§ 65. I beg leave to quote here Schick's excellent remarks upon the poem itself.
'There are similar pieces to these _Duodecim Abusiones_ in earlier English literature (see ten Brink, _Geschichte der englischen Literatur_, i. 268, and note).[32] The "twelf unþ[=e]awas" existed also in Old-English; a homily on them is printed in Morris, _Old Eng. Homilies_, pp. 101-119[33]. It is based on the Latin Homily "De octo viciis et de duodecim abusivis huius saeculi," attributed to St. Cyprian or St. Patrick; see Dietrich in Niedner's _Zeitschrift für historische Theologie_, 1855, p. 518; Wanley's _Catalogus_, passim (cf. the Index _sub voce_ Patrick). In the Middle-English period we meet again with more or less of these "Abusions"; see Morris, _Old Eng. Miscellany_, p. 185 (11 Abusions); Furnivall, _Early Eng. Poems_, Berlin, 1862 (Phil. Soc.), p. 161; "Five Evil Things," Wright and Halliwell, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, i. 316, and ii. 14.'
This piece was first printed by Stowe in 1561. Stowe happened to have access to a MS. which was really a miscellaneous collection of Middle-English pieces of various dates; and he proceeded to print them as being 'certaine workes of Geffray Chauser,' without paying any regard to their contents or style. In vol. i. pp. 33, 34, I give a list of his additions, numbered 42-60[34]. By good fortune, the very MS. in question is now in Trinity College Library, marked R. 3. 19. We can thus tell that he was indebted to it for the pieces numbered 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, and 59. These eleven pieces are all alike remarkable for being non-Chaucerian; indeed, no. 56 is certainly Lydgate's. But it has so happened that no. 59, or The Court of Love, being the best of these pieces, was on that account 'attributed' to Chaucer, whilst the others were unhesitatingly rejected. And it happened on this wise.
§ 67. After Tyrwhitt had edited the Canterbury Tales afresh, it occurred to him to compile a Glossary. He rightly reasoned that the Glossary would be strengthened and made more correct if he included in it all the harder words found in the _whole_ of Chaucer's Works, instead of limiting the vocabulary to words which occur in the Canterbury Tales only. For this purpose, he proceeded to draw up a List of what he conceived to be Chaucer's _genuine_ works; and we must remember that the only process open to him was to consider all the old editions, and _reject_ such as he conceived to be spurious. Hence his List is not really a list of genuine works, but one made by striking out from all previous lists the works which he _knew_ to be spurious. A moment's reflection will show that this is a very different thing.