It is taken from Guillaume De Deguilleville's _Pèlerinage de l'Ame_, Part I, _Le Pèlerinage de la Vie humaine_. Edited from the MS. 1645, Fonds Français, in the National Library, Paris (A), and collated with the MSS. 1649 (B), 376 (C), and 377 (D), in the same collection, by Paul Meyer. I omit, however, the collations; the reader only wants a good text. Chaucer did not translate the last two stanzas. I therefore give them _here_. 'Ethiques[252] s'avoie leü, Tout recordé et tout sceü, Et après riens n'en ouvrasse Du tout seroie deceü. 280 Aussi con cil qui est cheü, En sa rois et en sa nasse. Vierge, m'ame je claim lasse, Quar en toy priant se lasse Et si ne fait point son deü. Pou vault chose que je amasse; Ma priere n'est que quasse S'a bien je ne sui esmeü. 'Contre[253] moy doubt que ne prie Ou que en vain merci ne crie. 290 Je te promet amandement; Et pour ce que je ne nie Ma promesse, je t'en lie L'ame de moy en gaigement; Puis si te pri finablement Que quant sera mon finement Tu ne me defailles mie: Pour moy soies au jugement Afin que hereditablement J'aie pardurable vie. AMEN.' 300 MS. C. affords, on the whole, the best text, and is therefore followed, all variations from it being duly noted in the footnotes, except (occasionally) when _i_ is put for _y_, or _y_ for _i_. The scribes are very capricious in the use of these letters, using them indifferently; but it is best to use _i_ when the vowel is short (as a general rule), and _y_ when it is long. Thus, _it is_ is better than _yt ys_, and _wyse_ than _wise_, in order to shew that the vowel is long in the latter case. I also use _y_ at the end of a word, as usual; as in _lady_, _my_. When the spelling of the MS. is thus slightly amended, it gives a fair text, which can easily be read with the old and true pronunciation. We may roughly divide the better MSS. into two sets, thus: (_a_) C. Gl. L. Jo.; (_b_) F. B. Gg. The rest I have not collated. See Koch, in Anglia, iv. b. 100. The metre of this poem is worthy of notice. Chaucer uses it again, in the _Former Age_ (IX), _Lenvoy to Bukton_ (XVII), and in the _Monkes Tale_. More complex examples of it, with repeated rimes, are seen in the _Balade to Rosemounde_ (XII), _Fortune_ (X), and _Venus_ (XVIII). See also the two stanzas on p. 47. § 19. II. THE COMPLEYNT UNTO PITE.