1455 f. It is the galled horse that winces at the load; that which is sound feels no hurt. Thus, if the reader is not guilty of the faults spoken of, he will pass untouched by the reproof.
1470. ‘Vox populi, vox dei’: a sentiment repeated by our author in various forms; cp. note on iii. Prol. 11.
1479 ff. These last three lines are over erasure in SCHG. They seem to have been substituted for the original couplet in order to point more clearly the moral of the Cronica Tripertita, which is intended for a practical illustration of the divine punishment of sin.
Explicit, &c. It will be seen that in these later years Gower has almost brought himself to believe that the events of the earlier part of the reign were intended for a special warning to the youthful king, whom he conceives as having then already begun a course of tyrannical government. At the time, however, our author acquitted him of all responsibility, on account of his youth.
11 ff. The swan was used as a badge by the duke of Gloucester and also (perhaps not till after his death) by Henry of Lancaster. For the horse and the bear as cognizances of Arundel and Warwick see Annales Ricardi II (Rolls Series, 28. 3), p. 206.
CRONICA TRIPERTITA
1. Ista tripertita, &c. These seven lines must be regarded as a metrical preface to the Chronicle which follows. In the Hatton MS. these lines with their marginal note are placed before the prose of the preceding page (which is given in a somewhat different form) and entitled ‘Prologus.’
Prima Pars
1. Take the first letter of ‘mundus’ and add to it C three times repeated and six periods of five years, plus ten times five and seven. The date thus indicated is MCCC + 30 + 57, i.e. 1387. For a similar mode of expression cp. Richard of Maidstone’s poem on the Reconciliation of Richard II (Rolls Series, 14. 1),
‘M. cape, ter quoque C. deciesque novem, duo iunge.’