Part I. It would be a gross libel to ascribe this poem to Chaucer, as it is

very poor, and contains execrable rimes (such as _prysoun_, _bycome_; _apply-e_, _pyte_; _thee_, _dy-e_). But we may easily see that the title is likely to give rise to a misconception. It does not really mean that the _poem itself_ is by Chaucer, but that it gives a brief epitome of the 'Cronicle made by Chaucier' of 'the nyene worshipfullest Ladyes.' And, in fact, it does this. Each stanza briefly describes one of the nine women celebrated in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women. It is sufficient to add that the author makes a ludicrous mistake, which is quite enough to acquit Chaucer of having had any hand in this wholly valueless production; for he actually addresses 'quene Alceste' as sorrowing for 'Seyse her husbande.' _Seyse_ is Chaucer's _Ceyx_, and _Alceste_ is the author's comic substitution for _Alcyone_; see Book of the Duchess, l. 220. This is not a fault of the scribe; for _Alceste_ rimes with _byheste_, whereas _Alcione_ does not. I much suspect that Shirley wrote this poem _himself_. His verses, in MS. Addit. 16165, are very poor.

TN. (Tanner 346) is a fair MS. of the 15th century, and contains, besides six of the Minor Poems, the _Legend of Good Women_, Hoccleve's _Letter of Cupid_ (called _litera Cupidinis dei Amoris directa subditis suis Amatoribus_), the _Cuckoo and Nightingale_ (called the _god of loue_), Lydgate's _Temple of Glas_ and _Black Knight_, &c. One of them is the Ballad no. 32 discussed above (p. 40). At fol. 73 is a poem in thirteen 8-line stanzas, beginning 'As ofte as syghes ben in herte trewe.' One stanza begins with these lines:--

'As ofte tymes as Penelapye Renewed her werk in the _raduore_,' &c.

I quote this for the sake of the extremely rare Chaucerian word spelt _radevore_ in the Legend of Good Women. The same line occurs in another copy of the same poem in MS. Ff., fol. 12, back.

AR. (Arch. Seld. B. 24) is a Scottish MS., apparently written in 1472, and contains, amongst other things, the unique copy of the _Kingis Quair_, by James I. of Scotland. This is the MS. wherein the scribe attributes pieces to Chaucer quite recklessly: see p. 47. It is also the authority for the pieces called _Prosperity_ and _Leaulte vault Richesse_. Here, once more, we find the _Letter of Cupid_ and the _Cuckoo and Nightingale_; it is remarkable how often these poems occur in the same MS. It also contains _Troilus_ and the _Legend of Good Women_.

D. (Digby 181) contains, besides two of the Minor Poems, an imperfect copy of Troilus; also the _Letter of Cupid_ and _Complaint of the Black Knight_. At fol. 52 is a piece entitled 'Here Bochas rep_re_uyth hem that yeue hasti credence to eu_er_y reporte or tale'; and it begins--'All-though so be in eu_er_y maner age'; in nineteen 7-line stanzas. This is doubtless a part of