19. 'That is, I am as bare of money as the tonsure of a friar is of hair'; Bell.
22. Brutes Albioun, the Albion of Brutus. Albion is the old name for England or Britain in the histories which follow Geoffrey of Monmouth and profess to give the ancient history of Britain before the coming of the Romans. See Layamon's Brut, l. 1243; Higden's Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 39; Fabyan's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, pp. 1, 2, 7. According to the same accounts, Albion was first reigned over by Brutus, in English spelling Brute, a descendant of Æneas of Troy, who arrived in Albion (says Fabyan) in the eighteenth year of Eli, judge of Israel. Layamon's poem is a translation from a poem by Wace, entitled Brut; and Wace borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth. See Brute (2) in the New E. Dict.
23. This line makes it certain that the king meant is Henry IV.; and indeed, the title conquerour in l. 21 proves the same thing sufficiently. 'In Henry IV's proclamation to the people of England he founds his title on conquest, hereditary right, and election; and from this inconsistent and absurd document Chaucer no doubt took his cue'; Bell.
XX. Proverbs.
The titles in the MSS. are: Ad. Prouerbe; F. Proverbe of Chaucer; Ha. Prouerbe of Chaucers.
Each proverb takes the form of a question or objection, in two lines, followed by an answer in two lines more.
There is a fair copy of them (but not well spelt) in the black-letter edition of 1561, fol. cccxl. They there appear without the addition of fourteen unconnected lines (not by Chaucer) which have been recklessly appended to them in modern editions. The title in ed. 1561 is—'A Prouerbe agaynst couitise and negligence.'
For the metre, compare the Envoy to a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, pp. 23, 24.
7. At the head of a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, i. 132, is the French proverb—'Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.' Cotgrave, s.v. embrasser, has: Trop embrasser, et peu estraigner, to meddle with more business then he can wield; to have too many irons in the fire; to lose all by coveting all.'
But the most interesting point is the use of this proverb by Chaucer elsewhere, viz. in the Tale of Melibeus, Group B, 2405—'For the