[1] In this connection, we must not forget the curious story told in Francis Thynne's Animadversions on Speght's edition of 1598, to the effect that his father (William Thynne) had some thoughts of inserting in the volume a piece called The Pilgrim's Tale, but was advised by the king to let it alone; and this, not on the ground that the Tale was written after 1536, and contained an allusion to Perkin Warbeck, but solely in deference to the king's remark—'William Thynne, I doubt this will not be allowed, for I suspect the bishops will call thee in question for it.' See F. Thynne, Animadversions, &c., ed. Furnivall (Ch. Soc.), pp. 9, 89.

[2] These names are given, in the margin, in MS. Addit. 34360 only.

[3] Morris printed sleepe, giving no sense; MS. 10303 has slepye.

[4] The way in which the spelling was gradually altered can be seen even from the following example, in which the eighth line of the Plowman's Tale is represented:—

[5] So in Thynne. But 'tyme' really concludes a sentence; and 'there' should have a capital letter.

[6] He had been imprisoned in 1384 (p. 33, l. 101); but at p. 49, l. 126, he is leisurely planning a future treatise! At p. 60, l. 104, he is in prison again.

[7] See p. 128, l. 16. He did not care to be 'a stinking martyr'; p. 34, l. 115.

[8] Perhaps this is why Langland refers to 'the castel of Corf'; P. Plowman, C. iv. 140.

[9] Rolls of Parliament, iii. 234 a.

[10] Professor Morley says:—'As Boethius ... wrote three books of the Consolation of Philosophy," &c. But Boethius wrote five books.

[11] One line is enough to shew the order of the texts; see p. xv, footnote.

[12] But this proves nothing, as Urry departs from all sound texts in an erratic manner all his own.

[13] The expression 'the quenes heed,' at l. 158, hardly implies that there was then a queen of England. If it does, it makes the poem later than October, 1396.

[14] The line, as it stands, is ambiguous; what Spenser meant to say was—'the Ploughman that the Pilgrim playde awhyle'; which expresses the fact. The subject is 'the Ploughman'; and 'that' means 'whom.'

[15] Mr. Wright says 1401, and refers to Capgrave's Chronicle. But this is surely an error; see J. H. Wylie's Hist. of Henry IV, i. 277-8; with a reference to the Close Rolls, 3 Hen. IV, 2. 16.

[16] Fairfax deduced the date from the poem here printed, l. 393.

[17] Shirley also refers to Lydgate's Temple of Glas; see Schick's edition of that poem; p. lxxxii.

[18] Which is not the case; the text in the Trinity MS. is in the correct order.

[19] Richard Ros, born March 8, 1428-9; Nichols, Hist. of Leicestershire, vol. ii. p. 37.

[20] There is no copy in MS. Harl. 7333, as said by error in vol. i. p. 39.

[21] There is no authority, except Thynne, for the title The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. It has been repeated in all the printed editions, but does not appear in any MS.

[22] 'In Hereford and the far West, not Oldcastle alone, but the Actons, Cheynes, Clanvowes, Greindors, and many great gentlemen of birth, had begun to mell of Lollardy and drink the gall of heresy.'—Wylie, Hist. of Henry IV, vol. iii. p. 296. Sir T. Clanvowe was alive in 1404 (Test. Vetusta).

[23] The MSS. have ran in C. T., B 661. Man rimes with can in Parl. Foules, 479, and with began in the same, 563.

[24] Perhaps, more strictly, a dedication, the true envoy consisting of the last six lines only. But it is no great matter.

[25] Hence F. 148, 'As gret-e perl-es, round and orient,' reappears in A. 528 without the final -e, in the form: 'With gret' perlés, ful fyne and orient.'

[26] The examples of trewly in Book Duch. 1111, 1151, are doubtful. It is a slippery poem to scan. Elsewhere, we find trew-e-ly.

[27] F. and L. 134-138.

[28] F. and L. 151-158, 333.

[29] F. and L. 148, 224.

[30] F. and L. 192, 193.

[31] Cf. F. and L. 358-364.

[32] See the English translation in Bohn's Library, i. 214.

[33] A piece entitled 'De Duodecim Abusivis' is one of three pieces appended to Ælfric's Lives of the Saints in MS. Julius E. 7.

[34] No. 61 is The Storie of Thebes, which he of course knew to be Lydgate's; he adds it after the note—'Thus endeth the workes of Geffray Chaucer.'

[35] At the same time he struck out no. 56 (p. 34), as being by Lydgate.

[36] In Moxon's Chaucer, which professed to accept Tyrwhitt's canon, this piece was omitted; but it was revived once more by Bell.

[37] See The Athenæum, Nov. 4, 1876; The Academy, June 3, 1878; Aug. 3, 1878.

[38] My remark upon the Trinity MS. in vol. i. p. 56, that 'most of the pieces are in a handwriting of a later date [than 1463], not far from 1500,' does not apply to The Court of Love. This poem, together with two poems by Lydgate, fills part of a quire of twenty-four leaves near the end of the MS., of which the seventeenth has been cut out and the last three are blank; and this quire is quite distinct from the rest as regards the date of the writing, which is considerably later than 1500, and exhibits a marked change. There are two lacunæ in the poem, one after l. 1022, and another after l. 1316; probably six stanzas are lost in each case, owing to the loss of the two corresponding leaves in the original from which the existing copy was made.

[39] I doubt if speculation as to the possible meaning of these names will really help us.

[40] Which looks as if the author had written grewen for greven, like a Scotchman.

[41] A very bad mistake occurs in l. 1045, viz. thou wot instead of thou wost, as if one should say in Latin tu scio. It rimes with dote, which, in Chaucer, is dissyllabic.

[42] There are many more; fon-ne becomes fon, to rime with on, 458; tell-e is cut down to tell, 518; behold-e, to behold, 652; accord-e, to accord, 746; &c. The reader can find out more for himself; see ll. 771, 844, 862, 896, 1032, 1334, 1389, &c. In ll. 1063-4, we have opinion riming with begon, the Chaucerian forms being opinioun and bigonne or bigunne!

[43] See vol. vi. p. xlv.

[44] The MS. has:—'Than is is lande'—by mistake.

[45] It is clear that The Plowmans Tale and Jack Upland were inserted by Thynne and Speght respectively on religious grounds.

[46] We may safely assign to Lydgate the pieces numbered XXII and XXIII, as well as those numbered VIII to XV.