second version of the Confessio Amantis, or, rather, to quote the definite statement on the subject made by Gower himself, and to illustrate it from other passages in his poem.

In the Prologue of this version he says he thinks to make A boke for Englondes sake

The yere sixtenthe of King Richard,

i.e., between June 1392 and June 1393. The marginal note runs in this wise: 'Hic in principio libri declarat qualiter in anno Regis Ricardi secundi sextodecimo Johannes Gower presentem libellum composuit et finaliter complevit, quem strenuissimo domino suo Domino Henrico de Lancastria tunc' Derbiæ comiti cum omni reverencia specialiter destinavit.' We may well compare the 'finaliter complevit' here with the 'complevi' of the lines that precede the epilogue of the other version. The 'finaliter' clearly denotes that the edition of 1392-3 is the revised edition.

After some general remarks on the 'reversed' state of the world and its constant changing, so that it is difficult to imagine the past, and on the services of books in preserving the memory of it, he thus continues :—

But for my wittes ben to smale
To tellen every man his tale,
This boke upon amendement
To stonde at his commaundement.
With whom my heart is of accorde,
I send unto min owne lorde,
Which of Lancastre is Henry named,
The highe god him hath proclamed
Full of knighthod and alle grace;
So wol I now this werke embrace
With hol truste and with hol beleve.

God graunte I mote it well acheve.

1 The Earl of Derby' was a 'courtesy' title, derived from his grandfather, Henry Gris mond. In 1397 he was created Duke of Hereford.

Let us note here first what is surely a very interesting allusion to the Canterbury Tales. Gower, knowing his own lack of the dramatic power in which the genius of his great contemporary so richly abounded, cannot attempt to paint a group of persons such as Chaucer painted, and let each person speak for himself in his own natural or habitual tone and manner. The allusion, be it observed, is compliment

ary. And perhaps, after all, the reason why Venus's message is omitted in this second version is because Chaucer had then taken up with such splendid success a line so different from that enjoined by Venus, as Gower interprets her wishes-was busy with his Canterbury Tales and so not in the way of writing any 'Testament of Love' such as Gower suggested. But to return to the passage now before us: let us note secondly the words 'upon amendement, which must mean 'corrected,' 'revised.' This revised version he formally dedicates to Henry of Lancaster, and to him he professes his sincere attachment and fidelity.

From the king in whom he trusted when he wrote the earlier prologue he had now long been alienated. We are able to trace the history of this alienation in Gower's Tripartite Chronicle, written about the close of the century, when the career of him that was once his hope and trust had closed in misery and shame. There is no reason to suspect Gower's integrity. He behaved as a high-minded gentleman well might-as, it may be, a true patriot was bound to behave. He had endeavoured to excite in the king a sense of his great office and how it should he filled, but the king had no ears for such sober addresses.

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm,
Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway,
That, hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.

The whirlwind arose duly, and the king and his court were laid low. Gower viewed the miserable ruin with stern eyes, and, like some prophet who sees in degradation and death but the proper fruits of heedlessness and riot, he thus summed up the tragic story:

Chronica Ricardi, qui sceptra tulit leopardi,
Ut patet, est dicta populo sed non benedicta.
Ut speculum mundi quo lux nequit ulla refundi,
Sic vacuus transit; sibi nil nisi culpa remansit.
Unde superbus erat, modo si præconia quærat,
Ejus honor sordet, laus culpat, gloria mordet.
Hoc concernentes caveant qui sunt sapientes;
Nam male viventes Deus odit in orbe regentes.
Est qui peccator non esse potest dominator;
Ricardo teste, finis probat hoc manifeste.
Post sua demerita periit sua pompa sopita.
Qualis erat vita, chronica stabit ita.

To return to the prologue: the poet proceeds next to describe the troubled condition of the age. 'De statu regnorum,' runs the gloss, ut dicunt secundum temporalia, videlicet tempore regis Ricardi secundi, anno regni sui sextodecimo.' He praises the old days, and deplores the present :

-

Now stant the crope under the rote;
The worlde is chaunged overall,
And thereof most in speciall

That love is falle into discorde.

It is so, he says, all over the world, and he goes on to lament the corruptions of the Church, the restlessness of the common people, the instability of all worldly things.

Turning to the epilogue of the second version, we find the same change of tone. Here, too, we have the poet distressed by the condition of his country :

Upon my bare knees I praie

That he this londe in siker waie
Woll set upon good governaunce.

He urges the king frankly enough to alter his course. After mentioning his claim to the allegiance

and how

he adds:

Of clerke, of knight, of man of lawe,

Under his honde all is forthdrawn,
The merchaunt and the laborer,

But though that he such power have,
And that his mightes ben so large,
He hath hem nought withouten charge
To which that every king is swore.
So were it good that he therefore
First unto rightwisnesse entende;
Whereof that he himself amende
Toward his god, and leve vice,
Whiche is the chefe of his office-
And after all the remenaunt

He shall upon his covenaunt

Governe and lede in such a wise,

So that there be no tirannise,
Whereof that he his people greve ;
Or elles may he nought acheve
That longeth to his regalie.

:

The work is concluded with these Latin lines :

Explicit iste liber, qui transeat obsecro liber,
Ut sine livore vigeat lectoris in ore.
Qui sedet in scamnis celi det, ut ista Johannis
Perpetuis omnis stet pagina grata Britannis,
Derbeie comiti, recolunt quem laude periti,
Vade liber purus, sub eo requiesce futurus.

IT

X

CHEVY CHASE

(From The Gentleman's Magazine for April 1889)

The

T is common to say that the ballads known as the 'Battle of Otterbourne' and the 'Hunting of the Cheviot' commemorate one and the same event. But it is quite certain that they commemorate two quite different events. confusion of them is of early date; it is found in the earliest extant version of the latter ballad, which belongs to the time of Queen Elizabeth ; but a confusion it is so to correlate them. And if one would properly understand their historical value, and in other respects fully enjoy them, one should keep them separate and distinct. I propose in this paper to point out more completely than I think has yet been done, how separate and distinct they in fact are. They are connected with different localities, are based upon different incidents, and represent different features in the old Border life.

Of course this diversity is not now suggested for the first time. It was recognised long ago in the early seventeenth century by Hume of Godscroft, when he wrote: "That which is commonly sung of the "Hunting of the Cheviot " seemeth indeed poetical and a mere fiction, perhaps to stir