And as for her that crowned is in greene,It is Flora, of these floures goddesse.And all that here on her awaiting beene,It are such that loved idlenesAnd not delite of no businesBut for to hunt and hauke, and pley in medes,And many other such idle dedes.
The poem was first published in 1598 in Thomas Speght's edition of Chaucer's works, and there are reasons for thinking that it was printed from a faulty transcript of the separated Longleat pages.
[9] William Hazlitt thought the opening section "one of the finest parts of Chaucer" and spoke of the poem's "enchanting simplicity and concentrated feeling", while Thomas Campbell judged that "No one who remembers his productions of the House of Fame and the "Flower and the Leaf", will regret that he sported for a season in the field of allegory.
"[10] Keats read the poem and wrote an admiring sonnet about it, "This pleasant tale is like a little copse", which included the line "What mighty power has this gentle story".
In 1868 scenes from the poem were represented in the memorial window (destroyed in World War II) placed above Chaucer's tomb in Westminster Abbey.
The pioneering Middle English scholar Thomas Tyrwhitt had published his own doubts as early as 1778, and been universally derided for this heresy.
The great philologist Walter Skeat accepted Bradshaw's judgement, and spoke of the poem's "tinsel-like glitter…which gives it a flashy attractiveness, in striking contrast to the easy grace of Chaucer's workmanship".
[14] On the other hand, The Cambridge History of English Literature in 1908 found its charm undiminished: There is a singular brightness and freshness over it all, together with a power of pre-Raphaelite decoration and of vivid portraiture—even of such action as there is—which is very rare.
[16]In recent years Derek Pearsall has produced two editions of "The Floure and the Leafe", and re-examined the poem's historical context [17] but relatively few critics have published studies of it.