The 'Flour of Curtesye' is intended as a portrait of one whom the poet honours as the best of womankind. The character is evidently founded on that of Alcestis as described in the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women; and throughout the piece we are frequently reminded of Chaucer; especially of the Legend, the Complaint of Mars, and the Parliament of Foules. The Envoy presents a very early example of the four-line stanza, similar to that employed in Gray's famous Elegy. § 37. X. A BALADE IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY. This piece is attributed to 'Lidegate of Bury' in the Ashmole MS. no. 59; and the ascription is obviously correct. It abounds with evident marks of his peculiar style of metre; for which see Schick's Introduction to the Temple of Glas, p. lvi. We note in it a few reminiscences of Chaucer, as pointed out in the Notes; in particular, it was probably suggested by Chaucer's A B C, which furnished hints for ll. 27, 60, and 129. It is perhaps worth while to add that we have thus an independent testimony for the genuineness of that poem. As an illustration of Lydgate's verse, I may notice the additional syllable after the cæsura, which too often clogs his lines. Thus in l. 8 we must group the syllables thus:-- Wherefór : now pláynly : I wól : my stýlë : dréssë. Similarly, we find _lícour_ in l. 13, _pítè_ (18), _líving_ (24), _bémës_ (25), _gínning_ (31), _mércy_ (33), _gárden_ (36), &c., all occupying places where a monosyllable would have been more acceptable. The poem is strongly marked by alliteration, shewing that the poet (usually in a hurry) took more than usual pains with it. In the seventh stanza (43-49) this tendency is unmistakably apparent. It is hardly possible to assign a date to a poem of this character. I can only guess it to belong to the middle period of his career; say, the reign of Henry V. We have not yet obtained sufficient data for the arrangement of Lydgate's poems. § 38. Lines 121-127 are here printed for the first time. In the old editions, l. 120 is succeeded by l. 128, with the result that _Sion_ (120) would not rime with _set afere_ (129); but the scribe of the Ashmole MS. was equal to the emergency, for he altered l. 129 so as to make it end with _fuyrless thou sette vppon_, which is mere nonsense. Thynne has _fyrelesse fyre set on_, which is just a little better.