ISAYE, YSAYE. Isaiah was a prophet in Israel, c. 740-700 B.C. Scholars think that the name may denote two distinct authors: one the prophet of Isaiah 1-55 and another the author of Isaiah 56-66, containing a number of separate poems of various dates.

The Parson quotes Ysaye on the fate of the rich in hell, ParsT 198-210; Isaiah 14:11. Christ's betrayal and death have fulfilled the words of Ysaye, ParsT 281, Isaiah 53:5. Isaye appears in a catalogue of dreamers, HF II.509-517. Here Chaucer refers to the visions either of Isaiah 1 or 6.

The forms are OF variants; Isaye appears once medially, HF II.509; Ysaye appears twice in the Parson's prose tale, ParsT 198, 281, pointing to the possible use of a French source, La Somme des vices et des vertus by Frere Lorens (1279), although Petersen discounts this.