Part 40

In citing a variation as given by a class or group of MSS. no attempt is made to give the spelling of each one separately. The form cited is that given either by the majority or by a leading MS. with variations sometimes added in parentheses.

Attention should be paid also to the following points: (1) It was not found possible to complete the collation of the Glasgow MS. (G) before the text was printed, and consequently its readings must not be taken as implied, when not mentioned, any further than v. 1970. The collation has since been completed and some of the results are noted in the account of the MS. (2) K takes the place of H₃ in vi. 1671-vii. 1405, and vii. 3594 to the end, where H₃ is defective. (3) Before assuming the evidence of any MS. ex silentio it is necessary that the reader should assure himself that it is not defective in the part concerned. The means of doing this are fully afforded by the accounts given of the separate MSS., where their imperfections are noted, and it must be remembered that J and Ad are for the most part defective as regards the Latin summaries, and that this is the case with T also in certain parts. The readings of S on f. 50 are for the most part passed over, as not originally belonging to that MS. (4) A few abbreviated Latin terms are used in the critical notes, as in ras. to indicate that the text is written over an erasure, or p.m. to denote the reading of the first hand.

The lines are numbered in each book (for the first time), and the numbers with an asterisk attached are those of the lines in other recensions than that of the text. In addition to this it should be observed that as nearly all references to Gower for the last forty years have been made by Pauli’s edition, it has been thought advisable to place in the margin of this text indications of the volumes and pages of that edition: thus =P. 1. 153= stands for ‘Pauli, vol. i. p. 153.’

Setting aside matters of spelling, punctuation and grammatical form, we may note that the material differences of reading between the text of this edition and that of Pauli are in number about two thousand.

OTHER ENGLISH WORKS. With regard to the text of the poem In Praise of Peace all that need be said will be found in the notes upon it. The Trentham MS., which contains it, has already been fully described in the volume of ‘French Works.’

A poem in five seven-line stanzas, beginning ‘Passe forthe þou pilgryme and bridel wele þy beste,’ occurs in (Shirley’s) MS. Ashmole 59, f. 17 v^o (Bodl. Libr.), with the title ‘Balade moral of gode counseyle made by Gower.’ The same without the final stanza (owing to loss of a leaf) occurs in MS. Rawlinson C. 86, but with no title or ascription of authorship, and both texts have been printed (not quite correctly) by Dr. Karl Meyer in his John Gower’s Beziehungen, &c., 1889. In addition to these copies there is one in the British Museum MS. Addit. 29729, which has been published by Dr. Max Förster in the Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, vol. 102, p. 50. In this MS. the piece is ascribed to Benedict Burgh, and it is called ‘A leson to kepe well the tonge.’

It is almost impossible that these verses can have been written by Gower, but out of deference to Shirley’s authority (which is not very weighty however), and in order that the reader may judge, it is printed here, all deviations from the Ashmole text being noted, except in the case of ‘th’ for ‘þ,’ and some readings of the Rawlinson copy (R) being added in parentheses.

BALADE MORAL OF GODE COUNSEYLE MADE BY GOWER.

Passe forth, thou pilgryme, and bridel wel thy beeste; Loke not agein for thing that may betyde; Thenke what thou wilt, but speke ay with the leeste; Avyse thee wel who stondeth thee besyde; Let not thyne herte beo with thy tonge bewryde; Trust not to muche in fayre visayginge, For peynted cheere shapeth efft to stynge. Byholde thy selff, or that thou other deme; Ne beo not glad whane other done amyss; Sey never al that which wolde the sothe seme, 10 Thou maist not wite what thy fortune is: For there is no wight on lyve iwyss That stondeth sure, ther fore I rede beware, And looke aboute for stumbling in the snare.

Reporte not muche on other mennes sawe; Be ay adrad to here a wicked fame; For man shal dye by dome of goddes lawe, That here enpeyreth any mannes name. Avyse thee wel ther fore or thow attame Suche as thou mayst never revoke ageyn; 20 A good name leste is leste for ay certain.

Pley not with pecus ne ffawvel to thy feere; Chese thou hem never, yif thou do affter me; The hande is hurt that bourdeth with the bere; Fawvel fareth even right as doth a bee; Hony mowthed, ful of swetnesse is she, But loke behinde and ware thee from hir stonge, Thow shalt have hurt yf thou play with hir longe.

Dispreyse no wight but if effte thou may him preyse, Ne preyse no firre but thou may discomende: 30 Weyghe thy wordes and hem by mesure peyse; Thenke that the gilty may by grace amende, And eke the gode may happen to offende: Remember eke that what man doth amiss, Thou hast or art or may be suche as he is.

This is full of lines that Gower would not have written, with superfluous syllables in the metre, as ll. 1, 5, 10, 17, 29, 33, 35 (omitting those that might pass with amended spelling), accent on weak syllables, as ll. 20, 25, 26, 31, defective rhyme, as ‘besyde’: ‘bewryde’ (participle), and ‘feere’ (companion): ‘bere,’ or suppression of syllable at the beginning, as in l. 12. The form ‘mayst’ (maist) for ‘miht’ is not found in any respectable Gower MS. Moreover the style is not that of Gower, but evidently imitated from Chaucer’s poem ‘Fle from the pres.’

LINENOTES:

1 forþe wele

2 ageine

4 weele stondeþe

7 shapeþe (efft] her R)

9 gladde (glad R) amysse

10 þee

11 wit (witte R)

12 ewysse

13 stondeþe

15 mens (mennys R)

16 adradde

18 enpeyreþe mans (mannes R)

19 wele þowe

20 ageyne