passed by descent to its present possessor. The text given by the MS. seems to be on the whole a very correct one. For the _Cinkante Balades_ it is the only manuscript authority, but as regards the _Traitié_ it may be compared with several other copies contemporary with the author, and it seems to give as good a text as any. There seems no reason to doubt that it was written in the lifetime of the author, who may however have been unable owing to his failing eyesight to correct it himself. It was nevertheless carefully revised after being written, as is shown by various erasures and corrections both in the French and the English portions. This corrector’s hand is apparently different from both the other hands which appear in the manuscript. The best proof however of the trustworthiness of the text is the fact that hardly any emendations are required either by the metre or the sense. The difficulties presented by the text of the Roxburghe edition vanish for the most part on collation of the MS., and the number of corrections actually made in this edition is very trifling. In a few points of spelling this MS. differs from that of the _Mirour_: for example, _jeo_ (_ieo_) is almost always used in the _Balades_ for _je_ (but _ie_ in _Ded._ i. 4), and the _-ai_ termination is preferred to _-ay_, though both occur; similarly _sui_, _joie_, _li_, _poi_, where the _Mirour_ has more usually _suy_, _joye_, _ly_, _poy_, &c. What has been said with reference to the _Mirour_ about the use of _u_ and _v_, _i_ and _j_, applies also here (except that the scribe of this MS. prefers _i_ initially to _I_ and sometimes writes _u_ initially), and also in general what is said about division of words, accents and contractions. The latter however in the present text of the _Balades_ and _Traitié_ are not indicated by italics. It should be noted that _que_ in the text stands for a contracted form. The word is _qe_ in the _Balades_, when it is fully written out, but _quil_, _tanquil_, &c., are used in the MS., _q̅om_ must evidently be meant for _quom_, and we find _que_ frequently in the _Mirour_. Such forms as _auerai_, _deuera_, _liuere_, &c., usually have _er_ abbreviated, but we also find _saueroit_ (viii. 2), _auera_ (xvi. 3), _aueray_ (xvii. 1), written out fully. Where the termination _-ance_ has a line drawn over it, as in _suffica̅n̅ce_, _fia̅n̅ce_ (iv. 2), it has been printed _-aunce_, and so _cha̅n̅con_ (xl. 3); but _aun_ is written out fully. In general it must be assumed that _-oun_ ending a word represents _o̅n̅_, but in xxi. 4 we have _noun_ written out fully in both cases. In the matter of capitals the usage of the MS. is followed for the most part. The punctuation is of course that of the editor, and it may be observed that the previous editions have none. TRAITIÉ.