234 THE PATTERNS
rected by another MS. in the same library (Harl. 3869).
It will be found, that the variations between this MS. and the printed copies are chiefly verbal, excepting in one or two instances, where a line has been omitted in the one or in the other: the divisions of the poem, with the Latin headings, are differently arranged. Generally speaking, the MS. has the advantage of the printed copies ; but such is not always the case, as where, in the MS., Theophilus is designated " a fals clerke.'"' insteade of " a fals cherle," as it properly stands in the first edition by Berthelet.
We are not aware that it is necessary to say more by way of introduction to what follows, than to add that Gower avowedly adopted his incidents from a metrical version- in the " Pantheon" or "Universal Chronicle" of Godfrey of Viterbo, which was compiled at the latter end of the twelfth century, though not printed until 1569.
" Of a cronique in daies done, The wich is cleped Panteon, In loves cause I rede thus,"
are Gower's introductory lines : and he subsequently more than once refers to " the booke" to which he was indebted, much in the same way that Ariosto professes his obligations to the narrative by Bishop Turpin, respecting the conquests of Charlemaine and the atchievements of Orlando. On one occasiona when Gower breaks off from one part of his story in order to return to another, he opens a chapter as follows:—
" Bot nowe to my matere ayen, To telle as olde "bokes seyne ;"
as if he had consulted more than one authority \ but it is very evident that he had looked no farther than