see poem no. 26 above, discussed at p. [38]. I here quote st. 22 in full, from ed. 1561, fol. 330:
'Where might I loue euer better beset
Then in this Lilie, likyng to beholde?
That lace of loue, the bonde so well thou knit,
That I maie see thee, or myne harte colde,
And or I passe out of my daies olde,
Tofore [thee] syngyng euermore vtterly—
Your iyen twoo woll slea me sodainly.'
I ought to add that this poem is the only one which I have admitted into the set of Minor Poems (nos. I-XX) with incomplete external evidence. If it is not Chaucer's, it is by some one who contrived to surpass him in his own style. And this is sufficient excuse for its appearance here.
Moreover, Lydgate's testimony is external evidence, in a high degree. Even the allusion in l. 27 to the Roman de la Rose points in the same direction; and so does Chaucer's statement that he wrote roundels. Excepting that in the Parl. of Foules, ll. 680-692, and the three here given, no roundels of his have ever been found[[274]].