This little writ, proverbes, or figure,
I sende you; take keep* of it, I read! *heed
“Unwise is he that can no weal endure;
If thou be sicker,* put thee not in dread.”** *in security **danger
The Wife of Bath I pray you that you read,
Of this mattere which that we have on hand.
God grante you your life freely to lead
In freedom, for full hard is to be bond.
Notes to L’Envoy of Chaucer to Bukton.
1. Tyrwhitt, founding on the reference to the Wife of Bath, places this among Chaucer’s latest compositions; and states that one Peter de Bukton held the office of king’s escheator for Yorkshire in 1397. In some of the old editions, the verses were made the Envoy to the Book of the Duchess Blanche — in very bad taste, when we consider that the object of that poem was to console John of Gaunt under the loss of his wife.
2. “But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” 1 Cor. vii. 9
3. Lever to be taken in Frise: better to be taken prisoner in Friesland — where probably some conflict was raging at the time.
A BALLAD OF GENTLENESS.
THE firste stock-father of gentleness, <1>
What man desireth gentle for to be,
Must follow his trace, and all his wittes dress,* *apply
Virtue to love, and vices for to flee;
For unto virtue longeth dignity,
And not the reverse, safely dare I deem,
*All wear he* mitre, crown, or diademe. *whether he wear*
This firste stock was full of righteousness,
True of his word, sober, pious, and free,
*Clean of his ghost,* and loved business, *pure of spirit*
Against the vice of sloth, in honesty;
And, but his heir love virtue as did he,
He is not gentle, though he riche seem,
All wear he mitre, crown, or diademe.
Vice may well be heir to old richess,
But there may no man, as men may well see,
Bequeath his heir his virtuous nobless;
That is appropried* to no degree, *specially reserved
But to the first Father in majesty,
Which makes his heire him that doth him queme,* *please
All wear he mitre, crown, or diademe.