79. _Penaunce_, great trouble. The great trouble was caused, not by
Chaucer's having any difficulty in finding rimes (witness his other
Ballads), but in having to find rimes, to translate somewhat closely, and
yet to adapt the poem in a way acceptable to the 'princess,' all at once.
See further in the Introduction.
Chaucer's translation of the A B C should be compared; for there, in every
stanza, he begins by translating rather closely, but ends by deviating
widely from the original in many instances, merely because he wanted to
find rimes to words which he had already selected.
Moreover, the difficulty was much increased by the great number of lines
ending with the same rime. There are but 8 different endings in the 72
lines of the poem, viz. 6 lines ending in _-ure_, _-able_, _-yse_, and
_-ay_, and 12 in _-aunce_, _-esse_, _-ing_, and _-ente_. In the Envoy,
Chaucer purposely limits himself to 2 endings, viz. _-ee_ and _-aunce_, as
a proof of his skill.
81. _Curiositee_, i. e. intricacy of metre. The line is too long. I would
read _To folwe in word the curiositee_; and thus get rid of the puzzling
phrase _word by word_, which looks like a gloss.
82. _Graunson._ He is here called the flower of the poets of France. He
was, accordingly, not an Englishman. According to Shirley, he was a knight
of Savoy, which is correct. Sir Oto de Graunson received an annuity of £126
13s. 4d. from Richard II., in November, 1393, for services rendered; see
the mention of him in the Patent Rolls, 17 Rich. II., p. 1, no. 339, sixth
skin; printed in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 123. It is there expressly
said that his sovereign _seigneur_ was the Count of Savoy, but he had taken
an oath of allegiance to the king of England. The same Graunson received a
payment from Richard in 1372, and at other times. See the article by Dr.
Piaget referred to in the Introduction.