XXV. VIRELAY. This piece, from the Trinity MS., belongs to the end of the fifteenth century, and contains no example of the final _-e_ as constituting a syllable. Chaucer would have used _sore_ (l. 2), _more_ (l. 12), _trouth_ (l. 13), as dissyllables; and he would not have rimed _pleyn_ and _disdayn_ with _compleyn_ and _absteyn_, as the two latter require a final _-e_. The rime of _finde_ with _ende_ is extraordinary. The title 'Virelai' is given to this piece in Moxon's Chaucer, and is, strictly speaking, incorrect; in the MS. and in Stowe's edition, it has no title at all! Tyrwhitt cautiously spoke of it as being 'perhaps by Chaucer'; and says that 'it comes nearer to the description of a _Virelay_, than anything else of his that has been preserved.' This is not the case; see note to Anelida, 256; vol. i. p. 536. Tyrwhitt quotes from Cotgrave--'_Virelay_, a round, freemen's song,' and adds--'There is a particular description of a _Virlai_, in the _Jardin de plaisance_, fol. xii, where it makes the _decima sexta species Rhetorice Gallicane_.' For further remarks, see p. 554. XXVI. PROSPERITY: BY JOHN WALTON. 'To Mr. [Mark] Liddell belongs the honour of the discovery of John Walton as the author of the little poem on fol. 119 [of MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24]. The lines occur as part of the Prologue (ll. 83-90) to Walton's translation of Boethius' _De Consolatione_.'--J. T. T. Brown, _The Authorship of the Kingis Quair_, Glasgow, 1896; p. 71. See the account of Walton in Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, sect. xx. The original date of the stanza was, accordingly, 1410; but we here find it in a late Scottish dress. The ascription of it to 'Chaucer,' in the MS., is an obvious error; it was written ten years after his death. XXVII. LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE. This piece, like the former, has no title in the MS.; but the words _Leaulte vault Richesse_ (Loyalty deserves riches) occur at the end of it. If the original was in a Midland dialect, it must belong to the latter part of the fifteenth century. Even in these eight lines we find a contradiction to Chaucer's usage; for he always uses _lent_, pp., as a monosyllable, and _rent-e_ as a dissyllable. It is further remarkable that he never uses _content_ as an adjective; it first appears in Rom. Rose, 5628. XXVIII. SAYINGS. I give these sayings as printed by Caxton; see vol. i. p. 46, where I note that Caxton did not ascribe them to Chaucer. They are not at all in his style. In MS. Ashmole 59, fol. 78, I find a similar prophecy:-- _Prophecia merlini doctoris perfecti._ Whane lordes wol leefe theire olde lawes, And preestis been varyinge in theire sawes, And leccherie is holden solace, And oppressyou_n_ for truwe p_ur_chace; And whan the moon is on dauid stall, And the kynge passe Arthures hall, Than[44] is [the] lande of Albyon Nexst to his confusyoun. It is extremely interesting to observe the ascription of these lines to _Merlin_; see King Lear, iii. 2. 95.