One point about this poem is its very peculiar metre; the 5-line stanza, riming _a a b b a_, is certainly rare. If the question arises, whence is it copied, the answer is clear, viz. from Chaucer's Envoy to his Compleint to his Purse. This is a further reason for dating it later than 1399. 32. _Balade with envoy_; 'O leude book,' &c. Printed in Bell's Chaucer, iv. 347, and in Morris's Chaucer, iv. 85, as if it were part of The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; but obviously unconnected with it. A Balade in the usual form, viz. three 7-line stanzas, with a refrain; the refrain is--'For of all good she is the best living.' The envoy consists of only six lines, instead of seven, rimed _a b a b c c_, and that for a sufficient reason, which has not been hitherto observed. The initial letters of the lines form, in fact, an anagram on the name ALISON; which is therefore the name of the lady to whom the Balade is addressed. There is a copy of this poem in MS. Fairfax 16, and another in MS. Tanner 346. It is therefore as old as the 15th century. But to attribute to Chaucer the fourth line of the Envoy seems hazardous. It runs thus--'Suspiries whiche I effunde in silence.' Perhaps it is Hoccleve's. 38. _Poem in two 7-line stanzas._ There is nothing to connect this with Chaucer; and it is utterly unworthy of him. I now quote the whole poem, just as it stands in the edition of 1561:-- 'Go foorthe king, rule thee by Sapience, Bishoppe, be able to minister doctrine, Lorde, to true counsale yeue audience, Womanhode, to chastitie euer encline; Knight, let thy deedes worship determine; Be righteous, Iudge, in sauyng thy name; Rich, do almose, lest thou lese blisse w_i_t_h_ shame. 'People, obeie your kyng and the lawe; Age, be ruled by good religion; True seruaunt, be dredfull & kepe the vnder awe; And, thou poore, fie on presumpcion; Inobedience to youth is vtter destruccion; Remembre you, how God hath set you, lo! And doe your parte, as ye be ordained to.' In l. 7, ed. 1532 has _almesse_ instead of _almose_. Surely it must be Lydgate's. Many of his poems exhibit similar catalogues, if I may so term them. I have now gone through all the poems published in 1532 and copied into the later editions (with the exception of nos. 66-68, for which see p. 45); and I see no way of augmenting the list of Chaucer's Minor Poems any further from this source. § 11. DISCUSSION OF THE POEMS IN PART II. OF ED. 1561. It is hardly worth while to discuss at length all the poems which it pleased John Stowe to fling together into the edition of 1561. But a few remarks may be useful.