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Trohetsoisan and Chaucer's Lak of Stedfasinesse 301
Bodleian Hatton 73 and its descendant 79 Lambeth Palace
Library MS. no. 344 state simply that "these baladdis
were send to the kyng", 80 but there are indications that
Hatton 73 originally read "Geffrey Chauncier [sic] sende
these Balades to Kyng Richard". 81 All this looks tempting.
But we recall that, according to Brusendorft.w all these
manuscripts belong to or have close affinity with the
Shirley group, which suggests that the statement originates
with Shirley, or that, according to Pace's close analysis of
the manuscripts.t" they all derive from a lost manuscript
which is three removes from Chaucer's poem. In the
second case we are dealing with an anonymous scribal
tradition which is opposed by two groups of manuscripts
only one remove from the original whose title for the
poem is simply 'Balade'. In the first case we need to
consider the value of the Shirley descriptions and headings
and, as is known, they have been variously accepted and
rejected by Chaucerian commentators as and when
desired. The accuracy of Shirley's statements is, indeed,
difficult to assess. His statement about Fortune is, at
best, loose;84 the comment on Trutli cannot be checked.s"
parts of the description of The Complaint of Venus are
demonstrably inaccurate;86 and the description of
Chaucer's wordes unto Adam could have been surmised
from the poem's content. It is therefore possible that
,. H. N. MacCracken, MLN XXIII (I908), 2I3 says: "the (Lambeth
Palace) MS. is ... a careless copy of Hatton 73".
8. Brusendorff, op, cit., 228 for Hatton 73; MacCracken, op. cit., 2I4 for
Lambeth Palace Library MS. no. 344 (with variant spellings).
81 So MacCracken, op, cit., 2I4, "original titles revealed under acid".
G. B. Pace, Speculum XXVI (I9SI), 3IS note 27 read "Chancier send" under
ultra violet.
.. p. 228 for Hatton 73, p. 229 for Trin, R. 3. 20, p. 230 for Harley 7333.
83 (Virginia) Studies in Bibliography IV (I9SI-S2), IOS-I22, and the
genealogical table on 107. Pace's table is the basis for the following statement.
8. As Brusendorff notes, op. cit., 242, when defending the description:
"translated oute of ffrenshe in to Englisshe by pat famous Rethorissyen
Geffrey Chaucier".
"Given in Brusendorff, op. cit., 2S0: "Balade pat Chaucier made on his
deeth bedde".
.. See Shirley's description in Brusendorff, op. cit., 263, and Brusendorff's
discussion, 264; but note Robinson's comments, op, cit., 862 col. 2, and Cohen's
summary (pp. 237-38) of Piaget's opposition to Shirley's remarks.