by Kilian King

Preface:
After recent perusal, I have discovered an old manuscript in the Oriel archives which I believe to be of interest to the community. According to my investigations, this is a rare and previously undiscovered piece that could be dated back to the lifetime of Geoffrey Chaucer. I’m not much of a medievalist myself but the text appears to corroborate the broader themes of the writer’s (circa) 1360s epic, Troilus and Criseyde. Strong readers of T&C will recognise that these four lines do not present a full ‘rime royal’ stanza, the strictly seven-line form pioneered by Chaucer. At best, we might posit that they form the first quartet of the seven lines, the remaining three lines of which are unfortunately missing. That the Chaucerian stanza tends to present a turn about the fifth line, we can only wonder what progression takes place after this description of a stasis. Unfortunately such a small and, by my judgement, incongruous, piece does not provide enough context to place it within the over eight thousand lines-long text. Nevertheless, it serves as a useful contextual snippet that, failing all else, is a pleasure to read. 

So ful of poo that neigh hem wexeth wood.
Ful hevily he sat and wepte for smerte
‘Alas!’ He quoth, ‘by iove culd y han poo’d’
For ystocked was his erse up to his herte