and studious in the midst of an active life. He was period of their sojourn; and we have thus a hundred an enemy to superstition and priestly abuse, but stories, lively, humorous, or tender, and full of chaplayful in his satire, with a keen sense of the ludi-racteristic painting in choice Italian. Chaucer seems crous, and the richest vein of comic narrative and to have copied this design, as well as part of the delineation of character. He retained through life Florentine's freedom and licentiousness of detail; a strong love of the country, and of its inspiring and but he greatly improved upon the plan. There is invigorating influences. No poet has dwelt more something repulsive and unnatural in a party of fondly on the charms of a spring or summer morn- ladies and gentlemen meeting to tell loose tales of ing; and the month of May seems to have been successful love and licentious monks while the plague always a carnival in his heart and fancy. His re- is desolating the country around them. The tales tirement at Woodstock, where he had indulged the of Chaucer have a more pleasing origin. A compoetical reveries of his youth, and where he was pany of pilgrims, consisting of twenty-nine sundry crowned with the latest treasures of his genius, was folk,' meet together in fellowship at the Tabard Inn, exactly such an old age as could have been desired Southwark, all being bent on a pilgrimage to the for the venerable founder of our national poetry. shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. These pilgrimages were scenes of much enjoyment, and even mirth; for, satisfied with thwarting the Evil One by the object of their mission, the devotees did not consider it necessary to preserve any religious The principal of Chaucer's minor poems are the Flower and Leaf, a spirited and graceful allegorical poem, with some fine description; and Troilus and Cresseide, partly translated, but enriched with many marks of his original genius. Sir Philip Sidney admired this pathetic poem, and it was long popular. Warton and every subsequent critic have quoted with just admiration the passage in which Cresseide makes an avowal of her love: And as the new-abashed nightingale, That stinteth first when she beginneth sing, When that she heareth any herdes tale, Or in the hedges any wight stirring, And after, sicker, doth her voice outring; Right so Cresseide, when that her dread stent, Opened her heart, and told him her intent. The House of Fame, afterwards so richly paraphrased by Pope, contains some bold imagery, and the romantic machinery of Gothic fable. It is, however, very unequal in execution, and extravagant in conception. Warton has pointed out many anachronisms in these poems. We can readily believe that the unities of time and place were little regarded by the old poet. They were as much defied by Shakspeare; but in both we have the higher qualities of true feeling, passion, and excitement, which blind us to mere scholastic blemishes and defects. The Canterbury Tales form the best and most durable monument of Chaucer's genius. Boccaccio, in his Decameron, supposes ten persons to have retired from Florence during the plague of 1348, and there, in a sequestered villa, amused themselves by relating tales after dinner. Ten days formed the The strictness or restraint by the way. The poet himself is one of the party at the Tabard. They all sup together in the large room of the hostelrie; and after great cheer, the landlord proposes that they shall travel together to Canterbury; and, to shorten their way, that each shall tell a tale, both in going and returning, and whoever told the best, should have a supper at the expense of the rest. company assent, and mine host' (who was both bold of his speech, and wise and well taught') is appointed to be judge and reporter of the stories. The characters composing this social party are inimitably drawn and discriminated. We have a knight, a mirror of chivalry, who had fought against the Heathenesse in Palestine; his son, a gallant young squire with curled locks, laid in presse' and all manner of debonair accomplishments; a nun, or prioress, beautifully drawn in her arch simplicity and coy reserve; and a jolly monk, who boasted a dainty, well-caparisoned horse And when he rode men might his bridle hear Gingling in a whistling wind as clear, And eke as loud as doth the chapel bell. *The house is supposed still to exist, or an inn built upon the site of it, from which the personages of the Canterbury Tales set out upon their pilgrimage. The sign has been converted by a confusion of speech from the Tabard-"a sleeveless coat worn in times past by noblemen in the wars," but now only by heralds (Speght's Glossary)-to the Talbot, a species of hound; and the following inscription is to be found on the twenty pilgrims lodged on their journey to Canterbury in 1383." The inscription is truly observed by Mr Tyrrwhit to be modern, and of little authority.-Godwin's Life of Chaucer. spot:-"This is the inn where Geoffrey Chaucer and nine-and A wanton friar is also of the party-full of sly and solemn mirth, and well beloved for his accommodating disposition Full sweetly heard he confession, And pleasant was his absolution. We have a Pardoner from Rome, with some sacred Sounding in moral virtue was his speech, ral objects and scenery, in Chaucer's clear and simple style. The tales of the miller and reve are coarse, but richly humorous. Dryden and Pope have honoured the Father of British verse by paraphrasing some of these popular productions, and stripping them equally of their antiquated style and the more gross of their expressions, but with the sacrifice of most that is characteristic in the elder bard. In a volume edited by Mr R. H. Horne, under the title of Chaucer Modernised, there are specimens of the poems altered with a much more tender regard to the original, and in some instances with considerable success; but the book by which ordinary readers of the present day, who are willing to take a little trouble, may best become acquainted with this great light of the fourteenth century, is one entitled the Riches of Chaucer, by C. C. Clarke (two volumes, Yet, with all his learning, the clerk's coat was thread-1835), in which the best pieces are given, with only bare, and his horse was lean as is a rake.' Among the other dramatis persona are, a doctor of physic, a great astronomer and student, whose study was but little on the Bible;' a purse-proud merchant; a sergeant of law, who was always busy, yet seemed busier than he was; and a jolly Franklin, or freeholder, who had been a lord of sessions, and was fond of good eating the spelling modernised. An edition of the Can- Withouten baked meat never was his house, Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous; It snowed in his house of meat and drink. This character is a fine picture of the wealthy rural Englishman, and it shows how much of enjoyment and hospitality was even then associated with this station of life. The Wife of Bath is another lively national portrait: she is shrewd and witty, has abundant means, and is always first with her offering at church. Among the humbler characters are, a stout carl' of a miller, a reve or bailiff, and a sompnour or church apparitor, who summoned offenders before the archdeacon's court, but whose Full well she sangé the servíce divine. fire-red face and licentious habits contrast curiously with the nature of his duties. A shipman, cook, Here 'sangé' is two syllables, while service furhaberdasher, &c., make up the goodly companynishes an example of a transposed accent. In pursuthe whole forming such a genuine Hogarthian pic-ance of the same principle, a monosyllabic noun, as ture, that we may exclaim, in the eloquent language of Campbell, What an intimate scene of English life in the fourteenth century do we enjoy in these tales, beyond what history displays by glimpses through the stormy atmosphere of her scenes, or the antiquary can discover by the cold light of his researches !' Chaucer's contemporaries and their successors were justly proud of this national work. Many copies existed in manuscript, and when the art of printing came to England, one of the first duties of Caxton's press was to issue an impression of those tales which first gave literary permanence and consistency to the language and poetry of England. All the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales do not relate stories. Chaucer had not, like Boccaccio, finished his design; for he evidently intended to have given a second series on the return of the company from Canterbury, as well as an account of the transactions in the city when they reached the sacred shrine. The concluding supper at the Tabard, when the successful competitor was to be declared, would have afforded a rich display for the poet's peculiar humour. The parties who do not relate tales (as the poem has reached us) are the yeoman, the ploughman, and the five city mechanics. The squire's tale is the most chivalrous and romantic, and that of the clerk, containing the popular legend of Patient Grisilde, is deeply affecting for its pathos and simplicity. The Cock and the Fox,' related by the nun's priest, and January and May,' the merchant's tale, have some minute painting of natu beam, becomes the dissyllable beamés in the plural. When these peculiarities are carefully attended to, much of the difficulty of reading Chaucer, even in the original spelling, vanishes. In the extracts which follow, we present, first, a specimen in the original spelling; then various specimens in the reduced spelling adopted by Mr Clarke, but without his marks of accents and extra syllables, except in a few instances; and, finally, one specimen (the Good Parson), in which, by a few slight changes, the verse is accommodated to the present fashion. [Select characters from the Canterbury Pilgrimage.] - Though that he was worthy he was wise; 1 A short cassock. For he was late ycome fro his viage, And wente for to don his pilgrimage. With him, ther was his sone, a yonge Squier, With lockes crull as they were laide in presse. Embrouded was he, as it were a mede A Yeman hadde he; and servantes no mo Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse, And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly,6 But for to speken of hire conscience, With rosted flesh, and milk, and wastel brede. Ful semely hire wimple ypinched was; But sikerly she hadde a fayre forehed. Ful fetise was hire cloke, as I was ware. A manly man, to ben an abbot able. The reule of Seint Maure and of Seint Beneit, A Marchant was ther with a forked berd, In mottelee, and highe on hors he sat, And on his hed a Flaundrish bever hat, His bootes clapsed fayre and fetisly, His resons spake he ful solempnely, Souning alway the encrese of his winning. He wold the see were kept, for any thing, Betwixen Middleburgh and Orewell. Wel coud he in eschanges sheldes selle. This worthy man ful wel his wit besette; Ther wiste no wight that he was in dette, So stedfastly didde he in his governance, With his bargeines, and with his chevisance.10 Forsothe he was a worthy man withalle. But soth to sayn, I no't how men him calle. Ther n'as bailif, ne herde, ne other hine, He was a gentil harlot, and a kind; And knew hir conseil and was of hir rede. With him there rode a gentil Pardonere 1 Secret contrivances. 3 The sign of an alehouse. 4 Fashion. 4 Thrift, economy. 5 Called. 12 Mr Tyrwhitt supposes the word dey to refer to the management of a dairy; and that it originally signified a hind. Manner dey may therefore be interpreted a species of hired, or day-labourer.' 13 Medical skill. 14 Body. 15 Ventousing (Fr.)-cupping; hence the term breathing a vein." |