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who has written the most detailed study of the ballade
form, reminds us that the patron of the puy was
conventionally addressed as "Prince" and 73 "that after
the opening of the fourteenth century a ballade, whether
composed in a puy or not, almost inevitably" contained
a conventional address to the 'Prince' in the first line of
the envoy". If the term refers to a patron there is no
indication in the envoi that the addressee, who admittedly
has authority, need be a king or indeed of royal blood. 75
There is information within the manuscript traditions
but this should not be lightly accepted. 76 Four manuscripts
in all state that the recipient was the king, one that
it was written in Chaucer's last years. The Shirley
autograph, Trinity College Cambridge MS. R. 3. 20, states
that the poem is a "Balade Royal made by oure laureal
poete of Albyon in hees laste yeeres" and the last verse is
here entitled 'Lenvoye to Kyng Richard'. 77 Manuscript
Harley 7333 informs us that Chaucer sent this ballade to
King Richard at Windsor. 78 Two other manuscripts, the
73 Cohen, op, cit., 38.
,. This phrase is, of course, an exaggeration, but "very commonly" would
fit the situation.
75 Cf. Cohen, op, cit., 235 on the term 'Princes' used in Lenuoye de Fortune in
Balades de Visage san: Peinture: "the royalty addressed is probably literary,
not literal".
7. As does J. Norton-Smith, op. cit., 123. It was unfortunate, I think, that
he marred his generally illuminating analysis of The Former Age, which was
clearly based on alert reading, by demanding some support from Lak of
Stedfastnesse for a similar attitude in the poet. The comments made on Lak of
Stedfastnesse rely on a different standard of evidence, e.g, 123: "This ballade
derives its major source material from Boethius's De Consolations II metre 8",
whereas even Skeat who, I suppose, offered information as basis for this
statement says only: "The general idea is taken from Boethius book ii metre 8"
(op. cit., 386). And on the same page: "The refrain is imitated from
Deschamps' 234th ballade: 'Tout se destruit et par defaut de garde' " is an
idea from Brusendorff (p. 487) or Braddy (p. 484) since Robinson (p. 862) is
doubtful.
This kind of statement about Lak of Stedfastnesse is quite different from e.g.
the comments (p. 121) on the point of Chaucer's choosing Jupiter and Nimrod
in the last verse of The Former Age, statements which are founded on careful
reading of the poem and relevant knowledge of medizeval thought. In Illy
view such comments can stand without other support.
77 Robinson, op, cit., 862 col. 1. There is a printer's error in Robinson's
second edition (p. gIg) where it says that R3 (Trin. Coli. Camb. :I1S. R. 14.51)
reads 'Lenvoye to Kyng Richard'. This, of course, should read R' (Trin, Coli.
Camb, MS. R. 3. 20).
78 ibid. 862 col. 1. The poem is called 'I'envoy to Kyng Richard' according
to Brusendorff, op, cit., 230.