The poem is rather artificial, especially in such inversions as _It receyve_, _Cauteles whoso useth_, and _Quaketh my penne_; these things are not in Chaucer's manner. In the second stanza there is a faulty rime; for we there find _shal_, _smal_, answering to the dissyllabic rimes _alle_, _calle_, _appalle_, _befalle_, in stanzas 1 and 3. Lydgate has: 'My pen quake,' &c.; Troy Book, ch. x., fol. F2, back.
15. _The assemble of Ladies._ This poem Tyrwhitt decisively rejects. There is absolutely _nothing_ to connect it with Chaucer. It purports to have been written by 'a gentlewoman'; and perhaps it was. It ends with the rime of _done_, pp., with _sone_ (soon); which in Chaucer are spelt _doon_ and _son-e_ respectively, and never rime. Most of the later editions omit this poem. It is conveniently printed in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i. p. 526; and consists of 108 7-line stanzas. For further remarks, see notes on _The Flower and the Leaf_ (p. 44).
At p. 203 of the Ryme-Index to Chaucer's Minor Poems (Chaucer Society), I have printed a Ryme-Index to this poem, shewing that the number of non-Chaucerian rimes in it is about 60.
18. _A praise of Women._ In no way connected with Chaucer. Rejected by Tyrwhitt. Printed in Bell's edition, iv. 416, and in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i. p. 344; also in Morris's Aldine edition, vol. vi. p. 278. In twenty-five 7-line stanzas. The rime of _lie_ (to tell a lie) with _sie_ (I saw), in st. 20, is suspicious; Chaucer has _ly-e_, _sy_. The rime of _queen-e_ (usually dissyllabic in Chaucer) with _beene_ (miswritten for _been_, they be, st. 23) is also suspicious. It contains the adjective _sere_, i. e. various (st. 11), which Chaucer never uses.
21. _The lamentacion of Marie Magdaleine._ Printed in Bell's Chaucer, iv. 395; and in Chalmers, i. 532. Tyrwhitt's remarks are admirable. He says, in his Glossary, s. v. _Origenes_:--'In the list of Chaucer's Works, in Legend of Good Women, l. 427, he says of himself:--
"He made also, gon is a grete while, _Origenes upon the Maudeleine_"--
meaning, I suppose, a translation, into prose or verse, of the Homily _de Maria Magdalena_, which has been commonly, though falsely, attributed to Origen; v. Opp. Origenis, T. ii. p. 291, ed. Paris, 1604. I cannot believe that the poem entitled _The Lamentation of Marie Magdaleine_, which is in all the [older] editions of Chaucer, is really that work of his. It can hardly be considered as a translation, or even as an imitation, of the Homily; and the composition, in every respect, is infinitely meaner than the worst of his genuine pieces.' To those who are interested in Chaucer's rimes I will merely point out the following: _die_, _why_ (Ch. _dy-e_, _why_); _kene_, _iyen_ (Ch. _ken-e_, _y-ën_); _disguised_, _to-rived_, a mere assonance; _crie_, _incessauntly_ (Ch. _cry-ë_, _incessauntly_); _slaine_, _paine_ (Ch. _slein_, _pein-e_); _y-fet_, _let_ (Ch. _y-fet_, _let-te_); _accept_, _bewept_ (Ch. _accept-e_, _bewept_); _die_, _mihi_ (Ch. _dy-e_, _mihi_). To those interested in Chaucer's language, let me point out 'dogges rabiate'--'embesile his presence'--'my woful herte is inflamed so huge'--'my soveraine and very gentilman.' See st. 34, 39, 54, 99.