Prologue ^86 27 



Hyde ye your trouthe of love and your renoun ; 

 And thou, Tisbc, that hast of love swich peyne; 

 My lady cometh, that al this may disteyne. 



Froissart also mentions the lady of Fayel (Prison Amoureuse 

 219-222: Poesies, ed. Scheler. i. 217) : 



La castellainne de Vregi, 

 Et le castellan de Couchi, 

 Qui oultre mer morut de doel 

 Tout pour la dame de Faioel. 



Chaucer's acquaintance with the name of the lady of Fayel, 

 through these or any other intermediaries, would, however, prove 

 nothing- as to his familiarity with the poem bearing that title ; 

 but if we might assume such familiarity, we should have another 

 source for the phrase 'swete breeth,' in the alaine douce which 

 is a variant reading for the douce ore'^^ of the fourth stanza. 

 Thus we read (Michel, Chansons, p. 97) : 



Et quant I'alaine'" douce vente 

 Qui vient de eel douz pais 

 Ou cil est qui m'atalente, 

 Volontiers i tour men vis. 



III. PROLOGUE 386 



As supplementary to the quotation concerning a mormal, or 

 ulcerated leg, in Mod. Lang. Notes 33. 379, I print below an 

 extract from John Arderne's (1307- after 1377) Treatises, ed. 

 Power (E. E. T. S., No. 139), pp. 52-4, omitting the details of 

 cure, including the composition of the Dublin ointment. 



'[A] chanon was on a tyme seke. and when he bigan to wex 

 hole, l^ar was made a grete gedryng togidre of humours descend- 



"This expression is probably taken from the beginning of a poem by 



Bernart of Ventadour (fl. 1275), the troubadour (ed. Appel, p. 212, 



No. 37) : 



Cun la rej' aura venta 



Deves vostre pais, 



Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta 



Un ven de Paradis, 



where some manuscripts read douss(a) aura. 

 '"MS. B (Meyer), I'aleisne. 



