“ From all of which it appears that the critics who have assigned the Cuckoo to Chaucer have taken no pains whatever to check their opinion by any sort of analysis. They have trusted to their own mere opinion, without looking the facts in the face. ”

“ Commaunding me the Court of Love to see,
A lite beside the mount of Citharee,
50
There Citherea goddesse was and quene
Honoured highly for her majestee;
And eke her sone, the mighty god, I wene,
Cupid the blind, that for his dignitee
A thousand lovers worship on their knee ”

“ At the same time, there is much about the piece that is vague, shifty, and unsatisfactory. He is too full of excuses, and too plausible; in a word, too selfish. Hence he has no real message for others, but only wishes to display his skill, which he does by help of the most barefaced and deliberate plagiarism. It was not from the Consolatio Philosophiae of Boethius, but from the English translation of that work by Chaucer, that he really drew his materials; and he often takes occasion to lift lines or ideas from the poem of Troilus whenever he can find any that come in handy. ”

“ I believe that this piece is almost unparalleled as regards the shameful corruption of its text. It cannot be supposed that Thynne or any one else ever read it over with the view of seeing whether the result presented any sense. Originally written in an obscure style, every form of carelessness seems to have been employed in order to render it more obscure than before. In a great number of places, it is easy to restore the sense by the insertion of such necessary words as of, or but, or by. In other places, non-existent words can be replaced by real ones ”

“ Cupid, god of Love, is supposed to write a letter to all lovers, who are his subjects, reproving men for their slander and ill-treatment of women, and defending women against all that is alleged against them. ”

“ The highe god, of his justyce alone,
The right which longeth to thy regalye
10
Declared hath to stande in thy persone;
And more than god may no man justifye.
Thy title is knowe upon thyn auncestrye;
The londes folk hath eek thy right affermed;
So stant thy regne, of god and man confermed.
15
Ther is no man may saye in other wyse
That god him-self ne hath the right declared;
Wherof the land is boun to thy servyse,
Which for defaute of helpe hath longe cared.
But now ther is no mannes herte spared
20
To love and serve, and worche thy plesaunce;
And al this is through goddes purveyaunce. ”

“ For
every cause of a cause is cause of thing caused. Than thus:
good thinges and profitable ben by dignitè, honour, and reverence
10
caused. Ergo, they accorden; and dignites ben good with
reverences and honour. But contraries mowen not accorden.
Wherfore, by reson, there shulde no dignitee, no reverence, non
honour acorde with shrewes. But that is fals; they have ben
cause to shrewes in many shreudnes; for with hem they accorden. ”

“ Is there any thing to thee more precious
than thy-selfe? Thou shalt have in thy power that thou woldest
150
never lese, and that in no way may be taken fro thee; and thilke
thing is that is cause of this knot. And if deth mowe it nat reve
more than an erthly creature, thilke thing than abydeth with thy-selfe
soule. And so, our conclusion to make, suche a knot, thus
getten, abydeth with this thinge and with the soule, as long as
155
they laste. A soule dyeth never; vertu and goodnesse evermore
with the soule endureth; and this knot is parfit blisse. ”

“ It is of some consequence to learn, first of all, that it is hardly possible to separate this piece from the next. The authoress of one was the authoress of the other. That The Assembly of Ladies is longer and duller, and has not held its own in popular estimation, is no sound argument to the contrary; for it is only partially true. Between the first eleven stanzas of the Assembly and the first eleven stanzas of the present poem, there is a strong general resemblance, and not much to choose. ”

“ The title of this piece in Stowe's edition stands as follows: 'A balade of good counseile, translated out of Latin verses into Englishe, by dan Iohn lidgat cleped the monke of Buri.' What were the Latin verses here referred to, I have no means of ascertaining.
This Ballad is eminently characteristic of Lydgate's style, and by no means the worst of its kind. When he once gets hold of a refrain that pleases him, he canters merrily along till he has absolutely no more to say. ”

“ To save himself, he embarks on board a ship; but the reader is disappointed to find that the adventure is wholly unreal; the ship is the ship of Travail, peopled by Sight, Lust, Thought, and Will. He is driven on an island, where he catches a glimpse of Love, and finds a Margaret, a pearl of price. He appeals to Love to comfort him. ”

“ The earth being taken as the centre of the planetary system, the planets are arranged in the order of the radii of their orbits. The nearest planet is the Moon, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. ”

“ It is obvious that alliteration is conspicuously absent, except in the case of the four lines (424-7) , which are introduced, by way of flourish, at the end. My own belief is that our copy of Jack Upland is a second edition, i.e. an amended and extended [xxxviii] copy, which has been reasonably well preserved. It is more correct than the Plowmans Tale, and very much more correct than the Testament of Love. ”

“ To make pees, accord, and unitè
235
Among the kinges that be now devysed,
Yet, natheles, the lawë stant assysed
Of mannes wit, to be so resonable
Withoute that to stande hem-selve stable.
Of holy chirche we ben children alle,
240
And every child is holde for to bowe
Unto the moder, how that ever it falle,
Or elles he mot reson disalowe.
And, for that cause, a knight shal first avowe
The right of holy chirche to defende,
245
That no man shal the privilege offende.
Thus were it good to setten al in evene
The worldes princes and the prelats bothe,
For love of him whiche is the king of hevene ”

“ How shulde than the
name of a singuler Londenoys passe the glorious name of London,
whiche by many it is commended, and by many it is lacked, and
105
in many mo places in erthe nat knowen than knowen? For in
many countrees litel is London in knowing or in spech; and yet
among oon maner of people may nat such fame in goodnes
come; for as many as praysen, commenly as many lacken. Fy
than on such maner fame! Slepe, and suffre him that knoweth
110
previtè of hertes to dele suche fame in thilke place there nothing
ayenst a sothe shal neither speke ne dare apere, by attourney
ne by other maner. ”

“ I believe it may be said of nearly every piece in the volume, that it now appears in an improved form. In several cases, I have collated MSS. that have not previously been examined, and have found them to be the best. The Notes are nearly all new; very few have been taken from Bell's Chaucer. Several are due to Schick's useful notes to The Temple of Glas; and some to Krausser's edition of The Black Knight, and to Gröhler's edition of La Belle Dame, both of which reached me after my own notes were all in type. ”

“ Go now forth, and frayne youre clerkes,
425 And grounde you in goddes lawe, and geve Jack answere.
And whan ye han assoiled me that I have said, sadly in treuth,
I shall soill thee of thyn order, and save thee to heven!
If freres cunne not or mow not excuse hem of these questions
asked of hem, it semeth that they be horrible gilty against god
430
and hir even-Christen; for which gyltes and defautes it were
worthy that the order that they calle hir order were for-don. And
it is wonder that men susteyne hem or suffer hem live in suche
maner. ”

“ Perhaps an easier way for enabling a learner to recognise the peculiarities of The Court of Love, and the difference of its language from Chaucer, is to translate some lines of it into Chaucerian English. The effect upon the metre is startling. ”

“ Ergo,
richesse is no cause of the knot. And many men, as I sayd,
setten the cause of the knotte in richesse; thilke knitten the
35
richesse, and nothing the yvel; thilke persons, what-ever they
ben, wenen that riches is most worthy to be had; and that make
they the cause; and so wene they thilke riches be better than the
person. Commenly, suche asken rather after the quantitè than
after the qualitè; and suche wenen, as wel by hem-selfe as by
40
other, that conjunccion of his lyfe and of his soule is no more
precious, but in as mikel as he hath of richesse. Alas! ”

“ If Christes rule be moost perfit, why rulest
thou thee not therafter? Without more, why shall a frere be
more punished if he breke the rule that his patron made, than if
he breke the hestes that god himself made?
35
2. Approveth Christ ony more religions than oon, that saynt
James speketh of? If he approveth no more, why hast thou left
his rule, and taken another? Why is a frere apostata, that leveth
his order and taketh another secte; sith there is but oon religion
of Christ?
40
3. Why be ye wedded faster to your habits than a man is to his
wyfe? ”

“ Wherfore thy braunches must burjonen in presence of thy lady, if
thou desyre any frute of thy ladies grace. But beware of thy lyfe,
that thou no wode lay use, as in asking of thinges that strecchen
in-to shame! For than might thou nat spede, by no maner way
55
that I can espy. Vertue wol nat suffre villany out of him-selfe to
springe. Thy wordes may nat be queynt, ne of subtel maner
understandinge. Freel-witted people supposen in suche poesies
to be begyled; in open understandinge must every word be used. ”

“ Reply: a man is better than a beast; yet even for your beasts you make cattle-sheds and stables. Our houses are often poor ones. Did you ever see any that resembled the Tower, or Windsor Castle, or Woodstock? Your lies are shameless; pp. 77-8. I note here Jack Upland's rejoinder; he says that he does not object to the friars having houses, but he objects to the needless grandeur of them; for it does not follow that a man who drinks a quart of wine must therefore proceed to drink a gallon ”

“ Hir fame abit, but al is vanitee;
For deth, whiche hath the werres under fote,
Hath mad an ende, of which ther is no bote.
So may a man the sothe wite and knowe,
That pees is good for every king to have;
290
The fortune of the werre is ever unknowe,
But wher pees is, ther ben the marches save.
That now is up, to-morwe is under grave.
The mighty god hath alle grace in honde;
Withouten him, men may nat longe stonde. ”

“ For thing passed must nedes be passed; and
er it were, it might have nat be; wherfore it shulde nat have
passed. Right so, whan love comming is said of love that is to
come, nedeful is to be that is said; for thing comming never is nat
comminge. And so, ofte, the same thing we sayn of the same; as
155
whan we sayn "every man is a man," or "every lover is a lover,"
so muste it be nedes. In no waye may he be man and no man togider.
And if it be nat by necessitè, that is to say nedeful, al thing
comming to be comming, than somthing comming is nat comminge,
and that is impossible. ”

“ The lines of this stanza are wrongly arranged in Thynne, and in every printed edition except the present one; i.e. the lines 12 and 13 are transposed. But as the rime-formula is aabba, it is easy to see that suffyse, devyse, agryse rime together on the one hand, and nyce, vyce, on the other. The pronunciation suffice is comparatively modern; in Chaucer, the suffix -yse was pronounced with a voiced s, i.e. as z. Note the rimes devyse, suffyse in the Book of the Duch. 901-2; suffyse, wyse, devyse, in the C. T., B 3648-9; &c. The MSS. Ff., F., and B. all give the right arrangement. ”

“ I wene, if al things ben good, I might than with the
first way in that good have ended, and so by goodnesse have comen
to blisse in your service desyred.'
'Al thing,' quod she, 'is good by being in participacion out of
65
the firste goodnesse, whiche goodnesse is corrupt by badnesse
and badde-mening maners. God hath [ordeyned] in good thinges,
that they ben good by being, and not in yvel; for there is absence
of rightful love. For badnesse is nothing but only yvel wil of the
user, and through giltes of the doer; wherfore, at the ginninge of
70
the worlde, every thing by him-selfe was good ”

“ For goodnesse, of mans propre body were they
90
maked, after the sawes of the bible, rehersing goddes wordes in
this wyse: "It is good to mankynde that we make to him an
helper." Lo! in paradyse, for your helpe, was this tree graffed,
out of whiche al linage of man discendeth. If a man be noble
frute, of noble frute it is sprongen; the blisse of paradyse, to
95
mennes sory hertes, yet in this tree abydeth. O! noble helpes
ben these trees, and gentil jewel to ben worshipped of every
good creature! He that hem anoyeth doth his owne shame; it is
a comfortable perle ayenst al tenes. ”

“ Briefly, it is a very poor piece; and my chief object in reprinting it is to shew how unworthy it is of Clanvowe, not to mention Chaucer. We have no right even to assign it to Lydgate. And its date may be later than 1450.
§ 55. XX. The Flower and the Leaf.
This piece many 'critics' would assign to Chaucer, merely because they like it. This may be sentiment, but it is not criticism; and, after all, a desire to arrive at the truth should be of more weight with us than indulgence in ignorant credulity. ”

“ For al thing, a this halfe the first being, is
being through participacion, taking partie of being; so that [in]
25
every creature is difference bitwene being of him through whom
it is, and his own being. Right as every good is a maner of
being, so is it good thorow being; for it is naught other to be.
And every thing, though it be good, is not of him-selfe good;
but it is good by that it is ordinable to the greet goodnesse.
30
This dualitè, after clerkes †determinison, is founden in every
creature, be it never so single of onhed.'
'Ye,' quod I ”

“ Knowen may it wel ben now of these thinges toforn
declared, that man hath not alway thilke rightfulnesse
which by dutè of right evermore haven he shulde, and by no way
by him-selfe may he it gete ne kepe; and after he it hath, if he it
5
lese, recover shal he it never without especial grace. Wherfore
the comune sentence of the people in opinion, that every thing
after destenee is ruled, false and wicked is to beleve. For though
predestinacion be as wel of good as of badde, sithen that it is
sayd, god †hath destenees made, whiche he never ne wrought ”

“ Pardè, at the hardest, I have no servant but he be vertuous in
dede and thought. I brought thee in my service, yet art thou
nat my servant; but I say, thou might so werche in vertue herafter,
120
that than shalt thou be my servant, and as for my servant
[91]
acompted. For habit maketh no monk; ne weringe of gilte
spurres maketh no knight. Never-the-later, in confort of thyne
herte, yet wol I otherwyse answere.'
'Certes, lady,' quod I tho, 'so ye muste nedes ”