The virtue expulsive or animal, Nature hath now no domination: And certainly where nature will not werche,5 'Naught may the woful spirit in mine heart To you aboven every creature, Since that my life ne may no longer dure. That I for you have suffered, and so long! Alas departing of our company! Alas mine hearte's queen! alas my wife! Mine hearte's lady, ender of my life! What is this world?-What asken men to have ? Alone-withouten any company. Farewell my sweet-farewell mine Emily! That is to say, truth, honour, and knighthead, As in this world right now ne know I none So worthy to be loved as Palamon, And if that ever ye shall be a wife, Forget not Palamon, the gentle man.' And with that word his speeche fail began; The cold of death that had him overnome ;1 That dwelled in his hearte sick and sore, DEPARTURE OF CUSTANCE. Custance is banished from her husband, Alla, king of Northumberland, in consequence of the treachery of the king's mother. Her behaviour in embarking at sea, in a rudderless ship, is thus described : Weepen both young and old in all that place, When that the king this cursed letter sent; And Custance with a deadly pale face 'He that me kepte from the false blame, While I was in the land amonges you, He can me keep from harm and eke from shame In the salt sea, although I see not how: ; Her little child lay weeping in her arms And in her arm she lulleth it full fast, And into th' heaven her eyen up she cast. Mother, quod she, and maiden bright, Mary! Then is there no comparison between Thy woe and any woe man may sustain. Thou saw'st thy child y-slain before thine eyen, And yet now liveth my little child parfay:10 O little child, alas! what is thy guilt, As let my little child dwell here with thee; Therewith she looketh backward to the land, But rich he was in holy thought and work; And thereto a right learned man; a clerk That Christ's pure gospel would sincerely preach, And his parishioners devoutly teach. Benign he was, and wondrous diligent, And in adversity full patient, As proven oft; to all who lack'd a friend. Loth for his tithes to ban or to contend, At every need much rather was he found Wide was his cure; the houses far asunder, For sure a priest the sample ought to give Tho holy in himself, and virtuous, He still to sinful men was mild and piteous: Him would he sharply with reproof astound. He waited not on pomp or reverence, He taught but, first, he followed it himselve. The following poem was the last production that emanated from Chaucer's prolific pen. It was written on his death-bed, and may properly close these extracts: Fly from the press,1 and dwell with sothfastness ; 2 In trust of her that turneth as a ball; 1 Crowd. 11 Judge. 14 Spirit. 4 Striving. 8 Without fear. 12 That (which). Though Chaucer was eminent chiefly as a poet, yet he deserves a passing notice as a writer in prose also. His longest unversified production is The "Testament of Love,' to which we have already alluded. This is an allegorical and meditative work, and was written chiefly for the purpose of defending his character against certain imputations which had been cast upon it. Two of the 'Canterbury Tales,' also, are in prose; in one of which, the Tale of Melibeus, is found a passage on Riches, not less remarkable for the great amount of ancient wisdom which it contains, than for the clearness and simplicity of its diction. We have, however, already afforded to Chaucer so much space that we have not room to introduce this interesting passage, but must at once pass briefly to notice Gower, his illustrious contemporary. Though the genius of Chaucer far transcended that of all preceding writers in England, yet he was not the solitary light of the age. The national mind, and the national language had now arrived at a certain degree of maturity favorable for the production of able writers in both prose and verse. Besides Wickliffe, Gower and Mandeville also belong to the same period. JOHN GOWER was born of an illustrious family at Stitenham, Yorkshire, in 1320. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and at the time at which he was graduated, his eminence as a scholar was extensively known. Being designated by his parents for the legal profession, he removed to London immediately after he left the university, and entered the Middle Temple as a student at law; and though devoted to his profession, yet he did not permit it to engross his entire attention, but gave much of his leisure time to poetry and other literary pursuits. While thus occupied, and soon after he had completed his preparatory legal studies, he formed an acquaintance with Chaucer, who had just then returned from his travels on the continent, and the similarity of their tastes soon created a very close intimacy between them. Poetry, however, with Gower, was a pastime, while to his profession he devoted himself with such untiring industry, that before the close of the reign of Edward the Third, his position as a lawyer had become so commanding that when Richard the Second succeeded to the crown, that unfortunate monarch first selected him as his legal adviser, and Chancellor in Commons, and soon after raised him to the office of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In this imposing position Gower remained until his royal patron was dethroned by the duke of Lancaster, afterward Henry the Fourth, when he being far advanced in age, and having also recently had the misfortune to lose his eyesight, retired from the busy scenes of life, and took leave at the same time, both of the muses and of the world, in his pathetic poem The Commendation of Peace. In this sweet production he plainly and affectingly indicates a full sense of his consciousness of an approaching death, |