Chaucer and His Times

ses from the lips of his successors. Shirley, who edited the Knightes Tale (amongst other works of Chaucer's) in the first half of the fifteenth century, speaks of him as "the laureal and most fam

ems were written in close imitation of his style, a

ers into two groups: English Cha

test of them, and of him Professor Saintsbury justly remarks: "It is enough to say that, even in rime royal, his lines wander from seven to fourteen syllables, without the possibility of allowing monosyllabic or trisyllabic feet in any fashion that shall restore the rhythm; and that his couplets, as in the Story of Thebes itself, seem often to be unaware whether they are themselves octosyllabic or de

herte, plonge

slouthe this lon

lepe of mort

and loke u

ilke

Life of

of Fame without attending to their master's excellent advice to flee prolixity. Lydgate, it is true, does show some narrative power. His Troy Book is obviously inspired by Troilus and Creseyde, and his Story of Thebes by the Knightes Tale, but he has neither the conciseness of Gower nor the dramatic insight of Chaucer. Among the 114 works attributed to him, it is only natural that some variety should be shown, and occasionally, as in the London Lickpenny, a skit on contemporary life in the City

trayned in hir

de, as it is o

ere into r

e yeares of

life cannot

es perfecci

advice, addressed to Prince Hal) contains the only authentic portrait of Chaucer-a sketch drawn in the margin by the author himself. The lines wh

ste, and scars

excellence

ove, and yi

t, thogh I

r-God his soul

cer, fayne wold

e, and lerned

orthy maist

erray tresour

dethe hath ha

hir vengeabl

this londe of

yk, for u

man so lyk

··

taryed hir veng

hadde egal

; she wel knew t

forth bringe

ice needes

o, I truste as

ystir, God th

event him from venturing to make use of the same material, and in the C

t unskilful apprentices in the workshop of poetry, who conscientiously blunt their tools and cut their fingers in a vain effort to do the work of master craftsmen. One curious little development is, however, worth noticing. In the latter half of the fifteenth century two poets, Sir George Ripley and Thomas Norton, wrote treatises on alchemy, in verse. Ripley's The Compound of Alchemy, or the Twelve Gates, and Norton's Ordinall of Alchemy, owe their interest in

n this World, is sufficiently described by its title. It stands, as it were, half-way between Chaucer and Spenser, at one moment clearly recalling the love scenes of Troilus and Criseyde, at another reminding us equally forcibly of the elaborate and ingenious allegory of the Faerie Queene. The combination of chivalry and allegory was something new, and though Hawes himself proved incapable of making the most of its possibilities, English literature owes him a real debt. He never rises to

I, "for as mu

speche, I would

ubstantive is

it is so cal

nswered right

that a noune

thout helpe of

Criseyde should be used for s

he rhyme royal-but in the evidence it affords of its author's acquaintance with the English version of the Romance of the Rose. Moreover, in it may be noticed that sympathy with the freshness and joy of n

ale grene twi

eete nyghting

lear, the hym

now softe no

ard(e)nes and

ong, and on the

t harmony, an

that loveres b

iss the kalend

h us, away w

e, the sweet se

e! that have you

y lift up you

t list you to

ture of Joa

the freschest

e, me thoght, b

Chaucer's daint

da paying the penalty of her misdeeds, with all its conventional morality, for sincerity of feeling and felicity of style will bear comparison with its great original. His fables sh

hey disposed

they wash'd an

urses that cook

ef laid out i

e thus could t

ng, they drank

, but yet they

ose even in the ?neid. His Palice of Honour well illustrates the manner in which Chaucer's successors made free with the framework of his poems, while at the same time it shows the growing delight in picturesque effect which was one day to br

om borne in a

earl and stones

was by hackney

n, as lily swe

hemmed with ge

laspes closed

ost pleasan

resses of he

the comparatively modernness of the l

e, borne in a

erle and stani

by haiknayis a

ne, as lyllie

hemmit with

claspis clos

aist plesan

ressis of he

and a scepte

iquity. A "ballet of inconstant love" follows. This offends Venus, and the poet is brought before her to answer for his lack of respect. Poetry, the Muses, and the Poets from Homer to Chaucer and Dunbar, form a Court. Calliope pleads for him, and he is allowed to

tured in ain p

t of ain fair

shaddowit wi

h

is rinnand ouir s

ise, the shaw

and sounding o

e summit of which stands the Palace of Honour. As he climbs he sees before him a dreadful abyss out of which proceed flames. His ears are filled with the sound of terrible cries; on either side lie dead bodies. These beings in torment are they who set out to pursue Honour, but "fell on sleuthfull sleip," and so were "drownit in the loch of cair." (It has been suggested by critics bent on

mists of fifteenth-century poetry are dispersing before its warmth and brilliance; but the radiance that heralds the new era is that of sunrise, flushing the world with a wonder of colour, rather than of that light of common day in which Chaucer is content

Friars of Berwick, or the Treatise of the Two Married Women and the Widow, broadly comic fabliaux which might well have found a place among the Canterbury Tales. One of the wittiest of his poems is the Visitation of St. Francis, in which the poet describes how his patron saint appeared to him in a dream, bidding him wear the habit of a friar. Dunbar answers slyly that he has noticed more bishops than friars are among th

have a da

e quarrel had been mad

Dog: he i

oughly have enjoyed telling the story of the flying friar of Tungland who courted disaster by using hen's feathers. Chaucerian, too, in the truest sense, is Dunbar's power of combining this keen sense of the ridiculous with a no less keen appreciation of beauty. The charm of his verse is incontestible, and his skill in making effective use of burdens and refrains shows an ear sensitive to music. The Thistle

h the shield of Reason proves no defence against the arrows of Beauty,

e the birdes s

rtains green, i

e and red with

the field wi

pes shook in s

m did branch and

Ph?bus did

ars I saw hang

ve all drank up

··

y with skippes

g upon the ten

otes as Venus

new spreding of

ht with hevenly b

red, burning

for shouting

Love, Earthly and Divine, draws a by no means unimpressive picture of the Dance of the

rtis con

transitoriness of a

literature in England were not such as to lead its poets to model themselves on Chaucer.

cer, rose of re

ongue a flo

itain ever, who

f makers[227] t

amelled term

ld illumined ha

of our English

every tongue

yes morrow d

me mute, and the result was that the poets of the new age found Chaucer's lines impossible to scan. A generation whose taste was formed on Classical and Italian models, whose precisians urged the necessity of discarding "bald and beggarly rhymning" in favour of the classical system of accent, had not patience enough to rediscover the laws that governed Chaucer's verse. I

homely, as I

lived, was the

ll, that been w

s on to pr

ssing skil wit

of doth dayly

erence in the

well of Engli

l beadroll wort

speaks of Chaucer as "a perpetual fountain of good sense." Book III, canto xxv of the Faerie Queene contains a parap

mbell, and st

d Cambine linck

least probable that in this respect the Faerie Queene owes a debt to Troilus and Criseyde. In Mother Hubbard's Tale and Colin Clouts come home again, Spenser is frankly, though unsuccessfully, imitating Chaucer's style. William Browne, the poet of Tavistock, also showed his admiration for C

r unto

the brav

ed on pl

cer the name bestow

s influence. Towards the end of the century, however, there was a revival of interest. Dryden tells us that Mr. Cowley declared he had no taste of him, but my lord of Leicester, on the other hand, was so warm an admirer of the Canterbury Tales that he thought it "little less than profanation and sacrilege" to modernise their language, and not until his death di

an express th

l, and suffer

··

d; excuse my fa

eble, and my p

ay, I only g

ose my char

men of the poetry of 169

English. (See Miss Spurgeon's Chaucer devant la Critique, pp. 62-75.) But while these, and numerous other works of the same kind, prove that Chaucer was widely read at the time, they afford no evidence at all of his having any direct influence upon the general development of eighteenth-century poetry. His place as an English classic is firmly established, but centuries have passed since he wrote, and the point of view of the men of the new age differs too widely from that of their forefathers for any imitation to be possible, except by way of a conscious experiment. The most amazing of all modernisations was that of 1841. Richard Hengist Horne, inspired, if we may believe his own words, by no less a person than Wordsworth, hit on the most unfortunate idea of issuing Chaucer's poems in two volumes done into modern Englis

the moderniser. However great may be the changes that are to pass over our language, however strange the tongue of fourteenth-century England may sound i

ucer I

es I ha

er is d

s and co

lish we

t enpro

it is e

no engl

days moch

en wold h

e where-at

e all th

that famo

es were n

nt, easy,

he wrote

lines to the Book of

IOGR

d notes, seven volumes

Medieval. "Home University Libr

ol. ii, pp. 33-199. Translated by W. Clarke

Chaucer, translated by M. Benti

his Life and Writings (James R.

r and his England (Me

of John Dryden, ed. W. P. Ker, vol. ii

haucer Society (Kegan

ucer. "English

rature, vol. ii (Cambridg

from the Norman Conquest to Ch

easury of English Literature,

AND FRE

ucer Studien (

Bloud et Cie., 1910) (Eng.

vant la critique (Ha

N

Chaucer'

omen Unco

and Ar

s Complei

Geor

39, 49, 51, 63, 6

olations of Phi

40, 43-6, 47, 49, 50, 62, 64, 106,

aw, He

, Will

Bened

ry of Literatur

, 67, 83, 107, 117-29, 136-41, 15

Yemannes

r, Agn

crypha

lizab

ffrey,

tion,

age,

life,

th,

hn, 8,

ewis,

ginals and An

Philipp

omas,

Lionel,

16, 19, 46, 12

t of Mar

t to his

e unto Pi

Chaucer and hi

f Love,

, 48, 50, 54,

e, Guillaum

s, Gaw

of Chaucer

ar,

ohn, 248,

ding

e, 128, 129, 13

Tale, 1

ll, Dr.

oign

15, 18, 21, 25,

ohn, 22,

Stephen

Proverbs

on, 23

21, 53-62, 128, 153, 155

n, Be

. P.,

uair, th

73-6, 83, 128, 132,

tedfastn

Walter S

on, 3

he, 11, 21, 25, 42, 62,

nd,

a Sco

haucer a Bu

sbur

ait of medi?va

cation,

of Gl

Chaucer on,

. Cecyle,

Guillaume

, 47, 85-97, 136,

es Tale,

es Tale,

es Bea

ale, 148,

ton

Tale, 4

94, 97-100, 140, 141, 1

, Thom

229-34,

Engendering of M

d Arcite,

Tale, 8,

7, 40, 49, 50-3, 62, 64, 69, 10

es Tal

ch, 19

iens T

wman, 33,

Alexan

ses Tal

ter

Sir Ge

Richa

Rose, the, 41,

sh metrical, 34

bury,

nnes Tale,

, Romeo and

22, 127, 132, 1

pas, 82

note, vi, 24, 30,

quotation

ge of Ch

s Tale,

t, 10

, 188-9, 195, 235

, 79-82, 133,

ft,

f English Literature

Wyf of Bathe,

semou

the Astrolab

las, 84 (note

, 76-9, 82, 103, 106-17, 118, 136, 137, 165,

ballade

ons, Limited, Lo

Universit

ern Kn

ies of New and Spec

IT

MURRAY, D.Litt

ISHER, LL

ARTHUR TH

T. BREWS

-n

256 Pag

lea

and Ge

RENCH RE

t is coloured with all the militancy of

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EMS OF VI

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MON-SEN

. Vinograd

NT By Prof. A.

repa

. By F. Ll. G

. By D. G. Hogar

F EUROPE. By Herb

EMPIRE. By Nor

N. By Presiden

OF RUSSIA. By

Y. By D. G.

O-DAY. By A

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HE COMMUNITY. By V

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By Prof. J. L. M

ING. By Ra

ILLIAMS A

ookshops and

tno

t I gained

hidde

fa

4

histories to which

f Britain and of

corpse (i. e. An

ed this dead corpse, an

erte,

God

ontra

] k

se somethi

] f

he thing I d

ays folk what

1

so wallowed i

and am entan

1

rarch, the

called, whose

all Italy

ully dazed

n which dead b

table fo

vergre

Tal

s for death, i. e. is of

e, of which

uitable for m

th chee

re is n

ighway, and let th

fear but that truth

sca

] t

] h

] d

pole's Pricke of Conscience (Morris and Skeat,

nglish romances see Professor Ker's volume on

lik

btaine

3

stone ball, in

cloth, I do not kno

and short coat, and

e like those of

owman, V

A p

mea

companion

e most gra

plo

art hard

ign

rs of tale

tru

jou

] d

e he utter

hymn for yo

l make f

urled

embro

aying t

fine

compl

worth

m Chaucer's Originals and Analogues

of the seven sciences i

rbarous

] d

com

atter if

ve us but

sprin

our joy e

] m

ave pi

ueful

ove has g

] e

reeks thus soon

arving

st thou as if

cannot always

d (lit. it is

ut doubt, to e

ost died

most timi

] p

] m

e wrot

che

sig

I must act

jeo

or the jangling

] b

ame will be in

pen

] l

] b

revere

reak,

] c

] t

des

ems goo

gli

as my bra

imply b

propitious conjun

change of

Wall

bbles mentioned by Sir John Mandeville in his Travel

angerous gulf of Qua

hear

was likely to be

1

bread of pur

ves be called

] bu

1

ps cramfu

xed wit

ami, fai

] je

riba

] le

trouble to

have all my se

ith to colou

blackberrying, i. e. I d

curate of

ractise

1]

2]

uesses according

orse of Sin

5]

whis

igno

] st

] du

0]

1]

1

eed and b

geth the

cuc

3]

steady

5]

toge

ickly from th

is there to tell

pay no attention

ell to

hot-

tes on t

roused

toge

] th

] gr

7]

r looke

should I b

cond

] br

amed like a fu

cond

4]

] gi

] ap

ngs of her

tched he

entici

eyebrows

ere arched, and

ind of ea

udded wi

] pu

] br

a swee

7]

flowers than the se

take charge of a parish while the vicar went to London and earned a handsome and easy liv

xcommunicate those who

sow tares

chor

3]

rant that w

by the lion ere

] sl

drow

] do

temper

glut

drea

] fi

died a

] wh

serv

] fa

] ma

eth down my

dare look round,

] ti

guil

2]

suit

ld on the vigils

r convenience sake, to denote the

is own

unst

] ch

Jane, i. e. a sm

is false, your con

. one who

ed and cut

secret an

] bi

not care

] fe

] kn

] kn

o religion, i. e. were

my mind, and lit

] re

vengeful

3]

] tw

] st

prec

7]

8]

] pe

grey s

1]

] fl

tree

4]

ps clear

r of all rh

] po

] pr

riber'

s been correct

ormation, inconsistencies in spelling and hyp