Fragments B and C are printed in smaller type, to mark their distinction from Fragment A; and the corresponding French text is omitted, to save space. * * * * * THE MINOR POEMS. § 1. It has been usual, in editions of Chaucer's Works, to mingle with those which he is known to have written, a heterogeneous jumble of poems by Gower, Lydgate, Hoccleve, Henrysoun, and various anonymous writers (some of quite late date), and then to accept a quotation from any one of them as being a quotation 'from Chaucer.' Some principle of selection is obviously desirable; and the first question that arises is, naturally, this: which of the Minor Poems are genuine? The list here given partly coincides with that adopted by Dr. Furnivall in the publications of the Chaucer Society. I have, however, added six, here numbered VI, XI, XII, XXI, XXII, and XXIII; my reasons for doing so are given below, where each poem is discussed separately. At the same time, I have omitted the poem entitled 'The Mother of God,' which is known to have been written by Hoccleve. The only known copy of it is in a MS. now in the library of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, which contains sixteen poems, all of which are by the same hand, viz. that of Hoccleve. After all, it is only a translation; still, it is well and carefully written, and the imitation of Chaucer's style is good. In determining which poems have the best right to be reckoned as Chaucer's, we have to consider both the external and the internal evidence. We will therefore consider, in the first place, the external evidence generally. § 2. TESTIMONY OF CHAUCER REGARDING HIS WORKS. The most important evidence is that afforded by the poet himself. In an Introduction prefixed to the Man of Law's Prologue (Cant. Tales, B 57), he says-- 'In youth he made of _Ceys and Alcion_'-- a story which is preserved at the beginning of the Book of the Duchesse. In the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women (see vol. iii.), he refers to his translation of the Romaunce of the Rose, and to his Troilus; and, according to MS. Fairfax 16, ll. 417-423, he says-- 'He made the book that hight the _Hous of Fame_, And eke the Deeth of _Blaunche the Duchesse_, And the _Parlement of Foules_, as I gesse, And al the love of Palamon and Arcite Of Thebes, thogh the story ys knowen lyte, And many an ympne for your halydayes That highten Balades, Roundels, Virelayes,' &c. The rest of the passage does not immediately concern us, excepting ll. 427, 428, where we find-- 'He made also, goon ys a grete while, _Origenes vpon the Maudeleyne_.' In the copy of the same Prologue, as extant in MS. Gg. 4. 27, in the Cambridge University Library, there are two additional lines, doubtless genuine, to this effect-- 'And of the _wrechede engendrynge of mankynde_, As man may in pope Innocent I-fynde.'