For the prefent edition the next following MSS. have been used:

MS. Harl. 7184, in the British Museum. It is a very fine copy, written on vellum, in large folio and double columns; but the first and last pages are somewhat defaced. The illuminations of the initial letters, at the beginning of each book, are magnificent. The handwriting is as nearly as poffible that of the end of the fourteenth century. The orthography is of the fame date, and very little tinged with provincialisms. The two Saxon letters þ and 3 never occur. The volume is imperfect. In books I, II, and v, a leaf is occafionally miffing, there is a confiderable chaẩm in book vi., and a great part of book vii and the whole of book viii are entirely wanting. This volume, on account of its antiquity and its judicious and confiftent orthography, has been adopted as the basis for the spelling in this new edition. MS. Harl. 3869 in the British Museum. A small stout folio of the fifteenth century, on vellum and paper mixed. The initials are blue and red without much art. Folio 5 contains a rude picture, reprefenting king Nebuchadnezzar's vifion; and on folio 18 the priest of Venus is liftening to the lover's confeffion. This copy is very remarkable on account of its orthography, which has been carried through almoft rigorously according to fimple and reasonable principles. The letter pþ is used uniformly, but the letter 3 only occafionally, a fimple h ftanding generally for gb or 3. A final e is always inferted, wherever the metre requires a fyllable. Double confonants and the letter y are almost entirely difpenfed with. At the conclufion of the work, on folio 357, Gower's fmaller poems in Latin, and fome verses in French occur. This volume, as well as MS. Harl. 7184, are exemplars of the Lancafter verfion; both have been collated throughout for the text of the prefent edition.

copy

MS. Harl. 3490 in the British Museum. A fine of the verfion dedicated to king Richard II, written in the fifteenth century, on vellum, in folio and double columns. The volume is complete, and opens with S. Edmundi fpeculum religioforum, which is followed by the Confeffio Amantis at folio 8. With the exception of the beginning and end it offers no variety, and no important deviation in the fpelling. The verfes addreffed to king Richard, and the compliment to Chaucer printed at the foot of the page in the present edition, have been taken from this manufcript.

MS. Stafford, now in the library of the earl of Ellef mere, an inspection of which has been kindly granted by the noble owner. A middle-fized folio in double columns. Todd, in his Illuftrations of Chaucer and Gower, afferts his belief, that this copy was a prefent from Gower to one of his relatives belonging to the Stafford family. He faw on the first leaf three armorial shields: over the largest of which, he fays, the poet's creft, a talbot, is ftill confpicuous. After a careful examination it is impoffible to agree with this opinion; we have come to the conclufion, that the volume is of ftill greater value. On the right hand border is a creft, gold and red, a chapeau with a lion, which Todd calls a talbot, and under it an efcutcheon quartered blue and red, the contents of which are entirely defaced. The first initial letter embraces another escutcheon, red on a blue ribbon, containing a fwan, Argent. Sufpended at the bottom of the border is a third shield, Sable, with three oftrich feathers, Or. Sir Charles Young, Garter King of Arms, is of opinion that these illuminations represent the arms and badges of king Henry IV, the swan never having been used by any other king of the Lancaster dynasty. The volume most probably belonged to that prince, and was written between

the years 1399 and 1413. The capitals at the beginning of each book are richly gilt and painted in blue, red, and white, but not of very finished workmanship. The handwriting is clear and pointed, like that of the middle of the fifteenth century, and resembles the characters found in the first printed books. This MS. which is a copy of

the Lancaster verfion, is remarkable on account of certain confiderable alterations, omiffions, and additions, especially in the latter part of the fifth and in the fixth and seventh books, which are not met with in the majority of the more ancient copies, but which are found in Berthelette's editions of the poem. As our text is compiled from the older MSS. these variations have been carefully indicated, and no paffage has been omitted. This manuscript moreover is not complete, the beginnings of the first, fifth, seventh and eighth book, having been cut out, probably for the fake of the illuminated pages. On the fly-leaves at the end are feveral memoranda in different handwritings of the fixteenth century; moftly receipts against various diseases. One of them ftates: "William Downes mee tenet," which fuggefts that the book at that time was neither in royal hands nor the property of the Gower family. The orthography approaches clofely that of MS. Harl. 3869, the letters þ and 3 being employed throughout the volume.

These MSS. may be arranged in three claffes; the king's copy, the Lancaster copy, and a third, likewise addreffed to Henry, but with certain alterations in the middle of the work. With the exception of these variations, the text in all the MSS. is alike.

The Confeffio Amantis was first printed by Caxton and with the following title :

This book is entituled Confeffio Amantis, that is to faye in englysfhe the confeffyon of the louer maad and compyled by Johan Gower fquyer borne in Walys in

the tyme of kyng richard the second, etc. Colophon: Enprynted at Westmeftre, by me Willyam Caxton, and fynysfhed the 2 day of Septembre the fyrft yere of the regne of kyng Richard the thyrd the yere of our lord a thousand cccc, LXXXXIII. (mistake for 1483). Six leaves are appropriated to a table of contents; the text commences on fol. 2, and is continued to fol. 211, leaves 32, 91 and 132 being repeated, and leaf 157 being omitted altogether. At the end the summary of the poet's three great works and a few of his minor Latin poems are added.

The next edition, printed by Berthelette, was entitled Jo. Gower, de Confeffione Amantis. Imprinted at London, in Flete-strete by Thomas Berthelette, printer to the kinges grace, An. M. D. XXXII. cum privilegio. Eight preliminary leaves contain the title, a dedication to Henry VIII, an addrefs "To the Reder" on the variations at the beginning and end of the poem, a dedication to king Richard II, the verses about Chaucer, a notice of Gower's tomb in St. Mary Overy's, and a corrected table of contents. The text extends from fol. 1 to fol. 191. Befides the alterations in the fifth, fixth, and seventh books, derived from a MS. very fimilar to the Stafford MS, the spelling has been confiderably altered and modernised in this first edition of Berthelette. Old forms, retained by Caxton, as hem and touchend, have been removed, and them and touching fubftituted. The modernisation has been general at the commencement, but the editor's zeal feems to have flackened afterwards, and many ancient forms have escaped his eye. The promiscuous ufe of the letters u and v, i and y, for which no rule whatever can be discovered, occurs throughout, as in many books of Henry VIII's time; and a want of correspondence in the rhyme indicates that whole verses have been omitted.

Berthelette published another edition under the following title: Jo. Gower de confeffione Amantis. Imprinted at London in Fleteftrete by Thomas Berthelette the XII daie of Marche An. M. D. LIIII. cum privilegio. Six preliminary leaves have the fame contents as in his first edition. The text extends from fol. 1 to fol. 191. In this copy the compliment paid to Chaucer is inferted in the text. The spelling is now and then even more modernised than in his first edition, and punctuation, which is wanting altogether in Caxton's edition, and rarely and irregularly inferted in the edition of 1532, has been added throughout.

Blore, in his Sepulchral Antiquities, quoted above, and Chalmers, in his English Poets, mention another edition by Berthelette, dated 1544, of which, however, there is no copy in the collections of the British Museum.

The text of the Confeffio Amantis in Chalmers' English Poets, is a mere literal reprint of Berthelette's edition of 1554.

Some fragments of the Confeffio Amantis have occafionally been published. Ellis, in his Specimens of Early English Poets, has printed the ftory of Florent from the firft book. Todd, in his Illuftrations of Chaucer and Gower has collated the Tale of the Coffres in the fifth book with the Stafford MS. as illuftrating the ftory of the caskets in the Merchant of Venice. And Payne Collier has printed in his Shakespeare Library the ftory of Appollinus of Tyre from the eighth book, according to MS. Harl. 3490.

The present text, founded on Berthelette's first edition, has been carefully collated throughout with the two first mentioned Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. And the third MS. Harl. and MS. Stafford have been used at the particular places, where they become of im