18. A praise of Women. In no way connected with Chaucer. Rejected by Tyrwhitt. Printed in Bell's edition, iv. 416, and in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i. p. 344; also in Morris's Aldine edition, vol. vi. p. 278. In twenty-five 7-line stanzas. The rime of lie (to tell a lie) with sie (I saw), in st. 20, is suspicious; Chaucer has ly-e, sy. The rime of queen-e (usually dissyllabic in Chaucer) with beene (miswritten for been, they be, st. 23) is also suspicious. It contains the adjective sere, i. e. various (st. 11), which Chaucer never uses.
21. The lamentacion of Marie Magdaleine. Printed in Bell's Chaucer, iv. 395; and in Chalmers, i. 532. Tyrwhitt's remarks are admirable. He says, in his Glossary, s. v. Origenes:—'In the list of Chaucer's Works, in Legend of Good Women, l. 427, he says of himself:—
"He made also, gon is a grete while,
Origenes upon the Maudeleine"—
meaning, I suppose, a translation, into prose or verse, of the Homily de Maria Magdalena, which has been commonly, though falsely, attributed to Origen; v. Opp. Origenis, T. ii. p. 291, ed. Paris, 1604. I cannot believe that the poem entitled The Lamentation of Marie Magdaleine, which is in all the [older] editions of Chaucer, is really that work of his. It can hardly be considered as a translation, or even as an imitation, of the Homily; and the composition, in every
respect, is infinitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.' To those who are interested in Chaucer's rimes I will merely point out the following: die, why (Ch. dy-e, why); kene, iyen (Ch. ken-e, y-ën); disguised, to-rived, a mere assonance; crie, incessauntly (Ch. cry-ë, incessauntly); slaine, paine (Ch. slein, pein-e); y-fet, let (Ch. y-fet, let-te); accept, bewept (Ch. accept-e, bewept); die, mihi (Ch. dy-e, mihi). To those interested in Chaucer's language, let me point out 'dogges rabiate'—'embesile his presence'—'my woful herte is inflamed so huge'—'my soveraine and very gentilman.' See st. 34, 39, 54, 99.
22. The remedie of Loue. Printed in Chalmers' British Poets, i. 539. In sixty-two 7-line stanzas. Rejected by Tyrwhitt. The language is extremely late; it seems to have been written in the 16th century. It contains such words as incongruitie, deduction, allective, can't (for cannot), scribable (fit for writing on), olibane, pant, babé (baby), cokold (which Chaucer spells cokewold), ortographie, ethimologie, ethimologise (verb). The provincial word lait, to search for, is well known to belong to the Northern dialect. Dr. Murray, s. v. allective, dates this piece about A.D. 1560; but it must be somewhat earlier than this, as it was printed in 1532. I should date it about 1530.
26. A Ballade in commendacion of our Ladie. Tyrwhitt remarks that 'a poem with the same beginning is ascribed to Lydgate, under the title of Invocation to our Lady; see Tanner, s. v. Lydgate.' The poem consists of thirty-five 7-line stanzas. It has all the marks of Lydgate's style, and imitates Chaucer's language. Thus the line—'I have none English conuenient and digne' is an echo of the Man of Law's Tale, l. 778—'O Donegild, I ne haue noon English digne.' Some of the lines imitate Chaucer's A. B. C. But the most remarkable thing is his quotation of the first line of Chaucer's Merciless Beauty, which he applies to the Virgin Mary! See note to that poem, l. 1.
A poem called an 'Invocation to our Lady' is ascribed to Lydgate in MS. Ashmole 59, fol. 39, back. It agrees with the present Ballade; which settles the question.
30. Balade de bon consail. Not in previous editions. Printed in Chalmers, i. 552. Only 7 lines, and here they are, duly edited:—