The lyric poem Truth, also called the Balade de bon
conseyl or the “Ballade of Good Counsel,” is one of
CHAUCER’s so-called “Boethian” lyrics, a set of short
poems concerned with moral and philosophical
subjects (which also includes Gentilesse, Lak of
Stedfastness, and The Former Age), written in the
1380s, when Chaucer was involved with his translation
of BOETHIUS’s CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. It
is one of the best known of Chaucer’s lyrics, and, in
his own time, seems to have been the most popular,
surviving in 24 manuscripts.
The poem is a BALLADE of three RHYME ROYAL stanzas,
concerned with the moral principle of “truth,” a
term that in the 14th century implied not only fidelity,
but personal integrity and devotion to God—
and, as a corollary to that, ethical right conduct in
the world. Chaucer’s “good counsel” consists chiefly
of not following the crowd or becoming overly concerned
with the baubles offered by Fortune, but
keeping one’s eyes on the heavenly reward. Each
stanza ends with the refrain “And trouthe thee shal
delivere, it is no drede”—that is, “truth shall free
you, there is no fear,” a clear allusion to Christ’s
words in John 8.32, that “the truth shall set you free.”
In one manuscript the poem contains a final
stanza, an envoi addressing a certain “Vache,” a
word that means “cow” but likely refers to the
courtier Sir Philip de la Vache, who had lost his position
in court about 1386. Puns on Vache’s name,
including the line “Forth, beste, out of thy stal!” (l.
18), add a typically Chaucerian humorous undertone
to this profoundly serious poem.
Bibliography
Benson, Larry D., et al., eds. The Riverside Chaucer.
3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Ruud, Jay. “Many a Song and Many a Leccherous Lay”:
Tradition and Individuality in Chaucer’s Lyric Poetry.
Garland Studies in Medieval Literature, 6.
New York: Garland, 1992.
Scattergood, V. J., ed. Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The
Shorter Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1995.