His body was bolled,1 for wrath he bit his lips, Wroth-like he wrung his fist; he thought him to wreak 2 With works or with words when he seeth his time.... And as a leathern purse lolled his cheeks, Well syder3 than his chin, they shrivelled for eld. And as a bondman of his bacon his beard was be- With an hood on his head, a lousy hat above, Mercy and Truth. Out of the west, as it were, a wench, as methought, These are vivid pictures, and there are many such in Langland-strong repulsive delineations of vice, misery, and corruption. He was an earnest moral teacher, not an imaginative poet. He had none of the chivalrous sentiment or gay fancy of his great contemporary Chaucer. Langland thus closes his vision of Piers the Plowman, Passus vii. (language modernised) : Now hath the Pope power pardon to grant the Withouten any penance, to passen into heaven? And have indulgences double-fold; but if Do-well I set your patents and your pardons at one pie's heel!1 GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Although our mixed language had now risen into importance, and a period of literary activity had commenced, it required a genius like that of Chaucer-who was familiar with continental as well as classic literature, and with various modes of life at home and abroad, besides enjoying the special favour of the court-to give consistency and permanence to the language and poetry of England. Henceforward, his native style, which Spenser terms' the pure well of English undefiled,' formed a standard of composition. GEOFFREY CHAUCER Could not boast of any high lineage-his father and grandfather were London vintners.* The date of his birth is uncertain. He died in 1400, and there is an old tradition that he was then seventy-two years of age; consequently, born in 1328. The poet's own testimony, however, seems at variance with this statement. In the famous controversy in 1386 between Richard, Lord Scrope, and Sir Robert Grosvenor, concerning their coat of arms, Chaucer was examined as a witness, and in the deposition he is stated to be 'of the age of forty years and upward, and to have borne arms twenty-seven years.' This would place his birth about 1345, instead of 1328. The earliest notice of the poet occurs in some fragments of the Household Book of the Lady Elizabeth, wife of Prince Lionel, son of Edward III., of the date of 1357. From these it appears that payments were made for articles of dress and 'necessaries' to Chaucer (Quodcumque ligaueris super terram, erit ligatum et in a suit of clothes and shoes, 7s., with a donation celis, &c.), And so I leave it verily (Lord forbid else!) But to trust to these triennales, truly me thinketh Upon trust of your treasure triennales to have, To purchase you pardon and the Pope's bulls. A poke full of pardons there, ne provinciales letters, 7 Masses said for three years. 9 Men; Anglo-Saxon rinc, a warrior (SKEAT). 10 The four orders of Friars. of 3s. 6d. He was then probably a page to the Lady Elizabeth. In 1359 he accompanied the royal army to France, doubtless in the retinue of Prince Lionel. If we take the 'forty years and upwards' to signify forty-three or forty-four, he was then sixteen or seventeen-an age not two early for a youth in the royal household to enter military service. There is no evidence as to the education of the poet, though he is said to have studied both at Cambridge and Oxford. Having joined Edward III.'s army which invaded France in 1359, he was taken prisoner, but was soon set free, the king giving, in March 1360, £16 towards his ransom. A blank of six years occurs, but when the name of Chaucer reappears in the public records, he is found attached to the court and 1 Pie's heel, magpie's heel, a curious expression. But the Cambridge manuscript has pese hule, that is, a pea's hull, a pea-shell, husk of a pea.-SKEAT. The Cambridge manuscript is surely the correct reading. 2 Mene, medium, Mediator. 3 Hight, commanded. *This point has been settled by the researches of Mr F. J. Furnival, editor-in-chief of the Chaucer Society. Richard Chaucer, vintner of London, in April 1349, bequeathed his tenement_and tavern to the Church of St Mary, Aldermary. His son, John Chaucer, 'citizen and vintner,' Thames Street, in July 1349 executed a deed relating to some lands. The poet, by deed, in 1380 released all right in his father's house in Thames Street to Henry Herbury, vintner. This pedigree confirms Fuller's joke, that some wits had made Chaucer's arms (argent and gules) the dashing of white and red wine, as nicking his father's profession' (FULLER'S Church History, Book iv.). December 1386, Chaucer was superseded in his To you, my purse, and to none other wight, I am so sorry now that ye be light; engaged in diplomatic service. About 1366, he married Philippa, one of the ladies of the chamber to the queen, daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and sister of Katherine Swynford, the mistress, and ultimately the wife of John of Gaunt. In 1367 the king granted Chaucer an annuity of 20 marks by the title of valettus noster, our yeoman, so that he then stood in the intermediate rank between squire and groom. In 1369 he was on a second invasion of France. In 1372 he was appointed envoy, with two others, to Genoa, and he was then styled scutifer, or squire. It is supposed that on this occasion he made a tour of the northern states of Italy, and visited Petrarch, who was at Arqua, near Padua, in 1373. The poet's mission to Italy was to confer with the Duke and merchants of Genoa, for the purpose of choosing some port in England where the Genoese might form a commercial establishment; and he had discharged his duty satisfactorily, for next year, on the celebration of St George's day, 23d April, at Windsor, Chaucer received a grant of a pitcher of wine daily (commuted in 1378 for a yearly payment of 20 marks), and in June was appointed comptroller of the customs and subsidy of wool, skins, &c. in the port of London. The duties of his office he had to perform personally, writing the rolls with his own hand; and in his House of Fame he refers to this period, stating that when his labour was all done, and his 'reckonings' all made, he used to go home to his house, and sit at his books till he appeared dazed or lost in study. The same year (1374) Chaucer received a pension of £10 from the Duke of Lancaster, and the city authorities of London granted him for life a lease of the dwelling-house above the gate of Aldgate. Next year he was appointed guardian of a certain Edmond Staplegate of Kent, and received for wardship and marriage fee a sum of £104. In 1377 we find him joint-envoy on a secret mission to Flanders, and afterwards sent to France to treat of peace with Charles V., and to negotiate a secret treaty for the marriage of Richard, Prince of Wales, with Mary, daughter of the king of France. Richard succeeded to the throne by the death of Edward III., June 21, 1377, and Chaucer was reappointed one of the king's esquires. In May 1378 he was sent with Sir Edward Berkeley to Lombardy on a mission 'touching the king's expedition of war.' The prosperous poet was now allowed to discharge his duties as comptroller of customs by deputy, and he thus had greater leisure to devote himself to the composition of his Canterbury Tales. Shortly after his return from Italy, Chaucer appears in a questionable light. By a deed, dated 1st of May 1379, enrolled on the Close Roll of 3 Richard II., Cecilia Chaumpaigne, daughter of the then late William Chaumpaigne and Agnes his wife, released to Geoffrey Chaucer all her rights of action against him for his abduction of her, 'de raptu meo.' The poet may have carried off the young lady, as Mr Furnival suggests, to marry her to one of his friends, or the charge may have been dismissed as unfounded. In 1386 Chaucer sat in parliament as one of the knights of the shire for Kent. But the Duke of Gloucester succeeding to the government in place As clerk of the royal works, riding about with money to pay of the Duke of Lancaster, then abroad, and with wages, &c., Chaucer was exposed to danger. On September 3, whom he was at enmity, the poet, as friend and 1390, he was robbed at the Foul Oak' of £20, his horse, and protégé of the latter, may have shared in the ill-movables. The king forgave him the £20, and the robber, who had appealed by wager of battle against his accomplice, was will of the duke. It is certain that, on the 4th of hanged. In May 1398 Chaucer got letters of protection to The personal appearance of the poet is partly described by himself in the Prologue to Sir Thopas. Thou lookest as thou wouldst find an hare, His character may be seen in his works. He was the counterpart of Shakspeare in cheerfulness and benignity of disposition-no enemy to mirth and joviality, yet delighting in his books, and studious in the midst of an active life. He was opposed to all superstition and priestly abuse, but playful in his satire, with a keen sense of the ludicrous, and the richest vein of comic narrative and delineation of character. He retained through life a strong love of the country, and of its inspiring and invigorating influences. No poet has dwelt more fondly on the charms of a spring or summer morning : The busy lark, the messenger of day, May-day, the great English rural festival and Robin Hood anniversary, seems always to have been a carnival in the poet's heart. It enticed him from his studies-'farewell, my book!'-and he is profuse in descriptions of the new green of spring, the 'soft sweet grass,' and' flowers white and red.' In his youth he paid homage to the luxuriant beauty of the rose, but at a later period joined the French poets in adopting the mythology of the daisy. The daisy, or else the eye of day, The Empress and flower of flowers all, A re Perhaps alluding metaphorically, as Nicolas sug- Sich joie anon thereof hadde I you get a rhyme that is not Chaucer's.'* We cannot think this test infallible. The poet may not have been always consistent in his rhymes, or copyists may have made alterations; and we know of no other poet of that day who was capable (none has claimed or been mentioned) of writing the rejected poems. Poetical readers will not readily surrender Chaucer's right to the Romaunt of the Rose, the Court of Love, or the Flower and the Leaf-all fresh with the dew of youth and brilliant fancy. He The versification of Chaucer is various. probably began with the octo-syllabic measure common with the French poets, as he translated the Roman de la Rose, or rather adapted it, from the work of William de Loris and John de Meun : of the 22,000 verses Chaucer translated 7700. The House of Fame, an allegorical version, is in the same measure, and contains some bold imagery and the romantic machinery of Gothic fable. A more important work, Troilus and Cressida, is in seven-line stanzas. This poem, taken from the Filostrato of Boccaccio, has, from its pathos and beauty, always been popular. Sir Philip Sidney admired it. Warton and every subsequent critic have quoted, with just admiration, the passage in which Cressida makes an avowal of her love : And as the new abashed nightingale, That stinteth first, when she beginneth sing, When that she heareth any herdis tale, Or in the hedges any wight stirring; And, after, siker [sure] doth her voice outring: Right so Cresside, when her dread stent, Opened her heart, and told him her intent. The Canterbury Tales are chiefly in the heroic couplet, containing five accents, and generally ten syllables, but in this respect Chaucer adopted the poetic license of lengthening or shortening the lines. The opening of the poem, with the accents marked, is as follows: Whan that Aprillé, with his schowrés swoote,1 The Canterbury Tales form the best and most durable monument of Chaucer's genius. Boccaccio, in his Decameron, supposes ten persons to have retired from Florence during the plague of 1348, 1 Sweet, sometimes written sote and swete. 2 Such liquor or moisture. 3 Holt, a wooded hill. 4 Croppés, twigs, boughs, the tops of branches. I-ronne, sometimes yronne, for the i and y were used indiscriminately to denote the past participle. Thus Spenser has yclad, ydrad, &c. 6 Hem and her were in Chaucer's time, and previously, the same as them and their. 7 Ferné halwés, distant saints or shrines (ferné, from fer or far: halwes, as in All-Hallows, &c.). Kouthe, or couthe, known, renowned: we still have uncouth. The famous martyr, Thomas à Becket, slain in Canterbury Chaucer's Works, Aldine Edition, edited by Morris, vol. i. 267. Cathedral in 1170. and there, in a sequestered villa, amused themselves by relating tales after dinner. Ten days formed the period of their sojourn; and we have thus a hundred stories, lively, humorous, or tender, and full of characteristic painting in choice Italian. Chaucer seems to have copied this design, as well as part of the Florentine's freedom and licentiousness of detail; but he greatly improved upon the plan. There is something repulsive and unnatural in a party of ladies and gentlemen meeting to tell tales, many of them of a loose kind, while the plague is desolating the country around them. The tales of Chaucer have a more pleasing origin. A company of pilgrims, consisting of twenty-nine 'sundry folk,' meet together in fellowship at the Tabard Inn, Southwark, all being bent on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. These pilgrimages were scenes of much enjoyment, and even mirth; for, satisfied with thwarting the Evil One by the object of their mission, the devotees did not consider it necessary to preserve any religious strictness or restraint by the way. The poet himself is one of the party at the Tabard. They all sup together in the large room of the hostelry; and after great cheer, the landlord proposes that they shall travel together to Canterbury; and, to shorten their way, that each shall tell two tales, both in going and returning, and whoever told the best, should have a supper at the expense of the rest. The company assent, and mine host, ‘Harry Bailly'-who was both 'bold of his speech, and wise and well taught' -is appointed to be judge and reporter of the stories. The characters composing this social party are inimitably drawn and discriminated. First we have the chivalrous Knight: A Knight there was, and that a worthy man, And thereto hadde he riden, noman ferre,1 In Lettowe hadde he reysed and in Ruce,3 Whan they were wonne; and in the Greete see At mortal batailles hadde he ben fiftene, And everemore he hadde a sovereyn prys. 1 No man further. Alexandria. 'Why Chaucer should have chosen to bring his knight from Alexandria and Lettowe rather than from Cressy and Poitiers, is a problem difficult to resolve, except by supposing that the slightest services against infidels were in those days more honourable than the most splendid victories over Christians.' -TYRWHITT. 3 Pruce, Lettowe, Ruce-Prussia, Lithuania, Russia. Gernade, Granada; Algesir, Algesiras in Spain; Belmarie, one of the Moorish kingdoms in Africa; Lieys, in Armenia; Satalie, or Atalia, in Asia Minor. Both the latter were taken from the Turks by Pierre de Lusignan-Lieys about 1367, Atalia about 1352. 6 High praise. A Moorish kingdom in Africa. And though that he was worthy, he was wys, His hors was good, but here ne was nought gay. The Knight was accompanied by his son, a gay young Squire with curled locks: A With him ther was his sone, a yong Squyer, A lovyer, and a lusty bacheler, With lokkes crulle as they were layde in presse. Of twenty yeer of age he was I gesse. Of his stature he was of evene lengthe, And wonderly delyver, and gret of strengthe. And he hadde ben somtyme in chivachie,2 In Flaundres, in Artoys, and Picardie, And born him wel, as in so litel space, In hope to stonden in his lady grace. Embrowdid was he, as it were a mede Al ful of fresshe floures, white and reede. Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day; He was as fressh as is the moneth of May. Schort was his goune, with sleeves longe and wyde. Wel cowde he sitte on hors, and faire ryde. He cowde songes wel make and endite, Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtraye and write. So hote he lovede, that by nightertale He sleep nomore than doth a nightyngale. Curteys he was, lowly, and servysable, And carf byforn his fadur at the table. yeoman was also in attendance, with his bow and sheaf of arrows: 'a nut-head had he, with a brown visage.' And then we have a Nun or Prioress, beautifully drawn in her arch simplicity and coy reserve: Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse, That of hire smylyng was ful symple and coy; Hire gretteste ooth ne was but by seynt Loy;5 And sche was cleped madame Englentyne. Ful wel sche sang the servise divyne, Entuned in hire nose ful semely; And Frensch sche spak ful faire and fetysly, After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe," For Frensch of Parys was to hire unknowe. At mete wel i-taught was sche withalle; Sche leet no morsel from hire lippes falle, Ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce deepe. Wel cowde sche carie a morsel, and wel keepe, That no drope ne fil uppon hire breste. In curtesie was set ful moche hire leste.7 Hire overlippe wypede sche so clene, That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene Of greece, whan sche dronken hadde hire draughte. Ful semely after hire mete sche raughte, And sikerly sche was of gret disport, And ful plesant, and amyable of port, 9 5 Seynt Loy, a corruption of St Eligius, or perhaps another form of St Louis. 6 Stratford-le-Bow, in Middlesex. Chaucer is supposed, in this allusion to the French of the Prioress, to have sneered at the old Anglo-Norman French taught in England. 7 Hire leste, her pleasure or delight. 8 Ferthing, fourth part, and hence a small portion. 9 Raughte, pret. of reche, reached-stretched out her hand at table. And peynede hire to countrefete cheere A Monk and a Friar are next described: A Monk ther was, a fair for the maistrie, That seith, that hunters been noon holy men ; Is likned to a fissch that is waterles; What schulde he studie, and make himselven wood, As Austyn byt?? How schal the world be served? Greyhoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight; 10 And eek with worthi wommen of the toun: Yet wolde he have a ferthing or he wente. Then follows a merchant 'with a forked beard,' sitting high on his horse, and with a Flanders beaver hat on his head-a worthy man. In contrast to these favourites of fortune is a poor Clerk: A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also, |