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298 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
been directly influenced by Boethius, 63 and, apart from the
inconclusive evidence of the ballade-form which Chaucer
certainly saw in more than one French writer, there is
nothing distinctive to suggest a debt to Deschamps. 64 It
would, of course, be another matter, if there were some
external evidence, if the poem were entitled: 'On Looking
into Boethius's Consolation' or 'On reading the slim
volume lately sent to me by Eustace Deschamps'. But
in the absence of this, we may leave the last word on this
point to an earlier reader of this poem, the sixteenthcentury
George Bannatyne (or his exemplar) who added
a spurious verse to Chaucer's poem which, as Skeat said,
"is very poor stuff" but is pure genre material: 65
Falsheid, that sowld bene abhominable,
Now is regeing, but reformatioun,
Quha now gifis lergly ar maist dissavable,
For vycis ar the grund of sustentacioun;
All wit is turnit to cavillatioun
Lawtie expellit, and all gentilnes,
That all is loist for laik of steidfastnes.
I have not attempted to illustrate the last verse, the
envoi, since there are no parallels to this feature within the
genre except in poems written in the ballade form and this
might incline us to consider French influence for the
content. The content of the envoi needs consideration,
however, in relation to the etiquette of ballade writing.
A number of scholars have regarded it as a personal and
direct statement, some reading it as open Chaucerian
"admonition" 6 6 to King Richard II, one seeing it as
.3 In the note to line 16 no. 4 (Appendix B) the Boethian image of "virtue
trodden under foot" appears to be the source of the phrase in Deschamps and
Pia: Cantiones no. 193, but there is not such a distinctive collocation in
Chaucer's poem, and in even considering this 'source' one should be aware of
the metaphorical use of conculco, calcoin the Vulgate.
.. The notes in Appendix B illustrate how Deschamps also was writing
within the genre on many occasions.
.. Chaucer, The Minor Poems, ed. W. W. Skeat (1888), 387. The stanza is
quoted there.
.. e.g. F. N. Robinson, op, cit., 862, and M. Schlauch, 'Chaucer's Doctrine of
Kings and Tyrants', Speculum XX (1945), 137, who both Use this word.
Haldeen Braddy, op. cit., 488 is obviously of the same opinion when he speaks
of Chaucer's "advising Richard to cease doing 'his neighbonr wrong or
oppression' and to give up 'covetyse' ".