ve thy lusts, and let thy ghost[34] thee lead,
And truth thee shall deliver--it is no drede.

This needs no comment. Even the remark that every line is worth
meditation may well appear superfluous. One little fact only with regard
to the rhymes, common to this and the next poem, and usual enough in
Norman verse, may be pointed out, namely, that every line in the stanza
ends with the same rhyme-sound as the corresponding line in each of the
other stanzas. A reference to either of the poems will at once show what
I mean.

The second is superior, inasmuch as it carries one thought through the
three stanzas. It is entitled _A Balade made by Chaucer, teaching what is
gentilnesse, or whom is worthy to be called gentill._

The first stock-father of gentleness-- _ancestor of the race
What man desireth gentle for to be [of the gentle._
Must follow his trace, and all his wittes dress _track, footsteps:
Virtue to love and vices for to flee; [apply._
For unto virtue longeth dignity, _belongeth._
And not the reverse falsely dare I deem,[35]
All wear he mitre, crown, or diadem. _although he wear._

The first stock was full of righteousness; _the progenitor._
True of his word, sober, piteous, and free;
Clean of his ghost, and loved busi-ness, _pure in his spirit._
Against the vice of sloth in honesty;

And but his heir love virtue as did he, _except._
He is not gentle, though he rich seem,
All wear he mitre, crown, or diadem.

Vicesse may well be heir to old Richesse, _Vice: Riches._
But there may no man, as men may well see,
Bequeath his heir his virtue's nobleness;
That is appropried unto no degree, _rank._
But to the first father in majesty,
That maketh his heires them that him queme, _please him._
All wear he mitre, crown, or diadem.

I can come to no other conclusion than that by _the first stock-father_
Chaucer means our Lord Jesus.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

After the birth of a Chaucer, a Shakspere, or a Milton, it is long before
the genial force of a nation can again culminate in such a triumph: time
is required for the growth of the conditions. Between the birth of
Chaucer and the birth of Shakspere, his sole equal, a period of more than
two centuries had to elapse. It is but small compen