Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.
In this text [*e] represents the "schwa" or obscure vowel, printed as inverted-e, and [gh] represents the Middle English letter "yogh", similar to the numeral 3. [=a] signifies "a macron", and so forth.
Parallel bilingual texts are marked with << for Chaucer's text, >> for the original, in blocks as printed page by page.
REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, M.A. LITT.D., LL.D., D.C.L., PH.D. ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
----'blanda sonantibus Chordis carmina temperans.' BOETHIUS, _De Cons. Phil._ Lib. III. Met. 12.
'He temprede hise blaundisshinge songes by resowninge strenges.' _Chaucer's Translation._
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A., PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
*** The Portrait of Chaucer in the frontispiece is noticed at p. lix.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.--§ 1. Why (the chief part of) the Romaunt of the Rose is not Chaucer's. § 2. The English Version of the Romaunt. § 3. Internal evidence. § 4. Dr. Lidner's opinion. § 5. Dr. Kaluza's opinion. The three Fragments. § 6. Discussion of Fragment B. Test. I.--Proportion of English to French. § 7. Test II.--Dialect. § 8. Test III.--The Riming of _-y_ with _-yë_. § 9. Test IV.--Assonant Rimes. § 10. Result: Fragment B is not by Chaucer. § 11. Discussion of Fragment C. § 12. Rime-tests. § 13. Further considerations. § 14. Result: Fragment C is not by the author of Fragment B, and perhaps not by Chaucer. § 15. Discussion of Fragment A. (1) Rimes in _-y._ (2) Rimes in _-yë_ § 16. No false rimes. § 17. The three Fragments seem to be all distinct. § 18. Fragment A is probably Chaucer's. § 19. Summary. § 20. Probability of the results. § 21. The external evidence. § 22. The Glasgow MS. § 23. Th.--Thynne's Edition; 1532. § 24. Reprints. § 25. The Present Edition. § 26. Some corrections. § 27. The French Text. §§ 28, 29. Brief Analysis of the French Poem: G. de Lorris. § 30. Jean de Meun; to the end of Fragment B. § 31. Gap in the Translation. § 32. Fragment C. § 33. Chaucer's use of 'Le Roman.' § 34. Méon's French text 1