§ 52. I will point out yet one more very striking difference. We know that Chaucer sometimes employs headless lines, such as: Twénty bókes át his béddes héed. But he does so sparingly, especially in his Minor Poems. But in the Cuckoo, they are not uncommon; see, e.g. lines 16, 50, 72, 100, 116, 118, 146, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 166, 205, 232, 242, 252, 261, 265, 268. It is true that, in Morris's edition, lines 72, 146, 153, 161, and 205 are slightly altered; but in no case can I find that the alteration is authorised. And even then, this does not get rid of the _five consecutive_ examples in ll. 154-158, which cannot be explained away. Once more, I repeat, the critics have failed to use their powers of observation.
I think the poem may still be admired, even if it be allowed that Clanvowe wrote it some three years after Chaucer's death.
§ 53. At any rate, it was admired by so good a judge of poetry as John Milton, who of course possessed a copy of it in the volume which was so pleasantly called 'The Works of Chaucer.' That his famous sonnet 'To the Nightingale' owed something to Clanvowe, I cannot doubt. 'Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill' is, in part, the older poet's theme; see ll. 1-30, 149-155, 191-192. Even his first line reminds one of ll. 77, 288. If Milton writes of May, so does Clanvowe; see ll. 20, 23, 34, 55, 70, 230, 235, 242; note especially l. 230. But the real point of contact is in the lines--
'Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love ... Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh; As thou from year to year hast sung too late For my relief, yet hadst no reason why: Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate, Both them I serve, and of their train am I.'
'That it were good to here the nightingale Rather than the lewde cukkow singe': (49). 'A litel hast thou been to longe henne; For here hath been the lew[e]de cukkow, And songen songes rather than hast thou': (102). 'Ye, quod she, and be thou not amayed, Though thou have herd the cukkow er than me. For, if I live, it shal amended be The nexte May, if I be not affrayed': (232). 'And I wol singe oon of my songes newe For love of thee, as loude as I may crye': (247). 'For in this worlde is noon so good servyse To every wight that gentil is of kinde': (149).