Windfore at thofe dayes. But yt femeth to me more strange that these wordes fhoulde feme ftrange to you, not to be in the Frenche, where you fhall fynde them. For thus hathe the Frenche written Romante, as maye appere in the old Frenche vfed at the tyme when the Romante was compofed, in this forte : Pris a Franchife lez alez Ne fai coment eft appelles, Fuiz au feigneur de Guindefores: Whiche is thus englished: Next to Franchife went a young bache ler, I knowe not hoe he was called, he was fayre and gentle as yf he had byn fonne to the lorde of Windfore. Where in olde Frenche this word "fuiz (vfed here as in manye places of that booke) is placed for that whiche we wryte and pronounce at this daye for filz or fitz, in Englifhe fonne. And that it is here fo mente, you fhall fee in the Romante of the Rofe turned into profe, moralized by the French Molinet, and printed at Paris in the yere 1521, who hathe the fame verses in these wordes in profe: A Franchife s'eftoit prins un ieune bacheler de qui ne fcay le nome, fort bell, en fon tents filx du feigneure de Guindefore. Whiche you mighte have well feene, had you but remembered their orthographie, and that the Latyne, Italiane, Frenche, and Spanyfhe have no doble, as the Dutche, the Englishe, and fuche as haue affyny tye with the Dutche; fince they vfe for doble w (a letter comone to vs) these two letters gu, as in Gulielmus, which we wryte Willielmus; in guerra, which we call and write warre; in Gualterus, which we write Walter; in guardeine, which we pronouce and write <wardeyne; and fache lyke; accordinge to whiche in the Frenche yt is Guinde fare for Windefore. For your other coniectures, why that Chaucer fhoulde inferte the lordes fon of Windefore, they are of no great momente; neque adhuc conftat that Chaucer tranflated the Ro mante, when Windsor Castle was in buildinge. For then I fuppofe that Chaucer was but younge; whereon I will not stande at this tyme, no more than I will that there was no lord Windfore in thofe dayes; although I fuppofe that Sir William Windfore, being then a worthye knighte and of great auctory tye in Englande and in partes beyond the feas vnder the kinge of Englande, mighte be lord Windfore, of whom the Frenche tooke notice, being in thofe partes, and by them called seigneure de Windefore, as euery gouernor was called feigneure emongst them. But whether he were a baron or no in Englande, I cannott yet faye; because I haue not my booke of Somons of Barons to Parliament in my handes at this instante," P. 72. Chaucer certainly wrote, "But faire he was, of gode height, The lord'is fonne of Windefore. Romaunt of the Rofe." His tranflation makes it probable, indeed, that in the old copies of the French the lines flood as Thynne reprefents them, but in the prefent modern editions there is no trace of thefe words; nor are they noticed in the Variantes to Du Frefnoy's fupplement. At prefent the lines ftand thus, "Bel fut, gent, et de bel arroy, Il fembloit etre filz de Roy." If this filz de Roy is a fubftitute for the "Lordis fonne of Windefore," or as Thynne has it, "Fuiz au feigneur de Guindefores," it fhould imply the fon of one of our kings, and though Lorris died in 1260, which was before Edward the third was born, who built the prefent cafile, yet as there had been a royal caftle there from the time of the Conqueror, the Lord of Windfor might fill mean the king of England. As there are fine MSS. of the French Romaunt de la Rofe in this country, and particularly in the British Mufeum, it may be worth while to examine how the paffage is written there. It occurs at the 1225th line of the poem. 2. The fecond article of the Illuftrations contains only the Will of Gower, and a deed to which a name which is thought to be his, flands as a witnefs. But the former proves that Gower lived to the latter end of the year 1408; and the other makes it probable that he was of the family of the Gowers of Sitenham in Yorkshire, from which the Marquis of Stafford's family alfo defcends. Gower's Will had been publifhed before, in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, which makes it extraordinary that the latest biographers had perfifted in making him die in 1402 or 3. But the enquirers into early poetry, and the examiners of fuch a work as the "Sepulchral Monuments," are often very different perfons. It appears alfo, from the Will, that Gower was rich, according to the estimate of thofe times, 3. Mr. Todd next gives an account of fome of the most remarkable manufcripts of Gower and Chaucer. The firft of these is a molt curious MS, in the pofleflion of the Marquis of Stafford, defcribed alfo by Warton, containing "French Balades and smaller Poems," by the Poet Gower. Mr. Todd, who has carefully re-examined the MS., gives material additions and corrections to Warton's account.. The cinquante balades or French fonnets, in this manufcript, * See Harl. Cat. 4425, Vol. III. have not been found in any other. They were noticed alfo, and some of them printed by Mr. Ellis, in his Specimens: but they are here given more correctly from a frefh collation. of the original. Other valuable manufcripts of Gower and Chaucer are recorded as being in the collection of the Marquis of Stafford; particularly a beautiful one of the Canterbury Tales, defcribed at p. 128–132. The MS. of the Canterbury Tales, which is mentioned in p. 127, as being in the Cathedral Library at Lichfield, is handfome and valuable. It is written in a kind of Gothic hand, on 292 leaves of vellum, with only one chafm of a fingle leaf unfupplied, and two others of the fame extent. fupplied in an old but later and bad hand. The initial letters at the beginning of each tale are illuminated with a good deal of elegance, and other initials more or lefs, with colour and gilding. The this expreffed throughout by the Saxon character b, and you is written on. It is certainly of the 15th century, and very well preferved. The Tales ftand much in the lame order as in the fine copy of the Stafford collection. 4. Contains fome extracts from the Confeffio Amantis of Gower; with fome curious evidences relating to the fubject of the old romances. taken from the manufcript libraries of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, and of the Marquis of Stafford. In the correfponding part of the introduction, the priority of Gower to Chaucer, in point of time is clearly eftablished by teftimony. 5. Confiffs of extracts from Chaucer's poetry, with notes upon them, partly extracted from Warton, Tyrwhitt, and others, and partly fupplied by the editor himself. The fpecimens here given are the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, and the poem of the Flower and the Leaf, exhibiting the talents of the old poet in two very different points of view. Here alfo the editor has defcribed the figure of each pilgrim, as represented in the illuminated MS. belonging to the Marquis of Stafford; from which alfo is taken the portrait of Chaucer, which is here engraved, and flands oppofite to the title page. "The Floure and the Leafe," fays Mr. Todd, "I have felected on account of its fubferviency to the illuftration of Gower as well as Chaucer, and because it exhibits the powers of the latter, in defcriptions of a very different kind from what we have been confidering: I mean rural objects and allegorical characters." The connection of the Floure and the Leafe with the poetry of Gower is this, that it has been certainly imitated by him, in the fourth book of his Confeffio Amantis. This difcovery was made by Warton, whofe whose words are copied by Mr. Todd. His own fubfequent remarks on the poem of Chaucer are well worth inferting here. "Having cited this obligation of Gower to the Floure and Leafe, I am led to wonder at the coldnefs with which Mr. Tyrwhitt has admitted the authenticity of Chaucer's poem. See p. 275. From no other writer, however, has this fufpicion derived a shadow of corroboration. The various picturefque occurrences, the romantick vein, throughout the poem, are furely in no refpect unworthy the pen of Chaucer. Let us review the lively circumstances which diftinguish it. They are thefe. The gentlewoman's departure from her house, on a May morning, to hear the nightingale; her entrance into a pleafant and almoft pathlefs grove; her arrival at a very curious arbour, where, during her repofe in it, the fongs of the goldfinch and the nightingale fucceflively entertain her, and delicious odours regale her; the fweet interruption of female voices, followed by the appearance of the Ladies of the Leaf advancing from the neighbouring grove; the profufion of their decorations; their finging and dancing; the approach of the Knights of the Leaf from the fame grove; their pompous proceffion; their justs; and the united adoration, in fong and dance, of Ladies and Knights to a laurel-tree, the fhade of which would cover an hundred perfons; and in which the nightingale fings the whole fervice belonging to May. To thefe a tractive pageantries fucceed, the introduction of the Knights and Ladies of the Flower; their advancing hand in hand on the wide field, proceeded by numerous Minstrels, towards a tuft of flowers: their reverence at the fpot, exhibited in one of the Ladies finging an ode in praife of the Daify, and the rest of the Ladies with the Knights joining in a chorus; their dances; the interruption of a fcorching fun, fucceeded by a pitilefs ftorm; the confequent deftruction of thofe very flowers which they had worshipped, and of thofe with which they were decorated; their own inability (unlike those of the Leaf that food under the laurel, tree) to find shelter; the difperfion of the tempeft; the hofpitality of the fager and fecurer party; the explanation of the principal perfonages; and the developement of the morality couched under the fymbols of the Flower and the Leaf. See the argument of the poem, p. 203. So Mr. Warton obferves, the leaf fignifies per- 1 Jeverance and virtue; the flower denotes indolence and pleasure. Accordingly, among those who are of the party of the Leaf, are the Nine Worthies, the Knights of Arthur's Round Table, the Twelve Peers of France, and the Knights of the order of the Garter, then recently inftituted. The proceffion to the tourna ment, from ver. 204. to ver. 292. is indeed defcribed with all the prolixity and exactnefs of a herald; but defcriptions of this kind abounded in the romances of Chaucer's time; at fome of which, Mr. Warton thinks that Chaucer glances, not perhaps without ridicule; probably regarding them with lefs reverence, and and reading them with lefs edification, than did the generality of his contemporary readers. See Hift. Eng. Poet. i. 333. I admit this to be poffible as far as it relates to Chaucer's brief heraldick notices in the Man of Lawes Tale, in the defcription of Cambuícan's feaft, and in the feaft of Thefeus; in none of which the allufion exceeds a dozen lines. But he would not, I think, have troubled the reader and himself with more than fourscore lines, for the fake only of fatirical application. Dryden, we know, was fo particularly pleafed with this poem, both for the invention and the moral, that he could not hinder himself from recommeding it to the reader; and accordingly prefented it to the world in a modern verfion.” P. 280. 6. This divifion of the illuftrations is peculiarly interefting and curious, as it contains two poems, which Mr. Todd, with great appearance of reafon, conjectures to have been written by Chaucer, in his imprifonment. They are contained in two leaves prefixed to the Marquis of Stafford's beautiful copy of the Canterbury Tales, and are written in a coeval but not equally fine hand. Mr. Todd compares paffages of thefe poems with fimilar parts taken from the acknow ledged poems of Chaucer; and indeed the only difficulty is, in fome inftances, to fuppofe that he could fo clofely copy himfelf. For inflance; "Than Veer (Ver) comaundeth Apryll with his showrys That may Drynge forthe erbys and flowrys. All trees than buddyth, after fruyte bryngyth, The All fedys and cornys flowryth in profpery te." P. 303. Whoever recollects the opening of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, which moft readers probably do recollect, will perceive the ftrong fimilarity of the two paffages. two poems are worthy of Chaucer; unlefs we fhould object that the quaint celebration of Veer for Ver, the Spring, in order to compliment Vere earl of Oxford, is rather beneath fuch a poet: but allowance must be made for the taste of the times On Chaucer's imprifonment we cannot do better than copy the words of the prefent editor. "The imprisonment of Chaucer is indeed proved on his own authority, though it is not accompanied with a date. In his profe-compofition, the + Teftament of Love, he pathetically repre He has fimilarly played on the name of Marguerite in his Teftament of Love," as Mr. Todd remarks. "The Teftament of Love, evidently an imitation of Boethius de confolatione Philofophiæ, is fuppofed by Mr. Tyrwhitt to have been |