"God I take highly to witness That I this work of heartily low humbless Took upon me of intention, Devoid of pride and presumption, For to obey without variance _My Lord's bidding fully and pleasance_; Which hath desire, soothly for to sayn, Of very knighthood to remember again The wortheness (if I shall not lie) And the prowess of old chivalry, Because _he hath joy and great dainty_ To _read in books of antiquity_ To _find only virtue_ to sow By example of them, and also to eschew The cursed vice of sloth and idleness; So he enjoyeth in _virtuous_ business, In all that longeth to manhood, dare I sayn, He busyeth ever. And thereto is so fain To haunt his body in plays martial, Through exercise to exclude sloth at all, (After the doctrine of Vigetius.) Thus is he both _manful_ and _virtuous_, More passingly than I can of him write; I want cunning his high renown to indite, So much of manhood men may in him seen. And for to wit whom I would mean, The eldest son of the noble King Henry the Fourth; of knighthood well and spring; In whom is showed of what stock that he grew, The root is virtue; Called Henry eke, the worthy Prince of Wales, Which me commanded the dreary piteous tale Of them of Troy in English to translate; The siege, also, and the destruction, Like as the Latin maketh mention, For to complete, and after Guido make, (p. 400) So I could, and write it for his sake; Because he would that to high and low The noble story openly were knowe In our tongue, about in every age, And written as well in our language As in Latin and French it is; That of the story the truth we not miss, No more than doth each other nation; This was the fine of his intention. The which emprise anon I 'gin shall In his worship for a memorial. And of the time to make mention, When I began on this translation, It was the year, soothly to sayn, Fourteen complete of his Father's reign." Though this Preface was written when Henry was still Prince of Wales, the work was not finished till he had ascended the throne; when the poet sent it into the world with this charge, which he calls "L'Envoy:" "Go forth, my book! veiled with the princely grace Of him that is extolled for excellence Throughout the world, but do not show thy face Without support of his magnificence." TESTIMONY OF OCCLEVE. (p. 401) The interesting circumstances under which the poet represents the following dialogue to have taken place are detailed in the body of the work.[351] The old man addresses Occleve as his son, and the poet calls his aged monitor father. [Footnote 351: See page 331.] _Father._ "My Lord the Prince,--knoweth he thee not? If that thou stood in his benevolence, He may be salve unto thine indigence."