of the middle ages what a high cultivation is requisite for the production of a good prose.1 Verse, and not prose, is the natural vehicle for the expression of every language in its infancy, and it is certainly not in prose that Chaucer's genius shows to best advantage. The restrictions of metre were indeed to him as silken fetters, while the freedom of prose only served to embarrass him; just as a bird that has been born and bred in captivity, whose traditions are all domestic, finds itself at a sad loss when it escapes from its cage and has to fall back on its own resources for sustenance. In reading 'Boece,' we have often as it were to pause and look on while Chaucer has a desperate wrestle with a tough sentence; but though now he may appear to be down, with a victorious knee upon him, next moment he is on his feet again, disclaiming defeat in a gloss which makes us doubt whether his adversary had so much the best of it after all. But such strenuous endeavour, even when it is crowned with success, is strange in a writer one of whose chief charms is the delightful ease, the complete absence of effort, with which he says his best things. It is only necessary to compare the passages of Boethius in the prose version with the same when they re1 Op. cit., p. 141. appear in the poems, to realise how much better they look in their verse dress. Let the reader take Troylus's soliloquy on Freewill and Predestination (book iv. st. 134-148) and read it side by side with the corresponding passage in 'Boece' (M., pp. 152-159), and he cannot fail to feel the superiority of the former to the latter. With what clearness and precision does the argument unfold itself, how close is the reasoning, how vigorous and yet graceful is the language! It is to be regretted that Chaucer did not do for all the metra of the Consolation' what he did for the fifth of the second book. A solitary gem like "The Former Age" makes us long for a whole set. Sometimes, whether unconsciously or of set purpose it is difficult to decide, his prose slips into verse :"It likep me to shew by subtil songe Wip slakke and delitable soun of strenges" (iii. m. 2). "Whan fortune wip a proude ry3t hand" (ii. m. 1). "And þat þe leest isle in þe see þat hyst tile be pral to be" (iii. m. 5). And there are instances where he actually reproduces the original Latin metre: "O 3e my frendes what or wherto auaunted 3e me to be weleful For he þat hap fallen stood not in stedfast degree" (i. m. 1). "Weyne pou joie Drif fro pe drede Fleme pou hope" (i. m. 7). "He 3af to be sonne hys bemes He 3af to be moone hir hornes He 3af þe men to the erpe He 3af the sterres to be heuene He enclosep wip membres pe soules þat comen fro hys heye sete. þanne comen all mortal folk of noble seed Whi noysen ze or bosten of 3oure eldris " (iii. m. 6). SECTION XII.-JOHN THE CHAPLAIN (early fifteenth century). Authorities.-Warton's History of English Poetry' (1774-81), vol. ii., sec. 2. Todd's 'Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer' (1810). MSS. in B. M., 18 a. xiii.* (early xv.); Harl. 43 (xv.); Harl. 44 (xv1⁄2); Sl. 554 (xv1). The reader will remember that we settled the probable date of Chaucer's 'Boëce' to be somewhere about 1380. Before another generation had passed, the hand of the translator was busy once more with the Consolation.' This time it is a verse rendering into eight-line stanzas, made in 1410 by a certain Johannes Capellanus. It is not easy to establish this writer's identity. For while the majority of MSS. are simply signed with the above name and designation, a copy of the book printed at Tavistock in 1525 qualifies the author as Johannes Waltunen (John Walton); one MS. further states that he was canon of Osney; 1 and another calls him, not Walton, 1 Hearne, Præf. in Camdeni Annales, p. 133. but Tebaud alias Watyrbeche.1 The balance of evidence seems in favour of John Walton, who undertook the translation at the request of Dame Elisabeth Berkeley. It is at least certain that Johannes Capellanus is not John Lydgate, as Peiper, led astray perhaps by the B. M. Catalogue, affirms. The translator, whoever he was, did his work well, so far as I am able to judge from a cursory examination of the manuscripts in London. The student of our literary history will note with interest a passage in the prologue where the writer acknowledges his debt to Chaucer, and modestly disclaims all wish or power to compete with him or Gower : "I have herd spek, and sumwhat have yseyn Pogh I to peym in makyng am unmete 3it most I shewe it forth þat is in me." 1 Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, Introd., p. 31. 2 Entremettre. But the importance of the translation does not lie, as far as our present purpose is concerned, in its literary merit, so much as in the fact that when the only poet of the reign of Henry IV.1 took up his song, the theme should once more be the Consolation of Philosophy.' For the sake of consistency, let me give the first and last stanzas of ii. m. 5 as a specimen of John the Chaplain : “Full wonder blisseful was þat raper age When mortal men couthe holde hymself payed To fede beym self wit oute suche outerage Wip mete þat trewe feldes have arrayed I wold our tyme might turne certanly 1 Vide Warton, op. cit., p. 34. |