No. 59. _The Court of Love._ Printed below, at p. 409. No. 60 is a genuine poem; and no. 61 is Lydgate's Story of Thebes. And here Stowe's performance ceases. § 4. The subsequent additions made by Speght are discussed in vol. i. pp. 43-46. Of these, The Flower and the Leaf, Jack Upland, and Hoccleve's poem to Henry V, are here reprinted; and Chaucer's ABC is genuine. He also reprinted the Sayings at p. 450. The pieces not reprinted here are Chaucer's Dream and Eight Goodly Questions. _Chaucer's Dream_ is a false title, assigned to it by Speght; its proper name is _The Isle of Ladies_. Begins--'Whan Flora, the quene of pleasaunce.' The MS. at Longleat is said to have been written about 1550. A second MS. has been acquired by the British Museum, named MS. Addit. 10303; this is also in a hand of the sixteenth century, and presents frequent variations in the text. It is very accessible, in the texts by Moxon, Bell, and Morris; but how Tyrwhitt ever came to dream that it could be genuine, must remain a mystery. I originally hoped to include this poem in the present selection, but its inordinate length compelled me to abandon my intention. In a prologue of seventy lines, the author truthfully states, at l. 60, that he is 'a slepy[3] writer.' There are many assonances, such as _undertakes_, _scapes_ (337); _named_, _attained_ (597); _tender_, _remember_ (1115, 1415); _rome_, _towne_ (1567). Note also such rimes as _destroied_, _conclude_ (735); _queen_, _kneen_, pl. of _knee_ (1779); _nine_, _greene_ (1861); _vertuous_, _use_ (1889). Some rimes exhibit the Northern dialect; as _paines_, _straines_, pr. s., 909; _wawe_, _overthrawe_, pp., 1153; _servand_, _livand_, pres. pt., 1629; _greene_, _eene_ (pl. of _e_, eye), 1719; _hand_, _avisand_, pres. pt., 1883; &c. Yet the writer is not particular; if he wants a rime to _wroth_, he uses the Southern form _goth_, 785; but if he wants a rime to _rose_, he uses the Northern form _gose_ (goes), 1287, 1523. But before any critic can associate this poem with Chaucer, he has first to prove that it was written before 1450. Moreover, it belongs to the cycle of metrical romances, being connected (as Tyrwhitt says) with the _Eliduc_ of Marie de France; and, perhaps, with her _Lanval_. To the _Isle of Ladies_ Speght appended two other poems, of which the former contains a single stanza of 6 lines, and the latter is a ballad in 3 seven-line stanzas.