Contractions, &c., are marked in the printed text by italics, except in the case of the word _et_, which in the MS. is hardly ever written in full except at the beginning of a line. In such words as _ꝑest_, _ꝑfit_, _ꝑfaire_, there may be doubt sometimes between _per_ and _par_, and the spelling of some of them was certainly variable. Attention must be called especially to the frequently occurring _-o̅n̅_ as a termination. It has been regularly written out as _-oun_, and I have no doubt that this is right. In Bozon’s _Contes Moralizés_ the same abbreviation is used, alternating freely with the full form _-oun_, and it is common in the MSS. of the _Confessio Amantis_ and in the Ellesmere MS. of the _Canterbury Tales_ (so far as I have had the opportunity of examining it), especially in words of French origin such as _devocioun_, _contricioun_. In the French texts this mode of writing is applied also very frequently to the monosyllables _mon_, _ton_, _son_, _bon_, _don_, _non_, as well as to _bonté_, _nonpas_, _noncertein_, &c. The scribe of the _Mirour_ writes _doun_ in full once (24625) with _do̅n̅_ in the same stanza, in _Bal._ xxi. 4 _noun_ is twice fully written, and in some MSS. of the _Traitié_ (e.g. Bodley 294) the full form occurs frequently side by side with the abbreviation. A similar conclusion must be adopted as regards _a̅n̅_ (annum), also written _aun_, _gla̅n̅_, _da̅n̅cer_, and the termination _-a̅n̅ce_, which is occasionally found. BALADES. The existence of the _Cinkante Balades_ was first made known to the public by Warton in his _History of English Poetry_, Sect. xix, his attention having been drawn to the MS. which contains them by its possessor, Lord Gower. After describing the other contents of this MS., he says: ‘But the _Cinkante Balades_ or fifty French Sonnets above mentioned are the curious and valuable part of Lord Gower’s manuscript. They are not mentioned by those who have written the Life of this poet or have catalogued his works. Nor do they appear in any other manuscript of Gower which I have examined. But if they should be discovered in any other, I will venture to pronounce that a more authentic, unembarrassed, and practicable copy than this before us will not be produced.... To say no more, however, of the value which these little pieces may derive from being so scarce and so little known, they have much real and intrinsic merit. They are tender, pathetic and poetical, and place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous point of view than that in which he has hitherto been usually seen. I know not if any even among the French poets themselves of this period have left a set of more finished sonnets; for they were probably written when Gower was a young man, about the year 1350. Nor had yet any English poet treated the passion of love with equal delicacy of sentiment and elegance of composition. I will transcribe four of these balades as correctly and intelligibly as I am able; although, I must confess,