The Rotherley Poem, Ellesmere MS fol. iv r (ll. 179-92)

       O Thow Roiall Bore, fullfyllyd with grace,
That of such [a] mollet nowe hath donacion,
Cryste graunt the contynewyng tyme and space,
That the mollet may resplende over every region,
Worthely and knyghtely as a lorde of renown.
And for the encrece of thy light, that hyt fall not derke,
All England owyth to pray with entyer devocion,
Man, chylde, and wyffe, both preste and clerke  Amen.                     per Rotheley
        Go, lytell balade, full rude of composicion,
Softe and meekly no thynge to bolde;
Pray all, that of the shall have inspexion,                    ffortune be 
Thy derke ignoraunce that they pardon wolde;            ffrendely
Sey that thow were made in a prison colde,
Thy makir standing in dysese and grevaunce,
Which cawsed hym the so simply to avaunce  

The Canterbury Tales: The New Ellesmere Chaucer Monochromatic Facsimile (of Huntington      Library MS El 26 C 9). Ed. Daniel Woodward and Martin Stevens. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1997. ff. ii v - iv r

Alfred David, "The Ownership and Use of the Ellesmere Manuscript" The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation. Ed. Martin Stevens & David Woodward. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1995. 307-26.

Edwin Ford Piper, "The Royal Boar and the Ellesmere Chaucer." Philological Quarterly 5 (1926) 333, 335.

 

[Stanza starting immediately below the stylus.]