That thow be understonde, God I beseche!
But yet to purpos of my rather speche.
The wrath, as I bigan yow for to seye,
Of Troylus, the Grekes boughten deere;
For thousandes his hondes maden dye,
As he that was withouten any peere,
Save Ector in his tyme, as I kan here;
But, walawey! save only Goddes wille,
Dispitously hym slough the fiers Achille.
And when that he was slayn in this manere,
His light gost ful blisfully is wente
Up to the holughnesse of the seventhe spere,
In convers letynge everyche elemente;1
And ther he saugh, with ful avysemente,
The erratyk sterres, herkenynge armonye,
With sownes ful of hevenysch melodie.
And down from thennes faste he gan avyse
This litel spot of erth, that with the se
Embraced is; and fully gan despise
This wreched world, and helde al vanyte,
To respect of the pleyne felicite
That is in hevene above: and, at the laste,
Ther he was slayn his lokynge down he caste.
And in hymself he lough right at the wo
Of hem that wepten for his deth so faste,
And dampned al our werk that folweth so
The blynde luste, the whiche that may not laste,
And sholden al our herte on hevene caste;

1 In convers leting every element,' means, Leaving behind him all the elements, earth, air, fire, and water, of which is composed this world with its atmosphere, which now appears to him convex, or in the form of a ball.' The soul of Troylus passes from the earth, which is the first sphere, and in respect of which the others are concave, or hollow, and reaches the seventh, in respect of which the others are convex, or convers. This doctrine of the spheres, and the harmony they produce, has been already explained: See vol. ii. p. 360, note 3. It seems to have been universally received. St. Paul speaks of being 'caught up to the third heaven.'-2 Cor. xii. 2.

And forth he wente, shortly for to telle,
Ther as Mercurie sorted hym to dwelle.1

Swich fyn hath, lo! this Troylus for love!
Swich fyn hath al his grete worthynesse!
Swich fyn hath his estat real above!

Swich fyn his luste, swich fyn hath his noblesse!
Swich fyn hath fals worldes brotelnesse!
And thus bigan his lovynge of Cryseyde,
As I have tolde, and in this wise he deyde.

O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she,

In which that love up groweth with youre age,
Repeireth hom fro worldly vanyte,

And of youre herte up casteth the visage
To thilke God, that efter his

ymage
Yow made, and thynketh al nys but a faire,
This worlde that passeth sone, as floures faire.'

And loveth hym the which that, right for love,
Upon a crois, oure soules for to beye,
First starf and roos, and sitt in heven above,
For he nyl falsen no wight, dar I seye,
That wol his herte alle holly on hym leye;
And syn he best to love is, and most meke,
What nedeth feyned loves for to seke?

1 The fine idea of making the soul of Troylus mount to the seventh heaven, and laugh at its former transitory joys and sorrows, is Chaucer's own. It may, however, have been suggested by the description of the passage of Arcite's soul to heaven in The Theseide, which Chaucer omits in The Knightes Tale, perhaps because he had already adopted it in this poem.

2 This address is very superior in delicacy and thoughtfulness to that in the Filostrato :

⚫O giovinetti, a quali con l'etate
Sorge per donne il fervente desio,
I vostri desederj raffrenate,
I passi vani, e l'appetito rio,
E nel amor di Troilo vi specchiate,
Come vi mostra questo verso mio;
Che se col cuore attento leggerete,
Di femine all' amor non crederete.'

Lo! here of payens corsed olde rites!
Lo! here what alle hire goddes may availle!
Lo! here this wreched worldes appetites!
Lo! here the fyn and guerdon for travaille,
Of Jove, Apollo, of Mars, and swich rescaille!
Lo! here the forme of olde clerkes speche
In poetrie, if ye hire bokes seche.

L'ENVOYE DU CHAUCER.

O MORAL Gower,1 this boke I directe
To the, and to the philosophical Strode,*
To vouchensauf, ther nede is, to correcte,
Of youre benignites and zeles good.

And to that sothfast Criste that starf on roode,
With al myn herte, of mercy evere I preye,
And to the Lord right thus I speke and seye:—
Thow Oon, and Two, and Thre, eterne on lyve,
That regnest ay in Thre, and Two, and Oon,
Uncircumscript, and al maist circumscrive!
Us from visible and invisible foon
Defende, and to thi mercy everichon,
So mak us, Jesu, for thy mercy digne,
For love of Maide and Moder thyn benigne!

EXPLICIT LIBER TROILI ET CRISEYDIS.

1 John Gower, the poet, was born, as is generally supposed, some, what earlier in the fourteenth century than his friend Chaucer, whom he survived however by eight years. Of his three great works the first, called Speculum Meditantis, said to have been written in French, is lost. The second, called Vox Clamantis, is a poem in elegiac Latin verse; and the third, Confessio Amantis, is in English octosyllabic metre. He is the author also of several ballads in French, of considerable merit. They were collected, and edited for the Roxburgh Club, by the present Duke of Sutherland, then Earl Gower, the supposed representative of the poet's family. Gower has repaid this tribute of Chaucer's to his genius and worth, by some complimentary lines in the Confessio Amantis.-See vol. i. p. 29, note 1.

2 Of Strode, Warton says that he was eminent for his scholastic attainments, and was tutor to Chaucer's son, Lewis, at Merton College, Oxford. He was probably the Ralph Strode, of whom Wood says:-Radulphus Strode, de quo sic vetus noster catalogus. Poeta fuit, et versificavit librum elegiacum, vocatum Phantasma Rodulphi.'-Claruit, 1370.

302

THE COMPLAYNT OF MARS AND VENUS.

[IN the Envoy to this poem the reader is informed that it is a translation from the French of Graunson, whom the author calls the 'floure of them that maken [write poetry] in France;' and that it was written in the poet's old age.

For elde, that in my spirite dulleth me,

Hath of endyting al the subtilite

Wel-nygh berefte out of my remembraunce.

Of Graunson, once so famous, little is now known. Tyrwhitt supposes that he was a certain Otho de Graunson; who, as appears from Rymer's Fœdera, Pat. 17, was retained in the military service of Richard II., with an annuity of 200 marks. In his Life of Chaucer Speght says, that Chaucer 'made a treatise of the alliance betwixt Venus and Mars at the commandment of John of Gaunt;' and adds in a note :'Some [among whom, if he had read the poem he professed to edit, he might have found the author himself] say that. he did but translate it, and that it was made by Sir Otes [Otho] de Grantsome [Graunson, or Granson], knight, in French, of my lady of Yorke, daughter of the King of Spaine [Peter the Cruel] representing Venus, and my Lord of Huntingdon, some time Duke of Excester. This lady was younger sister of Constance, John of Gaunt's second wife. This Lord of Huntingdon was called John Holland, halfe brother to Richard II.: he married Elizabeth, the daughter of John of Gaunt.' The poem evidently applies, primarily, to the phenomena presented by the planets Mars and Venus in the relative positions they assume in the course of their orbits round the sun; and, as such, is an imitation of the song of Demodocus, in the eighth book of The Odyssey. But it may possibly have a secondary application to the disgraceful intrigue between the Lord Hun

tingdon and the Duchess of York, aunt of his wife Elizabeth. This traditional application, the force of which has escaped Tyrwhitt, derives some strength from the allusion to the Broche of Thebes (see post, p. 312) which was supposed to inspire those who possessed it with incestuous and illomened passions. From this allusion the poem is distinguished by Lydgate among Chaucer's productions:

Of Anelida and of false Arcite

He made a compleynte doleful and pitous;
And of the broche which that Vulcanus
At Thebes wrought, ful divers of nature.

Bale, taking broche in its primary meaning as a spit, and never having read the poem, describes it by the name of De Vulcani veru, of the spit of Vulcan.

The text of the printed editions is almost incredibly corrupt. An example of their corruptions may be found in the first stanza, which, in its proper form, is very pretty and ingenious, but, as hitherto given, is a mass of nonsense. The present text is taken from a MS. marked 7333, in the Harleian Collection, as far as that MS., which is imperfect, goes. See p. 310. The remainder is from the MS. Fairfax 16, collated with Arch. Seld. B. 24. These have been already described in the Introduction to the House of Fame, vol. ii. p. 454. In the Fairfax volume the illuminations to this poem are very elaborate. Venus is represented as Anadyomene, half covered by the waves, with dishevelled hair, of a yellow, or, as we should call it, red colour, such as was admired in classical and medieval times; and Mars, as an old knight, in the armour of the fifteenth century, of a prodigiously grim and ferocious demeanour.