Chaucer : The Minor Poems. Edited by the Rev. Walter
W. Skeat, Litt.D. (Clarendon Press.)—Professor Skeat begins by discussing the question of the genuineness of the minor poems attributed to Chaucer, after first giving the materials that exist for forming a critical judgment. He examines in detail Stowe's edition of 1561. Part I. of this edition contains forty-one pieces, two of which are in prose (the translation from Boethius and the Astrolabie), three others being the " Canterbury Tales," " Troilus," and the " Legend of Good Women." This leaves a balance of thirty-six. Fourteen out of these Professor Skeat accepts. Out of the Second Part five are admitted. Another piece, "A. B. C.," is taken out of Speght's edition of 1602. " A Compleint to his Lady " is given on the authority of Shirley ; and, finally, two pieces that have not been printed before have been discovered in the MSS. by the editor himself. Here is the last stanza of the second of these, numbered xxiii. in Professor Skeat's edition :—
" Beseching you in my most humble wyse Taccepte in worth this litel poore dyte, And for my trouthe my service oat despyse, Mine observaunce eek have nut in despyte, Ne yit to long to suff re in this plyte, I you besecho, min hertes lady dere, Sith I you serve, and so wil yeere by yeero."
"I had not read four lines," says Professor Skeat in his intro- duction, "before I at once recognised the well-known melodious flow,"—a remark the justice of which any reader who knows how to read the verse will recognise. Various readings are subjoined to each page; notes follow ; and finally we have a glossarial index. One can hardly doubt that this will be the standard edition, as settling both the text and the interpretation of Chaucer.
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