III.

AN ORIGINAL BALLAD BY CHAUCER.

This little sonnet, which hath escaped all the editors of Chaucer's works, is now printed for the first time from an ancient MS. in the Pepysian Library, that contains many other poems of its venerable author. The versification is of that species, which the French call _rondeau_, very naturally Englished by our honest countrymen _round O_. Tho' so early adopted by them, our ancestors had not the honour of inventing it: Chaucer picked it up, along with other better things, among the neighbouring nations. A fondness for laborious trifles hath always prevailed in the dark ages of literature. The Greek poets have had their wings and axes: the great father of English poesy may therefore be pardoned one poor solitary _rondeau_.--Geofrey Chaucer died Oct. 25, 1400.

* * * * *

[These verses are printed in Morris's _Aldine Edition of Chaucer_ (vol. vi. pp. 304-5), but there is no conclusive evidence that they are really by Chaucer. Mr. Furnivall writes (_Trial Forewords_, Chaucer Society, 1871, p. 32):--"With the _Pity_ I should like much to class the _Roundel_ ... as one of the poet's genuine works, though it is not assigned to him (so far as I know), by any MS. of authority. It exactly suits the _Compleynte of Pite_; there is nothing in it (so far as I can see), to make it not Chaucer's, and it is of the same form as his Roundel in the _Parliament of Foules_." Mr. Hales suggests to me that the poem may have been written by one of Chaucer's followers, and refers to verse 260 of the _Knight's Tale_:

"The freissche beauté sleeth me sodeynly,"

as having probably given the hint to the writer of this _rondeau_.]

* * * * *

I. 1.

Youre two eyn will sle me sodenly, I may the beaute of them not sustene, So wendeth it thorowout my herte kene.

2.

And but your words will helen hastely My hertis wound, while that it is grene, Youre two eyn will sle me sodenly.

3.

Upon my trouth I sey yow feithfully, That ye ben of my liffe and deth the quene; For with my deth the trouth shal be sene. Youre two eyn, &c.

II. 1.

So hath youre beauty fro your herte chased Pitee, that me n' availeth not to pleyn;[94] For daunger halt[95] your mercy in his cheyne.

2.

Giltless my deth thus have ye purchased; I sey yow soth,[96] me nedeth not to fayn: So hath your beaute fro your herte chased.

3.

Alas, that nature hath in yow compassed So grete beaute, that no man may atteyn To mercy, though he sterve for the peyn. So hath youre beaute, &c.

III. 1.

Syn I fro love escaped am so fat, I nere thinke to ben in his prison lene; Syn I am fre, I counte hym not a bene.[97]

2.

He may answere, and sey this and that, I do no fors,[98] I speak ryght as I mene; Syn I fro love escaped am so fat.

3.

Love hath my name i-strike out of his sclat, And he is strike out of my bokes clene: For ever mo 'ther'[99] is non other mene. Syn I fro love escaped, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[94] [complain.]

[95] [holdeth.]

[96] [I tell you truth.]

[97] [bean, a term of contempt.]

[98] [I do not care.]

[99] This, MS.