’ but the scribe (or rather the illuminator) gives ‘La.’

Chalandre: cp. Mir. 10707 ff.

8. Danger. This name represents in the love-jargon of the day those elements which are unfavourable to the lover’s acceptance by his mistress, partly no doubt external obstacles, but chiefly those feelings in the lady’s own mind which tend towards prudence or prompt to disdain. In the Roman de la Rose, which was the most influential example of this kind of allegory, Danger is the chief guardian of the rose-bush. He has for his helpers Malebouche, who spreads unfavourable reports of the lover, with Honte and Paour, who represent the feelings excited in the lady’s mind leading her to resist his advances. Of these helpers the most valiant is Honte, daughter of Raison and Mesfait. These all are the adversaries of the Lover and of Bel-Acueil his friend and helper. See Rom. de la Rose ll. 2837 ff. Elsewhere the word ‘dangier’ is used for the scornfulness in love of Narcissus, Rom. de la Rose 1498,

or of the difficulties made by a mistress,

Here the author says ‘Danger turns his eyes away,’ that is, the lady’s feelings of disdain or reluctance deprive him of her favour, and in l. 19 he entreats her to remove ‘danger’ from her regard. This idea is illustrated further by the expressions in xxvi. l. 26,

and xxxvii. l. 20,

where ‘danger’ clearly stands for the lady’s aversion to the lover’s suit: see also xxiii. l. 10, xxx. l. 15 ff., and Conf. Am. iv. 3589. In Conf. Am. iii. 1517 ff., and v. 6613 ff., Danger is very clearly described as the deadly enemy of the lover, always engaged in frustrating his endeavours by his influence over the lady. Note also the adjective ‘dangerous’ in the last balade; so ‘dangereus,’ Rom. de la Rose 479, ‘grudging,’ and ‘dangerous’ in the English translation, l. 1482, ‘disdainful.’

11. The same complaint is made Conf. Am. v. 4490 ff., but the reply there given (4542) is complete and crushing.

27. Q’a: the Roxb. ed. gives ‘Qe’ by mistake for ‘Qa.’

XIII. 1. muance, see Glossary. The Roxb. ed. gives ‘nivance,’ but the MS. reading seems to be rather ‘mvance,’ the ‘v’ being written for greater distinctness as in ‘remue’ xv. l. 8, &c. Certainly change is more characteristic of March than snow, and it is the changes of his fortune of which the lover complains,

5. Cp. Mir. 948.

8. al oill: cp. Mir. 5591, ‘al un n’a l’autre’; but we might read a l’oill. For the MS. reading here cp. Mir. 5386, where the MS. has ‘al lun ne lautre.’

XIIII. 6. dont, answering to ‘si’ above: see note on Mir. 217.

17. asseine, from ‘assener,’ here meaning ‘strike.’

20. ‘I cannot fail to have the fortune of one (or the other),’ i.e. death or sickness. The word ‘tant’ in the line above is not answered by anything and does not seem to mean much.

XV. 1. creance: see ‘credentia’ in Ducange. It means a cord for confining the flight of falcons.

25. ‘All my prayers are to your image at the time when,’ &c.

27. vostre proie, ‘your prey,’ i. e. your possession by right of capture.

XVI. 6 ff. ‘But by feeding on this food of the mind I cannot, though I seek it up and down, find for myself the path of grace.’ The food he feeds on is his feeling of hope: for ‘celle sente’ = ‘la sente,’ cp. iii. 1, and see Mir. 301.

26. Q’es. The confusion of singular and plural in the second person is common in our author: see note on Mir. 442.

(‘Q’es’ is of course for ‘Qe es,’ ‘qe’ or ‘que’ being quite a regular form of the relative used as subject by our author. I note this here because Dr. Stengel’s remarks are misleading.)

28. maisq’il vous talente, ‘if only it be pleasing to you.’

XVII. 2. Salvant l’estat d’amour: a kind of apology for the idea of blaming his mistress: cp. xxii. l. 26.

5. guardon: so written in full in the MS., cp. xxxiii. l. 6, so that it is not a case of ‘falsche Auflösung,’ as Dr. Stengel assumes. He is right enough as regards ‘perlee’ l. 19, and ‘parcer’ xviii. l. 6.

27. ‘I cannot leave off from loving her’: ‘maisque’ here ‘but that,’ cp. xl. l. 7, Trait. xiv. l. 10.

XVIII. 11. Qe jeo ne crie plus: a favourite form of expression with our author: cp. vii. l. 24, xxx. l. 13, Mir. 18589.

17. c’est, for ‘s’est’: cp. Mir. 1147.

XIX. 17. proeu, the same as ‘prou’ apparently: ‘proen’ can hardly be right, though the MS. would equally admit that reading.

18. trieus: cp. xxxix. l. 15. The usual form in the Mirour is ‘truis.’ The Roxb. ed. has ‘criens’ by mistake.

XX. 1. Roe: treated as a monosyllable in the verse here, but otherwise in Mir. 10942.

2. The position of the conjunction ‘mais’ is characteristic of our author, who frequently treats ‘and’ and ‘but’ in the same way in the Confessio Amantis. Cp. xxxvii. ll. 9, 19, Mir. 100, 415, 7739, &c.

6. So MS. The reading ‘basse’ and the omission of ‘lever’ are mistakes of the Roxb. ed.

22. mesna sa leesce, ‘had his joy’: ‘mener’ (but more commonly ‘demener’) is used with words meaning joy, sorrow, &c., to indicate the feeling or expression of it, e.g. xxxiii. l. 5.

XXI. 2. comparisoun: see note on i. l. 16.

6. par tant, ‘therefore’: cp. Mir. 119.

15. veneisoun, ‘chase,’ hence ‘endeavour.’

18. Dr. Stengel rightly gives ‘Trestout’: nevertheless the MS. has ‘Terstout’ written in full.

20. Honte et paour, see note on xii. l. 8.

21. N’i. This seems preferable to ‘Ni,’ being equivalent to ‘Ne i’ ‘nor there’ (i = y), cp. xxxvii. l. 10. The proper word for ‘nor’ is ‘ne,’ not ‘ni.’

XXIII. 5. l’ for ‘le,’ as indirect object, ‘to her’: see Glossary under le, pron.

plevi: so MS., as Dr. Stengel conjectures: cp. Trait. xvii. l. 2.

10. danger: see note on xii. l. 8.

13. lui, ‘her,’ see Glossary.

15. auns: the MS. reading here might be ‘anns,’ as given in Roxb. ed., but it is quite clearly ‘aun’ in xxxii. l. 1.

XXIIII. 5. autre, si le noun: so MS. rightly. It means ‘anything else except it,’ i.e. his lady’s name, ‘noun’ being the negative: cp. Mir. 6495 f.,

and 8853,

XXV. 8. See note on ii. l. 23.

10. The MS. has ‘Portont’ and in l. 13 ‘sache’: Roxb. ed. ‘Partout’ and ‘sachez.’

11. Du quoi: so MS., Roxb. ed. ‘Un quoi,’ which is nonsense.

18. q’a: Roxb. ed. ‘qe’ by mistake for ‘qa.’

19. Et d’autrepart: Roxb. ‘En dauterpart,’ MS. Et dautrepart.

XXVI. 4. MS. ‘sil,’ not ‘cil,’ as given in Roxb. ed.

9. ‘If a man gives himself, it is a proof,’ &c. For the form of expression, which is a favourite one with our author, cp. Mir. 1244, note.

15. perfit: cp. Ded. ii. 23.

26. vo danger: see note on xii. l. 8.

XXVII. 1. The first line is too long, but the mistake may be that of the author. Similarly in Mirour 3116, 14568, we have lines which are each a foot too long for the metre. In all cases it would be easy to correct: here, for example, by reading ‘Ma dame, quant jeo vi vostre oill riant.’

In xii. l. 22 we have, ‘Douls, vair, riant,’ as a description of eyes.

3. Roxb. ‘Par un,’ Dr. Stengel ‘Par mi,’ MS. ‘Parmi.’

5. jeo me paie, ‘I am content.’

24. Parentre deus, ‘between the two (alternatives)‘: cp. Mir. 1178.

XXIX. 19. pourcella, cp. xlii. l. 7, so ‘pourcela,’ Mir. 2349, &c.

XXX. 5. Le Nief: I suspect this is a mistake of the transcriber for ‘Le vent.’ It is not the ship that imperils his life but the storm, and ‘Le’ for ‘La’ is rather suspicious here.

8. Uluxes: the usual form of spelling in our author’s works, both French and English.

13. Cp. xviii. l. 9.

15. Danger: see note on xii. l. 8. Here the double meaning of the word is played upon, danger in the ordinary sense and ‘danger’ as representing the forces opposed to the lover.

XXXII. This alone of the present series of balades has no envoy.

15. Roxb. ed. omits ‘se,’ and accordingly Dr. Stengel turns ‘qa’ into ‘que ia,’ to restore the metre.

20. retenue, ‘service,’ referring to ‘servant’ just above.

XXXIII. 2. a bone estreine, a form of good wish, as ‘a mal estreine’ (Mir. 1435) is of malediction.

5. See note on xx. l. 22.

6. guardoner: so in MS., cp. xvii. l. 5.

10. See note on ii. l. 23.

XXXIIII. 6. a covenir, apparently ‘by agreement.’

11. The word omitted by the Roxb. ed. is ‘a.’

18. De Alceone. The hiatus must be admitted, as indicated by the separation in the MS., cp. Mir. 12228. We must not accent ‘Alceone’ on the final ‘-e’ as Dr. Stengel proposes, because of the way the word is used in the Confessio Amantis, rhyming, for example, with ‘one,’ iv. 3058. ‘Ceïx’ is a dissyllable here and in the English.

XXXV. 10. en droit de, ‘as regards’: see Glossary, ‘endroit.’

17. en droit de mon atour, ‘as regards my state.’

22. falcoun: the Roxb. ed. gives ‘facon,’ a false reading which has hitherto entirely obscured the sense.

XXXVI. 3. Papegai. This seems to stand for any bright-plumaged bird. It is not to be supposed that Gower had the definite idea of a parrot connected with it.

6. au tiel: so MS., but Roxb. ed. ‘aut tiel,’ whence Dr. Stengel ‘au ttiel,’ in pursuance, no doubt, of his theory of ‘Verdoppelung anlautender Consonanten’: see note on ii. l. 4.

au tiel assai, ‘with such trial,’ i.e. ‘so sharply.’

10. Cp. Mir. 8716.

15. For the opposition of the rose and the nettle cp. xxxvii. 24, Mir. 3538, &c.

XXXVII. 4. la: used (as well as ‘le’) for indirect object fem. See Glossary.

9. See note on xx. l. 2.

10. entrée. The termination ‘-ée’ constitutes one syllable only here, as at the end of the verse, where ‘-é’ and ‘-ée’ rhyme freely together: see, for example, the rhymes in xvii.

19. me refiere, ‘refer myself,’ i.e. ‘make appeal.’ The rhyme requires correction of the reading ‘refiers.’

XXXVIII. 1. Cp. Mir. 12463 ff., where the ‘piere dyamant tresfine’ is said to disdain a setting of gold because drawn irresistibly to iron. The loadstone and the diamond became identified with one another because of the supposed hardness of both (‘adamant’).

XXXIX. 3. For this use of ‘et,’ cp. xviii. 7.

9. asseine: rather a favourite word with our author in various meanings, cp. x. l. 10, ‘jeo mon coer asseine,’ ‘I direct (the affections of) my heart’; xiv. l. 17, ‘la fierté de son corage asseine,’ ‘strike down the pride of her heart’; and here, where ‘Qui vo persone ... asseine’ means ‘he who addresses himself to your person.’

18. pluis: this form, which occurs also iv. l. 15, ‘De pluis en pluis,’ seems to be only a variation of spelling, for it rhymes here and elsewhere with -us, -uz: see Introduction, p. xxviii f.

XL. 7. Ne puiss hoster, &c. Cp. xvii. l. 27, ‘Ne puis lesser mais jeo l’ameray’: ‘hoster’ means properly ‘take away,’ hence ‘refrain (myself).’

me pleigne: so MS. The Roxb. ed. gives ‘ma pleine.’

11. serretz. The future tense (if it be future) need give us no anxiety, in view of the looseness about tenses which is habitual with our author: cp. xliv. l. 6, Mir. 416. In any case ‘serietz,’ which Dr. Stengel substitutes, is not a correct form.

22. chaunçon: MS. cha̅n̅con.

XLI. Here the address is from the lady to her lover, and so it is also in the three succeeding balades and in xlvi. Notice that the second person singular is used in xli.-xliii. where the language is that of hostile contempt.

9. sent, for ‘cent’: so ‘Si’ for ‘Ci’ in the Title of the Balades, and ‘Sil’ in xlii. l. 20, &c. The converse change of ‘s’ to ‘c’ is not uncommon, see Mir. 799.

17. q’ensi ment, ‘which thus lies’: Dr. Stengel’s alteration ‘qensiment’ is quite without justification.

18. sciet: so MS, not ‘ciet.’

20. aparcevoir: in MS. contracted, ‘aꝑcevoir,’ but cp. Mir. 123, &c.

XLII. 7. de ta falsine atteinte, ‘by thy convicted falseness.’

10. par tiele empeinte: cp. Trait. iv. l. 17.

20. Sil, for ‘Cil’: cp. xli. l. 9, xlvii. l. 7.

XLIII. 6. ‘I find him whom I was wont to love.’

7. en mon endroit, ‘for my part.’

13. Ne poet chaloir: see Burguy, Grammaire ii. 26.

19. The romance of Generides exists in an English version, which has been edited by Dr. Aldis Wright from a manuscript in the library of Trinity Coll. Camb. (E.E.T.S. 1873).

Florent, no doubt, is the same as the hero of Gower’s story in Conf. Am. i. 1407 ff., though there are others of his name in Romance.

Partonopé is Partonopeus de Blois. The correction of ‘par Tonope’ is due to Warton.

XLIIII. Here the lady addresses a true lover, whose suit she accepts.

6. refuserai: cp. xl. l. 11.

23. quoique nulls en die, ‘whatsoever any may say of it.’

XLV. 6. pour vo bounté considerer, ‘by reflecting on your goodness’: ‘pour’ is here equivalent to ‘par.’

8. ‘To describe your face.’

12. Pour vous amer, ‘to love you’: see note on Mir. 6328.

13. Dont m’est avis, answering to ‘tiele,’ ‘in such a manner that’: see note on Mir. 217.

pour vous essampler, ‘by taking you as their example,’ cp. l. 6: but this is not a usual sense of ‘essampler.’

16. vo covine, ‘your disposition’: see Glossary.

XLVI. The lady speaks again.

5. sauf toutdis, ‘saving always’: cp. xxii. l. 26, ‘Salvant toutdis l’estat de vostre honour.’

15. See note on ii. l. 23.

18. par envoisure; cp. Mir. 988. Here it means ‘by raillery’ or ‘in jest.’

23. toutz passont a l’essai, ‘surpass all others at the trial.’

24. q’amour: the Roxb. ed. reduces the sentence to nonsense by giving ‘qamont,’ as conversely ‘damour’ for ‘damont’ in the margin of Bal. v.

XLVII. 2. fait sustenir, ‘doth support.’

4. qui le sciet maintenir, ‘if a man can preserve it’: cp. xxvi. l. 9.

7. sil: cp. xlii. l. 20.

17. Plus est divers, ‘he has more varied fortune.’

XLVIII. For this kind of thing, which recurs often enough in the literature of the time, cp. Rom. de la Rose, 4310 ff.

2. le droit certein, ‘the true certainty’: see ‘certein’ in Glossary.

9. le repos. This is the reading of the MS., and so also ‘est bass’ in l. 11. Dr. Stengel was safer than he supposed in following Todd.

XLIX. 5. qui deinz soi, &c., ‘when a man within himself,’ &c., cp. xxvi. l. 9.

L. 9. le tempre suef: cp. Mir. 14707.

<LI>. This balade is not numbered and does not form one of the ‘Cinkante Balades’ of which the title speaks. It is a kind of devotional conclusion to the series. The envoy which follows, ‘O gentile Engleterre,’ does not belong to this balade, being divided from it by a space in the MS. and having a different system of rhymes. It is in fact the envoy of the whole book of balades.

19. j’espoir: see Glossary under ‘esperer.’

TRAITIÉ

The title ‘Traitié’ is not in the MSS., but is inserted as that to which reference is made in the Glossary and elsewhere. What follows, ‘Puisqu’il ad dit,’ &c., is the heading found in those MSS. which give this series of balades together with the Confessio Amantis, that is in seven out of ten copies. In the other three the Traitié occurs independently, but in two of these, viz. the All Souls and the Trentham MSS., it is imperfect at the beginning, so that we cannot say what heading it had, while in the third, the Glasgow copy, it has that which is given in the critical note. It is certain in any case that the author did not regard it as inseparable from the Confessio Amantis.

I. The numbers are introduced for reference: there are none in the MSS.

4. per: so in the Fairfax MS. fully written, but we have ‘par’ fully written elsewhere, as xi. l. 16, therefore the contractions are usually so expanded, e.g. in the preceding line.

8. celle alme, ‘the soul,’ cp. Bal. iii. l. 1, and see note on Mir. 301.

9. Tant soulement, see Glossary, ‘tansoulement.’

II. 5. See note on Bal. ii. l. 23. For the substance of the passage cp. Mir. 17935 ff.

7. He means that continence is better than marriage, as we see from the margin of the next balade.

20. en son atour, ‘in its own condition.’

III. 1. parfit: this form is preferred as expansion of the MS. contraction, because it is more usual and is found fully written both in the Mirour (e.g. 1640) and in the present work, xviii. l. 28 (Trentham MS.), but ‘perfit’ occurs in Ded. i. l. 23 and Bal. xxvi. l. 15.

20. retenue, cp. Bal. viii. l. 17.

IV. 5. resemblont amorouses: cp. Mir. 1094.

17. par tiele empeinte: cp. Bal. xlii. l. 10. It seems to mean ‘in such a manner.’

V. 8. l’espousailes, for ‘li espousailes,’ but this use of ‘li’ as fem. plur. is rather irregular.

VI. For the story see Conf. Am. vi. 1789 ff.

The Latin margin has lost some parts of words in the Trentham MS. by close cutting of the edges. The Roxb. ed. does not indicate the nature of this loss nor correctly represent its extent, so that we are left to suppose, for example, that ‘nuper’ is omitted, when as a fact it is there, but partly cut away, and that the MS. reads ‘violant’ for ‘violantes.’

6. envoisure, ‘trickery,’ ‘deceit,’ cp. xvi. l. 3.

10. sanz nulle autre essoine, ‘without any other cause.’

15. The margin has suffered here also in the Trentham MS., but not exactly as represented in the Roxb. ed.

17. Circes: cp. Mir. 16674 f., where the same form is used,