Chaucer sees the desert of Libya (1. 488), corresponding to similar waste spaces mentioned by Dante; see note to l. 482. Chaucer's eagle is also Dante's eagle; see note to l. 500. Chaucer gives an account of Phaeton (1. 942) and of Icarus (1. 920) much like those given by Dante (Inf. xvii. 107, 109); both accounts, however, may have been taken from Ovid1. Chaucer's account of the eagle's lecture to him (1. 729) is copied from Parad. i. 109117. Chaucer's steep rock of ice (1. 1130) corresponds to Dante's steep rock (Purg. iii. 47). If Chaucer cannot describe all the beauty of the House of Fame (l. 1168), Dante is equally unable to describe Paradise (Par. i. 6). Chaucer copies from Dante his description of Statius, and follows his mistake in saying that he was born at Toulouse; see note to l. 1460. The description of the House of Rumour is also imitated from Dante; see note to 1. 2034. Chaucer's error of making Marsyas a female arose from his not understanding the Italian form Marsia; see note to 1. 1229.

These are but a few of the points discussed in Rambeau's remarkable article; it is impossible to give, in a summary, a just idea of the careful way in which the resemblances between these two great poets are pointed out. It is no longer possible to question Chaucer's knowledge of Italian, and it is useless to search for the original of this poem in Provençal literature, as Warton vaguely suggests that we should do. I can see no help to be obtained from a perusal of Petrarch's Trionfo della Fama, to which some refer us; it is quite clear that the general notion of a House of Fame was adopted from Ovid, Metam. xii. 39-63. The proof of this is seen in the care with which Chaucer works in all the details in that passage. He also keeps an eye on the celebrated description of Fame in Vergil, Aen. iv. 173–189; even to the unlucky rendering of pernicibus alis by ' partriches winges' (1. 1392).

By way of further assistance, I here quote the whole of Golding's translation of the above-mentioned passage from Ovid:

-

1 I do not feel sure that the resemblances quite prove that Chaucer followed Dante rather than Ovid. Thus, if Chaucer says lat the reynes goon (1. 951) where Dante says abbandonò li freni (Inf. xvii. 107), we have in Ovid equi. . colla iugo eripiunt, abruptaque lora relinquunt (Met. ii. 315). Still, Chaucer's words are closer to Dante than to the original.

'Amid the world tweene heauen and earth, and sea, there is a place,
Set from the bounds of each of them indifferently in space,
From whence is seene what-euer thing is practizde any-where,
Although the Realme be neere so farre: and roundly to the care
Commes whatsoeuer spoken is; Fame hath his dwelling there,
Who in the top of all the house is lodged in a towre.

A thousand entries, glades, and holes are framed in this bowre. There are no doóres to shut. The doores stand open night and day.

The house is all of sounding brasse, and roreth euery way,

Reporting double euery word it heareth people say.

There is no rest within, there is no silence any-where.

Yet is there not a yelling out: but humming, as it were

The sound of surges being heard farre off, or like the sound
That at the end of thunderclaps long after doth redound
When Ioue doth make the clouds to crack. Within the courts is

preace

Of common people, which to come and go do neuer ceace.
And millions both of troths and lies run gadding euery-where,
And wordes confusclie flie in heapes, of which some fill the eare
That heard not of them erst, and some cole-cariers part do play,
To spread abroade the things they heard, and euer by the way
The thing that was inuented growes much greater than before,
And euery one that gets it by the end addes somewhat more.
Light credit dwelleth there, there dwells rash error, there doth dwell
Vaine ioy there dwelleth hartlesse feare, and brute that loues to
tell

Uncertaine newes vpon report, whereof he doth not knowe
The author, and sedition who fresh rumors loues to sowe.
This Fame beholdeth what is done in heauen, on sea, and land,
And what is wrought in all the world he layes to vnderstand.'

Compare with this H. F., 11. 711-724, 672-699, 1025-1041, 1951-1976, 2034-2077.

The chief imitations of Chaucer's poem are The Palice of Honour, by Gawain Douglas, The Garland of Laurell, by Skelton, and The Temple of Fame, by Pope. Pope's poem should not be compared with Chaucer's; it is very different in character, and is best appreciated by forgetting its origin.

The authorities for the text are few and poor. There are but three MSS., viz. F., B., and P. (the last being a fragment); and two early printed editions, viz. Cx. and Th. F. and B. form a first group, and P. and Cx. a second; Th. partly follows Cx., and partly F. I have been much assisted by an excellent dis

sertation on The House of Fame by Hans Willert of Berlin, printed at Berlin in 1883. Since then, whilst engaged in writing this preface, I have received the edition of The House of Fame by the same author, with collation and notes, printed at Berlin in 1888. I am sorry it has reached me too late to help me, as it appears to be well and carefully done.

X. THE FORMER AGE.

First printed in 1866, in Morris's Chaucer, from a transcript made by Mr. Bradshaw, who pointed out its genuineness. It is ascribed to Chaucer in both MSS., and belongs, in fact, to his translation of Boethius, though probably written at a later date. In MS. I., the poem is headed :—' Chawcer vp-on this fyfte metur of the second book.' In MS. Hh., the colophon is: Finit Etas prima: Chaucers.' Dr. Koch thinks that the five poems here numbered X-XIV 'form a cyclus, as it were, being free transcriptions of different passages in Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae. There is, in fact, a probability that these were all written at about the same period, and that rather a late one, some years after the prose translation of Boethius had been completed; and a probable date for this completion is somewhere about 1380.

Both MSS. copies are from the same source, as both of them omit the same line, viz. 1. 56; which I have had to supply by conjecture. Neither of the MSS. are well spelt, nor are they very satisfactory. The mistake in riming 1. 47 with 1. 43 instead of 1. 45 may very well have been due to an oversight on the part of the poet himself. But the poem is a beautiful one, and admirably expressed; and its inclusion among the Minor Poems is a considerable gain.

I

Dr. Furnivall has printed the Latin text of Boethius, lib. ii. met. 5, from MS. I., as well as Chaucer's prose version of the same, for the sake of comparison with the text of the poem. The likeness hardly extends beyond the first four stanzas. here transcribe, from Dr. Morris's edition, that part of the prose version which is parallel to the poem, omitting a few sentences which do not appear there at all :

'Blysful was the first age of men. Thei helden hem apaied with the metes that the trewe erthes brouzten furthe. Thei ne destroyede ne desceyvede not hem-self with outerage. They

...

weren wont lyztly to slaken her hunger at euene with acornes of okes. [Stanza 2.] Thei ne couthe nat medle1 the gift of Bacus to the clere hony; that is to seyn, thei couthe make no piment of clarre. [Stanza 3.] the couthe nat dien white flies 2 of Sirien contre withe the blode of a manar shelfysshe that men fynden in Tyrie, with whiche blode men deien purpur. [Stanza 6.] Thei slepen holesum slepes vpon the gras, and dronken of the rynnyng watres [cf. 1. 8]; and laien vndir the shadowe of the heyze pyne-trees. [Stanza 3, continued.] Ne no gest ne no straunger ne karf yit the heye see with oores or with shippes; ne thei ne hadden seyne yitte none newe strondes, to leden merchaundyse in-to dyuerse contres. Tho weren the cruel clariouns ful whist and ful stille... [Stanza 4.] For wherto or whiche woodenesse of enmys wolde first moeven armes, whan thei seien cruel woundes, ne none medes ben of blood yshad?.. Allas! what was he that first dalf up the gobets or the weyztys of gold covered undir erthe, and the precious stones that wolden han ben hid? He dalf up precious perils; ... for the preciousnesse of swyche hath many man ben in peril.'

XI. FORTUNE.

7

Attributed to Chaucer by Shirley in MSS. A. and T.; also marked as Chaucer's in MSS. F. and I. In MS. I., this poem and the preceding are actually introduced into Chaucer's translation of Boethius, between the fifth metre and the sixth prose of the second book. For further remarks, see the Notes.

XII. TRUTH.

This famous poem is attributed to Chaucer in MS. F., also (thrice) by Shirley, who in one of the copies in MS. T. (in which it occurs twice) calls it a 'Balade that Chaucier made on his deeth-bedde'; which is probably a mere bad guess. The MSS. may be divided into two groups; the four best are in the first group, viz. At., E., Gg., Ct., and the rest (mostly) in the

A similar note was made in MS. Cotton, Otho. A. xviii., now destroyed. Todd printed the poem from this MS. in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 131; it belongs to the 'first group.'

second group. Those of the first group have the readings Tempest (8), Know thy contree (19), and Hold the hye wey (20); whilst the rest have, in the same places, Peyne (8), Look up on hy (19), and Weyve thy lust (20). It is remarkable that the Envoy occurs in MS. At. only. It may have been suppressed owing to a misunderstanding of the word vache (cow), the true sense of which is a little obscure. The reference is to Boethius, bk. v. met. 5, where it is explained that quadrupeds look down upon the earth, whilst man alone looks up towards heaven; cf. lok up in 1. 19 of the poem. The sense is therefore, that we are to cease to look down, and to learn to look up like true men; ' onlyche the lynage of man,' says Chaucer, in his translation of Boethius, 'heveth heyest his heyze heved1.. this figure amonesteth 2 the, that axest the hevene with thi ryzte visage, and hast areised thi forhede to beren up on heye thi corage, so that thi thougt ne be nat y-hevied ne put lowe undir foot.'

XIII. GENTILESSE.

It is curious that this Balade not only occurs as an independent poem, as in MSS. T., Harl., Ct., and others, but is also quoted bodily in a poem by Henry Scogan in MS. A. It is attributed to Chaucer by Shirley in MSS. T. and Harl.; and still more satisfactory is the account given of it by Scogan. The title of Scogan's poem is :-'A moral balade made by Henry Scogan squyer. Here folowethe nexst a moral balade to my lorde the Prince, to my lord of Clarence, to my lord of Bedford, and to my lorde of Gloucestre; by Henry Scogan, at a souper of feorthe merchande (sic) in the vyntre in London, at the hous of Lowys Iohan.' It is printed in all the old editions of Chaucer; see poem no. 33, p. xx. Scogan tells us that he was 'fader,' i.e. tutor, to the four sons of Henry IV. abovementioned. His ballad is in 21 8-line stanzas, and he inserts Chaucer's Gentilesse, distinguished by being in 7-line stanzas,

1 high head.

2 admonishes.

3 weighed down.

The poem must have been written not many years before 1413, the date of the accession of Henry V. In 1405, the ages of the princes were 17, 16, 15, and 14 respectively. Shirley's title to the poem was evidently written after 1415, as John was not created Duke of Clarence until that year.