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This poem is still further interesting, because it enables us to have a glimpse at the companions Chaucer at this time had, and what sort of men he valued in the days of his youth. This we learn from the following dedicatory lines :

"O moral Gower, this booké I direct

To thee and to the philosophical Strood,
To vouchésauf there need is to correct

Of your benignities and zealés good."

The friends here referred to were men of condition and repute, with whom he had acquired acquaintanceship, perhaps in Oxford, or at the Inns of Court. The former is a famed contemporary poet, and the latter a "most excellent philosopher," whom, in after days, Chaucer intrusted with the upbringing of his favourite son. We may further infer, from the double and distinctly specific ascription, that its author was pretty equally divided between philosophy and poetry, at the same time that we learn most expressly that a larger ambition animated his breast; for the following are the terms in which he dismisses his literary labour:

"Go, litel booke! Go, litel tragedie,

There God my Maker yet ere that I die,
So send me might to make some commedie.
But, litel booke, make thou thee none envie,
But subject ben unto all poesie;

And kiss the steps whereas thou seest pace,
Of Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Lucan, Stace."

Chaucer, as we learn from the preceding quotation, was not unacquainted with the best classics procurable in his day; he was conversant also with the works of many of the Latin Fathers, the Schoolmen, and the medieval Romanticists. His erudition appears to have been not only wide but deep. The plot of "Troilus and Cresseide" is, he informs us, taken from Lollius (an author of whom nothing is now known). It is similar in outline to the "Filistrato" of Bocaccio, who mentions the story as having its original in Greek. Translation is almost invariably the form in which art influences a language; and imitativeness, no less than originality, belong to the true poet. Dante, addressing Virgil, says:

"It is from thee alone that I derive

The graceful style which gains me such applause."

Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), and Bocaccio (1312 -1375) undoubtedly influenced Chaucer and his contemporaries; the Elizabethan writers were touched by the music of Tasso (1544-1575), and Ariosto (1474-1533). Corneille, Racine, and Molière, affected the age of the Restoration; the writers who flourished up till the time "when George the Third was king," stimulated the German school, which, beginning with Klopstock, culminated in Goethe; and these again wrought upon Scott, Words

worth, and Byron; and in all these ages translation preceded actual originality, and transplanting preceded propagation. Chaucer was not, therefore, singular in the mode he took for working out an acceptable national speech, by reproducing reputed and reputable poems from the Latin, French, or Italian, rather than by throwing the whole energy of his thought into new poems of his own. By the former method he asked acceptance for the language only, yet prepared the way for the introduction, in good time, of a fresh and home-grown literature, such as the age required, national in thought, feeling, allusiveness, and speech.

It was a far-thoughted and patriotic purpose to detach his native country from intellectual dependence upon France; to supply an instrument for the interchange of opinion, the promulgation of knowledge, and the business wants of society, which should be the nation's own, one not borrowed from aliens and enemies, and to provide a vesture for thought in which the bounding and abounding life, energy, and intellect of his age might dress itself, and be known as distinct and different from that country with whom England was waging war. It was courtierly, too, thus to second the desire of the king's heart, by a move of so resistless a nature, and by an agency so effectual. It was a wise and diplomatic scheme, furthering at once the best interests of the nation, his own fame, and the policy of his sovereign. So, for the promotion of his design, he translated into "numbers touched with harmony," some of the more popular classic tales, that the language might be purified and individualized; and that the disjunction of the nations might be facilitated, he took one of the most popular of French poems, "The Romaunt of the Rose," and transferred its wondrous allegories into the form of speech current in his days. He thus not only complied with, but led and directed the spirit of the time, gratified his own taste, and extended his own fame, while he cultivated, by assiduous labour, the power of expression, and the polish of diction.

It is probable that Chaucer kept always within the range of court, and had a due diplomatic acquaintanceship with its modes, fashions, and ongoings; for about this time he was the recognized friend and associate of King Edward's third son, John of Gaunt, then Earl of Richmond, though subsequently Duke of Lancaster, who married (Blanche, afterwards mother of Henry IV.), 19th May, 1359. In celebration of the courtship of this pair, Chaucer had produced a poem, entitled "The Parliament of Birds," a fanciful allegory. "The Complaint of the Black Knight," a defence of Gaunt from some aspersions thrown on his character; and "The Dream of the Dutchesse," an epithalamium on the union of John and Blanche, are also referable to this period. The minuteness with which Chaucer describes the localities of Woodstock has given rise to the supposition that he resided there,

"Within a lodge out of the way,

Beside a well in a forest,"

and was a retainer of the happy bridegroom, whom he accompanied to France in the autumn of 1359, in a military capacity, along with the army of Edward III., one of the greatest and best which had then left the English coasts.

A hundred thousand men, in a thousand ships, left England,-in the capital of which the king of France was then a prisoner,―and landing at Calais, marched with triumphant, though hardily resisted tread, as far as Rheims, in which Edward III. hoped to place upon his brow the sovereign circlet of France. The place was well fortified, and defended bravely. Edward beleaguered it awhile, but ultimately raised the siege and retired-losing prestige, however, by the act-to try his success on Paris. Here the fates were equally unpropitious, and he fell back towards Brittany. Hunger, fatigue, superstition, and storm fought against him. As he became depressed, the French got elated, and though unable to venture into the open field, they endeavoured by harassments in flank and rear to secure the chance of victory their new allies had given them. In one of these forays, near the town of Retiers, in Brittany, Chaucer had the sad hap to be taken prisoner. This, in addition to his own share of the former hardships, was a sufficiently bitter taste of war's woes. How long his fortitude and powers of endurance were tried by captivity, we cannot tell; but we hope that the peace of Bretigny, signed in 1360, would, among other things, secure his freedom.

In "The Dream of the Dutchesse," Chaucer indicated that a lady had charmed his heart; and we learn that on 12th September, 1366, a pension of ten marks (£120) was granted to Philippa Chaucer, one of the ladies of Queen Philippa's household; so that we must suppose he was married prior to this date, and was now leaving, or had already left, her Majesty's service. The wife of Chaucer was, according to the best authorities, Philippa Pyckard, daughter of Sir Payne Pyckard de Rouet, Guienne king-at-arms, sister of Katherine Swyneford née Pyckard of Rouet, and subsequently wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Regent of Guienne; and of that Henry Pyckard, Lord Mayor of London, who had welcomed the Black Prince with the captive King John, on their arrival from France after the battle of Poictiers. The duties he performed meanwhile may be guessed at from the next notice we have of him as receiving-June 20th, 1367-from the king, for former and future service, under the designation of "our well-beloved yeoman," (dilectus valettus noster), an annuity of twenty marks (£240). On Christmas, 1368, his wife received a robe in gift from the queen. In 1369 both Queen Philippa and the Lady Blanche of Lancaster died, and Chaucer wrote a lament for the latter, entitled "The Death of Blanche the Dutchesse." On 20th June, 1370, he received letters of protection from the king, that he might go abroad, though for what purpose we know not, in his service. In 1372, a more important commission for him [and for us] was intrusted to him, viz., to form, along with John de Mari and James Pronam, a committee of

investigation in Genoa, regarding the English port, which might be most advantageously used by the Genoese in furtherance of their commercial pursuits. While occupied with this mission, it is said that Chaucer had the good fortune to be introduced to

"Frauncis Petrark, the laureat poet,

Highte this clerk, whose rhetorik sweete
Enlumined all itaille of poetrie,"

and there to have heard from "the lover of Laura" the tale of the patient "Griselda." This is neither impossible nor improbableindeed, quite the opposite. Petrarch was then (1370-4) residing, an industrious invalid, at Padua, and had completed his version of Bocaccio's famous story from Italian into Latin-published under the title, "A Myth on Wifely Obedience and Fidelity,"-in June, 1373. Nothing could be more natural than that the chief poet of England should endeavour to see "the first real restorer of polite letters, him who gave purity, elegance, and stability to the Italian language." Now, as Chaucer was seemingly not well versed in Italian, is it at all unlikely that their conversation would be holden in Latin, of his proficiency in which Petrarch prided himself, and Chaucer had no need to be ashamed? In the currency of such talk, what more probable than that Dante and Bocaccio should become the subjects of mutual criticism, and that Petrarch should reckon it a privilege to rehearse his version of his friend yet rival's beautiful and unexceptionable story, and that thus "he learned at Padowe " the tale he has embalmed in ever-living verse, in his favourite metre, and with the utmost elegance of style, regarding the patience and fidelity of "Griselda." The thought of such an intercommunieation and fraternization is too sweet to be lightly given up, and we cling to the belief most fondly, though we trust not irrationally. Chaucer returned to home and country in February, 1374, and on the 19th of July Petrarch was found in his library, with a book before him, dead, "his wordes and his work” done, and remembrance of him only left for the world. There is surely some trait of personal grief in the kindly way Chaucer speaks of him, and in the attachment to his notice of the interview of the morale, which reads like an involuntary and self-referent sigh,—

"But Dethe, that wol not suffre us dwellen here,
But as it were the twinkling of an eye,
Him now hath slaine, and alle we shal die."

S. N.

Religion.

IS THE BIBLE ALONE A SUFFICIENT RULE OF

FAITH?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I.

THE position which I occupy in opening this debate upon the Rule of Faith is, I feel, one of great responsibility. The subject upon which I enter is not of a trivial character, but of vast moment, and is, therefore, "not to be enterprised nor taken in hand unadvisedly," or for mere discussion's sake. If it be a matter of vital importance to the mariner that he should be furnished with chart and compass of sufficient correctness to guide him across the pathless, perilous deep, then it is also a matter of vital importance that the voyagers on the perilous flood of time should have a chart and compass to guide them, and such as they can rely upon, that they make not shipwreck of their soul; in other words, they should have a rule by which their moral life may be directed both as to matters of faith and practice, and they should understand clearly where that rule is to be found.

It is evident, and will be conceded by my opponent, and, therefore, needs no demonstration, that the light of nature, or reason and conscience, are not capable of guiding men aright through this world to a better. If there be a God, then it is reasonable to expect that he would cause a light to shine from heaven upon the darkened paths of men; that he would give unto them a revelation of his will; that he would declare what was necessary to be believed, in order that men might be saved. This reasonable expectation God has fulfilled. He has given us a rule to follow, and our only concern is to discover where that rule is to be found; or, in the words of the proposition which stands at the head of this article-" Whether the Bible alone (which, I presume, we all acknowledge to be a revelation from God) is a sufficient Rule of Faith?

I take my stand, according to the sincere conviction of my heart, upon the affirmative side, and shall be prepared to maintain my position by argument.

In order to clear the way, I think it needful to state what I consider the meaning of terms contained in the proposition before us. By the term "Bible" I understand those several books of the Old and New Testament, written by divers men in divers ages, but all under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, which, with the sanction of the Christian Church from the earliest times, have been collected together, and designated, by way of dignity, the Bible.

By the term " Rule" I understand a measure or standard by

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