catchwords; writing of the latter half of the 14th century, in double
column of forty-eight lines to the column; initial letter of each
stanza coloured blue or red, and larger illuminated letters at the
beginning of the chief divisions, combined with some ornamentation
on the left side of the column, and in one case, f. 58 v^o, also at
the top of the page. One leaf is pasted down to the binding at the
beginning and contains the title and table of contents. After this
four leaves have been cut out, containing the beginning of the poem,
and seven more in other parts of the book. There are also some leaves
lost at the end. The first leaf after those which have been cut out at
the beginning has the signature _a_ iiii. The leaves (including those
cut out) have now been numbered 1, 1*, 2, 3, 4, &c., up to 162; we have
therefore a first sheet, of which half is pasted down (f. 1) and the
other half cut away (f. 1*), and then twenty quires of eight leaves
with the first leaf of the twenty-first quire, the leaves lost being
those numbered 1*, 2, 3, 4, 36, 106, 108, 109, 120, 123, 124, as well
as those after 162.
The present binding is of the last century and doubtless later than
1745, for some accounts of work done by ‘Richard Eldridge’ and other
memoranda, written in the margins in an illiterate hand, have the dates
1740 and 1745 and have been partly cut away by the binder. The book was
formerly in the library of Edward Hailstone, Esq., whose name and arms
are displayed upon a leather label outside the binding, but it seems
that no record exists as to the place from which he obtained it. From
the writing in the margin of several pages it would seem that about
the year 1745 it was lying neglected in some farm-house. We have, for
example, this memorandum (partly cut away) in the margin of one of the
leaves: ‘Margat ... leved at James ... in the year of our Lord 1745
and was the dayre maid that year ... and her swithart name was Joshep
Cockhad Joshep Cockhad carpenter.’ On the same page occurs the word
‘glosterr,’ which may partly serve to indicate the locality.
The manuscript is written in one hand throughout, with the exception
of the Table of Contents, and the writing is clear, with but few
contractions. In a few cases, as in ll. 4109, 4116, 28941 f.,
corrections have been made over erasure. The correctness of the text
which the MS. presents is shown by the very small number of cases
in which either metre or sense suggests emendation. Apart from the
division of words, only about thirty corrections have been made in the
present edition throughout the whole poem of nearly thirty thousand
lines, and most of these are very trifling. I have little doubt that
this copy was written under the direction of the author.
As regards the manner in which the text of the MS. has been reproduced
in this edition, I have followed on the whole the system used in the
publications of the ‘Société des Anciens Textes Français.’ Thus _u_
and _v_, _i_ and _j_, have been dealt with in accordance with modern
practice, whereas in the MS. (as usual in French and English books of
the time) _v_ is regularly written as the initial letter of a word for
either _u_ or _v_, and _u_ in other positions (except sometimes in
the case of compounds like _avient_, _avoegler_, _envers_, _envie_,
&c.), while, as regards _i_ and _j_, we have for initials either _i_
or _I_ (_J_), and in other positions _i_. Thus the MS. has _vn_,
_auoir_, while the text gives for the reader’s convenience _un_,
_avoir_; the MS. has _ie_ or _Ie_, _iour_ or _Iour_, while the text
gives _je_, _jour_. Again, where an elision is expressed, the MS.
of course combines the two elements into one word, giving _lamour_,
_quil_, _qestoit_, while the text separates them by the apostrophe,
_l’amour_, _qu’il_, _q’estoit_. Some other separations have also been
made. Thus the MS. often, but by no means always, combines _plus_ with
the adjective or adverb to which it belongs: _plusbass_, _plusauant_;
and often also the word _en_ is combined with a succeeding verb, as
_enmangeast_, _enserroit_: in these instances the separation is made in
the text, but the MS. reading is recorded. In other cases, as with the
combinations _sique_, _sicomme_, _nounpas_, _envoie_, &c., the usage of
the MS. has been followed, though it is not quite uniform.
The final _-é_ (_-és_) and _-ée_ (_-ées_) of nouns and participles have
been marked with the accent for the reader’s convenience, but in all
other cases accents are dispensed with. They are not therefore used in
the terminations _-ez_, _-eez_, even when standing for _-és_, _-ées_,
as in _festoiez_, _neez_, nor in _asses_, _sachies_, &c., standing for
_assez_, _sachiez_ (except l. 28712), nor is the grave accent placed
upon the open _e_ of _apres_, _jammes_, &c. Occasionally the diaeresis
is used to separate vowels; and the cedilla is inserted, as in modern
French, to indicate the soft sound of _c_ where this seems certain, but
there are some possibly doubtful cases, as _sufficance_, _naiscance_,
in which it is not written.
With regard to the use of capital letters, some attempt has been made
to qualify the inconsistency of the MS. In general it may be said that
where capitals are introduced, it has been chiefly in order to indicate
more clearly the cases where qualities or things are personified. It
has not been thought necessary to indicate particularly all these
variations.
The punctuation is the work of the editor throughout; that of the MS.,
where it exists, is of a very uncertain character.
Contractions, &c., are marked in the printed text by italics, except
in the case of the word _et_, which in the MS. is hardly ever written
in full except at the beginning of a line. In such words as _ꝑest_,
_ꝑfit_, _ꝑfaire_, there may be doubt sometimes between _per_ and _par_,
and the spelling of some of them was certainly variable. Attention
must be called especially to the frequently occurring _-o̅n̅_ as a
termination. It has been regularly written out as _-oun_, and I have
no doubt that this is right. In Bozon’s _Contes Moralizés_ the same
abbreviation is used, alternating freely with the full form _-oun_,
and it is common in the MSS. of the _Confessio Amantis_ and in the
Ellesmere MS. of the _Canterbury Tales_ (so far as I have had the
opportunity of examining it), especially in words of French origin
such as _devocioun_, _contricioun_. In the French texts this mode of
writing is applied also very frequently to the monosyllables _mon_,
_ton_, _son_, _bon_, _don_, _non_, as well as to _bonté_, _nonpas_,
_noncertein_, &c. The scribe of the _Mirour_ writes _doun_ in full
once (24625) with _do̅n̅_ in the same stanza, in _Bal._ xxi. 4 _noun_
is twice fully written, and in some MSS. of the _Traitié_ (e.g.
Bodley 294) the full form occurs frequently side by side with the
abbreviation. A similar conclusion must be adopted as regards _a̅n̅_
(annum), also written _aun_, _gla̅n̅_, _da̅n̅cer_, and the termination
_-a̅n̅ce_, which is occasionally found.
BALADES.
The existence of the _Cinkante Balades_ was first made known to the
public by Warton in his _History of English Poetry_, Sect. xix, his
attention having been drawn to the MS. which contains them by its
possessor, Lord Gower. After describing the other contents of this
MS., he says: ‘But the _Cinkante Balades_ or fifty French Sonnets
above mentioned are the curious and valuable part of Lord Gower’s
manuscript. They are not mentioned by those who have written the Life
of this poet or have catalogued his works. Nor do they appear in any
other manuscript of Gower which I have examined. But if they should
be discovered in any other, I will venture to pronounce that a more
authentic, unembarrassed, and practicable copy than this before us will
not be produced.... To say no more, however, of the value which these
little pieces may derive from being so scarce and so little known,
they have much real and intrinsic merit. They are tender, pathetic and
poetical, and place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous point of
view than that in which he has hitherto been usually seen. I know not
if any even among the French poets themselves of this period have left
a set of more finished sonnets; for they were probably written when
Gower was a young man, about the year 1350. Nor had yet any English
poet treated the passion of love with equal delicacy of sentiment and
elegance of composition. I will transcribe four of these balades as
correctly and intelligibly as I am able; although, I must confess,
there are some lines which I do not exactly comprehend.’ He then quotes
as specimens _Bal._ xxxvi, xxxiv, xliii, and xxx, but his transcription
is far from being correct and is often quite unintelligible.
DATE.--The date at which the _Cinkante Balades_ were composed cannot
be determined with certainty. Warton, judging apparently by the style
and subject only, decided, as we have seen, that they belonged to the
period of youth, and we know from a passage in the _Mirour_ (27340)
that the author composed love poems of some kind in his early life.
Apart from this, however, the evidence is all in favour of assigning
the _Balades_ to the later years of the poet’s life. It is true, of
course, that the Dedication to King Henry IV which precedes them, and
the Envoy which closes them, may have been written later than the
rest; but at the same time it must be noted that the second balade of
the Dedication speaks distinctly of a purpose of making poems for the
entertainment of the royal court, and the mutilated title which follows
the Dedication confirms this, so far as it can be read. Again, the
prose remarks which accompany _Bal._ v and vi make it clear that the
circumstances of the poems are not personal to the author, seeing that
he there divides them into two classes, those that are appropriate for
persons about to be married, and those that are ‘universal’ and have
application to all sorts and conditions of lovers. Moreover, several of
these last, viz, xli-xliv and also xlvi, are supposed to be addressed
by ladies to their lovers. It is evident that the balades are only to
a very limited extent, if at all, expressive of the actual feelings of
the author towards a particular person. As an artist he has set himself
to supply suitable forms of expression for the feelings of others, and
in doing so he imagines their variety of circumstances and adapts his
composition accordingly. For this kind of work it is not necessary, or
perhaps even desirable, to be a lover oneself; it is enough to have
been a lover once: and that Gower could in his later life express the
feelings of a lover with grace and truth we have ample evidence in
the _Confessio Amantis_. No doubt it is possible that these balades
were written at various times in the poet’s life, and perhaps some
persons, recognizing the greater spontaneity and the more gracefully
poetical character (as it seems to me) of the first thirty or so,
as compared with the more evident tendency to moralize in the rest,
may be inclined to see in this an indication of earlier date for the
former poems. In fact however the moralizing tendency, though always
present, grew less evident in Gower’s work with advancing years. There
is less of it in the _Confessio Amantis_ than in his former works, and
this not by accident but on principle, the author avowing plainly that
unmixed morality had not proved effective, and accepting love as the
one universally interesting subject. When Henry of Lancaster, the man
after his own heart, was fairly seated on the throne, he probably felt
himself yet more free to lay aside the self-imposed task of setting
right the world, and to occupy himself with a purely literary task in
the language and style which he felt to be most suitable for a court.
In any case it seems certain that some at least of the balades were
composed with a view to the court of Henry IV, and the collection
assumed its present shape probably in the year of his accession, 1399,
for we know that either in the first or the second year of Henry IV the
poet became blind and ceased to write.
FORM AND VERSIFICATION.--The collection consists of a Dedication
addressed to Henry IV, fifty-one (not fifty) balades of love (one
number being doubled by mistake), then one, unnumbered, addressed to
the Virgin, and a general Envoy. The balades are written in stanzas of
seven or eight lines, exactly half of the whole fifty-four (including
the Dedication) belonging to each arrangement. The seven-line stanza
rhymes _ab ab bcc_ with Envoy _bc bc_, or in three instances _ab ab
baa_, Envoy _ba ba_; the eight-line stanza ordinarily _ab ab bc bc_
with Envoy _bc bc_, but also in seven instances _ab ab ba ba_ with
Envoy _ba ba_. The form is the normal one of the balade, three stanzas
with rhymes alike and an Envoy; but in one case, _Bal._ ix, there are
five stanzas with Envoy, and in another, xxxii, the Envoy is wanting.
Also the balade addressed to the Virgin, which is added at the end,
is without Envoy, and there follows a general Envoy of seven lines,
rhyming independently and referring to the whole collection.
The balade form is of course taken from Continental models, and the
metre of the verse is syllabically correct like that of the _Mirour_.
As was observed however about the octosyllabic line of the _Mirour_,
so it may be said of the ten-syllable verse here, that the rhythm
is not exactly like that of the French verse of the Continent. The
effect is due, as before remarked, to the attempt to combine the
English accentual with the French syllabic measure. This is especially
visible in the treatment of the caesura. In the compositions of the
French writers of the new poetry--Froissart, for example--the ten- (or
eleven-) syllable line has regularly a break after the fourth syllable.
This fourth syllable however may be either accented or not, that is,
either as in the line,
‘Se vous voulez aucune plainte faire,’
or as in the following,
‘Prenez juge qui soit de noble afaire.’
The weaker form of caesura shown in this latter line occurs in at least
ten per cent. of the verses in this measure which Froissart gives in
the _Trésor Amoureux_, and the case is much the same with the _Balades_
of Charles d’Orléans, a generation later. Gower, on the other hand,
does not admit the unaccented syllable (mute _e_ termination) in the
fourth place at all; no such line as this,
‘De ma dame que j’aime et ameray,’
is to be found in his balades. Indeed, we may go further than this,
and say that the weak syllable is seldom tolerated in the other even
places of the verse, where the English ear demanded a strongly marked
accentual beat. Such a line as
‘Vous me poetz sicom vostre demeine’ (_Bal._ xxxix. 2)
is quite exceptional.
At the same time he does not insist on ending a word on the fourth
syllable, but in seven or eight per cent. of his lines the word is run
on into the next foot, as
‘Et vous, ma dame, croietz bien cela.’
This is usually the form that the verse takes in such cases, the
syllable carried on being a mute _e_ termination, and the caesura
coming after this syllable; but lines like the following also occur, in
which the caesura is transfered to the end of the third foot:
‘Si fuisse en paradis, ceo beal manoir,’ v. 3.
‘En toute humilité sans mesprisure,’ xii. 4.
So xvi. l. 2, xx. l. 20, &c., and others again in which the syllable
carried on is an accented one, as
‘Si femme porroit estre celestine,’ xxi. 2.
‘Jeo ne sai nomer autre, si le noun;’ xxiv. 1.
It must be noticed also that the poet occasionally uses the so-called
epic caesura, admitting a superfluous unaccented syllable after the
second foot, as
‘Et pensetz, dame, de ceo q’ai dit pieça,’ ii. 3.
‘Qe mieulx voldroie morir en son servage,’ xxiii. 2.
So with _dame_, _dames_, xix. l. 20, xx. l. 13, xxxvii. l. 18, xlvi.
l. 15[K]; and with other words, xxv. l. 8, &c., _aime_, xxxiii. l. 10,
_nouche_, xxxviii. l. 23, _grace_, xliv. l. 8, _fame_. In xx. 1 the
same thing occurs exceptionally in another part of the line, the word
_roe_ counting as one syllable only, though it is a dissyllable in
_Mir._ 10942. Naturally the termination _-ée_, as in iii. 2,
‘La renomée, dont j’ai l’oreile pleine,’
does not constitute an epic caesura, because, as observed elsewhere,
the final _e_ in this case did not count as a syllable in Anglo-Norman
verse.
On the whole we may say that Gower treats the caesura with much the
same freedom as is used in the English verse of the period, and at the
same time he marks the beat of his iambic verse more strongly than was
done by the contemporary French poets.
MATTER AND STYLE.--As regards the literary character of these
compositions it must be allowed that they have, as Warton says, ‘much
real and intrinsic merit.’ There is indeed a grace and poetical feeling
in some of them which makes them probably the best things of the kind
that have been produced by English writers of French, and as good as
anything of the kind which had up to that time been written in English.
The author himself has marked them off into two unequal divisions.
The poems of the first class (i-v) express for us the security of the
accepted lover, whose suit is to end in lawful marriage:
‘Jeo sui tout soen et elle est toute moie,
Jeo l’ai et elle auci me voet avoir;
Pour tout le mond jeo ne la changeroie.’ (_Bal._ v.)
From these he passes to those expressions of feeling which apply
to lovers generally, ‘qui sont diversement travailez en la fortune
d’amour.’ Nothing can be more graceful in its way than the idea and
expression of _Bal._ viii, ‘D’estable coer, qui nullement se mue,’
where the poet’s thought is represented as a falcon, flying on the
wings of longing and desire in a moment across the sea to his absent
mistress, and taking his place with her till he shall see her again.
Once more, in _Bal._ xv, the image of the falcon appears, but this time
it is a bird which is allowed to fly only with a leash, for so bound
is the lover to his lady that he cannot but return to her from every
flight. At another time (_Bal._ xviii) the lover is in despair at the
hardness of his lady’s heart: drops of water falling will in time wear
through the hardest stone; but this example will not serve him, for
he cannot pierce the tender ears of his mistress with prayers, how
urgent and repeated soever; God and the saints will hear his prayers,
but she is harder than the marble of the quarry--the more he entreats,
the less she listens, ‘Com plus la prie, et meinz m’ad entendu.’ Again
(xiii) his state is like the month of March, now shine, now shower.
When he looks on the sweet face of his lady and sees her ‘gentilesse,’
wisdom, and bearing, he has only pure delight; but when he perceives
how far above him is her worth, fear and despair cloud over his joy, as
the moon is darkened by eclipse. But in any case he must think of her
(xxiv); she has so written her name on his heart that when he hears the
chaplain read his litany he can think of nothing but of her. God grant
that his prayer may not be in vain! Did not Pygmalion in time past
by prayer obtain that his lady should be changed from stone to flesh
and blood, and ought not other lovers to hope for the same fortune
from prayer? He seems to himself to be in a dream, and he questions
with himself and knows not whether he is a human creature or no, so
absorbed is his being by his love. God grant that his prayer may not
be in vain! He removes himself from her for a time (xxv) because of
evil speakers, who with their slanders might injure her good name; but
she must know that his heart is ever with her and that all his grief
and joy hangs upon her, ‘Car qui bien aime ses amours tard oblie.’
But (xxix) she has misunderstood his absence; report tells him that
she is angry with him. If she knew his thoughts, she would not be so
disposed towards him; this balade he sends to make his peace, for he
cannot bear to be out of her love. In another (xxxii) he expresses the
deepest dejection: the New Year has come and is proceeding from winter
towards spring, but for him there is winter only, which shrouds him
in the thickest gloom. His lady’s beauty ever increases, but there is
no sign of that kindness which should go with it; love only tortures
him and gives him no friendly greeting. To this balade there is no
Envoy, whether it be by negligence of the copyist, or because the lover
could not even summon up spirit to direct it to his mistress. Again
(xxxiii), he has given her his all, body and soul, both without recall,
as a gift for this New Year of which he has just now spoken: his sole
delight is to serve her. Will she not reward him even by a look? He
asks for no present from her, let him only have some sign which may bid
him hope, ‘Si plus n’y soit, donetz le regarder.’ The coming of Saint
Valentine encourages him somewhat (xxxiv) with the reflection that all
nature yields to love, but (xxxv) he remembers with new depression that
though birds may choose their mates, yet he remains alone. May comes on
(xxxvii), and his lady should turn her thoughts to love, but she sports
with flowers and pays no heed to the prayer of her prisoner. She is
free, but he is strongly bound; her close is full of flowers, but he
cannot enter it; in the sweet season his fortune is bitter, May is for
him turned into winter: ‘Vous estes franche et jeo sui fort lié.’
Then the lady has her say, and in accordance with the prerogative of
her sex her moods vary with startling abruptness. She has doubts (xli)
about her lover’s promises. He who swears most loudly is the most
likely to deceive, and some there are who will make love to a hundred
and swear to each that she is the only one he loves. ‘To thee, who art
one thing in the morning and at evening another, I send this balade
for thy reproof, to let thee know that I leave thee and care not for
thee.’ In xliii she is fully convinced of his treachery, he is falser
than Jason to Medea or Eneas to Dido. How different from Lancelot and
Tristram and the other good knights! ‘C’est ma dolour que fuist ainçois
ma joie.’ With this is contrasted the sentiment of xliv, in which the
lady addresses one whom she regards as the flower of chivalry and the
ideal of a lover, and to whom she surrenders unconditionally. The lady
speaks again in xlvi, and then the series is carried to its conclusion
with rather a markedly moral tone. At the end comes an address to
the Virgin, in which the author declares himself bound to serve all
ladies, but her above them all. No lover can really be without a loving
mistress, for in her is love eternal and invariable. He loves and
serves her with all his heart, and he trusts to have his reward. The
whole concludes with an Envoy addressed to ‘gentle England,’ describing
the book generally as a memorial of the joy which has come to the
poet’s country from its noble king Henry, sent by heaven to redress its
ills.
PRINTED EDITIONS.--The _Balades_ have been twice printed. They were
published by the Roxburghe Club in 1818, together with the other
contents of the Trentham MS. except the English poem, with the title
‘Balades and other Poems by John Gower. Printed from the original MS.
in the library of the Marquis of Stafford at Trentham,’ Roxburghe Club,
1818, 4to. The editor was Earl Gower. This edition has a considerable
number of small errors, several of which obscure the sense; only a
small number of copies was printed, and the book can hardly be obtained.