4.29 POETICAL WORKS GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

OF

VOL, VII.

CONTAINING HIS

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES, viz.

THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.

But natheles certain
I can right now no thrifty Tale sain,
Bat CHAUCER, (though he can bat lewedly
On metres and on riming craftiis)
Hath fayd hem in swiche Englifh as he can
Of olde time, as knoweth many a man;
And if he have not fayd hem, leve brother,
In o book, he bath sayd hem in another....
Who so that wol his large Volume feke. TALES, ver. 4405.

Dan CHAUCER, well of English undefil'd,
On Fame's eternal bead-roll wortly to be fil'd----
Old Dan Geffrey, in whose gentie ipright
The pure well-head of poetry did dwell---
He whilft he lived was the foveraigne head
Of thepherds alle.-----

SPENSER
Old CHAUCER, like the morning star,
Tous discovers day from far;
His light those mifts and clouds disolv'd
Which our dark nation long involv'd;
But he descending to the fades
Darkness again the age invades.

DENUAM
CHAUCER, him who first with harmony inform'd
The language of our fathers---His legends blithe
He fang of love or knighthood, or the wiles
Of homely life, thro' each eftate and age
The fashions and the follies of the world
With cunning hand portraying-----
Him who in times------
Dark and untaught began with charming verse
To tame the rudeness of his native land.

AKENSIDE.

EDINBURG:
AT THE Apollo Press, BY THE MARTIN S.

Anno 1782.

THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.

Many menne faine that in sweveninges
Ther n'is but fables and lefinges;
But yet menne maie some swevin sene
Whiche hardily that false ne bene,
But aftirwarde ben apparaunt,
This maie I drawin to warraunt.

An author that hight Macrobes,
That halte kot dremis faise ne lese,
But undoth us the avisioun
That whilom mette King Cipioun.

ΤΩ The Romaunt of the Rosc] This book was begun in French verse by William de Lorris, and finished forty years after by John Clopinell, alias John Moone, born at Mewen upon the river of Loyer, not far from Paris, as appeareth by Molinet the French author upon the morality of The Romaunt, and afterward translated for the moft part into Englith metre by Gefrey Chaucer, but not finished. It is entituled The Romaunt of the Role, or The Art of Love; wherein are thewed the helps and further. ances as also the lets and impediments that lovers have in their suits. In this book the author hath many glances at the lypo. crisy of the clergy, whereby he got himself fuch hatred amongft them that Gerson Chancellor of Paris writeth tlius of him : say'th he, There wasone called Johannes Meldinentis who wrote a book called The Romaunt of the Rose, which book if I only had, and that there were no more in the world, if I might have 500 pound for the same I would rather burn it than take the money. He saith more, that if he thought the author thereof did not repent him for that book before he dyed lie would wouchsafe to pray for him no more than he would for Judas that betrayed Christ. Urry.