[2] To which add, as a twenty-third, the three stanzas on Gentilesse quoted in Scogan's poem (no. 33).
[3] Now known to be Lydgate's; see vol. i. p. 35, note 3.
[4] I have lately made a curious discovery as to the Testament of Love. The first paragraph begins with a large capital M; the second with a large capital A; and so on. By putting together all the letters thus pointed out, we at once have an acrostic, forming a complete sentence. The sentence is—MARGARET OF VIRTW, HAVE MERCI ON TSKNVI. Of course the last word is expressed as an anagram, which I decipher as KITSVN, i. e. Kitsun, the author's name. The whole piece is clearly addressed to a lady named Margaret, and contains frequent reference to the virtues of pearls, which were supposed to possess healing powers. Even if 'Kitsun' is not the right reading, we learn something; for it is quite clear that TSKNVI cannot possibly represent the name of Chaucer. See The Academy, March 11, 1893; p. 222.
[5] No. 38 is not noticed in the Index, on its reappearance at p. 555.
[6] Originally (I understand) 1845. I have only a copy with a reprinted title-page and an altered date.
[7] It should be—'and of some of those other pieces'; for the 'Account' does not profess to be exhaustive.
[8] See the pieces numbered 1-68, in vol. i. pp. 31-45. But four pieces are in prose, viz. Boethius, Astrolabe, Testament of Love, and Jack Upland. Of course Tyrwhitt rejected Jack Upland. He admitted, however, rather more than 26, the number in the edition of 1845.
[9] The false rime of now with rescowe in st. 46 may be got over, it is suggested, by a change in the readings. On the other hand, I now observe a fatal rhyme in st. 17, where upon and ron rime with mon, a man. When such a form as mon (for man) can be found in Chaucer, we may reconsider his claim to this poem. Meanwhile, I would note the curious word grede in st. 27. It does not occur in Chaucer, but is frequent in The Owl and the Nightingale.
[10] Exception may be taken to the riming of mene (l. 20) with open e, and grene with close e.
[11] Hoccleve's Poems; ed. Furnivall, p. 49; cf. p. 56.