grope,

Can clepen watte, as wel as can the pope.
But who so wolde in other thing him
Than hadde he spent all his philosophie,
Ay, Questio quid juris, wolde he crie.

He was a gentil harlot and a kind;
A better felaw shulde a man not find.
He wolde suffre for a quart of wine,
A good felaw to have his concubine
A twelve month, and excuse him at the full.
Ful prively a finch eke coude he pull.
And if he found owhere a good felàwe,
He wolde techen him to have non awe
In swiche a cas of the archedekenes curse;
But if a mannès soule were in his purse;
For in his purse he shulde ypunished be.
Purse is the archèdekens helle, said he.
But wel I wote, he lied right in dede :
Of cursing ought eche gilty man him drede.
For curse wol sle right as assoiling saveth,
And also ware him of a significavit.

In danger hadde he at his owen gise
The yongè girlès of the diocise,

And knew hir conseil, and was of hir rede".
A gerlond hadde he sette upon his hede,
As gret as it were for an alèstake 3:

A bokeler hadde he made him of a cake.

The name harlot was anciently given to men as well as wo

men, and without any bad signification.

⚫ Advised.

3 An alehouse sign.

4

With him ther rode a gentil Pardonere '
Of Rouncevall 2, his frend and his compere,
That streit was comen from the court of Rome.
Ful loude he sang, Come hither, lovè, to me.
This sompnour bare to him a stiff burdoun 3,
Was never trompe of half so gret a soun.
This pardoner had here as yelwe as wax,
But smoth it heng, as doth a strike of flax :
By unces heng his lokkès that he hadde,
And therwith he his shulders overspradde.
Ful thinne it lay, by culpons on and on,
But hode, for jolite, ne wered he non,
For it was trussed up in his wallet.

5

6

Him thought he rode al of the newè get,
Dishevele, sauf his cappe, he rode all bare.
Swiche glaring eyen hadde he, as an hare.
A vernicle hadde he sewed upon his cappe.
His wallet lay beforne him in his lappe,
Bret-ful' of pardon come from Rome al hote.
A vois he hadde, as smale as hath a gote.
No berd hadde he, ne never non shulde have,
As smothe it was as it were newè shave;
I trowe he were a gelding or a mare.

But of his craft, fro Berwike unto Ware,
Ne was ther swiche an other pardonere.
For in his male he hadde a pilwebere9,

Which, as he saidè, was oure ladies veil :
He saide, he hadde a gobbet1 of the seyl 2
Thatte seint Peter had, whan that he went
Upon the see, till Jesu Crist him hent3.
He had a crois of laton 4 ful of stones,
And in a glas he haddè piggès bones.
But with these relikes, whannè that he fond
A pourè persone dwelling up on lond,
Upon a day he gat him more moneie

Than that the persone gat in monethes tweie.
And thus with fained flattering and japes 5,
He made the persone, and the peple, his apes".
But trewèly to tellen atté last,

He was in chirche a noble ecclesiast.
Wel coude he rede a lesson or a storie,
But alderbest he sang an offertorie3:
For wel he wistè, whan that song was songe,
He mustè preche, and wel afile9 his tonge,
To winnè silver, as he right wel coude :
Therfore he sang the merrier and loude.

JOHN GOWER.

LITTLE is known of Gower's personal history. "The proud tradition in the Marquis of Stafford's family," says Mr. Todd', " has been, and still is, that he was of Stitenham; and who would not consider the dignity of his genealogy augmented, by enrolling among its worthies the moral Gower?"

His effigies in the church of St. Mary Overies is often inaccurately described, as having a garland of ivy and roses on the head. It is, in fact, a chaplet of roses, such, as Thynne says, was anciently worn by knights; a circumstance which is favourable to the suspicion, that has been suggested, of his having been of the rank of knighthood. If Thynne's assertion, respecting the time of the lawyers first entering the Temple, be correct, it will be difficult to reconcile it with the tradition of Gower's having been a student there in his youth.

By Chaucer's manner of addressing Gower, the latter appears to have been the elder. He was attached to Thomas of Woodstock, as Chaucer was to John of Gaunt. The two poets appear to have been at one time cordial friends, but ultimately to

1 In Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer by the Rev. H. Todd.

have quarrelled. Gower tells us himself that he was blind in his old age. From his will, it appears that he was living in 1408. His bequests to several churches and hospitals, and his legacy to his wife of 100%., of all his valuable goods, and of the rents arising from his manors of Southwell in the county of Nottingham, and of Multon in the county of Suffolk, undeniably prove that he was rich.

One of his three great works, the Speculum Meditantis, a poem in French, is erroneously described by Mr. Godwin and others as treating of conjugal fidelity. In an account of its contents, in a MS. in Trinity College Cambridge, we are told that its principal subject is the repentance of a sinner The Vox Clamantis, in Latin, relates to the insurrection of the commons, in the reign of Richard II. The Confessio Amantis, in English, is a dialogue between a lover and his confessor, who is a priest of Venus, and who explains, by apposite stories and philosophical illustrations, all the evil affections of the heart, which impede, or counteract the progress and success of the tender passion.

His writings exhibit all the crude erudition and science of his age; a knowledge sufficient to have been the fuel of genius, if Gower had possessed its fire.