VII. The Confessio Amantis. In the library of Sidney College, Cambridge, there is a very curious copy of the Confessio Amantis, in folio, on paper, consisting of 202 leaves. On fol. 202. b. follow Catonis Disticha in English verse, to fol. 208. This manuscript is numbered A. 4. 1. VIII. The Confessio Amantis. In the library of New College, Oxford, there is a copy of the Confessio Amantis, designated by the following reference in the General Catalogue of MSS. in Eng. and Ireland, (fol. Oxf. 1697,) No. 1230. 266. IX. The Confessio Amantis. In the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, there is a copy of the same poem, distinguished in the aforesaid Catalogue by the number, 1534. 67. X. XI. XII. XIII. The Confessio Amantis, &c. In the Harleian collection, Brit. Museum, No. 3490. 2. is a copy of the Confessio Amantis; so is No. 6494. 11.-No. 7184, in the same collection, presents the remains of a very fine copy also of the Confessio Amantis on vellum, and illuminated, in large folio. This manuscript, though miserably mutilated, is still well worthy, as the Rev. Mr. Nares has observed, of collation; both on account of its antiquity, and on account of the care with which it has been written. It is believed to be of the fourteenth century. In the same collection, No. 3869 is a copy of the same poem, with a few smaller poems by Gower. There is also in the British Museum, Cott. MSS. Tib. A. IV. a copy of the Vox Clamantis, with some of Gower's Latin poems, in folio, on vellum. On the back of fol. 8. is a curious painting of a man in the dress of the fifteenth century, with a bow and arrow in his hand, ready to shoot at a sphere; which Mr. Strutt conceived to be a portrait of Gower, and has engraved and published it as such in his Royal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, where he says that the original is all of one colour, viz. dark brown; but Mr. Planta has stated the fact to be, that the drapery is blue, and the other parts are of different colours. In Tit. A. XIV. 4. Cott. MSS. is a mutilated copy of the same poem. XIV. Fragments of Chaucer, some whercof [were] never printed. Such is the title of a folio manuscript, on paper, in the Pepysian collection at Magdalen College, Cambridge, No. 2006. It consists of 391 pages. The contents are as follow. Complaint of the Black Knight, p. 1. Temple of Glasse, p. 17. Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, p. 53. Legend of Cleopatra, p. 67. Legend of Tisbe of Babylone, p. 71. Legend of Dido, p. 75. Legend of Hipsipile and Medea, p. 88. Priere à Notre Dame, p. 88. House of Fame, p. 91. Complaint of Mars and Venus, p. 115. Complaint of Mars alone, p. 119. Complaint of Venus alone, p. 122. Pleyntif encountre Fortune, p. 124. Legend of the three Kings of Colen, p. 143. The War between Cesar and Pompey, p. 191. A Translacion of some fragments of Cato, p. 211. Chaucer's Tale of Melibeus, p. 225. Prologue to the Parson's Tale, p. 276. The Parson's Tale, p. 279. Chaucer's Recantacion, p. 377. Complaint of Mars and Venus, p. 378. Complaint of Anelida and false Arcite, p. 382. L'Envoy de Chaucer à Scogan, p. 385. Priere à Notre Dame, p. 386. La Compleint de Chaucer à sa bourse voide, p. 388. Mercilesse Beautie, p. 390. It is noticed, in the volume, that the pieces here distinguished by Italicks are not in Speght's edition of Chaucer in 1602. The last of these, Mercilesse Beautie, is the ballad printed by Dr. Percy in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. ii. No. iii. As to the pretended authenticity of the rest, I will shew that, in respect to two of the other three pieces, it is merely imaginary; first, by citing the close of The War between Cesar and Pompey, where the author, speaking of Cesar, says: "Touching y vengyable maner of his pitous murthre, I may conclude wyth hym that was flour of poetes in owre Englissh tong, and the first that euer elumyned owre language wyth flowres of rethrick and of eloquence, 1 mene my master CHAUCER, whiche wrote the deth of this myghty emperor, saying Wyth bodekyns was Cesar Julius Murdred at Rome of Brutus Cassius, When mony, land, and regne hadd brought ful lowe; Thus by record of my wyse prudent master aforesaid, &c. [And] by comaundement of my maister I tooke vpon me this litill and compendious translacon, after my lytill konnyng to put in remembrance, &c. q. J. de B." It is plain that this pupil of Chaucer, in the preceding rhymes, al ludes to the tragedies of great men recited in the Monkes Tale; among which is that of Cesar; where his murder "by bodekins" is indeed twice recorded, and a reflection on the mutability of fortune, though not precisely in the words just cited, is also made. The Fragments of Cato likewise end with the disciple's similar acknowledgment: "Behold, my maister, this litill tretyse, The whiche is full of wytt and sapience, &c." XV. The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. This beautiful manuscript is in folio, illuminated, and on vellum; and is in the possession of the Earl of Egremont, by whom I have been obligingly indulged with the examination of it. The Tales are given in the following order, viz. The Knyghtes Tale, the Milleres, the Reves, the Cokes, the Shipmannes, the Prioresses, the Man of Lawes, the Squieres, the Marchantes, the Wif of Bathes, the Freres, the Somnoures, the Clerk of Oxenfordes, the Frankleines, the Second Nonnes, the Chanons Yeomannes, the Doctor of Phisickes, the Pardoneres; at the end of which, "Thus endep þe p'doneɲs tale. And here bygynneþ the prologe of Thopas." And after the twenty-one lines, "Here bygynneþ þe tale of Chaucer by Sir Thopace." Then the Tale of Melibeus, the Monkes, the |