Al thogh his lyfe be queynt, the resemblaunce extinguished Of him hath in me so fressh lyflynesse liveliness That to putte othir men in remembraunce Of his persone I have heere his lyknesse likeness Do make, to this end in sothfastnesse, had made (_faire faire_), truth That thei that have of him lest thought and mynde lost By this peynture may ageyn him fynde. painting Although his life be quench’d, so clear doth lie Within my mind the living look of him, That to put other men in memory Of his appearance, here his face I limn, That they to whom his image groweth dim, And they that have of him lost thought and mind, By this poor portrait may again him find. The portraits by Occleve, his personal friend and disciple, whose deep affection for Chaucer is touchingly reiterated in his ‘Lament’ for him, maybe relied on as most conscientious pictures from memory of the great poet’s habitual appearance. Notes on the Woodcuts. THE TOURNAMENT. (See Title-page.)--There must always have been, to some extent, a grotesque element in the Tournament. The desire to be conspicuous forced the combatants to assume the gayest and the biggest decoration. At a later date the tilting helmets sprouted into the most preposterous sizes and shapes. Figures and ‘favours’ assumed for the occasion, the gifts of enthusiastic lady-loves, as well as hereditary devices, surmounted the helm and glittered on coat-armour and harness. In Edward III.’s reign the beauty and _éclat_ of the tourney was in its zenith; in Richard II.’s the beautiful began to be overpowered by the grotesque. I have tried to tone down the grotesque as much as may be, but a general dazzle and confusion of colour is inseparable from the scene, vivid, violent, and exciting as it was. Tents were often erected within the pale of the lists for the convenience of those awaiting or _hors de combat_. Shields or targets, for _peace_ or _war_, were suspended in couples before them, emblazoned with the arms of each lord; and whoso sent to touch the targets was tilted with according to his wish--_i.e._, with sharp or blunt lances. The end of Theseus’ tourney was clearly a riot, but I have preferred to represent the orderly onset of the first combatants, guided by a MS. Froissart of the fifteenth century. It has been suggested to me that it would be impossible to tilt across the bar unless the spear-arm were next the bar, as the horse’s neck would impede the stroke, and the rider’s own spear would unhorse him: in tent-pegging and all sports with the lance the rider brings his spear-arm next the mark. But having found several early miniatures in which the spear is aimed as here given, I considered myself justified in trusting to contemporary MSS. in spite of modern theories.