APPENDIX I.

THE ENGLISH POEMS OF CHARLES OF ORLEANS.

DURING his long residence in England, Charles learned to write English with as much fluency as French. His English poems, some of which deserve to be better known, are mostly translations or imitations of his French works. They have been published for the Roxburghe Club. It does not come within my limits to consider these poems in detail, but I cannot refrain from giving one or two illustrations of his English style. It will be remarked that the English of the fifteenth century was much farther from the language of Shakespeare than the French of the same time from that of Corneille.

"When y am leyd to slepe as for a stound
To have my rest y can in no manere
For all the nyght myn hert aredith round
As in the romaunce of plesaunt Chaucer
Me praiying so as him to hark and here
And y ne dar his welle disobeye
In dowting so to do hym displesere
This is my slepe y falle into decay."

This is on his mistress, and is almost literally translated :
"Fresshe bewtie riche of yowthe and lustines

The smiling lookis casten so lowely

The pleasaunt speche governyd bi wittynes
Body well shape of port so womanly
The high estat demenyd so swetely
The well ensewridnes of word and chere
Without disdeyne shewyng to lowe and hye
Alle thewis goode this hath my lady dere
For whiche all folk hir prayse and so do y.

So well becometh the nobill good princes
To synge or daunce in all disport trewly
That of such thing she may be called maystres
What that she doth is done so pratily
That none it may amenden hardily
She is the skol of all goodly manere
Also hir beholt may lere that is witty
Or in sight hath his deedes to aspy
Alle thewis goode this hath my lady dere."

Here I have altered some of the spelling:

"As for farewell, farewell, farewell, farewell,
And of farewell, more than a thousand score,
Have ye farewell, or more had I to dele
For forto say this parting doth me sore.
It doth, it doth, it need no more be sore,
For though that I would keep it close, ma fay,

My bollid heart doth so his sikis rore

That maugre me it doth my well bewray."

As may be expected, many French terms are found. Thus he says:

"Take it in gree, O goodly young princesse."

"Howe that my trouthe shall gete me suffisance.”

"Mawgre daunger."

And in the following piece a great many words of French origin may be observed. The lines themselves are a very good specimen of his style.

"This joyous time, this fresh seson of May,
When Flora sheweth of flowers abundance
That each annoy ought to be laid away
And for to take all gladsome lo pleasance.

I find myself withouten recouerance

Most out of way own joy for to conquer

Each thought and care so doth my heart forfelle

That I have well I may avaunte and swear

The contrary of all my wretched will."

Most of these words fairly belonged to English by that time, but he uses others which I think are purely of his own introduction. What, for instance, is newous thought? The French explains it: it is pensée ennuyeuse. I believe this is the only attempt to adopt this word in English, though we want it badly.

All that has been said about Charles's French verses apply to his English; but the faults of the French are more apparent in his English, which, although he writes it easily enough, wants the flexibility that we find in the native English poetry of his time, particularly in the Religious Poems published by Mr. Furnivall for the Early English Text Society. Charles's English was that of the court in the first place, and of a foreigner in the second. Probably his English verses were looked on by him as an amusement for his long hours of captivity; their subjects, as well as his method of treatment, will effectually prevent them from ever being read again, except by the curious.