Tiel come tu es je autie fu, Tu seras til come je su. De la mort ne peusay-je mie Tant come j'avoy la vie. En terre avoy grand richesse Dont je y fis grand noblesse, Terre, mesons et grand tresor, Draps, chivalx, argent et or, Mes ore su-je povres et cheitifs, Perfond en la terre gys, Ma grand beaute est tout alee ... Et si ore me veissez, Je ne quide pas qe vous deeisez Qe j'eusse onqes hom este. (Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.") [586] Compiled in France in 1395. Lecoy de la Marche, "la Chaire francaise au moyen age," 2nd ed., Paris, 1886, 8vo, p. 334. [587] MS. R. iii. 20, in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, fol. 33. In the same MS.: "A roundell made ... by my lorde therlle of Suffolk": Quel desplaysier, quel courous quel destresse, Quel griefs, quelx mauls viennent souvent d'amours, &c. (fol. 36). The author is the famous Earl, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beaten by Joan of Arc, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and was beheaded in 1450. For ballads of the same kind, by Gower, see below, p. 367. The same taste reigned in France; without mentioning Charles d'Orleans, Pierre de Beauveau writes: "Le joyeulx temps passe souloit estre occasion que je faisoie de plaisant diz et gracieuses chanconnetes et balades." "Nouvelles Francoises du XIVe Siecle," ed. Moland and d'Hericault, 1858, p. 303. [588] "Visions concerning Piers Plowman," A. Prol. l. 103, written about 1362-3. See following Chapter. [589] "Parson's Tale."--"Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 581. [590] "Munimenta Gildhallae Londiniensis."--"Liber albus, Liber custumarum; Liber Horn," Rolls, 1859, ed. Riley. The regulations (in French) relating to the Pui are drawn from the "Liber Custumarum," compiled in 1320 (14 Ed. II.), pp. 216 ff. "The poetical competitions called _puis_," established in the north of France, "seem to have given rise to German and Dutch imitations, such as the _Master Singers_ and the _Chambers of Rhetoric_." G. Paris, "Litterature francaise au moyen age," paragraph 127. To these we can add the English imitation which now occupies us. [591] "Songs and Carols now first printed," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo, p. 4. [592] For hortyng of here hosyn Non inclinare laborant. In the same piece, large collars, wide sleeves, big spurs are satirised. Th. Wright, "Political Poems and Songs from Ed. III. to Ric. III.," Rolls, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 275. [593] "Political Poems," _ibid._, vol. i. p. 263. [594] The greater part of those that have come down to us are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but Robin was very popular, and his praises were sung as early as the fourteenth century. The lazy parson in Langland's Visions confesses that he is incapable of chanting the services: But I can rymes of Robin Hood | and Randolf erle of Chestre. Ed. Skeat, text B. v. 402. See above, p. 224.