3. MS. H.--MS. Harl. 2280, in the British Museum. An excellent MS., very closely related to both the preceding. Printed in full for the Chaucer Society, and collated throughout in the present edition. It was taken as the basis of the text in Morris's Aldine edition, which in many passages closely resembles the present text. It is certainly the third best MS. One leaf is missing (Bk. V. 1345-1428; twelve stanzas).
4. MS. CM.--MS. Gg. 4. 27, in the Cambridge University Library; the same MS. as that denoted by 'Cm.' in the foot-notes to the Canterbury Tales, and by 'C.' in the foot-notes to the Legend of Good Women. A remarkable MS., printed in full for the Chaucer Society. It exhibits _a different type_ of text from that found in Cl., Cp., and H. The most noteworthy differences are as follows. In Bk. ii. 734, 5, this MS. has quite a different couplet, viz.:
Men louyn women þ_our_ al þis tou_n_ aboute; Be þey þe wers? whi, nay, w_i_t_h_-outyn doute.
What shulde ye don but, for myn disconfort, Stondyn for nought, and wepyn out youre ye? Syn sche is queynt that wont was yow disport[63], In vayn from this forth have I seyn twye; For[64] medycyn youre vertu is a-weye; O crewel eyen, sythyn that youre dispyt Was al to sen Crisseydes eyen bryght.
After Bk. iv. 735, MS. Cm. introduces the following stanza, which, in the present text, appears a little later (ll. 750-6) in a slightly altered form.
The salte teris fro_m_ hyre ey[gh]yn tweyn Out ran, as scho_ur_ of aprille, ful swythe; Hyre white brest sche bet, and for the peyne, Aftyr the deth cryede a thousent sithe, Syn he that wonyt was hir wo for to lythe, Sche mot forgon; for which disauenture Sche held hire-selue a for-lost creature.
Bk. iv. 806-33 (four stanzas) are omitted; so also are the 18 stanzas referring to Free-Will, viz. Bk. iv. 953-1078. Bk. v. 230-1 runs thus:--
To whom for eu_er_emor myn herte is holde: And thus he pleynyd, and ferth_er_e-more he tolde.
We cannot believe that Bk. iv. 309-15, as here given, can be genuine[65]; but it seems possible that some of the other readings may be so. The stanza, Bk. iv. 750-6, as here given, seems to represent the first draft of these lines, which were afterwards altered to the form in which they appear in the text, whilst at the same time the stanza was shifted down. However, this is mere speculation; and it must be confessed that, in many places, this MS. is strangely corrupted. Several stanzas have only six lines instead of seven, and readings occur which set all ideas of rime at defiance. Thus, in I. 1260, _paste_ (riming with _caste_) appears as _passede_; in I. 1253, _ryde_ (riming with _aspyde_) appears as _rydende_; in III. 351, _hayes_ (riming with _May is_) appears as _halis_; &c.