Perrow—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 713 
Of similar character is the same author’s How to Lerne to 
Die / written about 1421. In this piece is introduced a dying 
man who makes a confession. He sees that he cannot escape 
death and bewails his misspent life. He tells at length of his 
excesses, and concludes with a farewell to his friends. 
In the summer of 1907 Dr. II. H. MacCracken was kind 
enough to copy for me the following quotation from the manu-. 
script of a balade probably by Lydgate. 1 2 It is an indication that 
the Literary Testament was a device well known in England 
several years before Villon. The first stanza of the balade is as 
follows: 
Knelyng allon ryght thus I may make my wylle 
As your servaunt in euery maner wyse 
To whom I giue myn hert and myn gode 
Euer to be sujet to your seruyse 
Ryght as ye lyst to ordeyn and deuyse 
I wyl be yours and that I you ensure 
Not for to chaunge for erthely creature. 
The rest of the balade is not concerned with the Testament. 
Lydgates Testament, written about 1445, is a poem of eight 
hundred and ninety-seven lines. 3 The poem begins with an 
extended passage in praise of Jesus. All this is prefatory to 
his asking Jesus to be “cheef surveyor of my laste wyl set in my 
Testament.” The poet feels that age is creeping upon him, 
and ere he leaves the world he wishes to write a “tretys of 
surfetys” done Jesus and to call it his Last Testament. He 
tells how old age and death are creeping upon him. As he lies 
on his bed he sees a vision of springtime with all its wanton 
riot. This suggests to him the wanton carelessness of his own 
childhood, and he proceeds to describe his youthful misdeeds 
and to tell of his wonderful conversion. He then inserts a 
poem which he says he composed on that occasion. This poem 
concludes the Testament as we have it. 4 
1 Ibid. p. 178. 
2 MS. Bodl., Fairfax, 16 fol. 319b-320a. 
3 J. O. Halliwell for the Percy Soc., Early English Poetry , II, 232. 
^ “It is evident that the poet intended to go on and tell the rest of 
his misdeeds, to make a full profession of faith, and to leave his soul 
to Jesus. His life was to he divided into Ver, childhood; Summer, 
youth; Autumn, manhood; and Winter, age. The parallel had been 
suggested by the decrees in his own rendition. I fancy that he turned 
