Political, religious, and love poems. Some by Lydgate, Sir Richard Ros, Henry Baradoun, Wm. Huchen, etc. from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Ms. no. 306, and other sources, with a fragment of The Romance of Peare of Provence and the fair Magnelone, and a sketch, with the prolog and epilog, of The Romance of the knight Amoryus and the Lady Cleopes,

The Parliament of Love.

[MS. Univ. Lib. Camb. Ff. 1. 6, leaf 51. Handwriting of the 15th century.]

What so euyr I syng or sey, My wyll is good too preyse here well.

Now ȝee that wull of loue lere, I counsell yow þat ȝe cum nere; To tell yow now is myne entent, Houth loue made late his parleament, Line 4 And sent for ladyes of euery londe, Both mayde, and wyfe þat had housbonde, Wythe gentyll wymmen of lower degre, and marchauntz wyfes grete plente, Line 8 Wythe maidenes eke þat where theym vndre, Of wyche there were a rygthe grete numbre.

And all tho men þat louers were [folio 51b] They had there charge for too be there, Line 12 And when they were assembled all, (yf I the werre sothe sey schall), with-in a castell feyre ande stronge, And as y lokyd them amonge, Line 16 I sawe a ryȝth grete cumpany of gentill-wummen that were there by, The whyche, as the custum was, Songe a balad stede of the masse Line 20 For goode spede of thes folkys all Þat where assemblede in the hall; and yf ȝe lyst ley too yowre ere, Rygh[t] thys they songe, as ȝee schall heyre. Line 24 "O god of loue! wyche lorde hart and souereyne, Send downe thy grace a-monge thys louerys all,

Soo þat þey may too thy mercy ateyne. At thys parlament most in Asspeciall; Line 28 as þou art oure Iuge, so be egall Too euery wygth þat louyth feythefully, And aftyr hys dyssert grante hym mercy!"

And whan this songe was songe and done, [folio 52] Line 32 Then went these ladyes eueryschone Vn-too A schambyr where they scholde Take theire places, yong and olde, like as þat they where of astate Line 36 For tescheue all maner debate. There sawe I first the goddesse of loue In here see sitte, rigth ferre aboue, And many othyr þat ther where. Line 40 yitt for too tell whom y sawe there, It passit now rigth ferre my wytte; But, among all, I sawe one sitte whiche was the feyryst creature Line 44 þat euer was furmyd by nature; and here beaute now too dyscryvye Ther can noo mannes vyttes alywe. yett as ferre as y can or may Line 48 Of [MS. Oof.] here beaute sum-what too say, I will applye my wittes all; For here I am & euyr schall Too speke of schape and semelynesse, Line 52 Off stature & of goodlynesse; here sydes longe with myddyll smale, here face well coulord and not pale, With white and rode ryth well mesuryd; Line 56 And ther-too schee was well emyred, And stode in euery mannes grace, [folio 52b] This goodly yong and fresche of face; and too speke of condicion, Line 60 Coude noo man fynde in noo region

One of soo grete gentillnesse, Of curtaise and lowlynesse, Of chere, of port, and dalyaunce, Line 64 And mastres eke of all pleasaunce; All-soo welle of secretenesse, The werray merroure of stedfastnesse. Of onest merth sche cowde rith mosche, Line 68 Too daunce and synge and othre suche; Soo well assuryd in here hert, That none il worde from here scholde stert. And thus on here y set my mynde, Line 72 And left all othre thyng by-hynde As touchyng too these louers all, whysche on here causes fast kan call. and for too tell theire all cumplayntes, Line 76 In sothe too me the matire queynte is; For as too hem i toke none hede. But in myne nowne [Sic in MS.] causes [Sic in MS. Read 'cause.'] to prosede, I drowe me by [my] sylf allone, Line 80 And into a corner gan too gone, And there I satte me downe a while, A litle bill for too compile Vn-too thys lady wych was soo faire, [folio 53] Line 84 and in her doyng soo debonaire. And if ye list too hyre & rede, Theffect of whych was thus in dede:—

[The little Song.]

"O souereyn [MS. soueuereyn.] prince of all gentillnesse, Line 88 Too whom I haue and euyr-more schall bee Trewe seruant with all maner humblenesse; What peyne I haue or what aduersyte, yett ȝee schall euyr fynde suche feyth on me Line 92 Þat I schall doo that may be your plesaunce, If god of his grace list me so a-vaunce.

"And yow I pray, as lowly as I can, Too take my seruice if hyt myth yow please; Line 96 And if ȝee list too reward thus yowre man, Than mygth hee say he were in hertis easee; For by my trouth y wulde not yow displease Line 99 For all the goode þat euer I hadde or schall, By my goode wille, what euer me be-fall. Line 101

"And if I haue seide any [MS. my.] thynge amysse Line 102 Too pardon me I yow be-sech and pray; For as wischli as euer y cum too blisse, My will is goode what euer y write or say." Go, thow litle songe, thow hast a blisfull day; Line 106 For sche þat is the floure of wommanhode At her oown leyser schall the syng and rede. [[La Belle Dame sans Merci, p. 80. See on this, Prof. Skeat's Introduction, Text, and Notes, in his pseudo-Chaucerian pieces, vol. vii. (1897) of his edition of Chaucer's Works, pages li.-lv., 300-326, 517-520, and H. Gröhler's earlier notice of Sir Richard Ros in Englische Studien, x. 206, and his dissertation "Ueber Richard Ros' mittelenglische ubersetzung des gedichtes von Alain Chartier, La Belle Dame sans Mercy," Breslau, 1886. Nichols, in his county history of Leicestershire, ii. 37, says that the Sir Richard Ros, who was presumably the poet, was born in 1429, and is known to have been alive in 1450, when he was 21 years old. The date of his englishing is probably about 1460. As the family of Roos or Ros were lords of Hamlake and Belvoir in N.E. Leicestershire, not far from Grantham in Lincolnshire, and Bourne, whence Robert of Brunne gets his name, Prof. Skeat (p. liii.) says there was something of a Northern element in Sir Richard's language, as shown by his ryme longès with songès in ll. 53-5, and his use of the Northern possessive pronoun their. This leaves little doubt that the Trinity manuscript's awn (ll. 455, 475, 608) for own—which Prof. Skeat adopts, no doubt from Thynne—is Sir Richard's own form of the word. The Harleian text of the poem, which I printed in our first issue of the Polit., Rel. and Love Poems, was copied from a MS. of which the leaves had been misplaced, as I found when comparing it with Chartier's French, at Prof. Skeat's request, on Jan. 21, 1895. He had none of the editions of Chartier, ab. 1490, 1526, 1527, 1617, etc., at Cambridge.]] Line 108