Seeth eke how vertue caufith fuffifaunce;
Seeth eke how vertue voidith allè vice,
And who fo' hath vertue hath all haboundaunce
Of wele, as ferre as refon can devife.
Taketh hede of Tullius Hoftilius,
That fro povertè came to high degre
Through vertue; redith eke of Julius
The conquerour, how pore a man was he?
Yet through his vertue' and his humilite
Many countrey had he in govirnaunce;
Thus vertue bringeth a man to gret degre,
Eche wight that lust to do hym entendaunce.
Rede here ayenft of Nero vertules,
Takith hede alfo of proude Belthafare,
Thei hatid vertue, equitie and pese;
And loke how Antiochus fill fro his chare,
That he his skin and bonis all to tare,
Loke what mischaunce thei had for ther vicis;
Who fo woll not by these fignis beware
I dare well faie infortunate and nice is.
I can no more now faie: hereby ye fe
How vertue caufith perfite fikirneffe,
And vicis exilen all profperitè;
The beft is eche man to chofe as I geffe:
Doeth as you lift, I me excuse expresse,
I would be right forie if ye mischefe;
God confirme you in vertuous nobleffe,
So that through negligence ye not it lefe.
Explicit.
OF LEARNED MEN CONCERNING CHAUCER AND HIS WORKS.
Occleve, in the prologue to Lis book De Regimine Principis.
Bur welaweye! fo is myn herte wo
That the honour of English tong is dede,
Of which I wont was han counfail and rede.
O mayster dere and fadir reverent,
My mayfter Chaucer, floure of eloquence,
Mirrour of fructuous entendement,
O univerfel fadir in fcience!
Alas that thou thyn excellent prudence
In thy bed mortel mightest nought bequethe!
What eylid Deth? alas! why would he fle’the?
O Deth! that didist nought harm fingulere
In flaughtre' of him, but all the lond it fmertith:
But natheleffe yit hastow no powere
His name to fle; his hie vertue aftertith
Unflayn fro the, which ay us lifely hertith
With bokis of his ornat enditing,
That is to al this lond enlumyning.
My dere mayfter (God his foule quite)
And fadir Chaucer faine wold han me taught,
But I was yong (a) and lerned lyte or naught.
(a) Al. dul.
Alas! my worthy maister honorable, This londis verray trefour and richeffe, Deth by thy deth hath harme irreparable Unto us done; hir (b) vengeable dureffe Dispoiled hath this lond of the fweteneffe Of rethoryke, for unto Tullius
Was never man fo like amonges us.
Alfo, who was heyre in philofophy
To Aristotle in our tonge but thow?
The steppis of Virgil in poefie
Thou fuedeft eke; men know well inow
That combre-world that thee my mayfler flow.
Wolde I flain were! Deth was too haftife
To renne on thee and reve thee thy life:
She might have tarried her vengeaunce a while,
To that some man had egal to the be:
Nay, let be that; fhe knew well that this ifle
May never man forth bryng like unto the,
And her office nedis do mote she;
God bad her fo, I truft all for the best:
O mayfter, mayfter! God thy foule rest!
The fame, in the title De Confilio Habendo in omnibus factis.
THE firfte fynder of our fayre langage
Hath feyde in caas semblable and othir mo
So hyly well, that it is my dotage
For to expreffe or touche ony of tho:
Alas! my fader fro the world is go,
My worthy mayster Chaucer, hym I mene;
Be thou advocate for hym, hevenes quene.
Aftow wel knowift, o bleffid Virgyne!
With lovyng herte and hye devocioun
In thyn honour he wroot full many a lyne,
O now thyn help and thy promocioun !
To God thy fone make a mocioun
How he thy fervaunt was, mayden Marie,
And late his love floure and fructifie.
Although his life be queynt, the refemblaunce
Of hym hath in me fo fresh liflynesse,
That to put other men in remembraunce
Of his perfone I have heere his lykeneffe
Do make, to this end in foothfaftneffe,
That they that have of hym loft thought and mynde
By this peynture may ageyn hym fynde.
Jo. Gower de Confeffione Amantis, printed by Thomas Ber thelette 1554, fol. 190, a. where Venus fpeaks to Gower.
-GRETE Well Chaucer when ye mete,
As my difciple and my poete,
For in the floures of his youth
In fondrie wife, as he well couth,
Of ditees and of fonges glade,
The which he for my fake made,
The londe fulfilled is over all,
Whereof to hym in speciall
Above all other I am moft holde.
Forthy nowe in his dates olde
Thou fhalt hym tell this meffage,
That he upon his later age,
To fette an ende of all his werke,
As he whiche is myn owne clerke,
Bo make his Teftament of Love,
As thou haft done thy fhrifte above,
So that my courte it may recorde.
Madame, I can me well accorde
(Quod I) to telle as ye me bid.
John Lydgate in his prologue to The Story of Thebes, Speak ing of The Canterbury Tales.
As openly the fiory can you lere
Word by word, with every circumftaunce,
Echone iwrit and put in remembraunce
By him that was, if [that] ! fhall not faine,
Floure of poetes throughout all Bretaine,
Which fothely had mofte of excellence
In rhetorike and in eloquence.
Rede his making who lifte the trouthe find,
Which never fhall appallen in my mind,
But alwaie freshe been in myne memorie,
To whom be yore prife, honour, and glorie;
Volume XII.
|