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XXII
INTRODUCTION.
It is worth notice here that Fragment B of the
famous Romaunt of the Rose is in a Northern dialect,
but with some Southern inflexions superadded. It is
therefore just possible (considering its date) that it might
have been written by no other than King James. But
this is a mere conjecture, which only a very minute inquiry
can confirm or contradict. The evidence seems to be
against it. See my Chaucer Canon, ch. vii.
§ 13. The consideration of the style of these poems natu¬
rally leads us to consider the language of the Kingis Quair,
especially with regard to its grammatical forms. This is
a point which has hitherto received no attention, whereas
it evidently lies at the root of the whole matter. All that
we have been told hitherto is that he was a close imitator
of Chaucer, and the most explicit utterance upon this sub¬
ject is contained in the following passage, which I cite from
Mr T. H. Ward’s remarks upon King James in his excellent
edition of the English Poets, vol. i. p. 130: “His nineteen
years of captivity allowed him to steep himself in Chaucer’s
poetry, and any Chaucerian student who reads The King’s
Quair is constantly arrested by a line or a stanza or a whole
episode that exactly recalls the master. It is unnecessary
to point out, for instance, the close resemblance of the pass¬
age which we here quote, the king’s first sight of Lady
Jane, to the passage in The Knightes Tale, where Palamon
and Arcite first see Emilye. Not only the general idea
but the details are copied ; for example, the king, like
Palamon, doubts whether the beautiful vision be woman or
goddess. The ascent to the Empire of Venus is like an
abridgment of The Hous of Fame. Minerva’s discussion
of Free Will is imitated from Chaucer’s rendering of the
same theme, after Boethius, in Troilus and Criseyde. The