This work, which is called by its author ‘un traitié selonc les auctours pour essampler les amantz marietz,’ is a series of eighteen balades, each composed of three seven-line stanzas without envoy, except in the case of the last, which has an additional stanza addressed ‘Al université de tout le monde,’ apologizing for the poet’s French and serving as a general envoy for the whole collection, though formally belonging to the last balade. The stanzas rhyme _ab ab bcc_, a form which is used frequently in the _Cinkante Balades_, as also in Gower’s English poem addressed to Henry IV and in the stanzas which are introduced into the eighth book of the _Confessio Amantis_. There are Latin marginal notes summarizing the contents of each balade, and the whole is concluded by some lines of Latin. As to the date, if we are to regard the Latin lines ‘Lex docet auctorum’ as a part of the work (and they are connected with it in all the copies), we have a tolerably clear indication in the concluding couplet: ‘Hinc vetus annorum Gower sub spe meritorum Ordine sponsorum tutus adhibo thorum.’ This was written evidently just before the author’s marriage, which took place, as we know, near the beginning of the year 1398 (by the modern reckoning), and therefore it would seem that the _Traitié_ belongs to the year 1397. It is true that one MS. (Bodley 294) omits this concluding couplet, but in view of the fact that it is contained not only in all the other copies, but also in the Trin. Coll. Camb. MS., which seems to be derived from the same origin as Bodl. 294, we cannot attach much importance to the omission.