Chaucer and His Times

of state were held by bishops meant, of necessity, that more and more of their purely ecclesiastical work was delegated to subordinates. In the ten years between 1376-86, out of twenty-fiv

ncreased tenfold. They frequently exercised authority in the bishop's court, and in those days the powers of ecclesiastical cour

as dwellinge

n, a man of

··

thes and for

peple pitous

hop caughte hem

n the erched

s to administer the sacraments of the Church, and between this urgent necessity for ministers to bury the dead, to baptise and marry, and the fact that many of the richer livings had fallen into the hands of foreigners, who cared nothing for the peasants committed to their charge, or of the great Abbeys, which were ready enough to appoint some illiterate boor, just able to stumble through his office, to act as their deputy at a nominal salary, it is small wonder that crying abuses came into exi

t his benef

sheep encombr

ondon, un-to

chaunterie fo

therhed to be

oom, and kepte

o wring their last penny from

im to cursen for

f poverty, chastity, and obedience, set by their founders, took unscrupulous advantage of the ignorance and superstition of the people, and, like the pardoners, often u

s of the Church-the number of recantations and paucity of martyrs among the early Lollards show that it was not doctrine that they wished to reform-but injustice and oppression were inevitably arousing a

Lollardy, and that the Shipman expresses a pious horror of heresy, cannot be said to prove anything either way. It may be intended as a carefully concealed compliment to the influence

okkel in our c

Parson is a devout Catholic, the Monk, with all his faults, is at worst but a forerunner of the fox-hunting squarson of later days, with all the geniality and good-fellowship of his race. If Chaucer attacks the clergy, it is only for those things which the best Churchm

t Chaucer passed through a phase of intense religious feeling. "A worldling has to reproach himself with all sorts of things," he writes, "especially when he lives at a court like that of Edward III and is intimate with a John of Gaunt. Chaucer ... naturally seeks in religion the power for self-conquest and improvement. He was a faithful son of the Church, even though he had his own opinions about many things.... He was speciall

salv

en in sorwe an

le Ages. Indeed, it is said that more than one anti-Semitic outbreak in Russia during the past forty years has been provoked by the relation of similar tales, and we have just seen the conclusion of a "Blood-ritual" case of th

folk of Her

t to the murderers, but the poet takes no delight in dwelling on their dying agonies, or heaping abuse upon their memory. The point of the tale lies, not in th

eon[172] of sev

f the most beautiful of all Cha

untee, thy m

and thy gre

onge expresse

lady, er men

iforn, of th

the light, thu

un-to thy

marred by no unnecessary word. The picture of the little bo

what this Lat

ng and tendr

ained, is absolutely natural. So is the school

e expounde in

I can[173] but

tragedy is kept in the background. We catch a glimpse of the cruel steel as the Jews cut the boy's throat: we see the white-faced mother

be of marbul

ey his lite

god leve us fo

In the story of Constance, indeed, it would seem as if some momentary doubt of its possibility flashed across his mind, for he goes out of his way to defend the miraculous element

ken why she w

te who mighte

e to that de

niel in the

ht save he, ma

eoun fret er h

od, that he ba

··

s not at the fes

fro drenching[

onas in the

pouted up at

··

et's soul responded to the poetry of worship, a poetry which underlies all forms and ceremonies, which no unworthiness on the part of the officiant can wholly obliterate, no superstition render wholly absurd. He recognises and rebukes the hypocrisy of many who minis

owerful and less inclined to tolerate heretical sympathies than John of Gaunt. Again and again Chaucer comes to the edge of an abyss, and, after one glance into the depths, turns away with a shrug of the shoulders and a half-whimsical, half-satirical smile on his lips. Do

n to do of s

h of Troilus (Troilus and Criseyde, Book IV, stanzas 137-154) proves nothing, except Chaucer's interest in the subject,

Women begins with a characteristic

mes have I he

ye in heven and

de wel that

s, yit wot

noon dwelling

ath in heven

it non othe

herd seyd, or f

wn eyes, but involuntarily we find ourselves recalling his refusal to commit himself as to the probable fate of

ning by which men may escape a threatened fate? In the Nonnes Prestes Tale the subject is treated satirically. Pertelote's arguments against belief in dreams are excellent, and most convincing. All sensible people must share her opinion that Chauntecleer is probably suffering from indige

of the templ

been the r

d as wel they

en infernal

seyn, that of

, or fast, or

th thus what th

es of the Hous of Fame h

s every dr

wonder, b

hat causeth

morwes, or

effect folwe

hit shal ne

cally, refuses to give a

f noon

ow make

application after the manner of Gower or the compiler of the Gesta Romanorum, is sufficiently in sympathy with the spirit of his age to conform to the practice when opportunity occurs. The Somnour, who, by the way, has just had a violent quarrel with the Fria

yeste thing tha

le ends his distinctly unmoral tale wi

l thy tonge, and

e is worse th

of his ende

e with teeth

him avyse wha

ds Troilus and Criseyde. We have followed the passion and sins of the lovers, we have wept with Troilus and forgiven Cressida in spite of ourselves,

sshe folkes

love up growet

om from worl

erte up-caste

od that aft

thinketh al

t passeth sone

the which that

, our soule

roos,[183] and si

lsen no wight

rte al hoolly[1

t to love is,

feyned loves

rtisan. The author of Piers Plowman has left us a picture of the bitter poverty of the peasant class. The complai

s men to murther

s,[186] and fighteth

ernes dore[188] and

··

y for hym uneth

n of the parish took the next best, a condition of things against which we find Sir David Lyndsay protesting, as late as 1560, in his Satyre of the Three Estaats. John Ball, "t

delved and

hen the g

pression, and the old order of feudalism was passing away for ever. But while the nobles were divided by factions among themselves, and the poor beat bleeding hands against the prison walls that hemmed them in, the m

y-chaped[190]

ver, wroght ful

nd hir pouche

ch of hem a

yeldhall[191]

the wisdom

3] for to bee

dde they y-n

yves wolde it

rtain were t

r to been y-c

vigilyes[194

antel royall

of Dawe the dykere dying of hunger, or the poor farmer dining

ayed he ful

opre swink[196]

more than ten years after Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales) that, "What with the noise of their singing, and with the sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canterburie bells, and with the barking out of dogges after them ... they (i. e. pilgrims) make more noise than if the king came there away with all his clarions and man

doun her wat

reshfold, in

hir knees she

contenance

rd what was th

eenth-century poet. It is quite natural to kneel on the floor of the cow-shed wh

mob is shown, not only by his sketches of crowds, but by such passages as that

! unsad[197] a

t and chaung

r in rumbel

mone ay wexe

ng,[198] dere y

, your constance

ol is he that

ts. The earlier version of the Prologue to the Legend of G

king or lord

at be tirau

,[201] to doon

nke hit is h

oweth, of v

peple pleyn

here hir ex

leyntes and

e of Lak of Stedfastnesse holds

esyre to be

folk and hat

ng, that may

at, doon in

hy swerd of

w, love trouthe

olk agein to

nce of the firmament." Lords are bidden to take no pride in their position, and do no wrong to those dependent on them: "I rede thee, certes, that thou, lord, werke in swiche wyse with thy cherles, that they rather love thee than drede. I woot wel ther is degree above degree, as reson is; and skile it is that men do hir devoir ther-as is due; but certes, extorciouns and despit of youre underlinges is dampnable." Chaucer's inborn sense of justice will not allow him to condone oppression, and his spec

peken of swi

ded out of o

ore sholden ye

ance is nat

t is most ve

ert,[203] and

entil dedes

r the grettes

clayme of him

dres for hir

y yeve us al

yme to been of h

nat biquethe,

us hir vert

m gentil men

··

see wel, how

nexed to

··

k, and rede

en express that

ntil that dot

elf could hard

t, quickened his sympathy with poor men. It is true that Florent's wife, in the lines which

bringer out

rced to own that at best it is "hateful good." The Man of Law, in

s the sentenc

yen than hav

ighebour wol

ore, farwel t

··

re, thy brothe

eendes fleen f

aunts, ful of

udent folk as

h to share the pleasant security of those who are able, as Flo

pass before Bacon should raise science, once and for all, above the level where it lay confused with magic and the black art. A generation to whom gunpowder was a novelty, and spectacles an almost miraculous aid to sight, found nothing strange in the sight of learned men seeking for the elixir of life, or the philosopher's stone. In a world which was but just becoming dimly conscious of the mighty forces which lie at

tions. Clocks of any kind were rare in the fourteenth century, and the practice of telling the time by astronomical

onge

am his halfe

r

was the ei

hat is mess

hat the shadw

engthe the s

body erect th

by the shadwe

h that shoon so c

e and fourty cl

day, as in

the clokke, he

e the conclusiouns that have ben founde, or elles possibly mighten be founde in so noble an instrument as an Astrolabie, ben un-knowe perfitly to any mortal man in this regioun, as I suppose. A nother cause is this; that sothly, in any tretis of the Astrolabie that I have seyn, there ben some conclusiouns that wole nat in alle thinges performen hir bihestes; and some of them ben harde to thy tendre age of ten yeer to conseyve." He then explains his reason for writing in English instead of Latin, and finally declares: "I nam bu

, which that me

which might be expected to improve the Somnour's complexion. Per

St. Cecilia the pilgrims ride in silence for awhile, till, close to Boghton under Blee, they are joine

round on which

come to Caun

clene turne

al of silver

rally, why if the Canon "is of so heigh prudence," he we

hath over-

happeth to

th my

e Canon, who is nervous as to what he may be saying, with some sharpness bids him hold his

host, "telle on

ting rekke nat

od he, "namore

im, and the Yeoman settles down to tell the story of the foolish priest and the charlatan.

idde day brogh

eest he took

eest was wonder

no circumstances would he ev

ever man ye

lver that he t

s, if the priest will send for some

preest, "it shal

ant fecchen him

rvant has gone out, and he and the priest are alone, does he solemnly cast various powders on to the blazing coals, "To blynde with the preest." Finally, while his unfortunate victim is busy blowing the fire an

of fourty

e,[206] and to

un, for this

less to say, the

, of vessels and retorts, of chemicals and minerals and their various properties. At the same time, it proves that Chaucer was well aware of the ease with which a very little knowledge combined with a great de

imposed on him, but he is too truly fourteenth century in his point of view always to distinguish between astronomy and astrology. The thought that a man's d

e in thilk

clepe the hev

hat he (i. e. the So

e shulde han hi

erres, clerer

wot, who-so c

every man, wi

st the unfortunate conjunction of constellations which wrought such havoc, and asks if there were no "philos

ginative side of life, are perhaps less often insisted upon, but are no less real. He is no visionary, afraid to face the facts of life, dwelling in a world of beauty and delight which has no counterpart on earth, but a poet who takes no shame in human nature, whose eyes see so

han she wa

words as bold

hat she ne

harm; or

] no good, s

, perhaps, over-ready to plunge into the dust and din of ordinary life,