The Complaint of Chancer to his Empty Purse z^t 



VIII. THE COMPEAINT OF CHAUCER TO HIS 

 EMPTY PURSE 



Root^ justly calls this a 'delightful poem, which with delicate 

 humor applies the conventional language of amorous poetry to 

 an empty purse.' Assigning the envoy to 1399, he adds: 'It is, 

 of course, possible that the preceding stanzas had been written 

 at an earlier time.' The latter statement is in accord with Skeat's 

 view- : 'I think it highly probable that the poem itself is older 

 than the Envoy.' This is suggested by the fact that MS. Harl. 

 7333 heads the poem : 'A Supplicacion to Kyng Richard by 

 Chancier.' Wells says^ : 'There is a general impression that the 

 envoy is Chaucer's latest composition, and was added to the 

 stanzas, which are of earlier date.' 



Skeat's remarks on the model for the poem are as follows*: 

 'A somewhat similar complaint was addressed to the French 

 king John II by G. de Machault in 1351-6; but it is in short 

 rimed lines ; see his works, ed. Tarbe, p. 78. But the real model 

 which Chaucer had in view was, in my opinion, the Ballade by 

 Eustache Deschamps, written in 1381, and printed in Tarbe's 

 edition, at p. 55 [Oeuvres, ed. Saint Hilaire, 2. 81]. This Ballade 

 is of a similar character, having three stanzas of eight lines each, 

 with a somewhat similar refrain, viz. "Mais de paier n'y sgay 

 voie ne tour," i. e. but how to pay I know therein no way nor 

 method. It was written on a similar occasion, viz. after the 

 death of Charles V of France, and the accession of Charles VI, 

 who had promised Deschamps a pension, but had not paid it. 

 Hence the opening lines : — 



^ The Poetry of Chaucer, p. 78. 



^ Oxford Chaucer i. 88; cf. p. 562; and see Ten Brink, in Litfcraturblatt 

 for 1883, pp. 426-7. 



^Manual, p. 6z7 ; cf. p. 616. On p. 627 he also says: 'It is a pleasing 

 bit of humorous application of conventional love-phrasing, not to a lady, 

 but to an empty purse. It occurs in three forms : three rime-royal stanzas 

 with like rime-sounds and final refrain line, followed by an envoy aabba ; 

 the three stanzas without the envoy ; and the three stanzas without the 

 envoy and with a set of rime-royal stanzas on imprisonment.' 



* Oxford Chaucer i. 562-3. 



