To Professor Lounsbury, who has published an edition of the Parliament of Foules, though I have not made much use of it. On the other hand, I am deeply indebted to him, as many other Chaucer students must be also, for his great work, in three large volumes, entitled Studies in Chaucer. I would draw particular attention to his excellent chapters on Chaucer's Life, in which he separates the true accounts from the false, giving the latter under the title of 'The Chaucer Legend,' in a chapter which is highly instructive and furnishes a good example of true criticism. The subjects entitled 'The Text of Chaucer,' 'The Writings of Chaucer,' 'The Learning of Chaucer,' 'Chaucer in Literary History,' and 'Chaucer as a Literary Artist' are all admirably handled, and command, in general, the reader's assent; though he may wish, at times, that the material could have been condensed into a shorter space. It seems invidious, in the midst of so much that is good and acceptable, to express any adverse criticism; but it is difficult to believe that the linguistic part of the work is as sound as that which is literary; and many must hope that a time may come when the author will cease to maintain that The Romaunt of the Rose, in its known form, is all the product of one author. However this may be, it should be clearly understood that I fully recognise and thankfully acknowledge the general value of this helpful book. It is a special pleasure to record that (by no means in this work alone) the study of Chaucer has received much encouragement from America. Dr. Piaget has completely solved the construction of the Compleynt of Venus, by his recovery of the three original Balades by Sir Otes de Granson, which are somewhat freely translated by Chaucer in this poem. See vol. i. pp. 86, 559. The best general commentary on Boethius is the essay by Mr. H. F. Stewart; see vol. ii. p. x. The best commentary on Troilus is Mr. W. M. Rossetti's line by line collation of Chaucer's work with the Filostrato of Boccaccio. Besides this, remarkably little has been done with regard to this important poem, with the splendid exception of the Remarks on the Language of 'Troilus' by Prof. Kitteredge, only recently issued by the Chaucer Society. I have already acknowledged the usefulness of Dr. Willert's dissertation on the House of Fame; see vol. iii. p. xiii. Also of the articles by Dr. Koch; see the same, p. xv; and of the article by Rambeau, which is surely somewhat extravagant, though right in the main contention. Of the Legend of Good Women it has already been said that the chief article is that by Bech (vol. iii. p. xli); and that some useful notes are given by Corson. The discovery that the Prologue exists in two separate forms, both of them being genuine, was really made by Mr. Henry Bradshaw, who was familiar with the Cambridge MS. (which contains the earlier version) for some time before he disclosed the full significance of it.