have seen, it states that the poem was undertaken and made 'for kynge Richardes sake,' and prays 'that his corone longe stonde.' But in several MSS. all this is, not very skilfully, omitted or changed. In these the poem is dedicated to 'Henry of Lancaster,' and is said to have been composed in the sixteenth year of King Richard, i.e. in 1393. Henry, afterwards Henry IV, could not have been called Henry of Lancaster till after his father's death in February 1399. Soon after that date Richard I went over to Ireland; his unpopularity in England was great; the plot for supplanting him by Henry was set on foot, and with every month that passed the movement grew in strength. It was probably in the course of the summer of 1399 that Gower, perceiving how things were going, transformed his prologue so as to make it acceptable to the pretender whose success he anticipated. In the copies with the altered prologue he also omitted the lines of eulogy on Chaucer at the end, which the poem had originally contained. What could have prompted the omission but a feeling of estrangement? And for this estrangement the severity of the language just quoted from Chaucer supplies a probable motive.

The last considerable work of our author was the Cronica Tripartita, a Latin poem in three books, giving a regular history of political incidents in England from 1387 to 1399. As might be expected, the writer bears hardly throughout the poem on the unfortunate Richard. He seems to know nothing of the common story as to the manner of his death. The deposed king died, he says, in prison, from grief, and because he refused to take food.

Of Gower's shorter French poems, his Cinkante Balades, which exist in MS. in the library of the Duke of Sutherland, Warton has printed four. They are in stanzas of seven and eight lines, with refrains, and are written not without elegance; the opening of one of them is here printed.

T. ARNOLD.

OPENING OF THE THIRTIETH OF GOWER'S
'CINKANTE BALADES.'

Si com la nief1, quant le fort vent tempeste,
Pur halte mier se torne çi et la,

Ma dame, ensi2 mon coer3 manit en tempeste,
Quant le danger de vo parole orra,

La nief qe votre bouche soufflera,
Me fait sigler sur le peril de vie,
Quest en danger, falt quil merci supplie

OPENING OF THE ORIGINAL PROLOGUE TO THE 'CONFESSIO AMANTIS,'

Of hem, that writen us to-fore,
The bokës dwelle, and we therfore
Ben taught of that was writen tho.

In oure Englisshe, I thenkë make
A bok for king Richardës sake,
To whom belongeth my legeaunce
With all min hertes obeisaunce,
In al that ever a legë man
Unto his king may don or can.

So ferforth I me recommaunde

To him, which all me may commaunde,
Preiend1 unto the highe regne,
Which causeth every king to regne,
That his corone longe stonde.

I thenke, and have it understonde,
As it befell upon a tide,

As thing, which shulde tho betide,
Under the town of newë Troy,
Which tok of Brute his firstë joy,
In Themsë, whan it was flowend;
As I by botë cam rowend,
So as fortune her time sette,
My legë lord perchaunce I mette,
And so befell, as I came nigh,
Out of my bote, whan he me sigh,
He bad me come into his barge.
And whan I was with him at large,
Amongës other thinges said,
He hath this charge upon me laid
And bad me do my besinesse,
That to his highë worthynesse
Some newë thing I shulde boke,
That he himself it mightë loke
After the forme of my writing.
And thus upon his commaunding
Min herte is well the morë glad
To write so as he me bad;
And eke my fere is well the lasse,
That non envië shall compasse ;
Without a resonable wite 2

To feigne and blame that I write.

$ praying.

2

cause of censura

ALEXANDER AND THE ROBBER.

[Confessio Amantis, lib. iii.]

Of him, whom all this erthe dradde,
Whan he the world so overladde
Through werre, as it fortuned is,
King Alisaundre, I rede this,
How in a marchë', where he lay,
It fell parchaunce upon a day
A rover of the see as nome',
Which many a man had overcome,
And slain and take her good away.
This pilour, as the bokës say,
A famous man in sondry stede
Was of the werkës, whiche he dede.
This prisoner to-fore the kinge

Was brought, and ther upon this thinge
In audience he was accused;

And he his dede had nought excused,
And praid the king to done him right,
And said Sire, if I were of might,

I have an herte liche unto thine,

For if thy power were mine,
My wille is most in speciall
To rifle and geten over all
The large worldës good about.
But for I lede a pover route

And am, as who saith, at mischefe,
The name of pilour and of thefe
I bere, and thou, which routes grete
Might lede, and take thy beyete',
And dost right as I wolde do,
Thy name is nothing cleped so,
But thou art namëd emperour.
Our dedes ben of oon colour,
And in effecte of oon deserte;

But thy richesse and my poverte

They be nought taken evenliche,
And netheles he that is riche

This day, to-morwe he may be pover,
And in contrarie also recover
A pover man to grete richesse.
Men sain forthy, let rightwisenesse
Be peisëd1 even in the balaunce.

The king his hardy contenaunce
Beheld, and herde his wordës wise,
And said unto him in this wise:
Thin answere I have understonde,
Whereof my will is, that thou stonde
In my service and stille abide.
And forth withal the same tide

He hath him terme of life witholde,
The more and for he shuld ben holde,
He made him knight and yaf him lond,
Whiche afterward was of his hond
An orped knight in many a stede,
And gret prowesse of armës dede,
As the croniques it recorden.

THE STORY OF CONSTANCE

[Confessio Amantis, lib. ii.]

But what the highë God woll spare
It may for no perill misfare.

This worthy maiden, which was there,
Stode than, as who saith, dede for fere,
To se the fest, how that it stood,
Whiche all was torned into blood.

The dissh forth with the cuppe and all
Bebled they werën over all.

5

She sigh hem die on every side,

No wonder though she wepte and cride,

' poised, weighed.

2 retained for his life-time.

that he might be bound to him the more.
MS. It means 'bold.'
5 besmeared.

3 and in order

'horped' in the Harleian

saw.