allowance be made for the student's residence at Cambridge, it was written subsequently to Shakspere's play. The direct source of this Latin play is a matter which can also, I think, be determined with a fair amount of certainty. Apparently Hazlitt had not examined the play when he stated that it possibly antedated Brooke's poem. Let the reader observe the following parallelisms, taken from these two versions of the story: Sacerdos. Mortis timorem principis sententia Expulsit omnem; recipe laetitiam, precor: Carebis. Thy hope, quoth he, [Friar to Romeus] is good, daunger of death is none, A banished man, thou mayst thee not within Verona shroude.1 The time and place of byrth he fiercely did reprove, He wished that he had before this time been borne, Or that as soon as he wan light, his life he had forlorne.2 Then, in the scene in which the nurse visits Romeus to learn the plans which he has made for the marriage, after getting his instructions, she exclaims: Caput facetum. Prosperum dent exitum Superi. Quid unquam posset inventum pejus (?)3 Excogitare tale praetextu pio! Pietatis umbra facile nostis providam Si muta (?) placeat reliqua committas mihi, Lallare linguam saepe ventiliquos sonos. 3A question mark indicates that the MS reading is either illegible or extremely doubtful; the number of these question marks will perhaps serve as well as anything to show the provoking condition of the MS. Quoties tenella posteras partes manu Irata tetigi, et occisum taetis dedi, Laetata potius (?) quam ore lascivi senis. Now by my truth (quoth she) God's blessing have your hart, Lord how you yong men can such crafty wiles devise, If that you love the daughter well, to bleare the mothers eyes. To mocke the sely mother that suspecteth nothing lesse. But that it pleased you to tell me of the case, For all my many yeres perhaps, I should have found it scarse. Now for the rest let me and Juliet alone; To get her leave, some feate excuse I will devise anone; For that her golden lockes by sloth have been unkempt, Or for unwares some wanton dreame the youthfull damsell drempt, Or for in thoughts of love her ydel time she spent, Or otherwise within her hart deserved to be shent. I know her mother will in no case say her nay; I warrant you she shall not fayle to come on Saterday. And then she sweares to him, the mother loves her well; And how she gave her sucke in youth, she leaveth not to tell. A prety babe (quod she) it was when it was yong; Lord how it could full pretely have prated with its tong! A thousand times and more I laid her on my lappe, And clapt her on the buttocke soft, and kist where I did clappe. Than I had been to have a kisse of some old lechers mouth.1 When the nurse comes back to Juliett we have the following: Jul. Jul. Non ipsa sospes Troja non Priamus daret, Amplum merentur candidi mores decus. Nota haec statutum nuptiis tempus refert (?). Good newes for thee, my gyrle, good tidings I thee bring. Of all this town, and there is none hath halfe so good a grace: Tell me els what (quod she [Juliet]) this evermore I thought; 10p. cit., pp. 102, 103. But of our mariage say at once, what aunswer have you brought? Nay soft, quoth she, I feare your hurt by sodain joye; I list not play quoth Juliet, although thou list to toye.' Although the text of the above Latin quotations is doubtful in places, still I think the reader will readily admit that the author has done little more than paraphrase the corresponding lines in Brooke's poem. Certain it is that neither Painter nor Boaistuau gives any hint for such sentiments; and, so far as I have been able to judge, the student also composed his play without betraying any knowledge whatsoever of Skakspere." Only as a curiosity, therefore, can this youthful performance still excite the interest of the student of the drama. Nevertheless, I have thought it worth while to discuss at some length the question of its date and provenience, so as to clear away, if possible, the vague doubts as to these matters which have hitherto beset every commentator of Romeo and Juliet. 10p. cit., p. 104. 2 On the margin of folio 251b is written "descriptio Romei p. 172." This reference might perhaps be employed to confirm my statement that the direct source of the play was Brooke's poem. Unfortunately, the first edition of this poem has not been accessible to me; and even that edition might not decide this matter, since the student may have had recourse to Brooke in some collection of poems which is no longer extant. SOURCES AND ANALOGUES OF "THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF." PART I INTRODUCTION Of the numerous poems erroneously attributed to Chaucer, probably the best-known, and certainly one of the best, is The Flower and the Leaf. It first appeared in Speght's folio of 1598, and was regularly reprinted with Chaucer's Works until 1878. During this period, owing partly, no doubt, to the modernization by Dryden,' the poem was usually regarded as one of Chaucer's most characteristic and charming pieces. Keats wrote a sonnet about it; Scott, Campbell, Irving, Mrs. Browning, were all fond of it; the editors of selections from Chaucer reprinted it; Taine quoted from it to illustrate Chaucer's most notable merits.3 Now, however, the question of Chaucerian authorship must be regarded as settled adversely, for reasons which need not be repeated here. In this investigation it is taken for granted that 1 Skeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces (Clarendon Press, 1897), pp. 361-79. References will be to this edition. 2 Fables, 1700. 3 It may be of interest to indicate the vogue of the poem by the following specific references: Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-81); see Index in Hazlitt ed. (1871). Godwin, Life of Chaucer (2d ed., 1804), Vol. III, pp. 249 ff. Todd, Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer (1810), pp. 275 ff. Scott, Rokeby (1813), Canto VI, xxvi. Keats, Sonnet Written on a Blank Space at the End of Chaucer's Tale of "The Floure and the Lefe" (1817). T. Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819), Vol. I, pp. 70 ff.; Vol. II, p. 17. Irving, Sketch Book (1819), "Rural Life in England." S. W. Singer, "Life of Chaucer," in The British Poets (Chiswick, 1822), Vol. I, pp. xvi, xvii, xxi. Hazlitt, Select Poets of Great Brit ain (1825), p. ix; Farewell to Essay Writing (1828). Clarke, The Riches of Chaucer (2d ed., 1835), Vol. I, pp. 52 ff. E. B. Browning, The Book of the Poets (1842). H. Reed, Lectures on English Literature (1855), p. 136. Sandras, Étude sur Chaucer (1859), pp. 95 ff. G. P. Marsh, Origin and History of the English Language (1862), p. 414. Taine, History of English Literature (1864-65), Book I, chap. iii, 3. Minto, Characteristics of the English Poets (1874), p. 15. Ward, Chaucer, in "English Men of Letters" series (1879), chaps. i, iii. Engel, Geschichte der englischen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1883), p. 74. Bierbaum, History of the English Language and Literature (1895), p. 34. Filon, Histoire de la littérature anglaise (2d ed., 1896), p. 54. Palgrave, Landscape in Poetry (1897), p. 122. Gosse, Modern English Literature (1898), p. 44. Saintsbury, Short History of English Literature (1898), pp. 119, 120. There are also nineteenth century modernizations by Lord Thurlow and Powell, and a French translation by Chatelain. 4 By ten Brink, Chaucer Studien (1870), pp. 156 ff.; Skeat, Introduction to Bell's Chaucer (1878), and Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. lxii ff.; Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer (1892), Vol. I, pp. 489 ff. As is well known, Tyrwhitt first expressed doubt of Chaucer's authorship (1775), but his suggestion was hardly taken seriously for nearly a century. the author was an imitator of Chaucer, writing during the first half-century or so after his master's death.' The plan of treatment adopted for study of the sources and analogues of the poem is as follows: 1. The central allegory of the Orders of the Flower and the Leaf. 2. The accessories of the central allegory: the significance of the white and green costumes, and the chaplets of leaves and flowers; the choice of the nightingale and the goldfinch as singers for the Leaf and the Flower respectively; the cult of the daisy, and so forth. 3. The general setting and machinery of the poem; its relations to other vision poems with the springtime setting. 4. Conclusion as to the most influential sources. SYNOPSIS OF THE POEM The following summary of the action of F. L.' will be useful: 1I say his because, although the poem purports to be by a woman, there is no adequate reason for assuming that it is by a woman. I hope to show in a later article that Professor Skeat's theory of common authorship of The Flower and the Leaf and The Assembly of Ladies is untenable, and that various striking resemblances of the former to the work of Lydgate suggest that he may have been the author. 2 In the course of this article abbreviations will be used as follows: A. G. Assembly of Gods, attributed to Lydgate, E. E. T. S. A. L. = Assembly of Ladies, pseudo-Chaucerian poem. A. Y. L. I. = As You Like It. Chansons Chansons du XVme siècle, Société des Anciens Textes Français. |