"Out of the ded stocke sprang a branch more mightie than the stem;
this Edward the Fourth, a prince so highlie fauoured of the peple,
for his great liberalite, clemencie, vpright dealing, and courage,
that aboue all other, he with them stood in grace alone: by reason
whereof, men of all ages and degrees to him dailie repaired, some
offering themselues and their men to ioepard their liues with him,
and other plentiouslie gaue monie to support his charges, and to
mainteine his right."

Would that we knew as much of Adam of Cobsam as of our White-Rose king.
He must have been one of the Chaucer breed,[2] but more than this poem
tells of him I cannot learn.

_3, St George's Square, N.W.,
23 November, 1865._

P.S.--There are other Poems about Edward IV. in the volume, which will
be printed separately.[3] One on Women is given at the end of the
present text.

* * * * *

PP.S. 1869.--Mr C.H. Pearson, the historian of the Early and Middle Ages
of England, has supplied me with the immediate original of this story.
He says:

"The Wright's Chaste Wife is a reproduction of one of the _Gesta
Romanorum_, cap. 69, de Castitate, ed. Keller. The Latin story
begins 'Gallus regnavit prudens valde.' The Carpenter gets a shirt
with his wife, which is never to want washing unless one of them is