A full comely creature, truth she hight,
For the virtue that her followed afeard was she never.
When these maidens mette, Mercy and Truth,
Either axed other of this great wonder,

Of the din and of the darkness, &c.

[Covetousness is thus personified.]

And then came Covetise, can I him not descrive,
So hungrily and hollow Sir Hervey him looked;
He was beetle-browed, and babberlipped also,
With two bleared een as a blind hag,
And as a leathern purse lolled his cheeks,

Well syder than his chin, they shriveled for eld:
And as a bondman of his bacon his beard was be-
drivelled,2

With an hood on his head and a lousy hat above.
And in a tawny tabard of twelve winter age,

Al so-torn and baudy, and full of lice creeping;
But if that a louse could have loupen the better,
She should not have walked on the welt, it was so
threadbare.

[The existing condition of the religious orders is delineated in the following allegorical fashion. It might be supposed that the final lines, in which the Reformation is predicted, was an interpolation after that event; but this has been ascertained not to have been the case.]

Ac now is Religion a rider, a roamer about,
A leader of lovedays,3 and a lond-buyer,
A pricker on a palfrey from manor to manor.

An heap of hounds [behind him] as he a lord were:
And but if his knave4 kneel that shall his cope bring,
He loured on him, and asketh him who taught him
courtesy ?

Little had lords to done to give lond from her heirs
To religious, that have no ruth though it rain on her
altars.

In many places there they be parsons by hemself at

tractions which followed, and the paucity of any striking poetical genius for at least a century and a half after his death, too truly exemplify the fine simile of Warton, that Chaucer was like a genial day in an English spring, when a brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with unusual warmth and lustre, but is succeeded by the redoubled horrors of winter," and those tender buds and early blossoms which were called forth by the transient gleam of a temporary sunshine, are nipped by frosts and torn by tempests."

Chaucer was a man of the world as well as a student; a soldier and courtier, employed in public affairs of delicacy and importance, and equally acquainted with the splendour of the warlike and magnificent reign of Edward III., and with the bitter reverses of fortune which accompanied the subsequent troubles and convulsions. He had partaken freely in all; and was peculiarly qualified to excel in that department of literature which alone can be universally popular, the portraiture of real life and genuine emotion. His genius was not, indeed, fully developed till he was advanced in years. His early pieces have much of the frigid conceit and pedantry of his age, when the passion of love was erected into a sort of court, governed by statutes, and a system of chivalrous mythology (such as the poetical worship of the rose and the daisy) supplanted the stateliness of the old romance. In time he threw off these conceits

With these imperfect models as his only native guides, arose our first great author, GEOFFREY CHAUCER, distinctively known as the Father of English poetry. Though our language had risen into importance with the rise of the Commons in the time of Edward I., the French long kept possession of the court and higher circles, and it required a genius like that of Chaucer-familiar with different modes of life both at home and abroad, and openly patronised by his sovereign-to give literary permanence and consistency to the language and poetry of Eng-life, he composed his Canterbury Tales, simple and land. Henceforward his native style, which Spenser terms "the pure well of English undefiled," formed a standard of composition, though the national dis

He stoop'd to truth, and moralised his song.

When about sixty, in the calm evening of a busy

varied as nature itself, imbued with the results of extensive experience and close observation, and coloured with the genial lights of a happy temperament, that had looked on the world without austerity, and passed through its changing scenes without losing the freshness and vivacity of youthful feeling and imagination. The poet tells us himself (in his Testament of Love) that he was born in London, and the year 1328 is assigned, by the only authority we possess on the subject, namely, the inscription on his tomb, as the date of his birth. One of his poems

is signed Philogenet of Cambridge, Clerk," and
hence he is supposed to have attended the Univer-
sity there; but Warton and other Oxonians claim
him for the rival university. It is certain that he
accompanied the army with which Edward III. in-
vaded France, and was made prisoner about the
year 1359, at the siege of Retters. At this time the
poet was honoured with the steady and effective
patronage of John of Gaunt, whose marriage with
Blanche, heiress of Lancaster, he commemorates in
his poem of the Dream. Chaucer and "time-honoured
Gaunt" became closely connected. The former mar-
ried Philippa Pyckard, or De Rouet, daughter of a
knight of Hainault, and maid of honour to the queen,
and a sister of this lady, Catherine Swinford (widow
of Sir John Swinford) became the mistress, and ulti-
mately the wife, of John of Gaunt. The fortunes of
the poet rose and fell with those of the prince, his
patron. In 1367, he received from the crown a grant
of twenty marks, equal to about £200 of our present
money. In 1372, he was a joint envoy on a mission
to the Duke of Genoa; and it has been conjectured
that on this occasion he made a tour of the northern
states of Italy, and visited Petrarch at Padua. The
only proof of this, however, is a casual allusion in
the Canterbury Tales, where the clerk of Oxford says
of his tale-

Learned at Padua of a worthy clerk-
Francis Petrarch, the laureat poet,
Hight this clerk, whose rhetoric sweet
Enlumined all Italy of poetry.

And right anon as I the day espied,
No longer would I in my bed abide,
I went forth myself alone and boldely,
And held the way down by a brook side
Till I came to a land of white and green,
So fair a one had I never in been.
The ground was green y-powdered with daisy,
The flowers and the groves alike high,

All green and white was nothing else seen.

The destruction of the Royal Manor at Woodstock, and the subsequent erection of Blenheim, have changed the appearance of this classic ground; but the poet's morning walk may still be traced, and some venerable oaks that may have waved over him, lend poetic and historical interest to the spot. The opening of the reign of Richard II. was unpropitious to Chaucer. He became involved in the civil and religious troubles of the times, and joined with the party of John of Northampton, who was attached to the doctrines of Wickliffe, in resisting the measures of the court. The poet fled to Hainault (the country of his wife's relations), and afterwards to Holland. He ventured to return in 1386, but was thrown into the Tower, and deprived of his comptrollership. In May 1388, he obtained leave to dispose of his two patents of twenty marks each; a measure prompted, no doubt, by necessity. He obtained his release by impeaching his previous associates, and confessing to his misdemeanours, offering also to prove the truth of his information by entering the lists of combat with the accused parties. How far this transaction involves the character of the poet, we cannot now ascertain. He has painted his suffering and distress, the odium which he incurred, and his indignation at the bad conduct of his former confederates, in powerful and affecting language in his prose work, the Testament of Love. The sunshine of royal favour was not long withheld after this humiliating submission. In 1389, Chaucer is registered as clerk of the works at Westminster; and next year he was appointed to the same office at Windsor. These were only temporary situations, held about twenty months; but he afterwards received a grant of £20, and a tun of wine, per annum. The name of the poet does not occur again for some years, and he is supposed to have retired to Woodstock, and there composed his Canterbury Tales. In 1398, a patent of protection was granted to him by the crown; but, from the terms of the deed, it is difficult to say whether it is an amnesty for political offences, or a safeguard from creditors. In the following year, still brighter prospects opened on the aged poet. Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of his brother-in-law, John of Gaunt, ascended the throne: Chaucer's annuity was continued, and forty marks additional were granted. Thomas Chaucer, whom Mr Godwin seems to prove to have been the poet's son, was made chief butler, and elected Speaker of the House of Commons. The last time that the poet's name occurs in any public document, is in a lease made to him by the abbot, prior and convent of Westminster, of a tenement situate in the garden of the chapel, at the yearly rent of 53s. 4d. This is dated on the 24th of December 1399; and on the 25th of October 1400, the poet died in London, most probably in the house he had just leased, which stood on the site of Henry VII.'s chapel. He was buried in Westminster Abbey-the first of that illustrious file of poets whose ashes rest in the sacred edifice.

The tale thus learned is the pathetic story of Patient Grisilde, which, in fact, was written by Boccaccio, and only translated into Latin by Petrarch. "Why," asks Mr Godwin, "did Chaucer choose to confess his obligation for it to Petrarch rather than to Boccaccio, from whose volume Petrarch confessedly translated it? For this very natural reason-because he was eager to commemorate his interview with this venerable patriarch of Italian letters, and to record the pleasure he had reaped from his society." We fear this is mere special pleading; but it would be a pity that so pleasing an illusion should be dispelled. Whether or not the two poets ever met, the Italian journey of Chaucer, and the fame of Petrarch, must have kindled his poetical ambition and refined his taste. The Divine Comedy of Dante had shed a glory over the literature of Italy; Petrarch received his crown of laurel in the Capitol of Rome only five years before Chaucer first appeared as a poet (his Court of Love was written about the year 1346); and Boccaccio (more poetical in his prose than his verse) had composed that inimitable century of tales, his Decameron, in which the charms of romance are clothed in all the pure and sparkling graces of composition. These illustrious examples must have inspired the English traveller; but the rude northern speech with which he had to deal, formed a chilling contrast to the musical language of Italy! Edward III continued his patronage to the poet. He was made comptroller of the customs of wine and wool in the port of London, and had a pitcher of wine daily from the royal table, which was afterwards commuted into a pension of twenty marks. He was appointed a joint envoy to France to treat of a marriage between the Prince of Wales and Mary, the daughter of the French king. At home, he is supposed to have resided in a house granted by the king, near the royal manor at Woodstock, where, according to the description in his Dream, he was surrounded with every mark of luxury and distinc- The character of Chaucer may be seen in his tion. The scenery of Woodstock Park has been works. He was the counterpart of Shakspeare in described in the Dream with some graphic and pic-cheerfulness and benignity of disposition-no enemy turesque touches:to mirth and joviality, yet delighting in his books,

A wanton friar is also of the party-full of sly and
solemn mirth, and well beloved for his accommodat-
ing disposition-

Full sweetly heard he confession,
And pleasant was his absolution.

We have a Pardoner from Rome, with some sacred
relics (as part of the Virgin Mary's veil, and part of
the sail of St Peter's ship), and who is also "brim-
ful of pardons come from Rome all hot." In satirical
contrast to these merry and interested churchmen,
we have a poor parson of a town, "rich in holy
thought and work," and a clerk of Oxford, who was
skilled in logic-

Sounding in moral virtue was his speech,
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.

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,

the spelling modernised. The Canterbury Tales were published, with a learned commentary, by Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq. (5 vols. 1778).

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 personæ 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 verse of Chaucer is, almost without exception, in ten-syllabled couplets, the verse in which by far the largest portion of our poetry since that time has been written, and which, as Mr Southey has remarked, may be judged from that circumstance to be best adapted to the character of our speech. The accentuation, by a license since abandoned, is different in many instances from that of common speech: the poet, wherever it suits his conveniency, or his pleasure, makes accented syllables short, and short syllables emphatic. This has been not only a difficulty with ordinary readers, but a subject of perplexity amongst commentators; but the principle has latterly been concluded upon as of the simple kind here stated. Another peculiarity is the making silent e's at the end of words tell in the metre, as in French lyrical poetry to this day: for example

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 company-nishes 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 beames 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.]
A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the time that he first began
To riden out, he loved chevalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre;
And, therto, hadde he ridden, none more ferre,
As wel in Cristendom as in Hethenesse,
And ever honoured for his worthinesse.

Though that he was worthy he was wise;
And of his port, as meke as is a mayde :
In all his lif, unto no manere wight,
He never yet no vilainie ne sayde,
He was a veray parfit gentil knight.

His hors was good, but he ne was not gaie.
But, for to tellen you of his araie,—
Of fustian he wered a gipon!

Alle besmatred with his habergeon,

A short cassock.