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 FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 
 
 
 y 
 
 SOURCES AND ANALOGUES OF "THE 
 FLOWER AND THE LEAF" 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTIES OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOLS OF ARTS, 
 
 LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE 
 
 DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 (DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE L. MARSH 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 Modern Philology, Vol. IV, Nos. i and 2 
 
 Chicago 1906 
 
 ■V 
 
Zbc mniversttg of Cbtcaao 
 
 FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 
 
 SOURCES AND ANALOGUES OF "THE 
 FLOWER AND THE LEAF" 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTIES OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOLS OF ARTS, 
 
 LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE 
 
 DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 (DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE L. MARSH 
 
 of the "^ 
 ( UNIVERSITY ) 
 
 V OF J 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 Modern Philology, Vol. IV, Nos. i and 2 
 
 Chicago 1906 
 

 PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 
f UNfVERS 
 
 K 
 
 SOURCES AND ANALOGUES OF "THE FLOWER AND 
 THE LEAF." PART I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Of the numerous poems erroneously attributed to Chaucer, 
 probably the best-known, and certainly one of the best, is The 
 Flower and the Leaf. 1 It first appeared in Speght's folio of 
 1598, and was regularly reprinted with Chaucer's Works until 
 1878. During this period, owing partly, no doubt, to the mod- 
 ernization by Dryden, 2 the poem was usually regarded as one of 
 Chaucer's most characteristic and charming pieces. Keats wrote 
 a sonnet about it; Scott, Campbell, Irving, Mrs. Browning, were 
 all fond of it ; the editors of selections from Chaucer reprinted it ; 
 Taine quoted from it to illustrate Chaucer's most notable merits. 3 
 Now, however, the question of Chaucerian authorship must be 
 regarded as settled adversely, 4 for reasons which need not be 
 repeated here. In this investigation it is taken for granted that 
 
 iSkeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces (Clarendon Press, 1897), pp. 361-79. References 
 will be to this edition. 
 
 2 Fables, 1700. 
 
 3 It may be of interest to indicate the vogue of the poem by the following specific ref- 
 erences: Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-81) ; see Index in Hazlitt ed. (1871). God- 
 win, Life of Chaucer (2d ed., 1804), Vol. Ill, pp. 249 ff. Todd, Illustrations of Gower and 
 Chaucer (1810), pp. 275 ff. Scott, Rokeby (1813), Canto VI, xxvi. Keats, Sonnet Written on 
 a Blank Space at the End of Chaucer's Tale of " The Floure and the Lefe" (1817). T. 
 Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819), Vol. I, pp. 70 ff . ; Vol. II, p. 17. Irving, 
 Sketch Book (1819), "Rural Life in England." S. W. Singer, "Life of Chaucer," in The 
 British Poets (Chiswick, 1822), Vol. I, pp. xvi, xvii, xxi. Hazlitt, Select Poets of Great Brit- 
 ain (1825), p. ix; Farewell to Essay Writing (1828). Clarke, The Riches of Chaucer (2d ed., 
 1835), Vol. I, pp. 52 ff. E. B. Browning, The Book of the Poets (1842). H. Reed, Lectures on 
 English Literature (1855), p. 136. Sandras, Etude sur Chaucer (1859), pp. 95 ff. G. P. Marsh, 
 Origin and History of the English Language (1862), p. 414. Taine, History of English Litera- 
 ture (1864-65), Book I, chap, iii, 3. Minto, Characteristics of the English Poets (1874), p. 15. 
 Ward, Chaucer, in "English Men of Letters" series (1879), chaps, i, iii. Engel, Geschichte 
 der englischen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1883), p. 74. Bierbaum, History of the English Language 
 and Literature (1895), p. 34. Filon, Histoire de la literature anglaise (2d ed., 1896), p. 54. 
 Palgrave, Landscape in Poetry (1897), p. 122. Gosse, Modern English Literature (1898), p. 14. 
 Saintsbury, Short History of English Literature (1898), pp. 119, 120. There are also nine- 
 teenth century modernizations by Lord Thurlow and Powell, and a French translation by 
 Chatelain. 
 
 * By ten Brink, Chaucer Studien (1870), pp. 156 ff. ; Skeat, Introduction to Bell's Chaucer 
 (1878), and Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. lxii ff. ; Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer (1892), 
 Vol. I, pp. 489 ff . As is well known, Tyrwhitt first expressed doubt of Chaucer's authorship 
 (1775), but his suggestion was hardly taken seriously for nearly a century. 
 121] 1 [Modern Philology, July, 1906 
 
 161429 
 
2 George L. Marsh 
 
 the author was an imitator of Chaucer, writing during the first 
 half -century or so after his master's death. 1 
 
 The plan of treatment adopted for study of the sources and 
 analogues of the poem is as follows: 
 
 1. The central allegory of the Orders of the Flower and the Leaf. 
 
 2. The accessories of the central allegory: the significance of 
 the white and green costumes, and the chaplets of leaves and 
 flowers; the choice of the nightingale and the goldfinch as singers 
 for the Leaf and the Flower respectively; the cult of the daisy, 
 and so forth. 
 
 3. The general setting and machinery of the poem ; its relations 
 to other vision poems with the springtime setting. 
 
 4. Conclusion as to the most influential sources. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF THE POEM 
 
 The following summary of the action of F. L. 2 will be useful: 
 
 1 1 say Tit's because, although the poem purports to be by a woman, there i6 no adequate 
 reason for assuming that it is by a woman, I hope to show in a later article that Professor 
 Skeat's theory of common authorship of The Flower and the Leaf and The Assembly of 
 Ladies is untenable, and that various striking resemblances of the former to the work of 
 Lydgate suggest that he may have been the author. 
 
 2 In the course of this article abbreviations will be used as follows: 
 A. G. — Assembly of Gods, attributed to Lydgate, E. E. T. S. 
 A. L. = Assembly of Ladies, pseudo-Chaucerian poem. 
 
 A. Y. L. I. = As You Like It. 
 
 B. D. = Chaucer's Book of the Duchess, 
 
 B. K. — Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight. 
 
 C. A. = Gower's Confessio Amantis. 
 C. B. = Lydgate's Chorl and the Bird. 
 
 C. L. = The Court of Love, pseudo-Chaucerian poem. 
 
 C. N.= The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, pseudo-Chaucerian poem. 
 
 C. O. = Debat du Coer et de VOeil. 
 
 C. T. = Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. 
 
 Chansons— Chansons du XVme siecle, Societe des Anciens Textes Francais. 
 
 E. E. T. S. = Early English Text Society. 
 
 F. L, = The Flower and the Leaf. 
 Fablel = Fablel dou Dieu d' Amours. 
 
 L. G. W. — Chaucer's Legend of Good Women. 
 
 M. M. = Measure for Measure. 
 
 M. P. = Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, Percy Society. 
 
 Night. = Lydgate's Two Nightingale Poems, E. E. T. S. 
 
 P. F. — Chaucer's Parlement of Foules. 
 
 R. R. = Roman de la Rose. 
 
 R. S. = Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte, E. E. T. S. 
 
 5. T. S. = Scottish Text Society. 
 
 T. C. = Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. 
 T. G. = Lydgate's Temple of Glas, E. E. T. S. 
 Thebes = Lydgate's Story of Thebes. 
 Venus = De Venus la Deesse d' Amor. 
 
 122 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 3 
 
 Very early on a May morning, when the spring growth is at 
 its height, the poet, represented as a woman to whom sleep is 
 "ful unmete," goes forth to a pleasant grove of oaks set out at 
 regular intervals. With joy she hears the birds sing, and listens 
 especially, though at first in vain, for the nightingale. Soon she 
 finds a narrow path, overgrown with grass and weeds, which leads 
 to a pleasant "herber," terraced with fresh grass and surrounded 
 by a hedge of sycamore and sweet-scented eglantine. This hedge 
 is so thick that anyone outside cannot see in, though one inside 
 can see out. Beside the arbor is a beautiful medlar tree, in which 
 a goldfinch leaps from bough to bough, eating buds and blossoms 
 and singing merrily. Opposite this is a laurel tree, which gives 
 out healing odors like the eglantine, and within whose branches a 
 nightingale sings even more ravishingly than the goldfinch. The 
 poet is delighted with the spot, which seems like an earthly para- 
 dise, and sits down on the grass to listen to the birds. 
 
 Soon she hears voices like those of angels, and in a moment a 
 "world of ladies" come out of a grove near by, singing sweetly 
 and dancing, under the leadership of the most beautiful member 
 of the company. All are brilliantly arrayed in surcoats of white 
 velvet set with precious stones. They are soon followed by a 
 "rout" of men at arms, also clad in white, with decorations of 
 cloth of gold. Both men and women wear chaplets of leaves — 
 laurel, woodbine, hawthorn, agnus castus. After the knights 
 have jousted with one another, they join the ladies in doing 
 obeisance before the laurel tree. Then come from an adjacent 
 field the adherents of the Flower — knights and ladies hand in 
 hand, clad in green and wearing chaplets of flowers. This com- 
 pany go dancing into a mead, where they kneel before a tuft of 
 blossoms while one of their number sings a "bargaret" in praise 
 of the daisy. Soon, however, the heat of noon withers the flowers 
 and burns the ladies and their knights ; a wind blows down the 
 flowers; and hail and rain bedraggle the company. Meanwhile 
 those in white beneath the laurel tree are unharmed by the ele- 
 ments, and, when they perceive the plight of the others, go to 
 their aid and kindly entertain them. Then the nightingale flies 
 from the laurel tree to the lady of the Leaf, Diana, and the gold- 
 
 123 
 
4 George L. Marsh 
 
 finch from the medlar tree to Flora, the queen of the Flower, 
 both birds singing their loudest. 
 
 The two companies ride away together, and the poet, coming 
 forth from her concealment, asks a lady in white for an explana- 
 tion of what she has seen. The adherents of the Leaf, she is told, 
 are people who have been chaste, brave, and steadfast in love; the 
 adherents of the Flower are people who have loved idleness, and 
 cared for nothing but hunting and hawking and playing in meads. 
 Then, after explaining why the Leaf is to be preferred to the 
 Flower, the lady of the Leaf asks the poet to which she will do 
 service. The poet chooses the Leaf, and the lady hastens after 
 her company. 
 
 CHAPTER I. THE CENTRAL ALLEGORY: THE ORDERS OF 
 THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF 
 
 Obviously the kernel of the poem is the allegory of the Flower 
 and the Leaf — the strife between two contrasted orders of knights 
 and ladies, with one of which the author becomes allied. Distinct 
 mention of these orders is made by three persons besides our 
 unknown poet — by Chaucer, Deschamps, and Charles d' Orleans. 
 
 chaucer's mention of the orders 
 It has long been well known that in the Prologue to his 
 Legend of Good Women Chaucer refers to the rivalry of the 
 Orders of the Flower and the Leaf. 1 He has been speaking of 
 his love for the daisy, and asks lovers to help him in his labor of 
 adequately praising it — 
 
 Whether ye ben with the leef or with the flour. 
 
 He says modestly that he can only be a gleaner among poets, 
 taking what others have left; but he hopes to be forgiven for his 
 lack of originality, 
 
 Sin that ye see I do hit in the honour 
 Of love, and eek in service of the flour, 
 Whom that I serve as I have wit or might. 
 
 i Text A, 11. 70-80; B, 11. 72, 189-96. First noted in Urry's edition of 1721, and taken as a 
 direct allusion to F. £., which Chaucer was assumed to have previously composed. See 
 articles by Professor Kittredge, in Modern Philology, Vol. I, pp. Iff.; and Professor J. L. 
 Lowes, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. XIX, pp. 593 ff . 
 
 124 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 5 
 
 The lines in text A corresponding to these are: 
 
 Sith hit is seid in forthering and honour 
 Of hem that either serven leef or flour; 
 
 and are immediately followed by an explanation which in text B 
 
 does not come till 1. 188. In the latter text the poet proceeds 
 
 with praise of the "flour" referred to in 1. 82. He tells how he 
 
 could 
 
 Dwellen alwey, the joly month of May, (176) 
 
 with nothing to do 
 
 But for to loke upon the dayesye, 
 
 The emperice and flour of floures alle. 
 
 But natheless, ne wene nat that I make 
 In preysing of the flour agayn the leef, 
 No more than of the corn agayn the sheef : 
 For, as to me, nis lever noon ne lother; 
 I nam with-holden yit with never nother. 
 Ne I not who serveth leef, ne who the flour; 
 Wei brouken they hir service or labour; 
 For this thing is al of another tonne, 
 Of olde story, er swich thing was begonne. 
 
 The last three lines in the corresponding passage in A are also 
 worth quotation, because they are a trifle more specific, especially 
 in the use of the italicized words: 
 
 That nis nothing the entent of my labour, 
 
 For this werk is al of another tunne, 
 
 Of olde story, er swich stryf was begunne. 
 
 "This werk" apparently means the poem in hand, and "swich 
 stryf" the strife of the Flower and the Leaf. 
 
 Since the author of our poem was first of all an imitator of 
 Chaucer, it seems probable that the passage cited above furnished 
 him direct inspiration. It is also entirely proper to conclude 
 from Chaucer's language, especially in connection with that of 
 Deschamps, soon to be quoted, that there was a sentimental strife 
 between orders of the Flower and the Leaf, and that it was of 
 comparatively recent origin when Chaucer wrote his Prologue, 
 about 1385-86. 
 
 125 
 
6 GrEORGE L. MARSH 
 
 DESCHAMPS' MENTION OP THE ORDERS 
 
 Four short poems by Eustache Deschamps, in which the strife 
 of the Flower and the Leaf is mentioned, were written probably 
 about the same time as Chaucer's Prologue to his Legend. 1 Two 
 ballades and a rondeau are in favor of the Flower, and one ballade 
 in favor of the Leaf. It seems desirable to reprint them in full: 
 
 I. Balade Amoureuse 
 (Sur Vordre de la Fleur) 
 Qui est a choiz de deux choses avoir, 
 Eslire doit et choisir la meillour. 
 Et si me faut que je prengne, savoir: 
 De deux arbres ou la fueille ou la flour: 
 Qu'en la fueille est plaisir pour sa verdour, 
 Et qui resjoist les cuers des vrays amans, 
 Et aux oysiaux fait chanter leurz doulz chans, 
 Et tient toudiz une saison sa place, 
 Maiz quant au fort sa beauts est nians, 
 J'aim plus la fleur que la fueille ne face. 10 
 
 Car la fueille n'a pas tant de pouoir, 
 
 De bien, de senz, de force et de valour 
 
 Comine la flour; et ce puet apparoir 
 
 Qu'elle a beauts, bonte, fresche coulour, 
 
 Et rent a tous tresprecieux odour, 
 
 Et fait bon fruit que mains sont desirans, 
 
 Duquel avoir est uns chascuns engrans. 
 
 Maiz la fueille sans flour et fruit trespasse, 
 
 Et sans odour devient poudre en tous temps. 
 
 J'aim plus la fleur que la fueille ne face. 20 
 
 Pour ce qu'elle vault mieulx, a dire voir, 
 
 Que la fueille qui n'a nulle doucour, 
 
 Et fruit ne fait au matin ny au soir. 
 
 La fueille n'est fors que pour faire honnour 
 
 Et pom garder celle fleur nuit et jour 
 
 De la pluie, du tempest et des vans, 
 
 Comme celle qui n'est que sa servans, 
 
 i See Professor Kittredge's discussion of them in Modern Philology, Vol. I, pp. 3-6; and 
 Professor Lowes' article cited above, p. 124, n. 1. The probable relation of Deschamps' 
 ballades to F. L. was first pointed out by Sandras in his £tude sur Chaucer (1859), pp. 102, 
 103. Ho gave no detailed attention to them, however, and did not mention the rondeau. 
 As Professor Kittredge says, editors of Chaucer have ignored them in relation to L. G. II'. ; 
 and even Professor Skeat does not mention them in connection with his reprint of F. L. 
 The poems are grouped together in the complete edition of Deschamps' works published by 
 the Societe des Anciens Testes Francais, Vol.. IV, pp. 257 ff. 
 
 126 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 
 
 Maiz en tous temps a fleur de tous la grace, 
 
 Comnie belle, gracieuse et plaisans. 
 
 J'aim plus la fleur que la fueille ne face. 30 
 
 II. Balade. 
 (Des deux ordres de la Feuille et de la Fleur) 
 {E,loge de la Fleur) 
 Pour ce que j'ay oy parler en France 
 De deux ordres en ramoureuse loy, 
 Que dames ont chascune en defferance, 
 L'une fueille et l'autre fleur, j'octroy 
 Mon corps, mon cuer a la fleur; et pourquoy! 
 Pour ce qu'en tout a pris, loange et grace 
 Plus que fueille qui en pourre trespasse 
 Et n'a au mieux fors que verde coulour, 
 Et la fleur a beauts qui trestout passe. 
 A droit jugier je me tien a la flour. 10 
 
 Celle doit on avoir en reverance, 
 
 Sy l'y aray; qu'en toutes choses voy 
 
 Loer la flour en bonte\ en vaillance, 
 
 En tous deduis, en manniere, en arroy; 
 
 S'on scet rien bon, c'est la flour pour un roy. 
 
 En tous estas vient la fleur a plaisance: 
 
 De tout dit on, et par grant exellance, 
 
 Que cilz ou celle a la fleur sans retour 
 
 De quoy que soit, tele est racoustumance: 
 
 A droit jugier je me tien a la flour. 20 
 
 Amour la sieut, doulz desir, esperance, 
 
 Beauts, bont6, et de tous loer Toy. 
 
 Coulour, odour et fruit de souffisance 
 
 Viennent de ly. Maiz mie n'apercoy 
 
 Que la fueille ait nulle vertu en soy, 
 
 Ne que doucour, fruit, ne grant plaisir face. 
 
 Maiz maintes foys apalit et efface, 
 
 Ne rien ne voy en li de grant vigour 
 
 Fors de couvrir la fleur dessus sa place: 
 
 A droit jugier je me tien la flour. 30 
 
 Celle humble flour aray en remembrance 
 Qui tant noble est, humble et de maintien coy, 
 Que n'est tresor, pierre, avoir ne finance, 
 Qui comparer peust a li par ma foy. 
 Son ordre prain et humblement recoy, 
 Qui plus digne est d'esmeraude ou topace: 
 127 
 
George L. Marsh 
 
 Guillaume fay La Tremouille, or li place 
 
 Que du porter me face tant d'onour; 
 
 Car ordre n'est qui plus mon cuer solace. 
 
 A droit jugier je me tien a la flour. 40 
 
 Et qui vouldra avoir la congnoissance 
 
 Du tresdoulx nom que par oir congnoy 
 
 Et du pais ou est sa demourance 
 
 Voist en l'ille d'Albyon en recoy, 
 
 En Lancastre le trouvera, ce croy. 
 
 P. H. et E. L. I. P. P. E. trace, 
 
 Assemble tout; ces .viii. lettres compasse, 
 
 S'aras le nom de la fleur de valour, 
 
 Qui a gent corps, beaux yeux et douce face. 
 
 Au droit jugier je me tien a la flour. 50 
 
 l'envoy 
 Koyne d'amours, de douce contenance, 
 Qui tout passez en senz et en honnour, 
 Plus qu'a la fueille vous faiz obeissance: 
 A droit jugier je me tien a la flour. 
 
 III. Rondeau 
 (Sur Elyon de Nillac) 
 Tresdouce flour, Elyon de Nillac, 
 Me tien a vous et non pas a la fueille, 
 Car po est gent qui avoir ne la veille. 
 
 On met souvent les fueilles en un sac, 
 
 Ains que la fruit ne que la fleur se queille. 5 
 
 Tresdouce flour, Elyon de Nillac, 
 
 Me tien a vous et non pas a la fueille. 
 
 Maiz vous estes le precieux eschac 
 
 Qui ne souffrez que nulz pour vous se deuille. 
 
 A vous me rent, vo pit6 me recueille; 10 
 
 Tresdouce flour, Elyon de Nillac, 
 
 Me tien a vous et non pas a la fueille, 
 
 Car po est gent qui avoir ne la vueille. 
 
 IV. Autre Balade 
 (Des deux ordres de la Feuille et de la Fleur) 
 {E<loge de la Feuille) 
 Vous qui prisez et loez la fleur tant, 
 Voulons par droit la fueille soustenir. 
 Car au jour d'ui n'est ne petit ne grant, 
 128 
 
10 
 
 20 
 
 "The Flower and the Leaf" 
 
 S'il a raison, que ne doye tenir 
 
 Que Dieux la fist en tous arbres venir 
 
 Pour resjoyr dames et damoisiaux 
 
 Et pour rendre leur chant aux doulx oysiaux. 
 
 Par sa verdour tuit nous esjoyssons, 
 
 Sans li ne puet li mondes estre biaux. 
 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 
 
 Or responde qui veult, en arguant: 
 
 La fleur ne puet fors de la feuille issir, 
 
 Et se la fleur de la fueille descent, 
 
 Sa mere est done la fueille sans mentir; 
 
 Naistre la fait, puis croistre et espennir, 
 
 Et la norrit en ses tresdoulx rainsiaux 
 
 Virginalment; fuelle est riches joyaux, 
 
 Qui ainsi fait la fleur dont nous parlons; 
 
 Sur toutes fleurs est la fueille royaux: 
 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 
 
 Et s'il avient qu'il face un po de vent, 
 La fleur verrez et sa colour palir, 
 En ordure chiet et va au neant, 
 Fruit et colour li faut perdre et perir. 
 Maiz la fueille ne puet nul temps morir; 
 Tousjours se tient forte, ferme et loyaulx, 
 Vert en couleur et amoureuse a ciaulx 
 Qu'elle recoit en l'ombre de ses dons, 
 En destruisant les chaleurs desloyaux. 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 
 
 En grans chaleurs voit on prendre souvent 
 
 Fueilles de saulx pour malades garir; 
 
 Es cours royaux, en maint riche couvent, 
 
 Arbres feuilles pour les lieux rafrechir. 
 
 En May voit on chascun de vert vestir; 
 
 On fait dossier es cours des arbrissiaux; 
 
 Fueilles porte qui veult estre nouviaux: 
 
 En cuer d'iver fueilles de lierre avons, 
 
 Maiz fleur n'avez en arbres n'en vessiaux. 
 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 40 
 
 De vostre fruit que la fleur va portant 
 Voit on aucun par droit anientir; 
 Du mengier sont maint et maintes engrant, 
 Maiz petit vault pour le corps maintenir. 
 Fleur ne se puet a fueille appartenir; 
 129 
 
 30 
 
10 George L. Marsh 
 
 Dessoubz li vont cerfs, bisches et chevriaux 
 
 Sanglers et dains, connins et laperiaux, 
 
 Tous les deduis que par le bos querons, 
 
 Fueille en lorier, de houx, jardins, preaux ; 
 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 50 
 
 l'envoy 
 Koyne sur fleurs en vertu dernourant, 
 Galoys d'Aunoy, Mornay Pierre ensement 
 De Tremoille, li borgDes Porquerons, 
 Et d'Araynes Lyonnet vont loant, 
 Et Thuireval vostre bien qui est grant; 
 Pour ce a fueille plus qu'a fleur nous tenons. 
 
 It is obvious that the foregoing poems are of very unequal 
 value, so far as any possible relation with F. L., or any influence 
 upon it, is concerned. The rondeau (III), indeed, may be dis- 
 regarded altogether. It is merely a personal tribute, couched in 
 language more naturally applied to a woman, but in this case 
 apparently intended for a woman to send to a man, since Helion 
 de Naillac was councilor and chamberlain of King Charles VI of 
 France. 1 A personal compliment, also, to Philippa of Lancaster, 
 is the chief burden of the second ballade, in favor of the Flower 
 (II) ; which, however, is of considerably greater value to us than 
 the rondeau, because it specifically declares that the poet has 
 heard of the existence, in French amorous law, of Orders of the 
 Flower and the Leaf. Though here said to be orders of women, 
 they apparently did not exclude men from membership, for in 
 both the second and the third ballades (II and IV) we find the 
 names of men belonging to the orders. 
 
 The first and last ballades, then, are of most interest to us, 
 because they present clear-cut arguments in favor, respectively, of 
 the flower and the leaf. In the first the poet says that, though 
 the verdure of the leaf gives pleasure to the hearts of true lovers, 2 
 and moves the birds to sing sweetly, 3 and though the leaf lasts 
 during a season, 4 yet, because its beauty is nothing, he prefers the 
 flower ; for the beauty and color and odor of the flower, and the 
 
 i Raynaud, CEuvres de Deschamps, Vol. X, p. 215 ; Kittredge, Modem Philology, Vol. I, p. 5. 
 a Cf. I, 5-6 ; II, 8; IV, 8, 27 ; F. £., 485, 486, 551-54. 
 
 3 Cf. I, 7 ; IV, 7 ; F. L., 447, 448. 4 Cf. I, 8 ; IV, 25, 26 ; F. L., 551-56. 
 
 130 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 11 
 
 fruit that comes from it, make it of much greater value than the 
 leaf, which has none of these good qualities, but is worthless 
 except to protect the flower from rain and wind. 1 Because of the 
 side taken in I and II, the argument is of course directly opposed 
 to that in F. L.j yet it is surprising how many of the points made 
 in favor of the leaf are suggested here — its pleasant verdure and 
 enduring quality, its influence on birds and true lovers, and the 
 protection it affords the flower against storms of various kinds. 
 Indeed, there is little else but elaboration of these points in the 
 long ballade in favor of the leaf (IV). The flower, we are told, 
 springs from the leaf and depends upon it for nourishment. If a 
 little wind comes, the flower loses its color and falls without pro- 
 ducing fruit ; but the leaf never dies. Instead, it always remains 
 green and fresh and "loyal," protecting those in its shadow from 
 the heat, and healing those who have been sick. 2 
 
 Thus we see that there are found in these ballades of 
 Deschamps nearly all the arguments of our poem based upon the 
 physical characteristics of the flower and the leaf. The attribu- 
 tion of analogous mental and moral characteristics to the mem- 
 bers of the respective orders, however, is not even hinted at by 
 Deschamps. Nevertheless, such similarity of thought and expres- 
 sion as we have found, especially between the third stanza of 
 Ballade IV and the accounts of the storm in F. L., can hardly be 
 accounted for except by actual influence of Deschamps on the 
 English poet, or joint indebtedness of both to a common source 
 not now known. 
 
 CHARLES d'oRLEANS' MENTION OP THE ORDERS 
 
 Some time during his imprisonment in England from 1415 to 
 1440, Charles d'Orleans wrote the following ballades: 3 
 
 POEME DE LA PRISON 
 
 Ballade LXI 
 Le premier jour du mois de May, 
 Trouve' me suis en compaignie 
 Qui estoit, pour dire le vray, 
 
 1 Cf . I, 24-27 ; II, 28, 29 ; IV, 16, 21-30 ; F. L., 354-78, 551-65. 2 Cf . IV, 31, 32 ; F. L., 407-13. 
 
 3 See Poesies, ed. d'Hericault (Paris, 1896) ; Vol. I, pp. 79 ff. So far as I am aware, these 
 poems have not been previously mentioned in print in connection with F. L. My attention 
 was called to them by Professor John M. Manly. 
 
 131 
 
12 George L. Marsh 
 
 De gracieuset6 garnie; 
 
 Et, pour oster merencolie, 
 
 Fut ordonn6 qu'on choisiroit, 
 
 Comnie fortune donneroit, 
 
 La fueille plaine de verdure, 
 
 Ou la fleur pour toute l'annee; 
 
 Si prins le feuille pour livree, 10 
 
 Comme lors fut mon aventure. 
 
 Tantost apres je m'avisay 
 Qu'a bon droit l'avoye choisie 
 Car, puis que par mort perdu ay 
 La fleur, de tous biens enrichie, 
 Qui estoit ma Dame, m'amie, 
 Et qui de sa grace m'amoit 
 Et pour son amy me tenoit, 
 Mon cueur d'autre flour n'a pas cure; 
 Adonc cogneu que me pensee 20 
 
 Acordoit a ma destinee, 
 Comme fut lors mon aventure. 
 
 Pource, le fueille porteray 
 Cest an, sans que point je l'oublie; 
 Et a mon povoir me tendray 
 Entierement de sa partie; 
 Je n'ay de nulle flour envie, 
 Porte la qui porter la doit, 
 Car la fleur, que mon cueur amoit 
 Plus que nulle autre creature, 30 
 
 Est hors de ce monde passee, 
 Qui son amour m'avoit donnee, 
 Comme lors fut mon aventure. 
 
 envoi 
 II n'est fueille, ne fleur qui dure 
 Que pour un temps, car esprouvee 
 J'ay la chose que j'ay contee 
 Comme lors fut mon aventure. 
 
 Ballade LXII 
 Le lendemain du premier jour de May, 
 Dedens mon lit ainsi que je dormoye, 
 Au point du jour, m'avint que je songay 
 Que devant moy une fleur je vebye 
 Qui me disoit: Amy, je me souloye 
 En toy fier, car pieca mon party 
 132 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 13 
 
 Tu tenoies, mais mis l'as en oubly, 
 
 En soustenant la fueille contre moy; 
 
 J'ay merveille que tu veulx faire ainsi 
 
 Kiens n'ay meffait, se pense je, vers toy. 10 
 
 Tout esbahy alors je me trouvay, 
 Si respondy, au mieulx que je savoye: 
 Tresbelle fleur, oncques je ne pensay 
 Faire chose qui desplaire te doye: 
 Se, pour esbat, Aventure m'envoye 
 Que je serve le fueille cest an cy, 
 Doy je pour tant estre de toy banny ? 
 Nennil certes, je fais comme je doy 
 Et se je tiens le party qu'ay choisy, 
 Riens n'ay meffait, ce pense je, vers toy. 20 
 
 Car non pour tant, honneur te porteray 
 De bon vouloir, quelque part que je soye, 
 Tout pour l'amour d'une fleur que j'amay 
 Ou temps passe\ Dieu doint que je la voye 
 En Paradis, apres ma mort, en joye; 
 Et pource, fleur, chierement je te pry, 
 Ne te plains plus, car cause n'as pourquoy, 
 Puis que je fais ainsi que tenu suy, 
 Riens n'ay meffait, ce pense je, vers toy. 
 
 ENVOI 
 
 Le verite" est telle que je dy, 30 
 
 J ' en fais juge Amour, le puissant Roy ; 
 Tresdoulce fleur, point ne te cry mercy, 
 Riens n'ay meffait, se pense je, vers toy. 
 
 These two poems clearly have no close relation to F. L. 
 They may be earlier than it is, but there are no such resem- 
 blances of thought and expression as to indicate that our author 
 knew them; or, conversely, that the Duke of Orleans knew the 
 English poem. The most that can be said of them is that they 
 appear to be based upon the same amorous strife, which they 
 connect with the celebration of the first of May by a well-dressed 
 company whose members — "pour oster merencolie" — decide to 
 choose the leaf or the flower as livery for the whole year. This 
 poet chooses the leaf, not because of any such moral superior- 
 ity as it symbolizes in F. L., nor even because of the greater 
 durability and usefulness which are emphasized in the last ballade 
 
 133 
 
14 George L. Marsh 
 
 from Deschamps; but because since his lady's death he cares for 
 no flower but her. And he comes to the melancholy conclusion 
 that neither leaf nor flower lasts more than a short time. 
 
 DOES GOWER MENTION THE ORDERS? 
 
 It seems generally to have been taken for granted that Gower 
 refers to the strife of the Flower and the Leaf in the description, 
 in the eighth book of the Confessio Amantis, of Cupid and his 
 
 "parlement" 
 
 Of gentil folk that whilom were 
 Lovers. 1 
 
 This company are crowned with 
 
 Garlandes noght of o color, 
 Some of the lef, some of the flour, 
 And some of grete Perles were. 
 
 It is, of course, probable that the author of F. L. knew this 
 passage from C. A.; partly because of the resemblances pointed 
 out by Professor Skeat, and partly because a fifteenth-century 
 English writer of the school of Chaucer could hardly have been 
 ignorant of Gower's great English poem. And it must be 
 admitted as quite possible that Gower had the strife of Flower 
 and Leaf in mind. Yet the last line quoted above seems to 
 preclude the idea of a twofold division in Gower's company, and 
 suggests the probability that the reference is merely to the 
 common custom of wearing garlands, generally of leaves and 
 flowers, at the springtime celebrations. 2 Such a company as 
 that described by Gower is regularly met in Court of Love 
 poems, 3 and garlands are part of its regular attire. Professor 
 Skeat zealously attempts to show greater resemblance between 
 Gower and F. L. by skipping a number of pages to 
 
 The grene lef is overthrowe, 
 and the following lines, 4 which he compares with F. L., 11. 358-64, 
 
 iSee Skeat's Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. lxviii-ix; Gower's Complete Works, ed. 
 Macaulay, Vol. Ill, p. 516; Kittredge in Modern Philology, Vol. I, p. 2. Gower's mention of 
 garlands of the flower and the leaf was first noticed by Warton, History of English Poetry, 
 sec. 19; ed. Hazlitt, Vol. Ill, p. 31. The passage in Gower is Book VIII, 11. 2457 IV. 
 
 2 See pp. 153-57 below. 
 
 3 See W. A. Neilson's "Origins and Sources of The Court of Love," Harvard Studies and 
 Notes in Philology and Literature, Vol. VI (1899), chap, iii, passim. 
 
 *C.A., Book VIII, 11. 2854 ff. 
 
 134 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 15 
 
 where the overthrow of the followers of the Flower is described. 
 Any such comparison is entirely unjustifiable, however, as the 
 passage in C. A . is merely part of a rehearsal of the progress of 
 the seasons, and has no reference whatever to the leaves which 
 the gentlefolks of Cupid's company wore. 
 
 COMPARISONS OF FLOWER AND LEAF 
 
 One other alleged reference to the strife of the Flower and the 
 Leaf requires brief mention. It is discussed in an article by Pro- 
 fessor C. F. McClumpha, 1 calling attention to Deschamps' Lay de 
 Franchise as a possible model for F. L. Deschamps, says Mr. 
 McClumpha, "attaches a brief comparison of the flower and the 
 leaf," and the author of the English poem, beginning with the 
 same personages, preserves the allegory. This is a singular error; 
 for, though Deschamps indulges in a good deal of compliment to 
 an unnamed feminine flower, who is compared with the daisy, he 
 nowhere even mentions the leaf or hints at the strife of the 
 Flower and the Leaf. The word feu Me does not occur in the 
 poem, except as applied (in 1. 45) to the petals of the flower; and 
 there is not the remotest suggestion of an allegory of the Flower 
 and the Leaf. 2 
 
 An obscure comparison of the flower and the leaf is found in 
 a short Picard poem of the thirteenth century, 3 which it seems 
 desirable to quote in full : 
 
 L'HONNEDR ET l'AmOUB 
 
 Qui de .II. biens le millour 4 
 Laist, encontre sa pensee, 
 Et prent pom* li le piour 
 Bien croi que c'est esp[ro]v6e 
 
 Tres-haute folour. 
 Cause ai d' avoir mon penser 
 A ce que serve ai est6 
 Ai et sui de vrai ami 
 
 1 Modern Language Notes, Vol. IV (1889), cols. 402 ff. 
 
 'Deschamps' poem is of some importance, however, in relation to the general setting 
 and machinery of F. L., and will therefore be considered further in chap, iii of this 
 investigation. 
 
 3 See "Fragment d'une Anthologie Picarde," ed. A. Boucherie, Revue des Langues 
 Romanes, Vol. Ill (1872), pp. 311 ff. The poem cited is on pp. 321, 322. 
 *Cf. Deschamps' Ballade I, p. 126 above. 
 
 135 
 
16 Geokge L. Marsh 
 
 Sage, courtois, bien secr6, 
 G[ou]vren6 par meuret6, 10 
 
 Et gentil, preu et hardi, 
 Et qui sur tous a m'amour. 
 Dont sui sou vent eno[ree] 
 D'autrui amer, sans secour. 
 Mais pour mon mieuls sui donnee, 
 S'en ferai demour. 
 
 Lasse! il m'est trop mal tourn6 
 A dolour et a griet6, 
 Quant je ai si mal parti 
 
 Qu'il me faut cont[re] mon gr6, 20 
 
 Par droite necessity, 
 De corps eslongier cheli 
 A qui m'otroi sans folour, 
 Et sans estre a . . . . voee [supply lui?] 
 De coer; mais c'est vains labours, 
 Car tant ne doit estre amee 
 Foelle con la flours. 
 
 Or m'ont amours assent; 
 
 Mais, si c'a leur volenti, 
 
 Est mieuls qu'il n'affier a mi. 30 
 
 Tous jours doi av[oir] fond6 
 
 Mon desir sur loiault6, 
 
 En espoir d' amour garni. 
 
 Car tout passe de valour, 
 
 Chus dont s[ui en] amouree, 
 
 D'un si gratieux retour. 
 
 Sage doi estre avisee, 
 
 Se j'ai chier m'onnour. 
 
 M. Boucherie's comment on this poem is as follows (p. 313): 
 
 Dans VHonneur et V Amour, vrai bijou de versification, la femme 
 
 aimee se resigne, non saus lutte, a tenir " eloigne de son corps" celui 
 
 qu'elle pr6fere. Sans doute 1' effort est penible, mais elle doit mettre 
 
 l'honneur au-dessus de l'amour, "car," dit-elle avec un rare bonheur 
 
 d'expression, 
 
 " Car tant ne doit estre amee 
 Foelle con la flours." 
 
 This implied connection of the leaf with love, the flower with 
 honor, is rather puzzling, 1 and I have not found anything like it 
 
 1 Another possible interpretation seems to be that this mistress, plain in comparison 
 with another, cannot expect to be loved like the other, the flower. 
 
 136 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 17 
 
 elsewhere. Whatever the precise origin and meaning of the 
 comparison, however, there does not appear to be reference to 
 any such thing as the later strife of the Flower and the Leaf. 
 The poem is of interest only because of this early setting-off of 
 the one against the other. 
 
 In a great many other cases there is mention of flowers and 
 leaves together; 1 but they are merely part of the natural back- 
 ground, and the juxtaposition seems without significance. The 
 only example worth quoting is from Lydgate's Reson and Sensu- 
 allyte, 2 11. 3900-2, about the trees in the garden of Deduit, which 
 nature sustains: 
 
 Ay tendre, fresh, and grene, 
 
 Ageyn thassaut of al[le] shours 
 
 Both of levys and of flours. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF 
 
 Reference to the characteristics of the flower and the leaf that 
 are emphasized in our poem — the perishable nature of the one 
 and the comparative permanence of the other — is frequently 
 found. 
 
 Thus in a chanson of Gonthier de Soignies, of the thirteenth 
 century, we are told that 
 
 Pucele est con flors de rose, 
 Qui tost vient et tost trespasse. 3 
 
 In Jean de Condi's Dis de V Entendemeni : 
 
 eilrs del monde et richesce 
 
 Kessamble la flour qui tost sesce 
 Et poi en sa biaute demeure, 
 Qu'ele chiet et faut en une heure.* 
 
 1 As, for example, in Mahn, Gedichte der Troubadours, Nos. lxxiii-iv, ciii, ccii, ccxxi, 
 ccxxviii, cclxxxiii, ccccxv, dxxiv, dlxiv, dxcv, etc. The list might be greatly prolongod, if 
 necessary, from nearly all kinds of mediaeval poetry in various languages. 
 
 2Ed. Sieper, E. E. T. S. (1901-3). 
 
 3 Trouveres Beiges (Nouvelle Serie), ed. A. Scheler (Louvain, 1879), p. 29, 11. 43, 44. 
 
 *Dits et contes de Baudouin de Conde et de son Fils Jean de Conde, ed. Scheler 
 (Bruxelles, 1866-67), Vol. Ill, p. 92, 11. 1417 ff. 
 
 137 
 
18 George L. Marsh 
 
 Lydgate several times comments on the transitoriness of the 
 flower in a way that strikingly suggests F. L. Thus in Beware 
 of Doubleness 1 he declares ironically that because 
 
 these fresshe somer-floures 
 Whyte and rede, blewe and grene, 
 Ben sodainly, with winter-shoures, 
 Mad feinte and fade, withoute wene, 
 
 therefore there is no trust or steadfastness in anything but women. 
 Another ballade of Lydgate's has the refrain: 
 
 All stant on chaunge like a mydsomer rose; 2 
 in still another he describes how "Alcestis flour" "in stormys 
 dreepithe;" 3 and in B. S. beauty is compared to a rose that fades 
 with a storm. 4 In Henryson's Testament of Cresseid 5 is the line: 
 
 Nocht is your fairnes bot ane faiding flour. 
 Other references could be made, were an exhaustive list necessary. 
 
 On the other hand, the enduring quality of certain kinds of 
 leaves, including the laurel, the oak, and the hawthorn, is made 
 prominent in Chaucer's P. F., 11. 173 ff., and in Lydgate's T. G.* 
 11. 503-16. In the latter passage a beautiful lady is advised to 
 be "unchanging like these leaves [hawthorn], which no storm 
 can kill." 
 
 It should also be noted that in B. B., buds are preferred to 
 blown roses because of their greater durability 7 — a reason suffi- 
 ciently similar to that for the preference of leaf over flower to be 
 of interest. 
 
 THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF AS SYMBOLS 
 
 The use of the flower and the leaf as symbols is paralleled in 
 a rather interesting way in Christine de Pisan's Dit de la Bose* 
 which tells of the formation of the "Ordre de la Rose" for the 
 purpose of guarding "la bonne renommSe . . . . de dames en 
 toute chose." This poem is, as the editor says, 9 "en quelque 
 
 i Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 291 ff. 
 
 2M. P., ed. Halliwell, Percy Society, Vol. II (1840), pp. 22 ff. 
 
 3Jf. P., p. 161. * LI. 6210-16. 
 
 5 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 327 ff., 1. 461. 
 
 6 Ed. Schick, E. E. T. S., 1891. 7 LI. 1653 ff., Vol. I, p. 54, Michel ed. 
 
 s Oluvres poitiques, ed. Roy (Societe dos Anciens Testes Francais), Vol. II, pp. 29 ff. 
 9 Ibid., Vol. II, p. x. 
 
 138 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 19 
 
 sort le couronnement de la pol6mique de Christine contre l'oeuvre 
 de Jean de Meun" in satire of woman. The order is formed at 
 the suggestion of the "dame et deesse de Loyaute ' (11. 90, 91), 
 who comes directly from the God of Love. The symbolism of 
 the flower is more like that of the leaf in our poem, for the poet 
 is the friend of Diana (1. 279). The rose is evidently chosen 
 because of the controversy relating to R. R., and there is no 
 reference to any symbolism previously attached to that or any 
 other flower. 
 
 Mention should also be made, in this connection, of the well- 
 known Jeux Floraux of Toulouse, established in 1324 by seven 
 Provencal troubadours, for the purpose of fostering the "gay 
 science" of poetry. Though it is possible that the author of 
 F. L. had never even heard of this southern organization, the 
 name, the floral emblems given to winners of prizes, and the date 
 each year on which the jeux occurred — May 3 — are all of interest 
 as evidence of the way in which flowers were used as symbols in 
 connection with observances of the springtime. 
 
 THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ALLEGORY 
 
 The contrast between the adherents of the Leaf and of the 
 Flower in our poem is not quite clear-cut. Too many different 
 sorts of people are included in the company of the Leaf, and the 
 characterization of the company of the Flower is too general. 
 Yet the dominant ideas — serious achievement and steadfastness 
 on the one hand, idleness and frivolity on the other — are plain 
 enough, and are expressed elsewhere in ways of some interest to us. 
 
 Thus it is of value to examine somewhat in detail the plan 
 and purpose of Le livre des cent-ballades. 1 A young man, 
 riding between Pont-de-Ce and Angers, meets an old man, who, 
 suspecting the young man of being a lover, asks him whether he 
 intends always to be loyal in love and brave in war, and to observe 
 the rules of French chivalry. The young man promises, and pur- 
 sues his journey till he meets a company of young knights and 
 ladies disporting in a meadow watered by the Loire. He avoids 
 the crowd and proceeds to the river-bank to watch the fish ; but 
 
 i Ed. de Queux de Saint Hilaire (Paris, 1868). 
 
 139 
 
20 George L. Marsh 
 
 is perceived by one of the youngest and merriest ladies of the 
 company, who seeks him out and unasked gives "conseils d'amour 
 ledger, d'amour volage, bien diff brents des austeres et vigoureuses 
 lemons qui vient de lui donner le vieux chevalier." 1 The young 
 man says he prefers to be loyal, and, in answer to the lady's 
 question where he received such advice, tells her of the old man 
 whom he had met. She proposes then that they submit to cer- 
 tain chevaliers renowned both in love and war the question: 
 
 Qui plus grant 
 Joie donne & plus entiere, 
 Loiaut6, ou faux semblant 
 
 En amant. 
 
 He prefers to make the issue squarely as to the relative value or 
 success in love of loyalty or falsity; but she demands that they 
 ask of the judges only if they think — 
 
 Qu'estre secret & plaisant, 
 
 Pourchacant 
 En mains lieux joie pleniere, 
 Ne soit fait de vray amant. 
 
 The terms are finally agreed upon, and the question is sub- 
 mitted, with the result that nine out of twelve answers received, 
 purporting to come from some of the most famous men of the 
 time (not far from 1390), favor loyalty. 
 
 There is, to be sure, in the foregoing no mention of regular 
 orders, with symbolic attire and decorations, and the strife is 
 more specific and narrower in range than that of F. L.j but the 
 resemblance is noteworthy nevertheless. As Professor Neilson 
 says: "In this book we have very clearly opposed two different 
 ideals of love," 2 the old ideal of Ovid and his imitators, and a 
 newer and nobler ideal not so frequently expressed. Such a con- 
 trast is suggested, however, in the nightingale's complaint of the 
 degeneracy of love in Fablel and Venus, 3 and was definitely made 
 long before the latter part of the fourteenth century ; for instance, 
 in a Provencal poem mentioned by Professor Rajna, 4 in which we 
 find "l'Amor Fino o Verace, antagonista dell' Amor Falso." 
 
 1 Editor's Introduction, p. viii. 3 P- 162 below. 
 
 2 Harvard Studies, Vol. VI, p. 198. * Le corti d'amore (Milano, 1890), p. 28. 
 
 140 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 21 
 
 The conflict in F. L., however, is not primarily or chiefly a 
 love conflict. In some ways it more closely resembles that between 
 Reason and Sensuality in Lydgate's amplification of Les Echoes 
 Amoureux, 1 chiefly because Sensuality causes men to be 
 
 Ful of plesaunce and fals delyte (801) 
 And of flesshly appetyte. 
 
 Still more interesting, in the same poem, is the rivalry of Diana 
 and Venus. The poet meets the former in her evergreen forest 
 of chastity. She is clad in white, ornamented with pearls, and 
 wears a golden crown. She bewails the change from the days 
 when she was more highly regarded than Venus, and love was 
 pure and faithful. She particularly detests " Ydelnesse," the por- 
 ter of the garden of Deduit, Venus' son; and warns the poet at 
 great length against the idle pleasures of this garden. In almost 
 every way 2 the subjects of Venus and Cupid in the garden of 
 Deduit resemble the frivolous company of the Flower. And 
 though Diana has no company here, she bewails the loss of fol- 
 lowers who either in chastity or steadfastness were like some of 
 the groups in the company of the Leaf. Practically the only 
 inconsistency is that Diana, as in classical mythology, spends her 
 time hunting (to avoid idleness, she says, 1. 3000) ; whereas in 
 F. L. excessive love of hunting is one of the things condemned. 
 The pleasures of the garden of Deduit, to be sure, do not differ 
 materially from pleasures described in R. R. and other poems 
 of its class ; but there is nowhere else, so far as I have discovered, 
 so important a contrast of the two ways of life contrasted in F. L. 
 
 ORDERS IN THE AMOROUS LAW 
 
 The fact that this conflict between two ways of life is attached, 
 in F. L., to orders mentioned by Deschamps as of the "amorous 
 law," requires little comment. The origin and characteristics of 
 this law have received such detailed treatment that repetition is 
 unnecessary. 3 Suffice it to say that during the Middle Ages there 
 
 i R. S., ed. Sieper. 
 
 2 See more detailed analysis in chap, iii below. 
 
 3 See especially P. Rajna, Le corti d' amove (Milano, 1890) ; E. Trojel, Andreae Capellani 
 Regit Francorum de Amore (Copenhagen, 1892) ; J. F. Rowbotham, The Troubadours and 
 Courts of Love (London, 1895) ; L. F. Mott, The System of Courtly Love (Boston, 1896) ; W. A. 
 Neilson, Harvard Studies, Vol. VI; and various references given in the books just named. 
 
 141 
 
22 George L. Marsh 
 
 did grow up — whether in actual practice or poetic fancy — an 
 elaborate system of courtly love, formulated and celebrated in a 
 long series of poems, with which ours is connected, not only by 
 "the landscape, the costuming, and the role of the queens," 1 but 
 also by the fact that the Orders of the Flower and the Leaf were 
 orders in the amorous law. 2 Mention has already been made of 
 a slightly similar order of which a flower is used as the symbol. 3 
 This "Ordre de la Rose" may have been only a poetical fancy; 
 but in 1399 an "Ordre de la Dame Blanche h l'Escu Verd" was 
 actually formed, 4 and there is interesting record of a "Cour 
 Amoureuse" of 1400. 5 
 
 It is conceivable that the Orders of the Flower and the Leaf 
 did not actually exist, since literary influence may account for all 
 definite mention we have of them. Chaucer and Deschamps knew 
 some, at least, of each other's writings, 6 and Charles d'Orleans and 
 the author of F. L. in all probability knew both Chaucer and 
 Deschamps. Yet the manner in which all the writers speak of the 
 contrasted orders is hard to reconcile with anything but their 
 actual existence in connection with the observance of May Day. 
 Chaucer's reference, as already pointed out, 7 seems to imply that 
 the orders were not very old when he was writing the Prologue 
 to L. O. W. (about 1385-86). Deschamps, too, writing about the 
 same time, says, "I have heard of two orders," etc.; 8 as if the 
 information had recently come to him. Charles d'Orleans' Poeme 
 de la prison cannot be later than 1-440, and his reference to the 
 Orders of the Flower and the Leaf is probably due to the recollec- 
 tion of May Day festivities in France before he was imprisoned 
 in 1415. F. L. can hardly be dated later than 1450, and the 
 various facts to be observed as to its apparent relations with early 
 poems of Lydgate 9 incline me to favor a somewhat early date. 
 Thus it seems probable that Orders of the Flower and the Leaf 
 existed as a part of the observance of May Day, according to the 
 "amorous law," in portions of both France and England, some 
 
 i Neilson, p. 150. 2 Deschamps' Ballade II, p. 127 above. 3 p, 138 above. 
 
 * To be discussed below, p. 153. 
 
 &See A. Piaget, in Romania, Vol. XX, pp. 417 ff. ; Vol. XXXI, pp. 597 ff. 
 6 See the articles of Kittredge and Lowes previously cited, p. 124 above. 
 'P. 125 above. 8 Ballade II, p. 127 above. 9 See especially chap, iii below. 
 
 142 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 23 
 
 time during the period beginning not long before 1385 and end- 
 ing before the middle of the following century. It is hardly prob- 
 able that the orders were very important, however, or there would 
 have been more frequent mention of them than we find. 
 
 CHAPTEK II. THE ACCESSORIES OF THE ALLEGORY 
 
 A number of the details of F. L., as to costumes, chaplets, birds, 
 trees, and so forth, are clearly symbolic in relation to the central 
 allegory. 
 
 THE COSTUMES — WHITE AND GREEN 
 
 The costumes are, we have noted, white and green — white for 
 the adherents of the Leaf, green for the adherents of the Flower. 
 At first this reversal of an apparently natural choice may seem 
 strange, for the daisy — the flower here worshiped — is white, and 
 the leaf is green; but when we remember that white is proverbi- 
 ally (and most naturally) the color of purity, the white attire of 
 the chaste followers of the Leaf is at once seen to be appropriate. 
 
 The use of white as symbolic of purity is so common as scarcely 
 to need comment : Thus Beatrice, when Dante sees her at the age 
 of eighteen, is attired in white, "the hue of Faith and Purity." 1 
 Deschamps mentions the traditional interpretation of the color in 
 his Lay de Franchise, 1. 36, and his Eloge d'une dame du nom 
 de Marguerite. 2 Christine de Pisan, in her Dit de la Rose, 3 and 
 Lydgate, in R. S.,* represent Diana as clothed in white — Diana 
 the goddess of purity and leader of the company of the Leaf. 
 Especially interesting in this connection is another poem by Lyd- 
 gate — Pur le Roy, 5 an account of the entry of Henry VI into 
 London in 14:32, after his coronation in France. 
 
 The citezens eche one of the citee, 
 In her entent that thei were pure and clene, 
 Chees hem of white a full fayre lyver6, 
 In every craft as it whas welle sene; 
 
 1 Gardner, Dante Primer (1900), p. 46. 
 
 2 GSuvres, Vol. II, pp. 203 ff. ; Vol. Ill, pp. 379, 380, 1. 7. 
 
 3 CEuvres po&tiques, Vol. II, pp. 29 ff„ 11. 279-81. * LI. 2816, 2822-24. 
 
 $M. P., ed. Halliwell, pp. 1 £E. The same event is described in the Chronicles; see 
 especially Gregory's, ed. Gairdner, Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the Fif- 
 teenth Century (Camden Society, 1876), pp. 173 ff. 
 
 143 
 
24 George L. Marsh 
 
 To shew the trouthe that they did mene 
 Toward the Kyng, had made hem feithefully, 
 In sondery devise embroudered richely. 1 
 
 On the bridge a tower was erected, from which issued three ladies 
 representing Nature, Grace, and Fortune. On each side of these 
 ladies were seven maidens — 
 
 Alle clad in white, in tokyn of clennes, 
 Lyke pure virginis as in ther ententis. 2 
 
 But purity is not the only meaning attached by mediaeval poets 
 to white. The appropriateness of the color for the Nine Worthies, 
 the Douze Pairs, the Knights of the Round Table and of the 
 Garter, 3 is indicated in the following lines from Watriquet de 
 Couvin's Bis des .VIII. Couleurs: 
 
 Cils autres cuers de coragour, (206) 
 
 Cils visages simples dehors, 
 
 Qui n'espargne force ne cors 
 
 A biaus fais d'armes commencier, 
 
 Cils qui onques ne volt tencier 
 
 A honour, ainz le quiert touz diz 
 
 Simples est et douz et hardiz: 
 
 II portera par sa samblance 
 
 L'argentee couleur tres blance, 
 
 Qui nous moustre en humility 
 
 Hardye debonnairete> 
 
 AspretG, travail a suom - , 
 
 Et criera par grant vigour 
 
 .1. cri courtois et deduisant: 
 
 "Clart6, clart6, du roy luisant!"* 
 
 A third symbolic meaning is given to white by Guillaume de 
 Maehaut, in his B6mede de Fortune, 5 where we are told that the 
 color signifies joy. A woman in white called Joye-sanz-fin 
 appears in a poem attributed to Deschamps, 6 who was, it will be 
 remembered, a pupil of Maehaut. Connected perhaps with this 
 
 1 1 emend HalliwelTs bad punctuation. 
 
 2 It seems worthy of note, by the way, that these virgins sang '"Most aungelyk with 
 hevenly armony" (p. 10). Cf. F. L., 131-33. 
 3F.L., 504, 515, 516, 519. 
 
 * Dits de Watriquet de Couvin, ed. Scheler (Bruxelles, 1868), pp. 311 ff. 
 SQSuvres choisies, ed. Tarbe (Paris, 1849), pp. 83 ff. 
 <* CEuvres de Deschamps, ed Raynaud, Vol. X, p. lxxxi. 
 
 144 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 25 
 
 interpretation are two references in Gaston Paris' collection of 
 Chansons du XV me si&cle. 1 In chanson XLII the poet says 
 he is too sad to sing — 
 
 Quant le Vaudevire est jus 
 Qui souloit estre jouyeulx, 
 
 Et blanche livree porter, 
 Chascun ung blanc chapperon, 2 
 Tout par bonne intencion 
 Noblement sans mal penser. 
 
 Somewhat similarly, in chanson LVI, Olivier Bachelm is 
 addressed in the following terms: 
 
 Vous soulli^s gaiment chanter 
 Et demener jouyeuse vie, 
 Et la blanche livree porter 
 Par la pais de Normandie. 
 
 This "blanche livree" was apparently the sign of some organiza- 
 tion, but the editor of the Chansons gives no definite information 
 about it. As Bachelm was the fifteenth-century Norman poet who 
 wrote convivial songs called by the name of the valley (Vaudevire) 
 where he lived, it seems hardly likely that the wearing of white 
 livery in his time and by his merry companions has any relation 
 to the wearing of white by the followers of the Leaf, in spite of 
 the fact that 11. 11 and 12 of chanson XLII may reasonably be 
 taken to imply either purity or steadfastness, or both. These 
 chansons were probably later than F. L., however, so that they 
 interfere in no way with the conclusion that the use of white in 
 our poem was entirely in accord with traditions prevalent at the 
 time it was written. 
 
 There is abundant evidence that white was associated with the 
 amorous law and its festivities. Thus in G. Villani's Cronica 3 
 there is mention of the appearance — in Florence, June, 1283— of 
 "una compagnia .... di mille uomini o piu, tutti vestiti di robe 
 
 1 Societe des Anciens Textes Francais, 1875. 
 
 2 In this connection may be mentioned Froissart's account of the "blans chaperons" of 
 Ghent, 1379 {Chroniques, chaps, cccxlviii ff.; Berners' translation). I see no reason for 
 suspecting any relation between these two kinds of "white hats," but they indicate how 
 much was made of details of livery or uniform, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 SLibro VII, cap. lxxxix; Biblioteca classica italiana, Secolo XIV, No. 21 (Trieste, 1857), 
 Vol. I, p. 148. 
 
 145 
 
26 George L. Marsh 
 
 bianche con uno signore detto dell' Amore." Similarly, in May, 
 1290, "more than a thousand persons, dressed in white, paraded 
 the streets [of Florence again], guided by the 'Lord of Love.' nl 
 In Jean de Conde's Messe des Oisiaus 2 white-clad canonesses pre- 
 sent a love suit before Venus; and in Gower's C. A. 3 a company of 
 servants of love ride white horses and are clad in white and blue 
 (the latter the regular color of constancy). In a popular chanson 4 
 "la belle au jardin d' amour" is in white. Moreover, in a number 
 of other cases, to be mentioned hereafter, 5 white is associated with 
 green in connection with love observances of various kinds. 
 
 These love observances took place most commonly during the 
 month of May, in connection with more general celebrations of 
 the return of spring, with which also white was sometimes asso- 
 ciated, though, as will be seen shortly, far less frequently than 
 green. One of Gower's French ballades, 6 for instance, contains 
 mention of the "blanche banere" of May. There is record of the 
 custom, in Provence, on the first of May, of choosing "de jolies 
 petites filles qu'on habille de blanc .... On l'appelle le mayo." 1 
 Mannhardt 8 also mentions the wearing of white costumes at May 
 Day celebrations in various parts of Europe. The specific exam- 
 ples he gives are doubtless of a time much later than F. L., but 
 such customs are generally traditional and may be of very great 
 antiquity. 
 
 As to the fundamental interpretation of green there is direct 
 conflict : it means constancy and it means inconstancy. Deschamps, 
 in his Lay de Franchise and in two ballades, "L' Ascension est la 
 fete des dames" and "Eloge d'une dame du nom de Marguerite," 9 
 says green is the color of "ferinet£" or of "seurte." In two of 
 these cases, however, he is complimenting a woman represented 
 as a daisy, and naturally has to give a complimentary meaning to 
 
 1 Gardner, Dante Primer, p. 13. 2 Dits et contes, Vol. Ill, pp. 1 ff. 
 
 3 Book IV, 11. 1305 ff. See further discussion of the story of Rosiphele, p. 166 below. 
 
 * Romania, Vol. VII, p. 61. 5 Pp. 152, 153 below. 
 
 <> Complete Works, ed. Macaulay, Vol. I, p. 367, ballade xxxvii. 
 
 7 DeNore, Coutumes, mythes et traditions des jirovinces de France (Paris, 1846) ; quoted 
 in deGubernatis, La mythologie des plantes (Paris, 1878-82), Vol. I, p. 227. See also Cham- 
 bers' Book of Days, Vol. I, p. 579. 
 
 *Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstamme (Berlin, 1875), p. 344. 
 
 9 GEuvres, Vol. II, pp. 203 ff., 1. 35; Vol. Ill, pp. 307, 379. 
 
 146 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 27 
 
 the green stalk. In another ballade he writes more convention- 
 ally of blue as the color of "loyaute." 1 Yet there is evidence 
 that his idea was not exceptional. For example, in a Middle 
 English version of Le Chasteau d' Amour are the following lines: 
 
 The grene colour bi the ground that wil so wele laste (403) 
 Is the treuthe of oure ladye that ay was stedefast; 2 
 
 in the Castle of Perseverance Truth is represented as wearing a 
 "sad-coloured green;" 3 and in Lydgate's Edmund and Fremund* 
 we find the lines: 
 
 The wattry greene shewed in the Reynbowe 
 
 Off chastite disclosed his clennesse. 
 
 Moreover, Chaucer has Alceste, the type of faithfulness, "clad in 
 
 real habit grene," 5 and even Diana's statue in the Knight's Tale 6 
 
 clothed "in gaude greene" — doubtless because she was a huntress. 
 
 The foregoing interpretation, however, is exceptional, and in 
 
 most cases can be accounted for, as intimated, by special reasons 
 
 governing each particular poem. By far the commoner meaning of 
 
 green was inconstancy. For example, Machaut has a ballade with 
 
 the refrain: 
 
 Au lieu de bleu se vestir de vert; 7 
 
 and in his B6mede de Fortune* "vers" is said to signify "nou- 
 velleteV' Chaucer makes similar use of the color in the Squire's 
 Tale; 9 and Lydgate in the following lines of the Falls of Princes . : 
 
 Watchet-blewe of feyned stedfastnes, .... 
 Meint with light grene, for change and doublenes. 10 
 
 i CEuvres, Vol. X, p. lix. 
 
 2 Robert Grosseteste's Chasteau d 'Amour (Castel of Love), ed. Hupe ; Anglia, Vol. XIV, 
 pp. 415 ff. 
 
 3 See Schick's note on 1. 299 of Lydgate's T. 6. 
 
 *In Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge (Heilbronn, 1891), pp. 376 ff. ; part 
 III, 11. 115, 116. 
 
 5£. G. W., Prologue B, 1.214. Alceste, it should be remembered, is a personification of 
 the daisy, and the green habit represents the green stalk of the flower. Similarly in the 
 Second Nun's Prologue (C T., G, 90), "green of conscience" is to be explained by the com- 
 parison with a lily. 
 
 6 C. T., A, 1. 2079. 
 
 " OJuvres choisies, ed. Tarbe, pp. 55, 56. This poem is the original of Chaucer's Ballade 
 of Newe-Fangelnesse, with its refrain, 
 
 In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene. (Oxford Chaucer, Vol. I, p. 409.) 
 
 STarbe, p. 84. 9 C. T., F, 11. 646, 647. 
 
 10 Quoted by Professor Skeat in his note on Chaucer's Anelida and ArciteA. 330 (Oxford 
 Chaucer, Vol. I, p. 538) ; and by Professor Schick in the note referred to above, n. 3. 
 
 147 
 
28 George L. Marsh 
 
 In A. G., 1 too, Fortune's gown 
 
 was of gawdy grene chamelet 
 Chaungeable of sondry dyuerse coloures 
 To the condycyone accordyng of hyr shoures. 
 
 The use of green as an unlucky color in some of the English 
 and Scottish Popular Ballads 2 is in harmony with the foregoing 
 interpretation. The following lines, quoted by Child from Wil- 
 liam Black's Three Feathers, are of interest: 
 
 Oh green's forsaken, 3 
 
 And yellow's forsworn, 
 And blue's the sweetest 
 
 Color that's worn. 
 
 A third meaning of green — not inconsistent with inconstancy, 
 however — is given in the following passage from Watriquet de 
 Couvin's Dit des .VIII. Couleurs:* 
 
 Car couleurs verde senefie (227) 
 Maniere cointe et envoisie: 
 Affaitiez, cortois et miguos 
 Et chantans comme uns roussignos, 
 Ne ne doit fais d'arrnes douter, 
 Que qu'il li doie au cors couster, 
 Mais qu'il puist sa force emploier 
 Par jouster et par tornoier, 
 Et criera ce joli cri: 
 " Verdure au riche roy joli ! " 
 
 A similar interpretation is contained in the following lines from 
 
 Barclay : 
 
 Mine habite blacke accordeth not with grene, 
 Blacke betokeneth death as it is dayly sene; 
 The grene is pleasour, freshe lust and iolite; 
 These two in nature hath great diuersitie. 6 
 
 i Ed. Triggs (E. E. T. S., 1895), 11. 320-22. 
 
 2Ed. Child, Vol. II, pp. 181 ff., 512. It should be added, however, that in the great 
 majority of cases in which green is mentioned in the ballads, no ill luck is implied. Green 
 garments are very common — more common than any other kind. Some special uses of them 
 will be mentioned below, pp. 149-52. In numerous other instances not mentioned, the color 
 seems to be used simply because it is bright and pretty. 
 
 3 It may be mentioned that in Elizabethan times to "give a woman a green gown" 
 mplied loss of chastity. See the New English Dictionary, under " Green." 
 
 * Already referred to, p. 144 above, n. 4. 
 Prologue to Egloges, Spenser Society (1885), p. 2. 
 
 148 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 29 
 
 This passage is, of course, considerably later than F. L.; but a 
 parallel contrast between black and green is implied by Lydgate's 
 representation of himself, on a pilgrimage, as 
 
 In a cope of blacke, and not of grene. 1 
 In the ballads there is frequent mention of the "gay green," 2 and 
 the association of the color with the festivities of spring 3 is in 
 harmony with this interpretation. 
 
 Another use of green is as the color of hope, 4 in L'Amant 
 Rendu Cordelier a V Observance cV Amours" — a meaning also 
 given (along with others) in a passage quoted by Schick from 
 Kindermann's Teutscher Wolredner. 6 A similar idea seems to be 
 at the bottom of the following lines from La Panthere d' Amours, 
 by Nicole de Margival: 7 
 
 Amans donques, qui l'esperance 
 
 De l'esmeraude et la puissance 
 
 Veult avoir, il doit estre vers, (1310) 
 
 C'est a dire qu'il ait devers 
 
 Ceulz qui bien aimment bon corage, 
 
 Et si doit metre son usage 
 
 En ceulz ensuivir et congnoistre 
 
 Qui se peinent d'amors acroistre; 
 
 Car les vers choses tousjours croissent, 
 
 Et les seches tousjors descroissent; 
 
 Et cil qui en verdeur se tiennent 
 
 A grace si tres grant en viennent (1320) 
 
 Que des bons, des biaus et des gens 
 
 Sont k>6, et de toutes gens. 
 Such are the somewhat confusing interpretations of green that 
 I have found — constancy, inconstancy, pleasure, hope. 8 In a far 
 
 'Prologue to Thebes; text consulted, Chalmers' English Poets, Vol. I, p. 571. 
 
 2 See Child, ballads 64 A, stanza 19 ; 125, stanzas 23, 35 ; 132, stanzas 3, 4, etc. 
 
 3 See pp. 150-53 below. 
 
 * White also appears as the color of hope in various Dutch poems. See Seelmann's 
 "Farbentracht," Jahrbuch des Vereins fUr niederdeutsche Sprachforschung, Vol. XXVIII 
 (1902), pp. 118 ff. 
 
 5 Attributed to Martial d'Auvcrgne ; ed. Montaiglon, Societe des Anciens Textes Fran- 
 cois, 1881. See note on p. Ill of this edition. The poem is also found in Les Arrets d 'Amours, 
 ed. Lenglet-Dufresnay (Amsterdam, 1731). 
 
 6 In the note already referred to, p. 147 above, n. 3. 
 
 i Ed. Todd, Societe des Anciens Textes Francais, 1883. 
 
 8 Professor Brandl (in Paul's Grundriss, Vol. II, p. 663) mentions yet another meaning, 
 in Gawain and the Green Knight— "die grune Farbe des Friedens." This poem, however, 
 seems to have no possible relation to F. L. 
 
 149 
 
30 George L. Marsh 
 
 greater number of cases no specific meaning is given, but the color 
 is associated with the light and frivolous pleasures of springtime 
 and courtly love. 1 In astrology green was the color of Venus, and 
 Venus was generally connected, as in the Tannhauser legend, with 
 the baser sort of love. Naturally, also, green costumes were worn 
 at the festivities of May Day, in celebration of the renewal of 
 nature's green. The following list will indicate how thoroughly 
 in accord with tradition were the green costumes of the company 
 of the Flower: 
 
 In R. R., Oiseuse (" Ydelnesse "), who conducts the lover to the gar- 
 den of Deduit, wears a dress of green; see 1. 573 of the English version 
 attributed to Chaucer. 
 
 The passage from La Panthere d 'Amours, quoted on p. 149 above, 
 associates the emerald and green with love. 
 
 A company of famous lovers in Froissart's Paradys d 'Amour (see 
 chap, iii below) are all clad in green. 
 
 In Deschamps' Lay de Franchise (ref . p. 143 above) a party of young 
 men cutting foliage in observance of May are likewise "vestus de vert." 
 See also ballade IV, p. 129 above, 1. 35. 
 
 A ballade of Christine de Pisan (CEuvres, Vol. I, p. 217), calling on 
 lovers to rise and be joyful on May Day, contains the following lines: 
 
 Vestir de vert pour joye parfurnir, 
 A feste aler se dame le mandoit. 
 
 A lean chevalier, reciting the pains and troubles of lovers in Alain 
 Chartier's Debat des deux Fortunes d' Amours {(Euvres, ed. DuChesne 
 [Paris, 1617], p. 570), says that they often wear "cueur noircy .... soubz 
 robbe verte." 
 
 In the note already mentioned, on p. Ill of L'Amant Rendu Corde- 
 lier a V Observance d' Amours, the following lines from Charles d'Or- 
 leans and Bertrand des Marins are quoted: 
 
 Le verd je ne veux plus porter, [Charles d'Orleans] 
 Que est livre*e aux aruoureux. 
 
 La couleur verde est demonstrant [Bertrand des Marins 
 Des femmes la plaisante face, deMasan in itoim'er 
 
 Leur mine, aussi leur beau semblant, des Dames'] 
 Dont maint estime estre en leur grace. 
 
 In the Prologue to Les Arrets d' Amours, by Martial d'Auvergne, 
 "les deesses, .... legistes, et clergesses qui sgavoient le decret par 
 cueur," are all clad in green. This singular volume of burlesque decrees 
 
 1 The signification of green in the Dutch poems studied by Seelmann (n. 4, p. 149 above) 
 is "Anfang de Liebe." 
 
 150 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 31 
 
 contains many other allusions to garments and decorations of green; most 
 of them without significance, except as they show the great popularity of 
 the color and its common association with the affairs of love. 
 
 In chanson XLIX (Chansons du XV me siecle, ed. Paris); green is 
 said to be the livery of lovers. 
 
 Chaucer's Alceste, who, as we have noted (p. 147 above), is clad in 
 green, is led upon the scene by the King of Love, and represents in 
 appearance a daisy, the flower which the green-clad followers of the 
 Flower particularly worship. See L. G. W., text B, 11. 213, 242, 303, 341. 
 
 Isis, in A. G., (11. 332-34), wears a gown "grene as any gresse in the 
 somertyde." 
 
 Venus, in Henryson's Testament of Cresseid (1. 221; Chaucerian and 
 Other Pieces, p. 334), is dressed in green and black. 
 
 Malory describes a "maying of Arthur's knights, all clad in green." 
 
 Kosiall and Lust, in C. L. (11. 816, 1059; Chaucerian and Other Pieces, 
 pp. 431, 437), are clad in green. 
 
 In the May eclogue of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, "love-lads 
 .... girt in gawdy greene" are mentioned; and Lechery is given a 
 green gown in The Faerie Queene (I, iv, 25). 
 
 In Stubbes' Anatomie of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere 
 Society, 1877-79, p. 147) we are told of the followers of the Lord of 
 Misrule, clad in " liveries of greene, yellow, or some other light wanton 
 color." 
 
 Shakspere, in Love's Labour's Lost (I, ii, 90), mentions green as " the 
 colour of lovers." 
 
 Green also was frequently associated with fairies and other 
 supernatural creatures. In the ballad of Thomas Rhymer, 1 for 
 instance, the queen of Elfland is attired in green. "The Wee 
 Wee Man" 2 calls up a vision of twenty-four ladies in green, who 
 dance "jimp and sma." A mermaiden in green entices Clerk 
 Colvill away from his "gay ladie." 3 And — to go somewhat afield 
 into folklore — Mannhardt 4 writes at great length of " Waldgeister " 
 of various kinds clad in green. 
 
 Another extremely popular mediseval use of green was in 
 connection with forestry and hunting. 5 Robin Hood and his 
 men regularly wore suits of green, and other "merry men," out- 
 
 1 Child, ballad 37, Vol. I, pp. 323-26. 3 ibid., 42, Vol. I, pp. 387-89. 
 
 2 Ibid., 38, Vol. I, pp. 330-33. * Der Baumkultus, pp. Ill, 117, etc. 
 
 5 Explained in an interesting way in the following passage, quoted in the New English 
 Dictionary (under "Green") from Trevisa's translation of Bartholemew de Glanville's De 
 Proprietatibus Rerum: "Hunters clothe themself in grene for the beest louyth kyndely 
 grene colours." 
 
 151 
 
32 George L. Marsh 
 
 laws, and hunters in the ballads are similarly clad. 1 Chaucer's 
 yeoman, too, "was clad in cote and hood of grene;" 2 and Emily, 
 in the Knight's Tale, 3 wears a green gown on the May morning 
 when she goes forth with Theseus and his company to hunt. 
 According to an old proverb, 
 
 The first of May 
 
 Is Kobin Hood's day; 
 
 and at least as early as the fifteenth century Robin Hood and his 
 men were associated in England with the May games. 4 Thus, 
 since it is undue love of hunting and hawking and playing in 
 meads that is specifically condemned in the followers of the 
 Flower, their green costumes may possibly be accounted for with- 
 out going away from England. 
 
 Thus far we have been examining cases of the use of white and 
 green separately, where a symbolic meaning is attached to the 
 colors or implied by the context. Many more examples might 
 doubtless be found, as mediaeval poetry is full of details about 
 costumes, and the colors in question were exceptionally popular. 
 But it seems sufficient to conclude with a few important instances 
 of the use of the two colors together. 
 
 At the ceremonies after the coronation of Charles VI of France, 
 in 1380, "ceux de la ville de Paris allerent au devant de luy bien 
 deux milles personnes vestus tout un, c'est a sgavoir de robbes 
 my-partis de vert et de blanc. 1 ' 6 Even though in this narrative 
 no specific significance is attached to the colors, the circumstance 
 is of interest. Much more important, however, is the use of the 
 colors in Christine de Pisan's Due des Vrais Amans,' where on 
 
 1 See Child, "Robin Hood Ballads," passim, Vol. Ill; also ballads 73 D, stanza 11; IOTA, 
 stanzas 25, 30, 76 ; 305 A, stanzas 19, 32. Of course, a very much longer list could be made, were 
 it necessary to be exhaustive. See, for instance, Ipotnedon, ed. KOlbing, 1. 657. 
 
 2 C. T., A, 1. 103. 3 ibid., 1. 1686. 
 
 ■4 See the accounts of May games in Strutt's Sport and Pastimes, Book IV. chap, iii, 
 sees, xv-xx; Strutt's romance, Queenhoo-Hall, sec. i; Hone's Ecery-Day Book, Vol. I, pp. 
 269 ff.; Vol. II. pp. 284 ff . ; Hone's Table Book, pp. 271 ff.; Hone's Year Book, pp. 257 ff. ; 
 Brand's Popular Antiquties; Mannhardt's Baumkultus, pp. 160 ff. ; Chambers' Book of 
 Days, Vol. I, pp. 571 ff. 
 
 5 For instance, in the romances, which I have not examined with this matter especially 
 in view. 
 
 fi Quoted from Jean des Ursins, " Histoire de Charles VI," in Memoirs pour servir <> Vhis- 
 toire de la France, Vol. II, p. 312. 
 
 7 CEuvres, Vol. Ill, pp. 59 ff. The poem will be analyzed somewhat in detail in chap, 
 iii, below. 
 
 152 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 33 
 
 one day knights clad in white joust before ladies in white, and on 
 the next day both knights and ladies are clad in green. Here 
 also no significance is attached to the colors, and the same persons 
 wear the different costumes on different days; yet there is enough 
 similarity in the attendant circumstances — the jousting ; the order 
 in which the colors appear; the attention to details about armor, 
 harness, precious stones, gold embroidery, and so forth — to 
 justify a strong suspicion that the author of F. L. knew the 
 French woman's poem. Christine de Pisan makes a good deal of 
 account of the "Ordre de la Dame Blanche h l'Escu Verd," which 
 was formed by the famous Marechal Boucicault in 1399, 1 for the 
 protection of women. The emblem of the order was "une targe 
 d'or esmailli^ de verd, h tout une dame blanche dedans." It 
 seems reasonable to believe that the "dame blanche" represented 
 the purity which the knights of the order were to protect; what 
 the green background signified is not so clear. 
 
 That white and green were sometimes associated together in 
 connection with the observances of May is shown by an account, 
 in Hall's Chronicle, 2 of a "maying" of Henry VIII, in which the 
 company were clad in green on one occasion and in white on 
 another. In Machyn's Diary, 3 too, there is mention of a white 
 and green May pole, around which danced a company of men 
 and women wearing "baldrykes" of white and green. 
 
 The conclusion, then, as to colors, is that the use of white and 
 green in F. L. is substantially in accordance with tradition. 
 White regularly signifies purity, and is associated with martial 
 prowess and joy; the wearers of white in our poem are famous 
 warriors, pure women, and steadfast lovers. Green is inconsist- 
 ently interpreted; but in actual use is most often associated with 
 pleasures of the lighter sort for which the followers of the Flower 
 are condemned. 
 
 CHAPLETS OF LEAVES AND OF FLOWERS 
 
 The wearing of chaplets, whether of leaves or flowers, was a 
 regular feature of the observance of May Day and other medi- 
 
 JSee Memoirs pour servir d, Vhistoire de la France, Vol. II, pp. 209, 255; C. de Pisan's 
 CEuvres, Vol. I, pp. 208, 210, 220, 302, 303, etc. 
 
 21809 ed., pp. 515, 520; quoted by Mannhardt, p. 368. 
 3 Ed. Nichols (Camden Society, 1848), p. 20. 
 
 153 
 
34 George L. Marsh 
 
 seval outdoor festivities of the spring and summer. 1 In F. L. this 
 practice is used to distinguish the parties further by giving 
 chaplets of leaves to the company of the Leaf; of flowers, to the 
 company of the Flower. 
 
 Laurel wreaths, as it seems hardly necessary to say, were 
 frequently used from very early times as tokens of honor. 
 Apollo was often represented with a crown of laurel, "comme 
 dieu qui purine, qui illumine, et qui triomphe." 2 Chaucer 
 dresents Theseus 
 
 With laurer crowned as a conquerour. 3 
 Christine de Pisan has a ballade on men "digne d'estre de lorier 
 ouronneV Lydgate represents St. Margaret as crowned with 
 laurel, 5 and in A. G., 1. 791, Virtue is crowned with laurel. Thus 
 it is in accordance with a very common conventionality that in 
 F. L. laurel wreaths are given to the Nine Worthies, and those 
 that were "hardy" and "wan victorious name." 6 
 
 Woodbine is worn by those that 
 
 never were (485) 
 
 To love untrew in word, ne thought, ne dede, 
 But ay stedfast. 
 A significance like this is attached by Lydgate to hawthorn; 7 
 and both Chaucer and the author of F. L. mention woodbine 
 and hawthorn together. 8 The latter especially was very popular 
 during the Middle Ages, and generally associated with the 
 festivities of May. Hawthorn branches were used in "planting 
 the May," and the hawthorn blossom was often called "the 
 May." 9 The special appropriateness of hawthorn for the 
 adherents of the Leaf is indicated in the following passages: 
 
 i The examples cited of the different kinds of chaplets will furnish sufficient evidence 
 of the prevalence of the custom. Reference may be made, however, to R. R., ed. Michel, 
 Vol. I, pp. 247, 248, note; and to Hinstorff's dissertation on Kulturgeschichtliches im "Roman 
 de VEscoufle" undim " Roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole" (Darmstadt, 1896). See 
 also the authorities cited on p. 152 above, n. 4. 
 
 2Gubernatis, Mythologie desplantes, Vol. II, p. 193. 
 
 3 C. T., A, 1. 1027. * (Euvres, Vol. I, p. 2. 
 
 6" Life of St. Margarete," Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge (Heilbronn, 
 1881), pp. 446 ff, 1.42. 
 
 e LI. 240, 249, 479-81, 502-32. ' T. O., 11. 503-16 ; see p. 138 above. 8 c. T., A, 1. 1.508 ; F. L., 1. 272. 
 
 "See Chesnel, Dictionnaire des superstitions (Paris 1856), p. 101; Mannhardt, Der 
 Baumkulttis, pp. 343, 365; Chambers, Book of Days, Vol. I, p. 571; Schick's notes on T. G., 
 pp. 99, 100, 136; Holland, Flore Populaire, Vol. V (1904), pp. 157 ff. 
 
 154 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 35 
 
 L'aubepine, la fleiir du printemps, <§tait venSree dans nos campagnes. 
 On en faisait un embleme de puret<§, et on lui pretait des vertus merveil- 
 leuses; on en portait aussi une branche comme un pr<§servatif contre le 
 tonnerre. 1 
 
 Au temps de la chevalerie, l'amant qui les circonstances condamnait 
 a subir une longue attente avant de voir couronner ses voeux, presentait 
 a la dame que les avait fait naitre un rameau d'aubepine, li6 d'un 
 ruban de velours incarnat, ce qui signifiait qu'il vivait de l'esperance 
 et demeurait fidele. 2 
 
 The nightingale, singer for the Leaf, is frequently associated 
 with the hawthorn, as in C. N., where, after his defense of true 
 love against the scoffing cuckoo, he flies into a hawthorn bush. 3 
 Similarly the nightingale sings from a "thorn" in Lydgate's 
 Night. II, 4 and in C. L. he goes to matins "within a temple 
 shapen hawthorn- wise." 5 
 
 Two other kinds of leaves remain for chaplets — "okes cereal," 
 of which also Emily's crown was made when she appeared in 
 Diana's temple, 6 and agnus castus, which was proverbially 
 believed to be a preservative of chastity. 7 
 
 Chaplets of flowers are much more frequently mentioned than 
 chaplets of leaves, and were associated regularly with the festivi- 
 ties of light love. Venus and Cupid are generally represented as 
 crowned with roses. 8 Oiseuse in E. E. likewise wore a chaplet of 
 roses. 9 Chaucer gives Priapus garlands of flowers in P. F., 1. 259. 
 
 iTarbe, Romancero de Champagne (Reims, 1863), Vol. II, p. 50. Sir John Maundeville 
 also testifies to the potency of the white thorn or "albespine" against thunder (Travels, 
 chap. ii). 
 
 2 Chesnel, Dictionnaire des superstitions, p. 101. 
 
 3 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 347 ff., 1. 287. 
 
 iTwo Nightingale Poems, ed. Glauning (E. E. T. S., 1900), 11. 10, 11, 61, 355, 356. See 
 Glauning's note on 1. 10. 
 
 5 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 409 ff., 1. 1354. 
 
 «C. T., A, 1.2290. 
 
 ' See Professor Skeat's notes on both cereal oak and agnus castus, on F. L., 11. 160, 209. 
 The following may also be added from Gubernatis, Mythologie des plantes, Vol. II, p. 4 : 
 "Dans les fetes atheniennes des Thesmophores, les jeunes filles s'ornaient des fleurs de 
 1 ' agnus-castus et couchaient sur les feuilles de cette plante, pour garder leur purete et leur 
 etat de vierges." 
 
 8 See Schick's note on 1. 505 of Lydgate's T. G. The following additions may be made 
 to the passages there quoted : Cupid wears a garland of flowers in Fablel (ref. p. 162 below), 
 p. 23; in R. R„ 1. 908, Chaucerian version ; in L. G. W., A, 1. 160; B, 1. 228. 
 
 9 L. 566, Chaucerian veraion. 
 
 155 
 
36 George L. Marsh 
 
 The following passage from Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne 
 (1303) is of decided interest: 
 
 3yf pou euer yn felde, eyper in toune, 
 
 Dedyst floure-gerland or coroune 
 
 To make wommen to gadyr pere, 
 
 To se whych pat feyrer were; 
 
 Eys ys a3ens pe commaundement, 
 
 And Pe halyday for pe ys shent; 
 
 Hyt ys a gaderyng for lecherye, 
 
 And ful grete pryde, & herte hye. 1 
 
 Mention of chaplets of flowers is particularly frequent in con- 
 nection with the observances of May. Thus Colin Muset 2 says 
 that in May, when the nightingale sings, he must wear a chaplet 
 of flowers "por moi d^duire et deporter;" and in another poem he 
 describes companies of young men and girls who 
 
 Chantent et font grant revel, 
 Chascuns a chapel de flor. 
 
 An Italian poem of the thirteenth century, attributed to Dino 
 Campagni, 3 contains the following lines: 
 
 Ne bei mesi d' aprile e di maio, 
 La gente fa di fior le ghirlandette, 
 Donzelle e cavalieri d' alto paraio 
 Cantan d'amore novelle e canzonette. 
 
 Froissart tells in his Paradys d? Amours of meeting and loving 
 
 Bel Acueil, 
 
 Qui faisoit chapeaus de flourettes. 4 
 
 She makes him a chaplet, and he in payment recites to her his 
 ballade of the marguerite. 5 Deschamps mentions the making of 
 chaplets of flowers, in connection with the observance of May Day, 
 in both his Lay Amour eux and his Lay de Franchise. 6 The 
 ladies whom the hero of C. O. 1 meets are making garlands of 
 flowers. The poems of Christine de Pisan contain numerous 
 
 i E. E. T. S., ed. Furnivall, Part I (1901), 11. 997 ff. 
 
 2 Chansonniers de Champagne, ed. Tarbe (Reims, 1850), pp. 87, 90, 92. 
 
 3 Quoted by Gubernatis, Mythologie des plantes, Vol. I, p. 228. 
 * Poesies, ed. Scheler, Vol. I, pp. 1 ff., 1. 1473. 
 
 5 To be discussed below, p. 158. 
 6 To bo analyzed in chap, iii below. 
 
 7 In Latin Poems Commonly Attributed to Walter Mapes, ed. Wright (Camden Society, 
 1841), pp. 310 ff. 
 
 156 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 37 
 
 references to this custom ; * and — to conclude a list that might be 
 longer — the lovers in C. L. wear garlands of flowers. 2 
 
 An interesting specific contrast of leaf and flower is in the 
 following passage from Gubernatis: 
 
 Dans le Tyrol italien, les jeunes filles portent sur leurs cheveux une 
 petite feuille verte, symbole de leur virginity . . . . ; le jour de leur 
 mariage, elles perdent le droit de la porter et la remplacent par des 
 fieurs artificielles. 3 
 
 This is a bit of undated folklore ; but the resemblance to part of 
 the symbolism of leaf and flower in F. L. is striking. On the 
 whole, it should be very clear that the use of the chaplets in our 
 poem is in accordance with well-defined tradition. 
 
 THE CULT OF THE DAISY 
 
 Though F. L. presents no such description of the daisy as may 
 be found in many another poem, the role of that flower is very 
 important, since it is the object worshiped by the green-clad 
 followers of the Flower. Such choice of a particular blossom is 
 not a feature of any other poem we have on the strife of the 
 Flower and the Leaf ; but it is not at all surprising, in view of 
 the widespread cult of the daisy during the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. 4 
 
 The earliest poem of importance on the subject is Machaut's 
 Dit de la Marguerite. 5 This is a complimentary poem and bears 
 no specific resemblance to F. L. The poet emphasizes the con- 
 nection of the daisy with the affairs of love, saying that its 
 scent produces love and its root cures the pains of love, 6 and he 
 promises to serve and love this flower only. 
 
 Machaut's pupil, Deschamps, has a ballade complimentary to 
 "une dame du nom de Marguerite," 7 and virtually repeats the 
 
 iSee CEuvres, Vol. I, pp. 218, 236, 239; Vol. II, Dit de la Pastoure, 11. 634, 670, pp. 243, 244. 
 
 2 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 409 if., 11. 440, 450. On the general subject of flowers 
 in connection with the observance of May Day, reference may be made to Gubernatis, 
 Mythologie des plantes, Vol. I, p. 153 ; Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus, p. 344, etc. ; and the 
 authorities cited in n. 4, p. 152 above. 
 
 3 Mythologie des plantes, Vol. I, p. 143. 
 
 *See Professor Lowes' article referred to above, p. 124, n. 1. I have limited my dis- 
 cussion to matters directly bearing on F. L. 
 
 5 CEuvres choisies, ed. Tarbe, pp. 123-29. 6 See Morley's English Writers, Vol. V, pp. 133 ff. 
 
 i CEuvres, Vol. Ill, p. 379; already referred to in connection with the significance of the 
 colors (p. 143 above). 
 
 157 
 
38 George L. Mabsh 
 
 contents of this ballade in his Lay de Franchise. 1 In both these 
 places the flower is spoken of as "blanche et vermeille," 2 and the 
 lady is said to be endowed with admirable qualities which the 
 different parts of the flower symbolize. In the latter respect, as 
 already noted, there is inconsistency with the allegory of our poem, 
 and the bit of descriptive detail — "blanche et vermeille" — is 
 practically inevitable in writing of a "Wee, modest, crimson- 
 tipped flow'r." Hence the only thing especially worthy of note 
 about Deschamps' love of the daisy is that his tribute in the Lay 
 de Franchise occurs in a setting somewhat like that of F. L. 3 
 
 Deschamps was primarily complimenting a lady named Mar- 
 guerite; Froissart the chronicler, though not guiltless of compli- 
 mentary intentions, seems really to have loved the flower somewhat 
 as Chaucer loved it. He mentions it nearly everywhere. His 
 best known poem on the subject is the ballade in Le Paradys 
 d' Amours* with the refrain: 
 
 Sus toutes flours j'aime la margherite. 
 In La Prison Amoureuse 5 Froissart used 
 
 une fleur petite 
 Que nous appellons margherite, 
 
 for the seal, or cachet, of the lover in an amorous correspondence. 
 He imitated Machaut, also, in devoting a whole poem to this 
 favorite flower — Le Dittie' de la Flour de la Margherite, 6 in 
 which the praise is similar to that by Chaucer in the Prologue to 
 L. G. W. And his seventeenth Past our elle 1 concludes each stanza 
 with the refrain: 
 
 La margherite a la plus belle — 
 
 that is, of the shepherdesses celebrated in the poem. It should 
 perhaps be noted especially that in the ballade above referred to 
 the daisy is praised for its enduring freshness (somewhat in con- 
 trast with its role in F. L.), but is associated with springtime and 
 conventional love. 
 
 i CEuvres, Vol. II, pp. 203 ff., 11. 30 ff. sibid., Vol. I, pp. 241 ff., 11. 898, 899. 
 
 2 Compare F. L., 333, and L. G. W„ A, 42. *Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 20911. 
 
 3 See above, p. 135 ; below, chap. iii. "' Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 343 ff . 
 iPoisies, ed. Scholer, Vol. I, p. 49. 
 
 158 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 39 
 
 Whatever cult of the daisy there was in England seems to 
 have been due to the influence of Chaucer, and he doubtless was 
 familiar with some at least of the French poems just mentioned. 1 
 His tribute in the Prologue to L. G. W., 2 in close connection as it is 
 with his reference to the strife of the Flower and the Leaf, 3 must 
 have been in the mind of the author of our poem; even though 
 he seem inconsistent in making the frivolous company of the 
 Flower do homage to the daisy, whereas in Chaucer the faithful 
 Alcestis is transformed into that flower. It hardly need be 
 pointed out that this inconsistency resembles that between F. L, 
 and Deschamps, who makes the green of the stalk of the daisy 
 symbolize constancy. And it must be admitted that, in spite of 
 the association of this flower with springtime festivities and light 
 love, the exalted position given it by Chaucer and Deschamps is 
 more fully in accord with the common mediaeval belief in its 
 healing powers, emphasized in Machaut's Dit de la Marguerite.* 
 
 Various references to Chaucer's happy bit of myth -making in 
 regard to Alcestis have been pointed out by Professors Skeat and 
 Schick. 5 In one of these I find striking expression, heretofore 
 unnoticed, of a prominent thought of F. L. Lydgate's Poem 
 against Self -Love 6 contains these lines: 
 
 Alcestis flower, with white, with red and greene, 
 
 Displaieth hir crown geyn Phebus bemys brihte, 
 In stormys dreepithe, conseyve what I meene, 
 Look in thy myrour and deeme noon othir wihte. 
 
 The italicized words describe so exactly the state of the flower 
 and its followers after the storm that comes upon them 7 as to 
 suggest that Lydgate was directly alluding to our poem. 
 
 Other notable English references to the daisy during the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are as follows: In C. N., with its 
 discussion of love, the setting is a land of daisies, and healing 
 properties are attributed to the flower. 8 The Compleynt which 
 
 i See the articles by Kittredge and Lowes, cited above, p. 124, n. 1. 
 2 Text B, 11. 40-65. 3B, 1. 72. 
 
 * See p. 157 above, and the passage from Morley there referred to. 
 
 5 See Schick's note on 11. 70-74 of Lydgate's T. G., p. 74 of his edition, and the references 
 there given. 
 
 e M. P., ed. Halliwell, pp. 156 ff. ; especially p. 161. 
 
 1 F. L„ 11. 368-71. 8 LI. 63, 243 ff. ; ref. p. 155 above. 
 
 159 
 
40 Geobge L. Maesh 
 
 Professor Schick prints as an appendix to his edition of T. G. pre- 
 sents an extended tribute to the daisy, 1 in which most of the 
 elements found in the French poets and Chaucer are repeated. 
 If Lydgate wrote this poem (as is very doubtful, however) it is 
 especially interesting on account of his very frequent reference to 
 the flower. 2 "A Ballad" beginning: 
 
 In the season of Feuerere whan it was full cold, 
 printed first with Stowe's Chaucer of 1561, but rejected by 
 Tyrwhitt and subsequent editors, 3 is a tribute to the daisy, which 
 may allude to the worship of this flower by the Order of the 
 Flower. Lovers are addressed, and told that they 
 
 Owe for to worship the lusty floures alway, 
 And in especiall one is called see 4 of the day, 
 The daisee, a floure white and rede, 
 And in French called La bele Margarete. 
 
 In two poems of some importance later than F. L. daisies form 
 part of the setting: in A. L., 11. 57 ff., 5 and in C. L., 11. 101 ff. 
 
 The refrain purporting to be quoted in F. L. from some French 
 original — "Si douce est la margarete" 6 — I have not yet found 
 elsewhere. The fact that the spelling "margarete," to rime with 
 "swete," is not used in French — so far as I can learn — suggests 
 the possibility that the line may have been composed by the 
 English poet to suit the convenience of the rime. 
 
 On the whole, the use of the daisy in connection with May 
 Day festivities is more or less conventional, but was probably 
 directly suggested by Chaucer, with very likely a reference to 
 Machaut, Deschanips, or Froissart for the lighter signification 
 attached to the flower in F. L. It also seems probable that 
 Lydgate knew our poem and directly alludes to it. 
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE 
 
 The nightingale in F. L. flies to Diana, the lady of the Leaf; 
 the goldfinch, to Flora, the lady of the Flower. The former rep- 
 resents the more serious side of man's nature, shown in affairs of 
 
 i Ll. 394 ff. 2 See Schick's note, p. 74. 
 
 3 See Skeat : Chaucerian and Other Pieces, p. xiii. Most easily accessible in Chalmers' 
 English Poets, Vol. I, p. 562. 
 
 < Apparently an error for "oe." 
 
 5 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 380 ff . ^F. L., 1. 350. 
 
 160 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 41 
 
 love by steadfastness; the latter, the more frivolous side, with a 
 suggestion of inconstancy in love. Here the conformity with lit- 
 erary tradition is not so strict as in relation to most of the other 
 matters discussed in this chapter. 
 
 The nightingale, with other birds, was an element of the con- 
 ventional springtime setting, 1 and as such became inevitably asso- 
 ciated with the festivities of love, whether serious and steadfast, 
 or the lighter love with which we have found green garments and 
 garlands of flowers associated. The general popularity of the 
 nightingale in mediaeval poetry (or, for that matter, in the poetry 
 of all times and all nations where the bird is found) is too well 
 known to require comment. 2 A very large number, perhaps even 
 a majority, of all the poems I have read which present the spring- 
 time setting give the nightingale a place of prominence — or the 
 place of most prominence — among the birds that rejoice the 
 poet's heart, or cheer the lover and remind him of his mistress. 3 
 
 Along with this general association with love, however, there 
 is a tendency to exalt the character of the nightingale, to associ- 
 ate her 4 with the better sort of love — with inspiration to brave 
 deeds and even with religion — and thus make it more appropriate 
 that she should be the singer for the brave and steadfast company 
 of the Leaf. Giving the nightingale a serious character is prob- 
 ably due, in part at least, to the bird's association with the clas- 
 sical story of Philomela, and to the mediaeval superstition that she 
 
 1 To be discussed in chap, iii below. 
 
 2 See Uhland, Abhandlung iiber die deutschen Volkslieder, passim. 
 
 3 On the association of the nightingale with the affairs of love see Neilson, Harvard 
 Studies, Vol. VI, pp. 217 ff. The following additions may be made to the examples there re- 
 ferred to: The nightingale cries on the green leaf for love (Mahn, Gedichte der Trouba- 
 dours, Vol. I, p. 173). The nightingale is sent with a message of love to the "jardin 
 d'amour" (Tarbe's Romancero de Champagne, Vol. II, p. 159). On the nightingale as a 
 messenger see also Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie, 2d ed., p. 97 ; Romania, Vol. Ill, pp. 
 97, 98; Vol. VII, pp. 55, 57; Chansons du XVme siecle, Nos. lxxvii, civ, cxxxix, etc.; Rollaud, 
 Faune populaire de la France (Paris, 1879), Vol. II, pp. 275 ff. Christine de Pisan, in her 
 Dit de Poissy {CEuvres, Vol. II, pp. 164, 165), describes the singing of nightingales agains 
 "le faulz jaloux." In Chaucer's T. C. (II, 11. 918-24) a nightingale sings a love song that 
 lulls Criseyde to sleep. In Lydgate's B. K. (Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 245 ff.) — 
 
 " the nightingale (47) 
 
 With so gret mighte her voys gan out-wreste 
 Right as her herte for love wolde breste." 
 
 Cf. this with F. L., 11. 99-102, 447-49. 
 
 4 Though it is in fact the male nightingale that sings, the mediaeval poets generally 
 thought otherwise. 
 
 161 
 
42 George L. Marsh 
 
 sang with her heart impaled upon a thorn. 1 The following exam- 
 ples will illustrate the tendency: 
 
 The burden of the first part of Fablel (ed. Jubinal, Paris, 1834) is the 
 nightingale's complaint of the degeneracy of love. 
 
 In Venus (ed. Forster, Bonn, 1880) the nightingale writes a charter 
 containing a decree of love, in which loyal love is commanded. 
 
 Uhland cites examples of the inspiration of warriors by the nightin- 
 gale's song (Abhandlung, ed. Fischer, p. 87). 
 
 In Froissart's Loenge de May (Poesies, ed. Scheler, Vol. II, pp. 
 194 ff.) the song of the nightingale inspires the lover to ardent praise of 
 his mistress and resolutions of loyalty to her. 
 
 In C. O. and many of the Chansons (e. g., cvi, cix) the nightingale 
 sings to gladden the hearts of those in pain for love. 2 
 
 The part of the bird is very prominent in the Chansons. She "praises 
 true lovers in her pretty song " (lxvii). She is the messenger of a neglected 
 mistress to remind her lover of his duty (lxxii, cxxiii). 3 She is asked for 
 advice in a love affair (cxvii). 
 
 The nightingale in C. N. speaks in defense of true love against the 
 scoffing cuckoo (see p. 155 above, and p. 163 below). 
 
 Lydgate's Two Nightingale Poems are mainly religious allegories, 
 in which the nightingale represents Christ; but in II, 11. 16, 17, the poet 
 says he " understood that she was asking Venus for vengeance on false 
 lovers." In 1. 68 she praises pure love. 
 
 In the Devotions of the Fowls, printed by Halliwell with Lydgate's 
 M. P. (pp. 78 ff.), but of doubtful authenticity, the nightingale sings of 
 Christ's resurrection. 
 
 In The Thrush and the Nightingale (Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, Vol. 
 
 I, pp. 50 ff.; and Reliquice Antiquce, Vol. I, p. 241) the nightingale de- 
 fends women against the attacks of the thrush, and is admitted by the 
 latter to win the victory. 
 
 In the Buke of the Hoivlat (Scottish Alliterative Poems, ed. Amours; 
 S. T. S., 1897) nightingales (with other birds) sing a hymn to the virgin 
 (11. 716 ff.). 
 
 Dunbar has the nightingale defend the thesis that " All luve is lost 
 bot vpon God allone" (Poems, S. T. S., Vol. II, pp. 174 ff.). 4 
 
 So far as a relation of any of the above poems with F. L. is 
 concerned, the function of the nightingale is most important in 
 
 i See Chambers, Book of Days, Vol. I, p. 515; Schick's note on Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, 
 
 II, ii, 50. 
 
 2 She does not always rejoice the lover, however; see cxx, cxxi. 
 
 3 See other examples of use of the nightingale as a messenger, n. 3, p. 161 above. 
 
 4 The role of the bird in the Oivl and the Nightingale is not exalted, but this poem is 
 considerably earlier than any but a very few of those here considered, and seems to have 
 little, if any, connection with any of them. 
 
 162 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 43 
 
 C. N. This bird's defense there is primarily of love and love 
 service in general, but the emphasis is distinctly on true service, 
 such as the lovers among the adherents of the Leaf would render. 
 
 THE GOLDFINCH 
 
 The goldfinch is not nearly so often mentioned as the night- 
 ingale, but when he receives a character it is consistent with that 
 given him in F. L. Thus the "prentis" in Chaucer's Cook's Tale 1 
 is described as "gaillard .... as goldfinch in the shawe." In 
 the pseudo-Chaucerian Par doner e and Tapstere I find the ex- 
 pression "as glad as any goldfynch." 2 And in C. L. the "goldfinch 
 fresh and gay" sings a psalm to the effect that "the god of Love 
 hath erth in governaunce." 3 Professor Skeat's suggestion that 
 the goldfinch in F. L. is like the cuckoo in C. N. in representing 
 faithless love* is based upon an entirely unjustifiable interpreta- 
 tion of the latter poem. The cuckoo scoffs at love altogether and 
 refuses ever "in loves yok to drawe." 5 He argues that lovers are 
 the worst off of all people on earth, 6 because all sorts of evils come 
 from love. 7 The cuckoo would agree with the chaste members of 
 the company of the Leaf rather than with the gay adherents of 
 the Flower. 
 
 THE LAUREL AND MEDLAR TREES 
 
 Whatever significance may be attached to the trees in which 
 the birds sing in F. L. has been partly indicated above (p. 154), 
 so far as the laurel is concerned. The laurel has leaves that last, 8 
 and has been associated for centuries with noble deeds. In classi- 
 cal mythology Daphne was changed to a laurel to preserve her 
 virginity. The tree was sacred among the Greeks and Komans, 9 
 and in mediaeval times was credited with power to protect against 
 
 i C. T., A, 1. 4367. 2 Chalmers' English Poets, Vol. I, p. 638. 3 L. 1371. 
 
 * Note at bottom of p. 530, Chaucerian Pieces. &L. 140. 6 LI. 141-44. 'LI. 171-75. 
 
 8 As noted by Chaucer in P. F„ 11. 173, 182, and by Lydgate in C. B. (M. P., p. 180). The 
 latter passage deserves quotation because of the mention of Flora, queen of the Flower in 
 
 our poem : 
 
 "And the laurealle of nature is ay grene, 
 Of flowres also Flora goddes and quene." 
 
 Further evidences of the popularity of the laurel are given in Glauning's note on Night. 
 I, 1. 63. 
 
 9 On the laurel in general see Hehn, Kulturpfianzen u. Hausthiere, 7th ed. (Berlin, 1902), 
 pp. 220 ff. 
 
 163 
 
44 George L. Marsh 
 
 thunder, 1 such as the hawthorn also was thought to have. The 
 bird sings from a laurel in Lydgate's C. B., 2 and the nightingale 
 from a laurel in Night. I, 1. 63. 
 
 The medlar tree, on the other hand, though not very frequently 
 mentioned in mediaeval poetry, is plainly associated with hastiness 
 and decay, or over-sudden ripeness, as in Chaucer's Reeve's Pro- 
 logue. 3 Shakspere refers to the same characteristic in language 
 very similar to that of Chaucer, 4 besides giving the name "rotten 
 medlar" to Mistress Overdone, 5 and implying bad things of the 
 medlar in Borneo and Juliet.* This tree is deciduous; its blos- 
 soms last but a short time, and its fruit ripens and rots quickly; 
 so that a certain fitness is manifest in connecting it with the idle, 
 faithless, luckless followers of the Flower. 
 
 THE DANCING AND JOUSTING 
 
 A few points remain as to the action of the allegory. The 
 singing and dancing of both companies are without special signifi- 
 cance. So also, probably, is the jousting among themselves by 
 the knights of the Leaf. Singing and dancing always accom- 
 panied the observance of May Day, and jousting was a common 
 feature of nearly every sort of celebration. The details of the 
 jousting in F. L. resemble in a general way familiar passages in 
 the Knight's Tale and in Lydgate's imitation of the latter, The 
 Story of Thebes. 1 Two French accounts of jousts are also worth 
 mention: that in Christine de Pisan's Due des Vrais Amans, 
 because of the use of green and white costumes; 8 and that in Des- 
 champs' Lay de Franchise? because the setting there and portions 
 of the action somewhat resemble those of F. L. 
 
 THE STORM 
 
 The storm that was so uncomfortable for the followers of the 
 Flower seems significant only as to its result. In its combination 
 of wind and hail and rain it bears some resemblance to the 
 
 1 See Chesnel, Dictionnaire des superstitions, p. 539; Hone's Year Book, p. 776. 
 
 2 M. P., p. 181. 3 C. T., A. 11. 3871-73. 
 
 * A. Y.L.I., III, ii, 125-28. » M . M., IV, iii, 184. 6 II, i, 35, 36. 
 
 7 C. T., A, 11. 2599 ff . ; Thebes, in Chalmers' English Poets, Vol. I, pp. 581, etc. 
 s See p. 152, 153 above. 9 Ref. p. 143 above. 
 
 164 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 45 
 
 miraculous storm in Chrestian de Troyes' Yvain; 1 but the resem- 
 blance is not strong enough to justify any assumption of relation- 
 ship. The most striking comments on a storm, so far as possible 
 relations with F. L. are concerned, are in Lydgate's Testament, 2 
 as follows: 
 
 Lych as in Ver men gretly them delite 
 
 To beholde the bewt6 sovereyne 
 
 Of thes blosmys, som blew, rede, and white, 
 
 To whos fresshnesse no colour may atteyne, 
 
 But than unwarly comyth a wynd sodeyne, 
 
 For no favour list nat for to spare 
 
 Fresshnesse of braunchys, for to make hem bare. 
 
 Whan Ver is fresshest of blosmys and of flourys, 
 An unwar storm his fresshnesse may apayre. 
 
 RELATION OF F. L. WITH THE LAY DU TROT 
 
 The bedraggled condition of the adherents of the Flower after 
 the storm is worthy of note chiefly because it has been compared 
 with the condition of a company of women in the Old French 
 Lay du Trot. This comparison was first made by Sandras, 3 and 
 has been repeated by others. 4 
 
 Substantially the same story appears in several forms, of which 
 the Breton Lay du Trot is probably the earliest. 5 In this poem 
 Lorois, a knight of Arthur's court, sees passing through the midst 
 of a forest two companies of ladies. The ladies of one company 
 ride on white palfreys, are splendidly arrayed, crowned with roses, 
 and accompanied by amis, all because of their graciousness in 
 matters of love. The ladies of the other company are mounted 
 on wretched nags, miserably dressed, and in torment because they 
 have cruelly refused to love. 
 
 In the Latin work of Andreas Capellanus, De Amore, 6 there 
 are three companies of women led by the God of Love. Those in 
 
 lEd. W. Foerster (Halle, 1887), 11. 397-407, 432-50. 
 
 2ilf. P., ed. Halliwell, pp. 245, 246. z Etude sur Chaucer, pp. 104, 105. 
 
 * Notably by Morley, English Writers, Vol. V. 
 
 5 Lai d'Iguames, ed. Moumerque and Michel (Paris, 1832). I have not had access to this 
 edition, and am therefore indebted to Sandras, and to notes kindly lent me by Professor W. 
 H. Schofield, of Harvard, for my brief analysis. 
 
 (■Andreae Capellani Regii Francorum de Amore, ed. Trojel (Copenhagen, 1892). This 
 work is very important in relation to mediaeval imitation of Ovid, R. R., the Court of Love 
 poems, etc., and has therefore been analyzed at length by Neilson, Mott, Langlois, and others. 
 
 165 
 
46 George L. Marsh 
 
 the first company are gorgeously arrayed, well mounted, and 
 attended each by three knights. They are women who, while 
 alive, wisely bestowed their love. The second troop are in great 
 discomfort because of the number who wish to wait on them; 
 they are women of loose virtue. The women of the third troop 
 are like those of the second in the Lay du Trot. One of their 
 number explains the significance of all three companies. The 
 whole vision is described by a knight to a lady whom he wishes 
 to frighten out of her coldness. 
 
 Gower's tale of Rosiphele, in the fourth book of the Confessio 
 Amantis, 1 is in essentials only slightly different. The heroine 
 
 hadde o defalte of Slowthe 
 Towardes love, 
 
 and could not be prevailed upon to think of matrimony. While 
 walking in a park before sunrise one day in May, she saw a com- 
 pany of ladies richly clad in white and blue, and mounted on 
 great white horses well caparisoned. They were followed by a 
 woman with torn attire, who rode alone on a very sorry looking 
 horse and carried all the halters for the others. This woman, 
 when asked, explained that the ladies whom she attended were 
 "servantz to love" (1376), and that she was but their "horse 
 knave" (1399) because she "liste noght to love obeie" (1389). 2 
 
 On the whole, it is difficult to see how these stories can have 
 been thought very similar to F. L. Even the miserable women 
 are miserable chiefly because of their lack of attendants and the 
 condition of their horses, and their plight is not due to any cause 
 even remotely resembling the storm in our poem. In Gower's 
 version, indeed, the woman is 
 
 Fair .... of visage, (1361) 
 
 Freyssh, lusti, yong and of tendre age; 
 
 a very different person from one who has just been burned by sun 
 and drenched by rain and bruised by hail. The allegory, too, is 
 
 i LI. 1245 ff. 
 
 2 In purpose Boccaccio's tale of Anastasio (Decamerone, V, 8) is similar to these; but 
 the details are different, as the cavalcade disappears, and we have instead a single lady 
 suffering great tortures after death for her hard-heartedness. On this whole matter of the 
 '• purgatory of cruel beauties," see an article by Professor Neilson in Romania, Vol. XXIX, 
 pp. 85 ff. 
 
 166 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 47 
 
 in most respects different; for the persons in F. L. that corre- 
 spond most nearly in character to the unfortunate women in these 
 stories are, not any of the adherents of the Flower, but the 
 strictly chaste members of the company of the Leaf (F. L., 477). 
 The only resemblance in the allegory is in the fact that the 
 adherents of the Flower are condemned for idleness, and Gower's 
 serving woman is being punished for sloth (or idleness) in love. 
 This seems to be a superficial resemblance, not in harmony with 
 the spirit of our poem. Thus the real similarities are few and 
 nearly all general; namely: the fact that there are contrasted 
 companies, one of which is in sorry plight of some kind and for 
 some reason (for the kind and the reason are not similar) ; the fact 
 that in Gower the fortunate company are clad in white and blue, 
 in F. L. in white; and the fact that a member of one of the 
 companies explains who all the people are and what their action 
 means. 1 It is probable that the author of our poem knew the story 
 in Gower, but there is no sufficient reason for assuming a knowledge 
 of the Lay du Trot or Andreas Capellanus. 
 
 George L. Marsh 
 
 University op Chicago 
 
 i The interpreter is common to all allegories; see chap, iii, below, passim, and Neilson, 
 Harvard Studies, Vol. VI, pp. 213 ff. The significance of the colors has been discussed 
 on pp. 143-46 above. 
 
 167 
 
SOUKCES AND ANALOGUES OF "THE FLOWER AND 
 
 THE LEAF." PART II 1 
 CHAPTER III. THE GENERAL SETTING AND MACHINERY 
 
 Besides the central allegory and its symbolic accessories, the 
 general setting and machinery of F. L. 2 deserve consideration. 
 Most of the elements of the setting, making up the whole frame- 
 work of the poem, are conventional. Yet even those that are 
 most conventional require some attention, because many of them 
 have been cited as evidences of indebtedness of the author of 
 F. L. to particular poems. 
 
 THE ASTRONOMICAL REFERENCE 
 
 The first point to be noted is the fixing of the time of the 
 poem by reference to the sun's position in the zodiac: 
 
 When that Phebus his chaire of gold so hy (1) 
 Had whirled up the sterry sky aloft, 
 And in the Bole was entred certainly. 
 This passage calls to mind at once a similar reference near the 
 beginning of the prologue to C. T., in which Chaucer may have 
 been imitating either his Italian models or Boethius and earlier 
 Latin writers. Whatever the source for Chaucer, the French 
 poets do not seem to have cared for this device, as I do not find 
 it in any French poem otherwise resembling F. L. Chaucer, 
 however, used it a great deal, as the following passages show: 
 
 In the Knight's Tale, on the May morning when Arcite is to 
 "doon his observaunce," 
 
 fyry Phebus ryseth up so brighte, 
 That al the orient laugheth of the lighte. 3 
 
 i For valuable suggestions and assistance, in ways too numerous to mention, I should 
 acknowledge indebtedness to Professor W. E. Mead, of Wesleyan University ; Professor W. 
 H. Schofield,of Harvard University; and the following members of the faculties of the 
 University of Chicago: Professors Karl Pietsch, T. A. Jenkins, Philip S. Allen, John M. 
 Manly, F. I. Carpenter, A. H. Tolman, and Dr. Eleanor P. Hammond. My obligation to 
 Professor Manly is particularly great, for he suggested the subject, pointed out much of the 
 material, and assisted with comment and criticism from the beginning to the end of ray 
 investigation. 
 
 2 For a list of abbreviations used, see Part I of this study, Modern Philology, Vol. IV, 
 
 p. 122, n. 2. 
 
 3 C. T„ A, 11. 1493, 1494. 
 
 2g]i 1 [Modeen Philology, October, 1906 
 
2 George L. Marsh 
 
 In the Merchant's Tale, 
 
 Phebus of gold his stremes doun hath sent, 
 To gladen every flour with his warmnesse. 1 
 
 In the Franklin's Tale, "Phebus" 
 
 Shoon as the burued gold with stremes brighte. 2 
 In T. C. we have the same time as that of F. L. indicated in the 
 
 same way: 
 
 Whan Phebus doth his brighte bemes sprede 
 Right in the whyte Bole. 3 
 And at the very end of the fragmentary Squire's Tale is precisely 
 the figure used in F. L. : 
 
 Appollo whirleth up his char so hye. 4 
 Lydgate also makes striking use of the astronomical reference. 
 In his B. K., h which bears many other resemblances to F. L., all 
 the essential elements of our first three lines are combined: 
 "Phebus" and his "chaire of gold," his rapid movement, and his 
 position in the "Bole" on May Day. 
 
 In May, whan Flora, the fresshe lusty quene, (1) 
 The soile hath clad in grene, rede, and whyte, 
 And Phebus gan to shede his stremes shene 
 Amid the Bole, with al the bemes brighte, 
 the action of the poem begins; and later the sun's "char of golde 
 his cours so swiftly ran" (1. 595), that twilight came and gave the 
 poet a chance to write about what he had seen. Lydgate nearly 
 always called the sun "Phebus," and often mentioned his chariot 
 of gold. 6 Other imitators of Chaucer began occasionally with 
 astronomical references, as, for example, the Scottish poets; but 
 none with any such frequency as Lydgate. 
 
 THE SPRING SETTING 
 
 After fixing the time as indicated, our poet proceeds with a 
 description of the joys and the beauties of spring. Such details, 
 it is well known, are extremely common in mediaeval poetry. The 
 
 1 C. 7\, E, 11. 2220, 2221. 2 c. T., F, 1. 1247. 3 T. C, II, 11. 54, 55. * C. T„ F, 1. 671. 
 
 5 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 245 ff. See analysis, p. 306 below. 
 
 6 See Chaucerian Pieces, XIII, 1. 26 ; XXII, 1. 30 ; M. P., pp. 2, 6, 8, 24 (" the golden cha yre 
 of Phebus"), 96, 118, 138 ("Phebus goldene chare"), 151, 153, 156, 160, 161, 182, 194, 195, 213, 215, 
 216, 218, 242, 245; Night. I, 11. 26, 92; T. G., 11. 5, 272, note p. 69; R. S., 11. 450, 3766, 4606 ("the 
 chare of Phebus"); Thebes, Chalmers, Vol. I, pp. 570, 588, 603; Isopus, Herrig's Archiv, 
 Vol. LXXXV, pp. 1 ff., 11. 86, 390; Anglia, Vol. IX, pp. 3, 1. 30; 18, 1. 33; 22, 11. 10, 15. 
 
 282 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 3 
 
 spring setting is almost always found in love lyrics and love 
 allegories, on account of the natural and universal association of 
 the springtime with love. Accordingly it would be futile, even 
 if it were desirable, to attempt here an exhaustive treatment of 
 mediaeval "spring poetry." Only works that present, along with 
 the conventional setting, details and circumstances resembling in 
 some way those of F. L. can be examined. Accounts of such 
 works, nearly all poetical, and arranged approximately in chrono- 
 logical order, will make up the remainder of this chapter. 
 Pastourelles — Provencal and French 
 From very early times the pastourelle was a popular form of 
 Romance poetry, with a perfectly conventional setting and situa- 
 tion that suggests the germ of F. L. In spring, when the birds 
 sing and flowers bloom, a knight or the poet, riding through a 
 meadow or a forest, finds a pretty shepherdess guarding her flocks 
 and weaving garlands, sometimes of leaves, more often of flowers. 
 Examples are so numerous that no exhaustive list can be made 
 here. 1 The following by an unknown Provencal poet will 
 illustrate the type: 
 
 Eu'm levei un bon mati, (5) 
 
 enans de l'albeta; 
 anei m'en en un vergier 
 
 per cuillir violeta; 
 
 et auzi un chan 
 
 bel, de luenh; gardan 
 
 trobei gaia pastorela 
 
 sos anhels gardan. 2 
 
 Li Fablel dou Dieu d'Amodrs 
 The first long French poem to be considered is the Fablel, 3 
 of the latter part of the twelfth century — one of the earliest 
 allegories based in part on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and preparing 
 
 iSee Mahn, Gedichte der Troubadours, Vol. II, pp. 160, 171, 177, 211; Vol. Ill, p. 36; 
 Tarbe, Les chansonniers de Champagne aux XI[e et XHIe siecles (Reims, 1850), pp. 2, 13, 18, 
 21, 23, 122, 123, 124; Scheler, Trouveres beiges du XIU au XI Ve siecles (Bruxelles, 1876), 
 p. 68; Trouveres beiges (nouvelle serie; Louvain, 1879), p. Ill; Paris, Chansons du XVe 
 siecle, pp. 6, 32, 114 ; Poesies de Froissart, Vol. II, pp. 308 ff. ; CEuvres po6tiques de Christine 
 de Pisan, Vol. II, pp. 223 ff. 
 
 ^Quoted from Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie (Zweite Auflage, 1902), p. 88. The 
 same poem is found in Mahn, Vol. II, p. 171 ; and in Diez, Altromanische Sprachdenkmale , 
 p. 119. 
 
 3 Ed. A. Jubinal (Paris, 1834). 
 
 283 
 
4 George L. Marsh 
 
 the way for R. R. As such it has been analyzed in several recent 
 monographs, 1 but some details require attention here. After 
 lying in bed one morning with no delight but in amorous thought, 
 the poet fell asleep and dreamed, in part as follows: 
 
 Je me levoie par .j. matin en may, (13) 
 
 Por la douchor des oysiaus et del glai, 
 
 Del loussignot, del malvis et dou gai. 
 
 Qant fui leves en .j. pr6 m'en entrai. 
 
 Je vos dirai com faite estoit la praeree; 
 
 L'erbe i fu grande par desous la rousee. 
 Through the meadow ran a clear, beautiful brook that would make 
 young any old man who should bathe in it. The poet continues: 
 
 Parmi le pr6e m'alai esbanoient, (33) 
 
 Les le riviere tout dal6s .j. pendant; 
 
 Gardai amont deviers soleil luisant: 
 
 .J. vergi6 vie; cele part vine errant. 
 This garden was surrounded by a ditch and a high wall; but the 
 poet, being "courtois," was allowed to enter. 
 
 Qant jou oii [he says] des oisyllons le crit, (78) 
 
 D'autre canchon en che liu ne de dit, 
 
 N'eusse cure, che sarins tout de fit. 
 
 Sous ciel n'a home, s'il les oist canter, 2 
 
 Tant fust vilains ne l'esteut amer; 
 
 Illuec m'asis por mon cors deporter, 
 
 Desous une ente ki mult fait a loer. 
 
 Elle est en l'an .iij. fois de tel nature: 
 
 Elle flourist, espanist et meure; 
 
 De tous mehains garist qui li honeure, 
 
 Fors de la mort vers cui riens n'a segure. 
 
 Qant desous l'ente, el vergi6 fui assis, 
 
 Et jou oi des oysillons les cris, 
 
 De joie fu si mes cuers raemplis, 
 
 Moi fu avis que fuisse en paradis. 3 
 Then the poet heard the nightingale call the other birds about 
 him and complain of the degeneracy of love. In the remainder 
 of the poem we have no present interest. 
 
 i Langlois, Origines et sources du Roman de la Rose (Paris, 1890) ; Mott, The System of 
 Courtly Love (Boston, 1896); Neilson, Harvard Studies, Vol. VI (1899). Professor Neilson 
 has dealt with a large number of the works discussed in this chapter, but for a different 
 purpose than mine. I shall not usually make specific reference to his valuable study. 
 
 2 Cf . F. £., 11. 37, 38. 3 Cf . F. L., 11. 113-15. 
 
 284 
 
'The Floweb and the Leaf" 5 
 
 De Venus la Deesse d'Amor 
 The main ideas of the Fablel are repeated and somewhat 
 amplified in Venus, 1 in which, to quote from Gaston Paris, "est 
 d^crit le 'Champ Fleuri,' jardin ou 'paradis' ou regne le dieu 
 d'amour, dont la cour est composed d'oiseaux !" : Here we do not 
 find the dream setting of the Fablel — a lover has been awake all 
 night because of love; but the springtime setting is there, pre- 
 sented in terms so similar that quotation is needless. In this 
 poem a lover by chance saw Venus and three damsels of her train, 
 somewhat as the author of F. L. saw the companies there described. 
 
 Le Roman de la Rose 
 
 Much more important than the Fablel or Venus is that portion 
 of R. R. written by G-uillaume de Lorris. 3 Not only does it 
 present more points of resemblance to F. L. than any other poem 
 written before the latter half of the fourteenth century, 4 but it 
 set the fashion in allegory for more than two hundred years, and 
 was thus in a way the literary parent of nearly all the other 
 works to which our author may have been indebted. 
 
 The poet dreams that on a beautiful May morning (described in 
 great detail) 5 he rose early and went forth until he came to a river, 
 along which he wandered through a "medewe softe, swote, and 
 grene" (1. 128), until he came to a garden (vergier) inclosed 
 with high walls on which were portraits of the deadly sins. The 
 noble damsel Ydelnesse (Oiseuse) opened a little wicket that let 
 him into the garden, which he found to be like paradise (1. 648). 
 Many birds sang there — including the nightingale and the gold- 
 finch — as beautifully as "sirens of the sea." After listening to 
 the birds a while, the poet followed a little path, 
 
 Of mentes ful, and fenel grene, (731) 
 till he reached a retreat where he found Myrthe (Deduit) with 
 his company, beautiful as winged angels. These people were 
 
 lEd. W. Foerster (Bonn, 1880). 
 
 2 La literature francaise au moyen age, par. 104. 
 
 3 Examined in the edition of Michel, 2 vols., Paris, 1864. References, however, will be 
 to the Chaucerian version. 
 
 i With the possible exception of Les Echecs Amoureux, which I have not seen. See the 
 account of Lydgate's R. S., p. 310, below. 
 
 £> Not quoted because the English version is easily accessible in editions of Chaucer. 
 See especially 11. 49-89. 
 
 285 
 
6 George L. Marsh 
 
 dancing while Dame Gladnes (Leesce) sang pleasantly to the 
 accompaniment of flutes and other instruments. Here also 
 appeared the God of Love ; and after a long description of him 
 and of various ladies in his train, the poet tells of wandering 
 into another garden, followed by Love and some of his company. 
 
 The gardin was, by mesuring, (1349) 
 
 Right evene and squar in compassing; 
 
 It was as long as it was large; 
 
 and within it were set trees of various kinds, including medlars, 
 laurels, and oaks. Moreover: 
 
 These trees were set, that I devyse, (1391) 
 
 Oon from another, in assyse, 
 
 Five fadome or sixe, I trowe so, 
 
 But they were hye and grete also; 1 
 
 And for to kepe out wel the sonne, 
 
 The croppes were so thikke y-ronne, 
 
 And every braunch in other knet, 
 
 And ful of grerie leves set, 
 
 That sonne mighte noon descende, 
 
 Lest (it) the tendre grasses shende. 
 
 These tender grasses were 
 
 thikke y-set 
 And softe as any veluet; (1420) 
 
 and there were many flowers in the garden. The poet sat down 
 to rest beneath a pine tree beside the fountain of Narcissus. 
 Reflected in the mirror at the bottom of this fountain he saw the 
 beautiful rosebush, surrounded by a hedge, which was the inspira- 
 tion of all his later efforts. The scent of the roses particularly 
 attracted him, for it had healing powers." With the wounds 
 which the God of Love inflicted upon the poet and his prolonged 
 efforts to win for his own the most perfect rose on the bush, we 
 are not concerned. 
 
 The de Condes, Father and Son 
 La Voie de Paradis, of Baudouin de Cond<§, 3 begins with a 
 description of springtime, which, as M. Scheler points out, 4 
 
 i Cf. F. L„ 11. 29-32. 2 Michel ed., 11. 1824, 4096, etc. 
 
 3 Dits et cont&s de Baudouin de Condi, et de son fils Jean de Condi, ed. A. Scheler 
 (Bruxelles, 1866, 1867), Vol. I, pp. 205 ff. 
 i Note, p. 484. 
 
 286 
 
"The Flower and the Leap" 7 
 
 bears a very strong resemblance to the corresponding description 
 near the beginning of R. R. Special attention may be called to 
 the following fragments of detail: 
 
 Lors est chel jour grans joie nee, (16) 
 Quar toute riens vivans s'esjoie. 
 
 Sour l'ierbe qui est arousee, (22) 
 Dont la terre s'est revestue, 1 
 
 Et cil bois dont tetis m'estoie, (30) 
 
 Qui en yver sont desnue\ 2 
 
 Ont tout leur poure abit mu6, 
 
 Pour le temps dont cascuns s'orgueille. 
 
 Quant tout bois et vergier et pr6 (42) 
 Sont tel, n'est nus ne s'esjoisse, 3 
 Conbien que de son cuer joie isse. 
 
 Jean de Cond6, like his father, Baudouin, was especially 
 interested in pointing a moral to adorn his tale ; but he was also 
 fond of the conventional setting. An interesting little Debat de 
 VAmani Hardi et de V Amend Cremeteus* begins with a brief but 
 rather comprehensive description of spring, at the conclusion of 
 which the poet tells of his entering a "moult biel vregier." Here 
 he encounters two ladies, who are arguing a question in love 
 casuistry which they ask him to answer. 
 
 La Messe des Oisiaus of Jean de Cond6 5 is particularly im- 
 portant in relation to the part taken by birds in mediaeval love 
 allegory; but a number of features should be considered here. 
 The poet says he went to bed 
 
 une nuit de may (3) 
 Tout sans pesance et sans esmay; 6 
 
 and dreamed that he sat under a pine tree listening to the birds 
 sing just before dawn. Of them he says: 
 
 Ains nus n'en vit tant en sa vie, (17) 
 Qu'il sembloit bien que par envie 
 
 1 Cf. F. L., 11. 7, 8. *Dits etcontes, Vol. II, pp. 297 ff. 
 
 2 Cf . F. L., 11. 11, 12. 5 Ibid., Ill, pp. 1 ff. 
 3Cf. F. L., 11. 13, 14. 6Cf. F. L., 1. 21. 
 
 287 
 
8 George L. Marsh 
 
 Li uns pour 1 'autre s 'efforchast; ' 
 
 A l'oir m'orent tost embl6 (24) 
 Mon cuer et en joie ravi. 2 
 
 Altogether the place seemed like a "drois paradis." Farther on 
 the poet continues: 
 
 Leveis ert en haut li soliaus, (91) 
 
 Si ert li tans et clers et biaus, 
 
 Li ore douche et atempree; 
 
 Si ert revestie la pree 
 
 De verte herbe et de flours diverses, 
 
 Blanches, jaunes, rouges et perses; 
 
 Ases y ot d'arbres divers, 
 
 De fueille viestis et couviers, 
 
 Et fuison y ot de floris. 
 
 Soon the nightingale sang mass before Venus, and other birds 
 joined in a beautiful service: 
 
 Ki chanter les ot, bien li samble (126) 
 
 Qu'oncques mil jour chose n'o'ist 
 
 De coi ses cuers tant s'es joist. 
 
 Among the other birds the goldfinch is mentioned (1. 173) as 
 joining in a second "alleluye." After the service love suits were 
 presented to the goddess. A sick man in a litter was healed by 
 the sweet odor of leaves plucked from a rose (11. 348 ff.) A com- 
 pany of canonesses in white, accompanied by many knights, com- 
 plained of the action of certain gray-clad nuns in enticing their 
 lovers away. With the ensuing debate we are not here concerned. 
 
 Nicole de Mabgival 
 In La Panth&re cT Amours, by Nicole de Margival, 3 the spring 
 setting is not presented ; but the action in some respects resembles 
 that of F. L. The poet dreams that the birds carry him to a 
 forest full of beasts, all of which, except the dragon, follow one 
 particularly beautiful panther, with a sweet breath that can cure 
 all imaginable ills. After a time the beasts all disappear, and 
 the poet, left alone, hears the sound of music and sees a great 
 company of richly attired people approaching him, singing and 
 
 i Cf. F. L., 11. 447, 448. 2 Cf. F. L., 11. 101-3. 
 
 3 Ed. H. A. Todd, Soci6t§ des Anciens Textes Frangais (Paris, 1883). 
 
 288 
 
THE 
 
 "The Flower and the Leaf" 9 
 
 dancing. Among them is the God of Love, their king ; and under 
 his direction the poet undertakes a search for the beautiful 
 panther which symbolizes his lady. She is finally found in a 
 valley surrounded by a thorny hedge. Her breath is curative 
 like the smell of the rose in R. R., the laurel and the eglantine 
 in F. L., etc. The God of Love explains to the poet all this 
 symbolism, very much as the lady in white explains the allegory 
 of F. L. 
 
 Watriquet de Couvin 
 
 Several of the poems of Watriquet de Couvin, a diligent dis- 
 ciple of Guillaume de Lorris during the first half of the four- 
 teenth century, contain details similar to those of F. L. Most 
 of these poems may be summarized rapidly. 
 
 In Li Dis de VArbre Royal, 1 an elaborate compliment to the 
 descendants of Philippe le Bel, the poet dreams that he is 
 
 En .i. bel vergier verdoiant, (20) 
 Loing de la ville, en . i . destour, 
 Enclos d'un haut mm - tout entour. 
 
 He wanders, listening to the birds, till he comes to a wonder- 
 ful tree — such a tree as was never seen before "en terre ne en 
 mer." 2 Some lines farther on he continues: 
 
 Atant souz l'arbre errant m'assis, (118) 
 Que je ne voil plus atargier, 
 S'esgardai aval le vergier 
 Que de biaus iert suppelatis, 
 
 Ou douz mois qu'arbres rapareille 
 Flors et f ueilles pour lui couvrir. 
 
 The scene of the Tournois des Dames 3 is the "haute forest de 
 Bouloigne," which is 
 
 plains de si grant melodie (33) 
 En avril quant li bois verdie, 
 Que nulz croire ne le porroit, 
 Qui li douz rousignol orroit 
 Chanter en icelle saison. 
 
 iDits de Watriquet de Couvin, ed. A. Scheler (Bruxelles, 1868), pp. 83 ff. 
 2Cf. the description of the laurel and medlar trees in F. L., 11. 86-88, 109-12. 
 3 Dits, pp. 251 ff . 
 
 289 
 
10 George L. Marsh 
 
 Then after further description of the birds' song, the poet remarks: 
 
 Je ne sai d'autrui, rnais h mi (52) 
 Semble de l'ostel et de l'estre 
 Ce soit fins paradis terrestre, 1 
 Tant est de melodie plains. 
 And again: 
 
 Et puis i refont si grant noise (64) 
 Cil autres oisel6s menus, 
 Qu'il n'est hons joenes ne chanus 
 Grant deduit n'i poist avoir. 
 
 The goldfinch is mentioned among other birds. 
 
 Li Dis de VEscharbote 2 also begins with a spring setting. The 
 poet enters a garden, falls asleep, and dreams that he encounters 
 a "sergent," very noble and courteous, in whose company he 
 journeys through a valley to a beautiful city that seems like an 
 "earthly paradise." This city is the world, in which blind 
 Fortune reigns as mistress; and its inhabitants, following her 
 lead in caring for nothing but pleasure, are precipitated into the 
 bottom of the valley. They are like the "escharbote," 
 
 Qui vole par les haus vergiez (211) 
 De fleurs et de feuilles chargiez, 
 Ou li roussignols chante et crie. 3 
 
 Of all the poems of Watriquet de Couvin, however, Li Dis de 
 la Fontaine d? Amours* presents the most details worth citation. 
 One morning in spring the poet says he found 
 
 Un vergier de lone temps plants (7) 
 Ou d'arbres avoit grant plenty, 
 Qui fait avoient couverture 
 Et de couleur de maint tainture. 
 Lors entrai dedenz sanz esmai 
 En ce jolif termine en mai, 
 Qu'oisel6s de chanter s'esforce 
 Au miex qu'il puet selonc sa force; 
 En pluseurs Hex, par divers chans, 
 Mainent joie a ville et h, champs, 
 
 iCf. F. L., 1. 115. ZDits, pp. 397 ff. 
 
 3 In contrast with the usual signification of the colors, as noted in chap, ii above, the 
 members of this company, with their slight resemblance to the green-clad followers of the 
 Flower, are clad in white. No specific significance is attached to the color, however. 
 
 * Dits, pp. 101 ff . 
 
 290 
 
"The Flowek and the Leaf" 11 
 
 Et toute riens iert en delis. 
 
 Tant iert plains de grant melodie (23) 
 Cis vergiers, n'est hons qui vous die 
 Ne fame, de sa biaute" nombre. 
 Pour reposer visai .i. ombre 
 Par desouz une ente florie, 
 Soutilment par compas norrie, 
 Et tainte en diverse couleur; 
 N'est hons, tant etist de douleur, 1 
 Qu'a l'oudeur ne fust alegiez. 
 
 In this delightful place is the beautiful fountain of love, the 
 subject of the poem. 2 
 
 GUILLAUME DE MACHADT 
 
 The poets and poems heretofore discussed, except R. R., are 
 of value in this investigation rather as showing how conventional 
 certain elements of setting and machinery became, than as very 
 likely to have had any direct influence upon the author of F. L. 
 The case is different with a group of French poets now to be 
 considered. 
 
 Oldest of these, and in many ways the master of the school, 
 was Guillaume de Machaut. The opening lines of his Dit du 
 Vergier were among the first French sources specifically suggested 
 for F. L., 3 and deserve citation here: 
 
 Quant la douce saison repaire 4 
 D'este\ qui maint amant esclaire, 
 Que prez et bois sont en verdour 
 Et li oisillon par baudour 
 Chantent, et par envoiseure, 
 Chascuns le chant de sa nature, 
 Pour la douceur du temps f 6ri, 5 
 Ou doulz mois d'avril le joli, 
 Me levay par un matinet, 
 
 1 Cf. F. L., U. 81-84. 
 
 20ther poems by Watriquet with the spring setting are (1) "Li Mireoirs as Dames'" 
 (Dits, pp. 1 ff.); (2)" Li Dis de' Iraigne etduCrapot"(pp. 65 ff.) ; (3) " Li Disdes JIII. Sieges" 
 (pp. 163 ff.); (4) "Li Dis des .VIII. Couleurs" (pp. 311 ff). In (2) and (3) the scene is a 
 "vergier;" in all the song of the birds is prominent; in (2) the poet falls asleep beneath a 
 " buisson" and dreams. The nightingale and the hawthorn are several times mentioned. 
 
 3 By Sandras, Etude sur Chaucer, p. 98. I quote from OEuvres choisies de Machault, ed. 
 Tarb6 (Paris, 1849), pp. 11 ff. The text differs in some details from that given by Sandras. 
 
 * Cf . F. L„ 1. 15. 5 Sandras, siri. 
 
 291 
 
12 Geoege L. Mabsh 
 
 Et entray en un jardinet 
 Ou il havoit arbres pluseurs, 
 Flori de diverses couleurs. 
 Si trouvay une sentelette 1 
 Plainne de rousee et d'erbette, 
 Par ou j'alai sans atargier; 
 Tant qu'& 1 'entree d'un vergier 
 Me fist adventure apporter. 2 
 S'entray pour moy deporter 
 Pleins d'arnoureuse maladie, 
 Et pour oir le inelodie 
 Des oisillons qui ens estoient, 3 
 Qui si ti'^s doucement chantoient 
 Que bouche ne le porroit dire : 
 N'onqs home vivans n'ot tant d'ire 
 Que s'il peust leur chant oir 
 Qu'il ne s'en deust resjoir, 
 [En son cuer, et que sans sejour 
 N'entroubliast toute dolour,] 4 
 Tant avoit en eulx de deliz. 
 
 When the poet heard the songs of the birds, especially of the 
 nightingale, which sounded above all others, he went into the most 
 beautiful garden he had ever seen, all sown with flowers of diverse 
 colors, and planted with green and flowering trees. 
 
 S'ot en milieu un arbrissel 
 De fleurs et de feuilles si bel, 
 Si bel, si gent, si aggreable 
 Si tres plaisant, si delitable 
 Et plein de si tres bonne odour, 
 Que nulz n'en auroit la savour, 
 Tout fust ses cuers deeonfortez 5 
 Qu'il ne fust tout reeonfortez. 
 
 Je ne scay que ce pooit estre 
 Fors que le paradis terrestre. 
 
 From this place the poet passed into a meadow, where he had a 
 
 vision, as follows: 
 
 Car il m'est vis que je veoie 
 
 Au joli prael ou j'estoie 
 
 La plus tr&s belle compaignie 
 
 iCf.F.JL., 11. 43-45. *F. £,.,11. 37, 38. » Cf. F. Z,., 11. 81-84. 
 
 2 Sandras aporcer. * Not in Tarb6. 
 
 292 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 13 
 
 Qu'oncques fust veue ne oiie : 
 La avoit-il vi Damoisiaus 
 Juenes, jolis, gentils et biaus ; 
 Et si avoit vi Damoiselles 
 Qui a merveilles estoient belles. 
 Et dessus le bel arbrissel, 
 Qui estoit en mi le praiel, 
 Se seoit une creature 
 De trop merveilleuse figure. 
 
 This was the God of Love. He wore on his head a 
 
 chappelet de rosettes, 
 De muguet et de violet tes. 
 
 At the poet's request the god explained the vision. 
 
 Machaut's Dit clou Lyon' also has the spring setting. The 
 poet is roused by the song of the birds, goes into the country, 
 and is conveyed in a magic boat to an island where he finds a 
 beautiful garden which no one can enter who has not been faithful 
 in love. As Sandras points out, 2 there are in this poem trees of 
 uniform height and planted at equal intervals, as in F. L. — " genre 
 de paysage d&]h d6crit par G. de Lorris et qui charmait les anciens 
 Bretons." 
 
 Le Dit cle la Rose 3 begins with a rather brief description of a 
 scene in May. Early one morning the poet wanders through a 
 green meadow till he sees a "jardinet," 
 
 Qui estoit de les un vergier. 
 
 He enters and comes to — 
 
 un buisson d'espines 
 Plein de rouses et de racines, 
 Et de toutes herbes poingnans, 
 Qu'au buisson estoient joingnans. 
 
 Et si estoit par tel maistrie 
 Hayes, qu'onque join: de ma vie 
 Je ne vi haye ne haiette * 
 Si bien ne si proprement faitte. 
 
 1 Extracts are found in CEuvres choisies, ed. Tarbe, pp. 40 ff., but I have not seen the 
 whole poem. 
 
 * Etude sur Chaucer, p. 104. 3 Tarbe, CEuvres choisies, pp. 65 ft'. 
 
 *Ct.F.L., 11. 61-63. 
 
 293 
 
14 George L. Maesh 
 
 Within the inclosure surrounded by this hedge there is a very 
 beautiful rose, the sweetness of which cures all the ills of love. 
 Manifestly the poem is an imitation of R. R. 
 
 Jean Froissart 
 
 Certain poems by the chronicler Froissart were early suggested 
 as possible sources of parts of F. L. 
 
 Le Paradys aV Amour, 1 believed to be one of his earliest pro- 
 ductions, is the account of a dream in which the poet is admitted 
 within the "clos" of the God of Love, and then within a delight- 
 ful garden where he finds his lady. The setting presents the 
 usual elements : fresh grass, flowers, trees ; songs of birds, includ- 
 ing the nightingale ; all the beauties of a day in May. Near the 
 end of the conventional description the poet says : 
 
 Pour mieuls oi'r les oisel^s, (59) 
 M'assis dessous deux rainssel^s 2 
 D'aube espine toute florie. 
 
 A long complaint follows, after which two ladies, Plaisance and 
 Esperance, appear and ultimately conduct the poet to a place 
 where, he says : 
 
 Lors regardai en une lande, (957) 
 
 Si vi une compagne grande 
 
 De dames et de damoiselles 
 
 Fiiches et jolies et belles, 
 
 Et grant foison de damoiseaus 
 
 Jolis et amoureus et beaus, 
 
 Qui estoient la arrests 
 
 Et de treschier tout aprest6. 
 
 Tout estoient de vert vesti, 
 
 N'i avoit ceste ne cesti. 
 
 Les dames furent orfrisies, 
 
 Drut perlees et bien croisies, 
 
 Et li signeur avoient cor 
 
 D'ivoire bend6 de fin or. 3 
 
 The poet asks who all these people are, and receives in answer a 
 long list of names of famous lovers. A little farther on he comes 
 
 iPotisies, od. Scholar; 3 vols., Paris, 1870-72; Vol. I, pp. 1 ff. 
 2Cf. F. L., 11.117-19. 
 
 3 Cf. F. L., 11. 324 ff. A portion of this passage is quoted by Sandras, E.tude sur Chaucer, 
 p. 101 ; but is erroneously said to be from Le Temple d' Honour. 
 
 294 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 15 
 
 to the tent of the God of Love, to whom he sings a lay that is 
 favorably received. After this interruption, the poet and his 
 guides go on through a shady forest, singing and dancing, till 
 they come to a meadow, 
 
 Ou vert faisoit, plaisant et bel, (1456) 
 
 Tout euclos de vermaus rosiers, 
 
 D'anqueliers et de lisiers, 
 
 Et la chautoit li rosignols 
 
 En son chant qui fu moult mignos. 
 
 Si tretos que son chant ol 
 
 Moult grandement me resjo'i. 1 
 
 Here he finds his lady and sings to her his ballade in praise of the 
 marguerite. 2 
 
 U Espinette amoureiise 3 is in general an account of Froissart's 
 youth; but in one episode presents details of interest here, as 
 
 follows: 
 
 Ce fu ou joli mois de may; (351) 
 Je n'oc doubtance ne esmai, 4 
 Quant j'entrai en un gardinet ; 
 II estoit asses matinet, 5 
 Un peu apres l'aube crevant; 
 Nulle riens ne m'aloit grevant, 
 Mes toute chose me plaisoit, 
 Pour le joli temps qu'il faisoit 
 Et estoit apparant dou faire. 
 Cil oizellon, en leur afaire, 
 Chantoient si com par estri. 6 
 
 Je me tenoie en un moment, (380) 
 
 Et pensoie au chant des oiseauls, 
 
 En regardant les arbriseaus 
 
 Dont il y avoit grant foison, 
 
 Et estoie sous un buisson 
 
 Que nous appellons aube espine. 
 
 At this time and place three ladies, Juno, Venus, and Pallas, and 
 a youth, Mercury, appear to the poet and present the story of the 
 apple of discord. 7 
 
 iCf. F. L., 11. 102, 103. 3 Poesies, ed. Scheler; Vol. I, pp. 87 ff. *Cf. F. L., 1. 21. 
 
 a Mentioned in chap, ii, above, p. 158. 5 Cf . F.L.,1. 25. 6 Qf. f. L., 11. 447, 448. 
 
 7 A version of this story is also found in Lydgate's R. S. (see p. 310 below) introduced 
 very much as by Froissart. Apparently the latter was imitating Lydgate's French original, 
 Les Echecs Amoureux. 
 
 295 
 
16 George L. Marsh 
 
 Un Trettii Amourous a la Loenge dou Jolis Mois de May 1 pre- 
 sents several points of interest. One day in May the poet, 
 
 Pensans a l'amoureuse vie, (1) 
 
 enters an inclosure made of rosebushes, osiers, etc., where the 
 nightingale is singing. There, he continues: 
 
 Au regarder pris le vregi6, (25) 
 Que tout authour on ot vregie\ 
 
 De rainsel^s 
 Espessement et dur margiet 2 
 Et ouniement arrengi6; 
 
 Au veoir ]es 
 Ce sarnbloit des arbrisseles 
 Qu'on les euiist au compas fais 
 
 Et entailli<§s. 
 D'oir chanter les oiselds, 
 Leur divers chans et leur mot^s, 
 
 J'oc le coer li6. 
 
 There is mention of the sweet odor of leaves and flowers, and of 
 the song of the nightingale, which like an "amorous dart 1 ' reminds 
 the poet of his love. 3 
 
 EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS 
 
 The eleven volumes in which the work of Machaut's friend and 
 pupil, Eustache Deschamps, is now published 4 contain, amid a 
 great mass of didactic and satirical work, a number of references 
 to May Day customs and several rather elaborate settings similar 
 to that of F. L. The most noteworthy of these are found in Le 
 Lay Amour eux and Le Lay de Franchise. 
 
 The former 5 begins with a very elaborate description of spring. 
 There is mention of the nightingale and other birds, with their 
 songs ; the renewal of meadows, fields, leaves, and flowers ; of 
 
 L'aubespine que nous querons, (29) 
 L'esglantier que nous odorons; 
 
 i Po&sies, ed. Scheler, Vol. II, pp. 194 ff. 
 2Cf. F. £,..11.57,58. 
 
 :f On<' other poom by Froissart, Ledit dou bleu chevalier, will be mentioned in connec- 
 tion with Lydgate's B. K. below. 
 
 *Societe des Anciens Textes Francais, ed. De Queux de Saint-Hilaire (Vols. I-VI) and 
 Raynaud (Vols. VII-XI), Paris, 1878-1903. 
 
 •> OZuvres de Deschamps, Vol. II, pp. 193 ff. 
 
 296 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 17 
 
 of "chapeaulx, qui en veult enquerre," and of 
 
 La marguerite nette et pure. (47) 
 
 Then follows an interesting description of May Day customs, 
 
 telling how . , _ ,_., . 
 
 ° prmces et Roys (61) 
 
 Le premier jour de ce doulz mois, 
 
 Chevaliers, dames, pucellettes, 
 
 Escuiers, clers, lays et bourgois, 
 
 go to the woods to pick flowers, make garlands, sing songs, listen 
 to the nightingale, and hold jousts, feasts, dances — merry-makings 
 of all kinds — in honor of springtime and love. On such a morn- 
 ing as this the poet dreamed that when he was walking in a beau- 
 tiful meadow, he saw, beneath a tall, green pine tree beside a 
 brook, "un seigneur tressouverain," near whom were many people 
 praying. In order better to see what should happen, the poet hid 
 behind a hawthorn, and soon the God of Love appeared. The 
 company beneath the tree was composed of the famous lovers of 
 history and legend, as well as various allegorical characters. Some 
 of the latter began a discussion, the burden of which proved to 
 be that youth ought to love; and then after a time the company 
 departed. The poet, in great fear, was discovered eavesdropping ; 
 but awoke unharmed immediately after he heard some of Love's 
 company speak well of him. 
 
 Deschamps' Lay de Franchise 1 is of special importance because, 
 as already noted, it has been singled out as a model for F. L. 2 
 The formal presentation of the setting in this poem is brief: 
 
 C'est qu'en doulz mois que toute fleur s'avance, (8) 
 
 Arbres, buissons, que terre devenir 
 
 Veult toute vert et ses flours espanir, 
 
 Du mois de may me vint la souvenance 
 
 Dont maintes gens ont la coustume en France 
 
 En ce doulz temps d'aler le may cueillir. 
 
 Le premier join de ce mois de plaisance, 
 the poet goes forth at break of day thinking of his lady, who is 
 described as a flower, the daisy. 3 After a long tribute to her he 
 continues : 
 
 1 (Euvres, Vol. II, pp. 203 ff. See Vol. XI, p. 46, as to the occasion for this poem. 
 
 2 By Professor C. F. McClumpha in Modern Language Notes, Vol. IV, cols. 402 ff. See 
 p. 135 above. 
 
 3 See discussion of the cult of the daisy, chap, ii above. 
 
 297 
 
18 George L. Marsh 
 
 Ainsis pensans vins par une bruiere (66) 
 En un grant pare d'arbres et de fouchiere 
 Qui fut ferme de nierveilleus pouoir, 
 
 by means of various fortifications, elaborately described. 
 The poet, nevertheless, continues his pilgrimage: 
 
 Mais, en passant, vy ja dessus l'erbage (93) 
 
 De damoiseaulx tresnoble compaignie 
 
 Vestus de vert ; autre gent de parage 
 
 Qui portoient sarpes pour faire ouvrage 
 
 Et se mistrent a couper le fueillie. 
 
 Oultre passay qu'ilz ne me virent mie; 
 
 En un busson me mis en tapinage 
 
 Pour regarder de celle gent la vie 
 
 Et pour oir la douce melodie 
 
 Des rossignolz crians ou jardinage: 
 
 " Occi iccy." 
 
 Other birds also sang, including the goldfinch. Moreover: 
 
 Parmi ce bois dames et damoiseaulx (118) 
 Qui chantoient notes et sons nouveaulx 
 Pour la doucour du temps qui fut jolis, 
 Cueillans les fleurs, l'erbe, les arbressaulx, 
 Dont ilz firent sainttues et chappeaulx; 
 De verdure fnrent touz revestis. 
 Cilz jours estoit uns mondains paradis ; 
 Car maint firent des arbres chalenieaulx 
 Et flajolez dont fleustoient toubis. 
 
 The grass was covered with sweet dew, which, besides being beau- 
 tiful to look at, was of material assistance in renewing the growth 
 of grass and flowers. 
 
 After a time, during which the poet listened to various private 
 conversations about love, he heard a great noise 
 
 yssant d'une valee (145) 
 Ou il ot gens qui venoient jouster. 
 
 Of course they were on horseback, and among them was a king of 
 wonderful prowess; 
 
 Sur un coursier fut de vert appareil, (157) 
 Accompaigniez de son frere pareil; 
 Contes et dus, chevaliers et barons, 
 Dames y ot, dont pas ne me merveil, 
 298 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 19 
 
 Haultes, nobles, plaines de doulz acueil 
 Qui de chapeaulx et branches firent dons. 
 
 In the joust that follows, 
 
 L'un sur l'autre font des lances tronsons (165) 
 Et se portent sur terre et sur buissons. 
 A l'assembler n'avoit pas grant conseil, 
 Aincois queroit chascuns jouste a son vueil 
 Sanz espargnier chevaulx, bras ne talons. 
 
 Then the noise ceases, and they all kneel humbly before the king, 
 who directs them to do honor to May. Various persons speak on 
 subjects pertaining to love, and after a time the whole company 
 adjourns to a "plaisant hoste," with a beautiful garden beside the 
 Marne. This house is furnished in green and gold. 
 
 The poet comes out of his hiding-place, sees the feast spread 
 before the king and his company, and then proceeds on his journey 
 till he finds Robin and Marion (conventional pastoral characters) 
 sitting under a beech tree and talking about the comforts of their 
 life in contrast with the lives of kings. The latter part of the 
 poem has no possible relation with F. L. 
 
 Chaucer 
 Since the passages from Chaucer that resemble portions of 
 F. L. have nearly all been pointed out by others, 1 it will not be 
 necessary to deal with his work at such length as its importance 
 in this connection would otherwise justify. As I have said, the 
 author of F. L. was first of all an imitator of Chaucer, and detailed 
 resemblances to the master are too numerous to mention. Only 
 the more important parallels in plan and setting need be 
 considered. 
 
 In B. D. we find the sleepless poet, who, moreover, as in F. L., 
 knows not why he cannot sleep. 2 Reading makes him drowsy at 
 last, however, and he dreams that on a May morning he was 
 wakened at dawn by the songs of "smale foules a gret hepe," 
 which sang a solemn service about the roof of his chamber. 
 
 Was never y-herd so swete a steven, (307) 
 But hit had be a thing of heven. 3 
 
 i Especially by Professor Skeat, in Chaucerian and Other Pieces. 
 2 Cf. B. D., 1. 34, with F. L., 1. 19. 3 Cf. F. L., 11. 129-33. 
 
 299 
 
20 George L. Marsh 
 
 After a time the poet rises to go hunting. While on the chase he 
 follows one of the dogs 
 
 Doun by a floury grene wente (398) 
 Ful thikke of gras, ful softe and swete, 1 
 With floures fele, faire under fete, 
 And litel used, hit seemed thus. 
 
 In the forest, 
 
 every tree stood by him-selve, (419) 
 Fro other wel ten foot or twelve. 2 
 
 With the later events of the poem we are not here concerned. 
 
 P. F. also has the dream setting. The time is St. Valentine's 
 Day, instead of May, but the surroundings are those of spring. 
 Wherever the poet casts his eye he sees "trees clad with leves 
 that ay shal laste" (1. 173), including the oak and the laurel. 
 Continuing, he says: 
 
 A garden saw I, ful of blosmy bowes, (183) 
 
 Upon a river, in a grene mede, 
 
 Ther as that swetnesse evermore y-now is. 
 
 On every bough the briddes herde I singe (190) 
 With voys of aungel in hir armonye; 3 
 
 Of instruments of strenges in accord (197) 
 Herde I so pleye a ravisshing swetnesse, 
 That god, that maker is of al and lord, 
 Ne herde never beter, as I gesse; 
 Therwith a wind, unnethe hit might be lesse, 
 Made in the leves grene a noise softe, 
 Acordant to the foules songe on-lofte. 4 
 The air of that place so attempre was 
 That never was grevaunce of hoot ne cold ; 
 Ther wex eek every holsom spyce and gras. 
 
 Under a tree beside a well the poet saw Cupid forge his arrows, 
 while women danced about, In the sweet green garden he 
 saw a queen, Nature, fairer than any other creature, in whose 
 presence the birds held their parliament. 
 
 i Cf . F. Z,., 11. 43-45. 3 Cf. F. L., 1. 133. 
 
 2 Cf . F. L., 11. 31, 32. * Cf. F. L„ 1. 112. 
 
 300 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 21 
 
 In T. C, just before the passage quoted in relation to the 
 fixing of time by reference to the sun's position in the zodiac, 1 
 are the following interesting lines: 
 
 In May, that moder is of monthes glade, 
 That fresshe floures, blewe, and whyte, and rede, 
 Ben quike agayn, that winter dede made, 2 
 And ful of bawme is fletinge every mede. 
 
 The familiar beginning of the Prologue to C. T. presents 
 many details similar to those of the first two stanzas of F. L. : 
 the astronomical reference already discussed; "Aprille with his 
 shoures sote;" the springing-up of flowers; the wholesomeness 
 of the air, and so forth. In other parts of C. T. there are only a 
 few passages to which attention need be called. 
 
 It is on a May morning that Palamon and Arcite first see 
 Emily. She has risen before dawn, 
 
 For May wol have no slogardye a-night. (A, 1042) 
 The sesoun priketh every gentil herte 
 And maketh him out of his sleep to sterte, 
 And seith, ' Arys, and do thyn observaunce.' 
 
 So she walks up and down the garden, gathering flowers 
 
 To make a sotil gerland for hir hede, (1054) 
 And as an aungel hevenly she song. 3 
 
 Again, it is when Arcite, on another May morning, has gone into 
 the woods to "doon his observaunce" and to make himself a gar- 
 land of woodbine or hawthorn leaves (A, 1. 1508), that he finds 
 Palamon in hiding. 
 
 More important than either of the passages from the KnighVs 
 Tale, however, is the description of May Day festivities in the 
 Frankliii's Tale. These took place on the "sixte morwe of 
 
 May" 4 — 
 
 Which May had peynted with his softe shoures 5 
 This gardin ful of leves and of floures; 
 And craft of mannes hand so curiously 
 Arrayed hadde this gardin, trewely, 
 That never was ther gardin of swich prys, 
 But-if it were the verray paradys. 6 
 
 i P. 281 above. T. C, II, 11. 50-53. 3Cf. F. L„ 1. 133. BCf. F. L., 1. 4. 
 
 2 Cf. F. Z,., 11. 11, 12. * C. T., F, 11. 901 ff. 6Cf. F. L., 1. 115. 
 
 301 
 
22 George L. Marsh 
 
 Th'odour of floures and the fresshe sighte 
 Wolde han maad any herte for to lighte 1 
 That ever was born, but-if to gret siknesse, 
 Or to gret sorwe helde it in distresse; 
 So ful it was of beautee with plesaunce. 
 
 Of all Chaucer's poems, however, the Prologue to L. G. W. 
 is most important in relation to F. L. Its mention of the Orders 
 of the Flower and the Leaf has been discussed. 2 The action of 
 the Prologue begins with the rising of the poet before daybreak, 
 on the first of May, in order to see his favorite flower, the daisy 
 (B, 11. 104-8). In greeting it he kneels 
 
 Upon the smale softe swote gras, 3 (118) 
 which is "embrouded" with fragrant flowers. The earth has for- 
 gotten his "pore estat of wintir" 4 (11. 125, 126), and is newly 
 clad in green. The birds, rejoicing in the season (1. 130), sing 
 welcome to summer their lord, among the blossoming branches of 
 the trees. All is so delightful that the poet thinks he might 
 
 Dvvellen alwey, the joly month of May, (176) 
 Withouten sleep, withouten mete or drinke. 5 
 
 Amid such surroundings he sinks down among the daisies. Then 
 after his second mention of the strife of the Flower and the Leaf 
 (in text B) he continues: 
 
 And, in a litel herber that I have, 6 (203) 
 That benched was on turves fresshe y-grave, 
 I bad men sholde me my couche make. 
 
 When he had gone to sleep in this "herber," he dreamed that as 
 he lay in a meadow gazing at his beloved flower, he saw come 
 walking toward him, 
 
 The god of love, and in his hande a quene, (213) 
 And she was clad in real habit grene. 
 
 She wore a "fret of gold" on her head, surmounted by a white 
 crown decorated with flowers; so that, with her green robe and 
 her gold and white headdress, she resembled a daisy, stalk and 
 flower. Behind the God of Love came a company of ladies who 
 knelt in homage to the flower. 
 
 i Cf. F. L., 11. 38, 81-84. 8Cf. F. L., 1. 52. »Cf. F. £.,11. 120, 181. 
 
 2 Chap, i above. *Cf. F. L., 11. 11,12. ecf. F. L., 11. 49-52. 
 
 302 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 23 
 
 John Gower 
 The machinery of Gower's voluminous C. A. is in part of the 
 kind under consideration. After wandering in a wood for a time 
 one day in May, the poet finds himself in a "swote grene pleine," 1 
 where he bewails his misfortunes in love. The King and Queen 
 of Love appear, and after some talk Venus bids the poet confess 
 to Genius, her clerk. Then follows a long discourse by Genius 
 on the seven deadly sins, with stories illustrating all of them, 
 which constitute the main body of the poem. In these stories 
 there are allusions to May Day customs, 2 but no striking similari- 
 ties to F. L. Finally the poet prevails upon Genius to take a 
 letter for him to Venus and Cupid; but the deities do not look 
 with favor upon so old a would-be lover. He swoons at the rebuff, 
 and has a vision of a great company of lovers wearing garlands of 
 leaves, flowers, and pearls. 3 There is a sound of music, such 
 
 That it was half a mannes hele (2484) 
 So glad a noise for to hiere; 
 
 and members of the company dance and sing joyfully. The 
 remainder of the action is of no present consequence. 
 
 The Cuckoo and the Nightingale 
 C. N, already mentioned a number of times, 4 presents addi- 
 tional points of interest. The poet first describes the power of 
 love, which is felt most strongly in May, when the songs of the 
 birds and the springing of leaves and flowers cause great longing 
 to burn in the heart. Such love-sickness, even in so "old and 
 unlusty" a person as this poet, has made him sleepless during 
 "al this May." At last, during one wakeful night, he recalls a 
 saying among lovers: 
 
 That it were good to here the nightingale (49) 
 Rather than the lewde cukkow singe. 
 
 And then I thoghte, anon as it was day, 
 I wolde go som whider to assay 5 
 
 iBook I, 1. 113. References are to G. C. Macaulay's ed. of Gower's Complete Works, 
 Vols. II, III (Clarendon Press, 1901). 
 
 2 See Books 1, 11. 2026 ff. ; VI, 11. 1833 ff. 
 3 Book VIII, 11. 2457 ff . Discussed in chap, i above. 
 * Pp. 155, 159, 163, above. Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 347 ff . 
 Cf. F. L., 11. 39-42. 
 
 303 
 
24 George L. Marsh 
 
 If that I might a nightingale here; 
 For yet had I non herd of al this yere, 
 And hit was tho the thridde night of May. 
 
 Accordingly at daybreak he went alone into a wood "fast by," 
 and wandered along a brook till he came to the fairest land he 
 had ever seen. 
 
 The ground was grene, y-poudred with daisye, (63) 
 
 The floures and the gras y-lyke hye, 
 
 Al grene and whyte; was nothing elles sene. 
 
 He sat down among the flowers and saw the birds come forth 
 
 from their nests, 
 
 so joyful of the dayes light (69) 
 That they begonne of May to don hir houres ! 
 
 The stream also made a noise 
 
 Accordaunt with the briddes armonye (83) 
 
 such that 
 
 Me thoughte, it was the best[e] melodye (84) 
 
 That mighte been y-herd of any mon. 1 
 Delighted with all these sights and sounds, the poet fell in a 
 "slomber and a swow" (1. 87), in which he heard a debat 
 between the cuckoo and the nightingale. 
 
 Christine de Pisan 
 A number of the poems of Christine de Pisan present inter- 
 esting settings or machinery. 2 For example, in Le Dit de la Bose, 
 which has been mentioned 3 in connection with symbolic orders, 
 the poet represents that one day when a noble company saw 
 assembled at the palace of the Duke of Orleans, the lady Loyaute" 
 appeared, surrounded by a company 
 
 De nymphes et de pucelletes (99) 
 Atout chappelles de fleurettes, 
 
 who seemed to have just come from paradise. They were mes- 
 sengers of the God of Love, sent to form the Order of the Rose. 
 They sang so sweetly 
 
 Que il sembloit a leur doulz chant (246) 
 Qu'angelz feussent ou droit enchant 
 
 iCf. F.L., 11. 130, 131. 
 
 2 For brief descriptions of spring see CEuvres poftiques, ed. Roy, Soci6t6 des Anciens 
 Textes Francais (Paris, 1886-96), Vol. I, pp. 35, 112, 236, 239, etc. 
 
 3Cbap. i above, pp. 138, 139, CEuvres pottiques, Vol. II, pp. 29 ff. 
 
 304 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 25 
 
 Le Debat de deux Amans 1 tells of a joyful company that 
 gathered in May to dance and make merry in one of the parks 
 of the Duke of Orleans. Alone and sad, however, the poet sat 
 on a bench at one side watching the assembly, till two gentle- 
 men, one a woe-begone knight and the other a happy young 
 squire, agreed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of 
 love. In company with these men and some other ladies, the poet 
 proceeds to a "bel vergier" where the debate takes place. 
 
 Le Livre du Dit de Poissy 2 presents a very elaborate spring- 
 time setting. In gay April, when the woods grow green again, 
 the poet rides forth to see her daughter at the convent of Poissy. 
 In company with her are many ladies and gentlemen, enjoying 
 to the full the beauties of the morning. Vegetation has been 
 freshened by the dew; nothing on earth is ugly. Marguerites 
 and other flowers are mentioned, 
 
 dont amant et amie (107) 
 Font chappellez. 
 
 Birds sing in the trees and bushes under the leadership of the 
 nightingale. All these delights could not fail to banish grief. 
 On their journey, the company enter a pleasant forest, 
 
 Et la forest espesse que moult pris (185) 
 Reverdissoit si qu'en hault furent pris 
 L'un a 1 'autre les arbres qui repris 
 
 Sont, et plants 
 Moult pr&s a pr&s li chaine a grant plants 
 Hault, grant et bel, non rnie en orphant6, 
 Ce scevent ceulz qui le lieu ont hant6, 
 
 Si que soleil 
 Ne peut ferir a terre a nul recueil. 
 Et Terbe vert, fresche et belle a mon vueil, 
 Est par dessoubz, n'eon ne peut veoir d'ueil 
 
 Plus belle place. 
 
 At the convent where the poet's daughter lives they find it like a 
 "droit paradis terrestre" (1. 382). The latter part of the poem 
 presents a "debat amoureux" with which we have no present 
 concern. 
 
 1 CEuvres poitiques, Vol. II, pp. 49 ff. 2 Ibid., pp. 159 if. 
 
 305 
 
26 George L. Marsh 
 
 In Christine's Livre du Due des Vrais Amans, 1 the hero, a 
 young duke ripe for love, while out hunting one day, enters on a 
 paved road that leads to a castle where a great company of people 
 are disporting about their princess. As the duke and his com- 
 panions draw near the castle, they are met by a "grant route" of 
 ladies (1. 134) , who welcome them most hospitably. The princess 
 accompanies them to "un prael verdoyant" (1. 179), where she 
 and the duke sit and talk beneath a willow beside a little stream. 
 He falls in love with her, and henceforth his chief occupation is 
 planning means of seeing her often. He invites her to a feast 
 and joust, to be held in a "praerie cointe" where there are "her- 
 barges" and "eschauffaulz" and "paveillons" (11. 649, 653-55). 
 In the evening the lady arrives with a noble company, including 
 Menestrelz, trompes, naquaires, (665) 
 
 Qui si haultement cournoyent 
 Que mons et vaulz resonnoyent. 
 
 The festivities held in her honor last several days and are very 
 elaborately described. The jousts held are of special interest, 
 because of the use of white and green costumes. 2 The remainder 
 of the poem deals with the way in which this lady and the duke 
 deceived her "jaloux" for a number of years. 
 
 John Ltdgate 
 
 The work of Lydgate is of the utmost importance in relation 
 to F. L., not only because he was the most important imitator of 
 Chaucer during the period when our poem was probably written, 
 but also because a number of his early works, whether original or 
 translated, contain passages strikingly similar to portions of F. L. 
 Discussion of his works will be approximately in chronological 
 order. 3 
 
 The main part of C. B.* begins with a description of the 
 "chorleV garden. It was 
 
 Hegged and dyked to make it sure and strong; 
 
 The benches turned 5 with newe turvis grene; 
 
 1 CEuvres poitiques, Vol. Ill, pp. 59 ff. 2 Pp. 152, 153, 164, above. 
 
 3 Following §11, chap, viii, of Schick's Introduction to T. G.; E. E. T. S., 1891. 
 * M. P., ed. Halliwoll, pp. 179 ff . Citations are from pp. 181, 182. 
 6 This should be " turved." 
 
 306 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 27 
 
 and there were "sote herbers." Further: 
 
 Amyddis the gardeyn stode a fressh lawrer, 
 
 Theron a bird syngyng bothe day and nyghte, 
 
 With shynnyng fedres brightar than the golde weere, 
 
 Whiche with hir song made hevy hertes lighte, 
 
 That to beholde it was an hevenly sighte, 
 
 How toward evyn and in the dawnyng, 
 
 She ded her payne most amourously to synge. 
 
 It was a verray hevenly melodye, 
 
 Evyne and morowe to here the byrddis songe, 
 
 And the soote sugred armonye. 
 
 Lydgate's B. K. has already been mentioned. 1 After fixing 
 the time very much as it is fixed in F. L., the poet tells us that 
 he awoke early and went, in the hope of finding solace for his 
 
 sorrow, 
 
 Into the wode, to here the briddes singe, 2 (23) 
 Whan that the misty vapour was agoon 
 And clere and faire was the morowning. 
 
 On the leaves and flowers he found dew sweet as balm. Passing 
 along a clear stream he came to 
 
 a litel wey 3 (38) 
 Toward a park, enclosed with a wal 
 In cOmpas rounde, and by a gate smal 
 Who-so that wolde frely mighte goon 
 Into this park, walled with grene stoon. 
 
 He went into the park and there heard the birds sing 
 
 So loude .... that al the wode rong 4 (45) 
 Lyke as it shulde shiver in peces smale; 
 And, as me thoughte, that the nightingale 
 With so gret mighte her voys gan out-wreste 
 Right as her herte for love wolde breste. 
 
 The soil was playn, smothe, and wonder softe 
 Al oversprad with tapites that Nature 
 Had mad her-selve, celured eek alofte 
 With bowes grene, the floures for to cure, 
 That in hir beaute they may longe endure 
 From al assaut of Phebus fervent fere, 
 Whiche in his spere so hote shoon and clere. 
 
 1 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 245 ff . 
 
 2 Cf. F. L„ 1. 37. 3Cf. F. L„ 1. 43. « Cf. F. L., 11. 99, 100. 
 
 307 
 
28 George L. Marsh 
 
 The air was "attempre," and gentle zephyrs blew, so wholesomely 
 that buds and blossoms delighted in the hope of bringing forth 
 fruit. Among the trees in the park were "grene laurer," 
 
 the fresshe hawethorn (71) 
 In whyte motle, that so swote doth smelle; 
 
 the oak, and many others. In the midst was a spring surrounded 
 by young grass "softe as veluet." Its waters had magic power to 
 
 aswage 1 (100) 
 Bollen hertes, and the venim perce 
 Of pensifheed. 
 
 The poet took a long draught of this water, and forthwith was so 
 much refreshed and eased of his pain that he started out to see 
 more of the park. As he went through a glade he came to 
 a delitable place (122) 
 
 Amidde of whiche stood an herber grene 2 
 That benched was, with colours newe and clene. 
 
 This arbor was full of flowers, among which, between a holly and 
 a woodbine, lay a black-clad knight, To his complaint, which 
 forms the burden of the poem, the poet listened from a hiding- 
 place among some bushes. 3 
 
 The time of T. G* is December, not spring; but the poem 
 begins with an astronomical reference. After a long period of 
 restlessness, the poet suddenly falls asleep and is 
 Rauysshid in spirit in [a] temple of glas. (16) 
 
 The place is "circulere in compaswise" (11. 36, 37), and there is 
 a wicket by which to enter. Within the poet sees pictures of 
 many famous lovers. Before a statue of Venus kneels the most 
 beauteous of ladies, 
 
 al clad in grene and white (299) 
 
 Enbrouded al with stones & perre. 
 
 1 Cf. F. L., 11. 81-84. 2 Cf. F. L., 11. 49-51. 
 
 3 Sandras (Mude sur Chaucer, p. 80) declared that B. K. is an imitation of Froissart's 
 Dit dou bleu chevalier (Poisies, ed. Scheler, Vol. I, pp. 348 ff.). In general plan, it is true, 
 the poems are similar, both to each other and to Chaucer's B. D. In details, however, B. K. 
 is much more like F. L. than is Froissart's poem. 
 
 * Ed. Schick, E. E. T. S. 
 
 308 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 29 
 
 She presents a "litel bil" to the goddess, and vows service in 
 return for the latter's favor. She is given white and green 
 branches of hawthorn for a chaplet and advised to be "unchan- 
 ging like these leaves." 1 Finally, 
 
 with Pe noise and heuenli melodie (1362) 
 Which fat Pei [the birds] made in her armonye, 
 the author awoke, and resolved for love of his lady to write his 
 "litel rude boke." 
 
 Lydgate's Thebes 2 is frankly on the model of Chaucer's 
 Knighfs Tale, and therefore can have no close resemblance to 
 F. L. in plan; yet in many details it repays examination. Its 
 Prologue begins with a rather elaborate astronomical reference : 
 
 Whan bright Phebus passed was the Kam 
 Midde of Aprill, and into the Bull came, 
 
 Whan that Flora the noble mighty queene 
 
 The soile hath clad in new tender greene. 
 At this time Lydgate says he encountered a company of Canter- 
 bury pilgrims and agreed to tell them a tale. The tale does not 
 concern us, but at the beginning of its second part there is an- 
 other bit of description of spring, including the following line: 
 
 And right attempre was the hoi some aire. 3 
 Later, as Tideus, returning from Thebes, wounded after a combat 
 with fifty knights, comes into "Ligurgus lond," he enters a 
 garden "by a gate small," 
 
 And there he found, for to reken all, 
 
 A lusty erber, vnto his deuise, 
 
 Sweet and fresh, like a paradise. 
 Here he lay down on the grass and slept till awakened by the lark 
 when "Phebus" rose the next day. And "Ligurgus" daughter, 
 who every morning came to the garden "for holesomnes of aire," 
 found him and had his wounds cared for. In Part III, as Tideus 
 and Campaneus ride about looking for water during a terrible 
 drought, they enter by chance "an herbere," 
 
 i As already noted, p. 138 above. 
 
 ^Examined in Chalmers' English Poets, Vol. I, pp. 570 S. This poem was written later 
 than R. S., but is mentioned out of chronological order that the discussion of Lydgate may 
 end with R. S. 
 
 3Cf. F. L., 1. 6. 
 
 309 
 
30 George L. Marsh 
 
 With trees shadowed fro the Sunne shene, 
 
 Ful of floures, and of hearbes grene, 
 
 Wonder holsome of sight and aire, 
 
 Therein a lady, that passingly was faire, 
 
 Sitting as tho vnder a laurer tree. 
 She leads them to a river where they quench their thirst. 
 
 The most important of Lydgate's poems in connection with 
 F. L., however, is R. S., "compyled" from the French Echecs 
 Amoureux, a voluminous fourteenth-century imitation of R. R. 1 
 After an address to the reader, the poet presents an elaborate 
 description of spring 2 in which we find nearly all the oft-repeated 
 details. Spring clothes all the earth "with newe apparayle;" 
 causes "herbes white and rede" to blossom in the meadows; 
 makes the air "attempre," and rejoices all hearts. On such a 
 spring morning the poet lies awake, "ententyf for to here" the 
 birds' songs, when suddenly Dame Nature appears to him (1. 206). 
 She reproves him for wasting time in bed, 
 
 Whan Phebus with his bemys bryght (450) 
 
 Ys reysed vp so hygh alofte, 3 
 and the birds are "syngyng ther hourys." She advises him to 
 go out into the world "and see if anywhere her work fails in 
 beauty." 4 In response to his inquiry as to the way he should take, 
 she suggests the eastern way of Reason rather than the western way 
 of Sensuality. 5 After her sermon Dame Nature leaves him, and he 
 rises. When he is "clad and redy eke in [his] array" (11. 910, 
 911), he goes forth into a "felde ful large and pleyn," 
 
 Couered with flour[e]s fressh and grene (919) 
 
 By vertu of the lusty quene, 
 
 Callyd Flora, the goddesse. 
 
 It is so delightful that he forgets past events. 
 
 After a time he sees a path in which walk a company of four — 
 Pallas, Juno, Venus, and Mercury. He is reminded of the history 
 of each, and describes each at great length. Juno's clothing is 
 
 i R. S., Pd. E. Sieper, E. E. T. S., 1901, 1903. See also Sieper's "Les Echecs Amoureux, 
 eiue altfranzosische Nachahmung des Rosenromans und ihre englischeUebertragung;" Lit- 
 tcrarliistorische Forschungen, IX. Heft (Weimar, 1898). 
 
 2 LI. 87 ff. 3Cf.F. L., 11. 1, 2. 
 
 * Quoted from the marginal summary in Sieper's edition, Part I, p. 15. 
 
 5 A resemblance to the allegory of F. L. has been noted, chap, i above. 
 
 310 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 31 
 
 Fret f ul of ryche stonys ynde l (1400) 
 Venus, as already noticed, 2 wears a chaplet of roses. Mercury 
 carries a flute, of which "the sugred armonye" has more effect 
 than sirens' songs. Seeing them come toward him the author 
 
 Ful humblely gan hem salewe. 3 (1838) 
 Mercury tells him of the golden apple and asks him to award it. 
 He gives it to Venus and agrees to be her " lyge man" (1. 2352). 
 She tells him of her sons — Deduit, expert in music, dancing, and 
 games; and Cupid, the God of Love — and of the "erber grene" 
 (1. 2538) of Deduit, the beauty of which may be compared to 
 that of paradise. In this garden he will find a lovely maiden, 
 but he must first know Ydelnesse, the porter. 4 
 
 Finally Venus departs and the author enters a great forest 
 "ryght as a lyne," 
 
 Ful of trees, .... (2729) 
 Massiffe and grete and evene vpryght 
 As any lyne vp to the toppys, 5 
 As compas rounde the fresshe croppis, 
 That yaf good air with gret suetnesse 
 Whos fressh beaute and grenesse 
 Ne fade neuer in hoote ne colde, 
 Nouther Sere, nor waxen olde, 
 
 The levis be so perdurable. 
 
 The plain about the forest is "tapited" with herbs and flowers. 
 
 In the forest under an ebony tree he finds Diana, who makes 
 
 clear to him her rivalry with Venus. 6 But in spite of Diana's 
 
 long account of the dangers that lurk in the garden of Deduit, 
 
 and her eagerness to have the poet remain in her "forest of 
 
 chaste te," where ,4„-„v 
 
 the tren in ech seson (4372) 
 
 Geyn al assaut of stormes kene 
 
 Of fruyt and lefe ben al-way grene, 
 
 he prefers to see the beauty of the world and keep his vow to 
 Venus. 
 
 After a time he comes to the "herber" he is seeking. On the 
 walls are pictures resembling those described in R. R. He is 
 
 i Cf. F. L., 11. 152, 153. * As in R. B. See above. 
 
 2 Chap, ii above. 5 Cf . F. L„ 11. 29, 30. 
 
 3Cf. F. L., 11. 460, 461. 6 Discussed in chap, ii, p. 141, above. 
 
 311 
 
32 George L. Marsh 
 
 admitted by Ydelnesse and kindly greeted by Curtesye, who tells 
 him the garden is intended only for sport and play and whatever 
 may be "to hertys ese." He is "ravisshed" by the beauty, the 
 "holsom ayr," the sweetness. There are herbs that would cure 
 every malady, "freshe welle springis," nightingales singing 
 "aungelyke" in the trees — everything, in fact, is so beautiful 
 
 That there is no man in hys wyt (5217) 
 
 The which koude ha levyd yt 
 
 Nor deinyd yt in his entent, 
 
 But yif he had[de] be present. 
 
 Looking about the place he sees 
 
 Deduit and Cupide (5232) 
 With her folkys a gret Route, 
 
 By hem self|e] tweyn and tweyn, 
 Ful besely to don her peyn 
 Hem to play and to solace. 
 
 In karol wise I saugh hem goon, (5245) 
 
 And formhest of hem euerychoon 
 
 I saugh Deduit, and on his honde, 
 
 Confedred by a maner bonde, 
 
 Ther went a lady in sothnesse, 
 
 And hir name was gladnesse. 
 Next comes a long description of Cupid, with his two bows and 
 ten arrows. He and his train go 
 
 Euerych vpou others honde, (5534) 
 
 Ay to gedre tweyn and tweyn, 1 
 They have all sorts of musical instruments and dance and sing 
 beautifully. After a time the poet plays a game of chess with 
 the beautiful maiden whom he seeks. In the midst of a long, 
 allegorical, satirical description of the pieces, the translation 
 breaks off at line 7042. 
 
 On the whole the resemblances between R. S. and F. L. are 
 so varied and so striking, in both thought and form, that it seems 
 impossible to doubt that Lydgate's poem or its original (and of 
 course more likely the former) was familiar to our author. 2 
 
 iCt.F.L., 1.295. 
 
 2 In other poems of Lydgate, especially in M. P., there are details resembling various 
 parts of F. L.; but I have indicated the most important parallels. 
 
 312 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 33 
 
 Alain Chartier 
 Le Livre des quatre Dames, 1 "compile par Maistre Alain 
 Chartier," apparently not long after the battle of Agincourt, 
 begins with a very elaborate description of the conventional 
 spring setting. On the pleasant morning of the first day of 
 spring the poet goes forth into the fields in the hope of banish- 
 ing his melancholy. He says: 
 
 Merchai l'herbe poignant menue, 
 Qui mit mon cueur hors de soucy, 
 Lequel auoit est6 transsy 
 Long temps par liesse perdue. 
 
 Tout autour oiseaulx voletoient, 
 Et si tres-doulcement chantoient, 
 Qu'il n'est cueur qui n'en fust ioyeulx. 2 
 
 He stopped in a "pourpris" of trees, thinking about his miser- 
 able fortune in love and watching a brook that ran beside a 
 
 pr6 gracieux, ou nature 
 Sema les fleurs sur la verdure, 
 Blanches, iaunes, rouges & perses. 
 D'arbes flouriz fut la ceinture. 
 
 Near by was a mountain with a very beautiful grove on its slope. 
 The poet aimlessly took a path, 
 
 Longue & estroite, ou l'herbe tendre 
 Croissoit tres-drue, & vng pou mendre 3 
 Que celle qui fut tout autour. 
 
 With the people whom he met along this path we have here no 
 concern. 
 
 Chartier's La Belle Dame sans Mercy may be examined most 
 conveniently in the English version once attributed to Chaucer, 
 but in reality by Sir Richard Ros. 4 The translator represents 
 that, "half in a dreme" and burdened with his task of translation, 
 he rose and made his way to a "lusty green valey ful of floures," 
 where he managed to accomplish his work. The original poet 
 tells of riding a long time, until he hears music in a garden and 
 is welcomed by a party of banqueters. Among them is a woe- 
 
 1 (Euvres, ed. Du Chesne, Paris, 1617, pp. 594 ff. 
 
 2Cf. F. L„ 1. 38. 3 Cf. F. L„ 1. 52. 
 
 i Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 299 ff . 
 
 313 
 
34 George L. Marsh 
 
 begone knight who has eyes for but one lady. After dinner there 
 is dancing; but the poet has no heart for it and sits alone, 
 
 behynd a trayle (184) 
 Ful of leves, to see, a greet mervayle, 
 With grene withies y-bounden wonderly; 
 The leves were so thik, withouten fayle, 
 That thorough-out might no man me espy. 1 
 
 From this hiding-place he sees the sorrowful knight dance with 
 his lady and then withdraw to "an herber made ful pleasauntly," 
 where follows a long discussion of no interest in this study. 
 
 Charles d'Orleans and Other Lyric Poets 
 
 Among the works of Charles d' Orleans, whose ballades on the 
 Orders of the Flower and the Leaf have been cited, 2 there is no 
 long poem presenting a setting or machinery similar to that of 
 F. L.j but scattered here and there with considerable frequency 
 are allusions to such common topics as the sleeplessness of lovers, 3 
 the joy that comes in spring, especially to lovers, 4 the revival of 
 plant life, 5 the songs of the birds, 6 and May Day customs in 
 general. 7 
 
 The same is true of such collections of lyric poetry as Gaston 
 Paris' Chansons du XV e sidcle. 9 Often the poets represent 
 themselves as rising before dawn — sometimes owing to sleepless- 
 ness caused by love — and entering some beautiful garden or 
 meadow, in which they find their ladies, or pluck flowers, or listen 
 to the birds. Some of these poems are pasiourelles of the type 
 already described. 9 Others worth special mention are numbers 
 xlix and lxx. Scheler's collection from the Trouveres beiges™ and 
 Tarb6's from the Chansonniers de Chaynpagne 11 include similar 
 poems; as, indeed, do other collections of lyric poetry. 
 
 i Cf. F. L., 11. 67-70. 2 chap, i above. 
 
 3Po««t'e8, ed d'Hericault, Vols. I, p. 21; II, p. 5, etc. 
 
 *Ibid., I, pp. 31, 65, 148, 218; II, pp. 10, 114, etc. 
 
 5 Ibid., II, pp. 48, 114, etc. »Ibid., I, p. 65; II, p. 115, etc. 
 
 Ubid., I, pp. 65, 79; II, pp. 94, 122, 214, etc. 
 
 8 Societe des Anciens Textes Francais, 1875. 9 P. 283 above. 
 
 "Pp. 35, 147; nouvelle serie, p. 4. 
 
 ii Pp. 26, 92. 
 
 314 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 35 
 
 Le Debat do Coer et de l'Oeil 
 In the fifteenth-century French amplification of the Latin Dis- 
 putatio inter cor et oculum, 1 there is a good deal of machinery 
 corresponding in an interesting way to that of F. L. One May 
 Day the poet goes out to hunt. Hearing feminine voices, he dis- 
 mounts and is soon graciously greeted by a number of ladies who 
 come from the forest, wearing chaplets of flowers, and singing 
 with such sweetness that their song would have given new life to 
 a heart immeasurably troubled. This company soon withdraw, 
 but the knight is moved to search especially for one of them, who 
 seemed to him like an angel. During his search he sees, under a 
 pine beside a fountain, a great number of women, accompanied 
 by gentlemen well arrayed. Two of these gentlemen invite him 
 to join the ladies ; but, unable to find his beloved in the company, 
 he falls asleep beneath the tree, and dreams of a debate between 
 his heart and his eye. After fruitless argument, it is agreed that 
 the controversy shall be settled by single combat before Amours. 
 Very rich preparations are made, with lavish use of precious 
 stones. The company of Eye are clad in green "pervenche." 2 
 Heart has a seat of eglantine in his pavilion. Certain "escoutes," 
 armed with marguerites, are to give the champions 
 
 De vert lorier lancb.es petites. 
 Further details are of no consequence in this place. 
 
 The King's Quair 
 The much-admired poem long attributed to King James I 
 of Scotland 3 begins with a fixing of the time by astronomical 
 reference. After passing a sleepless night — "can I noght say 
 quharfore" — the poet decides to tell in verse his own story. He 
 hurries rapidly over his voyage, his shipwreck, his imprisonment 
 by the English, till one spring day when, as he looks out of his 
 prison window, he sees — 
 
 1 Latin Poems Commonly Attributed to Walter Mapes, ed. T. Wright (Camden Society, 
 1841); Appendix, pp. 310 ff. The English version mentioned by Warton (History of English 
 Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, Vol. Ill, p. 167) and by Wright (note, pp. xxiii, xxiv, in edition of Mapes), 
 I have not seea. I understand it is soon to be printed by Dr. Eleanor P. Hammond. The 
 Latin original is of no consequence in this study, because it does not present the setting and 
 machinery of the French debat. 
 
 2 A fact which should have been noted in chap, ii above, p. 150. 
 *The Kingis Quair, ed. Skeat; S. T. S., 1884. 
 
 315 
 
36 GrEORGE L. MARSH 
 
 maid fast by the touris wall (stanza 31) 
 A gardyn faire, and in the corneris set 
 Ane herbere grene, with wandis long and small 
 Railit about; and so with treis set 
 Was all the place, and hawthorn hegis knet, 
 That lyf was non walking there forby, 
 That myght within scarse ony wight aspye. 1 
 
 And on the small(e) grene twistis sat (33) 
 
 The lytill suete nyghtingale, and song 
 So loud and clere, the ympnis consecrat 
 
 Off lufis vse. 
 
 After listening to the bird's songs awhile and meditating on them, 
 the poet sees walking in the garden (very much as Palamon and 
 Arcite saw Emily) 
 
 The fairest or the freschest 3ong(e) floure (40) 
 That euer I sawe. 
 
 He at once vows service to Venus, and bewails his plight when 
 the lady leaves the garden. Finally, after 
 
 Phebus endit had his bemes bryght, (72) 
 And bad go farewele euery lef and floure, 
 
 he falls asleep, and is carried in dreams to the palace of Venus. 
 Here he sees "a warld of folk." A voice explains who they are — 
 
 the folke that neuer change wold (83) 
 In lufe; 2 .... 
 .... the princis, faucht the grete batailis; (85) 
 
 and others who served love in any way. Cupid is there, and 
 Venus, wearing a chaplet of roses. Venus agrees to help the 
 poet in his suit. Her tears cause the flowers to grow, 
 
 That preyen men .... (117) 
 
 Be trewe of lufe, and worschip my seruise. 
 
 Hence it is that, 
 
 Quhen flouris springis, and freschest bene of hewe, (119) 
 
 And that the birdis on the twistis sing, 
 At thilke tyme ay gynnen folk renewe 
 That seruis vnto loue. 
 
 1 Cf . F. L., 11. 67-70. 2 Cf. F. L., 11. 485-87. 
 
 316 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 37 
 
 The further wanderings of the poet are of no consequence in 
 relation to F. L. 1 
 
 Later Poems — English and Scottish 
 
 Thus far we have been examining works which were, either 
 certainly or possibly, early enough to have influenced the author 
 of our poem. It now seems desirable to add very brief mention 
 of several later works that present similar features— that belong, 
 in a sense, to the school of F. L. 
 
 Professor Skeat has made much of such resemblances as there 
 are between F. L. and A. L.; 2 but in reality they are not very 
 numerous or striking, being mostly in the commonplaces of 
 Chaucerian imitation. A. L. belongs much more definitely than 
 F. L. to the Court of Love group. 3 The time is September, not 
 spring; but there is an "herber" of the usual sort, and a company 
 of ladies. The action in no way resembles that of F. L. 
 
 Chaucer's Dream, or The Isle of Ladies, as Professor Skeat 
 prefers to call it, 4 is also in part a Court of Love poem. A "world 
 of ladies" appear with their knights before the Lord of Love, who 
 is "all in floures." A good many details are reminiscent of F. L. 
 
 Various points of resemblance between F. L. and C. L. 5 have 
 been pointed out in chap, ii above. Still more might be added, 
 if minute attention were paid to details in imitation of Chaucer ; 
 but there is no important similarity between the two poems in the 
 matter of setting and machinery. 
 
 The Scottish Lancelot of the Laik 6 is of some interest as 
 showing how the conventional setting of love allegory was some- 
 times taken over into other kinds of poetry. The poet tells of 
 coming, one spring day, to a garden, which was 
 
 1 The resemblances noted above, and in Mr. Henry Wood's article on " Chaucer's Influ- 
 ence on James I," Anglia, Vol. Ill, pp. 223 ff., seem to indicate that the author of The King's 
 Quair knew F. L., and was directly alluding to it. If this is true, and James I was the 
 author of the Scottish poem (an undecided question), F. L. must be dated earlier than Pro- 
 fessor Skeat inclines to date it. 
 
 2 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 380-404 (text),lxix,lxx (Introduction), 535-38 (notes). 
 
 3 As stated by Neilson, Harvard Studies, Vol. VI, p. 150. 
 
 * Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. xiv, xv. Text consulted, Chalmers' English Poets, 
 Vol. I, pp. 378 ff. 
 
 5 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 409 ff. 
 
 6 Ed. Skeat, E. E. T. S. (1865). 
 
 317 
 
38 George L. Marsh 
 
 al about enweronyt and Iclosit (53) 
 One sich o wyss, that none within supposit 
 Fore to be sen with ony vicht thare owt; 1 
 So dide the levis clos it all about. 
 
 There he falls asleep, and has a dream that causes him to write 
 the story of Lancelot. Other details besides those about the 
 garden indicate that the author knew F. L. 2 
 
 Several of Dunbar's poems present interesting features. The 
 Goldyn Targe 3 has the spring setting, with a vision of a hundred 
 ladies in green kirtles, including Venus and Flora, followed by 
 "ane othir court," headed by Cupid and also arrayed in green. 
 In The Thistle and the Rose* the poet is awakened early by May, 
 "in brycht atteir of flouris," and follows her to a garden where 
 there is an assembly of beasts and birds and flowers. 5 The Merle 
 and the Nightingale 5 is a debat somewhat resembling C. N., with 
 a similar May setting. The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo 1 
 is also worth mention for its descriptions of spring. 
 
 Gavin Douglas, like the others of the Scottish school of Chau- 
 cer, seems to have known F. L. as well as the genuine works of 
 his master. 8 The Palice of Honour 9 begins with the rising of 
 the poet one day in May, and his entrance into a beautiful gar- 
 den, where he sees a great company of ladies and gentlemen on 
 their way to the palace of Honour. They are soon followed by 
 the courts of Diana and Venus, the latter in a car drawn by horses 
 in green trappings. She is accompanied by her son dressed in 
 green. 10 
 
 Sir David Lyndesay, in his Testament and Complaynt of our 
 Soverane Lordis Papyngo, n tells of entering his "garth" to repose 
 
 1 Cf. F. L., 11. 66-70. 
 
 2 See especially 11. 335-42, 2088-93, 2471-87. There are also apparent allusions toL. G. W., 
 as in 1. 57. 
 
 3 Poems of William Dunbar, ed. J. Small, S. T. S. (1893) ; Vol. II, pp. 1 ff. 
 * Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 183 ff. 
 
 5 Obviously in part an imitation of Chaucer's P. F. 
 
 6 Poems, Vol. II, pp. 174 ff. ~> Ibid., pp. 30 ff. 
 
 8 See P. Lange, " Chaucer's Einfluss auf Douglas," Anglia, Vol. VI, pp. 46 ff. 
 
 9 Poetical Works of Douglas, ed. J. Small (Edinburgh, 1874), Vol. I, pp. 1 ff. 
 
 10 This example of tho use of green, together with that given above from Dunbar's Goldyn 
 Targe, may be added to the list in chap, ii above, pp. 150, 151. 
 
 "Poetical Works (E. E. T. S.), pp. 223 ff. 
 
 318 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 39 
 
 among the flowers. There is the usual astronomical reference and 
 the usual description of a spring landscape. From under 
 ane hauthorne grene, 
 Quhare I mycht heir and se, and be unsene, 
 the poet hears the complaint which is the burden of his work. 
 Ane Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour of the Misera- 
 byll Estait of the World 1 has a Prologue telling how the sleepless 
 poet fared forth into a park one May morning before sunrise, in 
 the hope of banishing his melancholy by hearing the birds sing. 
 He met an old man who made a long recital of history. The 
 setting of The Dreme of Schir David Lyndesay 2 is also of some 
 interest. 3 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 It should now be clear that most of the elements of the setting 
 and most of the machinery of F. L. were decidedly conventional 
 before the first half of the fifteenth century. The spring setting, 
 with almost infinite repetition of details, is found in the earliest 
 lyrics, in nearly all the poems of the Court of Love group, 4 occa- 
 sionally in other allegorical poems, 3 in religious poems, 6 in chan- 
 sons de geste and metrical romances, 7 in political poems, 8 and even 
 in prose romances and treatises. 9 The description of springtime 
 
 i Poetical Works (E. E. T. S.), pp. 1 ff. ^Ibid., pp. 263 ff. 
 
 3" The Justes of the Month of May " (Hazlitt, Popular Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 209 ff.), of the 
 latter part of the reign of Henry VII, contains several passages suggesting influence by F. L. 
 
 * See Professor Neilson's dissertation, passim. Harvard Studies, Vol. VI. 
 
 5 As in Piers the Ploicman, which begins on a May morning with a vision of a " faire 
 felde ful of folke" (B, 1. 17). See also Le chemin de vaillance, as analyzed in Romania, 
 Vol. XXVII, pp. 584 ff. ; de Guileville's PHerinage de la vie humaine, as translated by 
 Lydgate (ed. Furnivall, E. E. T. S., 1899-1904). 
 
 «E. g., a macaronic French and Latin Hymn to the Virgin in Reliquice Antique?, 
 ed. Wright and Halliwell, Vol. I, p. 200; Hoccleve's Minor Poems, ed. Furnivall (E.E.T.S., 
 1892), Vol. I, p. 67; Lydgate's Edmund, in Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden (Neue Folge, 
 1881)! p. 443,11. 233 ff. 
 
 7E. g., Aye d'Avignon, ed. Guessard and Meyer (Paris, 1861), 11. 2576-81; The Bruce 
 ed. Skeat (S. T. S., 1894), beginning of Book V; the Sowdone of Babylone, ed. Hausknech 
 (E. E. T. S., 1881), 11.963 ff.; The Squyr of Loiv Degre, ed. Mead (Athenseum Press, 1904), 
 11. 27 ff., 43 ff., 57, etc. 
 
 8 See Political Songs of England, ed. Wright (Camden Society, 1839), pp. 3, 63. 
 
 9 See, for example, a passage quoted from Guerin de Montglave in Dunlop's History of 
 Prose Fiction, ed. Wilson (Bohn Library, 1S88), Vol. I, p. 311 ; Le livre desfaits de Boucicault 
 (perhaps by Christine de Pisan), in Memoirs pour servir a I'historie de la France, Vol. II, 
 p. 226 ; the Prologue to The Book of the Knight of la Tour-Landry, ed. T. Wright (E. E. T. S., 
 1868). Of course other examples could be found. I have made no exhaustive search in 
 works of this kind. 
 
 319 
 
40 George L. Marsh 
 
 phenomena in F. L. most closely resembles passages in Chaucer 
 and Lydgate. 1 The sleepless poet is a familiar figure in mediaeval 
 literature. 2 Because of his pretended ignorance of the cause of 
 his sleeplessness in both F. L. and B. D., a indebtedness of the 
 former to Chaucer seems extremely probable. Rising before 
 dawn, or about dawn, and going into a pleasant meadow or grove 
 or garden was clearly a common pleasure of poets. The most 
 notable passages in this connection are in Machaut, Froissart, 
 Deschamps, Chaucer, and Lydgate. The regularity of the grove 
 in F. L. appears to have been suggested by either Lydgate 's 
 B. S., or Chaucer's B. D., with a line of indebtedness probably 
 running back to B. B. One of the main objects of the poet's 
 early rising is usually to hear the birds sing, especially the night- 
 ingale. The most striking parallelism in this respect appears to 
 be, as Professor Skeat points out, between F. L. and C. N.* The 
 "path of litel brede," overgrown with grass and weeds, 5 was found 
 by other poets on other morning walks. In Machaut and Chartier 
 the poet took this path aimlessly; yet here, as in so many other 
 places, the closest resemblance is to Chaucer (B. D.), in the obser- 
 vation that the path is "litel used." The "herber" to which the 
 path leads is found almost everywhere. In French it is usually a 
 "vergier;" in English the form is nearly always "herber." In 
 Chaucer's L. G. W., Lydgate's C. B. and B. K., in F. L. and A. 
 L. this arbor is said to be "benched;" in L. G. W., C. B., and 
 F. L., "benched with turves" — a similarity in minute detail that 
 indicates indebtedness of all the later poems to L. G. W. Usually 
 the arbor or garden is inclosed by a hedge or a wall, and in a 
 number of instances the poets represent themselves as in hiding. 
 Attributing healing power to the odor of the eglantine of which 
 the hedge is made is but one example of a very common device. 
 The passage in F. L. on this subject seems most like passages in 
 
 'Owing to the number of specific comparisons already suggested between passages in 
 F. L. and in works analyzed above, I shall not usually make direct reference to previous 
 pages of this chapter. 
 
 2 See Neilson in Harvard Studies, Vol. VI, pp. 183, 185, 186, 190, 206, 216; Mott, The Sys- 
 tem of Courtly Love, p. 33; besides the instancos given in this chapter. 
 
 3 Repeated also in The King's Quair. 
 
 4 Chaucerian and Other Pieces, note p. 530. 
 !■ F. L., 11. 43-45. 
 
 320 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 41 
 
 Couvin's Fontaine aV Amours, Machaut's Dit du Vergier, and 
 Chaucer's Franklin's Tale. 
 
 After the poet reached his "vergier" or "herber," it was his 
 usual custom to sit down beneath a bush or a tree, and there 
 either fall asleep and dream, or see visions without the aid of 
 sleep. Of such visions a company like our poet's "world of 
 ladies" and "rout of men at arms" 1 was a very common feature. 
 Often such a company is connected with the Court of Love con- 
 vention. 2 Sometimes there may be reference to stories of the 
 singing and dancing of companies of fairies. 3 But probably in 
 many cases the vision was suggested by the fact that on May 
 Day and other popular holidays such companies actually did 
 gather to sing and dance and engage in sports of various kinds. 
 The vogue of R. R. seems to have been in part responsible for the 
 commonness of such companies in later poetry; but on account of 
 details as to the costumes, 4 the author of F. L. appears most 
 likely to owe direct debts in this matter to Froissart's Paradys 
 oV Amours, Deschamp's Lay de Franchise, Christine de Pisan's 
 Due des Vrais Amans, Chaucer's L. G. W., Gower's C. A., and 
 Lydgate's R. S. 
 
 On the whole, then, only one conclusion is possible: that what- 
 ever merits of combination and expression F. L. may possess, its 
 setting and machinery are a tissue of conventionalities owing 
 most to Chaucer and his earlier imitators (a group to which our 
 author belonged), and much — no doubt partly through Chaucer 
 and perhaps Lydgate — to R. R. and the French works influenced 
 by that poem. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. GENERAL CONCLUSION AS TO SOURCES 
 Before endeavoring to decide, in the light of the foregoing 
 evidence, what were the actual sources of F. L., it is desirable to 
 examine briefly the suggestions previously made on this subject. 
 
 iF.L., 11. 137, 196. 
 
 2 See Neilson's dissertation, Harvard Studies, Vol. VI, passim. 
 
 3 This theory as to the origin of the companies in F. L. was suggested to me by Profes- 
 sor Schofield, of Harvard. In view of the frequent occurrence of such companies, however, 
 in poems containing no clear reference to fairy lore, and in view, further, of the common 
 mediaeval pageantry in connection with all sorts of celebrations, it seems improper to assume 
 any conscious use of fairy lore on the part of the author of F. L. 
 
 * Discussed especially in chap, ii above. 
 
 321 
 
42 George L. Maesh 
 
 Many of these have been mentioned already and may be dismissed 
 rather summarily. 
 
 Dryden, in the Preface to Fables (1700), says F. L. is of 
 Chaucer's own invention, "after the manner of the Provencals." 
 The quoted phrase can apply only to the setting and spirit of the 
 poem. I have found no close parallel to it in Provencal; but in 
 certain ways it is an outgrowth of the influence of the Provencal 
 idea of courtly love upon the French poets of the north, who in 
 turn influenced Chaucer in his earlier work. 
 
 In Urry's edition of Chaucer (1721), the reference to the 
 strife of the Flower and the Leaf in the Prologue to L. G. W. is 
 first pointed out, and assumed to be a direct allusion to our poem. 
 The indebtedness, however, "was on the other side; L. O. W. is 
 probably the most important direct source of F. L. 
 
 Tyrwhitt's comments on F. L. are only incidental, in the 
 Appendix to the Preface to his edition of C. T. (1775). He 
 doubts the accuracy of Dryden's statement that our poem is "after 
 the manner of the Provencals," and suggests that the worship of 
 the daisy may have been inspired by Machaut's Dit de la Fleur de 
 Lis et de la Marguerite or Froissart's DittiS de la Flour de la 
 Margherite. 1 Apparently, however, it is unnecessary to go 
 farther than to Chaucer for suggestion of the part the daisy plays 
 in F. L.; except in search of the "bargaret" sung by the follow- 
 ers of the Flower, 2 and of the reason for giving these followers so 
 frivolous a character. Nevertheless it is not at all unlikely that 
 both Machaut's and Froissart's poems on the daisy, as well as 
 Deschamps' compliments to that flower, were known to our 
 author, as they probably were to Chaucer. 3 
 
 In Warton's History of English Poetry (completed 1781) 
 there is considerable comment on F. L., a large part of it in 
 elaboration or criticism of Tyrwhitt. Thus in a footnote 4 Warton 
 combats Tyrwhitt's assertion that Chaucer did not directly imi- 
 tate the Provencal poets. F. L., he says, "is framed in the old 
 allegorizing spirit of the Provencal writers, refined and disfigured 
 
 1 See chap, ii above, pp. 157, 158. ~F. L., 11. 348-50. 
 
 3 See Professor Lowes' article previously referred to, p. 124, n. 1, above. 
 * History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt (1871), Vol. II, p. 298. 
 
 322 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 43 
 
 by the fopperies of the French poets in the fourteenth century." 
 Farther on he analyzes our poem with some care, 1 and refers to 
 the panegyric on the daisy in L. G. W.; to Machaut's and Frois- 
 sart's poems on the daisy; to Margaret of Navarre's collection 
 of poems called Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses; 
 and to the fact that "it was common in France to give the title 
 of Marguerites to studied panegyrics and literary compositions of 
 every kind both in prose and verse." Then he proceeds to the 
 suggestion that the fancies of our poet "seem more immediately 
 to have taken their rise from the Floral Games instituted in 
 France in the year 1324, which filled the French poetry with 
 images of this sort." Some description of these games follows. 
 Later, in his discussion of Grower, 2 Warton suggests that the tale 
 of Rosiphele, 3 of which he quotes a large part, is imitative of F. 
 L. For "farther proof that the Floure and Leafe preceded the 
 Confessio Amantis" he cites the lines from Book VIII of the 
 latter, referring to garlands — 
 
 Some of the lef, some of the flour. 4 
 One remaining reference to F. L. is in relation to its influence 
 upon Dunbar's Golden Targe? 
 
 Clearly the new matter brought forth by Warton is not of 
 great importance. His additions in relation to the cult of the 
 daisy show only something of its vogue long after the date of our 
 poem, for the verses of Margaret of Navarre were not collected 
 till 1547. His paragraph about the Jeux Floraux is full of errors; 
 for he seems to have thought the whole of France participated in 
 these festivities, and thus greatly exaggerates their influence in 
 the north. I have not found any reason for believing that F. L. 
 was directly influenced by the Jeux Floraux. 6 Finally, Warton's 
 comment on our author's relations with Gower must of course be 
 reversed, for beyond reasonable doubt F. L. is later than C. A. 
 Resemblances between parts of the two poems have, as I have 
 shown, 7 been exaggerated. 
 
 1 History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, Vol. Ill, pp. 8 ff. * Ibid., pp. 29 ff. 
 
 3 C. A., Book IV, 11. 1245 ff. See chap, ii above, pp. 166, 167. 
 1 See chap, i, above, p. 134. 
 
 5 History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, Vol. Ill, p. 209. 
 
 6 See chap, i above, p. 139. 7 Pp. 134, 135, 166, 167 above. 
 
 323 
 
44 G-eorge L. Marsh 
 
 Godwin, in his Life of Chaucer (1801), analyzes F. L. at con- 
 siderable length and praises it very highly, especially as it appears 
 in Dryden's version, but adds very little as to sources. He com- 
 bats the idea that the worship of the daisy came from Machaut or 
 Froissart, on the ground that Chaucer himself had already origi- 
 nated it in C. L., which he wrote in 1346! Since the best schol- 
 ars are now convinced that this poem can hardly be earlier than 
 1500, comment is unnecessary. Godwin thinks F. L. "has the 
 air of a translation," and that the original author was a woman — 
 suggestions which are not intrinsically unreasonable, though 
 entirely unproved. 
 
 Todd, in his Illustrations of Goiver and Chaucer (1810), col- 
 lects and elaborates the suggestions of his predecessors, but adds 
 nothing of consequence. 
 
 Sandras, the next important commentator, 1 pursues a very dif- 
 ferent method. Practically all his suggestions are new, and most of 
 them — although somewhat too dogmatically stated — are valuable. 
 The introduction of F. L., he says, is indebted to Machaut's Dit 
 du Vergier, from which he quotes most of the portion to be fo"und 
 on pp. 291-93 above. He also observes that in Machaut's Dit du 
 Lyon there are trees of uniform height, planted at equal intervals, 
 as in our poem. In nearly all the ditiSs of Machaut and Froissart 
 he finds scenes analogous to that of the appearance of the com- 
 pany of ladies of the Leaf led by Diana. To two of these scenes 
 he makes reference: in Machaut's Dit du Vergier and in Froissart ' 
 Temple d' Honour. 2 His most important contribution, however, is 
 mention of Deschamps' three ballades on the Orders of the Flower 
 and the Leaf. 3 The text of these, with an invitation to write on 
 the same subject, he believes Chaucer may have received from 
 Philippa of Lancaster, to whom one of the ballades is addressed. 4 
 Finally Sandras suggests that the end of our poem recalls the 
 Lai du Trot. 
 
 His chief error — except, of course, in the matter of Chaucerian 
 authorship — consists in assuming too much from resemblances of 
 
 i £tude sur Chaucer (Paris, 1859). 
 
 - An error for Paradys d' Amour, as noted above. 3 Discussed in chap, i above. 
 
 * Professor Kittredge makes a similar suggestion in Modem Philology, Vol, I, pp. 5, 6, 
 without noting Sandras' previous comment. 
 
 324 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 45 
 
 F. L. to single works. Machaut's Dit du Vergier unquestionably 
 does resemble the English poem in its setting and part of its 
 action; but so do Deschamps' Lay de Franchise and Froissart's 
 Paradys cV Amour — to select only two of the most notable French 
 examples. Hence it is impossible to say dogmatically that the 
 highly conventional introduction of F. L. is from one particular 
 source. The conclusions reached in chap, iii above show the 
 inadequacy of all Sandras' comments except in relation to the 
 ballades of Deschamps. Some of the works he mentions may 
 have influenced our author, but they can not be singled out to the 
 exclusion of others. The ballades of Deschamps, however, must 
 have had influence in the writing of F. L. I have already said 
 that it seems unnecessary to assume a knowledge of the Lai du 
 Trot. 1 
 
 Ten Brink, in his Chaucer Studien (1870), presented the ear- 
 liest comprehensive and adequate proof that F. L. was not by 
 Chaucer, 2 but added nothing in relation to sources. 
 
 Professor C. F. McClumpha, in 1889, 3 suggested that Des- 
 champs' Lay de Franchise was a poetic model for F. L. Practi- 
 cally all the resemblances pointed out with emphasis in his article 
 are shown in the analysis of Deschamps' poem in chap, iii above, 
 from which it should be clear that the Lay de Franchise is hardly 
 more like F. L. than a number of other works. 4 To be sure, 
 Deschamps' young men gathering flowers are clad in green ; but 
 I have pointed out several examples of like companies similarly 
 clad. And even the description of the jousting, which is the 
 most significant feature of Deschamps' poem in relation to F. L., 
 seems hardly so important as a similar description in Christine de 
 Pisan's Due des Vrais Amans, because of the specific contrast of 
 white and green costumes in the latter. These errors are akin to 
 those of Sandras — of a negative rather than a positive sort ; but 
 in his zeal to make out a good case Professor McClumpha falls 
 into a positive blunder of interpretation, when he says that 
 Deschamps "attaches a brief comparison of the flower and the 
 
 1 End of chap, ii above. 2P P . 156 ff. 
 
 8 Modern Language Notes, Vol, IV, cols. 402 ff. 
 * Most notably those first mentioned by Sandras. 
 
 325 
 
46 George L. Marsh 
 
 leaf." He does do this in his ballades, but not in the Lay de 
 Franchise. On the whole, it is quite impossible to agree that "the 
 similarity of these two poems is so apparent that one must have 
 suggested the other, if, indeed, a nearer relationship may not be 
 assumed." The Lay de Franchise unquestionably belongs to a 
 group of poems, any one or all of which, either directly or through 
 Chaucer and Lydgate, may have influenced our author; but we 
 cannot say dogmatically that it or any other one of them, particu- 
 larly, was the model for F. L. 1 
 
 Professor Skeat, in his various comments on our poem, has 
 made no important addition to our knowledge of its sources — has, 
 in fact, ignored the most important suggestions previously made 
 (by Sandras). He has, however, pointed out numerous similari- 
 ties between passages of F. L. and of other English poems, espe- 
 cially those of Chaucer. Such verbal resemblances as he men- 
 tions usually indicate nothing but close imitation of Chaucer; 
 the important resemblances in idea I have already discussed. 
 
 It must be admitted that a majority of the works most likely 
 to have influenced our author had been pointed out before this 
 investigation was begun. Chaucer's and Deschamps' references 
 to the Orders of the Flower and the Leaf were known ; but the 
 latter had not been examined for specific resemblances to F. L. 
 Discussion of Charles d'Orleans' ballades in this connection is 
 new ; and most of the material in the latter part of chap, i and the 
 whole of chap, ii is here put together for the first time. No ade- 
 quate idea had been given of the conventionality of the setting 
 and machinery of our poem, and therefore too much was assumed 
 from resemblances between F. L. and two poems of Machaut and 
 Deschamps. I have pointed out almost infinite repetition of 
 nearly all the details of the setting, and several poems which, in 
 their combination of many such details, seem as likely to have 
 influenced our author as Machaut's Bit du Vergier or Deschamps' 
 Lay de Franchise. Among these are R. E., the fundamental 
 importance of which in this connection had not been recognized; 
 Froissart's Paradys ef Amour; and poems by Christine de Pisan 
 
 lAs an illustration of the sort of misrepresentation to which such study of sources 
 leads, it is interesting to note that Mr. Gosse, in his Short History of English Literature 
 (1898), says F. L. "begins as a translation of Machault's Dit du Vergier." 
 
 326 
 
"The Flower and the Leaf" 47 
 
 and Lydgate (primary indebtedness to Chaucer being, of course, 
 taken for granted). The especially interesting material from 
 Lydgate's B. S. is new, as that work was not generally accessible 
 until after this study was begun. 
 
 The conclusion as to sources must be that F. L. is decidedly 
 an eclectic composition. Beyond doubt the author's first model 
 was Chaucer; especially in the Prologue to L. G. W., but also at 
 least in C. T., B. D., and P. F. Next in importance is Lydgate, 
 whose B. S., especially, presents more different points of resem- 
 blance to F. L., in both diction and idea, than any other one pro- 
 duction I have examined. Gower's C. A. and later poems of the 
 Chaucerian school, notably C. N., our author probably knew. 
 As to direct French influence there is more uncertainty, since 
 most of the features that were French in origin had been fairly 
 well domesticated in England before F. L. was written. Thus 
 the setting and the main action of the poem are paralleled in both 
 Chaucer and Lydgate, and the most influential French allegories 
 in which similar setting and action are found had been translated 
 into English. It seems practically certain, however, that our 
 author knew Deschamps' ballades on the Orders of the Flower 
 and the Leaf, and extremely probable that he knew other poems 
 by Deschamps, as well as by Machaut, Froissart, and Christine de 
 Pisan. And behind all other French influence, directly or indi- 
 rectly, is B. B., which the author of F. L. must have known in 
 the version attributed to Chaucer, and perhaps in the original. 
 
 George L. Marsh 
 
 University of Chicago 
 
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