ness of the period in which he wrote. The uncouth old spelling need not deprive any one of the pleasure of enjoying the poem, as a few minutes' practice will accustom the eye and the ear to the strangeness of the orthography and rhythm. It would have been very easy to obviate those last obstacles entirely by giving the reader Dryden's version, instead of the original; but there are a thousand charming touches in Chaucer quite peculiar to himself, and which Dryden, with all his angher polish, could never really improve. Every original work of a man of genius, even when imperfect and faulty, must always possess a life and reality which no imitation, even the most finished, can hope to equal; and in this, as in every other instance, we have preferred carrying our bucket to the fountain head. Let us hope the reader will enjoy the draught offered to him from "Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled." THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. ARGUMENT. A gentlewoman out of an arbour in a grove, seeth a great companie of knights and ladies in a daunce upon the greene grasse: the which being ended, they all kneele downe, and do honour to the daisie, some to the flower, and some to the leafe. Afterward this gentlewoman learneth by one of these ladies the meaning hereof, which is this: They which honour the flower, a thing fading with every blast, are such as looke after beautie and worldly pleasure. But they that honour the leafe, which abideth with the root, notwithstanding the frosts and winter stormes, are they which follow vertue and during qualities, without regard of worldly respects. Whan that Phebus his chair of golde so hie, Had whirled up the sterry sky aloft, And in the Boole was entred certainly, With new greene, and maketh small floures That it renueth that was old and dede, And I so glad of the season swete Than I; for I n'ad sicknesse nor disease. Wherefore I mervaile greatly of my selfe, In which were okes great, streight as a line, Which as me thought was right a pleasant sight, And, at the last, a path of little brede That benched was, and with turfes new And closed in all the greene herbere, Wrethen in fere so well and cunningly, That every branch and leafe grew by mesure, Plaine as a bord, of an height by and by, I sie never thing I you ensure, So well done; for he that tooke the cure To make it passe all tho that men have seine. And shapen was this herber roof and all, The hegge as thicke as a castle wall, That who that list without, to stond or go, Perceive all tho thot yeden there without Covered with corn and grasse, that out of doubt, So rich a fielde coud not be espide On no coast, as of the quantity, For of all good thing there was plenty. And I that all this pleasaunt sight sie, And as I stood and cast aside mine eie, Fro bough to bough; and, as him list, he eet And to the herber side was joyning |