I have transcribed the whole of this tale (though the latter part of it is but the moral) because of the truth and nature with which it is replete. Our churches are filled in this day with too many of the characters described so admirably by Gower.
Ibid. "For two especial reasons took away the beard. The first was, that she should look more like her author, and not grow too proud of her golden beard" (p. 31).
This idea seems to have arisen from a witticism of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, recorded by Valerius Maximus, lib. i. cap. 1, ex. 37:
"Idem Epidauri Æsculapio barbam auream demi jussit: quod affirmaret, non convenire patrem Apollinem imberbem, ipsum barbatum."
Note 2.Page 38.
"Allexius, or Alexis, was canonized. This story is taken from his legend. In the metrical Lives of the Saints, his life is told in a sort of measure different from that of the rest, and not very common in the earlier stages of our poetry. It begins thus:—
"Listeneth all, and hearkeneth me,
Young and old-e, bond and free,
And I you tellen soon,
How a stout man, gent and free,
Began this world-es weal to flee,
Yborn he was in Rome.
"In Rom-e was a doughty man,
That was y-cleped Eufemian,
Man of much might;
Gold and silver he had enows,
Hall and bowers, oxen and plows,
And very well it dight.
"When Alexius returns home in disguise, and asks his father about his son, the father's feelings are thus described:—
"At his burial, many miracles are wrought on the sick.
"With mochel[3] sighs, and mochel song,
That holy corse, them all among
Bishops to church-e bare.
