L'ENVOYE.1 Therfor, thou vache, leve thin old wreched nesse; Vnto the worlde leve now to be thral.2 Crie hym mercy, that of hys hie goodnesse A BALLADE. HE firste fadir and fyndr of gentilnesse,3 THE What man desirith gentil for to be, Most followe his trace, and alle his wittes dresse, Vertue to shew, and vices for to flee; And nought the revers, savely dar I deme, This first stoke was ful of rightwisnesse, Vice may welle be heyre to olde richesse, 1 This stanza does not occur in the other MSS. 2 [Cease to be a slave to the world.] By 'the firste fadir and fyndr of gentilnesse' the poet seems to mean Christ. Compare Wyf of Bathes Tale, vol. i. p. 344. Crist wol we clayme of him oure gentilesse.' Instead of The firste fadir and fynder, Speght, in the poem by Scogan, in which this piece is introduced, reads, The first stockfather.-See ante, p. 402. That is approperid to no degree, But to the firste Fader in Magestee, [quere, Whiche maketh His heires hem that doone Him Al were he miter, corone or diademe. EXPLICIT L'ENVOY DE CHAUCER A SCOGAN.' TO-B O-BROKEN been the statutes hye in hevene, By word eterne whilome was yshape, 1 For some account of Scogan see ante, p. 402. 2 The poet here supposes that the great rain which fell in the year 1348, and which was supposed to have produced the pestilence that devastated Europe at this period, was caused by the tears of the planets. The rain is thus described by Fabian:- And in this xxiii. yere [scil., of Edward III.] fell great continuall rayne, from Mydsomer to Christmas, whereof ensued exceedinge floodes. By reason whereof the grounde was sore corrupted, so that dyvers inconveniences ensued upon the same, as sykenesse and other, as in the yeres followinge shall appear. And aboute the ende of August the mortalitie began in dyvers places of Englande, and specially at London, and so continued to the saide month of August next ensuing.'-FABIAN, Chronicle, Anno 1348. There seems to be here some confusion of dates; for the rain is said to have fallen in the twenty-third year of Edward III., that is, in 1350, whereas it is recorded under the year 1348. [It is, however, now ascertained, from allusions in Piers the Plowman, &c., that similar pestilences and dearths, occurring at later periods, were spoken of by various writers in terms such as in the present poem. In 1348 Chaucer was about 8 years old only, so the reference must rather be to the drought in 1370; or even later.-W. W. S.] But now so wepeth Venus in hir spere, Havest thow not seyd in blaspheme of this goddis, Than drowe in skorne Cupide eke to recorde Now certes, frend, I drede of thyn unhappe, Than shal we for oure laboure have noo mede; Nay, Scogan, say not soo, for I mexcuse, 1 An allusion, probably, to Scogan's wit. 2 The poet, in this stanza, seems to say that he is afraid lest the vengeance of the God of Love for Scogan's blasphemy may fall on himself and all, who, like Scogan, are corpulent and hoary. The host in The Canterbury Tales twits the poet with his stoutness; [and this again, points to a somewhat late period of the poet's life. In 1370 he was about 30 years of age.-W. W. S.] That rusteth in my shethe stille in pees; Scogan, thou knelest at the stremes hede1 Yet, Scogan, thenke on Tullius' kyndenesse;" EXPLICIT. L'ENVOY DE CHAUCER A BUKTON.* My maister, Bukton, whanne of Christ oure king, my selfe falle efte in swiche dotage. 1 Opposite to this, in the margin of the Fairfax MS., is written 'i. a Wyndesor.' 2 Opposite to this word is written i. a Greenwich.' The meaning of the passage, therefore, is that Scogan lived at the Court of Windsor, while Chaucer was residing at Greenwich, farther from the source of favour, just as Greenwich is farther than Windsor from the source of the Thames. 3 The friendship inculcated by Cicero in his De amicitiâ. On these stanzas Tyrwhitt observes:-'From the reference to the Wyf of Bathe, I should suppose it to be one of our author's latter compositions; and I find that there was a Peter de Bukton, the King's escheator for the county of York, in 1397.—Pat. 20 R. II. p. 2 m. 3 apud Rymer. 5 John xviii. 38. I wol not seye how that it is the cheyne EXPLICIT. PROVERBES OF CHAUCER.2 WHAT sulde these clothes thus manyfolde, Loo, this hoote somers day? After greet hete cometh colde; 11 Cor. vii. 9. 2 Only the first two stanzas in the MSS. which have been follow without any distinction. -W.W.S.] are given in the printed editions; but consulted for the present text, the rest [They are however distinct, and spurious. A pilche is a pelisse, or cloak, made or trimmed with far. It is |