[88] [to govern and order.]
[89] [need.]
[90] [though.]
[91] [cast.]
[92] [called.]
[93] [each.]
III.
AN ORIGINAL BALLAD BY CHAUCER.
This little sonnet, which hath escaped all the editors of Chaucer's works, is now printed for the first time from an ancient MS. in the Pepysian Library, that contains many other poems of its venerable author. The versification is of that species, which the French call rondeau, very naturally Englished by our honest countrymen round O. Tho' so early adopted by them, our ancestors had not the honour of inventing it: Chaucer picked it up, along with other better things, among the neighbouring nations. A fondness for laborious trifles hath always prevailed in the dark ages of literature. The Greek poets have had their wings and axes: the great father of English poesy may therefore be pardoned one poor solitary rondeau.—Geofrey Chaucer died Oct. 25, 1400.