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The College green put off suddenly its antique gravity, and became "Embrouded ..... as it were a mede Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and rede," "floures" which to their gay hues and graceful outlines added the rare charm of fluttering in perpetual motion. It was a kaleidoscope without angles.
"If ye write in verse, remember that it is not the principal part of a poem to rime right, and flow well with many prettie wordes; but the chief commendation of a poem is, that when the verse shall bee taken sundry in prose, it shall be found so ritch in quick inventions and poetick floures, and in fair and pertinent comparisons, as it shall retain the lustre of a poem although in prose."
He is, more than all English poets, the poet of the lusty spring, of "Aprillë with her showrës sweet" and the "foulës song;" of "May with all her flourës and her green;" of the new leaves in the wood, and the meadows new powdered with the daisy, the mystic Marguerite of his Legend of Good Women. A fresh vernal air blows through all his pages.
Chaucer was right in singing of the 'floures' of May notwithstanding the northern winds and early frosts and December-like character of our Mays. That the cycle of weather was warmer in his time is probably true, but still even now, under all the drawbacks of a late and wintry season, his description is perfectly accurate.
Embrouded was he, as it were a mede, All ful of freshe floures, white and rede; Singing he was, or floyting alle the day, He was as freshe as is the moneth of May. Short was his goune, with sleves long and wide, Wel coude he sitte on hors, and fayre ride, He coude songes make, and wel endite, Juste and eke dance, and wel pourtraie and write.
A wide vast spacious roome it was, such as we would conceit prince Arthurs hall to be, where he feasted all his knightes of the round table together euerie penticost The floore was painted with y beautifullest floures that euer mans eie admired, which so lineally wer delineated, that he that viewd them a farre off, and had not directly stood poaringly ouer them, would haue sworne they had liued in deede.
"Have hatte of floures fresh as May, Chapelett of roses of Whitsunday, For sich array be costeth but lite." In Italy the festival is designated "Pasqua Rosata," from falling at a time when roses are in bloom, while in Germany the peony is the Pentecost rose. Herrick tells us it was formerly the practice to use birch and spring-flowers for decorative purposes at Whitsuntide:
Moreouer they say, that when he is angry with them he casteth dust into their eyes: they beleeue that when they die they go into the stars, and thence by litle and little descend downe into the Horizon, euen as the stars doe, and that then they goe into certaine greene fields full of goodly faire and precious trees, floures, and fruits.
He spoke the following stanzas not quite correctly, but supplying for the moment's need where he could not recall: A gardein saw I, full of blosomed bowis, Upon a river, in a grene mede, There as sweetnesse evermore inough is, With floures white, blewe, yelowe, and rede, And cold welle streames, nothing dede, That swommen full of smale fishes light, With finnes rede, and scales silver bright.
The residue of Augustines demands consisted in these points, to wit: 1 Within what space a child should be christened after it was borne, for doubt to be preuented by death? 2 Within what time a man might companie with his wife after she was brought to bed? 3 Whether a woman, hauing hir floures, might enter the church, or receiue the communion?
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