Geoffrey Chaucer

Balade to Rosemounde (1477)

Ma dame ye ben of al beaute shryne

mapamonde = world map

**Mapamonde** is a medieval world map, usually circular. He's saying her beauty extends as far as the known world—the ultimate compliment in an age of limited geography.

As fer as cercled is the mapamonde
For as the Cristall glorious ye shyne
And lyke Ruby ben your chekys rounde
Therwyth ye ben so mery and so iocunde
That at a Reuell whan that I se you dance
It is an oynement vnto my wounde
Thoght ye to me ne do no daliance.

no daliance = no flirting

**Daliance** means flirtation or playful attention. This refrain—repeated at the end of each stanza—is the poem's joke: she won't even look at him.

tyne = barrel

A **tyne** is a large barrel or vat. He's claiming he's wept a barrel full of tears—medieval hyperbole at its finest.

For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde
Your semy voys That ye so small out twyne
Makyth my thoght in ioy and blys habounde
So curtaysly I go wyth loue bounde
That to my self I sey in my penaunce
Suffyseth me to loue you Rosemounde
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.
Nas neuer Pyk walwed in galauntyne

Pike in galantine sauce

**Galantine** is a spiced jelly sauce for fish. This is deliberately absurd—comparing lovesickness to a pike wallowing in gravy. Chaucer is mocking courtly love poetry.

As I in loue am walwed and I wounde
For whych ful ofte I of my self deuyne

Tristan the lover

**Tristam** (Tristan) is the legendary lover from Arthurian romance, doomed to love Isolde. Calling himself "the second Tristan" is both grandiose and self-mocking.

That I am trew tristam the secunde
My loue may not refreyde nor affounde
I Brenne ay in an amorouse plesaunce
Do what you lyst I wyl your thral be founde
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliance.
tregentil————//————chaucer
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Pike in the Jelly

This is Chaucer having fun with courtly love poetry—the French tradition where knights suffer beautifully for distant ladies. He follows all the rules (the lady is perfect, the lover is tormented, love ennobles suffering) then drops in a pike wallowing in fish sauce.

Galantine was a real medieval dish—pike or other fish in spiced aspic jelly. It's the least romantic image imaginable. A 14th-century reader would recognize this as Chaucer puncturing the pretensions of French love poetry, which he translated and admired but also found ridiculous.

The technical term for this is bathos—deliberate descent from elevated to mundane. Line 17 promises high romance ("Nas neuer Pyk..."), and you expect a classical comparison. Instead: fish in gravy. The joke works because Chaucer has been playing it straight for two stanzas—the mapamonde, the rubies, the wounds. Then: pike.

The signature "tregentil chaucer" ("very noble Chaucer") is probably ironic, given what he just compared himself to. This poem appears in only one manuscript and may have been a private joke for friends who knew both courtly poetry and Chaucer's sense of humor.

The Refrain Strategy

"Thogh ye to me ne do no daliance" appears at the end of all three stanzas. In Middle English, this double negative intensifies rather than cancels: "though you give me absolutely no attention." The refrain is the poem's engine.

Each stanza escalates the suffering (tears by the barrel, burning in love, calling himself Tristan) while the refrain stays flat: she won't even flirt with him. The contrast creates the comedy—he's drowning in emotion over someone who doesn't notice he exists.

Balade is a French form: three eight-line stanzas with the same rhyme scheme (ababbcbc), ending with the same line. Chaucer uses it for the ironic distance—the rigid form contains increasingly absurd content. The final "Do what you lyst I wyl your thral be founde" ("Do what you want, I'll be your slave") is pure courtly love masochism, immediately undercut by the refrain's reminder that she's doing nothing at all.