68. _Sayings._ Really three separate pieces. They are all found on the fly-leaf of the small quarto edition of Caxton, described above, p. 27. When Caxton printed Chaucer's _Anelida_ and _Purse_ on a quire of ten leaves, it so happened that he only filled up nine of them. But, after adding _explicit_ at the bottom of the ninth leaf, to shew that he had come to the end of his Chaucer, he thought it a pity to waste space, and so added three popular sayings on the front of leaf 10, leaving the back of it still blank. Here is what he printed:-- 'Whan feyth failleth in prestes sawes And lordes hestes ar holden for lawes And robbery is holden purchas And lechery is holden solas Than shal the lond of albyon Be brought to grete confusio_u_n. Hit falleth for euery gentilman To saye the best that he can In mannes absence And the soth in his presence. 'Hit cometh by kynde of gentil blode To cast away al heuynes And gadre to-gidre wordes good The werk of wisedom berith witnes Et sic est finis ****.' The first of these sayings was probably a bit of popular rime, of the character quoted in Shakespeare's _King Lear_, iii. 2. 81. Shakespeare calls his lines _Merlin's_ prophecy; and it has pleased the editors of Chaucer to call the first six lines _Chaucer's_ Prophecy[234]. They appear in Bell's Chaucer, vol. iii. p. 427, in an 'improved' form, not worth discussing; and the last eight lines are also printed in the same, vol. iv. p. 426. Why they are separated, is mysterious. Those who think them genuine may thank me for giving them Caxton's spelling instead of Speght's. § 13. PIECES ADDED IN MORRIS'S EDITION, 1866. In Morris's edition are some pieces which either do not appear in previous editions, or were first printed later than 1700. 69. Roundel; pr. in vol. vi. p. 304. The same as Merciless Beaute; here printed as no. XI. It first appeared, however, in Percy's Reliques of English Poetry. See p. 80 below. 70. The Former Age; pr. in vol. vi. p. 300, for the first time. Here printed as no. IX. See p. 78. 71. _Prosperity_; pr. in vol. vi. p. 296, for the first time. This is taken from MS. Arch. Selden B. 24, fol. 119, where it follows Chaucer's Poem on 'Truth.' It has but one stanza of eight lines, and I here give it precisely as it stands in this Scottish MS.:-- 'Richt as pou_er_t causith sobirnes, And febilnes enforcith contenence, Ry_ch_t so prosperitee and grete riches The moder is of vice and negligence; And powere also causith Insolence; And hono_ur_ oftsiss changith gude thewis; Thare is no more p_er_ilouss pestilence Than hie estate geven vnto schrewis. Q_uo_d Chaucere.'