[38] My remark upon the Trinity MS. in vol. i. p. 56, that 'most of the pieces are in a handwriting of a later date [than 1463], not far from 1500,' does not apply to The Court of Love. This poem, together with two poems by Lydgate, fills part of a quire of twenty-four leaves near the end of the MS., of which the seventeenth has been cut out and the last three are blank; and this quire is quite distinct from the rest as regards the date of the writing, which is considerably later than 1500, and exhibits a marked change. There are two lacunæ in the poem, one after l. 1022, and another after l. 1316; probably six stanzas are lost in each case, owing to the loss of the two corresponding leaves in the original from which the existing copy was made.
[39] I doubt if speculation as to the possible meaning of these names will really help us.
[40] Which looks as if the author had written grewen for greven, like a Scotchman.
[41] A very bad mistake occurs in l. 1045, viz. thou wot instead of thou wost, as if one should say in Latin tu scio. It rimes with dote, which, in Chaucer, is dissyllabic.
[42] There are many more; fon-ne becomes fon, to rime with on, 458; tell-e is cut down to tell, 518; behold-e, to behold, 652; accord-e, to accord, 746; &c. The reader can find out more for himself; see ll. 771, 844, 862, 896, 1032, 1334, 1389, &c. In ll. 1063-4, we have opinion riming with begon, the Chaucerian forms being opinioun and bigonne or bigunne!
[43] See vol. vi. p. xlv.
[44] The MS. has:—'Than is is lande'—by mistake.
[45] It is clear that The Plowmans Tale and Jack Upland were inserted by Thynne and Speght respectively on religious grounds.
[46] We may safely assign to Lydgate the pieces numbered XXII and XXIII, as well as those numbered VIII to XV.