“In habit as an hermet, unholye of werkes,
“Went wide in the werlde, wonders to here.”
Chaucer, who died in 1400, opens thus: [Tyrwhitt’s edit. 1775.]
“Whanne that April with his shoures sote
“The droughte of March hath perced to the rote,
“And bathed every veine in swiche licour,
“Of whiche vertue engendred is the flour—.”
The Confessio Amantis of Gower, who died in 1402, begins thus: [Berthelette’s edit. 1532.]
“I maye not stretche uppe to the heven
“Myn honde, ne set al in even