are all acknowledged by himself; and the internal evidence not only at once confirms their genuineness, but affords us plentiful information as to style, dialect, grammar, prosody, and rimes, such as may help us to judge the more confidently as to his other supposed works. He also clearly acknowledges the two prose treatises, viz.: the translation of Boethius, and the treatise on the Astrolabe; and, when we have included these, we already feel sure as to all his principal productions. To these we may add such as are attributed to him on good MS. authority, and as to which there has never been any doubt, viz.: the poem called Chaucer's A.B.C.,' attributed to him in some verses extant in MS. Cotton, Vitellius, C. xiii., leaf 255; the Complaint to Pite,' "made by Geffrey Chaucier the aureat poete," as is said at the head of the copy in MS. Harl. 78, leaf 80; The Complaint of Mars,' "made by Geffrey Chaucier at the comandement of the renomed and excellent Prynce my lord the duc John of Lancastre,” as said in MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3, 20, p. 130; The Complaint of Venus,' which belongs to the foregoing, though written at a later period; the poem called Anelida and Arcite,' written by the author of The Knight's Tale,' but at an early period, and subsequently made use of to furnish some lines both in that tale and in The Squire's Tale;' and a few other minor poems, as to which there has never been any doubt. The following is a complete list of Chaucer's works, in an (approximately) chronological order, which I have mainly taken from Mr. Furnivall's Trial Forewords,' published for the Chaucer Society in 1871.

Chaucer's 'A.B.C.,' or 'La Priere de Nostre Dame.'

'Compleynte to Pite;' sometimes called 'The Compleynte of the Deth of Pite.'

'Deth of Blaunche;' otherwise called 'The Booke of the Duchesse;' written A.D. 1369.

Lyf of Seinte Cecile;' afterwards inserted into the Can terbury Tales,' as 'The Second Nun's Tale.')

The Parlement of Foules,' or 'The Assembly of Foules.' 'The Complaint of Mars.'

'Anelida and Arcite.'

'Boethius de Consolatione Philosophia;' a translation in prose.

"The Former Age, or Etas Prima;' printed at p. 180 of Dr. Morris's edition of the translation of Boethius. It is a poetical version from Boethius, entitled 'Chaucer vpon this fyfte metur of the second book.'

Troilus and Criseyde.'

Chaucer's words to his scrivener Adam.'

"The House of Fame;' about A.D. 1384.

"The Legend of Good Women;' the earliest work in the metre known as the "heroic couplet."

'The Canterbury Tales;' about A.D. 1386.

•Good Counseil of Chaucer;' or Truth,' or 'Fle from the Pres;' said to have been his last work, and, if so, to be put lower down.

Moder of God, and Virgin Undefouled.'

Two Proverbes' (eight lines only, with sixteen spurious and unconnected lines sometimes appended).

A Treatise on the Astrolabe;' A.D. 1391; in prose.

The Complaint of Venus.'

Lenvoy to Scogan.'

'Lenvoy to Bukton.'

Gentilesse:' a poem quoted in full by Scogan.

'Lacke of Stedfastnesse;' or, 'A Ballad sent to King Richard ;' about A.D. 1397.

'Ballade de Visage saunz Peinture; also, incorrectly, called 'A Ballade of the Village (sic) without Painting.' 'Compleint to his Purse;' A.D. 1399.

Besides the above, we know of at least four works that are now lost. These are (1) 'Origenes upon the Magdalene,' mentioned in the prologue to "The Legend of Good Women,' for which a poem by another author, entitled a Lamentation of Mary Magdalen,' was substituted in the old editions, owing to a certain similarity in the title; (2) The Book of the Lion,' mentioned near the end of The Parson's Tale;' (3) a translation of Pope Innocent's treatise, 'De Miseria Conditionis Humanæ;' this is mentioned

in the Cambridge MS. of The Legend of Good Women,' which contains a passage somewhat different from the printed copies; and (4) a translation of The Romaunt of the Rose;' on which see some further remarks below.

The above works are all undoubtedly and admittedly Chaucer's; and it is to be remembered that the evidence in their favour is double, viz. external and internal. For other works (which is the strong part of the case) the supposed evidence breaks down doubly; for whilst the internal evidence against them is weighty, the external evidence in their favour fails at the same time. It is this circumstance which renders it so easy to draw up a correct list.

Of the remaining poems which have been admitted into most editions, and are to be found in the present one, the most remarkable and valuable is The Romaunt of the Rose.' Chaucer tells us himself that he translated the French poem so called; and there is extant, in a MS. at Glasgow, a considerable fragment of a translation which was made in the fourteenth century, and which I believe can be shown to have been originally composed in a dialect much more northern than that of London. The early editors, coming across this translation, naturally enough concluded that it was Chaucer's, but there is, in fact, nothing to connect it with him externally. It is not marked as his in the MS.; and a considerable portion of it is deficient, so that it does not contain, e.g., the passage which Chaucer copies in his 'Doctoures Tale' (see Tyrwhitt's note to Cant. Ta. 12,074), nor yet that which he copies in his story of Nero in the Monkes Tale.' And when it comes to be examined carefully, it presents, to those who have eyes to see, and who are sufficiently acquainted with Middle-English to apprehend, such clear and consistent evidences of an original northern origin, as to

settle the question beyond all doubt.* To which may be added that it transgresses, over and over again, the laws of Chaucer's prosody as obtained from his genuine works, and contains several rimes such as he never employs. In a word, the particular translation of the Romaunt which we now possess, and which we must value because it is all we have, is by another hand.

The Complaynt of the Black Knight,' or 'Complaynt of a Loveres Life' is now known, on MS. authority, to be Lydgate's; and the critic who knows Lydgate's style will not dispute this. The references in it to Chaucer's 'Legend of Good Women,' and to Arcite and Palemoun' are not without their special interest.

'The Cuckow and Nightingale' was no doubt inserted amongst Chaucer's works because the first two lines coincide with two lines in The Knight's Tale.' There is nothing else to connect the poem with Chaucer, and the evidence from the rimes is against it. It comes, however, much nearer to Chaucer's style than most of the spurious poems.

The Flower and the Leaf' purports to have been written by a woman, and no doubt was so; the language is so clearly that of the fifteenth century (and not very early in the century either), that it is impossible to connect it with Chaucer. It contradicts the laws of prosody, and of rime, as deduced from his genuine works. The riming of "pleasure" with "desire" in stanza seventeen, is enough to make the most credulous person pause and reflect. Still it is, on its own merits, a pretty poem enough.

The poem entitled 'Chaucer's Dream' is absent

* I have made, for my own use, a considerable list of rimes in the Romaunt which agree, not with those in Chaucer, but with those in Barbour's Bruce!

I give one example. Thore (there) is rimed with more. Chaucer writes ther, morè, which cannot rime. Barbour writes thar, mar, a perfect rime. See R. R., 1853.

from the four earliest editions. It was first printed in 1598, so that there is, of course, no authority for connecting it with Chaucer beyond the title; and the title merely means, if rightly understood, that it is an attempt (and an unsuccessful one) to imitate Chaucer's style and language. The author says that it is "in evil English," and calls himself "a sleepy writer;" but it is, on its own merits, not so " evil written" after all. One curious characteristic is the astounding length of the sentences. There is no full stop in some editions, before the end of the seventieth line; and the reader who is curious in this matter may find plenty of similar examples. It is needless to say that it is not Chaucer's, but an imitation of him. The final e, so common in Chaucer, is here very rare, and the language is that of the fifteenth, not of the fourteenth century.

Of all the pieces attributed to Chaucer, none are so utterly unlike him as The Court of Love.' The language can scarcely be said to belong even to the fifteenth century, but belongs rather to the reign of Henry the VIII., or even later. It is known, too, how it came to be inserted into the much containing and singularly comprehensive volume which bears the title above-mentioned, viz., Chaucer's Woorkes, with diuers Addicions.' It first appeared in the edition of 1561, when John Stowe, who was casting about for what he might include in his edition, came across a copy of it, which now happens to be bound up with a copy of The Legend of Good Women,' and may have been similarly bound up in his days; whereupon he straightway inserted it. Fortunately, the very MS. in question is still preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge (marked R. 3. 19), and we can tell for ourselves, by inspection, that it is unconnected with the Chaucer poems, and not to be dated at all earlier, but rather considerably later than A.D. 1500, which is also the date with