V.

The composition of the "Canterbury Tales" occupied the last years of Chaucer's life. During the same period he also wrote his "Treatise on the Astrolabe" in prose, for the instruction of his son Lewis,[555] and a few detached poems, melancholy pieces in which he talks of shunning the world and the crowd, asks the prince to help him in his poverty, retreats into his inner self, and becomes graver and more and more resigned:

Fle fro the prees, and dwelle with sothfastnesse, Suffyce unto thy good, though hit be smal.... Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste out of thy stal!... Hold the hye wey, and lat thy gost thee lede: And trouth shal delivere, hit is no drede.[556]

In spite of this melancholy, he was at that time the uncontested king of English letters; a life-long friendship bound him to Gower[557]; the young poets, Hoccleve, Scogan, Lydgate, came to him and proclaimed him their master. His face, the features of which are known to us, thanks to the portrait we owe to Hoccleve, had gained an expression of gentle gravity; he liked better to listen than to talk, and, in the "Canterbury Tales," the host rallies him on his pensive air and downcast eyes:

"What man artow?" quod he; "Thou lokest as thou woldest finde an hare, For ever up-on the ground I see thee stare."

Age had bestowed on him a corpulency which made him a match for Harry Bailey himself.[558]

When Henry IV. mounted the throne, within the four days that followed his accession, he doubled the pension of the poet (Oct. 3, 1399), who then hired, for two pounds thirteen shillings and four pence a year, a house in the garden of St. Mary's, Westminster. The lease is still preserved in the archives of the Abbey.[559] He passed away in the following year, in that tranquil retreat, and was interred at Westminster, not far from the sepulchres where slept his patrons, Edward III. and Richard II., in that wing of the transept which has since been called the Poets' Corner, where lately we saw Browning's coffin lowered, and where, but yesterday, Tennyson's was laid.

No English poet enjoyed a fame more constantly equal to itself. In the fifteenth century writers did scarcely anything but lament and copy him: "Maister deere," said Hoccleve,

O maister deere and fadir reverent, Mi maister Chaucer, flour of eloquence, Mirour of fructuous entendement, O universal fadir of science, Allas that thou thyn excellent prudence In thi bed mortel mightist noght byquethe![560]

At the time of the Renaissance Caxton printed his works twice,[561] and Henry VIII. made an exception in their favour in his prohibition of "printed bokes, printed balades, ... and other fantasies."[562] Under Elizabeth, Thynne annotated them,[563] Spenser declared that he "of Tityrus," that is of Chaucer, "his songs did lere,"[564] and Sidney exalted him to the skies.[565] In the seventeenth century Dryden rejuvenates his tales, in the eighteenth century the admiration is universal, and extends to Pope and Walpole.[566] In our time the learned men of all countries have applied themselves to the task of commentating his works and of disentangling his biography, a Society has been founded to publish the best texts of his writings,[567] and but lately his "Legend of Good Women" inspired with an exquisite poem the Laureate who sleeps to-day close to the great ancestor, beneath the stones of the famous Abbey.

FOOTNOTES:

[448] The date 1328 has long but wrongly been believed to be the true one. The principal documents concerning Chaucer are to be found in the Appendix to his biography by Sir H. Nicolas, in "Poetical Works," ed. R. Morris, Aldine Poets, vol. i. p. 93 ff., in the "Trial Forewords," of Dr. Furnivall, 1871, and in the "Life Records of Chaucer," 1875 ff., Chaucer Society. One of the municipal ordinances meant to check the frauds of the vintners is signed by several members of the corporation, and among others by John Chaucer, 1342. See Riley, "Memorials, of London," p. 211.

[449] See the view of London, painted in the fifteenth century, obviously from nature, reproduced at the beginning of this vol., from MS. Royal 16 F ii, in the British Museum, showing the Tower, the Bridge, the wharfs, Old St. Paul's, etc.

[450] Such is the case with a tower in the churchyard of St. Giles's, Cripplegate.

[451] "Et qi pork voedra norir, le norise deinz sa measoun." Four jurymen were to act as public executors: "Quatuor homines electi et jurati ad interficiendos porcos inventos vagantes infra muros civitatis." Riley "Munimenta Gildhallae," Rolls, 1859, 4 vols. 8vo; "Liber Albus," pp. 270 and 590.

[452] April, 1357, an information gathered from a fragment of the accounts of the household of Elizabeth found in the binding of a book.

[453] In the controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, concerning a question of armorial bearings, Chaucer, being called as witness, declares (1386) that he has seen Sir Richard use the disputed emblems "en France, devant la ville de Retters ... et issint il [le] vist armez par tout le dit viage tanque le dit Geffrey estoit pris." "The Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 1385-90," London, 2 vols. fol., vol. i. p. 178. "Retters" is Rethel in Champagne (not Retiers in Brittany, where the expedition did not go). Chaucer took part in another campaign "in partibus Franciae," in 1369.

[454] On this see Furnivall, "Chaucer as valet and esquire," Chaucer Society, 1876.

[455] A passage in Chaucer's "Book of the Duchesse" (1369), lines 30 ff., leaves little doubt as to the reality of the unlucky passion he describes. The poet interrupts the train of his speech to answer a supposed question put to him as to the causes of his depression and "melancolye":

I holde hit be a siknesse That I have suffred this eight yere, And yet my bote is never the nere; For ther is phisicien but oon, That may me hele.

Proem of the "Book." See, in connection with this, the "Compleynte unto Pite." Who was the loved one we do not know; could it be that the poet was playing upon her name in such lines as these:

For kindly by your heritage right Ye been annexed ever unto Bountee? (l. 71).

There were numerous families of Bonamy, Bonenfaut, Boncoeur. A William de Boncuor is named in the "Excerpta e Rotulis Finium," of Roberts, vol. ii. pp. 309, 431, 432.

[456] The date of Chaucer's marriage has not been ascertained. We know that his wife was called Philippa, that one Philippa Chaucer belonged to the queen's household in 1366, and that the Philippa Chaucer, wife of the poet, was at a later date in the service of the Duchess of Lancaster, after having been in the service of the queen. It seems most likely that the two women were the same person: same name, same function, same pension of ten marks, referred to in the same words in public documents, for example: 1º 42 Ed. III., 1368, "Philippae Chaucer cui dominus Rex decem marcas annuatim ad scaccarium percipiendas pro bono servitio per ipsam Philippam Philippe Regine Anglie impenso per literas suas patentes nuper concessit...." 2º 4 Ric. II., 1381, "Philippae Chaucer nuper uni domicellarum Philippae nuper Regine Anglie"--she had died in 1369--"cui dominus Rex Edwardus avus Regis hujus X marcas annuatim ad scaccarium suum percipiendas pro bono servitio per ipsam tam eidem domino Regi quam dicte Regine impenso per literas suas patentes nuper concessit ... in denariis sibi liberatis per manus predicti Galfridi mariti sui...." "Poetical Works," ed. Morris, i. p. 108. Who Philippa was by birth is doubtful, but it seems likely that she was Philippa Roet, daughter of Sir Payne Roet, who hailed, like the queen herself, from Hainault--hence her connection with the queen--and sister of Catherine Roet who became the mistress and then the third wife of John of Gaunt--hence the favour in which the poet and his family stood with the Lancastrians. It seems again very probable, though not absolutely certain, that Thomas Chaucer, who used at different times both the Chaucer and the Roet arms, Speaker of the House of Commons under Henry V., a man of great influence, was one of the children of the poet.

[457] Book iv. chap. 40.

[458] Froissart declares concerning his own poems that he "les commencha a faire sus l'an de grace Nostre Seigneur, 1362." He wrote them "a l'ayde de Dieu et d'Amours, et a le contemplation et plaisance de pluisours haus et nobles signours et de pluisours nobles et vaillans dames." MS. Fr. 831 in the National Library, Paris.--On Guillaume de Deguileville, who wrote about 1330-5, see Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1893, vol. ii. p. 558; Hill, "An Ancient Poem of G. de Guileville," London, 1858, 4to, illustrated, and my "Piers Plowman," chap. vii. Chaucer imitated from him his "A.B.C.," one of his first works.--On Machault, who died in 1377, see Tarbe, "Oeuvres Choisies," Reims and Paris, 1849, 8vo, and Thomas, "Romania," x. pp. 325 ff. (papal bulls concerning him, dated 1330, 1332, 1333, 1335).--On Des Champs, see "Oeuvres Completes publiees d'apres le Manuscrit de la Bibliotheque Nationale," by the Marquis de Queux de St. Hilaire, Societe des Anciens Textes, 1878 ff. (which MS. contains, _e.g._, 1175 ballads, 171 roundels, and 80 virelais), and A. Sarradin, "Etude sur Eustache des Champs," Versailles, 1878, 8vo.--On Granson, a knight and a poet slain in a judicial duel, in 1397, see Piaget, "Granson et ses poesies," "Romania," vol. xix.; Chaucer imitated in his later years his "Compleynt of Venus," from a poem of "Graunson, flour of hem that make in Fraunce."

[459] Chaucer's favourite flower; he constantly praises it; it is for him a woman-flower (see especially the prologue of the "Legend of Good Women"). This flower enjoyed the same favour with the French models of Chaucer. One of the ballads of Froissart has for its burden: "Sus toutes flours j'aime la margherite" ("Le Paradis d'Amour," in "Poesies," ed. Scheler, Brussels, 1870, 3 vols. 8vo), vol. i. p. 49. Des Champs praised the same flower; Machault wrote a "Dit de la Marguerite" ("Oeuvres Choisies," ed. Tarbe, p. 123):

J'aim une fleur qui s'uevre et qui s'encline Vers le soleil, de jour quand il chemine; Et quand il est couchiez soubz sa courtine Par nuit obscure, Elle se clost ainsois que le jour fine.

[460] Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first part of the "Roman" ab. 1237; Jean de Meun wrote the second towards 1277. On the sources of the poem see the important work of Langlois: "Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose," Paris, 1891, 8vo. M. Langlois has traced the originals for 12,000 out of the 17,500 lines of Jean de Meun; he is preparing (1894) a much-needed critical edition of the text.

[461] One of them has a sort of biographical interest as having belonged to Sir Richard Stury, Chaucer's colleague in one of his missions (see below, p. 284); it was afterwards purchased for Thomas, duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III., and is now in the British Museum, MS. Royal 19 B xiii. "Ceste livre est a Thomas fiz au Roy, duc de Glouc', achates dez executeurs Mons' Ric' Stury." It has curious miniatures exemplifying the way in which people pictured to themselves at that time Olympian gods and romance heroes. The "Dieu d'amour" figures as a tall person with a tunic, a cloak, and a crown, a bow in his hand and large red wings on his back. See fol. 16, "coment li diex d'amours navra l'amant de ses saietes."

[462] "A vous qui belles filles avez et bien les desirez a introduire a vie honneste, bailliez leur, bailliez le Rommant de la Rose, pour aprendre a discerner le bien du mal, que diz-je, mais le mal du bien. Et a quel utilite ne a quoy proufite aux oyans oir tant de laidures?" Jean de Meun "oncques n'ot acointance ne hantise de femme honorable ne vertueuse, mais par plusieurs femmes dissolues et de male vie hanter, comme font communement les luxurieux cuida ou faingny savoir que toutes telles feussent car d'autres n'avoit congnoissance." "Debat sur le Rommant de la Rose," in MS. Fr. 604 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 114 and 115.

[463] An incomplete translation of the "Roman" in English verse has come down to us in a single MS. preserved in the Hunterian collection, Glasgow. It is anonymous; a study of this text, by Lindner and by Kaluza, has shown that it is made up of three fragments of different origin, prosody, and language. The first fragment ends with line 1705, leaving a sentence unfinished; between the second and third fragments there is a gap of more than 5,000 lines. The first fragment alone might, on account of its style and versification, be the work of Chaucer, but this is only a surmise, and we have no direct proof of it. The "Romaunt" is to be found in Skeat's edition of the "Complete Works" of Chaucer, 1894, vol. i. For Fragment I. the French text is given along with the English translation.

[464]

Mais pran en gre les euvres d'escolier Que par Clifford de moy avoir pourras.

For Des Champs, Chaucer is a Socrates, a Seneca, an Ovid, an "aigle tres hault," "Oeuvres Completes," Paris, 1878 ff., vol. ii. p. 138.

[465] "Hous of Fame," line 622; "Legend of Good Women," line 422, "Complete Works," 1894, vol. i. pp. 19 and 96. Such was the reputation of Chaucer that a great many writings were attributed to him--a way to increase their reputation, not his. The more important of them are: "The Court of Love"; the "Book of Cupid," otherwise "Cuckoo and Nightingale"; "Flower and Leaf," the "Romaunt of the Rose," such as we have it; the "Complaint of a Lover's Life"; the "Testament of Love" (in prose, see below, page 522); the "Isle of Ladies," or "Chaucer's Dream"; various ballads. Most of those works (not the "Testament") are to be found in the "Poetical Works" of Chaucer, Aldine Poets, ed. Morris.

[466]

And every day hir beaute newed.

(ll. 906, 963.)

[467] "Book of the Duchesse," ll. 339, 406, 391, 1033. John of Gaunt found some consolation in marrying two other wives. Blanche, the first wife, was buried with him in old St. Paul's. See a view of their tomb from Dugdale's "St. Paul's," in my "Piers Plowman," p. 92.

[468]

Vous Ambasseur et messagier, Qui alez par le monde es cours Des grans princes pour besongnier, Vostre voyage n'est pas cours ... Ne soiez mie si hastis! Il fault que vostre fait soit mis Au conseil pour respondre a plain; Attendez encore mes amis ... Il faut parler au chancelier De vostre fait et a plusours ... Temps passe et tout vint arrebours.

"Oeuvres Completes," Societe des Anciens Textes, vol. vii. p. 117.

[469]

De laissier aux champs me manace, Trop souvent des genoulx s'assiet, Par ma foy, mes chevaulx se lace.

(_Ibid._, p. 32.)

[470]

Mal fait mangier a l'appetit d'autruy.

(_Ibid._, p. 81.)

[471]

O doulz pais, terre tres honorable, Ou chascuns a ce qu'il veult demander Pour son argent, et a pris raisonnable, Char, pain et vin, poisson d'yaue et de mer, Chambre a par soy, feu, dormir, reposer, Liz, orilliers blans, draps flairans la graine, Et pour chevaulz, foing, litiere et avaine, Estre servis, et par bonne ordonnance, Et en seurte de ce qu'on porte et maine; Tel pais n'est qu'en royaume de France.

(_Ibid._, p. 79.)

[472] Book i. chap. 692.

[473] The order for the payment of the expenses of "nostre cher et feal chivaler Edward de Berkle," and "nostre feal esquier Geffray Chaucer," is directed to William Walworth, then not so famous as he was to be, and to the no less notorious John Philpot, mercer and naval leader. Both envoys are ordered "d'aler en nostre message si bien au duc de Melan Barnabo come a nostre cher et foial Johan Haukwode es parties de Lumbardie, pur ascunes busoignes touchantes l'exploit de nostre guerre," May 12, 1378. Berkeley receives 200 marcs and Chaucer 100; the sums are to be paid out of the war subsidy voted by Parliament the year before. The French text of the warrant has been published by M. Spont in the _Athenaeum_ of Sept. 9, 1893. During this absence Chaucer appointed to be his representatives or attorneys two of his friends, one of whom was the poet Gower. See document dated May 22, 1378, in "Poetical Works," ed. Morris, i. p. 99.

[474] ll. 1982, 1990, 1997.

[475] Figure of "Peace," by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1339. See a drawing of it in Muentz, "Les Precurseurs de la Renaissance," Paris, 1882, 4to, p. 29.

[476] Muentz, _ibid._, p. 30.

[477] "F. Petrarcae Epistolae," ed. Fracassetti, Florence, 1859, vol. iii. p. 541.

[478] Letter of Boccaccio "celeberrimi nominis militi Jacopo Pizzinghe." Corazzini, "Le Lettere edite ed inedite di Giovanni Boccaccio," Florence, 1877, 8vo, p. 195.

[479] Chaucer could not be present at the lectures of Boccaccio, who began them on Sunday, October 23, 1373; he had returned to London in the summer. Disease (probably diabetes) soon obliged Boccaccio to interrupt his lectures; he died in his house at Certaldo on December 21, 1375. See Cochin, in _Revue des Deux Mondes_, July 15, 1888.

[480] This meeting, concerning which numerous discussions have taken place, seems to have most probably happened. "I wol," says the clerk of Oxford in the "Canterbury Tales,"

I wol yow telle a tale which that I Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk ... He is now deed and nayled in his cheste ... Fraunceys Petrark, the laureat poet.

Such a circumstantial reference is of a most unusual sort; in most cases, following the example of his contemporaries, Chaucer simply says that he imitates "a book," or sometimes he refers to his models by a wrong or fancy name, such being the case with Boccaccio, whom he calls "Lollius," a name which, however, does duty also with him, at another place, for Petrarch. But on this occasion it seems as if the poet meant to preserve the memory of personal intercourse. We know besides that at that date Chaucer was not without notoriety as a poet on the Continent (Des Champs' praise is a proof of it), and that at the time when he came to Italy Petrarch was at Arqua, near Padua, where he was precisely busy with his Latin translation of Boccaccio's story of Griselda.

[481] "The Othe of the Comptroler of the Customes," in Thynne's "Animadversions," Chaucer Society, 1875, p. 131.

[482] None in the handwriting of Chaucer have been discovered as yet; but some are to be seen drawn, as he was allowed to have them later, by another's hand, under his own responsibility: "per visum et testimonium Galfridi Chaucer."

[483] The lease is dated May 10, 1374; Furnivall, "Trial Forewords," p. 1. Such grants of lodgings in the gates were forbidden in 1386 in consequence of a panic (described, _e.g._, in the "Chronicon Angliae," Rolls, p. 370) caused by a rumour of the coming of the French. See Riley, "Memorials of London," pp. 388, 489. A study on the too neglected Ralph Strode is being prepared (1894) by M. Gollancz.

[484] "Dimissio Portae de Aldgate facta Galfrido Chaucer.--Concessio de Aldrichgate Radulpho Strode.--Sursum-redditio domorum supra Aldrichesgate per Radulphum Strode." Among the "Fundationes et praesentationes cantariarum ... shoparum ... civitati pertinentium." "Liber Albus," Rolls, pp. 553, 556, 557.

[485] Chaucer represents Jupiter's eagle, addressing him thus:

And noght only fro fer contree That ther no tyding comth to thee But of thy verray neyghebores, That dwellen almost at thy dores, Thou herest neither that ne this; For whan thy labour doon al is, Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon, Thou sittest at another boke, Til fully daswed is thy loke, And livest thus as an hermyte.

"Hous of Fame," book ii. l. 647; "Complete Works," iii. p. 20.

[486] All these dates are merely approximative. Concerning the chronology of Chaucer's works, see Ten Brink, "Chaucer Studien," Muenster, 1870, 8vo; Furnivall, "Trial Forewords," 1871, Chaucer Society; Koch, "Chronology," Chaucer Society, 1890; Pollard, "Chaucer," "Literature Primers," 1893; Skeat, "Complete Works of Chaucer," vol. i., "Life" and the introductions to each poem. "Boece" is in vol. ii. of the "Complete Works" (_cf._ Morris's ed., 1868, E.E.T.S.). The "Lyf of Seinte Cecile" was transferred by Chaucer to his "Canterbury Tales," where it became the tale of the second nun. The good women of the "Legend" are all of them love's martyrs: Dido, Ariadne, Thisbe, &c.; it was Chaucer's first attempt to write a collection of stories with a Prologue. In the Prologue Venus and Cupid reproach him with having composed poems where women and love do not appear in a favourable light, such as "Troilus" and the translation of the "Roman de la Rose," which "is an heresye ageyns my lawe." He wrote his "Legend" to make amends.

[487] "Parlement of Foules," ll. 272, 225, "Complete Works," vol. i.

[488] "Hous of Fame," l. 133 _ibid._, vol. iii.

[489] "Hous of Fame," l. 518.

[490] "Complete Works, "vol. i. p. 365. This beginning is imitated from Boccaccio's "Teseide."

[491] "Parlement of Foules," in "Complete Works," vol. i. p. 336. Chaucer alludes here to a book which "was write with lettres olde," and which contained "Tullius of the dreme of Scipioun."

[492] "Legend of Dido," in "Complete Works," vol. iii. p. 117.

[493] Book v. st. 256.

[494] "Hous of Fame," ll. 469, 473, 492.

[495]

Thorgh me men goon in-to that blisful place ... Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of Grace, &c.

These lines were "over the gate with lettres large y-wroghte," ll. 124, 127.

[496]

S'amor non e, che dunque e quel ch'i sento?

which becomes in Chaucer the "Cantus Troili":

If no love is, O God, what fele I so?

(Book i. stanza 58.)

[497] l. 449.

[498]

In sogno mi parea veder sospesa Un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro Con l'ali aperte, ed a calare intesa....

Poi mi parea, che piu rotata un poco, Terribil come folgor discendesse, E me rapisse suso infino al foco.

("Purgatorio," canto ix.)

In Chaucer:

Me thoughte I saw an egle sore ... Hit was of golde and shoon so bright That never saw men such a sighte ... Me, fleinge, at a swappe he hente, And with his sours agayn up wente, Me caryinge in his clawes starke.

(ll. 449, 503, 542.)

[499]

I wol now singe, if that I can The armes, and al-so the man, &c.

(l. 142.)

Hereupon follows a complete but abbreviated account of the events in the AEneid, Dido's story being the only part treated at some length.

[500] "Complete Works," vol. iii. The poem was left unfinished; it is written in octosyllabic couplets, with four accents or beats.

[501] Compare, for example, the beginning of "Hous of Fame," and No. 487 of _The Spectator_ (Sept. 18, 1712):

God turne us every dreem to gode! For hit is wonder, by the rode, To my wit what causeth swevenes Either on morwes or on evenes; And why the effect folweth of somme, And of somme hit shal never come; Why this is an avisioun, And this a revelacioun ... Why this a fantom, these oracles.

Addison writes: "Tho' there are many authors who have written on Dreams, they have generally considered them only as revelations of what has already happened in distant parts of the world, or as presages of what is to happen in future periods of time," &c.

[502] l. 1191.

[503] l. 1242.

[504] l. 1830.

[505] l. 2047.

[506] l. 2078. _Cf._ La Fontaine's "Les Femmes et le Secret."

[507] "Parlement of Foules," l. 186.

[508] Boccaccio's story is told in stanzas of eight lines, and has for its title "Il Filostrato" (love's victim: such was at least the sense Boccaccio attributed to the word). Text in "Le Opere volgari di Giov. Boccaccio," Florence, 1831, 8vo, vol. xiii.

[509] Text in "Complete Works," vol. iii. It is divided into five books and written in stanzas of seven lines, rhyming _a b a b b c c_. See the different texts of this poem published by the Chaucer Society; also Kitredge, "Chaucer's Language in his Troilus," Chaucer Society, 1891. For a comparison between the English and the Italian texts see Rossetti "Troylus and Cressida, compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato," Chaucer Society, 1875. About one-third of Chaucer's poem is derived from Boccaccio. It is dedicated to Gower and to "philosophical Strode" (see above, p. 290), both friends of the poet.

[510] Book i. st. 28.

[511] And, as the nurse, gets out of breath, so that he cannot speak:

... O veray God, so have I ronne! Lo, nece myn, see ye nought how I swete?

## Book ii. st. 210. Says the Nurse:

Jesu, what haste! can you not stay awhile? Do you not see that I am out of breath?

[512] Turned later into English verse by Lydgate, to be read as a supplementary Tale of Canterbury: "Here begynneth the sege of Thebes, ful lamentably told by Johnn Lidgate monke of Bury, annexynge it to ye tallys of Canterbury," MS. Royal 18 D ii. in the British Museum. The exquisite miniatures of this MS. represent Thebes besieged with great guns, fol. 158; Creon's coronation by two bishops wearing mitres and gold copes, fol. 160, see below, p. 499.

[513] Book ii. st. 46.

[514] Book ii. st. 100 ff.

[515] Book ii. st. 182.

[516] Book iii. st. 163 and 170.

[517] Book iii. st 173. Boccaccio's Griselda has nothing to be compared to those degrees in feeling and tenderness. She laughs at the newly wedded ones, and ignores blushes as well as doubts ("Filostrato," iii. st. 29 ff.).

[518] Book iii. st. 188.

[519]

What me is wo That day of us mot make desseveraunce!

(Book iii. st. 203, 204.)

[520] Book iv. st. 98 ff.

[521]

Yet preye I yow on yvel ye ne take, That it is short which that I to yow wryte; I dar not, ther I am, wel lettres make, Ne never yet ne coude I wel endyte. Eek greet effect men wryte in place lyte. Thentente is al, and nought the lettres space And fareth now wel, God have you in his grace.

La vostre C.

## Book v. st. 233. Troilus had written at great length, of course, "the

papyr al y-pleynted." St. 229.

[522] Book v. st. 263.

[523] Pierre de Beauveau's translation of the passage (in Moland and d'Hericault, "Nouvelles francoises en prose, du XIVe Siecle," 1858, p. 303) does not differ much from the original. Here is the Italian text:

Giovane donna e mobile, e vogliosa E negli amanti molti, e sua bellezza Estima piu ch'allo specchio, e pomposa Ha vanagloria di sua giovinezza; La qual quanto piaccevole e vezzosa E piu, cotanto piu seco l'apprezza; Virtu non sente ni conoscimento, Volubil sempre come foglia al vento.

("Opere Volgari," Florence, 1831, vol. xiii. p. 253.)

[524] "Return of the names of every member [of Parliament]," 1878, fol. a Blue Book, p. 229.

[525] "Hous of Fame," l. 1189.

[526] "Complete Works," ed. Skeat, Oxford, 1894, 6 vols. 8vo, vol. iv.

[527] The "Tabard," a sleeveless overcoat, then in general use, was, like the "Bell," a frequent sign for inns. The Tabard Inn, famous in Chaucer's day, was situated in the Southwark High Street; often repaired and restored, rebaptised the "Talbot," it lasted till our century.

[528] Beginning of the "Shipmannes Tale."

[529] "Vie de Marianne," Paris, 1731-41.

[530] Book i. chap. 81, Luce's edition.

[531] The canonisation took place shortly after the death of the archbishop, 1170-73. There is nothing left to-day but an old marble mosaic, greatly restored, to indicate the place in the choir where the shrine used to be.

[532] A map of the road from London to Canterbury, drawn in the seventeenth century, but showing the line of the old highway, has been reproduced by Dr. Furnivall in his "Supplementary Canterbury Tales--I. The Tale of Beryn," Chaucer Society, 1876, 8vo.

[533] "E forse a queste cose scrivere, quantunque sieno umilissime, si sono elle venute parecchi volte a starsi meco." Prologue of "Giornata Quarta."

[534] "Pardoner's Tale," ll. 904, 920, 931.

[535] The setting of the tales into their proper order is due to Bradshaw and Furnivall; see Furnivall's "Temporary Preface" for the "Six-text edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales," Chaucer Society, 1868. The order, subject, and originals of the tales are follows:--

_1st Day._ London to Dartford, 15 miles.--Tale of the Knight, history of Palamon and Arcyte, derived from Boccaccio's "Teseide."--Tale of the Miller: story of Absolon, Nicholas and Alisoun the carpenter's wife, source unknown.--Reeve's tale, imitated from the French fabliau of Gombert and the two clerks (above, p. 155); same tale in Boccaccio, ix. 6, from whom La Fontaine took it: "le Berceau."--Cook's tale, unfinished; the tale of Gamelyn attributed by some MSS. to the Cook seems to be simply an old story which Chaucer intended to remodel; it would suit the Yeoman better than the Cook (in "Complete Works," as an appendix to vol. iv.).

_2nd Day._ Stopping at Rochester, 30 miles.--Tale of the Man of Law: history of the pious Constance, from the French of Trivet, an Englishman who wrote also Latin chronicles, &c., same story in Gower, who wrote it ab. 1393.--Shipman's tale: story of a merchant of St. Denys, his wife, and a wicked monk, from some French fabliau, or from "Decameron," viii. 1.--Tale of the Prioress: a child killed by Jews, from the French of Gautier de Coinci.--Tales by Chaucer: Sir Thopas, a caricature of the romances of chivalry; story of Melibeus, from a French version of the "Liber consolationis et consilii" of Albertano of Brescia, thirteenth century.--Monk's tale: "tragedies" of Lucifer, Adam, Sampson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia, Pedro the Cruel, Pierre de Lusignan king of Cyprus, Barnabo Visconti (d. 1385), Hugolino, Nero, Holofernes, Antiochus, Alexander, Caesar, Croesus; from Boccaccio, Machault, Dante, the ancients, &c.--Tale of the Nun's Priest: Story of Chauntecleer, same story in "Roman de Renart" and in Marie de France.

_3rd Day._ Rest at Ospringe, 46 miles.--Tale of the Physician: Appius and Virginia, from Titus Livius and the "Roman de la Rose;" same story in Gower.--Pardoner's tale: three young men find a treasure, quarrel over it and kill each other, an old legend, of which, however, we have no earlier version than the one in the "Cento Novelle antiche," nov. 82.--Tale of the Wife of Bath: story of the young knight saved by an old sorceress, whom he marries and who recovers her youth and beauty; the first original of this old legend is not known; same story in Gower (Story of Florent), and in Voltaire: "Ce qui plait aux Dames."--Friar's tale: a summoner taken away by the devil, from one of the old collections of _exempla_.--Tale of the Summoner (somnour, sompnour): a friar ill-received by a moribund; a coarse, popular story, a version of which is in "Til Ulespiegel."--Clerk of Oxford's tale: story of Griselda from Petrarch's Latin version of the last tale in the "Decameron."--Merchant's tale: old January beguiled by his wife May and by Damian; there are several versions of this story, one in the "Decameron," vii. 9, which was made use of by La Fontaine, ii. 7.

_4th Day._ Reach Canterbury, 56 miles.--Squire's tale: unfinished story of Cambinscan, king of Tartary; origin unknown, in part from the French romance of "Cleomades."--Franklin's tale: Aurelius tries to obtain Dorigen's love by magic; same story in Boccaccio's "Filocopo," and in the "Decameron," x. 5.--Tale of the second nun: story of St. Cecilia, from the Golden Legend.--Tale of the Canon's Yeoman: frauds of an alchemist (from Chaucer's personal experience?).--Manciple's tale: a crow tells Phoebus of the faithlessness of the woman he loves; from Ovid, to be found also in Gower.--Parson's tale, from the French "Somme des Vices et des Vertus" of Friar Lorens, 1279.

[536] "Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 538. The canon and his man join the pilgrims during the fourth day's journey. Contrary to Chaucer's use, such a keen animosity appears in this satire of alchemists that it seems as if the poet, then rather hard up, had had himself a grudge against such quacks.

[537] l. 1963. Compare the mendicant friar in Diderot, who drew him from nature, centuries later; it is the same sort of nature. Friar John "venait dans notre village demander des oeufs, de la laine, du chanvre, des fruits a chaque saison." Friar John "ne passait pas dans les rues que les peres, les meres et les enfants n'allassent a lui et ne lui criassent: Bonjour, frere Jean, comment vous portez vous, frere Jean? Il est sur que quand il entrait dans une maison, la benediction du ciel y entrait avec lui." "Jacques le Fataliste et son Maitre," ed. Asseline, p. 46.

[538] "Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 285; on Geoffrey de Vinesauf and Richard, see above, p. 180.

[539] See for example his description of a young lady gathering flowers at dawn in a garden, at the foot of a "dongeoun," Knight's Tale, l. 190, "Complete Works," iv. p. 31.

[540] But very popular, derived from the "Liber Consolationis" of Albertano of Brescia, written ab. 1246, ed. Thor Sundby, Chaucer Society, 1873. It was translated into French (several times), Italian, German, Dutch. French text in MS. Reg. 19, C vii. in the British Museum: "Uns jouvenceauls appele Melibee, puissant et riches ot une femme nomme Prudence, et de celle femme ot une fille. Advint un jour...." "A young man," says Chaucer, whose tale is also in prose, "called Melibeus, mighty and riche, bigat up-on his wyf that called was Prudence, a doghter which that called was Sophie. Upon a day befel...." (iv. 119).

[541] Unlike most of the tales, this one is written in stanzas, Chaucer's favourite seven-line stanza, rhyming _a b a b b c c_.

[542] It is to be found in the "Menagier de Paris," ab. 1393, the author of which declares that he will "traire un exemple qui fut ja pieca translate par maistre Francois Petrarc qui a Romme fut couronne poete" ("Menagier," 1846, vol. i. p. 99). The same story finds place in "Melibeus," MS. Reg. 19 C vii. in the British Museum, fol. 140. Another French translation was printed ab. 1470: "La Patience Griselidis Marquise de Saluces." Under Louis XIV., Perrault wrote a metrical version of the same story: "La Marquise de Saluces ou la patience de Griselidis," Paris, 1691, 12mo. A number of ballads in all countries were dedicated to Griselda; the popularity of an English one is shown by the fact of other ballads being "to the tune of Patient Grissel." One of Miss Edgeworth's novels has for its title and subject: "The Modern Griselda."

[543] One in French was performed at Paris in 1395 ("Estoire de Griselidis ... par personnages," MS. Fr. 2203 in the National Library, Paris), and was printed at the Renaissance, by Bonfons, ab. 1550: "Le Mystere de Griselidis"; one in German was written by Hans Sachs in 1550. In Italy it was the subject of an opera by Apostolo Zeno, 1620. In England, Henslowe, on the 15th of December, 1599, lends three pounds to Dekker, Chettle and Haughton for their "Pleasant comodie of Patient Grissil," printed in 1603, reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, 1841. The English authors drew several hints from the French play, but theirs is the best written on the subject (parts of Julia, the witty sister of the Marquis, of Laureo, the poor student, brother of Griselda, as proud as she is humble, &c.).

[544] Lady Bradshaigh to Richardson, January 11, 1749. "Correspondence of Samuel Richardson," ed. Barbauld, London, 1804, 6 vols. 12mo, vol. iv. p. 240.

[545] "Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 568.

[546]

Listeth, lordes, in good entent, And I wol telle verrayment Of mirthe and of solas, &c.

The caricature of the popular heroic stories of the day is extremely close (see below, p. 347).

[547] Tale of the Canon's Yeoman, l. 995.

[548]

... For the tyrant is of gretter might, By force of meynee for to sleen doun-right, And brennen hous and hoom, and make al plain, Lo! therfor is he cleped a capitain; And, for the outlawe hath but smal meynee, And may nat doon so greet an harm as he, Ne bringe a contree to so greet mescheef, Men clepen him an outlawe or a theef.

(Maunciple's tale, in "Complete Works," iv. p. 562.)

[549] "A Treatise on the Astrolabe" in "Complete Works," vol. iii. p. 175.

[550] "General Prologue," l. 742.

[551] "Troilus," Book v. st. 257.

[552] "Chaucer's wordes unto Adam, his owne Scriveyn," in "Complete Works," vol. i. p. 379.

[553] "Je te suppliray seulement d'une chose, lecteur, de vouloir bien prononcer mes vers et accomoder ta voix a leur passion ... et je te supplie encore de rechef, ou tu verras cette marque: (!) vouloir un peu eslever ta voix pour donner grace a ce que tu liras." Preface of the "Franciade."

[554] So says the Parson, who adds:

Ne, God wot, rym holde I but litel bettre.

Parson's Prologue, l. 43. It will be observed that while _naming_ simply rhyme, he _caricatures_ alliteration.

[555] 1391, in "Complete Works," vol. iii. On that other, _possible_ son of Chaucer, Thomas, see _ibid._, vol. i. p. xlviii., and above, p. 273.

[556] "Truth," or "Balade de bon Conseyl," in "Complete Works," vol. i. p. 390. Belonging to the same period: "Lak of Stedfastnesse" (advice to the king himself); "L'Envoy de Chaucer a Scogan"; "L'Envoy de Chaucer a Bukton," on marriage, with an allusion to the Wife of Bath; "The Compleynt of Venus"; "The Compleint of Chaucer to his empty purse," &c., all in vol. i. of "Complete Works."

[557] It has been said, but without sufficient cause, that this friendship came to an end some time before the death of Chaucer.

[558]

He in the waast is shape as wel as I.

(Prologue to Sir Thopas.)

[559] To be seen (1894) under glass in the Chapter House.

[560] "Hoccleve's Works," ed. Furnivall, E.E.T.S., 1892, vol. i. p. xxi.

[561] One ab. 1478, the other ab. 1484; this last is illustrated. See in "English Novel in the time of Shakespeare," p. 45, a facsimile of the woodcut representing the pilgrims seated at the table of the Tabard inn.

[562] "Animadversions uppon the Annotacions and corrections of some imperfections of impressiones of Chaucers workes...." by Francis Thynne, ed. Furnivall and Kingsley, Chaucer Society, 1876, p. xiv.

[563] _Ibid._

[564] "Shepheard's Calender," December.

[565] "Of whom, truly I know not, whether to mervaile more, either that he in that mistie time could see so clearly, or that wee in this cleare age walke so stumblingly after him." "Apologie for Poetrie," ed. Arber, p. 62.

[566] The subject of Chaucer's fame is treated at great length in Lounsbury's "Studies in Chaucer, his life and writings," London, 1892, 3 vols. 8vo, vol. iii. ch. vii., "Chaucer in Literary History."

[567] The Chaucer Society, founded by Dr. Furnivall, which has published among other things, the "Six-text edition of the Canterbury Tales"; some "Life Records of Chaucer"; various "Essays" on questions concerning the poet's works; a collection of "Originals and Analogues" illustrative of the "Canterbury Tales," &c. Among modern tributes paid to Chaucer may be added Wordsworth's modernisation of part of "Troilus" (John Morley's ed., p. 165), and Lowell's admirable essay in his "Study Windows."

## CHAPTER III.

_THE GROUP OF POETS._

The nation was young, virile, and productive. Around Chaucer was a whole swarm of poets; he towers above them as an oak towers above a coppice; but the oak is not isolated like the great trees that are sometimes seen beneath the sun, alone in the midst of an open country. Chaucer is without peer but not without companions; and, among those companions, one at least deserves to be ranked very near him.

He has companions of all kinds, nearly as diverse as those with whom he had associated on the road to Canterbury. Some are continuators of the old style, and others are reformers; some there are, filled with the dreamy spirit of the Anglo-Saxons; there are others who care little for dreams and theories, who are of the world, and will not leave the earth; some who sing, others who hum, others who talk. Certain poems are like clarions, and celebrate the battle of Crecy, of which Chaucer had not spoken; others resemble lovers' serenades; others a dirge for the dead.