r, not a scholar.--Ed.]

[Footnote D:

"Chaucer's text is:

'Thus hath this widow her litel child i-taught
Our blissful lady, Criste's moder deere,
To worschip ay, and he forgat it nought;
For sely child wil alway soone leere.'

'For sely child wil alway soone leere,' i.e. for a happy child will
always learn soon. Wordsworth renders:

'For simple infant hath a ready ear,'

and adds:

'Sweet is the holiness of youth,'

extending the stanza to receive this addition from seven to eight
lines, with an altered rhyme-system."

(Professor Edward Dowden, in the 'Transactions of the Wordsworth
Society', No. III.)--Ed.]

[Footnote E: Chaucer's text is:

'This litel child his litel book lernynge
As he sat in the schole in his primere.'

Ed.]

[Footnote F: Chaucer's text is:

'And in a tombe of marble stoones clere
Enclosed they this litel body swete.'

Ed.]

* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Sub-Footnote a: This was erased in the 'Errata' of 1820, but it
may be reproduced here.--Ed.]

* * * * *

THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE

Translated 1801. [A]--Published 1841 [B]

I The God of Love--_ah, benedicite!_
How mighty and how great a Lord is he!
For he of low hearts can make high, of high
He can make low, and unto death bring nigh;
And hard hearts he can make them kind and free. [1] 5

II Within a little time, as hath been found,
He can make sick folk whole and fresh and sound:
Them who are whole in body and in mind,
He can make sick,--bind can he and unbind
All that he will have bound, or have unbound. 10

III To tell his might my wit may not suffice;
Foolish men he can make them out of wise;--
For he may do all that he will devise;
Loose livers he can make abate their vice,
And proud hearts can make tremble in a trice. 15

IV In brief, the whole of what he will, he may;
Against him dare not any wight say nay;
To humble or afflict whome'er he will,
To gladden or to grieve, he hath like skill;
But most his might he sheds on the eve of May. 20

V For every true heart, gentle heart and free,