Note 31 — Chapter XXVII · THE COURTS OF LOVE.

The reader interested in these matters may find some account of Andreas’ book in the pretty little edition of Chaucer for which Mr. Robert Bell is responsible (vol. iv. pp. 116 et passim). All the absurd stories of the Chaplain the ingenuous editor accepts as gospel truth. Queen Eleanor, Richard Cœur de Lion, and other worthies are named as the presidents of these amorous parliaments, of which the world knew nothing till hundreds of years after their deaths. Several of the arrêts d’amour are quoted, and the power of the court is said to have extended even to the assessing of pecuniary damages and the inflicting of corporal punishment. This naïveté is the more touching on Mr. Bell’s part, as, unlike Mr. Furnivall and Mr. Skeat, he is acquainted with Diez’s pamphlet. But his faith is proof against the most trenchant criticism.