edition of 1532; whilst the latter part consists of additional matter furnished by John Stowe. Hence a careful examination of the edition of 1561 is, practically, sufficient to give us all the information which we need. I shall therefore give a complete table of the contents of this edition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF STOWE'S EDITION (1561)'.

PART I. REPRINTED MATTER.

1. Caunterburie Tales. (The Prologue begins on a page with the signature A 2, the first quire of six leaves not being numbered; the Knightes Tale begins on a page with the signature B ii.. and marked Fol. i. The spurious Plowman's Tale precedes the Parson's Tale).

2. The Romaunt of the Rose2. Fol. cxvi.

3. Troilus and Creseide. Fol. cli., back.

4. The testament of Creseide. [By Robert Henryson.] Fol. cxciiii. Followed by its continuation, called The Complaint of Creseide; by the same.

5. The Legende of Good Women. Fol. cxcvij.

6. A goodlie balade of Chaucer; beginning-'Mother of norture, best beloued of all.' Fol. ccx.

7. Boecius de Consolatione Philosophie. Fol. ccx., back. 8. The dreame of Chaucer. [The Book of the Duchesse.] Fol. ccxliiij.

9. Begins-'My master. &c. When of Christ our kyng. [Lenvoy to Buckton.] Fol. ccxliiii.

10. The assemble of Foules. [Parlement of Foules.] Fol. ccxliiii., back.

11. The Floure of Curtesie, made by Ihon lidgate. Fol. ccxlviij. Followed by a Balade, which forms part of it.

12. How pyte is deed, etc. ccxlix., back.

[Complaint vnto Pite.] Fol.

1 Probably copies slightly differ. The book described by me is a copy in my own possession, somewhat torn at the beginning, and imperfect at the end. But the three missing leaves only refer to Lydgate's Storie of Thebes.

2 I print in italics the names of the pieces which I reject as spurious.

13. La belle Dame sans Mercy. [By Sir R. Ros.] Fol. ccl. 14. Of Quene Annelida and false Arcite. Fol. cclv.

15. The assemble of ladies. Fol. ccxlvij.

16. The conclucions of the Astrolabie. Fol. cclxi.

17. The complaint of the blacke Knight. [By Lydgate; see p. xlv.] Fol. cclxx.

18. A praise of Women. Begins-' Al tho the lyste of women euill to speke. Fol. cclxxiii.', back.

19. The House of Fame. Fol. cclxxiiij., back.

20. The Testament of Loue (in prose). Fol. cclxxxiiij., back. 21. The lamentacion of Marie Magdaleine. Fol. cccxviij. 22. The remedie of Loue. Fol. cccxxj., back.

23, 24. The complaint of Mars and Venus. Fol. cccxxiiij., back. (Printed as one poem; but there is a new title The complaint of Venus-at the beginning of the latter).

25. The letter of Cupide. [By Hoccleve; dated 1402.] Fol. cccxxvj., back.

26. A Ballade in commendacion of our Ladie. Fol. cccxxix. 27. Ihon Gower vnto the noble King Henry the iiij. Fol. CCCXXX, back.

28. A saiyng of dan Ihon. [By Lydgate.] Fol. cccxxxii., back.

29. Yet of the same. [By Lydgate.] On the same page. 30. Balade de bon consail. Begins-If it be falle that God the list visite. (Only 7 lines.) On the same page.

31. Of the Cuckowe and the Nightingale. Fol. cccxxxiij. 32. Balade with Envoy (no title). Begins-'O leude booke with thy foule rudenesse.' Fol. cccxxxiiij., back.

33. Scogan, vnto the Lordes and Gentilmen of the Kinges house. (This poem, by H. Scogan, quotes Chaucer's 'Gentilesse' in full). Fol. cccxxxiiij., back.

34. Begins-Somtyme the worlde so stedfast was and stable.' [Lak of Stedfastnesse]. Fol. cccxxxv., back.

35. Good counsail of Chaucer. [Truth.] Same page.

36. Balade of the village (sic) without paintyng. [Fortune.] Fol. cccxxxvj.

37. Begins Tobroken been the statutes hie in heauen'; headed Lenuoye. [Lenvoy to Scogan.] Fol. cccxxxvj., back.

1 Marked Fol. cclxxvj. by mistake.

38. Poem in two stanzas of seven lines each. Begins-'Go foorthe kyng, rule thee by Sapience.' Same page.

39. Chaucer to his emptie purse. Same page.

40. A balade of good counseile translated out of Latin verses in-to Englishe, by Dan Ihon lidgat cleped the monke of Buri. Begins 'COnsyder well euery circumstaunce.' Fol. cccxxxvij. 41. A balade in the Praise and commendacion of master Geffray Chauser for his golden eloquence. (Only 7 lines.) Same leaf, back. [See p. xliv.]

PART II. ADDITIONS BY JOHN STOWE.

At the top of fol. cccxl. is the following remark :—

¶Here foloweth certaine woorkes of Geffray Chauser, whiche hath not heretofore been printed, and are gathered and added to this booke by Ihon Stowe.

42. A balade made by Chaucer, teching what is gentilnes'. [Gentilesse.] Fol. cccxl.

43. A Prouerbe [read Prouerbs] agaynst couitise and negligence. [Proverbs.] Same page.

44. A balade which Chaucer made agaynst women vnconstaunt. Same page.

45. A balade which Chaucer made in the praise or rather dispraise, of women for ther doublenes. [By Lydgate.] Begins 'This world is full of variaunce.' Same page.

46. This werke folowinge was compiled by Chaucer, and is caled the craft of louers. Fol. cccxli.

47. A Balade. Begins-' Of their nature they greatly them delite. Fol. cccxli., back.

48. The .x. Commaundementes of Loue. Fol. cccxlij.

49. The .ix. Ladies worthie. Fol. cccxlij., back.

50. [Virelai; no title.]

cccxliij.

Begins-Alone walkyng.'

Fol.

51. A Ballade. Begins-'In the season of Feuerere when it was full colde.' Same page.

52. A Ballade. Begins-'O Mercifull and o merciable." Fol. cccxliij., back. [See p. xlvi.]

53. Here foloweth how Mercurie with Pallas, Venus and

1 Stowe did not observe that this occurs already, in the midst of poem no. 33.

Minarua, appered to Paris of Troie, he slepyng by a fountain. Fol. cccxliiij.

54. A balade pleasaunte. Begins-'I haue a Ladie where so she bee.' Same page. At the end-'Explicit the discriuyng of a faire Ladie.'

55. An other Balade. Begins-'O Mossie Quince, hangyng by your stalke.' Fol. cccxliiij., back.

56. A balade, warnyng men to beware of deceitptfull women (sic). Begins 'LOke well aboute ye that louers bee.' Same page.

57. These verses next folowing were compiled by Geffray Chauser, and in the writen copies foloweth at the ende of the complainte of petee. Begins-'THe long nyghtes when euery [c]reature.' [See p. 213.] Fol. cccxlv 1.

58. A balade declaring that wemens chastite Doeth moche excel all treasure worldly. Begins-'IN womanhede as auctours al write.' Back of same leaf.

59. The Court of Loue. Begins-'WIth temerous herte, and trembling hand of drede.' Fol. cccxlviij.

60. Chaucers woordes vnto his owne Scriuener2. (See p. 117.) Fol. ccclv., back. At the end-Thus endeth the workes of Geffray Chaucer. (This is followed by 34 Latin verses, entitled Epitaphium Galfridi Chaucer, &c.)

61. The Storie of Thebes. [By Lydgate.] Fol. ccclvj.

DISCUSSION OF THE POEMS IN PART I. Of ed. 1561.

Of the 41 pieces in Part I. of the above, we must of course accept as Chaucer's the three poems entitled Canterbury Tales, Troilus, and the Legend of Good Women; also the prose translation of Boethius, and the prose treatise on the Astrolabie. The remaining number of Minor Poems (including the Romaunt of the Rose) is 36; out of which number I accept the 14 numbered above with the numbers 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 19, 23, 24, 33 (so far as it quotes Chaucer), 34, 35, 36, 37, and 39. Every one of these has already been shewn to be genuine on sufficient external evidence, and it is not likely that their genuineness will

1 Miscalled Fol. cccxxxix. Also, the next folio is called cccxlviij, after which follows cccxlix, and so on.

In the Preface to Morris's Chaucer, p. x, we are told that the editor took his copy of this poem from Thynne's edition of 1532. This is an oversight; for it does not occur there; Stowe's edition is meant.

be doubted. In the present volume they appear, respectively, as nos. III, XVII, V, II, VII, IX, IV, XVIII, XIII, XIV, XII, XI, XVI, and XIX. Of the remaining 22, several may be dismissed in a few words. No. 4 is well known to have been written by Robert Henryson. Nos. 11, 28, 29, and 40 are distinctly claimed for Lydgate in all the editions; and no. 27 is similarly claimed for Gower. No. 25 was written by Hoccleve1; and the last line gives the date—‘A thousande, foure hundred and seconde,' i. e. 1402, or two years after Chaucer's death. No. 13 is translated from Alain Chartier, who was only four years old when Chaucer died; see p. xvi., note 2. Tyrwhitt remarks that, in MS. Harl. 372, this poem is expressly attributed to a Sir Richard Ros". No one can suppose that no. 41 is by Chaucer, seeing that the first line is- Maister Geffray Chauser, that now lithe in graue.' Mr. Bradshaw once assured me that no. 17 is ascribed, on MS. authority, to Lydgate; and no one who reads it with care can doubt that this is correct. It is, in a measure, an imitation of the Book of the Duchesse; and it contains some interesting references to Chaucer, as in the lines -'Of Arcite, or of him Palemoun,' and 'Of Thebes eke the false Arcite.' No. 20, i.e. the Testament of Love, is in prose, and does not concern us; still it is worth pointing out that it contains a passage (near the end) such as we cannot suppose that Chaucer would have written concerning himself.

1 Thomas Occleve mentions it himself, as one of his own compositions, in a Dialogue which follows his Complaint, MS. Bodley 1504.'— Tyrwhitt.

See Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 52. Cf. Englische Studien, x. 206.

3 I have found the reference. It is Shirley who says so, in a poetical 'introduction'; see MS. Addit. 16165, fol. 3.

4 It runs thus:-' Quod loue, I shall tel thee, this lesson to learne, myne owne true seruaunte, the noble Philosophicall Poete in Englishe, which evermore hym busieth & trauaileth right sore, my name to encrease, wherefore all that willen me good, owe to doe him worship and reuerence both; truly his better ne his pere, in schole of my rules, coud I neuer finde: He, quod she, in a treatise that he made of my seruaunt Troilus, hath this matter touched, & at the full this question [of predestination] assoiled. Certainly his noble saiyngs can I not amend; in goodness of gentil manlich spech, without any maner of nicitie of starieres (sic) imaginacion, in wit and in good reason of sentence, he passeth al other makers.' (Read storieres, story-writer's).