The English Poets; Chaucer to Donne Volume 1 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: POEMS COMMONLY ATTRIBUTED TO CHAUCER. THE ROMAUXT OF THE ROSE. It has already been said (p. 7) that Chaucer translated the Romaimt, and that a version has been current under his name for centuries. There is only one MS. of this translation, in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, so that we have no means of comparing texts, and thus settling the difficult questions that have been raised about it. As it stands, the poem contains various features which, in the opinion of the most advanced school of Chaucerian criticism, mark it out as being not Chaucer's; the principal difficulty being connected with the rhymes, some of which seem to be irreconcileable with Chaucer's principles of pronunciation. The question cannot be properly discussed here, but in deference to what seems to be the balance of opinion we quote the Romaunt under the head of ' Poems attributed to Chaucer.' The passage given is remarkable as the original of the ' May morning' passages which abound in Chaucer and his successors. Whether by Chaucer or not, it is a vigorous and exact rendering of the French. That it was May me thoughts tho', It is .v. yere or more ago; That it was May, thus dremed me, In tyme of love and jolitd, That al thing gynneth waxen gay, For ther is neither busk nor hay- In May, that it nyl shrouded been, And it with newe leve's wreen s. These wodes eek rccoveren grene, That drie in wynter ben to sene; And the erth wexith proud withalle, For swote dewes that on it falle; And the pore estat forget, In which that wynter had it set. then. hedge. cover. And than bycometh the ground so proud, That it wole have a newe shroud, And makith so queynt his robe and faire, That it had hewes an hundred payre, Of gras and flouris, ynde and pers', And many h...