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LIST  JAN  1     1922 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

OF 

CHAUCER  CRITICISM  AND   ALLUSION 

(1357-1900) 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS 
OF  CHAUCER  CRITICISM 
AND  ALLUSION  (1357-1900) 


BY 

CAROLINE   R   E.   SPURGEON 

DOCTEUR    DE    L'uNIVERSlTE    DE    PARIS 
PROFESSOR    OF    ENGLISH    LITERATURE    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    LONDON 


PART   II 

(SECTION    I) 

TEXT   1801-1850 


LONDON : 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THE   CHAUCER  SOCIETY 
BY  KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO.,  LTD., 

BROADWAY    HOUSE,    LUDGATE    HILL,    E.C.    4, 

AND  BY  HUMPHREY  MILFORD,  OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS. 

AMEN  CORNER,  E.C.  4,  AND  IN  NEW  YORK. 

1918  for  the  Issues  of  1909-10. 


~~P7? 

'/?*/ 

A3 

V 

s&JW,  «* 

^~w?t  ri) 

^0>J*o2.' 


Stcemb  Srries,  Nos.   49  &  50. 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS, 

BRUNSWICK  ST.,  STAMFORD  ST.,  S.E.  1,  AND  BUNOAY,  SUFFOLK. 


CONTENTS 

TEXT  OF  ALLUSIONS  (1801-1850)  1 


PAKE 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  CHAUCER 
CRITICISM   AND   ALLUSION 


1801.  Aikin,  John.  General  Biography,  or  Lives,  critical  and  'historical, 
of  the  most  eminent  persons.  .  .  .  vol.  ii,  pp.  647/2  to  649/2 
Uhaucer,  Geoffrey. 

[The  life  is  taken  from  the  Biographia  Britannica  ;  Tyr- 
whitt's  edition  and  theories  are  referred  to,  and  the  '  true 
poetical  character'  of  Chaucer's  work  is  insisted  upon.] 

1801.  Ellis,  George.  Specimens  of  the  Early  English  Poets,  To  which 
is  prefixed  An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
English  Poetry  and  Language ;  3  vols.  [This  "  Historical  Sketch," 
in  which  nearly  all  the  references  occur,  is  not  in  first  edn.,  1790.] 

[Vol.  i:  Language,  pp.  2,  7,  40,  Son.,  86  n.,  126,  131, 
229,  390;  "King  Horn"  in  Sir  Thopas,  106;  Chaucer's 
satire  of  the  Romances  and  Love-Songs  in  Sir  Thopas,  111  , 
Edward  III.  and  Chaucer,  172-4  ;  Cower  and  Chaucer,  177-9, 
261;  Lydgate  and  Chaucer,  273-6;  quotation  from  Troilus 
(11.  1793-8),  10,  130;  Gamely  n  and  Beryn,  346-7;  Com- 
pleynt  of  Venus,  174-9  ;  Hous  of  Fame,  406 ;  chapter  viii, 
pp.  199-224  is  on  Chaucer,  gives  some  facts  based  on  Tyrwhitt, 
and  quotes  from  Court  of  Love,  Canterbury  Tales,  Parlement 
of  Foules,  Legend  of  Good  Women,  Complaint  of  the  Black 
Knifjhtj  Troilus,  Rom.  Rose',  respect  felt  for  Chaucer  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  132.  Other  references,  pp.  144,  147,  158, 
169  and  n.,  225,  226,  231,  266,  293  n.,  298,  299-300  nn., 
305,  315-16,  320-1,  341,  349,  361,  385;  vol.  ii,  pp.  2-3, 
vol.  iii,  pp.  176,  409.] 

1801.  Leyden,  John.      The  Complaynt  of  Scotland,  ed.    J.   Leyden, 

Edinburgh. 

[Testament  of  Love  quoted  as  Chaucer's,  p.  80 ;  quotation 
from  John  do  Irlandia  mentioning  the  moral  influence  of  the 
works  of  Chaucer  and  Gower,  p.  86 ;  Orisoune  of  Chaucer 
quoted,  pp.  87-93  ;  quotation  from  the  Parlement  of  Foules 
"  attributed  to  Chaucer,"  p.  104 ;  mention  of  the  vigorous 
description  of  a  sea-fight  in  Legend  of  Good  Women 
(Cleopatra),  reference  and  quotation,  pp.  114,115;  Nonne 
Prestes  Tale  mentioned  as  anterior  to  Cockleby's  Sow,  p.  134 
n.  ;  passing  references  to  musical  instruments  in  Chaucer,  pp. 
153-5  ;  brief  mention  of  Canterbury  Tales,  p.  236  ;  Aithur 
in  the  Romaunt,  p.  237  ;  references  to  The  Maying  of  Chaucer, 
p.  245 ;  source  of  Frankeleyns  Talc,  quotation  from  Tyr- 
whitt's  edition,  p.  262;  the  "Kingis  note"  (Milleres  Tale)> 
p.  277  ;  authorship  of  the  Orisoune  of  Chaucer,  p.  281).] 

CHAUCER  CRITICISM. II.  B 


2  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1801 

1801.  Strutt,  Joseph.  Glig-Gamena  Angel-]>eod,  or  the  Sports  and 
Pastimes  of  the  People  of  England  .  .  .  from  the  earliest  period  to 
the  present  time. 

[English  mediaeval  setting  of  the  Knight's  Tale,  p.  vi; 
Court  entertainments  in  Hous  of  Fame,  p.  xxiii ;  Chaucer's 
attitude  to  the  monks  who  loved  hunting  (in  this  connection 
the  Ploughman's  Tale  is  mentioned  as  Chaucer's),  p.  8  ;  brief 
mention  of  Sir  Thopas  as  a  hunter  and  archer,  pp.  22,  40  ; 
quotation  from  description  of  the  Yeoman  in  the  Prologue, 
11.  103-8,  p.  47 ;  wrestling,  quotation  from  Chaucer's  descrip 
tion  of  the  knight  and  the  miller,  p.  64 ;  description  of 
miracles  as  represented  in  Chaucer's  day ;  reference  in  foot 
note  to  Wife  of  Bath's  Prologue,  p.  117;  significance  of 
'  Tragedy '  as  used  by  Chaucer  illustrated  by  quotation  from 
Prologue  to  the  Monk's  Tale,  p.  122;  brief  reference  and 
quotation  concerning  jesteis,  p,  137 ;  references  given  to 
tregetours  and  joggleurs  in  Chaucer,  pp.  153,  154,  156;  brief 
reference,  p.  158;  brief  mention  of  hoppesteres,  p.  173; 
tymbesteres  in  Chaucer's  translation  of  Le  Roman  de  la  Rose, 
reference  and  quotation,  p.  177;  brief  mention  of  dancing  in 
Chaucer,  p.  222 ;  brief  mention  in  footnote  of  swinging, 
p.  226.  Other  references,  mostly  slight,  pp.  30,  Testament  of 
Love  quoted  as  Chaucer's,  142,  144,  233  n.,  262  n.,  275  n., 
298  n.] 

1801.  Unknown.  Note  [to  the  article  entitled]  Remarks  on  the  Genius 
and  Writings  of  Allan  ."Ramsay,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Magazine  or 
Literary  Miscellany,  New  Series,  April  1801,  p.  261.  [A  cutting 
of  this  article  is  included  by  Joseph  Haslewood  in  his  Collections 
for  the  Lives  of  the  English  Poets,  c.  1833,  vol.  iii,  p.  817,  q.v.] 

[Almost  as  much  difference  in  language  between  Christ's 
Kirk  on  the  Green  and  The  Gal>erlunr.ie  Man  as  between 
Chaucer  and  Spenser.] 

1801.  Wordsworth,  Dorothy.  Journal,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1897,  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  67-9,  73-4. 

Friday,  tih  [Dec.  1801].  .  .  .  Wm.  translating  The 
Prioress's  Tale. 

Saturday,  5th.  .  .  .  Wm.  finished  The  Prioress's  Tale,  and 
after  tea,  Mary  and  he  wrote  it  out.  .  .  . 

Sunday,  6th.  .  .  .   Wm.  worked  a  while  at  Chaucer,  then 
[P.  68]    we  set  forward  to  walk  into  Easedale.  .   .  .  In  the  afternoon 

we  sate  by  the  fire  :  I  read  Chaucer  aloud   .   .  . 
[p.  69]        Monday  Morning,  7th.  .   .   .  William  at  work  with  Chaucer, 
The  God  of  Love. 


1801]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  3 

Tuesday,  8th  Dec.  1801.  .  .  .  Wm.  at  work  with  Chaucer. 
.  .  .  William  worked  at  The  Cuckoo  and  the  Nightingale  till 
he  was  tired. 

Wednesday  Morning,  9th  December.  ...  I  read  Palemon 
[sic]  and  Arcite.  .  .  .  William  writing  out  his  alteration  of 
Chaucer's  Cuclwo  and  Nightingale.  .  .  . 

[p.  73]  Tuesday,  22?id  [Dec.].  .  .  .  We  sate  snugly  round  the  fire. 
I  read  to  them  the  Tale  of  Constance  and  the  Syrian  Monarch, 
in  the  Man  of  Lawds  Tale,  also  some  of  the  Prologue.  .  .  . 

Wednesday,  23rd.  .  .  .  Mary  wrote  out  the  Tales  from 
Chaucer  for  Coleridge.  .  .  . 

Thursday,  24*7*.    Still  a  thaw.     Wm.,  Mary,  and  I  sate 
comfortably  round  the  fire  in  the  evening,  and  read  Chaucer.  .  .  . 
[p.  74]        Saturday,  2Qth.  After  tea  we  sate  by  the  fire  comfortably. 
I  read  aloud  The  Miller's  Tale. 

1801.  Wordsworth,  William.  Selections  from  Chaucer  modernised. 
The  Prioress's  Tale  (from  Chaucer).  The  Cuckoo  and  the  Night 
ingale  (from  Chaucer)  [by  Clanvowe,  not  Chaucer].  Troilus  and 
Cressida  (from  Chaucer)  [bk.  v,  11.  519-686].  (Poetical  works,  ed. 
W.  Knight,  1896,  8  vols,  vol.  ii,  pp.  238-69.) 

[A  prefatory  note  to  the  Prioress's  Tale  reads  :] 
In  the  following  Piece  I  have  allowed  myself  no  farther 
deviations  from  the  original  than  were  necessary  for  the  fluent 
reading,  and  instant  understanding,  of  the  Author :  so  much 
however  is  the  language  altered  since  Chaucer's  time,  especially 
in  pronunciation,  that  much  was  to  be  removed,  and  its  place 
supplied  with  as  little  incongruity  as  possible.  The  ancient 
accent  has  been  retained  in  a  few  conjunctions,  such  as  also  and 
alway,  from  a  conviction  that  such  sprinklings  of  antiquity 
would  be  admitted,  by  persons  of  taste,  to  have  a  graceful 
accordance  with  the  subject.  The  fierce  bigotry  of  the 
Prioress  forms  a  fine  background  for  her  tender-hearted 
sympathies  with  the  Mother  and  Child;  and  the  mode  in 
which  the  story  is  told  amply  atones  for  the  extravagance  of 
the  miracle. 

[Of  these  modernizations,  which  were  all  (with  the  Manciple's  Tale,  which  has 
never  been  published)  written  in  1801,  the  first  was  published  in  1820  (Poems,  1815-20, 
vol.  iii  [The  River  Duddon,  etc.],  pp.  173-86),  and  the  second  and  third  in  1841  (in  the 
Poems  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  Modernised,  by  Home,  etc.).  The  Prioress's  Tale  is  preceded 
by  Milton's  lines : 

Call  up  him  who  left  half  told 

The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold. 

Compare  Wordsworth's  remarks  on  his  modernizations  with  those  of  I>i^h  Hunt, 
printed  before  his  Death  and  the  Ruffians,  1855,  below.  Two  farther  letters  from 
Wordsworth,  1840  and  1841,  and  Home's  Introduction  to  Chaucer  Modernised,  1811, 
are  printed  below.] 


4  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1802- 

1802.  Drake,  Nathan.     Canterbury  Tales. 

[Four  Tales  of  Terror,,  in  the  style  of  Mrs.  Radclitfe,  with  no  connexion  whatever 
with  Chaucer  except  in  title.] 

1802.  Malcolm,  James  Peller.  Londinium  Redivivum,  4  vols,  1802-7, 
vol.  i,  p.  149. 

[Description  of  Chaucer's  tomb.] 

1802.  Planta,  Joseph.  Catalogue  of  the  Cottonian  Library.  Note  on 
Caligula,  A.  ii,  Article  19,  p.  42,  col.  2. 

Em  are,  an  old  romance. 

Beg  :  Ihu  :  that  ys  kyng  in  trone 

As  that  I  hoope  bothe  sone  and  mone. 
Chaucer  appears  to  have  been  indebted  to  this  romance  for 
his  Man  of  Law's  Tale. 

[Cot.  Calig.  A.  ii,  the  Romance  of  Emare,  was  edited  for  the  E.E.T.Soc.  by  Edith 
Rickert,  1908;  her  conclusion  alone,  p.  xxviii,  that  'the  absence  of  archaic  forms 
suggests  a  post-Chaucerian  date,  and  1400  is  probably  nearer  the  fact  than  is  1350,' 
nullifies  Planta's  surmise.] 

1802.  [Ritson,  Joseph.]  BiUiographia  Poetica.  List  of  editions  and 
poems  of  Chaucer,  pp.  19-23  ;  Chaucer  and  Gower,  pp.  24-5  n.  ; 
dedication  of  Troilus  and  Cressida,  p.  38  ;  references  in  life  of 
Occleve,  pp.  60-3  ;  in  life  of  Lydgate,  pp.  67,  70,  79,  88,  90  ; 
brief  mention  of  La  Belle  dame  sans  mercie,  generally  ascribed  to 
Chaucer,  but  really  by  Eos,  p.  95  ;  Scogan,  pp.  97-8  ;  the  Mylner 
of  Abington,  p.  136;  Brigham,  p.  144;  Robinson's  Reward  of 
Wickedness  [q.  v.  above,  [1574.]  vol.  i,  p.  109],  pp.  225-6  n.,  312  ; 
[Note  to  p.  19,]  403  ;  brief  references,  pp.  8,  25^  102,  174,  347. 

1802.  Ritson,  Joseph.  Ancient  Englesh  Metrical  Romances.  Adver 
tisement,  vol.  i,  p.  ii  ;  Dissertation  on  Romance  and  Minstrelsy, 
pp.  vi(note),  Ixxix,  Ixxxi,  Ixxxvii,  xcv,  xcvi,  xcvii,  cxliii,  clx,  clxi, 
cxcii,  ccv  (note),  ccvi  (and  note).  Notes  on  Ywaine  and  Gawin, 
vol.  iii,  p.  239 ;  Notes  on  Lybeaus  Disconus,  pp.  254,  259,  2GO, 
263  ;  Notes  on  the  Geste  of  Kyng  Horn,  pp.  265,  267,  268,  281  ; 
Emare\  pp.  323  and  n.,  327,  328,  329  ;  Sir  Orpheo,  p.  336  ;  Le 
bone  Florence  of  Rome,  pp.  340,  341  ;  The  Squyr  of  Lowe  Degre, 
pp.  345,  346,  347,  350,  352. 

1802.  Seward,  Anna.  Letter  to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  dated  July  10,  1802, 
[in]  Letters  of  Anna  Seward,  6  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1811,  vol.  vi,  p.  35. 
Letter  vii. 

[Letter  to  Scott  on  his  inclusion  of  her  Rich  Auld  Willie's 
Farewell  in  his  Scottish  Minstrelsy,  mentioning  that  the 
ancient  Scotch  dialect  seemed  more  pleasing  than  the  phraseo 
logy  of  Chaucer  and  his  contemporaries.] 


1803]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  5 

1802.  Sibbald,  James.     Chronicle  of  Scottish  Poetry.     4  vols. 

[Keprints  of  selected  Scottish  poems  arranged  in  periods.  The 
pieces  with  Chaucerian  reference  are  : — 

Vol.  i,  pp.  157-77.  Henrysoun's  "  Testament  of  Faire  Creseide." 
„  pp.  253-63.  Dunbar's  "  Goldin  Targe." 

Note  on  "  Chaucer's  Cuckowe  and  Nightingale,"  vol.  i,  p.  183  ; 
reference  to  Wife  of  Bath,  vol.  i,  p.  240 ;  Jack  Upland,  described 
as  Chaucer's,  ii,  31  ff. ;  glossarial  and  metrical  notes,  i,  209,  229- 
30,  271-2,  323,  380;  ii,  6,  19,  170,  371,  390;  iv,  xlvi-xlviii, 
lii-liv,  and  many  in  glossary.] 

1802.  Unknown.  Critique  on  The  Complaynt  of  Scotland,  from  the 
British  Critic,  July  1802.  Reprinted  in  Critiques  by  Mr.  David 
Herd  and  others  upon  the  new  edition  of  the  Complaynt  .  .  .  1829, 
p.  18.  [John  de  Irlandia  attributed  the  "Orisoun  to  the  Virgin  " 
to  Chaucer  ;  it  was  more  probably  composed  by  Lydgate.  See 
Leyden,  1801,  above.] 

1802.  Unknown.  The  English  Encyclopaedia.  10  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
366/2-367/2  ;  vol.  v,  p.  401/2. 

[The  Chaucer  and  Lydgate  articles  are  exact  reprints  of 
these  articles  as  they  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Encyclopaedia  JBritannica,  2nd  edn.,  1778,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i, 
p.  452.] 

1802.  Wordsworth,  Dorothy.  Journal,  ed»  W.  Knight,  2  vols.,  1897, 
vol.  i,  pp.  113-4,  155. 

Wednesday,  28th  April.  ...  I  copied  The  Prioress's  Tale 
[p.  ii*]  ...  I  ...  wrote  out  The  Manciple's  Tale  .  .  .  When  we 

came  in  we  corrected  the   Chaucers,  but  I  could  not  finish 

them  to-night. 
[p.  155]       Saturday,  30th  October.  .  .  .  After  tea,  S.  [Stoddart]  read 

Chaucer  to  us. 


[a.  1803.]  Thomson,  Alexander.  MS.  Criticism  on  the  Howlat,  p.  16, 
[printed  in]  The  Buke  of  the  Howlat,  by  Holland,  ed.  D.  Laing, 
Bannatyne  Club,  1823,  p.  xvi. 

To  the  character  of  an  original  inventor  the  author  of  the 
Houlate  has  but  a  slender  claim;  for  besides  having  taken 
the  story  of  his  poem  from  the  fable  of  the  Jackdaw  with 
borrowed  feathers,  he  is  indebted  to  Chaucer's  Assemble  of 
Foules  for  some  of  its  principal  decorations.  The  catalogue 
of  birds,  and  the  personification  of  Nature  are,  both  of  them, 
imitations  of  Chaucer ;  but  the  former  is  inferior,  in  every 


6  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1803 

respect,  to  the  characteristic  sketches  of  his  master ;  and  the 
latter  is  so  little  suited  to  the  situation  in  which  it  stands, 
as  clearly  shews  it  to  have  been  exotic,  transplanted  from  a 
much  more  poetic  soil. 

[The  MS.  was  apparently  lent  to  Laing  by  Dr.  Robert  Anderson,  Thomson's 
friend,  after  the  latter's  death  in  1S03  ;  see  p.  xi.     It  is  not  now  known  where  it  is.] 

1803.  Aikin,  John.     General  Biography  .  .  .  vol.  iv,  pp.  479/2,  480/1 
[article  on  Gower  ;  for  Chaucer  article  see  above,  1801]. 


[1803  ?]  Boucher,  Jonathan.  Proposals  for  printing  by  subscription 
in  two  volumes  .  .  .  Linguae  Anglicanse  Veteris  Thesaurus, 
or  a  Glossary  of  the  Ancient  English  Language  ...  by  ... 
Jonathan  Boucher,  pp.  4,  12.  [In  a  collection  of  prospectuses, 
1796-1842,  in  Brit.  Mus.  (11902.  bbb.  23),  in  3  vols,  1  and  2 
lettered  Collectio  Prospectuum,  vol.  i,  pp.  [in  MS.]  49  6,  53  6.] 

[p.  12]  [A  specimen  is  given  of  the  dictionary  under  the  word 
Achates,  or  Acates,  Victuals ;  and  a  quotation  from  the 
Prologue, 

A  gentil  manciple  was  there  of  a  temple, 

Of  which  achatour  mighten  take  ensemple  .  .  .  [to] 

That  he  was  aye  before  in  his  estate.] 

[This  glossary  was  not  published  until  1832,  and  was  then  edited  by  J.  Hunter  and 
J.  Stevenson.    Boucher  died  in  1804,  see  below,  a.  1S04.] 

1803.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Letter  to  Southey,  [dated]  Keswick, 
July,  1803.  (Letters  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  1895,  vol.  i,  p.  425.) 

[Coleridge  sketches  the  plan  of  a  History  of  British 
Literature  for  Southey  to  write,  and  says  :]  The  first  half 
of  the  second  volume  should  be  dedicated  to  great  single 
names,  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton  and  Taylor, 
Dryden  and  Pope. 

1803.  Godwin,  William.  Life  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  2  vols,  London, 
1803. 

[Vol.  i.  ch.  xv,  pp.  277-297,  a  long  analysis  of  Troilus  and 
[p.  298]  Creseide.]  From  this  analysis  of  the  poem,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
infer  the  degree  of  applause  to  which  its  author  is  entitled.  It  has 
already  been  observed  by  one  of  the  critics  upon  English  poetry 
[Warton,  vol.  i,  sect.  14],  that  it  is  "  almost  as  long  as  the 
^Eneid."  Considered  in  this  point  of  view,  the  Troilus  and 
Creseide  will  not  appear  to  advantage.  It  is  not  an  epic  poem. 


1803]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  7 

[p.  299]  .  .  .  It  is  merely  a  love-tale.  It  is  not  the  labour  of  a  man's 
life  ;  but  a  poem  which,  with  some  previous  knowledge  of 
human  sentiments  and  character,  and  a  very  slight  prepar 
ation  of  science,  the  writer  might  perhaps  be  expected  to 
complete  in  about  as  many  months,  as  the  work  is  divided  into 
books.  .  .  . 

It  is  ...  considerably  barren  of  incident.  There  is  not 
enough  in  it  of  matter  generating  visible  images  in  the  reader, 
and  exciting  his  imagination  with  pictures  of  nature  and  life. 
There  is  not  enough  in  it  of  vicissitudes  of  fortune.  .  .  .  Add 
to  which,  the  catastrophe  is  unsatisfactory  and  offensive.  .  .  . 

[p.  soo]  Dry  den  thoroughly  felt  this  defect  in  the  poem  of  Chaucer, 
and  has  therefore  changed  the  catastrophe  when  he  fitted  the 
story  for  the  stage,  and  represented  the  two  lovers  as  faithful, 
but  unfortunate. 

But,  when  all  these  deductions  have  been  made  from  the 
claims  of  the  Troilus  and  Creseide  upon  our  approbation,  it 
will  still  remain  a  work  interspersed  with  many  beautiful 
passages,  passages  of  exquisite  tenderness,  of  great  delicacy, 
and  of  a  nice  and  refined  observation  of  the  workings  of 
human  sensibility.  Nothing  can  be  more  beautiful,  genuine, 
and  unspoiled  by  the  corrupt  suggestions  of  a  selfish  spirit, 
than  the  sentiments  of  Chaucer's  lovers.  While  conversing 
with  them,  we  seem  transported  into  ages  of  primeval 
innocence.  Even  Creseide  is  so  good,  so  ingenuous  and 
affectionate,  that  we  feel  ourselves  as  incapable  as  Troilus, 
of  believing  her  false.  Nor  are  the  scenes  of  Chaucer's 
narrative  .  .  .  drawn  with  that  vagueness  of  manner,  and 
ignorance  of  the  actual  emotions  of  the  heart,  which,  while 
we  read  them,  we  nauseate  and  despise.  On  the  contrary, 
his  personages  always  feel,  and  we  confess  the  truth  of  their 
feelings. 

[p.  soi]  Pandarus  himself  comes  elevated  and  refined  from  the  pen 
of  Chaucer :  his  occupation  loses  its  grossness,  in  the  dis 
interestedness  of  his  motive,  and  the  sincerity  of  his  friendship. 
In  a  word,  such  is  the  Troilus  and  Creseide,  that  no  competent 
judge  can  rise  from  its  perusal  without  a  strong  impression  of 
the  integrity  and  excellence  of  the  author's  disposition,  and  of 
the  natural  relish  he  entertained  for  whatever  is  honourable, 
beautiful  and  just.  .  .  . 

The  poem  will  appear  to  be  little  less  than  a  miracle,  when 


8     [Godwin]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1803 

we  combine  our  examination  of  it,with  a  recollection  of  the  times 
and  circumstances  in  which  it  was  produced.     [The  "  languid 

[p.  302]  and  perishing "  state  of  the  English  tongue  in  Chaucer's 
time.]  .  .  .  [Chaucer]  surprised  his  countrymen  with  a  poem, 
eminently  idiomatic,  clear  and  perspicuous  in  its  style,  as  well 

[p.  303]  as  rich  and  harmonious  in  its  versification.  .  .  .  The  loves  of 
Troilus  and  Creseide  scarcely  retain  any  traces  of  the  pre 
posterous  and  rude  manners  of  the  age  in  which  they  were 
delineated. 

This  poem  therefore,  as  might  have  been  expected,  long 
fixed  upon  itself  the  admiration  of  the  English  nation.  .  .  . 
[It]  was  probably,  more  than  any  of  his  other  works,  the  basis 
of  his  fame,  and  the  foundation  of  his  fortune.1 

[T572]'  This  Canterbury  Tales  is  [sic]  the  great  basis  of  the  fame  of 
Chaucer,  and  indolent  men  have  generally  expressed  themselves 
with  contempt  of  the  rest  of  his  works  as  unworthy  of  atten 
tion.  .  .  .  He  indeed  who  wishes  to  become  personally  ac 
quainted  with  Chaucer,  must  of  necessity  have  recourse  to  his 
minor  pieces.  The  Canterbury  Tales  are  too  full  of  business, 
variety,  character  and  action,  to  permit  the  writer  in  any  great 
degree  to  show  himself.  .  .  .  The  Troilus  and  Creseide  in 
particular,  that  poem  of  which  Sir  Philip  Sidney  speaks 
with  so  much  delight,  though  deficient  in  action,  cannot  be 

[p.  573]  too  much  admired  for  the  suavity  and  gentleness  of  nature 
which  it  displays.  .  .  .  All  the  milder  and  more  delicate 
feelings  of  the  soul  are  displayed  .  .  .  and  displayed  in  a 
•manner  which  none  but  a  poet  of  the  purest  and  sweetest 
dispositions,  and  at  the  same  time  of  the  greatest  discrimina 
tion,  could  have  attained./ 

The  Canterbury  Tales  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  extra 
ordinary  monuments  of  human  genius  .  .  . 

What  infinite  variety  of  character  is  presented  to  us  in 
the  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales  !  It  is  a  copious  and 
extensive  review  of  the  private  life  of  the  fourteenth  century 
in  England. 

This  has  usually,  and  perhaps  justly,  been  thought  the  most 
conspicuous  excellence  of  Chaucer  ;  his  power  of  humour,  of 
delineating  characters,  and  of  giving  vivacity  and  richness  to 
comic  incidents. 

t1  For  Charles  Lamb's  remarks  upon  this  criticism,  see  below,  1803.] 


1803]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  9 

[p.  582]  His  best  works,  his  Canterbury  Tales  in  particular,  have  an 
absolute  merit,  which  stands  in  need  of  no  extrinsic  accident 
to  show  it  to  advantage,  and  no  apology  to  atone  for  its 
concomitant  defects.  They  class  with  whatever  is  best  in 
the  poetry  of  any  country  or  any  age.  Yet  when  we  further 
recollect  that  they  were  written  in  a  remote  and  semi-barbarous 
age,  that  Chaucer  had  to  a  certain  degree  to  create  a  language, 
or  to  restore  to  credit  a  language  which  had  been  sunk  in 
vulgarity  and  contempt  by  being  considered  as  a  language 

[p.  583]  of  slaves,  .  .  .  the  astonishment  and  awe  with  which  we 
regard  the  great  father  of  English  poetry  must  be  exceedingly 
increased  .  .  . 

1803.  H.,  D.  Letter,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxiii, 
part  i,  p.  129. 

.  .  .  Where  is  Mr.  Johnes  likely  to  find  the  supposed  inter 
view  between  Petrarch  and  Chaucer  ?  It  is  rightly  said  to  be 
supposed;  and  what  Englishman's  researches  can  keep  pace 
with  a  Frenchman's  suppositions  ? 

[A  reply  to  a  previous  letter  signed  '  Z ' :  see  below.] 


1803-10.  Johnes,  Thomas.  Sir  John  Froissartfs  Chronicles.  Newly 
translated  from  the  best  French  editions  ...  by  Thomas  Johnes, 
At  the  Hafod  Press,  1803-10,  4  vols. 

[Motto  on  Title-pages,  vols.  1-4  :] 

Who  so  shall  telle  a  tale  after  a  man  .  .  .   [to] 
Or  feinen  thinges,  or  finden  wordes  newe. 

—Chaucer's  Prologue  [11.  731-36]. 

1803.  Lamb,  Charles.  Letter  to  Thomas  Manning,  [dated]  Feb.  19, 
1803.  (The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas, 
1903-5,  7  vols.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  258-9. 

[p.  258]  For  God's  sake  don't  think  any  more  of  "  Independent 
Tartary."  ...  I  am  afraid  'tis  the  reading  of  Chaucer  has 

[p.  259]  misled  you ;  his  foolish  stories  about  Cambuscan  and  the 
ring,  and  the  horse  of  brass.  Believe  me  there's  no  such 
things,  'tis  all  the  poet's  invention;  but  if  there  were  such 
darling  things  as  old  Chaucer  sings,  I  would  up  behind 
you  on  the  Horse  of  Brass  and  frisk  off  for  Prester  John's 
Country. 


LO  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1803 

1803.  Lamb,  Charles.  Two  Letters  to  William  Godwin,  [dated]  Nov.  8 
[and]  Nov.  10,  1803.  (Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed. 
E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5,  7  vols,  vol.  vi,  pp.  281-2.) 

Nov.  8,  1803. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  been  sitting  down  for  three  or 
four  days  successively  to  the  review  [of  Godwin's  Life  of 
Chaucer],  which  I  so  much  wished  to  do  well,  and  to  your 
satisfaction.  But  I  can  produce  nothing  but  absolute  flatness 
and  nonsense.  My  health  and  spirits  are  so  bad,  and  my 
nerves  so  irritable,  that  I  am  sure,  if  I  persist,  I  shall  teaze 
myself  into  a  fever.  .  .  . 

You  will  give  me  great  satisfaction  by  sealing  my  pardon 
and  oblivion  in  a  line  or  two,  before  I  come  to  see  you,  or  I 
shall  be  ashamed  to  come. 

Your,  with  great  truth, 

C.  LAMB. 


Nov.  10,  1803. 

DEAR  GODWIN, — You  never  made  a  more  unlucky  and  per 
verse  mistake  than  to  suppose  that  the  reason  of  my  not 
writing  that  cursed  thing  was  to  be  found  in  your  book.  I 
assure  you  most  sincerely  that  I  have  been  greatly  delighted 
with  Chaucer.  I  may  be  wrong,  but  I  think  there  is  one 
considerable  error  runs  through  it,  which  is  a  conjecturing 
spirit,  a  fondness  for  filling  out  the  picture  by  supposing  what 
Chauce.r  did  and  how  he  felt,  where  the  materials  are  scanty. 
So  far  from  meaning  to  withhold  from  you  (out  of  mistaken 
tenderness)  this  opinion  of  mine,  I  plainly  told  Mrs.  Godwin 
that  I  did  find  a  fault,  which  I  should  reserve  naming  until  I 
should  see  you  and  talk  it  over.  This  she  may  very  well 
remember,  and  also  that  I  declined  naming  this  fault  until 
she  drew  it  from  me  by  asking  me  if  there  was  not  too  much 
fancy  in  the  work.  I  then  confessed  generally  what  I  felt. 
...  I  remember  also  telling  Mrs.  G.  (which  she  may  have 
dropt)  that  I  was  by  turns  considerably  more  delighted  than 
I  expected.  ...  I  even  had  conceived  an  expression  to  meet 
you  with,  which  was  thanking  you  for  some  of  the  most 
exquisite  pieces  of  criticism  I  had  ever  read  in  my  life.  In 
particular  I  should  have  brought  forward  that  on  "Troilus  and 
Cressida"  and  Shakespear,  which  it  is  little  to  say  delighted 
me,  and  instructed  me.  .  .  .  All  these  things  I  was  preparing 


1803]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  11 

to  say,  and  bottling  them  up  till  I  came  .  .  .  when  lo  !  this 
deadly  blight  intervened. 

I  certainly  ought  to  make  great  allowances  for  your  mis 
understanding  me.  You  .  .  .  cannot  conceive  of  the  desultory 
and  uncertain  way  in  which  I  (an  author  by  fits)  sometimes 
cannot  put  the  thoughts  of  a  common  letter  into  sane  prose. 
[Lamb  enlarges  upon  his  utter  inability  to  write  at  times.]  I 
wrote  such  stuff  about  Chaucer,  and  got  into  such  digressions, 
quite  irreducible  into  Ii  column  of  a  paper,  that  I  was  perfectly 
ashamed  to  show  it  you.  However,  it  is  become  a  serious 
matter  that  I  should  convince  you  I  neither  slunk  from  the 
task  through  a  wilful  deserting  neglect,  or  through  any  (most 
imaginary  on  your  part)  distaste  of  Chaucer ;  and  I  will  try 
my  hand  again,  I  hope  with  better  luck.  My  health  is  bad 
and  my  time  taken  up,  but  all  I  can  spare  between  this  and 
Sunday  shall  be  employed  for  you,  since  you  desire  it :  and 
if  I  bring  you  a  crude,  wretched  paper  on  Sunday,  you 
must  burn  it,  and  forgive  me;  if  it  proves  anything  better 
than  I  predict,  may  it  be  a  peace-offering  of  sweet  incense 
between  us. 

C.  LAMB. 

[Lamb's  review  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer  has  not  been  identified.  Perhaps  it 
was  never  completed,  or  perhaps  Godwin  burnt  it  when  they  met  on  the  Sunday. 
See  Uetter  202,  and  notes,  Lucas's  edn.,  vol.  i,  p.  463,  vol.  iii,  p.  473,  and  vol.  vi, 
pp.  450,  451-2,  where  Lamb  tells  Wordsworth  that  his  review  of  the  Excursion  was 
th«  lirst  review  he  ever  wrote.] 

1803.   Leyden,  John.     Scenes  of  Infancy.     See  below,  App.  A. 

1803.  Malcolm,  James  Peller.  Londinium  Redivivum,  4  vols.,  1802-7, 
vol.  ii,  1803,  pp.  11,  329-30. 

[p.  330]  [A  note  (from  Stowe)  that  Richard  Chaucer  was  usually 
considered  father  to  the  poet,  and  citation  of  Granger  (q.v. 
above,  1769,  vol.  i,  pp.  431-2)  that  his  verse,  musical  to  his  con 
temporaries,  was  unsuited  to  the  ears  of  the  present  age.  Then 
follows  a  notice  of  the  portrait  in  Hoccleve.] 

1803.  Southey,  Kobert.  Letter  to  C.  W.  W.  Wynn,  dated  June  9, 
1803.  (Life  and  Correspondence  of  Robert  Southev,  1850,  vol.  ii, 
p.  212.) 

[Southey  says  he  has  just  been  reading  Scott's  Border 
Ballads.]  Scott,  it  seems,  adopts  the  same  system  of  metre 
with  me,  and  varies  his  time  in  the  same  stanza  from  iambic 
to  anapaestic  ad  libitum.  In  spite  of  all  the  trouble  that 
has  been  taken  to  torture  Chaucer  into  heroic  metre,  I  have 


12  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1803 

no  doubt  whatever  that  he  wrote  upon  this  system,  common 
to  all  the  ballad  writers.  Coleridge  agrees  with  me  upon 
this.  The  proof  is,  that,  read  him  thus,  and  he  becomes 
everywhere  harmonious ;  but  expletive  syllables,  en's  and  y's 
and  e's,  only  make  him  halt  upon  ten  lame  toes.  I  am  now 
daily  drinking  at  that  pure  well  of  English  undefiled,  to  get 
historical  manners,  and  to  learn  English  and  poetry. 

1803.  [Southey,  Robert]  Eeview  of  Ritson's  Ancient  English 
Romances,  [in]  The  Annual  Review,  vol.  ii,  art.  ii,  pp.  516, 
523. 

[p.  516]  When  the  race  of  little  men  had  succeeded,  they  were  for 
improving  everything.  Dry  den  .  .  .  could  perceive  that 
Chaucer  was  a  poet,  but  his  old  gold  seemed  to  him  to 
want  scouring,  and  he  thought  it  was  reserved  for  him  to 
make  it  shine.  [A  similar  reference  to  Pope's  versions 
follows.] 

1803.  Southey,  Robert.  Eeview  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  [in] 
The  Annual  Review,  vol.  ii,  art.  ii,  pp.  462-73. 

[A  scathing  review,  pointing   out   the   disproportion   and 

[p.  463]  irrelevance  of  the  work  ;  in  this  method  :]    Chaucer  was  born 

in  London,  1328,  .  .  .  therefore  the  first  chapter  ...  is  a 

(P.  464]  history  ...  of  the  city  of   London !  .  .  .  When  the    poet 

was  a   young  man  he  must   have   heard    the  minstrels:    so 

Chaucer   and    the    minstrels    are    the    fifth    chapter.    .    .    . 

Chaucer   must  have  seen  castles  and  cathedrals  and  palaces : 

so    the    eighth   chapter   is    upon   Gothic    architecture.  .  .  . 

(P.  472]  By  attempting   too   many  things   in  this   work,  the  author 

has   failed   in   all.     [The   merits   of   the  work   are :   a  good 

account  is  given  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II,  much  light   is 

thrown  upon  the  minor  poems  of  Chaucer,    and  some  facts 

respecting  his  life  have  been  recovered  from  public  records.] 

1803.  [Southey,  Robert.]  Eeview  of  Ellis's  Specimens  of  the  Early 
English  Poets,  [in]  The  Annual  Review,  vol.  ii,  art.  iv,  pp.  548, 
549. 

[A  long  passage  from  Ellis  on  Chaucer's  language  and  style 
quoted  approvingly;  the  language  of  Chaucer,  says  Southey, 
is]  a  subject  which  should  have  been  investigated  by  his  late 
biographer  [Godwin]. 


1S03]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  13 

1803.  Unknown.  *  Amadis  de  Gaul,'  by  Southey  and  by  Eose,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Review,  Oct.  1803,  vol.  iii,  pp.  135-6. 

[p.  185]  The  avowed  model  upon  which  Mr.  Eose  has  framed  his 
Amadis,  is  the  translation  of  Le  Grand's  Fabliaux,  by  Mr. 
Way,  and  it  is  but  justice  to  state,  that,  in  our  opinion,  he 
has  fully  attained  what  he  proposed.  .  .  .  The  following 
passage  is  a  successful  imitation  of  Chaucer  : 
[p.  136]  '  To  tell,  as  meet,  the  costly  feast's  array, 

My  tedious  tale  would  hold  a  summer's  day : 

I  let  to  sing  who  mid  the  courtly  throng 

Did  most  excel  in  dance  or  sprightly  song  • '  [etc.] 

1803.  Unknown.  Letter,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxiii, 
part  i,  pp.  207-8. 

[A  modernization  of   part   of   the   "Legende   of   Ariadne 
of  Athens,"  prefaced  by  remarks  :] 

[p.  207]  The  ear  accustomed  to  harmonious  numbers  will  derive 
little  pleasure  from  them,  on  account  of  the  want  of  variety 
in  the  caesura  of  each  verse.  He  may,  however,  excuse  it 
when  he  is  acquainted  with  the  intention  of  the  writer;  whose 
object  was  not  to  attend  to  variety  in  the  caesura,  but  to 
adhere  studiously  to  the  form  of  the  original ;  trying,  by  this 
method,  and  an  alteration  of  the  obsolete  into  more  modern 
language,  if  some  of  the  simple  manner  of  the  original  would 
not  be  preserved ;  and  Chaucer  still  be  himself,  although  in  a 
new  dress  .  .  . 

[The  modernization  runs :] 

Of  those  false  lovers  poison  be  the  bane ! 
To  Ariadne  will  I  turn  again. 
Tir'd  with  the  voyage  in  grateful  sleep  she  lies  \ 
With  deepest  sorrow  doom'd,  alas  !  to  rise. 
Too  soon  the  dawning  light  dispells  the  charm, 
And  hopeful  o'er  the  bed  she  spreads  her  arm, 
But  no  one  finds.     Alas  !  She  said,  the  morn, 
Alas  !  the  fatal  hour  that  saw  me  born. 
I  am  betray 'd — her  lovely  tresses  rent, 
Barefoot  in  haste  along  the  shore  she  went, 
And  cried  in  vain — "  Theseus,  my  heart's  desire, 
Where  art  thou?  where,  my  love,  dost  thou  retire? 
Ah  fled  me  !  left  by  cruel  beasts  to  die  "... 
[and  so  on,  for  27  lines.] 


14  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1803- 

1803.  Unknown.  Review  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Cliaucer,  [in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxiii,  pp.  1141-50,  1229-35. 

[This  review  consists  almost  entirely  of  copious  extracts 
from  the  book  ;  the  only  critical  opinion  is  in  the  last  paragraph, 
which  runs  as  follows:  ] 

[p.i235]  That  the  present  Biographer  of  Chaucer  has  cleared  up  some 
points  in  his  history,  will  not  be  disputed  :  that  his  partiality 
has  been  well  supported  by  his  imagination  ;  and  that  much 
of  the  contemporary  history  is  introduced  to  form  a  book,  and 
to  set  off  the  writer ;  whence  it  may  be  inferred,  that  the  Life 
of  Chaucer  might  have  been  compressed  into  smaller  compass. 

1803.  Wordsworth,  Dorothy.  Journal  (ed.  W.  Knight,  2  vols.,  1897, 
vol.  i,  pp.  158,  181). 

[p.  158]  [Tuesday,  Jan.  llth.]  Mary  read  the  Prologue  to  Chaucer's 
Tales  to  me  in  the  morning.  .  .  .  Eead  part  of  The  Knight's 
Tale  with  exquisite  delight  .  .  . 

[p.  isi]  [Friday,  August  l$th.~\  There  were  two  beds  in  recesses 
in  the  wall ;  above  one  of  them  I  noticed  a  shelf  with 
some  books : — it  made  me  think  of  Chaucer's  Clerke  of 
Oxenforde  : — 

Liever  had  he  at  his  beds  head 
Twenty  books  clothed  in  black  and  red. 

1803.  Z.     Letter,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxiii,  part  i,  p.  8. 

Mr.  Tyrwhitt  laments  that  the  author  of  "  Memoires  pour 
la  Vie  de  Petrarque"  never  indulged  the  publick  with  his 
promised  account  of  the  (supposed)  interview  between  Petrarch 
and  Chaucer.  May  we  not  hope  that  the  deficiency  which 
Mr.  T.  regrets  will  be  supplied  by  the  researches  of  Mr.  Johnes  ? 

[The  reference  is  to  Johnes'  translation  of  Froissart,  published  in  5  vols.,  1803-10. 
See  Johnes  above,  1803,  and  also  H.,  D.,  above,  1803.] 

1804.  Aikin,  John.     Letters  to  a  Young  Lady  on  a  Course  of  English 
Poetry,  pp.  22-6,  269. 

[Dr.  Aikin  describes  Dryden's  Knighfs  Tale,  ll  taken  from 
Chaucer."  He  then  goes  on  to  "  The  Cock  and  the  Fox,"  of 
M'hich  he  speaks  precisely  as  if  Dryden  were  the  original 
author,  and  Chaucer  is  not  mentioned.  For  instance, 
"  Dryden  .  .  .  seems  to  have  thought  the  character  of  that 
kind  of  fiction  termed  fable,  sufficiently  preserved,  if  the 


1804]  Cltaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  15 

actions  belong  to  the  animals  which  are  the  personages  of  the 
story,  while  the  Ian  gunge  and  sentiments  are  those  of  human 
beings.  .  .  .  Dry  den's  Cock  and  Hen  have  all  the  knowledge 
which  he  himself  possessed,  and  quote  fathers  and  schoolmen 
just  as  in  his  Hind  and  Panther,"  etc.  He  also  speaks  of  the 
Good  Parson  without  reference  to  Chaucer.] 

[a.  1804.]  Boucher,  Jonathan.  Boucher's  Glossary  of  Archaic  and 
Provincial  Words.  A  Supplement  to  the  Dictionaries  of  the  English 
Language,  particularly  those  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  Dr.  Webster  .  .  . 
edited  jointly  by  Joseph  Hunter  and  Joseph  Stevenson,  1832, 
Introduction,  pp.  vii,  xix,  xxxii,  xl,  xli  and  note,  xlv,  xlvi  note, 
Ivi,  and  continual  references  in  the  Glossary. 

[Boucher  devoted  fourteen  years  to  this  Glossary,  and  left  it 
uncompleted  when  lie  died,  in  1804.  In  1803,  he  had  issued 
proposals  for  printing  it  (see  above,  180.3);  the  part 
including  letter  A  was  published  in  1807,  and  finally,  in 
1832,  Hunter  and  Stevenson  brought  out  the  Introduction  to 
the  whole  work  as  prepared  for  the  press  by  Boucher,  and 
the  Glossary  A  to  Blade. 

It  was  not  successful,  and  Mr. W.  P.  Courtney  says  (see  article 
Boucher  in  D.  N.  B.)  that  it  is  understood  that  most  of  the 
materials  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  proprietors  of  Webster's 
English  Dictionary.  Besides  the  references  to  Chaucer  in  the 
introduction,  his  poems  are  quoted  on  almost  every  page,  and 
often  there  are  6  or  8  quotations  from  him  on  a  page.  On  the 
first  page  (really  only  half  a  page),  on  the  letter  A,  there  are 
15  references  to  or  quotations  from  Chaucer.  But  this  is 
unusually  many.  In  the  first  20  pages  there  are  in  all  69 
Chaucer  references  and  quotations.] 

1804.  Coleridg-e,  Samuel  Taylor.  Letter  to  Sir  George  Beaumont, 
Feb.  1,  1804,  [printed  in]  Memorials  of  Coleortori,  ed.  W.  Knight, 
1887,  vol.  i,  p.  46.  [This  letter  is  not  printed  in  the  (select) 
Letters  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  1895.] 

One  fortnight  in  each  month  I  shall  .  .  .  devote  to  poetry, 
and  the  other  fortnight  to  Essays  .  .  .  The  first,  on  the 
Genius  and  Writings  of  Chaucer. 


1804.  Irving,  David.  Lives  of  the  Scotish  Poets,  2  vols.  Vol.  i, 
Barbour  and  Chaucer,  pp.  253,  259,  265-7  ;  James  I  and  Chaucer, 
pp.  303,  325  ;  Henry  the  Minstrel  compared,  pp.  353,  358  ; 
D  unbar  compared,  pp.  405,  415,  418,  437-8  ;  Henryson  and 
Troilus,  pp.  378,  380,  385-6  ;  vol.  ii,  Gavin  Douglas  and  Chaucer, 
pp  27,  43,  60,  64  ;  Allan  Ramsay,  a  competitor  with  Chaucer  and 
Boccaccio  as  a  comic  poet,  p.  328. 


16  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1804 

1804.  Robinson,  Thomas.  Letter  to  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  [dated] 
May  6th,  1804.  (Crabb  Robinson  Letters  [unpublished],  in  Dr. 
Williams'  Library,  Gordon  Square,  W.C.) 

Since  I  wrote  to  you  I  have  been  considerably  interested 
by  reading  the  first  vol.  of  Godwin's  "Life  of  Chaucer." 
[Here  follows  a  detailed  description  of  that  work,  not  flatter 
ing  to  Godwin,  concluding  :]  I  have  received  many  new  ideas 
and  been  highly  delighted  by  some  beautiful  passages  which 
are  pointed  out  in  works  of  the  poet,  and  which  I  was  capable 
of  relishing  in  spite  of  the  obsoleteness  of  the  language. 

1804.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Review  of  Ellis's  Specimens  of  the  Early 
English  Poets,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  iv,  p.  156.  (Mis 
cellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh,  1834-71, 
30  vols.,  vol.  xvii.,  pp.  6,  9,  11.) 

[p. »]  The  epoch  from  which  English  may  be  considered  as  a 
classical  language,  may  be  fixed  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III, 
the  age  of  Gower  and  of  Chaucer,  in  which  it  was  no  longer 
confined  to  what  the  latter  has  called  "the  drafty  riming"  of 
the  wandering  minstrel. 

1804.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Review  of  the  Works  of  Thomas  Chatterton, 
[in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  April,  1804,  vol.  iv,  pp.  228-9. 
(Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  30  vols.,  Edin 
burgh,  1834-71,  vol.  xvii,  pp.  237-8.) 

;p.  237]  An  instance  of  a  curious  mistake  committed  by  Chatterton 
occurs  in  these  excerpts  from  the  Pseudo-Rowley  prose  writ 
ings.  In  a  MS.  in  Chatterton's  handwriting,  in  the  Museum, 
there  occur  several  excerpts  from  Chaucer,  apparently  culled 
to  bolster  out  some  intended  imitations.  Among  others  we 

[p.  288]  find  the  two  lines  respecting  the  mormal  on  the  leg  of  the 
pilgrims'  cook — 

"  But  great  harm  was  yt,  as  it  thought  me, 
That  on  his  skinne  a  mormall  had  he." 

SJiinne  is  here  miscopied  for  shin.  This  mistake,  and 
another  more  whimsical,  we  can  trace  into  the  '  Rolle  of 
Seyncte  Bartholsemeweis  Priorie,'  printed  in  Barret's  History 
of  Bristol,  to  whom  it  was  communicated  by  Chatterton. 
Amon^  a  list  of  medical  books  ...  we  find  .  .  .  Johan 

O 

Stowe  of  the  cure  of  mormalles  and  the  waterie  leprosie:  the 
rulle  of  the  blacke  mainger.     In   a  note   on   these  two  last 


1804]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  17 

articles,  we  are  told,  "  Chaucer  says,  on  his  skin  a  mormalle 
had  he  and  a  blacke  manger."  Now,  in  the  first  place 
Chatterton,  adhering  to  his  erroneous  transcript  from  Chaucer, 
of  ski i me  for  shinne,  has  made  Johan  Stowe  lecture  on  the  cure 
of  mormalles  as  if  they  were,  like  the  leprosy,  a  cutaneous 
distemper,  aucl  not  a  cancer  on  the  bone.  But,  besides,  he 
lias  so  far  mistaken  his  author  as  to  take  Uanc-manger,  a  dish 
of  exquisite  cookery,  which  is  pronounced  by  Chaucer  to  be 
the  cook's  masterpiece  of  skill,  for  blacke  manner,  some  strange 
and  nondescript  disease  .  .  .  Chaucer's  words  are — 

"  But  gret  liarme  was  it,  as  it  though  te  me, 
That  on  his  shinne  a  mormal  hadde  lie, 
For  blanc-manger  that  made  he  with  the  best."' 


1804.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Review  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  iii,  Jan.  1804,  art.  xvi,  pp.  437-52. 
(Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  30  vols.,  Edinburgh, 
1834-71,  vol.  xvii,  pp.  55-80.) 

[p.  55]      The  perusal  of  this  title  excited  no  small  surprise  in  our 
critical  fraternity.     The  authenticated  passages  of  Chaucer's 
life  may  be  comprised  in  half  a  dozen  pages ;  and  behold  two 
voluminous  quartos ! 

•         ••••••••• 

[p.  56]  The  reader  will  learn,  with  admiration,  that  Mr.  William 
[p.  57]  Godwin's  two  quarto  volumes  contain  hardly  the  vestige  of  an 
authenticated  fact  concerning  Chaucer,  which  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  eight  pages  of  Messrs.  Thomas  Tyrwhitt  and 
George  Ellis.  The  researches  into  the  records  have  only  pro 
duced  one  or  two  writs,  addressed  to  Chaucer,  while  clerk  of 
the  works ;  the  several  grants  and  passports  granted  to  him  by 
Edward  III  and  Richard  II  which  had  been  referred  to  by 
former  biographers;  together  with  the  poet's  evidence  in  a 
court  of  chivalry,  a  contract  about  a  house,  and  a  solitary 
receipt  for  half  a  year's  salary.  These,  with  a  few  documents 
referring  to  John  of  Gaunt,  make  the  Appendix  to  the  book, 
and  are  the  only  original  materials  brought  to  light  by  the 
labours  of  the  author. 


[p.  65]      The  public  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Godwin  for  the  recovery  of 
[p.  66]  Chaucer's  evidence  in  a  question  about  bearing  arms,  occurring 

CHAUCER  CRITICISM. II.  0 


18     [Scott]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1804 

foetwixt  Scrope  and  Grosvenor  * ;  but  the  manner  in  which  it 
is  narrated,  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  strained  inferences 
^concerning  Chaucer's  temper  and  disposition,  deduced  by  his 
ibiographer  from  the  most  common  and  trivial  occurrences. 


[p.  63]  Some  particular  passages  of  the  life,  are  less  fancifully  and 
more  correctly  delineated.  Mr.  Godwin  combats,  and  in  our 
opinion  successfully,  the  opinion  of  those  who  deny  the 
honourable  claim  of  Thomas  Chaucer,  to  call  the  poet  father: 
and  he  has  vindicated  the  relation,  which  the  Dreme  of 
Chaucer  unquestionably  bears  to  the  History  of  John  of 
Gaunt. 

The  critical  dissertations  upon  Troilus  and  Creside,  and 
Chaucer's  other  poems,  have  considerable  merit.  They  are 
the  production  of  a  man  who  has  read  poetry  with  taste  and 
feeling;  and  we  wish  sincerely,  that  instead  of  the  strange 

[p.  69]  farrago  which  he  calls  the  life  of  Chaucer,  he  had  given  us  a 
correct  edition  of  the  miscellaneous  poetry  of  the  author,  upon 
the  same  plan  with  Mr.  Tyrwhitt's  admirable  Canterbury 
Tales. 

We  were  much  surprised  to  find,  that  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
(p.  TO]  the  most  important,  as  well  as  the  most  exquisite,  of  Chaucer's 
productions,  have  attracted  so  little  of  Mr.  Godwin's  attention. 
He  might  have  displayed,  in  commenting  upon  poems  as  varied 
in  subject  as  in  beauty,  his  whole  knowledge  of  the  manners 
of  the  middle  ages,  were  it  ten  times  more  extensive.  But 
Mr.  Godwin,  beginning  probably  to  write  before  he  had  con 
sidered  either  the  nature  of  his  subject,  or  the  probable  length 
of  his  work,  had  exhausted  both  his  limits  and  materials  ere 
he  came  to  the  topic  upon  which  he  ought  principally  to  have 
•dwelt.  The  characters,  therefore,  of  the  several  pilgrims,  so 
exquisitely  described,  that  each  individual  passes  before  the 
eyes  of  the  reader,  'and  so  admirably  contrasted  with  each 
•other ;  their  conversation  and  manners,  the  gallantry  of  the 
Knight  and  Squire,  the  affected  sentimentality  of  the  Abbess, 
the  humour  of  mine  Host,  and  the  Wife  of  Bath ;  the  pride 
of  the  Monk,  the  humility  of  the  Parson,  the  learning  and 

*  We  hold  this  to  be  the  only  circumstance  of  importance,  which 
Mr.  Godwin's  researches  have  brought  to  light ;  and  so  far  our  thauks 
are  due  to  him. 


1804]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  19 

poverty  of  the  Scholar,  with  the  rude  but  comic  portraits  of 
the  inferior  characters,  are,  in  the  history  of  the  life  and  age 
of  Chaucer,  of  which  they  form  a  living  picture,  passed  over 
in  profound  silence,  or  with  very  slight  notice.  The  truth  is, 
Mr.  Godwin's  speed  and  strength  were  expended  before  he 
came  within  sight  of  the  goal,  and  he  saw  himself  compelled 
with  a  faint  apology  to  abandon  that  part  of  his  subject  which 
must  have  been  universally  interesting.  The  few  remarks 
which  he  has  made  upon  the  Canterbury  Tales,  induce  us  to 
believe  that  he  has  seen  and  regretted  his  error ;  but  it  is  a 
poor  excuse,  after  writing  a  huge  book,  to  tell  the  reader  that 
it  is  but  "  superficial  work,"  because  the  author  "  came  a  novice 
to  such  an  undertaking." 


(P.  79]      But,  upon  the  whole,  the  Life  of  Chaucer,  if  an  uninterest- 

(p.  80]  ing,  is  an  innocent  performance ;  and  were  its  prolixities  and 

superfluities  unsparingly  pruned  (which  would  reduce  the  work 

to  about  one  fourth  of  its  present  size),  we  would  consider  it  as 

an  accession  of  some  value  to  English  literature. 


1804.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Sir  Tristrem,  a  Metrical  Romance  ...  by 
Thomas  of  Ercildoune,  edited  by  Walter  Scott,  title-page  and 
pp.  xxviii,  xliv,  xlviii,  Ivi,  Iviii,  Ixi,  Ixviii,  Ixxxivn. 

[Quotation  on  title-page :] 

Now,  hold  your  mouth,  pour  charitie, 
Both  Knight  and  Lady  fre,  .  .  . 

[to] 
Anon  I  wol  you  tel.  —CHAUCER. 

[Sir  TJiopas,  11.  180-5.] 

[p.  xxviii]  Saxon,  although  spoken  chiefly  by  the  vulgar,  was  gradu 
ally  adopting,  from  the  rival  tongue,  those  improvements  and 
changes,  which  fitted  it  for  the  use  of  Chaucer  and  Gower. 

[p.  xliv]  [Chaucer's  "  French  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe  "  alludes  to  the 
difference  between  proper  French  and  Anglo-Norman.] 

[p.  ivi]  [The  'sotherne'  Persones  'rim  ram  ruf '  points  to  alliteration 
as  then  being  a  characteristic  of  northern  poetry.] 

[p.  ixi]  The  romance  of  Wade,  twice  alluded  to  by  Chaucer,  but 
now  lost,  was  probably  a  border  composition.  The  castle  of 
this  hero  stood  near  the  Roman  Wall. 


20  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1804 

1804.  Southey,  Robert.  Letter  to  John  Rickman,  dated  Jan.  20, 
1804.  (Life  and  Correspondence  of  Robert  Southey,  1850,  vol.  ii, 
p.  251.) 

This  vile  reviewing  still  birdlimes  me  ;  I  do  it  slower  than 
anything  else  .  .  .  Yesterday  Malthus  received,  I  trust,  a 
mortal  wound  from  my  hand ;  to-day  I  am  at  the  Asiatic 
Researches — Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer  is  on  the  road,  to  me. 

[There  is  an  apparent  discrepancy  of  date  here,  as  Southey's  review  of  Godwin's 
Chaucer  is  in  The  Annual  Review  for  1803,  q.v.  above.  But  the  volume  did  not  appear 
until  April  1804,  so  that  Southey  doubtless  did  not  write  the  review  until  February 
1804.  He  alludes  to  his  expectation  of  the  arrival  of  Godwin's  life  of  Chaucer  in  two 
other  letters  (1)  to  John  King,  dated  Keswick,  Nov.  19,  1803,  and  (2)  to  Miss  Barker, 
dated  Keswick,  1804  (Selections  from  the  letters  of  Southey,  ed.  J.  W.  Warter,  1856, 
vol.  i,  pp.  245,  254).] 


1804.  Southey,  Robert.  Letter  to  S.  T.  Coleridge,  dated  Feb.  1804. 
(Life  and  Correspondence  of  Southey,  1850,  vol.  ii,  pp.  266,  267, 
268.) 

I  am  not  sorry  that  you  gave  Godwin  a  dressing  .  .  . 
I  daresay  he  deserved  all  you  gave  him ;  in  fact  I  have 
never  forgiven  him  his  abuse  of  William  Taylor,  and  do 
now  regret,  with  some  compunction,  that,  in  my  reviewal  of 
his  Chaucer,  I  struck  out  certain  passages  of  well-deserved 
severity. 

1804.  Unknown.  Review  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
European  Magazine  and  London  Review,  vol.  xliv,  pp.  441-6 ; 
vol.  xlv,  pp.  44-8,  121-30,  201-11,  281-93. 

[A  running  commentary,  in  which  the  writer  has  "  most 
painfully  and  anxiously  endeavoured"  to  compress  the 
evidence  on  Chaucer's  life,  manners,  habits,  the  features  of  his 
mind,  and  the  principal  traits  of  his  character  [xlv,  292]. 
The  main  point  made  in  the  criticism  is  that  Godwin  did  not 
seem  well  to  understand  the  difference  between  biography  and 
general  history,  and  that  he  discoursed  too  largely  on  con 
temporary  affairs,  not  mentioning  Chaucer  for  chapters 
together.] 

1804.  Unknown.     On  the  Use  of  the  words  "Shall"  and  "  Will,"  [in] 
The   Literary   Magazine     and    American    Register,    Philadelphia, 
Feb.  1804,  vol.  i,  p.  356. 

In  Chaucer  "the  faithe  I  shall  to  God"  means  the  faith  I 
owe  to  God;  thence  it  [tshalf]  became  a  sign  of  the  future 
tense. 


1804]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  21 

1804.  Unknown.  Character  of  Chaucer,  by  Godwin,  [in]  The  Literary 
Magazine  and  American  Register,  Philadelphia,  April,  May,  1804, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  48-53,  121-6. 

[Quotation,  from  Godwin,  of  biographical   statement   and 
literary  estimate — "  a  sort  of  recapitulation  of  the  work."] 


1804.  Unknown.     Codwin  and  Molthus,  [in]  The  Literary  Magazine 
and  American  Register,  Philadelphia,  August  1804,  vol.  ii,  p.  361. 

[IS"ote  that  in  his  Life  of  Chaucer,  Godwin  seemed  to  have 
renounced  the  principles  of  policy  and  government  raised  ID 
his  Political  Justice .] 


1804.  Unknown.  The  Squires  Tale,  imitated  from  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
Poetical  Register  and  Repository  of  Fugitive  Poetry  for  1804, 
London,  1806,  pp.  275-92. 

Where  wide  the  plains  of  Tartary  extend, 
And  Sarra's  towers  in  glittering  pomp  ascend, 
A  monarch  reigned,  who  made  proud  Russia  yield 
Beneath  his  arm,  in  many  a  bloody  field  : 
Cambuscan  was  the  mighty  hero's  name, 
Of  yore  unrivall'd  in  the  list  of  fame  ! 


1804.  Unknown.  Review  of  Ellis's  Specimens  of  Early  English 
Poetry,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  April,  1804,  vol.  iv,  pp.  154, 
156-8. 

(P.  154]  To  this  specimen  of  Saxon  poetry  [Ode  on  ^thelstan's 
victory]  Mr.  Ellis  has  subjoined  a  translation  of  it  into  the 
English  of  the  age  of  Chaucer,  which  we  recommend  to  our 
readers  as  one  of  the  best  executed  imitations  that  we  have 
ever  met  with.  It  was  written  by  a  friend  of  Mr.  Ellis 
(Mr.  Frere,  if  we  mistake  not)  while  at  Eton  School,  and 
struck  us  with  so  much  surprise,  that  we  are  obliged  to 
extract  a  passage  .  .  . 

*  The  Mercians  fought  I  understond, 
There  was  gam  en  of  the  bond  '  [etc.] 

fSee  Ellis,  above,  1801.     The  translation  as  given  in  George 
is's  Specimens  of  the  Early  English  Poets,  London,  1801, 
vol.  i,  pp.  32-4,  is  not  there  noted  as  Chaucerian.] 


22  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1804- 

1804-5.  Wharton,  Richard.  Fables:  consisting  of  Select  parts  from 
Dante,  Berni,  Chaucer,  and  Ariosto,  imitated  in  English  Heroic 
Verse,  by  Richard  Wliarton,  2  vols. 

Vol.  i,  pp.  70-99.     [The  Franklein's  Tale  from  Chaucer.] 
Vol.  ii,  pp.  i-xvi,  1-199.     Fables,   containing  Cambuscan,    an 
Heroic  Poem  in  six  books,  founded  upon  and  comprising  a  free 
imitation  of  Chaucer's  fragment  on  that  subject,  1805. 

[Wharton's   version  of   the    celebrated   lines    on  love  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  his  modernization  :] 
[voi.i,  Gentles,  who  hear  the  tale,  learn  this  from  me, 

Love  cannot  bloom  beneath  authority. 
That  union  best  endures  where  each  receives 
A  little  grace,  and  each  a  little  gives  ; 
For  Love,  if  either  strive  to  rule  alone, 
Extends  his  wings  and  farewell !  he  is  gone. 
Love  is  a  thing  as  any  spirit  free 
Lost  by  restraint  and  gained  by  liberty. 

Mr.  Pope's  imitation, 

Spreads  his  light  wings  and  in  a  moment  flies, 

however  beautiful  in  the  structure  of  the  verse,  is  weaker 
than  the  original, 

Beateth  his  wings  and  farewell,  he  is  gone — 

the  active  flies  not  conveying  the  idea  of  the  immediate  effect 
of  authority  so  forcibly  as  the  passive,  is  gone.  Perhaps  this 
may  seem  too  fine  a  criticism ;  but  it  has  induced  me  to 
preserve  as  much  of  Chaucer's  line  as  was  consistent  with 
modern  idiom. 

[vol.  u,  [Introductory  Advertisement.  The  author  defends  his  use 
of  Dryden's  heroic  couplet :]  Chaucer,  had  he  lived  at  a  later 
period,  though  he  would  have  preserved  his  nice  discrimination 
of  character,  and  the  forcible  style  which  brings  action  before 
the  reader's  eye,  would  have  enriched  his  poems  with  all  the 
graces  which  Time,  Taste,  and  Learning  have  interwoven  into 
the  originally  coarse  fabric  of  his  native  tongue.  To  copy  the 
turn  of  thought,  the  boldness  of  figure,  and  the  animation  of 
Chaucer's  poems,  is  to  copy  Chaucer  :  to  preserve  his  hobbling 
cadences  and  obsolete  phrases  is  to  copy  the  baldness  of  our 
language  at  the  period  when  he  lived.  Had  Chaucer  lived  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  he  would  have  given  us  his  Palamon 
and  Arcite,  as  Dryden  has  dressed  it  ... 


1805]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  23 

[p.  v]  I  shall  acquit  myself  more  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  critical 
world  by  keeping  in  mind  the  language  and  numbers  in  which 
Dryden  has  told  some  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  than  by 
sedulously  imitating  the  dryness  of  the  original  poems  :  the- 
expression  of  Chaucer  being,  indeed,  strong  and  quaint ;  but 
very  inadequate  to  convey  either  his  ideas  or  Dryden's. 

1804.  n.  Review  of  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Literary 
Journal,  January  and  February,  1804,  vol.  iii,  coll.  11-19,  64-79. 

[p.  is]  ...  We  cannot  but  be  startled  at  the  first  sentence  of  the 
preface;  "The 'two  names  which  do  greatest  honour  to  the 
annals  of  English  Literature,  are  those  of  Chaucer  and  of 
Shakspeare."  That  Chaucer  was  a  wonderful  poet  when  we 
consider  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  no  man  will  dispute ;  but 
to  enthrone  him  above  Milton  and  all  the  other  splendid 
geniuses  who  have  adorned  our  literature  ...  is  an  hyperbole 
of  rather  inauspicious  aspect  at  the  commencement  of  a 
work. 

[p.  69]  ...  In  Chaucer  we  find  some  happy  expressions,  many 
striking  images  and  many  traits  of  genuine  humour ;  but  to- 
suppose  that  these  can  convey  equal  pleasure  to  the  reader  in 
the  uncouth  and  antiquated  style  in  which  they  are  expressed, 
as  when  we  find  them  in  the  finely-turned  versification  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  is  an  idea  which  could  be  entertained 
for  a  moment,  only  by  the  blindest  enthusiasm. 

[p.  TO]  Mr.  G.  must  also  know  that  Pope  and  Dryden  will  continue- 
to  be  read  with  delight  by  all  their  countrymen  ;  while  his 
"popular  book  in  modern  English  "  will  never  be  able  to  rescue 
Chaucer  from  the  cabinets  of  the  antiquaries.  That  poet  was 
indeed  admirable  in  his  day;  and  had  he  been  destined  to  write 
in  a  later  age,  his  works  would  still  have  been  lead  with 
delight. 

1805-6.  Gary,  Henry  Francis.  The  Inferno  of  Dante  Alighieri  .  .  + 
with  a  translation  in  blank  verse,  notes  ...  by  the  Hev.  Henry 
Francis  Gary,  2  vols.  Notes,  vol.  i,  pp.  66  [quotation  from  the 
non-Chaucerian  Chaucer's  Dream],  251  [Ser  Brunette's  Tesoretto 
'is  a  curious  work,  not  unlike  the  writings  of  Chaucer  in  style 
and  numbers  ']  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  2l>0  [quotation  from  the  Squieres  Tale, 
for  Achilles'  spear],  281  [Genilon,  in  Nonne  Preestes  Tale,  and 
'  Peter  of  Spaine,'  in  Monkes  Tale]. 

[For  Gary's  complete  translation  of  the  Divina  Commedia,  with  these  and  addi 
tional  Chaucer  references  in  the  notes,  which  are  there  printed  together  at  the  end  of 
each  volume,  see  below,  1814.] 


24  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1805 

1805.  Drake,  Nathan.  Essays  Biographical,  Critical  and  Historical, 
Illustrative  of  the  Tatler,  Spectator  and  Guardian,  3  vols.,  London, 
1805;  vol.  i,  p.  306-7  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  66,  69,  169,  261-2,  294-300, 
305  ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  85,  89,  108. 


[vol.  i,       [On  Addison's  remarks  on  Chaucer  in  the  Account  of  the 
Rj       Greatest  Enylish  Poets :] 

Chaucer  is  distinguished  merely  by  his  powers  of  exciting 
merriment,  a  most  inadequate  representation  of  this  fine 
old  poet,  whose  vein  of  description  and  pathos  is  remark 
ably  rich  and  pure. 

V°tf6li9]     [Qllot!lti°n  fr°m  Dryden's  Preface  to  the  Fables.] 
PP[pi>.         [Quotations  from  //  Penseroso  and  Warton.] 
26i-2]       [(ju  Chaucer's  debt  to  the  Decameron  in  the  framework  of 
294-300]the  Canterbury  Tales;  the  contrast  of  the  pilgrims,  p.  296; 
Chaucer's    "  intimate    acquaintance   with   Arabian   literature 
and  fable  "  in  the  Squieres  Tale.     Chaucer's  debt  to  the  Italians, 
with  quotation  from  Godwin.] 

1805.  Edgeworth,  Maria.     The  Modern  Grixelda,  a  Tale,  pp.  39-40, 
43-55. 

[This  is  not  based  on  The  Clerkes  Tale,  to  which,  however, 
the  authoress  owes  some  suggestion. 

[p.  39]  Mention  of  the  Clerkes  Tale,  which  is  read  at  a  "reading 
party  "  (Chap,  iv) — in  the  heroic  couplets  of  Ogle  [q.  v.  above, 
1739  and  1740,  vol.  i,  pp.  384,  389],  and  one  passage, 
corresponding  to  Clerkes  T.,  is  quoted  thus  :  — 

"Swear,  that  with  ready  will  and  honest  heart, 
Like  or  dislike,  without  regret  or  art ; 
In  presence  or  alone  ;  by  night  or  day, 
All  that  I  will  you  fail  not  to  obey,"  etc. 

These  words  produce  a  lively  discussion.  "Had  Chaucer 
lived  in  our  enlightened  times,  he  would  doubtless  have 
drawn  a  very  different  diameter,"  says  Mr.  Granby ;  and 
another  speaker  cites  the  usual  statement  on  "the  times  in 
which  he  wrote." 

This  book  was  quoted  the  same  year  in  America,  and 
was  translated  with  the  Clerkes  Tale  into  French  in  1813. 
See  Appendix  B,  1813.] 


1805. 

romance  of  price;  brief  reference,  vol.  i,  p.  125. 


1805]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  25 

1805.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Letter  to  George  Ellis,  [in]  Lockhart's  Memoirs 
of  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  ed.  1900,  5  vols,  vol.  i,  p.  408. 

As  for  the  British  Poets,  my  plan  was  greatly  too  liberal  to 
stand  the  least  chance  of  being  adopted  by  the  trade  at  large, 
as  I  asked  them  to  begin  with  Chaucer. 

1805.  Todd,  Henry  John.  The  Works  of  Edmund  Spenser,  8  vols. 
[A  variorum  edn.,  with  life,  new  notes,  and  glossary  by  Todd.] 
Vol.  i,  [Life  of  Spenser],  pp.  clvi  [Spenser  buried  by  Chaucer  at 
his  own  desire,  epitaphs  on  him],  clvii  n,  quotation  from  Sir 
John  Davies'  Orchestra,  1596  [q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  140],  clix  n 
[quotation  from  Don  Zara  del  Fogo,  1656,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p. 
232].  [Also  notes  on  the  text  throughout,  mainly  parallels  for 
the  use  of  words.] 

1805.  "Whitaker,  Thomas  Dunham.  History  and  Antiquities  of  .  .  . 
Craven  in  the  County  of  York,  pp.  195,  227,  286,  289,  307,  335, 
336-9,  345-8,  350-2,  362,  423,  424.  [The  references  in  the  second 
edition,  1812,  are  pp.  207,  254,  326,  329  (wrongly  numbered  366), 
348,  394,  395,  396,  397,  405-7,  412  (the  reference  to  lytel  Lowys 
being  excised),  493-4.  In  the  third  edition,  ed.  A.  W.  Morant, 
1878,  the  references  are,  pp.  269,  325,  399,  401,  419,  464,  473-5 
(with  the  suppression  noted  above),  496,  574,  575.] 

(P.  195  n.]  [Reference  to  gore  in  C.  Tales.] 

(P.  22V]       [Reference  to  "the  canon's  yeoman  in  Chaucer,  whose  tale 

is  perhaps  the  finest  satire  upon  chemical  jugglers  to  be  found 

in  Tiny  language."] 


Quotation  from  Milleres  Tale,  11.  134-5,  on  iraget] 
References  to  Knight's  Tale.] 
Quotation  from  Knight's  2Ja/e.] 
Quotation  from  Legend  of  Good  Women] 


[p.  286] 
[p.  289  n.] 
[p.  335  n.] 
[p.  336  n.] 

[p.  345]  The  English  language  underwent  no  very  considerable  change 
from  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third  to  that  of  Edward  the 
Fourth.  The  style  of  Gower  is  not  materially  different  from 
that  of  Lydgate.  Of  Langland  and  Chaucer  I  say  nothing. 
The  great  Poet  wrote  the  language  of  no  age ;  the  rude  Satyrist 
that  of  an  age  long  prior  to  his  own. 

[A  footnote  to  this  reads :]  Skinner's  remark  on  the  elder 
Bard  is  well  known  :   "  Integra  verborum  plaustra  invexit." 

[Whitaker  then  proceeds   to  quote  from  a  MS.  at  Bolton> 
•which  he  ascribes  to  the  Canons,  and  which  begins  : 

Why  artt  thow  soo  poure  man,  and  I  ame  soo  ryche? 

The  quotation  is  given  "  as  a  commentary  on  some  parts  of 
the  Chanones   Yeman's    Tale,   in    order   to  shew  with  what 


26  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1805- 

exactness  Chaucer  copied,  while  he  derided  the  jargon  of  that 
pretended  science."     Extracts  follow,  pp.  347-8.] 

[pp.  350-2]  [Whitaker  gives  an  excerpt  from  a  Latin  treatise  on  astro 
nomy,  ascribed  to  the  same  source,  and  proceeds  :] 

This  treatise  is  evidently  one  of  those  many  conclusions  on 
the  subject  of  Astronomy  spoken  of  by  Chaucer  as  extant  in 
his  time,  which  the  Latin  folk  had  in  Latin ;  but  when  the 
Canons  of  Bolton  lectured  their  illiterate  pupil  and  patron 
[Henry,  Lord  Clifford  the  Shepherd],  they  must  have  imitated 
the  condescension  of  that  Bard  to  lytel  Loivys,  in  shewing  hym 
wonder  lyght  Rules,  and  naked  Wordes  in  Englysh,  for  Latyii 
ne  canst  thou  but  smale,  my  sonne. 

[p.  362]      [Quotation  from  Legend  of  Good  Women.~\ 
[p.  423]      [Eefereuce  to  the  Romaunt  of  the  RoseJ] 

[p.  424]  [Quotation  from  Reeves  Tale  with  remarks  which  imply  that 
the  two  scholars  of  Soleres  Hall  (of  a  town  highte  S troth er) 
came  from  Longstrother,  their  dialect  "being  precisely  the 
modern  dialect  of  Craven."] 


1805.  Wordsworth,  William.  Letter  to  Walter  Scott,  Nov.  7,  1805,  [in] 
Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  Knight,  3  vols.,  1907,  vol.  i, 
p.  208.  [Also  printed  in]  J.  G.  Lockhart's  Memoirs  of  the  Life  ot' 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  1837,  vol.  ii,  p.  81.  (Library  of  English  Classics, 
edited  by  A.  W.  Pollard,  1900,  vol.  i,  ch.  xiv,  p.  434.) 

...  I  do  not  mean  to  say  there  is  nothing  of  this  [poetical 
language  in  the  highest  sense,  language  of  the  imagination,  or 
the  intense  passions]  in  Dry  den,  but  as  little,  I  think,  as  is 
possible,  considering  how  much  he  has  written.  You  will 
easily  understand  my  meaning,  when  I  refer  to  his  versifica 
tion  of  Palamon  and  Arcite,  as  contrasted  with  the  language 
of  Chaucer. 


1805.  Wordsworth,  William.  Prelude,  Book  III,  11.  278-81.  (The 
Poetical  Works  of  William  Wordsworth,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1896, 
vol.  iii,  p.  176.) 

Beside  the  pleasant  Mill  of  Trompington 
I  laughed  with  Chaucer  in  the  hawthorn  shade ; 
Heard  him,  while  birds  were  warbling,  tell  his  tales 
Of  amorous  passion. 


1806]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  27 

1806.  Gary,  Henry  Francis.  Letter  to  Miss  Seward,  dated  Aug.  16, 
180K,  [in]  Memoir  of  the  Kev.  F.  H.  Gary  ...  by  his  Son,  1847, 
2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  227,  238. 

[p.  227]  Your  opinion  of  Dante  himself  I  do  not  attempt  to  con 
trovert  .  .  Together  with  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  it  will  ever 
be  to  you,  as  "  caviare  to  the  multitude,"  and  as  Ossiaii  to  me. 

[p.  238]  [Miss  Seward  "was  not  to  be  silenced."  She  says,  in  the 
course  of  a  very  long  letter,  that  there  is  more  reason  to 
suppose  the  "  coldness  of  a  poetic  mind  "  to  the  beauty  and 
sublimity  of  Madoc  is  "the  result  of  prejudice,"  than  "to 
fancy  any  sensibility  of  the  real  faults  of  Chaucer,  Spenser, 
and  Dante  a  sort  of  unhallowed  irreverence  for  crude  and 
easy  composition."] 

1806.  Chalmers,  George.  Notes  to  Poetical  Works  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay 
.  .  .  ivith  a  life  .  .  .  dissertation,  and  .  .  .  glossary,  3  vols. 

[Vol.  i  (Life  and  Dissertation)  :  statement  that  there  were 
12  edns.  of  Chaucer  between  1475  and  1602,  and  that  none  was 
printed  out  of  England  ;  Chaucer  master  of  Scots  and  English 
Poets,  pp.  90,  99 ;  citation  from  The  Flyting  of  Montgomery  and 
Polwart :  "  Fra  Lyndsay  thou  tuik,  thou'rt  Chaucer's  ciiik,"  p.  102 ; 
Chaucer  and  the  Scots  poets,  pp.  123,  127,  131  ;  Chaucer  and 
James  I,  pp.  134-6  ;  Chaucer  and  Lydgate,  p.  189  n.  •  versification^ 
pp.  180-2  ;  language,  pp.  138,  141,  144-53,  155-9,  165,  168-179, 
180-2,  190  n.  Many  other  references  in  the  notes  and  glossary.] 

[p.  172]  It  is  apparent,  from  this  minute  examination,  that,  of 
Lyndsay's  words, about  1,  in  24,  is  obsolete;  and  of  Chaucer's 
1,  in  20;  yet,  the  languages  of  the  two  poets  are  the  same 
English  .  .  .  and  yet  Chaucer  died  in  1400,  and  Lyndsay  in 
1557. 

1806.  Fox,  Charles  James.  Record  of  Fox's  veneration  for  Chaucer 
and  reading  of  Dryden's  Palamon  and  Ar cite.  See  below,  1811, 
Trotter.  For  a  letter  to  Charles  Grey  referring  to  Chaucer's  love 
of  birds,  see  below,  App.  A.,  1800. 

1806.  Lamb,  Charles,  Letter  to  William  Wordsworth,  [dated]  Feb.  1, 
1806.  (The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas, 
1903-5,  7  vols.,  vol.  vi,  Letters,  p.  333.) 

We  have  made  some  alterations  in  the  Editions  since  your 
sister's  directions.  .  .  .  The  Spencer  [sic]  and  the  Chaucer, 
being  noble  old  books,  we  did  not  think  Stockdale's  modern 
volumes  [of  Shakespeare]  would  look  so  well  beside  them. 
.  .  .  The  state  of  the  purchase  then  stands  thus, 

Urry's  Chaucer  .         .         .          .     £1   16     — 

Pope's  Shakespeare      .         .         .         .22     — 


28  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1806- 

Spenser  [sic\     .         .         ,         .         ,  14     — 

Milton      ..„,,,        1     5 
Packing  Case,  &c.     .  36 

6     —     6 

1806.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell  (Mother  of  Miss  Mary  R.  Mitford).  List  of 
Books  read  January  1806.  [This  is  a  list  of  books,  made  by  her 
mother,  which  Miss  Mary  R.  Mitford  read  during  the  above  month.] 
The  Life  of  Mary  Russell  Mitford  .  .  .  ed.  Rev.  A.  G.  L'Estrange. 
1870,  vol.  i,  p.  30. 

List  of  Books  read  January  1806.  , 

Fourth  Volume  of  Canterbury  Tales          .         .        1 

[The  edition  must  be  Tyrwhitt's,  1775.] 

1806.  Seward,  Anna.  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Robert  Fellowes,  dated  May  31, 
1806  [referring  to  Chaucer's  meeting  and  conversation  with 
Petrarch]. 

Letter  to  Mrs.  Jackson,  dated  June  3,  1806.  (Letters  of  Anna 
Seward,  6  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1811,  vol.  vi,  pp.  257,  268-70,  Letters 
XL vi  and  XLVIL) 

,[P.  268]  [Reference  to  Godwin's  Life,  on  which  the  writer  continues :] 
[p.  269]  This  author  is  insanely  partial  to  the  poetic  powers  of 
Chaucer,  whose  compositions,  allowing  for  the  .disadvantage  of 
obsolete  language,  have  so  little  good  which  is  not  translation, 
and  so  much  that  is  tedious,  unnatural,  conceited,  and  obscure. 
Amid  scenes  and  circumstances,  so  much  more  interesting  than 
any  which  appertain  to  Chaucer,  the  poet  pops  up  his  nose  at 
intervals,  like  a  wooden  buoy,  floating,  sinking,  and  rising, 
amongst  a  throng  of  gallant  boats  and  vessels,  on  the  billows 
of  the  ocean. 

1806.  [Southey,  Robert.]  Review  of  Chalmers'  Poetical  Works  of  Sir 
David  Lyndsay,  [in]  The  Annual  Review,  vol.  v,  art.  i,  p.  494. 

Happy  are  the  Scotch  Poets,  for  they  shall  find  editors.  Is 
it  not  disgraceful,  that  of  all  Chaucer's  works,  only  the 
Canterbury  Tales  have  been  well  edited  1 

1806.  [Southey ,  Robert.]    Review  of  Lord  Holland's  A  ccount  of  Lope 
de  Vega,  [in]  The  Annual  Review,  vol.  v,  art.  xvi,  p.  401. 

[The  Latin  rhymes]  into  which  Sir  Francis  Kynaston  trans 
lated  part  of  Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  strange  as  they 
at  first  appear,  are  exceedingly  beautiful. 


1807]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  29 

1806.  Unknown.     Review  of  Hoards  *  Giraldus  Cambrensis,'  [in]   The 
Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1806,  vol.  viii,  p.  403. 

Girald  has  collected  all  the   vituperative   reflections  upon 
the  fair  sex  which  either  sacred  or  profane  authors  afforded, 
with  an  industry  only  exceeded  by  the  fifth  husband  of  the 
Wife  of  Bath,  who  compiled  the  treatise, 
"Where  clivers  authors  (whom  the  Devil  confound)  .  .  .  [to] 
And  Venus  sets  ere  Mercury  can  rise." 

1806.  Wordsworth,  William.     Letter  to  Lady  Beaumont,  [printed  in] 
Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W.  Knight,  3  vole,  1907, 
vol.  i,  p.  280. 

Out  of  this  alley  .  .  .  should  be  a  small  blind  path  leading 
to  a  bower,  such  as  you  will  find  described  in  the  beginning 
of  Chaucer's  poem  of  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  and  also  in 
the  beginning  of  the  Assembly  of  Ladies. 

1807.  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  16°. 

[No  copy  of  this  has  been  found  in  a  public  library,  nor  is  it  mentioned  by  Miss 
Hammond  in  Chaucer,  a  bibliographical  manual.  The  title  is  taken  from  a  dealer's 
list.] 

1G07.  Beloe,  William.  Anecdotes  of  Literature.  For  vol.  ii,  see  below, 
App.  A.,  1807  ;  for  vol.  vi,  below,  1812. 

1807.  Byron,  George  <  Gordon,  Lord.  List  of  the  different  Poets, 
dramatic  or  otherwise,  who  have  distinguished  their  respective  lan 
guages  by  their  productions,  [in  Byron's  memorandum-book,  dated 
Nov.  30,  1807].  Life  and  Works  of  Byron,  ed.  Moore,  edn.  1835, 
17  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  147-8  j  Murray's  1-vol.  Life,  by  Moore,  1908, 
p.  49. 

[This  was  first  printed  in  Moore's  Letters  and  Journals  of  Lord  Byron,  1830,  vol.  i. 
No  copy  of  this  is  available  in  London  at  the  date  of  writing.] 

In  niy  list  of  English,  I  have  merely  mentioned  the  greatest; 
— to  enumerate  the  minor  poets  would  be  useless,  as  well  as 
tedious.  Perhaps  Gray,  Goldsmith,  and  Collins,  might  have 
been  added,  as  worthy  of  mention,  in  a  cosmopolite  account. 
But  as  for  the  others,  from  Chaucer  down  to  Churchill,  they 
are  'voces  et  praeterea  nihil'; — sometimes  spoken  of,  rarely 
read,  and  never  with  advantage.  Chaucer,  notwithstanding 
the  praises  bestowed  on  him,  I  think  obscene  and  con 
temptible  : — he  owes  his  celebrity  merely  to  his  antiquity, 
which  he  does  not  deserve  so  well  as  Pierce  Plowman,  or 
Thomas  of  Lrcildoune. 


30  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1807 

1807.  Cockloft,  Pindar,  pseud.  [Irving,  Washington.]  To  Lancelot 
Langstaff.  Esq.,  [in]  Salmagundi,  Feb.  1807.  (living's  Works, 
27  vols.,  1880-3,  vol.  xvi,  p.  68.) 

0,  'twould  do  your  heart  good, 

Launce,  to  see  my  mill  grind 

Old  stuff  into  verses  and  poems  refined  : — 

Dan  Spenser,  Dan  Chaucer,  those  poets  of  old, 

Though  covered  with  dust,  are  yet  true  sterling  gold ; 

I  can  grind  off  their  tarnish,  and  bring  them  to  view, 

New-modell'd,  new-milTd,  and  improved  in  their  hue. 


1807.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.     Letter  to  Sir  H.  Davy,  Sept.   11, 
1807.    (Letters  of  S  T.  Coleridge,  1895,  vol.  ii,  pp.  515-16.) 

[Coleridge  is  sketching  a  series  of  lectures.]  2.  On  Spenser, 
including  the  metrical  romances,  and  Chaucer,  though  the 
character  of  the  latter  as  a  manner-painter  I  shall  have  so 
far  anticipated  in  distinguishing  it  from,  and  comparing  it 
with,  Shakespeare. 

1807.  Dibdin,  Thomas   Frognall.     The  Director;   A  Weekly  Literary 
Journal,  2  vols. ;  vol;  i,  pp.  126-8,  345  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  207,  280. 

tp.  126]      Royal  Institution.      The  fourth  lecture  of  the   Rev.   Mr. 

Dibdin,   on  the  rise  and  progress  of  English  literature,  was 

devoted  entirely  to  the  life  and  writings  of  Chaucer, 
tp.  127]      [Doubts  as  to  Gower's    chronological  priority  to  Chaucer; 

events  of  Chaucer's  life ;  his  works  discussed,  especially  the 
[p.  128]  <  Canterbury  Tales ' ;    the  testimony  of  English  authors,  from 

Ascham  to  Warton,  in  praise  of  Chaucer ;  and  the  need  of  an 

improved  edition  of  his  poems.] 

[Dibdin's  Lectures  appear  never  to  have  been  published  in  full.] 

1807.  D'Israeli,  Isaac.    Curiosities  of  Literature,  5th  edn.,  2  vols.,  1807, 
vol.  i,  pp.  172-3  (14th  edn.,  3  vols.,  1849,  vol.  i,  p.  115). 

Chaucer  was  more  facetious  in  his  tales  than  in  his  conver 
sation,  and  the  Countess  of  Pembroke  used  to  rally  him  by 
saying  that  his  silence  was  more  agreeable  to  her  than  his 
conversation. 

[See  also  below,  7th  edn.,  1823,  and  9th  edition,  1834.  The  1st  edn.  appeared  in 
1791,  in  one  vol.,  and  contained  only  one  Chaucer  reference,  on  p.  503;  the  2nd 
Aeries  appeared  in  1823  ;  the  author  revised  the  book  continually  until  the  12th  and 
last  edn.  of  his  lifetime,  1S41.] 


1807]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  31 

1807.  Douce j  Francis.  Illustrations  of  Shakespeare  and  of  Ancient 
Manners,  2  vols.  ;  vol.  i,  pp.  2,  15,  43,  48,  109,  134,  177,  183, 
188-9,203-6,  215,  223,  232-3,  246,  301,  350,  407,  415-16,  474, 
487,  506  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  7,  60,  64,  67-8,  151,  153-4,  180,  183,  213, 
228,  253-4,  276,  281,  285,  351,  363,  420,  450-1. 

(voi.i,  [Quotation  from  "Chaucer's  Testament  of  Creseid"  describ 
ing  the  Man  in  the  Moon.] 

(P.  109]      [Quotation  from  Troilus,  Bk.  iii,  11.  1366-72.] 

[p  183]  [Tyrwhitt  quoted  to  the  effect  that  "the  Pluto  and  Proser 
pine  of  Chaucer  were  the  true  progenitors  of  Oberon  and 
Titan  ia."] 

(P.  189]  [Quotation  from  "Chaucer's  Mower  and  the  Leafe"  for  the 
word  henchman.] 

{p.  204]  [Quotation  from  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  11.  863-74,  to  illustrate 
fairies  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  :]  The  other  quotation 
which  Mr.  Steevens  has  given,  is  not  to  the  present  purpose. 
The  fairies'  blessing  was  to  bring  peace  upon  the  house  of 
Theseus ;  the  night-spell  in  the  Miller's  Tale,  is  pronounced 
against  the  influence  of  elves,  and  those  demons,  or  evil  spirits, 
that  were  supposed  to  occasion  the  nightmare. 

(vol.  ii,  [Chaucer  probably  borrowed  the  plot  of  Troilus  and  Cressida 
from  Boccaccio's  Filostrato;  what  Dryden  said  of  Lollius 
entirely  destitute  of  proof.] 

[p.  68]  Such  part  of  our  play  as  relates  to  the  loves  of  Troilus  and 
Cressida  was  most  probably  taken  from  Chaucer,  as  no  other 
work,  accessible  to  Shakespeare,  could  have  supplied  him  with 
what  was  necessary. 

[Most  of  the  other  references  are  parallel  quotations  from 
Chaucer  and  illustrate  the  vocabulary  of  the  plays.] 
[p.  28i]  [On  the  anachronisms  and  some  other  incongruities  of 
Shakespeare  :]  From  the  time  of  Chaucer  to  that  of  Shakespeare, 
there  is  scarcely  an  author  to  be  found  who  is  not  implicated 
in  this  accusation  .  .  . 

[p.  285]  [Footnote.]  Mr.  Stothard,  the  most  unassuming  of  men, 
but  with  every  claim  to  superior  talent,  has  recently  finished  a 
painting  of  the  procession  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Pilgrims, 
which  may  be  classed  amongst  the  choicest  morsels  of  its 
kind.  The  attention  to  accuracy  of  costume  which  it  dis 
plays  has  never  been  exceeded,  and  but  very  seldom  so  well 
directed. 


32  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1807 

1807.  Hoppner,  John.  Letter  to  Richard  Cumberland,. dated  May  30, 
1807,  [printed  in]  Critical  Description  of  .  .  .  Chancels  Pilgrims 
.  .  .  by  Thomas  Stothard,  by  William  Carey,  1808  \_q.v.  below], 
pp.  12/13. 

[The  letter  is  a  critical  description  of  Stothard's  painting  of 
Chaucer's  pilgrims.  The  painter,  says  Hoppner,  in  delineating 
the  pilgrims,  shows  that  he  has]  studied  the  human  heart  with 
as  much  attention,  and  not  less  successfully,  than  the  Poet. 

[There  follows  praise  of  the  landscape,  the  freshness  of  the 
spring  morning,  of  which  we  see  the  influence  on]  the  cheeks 
of  the  Fair  Wife  of  Bath,  and  her  rosy  Companions,  the 
Monk  and  Friar. 

[The  picture  has  a  further  peculiarity]  that  it  bears  no  mark 
of  the  period  in  which  it  was  painted,  but  might  very  well 
pass  for  the  wrork  of  some  able  artist  of  the  time  of  Chaucer. 

1807.  Pindar,  Peter,  pseud.  [Wolcot,  John.]  Lines  addressed  to 
Chaucer,  [in]  The  Monthly  Magazine,  Feb.  1,  1807,  vol.  xxiii,  p.  59. 

Old  jocund  bard,  I  never  pass 
The  Tabard,  but  I  take  a  glass, 

To  drink  a  requiem  to  thy  ghost : 
Where  once  the  pious  pilgrims  met, 
Companions  boon,  a  jovial  set, 

And  midst  the  bands  a  jovial  host. 

Methinks  I  see  them  on  the  road 
To  Beckefc's  miracle-abode, 

That  cleans  from  Satan's  soot  the  soul ; 
Methinks  I  hear  their  comic  tale, 
Delighting  lanes,  and  hills,  and  dales, 

And  bidding  time  more  gayly  roll. 

Shall  Shakespeare  boast  his  Jubilee, 
And,  Chaucer,  nought  be  done  for  thee; 

The  father  of  our  British  lays  ? 
Oh  bards,  and  bardlings,  fie  !  oh  "fie  ! 
And  Southwark  folks  to  you  I  cry, — 

How  are  ye  mute  in  Geoffry's  praise? 

Is  it  reserved  for  me  alone 
To  boast  how  Chaucer's  merits  shone 
On  dark  unclassic  ground  1 


1807]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  33 

How  well  he  touched  the  British  lyre, 
And  kindled  high  the  Muse's  fire, 

When  not  a  sparkle  gleamed  around  ? 

Oh  then  be  formed  a  club  of  fame 
To  hail  thy  venerable  name ; 

And  let  me  join  the  choral  throng. 
For  stanzas  I'll  invoke  the  Muse, 
And,  consequently  [I]  will  chuse 

My  old  friend  Shield  to  set  the  song. 

Ah  !  what  though,  obsolete,  thy  phrase 
No  more  delights  our  modern  days, 

I  love  thy  genius  in  each  line ; 
Like  thee  I  strive  to  charm  our  isle ; 
Like  thee  I  court  the  Muse  of  Smile  ; 

And  wish  to  leave  a  name  like  thine  I 

Though  obsolete,  alas  !  thy  line, 
And  doomed  in  cold  neglect  to  shine, 

By  me  shall  Chaucer  be  rever'd ; 
"Whose  art  a  new  Parnassus  rais'd, 
That  midst  barbaric  darkness  blaz'd, 

A  sun  where  not  a  star  appear' d ! 

1807.  Seward,  Anna.  Two  Letters,  dated  respectively  Jan.  29  and 
Apiil  17,  to  Sir  Walter  Scott.  (Letters  of  Anna  Seward,  6  vols., 
Edinburgh,  1811,  vol.  vi,  pp.  330,  333,  336.  Letters  LIX  and  LX.) 

[p.  330]  [Jan.  29.]  He  [Dryden],  Spencer,  and  Chaucer,  have,  in 
my  opinion,  been  overpraised.  On  a  balance  of  their  beauty 
and  deformity,  not  one  of  them  equals  yourself  or  Southey. 

[p.  333]  [April  17.  The  writer  differs  from  Scott's  opinion  that 
"modern  poetic  talent  [was]  in  a  state  of  dwarfism,  from 
the  days  of  Chaucer,  Spencer,  and  Dryden."] 

[p.  336]  From  the  writers  of  Spencer's  period,  I  have  gathered  that 
it  was  the  fashion  to  speak  degradingly  of  his  powers  in 
comparison  with  those  of  Chaucer. 

1807.  Southey,  Robert.  Specimens  of  the  Later  English  Poets,  with 
preliminary  notices,  by  Kobert  Southey,  London,  1807.  In 
three  volumes,  vol.  i,  pp.  xiii-xix. 

[p.  xiii]  Y.  The  classification  of  our  Poets  into  schools  is  to  be 
objected  to,  because  it  implies  that  we  have  no  school  of  our 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM II.  D 


34      [Soutlicy]         Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1807- 

own  ;  a  confession  not  to  be  admitted,  till  the  prototypes  and 
masters  of  Chaucer,  Shakspcare,  and  Milton  are  produced.  .  .   . 

Tp.  xlv]  The  first  imported  fashion  was  the  Provencal,  or  Lemosm. 
Chaucer  composed  his  complimentary  poems  in  this  style.  .  .  . 
The  Romance  of  the  Rose  ...  he  must  have  translated  for 
its  reputation,  and  not  for  its  merit  .  .  .  it  is  impossible  not 
to  regret,  that  the  time  bestowed  upon  this  long  and  wearying 
rigmarole,  had  not  been  employed  upon  the  Canterbury 
Tales.  .  .  . 

IP.  xv]  It  is  not  easy  to  understand  Chaucer's  system  of  versifica 
tion,  whether  it  was  metrical  or  rhythmical.  .  .  .  Avoiding 
the  harshness  and  obscurity  of  alliterative  rhythm  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  the  frequent  recurrence  and  intricate 
intertexture  of  rhymes  which  are  found  in  some  of  the 
romances;  he  preferred  forms  less  rude  than  the  one,  less 
artificial  than  the  other;  less  difficult,  and  therefore  more 
favourable  to  perspicuity  than  either.  Chaucer,  therefore, 
became  the  model  of  succeeding  Poets  ;  .the  ten-syllable  couplet, 

[p.  xvi]  in  which  his  best  poems  are  composed,  has  become  our  most 
usual  measure ;  and  even  when  rhyme  is  disused,  that  length 
of  line  which  he  considered  as  best  adapted  for  narrative,  is 
still  preferred  for  it. 

Petrarca,  Dante,  and  Chaucer,  are  the  only  Poets  of  the 
dark  ages  whose  celebrity  has  remained  uninjured  by  the  total 
change  of  manners  in  Europe.  ...  To  attempt  any  com 
parison  between  three  writers,  who  have  so  little  in  common, 
would  be  ridiculous ;  but  .  .  .  Chaucer  displays  a  versatility 
of  talents,  which  neither  of  the  others  seem  to  have  possessed  : 
in  which  only  Ariosto  has  approached,  and  only  Shakspeare 
•equalled  him.  Eew,  indeed,  have  been  so  eminently  gifted 
with  all  the  qualifications  of  a  Poet,  essential  or  accidental. 
Ho  was  well  versed  in  all  the  learning  of  his  age,  even  of  the 
abstrusest  kind ;  he  had  an  eye  and  an  ear,  for  all  the  sights 
and  sounds  of  nature ;  humour  to  display  human  follies,  and 
feeling  to  understand,  and  to  delineate  human  passions.  As  a 
painter  of  manners,  he  is  accurate  as  Richardson ;  as  a  painter 
of  character,  true  to  the  life  and  spirit,  as  Hogarth  .  .  .  his 
fame  will  stand.  The  more  he  is  examined,  the  higher  he 
will  rise  in  estimation.  Old  Poets  in  general,  are  only 
valuable  because  they  are  old ;  on  the  contrary,  nothing  but 
his  age  prevents  Chaucer  from  being  universally  ranked 


1808]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  35 

among  the  greatest  Poets  of  his  country :  far  indeed  below 
Shakspeare  and  Milton  ;  perhaps  below  Spenser,  for  his  mind 
was  less  pure  and  his  beauties  are  scattered  over  a  wider  and 
more  unequal  surface, — but  far  above  all  others. 

VI.  The  ornate  style  originated  in  Chaucer  ;  he  has  just  left 
specimens  enough  to  shew  that  he  had  tried  the  experiment, 
and  did  not  like  it.  ... 

[p.  xix]      VII.  From  Chaucer  to  the  clays  of  Henry  VIII,  no  progress 
was  made  in  literature.  .   .  . 

1807.  Wordsworth,  William.     Note  to  the  second  poem  To  the  Daisy 
(1802).     [Dated  1807  by  Prof.  Knight.]     (Poetical  Works,  ed.  W. 
Knight,  1896,  vol.  ii,  p.  357  n.) 

[Resemblance  to  Mr.  Montgomery's  poem  entitled  "A  Field 
Flower  "  :] 

Mr.  Montgomery  will  not  think  any  apology  due  to  him  ;  I 
cannot,  however,  help  addressing  him  in  the  words  of  the 
Father  of  English  Poets  : 

"  Though  it  happe  me  to  rehersin — 
That  ye  han  in  your  freshe  songis  saied 
Forberith  me,  and  beth  not  ill  apaied, 
Sith  that  ye  se  I  doe  it  in  the  honour 
Of  Love,  and  eke  in  service  of  the  Flour." 

[Prologue  to  Legende  of  Good  Women,  II.  78-82.] 

1808.  Carey,  William   (Picture  Dealer).      Critical  Description  of  the 
Procession  of  Chaucer's  Pilgrims  to  Canterbury,  painted  by  Thomas 
Stothard. 

[This  is  a  pamphlet  of  77  pp.,  prefaced  by  a  letter  from  Carey 
to  John  Leigh  Philips,  and  followed  by  a  critical  description 
of  the  picture,  which  gives  a  detailed  account  of  each  pilgrim. 
There  are  Chaucer  allusions  all  through  the  pamphlet;  the 
following  are  the  most  interesting :] 

[P.  9]         [Opening  of  the  *  Critical  Description.'] 

Many  have  expressed  a  surprise  that  the  Procession  of 
Chaucer's  Pilgrims  was  not  earlier  selected  by  some  of  our 
distinguished  Artists.  But  difficulties  exist  in  the  subject 
sufficient  to  deter  the  generality  of  minds  from  the  under 
taking.  [Difficulty  of  grouping  a  number  of  figures  aliform- 
ally  directed  one  way.] 

[p.  ii]       From  Chaucer's  minute  description,  the  Artist  has  drawn 
each  as  a  Portrait  in  the  English  costume  of  the  14th  century. 


30  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1808 

[Here  follows  a  letter  from  Hoppner  to  Richard  Cumberland, 
1807,  q.v.  above.] 

[p.  15]       [The  Miller  that  'for  dronken  ivas  all  pale '  is  next  described, 

[p.  16]  and  his  dogs ;    the  Host  with  quotation  from  the  Prologue 

[p.  18]  describing  him,  and  so  on.] 

[p.  24]  It  cannot  be  denied  that  Chaucer's  description  of  the  Knight 
is  very  marked  in  all  its  details,  and  very  perfect.  It  unites 
the  minute  accuracy  of  Albert  Durer's  St.  Hubert  with  the 
fine  colouring  and  dignity  of  Holbein  in  his  most  Tizianesque 
portraits.  .  .  . 

[p.  30]        [Description  of  the  Squire.] 

Chaucer,  when  in  Italy,  was  introduced  to  Petrarch,  the 
friend  of  Contemporary  Art.  But  whether  the  British  Bard 
ever  took  up  the  pencil,  or  acquired  any  interest  in  the  works 
of  others,  is  a  question. 

Nevertheless,  on  reading  Chaucer's  life,  a  supposition  arises, 
that  ...  he  drew  the  character  of  the  Squire  from  what  he 
was  himself  when  he  wrote  his  "  Court  of  Love"  [To  draw 
their  own  portraits  is  a  common  practice  among  painters  and 
poets.] 

[pp.  43-4]  [Carey  does  not  agree  with  Tyrwhitt  when  he  says  that  the 
Yeoman  belongs  to  the  Knight,  and  not  to  the  Squire,  as 
Chaucer  would  never  have  given  the  son  an  attendant  when 
the  father  had  none.  The  Yeoman  was  young,  and  so  probably 
the  Squire's  attendant,  possibly  his  foster-brother.  But  even 
if  it  were  an  error  to  assign  the  servant  to  the  son,  he  cannot 

[p.  45]  agree  with  Tyrwhitt,]  unless  we  are  to  suppose  that  Chaucer 
was  above  error  in  the  design  or  invention  of  his  characters, 
.  .  .  Chaucer's  acknowledged  judgment,  and  his  rich  invention, 
did  not  lift  him  above  the  commission  of  error  and  oversight 
in  composition. 

[p.  57]       [Description  of  Chaucer.] 

The  countenance  of  Chaucer  is  designed  from  that  in  the 
British  Museum,  painted  by  Thomas  Occleve,  the  Poet's 
scholar.  I  think  that  I  have  somewhere  read  the  life  of  this 
Thomas  Occleve.  But  I  had  sent,  to  a  distant  part  of  the 
kingdom,  all  my  books  and  works  of  art,  some  days  before  I 
thought  of  commencing  this  essay.  I  have  now  nothing  to 
refer  to  but  the  Bible,  Johnson's  Dictionary,  Montgomery's 
Poems,  and  Chaucer's  Works  :  .  .  .  and  I  have  not  been  able 
to  discover  any  mention  of  this  Painter  or  Picture  in  Chaucer 


1808]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  37 

...  It  appears  to  me,  however,  an  interesting  question  :  Who 
taught  Thomas  Occleve  to  paint1? 

[This  pamphlet  was  re-issued  in  1818  with  the  addition  of  dedicatory  and  other 
letters,  in  which  there  are  further  brief  but  unimportant  references  to  Chaucer.] 

[1808.]  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Notes  written  in  Lamb's  copy  of 
"The  Poetical  Works  of  Mr.  Samuel  Daniel,"  2  vols.,  1718,  [printed 
in]  Notes  and  Queries,  Aug.  7,  1852,  vol.  vi,  p.  118.  [Also  quoted 
by  E.  V.  Lucas,  Life  of  Charles  Lamb,  vol.  ii,  pp.  316-7.] 

[Note  on  4th  fly-leaf  :] 

Is  it  from  any  hohby-horsical  love  of  our  old  writers  (and 
of  such  a  passion  respecting  Chaucer,  Spenser,  and  Ben  Jonson, 

1  have  occasionally  seen  glaring  proofs  in  one  the  string  of 
whose  shoe  I  am  not  worthy  to  unloose),  or  is  it  a  real  Beauty, 
the  interspersion  I  mean  (in  stanza  poems)  of  rhymes  from 
polysyllables — such  as  Eminence,  Obedience,  Reverence? 

1808.  [Cromek,  Robert  Hartley  ?]  The  Procession  of  Chaucer's  Pilgrims 
to  Canterbury.  Proposals  for  publishing,  by  subscription,  a  print, 
from  the  well-known  cabinet  picture  on  that  subject,  by  Thomas 
Stothard,  Esq.,  R.A.,  to  be  executed  .  .  .  by  Louis  tichiavonetti,  etc., 
[appended  to  Blair's]  The  Grave,  Cromek,  1808. 

[The  reputation  of  Chaucer  as  the  reformer  of  the  English 
language,  etc.,  justifies  the  Proprietor  in  presenting  all  the 
characters  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  the  most  pleasing  of  his 
works. 

Description  of  the  picture,  giving  a  few  words  to  each 
character.  The  Ploughman  is  called  the  Old  Ploughman,  and 
the  Squire  the  Fop  of  Chaucei''s  Age;  a  Goldsmith  is  intro 
duced.  See,  for  criticism  of  all  this,  Blake's  Descriptive  Cata 
logue,  below,  1809.  It  is  claimed  that  "the  costume  of  each 
Person  is  correct  with  an  antiquarian  exactness,"  Douce's 
Illustrations  of  Shakespeare  being  quoted  is  support  of  the 
statement  •  also  a  note  states  that  the  portrait  of  Chaucer  is 
painted  from  that  by  Occleve  in  the  British  Museum. 
Appended  is  a  letter  from  John  Hoppner  to  Richard  Cumber 
land,  q.v.  above,  1807.] 

1808.  Jamieson,  John.  An  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish 
Language:  illustrating  the  words  in  their  different  Significations  by 
Examples  from  Ancient  and  Modern  Writers  .  .  .  Edinburgh, 

2  vols. 

[There  are  a  certain  number  of  Chaucer  references  and  quo 
tations  all  through  the  Dictionary;  there  are  13  such  references 
in  the  first  20  pages.] 


38  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1808 

1808.  L.,  G.  W.  Chaucer's  Tomb,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
Nov.  1808,  vol.  Ixxviii,  p.  974. 

From  the  mutilated  state  of  that  [the  tomb]  of  our  first 
Poet  Chaucer,  very  few  know  the  spot  where  he  was  interred ; 
indeed  the  inscription  is  almost  defaced,  and  the  Monument 
itself  has  suffered  much  through  neglect.  It  is  the  only  one 
hereabouts  which  accords  with  the  building  in  which  it  is 
placed;  yet,  as  if  that  were  a  defect,  it  has  been  made  the 
supporter  of  another,  which  (not  to  say  anything  of  the 
striking  discordance)  absolutely  appears  as  if  it  had  casually 
perched  on  it !  Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  many 
may  be  pleased  by  having  this  Monument  pointed  out  to  them. 
On  entering  the  aile  [sic]  it  is  the  fourth  on  the  right  hand 
from  the  door,  and  is  between  those  of  Cowley  and  Phillips. 
The  slab  appears  to  be  of  Petworth  marble ;  and  the  canopy 
over  it,  having  a  rich  pendent  roof,  is  supported  by  pillars, 
the  sculpture  on  which  forms  a  kind  of  lozenge  or  chequer- 
work.  The  Latin  inscription  and  other  particulars,  may  be 
found  by  referring  to  Weever,  who  closes  his  survey  of  the 
tombs  in  the  Abbey  with  an  account  of  this  [q.  v.  above,  1631, 
vol.  i,  p.  204]. 

1808.  Lamb,  Charles.  Specimens  of  English  Dramatic  Poets.  Footnote 
to  Middleton's  Women  Beware  Women.  (The  Works  of  Charles 
and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5,  7  vols..  vol.  iv,  p.  129.) 

This  is  one  of  the  scenes  which  has  the  air  of  being  an 
immediate  transcript  from  life.  Li  via  the  "good  neighbour" 
is  as  real  a  creature  as  one  of  Chaucer's  characters.  She  is 
such  another  jolly  Housewife  as  the  Wife  of  Bath. 

1808.  Pratt,  Samuel  Jackson.  The  Cabinet  of  Poetry,  containing  the 
best  entire  pieces  to  be  found  in  the  tvorks  of  the  British  Poets. 
Introductory  Essay  on  Poetry,  6  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  xl,  li,  Ixxi. 

[The  pieces  include  nothing  from  Chaucer,  but  "Dryden's 

Character  of  a  Good  Parson  "  is  given.] 
[p.  xl]        This  charm  of  individuality  was  in  some  of  their  poems 

eminently  possessed    by   Chaucer,   and    other    of    our    elder 

bards. 
[p.  ixxii     The  passion  for  allegory,  so  long  the  characteristic  of  the 

Italian   school,   was    by    Chaucer   rendered    as    prevalent    in 

England  as  it  had  previously  been  on  the  continent. 


1808]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  39 

1808.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.    Works  of  John  Dri/den,  18  vols.,  vol.  i,  Life 
of  John  Dryden,  pp.  171,  427,  430,  441,  444,  494-96,  498-503,  505. 
Notes  to  Troilus  and  Cressida,  vol.  vi,  pp.  228,  229,  230. 
Notes  to  Preface  to  the  Fables,  vol.  xi,  pp.  215,  216,  217,  220, 221,, 
222,  223,  226,  230,  232,  233,  235. 

Notes  to  Palamon  and  Arcite,  vol.  xi,  pp.  243  [a  long  note  on  the 
origins  of  the  Knight's  Tale,  with  critical  remarks  on  Chaucer's 
treatment  of  it],  245,  246,  255,  256,  267,  280,  286,  287,  289,  303, 
309,  311,  312. 

Notes  to  The  Cock  and  the  Fox,  vol.  xi,  pp.  326  [critical  remarks 
on  Chaucer's  treatment],  333,  339,  343,  350,  352. 

Notes  to  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  vol.  xi,  pp.  354,  372. 
Notes  to  The  Wife  of  Bath,  vol.  xi,  pp.  376  [critical  remarks  on 
Chaucer's  tale],  378,  382. 

Note  on  Good  Parson,  vol.  xi,  p.  394. 
[Vol.  i,      The  "  Knight's  Tale,"   the  longest  and  most  laboured  of 

D    4941 

Chaucer's  stories,  possesses  a  degree  of  regularity  which  might 
satisfy  the  most  severe  critic.  [The  honour  of  this,  says 
Scott,  is  due  to  Chaucer.  Passages  follow  on  Dry  den's  treat 
ment  of  the  Knight's  Tale.l 


[p.  498]  "With  Chaucer,  Dryden's  task  was  more  easy  than  with 
Eoccacio.  Barrenness  was  not  the  fault  of  the  Father  of 
English  poetry ;  and  amid  the  profusion  of  images  which  lie 
presented,  his  imitator  had  only  the  task  of  rejecting  or 
selecting.  In  the  sublime  description  of  the  temple  of  Mars, 
painted  around  with  all  the  misfortunes  ascribed  to  the  influ 
ence  of  his  planet,  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  out  a  single 
idea,  which  is  not  found  in  the  older  poem.  But  Dryden  has 
judiciously  omitted  or  softened  some  degrading  and  some  dis 
gusting  circumstances ;  as  the  "  cook  scalded  in  spite  of  his 
long  ladle,"  the  "  swine  devouring  the  cradled  infant,"  the 
"  pick-purse,"  and  other  circumstances  too  grotesque  or 
ludicrous,  to  harmonize  with  the  dreadful  group  around  them. 
Some  points,  also,  of  sublimity,  have  escaped  the  modern 
poet.  Such  is,  the  appropriate  and  picturesque  accompaniment 
of  the  statue  of  Mars  : 

A  wolf  stood  before  him  at  his  feet 
With  eyen  red,  and  of  a  man  he  eat. 

In  the  dialogue,  or  argumentative  parts  of  the  poem,  Dryden 
has  frequently  improved  on  his  original,  while  he  falls  some 
thing  short  of  him  in  simple  description,  or  in  pathetic  effect. 


40     [Scott]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1808 

Tims,  the  quarrel  between  Arcite  and  Palamon  is  wrought  up 
with  greater  energy  by  Dry  den  than  Chaucer,  particularly  by 
the  addition  of  the  following  lines,  describing  the  enmity  of 
the  captives  against  each  other  : 

Now  friends  no  more,  nor  walking  hand  in  hand, 
But  when  they  met,  they  made  a  surly  stand 
And  glared  like  angry  lions  as  they  pass'd, 
And  wish'd  that  every  look  might  be  their  last. 

But  the  modern  must  yield  the  palm,  despite  the  beauty  of 
his  versification,  to  the  description  of  Emily  by  Chaucer;  and 
may  be  justly  accused  of  loading  the  dying  speech  of  Arcite 
with  conceits  for  which  his  original  gave  him  no  authority. 

[p.  501]  [The  French  element  in  Chaucer's  language.] 
[p.  502]  Upon  the  whole,  in  introducing  these  romances  of  Boccacio 
and  Chaucer  to  modern  readers,  Dryden  has  necessarily  de 
prived  them  of  some  of  the  charms  which  they  possess  for 
those  who  have  perused  them  in  their  original  state.  .  .  . 
To  antiquaries  Dryden  has  sufficiently  justified  himself,  by 
declaring  his  version  made  for  the  sake  of  modern  readers, 
who  understand  sense  and  poetry  as  well  as  the  old  Saxon 
admirers  of  Chaucer,  when  that  poetry  and  sense  are  put  into 
words  which  they  can  understand.  Let  us  also  grant  him  that 
for  the  beauties  which  are  lost,  he  has  substituted  many  which 
the  original  did  not  afford ;  that,  in  passages  of  gorgeous 
description,  he  has  added  even  to  the  chivalrous  splendour 
[p.  503]  of  Chaucer,  and  has  graced  with  poetical  ornament  the  sim 
plicity  of  Boccacio ;  that,  if  he  has  failed  in  tenderness,  he  is 
never  deficient  in  majesty. 

^245? '  Tlie  U  Knignt's  '-1  ale,"  whether  Chaucer's  or  Dryden's 
version,  is  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  composition  in  our 
language.  .  .  .  The  work  of  Chaucer  cannot,  however,  properly 
be  termed  a  translation  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  tale  has  acquired 
its  most  beautiful  passages  under  the  hand  of  the  English 
bard.  He  abridged  the  prolix,  and  enlarged  the  poetical, 
parts  of  the  work  ;  compressed  the  whole  into  one  concise 
and  interesting  tale ;  and  left  us  an  example  of  a  beautiful 
heroic  poem. 


1808]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  41 

[P.  326]  [Note  before  "The  Cock  and  the  Fox,"]  Tyrwhitt 
detected  the  original  of  this  fable  in  the  translation  of  "  ^Esop," 
made  by  Marie  of  France  into  Norman-French  .  .  .  But  the 
hand  of  genius  gilds  what  it  touches  ;  and  the  naked  Apologue, 
which  may  be  found  in  Tyrwhitt's  "  Preliminary  Discourse," 
was  amplified  by  Chaucer  into  a  poem,  Avhich,  in  grave,  ironical 
narrative,  liveliness  of  illustration,  and  happiness  of  humorous 
description,  yields  to  none  that  ever  was  written. 

[p.  376]  [Note  before  "The  Wife  of  Bath."]  .  .  .  What  was  a  mere 
legendary  tale  of  wonder  in  the  rhime  of  the  minstrel,  and  a 
vehicle  for  trite  morality  in  that  of  Gower,in  the  verse  of  Chaucer 
reminds  us  of  the  resurrection  of  a  skeleton,  reinvested  by  a 
miracle  with  flesh,  complexion,  and  powers  of  life  and  motion. 
Of  all  Chaucer's  multifarious  powers,  none  is  more  wonderful 
than  the  humour,  with  which  he  touched  upon  natural  frailty, 
and  the  truth  with  which  he  describes  the  inward  feelings  of 
the  human  heart ;  at  a  time  when  all  around  were  employed  in 
composing  romantic  legends,  in  which  the  real  character  of 
their  heroes  was  as  effectually  disguised  by  the  stiffness 
of  their  manners  as  their  shapes  by  the  sharp  angles  and 
unnatural  projections  of  their  plate  armour. 

[p.  394]  [Note  before  "  The  Character  of  a  Good  Parson."]  This 
beautiful  copy  of  a  beautiful  original  makes  us  regret,  that 
Dryden  had  not  translated  the  whole  Introduction  to  the 
"  Canterbury  Tales,"  in  which  the  pilgrims  are  so  admirably 
described.  Something  might  have  been  lost  for  want  of  the 
ancient  Gothic  lore,  which  the  writers  of  our  poet's  period  did 
not  think  proper  to  study;  but  when  Dryden's  learning 
failed,  his  native  stores  of  fancy  and  numbers  would  have 
helped  hini  through  the  task. 

[In  Cochrane's  Catalogue  of  the  Abbotsford  Library,  1838,  notices  of  Chaucer's  works 
in  the  Collection  will  be  found  at  pp.  42,  154-5,  172,  185,  190,  239.] 

1808.  Unknown.  A  Catalogue  of  the  Harleian  Manuscripts  in  the 
British  Museum,  4  vols.,  1808-12,  vol.  ii,  pp.  673,  675,  682,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  97,  526.  [Vol.  iv  only  is  dated  1812.] 

jTsfiT]       372.  [Anelida  and  Arcite.] 

p!°673]'  2376.  [Note  on  the  colophon  to  Piers  Plowman.]  At  the 
end  is  this  Note,  "  Hie  explicit  visio  Wilelmi  de  Petro  Plow 
man."  Now  among  the  several  persons  to  whom  the  Poems 


42  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1808- 

of  Piers  Plowman  have  been  ascribed,  I  remember  not  any 
William  ;  so  that  if  Geffrey  Chaucer  was  the  man,  he  disguised 
his  name  for  fear  of  the  Clergy,  who  are  bitterly  inveighed 
against  in  these  Poems. 

tp.  675]      2382  (5,  6).  [Prioress's  and  Second  Nun's  Tales.] 

[p.  6S2]      2392.   [Troilus  and  Cressida.] 

^f'      3943.  [Troilus  and  Cressida.] 

[p.  eae]  7333  (6-27).  [Canterbury  Tales.]  (29)  [Parliament  of 
Foules.]  (30)  A  part  of  his  Complaint  of  Mars  &  Venus, 
with  the  unusual  title  "  The  Broche  (?)  of  Thebes,  as  of  the 
love  of  Mars  and  Venus."  (31)  [Anelinda  [sic]  and  Arcite.} 
(35)  Ballads  by  Chaucer  .  .  .  and  other  small  poems. 

[p.  526.]      7334.  [Canterbury  Tales.] 

7335.  An  old  and  imperfect  copy  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Tales. 

1808.  Unknown.  Review  of  Lectures  on  the  Truly  Eminent  English 
Puets,  by  Fercival  Stockdale,  1807,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review, 
April,  1808,  vol.  xii,  pp.  63,  64. 

IP.  63]  The  series  of  Mr.  Stockdale's  Eminent  Poets  commences 

with  Spencer  .  .  .  one  who,  if  Chaucer  be  called  the  day-star, 
may  certainly  be  pronounced  the  sun-rise  of  our  poetry. 

1808.  Unknown.      Review  of    Scott's  Dryden,  [in]  The    Edinburgh 
Review,  Oct.  1808,  vol.  xiii,  p.  135. 

In  this  edition  of  Dryden,  we  would  have  curtailed  the  life, 
.  .  .  omitted  many  of  the  notes,  the  original  fables  from 
Chaucer  and  Boccace,  the  reply  of  Stillingfleet  to  Dryden's 
controversy. 

1809.  Blake,  William.     Sir  Jeffery  Cliaucer  and  the  nine  and  twenty 
Pilgrims    on    their  Journey  to    Canterbury,    [in]   A    Descriptive 
Catalogue  of  Pictures,  Poetical  and  Historical  Inventions  Painted 
by   William  Blake  in  water  colours,   London,    1809,   pp.    7-34. 
[Printed  in  Life  of  William  Blake,  by  Alex.  Gilchrist,  enlarged 
edition,  1880,  vol.  ii,  pp.  142-52.] 

[For  Lamb's  appreciation  of  this  article,  see  p.  49  below,  1810,  Il.Crabb  Robinson.) 

[p.  9]  The  characters  of  Chaucer's  Pilgrims  are  the  characters 
which  compose  all  ages  and  nations  :  as  one  age  falls,  another 
rises,  different  to  mortal  sight,  but  to  immortals  only  the  same  ; 
for  we  see  the  same  characters  repeated  again  and  again,  in 
animals,  vegetables,  minerals,  and  in  men ;  nothing  new  occurs 

tp.  10]  in  identical  existence  :  Accident  ever  varies,  Substance  can 
never  suffer  change  nor  decay. 


1809]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  43 

Of  Chaucer's  characters,  as  described  in  his  Canterbury 
Tales,  some  of  the  names  or  titles  are  altered  by  time,  but  the 
characters  themselves  for  ever  remain  unaltered,  and  conse 
quently  they  are  the  physiognomies  or  lineaments  of  universal 
human  life,  beyond  which  Nature  never  steps.  Names  alter, 
things  never  alter.  I  have  known  multitudes  of  those  who 
would  have  been  monks  in  the  age  of  monkery,  who  in  this 
deistical  age  are  deists.  As  Newton  numbered  the  stars,  and 
as  Linneus  [sic]  numbered  the  plants,  so  Chaucer  numbered 
the  classes  of  men.  .  .  . 

tp.  ii]  The  Knight  and  Squire  with  the  Squire's  Yeoman  lead  the 
procession,  as  Chaucer  has  also  placed  them  first  in  his  prologue. 
The  Knight  is  a  true  Hero,  a  good,  great,  and  wise  man ;  his 
whole-length  portrait  on  horseback,  as  written  by  Chaucer, 
cannot  be  surpassed.  He  has  spent  his  life  in  the  field ;  has 
ever  been  a  conqueror,  and  is  that  species  of  character  which  in 
every  age  stands  as  the  guardian  of  man  against  the  oppressor. 
His  son  is  like  him  with  the  germ  of  perhaps  greater  perfection 
still,  as  he  blends  literature  and  the  arts  with  his  warlike 
studies.  .  .  .  The  Squire's  Yeoman  is  also  a  great  character,  a 
man  perfectly  knowing  in  his  profession : 

"And  in  his  hand  he  bare  a  mighty  bow." 

Chaucer  describes  here  a   mighty  man;    one  who  in  war  is 
the  worthy  attendant  on  noble  heroes. 

[p.  12]  The  Prioress  follows  these  with  her  female  chaplain.  .  .  . 
This  Lady  is  described  also  as  of  the  first  rank ;  rich  and 
honoured.  She  has  certain  peculiarities  and  little  delicate 
affectations,  not  unbecoming  in  her,  being  accompanied  with 
what  is  truly  grand  and  really  polite ;  her  person  and  face, 
Chaucer  has  described  with  minuteness ;  it  is  very  elegant, 
and  was  the  beauty  of  our  ancestors,  till  after  Elizabeth's 
time,  when  voluptuousness  and  folly  began  to  be  accounted 

[p.  13]  beautiful.  .  .  .  The  Monk  is  described  by  Chaucer,  as  a  man 
of  the  first  rank  in  society,  noble,  rich,  and  expensively 
attended :  he  is  a  leader  of  the  age,  with  certain  humorous 
accompaniments  in  his  character,  that  do  not  degrade,  but 
render  him  an  object  of  dignified  mirth,  but  also  with 
accompaniments  not  so  respectable. 

The  Friar  is  a  character  also  of  a  mixed  kind. 
"  A  friar  there  was,  a  wanton  and  a  merry  ;  " 


44     [Blake]  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1809 

but  in  his  office  he  is  said  to  be  a  "  full  solemn  man  : "  elo- 

Jp- 14]  quent,  amorous,  witty,  and  satyrical ;  young,  handsome  and 
rich;  he  is  a  complete  rogue;  with  constitutional  gaiety  enough 
to  make  him  a  master  of  all  the  pleasures  of  the  world  .  .  . 

It  is  necessary  here  to  speak  of  Chaucer's  own  character, 
that  I  may  set  certain  mistaken  critics  right  in  their  conception 
of  the  humour  and  fun  that  occurs  on  the  journey. 

Chaucer  is  himself  the  great  poetical  observer  of  men,  who 
in  every  age  is  born  to  record  and  eternize  its  acts.  This  he 
does  as  a  master,  as  a  father,  and  superior,  who  looks  down  on 
their  little  follies  from  the  Emperor  to  the  Miller ;  sometimes 
with  severity,  oftener  with  joke  and  sport. 

Accordingly  Chaucer  has  made  his  Monk  a  great  tragedian, 

Ip.  16]  one  who  studied  poetical  art.  .  .  .  Though  a  man  of  luxury, 
pride  and  pleasure,  he  is  a  master  of  art  and  learning,  though 
affecting  to  despise  it.  ... 

For  the  Host  who  follows  this  group,  and  holds  the  center 
of  the  cavalcade,  is  a  first-rate  character,  and  his  jokes  are  no 
trifles ;  they  are  always,  though  uttered  with  audacity,  and 
equally  free  with  the  Lord  and  the  Peasant,  they  are  always 
substantially  and  weightily  expressive  of  knowledge  and 
experience ;  Henry  Baillie,  the  keeper  of  the  greatest  Inn,  of 
the  greatest  City  ;  for  such  was  the  Tabard e  Inn  in  South wark, 
near  London  :  our  Host  was  also  a  leader  of  the  age.  .  .  . 

.[p.  17]  But  I  have  omitted  to  speak  of  a  very  prominent  character, 
the  Pardoner,  the  Age's  Knave,  who  always  commands  and 
domineers  over  the  high  and  low  vulgar.  This  man  is  sent 
in  every  age  for  a  rod  and  scourge,  and  for  a  blight,  for  a 
trial  of  men,  to  divide  the  classes  of  men,  he  is  in  the  most 
holy  sanctuary,  and  he  is  suffered  by  Providence  for  wise  ends, 
and  has  also  his  great  use,  and  his  grand  leading  destiny. 

His  companion  the  Sompnour,  is  also  a  Devil  of  the  first 
magnitude,  grand,  terrific,  rich  and  honoured  in  the  rank  of 

IP.  18]  which  he  holds  the  destiny.  The  uses  to  society  are  perhaps 
equal  of  the  Devil  and  of  the  Angel;  their  sublimity,  who  can 
dispute  .  .  . 

The  principal  figure  in  the  next  groupe  is  the  Good  Parson ; 
an  Apostle,  a  real  Messenger  of  Heaven,  sent  in  every  age  for 
its  light  and  its  warmth.  This  man  is  beloved  and  venerated 
by  all,  and  neglected  by  all :  He  serves  all,  and  is  served  by 
none;  he  is,  according  to  Christ's  definition,  the  greatest  of  his 


1809]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  45 

age.  Yet  he  is  a  Poor  Parson  of  a  town.  Read  Chaucer's 
description  of  the  Good  Parson,  and  bow  the  head  and  the 
knee  to  him,  who,  in  every  age  sends  us  such  a  burning  and  a 
shining  light.  .  .  . 

[p.  19]  Chaucer's  characters  live  age  after  age.  Every  age  is  a 
Canterbury  Pilgrimage  ;  we  all  pass  on,  each  sustaining  one  or 

tp. 20]  other  of  these  characters;  nor  can  a  child  be  born,  who  is  not 
one  of  these  characters  of  Chaucer.  The  Doctor  of  Physic  is 
described  as  the  first  of  his  profession  ;  perfect,  learned,  com 
pletely  Master  and  Doctor  in  his  art.  Thus  the  reader  will 
observe,  that  Chaucer  makes  every  one  of  his  characters 
perfect  in  his  kind,  every  one  is  an  Antique  Statue ;  the 
image  of  a  class,  and  not  of  an  imperfect  individual. 

[p.  20]  ...  The  Franklin  is  one  who  keeps  open  table,  who  is  the 
genius  of  eating  and  drinking,  the  Bacchus ;  as  the  Doctor  of 
Physic  is  the  Esculapius,  the  Host  is  the  Silenus,  the  Squire 
is  the  Apollo,  the  Miller  is  the  Hercules,  &c.  Chaucer's 
characters  are  a  description  of  the  eternal  Principles  that  exist 
in  all  ages.  The  Franklin  is  voluptuousness  itself  most  nobly 
pour  tray  ed  .... 

[p.  21]  The  Plowman  is  simplicity  itself,  with  wisdom  and  strength 
for  its  stamina.  Chaucer  has  divided  the  ancient  character  of 
Hercules  between  his  Miller  and  his  Plowman.  Benevolence 
is  the  Plowman's  great  characteristic,  he  is  thin  with  excessive 
labour,  and  not  with  old  age,  as  some  have  supposed.  .  .  . 
Visions  of  these  eternal  principles  or  characters  of  human 

[p.  22]  life  appear  to  poets,  in  all  ages.  .  .  .  The  Plowman  of  Chaucer 
is  Hercules  in  his  supreme  eternal  state,  divested  of  his 
spectrous  shadow;  which  is  the  Miller,  a  terrible  fellow,  snch 
as  exists  in  all  times  and  places,  for  the  trial  of  men.  .  .  . 

[p.  24]  The  characters  of  Women  Chaucer  has  divided  into  two 
classes,  the  Lady  Prioress  and  the  Wife  of  Bath.  Are  not 
these  leaders  of  the  ages  of  men1?  The  lady  prioress,  in 
some  ages,  predominates ;  and  in  some  the  wife  of  Bath,  in 
whose  character  Chaucer  has  been  equally  minute  and  exact ; 
because  she  is  also  a  scourge  and  a  blight.  I  shall  say  no 
more  of  her,  nor  expose  what  Chaucer  has  left  hidden ;  let 
the  young  reader  study  what  he  has  said  of  her :  it  is  useful 
as  a  scarecrow.  There  are  of  such  characters  born  too  many 
for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

I  come  at  length  to  the  Clerk  of  Oxenford.      This  character 


46     [Blake]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1809 

varies  from  that  of  Chaucer,  as  the  contemplative  philosopher 
varies  from  the  poetical  genius.  There  are  always  these  two 
classes  of  learned  sages,  the  poetical  and  the  philosophical. 
The  painter  has  put  them  side  by  side,  as  if  the  youthful 
tp.  25]  clerk  had  put  himself  under  the  tuition  of  the  mature  poet. 
Let  the  Philosopher  always  be  the  Servant  and  Scholar  of 
inspiration  and  all  will  be  happy. 

[The  rest  of  the  section  is  devoted  to  a  critical  examination 
of  Stothard's  rival  picture  and  the  prospectus  of  Schiavonetti's 
engraving  (q.v.  above,  p.  37,  1808),  and  Blake  gives  examples  of 
how  carelessly  Stothard  has  read  Chaucer  and  how  little  he  has 
understood  him.  He  calls  the  Squire  a  fop,  which  he  is  not ; 
he  puts  in  three  Monks  instead  of  one ;  he  places  the  Reeve 
between  the  Knight  and  the  Squire  although  Chaucer  says 

"  And  ever  he  rode  hinderest  of  the  rout." 

He  makes  the  Wife  of  Bath  a  blooming  damsel,  and  the 
Plowman  old,  and  he  introduces  a  character  that  Chaucer  has 
not,  namely  a  Goldsmith.  "  All  is  misconceived,  and  its  mis- 
execution  is  equal  to  its  misconception."] 

1809.  Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  Egerton.  Censura  Literaria,  Containing 
Titles,  Abstracts  and  Opinions  of  Old  English  Books,  etc.,  vol.  ix, 
art.  ix,  Hawking,  pp.  61  and  n.,  260,  264,  368-9,  371. 

(P.  860]  Chaucer  has  a  pretty  Episode  of  the  Falcon  rehearsing  a  tale 
of  forsaken  love  to  the  Princess  Canace. 

1809-10.  Byron,  George  Gordon  Noel,  Lord.  Childe  Harold.  Note 
on  Canto  I,  stanza  ix,  1.  5,  in  the  original  MS.,  on  Chaucer's  use 
of  lemman.  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  E.  Hartley  Coleridge,  1899,  etc., 
vol.  ii,  p.  22.) 

1809.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  Bibliomania.  See  below,  App.  A, 
1809. 

1809.  Drake,  Nathan.  Essays,  Biographical,  Critical,  and  Historical, 
illustrative  of  the  Rambler,  Adventurer,  and  Idler,  2  vols.,  London, 
1809-10  ;  vol.  i.  pp.  160,  166-8,  429,  433,  435  n.,  445,  448,  449  n.; 
vol.  ii,  pp.  143,  190,  200,  204,  205. 

[Drake  quotes  the  list  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Johnson  of  various 
literary  undertakings  projected  by  him,  but  not  carried  out. 
Of  these  No.  5  is  "  Chaucer,  a  new  edition  of  him,  from 
manuscripts  and  old  editions"  etc.  (see  above,  [c.  1750?], 
vol.  i,  p.  401).  Upon  this  Drake  remarks  :] 

(p.  166]  No.  5.  Of  this  proposed  edition  of  Chaucer,  a  part  has 
been  well  executed  in  the  elaborate  edition  of  the  Canterbury 
Tales,  by  Mr.  Tyrwhitt,  and  in  the  copious  life  of  the  poet, 


1809]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  47 

fp.  167]  by  Mr.  Godwin ;  but  there  still  remains  the  greater  portion  of 
his  works  untouched  by  any  skilful  editor;  for  neither  Speght 
nor  Urry  can  be  deemed  at  all  competent  to  the  task  which 

{p.  168]  they  undertook.  By  the  indefatigable  industry  of  our  literary 
antiquaries,  much  light  has  lately  been  thrown  upon  the  state 
of  our  language  anterior  to  the  age  of  Chaucer  ;  its  mutations 
have  been  traced,  its  history  ascertained,  its  poetry  commented 
upon,  and  of  course  the  diction  and  versification  of  Chaucer, 
their  merits  and  defects,  better  understood  and  defined.  The 
application  of  these  resources  to  a  new  edition  of  the  entire 
works  of  the  venerable  bard,  would,  there  is  little  doubt,  be 
well  received  by  the  public. 

1809.  Godwin,  William.  Essay  on  Sepulchres:  or,  a  Proposal  for 
Erecting  some  Memorial  of  the  Illustrious  Dead  in  all  Ages  on  the 
Spot  where  their  Remains  have  been  Interred,  p.  82. 

I  pity  the  being  of  slender  comprehension,  who  lives  only 
with  George  the  Third,  and  Alexander  of  Russia,  and  AVieland, 
and  Schiller,  and  Kant,  and  Jeremy  Bentham,  and  John 
Home  Tooke,  when  if  the  grosser  film  were  removed  from  his 
eyes,  he  might  live  and  sensibly  mingle  with  Socrates,  and 
Plato,  and  the  Decii,  and  the  Catos,  with  Chaucer,  and  Milton^ 
and  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  Thomas  a  Becket,  and  all  the  stars 
that  gild  our  mortal  sphere. 

1809.  Hamper,  William.  Letter,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  June 
1809,  vol.  Ixxix,  p.  512. 

[On  Tyrwhitt's   Chaucer,  with   suggestions   as   to   obscure 


1809.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Reliqurs  of  Burns  .  .  .  collected  and  published 
by  E.  H.  Cromek,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  i,  pp.  35-6. 
(Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh, 
1334-71,  30  vols.  vol.  xvii,  p.  266.) 

We  know  not  whether  the  family  of  the  poet  will  derive 
any  advantoge  from  this  publication  of  his  remains.  If  so,  it 
is  the  best  apology  for  their  being  given  to  the  world }  if  not, 
we  have  no  doubt  the  editor,  as  he  is  an  admirer  of  Chaucer, 
has  read  of  a  certain  pardoner,  who 

— "  with  his  relics  when  that  he  fond 

A  poor  persone  dwelling  up  on  lond, 

Upon  a  day  he  gat  him  more  inoneie 

Than  that  the  persone  got  in  monethes  twoie." 


48  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1809- 

1809.  Unknown.  Review  of  Partonopex  of  Blois,  a  Romance,  freely 
translated  from  the  French  of  M.  J/e  Grand  .  .  .  by  William 
Stewart  Rose,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  Jan.,  809,  vol.  xiii, 
p.  422. 

We  can  hardly  conceive  that  a  motley  dialect  of  Chaucer, 
Spenser,  and  other  old  ballads,  grafted  on  a  modern  versifica 
tion,  could  be  familiar  to  any  one's  understanding  .  .  . 

Child  .   .  .  never  occurs  in  Chaucer  .  .   . 

1809.  Unknown.  Review  of  Extractos  em  Portuguez  e  em  Inglez,  1808, 
vol.  i,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  May  1809,  vol.  i,  p.  273. 

[Comparison  of  early  Portuguese  poets  with  Chaucer  and 
Dante,  showing  the  superiority  of  the  latter  two,  and 
mentioning  the  pre-eminence  of  Shakspere  and  Milton.] 

1809.  Unknown.     Review  of  Jamieson's  Etymological  Dictionary,  [in] 
The  Edinburgh  Review,  April  1809,  vol.  xiv,  pp.   127,  130,  133, 
138.     [See  above,  1808,  Jamieson.] 

[References  to  the  use  of  various  words  by  Chaucer ;  and 
for  if,  byUll,  fordo,  quod.] 

1810.  The  Works   of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  vol.  i  [of]  The   Works  of 
the   English  poets  from   Chaucer  to  Cowper,  ed.   by  Alexander 
Chalmers,  2 1  vols. 

[This  edition  contains  a  life  of  Chaucer  by  Chalmers,  q.  v. 
below,  and  besides  the  works,  some  pseudo-Chaucerian  pieces  : 
the  Complaint  of  .the  Black  Knight,  the  Court  of  Love,  the 
Flower  and  the  Leaf,  the  Cuckow  and  the  Nightingale,  and 
Chaucer's  Dream  (the  Isle  of  Ladies).] 

1810.  Brayley,  Edward  Wedlake.  Beauties  of  England  and  Wales, 
vol.  x,  pt.  ii,  p.  413. 

Chaucer's  Monk  who  '  bore  a  Sheffield  whittle  in  his  hose ' 
is.  generally  admitted  as  a  proof  of  the  early  manufacture  of 
knives  in  England. 

[See  above,  1727,  Defoe,  vol.i,  p.  368,  and  below,  1S4S,  Macaulay.    It  is  not  the 
Monk,  but  the  Reve's  Miller  who  has  the  whittle  (Reve's  Tale,  1.  13).] 

1810.  Brydg-es,  Sir  Samuel  Egerton.  The  British  Bibliographer,  vol.  i, 
pp.  28,  29-30  [Bibliotheca  Critica],  pp.  106,  285,  297  [Clark's,  or 
rather  Covell's,  reprint  of  Polimanteia,  1595,  q.  v.  above,  vol.  i, 
p.  141],  p.  375  [reprint  of  Simon  Smel-knaue  [1591  ?],  q.  v. 
above,  vol.  i,  p.  134].  [For  vols.  ii  and  iii  see  below,  1812.] 

1810.  Chalmers,  Alexander.  The  Life  of  Chaucer,  prefixed  to  The 
Works  (q.  v.  above),  pp.  iii-xv. 

[A  fairly  critical  biography,  resting  largely  on  Tyrwhitt; 


1810]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  49 

but  the  Court  of  Love  is  cited  as  Chaucer's  (and  is  included 
in  the  text) ;  Godwin's  Life  is  not  mentioned.] 

1810.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  Typographical  Antiquities  .  .  .begun 
by  Joseph  Ames  and  augmented  by  William  Herbert,  and  now 
enlarged  with  copious  note?,  vol.  i,  p.  vii,  Preliminary  Disquisi 
tion  ;  pp.  cix,  cxvi,  Life  of  Caxton  ;  pp.  291-301,  The  Book  ol  the 
Tales  of  Caunterburye ;  pp.  303-15,  327. 

[The  additions  are  mainly  bibliographical  and  of  little 
Chaucerian  interest.  For  vols.  ii,  iii,  and  iv  see  below,  1812, 
1816,  and  1819.  For  Ames's  original  edn.  of  1749,  see  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  398;  for  Herbert's  intermediate  edn.  see  abovej, 
vol.  i,  1785,  p.  477;  1786,  p.  483;  1790,  p.  491.] 

1810.  Haslewood,  Joseph.  Introduction  and  notes  [to]  The  Book  con 
taining  the  Treatises  of  Hawking,  Hunting  [«fc.]  by  Juliana  Berncrs, 
1496,  p.  59.  [Quotes  Chaucer  for  the  word  '  mountance.'] 

[c.  1810.]  Richxnan,  Henry  John.     Sequel  to  the  Canterbury  Tales. 

[Eichard  Warner,  in  his  Literary  Recollections,  1830,  vol.  i, 
pp.  141-2,  says :  '  He  himself  [Richman]  has  frequently  told 
me,  that  in  early  manhood,  he  had  written  a  sequel  to  Chaucer's 
Canterbury  Tales,  which  (as  I  have  been  informed  by  a  com 
petent  judge,  who  then  perused  them)  breathed  much  of  the 
spirit,  style,  and  diction,  of  the  venerable  bard.  But  of  this 
work  I  could  never  obtain  a  sight.  He  always  declined 
permitting  his  friends  to  peruse  it,  upon  the  principle,  that 
the  levity  of  such  compositions,  was  inconsistent  with  the 
decorum  of  the  clerical  character.'  The  work  is  appar 
ently  still  unpublished.  Bichman  graduated  at  Oxford  in 
1802.] 

1810.  Robinson,  Henry  Crabb.  Conversation  with  Lamb,  [reported 
in]  Diary,  Reminiscences  and  Correspondence  of  Henry  Crabb 
Robinson,  3  vols.,  1869,  vol.  ii,  p.  380  (under  1852). 

[Speaking  of  Blake's  drawing  and  description  of  the  Canter 
bury  Pilgrims,  q.v.  above,  p.  42  :] 

When,  in  1810,  I  gave  Lamb  a  copy  of  the  Catalogue  of 
the  paintings  exhibited  in  Carnaby  Street,  he  was  delighted, 
especially  with  the  description  of  a  painting  afterwards 
engraved  [Blake's  Canterbury  Pilgrims].  .  .  .  Stothard's 
work  is  well  known ;  Blake's  is  known  by  very  few.  Lamb 
preferred  the  latter  greatly,  and  declared  that  Blake's  descrip 
tion  was  the  finest  criticism  he  had  ever  read  of  Chaucer's 
poem. 

CHAUCER  CRITICISM. — II.  E 


50  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1810 

£c.  1810.]  Southey,  Robert.     Common-Place  Book,  third  series,  edited 
by  John  Wood  Warter,  London,  1850,  p.  227. 

[The  Abbe  Goujet  had  said  in  his  Bibliotlieque  Francoise, 
cu  Histoire  de  la  Litterature  Francoise,  tome  7e,  p.  340  : 

'  George  Chaucher,  que  I'oii  a  surnomme  I'Homere  de 
1'Angleterre,  1'avait  traduit  [the  Teseide  of  Boccaccio]  en  vers 
Anglois  des  1'an  1400.' 

Southey  quotes  and  adds  the  comment :  '  Good  ! '] 

1810.  Todd,  Henry  John.     Illustrations  of  the  Lives  and  Writings  of 
Gower  and  Chaucer. 

[Introduction,  i-xlvii,  discussing  Chaucer,  Gower  (principally 
biography),  and  Thynne,  Speght,  Tyrwhitt,  Ellis,  Godwin,  Plow 
man's  Tale,  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  and  Testament  of  Love. 

No.  1.  Reprint,  Thynne's  Animadversions  (above,  p.  149),  3-83. 

2.  Testamentum  Johannis  Gower,  87. 

3.  Account  of  valuable  MSS.  of  Gower  and  Chaucer,  95. 

4.  Extracts  from  Confessio  Arnantis,  Berthelet,  1532,  135. 

5.  Extracts  from  Prologue  to  Tales,  Tyrwhitt's  edn.,  171 ; 

Floure  and  Leafe,  Speght's  edn.,  203;   Notes  on  these, 
227-292. 

6.  Poems  supposed  to  be  written  by  Chaucer  during  his 

imprisonment  (Lord  Stafford's  MS.),  295-309. 

7.  Glossary,  317-394.] 

1810.  Unknown.     Eeview  of  Milner's  History  of  Winchester,  [in]  The 
Quarterly  Review,  May  1810,  vol.  iii,  p.  366. 

The  writings  of  the  two  satiric  poets,  Langland  and 
Chaucer,  both  Catholics,  and  one  an  ecclesiastic,  led  to  this 
irresistible  conclusion,  that  the  lives  of  religious  votaries,  both 
male  and  female,  were  even  then  greatly  deflected  from  their 
original  rule. 

1810.  Unknown.     Eeview  of  Select  Poems  from  HerricJe,  Carew,  etc., 
[in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  Aug.  1810,  vol.  iv,  p.  176. 

....  Where  the  orthography  of  a  poet  influences  his 
rhyme,  as  Chaucer's  and  Spenser's  does  every  moment,  the 
whole  ought  to  be  sacred;  but  where  that  is  not  the  case, 
we  can  see  no  reason  why  our  present  improved  and  fixed 
system  of  orthography  should  not  be  adopted. 

1810.  Unknown.      Eeview  of  Southey's  History  of  Brazil,   Part  the 
First,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  Nov.  1810,  vol.  iv,  p.  456. 

[Passing  reference  to  Chaucer's  knowledge  of  Brazil  dye.] 
But    Chaucer,  when  he  mentions  the  red  dye  of  Brazil  in 


1810]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  51 

the  same  breath  with  the  graine  of  Portingale,1  displays  a 
premature  knowledge  of  its  produce  which  is  very  perplexing 
.  .  .  "because  we  cannot  find  any  sufficient  authority  to  prove 
that  the  wood  existed  in  the  ancient  hemisphere,  or  that  Brazil 
has  a  meaning  in  any  Eastern  or  European  language. 

1  Him  needetli  not  his  colour  for  to  dien 
With  Brazil  or  with  graine  of  Portingale. 

Nonnes  Preest's  Tale.     [Epilogue,  11.  4648-9.] 

[The  country  was  named  from  the  dye,  not  the  dye  from  the  country. 
See  Skeat's  Works  of  Chaucer,  vol.  v,  p.  258.] 

1810.  Wilkes,  John.  Encyclopaedia  Londinensis,  vol.  iv,  1810,  p.  130, 
Chaucer;  vol.  xiii,  1815,  pp.  530,  549-50,  Chaucer's  tomb,  819-20, 
Lydgate. 

fV°i3oT'  [^ew  Chaucer  article  in  the  main,  but  the  last  paragraph  of 
the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  article  is  reprinted  (q.v.  above, 
1778,  vol.  i,  p.  452).] 

[-Lydgate  an  imitator  of  Chaucer.] 


1810.  Wordsworth,  Christopher  (Master  of  Trinity  Coll.,  Camb.). 
Ecclesiastical  Biography,  vol.  i,  pp.  168  n.  [quotation  of  Prol.  11. 
766-76,  to  illustrate  the  singing  of  songs  on  pilgrimages],  307-10 
[extract  from  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  104], 
[In  fourth  edn.,  1853,  vol.  i,  pp.  311,  312  n.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  35,  414-16.] 


[1810  ?]  Wordsworth,  William.  The  Country  Churchyard,  and  Critical 
Examination  of  Ancient  Epitaphs.  (Prose  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight, 
1896,  vol.  ii,  p.  150.) 

Farwel  my  Frendys,  the  tyd  abydeth  no  man, 

I  am  departed  hens,  and  so  sal  ye, 
But  in  this  passage  the  best  song  I  can 

Is  Requiem  Eternam,  now  Jesu  grant  it  me, 
When  I  have  ended  all  myn  adversity 
Grant  me  in  Paradys  to  have  a  mansion 
That  shedst  Thy  bloud  for  my  redemption. 

This  epitaph  might  seem  to  be  of  the  age  of  Chaucer,  for  it 
has  the  very  tone  and  manner  of  the  Prioress's  Tale. 

[Wordsworth  says  he  quotes  '  from  an  old  book  '  (?  Camden  or  Weaver).  The 
Essay  upon  Epitaphs  is  in  two  parts,  the  first  from  The  Friend,  Feb.  22,  1810,  the 
second  from  the  author's  MSS.  Grosart  first  printed  the  latter.  See  his  note  on  the 
contents  page  of  vol.  ii.  I  date  The  Country  Churchyard  [1810?]  :  this  was  the  year  in 
which  the  Friend  article  was  published,  and  in  which  the  translation  of  the  Chiabrera 
epitaphs  was  made.] 


52  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1810- 

1810.  "Wordsworth,  William.     Article  [on  Christopher  North's  article 
signed  '  Mathetes,'  in]  The  Friend,  no.   20,  Jan.  4,  1810,  p.  305. 
(Prose  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight,  2  vols.,  1896,  vol.  i,  p.  91.) 

Happy  moment  was  it  for  England  when  her  Chaucer,  who 
has  rightly  been  called  the  morning  star  of  her  literature, 
appeared  above  the  horizon ! 

1811.  Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  Egerton.     Desultoria :  or,  Comments  of  a 
South-Briton  on  Books  and  Men,  Lee  Priory,  no.  1  [dated  Sept.  8, 
1811],  pp.  3-4. 

I  look  around  my  library,  and  task  my  recollection  whether 
the  standard  works  which  now  fill  its  shelves,  obtained  for 
their  authors,  during  life,  the  same  credit  they  now  possess. 
IP.  4]  I  see  Erasmus,  and  Bacon ;  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Cowley,  Dryden,  Pope,  and  Swift :  Clarendon,  Burnet, 
Temple,  Bolingbroke,  and  Middleton !  Their  own  age  bowed 
to  their  ascendant  talents,  and  posterity  have  ratified  the 
pre-eminence. 

1811.  Byron,  George  Gordon,  Lord.  Hints  from  Horace,  11.  79-82, 
423-36.  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  by  E.  H.  Coleridge,  1898-1904,  vol.  i, 
pp.  395,  420.) 

[1L  79-82]     New  words  find  credit  in  these  latter  days, 
If  neatly  grafted  on  a  Gallic  phrase ; 
What  Chaucer,  Spenser  did,  we  scarce  refuse 
To  Dryden's  or  to  Pope's  maturer  Muse. 

[U,  423-36]       Ye,  who  seek  finished  models,  never  cease, 

By  day  and  night,  to  read  the  works  of  Greece. 
But  our  good  Fathers  never  bent  their  brains 
To  heathen  Greek,  content  with  native  strains. 
The  few  who  read  a  page,  or  used  a  pen, 
Were  satisfied  with  Chaucer  and  old  Ben ; 
The  jokes  and  numbers  suited  to  their  taste 
Were  quaint  and  careless,  anything  but  chaste ; 
Yet,  whether  right  or  wrong  the  ancient  rules, 
It  will  not  do  to  call  our  Fathers  fools  ! 
Though  you  and  I,  who  eruditely  know 
To  separate  the  elegant  and  low, 
Can  also,  when  a  hobbling  line  appears, 
Detect  with  fingers — in  default  of  ears. 


1811]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  53 

1811.  Collier,  John  Payne.  Extract  from  Diary  for  Oct.  29,  1811,  [in] 
Lectures  and  Notes  on  Shakspere  and  Milton  .  .  .  by  Samuel 
Taylor  Coleridge,  now  first  collected  by  T.  Ashe  (Bohn's  Standard 
Library),  1883.  Introductory,  p.  15. 

Coleridge  told  us  ...  that  he  means  very  soon  to  give  a 
series  of  lectures  at  Coachmakers'  Hall  mainly  upon  Poetry 
.  .  .  [They]  would,  necessarily,  embrace  criticisms  on  Shak 
spere,  Milton,  and  all  the  chief  and  most  popular  poets  of  our 
language,  from  Chaucer,  for  whom  he  had  great  reverence, 
down  to  Campbell,  for  whom  he  had  little  admiration. 

[For  Notes  of  Coleridge's  Lectures,  see  below,  1818.] 

1811.  Douce,  Francis.  Preface  to  The  Customs  of  London,  otherwise 
called  Arnold's  Chronicle,  p.  x. 

In  an  anonymous,  but  by  no  means  incurious,  Liliputian 
volume,  published  about  the  year  1763,  and  intitled,  *A 
short  account  of  the  first  rise  and  progress  of  Printing,  with 
a  compleat  list  of  the  first  books  that  were  printed,'  is  the 
following  confused  and  extraordinary  passage — The  author  is 
speaking,  though  most  inaccurately,  of  Arnold's  Chronicle. — 
1  In  this  the  Nut-brown  Maid,  supposed  by  Chaucer  as  Skelton 
confirms,  by  having  had  a  copy  given  him  by  Lidgate,  Monk 
of  Bury.  Mr.  Prior  has  made  a  paraphrase  on  it,  and  has 
also  printed  it  from  the  old  English,  but  knew  not  that  it  was 
by  Chaucer;  .  .  .  The  author  .  .  .  seems  to  quote  this  un 
accountable  jargon  from  'Lord  Pembroke's  manuscript  notes 
before  his  Book  of  St.  Albans '  .  .  .  Adopting,  probably,  the 
mistake  of  the  above  writer,  the  editor  of  a  work  intitled, 
'Melanges  de  poe"sie  Angloise,'  1764,  12°,  has  given  a  very 
dull  prose  translation  of  Prior's  beautiful  version,  which  he 
calls  '  Poeme  irnite"  de  la  Belle  Brune,  de  Chaucer.'  So  much 
for  French  accuracy ! 

[See  below,  App.  A.  [1763],  for  the  'Short  Account,'  and  below,  end  of  App.  A., 
for  the  '  Melanges.'] 

[1811.]  Dyer,  George.  On  the  Connection  and  Mutual  Assistance  of  the 
Arts  and  Sciences,  and  the  Relation  of  Poetry  to  them  all,  [in]  The 
Keflector,  vol.  i,  no.  ii,  art.  vii,  p.  358. 

.  .  .  Chaucer,  the  first  of  our  poets,  on  reference  to  the 
change  of  our  language  from  the  Saxon,  of  much  account, 
was  well  acquainted  with  all  the  literature  of  his  time,  and 
with  something  better. 


54  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1811 

I  Is  it  justifiable  to  reprint  the  Pru 
riencies  of  our  Old  Poets?— The 
Question  discussed  in  a  Dialogue 
[in]  The  Eeilector,  vol.  i,  no.  2,  art. 
x,  pp.  366,371. 

[Discussion  on  Chalmers's  edition  of  the  English  Poets. 
Difficulty  of  old  orthography  in  reading  Chaucer,  p.  366. 
Indecencies  of  Chaucer  not  of  a  seductive  kind,  p.  371.] 

1811.  Lamb,  Charles.  The  Genius  and  Character  of  Hogarth,  [in]  The 
Reflector,  No.  iii,  1811.  (The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb, 
ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5,  6  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  77  [text  from  Works, 
1818].) 

There  remains  a  very  numerous  class  of  his  [Hogarth's] 
performances,  the  object  of  which  must  be  confessed  to  be 
principally  comic.  But  in  all  of  them  will  be  found  some 
thing  to  distinguish  them  from  the  droll  productions  of 
Bunbury  and  others.  They  have  this  difference,  that  we  do 
not  merely  laugh  at,  we  are  led  into  long  trains  of  reflection 
by  them.  In  this  respect  they  resemble  the  characters  of 
Chaucer's  Pilgrims,  which  have  strokes  of  humour  in  them 
enough  to  designate  them  for  the  most  part  as  comic,  but  our 
strongest  feeling  still  is  wonder  at  the  comprehensiveness  of 
genius  which  could  crowd,  as  poet  and  painter  have  done,  into 
one  small  canvas  so  many  diverse  yet  co-operating  materials. 

1811.  Malcolm,  James  Peller.  Anecdotes  of  the  Manners  and  Customs  of 
London  from  the  Roman  Invasion  to  the  Year  1700,  pp.  110-11,  468. 

[Quotations  from  Chanouns  Yemannes  ProL,  on  alchemy, 
and  from  Wife  of  Bath's  Prol.,  as  a  specimen  of  versification.] 

1811.  Robinson,  Henry  Crabb.  Diary,  Reminiscences,  and  Correspond 
ence,  3  vols.,  1869,  vol.  i,  p.  324. 

March  30th.— At  C.  Lamb's.  Found  Coleridge  and  Hazlitt 
there  .  .  .  In  apology  for  Southey's  review  of  Godwin's  "  Life 
of  Chaucer  "  Coleridge  ingeniously  observed  that  persons  who 
are  themselves  very  pure,  are  sometimes  on  that  account  blunt 
in  their  moral  feelings. 

1811.  Sherwen,  John.  On  the  Authenticity  of  Rowley's  Poems,  [in] 
The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  May,  vol.  Ixxxi,  p.  428 ;  June,  pp. 
515-16. 

[Note  on  Chaucerian  '  graythe '  and  '  ay '  (egg)  and 
Kowleian  'gratche,'  controverting  Tyrwhitt.] 


1811]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  55 

1811.  Sherwen,  John.  Revieiv  of  Jamiesoris  Etymological  Dictionary, 
[in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  July  1811,  pp.  26-7  ;  Oct.  1811, 
pp.  324-5  ;  Suppl.  to  vol.  Ixxxi,  p.  612. 

A  modern  Scotticism  is  an  antient  Anglicism  .  .  .  Whoever 
has  a  doubt  of  this  ...  let  him  put  a  volume  of  Chaucer 
.  .  .  into  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  Scotch  gardener,  who 
will  have  little  occasion  for  a  glossary  to  explain  the  real  old 
English  words  and  phrases,  though  he  may  frequently  require 
it  for  the  affected  Frenchified  ones.  Chaucer  has  been  cen 
sured  by  Yerstegan  as  a  corrupter,  rather  than  an  illuminator  of 
the  English  tongue  :  [Quotation;  see  above,  vol.  i,  p.  176.] 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Eymer,  in  a  fanciful  panegyric  on 
Chaucer,  confirms  the  censure  of  Verstegan.  '  Chaucer  threw 
in  Latin,  French,  Provencal,  and  other  languages,  like  new 
stum,  to  raise  a  fermentation.'  See  his  'Short  View  of 
Tragedy'  [q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  265].  This  may  be  pretty  as 
a  simile,  but  as  an  argument  it  is  ridiculous ;  for  Sir  Hugh 
Evans  and  Dr.  Cains  might  have  been  equally  entitled  to  the 
compliment.  ... 

[p.  27]       ...  The  impracticability  of  rooting  out  the  language  of  a 
country  is  visible  in  the  necessity  that  Chaucer  was  under  of 
writing  in  English,  in  order  to  be  generally  understood. 
[P.  234]      *  Araced,  part,  rubbed,  hurt.' 

'  The  shippes  and  the  stockes  arraced  with  the  node,  moten 
assemblen,'  etc.  Chaucer's  Boethius,  p.  396.  [Boethius,  book 

iii,  Prose  xi,  1.  165,  ed.  Skeat.] 

Chaucer's  meaning  is  neither  '  rubbed  '  nor  '  hurt,'  but  carried 
away  by  the  flood. 

[p.  325]       [Bargain  synonymous  in  Chaucer  with  battle,,  Rom.  of  the 

Rose,  11.  2549-51  quoted.] 
[p.  612]      [Drouery  or   Droorie    connotes  a  pledging  of   truth.      Sir 

Thopas,  1.  184,  and  Rom.  of  the  Rose,  11.  5051-64  quoted.] 

1811.  Southey,  Robert.  Letter  to  Walter  Savage  Landor.  (Life  and 
Correspondence,  ed.  C.  C.  Southey,  1850,  vol.  iii,  p.  295.) 

Your  abhorrence  of  Spencer  is  a  strange  heresy.  I  admit 
that  he  is  inferior  to  Chaucer  (who  for  variety  of  power  has  no 
competitor  except  Shakspeare),  but  he  is  the  great  master  of 
English  versification.  .  .  .  Surely  Chaucer  is  as  much  a  poet 
as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  be  when  the  language  was  in  so 
rude  a  state. 


56  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1811- 

1811.  Trotter,  John  Bernard.  Memoirs  of  the  latter  years  of  the  Right 
Honourable  Charles  James  Fox,  pp.  395,  425. 

[p.  395]  Among  the  ancient  English  poets  he  [Fox]  entertained  a 
sincere  veneration  for  Chaucer,  a  poet  in  tenderness  and  natural 
description,  resembling  Euripides. 

[p.  425]  The  days  and  evenings  were  now  [1806]  devoted  to  reading 
[aloud  to  Eox]  Palamon  and  Arcite  improved  by  Dryden, 
Johnson's  lives  of  the  poets, — the  ^Eneid, — and  Swift's  Poetry. 

[See  also  below,  App.  A.,  1800.] 

[n.b.  1811.]  Unknown.  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  with  the  Tales  of 
Gamelyn  and  Beryn,  modernized  (unpublished). 

[Specimen  from  the  Prioresses  Tale  :] 

Among  these  children  was  a  widow's  son, 
A  little  sprout  of  clerkship,  seven  years  old, 
Whose  daily  joy  it  was  to  school  to  run ; 
And  if  he  chanced  an  image  to  behold 
Of  Christ's  blest  mother,  as  he  had  been  told 
He  ought,  he  never  failed  to  kneel  and  say 
An  Ave  Maria  as  he  past  the  Avay. 

[Vol.  ii  of  the  MS.  of  this  modernization  came  into  the  possession  of  Prof.  Dowdenin 
1880.  Dr.  Furnivall  wrote  to  the  Academy  (q.  v.  below,  1880)  to  inquire  if  anything 
was  known  of  the  author  or  of  vol.  i,  but,  as  far  as  is  known,  without  result.  The 
•watermark  of  the  paper  is  dated  1811.] 

1811.  Warton,  Joseph,  and  Warton,  John.     The  Poetical   Works  of 
John  Dryden,  with  notes  by  the  late  Rev.  Joseph   Warton,  D.D., 
and  the  Rev.  John  Warton,  M.A.,  and  others,  vol.  iii,  notes. 

[Notes  on  Palamon  and  Arcite,  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  and 
the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale  ;  The  Reeve's,  Miller's,  Shipman's, 
Merchant's  and  Sumnour's  Tales,  and  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Prologue, 
are  omitted  from  this  edition. 

Dr.  Joseph  Warton  :  pp.  55  ('  Chaucer  more  than  60  years 
old,  and  Dryden  70,  when  they  wrote  Palamon'),  172-3  (quotes 
Dr.  Akenside's  lines  to  be  placed  under  Chaucer's  statue  at  Wood 
stock),  211  (strange  that  Dryden  does  not  mention  The  Flower 
and  The  Leaf  among  his  modernizations  from  Chaucer). 

Rev.  John  Warton  :  pp.  61,  72,  75,  77,  78,  81,  89,  92,  106,  112, 
113,  118,  119,  122,  127,  135,  138,  147,  155,  161,  211,  214,  219, 
233,  251  ;  these  are  nearly  all  quotations  from  Chaucer's  original 
text] 

1812.  The    Prologue    and    Characters    of    Chaucer's    Pilgrims, 
selected  from  his  Canterbury  Tales ;    intended  to  illustrate 
a  particular  design  of  Mr.  William  Blake,  which  is  engraved  by 
himself,  and  may  be  seen  at  Mr.  Colnaghi's. 

[Text  from  Speght,  1687  ;  translation  from  Ogle,  1741,  pp.  iv,  61.] 


1812]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  57 

1812.  Beloe, William.  Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Books,  vol.  vi 
(1812),  pp.  49,  50,  221  [quotation  from  Brathwaite's  Commentary, 
1665,  q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  242]. 

[For  vol.  ii,  see  below,  App.  A.,  1807.] 

1812.  Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  Egerton.  The  British  Bibliographer,  4  vols., 
1810-14,  vols.  ii,  iii,  1812  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  vi,  1-10,  94,  200,  272,  628; 
vol.  iii,  pp.  6,  95,  180,  202  n.,  205  n.,  268  n.,  305,  317,  376,  383. 

[The  references  are  nearly  all  contained  in  the  pieces  by  old  writers  reprinted  in 
The  British  Bibliographer,  and  will  be  found  under  their  authors  above,  in  vol.  i,  and 
below,  in  App.  A.  For  vol.  i  of  The  British  Bibliographer  see  above,  1810;  vol  iv 
contains  no  Chaucer  reference.] 

[vol.  ii,      [Reprint  of  articles  on  Gower  and  Chaucer  from  Leland's 
vp'l~lQ'Commentarii  de  Scriptoribus  Britannicis.~\ 
-p°  isol]     [Chaucer    and    Masuccio   probably  indebted  to   some  one 
earlier  fabulist  for  the  plot  of  The  Milleres  Tale. 

1812.  Crabbe,  George.  Preface  to  Tales  in  Verse.  (The  Life  and 
Poetical  Works  of  George  Crabbe,  by  his  Son,  1901,  pp.  273-4.) 

[p.  273]  It  may  probably  be  remarked,  that  Tales,  however  dissimilar, 
might  have  been  connected  by  some  associating  circumstances 
to  which  the  whole  number  might  bear  equal  affinity,  and  that 
examples  of  such  union  are  to  be  found  in  Chaucer,  in  Boccace, 
and  other  collectors  and  inventors  of  Tales.  .  .  .  To  imitate 
the  English  poet,  characters  must  be  found  adapted  to  their 
several  relations,  and  this  is  a  point  of  great  difficulty  and 
hazard  :  much  allowance  seems  to  be  required  even  for  Chaucer 
himself ;  since  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  on  any  occasion 
the  devout  and  delicate  Prioress,  the  courtly  and  valiant 
Knight,  and  l  the  poure  good  Man  the  persone  of  a  Towne,' 
would  be  the  voluntary  companions  of  the  drunken  Miller,  the 
licentious  Sumpnour,  and  '  the  Wanton  Wife  of  Bath,'  and 
enter  into  that  colloquial  and  travelling  intimacy  which,  if  a 
common  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  may  be  said 
to  excuse,  I  know  nothing  beside  (and  certainly  nothing  in 
these  times)  that  would  produce  such  effect.  ...  To  have 
followed  the  method  of  Chaucer  might  have  been  of  use,  but 
could  scarcely  be  adopted,  from  its  difficulty. 

[p.  274]  That  those  poets  should  so  entirely  engross  the  title  as  to 
exclude  those  who  address  their  productions  to  the  plain 
sense  and  sober  judgment  of  their  readers,  rather  than  to  their 
fancy  and  imagination,  I  must  repeat  that  I  am  unwilling  to 
admit  .  .  .  All  that  kind  of  satire  wherein  character  is  skil 
fully  delineated  must  (this  criterion  being  allowed)  no  longer 


58  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1812 

be  esteemed  as  genuine  poetry  ...  A  considerable  part  of 
the  poems,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  denominated,  of 
Chaucer,  are  of  this  naked  and  unveiled  character :  and  there 
are  in  his  Tales  many  pages  of  coarse,  accurate,  and  minute, 
but  very  striking  description. 

1812.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  Typographical  Antiquities  .  .  .  begun 
by  Joseph  Ames  and  augmented  by  William  Herbert,  and  now 
enlarged  with  copious  notes,  vol.  ii,  pp.  514,  515-20  [Chaucer's 
Works,  1526],  521-5  [The  Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson,  n.d.]. 
[For  vol.  i,  see  above,  1810 ;  for  vols.  iii  and  iv,  below,  1816  and 
1819.  For  Ames'  original  edn.  of  1749  see  vol.  i,  p.  398  ;  for 
Herbert's  intermediate  edn.  see  vol.  i,  1785,  p.  477 ;  1786,  p.  483 ; 
1790,  p.  491.] 

1812.  D'Israeli,  Isaac.    Calamities  of  Authors,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  61,  99 ; 
vol.  ii,  p.  46.     [In  the  edition  by  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  1867, 
.the  references  are  pp.  28,  41,  130.] 

[i,  61.  Reference  to  Stowe's  labours  on  Chaucer.] 
[i,  99.  Cowley's  ashes  deposited  between  those  of  Chaucer  and 
Spenser.] 

[ii,  46.  Quotation  from  Harvey's  Foure  Letters:   q.v.  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  134.] 

1812.  Ellis,  Sir  Henry.  Preface  to  A  Catalogue  of  the  Lansdowne 
MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  Part  i,  p.  xi. 

In  poetry  ...  is  a  very  fair  and  perfect  copy,  also  on 
vellum,  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer  [No.  851],  written 
about  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Fifth,  in  the  initial  letter  of 
which  is  a  full-length  portrait  of  the  author. 

[For  the  entry  for  this  manuscript,  which  occurs  in  Part  ii  of  the  Catalogue,  see 
below,  1819.] 

1812.  Gait,  John.  Life  and  Administration  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  pp. 
191  11.,  194  n. 

[P.  191  n.]  I  have  never  been  able  to  bring  myself  to  entertain  any 
feeling  approximating  to  respect  for  the  works  of  Chaucer, 
Gower,  and  Lydgate,  and  the  other  tribe  of  rhymers  that  pre 
ceded  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  They  seem  to  me  to  have 
acquired  their  fame  before  the  nation  knew  anything  of  poetry, 
and  to  have  remained  famous  when  their  works  are  no  longer 
read.  There  is  a  little  sprinkling  here  and  there  of  naivete  in 
Chaucer,  but  his  lists  and  catalogues  of  circumstances  are  any 
thing  but  poetry.  Lydgate  is  bare  naked  prose.  .  .  . 


1812]'  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  59 

1812.  [Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.]  The  Feast  of  the  Poets,  [in]  The 
Reflector,  vol.  ii,  no.  4,  p.  322. 

I  must  mention,  however,  that  during  the  wine, 
The  mem'ry  of  Shakspeare  was  toasted  with  nine ; 
To  Chaucer  were  five,  and  to  Spenser  one  more, 
And  Milton  had  seven,  and  Dryden  had  four.  .  .  . 

[For  the  book-editions  of  this,  see  below,  1814  and  1815.] 

1812.  P.  Tabard  Inn,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Sept.,  p.  217. 
See  below,  App.  A. 

1812.  Southey,  Robert.     Omniana,  vol.  i,  pp.  192,  254-6. 

[p.  254]  [No.  135,  Early  English  Metre.]  Mr.  Weber  observes 
upon  the  passage  [from  c  Octouian  Imperator,'  with  rhyme 
'  Jame '  and  '  fra  me  ']  that  *  this  singular  rhyme  strongly 
supports  the  opinion  of  Wallis  and  Tyrwhitt  in  his  Essay  on 
the  versification  of  Chaucer,  that  the  final  e  which  is  at  present 
mute,  was  anciently  pronounced  obscurely  like  the  e  feminine 

of  the  French '      [Quotation  from  Troilus  and  Creseide, 

i,  1-5,  follows.] 

[p.  255]       []36.   Troilus  and  Creseide.] 

It  is  evident  from  the  first  stanza  of  this  poem  (just  quoted), 
when  the  narrator  says  '  er  that  I  part  froy/  that  Chaucer 
intended  it  for  one  of  his  Canterbury  Tales,  and  this  seems 
to  be  confirmed  by  the  65th  stanza  of  the  first  book. 

For  aie  the  nere  the  fire  the  hotter  is, 
This  (trow  I)  Jmoweth  all  this  companie. 

I  do  not  know  whether  this  has  been  observed  before.  A  corn- 
pleat  and  faithful  edition  of  the  works  of  this  great  father  of 
English  poetry,  with  an  accurate  verbal  index,  as  well  as 
glossary,  is  much  to  be  desired. 

1812.  Unknown.  Review  of  Gait's  Life  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  [in] 
The  Quarterly  Review,  September,  1812,  vol.  viii,  p.  170. 

[Gait  says]  '  I  have  never  been  able  to  bring  my  self  to  enter 
tain  any  feeling  approximating  to  respect  for  the  works  of 
Chaucer,  Gower,  or  Lydgate,  and  the  other  tribe  of  rhymers 
that  preceded  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.'  If  Mr.  Gait  came 
into  the  world  without  faculties  to  understand  or  an  heart  to- 
feel  the  sublimity  and  pathos,  or  even  the  wit  and  humour, 
of  Chaucer,  or  to  distinguish  those  qualities  from  the  tame 
mediocrity  of  Gower,  and  the  tedious  insipidity  of  Lydgate, 
who  can  help  it? 

[For  Gait,  see  above,  1S12.] 


60  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1813- 

1813.  Brand,  John  [or  Ellis,  Sir  Henry  I].     Observations  on  Popular 
Antiquities  (revised  by  Henry  Ellis),  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  47  n    65  n 
114  n.,    215  7i.,  418  n.,  428-9  n.,   473  n.  ;    vol.  ii,  pp     61-2  n" 
100,  116  n.,  136  n.,  139,  290,  296,  322-3  n.,  342-3  n.}  673  [mostly 
illustrative  quotations  from  Chaucer]. 

1813.  Thurlow,  Edward  Hovell,  Lord.  Sylva,  [in]  Poems  on  Several 
Occasions  .  .  .  Second  edition,  p.  148.  [Not  in  1st  edition  (also  of 
1813).] 

Who  have  been  great,  in  this  our  mortal  clime, 

Begirt  around  by  the  loud-voiced  sea  1 

Why  sacred  Chaucer,  that,  in  homely  rhyme, 

First  held  the  lamp  up  to  Posterity  : 

Then  Spenser,  in  whose  rich  Virgilian  strain 

The  moral  Virtues  are  disposed  fair  : 

Then  glorious  Milton,  who  surpass'd  his  reign 

In  depths  of  Hell  and  in  th'  Olympick  air  : 

But,  most  of  all,  and  to  our  wond'ring  eyes, 

And  to  the  eyes  of  all  futurity, 

Great  Shakspeare  stands,  that  was  by  Nature  wise, 

And  made  a  spoil  of  his  posterity ; 

When  he  was  born,  great  Nature  did  her  most, 

And  when  he  died,  the  World's  delight  was  lost ! 

1813.  Whitaker,  Thomas  Dunham.  Visio  Willl  de  Petro  Plouhman, 
Introduction,  pp.  vi,  vii,  xxxvi,  xliii,  xlvi,  xlvii-xlviii,  and  several 
references  in  notes  and  glossary. 

[p.  vi]  His  contemporaries,  Chaucer  and  Gower,  repose  beneath 
magnificent  tombs,  but  Langland  (if  such  were  really  his 
name)  has  no  other  monument  than  that  which,  having  framed 
for  himself,  he  left  to  posterity  to  appropriate. 

tp.  vii]       Under  the  refining  hand  of  Chaucer,  indeed,  it  [English] 

became  almost  a  new  language, 
tp.  xxxvi]    The  sera  of  this  Vision  is  now  ascertained  to  have  preceded 

the  great  work  of  Chaucer  by  twenty  years. 

{p.  xliii]  [Note  on  Tyrwhitt's  suggestion  that  Spenser  meant  to  allude 
to  the  Ploughman's  Tale  rather  than  to  Piers  Plowman  in  the 
Epilogue  to  the  Shepherd's  Calendar.'] 

tp.  xlvi]  [Quotations  from  Warton's  Observations  on  Spenser,  men 
tioning  Gower  and  Chaucer  in  connexion  with  Piers  Plowman.} 
k°ng  note,  wherein  Whitaker  defends  his  position  that 
the  author  of  the  Visions  must  be  considered  the  first  English 
poet.  The  fact  that  the  Canterbury  Tales  were  not  published 


1814]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  61 

(according  to  Tyrwhitt)  till  1381,  and  that  Chaucer  was 
34  years  old  in  1362,  is  Whitaker's  main  evidence  that  Piers 
Plowman  negatives  his  right  to  be  termed  first  of  English 
Poets.] 

1814.  Bering-ton,  Joseph.  A  Literary  History  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
book  vi,  pp.  447-457  [biographical  notice  and  critical  appreciation], 

[p.  450]  Our  Chaucer  is  read,  not  as  a  poet — who  delights  by  the 
richness  of  his  imagery,  or  the  harmony  of  his  numbers — but 
as  a  writer  who  has  pourtrayed  with  truth,  the  manners, 
customs,  and  habits  of  the  age.  Such  .  .  .  was  my  own 
judgment,  at  least,  when,  some  years  ago,  I  was  prevailed 
upon  to  peruse  him. 

[p.  452)  His  works,  of  which  the  Canterbury  Tales  form  the  most 
original  portion,  are  in  every  one's  hands  :  but  I  would  willingly 
learn  by  how  many  they  have  been  read ;  and  particularly  by 
how  many  with  the  feeling  of  delight. 

1814.  Gary,  Henry  Francis.  The  Vision  .  .  .  of  Dante,  translated  by 
H.  F.  Gary.  3  vols.,  1814.  [First  complete  edition.]  Vol.  i,  notes, 
pp.  156,  157,  160,  179,  182,  211,  214,  216  ;  vol.  ii,  notes,  pp.  159, 
172,  174,  194,  212  ;  vol.  iii,  notes,  pp.  157,  158,  187,  190,  202. 
[Mainly  illustrative  quotations  from  Chaucer ;  for  the  earlier 
edition  of  the  Inferno  alone  (with  the  Italian  text)  see  above, 
1805-6.] 

1814.  Dunlop,  John  Colin.  The  History  of  Fiction,  ed.  2,  1816  (first 
in  B.M.),  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  143-4,  146,  220,  228,  235-7,  248, 
300-1,  319-20,  335-6,  342-4,  349,  352,  382-4,  488.  (Ed.  1888, 
2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  131,  440-1  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  20,  50,  56,  60,  68,  109- 
10,  122-5,  135,  140-1,  146,  148,  207,  240.) 

pV°i46]'  Some  writers  have  considered  the  Sir  Thopas  of  Chaucer  as 
a  prelude  to  the  work  of  Cervantes.  It  may  be  much  to  the 
honour  of  the  English  poet  that  he  so  early  discerned  and 
ridiculed  the  absurdities  of  his  contemporary  romancers,  but 
it  cannot  be  conceived  that  Sir  Thopas  had  any  effect  in 
discrediting  their  compositions. 

[p.  220]  [The  outline  of  the  Pardoneres  Tale  taken  from  the  Cento 
Novelle,  82.] 

[p.  236]  If  the  frame  in  which  Boccaccio  has  set  his  Decameron  be 
compared  with  that  in  which  the  Canterbury  Tales  have  been 
enclosed  by  Chaucer,  who  certainly  imitated  the  Italian  novelist, 


€2     [Dunlop]          Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1814 

it  will  be  found  that  the  time  chosen  by  Boccaccio  is  infinitely 
preferable  to  that  adopted  by  the  English  poet.  The  pilgrims 
of  the  latter  relate  their  stories  on  a  journey,  though  they  are 
on  horseback,  and  are  twenty-nine  in  number;  and  it  was 
intended,  had  the  author  completed  his  plan,  that  this  rabble 
should  have  told  the  remainder  of  their  tales  in  an  abominable 
tavern  at  Canterbury.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Florentine 
assembly  discourse  in  tranquillity  and  retirement  .  .  .  But 
then  the  frame  of  Chaucer  afforded  a  much  greater  oppor 
tunity  of  displaying  a  variety  of  striking  and  dramatic 
characters,  and  thence  of  introducing  characteristic  tales. 
His  assemblage  is  mixed  and  fortuitous,  and  his  travellers 
are  distinguished  from  each  other  both  in  person  and  character. 
Even  his  serious  pilgrims  are  marked  by  their  several  sorts 

(P.  237]  of  gravity,  and  the  ribaldry  of  his  low  characters  is  different. 
'I  see,'  says  Dryden,  'every  one  of  the  pilgrims  in  the 
Canterbury  Tales  as  distinctly  as  if  I  had  supped  with  them.' 
All  the  company  in  the  Decameron,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
fine  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  Florence,  who  retire  to  enjoy 
the  sweets  of  select  society,  and  who  would  scarcely  have 
tolerated  the  intrusion  of  such  figures  as  the  Miller  or  the 
Sompnour. 
tpp  [Boccaccio's  Fra  Cipolla  (Decani,  vi,  10)  compared  with 

300-ij    Chaucer's  Pardoner,  and  quotation  of  Prol.  11.  701-4.] 

The  incidents  in  the  novel  of  Boccaccio  [Decani,  vii,  9] 
concerning  the  pear-tree  .  .  .  have  .  .  .  some  resemblance  to 
the  Merchant's  Tale  in  Chaucer,  and  by  consequence  to  Pope's 
January  and  May. 

[p.  342]  This  story  of  Boccaccio  [Decani,  x,  5]  is  the  origin  of  the 
Frankelein's  Tale  of  Chaucer,  in  which  the  circumstances  are 
precisely  the  same  as  in  the  Decameron,  except  that  the 
impossible  thing  required  of  the  lady  is,  that  her  lover  should 
remove  the  rocks  from  the  coast  of  Britany  [sic] :  a  similar 
tale,  however,  according  to  Tyrwhitt,  occurs  in  an  old  Breton 
lay,  from  which  he  conceives  the  incidents  may  have  come 
immediately  to  the  English  poet  .  .  . 

[p.  343]  The  tale  of  Boccaccio  is  supposed  by  the  editor  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher  to  be  also  the  origin  of  the  Iriumph  of 
Honour  .  .  .  but  it  is  more  probable  that  these  dramatists 

rp.  344]  took  their  plot  from  the  Frankelein's  Tale  in  Chaucer,  as 
the  impossible  thing  required  in  the  Triumph  of  Honour,  by 


1814]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  63 

Dorigen  from  her   lover  Martius,   is    that  a   mass  of   rocks 
should  be  converted  into  c  a  Champain  field.' 

[p.  349]      [The  Clerkes  tale  derived  from  Boccaccio  (Decani,  x,  10) 
through  Petrarch.  1 


1814.  Hazlitt,  William.  On  Posthumous  Fame,  [in]  The  Examiner, 
May  22,  1814.  [Reprinted  in  the  'Round  Table,'  1817.]  (Col 
lected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6, 
13  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  23.) 

Chaucer  seems  to  have  derived  his  notions  of  fame  more 
immediately  from  the  reputation  acquire^  by  the  Italian 
poets,  his  contemporaries,  which  had  at  that  time  spread  itself 
over  Europe. 


1814.  Hazlitt,  William.  Why  the  Arts  are  not  Progressive?  [A 
fragment  composed  of  articles  from  the  Morning  Chronicle  and  the 
Champion,  Jan.  11  and  15,  and  Sept.  11,  1814.  Reprinted  in  the 
'  Round  Table,'  1817.]  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed. 
Waller  and  Glover,  1902,  13  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  161-3.) 

ip.iei]  Homer,  Chaucer,  Spenser  [and  a  list  of  others]  all  lived 
near  the  beginning  of  their  arts — perfected,  and  all  but  created 
them. 

[p.  162]  Nature  is  the  soul  of  art  ...  It  was  the  same  trust  in 
nature  that  enabled  Chaucer  to  describe  the  patient  sorrow  of 
Griselda ;  or  the  delight  of  that  young  beauty  in  the  Flower 
and  the  Leaf,  shrouded  in  her  bower,  and  listening,  in  the 
morning  of  the  year,  to  the  singing  of  the  nightingale.  .  .  . 


1814.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Essay  on  Washerwomen,  [in]  The 
Seer,  p.  42.  [Reprinted  in  1841,  also  in  the  'Round  Table,' 
by  W.  Hazlitt  and  Leigh  Hunt,  1817,  vol.  ii,  p.  181.] 

The  greatest  master  of  detached  portrait  is  Steele ;  but  his 
pictures  too  form  a  sort  of  link  in  a  chain.  Perhaps  the 
completest  specimen  of  what  we  mean  in  the  English  language 
is  Shenstone's  School-Mistress,  by  far  his  best  production  .  .  . 
But  what  ?  Are  we  leaving  out  Chaucer  ?  Alas,  we  thought 
to  be  doing  something  a  little  original,  and  find  it  all  existing 
already,  and  in  unrivalled  perfection,  in  his  portraits  of  the 
Canterbury  Pilgrims !  We  can  only  dilate,  and  vary  upon 
his  principle. 


64  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1814 

1814.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.     The  Feast  of  the  Poets,  ivith  Notes 
.  .  .  by  the  Editor  of  the  Examiner,  p.  19,  [Notes]  pp.  121,  122. 

[p.  19]  5T would  be  tedious  to  count  all  the  names  as  they  rose, 

But  none  were  omitted  you'll  eas'ly  suppose, 
Whom  Fancy  has  crown'd  with  one  twig  of  the  bny, 
From  old  father  Chaucer  to  Collins  and  Gray. 

[Notes]       Of   the    studious  disposition  of   all  our  greatest  poets  we 
122]     'have  complete  evidence.      Chaucer's  eagle  in   the  House  of 
Fame  accuses  him  of  being  so  desperate  a  student,  that  he 
takes  no  heed  of  anybody,  and  reads  till  he  looks  stupid  ; 
[Here  follows  a  quotation,  beginning  :] 

.  .  .  No  tidinges  comin  to  the,  .  .  . 
[and  ending]      And  al  so  dombe  as  any  stone 
Thou  sittest  at  anothir  boke, 
Tyl  fully  dasid  is  thy  loke.     [V.  140.] 

Chaucer  however,  was  too  true  a  poet  not  to  read  nature  as 
well  as  books,  as  his  writings  abundantly  testify,  both  in 
character  and  description.  Milton  and  Spenser  were  both 
men  of  learning,  and,  what  is  rarer  for  poets,  men  of  busi 
ness;  and  so  indeed  was  Chaucer  .  .  .  Chaucer  revels  in 
morning  scenery. 

[Compare  with  this  the  text  as  printed  in  the  Reflector,  1812,  above,  and  in  the 
second  edition,  1815,  below.] 


1814.  Manning,  Owen,  and  Bray,  William.  The  History  and  Antiquities 
of  the  County  of  Surrey.  .  .  .  Begun  by  the  late  Rev.  Chven 
Manning  .  .  .  enlarged  and  continued  to  the  year  1814,  by 
William  Bray  of  Shire,  3  vols.,  1804-14,  vol.  iii,  p.  551,  South wark. 

This  being  the  great  thoroughfare  for  all  persons  passing  to 
London  from  Kent,  Surrey,  and  Sussex,  has  been  always  noted 
for  a  number  of  inns  to  accommodate  travellers.  That  men 
tioned  by  Chaucer,  as  the  place  from  which  he  set  out  with 
the  pilgrims  whose  stories  he  relates  in  his  Canterbury  Tales, 
has  had  so  much  said  of  it  by  different  authors,  that  it  is 
unnecessary  to  say  more  here,  than  that  the  sign  was  then  the 
Tabard;  that  is,  a  military  or  herald's  coat  without  sleeves; 
but  that  it  was  long  ago  converted  into  that  of  a  dog,  which 
by  corruption  of  the  original  name,  has  since  been  known  by 
the  name  of  a  Talbot,  and  is  designated  by  a  spotted  dog. 
This  name  it  still  bears.  On  the  frieze  of  the  beam  whereon 
the  sign  hung,  till  removed  on  forming  the  new  pavement, 


1814]  Cliauwr  Criticism  and  Allusion.  65 

about  1767,  was  inscribed,  'This  is  the  Inne  where  Sir  Jeffrey 
Chaucer  and  the  nine  and  twenty  pilgrims  lay  in  their  journey 
to  Canterbury  anno  1383.'  An  inscription  to  this  purport  is 
still  in  the  yard.  It  is  near  St.  Margaret's  Hill.  .  .  . 

1814.  [Peacock,  Thomas  Love.]  Sir  Proteus:  a  Satirical  Ballad,  by 
P.  M.  O'Donovan,  Esq.,  stanza  i.  (Works  of  Thomas  Love  Peacock, 
ed.  Cole,  1875,  vol.  iii,  p.  117.) 

Oh  !  list  to  me  :  for  I'm  about 
To  catch  the  fire  of  Chaucer, 

And  spin  in  doleful  measure  out 
The  tale  of  Johnny  Raw,  sir. 

1814.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Essay  on  Border  Antiquities.  [Introduction 
to]  Border  Antiquities  of  England  and  Scotland.  (Miscellaneous 
Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh,  1834-71,  30  vols., 
vol.  vii,  pp.  32-3.) 

The  northern  minstrels'  .  .  .  earliest  attempts  at  poetry 
were  .  .  .  formed  on  alliteration ;  and  as  late  as  the  time 
of  Chaucer  it  was  considered  as  the  mark  of  a  northern  man 
to  '  affect  the  letter.' 

[p.  S3]  [Reference  in  footnote  to  '  roni  ram  ruf,'  Parson's  Prol.,  ed. 
Skeat,  11.  42-4.] 

1814.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Memoirs  of  Jonathan  Swift,  D.D.  (Miscel 
laneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh,  1834-71, 
30  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  305  ??.,  414.) 

[p.  305 n.]  [Reference  to,  and  quotation  from,  an  imitation  of  Chaucer 
by  Dr.  Arbuthnot  in  '  Critical  Remarks  on  Captain  Gulliver's 
Travels,'  q.v.  below,  A  pp.  A.  1735,  Arbuthnot.] 

[p.  4H]  Chaucer  appears  also  to  have  been  his  favourite,  for  I 
observe  among  his  papers  a  memorandum  of  the  oaths  used  in 
the  Canterbury  Tales,  classed  with  the  personages  by  whom 
they  are  used. 

[Footnote]  '  Mr.  Walter  Scott  informs  us  (Life  of  Swift, 
p.  465)  that  Chaucer  was  a  favourite  of  Swift,  and  that  lie 
had  observed  among  his  papers  a  Memorandum  of  the  oaths 
used  in  the  Canterbury  Tales.  Mr.  Scott  was  so  obliging  as  to 
transmit  to  me  an  imitation,  but  by  no  means  a  successful 
one,  of  the  style  of  this  early  English  poet.  The  attempt 
was  in  the  handwriting  of  Swift,  I  have  been  so  unfortunate 
as  to  have  lost  .  .  .  the  document'  .  .  .  Monck  Mason. 

[See  below,  A  pp.  A.,  a.  1740,  Swift.] 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM II.  P 


66  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1814 

1814.  Southey,  Robert.  Notes  for  a  series  of  Inscriptions  in  honour  of 
English  Poets,  [printed  in]  Preface,  by  Herbert  Hill,  to  Sonthey's 
Oliver  Newman,  1845,  pp.  x-xi. 

Tuesday,  6th  Sept.  1814.  Inscriptions  for  the  Poetical 
Ground  of  these  Kingdoms  :  i.  e.  a  tribute  of  respect  to  all 
those  poets  who  deserve  it.  This,  I  think,  would  be  a  worthy 
task. 

Chaucer — at  Woodstock  ?  Blenheim  will  become  an  empty 
name,  and  that  palace  a  pile  of  ruins,  while  he  remains. 

1814.  [Southey,  Robert  ?]  Review  of  Chalmers'  English  Poets,  [in]  The 
Quarterly  Review,  July  1814,  vol.  xi,  pp.  482-4  ;  Oct.,  vol.  xii, 
pp.  61,  64,  65,  67,  69,  73,  82-4. 

[The  passage  on  Chaucer's  rejection  of  the  ornate  style  at  the  end  of  the  following 
extract  echoes  Southey 's  words  in  his  Specimens,  q.v.  above,  1S07,  closely  enough  to 
wariant  the  provisional  attribution  of  this  review  to  him.] 

Chaucer  himself  was  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude :  no 
man  ever  did  so  much  with  a  language  in  so  rude  a  state,  and 
only  Shakespeare  has  surpassed  him  in  his  intuitive  know 
ledge  of  human  character,  and  the  universality  of  his  genius. 
Mr.  Chalmers  indeed,  with  that  comfortable  self-satisfaction 
which  he  derives  from  flourishing  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  the  world  has  the  advantage  of  being  enlightened  by 
lectures  on  poetry,  assures  us  that  Chaucer's  popularity  is 
gone  by  : — it  may  be  so  with  those  ladies  and  gentlemen  who 
conceive  poetry  to  be  *  the  art  of  pleasing,'  and  believe  that 
nothing  which  requires  thought  can  possibly  give  pleasure. 
Chaucer  has  not  written  for  critics  and  readers  of  this  nature  : 
...  the  rank  which  the  father  of  English  poetry  holds  in 
literature  has  not  been  assigned  by  caprice,  or  fashion,  or 
superstition.  He  whom  Spenser  called  his  master,  and 
whom  Milton  referred  to  as  to  his  great  and  immortal  prede 
cessor,  is  justly  placed  with  them  in  the  first  class  of  poets, 
and  his  fame,  like  theirs,  is  for  ever.  It  is  a  reproach  to  our 
literature  that  the  Canterbury  Tales  should  be  the  only  portion 
of  his  works  which  have  been  edited  with  any  degree  of  care 
or  ability. 

fvoLxii,  He  [the  author  of  The  CM]  built  with  rubbish  and 
unhewn  stones ;  Dante  and  Petrarca  with  marble.  Chaucer's 
materials  more  resembled  those  of  the  Spaniard  than  of  the 
Italian  poets.  This  has  been  in  some  degree  unfortunate  for 
himself,  inasmuch  as  the  progressive  improvement  of  our 


1814]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  67 

tongue  has  at  length  rendered  him  obsolete,  (or  rather  caused 
him  to  be  thought  so,)  and  thus  deprived  him  of  that  exten 
sive  and  pre-eminent  popularity  which  he  long  and  deservedly 
enjoyed.  .  .  . 

[p.  65]  Chaucer  drew  much  from  the  French  "and  Italian  poets, 
but  more  from  observation  and  the  stores  of  his  own  wealthy 
and  prolific  mind.  Strong  English  sense,  and  strong  English 
humour  characterize  his  original  works.  He  caught  with  a 
painter's  hand  the  manners  and  features  of  the  age ;  he  beheld 
the  objects  of  external  nature  with  a  poet's  eye,  and  he  pene 
trated  with  a  poet's  intuition  into  the  recesses  of  the  human 
heart.  Dante  holds  a  higher  place  in  literature  because  he 
wrought  with  materials  which  were  capable  of  displaying  and 
preserving  his  exquisite  skill.  Dante  may  be  classed  above  all 
other  poets  for  strength  and  severity  of  style  :  Nothing  can  be 
worse  than  the  plan  of  the  Divina  Commedia  ;  the  matter  is 
sometimes  puerile,  sometimes  shocking,  frequently  dull,  but 
the  style  is  uniformly  perfect.  Here  Chaucer  falls  short  of 
him,  but  only  here,  where,  from  the  state  of  the  English 
language,  it  was  impossible  that  he  should  prove  his  equal : 
in  extent  and  variety  of  power  he  is  greatly  his  superior. 

[During  the  15th  century]  there  could  be  little  encourage 
ment  for  poetry,  and  what  was  produced  chiefly  consisted 
either  of  dull  translations,  or  vapid  imitations  of  Chaucer. 
The  'style  ornate'  had  been  introduced,  and  was  sanctioned 
by  Chaucer's  name  :  of  the  poems  in  that  style  which  are 
printed  as  his,  many  are  of  questionable  authority ;  few  traces 
of  it  are  to  be  found  in  his  greater  and  better  works  ;  and  it 
seems  probable  that  he  just  tried  the  experiment,  and  convinced 
himself  of  its  unfitness. 

1814.  Thurlow,  Edward  Hovell,  Lord.  Moonlight,  a  Poem,  tenth  Several 
Copies  of  Verses,  p.  21.  [There  is  another  edition  of  this  poem, 
also  of  1814;  the  title  runs  differently — '  Moonlight,  the  Doge's 
Daughter,  Ariadne/  etc.] 

[The  author  asks  his  Muse :  Where  are  now  the  great  poets 
of  Italy  q 

Or,  if  we  turn  to  England  in  our  thought, 
Tell  me  where  Chaucer  may  be  found  1  or  where 
Sweet  Spenser,  that  from  rebels  fled  to  death, 
His  heart  quite  broken  with  the  faulty  time  ?  .  .  . 


68  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D. 

1814.  Unknown.  Review  of  Ginguene's  Histoire  Litteraire  d'ltalie, 
and  Sismondi's  De  la  Litterature  du  Midi  de  V  Europe,  [in]  The 
Quarterly  Keview,  April  1814,  vol.  xi,  p.  22. 

To  the  English  reader  it  [the  Theseide]  presents  the  addi 
tional  interest,  of  being  the  model  of  the  '  Knight's  Tale '  of 
Chaucer,  and  the  origin  therefore  of  one  of  the  noblest  poems 
in  our  language,  the  '  Palamon  and  Arcite '  of  Dryden. 

1814.  Unknown.  Review  of  Mathias's  edition  of  Mason's  Life  and 
Writings  of  Gray,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  July  1814,  vol.  xi, 
p.  315. 

[Comparison  is  made  between  a  line  in  Gray,  and  a  line  from 
the  Reve's  Prologue  : 

"Even  in  our  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires." 

Gray,  Mason's  ed.  p.  67. 
"Even  in  our  ashen  cold  is  tire  ywreken." 

Chauc.  Reve's  Tale,  ed.  TyrwUtt,  1.  3180.] 

[For  this  old  comparison  see  above,  vol.  i,  p.  465,  1782, 
Dodsley.] 

1814.  Unknown.  Review  of  Dunlop's  History  of  Fiction,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Review,  Nov.  1814,  vol.  xxiv,  p.  46. 

[With  a  few  exceptions]  by  far  the  best  fictitious  narratives 
in  existence  are  poems.  And  a  history  of  Mathematics  which 
should  exclude  Archimedes  and  Newton,  would  not  be  more 
extraordinary  than  a  history  of  Eiction  which  excludes  Homer, 
Hesiod,  Virgil,  Lucian,  Ariosto,  Tasso,  Chaucer,  Spenser, 
Milton,  Scott,  Campbell  and  Byron. 

1814.  Wordsworth.,  William.  Second  Tour  in  Scotland ;  Yarrow  visited, 
[in]  Memoirs  of  William  Wordsworth,  by  Christopher  Wordsworth, 
1851,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  30.  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1896, 
8  vols,  vol.  vi,  p.  36.) 

The  old  man  [Dr.  Anderson,  the  editor  of  the  British  Poets] 
was  passionately  fond  of  poetry,  though  with  not  much  of 
discriminating  judgment,  as  the  volumes  he  edited  sufficiently 
show.  .  .  .  Through  these  volumes  I  became  first  familiar 
with  Chaucer. 

1815-16.  Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  Egerton.  Restituta,  4  vols.,  1814-16, 
vol.  i,  Preface  [dated  March  28,  1815],  p.  x.  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  138,  140, 
508  ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  29,  168,  199  [quotations  on  Chaucer  from  old 
writers], 

But  such  is  the  brilliance  of  primary  genius,  that  even  the 
darkest  ages  will  not  repress  the  appearances  of  its  true 
character.  What  vivid  pictures  does  Chaucer  give  us  !  What 


1815]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  69 

a  selection  of  circumstances !  What  animation  of  manner, 
and  language !  How  does  he  bring  out  the  prominent  traits 
in  the  characters  which  he  so  happily  draws  in  his  Canterbury 
Tales;  while  we  see  the  whole  merry  group  on  their  journey, 
as  if  we  were  accompanying  them  along  the  Kentish  road ! 

1815.  Dibdin,  Thomas  FrognalL  Bibliotheca  Spenceriana,  4  vols., 
1814-15  ;  vol.  iv,  1815,  pp.  288-319,  426-31. 

[Lengthy  bibliographical  descriptions,  with  extracts  and 
facsimiles,  of  Caxton's  editions  of  the  Canterbury  Tales ; 
ed.  1,  pp.  288-92,  No.  868;  ed.  2,  pp.  292-309,  No.  869, 
with  facsimiles  of  the  cuts  of  the  characters;  Boecius,  pp.  310— 
12,  No.  870;  Book  of  Fame,  pp.  312-19,  No.  871;  Troylus, 
p.  319,  No.  872  ;  of  Pynson's  ed.  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
pp.  426-31,  No.  917.] 

1815.  Griffiths],  A[cton]  Frederick].  Bibliotheca  Anglo-Poetica ;  or 
a  descriptive  catalogue  of  a  rare  and  rich  collection  of  Early 
English  Poetry  in  the  possession  of  Longman,  Hurst,  Rees,  Orme 
and  Brown,  etc.  [formerly  Park's  collection],  pp.  36-40,  431-2, 
nos.  84-96,  898-901. 

[No.  84,  Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson,  n.d.,  imperfect  at 
beginning,  £25 ;  the  portrait  of  Chaucer  is  reproduced.  No. 
85,  Works,  Bonham,  n.d.,  £7  7s.;  Eitson  is  quoted  for  the 
date  1542  for  this  edn.,  and  Tyrwhitt  for  the  spuriousness  of 
the  Plowman's  Tale,  which  first  appeared  in  it.  Nos.  86,  87, 
Works,  1598,  £3  10s.  and  £2  12s.  Qd.  No.  88,  Works,  1602, 
£4  4s.  No.  89,  Works,  ed.  Urry,  1721,  £1 15s.  No.  90, 
item,  large  paper,  £3  3s.;  "The  Coke's  Tale  of  Gamelyn" 
and  "The  Merchant's  Second  Tale,  or  the  History  of  Beryn," 
included  in  this  edn.,  non-Chaucerian,  but  praised  by  Ritson. 
No.  91,  Canterbury  Tales,  ed.  Tyrwhitt,  1775-8,  £6  16s.  Qd. 
No.  92,  item,  with  proof  prints  from  Bell's  edn.  and  portraits 
of  Chaucer  and  Tyrwhitt,  £8  8s. ;  a  note  in  praise  of  the  edn. 
follows.  No.  .  93,  Canterbury  Tales,  ed.  Tyrwhitt,  1798, 
£2  10s.  No.  94,  Canterbury  Tales,  Ogle's  modernized  edn., 
1741,  £1  11s.  Qd.  No.  95,  item,  £2  6s.  No.  96,  The 
assemble  of  foules,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  1530,  £50.  The  book 
unique ;  reference  to  Dr.  Billam's  letter  to  Herbert  [see  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  483,  1786];  a  general  note  on  Chaucer  follows,  and 
a  quotation  of  Warton's  well-known  passage  beginning  "I 
consider  Chaucer  as  a  genial  day  in  an  English  Spring." 
(Supplement.)  No.  898,  Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson,  1526, 
imperfect,  £25.  No.  899,  Works,  R.  Toye,  n.d.  (another 
issue  of  no.  85),  £6  6s.  No.  900,  Works,  Reynes,  1542, 
£7  7s.  No.  901,  Works,  1561,  £5  5s.] 


70  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1815 

1815.  Hazlitt,  William.  On  the  Ideal,  [in]  The  Champion,  Jan.  8, 
1815.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and 
Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  xi,  p.  226.) 

Are  the  admirable  descriptions  of  the  kings  of  Thrace  and 
Inde  in  Chaucer's  Knight's  Tale,  less  poetical,  or  historical,  or 
ideal,  because  they  are  distinguished  by  traits  as  characteristic 
as  they  are  striking  ;  in  their  lineaments,  their  persons,  their 
armour,  their  other  attributes,  the  one  black  and  broad,  the 
other  tall,  and  fair,  and  freckled,  with  yellow  crisped  locks 
that  glittered  as  the  sun  1  The  four  white  bulls,  and  the 
lions  which  accompany  them  are  equally  fine,  but  they  are 
not  fine  because  they  present  no  distinct  image  to  the  mind. 
The  effect  of  this  is  somehow  lost  in  Dryden's  Palamon  and 
Arcite,  and  the  poetry  is  lost  with  it. 

1815.  Hazlitt,  William.  Essay  on  Manners,  [in]  The  Examiner, 
Sept.  3,  1815.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller 
and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  xi,  pp.  269-272,  274.) 

[p.  269]  Nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  the  difference  of  style 
or  manner,  where  the  matter  remains  the  same,  as  in  para 
phrases  and  translations.  The  most  remarkable  example 
which  occurs  to  us  is  in  the  beginning  of  the  Flower  and 
Leaf  by  Chaucer,  and  in  the  modernisation  of  the  same 
passage  by  Dryden.  .  .  . 

[Six  stanzas    of   the  Flower   and  the  Leaf  and   Dryden's 

[pp.270,  modernization  of  the  same  passage  are  quoted,  and  the  in 
feriority  of  Dryden's  version  is  pointed  out.] 

[p.  272]  Compared  with  Chaucer,  Dryden  and  the  rest  of  that  school 
were  merely  verbal  poets.  They  had  a  great  deal  of  wit, 
sense  and  fancy ;  they  only  wanted  truth  and  depth  of  feeling. 

1815.  Hazlitt,  William.  Queries  relating  to  the  Essay  on  Population, 
[no.  23  of  the  Round  Table  series  in]  The  Examiner,  Oct.  29, 1815. 
(Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover, 
1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  385.) 

[Query]   18.     Lastly,  whether  the   whole  of  the  reverend 
author's  management  of  the  principle  of  population  and  of  the 
necessity  of  moral  restraint,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  copied 
from  the  prudent  friar's  advice  in  Chaucer  ? 
1  Beware  therefore  with  lordes  for  to  play, 
Singeth  Placebo  : — 

To  a  poor  man  men  should  his  vices  tell, 
But  not  to  a  lord,  though  he  should  go  to  hell.' 


1815]  CJutuccr  Criticism  and  Allusion.  71 

1815.  Hazlitt,  William.  Eeview  of  Sisiriondi's  Literature  of  the  South, 
[in]  The  Edinburgh  Eeview,  June  1815,  vol.  xxv,  pp.  54,  59,  60,  62. 
(Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover, 
1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  x,  pp.  69,  73-7). 

[p.  73]  We  cannot  go  on  with  this  splendid  catalogue  of  foreigners 
without  feeling  ourselves  drawn  to  the  native  glories  of  two  of 
our  own  writers  .  .  .  — we  mean  Chaucer  and  Spenser — who 
are  now,  we  are  afraid,  as  little  known  to  the  ordinary  run 
of  English  readers  as  their  tuneful  contemporaries  of  the 
South  .  .  . 

[There  follows,  pp.  74-6,  a  short  but  good  and  fresh  apprecia 
tion  of  Chaucer,  which  Hazlitt  elaborated  and  illustrated  with 
quotations  in  the  Lectures  of  1818,  but  leaving  some  passages 
unaltered.  See  below,  1818.] 


1815.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  Descent  of  Liberty  ;  a  masque, 
p.  60.  [Issued  in  1819  as  part  of  vol.  i  (with  date  1816)  of  Leigh 
Hunt's  Poetical  Works.] 

Three  Gothic  seats,  in  which  are  enthroned  the  shapes  of 
Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  crowned  with  laurel,  and 
holding  globes  in  their  hands — the  first  a  terrestrial,  the  third 
a  celestial,  and  the  second  a  double  one  of  both. 


1815.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  Feast  of  the  Poets,  .  .  .  second 
edition,  amended  and  enlarged,  p.  23,  Notes  [identical  as  regards 
the  Chaucer  reference  with  those  in  1st  edition],  pp.  120,  121. 
[Issued  in  1819  as  part  of  vol.  ii.  of  Leigh  Hunt's  Poetical  Works  ; 
the  original  title  page  is  dated  1815.  "  See  above,  1812  and  1814.] 

I  must  mention,  however,  that  during  the  wine, 
The  mem'ry  of  Shakspeare  was  toasted  with  nine ; 
Y/hen  lo,  as  each  poet  was  lifting  his  cup, 
A  strain  of  invisible  music  struck  up  : — 


The  next  name  was  Chaucer, — and  part  of  the  strain 
For  the  glorious  old  boy  was  play'd  over  again. 
Then,  "Milton  !"  they  cried,  with  a  solemner  shout, 
When  bursting  at  once  in  its  mightiness  out, 
The  organ  came  gathering  and  rolling  its  thunder. 

Last  followed  my  Spenser  (L  wish  I'd  been  there). 


72  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1815 


1815.  Macaulay,  Thomas  'Babington,  Lord.  Letter  to  Ms  Mother, 
[dated]  Aug.  23,  1815,  [in]  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay 
by  ...  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  1870.  (New  ed.,  1883.  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  p.  59.) 

Hear  and  wonder !  I  have  .  .  .  read  Boccaccio's  Decameron 
...  he  is  always  elegant,  amusing,  and  .  .  .  strikingly  delicate 
and  chastised.  I  prefer  him  infinitely  to  Chaucer. 

1815.  Marsh,  Herbert.     Horse,  Pelasgicae,  Part  the  First,  p.  23. 

[The  Pelasgi  spoke]  the  same  language  with  Thucydides 
himself,  though  the  form  of  it,  as  used  by  the  Pelasgi,  might 
bear  to  the  form  of  it  in  the  writings  of  Thucydides  a  relation 
similar  to  that,  which  the  English  of  Chaucer  bears  to  the 
English  of  Pope. 

[This  passage  is  quoted  in  a  review  of  Marsh's  book  in  the  Quarterly  Review 
July,  1815,  vol.  xiii,  p.  346.] 

1815.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell.  Letter  to  Sir  William  El.ford,  July  7, 
Life  of  Mary  Russell  Mitford,  edited  by  A,  G.  L'Estrange,  3  vols., 
1870,  vol.  i,  pp.  311,  312. 

I  have  been  to  see  Donnington  Castle,  the  classic  ground 
where  Chaucer  certainly  resided  and  perhaps  wrote  some  of 
those  exquisite  tales  which,  while  they  are  among  the  earliest 
specimens  of  our  language,  will  undoubtedly  endure  to  the  last. 
Are  you  an  enthusiast  for  this  venerable  bard  1  My  admiration 
for  him  is  very  ardent.  His  poetry  seems  to  me  so  healthy, 
so  vigorous,  so  much  in  the  thought,  and  so  little  in  the 
expression ;  his  powers  are  so  various,  so  pliable,  ranging  at 
will  from  the  thrilling  pathos  of  Griselda  to  the  wild  fancy 
of  '  Cambuscan  bold.'  .  ,  .  Setting  Milton  and  Shakespeare 
aside,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  don't  prefer  him  to  almost  any 
writer  in  the  circle  of  English  poetry.  I  speak,  of  course,  of 
his  best  works,  and  not  of  his  poems  en  masse ;  but  two  or 
three  of  his  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  and  some  select  passages  from 
his  other  productions,  are  worth  all  that  the  age  of  Queen 
Anne,  our  Augustan  age  as  it  has  been  called,  ever  produced. 

[Enclosed  in  this  letter  was  the  following  Sonnet :] 
On  visiting  Donnington  Castle,  said  to  have  been  the  latest 
Residence  of  Chaucer,  and  celebrated  for  its  Resistance 
to  the  Army  of  the  Parliament  during  the  Civil  Wars. 
Oh  for  some  sprite  to  lead  the  ivy  band, 
High-seated  Donnington,  around  thy  towrers  ! 
Oh  for  some  sprite  to  wipe  from  Chaucer's  bowers 
The  lingering  trace  of  War's  deforming  hand ! 


1815]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  73 

Nature  herself  hath  banished  from  the  land 
Such  signal.     Here  the  trench  no  longer  lours, 
But,  like  a  bosky  dell,  bedecked  with  flowers 
And  garlanded  with  May,  it  seems  to  stand 
A  very  spot  for  youthful  poet's  dreams 
In  Spring's  fair  hour  :  Griselda's  mournful  lay, 
The  '  half-told '  tale  would  sound  still  sweeter  here. 
Oh  for  some  sprite  to  hide  with  ivy  spray 
War's  ravages,  and  chase  the  meaner  themes 
Of  King  and  State,  Eoundhead  and  Cavalier. 

[See  below,  1852,  for  a  passage  in  Miss  Mitford's  Recollections.'] 

1815-16.  Nott,  George  Frederick.     The  Works  of  Henry  Howard  Earl 
of  Surrey  and  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyo.it  the  Elder,  2  vols. 

Dissertation  on  the  state  of  English  Poetry  before  the 
sixteenth  century,  vol.  i,  pp.  cxxxvii-clxxvi,  clxxxvi  note, 
clxxxviii-cxciii,  cxc,  cxcvi,  cxcix,  ccxxxi-ii,  ccxxxv-vi, 
ccxliii-vi,  ccxlii-vi,  ccxlix-li,  cclxvii,  cclxix-xx,  cclxxxv.  [In 
the  Notes  to  the  poems  there  are  many  references  to  Chaucer, 
pointing  out  passages  and  lines  where  Surrey  has  imitated  him.] 
Notes  to  Surrey's  Poems,  vol.  i,  pp.  234,  236,  238-41,  243, 
246-47,  249-50,  252,  257,  259-60,  263-66,  276,  278,  282, 
284,  287,  289,  291,  295-97,  302-3,  306-7,  315-16,  318-24, 
326<  329-30,  334-35,  337-39,  341,  348-49,  351-52,  356-57, 
359,  361,  369,  372-73,  375,  380,  383,  387-88,  398,  401-11, 
413,  417,  421,  424-25. 

Vol.  ii  [Wyatt],  pp.  xxxii,  xxxiii  and  note,  Ixxxvi,  cliii  and 
note,  clix  and  note,  clx.  Notes  to  Wyatt's  poems,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
538-41,  545-50,  552-53,  555-56,  558,  560-66,  568-72, 
574-75,  577,  581-82. 

[vol.  i,       Sect.  IV.   Of  Chaucer's  versification — that  his  verses  were 

Decasyllalles,  but  rhythmical — of  the  use  and  importance 

of  the  caesura  in  rhythmical  versification. 

It   seems    certain   then   that   our  versification  anterior  to 

Chaucer,  whether  the  lines  were  Alexandrine,  Octosyllabic,  or 

Alliterative,  was  uniformly  rhythmical.     It  now  remains  to 

ascertain    what   were   the   alterations  which    Chaucer  made. 

First,  he  rejected  alliteration.  .  .  .     Secondly,  he  established 

the  practice  of  always  changing  the  rhyme  with  the  couplet. 

.    .    .    Thirdly,   he   introduced   the    Heroic    stanza   of   seven 

lines,  .  .  . ;  a  stanza,  which  for  many  centuries  after  was  used 

as  the  system  of  verse  best  suited  to  serious  and  elevated 

subjects.  .  .  . 


74     [Notf\  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1815 

But  the  chief  improvement  introduced  by  Chaucer  into 
our  versification  was  that  of  dropping  altogether  the  use  of 
the  Alexandrine  line,  and  substituting  the  line  of  ten 
syllables  in  its  stead.  .  .  . 

But  though  Chaucer  reduced  our  verse  to  ten  syllables,  he 
suffered  it  to  retain  in  other  respects  the  properties  of  the 
old  Alexandrine  verse.  Like  that  it  was  divided  by  the  old 
caesura  into  hemistichs ;  had  the  pause  at  the  end,  and  was 
recited  rhythmically.  It  was  still  what  Lydgate  called  "the 
verse  of  Cadence."  It  is  true  that  many  of  Chaucer's  lines 
[p.clix]  have  the  appearance  of  being  pure  Iambic  Decasyllables. 
This  however  Avas  the  effect  of  accident.  For  accent  and  quan 
tity,  which  are  not  of  necessity  the  same,  would  sometimes 
coincide,  and  when  they  did,  a  pure  Iambic  Decasyllabic  was 
unavoidably  the  result.  It  was  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
these  fortuitous  Iambic  lines  that  led  Mr.  Tyrwhitt,  and  before 
him  Mr.  Urry,  and  the  learned  Mr.  Morell,  to  believe  that 
Chaucer's  system  of  versification  was  altogether  metrical.  But 
an  impartial  consideration  of  the  subject,  and  a  reference  to 
good  MSS.  must  I  think  lead  us  to  conclude  that  Chaucer  had 
not  a  metrical  system  of  numbers  in  contemplation  ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  he  designed  his  verses  to  be  read,  like  those  of 
all  his  contemporaries,  with  a  caesura  and  rhythmical  cadence. 

Should  it  be  asked  why  so  many  Iambic  lines  are  to  be 
found  in  Chaucer,  the  answer  is  obvious.  Our  language  had 
become  more  compressed.  Most  of  the  words  in  common  use 
had  dropped  their  final  syllables,  and  monosyllables  were 
multiplied.  This  could  not  but  produce  a  corresponding  effect 
on  our  versification,  and  lines  of  ten  syllables  would  insensibly 
be  written  instead  of  lines  of  twelve  or  fourteen.  .  .  . 

[Here  follow  some  instances  from  Manning's,  or  Robert  of 
Brunne's,  continuation  of  Langtoft's  Chronicle,  of  the  mixture 
of  the  Alexandrine  with  verses  of  ten  syllables.] 

[p.clx]  Manning's  use  of  the  Decasyllabic  verse,  therefore,  was 
partial  and  accidental.  The  case  was  otherwise  with  Chaucer. 
He  used  it  uniformly,  and  upon  system.  This  admits  of 
no  doubt.  I  am  not  aware  that  a  single  instance  of  the 
Alexandrine  verse  occurs  in  all  Chaucer's  works ;  for  I  fully 
agree  with  Mr.  Tyrwhitt  that  the  Tale  of  Gamelyn  was  not 
written  by  Chaucer. 


1815]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.          [Nott]     75 

[p.  cixi]  To  give  the  reader  a  clear  notion  of  what  I  conceive  to  have 
been  Chaucer's  system  of  versification,  I  will  transcribe  the 
opening  lines  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  marking  as  well  the 
caesura  in  the  middle  of  each  verse  as  the  pause  at  the  end, 
and  also  the  strongly  accented  syllables,  to  shew  in  what 
manner  rhythmical  Decasyllabic  verses  were,  I  apprehend, 
recited. 

When  that  April  ||  with  his  shoures  sbote  | 
ThS  drought  of  March  ||  had  piercgd  to  thS  rbote  | 
And  bathe'd  Sve'ry  vein  ||  in  such  Hqubur  | 
Of  which  virtue  ||  gngendgrgd  is  the  flour  | 
[&c.,  &c.] 

That  I  may  not  be  thought  to  assume  too  much  in  this 
point  without  proof,  I  will  adduce  some  reasons  why  I 
consider  Chaucer's  verses,  though  Decasyllabic,  to  have  been 
rhythmical,  and  not  metrical. 

First,  because  a  large  proportion  of  them  cannot  be  read  as 
Iambic  Decasyllables,  without  doing  the  utmost  violence  to 
our  language  ;  all  which  verses  are  harmonious  as  verses  of 
cadence,  if  read  with  the  caesura  rhythmically.  And  further, 
because  all  those  verses  might  easily  by  a  slight  transposition 
have  vbeen  made  pure  Iambic  Decasyllables,  had  Chaucer  either 
known  that  mode  of  versification,  or  intended  to  have  adopted 
it :  as  in  the  following  instance. 
tP-  clxiil  In  her  is  high  beauty  withouten  pride. 

Cant.  Tales.  4522. 

Unless  this  line  be  read  rhythmically,  it  has  no  principle  of 
harmony  at  all ;  but  when  so  read,  it  has  all  the  harmony  that 
sort  of  versification  aspires  to. 

In  her  is  high  bSaute  ||  withbutSn  pride. 

Had  the  Iambic  Decasyllabic  measure  been  intended,  the 
line  with  the  transposition  of  a  single  word,  might  have  been 
made  a  perfect  Iambic  Decasyllabic.  We  cannot  suppose  this 
would  have  escaped  Chaucer's  notice. 

In  her  high  beauty  is,  withouten  pride. 

The  above  observations  apply  to  a  large  number  of  lines 
of  a  similar  construction,  occurring  in  almost  every  page  of 
Chaucer's  works. 


76     [Notf]  Five  Hundred  Tears  of  [A.D.    1815 

Again ;  the  incessant  recurrence  of  defective  and  redundant 
verses  seems  to  me  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  notion  of  a 
regular  system  of  metrical  versification,  but  not  so  with 
rhythmical  versification.  .  .  . 

Another,  and  I  conceive  a  conclusive  reason  for  believing 
Chaucer's  verses  to  have  been  rhythmical  verses,  or  verses  of 
cadence,  may  be  drawn  from  the  Manuscripts  themselves  in 
which  his  poems  are  preserved.  [Nott  here  goes  on  to 
show  that  in  all  the  MSS.  either  the  caesura,  or  the  pause  at 
the  end  of  the  line  is  marked,  and  that  sometimes  both  are 
carefully  marked,  and  that  all  the  MSS.  agree  in  fixing  the 
caesura  in  every  line,  with  hardly  any  variation,  at  the  same 
place  ;  pointing  to  the  fact  that  Chaucer  not  only  meant  his 
verses  to  be  rhythmical,  but  did  all  he  could  to  settle  what 
their  rhythm  should  be.] 

Sect.  VIII.  Of  the  nature  and  importance  of  Poetic  Orna 
ment,  and  of  the  defects  of  our  early  English  Poets  in  Point 
of  Poetic  Diction.  .  . 

(p.  cixxxviii]  Chaucer  did  much  towards  refining  our  poetic  diction, 
but  he  left  it  indefinite  :  and  therefore  open  to  subsequent 
innovation  and  experiment.  Indeed  he  was  not  consistent  in 
the  use  of  one  uniform  style.  In  his  Canterbury  Tales  what 
he  seems  to  have  particularly  aimed  at  was  simplicity  of  con 
struction  and  a  not  over-curious  selection  of  words.  By  these 
means  he  obtained  a  sort  of  natural  dignity,  and  simple 
elegance  of  style  which  rose  often  into  sublimity,  and  enabled 
him  to  present  his  thoughts  in  a  manner  singularly  clear  and 
distinct.  In  his  Troilus  and  Cressida,  which  is  evidently 
his  most  laboured  composition,  he  aimed  at  something  like 
involution,  and  affected  a  greater  nicety  of  terms. 

{p.  cxcii]  Another  defect  in  Chaucer,  and  in  all  our  early  poets,  was 
the  little  attention  paid  by  them  to  their  system  of  Rhyming. 

{p.  cxciiij  .  .  .  We  find  him  [Chaucer]  constantly  admitting  double 
rhymes,  which  in  grave  and  heroic  subjects  cannot  be  allowed, 
as  they  carry  with  them  an  air  of  lightness  inconsistent  with 
the  dignity  of  heroic  composition.  He  rhymed  also  not  only 
on  feeble  words,  but  on  such  as  in  themselves  were  mean  and 
trivial.  The  following  rhymes  occur  in  the  Knights'  Tales, 


1815]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.          [Nott]    77 

[sic]  one  of  his  most  elevated  pieces  :  us,  after,  shall,  ah,  thus, 
her,  other,  ]>an,  merry,  ladle,  cradle,  shirt.  His  rhymes  are 
likewise  often  unpleasing  by  being  formed  of  words,  either 
purely  French,  or  of  English  words  distorted,  it  should  seem 
arbitrarily,  to  rhyme  with  them,  by  being  made  to  bear  a 
strong  and  heavy  accent  on  the  last  syllable.  ...  I  know 
that  this  evil  prevailed  before  Chaucer's  time,  and  I  am  will 
ing  to  believe  he  did  something  to  correct  it.  Still  we  find 
him  rhyming  on  the  following  words,  semblaunt,  variaunty 
plesaunce,  chevisaunce,  [&c.,  &c.]  .  .  . 


Sect.  XIII.     Of  the  vague  and  diffuse   Style  used   by  our 
early  Poets.  .  .  . 

[p.  ccxxxv]  [Remarks  on  the  diffuseness  and  tautology  of  the  early 
poets,  and  an  example  of  this  is  given  from  Chaucer,  Com 
plaint  of  Mars,  fol.  ccclxx,  ed.  1532,  beginning : 

It  seemeth  Love  hath  to  lovers  enmity.] 

[p.  ccxii,     [Nott  says  our   early   poets    often    debased    fine   passages 
/e  *"]  by  the  introduction  of  mean   circumstances,   or   trivial   and 
ignoble  words,  and  as  an  example  of  this,  he  says  :] 

In  Chaucer's  complaint  of  Mars  and  Venus,  we  find  this 
very  spirited  description  of  Mars  arming  himself. 

He  throweth  on  his  helm  of  hugie  weight, 

And  girt  him  with  his  sword ;  and  in  his  hand 
[p.  ccxiii]  His  mighty  spear,  as  he  was  wont  to  fight 

He  shaketh  so,  that  it  almost  to-wonn'd. 

Thus  far  all  is  general  and  beautiful :  but  Chaucer  cannot 
forbear  adding  a  circumstance  which  proves  he  had  a  Man  at 
Arms  of  the  14th  century  in  his  imagination. 

Full  heavy  was  he  to  walken  over  lond. 


[p.  ccxiii]  Sect.  XV.  Of  the  want  of  skill  in  all  our  early  Poets 
in  translating  and  imitating  other  writers,  and  Surrey's 
excellence  in  this  particular. 

Chaucer  was  incomparably  the  best  and  noblest  of  all  our 
early  writers.    Yet  even  Chaucer  was  unacquainted  with  the  art 


78     [Nott]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1815 

of  imitating  or  translating  with  spirit  and  originality.     [Here 
follow  several  examples  of  translated  passages : 
(1)  Troilus,  Bk.  ii,  v.  1030,  beginning: 

For  though  the  "best  //  harper  upon  live 
Would  on  the  best  //  sowned  joly  harp  .  .  . 
which  lines,   says  Dr.  Nott,  are  '  an  imperfect  imitation  of 
two   passages   from  Horace'  in  which  Chaucer   comprehends 
his   author's   meaning,    and   applies   it   to   his    subject   with 
considerable   skill;  but  we   look  in  vain  for  the  point  and 
terseness  of  the  original. 

tt>.  ccxiiii]  (2)  Translation  from  Petrarch's  Sonnet  102,  in  Troil.  and 
Cress.,  Bk.  i,  ed.  1532  : 

If  no  love  is,  oh  God !  //  what  feel  I  so,  &c. 
in  which  the  words  are  so  ill  chosen  where  the  version  is  close ; 
and  where   it   is   paraphrastic   the   circumstances  added  are 
selected  with   so   little   taste,   and   expressed   with   so   little 
elegance,  that  the  spirit  of  the  original  is  lost.] 

(p.  ccxiiv]  A  still  more  striking  proof  of  Chaucer's  want  of  taste  in 
translation  occurs  in  his  Canterbury  Tales,  where  he  attempts 
a  version  of  Dante's  famous  story  of  Ugolino.  .  .  .  With  what 
prosaical  tameness  and  meanness  of  circumstance  does  he 
paraphrase  the  .  .  .  lines,  in  which  Ugolino  describes  how 
his  suspicion  was  excited  as  to  the  fate  which  awaited  his 
unfortunate  family  and  himself. 

Sect.  XVI.  Of  the  further  improvements  made  by  Surrey 
in  our  Poetry  .  .  . 

(p.  ccxhii]  All  our  poets  previous  to  Surrey  wrote  as  if  no  other 
manners,  ideas,  or  modes  of  life  ever  had  existed,  or  ever 
could  exist  than  those  with  which  they  themselves  were 
conversant.  .  .  . 

(P.  ccxiix]  That  limited  taste  .  .  .  pervaded  the  whole  of  Chaucer's 
Knight's  Tale.  Who  must  not  feel  the  first  principles  of  good 
taste  violated,  when  he  is  told  that  Dan  Arcite  was  a  '  lusty 
bachelor,'  chamberlain  and  squire  principal  to  Duke  Theseus  ; 
that  the  said  Duke  found  Arcite  and  Palamon  in  the  woods 
when  he  went  thither  himself  'amaying;'  and  that  he 
learnt  Arcite's  passion  by  hearing  him  sing  a  Koundel  in  praise 
of  love,  and  talk  of  purgatory  ] 


1815]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.          [Nott]    79 

(P.  eel]  The  same  confusion  arising  from  an  absurd  use  of  particular 
instead  of  general  ideas  and  sentiments  in  points  of  feeling, 
reigns  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Troilus  and  Cressida. 
Indeed  were  the  names  of  the  personages  altered,  that  poem 
would  not  only  become  a  tale  of  chivalry,  but  would  gain 
beauty  as  well  as  propriety  by  the  change. 

(P.  ccivi]  How  much  inferior,  on  this  account  [«.  e.  incongruity  and 
confusion  of  ideas]  is  Palamon  and  Arcite,  one  of  Chaucer's 
most  finished  works,  to  his  Squire's  Tale,  which  even  in 
its  imperfect  state  remains  the  most  vigorous  effort  of  his 
fancy.  The  reason  of  the  inferiority  is  this.  In  the  Squire's 
Tale  every  thing  is  of  a  piece ;  the  subject,  the  figures,  the 
ideas,  the  machinery,  are  all  purely  Gothic,  with  a  certain 
mixture  of  eastern  imagery  which  gave,  at  the  time  of  the 
Crusades,  a  peculiar  colouring  to  our  northern  romances.  .  . 
But  in  the  Knight's  Tale  we  are  sensible  at  every  page  that 
the  principal  rules  of  good  taste  are  violated ;  we  feel  the 
absurdity  of  combining  manners  of  periods  so  remote  from 
each  other  as  the  time  of  Theseus,  and  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Third ;  and  even  when  we  are  most  pleased  we  tremble 
lest  some  strange  incongruity  should  arise,  to  destroy  the 
eifect  of  all  that  has  proceeded. 

lp.  ccixix]  Sect.  XX.  Of  the  authors  whom  Surrey  {studied;  of 
Chaucer,  Dante  .  .  . 

As  for  Chaucer  his  name  is  in  every  one's  mouth ;  and  is 
always  mentioned  with  praise.  K"or  could  it  well  be  otherwise. 
We  could  not  but  speak  with  respect  of  the  author  whom 
Spencer  had  declared  to  have  been  his  poetic  father,  whom  so 
many  subsequent  writers  had  called  'the  Well-head  of  English 
undefiled,'  and  whom  Dryden  had  commended  in  terms  of  filial 
reverence.  Still  Chaucer  is  little  read,  and  his  merits  are 
imperfectly  understood.  He  was  a  poet  of  as  large  and  com 
prehensive  a  mind  as  almost  any  whom  this,  or  any  other 
country  can  boast.  He  was  a  great  and  an  universal  scholar. 
This  praise  cannot  be  denied  to  him  who  was  master  of  all  the 
learning  of  his  times.  His  memory  was  stored  with  images 
collected  from  all  the  sources  of  information  then  open  to 
enquiry.  .  .  Had  the  Squire's  Tale  been  finished  ...  I  am 
persuaded  that  Chaucer  would  have  left  us  the  noblest 


80  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1815- 

specimen  of  romantic  imagination  to  be  found  within  the 
compass  of  modern  literature.  But  Chaucer's  chief  merit 
consists  in  his  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  in  his 
power  of  delineating  character.  In  humorous  and  satiric 
portraits,  we  meet  with  the  nicest  touches  of  discrimination 
between  vice  and  foible  that  can  well  be  imagined :  and 
in  his  heroic  characters  we  find  him  constantly  preserving 
gradations  of  excellence  even  in  those  points  where  there  is  a 
general  resemblance.  The  Knight  and  the  Squire,  Palamon 
[p.  and  Arcite,  Demetrius  of  Inde,  and  Lycurgus  of  Thrace,  are 

^  all  brave  and  enterprising ;  but  each  of  them  is  an  individual 
of  himself.  Courage  is  the  one  common  attribute  of  all. 
But  there  are  the  same  shades  of  difference  in  the  courage  of 
each  that  Homer  has  been  so  often  admired  for  preserving 
in  the  characters  of  Ulysses  and  Antilochus ;  Diomed  and 
Patroclus ;  Ajax  and  Achilles.  I  know  of  no  writer  in 
modern  times,  Shakespeare  excepted,  who  can  be  compared 
with  Chaucer  for  masterly  discrimination  of  character. 
[Vol.  ii,  ...  For  though  it  is  evident  that  he  [Wyatt]  had  read 

ll]  Chaucer,  and  admired  him,  his  imitations  are  neither  frequent, 
nor  of  a  description  to  make  us  suppose  that  he  took  him  as 
his  master,  or  considered  him  to  be  '  the  well-head  of  English 
undented.' 


1815.  Turner,  Sharon.  History  of  England,  vol.  ii. 

[Part  V,  containing  five  chapters,  is  a  "  History  of  English 
Poetry,  from  the  twelfth  century  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth." 
Of  these  chapters,  no.  iv  (pp.  499-538)  concerns  the  "  Life  and  Poems 
of  Chaucer,"  and  is  based  principally  on  Godwin  and  a  study  of  the 
text.  There  are  many  quotations,  principally  from  the  Testament, 
Dream,  Legende,  Troilus,  Assemble  of  Fowles,  Complaint  of  the 
Black  Knight.  A  general  account  of  the  works  is  given.  Other 
references  are  : — 

Chaucer's  borrowings  from  Dante  and  Boccaccio,  p.  480  and  n. 

Chaucer  and  Gower,  pp.  481,  483,  488  n.,  498  n. 

Chaucer  and  Lydgate,  pp.  540,  541,  545-8,  552,  555.  Turner 
considers  Lydgate's  versification  superior  to  Chaucer's,  p.  545.] 


1815.  Unknown.  Chaucer's  Dying  Ode,  [Flee  from  the  prees  .  .  . 
"  attempted  in  modern  English,"  in]  The  Monthly  Repository, 
May,  vol.  x,  no.  cxiii,  p.  309. 

[The  text  of   Chaucer  is  given,  followed  by  the  modern 
ization,  of  which  the  first  stanza  will  serve  for  a  specimen  :] 


1816]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  81 

Fly  from  the  crowd,  and  be  to  virtue  true, 
Content  with  what  thou  hast  tho'  it  be  small, 
To  hoard  brings  hate ;  nor  lofty  thoughts  pursue, 
He  who  climbs  high  endangers  many  a  fall. 
Envy's  a  shade  that  ever  waits  on  fame, 
And  oft  the  sun  that  raises  it  will  hide ; 
Trace  not  in  life  a  vast  expansive  scheme, 
But  be  thy  wishes  to  thy  state  ally'd. 
Be  mild  to  others,  to  thyself  severe ; 
So  truth  shall  shield  thee  or  from  hurt  or  fear. 

1815.  Wilkes,  John.  Encyclopedia  Londinensis,  vol.  xiii,  1815.  See 
above,  1810. 

1815.  Wordsworth,  William.  Essay,  Supplementary  to  the  Preface  to 
Ihe  Edition  of  the  Poems,  1815.  *  (Prose  Works  of  William  Words 
worth,  ed.  W.  Knight,  2  vols.,  1896,  vol.  ii,  pp.  247-8.) 

[On  Johnson's  Lues  :] 

We  open  the  volume  of  Prefatory  Lives,  and  to  our 
astonishment  i\\Q  first  name  we  find  is  that  of  Cowley  ! — "What 
is  become  of  the  morning-star  of  English  poetry  1  Where  is 
the  bright  Elizabethan  constellation  ?  Or,  if  names  be  more 
acceptable  than  images,  where  is  the  ever-to-be-honoured 
Chaucer?  where  is  Spenser  1 

1815.  Wordsworth,  William.     Notes  to  the  fecond  poem  To  the  Daisy. 
(Poetical  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1896,  vol.  ii,  p.  356  n.) 

See,  in  Chaucer  and  the  elder  Poets,  the  honours  formerly 
paid  to  this  flower. 

1816.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.     Typographical  Antiquities  .  .  .  begun 
by  Joseph  Ames  and  augmented  by  William  Herbert,  and  now 
enlarged  with  copious  notes,  vol.  iii,  pp.  62-5  [Chaucer's  Works, 
Godfray,  1532],  269-270  [Chaucer's  Works,  1542],  514  [Chaucer's 
Works,  Petit,  etc.,  n.d.],  575  ??.,  586.    [For  vols.  i,  ii,  see  above, 
18LO,  1812  ;  for  vol.  iv,  below,  1819  ;  for  Ames'  original  edn.  of 
1749,  see  vol.  i,  p.  398  ;  for  Herbert's  intermediate  edn.,  see  vol.  i, 
1785,  p.  477,  1786,  p.  483,  1790,  p.  491.] 

1816.  Hazlitt,  William.  On  Pedantry,  [in]  The  Round  Table.  (Collected 
Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6, 
13  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  84-5.) 

Chaucer  has  drawn  a  beautiful  picture  of  a  true  scholar  in. 
his  Clerk  of  Oxenford.  [Prol.  285-308,  is  then  quoted.] 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. II.  G 


82  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1816 

1816.  [Hazlitt,  William  ?]  Review  of  Leigh  Hunt's  Rimini,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Keview,  June  1816,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  476. 

[This  poem]  unquestionably  bears  a  still  stronger  resemblance 
to  Chaucer  than  to  his  immediate  followers  in  Italy.  [The 
descriptions,  diction  and  characterization  resemble  Chaucer's.] 

[For  the  evidence  for  Hazlitt's  authorship  of  this  review,  see  Collected  Works  of 
•William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  18  vols.,  vol.  x,  p.  407.] 

1816.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Preface  to  The  Story  of  Rimini, 
pp.  x,  xi,  xiv-xvii.  (Poetical  Works,  1819,  vol.  i.) 

[p.x]  The  romance  of  Launcelot  of  the  Lake,  upon  the  perusal  of 
which  the  principal  incident  turns,  is  little  known  at  present, 
but  was  a  great  favourite  all  over  Europe,  up  to  a  late  period. 
Chaucer,  no  long  time  after  the  event  itself,  mentions  it,  in 

tp.  xi]  his  significant  way,  as  a  work  held  in  great  estimation  by  the 
ladies.  The  Nun's  Priest,  speaking  of  the  Tale  of  the  Cock 
and  the  Fox,  which  he  is  relating,  says  to  his  hearers, 

This  story  is  al  so  trewe,  I  undertake, 
As  is  the  book  of  Launcelot  du  Lake 
That  women  holde  in  f  ul  gret  reverence. 

Cant.  Tales,  v.  15147. 

The  great  father  of  our  poetry,  by  the  way,  is  a  little 
ungrateful  with  his  jokes  upon  chivalrous  stories,  of  which  he 
has  left  such  noble  specimens  in  the  Palamon  and  Arcite,  and 
in  the  unfinished  story  of  Cambuscan,  which  Milton  delighted 
to  remember  ;  but  both  he  and  the  Italian  poets  appear  to  have 
laughed  at  them  occasionally,  as  lovers  affect  to  do  at  their 
mistresses. 

tp.xiv]  The  great  masters  of  modern  versification  are,  Dryden  for 
common  narrative  .  .  .  — Spenser,  who  was  musical  from  pure 
taste, — Milton,  who  was  learnedly  so, — Ariosto,  ...  — 

{p.  xv]'  Shakspeare,  .  .  .  — and,  though  the  name  may  appear  singu 
lar  to  those  who  have  not  read  him  with  due  attention  to  the 
nature  of  the  language  then  existing,— Chaucer, — to  whom  it 
sometimes  appears  to  me,  that  I  can  trace  Dryden  himself. 

[p.  xvi]  The  poet  should  therefore  do  as  Chaucer  or  Shakspeare  did, 
— not  copy  what  is  obsolete  or  peculiar  in  either,  any  more 
than  they  copied  from  their  predecessors — but  use  as  much  as 

[p.xvii]  possible  an  actual,  existing  language, —  ...  Of  the  style,  to 


1816]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  83 

which  I  allude  \i.  e.  that  which  is  most  beautiful],  exquisite 
specimens,  making  allowances  for  what  is  obsolete,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer,  and  his  Troilus 
and  Cressida. 

1816.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Epistles.  To  the  Eight  Honour -able  Lord 
Byron  on  his  departure  for  Italy  and  Greece  [dated  on  p.  Ixxvii] 
Hampstead,  April  1816,  [in]  Foliage,  or  Poems  Original  and 
Translated,  1818,  pp.  Ixxiii,  Ixxiv.  [Cf.  The  Feast  of  the  Poets, 
by  Leigh  Hunt,  ed.  1832.] 

But  all  the  four  great  masters  of  our  song, 
Stars  that  shine  out  amidst  a  starry  throng, 
Have  turned  to  Italy  for  added  light, 
As  earth  is  kissed  by  the  sweet  moon  at  night ; — 
Milton  for  half  his  style,  Chaucer  for  tales, 
Spenser  for  flowers  to  fill  his  isles  and  vales 
And  Shakspeare's  self  for  frames  already  done 
To  build  his  everlasting  piles  upon. 

1816.  Jeffrey,  Francis,  Lord.  Letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  [dated]  Edin 
burgh,  May  28,  1816,  [in]  Memoirs,  Journals,  and  Correspondence 
of  Thomas  Moore,  ed.  by  the  Eight  Hon.  Lord  John  Russell,  M.P., 
1853,  vol.  ii,  p.  100. 

It  [Leigh  Hunt's  Eimini]  is  very  sweet  and  very  lively  in 
many  places,  and  is  altogether  piquant,  as  being  by  far  the 
best  imitation  of  Chaucer  and  some  of  his  Italian  con 
temporaries  that  modern  times  have  produced. 

1816.  Jeffrey,  Francis,  Lord.  Review  of  Scott's  edition  of  Swift,  [in] 
The  Edinburgh  Review,  Sept.  1816,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  3,  4.  (Francis 
Jeffrey's  Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review,  1853,  pp.  74,  75.) 

[p.  3]          Our  first    literature    consisted    of    saintly    legends,    and 

[p.  4]     romances    of    chivalry, — though    Chaucer    gave   it   a    more 

national  and  popular  character  by  his  original  descriptions  of 

external  nature,  and  the  familiarity  and  gaiety  of  his  social 

humour. 

1816.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Old  Mortality  (Tales  of  my  Landlord),  vol.  iv. 
ch.  xv.  [ed.  2,  the  first  in  B.M.].  (Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew 
Lang,  1893,  vol.  ii,  ch.  xxiii,  p.  286.) 

[Chapter  Heading.] 

Yet  could  he  not  his  closing  eyes  withdraw 
[and  four  following  lines]. 

[Dry den's]  Palamon  and  Arcite. 


84  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1816- 

1816.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Antiquary,  3  vols,  vol.  i,  ch.  iii,  p.  56, 
cb.  x,  pp.  313-15,  vol.  iii,  ch.  v,  p.  114.  (Border  edition,  ed. 
Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  i,  ch.  iii.,  p.  31,  chap,  x,  pp.  120-1,  vol.  ii, 
chap,  xiii,  p.  165.) 


[VP  'si]  Ifc  was  cllieflv  on  nis  k°oks  tnat  lie  [Mr-  Oldbuck]  prided 
himself,  repeating,  with  a  complacent  air,  as  he  led  the  way  to 
the  crowded  and  dusty  shelves,  the  verses  of  old  Chaucer  — 

For  he  would  rather  have,  at  his  bed-head, 
A  twenty  books,  clothed  in  black  or  red, 
Of  Aristotle,  or  his  philosophy, 
Than  robes  rich,  rebeck,  or  saltery. 

[Prol.,  11.  293-6.] 

This  pithy  motto  he  delivered,  shaking  his  head  and  giving 
each  guttural  the  true  Anglo-Saxon  enunciation,"  which  is  now 
forgotten  in  the  southern  parts  of  this  realm  .  .  . 
P-  [The  room]  was  hung  with  tapestry  ...  It  seemed  as  if 
the  prolific  and  rich  invention  of  old  Chaucer  had  animated 
the  Flemish  artist  with  its  profusion,  and  Oldbuck  had  accord 
ingly  caused  the  following  verses  from  that  ancient  and  excel 
lent  poet,  to  be  embroidered  in  Gothic  letters,  on  a  sort  of 
border  which  he  had  added  to  the  tapestry  :  — 

Lo  !  here  be  oakis  grete,  streight  as  a  lime 
[and  six  following  lines,  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  11.  29-35], 

And  in  another  canton  was  the  following  similar  legend  :  — 

And  many  a  hart,  and  many  a  hind 
[and  five  following  lines,  Book  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  427-32]. 

[Voli65i      [Another  brief  reference  to  the  above  lines.] 

1816.  Unknown.  Encyclopaedia  Perthensis,  vol.  v,  pp.  259-60,  Chaucer, 
vol.  xiii,  p.  486,  Lydgate.  [Both  articles  are  taiceu  from  edn.  2  of 
the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  (q.v.  above,  1778,  vol.  i,  p.  452), 
slightly  altered  in  phrasing  only.] 

1816.  Unknown.  Illustrations  of  Westminster  Abbey,  No.  xvii,  [in] 
The  British  Lady's  Magazine,  no.  21,  vol.  iv,  Sept.  1,  1816, 
pp.  186-7. 

These  specimens  \i.  e.  the  modernized  tales  of  Dryden, 
Pope,  etc.]  are  quite  enough  to  open  the  mind  to  the  genius 
of  Chaucer,  who,  however  far  himself  a  translator  from  the 
Italian,  was  a  prodigy  for  his  age,  and,  contending,  as  he  did, 
with  an  unformed  language,  an  uncommon  instance  of  ability 
and  industry  united.  .  .  . 


1817]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  85 

1816.  Unknown.  Review  of  Works  of  Howard  and  Wyatt,  ed.  G.  F. 
Nott,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  Dec.  1816,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  405, 
412,  413,  415-19,  422. 

[p.  412]  [Chaucer  the  only  old  poet  who  makes  reference  to  his 
sources.  Debt  to  Boccaccio  in  '  Palamon  and  Arcite.'] 

[pp.415-  [Stating  the  difference  of  opinion  between  Tyrwhitt  and 
^  Kott  on  Chaucer's  versification  (pronunciation  of  final  e, 
etc.),  and  JSTott's  dictum  that  Chaucer  wrote  rhythmically 
rather  than  metrically,  the  reviewer  concludes  that,  though 
there  was  much  rhythmical  verse  in  Chaucer's  and  even  in 
Surrey's  time,  this  type  is  quite  distinct  from  Chaucer's. 
Various  quotations  from  Chaucer  (description  of  the  *  Lawyer  ' 
from  the  Prologue,  etc.)  are  given  in  illustration.] 

[p.  422]  ...  If  we  see  not  the  slightest  ground  for  depriving 
Chaucer,  in  one  respect,  of  his  title  of  Father  of  English 
Poetry,  we  are  heartily  ready  to  allow  that  Surrey  well 
deserves  that  of  the  Eldest  Son,  however  he  was  surpassed 
by  the  brothers  that  immediately  followed  him. 

[For  Nott's  edn.  of  Surrey  and  Wyatt,  see  above,  1815-16.] 


1817.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Biographia  Literaria,  2  vols.,  1817, 
vol.  i,  pp.  21,  22,  32,  38,  55,  203,  205  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  97,  79,  104. 

(ch.  i,        In  my  defence  of  the  lines  running  into  each  other,  instead 

J52]'     ~  of  closing  at  each  couplet,  and  of  natural  language,  ...  I  had 

continually   to  adduce  the  metre    and  diction  of  the  Greek 

Poets  .  .  .  and  still  more  of    our  elder   English  poets  from 

Chaucer  to  Milton. 

[ch.  ii,  Through  all  the  works  of  Chaucer  there  reigns  a  chearful- 
ness,  a  manly  hilarity,  which  makes  it  almost  impossible  to 
doubt  a  correspondent  habit  of  feeling  in  the  author  himself. 
[Cf.  Table  Talk,  below,  1834.] 

(P.  38]  In  the  days  of  Chaucer  and  Gower,  our  language  might 
(with  due  allowance  for  the  imperfections  of  a  simile)  be 
compared  to  a  wilderness  of  vocal  reeds,  from  which  the 
favourites  only  of  Pan  or  Apollo  could  construct  even  the  rude 
Syrinx ;  and  from  this  the  constructors  alone  could  elicit 
strains  of  music. 

U>-  55]  Having  announced  my  intention  to  give  a  course  of  lectures 
on  the  characteristic  merits  and  defects  of  English  poetry 


86     [Coleridge]       Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1817 

in  its  different  eras ;  first,  from  Chaucer  to  Milton ;  second, 
from  Dryden  inclusive  to  Thomson ;  and  third,  from  Cowper 
to  the  present  day;  I  changed  my  plan  and  confined  my 
disquisition  to  the  two  former  eras. 

[ch.x,  I  received  as  many  lessons  in  the  Gothic  of  Ulphilas  as 
sufficed  to  make  me  acquainted  with  its  grammar,  and  ...  I 
read  through  .  .  .  the  most  important  remains  of  the  Theo- 
tiscan,  or  the  transitional  state  of  the  Teutonic  language  from 
the  Gothic  to  the  old  German  of  the  Swabian  period  .  .  • 
(the  polished  dialect  of  which  is  analogous  to  that  of  our 
Chaucer).  .  . 

[p.  205]  In  Pindar,  Chaucer,  Dante,  Milton,  and  many  more,  we 
have  instances  of  the  close  connection  of  poetic  genius  with 
the  love  of  liberty  and  of  genuine  reformation. 

tV°79]'  [Defence  of  the  use  of  mythological  personages  by  the  older 
poets.]  Nay,  even  at  this  day  what  scholar  of  genial  taste  will 
not  so  far  sympathise  with  them,  as  to  read  with  pleasure  in 
Petrarch,  Chaucer,  or  Spenser,  what  he  would  perhaps  condemn 
as  puerile  in  a  modern  poet  1 

[Vol.  u,      In   truth   our  language   is,    and  from   the    first    dawn  of 
p.' 97]'    poetry  ever  has  been,  particularly  rich  in  compositions  dis 
tinguished  by  this  excellence  [i.  e.  a  natural  style  and  an  apt 
expression  of  thought,  combined  with  the  rhyme  and  metre 
of  poetry].     The  final  e,  which  is  now  mute,  in    Chaucer's 
age  was  either  sounded  or  dropped  indifferently.  .  .  .  Let  the 
reader,  then,  only  adopt  the  pronunciation  of  the  poet  and  of 
the  court,  at  which  he  lived,  both  with  respect  to  the  final  e 
and  to  the  accentuation  of  the  last  syllable :  I  would  then 
venture   to   ask,   what   even   in    the   colloquial   language   of 
elegant  and  unaffected  women  (who  are  the  peculiar  mistresses 
of  "  pure  English  and  undefiled  ") — what  could  we  hear  more 
natural,    or   seemingly  more    unstudied,  than    the    following 
stanzas  from  Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Creseide? 
"  And  after  this  forth  to  the  gate  he  wente, 
Ther  as  Creseide  out  rode  a  ful  gode  paas  : 
And  up  and  doun  there  made  he  many  a  wente,"  &c., 

[42  lines  quoted,  bk.  v,  stanzas  87-91,  93.] 
[Wordsworth  included  this  latter  passage  in  his  '  Selections 
from  Chaucer  modernised,'  written  1801.] 


1817]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  87 

[p.  104]  [Heading  to  Chap,  xx.]  The  neutral  style,  or  that  com 
mon  to  Prose  and  Poetry,  exemplified  by  specimens  from 
Chaucer,  Herbert,  &c.  [There  are  no  specimens  from  Chaucer.} 

1817.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  The  Bibliographical  Decameron, 
3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  346  n,  383,  437  n,  446-8,  517-18  ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  27, 
58-9,  75,  100,  127,  227  and  n,  318,  404,  420,  434,  467. 

[vol.  ii,       [Footnote.     The  two   Chaucers  (i.  e.   the  first  and   second 

edns.  of  the  Canterbury  Tales)  among  the  Caxtons  at  Spencer 

House.] 
rp.  446]      [The   binding   of    books   in   velvet   noticed    by    Chaucer. 

"Bokes   clothed  in  black   or  red"   meant  bound  in  velvet. 

Chaucer's  works  bound  in  leather  in  the  sixteenth  century ; 

quotation  from  Copland,  q.  v.  above,  1530,  vol.  i,  p.  76.] 
[vol.  in,      [Sale  at  the  Eoxburghe  sale  of  a  MS.  of  Chaucer  for  £357, 

and  of  Troilus,  1517,  for  £43.] 
[p.  ioo]      [Sale  at  the  Towneley  sale  of  Chaucer,  1532,  for  £5.  5.  0, 

and  of  Caxton's  edri.  of  Troilus  for  £252.] 

[P.  127]      [Sale  at  the  Edwards  sale  of  Troilus,  1517,  for  £39.  18.  0.] 
[p.  227]      [Bradwardine  mentioned  by  Chaucer ;   quotation  from  the 

Nun's  Priest's  Tale,  11.  414-22.] 
[p.  sis]      [Hunterian  Library  contains  Canterbury  Tales,  1526,  Troilus, 

n.  d.,  House  of  Fame,  n.  d.,  all  by  Pynson,  in  one  volume; 

Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson,  n.  d.  (Ratcliffe's  copy).] 
[p.  404]      [The  Wentworth  Collection  contains  first  edn.  of  Chaucer 

(Batcliffe's  copy).] 

[p.  420]       [Boethius  (Caxton)  in  Eipon  Cathedral  Library.] 
[p.  434]       Troilus,   n.d.,  and    Canterbury   Tales,    2nd    edn.,  in    St. 

John's  College  Library,  Oxford  (Dibdin's  own  College).] 
[p.  467]      [Reference  to,  and  quotation  from,  Chaucer's  Ballade  to  his 

Empty  Purse.] 

1817.  Gregson,  Matthew.  Portfolio  of  Fragments,  relative  to  the 
History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County  Palatine  of  the  Duchy  of 
Lancaster  .  .  .  Liverpool,  1817,  p.  6. 

[John  of  Gaunt  and   Catherine    Swinford   and   Chaucer's 
marriage  and  pension.] 

1817.  Hazlitt,  William.  Characters  of  Shakespears  Plays.  (Collected 
Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6, 13  vols., 
vol.i,  pp.  224-7,  332,  358.) 

[pp.  224-5]  [Comparison  of  the  characters  in  Chaucer's  Troilus  and 
in  Shakspere's :]  The  difference  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
subject  is  treated  arises  less  from  intention,  than  from  the 
different  genius  of  the  two  poets.  There  is  no  double  entendre 


83     [Razlitt]  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1817 

in  the  characters  of  Chaucer :  they  are  either  quite  serious  or 
quite  comic  .  .  .  "We  see  Chaucer's  characters  as  they  saw 
themselves,  not  as  they  appeared  to  others  or  might  have 
appeared  to  the  poet.  He  is  as  deeply  implicated  in  the 
affairs  of  his  personages  as  they  could  be  themselves  .  .  . 
There  is  little  relief,  or  light  and  shade  in  his  pictures  .  .  . 
Shakespear  never  committed  himself  to  his  characters  .  .  .  His 
genius  was  dramatic,  as  Chaucer's  was  historical  .  .  . 

IP.  226]  Chaucer  attended  chiefly  to  the  real  and  natural,  that  is, 
to  the  involuntary  and  inevitable  impressions  on  the  mind  in 
given  circumstances ;  Shakespear  exhibited  also  the  possible 
and  the  fantastical — not  only  what  things  are  in  themselves, 
but  whatever  they  might  seem  to  be,  their  different  reflections, 
their  endless  combinations.  He  lent  his  fancy,  wit,  invention, 
to  others,  and  borrowed  their  feelings  in  return.  Chaucer 
excelled  in  the  force  of  habitual  sentiment ;  Shakespear  added 
to  it  every  variety  of  passion,  every  suggestion  of  thought  or 
accident.  Chaucer  described  external  objects  with  the  eye  of 
a  painter,  or  he  might  be  said  to  have  embodied  them  with 
the  hand  of  a  sculptor,  .  .  .  Shakespear's  imagination  threw 
over  them  a  lustre 

"  Prouder  than  when  blue  Iris  bends." 

Every  thing  in  Chaucer  has  a  downright  reality.  ...  In 
Shakespear  the  commonest  matter-of-fact  has  a  romantic  grace 
about  it ;  or  seems  to  float  with  the  breath  of  imagination  in 
a  freer  element.  No  one  could  have  more  depth  of  feeling 
or  observation  than  Chaucer,  but  he  wanted  resources  of  in 
vention  to  lay  open  the  stores  of  nature  or  the  human  heart 
with  the  same  radiant  light,  that  Shakespear  has  done. 
However  fine  or  profound  the  thought,  we  know  what  is 
coining,  whereas  the  effect  of  reading  Shakespear  is  "like  the 
eye  of  vassalage  at  unawares  encountering  majesty."  Chaucer's 
mind  was  consecutive,  rather  than  discursive.  He  arrived  at 
truth  through  a  certain  process  ;  Shakespear  saw  everything  by 
intuition.  Chaucer  had  a  great  variety  of  power,  but  he  could 
do  only  one  thing  at  once.  He  set  himself  to  work  on  a  par 
ticular  subject.  His  ideas  were  kept  separate,  labelled,  ticketed 
and  parcelled  out  in  a  set  form,  in  pews  and  compartments 
by  themselves.  They  did  not  play  into  one  another's  hands. 
They  did  not  re-act  upon  one  another.  ,  .  .  There  is 


1817]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  89 

something  hard  and  dry  in  them.    What  is  the  most  wonderful 
thing  in  Shakespear's  faculties  is  their  excessive  sociability, 
and  how  they  gossiped  and  compared  notes  together, 
[Passages  from  each  poet  are  cited  and  compared.] 

1817.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  Round  Table:  by  William 
Hazlitt  [and  Leigh  Hunt],  2  vols.,  1817,  vol.  i,  pp.  15-16  [Intro 
duction],  p.  186  [Essay  on  the  Poetical  Character].  . 

[p.  15]  It  must  not  be  concealed,  that  both  Shakespeare  and 
Milton  have  owed  a  great  part  of  their  reputation  of  late  years 
to  causes  which  .  .  .  have  been  unconnected  with  a  direct 
poetical  taste  .  .  .  Milton  still  remains  unknown  to  the 
better  classes,  .  .  .  and  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  the  two  other 
great  poets  of  England,  .  .  .  are  scarcely  known  at  all  ... 
Chaucer  is  considered  as  a  rude  sort  of  poet,  who  wrote  a  vast 
while  ago,  and  is  no  longer  intelligible  .  .  .  Chaucer  is 
nothing  but  old  Chaucer  or  honest  Geoffrey  .  .  . 

[p.  186]  It  is  not  one  of  the  least  curious  instances  of  the  native 
spirit  of  this  country,  that  three  out  of  its  four  greatest  poets 
— Chaucer,  Spenser,  and  Milton — have  been  men  of  busy 
action  in  the  political  world, — that  two  out  of  the  three  were 
unequivocally  on  the  side  of  freedom,  and  helped  to  procure 
us  our  present  enjoyments.  .  .  .  Thomson  was  of  a  cheerful 
temperament  .  .  .  and  so  was  Chaucer,  till  he  got  into  prison 
in  his  old  age. 

1817.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  On  Chaucer,  [Essay  No.  xvi,  in]  The 
Bound  Table:  by  William  Hazlitt  [and  Leigh  Hunt],  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  124-41. 

[Leigh  Hunt  discusses  the  possibility  of  a  modern  poet  being 
able  to  complete  Chaucer's  Squire's  Tale.  He  thinks  it  would 
be  difficult  to  find  any  one  capable  of  doing  it  satisfactorily. 
He  goes  on  to  deal  with  what  appears  to  him  the  best  method 
of  modernizing  Chaucer,  which  is  little  more  than  a  change  of 
spelling,  and  he  gives  examples  of  this  from  the  Squire's  Tale.] 

1817.  Keats,  John.  Sonnet;  written  on  a  blank  space  at  the  end  of 
Chaucer's  Tale  of  "The  Floure  and  the  Lefe."  [This  transcript  is 
from  Keats's  holograph  in  Cowden  Clarke's  Chaucer,  and  gives 
his  punctuation  and  use  of  capital  letters.  First  printed  in  The 
Examiner,  March  16,  1817.]  (Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed. 
H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  5  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  175-6.) 

This  pleasant  Tale  is  like  a  little  copse 

The  honied  Lines  do  freshly  interlace 
To  keep  the  Reader  in  so  sweet  a  place 


90  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  181V 

So  that  he  here  and  there  full-hearted  stops 

And  oftentimes  he  feels  the  dewy  drops 

Come  cool  and  suddenly  against  his  face 
And  by  the  wandering  Melody,  may  trace 

Which  way  the  tender-legged  Linnet  hops. 

O  what  a  Power  hath  white  Simplicity  ! 

What  mighty  Power  has  this  gentle  Story 
I  that  for  ever  feel  athirst  for  glory, 

Could  at  this  Moment  be  content  to  lie 

Meekly  upon  the  Grass  as  those  whose  sobbings 
Were  heard  of  None  beside  the  mournful  Eobins. 

[It  is  agreed  now  that  The  Floure  and  the  Lefe  is  not  by  Chaucer.  The  edition  Keats 
used,  and  in  which  this  sonnet  is  written,  belonged  to  Charles  Cowden  Clarke,  and 
is  The  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  in  14  vols.,  in  Bell's  edn.  of  the  Poets  of 
Great  Britain,  109  vols,  Edinburgh,  1782-3,  vol.  xii,  1783,  pp.  104-5.  It  is  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  MS.  Add.  33516.] 

1817.  Keats,  John.  Letter  to  Messrs.  Tat/lor  and  Hessey,  [dated] 
Margate,  16  May,  1817.  (Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed. 
H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  5  vols.,  vol.  iv,  p.  23.) 

This  evening  I  go  to  Canterbury,  having  got  tired  of  Mar 
gate  ...  At  Canterbury  I  hope  the  remembrance  of  Chaucer 
will  set  me  forward  like  a  Billiard  Ball. 

1817.  Keats,  John.  Motto  [at  the  head  of]  Sleep  and  Poetry.  (Com 
plete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed.  H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  5  vols.. 
vol  i,  p.  51.) 

"  As  I  lay  in  my  bed  slepe  full  unmete 
[to] 

Than  I,  for  I  n'ad  sickness  nor  disese." 

Chaucer. 

[This  is  from  the  non-Chaucerian  poem,  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  11. 17-21.] 

1817-18.  Keats,  John.    Endymion,  bk.  i,  11.  131-4.    (Complete  Works 
of  John  Keats,  ed.  H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  5  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
75,  104,  105  n.     Works,  ed.  E.  de  Selincourt,  1907,  p.  56.) 
[p.  75]  But  let  a  portion  of  ethereal  dew 

Fall  on  my  head,  and  presently  unmew 
'    My  soul ;  that  I  may  dare,  in  wayfaring, 
To  stammer  where  old  Chaucer  us'd  to  sing. 

[p.  104]  Yet,  in  our  very  souls,  we  feel  amain 

The  close  of  Troilus  and  Cressid  sweet. 

[p.  105]  [Buxton  Forman,  in  a  footnote,  says  that  Woodhouse  records  that  Keats  by 
'  close"  in  the  line  above  meant  '  embrace.'  He  also  says,  "  This  allusion  I  apprehend 
is  to  Chaucer's,  and  not  to  Shakespeare's  work  under  this  title."  Buxton  Forman 
thinks  the  reference  is  to  Shakespeare.  For  much  valuable  discussion  on  Eeats's 
debt  to  Chaucer,  tee  Professor  de  Selincourt's  edition  of  Keats's  poems.] 


1817]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  91 

1817.  Lockhart,  John  Gibson.     See  below,  Z. 

1817.  Reynolds,  John  Hamilton.  Sonnet  to  Keats,  dated  Feb.  27, 
1827,  on  reading  his  Sonnet  written  in  Chaucer  (in  Woodhouse's 
Commonplace  Book).  (Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed.  H. 
Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  5  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  176  n.) 

Thy  thoughts,  dear  Keats,  are  like  fresh-gathered  leaves, 
Or  white  flowers  pluck'd  from  some  sweet  lily-bed  ; 

They  set  the  heart  a-breathing,  and  they  shed 
The  glow  of  meadows,  mornings  and  spring  eves, 

Over  the  excited  soul.         ..... 

Go  on  !  and  keep  thee  to  thine  own  green  way, 
Singing  in  that  same  key  which  Chaucer  sung ; — 

Be  thou  companion  of  the  Summer  day, 

Eoaming  the  fields  and  olden  woods  among  :- 

So  shall  thy  muse  be  ever  in  her  May ; 
And  thy  luxuriant  Spirit  ever  young. 

[For  Keats's  sonnet,  see  above,  1817.] 

1817.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Ivarihoe,  1819  [references  to  2nd  edn.,  1820], 
pp.  xix-xx,  Dedicatory  Epistle  [dated  1817],  20,  130,  157,  174, 
234,  headings  to  chapters  ii,  viii,  ix,  x  and  xii,  (or  rather  xiii, 
ch.  x  being  duplicated  and  the  subsequent  numbers  wrong  in  the 
early  eclns.).  (Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  i, 
pp.  xlviii-ix,  14,  86,  104,  159.) 

Dedicatory  Epistle. 

[p.  xiviii]  He  who  first  opens  Chaucer,  or  any  other  ancient  poet, 
is  so  much  struck  with  the  obsolete  spelling,  multiplied  conson 
ants,  and  antiquated  appearance  of  the  language,  that  he  is- 
apt  to  lay  the  work  down  in  despair,  as  encrusted  too  deep 
with  the  rust  of  antiquity,  to  permit  his  judging  of  its  merits 
or  tasting  its  beauties.  But  if  some  intelligent  and  accom- 

[p.  xiix]  plished  friend  points  out  to  him,  that  the  difficulties  by  which 
he  is  startled  are  more  in  appearance  than  reality,  if,  by  read 
ing  aloud  to  him,  or  by  reducing  the  ordinary  words  to  the 
modern  orthography,  he  satisfies  his  proselyte  that  only  about 
one-tenth  part  of  the  words  employed  are  in  fact  obsolete,  the 
novice  may  be  easily  persuaded  to  approach  the  "  well  of 
English  undefiled,"  with  the  certainty  that  a  slender  degree  of 
patience  will  enable  him  to  enjoy  both  the  humour  and  th& 
pathos  with  which  old  Geoffrey  delighted  the  age  of  Cressy 
and  of  Poictiers. 

[p-  H]       [Chapter  ii  is  headed  with  a  quotation  from  the  Prologue,. 


92  Five   Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1817 

"A  Monk  ther  wa?,  a  fayre  for  the  maistrie,"  &c.  (11.  165- 
172).  The  description  of  the  Monk  in  chapter  ii  is  based 
on  Chaucer :]  He  was  obviously  an  ecclesiastic  of  high 
rank  ...  In  defiance  of  conventual  rules  .  .  .  the  sleeves 
of  this  dignitary  were  lined  and  turned  up  with  rich  furs ;  his 
mantle  secured  at  the  throat  witli  a  golden  clasp.  .  .  . 

This  worthy  churchman  rode  upon  a  well-fed  ambling 
mule,  whose  furniture  was  highly  decorated,  and  whose  bridle, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  day,  was  ornamented  with 
silver  bells.  In  his  seat  he  had  nothing  of  the  awkwardness 
of  the  Convent,  but  displayed  the  easy  and  habitual  grace  of  a 
well-trained  horseman.  [Cf.  Prologue,  11.  165-172;  193-196.] 

[Chapters  viii  and  ix  are  headed  by  quotations  from 
Dryden's  Palamon  and  Arcite;  chapter  x  from  the  Flower  and 
the  Leaf  (modernized) ;  chapter  xiii  from  the  Kniglites  Tale, 
11.  1741-1752,  "  The  heralds  left  their  pricking  up  and 
down,"  &c.] 

1817.  Southey,  Robert.  Preface  and  Notes  to  The  Byrth,  Lyf  and 
Actes  of  King  Arthur)  vol.  i,  pp.  i,  Ivi. 

[p.  i]        [The    English    tongue    was]    stampt    for    immortality    by 

Chaucer, 
[p.  ivi]     I   believe   all    the    poems   with  a  Trench  title  which  are 

printed   with    Chaucer's   works    are    translations    from    that 

language. 

1817.  Southey,  Robert.  Letter  to  Chauncey  Hare  Townshend,  [dated] 
Oct.  31, 1817.  (Life  and  Correspondence  of  Southey,  1850,  vol.  iv, 
p.  284.) 

[Southey  is  speaking  of  Heaven,  and  the  many  intimacies 
he  has  made  among  the  dead.]  As  for  us  poets  .  .  .  we  shall 
find  one  another  out,  and  a  great  many  questions  I  shall  have 
to  ask  of  Spenser  and  of  Chaucer.  Indeed,  I  half  hope  to  get 
the  whole  story  of  Cambuscan  bold. 

1817.  Unknown.  Life  of  Robert,  Hermit  of  Knaresborough,  [in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxxvii,  Dec.  1817,  p.  509. 

In  Speght's  Life  of  Chaucer,  I  find  '  Thomas  Chaucer  (son 
of  Geffrey  [sic])  Constable  of  Knaresborough  Castle,  and  the 
Forest  of  Knaresborough,  during  life.'  From  the  style  of  the 
composition,  might  not  this  [the  Life  of  Kobert]  be  the  pro 
duction  of  Chaucer?  which  seems  possible,  by  the  following 
extract  from  the  Prologue  to  the  Poem  : 


1817]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  95 

And  howe  he  lyffed  in  yat  cave, 
After  the  konnynyg  yat  I  have 
Yat  treuly  whilk  I  to  me  toke 
Enformed  als  I  was  by  a  boke 
That  was  sentt  me  by  a  frere 
Fray  Sayntt  Robert  to  me  here 
After  that  boke  sail  I  say 
Wott  I  p[ur]pose  for  to  pray 
To  Cryst  yat  he  wald  sped  my  penno 
Tan  to  say  ylk  men — Amen ' 

The  probability  of  the  Poet  being  with  his  son  at  Knares- 
borough,  strengthens  this  conjecture.  Speght,  in  his  edition 
of  Chaucer,  also  observes,  'John  Gower,  the  lawyer  and  the 
poet,  a  Yorkshire  man  borne,  was  his  familiar  friend.' 

1817.  Unknown.  Review  of  Stewart's  Dissertation,  [in]  The  Quarterly 
Review,  April  1817,  vol.  xvii,  p.  56. 

[Chaucer's  intimate  acquaintance  with  human  nature.] 


[n.a.  1817.]  Webb  (or  Webbe),  Cornelius.  [Satire  on  the  '  Cockney 
School,'  quoted  in]  Blackwoocl's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  38,  194. 

Our  talk  shall  be  (a  theme  we  never  tire  on) 

Of  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Byron, 

(Our  England's  Dante) — Wordsworth — HUNT  and  KEATS, 

The  Muses'  son  of  promise ;  and  of  what  feats 

He  yet  may  do. 

[Forthe  quotation  of  this  in  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  tee  below,  1817,  Z.} 

1817-  Z   [i.e.    Lockhart,    John   Gibson.]     On   the    Cockney   School  of 
Poetry,  [signed  '  Z,'  in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  38,  39,  40,  194. 
[For  Lockhart's  authorship  of  this,  see  Colvin,  Keats,  1918,  pp.  308-9.] 

[Parts  i  and  ii  of  the  article  both  begin  with  the  quotation 
from  Cornelius  Webb  (or  Webbe)  given  above.] 

tp.  30]  He  [Leigh  Hunt]  pretends,  indeed,  to  be  an  admirer  of 
Spenser  and  Chaucer,  but  what  he  praises  in  them  is  never 
what  is  deserving  of  praise — it  is  only  that  which  he  humbly 
conceives,  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  more  perfect  produc 
tions  of  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt. 


94  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

1818.  B.,  C.  General  Remarks  upon  the  Peculiar  Styles  and  Excellences 
of  the  best  British  Poets,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  October, 
vol.  Ixxxviii,  pp.  294-6. 

[A  very  fair  criticism,  pointing  out  Chaucer's  gift  for  de 
scribing  the  'real  manners  of  ordinary  life' — as  shown  in 
the  Canterbury  Tales.  The  description  of  the  Temple  of 
Mars  (Knight's  Tale)  is  quoted,  and  then :] 

(P.  295]  Those  who  by  Poetry  simply  mean  the  melody  of  numbers, 
will  perhaps  find  little  to  admire  in  the  rough  phraseology  of 
this  quotation.  The  whole  poem  has  been  elegantly  translated 
into  more  modern  language  by  Dryden.  .  .  . 

[P.  296]  The  language  and  the  numbers  of  our  old  Poet,  though 
certainly  quaint  and  rough,  appear  to  have  been  far  superior  to 
those  of  any  of  his  predecessors  or  contemporaries.  .  .  . 

The  state  of  our  language  at  so  distant  a  period  as  400  years 
would  not  permit  much  harmony  in  composition  ;  nor  had 
at  that  time  much  attention  been  paid  to  the  rules  which 
govern  verse.  Hence  it  arises  that  Chaucer  is  often  harsh,  and 
sometimes  lame  in  his  numbers. 

[Here  follow  the  usual  remarks  on  his  versification,  and 
debate  as  to  what  sort  of  heroic  metre  he  wrote.  For  this 
we  are  referred  to  Tyrwhitt's  essay.] 

But  I  have  a  worse  fault  to  alledge  against  Chaucer ;  and  it 
is  one  that  his  admirers  would  in  vain  excuse  or  soften  down : 
on  too  many  occasions  we  find  his  pages  sullied  with  disgust 
ing  obscenity,  and  the  lowest  ribaldry,  conveyed  in  the  most 
direct  and  coarse  terms.  .  .  . 

As  a  Poet,  Chaucer  possessed  a  most  minute  observation,  a 
fertile  invention,  a  happy  vein  of  humour,  and  an  ear  suscep 
tible  of  harmony. 

But  his  genius  was  not  of  the  highest  class,  nor  can  all  the 
hyperbolical  praises  of  the  illustrious  Dryden  prove  that  he 
was  gifted  with  one  spark  of  the  sublime  spirit  of  the  Grecian 
Bard. 


1818.  Brayley,  Edward  Wedlake.  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the 
Abbey  Church  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster,  .  .  .  illustrated  by  John 
Preston  Neale,  vol.  i,  supplement  [An  Historical  Account  of  King 
Henry  the  Seventh's  Chapel],  p.  5.  [For  vol.  ii  see  below,  1823.] 

It  seems  probable  .  .  .  that  a  part  of  the  site  [of  Henry  VII's 
Chapel]  had  been  once  occupied  by  the  Poet  Chaucer,  to  whom 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  95 

'  a  Tenement  in  a  garden,'  adjoining  to  St.  Mary's  Chapel, 
was  leased  by  Eobert  Harmodesworth,  Chaplain,  in  1399,  for 
fifty-three  years,  at  the  yearly  rent  of  fifty-three  shillings  and 
sixpence,  with  liberty  to  distrain  for  a  fortnight's  arrears.1 

1  A  copy  of  the  original  lease  was  engraved  by  the  direction  of 
Dr.  Rawlinson  in  1752  [q.  v.  below,  App.  A. ;  for  the  original  lease, 
see  above,  1399,  vol.  pp.  13-14]. 

1818.  Gary,  Henry  Francis.  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Walter  Birch,  [dated] 
April  8,  1818,  [in]  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Gary  ...  by  his 
Son,  1847,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  24. 

Then,  for  myself,  I  have  read  ...  for  the  first  time 
Chaucer  regularly  through,  except  one  tale,  Patient  Grisilde, 
which  I  know  so  well  that  I  passed  it.  This,  I  think,  is  all 
the  heavy  artillery  I  can  bring  into  the  field,  if  it  is  not 
insulting  pleasant  old  Geoffrey  to  speak  thus  of  him. 

1818.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Notes  of  Lectures  [of  the  course  of 
1818].  (Literary  Remains  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  1836-9,  4  vols,  vol.  i, 
pp.  83,  88,  89,  231-3,  238.) 

tp.  83]  I  dare  make  none  [no  excuse]  for  the  gross  and  disgusting 
licentiousness,  the  daring  profaneness,  which  rendered  the 
Decameron  of  Boccaccio  the  parent  of  a  hundred  worse 
children,  fit  to  be  classed  among  the  enemies  of  the  human 
race ;  .  .  .  which  interposes  a  painful  mixture  in  the  humour 
of  Chaucer. 

(p.  88]  [Lecture  III.  The  Troubadours — Boccaccio — Petrarch — 
Pulci — Chaucer — Spenser.]  .  .  Chaucer  must  be  read  with 
an  eye  to  the  Norman-French  Trouveres,  of  whom  he  is  the  best 
representative  in  English.  He  had  great  powers  of  invention. 
As  in  Shakspere,  his  characters  represent  classes,  but  in  a 
different  manner;  Shakspere's  characters  are  the  representatives 
of  the  interior  nature  of  humanity,  in  which  some  element  has 
become  so  predominant  as  to  destroy  the  health  of  the  mind; 

Ip.  89]  whereas  Chaucer's  are  rather  representatives  of  classes  of 
manners.  He  is  therefore  more  led  to  individualize  in  a  mere 
personal  sense.  Observe  Chaucer's  love  of  nature  ;  and  how 
happily  the  subject  of  his  main  work  is  chosen.  When  you 
reflect  that  the  company  in  the  Decameron  have  retired  to  a 
place  of  safety  from  the  raging  of  a  pestilence,  their  mirth 
provokes  a  sense  of  their  unfeelingness ;  whereas  in  Chaucer 
nothing  of  this  sort  occurs,  and  the  scheme  of  a  party  on  a 


96  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.P.  1818 

pilgrimage,  with  different  ends  and  occupations,  aptly  allows 
of  the  greatest  variety  of  expression  in  the  tales. 
[p.  231]  [On  Style.]  As  an  instance  equally  delightful  and  com 
plete,  of  what  may  be  called  the  Gothic  Structure  as  contra 
distinguished  from  that  of  the  Greeks,  let  me  cite  a  part  of 
our  famous  Chaucer's  character  of  a  parish  priest  as  he 
should  be.  Can  it  ever  be  quoted  too  often] 

A  good  man  ther  was  of  religioun 

[and  forty- five  following  lines], 
[p.  233]      Such    change    as   really   took    place    in    the    style    of    our 

literature  after  Chaucer's  time,  is  with  difficulty  perceptible, 

on  account  of  the  dearth  of   writers,  during  the  civil  wars 

of  the  fifteenth  century  .  .  . 
[p.  238]      It  is,  indeed,  worthy  of  remark   that  all  our  great  poets 

have  been  good  prose  writers,  as  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Milton; 

and  this  probably  rose  from  their  just  sense  of  metre. 

[The  remarks  on  Chaucer's  prose  are  reported  at  greater  length  in  the  Tatler, 
vol.  ii,  no.  224,  May  23,  1831,  p.  893.] 


1818.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Note  on  Troilus  and  Cressida. 
(Literary  Remains  of  S.  T.  Coleridge  ...  4  vols.,  1836-9,  vol.  ii, 
p.  129.) 

[Coleridge  quotes  the  note  in  Stockdale's  1807  edn.  of 
Shakespeare  :  "  Mr.  Pope  (after  Dryden)  informs  us,  that  the 
story  of  Troilus  and  Cressida  was  originally  the  work  of  one 
Lollius,  a  Lombard;  but  Dryden  goes  yet  further;  he  declares 
it  to  have  been  written  in  Latin  verse,  and  that  Chaucer 
translated  it."] 


1818.  Gilford,  William.  Eeview  of  Hazlitfs  Lectures  on  the  English 
Poets,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  London,  July  1818,  vol.  xix, 
pp.  430,  432. 

[p.  430]  The  following  extract  is  still  more  exquisite.  "...  The 
characteristic  of  Chaucer  is  intensity;  of  Spenser, remoteness; 
of  Milton,  elevation ;  of  Shakspeare,  everything."  The  whole 
passage  is  characteristical  of  nothing  but  Mr.  Hazlitt. 

[p.  432]      The  following  lines  from  Chaucer  are  very  pleasing  : — 
1 Emelie  that  fayrer  was  to  sene 

I  n'ot  which  was  the  finer  of  hem  two.' 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  97 

But  surely  the  beauty  does  not  lie  in  the  last  line,  though  it 
is  with  this  that  Mr.  Hazlitt  is  chiefly  struck. 

[Hazlitt  answers  this  criticism  in  his  Letter  to  William  Gifford,  1819;  see  below, 
For  Hazlitt's  Lectures  see,  below,  1818.] 


1818.  Hallam,  Henry.  View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  2  vols,  vol.  ii,  pp.  607-8.  [In  the  edition  of  1819  the 
references  are  vol.  iii,  pp.  575-7.] 

[p.  607]  But  the  principal  ornament  of  our  English  literature 
was  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  who,  along  with  Dante  and  Petrarch, 
fills  up  the  triumvirate  of  great  poets  in  the  middle  ages.  .  .  . 
I  cannot,  in  my  own  taste,  go  completely  along  with  the 
eulogies  that  some  have  bestowed  upon  Chaucer,  who  seems  to 
me  to  have  wanted  grandeur,  where  he  is  original,  both  in 
conception  and  in  language.  But  in  vivacity  of  imagination 
and  ease  of  expression,  he  is  above  all  the  poets  of  the  middle 
time,  and  comparable  perhaps  to  the  greatest  of  those  who 
have  followed.  He  invented,  or  rather  introduced  from 
France,  and  employed  with  facility  the  regular  iambic  couplet; 
and  though  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  he  should  perceive 
the  capacities  latent  in  that  measure,  his  versification,  to 
which  he  accommodated  a  very  licentious  and  arbitrary 
pronunciation,  is  uniform  and  harmonious.  [Footnote  here 
referring  to  Tyrwhitt's  essay,  and  Pott's  disagreement  with 
it  (q.v.  above,  1775,  vol.  i,  p.  442,  and  1815-16).]  It  is 
chiefly,  indeed,  as  a  comic  poet,  and  a  minute  observer 
of  manners  and  circumstances,  that  Chaucer  excels.  In 

[p.  608]  serious  and  moral  poetry  he  is  frequently  languid  and  diffuse ; 
but  he  springs,  like  Antaeus  from  the  earth,  when  his  subject 
changes  to  coarse  satire  or  merry  narrative.  Among  his  more 
elevated  compositions,  the  Knight's  Tale  is  abundantly  sufficient 
to  immortalize  Chaucer.  .  .  .  The  second  place  may  be  given  to 
Troilus  and  Creseide,  a  beautiful  and  interesting  poem,  though 
enfeebled  by  expansion.  But  perhaps  the  most  eminent, 
or  at  any  rate  the  most  characteristic  testimony  to  his  genius 
will  be  found  in  the  Prologue  to  his  Canterbury  Tales;  a 
work  entirely  and  exclusively  his  own,  which  can  seldom  be 
said  of  his  poetry,  and  the  vivid  delineations  of  which 
perhaps  very  few  writers  but  Shakspeare  could  have 
equalled. 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. II.  H 


98  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

1818.  Hazlitt,  William.  Lectures  on  the  English  Poets,  pp.  25-6,  27, 
41-85,  88,  90,  91,  99,  102,  135,  161,  162.  (Collected  Works  of 
William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  v, 
pp.  13,  19-46,  50-52,  68,  82,  99,  129,  146.  See  also  Blac'kwood's 
Edinburgh  Magazine,  February,  1818,  vol.  ii,  pp.  558-60.) 

Lecture  II.     On  Chaucer  and  Spenser. 

[p.  10]        ...  I   shall   take,  as  the  subject  of  the  present  lecture, 
Chaucer  and  Spenser,  two  out  of  four  of  the  greatest  names 
in  poetry,  which  this  country  has  to  boast.     Both  of  them, 
however,  were  much  indebted  to  the  early  poets  of  Italy,  and 
may  be  considered  as  belonging,  in  a  certain  degree,  to  the 
same  school.        ........ 

[Here  follows  a  short  biography  of  Chaucer.] 

[p.  20]  There  is  ...  an  obvious  similarity  between  the  practical  turn 
of  Chaucer's  mind  and  the  restless  impatience  of  his  character, 
and  the  tone  of  his  writings.  Yet  it  would  be  too  much  to 
attribute  the  one  to  the  other  as  cause  and  effect :  for  Spenser, 
whose  poetical  temperament  was  as  effeminate  as  Chaucer's 
was  stern  and  masculine,  was  equally  engaged  in  public 
affairs,  and  had  mixed  equally  in  the  great  world.  .  .  . 
For  while  Chaucer's  intercourse  with  the  busy  world,  and 
collision  with  the  actual  passions  and  couflicting  interests  of 
others,  seemed  to  brace  the  sinews  of  his  understanding,  and 
gave  to  his  writings  the  air  of  a  man  who  describes  persons 
and  things  that  he  had  known  and  been  intimately  concerned 
in ;  the  same  opportunities,  operating  on  a  differently  con 
stituted  frame,  only  served  to  alienate  Spenser's  mind  the 
more  from  the  *  close-pent  up '  scenes  of  ordinary  life.  .  .  . 

It  is  not  possible  for  any  two  writers  to  be  more  opposite 
in  this  respect.  Spenser  delighted  in  luxurious  enjoyment; 
Chaucer,  in  severe  activity  of  mind.  As  Spenser  was  the  most 
romantic  and  visionary,  Chaucer  was  the  most  practical  of  all 
the  great  poets,  the  most  a  man  of  business  and  the  world. 
His  poetry  reads  like  history.  Everything  has  a  downright 
reality ;  at  least  in  the  rela tor's  mind.  A  simile,  or  a  sentiment, 
is  as  if  it  were  given  in  upon  evidence.  Thus  he  describes 
Cressid's  first  avowal  of  her  love. 

*  And  as  the  new  abashed  nightingale,  .  .  . 
That  stinteth  first  when  she  beginneth  sing, 

Eight  so  Cresseide,  .  .  .'  [etc.,  one  stanza]. 

[Troilus,  Bk.  iii,  11.  1233-9.] 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  99 

This  is  so  true  and  natural,  and  beautifully  simple,  that 
the  two  things  seem  identified  with  each  other.  Again,  it  is 
said  in  the  Knight's  Tale — 

'  Thus  passeth  yere  by  yere,  and  day  by  day  [etc.,  to] 
[p.  21]  I  n'ot  which  was  the  finer  of  hem  two.' 

[Knight's  Tale,  11.  175-81.] 

This  scrupulousness  about  the  literal  preference,  as  if  some 
question  of  matter  of  fact  was  at  issue,  is  remarkable.1  I 
might  mention  that  other,  where  he  compares  the  meeting 
between  Palamon  and  Arcite  to  a  hunter  waiting  for  a  lion  in 
a  gap  ;— 

*  That  stondeth  at  a  gap  with  a  spere,' 

[etc.,   four   linos], 

[Knight's  Tale,  11.  V81-4.] 

or  that  still  finer  one  of  Constance,  when  she  is  condemned  to 
death — 

'  Have  ye  not  seen  somtime  a  pale  face  1 ' 

[etc.,  one  stanza]. 

[Man  of  Law's  Tale,  11.  547-53.] 

The  beauty,  the  pathos  here  does  not  seem  to  be  of  the 
poet's  seeking,  but  a  part  of  the  necessary  texture  of  the  fable. 
He  speaks  of  what  he  wishes  to  describe  with  the  accuracy, 
the  discrimination  of  one  who  relates  what  has  happened  to 
himself,  or  has  had  the  best  information  from  those  who  have 
been  eye-witnesses  of  it.  The  strokes  of  his  pencil  always 
tell.  He  dwells  only  on  the  essential,  on  that  which  would 
be  interesting  to  the  persons  really  concerned :  yet  as  he  never 
omits  any  material  circumstance,  he  is  prolix  from  the  number 
of  points  on  which  he  touches,  without  being  diffuse  on  any 
one ;  and  is  sometimes  tedious  from  the  fidelity  with  which 
he  adheres  to  his  subject,  as  other  writers  are  from  the 
frequency  of  their  digressions  from  it.  The  chain  of  his 
story  is  composed  of  a  number  of  fine  links,  closely  connected 
together,  and  riveted  by  a  single  blow.  There  is  an  instance 
of  the  minuteness  which  he  introduces  into  his  most  serious 

[i  See  Gifford's  criticism  of  this  passage,  1818,  above,  and  Hazlitt's  answer 
below,  1819.] 


100      [Hazlitt]        Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

descriptions  in  his  account  of  Palamon  when  left  alone  in  his 

cell: 

{ Svviche  sorrow  he  maketh  that  the  grete  tour 
Eesouned  of  his  yelling  and  clamour, 
The  pure  fetters  on  his  shinnes  grete 
Were  of  his  bitter  salte  teres  wete.' 

[Knight's  Tale,  11.  419-22.] 

[p.  22]  The  mention  of  this  last  circumstance  looks  like  a  part  of  the 
instructions  he  had  to  follow,  which  he  had  no  discretionary 
power  to  omit  or  introduce  at  pleasure.  He  is  contented  to 
find  grace  and  beauty  in  truth.  He  exhibits  for  the  most 
part  the  naked  object,  with  little  drapery  thrown  over  it. 
His  metaphors,  which  are  few,  are  not  for  ornament,  but  use, 
and  as  like  as  possible  to  the  things  themselves.  He  does 
not  affect  to  show  his  power  over  the  reader's  mind,  but  the 
power  which  his  subject  has  over  his  own.  The  readers  of 
Chaucer's  poetry  feel  more  nearly  what  the  persons  he 
describes  must  have  felt,  than  perhaps  those  of  any  other 
poet.  His  sentiments  are  not  voluntary  effusions  of  the  poet's 
fancy,  but  founded  on  the  natural  impulses  and  habitual 
prejudices  of  the  characters  he  has  to  represent.  There  is  an 
inveteracy  of  purpose,  a  sincerity  of  feeling,  which  never 
relaxes  or  grows  vapid,  in  whatever  they  do  or  say.  There 
is  no  artificial,  pompous  display,  but  a  strict  parsimony  of  the 
poet's  materials,  like  the  rude  simplicity  of  the  age  in  which 
he  lived.  His  poetry  resembles  the  root  just  springing  from 
the  ground,  rather  than  the  full-blown  flower.  His  muse  is 
no  *  babbling  gossip  of  the  air,'  fluent  and  redundant ;  but, 
like  a  stammerer,  or  a  dumb  person,  that  has  just  found  the 
use  of  speech,  crowds  many  things  together  with  eager  haste, 
with  anxious  pauses,  and  fond  repetitions  to  prevent  mistake. 
His  words  point  as  an  index  to  the  objects,  like  the  eye  or 
finger.  There  were  none  of  the  common-places  of  poetic 
diction  in  our  author's  time,  no  reflected  lights  of  fancy,  no 
borrowed  roseate  tints ;  he  was  obliged  to  inspect  things 
for  himself,  to  look  narrowly,  and  almost  to  handle  the 
object,  as  in  the  obscurity  of  morning  we  partly  see  and 
partly  grope  our  way ;  so  that  his  descriptions  have  a  sort  of 
tangible  character  belonging  to  them,  and  produce  the  effect 
of  sculpture  on  the  mind.  Chaucer  had  an  equal  eye  for 
truth  of  nature  and  discrimination  of  character;  and  his 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Ilazlitt]  101 

interest  in  what  he  saw  gave  new  distinctness  and  force  to 
his  power  of  observation.  The  picturesque  and  the  dramatic 
are  in  him  closely  blended  together,  and  hardly  distinguish 
able  ;  for  he  principally  describes  external  appearances  as 
indicating  character,  as  symbols  of  internal  sentiment.  There 
is  a  meaning  in  what  he  sees ;  and  it  is  this  which  catches 
his  eye  by  sympathy.  Thus  the  costume  and  dress  of  the 
Canterbury  Pilgrims — of  the  Knight — the  Squire — the  Oxford 
Scholar — the  Gap-toothed  Wife  of  Bath,  and  the  rest,  speak 
for  themselves.  .  . 
[Quotation,  Prol.  11.  118-29, 136-55, 165-207,  321-2,449-52.] 

[p.  24]  Chaucer,  it  has  been  said  [by  Blake,  q.  v.  above,  1809], 
numbered  the  classes  of  men,  as  Linnaeus  numbered  the 
plants.  Most  of  them  remain  to  this  day :  others  that  are 
obsolete  .  .  .  still  live  in  his  descriptions  of  them.  Such 
is  the  Sompnoure : 

'  A  Sompnoure  was  ther  with  us  in  that  place, 
That  hadde  a  fire-red  cherubinnes  face ' 
[and  following  twenty-five  lines,  Prol.  11.  623-69,  688]. 

[p.  25]  It  would  be  a  curious  speculation  (at  least  for  those  who 
think  that  the  characters  of  men  never  change,  though 
manners,  opinions,  and  institutions  may)  to  know  what  has 
become  of  this  character  of  the  Sompnoure  in  the  present  day; 
whether  or  not  it  has  any  technical  representative  in  existing 
professions;  into  what  channels  and  conduits  it  has  with 
drawn  itself,  where  it  lurks  unseen  in  cunning  obscurity,  or 
else  shows  its  face  boldly,  pampered  into  all  the  insolence  of 
office,  in  some  other  shape,  as  it  is  deterred  or  encouraged  by 
circumstances.  Chaucer's  characters  modernised,  upon  this 
principle  of  historic  derivation,  would  be  an  useful  addition 
to  our  knowledge  of  human  nature.  But  who  is  there  to 
undertake  it  ?  .  .  . 

[Quotation,  Knight's  Tale,  11.  1270-1328.] 

{p-  26]  Chaucer's  descriptions  of  natural  scenery  possess  the 
(P.  27]  same  sort  of  characteristic  excellence,  or  what  might  be 
termed  gusto.  They  have  a  local  truth  and  freshness,  which 
gives  the  veiy  feeling  of  the  air,  the  coolness  or  moisture  of 
the  ground.  Inanimate  objects  are  thus  made  to  have  a 
fellow-feeling  in  the  interest  of  the  story ;  and  render  back 


102      [Hazlitf]        Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

the  sentiment  of  the  speaker's  mind.  One  of  the  finest  parts 
in  Chaucer  is  of  this  mixed  kind.  It  is  the  beginning  of  the 
Flower  and  the  Leaf,  where  he  describes  the  delight  of  that 
young  beauty,  shrowded  in  her  bower,  and  listening,  in  the 
morning  of  the  year  to  the  singing  of  the  nightingale. 
[Quotation,  Floure  and  the  Leaf,  ed.  Skeat,  11.  36-42,  78-133.] 

[p.  28]  It  was  the  same  trust  in  nature,  and  reliance  on  his 
subject,  which  enabled  Chaucer  to  describe  the  grief  and 

tp.  29]  patience  of  Griselda  ;  the  faith  of  Constance  ;  and  the  heroic 
perseverance  of  the  little  child,  who,  going  to  school  through 
the  streets  of  Jewry, 

1  Oh  Alma  Redemptoris  mater,  loudly  sung,'  * 

and  who  after  his  death,  still  triumphed  in  his  song. 
Chaucer  has  more  of  this  deep,  internal,  sustained  sentiment, 
than  any  other  writer,  except  Boccaccio.  In  depth  of  simple 
pathos,  and  intensity  of  conception,  never  swerving  from  his 
subject,  I  think  no  other  writer  comes  near  him,  not  even  the 
Greek  tragedians.  ...  I  will  take  the  following  from  the 
Knight's  Tale.  The  distress  of  Arcite,  in  consequence  of  his 
banishment  from  his  love,  is  thus  described : 

*  Whan  that  Arcite  to  Thebes  comen  was, 
Ful  oft  a  day  he  swelt  and  said  Alas, 
For  sene  his  lady  shall  he  never  mo.  .  .  .' 
[and  fourteen  following  lines,  Knight's  Tale,  11.  497-513]. 

This  picture  of  the  sinking  of  the  heart,  of  the  wasting 
away  of  the  body  and  mind,  of  the  gradual  failure  of  all  the 
faculties  under  the  contagion  of  a  rankling  sorrow,  cannot  be 
surpassed.  Of  the  same  kind  is  his  farewel  to  his  mistress, 
after  he  has  gained  her  hand  and  lost  his  life  in  the 
combat : 

Alas  the  wo  !  alas  the  peines  stronge  .  .  . 
[and  eight  foUowing  lines,  Knight's  Tale,  11.  1913-21]. 

[p.  so]  The  death  of  Arcite  is  the  more  affecting,  as  it  comes 
after  triumph  and  victory,  after  the  pomp  of  sacrifice,  the 
solemnities  of  prayer,  the  celebration  of  the  gorgeous  rites 
of  chivalry.  The  descriptions  of  the  three  temples  of  Mars, 

p  This  line,  which  has  two  syllables  too  many,  does  not  occur  in  the  Prioresses 
Tale.] 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Hazlitf]    103 

of  Venus,  and  Diana,  of  the  ornaments  and  ceremonies  used 
in  each,  with  the  reception  given  to  the  offerings  of  the 
lovers,  have  a  beauty  and  grandeur,  much  of  which  is  lost  in 
Dry  den's  version.  .  . 

[Quotation,  Knight's  Tale,  11.  1109-22.] 

.  .  .  The  story  of  Griselda  is  in  Boccaccio ;  but  the  Clerk  of 
Oxenforde,  who  tells  it,  professes  to  have  learnt  it  from 
Petrarch.  ...  In  spite  of  the  barbarity  of  the  circumstances, 
which  are  abominable,  the  sentiment  remains  unimpaired  and 
unalterable.  It  is  of  that  kind,  '  that  heaves  no  sigh,  that 
sheds  no  tear ' ;  but  it  hangs  upon  the  beatings  of  the  heart ; 
it  is  a  part  of  the  very  being ;  it  is  as  inseparable  from  it  as 
the  breath  we  draw.  It  is  still  and  calm  as  the  face  of  death. 
Nothing  can  touch  its  ethereal  purity  :  tender  as  the  yielding 
flower,  it  is  fixed  as  the  marble  firmament.  The  only  remon 
strance  she  makes,  the  only  complaint  she  utters  against  all 
the  ill-treatment  she  receives,  is  that  single  line  where,  when 
turned  back  naked  to  her  father's  house,  she  says, 

'  Let  me  not  like  a  worm  go  by  the  way.' 
[p.  si]       The  first  outline  given  of  the  characters  is  inimitable  : 

*  Nought  fer  fro  thilke  paleis  honourable ' 

[ten  stanzas,  Clerkes  Tale,  11.  141-89,  218-38]. 

[p.  32]  The  story  of  the  little  child  slain  in  Jewry,  (which  is  told 
by  the  Prioress,  and  worthy  to  be  told  by  her  who  was  '  all 
conscience  and  tender  heart,')  is  not  less  touching  than  that 
of  Griselda.  It  is  simple  and  heroic  to  the  last  degree.  The 
poetry  of  Chaucer  has  a  religious  sanctity  about  it,  connected 
with  the  manners  and  superstitions  of  the  age.  It  has  all 
the  spirit  of  martyrdom. 

It  has  also  all  the  extravagance  and  the  utmost  licentiousness 
of  comic  humour,  equally  arising  out  of  the  manners  of  the 
time.  In  this  too  Chaucer  resembled  Boccaccio  that  he  excelled 
in  both  styles,  and  could  pass  at  will  '  from  grave  to  gay, 
from  lively  to  severe;'  but  he  never  confounded  the  two 
styles  together  (except  from  that  involuntary  and  unconscious 
mixture  of  the  pathetic  and  humorous,  which  is  almost  always 
to  be  found  in  nature),  and  was  exclusively  taken  up  with 
what  he  set  about,  whether  it  was  jest  or  earnest.  The 


104    [Hazlitt]         Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

[P.  33]  Wife  of  Bath's  Prologue  (which  Pope  has  very  admirably 
modernised)  is,  perhaps,  unequalled  as  a  comic  story.  The 
Cock  and  the  Fox  is  also  excellent  for  lively  strokes  of 
character  and  satire.  January  and  May  is  not  so  good  as 
some  of  the  others.  Chaucer's  versification,  considering  the 
time  at  which  he  wrote,  and  that  versification  is  a  thing  in  a 
great  degree  mechanical,  is  not  one  of  his  least  merits.  It 
has  considerable  strength  and  harmony,  and  its  apparent 
deficiency  in  the  latter  respect  arises  chiefly  from  the  altera 
tions  which  have  since  taken  place  in  the  pronunciation  or 
mode  of  accenting  the  words  of  the  language.  The  best 
general  rule  for  reading  him  is  to  pronounce  the  final  e,  as  in 
reading  Italian. 

It  was  observed  in  the  last  Lecture  that  painting  describes 
what  the  object  is  in  itself,  poetry  what  it  implies  or  suggests. 
Chaucer's  poetry  is  not,  in  general,  the  best  confirmation  of 
the  truth  of  this  distinction,  for  his  poetry  is  more  picturesque 
and  historical  than  almost  any  other.  But  there  is  one 
instance  in  point.  ...  It  is  the  story  of  the  three  thieves  who 
go  in  search  of  Death  to  kill  him,  and  who  meeting  with  him, 
are  entangled  in  their  fate  by  his  words,  without  knowing  him. 
.  .  .  The  moral  impression  of  Death  is  essentially  visionary;  its 

[p.  34]  reality  is  in  the  mind's  eye.  .  .  .  Death  is  a  mighty  abstraction, 
like  Night,  or  Space,  or  Time.  He  is  an  ugly  customer,  who 
will  not  be  invited  to  supper,  or  to  sit  for  his  picture.  He 
is  with  us  and  about  us,  but  we  do  not  see  him.  .  .  .  Chaucer 
knew  this.  He  makes  three  riotous  companions  go  in  search 
of  Death  to  kill  him,  they  meet  with  an  old  man  whom  they 
reproach  with  his  age,  and  ask  why  he  does  not  die,  to  which 
he  answers  thus: 

Ne  Deth,  alas !  ne  will  not  han  my  lif 
[and  eleven  following  lines,  Pardoner's  Tale,  11.  399-410]. 

They  then  ask  the  old  man  where  they  shall  find  out 
Death  to  kill  him,  and  he  sends  them  on  an  errand  which 
ends  in  the  death  of  all  three.  We  hear  no  more  of  him,  but 
it  is  Death  that  they  have  encountered ! 

tp.  46]  The  four  greatest  names  in  English  poetry  are  almost  the 
four  first  we  come  to — Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and 
Milton.  There  are  no  others  that  can  really  be  put  in  com- 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Hazlitt]     105 

petition  with  these.  The  two  last  had  justice  done  them  by 
the  voice  of  common  fame.  Their  names  are  blazoned  in  the 
very  firmament  of  reputation ;  while  the  two  first  (though 
"  the  fault  has  been  more  in  their  stars  than  in  themselves 
that  they  are  underlings ")  either  never  emerged  far  above 
the  horizon,  or  were  too  soon  involved  in  the  obscurity 
of  time.  The  three  first  of  these  are  excluded  from  Dr. 
Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets  (Shakespeare  indeed  is  so  from 
the  dramatic  form  of  his  compositions).  ...  In  comparing 
these  four  writers  together,  it  might  be  said  that  Chaucer 
excels  as  the  poet  of  manners,  or  of  real  life  .  .  .  Chaucer 
most  frequently  describes  things  as  they  are.  ...  As  poets, 
and  as  great  poets,  imagination,  that  is,  the  power  of  feigning 
things  according  to  nature,  was  common  to  them  all ;  but  the 
principle,  or  moving  power,  to  which  this  faculty  was  most 
subservient  in  Chaucer,  was  habit,  or  inveterate  prejudice. 
.  .  .  The  characteristic  of  Chaucer  is  intensity  .  .  . 

[p.  50]  Chaucer's  characters  are  sufficiently  distinct  from  one 
another,  but  they  are  too  little  varied  in  themselves,  too  much 
like  identical  propositions.  They  are  consistent,  but  uniform ; 
we  get  no  idea  of  them  from  first  to  last;  they  are  not 
placed  in  different  lights,  nor  are  their  subordinate  traits 
brought  out  in  new  situations;  they  are  like  portraits  or 
physiognomical  studies,  with  the  distinguishing  features 
marked  with  inconceivable  truth  and  precision,  but  that 
preserve  the  same  unaltered  air  and  attitude.  .  .  .  Chaucer's 
characters  are  narrative.  .  .  .  That  is,  Chaucer  told  only  as 
much  of  his  story  as  he  pleased,  as  was  required  for  a 
particular  purpose.  He  answered  for  his  characters  himself. 
...  In  Chaucer  we  perceive  a  fixed  essence  of  character  .  .  . 

[p.  52]  Nearly  all  those  [dialogues]  in  Shakespeare,  where  the 
interest  is  wrought  up  to  its  highest  pitch,  afford  example  of 
this  dramatic  fluctuation  of  passion.  The  interest  in  Chaucer 
is  quite  different ;  it  is  like  the  course  of  a  river,  strong,  and 
full,  and  increasing. 

[On  Dryden  and  Pope.] 

[p.  82]  ...  His  [Dryden's]  alterations  from  Chaucer  and 
Boccaccio  show  a  greater  knowledge  of  the  taste  of  his  readers 
and  power  of  pleasing  them,  than  acquaintance  with  the 
genius  of  his  authors.  He  ekes  out  the  lameness  of  the 


106  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818 

verse  in  the  former,  and  breaks  the  force  of  the  passion  in 
both.  The  Tancred  and  Sigismunda  is  the  only  general 
exception,  in  which,  I  think,  he  has  fully  retained,  if  not 
improved  upon,  the  impassioned  declamation  of  the  original. 
The  Honoria  has  none  of  the  bewildered,  dreary,  preternatural 
effect  of  Boccaccio's  story.  Nor  has  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf 
any  thing  of  the  enchanting  simplicity  and  concentrated 
feeling  of  Chaucer's  romantic  fiction.  Dry  den,  however, 
sometimes  seemed  to  indulge  himself  as  well  as  his  readers, 
as  in  keeping  entire  that  noble  line  in  Palamon's  address  to 
Venus : 

Thou  gladder  of  the  mount  of  Cithaeron  ! 
His  Tales  have  been,  I  believe,  the  most  popular  of  his 
works ;  and  I  should  think  that  a  modern  translation  of  some 
of  the  other  serious  tales  in  Boccaccio  and  Chaucer,  as  that  of 
Isabella,  the  Falcon,  of  Constance,  the  Prioress's  Tale,  and 
others,  if  executed  with  taste  and  spirit,  could  not  fail  to 
succeed  in  the  present  day. 

[P.  146]  I  cannot  say  I  ever  learnt  much  about  Shakespeare  or 
Milton,  Spenser  or  Chaucer,  from  these  professed  guides 
[some  of  the  poets  of  the  day] ;  for  I  never  heard  them  say 
much  about  them.  They  were  always  talking  of  themselves 
and  one  another. 

1818.  Hazlitt,  William.  Lectures  on  the  Comic  Writers.  On  the 
Works  of  Hogarth,  etc.  Delivered  in  1818.  (Collected  Works  of 
William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  viii, 
pp.  144,  151.) 

[p.  144]  [The  contradictory  faculties  of  embodying  the  serious  and 
ludicrous  combined  in  Chaucer,  Shakspere  and  Hogarth.] 

1818.  Hazlitt,    William.      A     View    of    the    English    Stage,    p.  239. 

(Collected  Works,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol. 

viii,  p.  284,  371.) 
P.  284]      Chaucer    spoke    of    the    Monks    historically,    Shakespear 

poetically. 

[These  theatrical  criticisms  appeared  first  in  the  Morning  Chronicle,  Champion, 
Examiner  and  Times,  1813-17.] 

1818.  Hazlitt,  William.  Review  of  Letters  of  Horace  Walpole,  [in] 
The  Edinburgh  Keview,  Dec.  1818,  vol.  xxxi,  p.  92.  (Collected 
Works,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  x,  p.  171.) 

The  author  is  exceedingly  amusing  in  his  attempt  at  tracing 
his  descent  from  Chaucer. 

[This  refers  to  Walpole's  letter  to  George  Montagu,  of  Aug.  11,  1748,  q.v.  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  398.] 


1818]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  107 

1818.  Keats,  John.  BobinHood;  to  a  Friend.  (Complete  Works  of 
John  Keats,  ed.  H.  Buxton  Forman,  5  vols.,  1900-01,  vol.  ii, 
p.  118,  vol.  iv,  p.  73  [in  a  letter  to  J.  H.  Keynolds  of  3  Feb.  1818].) 

Gone,  the  merry  morris  din ; 
Gone  the  song  of  Gamelyn  ; 
Gone,  the  tough-belted  outlaw 
Idling  in  the  "  grene  shawe." 

[Of.  "  Where  ridestow  under  this  grene  shawe,  "Frews  Tale,  line  88.  Similarly  Keats 
uses  the  phrase  "Ah  !  herte  mine"  in  a  letter  (11  Oct.  1819,  Works,  vol.  v,  p.  129). 
This  occurs  passim  in  Troilus,  but  is  common  in  old  poetry.] 

1818.  Keats,  John.  Letter  to  John  Hamilton  Keynolds,  [dated] 
Teignmouth,  May  3,  1818.  (Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed. 
H.  Buxton  Forman,  5  vols.  1900-1,  vol.  iv,  p.  106.) 

We  will  have  some  such  days  upon  the  heath  like  that 
of  last  summer — and  why  not  with  the  same  book  ?  or  what 
say  you  to  a  black-letter  Chaucer  printed  in  1596  [sic]  .  .  . 
Aye,  I've  got  one  huzza  !  I  shall  have  it  bound  in  gothique 
— a  nice  sombre  binding — it  will  go  a  little  way  to 
unmodernize. 

[There  is  no  Chaucer  of  1596.    Keats  probably  meant  Speght's  edn.  of  1598.] 

1818.  Keats,  John.  Poem  in  Letter  to  Thomas  Keats,  July  17,  1818. 
(Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed.  H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1, 
5  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  231,  vol.  iv,  p.  139.) 

And  as  this  is  the  summum  bo- 
num  of  all  conquering, 
I  leave  "withouten  wordes  mo" 
The  Gadfly's  little  sting. 

[Prol.  1.  808.] 

1818.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Chivalry,  [in]  Supplement  to  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  vol.  iii,  pp.  121, 124,  128,  130,  132, 140.  (Miscellaneous 
Prose  Works  of  Sir  W.  Scott,  30  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1834-71,  vol.  vi, 
pp.  27-8,  42,  56-7,  65,  74-5,  107.) 

[p.  27]       Chaucer,  when  he  describes  the  assembly  of  the  knights 
[p.  28]  who  came  with  Arcite  and  Palemon  to  fight  for  the  love  of 

the  fair  Emilie,  describes  the   manners   of   his   age   in   the 

following  lines : — 

For  every  knight  that  loved  chivalry 

It  were  a  lusty  sight  for  to  see. 


108  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1818- 

Ip.  42]  The  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer  contain  many  narratives, 
of  which,  not  only  the  diction,  but  the  whole  turn  of  the 
narrative,  is  extremely  gross.  Yet  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
occurred  to  the  author,  a  man  of  rank  and  fashion,  that  they 
were  improper  to  be  recited,  either  in  the  presence  of  the 
Prioress  or  her  votaries,  or  in  that  of  the  noble  Knight  who 

of  his  port  was  meek  as  is  a  maid, 

And  never  yet  no  villany  he  said. 

And  he  makes  but  a  light  apology  for  including  the  disasters 
of  the  Millar  of  Trompington,  or  of  Absalom  the  Gentle  ClerJc, 
in  the  same  series  of  narrations  with  the  Knight's  Tale. 
(P.  56]      In  the  words  of  Chaucer,  describing  the  Character  of  the 
Squire — 

Curteis,  he  was,  lowly  and  servisable, 
And  carf  before  his  fader  at  the  table. 

Chaucer's  Squire,  besides  that  he  was  "  singing  and  fluting 
all  the  day"— 

Could  songs  make  and  well  indite 

Joust,  and  eke  dance,  and  well  pourtray  and  write. 

tp.  57]  Unquestionably,  few  possessed  all  these  attributes  ;  but  the 
poet,  with  his  usual  precision  and  vivacity,  has  given  us  the 
picture  of  a  perfect  esquire.  .  .  . 

[p.  74]  Chaucer  has  enumerated  some  of  these  varieties  [of 
Knights'  armour] : — 

With  him  ther  wenten  Knights  many  on. 
Some  wol  ben  armed  in  an  habergeon 
(P.  75]  [and  eight  following  lines]. 

1818.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Rob  Roy,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  chap,  vi,  p.  122, 
ch.  xii,  p.  242.  (Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  ii, 
ch.  ii,  p.  21,  ch.  viii,  p.  93.) 

{Vol.  n,  We  alighted  at  the  door  of  a  jolly  hostler-wife,  as  Andrew 
called  her,  The  Ostelere  of  old  father  Chaucer,  by  whom  we 
were  civilly  received. 

[Chapter  heading.] 

[V"193l>  ^°  stan(*s  tne  Tliracian  herdsman  with  his  spear 

[and  five  following  lines]. 

[Dryden's]  Palamon  and  Arcite. 


1819]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  109 

1818.  Todd,  Henry  John.  Johnson's  Dictionary,  ed.  by  the  Kev.  H.  J. 
Todd,  4  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  liv,  Ixx  n.,  Ixxvi-vii. 

[p.  liv]       [Quotation  from  Sir  Thopas,  giving  the  "  romaunces  of  pris."] 

[p.lxiii]  [Johnson  says  that  "  Gower  calls  Chaucer  his  disciple."  On 
this  Todd  says  :]  Dr.  Johnson  is  mistaken  in  saying  that 
Gower  calls  Chaucer  his  disciple  ;  for  it  is  Venus  whom  Gower 
describes,  at  the  close  of  his  Confessio  Amantis,  claiming 
Chaucer  as  her  scholar  and  bard.  That  Gower  is  to  be 
placed  before  Chaucer  is  unquestionable.  He  was  born  before 
Chaucer.  Authors  both  historical  and  poetical,  in  the  century 
after  the  decease  of  these  poets,  usually  coupling  their  names 
and  describing  their  accomplishments,  place  Gower  before 
Chaucer ;  not  intending  precedence  in  respect  to  talents,  but 
merely  to  seniority.  John  Fox  observes,  that  "he  (Chaucer) 
and  Gower  were  both  of  one  time ;  although  it  seemeth  that 
Gower  was  a  great  deale  his  ancient" 

[p.  ixxn.]  Dr.  Johnson  has  copied  both  the  poetry  and  prose  of 
Chaucer  from  the  edition  of  Urry  in  1721,  which  Mr. 
Tyrwhitt,  the  last  accomplished  editor  of  the  poet's  Canter 
bury  Tales,  pronounces  most  incorrect.  This  may  be  abun 
dantly  seen  even  by  the  comparison  of  so  much  of  the 
Prologue,  as  Dr.  Johnson  took  from  Urry,  with  the  text  as 
now  adopted  from  the  excellent  edition  of  Tyrwhitt.  With 
the  text  of  the  remaining  poems  we  must  be  content,  till  an 
elaborate  and  correct  edition  of  the  poet's  works,  which  we 
greatly  want,  be  given.  Perhaps  some  little  help  is  afforded 
towards  such  an  important  undertaking,  in  Illustrations  of 
Gower  and  Chaucer,  published  in  1810  [by  Todd,  q.v.  above] ; 
an  account  of  several  manuscripts  of  Chaucer,  containing 
hitherto  unemployed  materials,  being  there  given.  ...  Of 
the  prose  of  Chaucer  there  has  been  less  corruption. 

[p.  ixxvii]  [John  Walton  of  Oseney's  praise  of  Chaucer  quoted ;  see 
above,  1410,  vol.  i,  pp.  20-21.] 

1818.  Unknown.  Notice  of  Hazliit's  2nd  Lecture  on  English  Poetry — 
Chaucer  and  Spenser — [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine, 
vol.  ii,  February,  pp.  558-60.  [For  Hazlitt  see  above,  1818.] 

[The  Notice  is  a  general  account  of  Hazlitt's  lecture,  devoid 
of  any  real  critical  examination.] 

[a.  1819.  Sputhey,  Robert.]  The  Doctor,  [published]  1834,  vol.  i,  p.  48, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  vi,  24,  vol.  iii,  p.  x,  vol.  v,  p.  157,  vol.  vii,  p.  87  note. 


110  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819 

tVol-4J'      The  persons  who  ?— 

I  male  not  tell  you  all  at  once ; 
But  as  I  maie  and  can,  I  shall 
By  order  tellen  you  it  all. 

So  saith  Chaucer.     [A  reminiscence  of  B.  of  the  Duchesse,  11. 
216-18?] 

tyoi.  l!t  [Heading  to  chapter  xxxv .] 

and  24]  Why  I  should  I  sowen  draf  out  of  my  fist 

When  I  may  sowen  wheat,  if  that  me  list  ? 

Chaucer  [Parson's  Prol.,  11.  35-6]. 

[Vol.  HI,     Prelude  of  Mottoes. 

Out  of  the  old  fieldes,  as  men  saith 
[and  four  following  lines,  Assemble  of  Foules,  st.  4]. 

Chaucer. 
[Vol. v,      [Wordsworth    has    'very    skilfully'    modernised    one    of 

P«  15*  J  x-xi  i  i 

Chaucer  s  poems.] 
{Vol.  vii,  p.  87]  We  .  .  .  sat  doun,  an'  grat.* 

[Note]  *  i.  e.  wept,  from  the  old  word  greet,  common  to  all  the 
northern  languages.  Chaucer,  Spenser,  etc.,  use  it. 

[The  Doctor,  though  not  published  till  1834,  was  begun  in  1813,  and  Cuthbert 
Southey  says  (Life  and  Correspondence  of  Southey)  that  the  greater  part  of  the  book 
was  written  before  he  was  born,  i.  e.  before  1819.] 

1819.  Byron,  George  Gordon,  Lord.  Letter  to  Mr.  Murray,  Jan. 
20,  1819  [printed  in  the  Works  of  Byron,  ed.  T.  Moore,  1832-5, 
vol.  iv,  p.  138,  letter  324].  (Letters  and  Journals,  ed.  Rowland 
E.  Prothero,  1900,  vol.  iv,  pp.  276.) 

The  opinions  which  I  have  asked  of  Mr.  H[obhouse]  and 
others  were  with  regard  to  the  poetical  merit,  and  not  as  to 
what  they  may  think  due  to  the  Cant  of  the  day,  which  still 
reads  the  Bath  Guide,  Little's  Poems,  Prior,  and  Chaucer,  to 
say  nothing  of  Fielding  and  Smollett. 

1819.  Campbell,  Thomas.  Specimens  of  the  British  Poets,  vol.  i. 
References  to  Chaucer's  language,  p.  14  ;  metre,  p.  59  ;  Sir  Thopas, 
p.  60 ;  Chaucer  and  Langland,  pp.  62-3 ;  Court  of  Love,  p.  70 ; 
romance,  pp.  70-71  ;  Hous  of  Fame,  p.  71 ;  Flower  and  Leaf, 
p.  72  ;  Gower,  p.  73  ;  Chaucer  and  his  successors,  pp.  79,  87-88  ; 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  3-49  [biographical  notice,  followed  by  Prol.,  11.  1-714], 
50,  59-60,  67-9  [Scottish  Poetry],  76,  77. 

[The  edition  consists  of  an  Essay  on  English  Poetry,  vol.  i,  pp. 
3-271,  and  a  general  index  in  the  same  vol.,  followed  by  extracts 
from  the  principal  poets,  each  preceded  by  a  biographical  notice. 
The  preliminary  Essay  was  published  separately,  Boston,  1819, 
and,  with  the  Biographical  Notices,  edited  by  Peter  Cunningham, 
in  1848.  The  Chaucer  references  in  the  latter  are,  pp.  7,  9  n., 
23,  26,  27,  28,  29,  31-34,  37,  47  and  n.,  52,  53  n.,  104  and  n., 
108  n.,  117  n.,  120-36,  138,  163,  303  n.,  396  n.] 


1819]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  Ill 

(vol.  i,  Chaucer  was  probably  known  and  distinguished  as  a  poet 
If'  70~  anterior  to  the  appearance  of  Langlande's  Visions.  Indeed  if 
he  had  produced  nothing  else  than  his  youthful  poem,  "the 
Court  of  Love,"  it  was  sufficient  to  indicate  one  destined  to 
harmonise  and  refine  the  national  strains.  But  it  is  likely, 
that  before  his  thirty-fourth  year,  about  which  time  Langlande's 
Visions  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  finished,  Chaucer  had 
given  several  compositions  to  the  public. 

[Campbell  continues  that  the  simple  old  narrative  romance 
had  become  too  familiar  to  invite  Chaucer,  and  the  poverty  of 
English  had  obliged  him  to  seek  models  in  Latin  and  foreign 
tongues.  Ovid,  Claud ian,  Statius  and  Boethius  were  the 
favourite  Latins,  by  the  allegory  of  the  last  two  of  whom  he 
was  influenced,  as  by  the  French  allegorical  romances.  The 
dreams,  emblems,  etc.,  of  this  last  visionary  school  proved  too 
light  and  playful  for  his  strong  genius,  though  in  this  work, 
too,  his  peculiar  grace  and  gaiety  are  conspicuous.  The  Hous 
of  Fame  and  Flower  and  Leaf  are  examples.  His  similar 
poems,  even  the  most  fantastic  in  design,  are  relieved  by 
fresh  and  joyous  descriptions  of  nature.  .  .  .  Chaucer  was 
subsequently  drawn  to  the  style  of  Boccaccio.] 

fvoi.  if,      [Tyrwhitt  had  vindicated  Chaucer  from  the  charge  brought 

if]'18'  against  him  by  Verstegan,  etc.,  of  having  adulterated  English 

with  French   words.     Such  revolutions  in  language  are  not 

wrought   by  individuals ;   and   Chaucer's  style  will  compare 

with  that  of  Gower,  Wyclif  and  Mandeville.] 

(p.  15]  ...  He  has  a  double  claim  to  rank  as  the  founder  of  English 
poetry,  from  having  been  the  first  to  make  it  the  vehicle  of 
spirited  representations  of  life  and  native  manners,  and  from 
having  been  the  first  great  architect  of  our  versification,  in 
giving  our  language  the  ten  syllable,  or  heroic  measure,  which, 
though  it  may  sometimes  be  found  among  the  lines  of  more 
ancient  versifiers,  evidently  comes  in  only  by  accident.  This 
measure  occurs  in  the  earliest  poem  that  is  attributed  to  him, 
The  Court  of  Love.  ...  It  is  a  dream,  in  which  the  poet 
fancies  himself  taken  to  the  Temple  of  Love,  introduced  to  a 
mistress,  and  sworn  to  observe  the  statutes  of  the  amatory 

[p.  16]  god.  As  the  earliest  work  of  Chaucer,  it  interestingly  ex 
hibits  the  successful  effort  of  his  youthful  hand  in  erecting  a 
new  and  stately  fabric  of  English  numbers.  As  a  piece  of 


112    [Campbell]      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819 

fancy,  it  is  grotesque  and  meager  [sic] ;  but  the  lines  often 
flow  with  great  harmony. 

His  story  of  Troilus  and  Cresseide  was  the  delight  of  Sir 
Philip  Sydney ;  and  perhaps,  excepting  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
was,  down  to  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  most  popular 
poem  in  the  English  language.  It  is  a  story  of  vast  length 
and  almost  desolate  simplicity,  and  abounds  in  all  those 
glorious  anachronisms  which  were  then,  and  so  long  after,  per- . 
mitted  to  romantic  poetry :  such  as  making  the  son  of  King 
Priam  read  the  Thebais  of  Statins,  and  the  gentlemen  of  Troy 
converse  about  the  devil,  justs  and  tournaments,  bishops, 
parliaments,  and  scholastic  divinity. 

The  languor  of  the  story  is,  however,  relieved  by  many 
touches  of  pathetic  beauty.  The  confession  of  Cresseide  in 
the  scene  of  felicity,  when  the  poet  compares  her  to  the  "  new 
abashed  nightingale,  that  stinteth  first  ere  she  beginneth  sing," 
is  a  fine  passage,  deservedly  noticed  by  Warton.  The  grief  of 
Troilus  after  the  departure  of  Cresseide  is  strongly  portrayed 
in  Troilus's  soliloquy  in  his  bed. 

IP  17]  The  sensations  of  Troilus,  on  coming  to  the  house  of  his 
faithless  Cresseide,  when,  instead  of  finding  her  returned,  he 
beholds  the  barred  doors  and  shut  windows,  giving  tokens  of 
her  absence,  as  well  as  his  precipitate  departure  from  the 
distracting  scene,  are  equally  well  described. 

The  two  best  of  Chaucer's  allegories,  The  Flower  and  the 
Leaf,  and  The  House  of  Fame,  have  been  fortunately  per- 
[p.  18]  petuated  in  our  language ;  the  former  by  Dryden,  the  latter  by 
Pope.  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf  is  an  exquisite  piece  of  fairy 
fancy.  .  .  .  Pope  had  not  so  enchanting  a  subject  in  The 
House  of  Fame ;  yet,  with  deference  to  Warton,  that  critic 
has  done  Pope  injustice  in  assimilating  his  imitations  of 
Chaucer  to  the  modern  ornaments  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
which  impair  the  solemn  effect  of  the  ancient  building.  The 
many  absurd  and  fantastic  particulars  in  Chaucer's  House  of 
Fame  will  not  suffer  us  to  compare  it,  as  a  structure  in  poetry, 
with  so  noble  a  pile  as  Westminster  Abbey  in  architecture. 
Much  of  Chaucer's  fantastic  matter  has  been  judiciously 
omitted  by  Pope,  who  at  the  same  time  has  clothed  the  best 
ideas  of  the  old  poem  in  spirited  numbers  and  expression. 


1819]         Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Campbell.]     113 

Chaucer  supposes  himself  to  be  snatched  up  to  heaven  by  a 
large  eagle,  who  addresses  him  in  the  name  of  St.  James  and 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and,  in  order  to  quiet  the  poet's  fears  of 
being  carried  up  to  Jupiter,  like  another  Ganymede,  or  turned 
into  a  star  like  Orion,  tells  him,  that  Jove  wishes  him  to 
sing  of  other  subjects  than  love  and  "blind  Cupido,"  and 
has  therefore  ordered,  that  Dan  Chaucer  should  be  brought 
to  behold  the  House  of  Fame.  In  Pope,  the  philosophy  of 
[p.  10]  fame  comes  with  much  more  propriety  from  the  poet  himself, 
than  from  the  beak  of  a  talkative  eagle. 

It  was  not  until  his  green  old  age  that  Chaucer  put  forth, 
in  the  Canterbury  Tales,  the  full  variety  of  his  genius,  and 
the  pathos  and  romance,  as  well  as  the  playfulness  of  fiction. 
In  the  serious  part  of  those  tales  he  is,  in  general,  more  deeply 
indebted  to  preceding  materials,  than  in  the  comic  stories, 
which  he  raised  upon  slight  hints  to  the  air  and  spirit  of 
originals.  .  .  . 

Chaucer's  design  .  .  .  though  it  is  left  unfinished,  has 
definite  boundaries,  and  incidents  to  keep  alive  our  curiosity, 
independent  of  the  tales  themselves.  At  the  same  time,  while 
the  action  of  the  poem  is  an  event  too  simple  to  divert  the 
attention  altogether  from  the  pilgrims'  stories,  the  pilgrimage 
itself  is  an  occasion  sufficiently  important  to  draw  together 
almost  all  the  varieties  of  existing  society,  from  the  knight  to 
the  artisan,  who,  agreeably  to  the  old  simple  manners,  assemble 
in  the  same  room  of  the  hostellerie.  The  enumeration  of  those 
[p.  20]  characters  in  the  Prologue  forms  a  scene,  full,  without  con 
fusion  ;  and  the  object  of  their  journey  gives  a  fortuitous  air 
to  the  grouping  of  individuals,  who  collectively  represent 
the  age  and  state  of  society  in  which  they  live. 

[p.  21]  Chaucer's  forte  is  description;  much  of  his  moral  reflection 
is  superfluous ;  none  of  his  characteristic  painting.  His  men 
and  women  are  not  mere  ladies  and  gentlemen,  like  those 
who  furnish  apologies  for  Boccaccio's  stories.  They  rise  before 
us  minutely  traced,  profusely  varied,  and  strongly  discrimi 
nated.  Their  features  and  casual  manners  seem  to  have  an 
amusing  congruity  with  their  moral  characters.  He  notices 
minute  circumstances  as  if  by  chance  ;  but  every  touch  hns 
its  effect  to  our  conception  so  distinctly,  that  we  seem  to  live 
and  travel  with  his  personages  throughout  the  journey. 

CUAUCER     CRITICISM. II.  I 


1H  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819 

1819.  Gary,  Henry  Francis.  The  Life  of  Dante,  prefixed  to  The  Vision 
.  .  .  of  Dante  translated  by  H.  F.  Gary,  2nd  edition,  1819,  3  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  xxxix,  xliii,  note  [many  notes  additional  to  those  in 
1st  edition  of  1814,  q.  «.].  Notes  on  the  text,  pp.  12,*  13,  18, 
21,*  32,  37,  43,*  44,*  47,*  60,*  99,*  112,  127,  264,  265,  [a  note 
from  Warton's  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poetry]  269,  281,  283,  287,  292  ; 
-vol.  ii,  pp.  xi,  4,  64,  78,  168,*  193,  201,*  207,*  247,*  255,*  305, 
:309  *  ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  4,  7,  9,*  81,*  127,  131,*  148,  171,  172,  204, 
'215,*  226,*  237,*  280,*  290,*  291.* 

[*  Not  in  1st  edition.] 


1819.  [Clarke,  William.]  Eepertorium  Bibliograpliicum  ;  or,  some 
account  of  the  most  celebrated  British  Libraries,  2  vols.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  35,  37,  76, 116-7,  142, 166-7, 183, 198,  233,  256,  280-1  ;  vol.  ii, 
pp.  351-2,  362,  389,  441,  449,  481,  521,  534,  553,  602,  also  index, 
pp.  616-7,  619,  670,  672. 

[Brief  accounts  of  the  libraries,  with  lists  of  notable  volumes 
under  each.  The  Chaucers  are  entered  alternatively  under 
either  Caxton,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  or  the  author.] 


1819-28.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  "Note  on  Milton  and  Shakespeare, 
[in]  Anima  Poetse,  ed.  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge,  1895,  p.  296. 

IP.  296]  Found  Mr.  Gpllman]  with  Hartley  in  the  garden,  attempting 
to  explain  to  himself  and  to  Hartley  a  feeling  of  a  something 
not  present  in  Milton's  works,  that  is,  in  "Paradise  Lost," 
"  Paradise  Regained,"  and  "  Sanison  Agonistes,"  which  he  did 
feel  delightedly  in  the  "  Lycidas."  .  .  .  And  this  appeared  to 
me  to  be  the  poet  appearing  and  wishing  to  appear  as  the  poet, 
and  likewise  as  the  man,  as  much  as,  though  more  rare  than, 
the  father,  the  brother,  the  preacher,  and  the  patriot.  Compare 
with  Milton,  Chaucer's  "Fall  of  the  Leaf"  [sic]  and  Spenser 
throughout,  and  you  cannot  but  feel  what  Gillmau  meant  to 
convey. 


1819.  Dib din,  Thomas  Frognall.  Typographical  Antiquities  .  .  .  begun 
by  Joseph  Ames  and  augmented  by  William  Herbert,  and  now 
enlarged  with  copious  notes,  vol.  iv,  pp.  371  ».,  469-70  [Chaucer's 
Works,  1561]. 

[For  vols.  i,  ii,  and  iii,  tee  above,  1810,  1812  and  1816.  For  Ames's  original  edn. 
of  1749,  tee  vol.  i,  p.  398 ;  for  Herbert's  intermediate  edn.  see  vol.  i,  1785,  p.  477 ; 
1786,  p.  483  ;  1790,  p.  491.] 


1819]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  115 

1819.  Ellis,  Sir  Henry.  Bemarks  on  Lansdowne  MS.  851,  and  Vol. 
XLIV.  of  Bishop  Kenneths  Collections:  consisting  of  Biographical 
Memoranda,  (many  of  them  relating  to  the  English  clergy)  from 
A.D.  1500  to  A.D.  1521,  [in]  A  Catalogue  of  the  Lansdowne  MSS. 
in  the  British  Museum,  1812-19,  part  ii,  1819,  pp.  210,  239, 
Lansdowne  MSS.  851,  978. 

851.  folio. 

[pp-  210-  A  very  fair,  perfect,  and  well  preserved  copy  of  Chaucer's 
Canterbury  Tales,  elegantly  written  on  vellum  about  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Fifth.  It  contains, 

1.  "  Vita  Galfridi  Caucer  [sic  orig.]  ex  Scriptorum  Britannise 
Centuria  Septima  Cap.  xxmi,"  fo.  1. 

This  is  only  a  modern  transcript  from  Bale. 

2.  The   general   Prologue.      fo.  2  [followed  by  the  Tales, 
concluding  with] 

48.  "  Sermo  "  Rectoris.     fo.  230  I. 

In  the  initial  letter  to  this  volume  there  is  a  small  and 
neatly  executed  whole  length  portrait  of  Chaucer,  with  a  book 
in  his  hand  and  a  knife  suspended  from  his  neck.  He  is 
dressed  in  a  long  greyish  gown,  with  red  stockings,  and  a 
kind  of  sandals.  His  head  is  uncovered,  and  the  hair  rather 
closely  shorn.  This  miniature,  though  a  little  damaged,  may 
be  of  considerable  use  to  an  artist.  Many  of  the  other  pages 
anci  letters  are  painted  and  gilt  in  the  usual  style  of  the  time. 

The  manuscript  formerly  belonged  to  Mr.  Philip  Carteret 
Webb,  and  was  consulted  by  Mr.  Tyrwhitt  and  cited  by 
him  under  the  letter  W.  See  his  admirable  edition  of  "  The 
Canterbury  Tales,"  vol.  i,  p.  xxiii.  edit.  1775,  in  8vo. 

[See  the  print  of  the  MS.  in  the  Chaucer  Society's  Six-Text  and  separate  issues.] 

tp.  239]      They  [Bishop  Kennett's  Collections]  relate  to — 
1.  Geoffrey  Chaucer,     fo.  1. 

1819.  Hazlitt,  William.  A  Letter  to  William  Gi/ord,  Esq.  (Collected 
Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  384,  399,  400,  401.) 

[p.  400]  You  observe,  that  "  Some  lines  I  have  quoted  from  Chaucer, 
are  very  pleasing — 

"  Emilie  that  fayrer  was  to  sene 

Than  is  the  lilie  upon  his  stalke  grene 
And  fresher  than  the  May  with  noures  newe : 
For  with  the  rose-colour  strove  hire  hewe ; 
I  not  which  was  the  finer  of  hem  too."  .  .  . 


116  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819 

"  But  surely  the  beauty  does  not  lie  in  the  last  line,  though 
it  is  with  this  that  Mr.  Hazlitt  is  chiefly  struck.  'This 
scrupulousness/  he  observes,  '  about  the  literal  preference,  as 
if  some  question  of  matter  of  fact  were  at  issue,  is  remarkable.'  " 

That  is,  I  am  not  chiefly  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the  last 
line,  but  with  its  peculiarity  as  characteristic  of  Chaucer. 
The  beauty  of  the  former  lines  might  be  in  Spenser :  the 
scrupulous  exactness  of  the  latter  could  be  found  nowhere  but 
in  Chaucer.  I  had  said  just  before,  that  this  poet  '  introduces 
[p.  401]  a  sentiment  or  a  simile,  as  if  it  were  given  in  upon  evidence.' 
I  bring  this  simile  as  an  instance  in  point,  and  you  say  I  have 
not  brought  it  to  prove  something  else. 

[For  Hazlitt's  original  criticism  and  Gifford's  comment  upon  it,  see  above,  1818.] 


1819.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Pleasant  recollections  connected 
with  various  parts  of  the  Metropolis,  [in]  The  Indicator,  Oct.  27, 
1819,  pp.  20,  24. 

[References  to  the  monument  in  St.  Saviour's  church  in  the 
Borough  to  Gower,  '  Chaucer's  contemporary ' ;  to  the  Tabard 
Inn,  the  site  of  which  is  "  pointed  out  by  a  picture  and 
inscription";  and  to  the  French  of  Stratforde-atte-Bowe.] 


[1819-20.  Irving,  Washington.]  The  Sketch  Book  of  Geoffrey  Crayon, 
Gent,  London,  1820,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  129,  177,  183-4,  189, 
271-2  n,  282  ;  vol.  ii,  p.  415.  (Works,  Geoffrey  Crayon  ecln.,  [1880- 
83],  27  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  96-7,  125,  130,  134,  185-6  n,  193,  522.) 

[The  papers  composing  the  Sketch  Book  were  written  in  England  and  published 
serially  in  America  in  1819-20.  The  first  edition  in  B.M.  is  that  to  which  references 
are  given  above.] 

Rural  life  in  England, 
[pp.  96-7]  [Reference  to  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf  as  Chaucer's.] 

A  Royal  Poet. 

[p.  1*5]  [King  James  I  of  Scotland  read  Chaucer's  translation  of 
[P.  iso]  Boethius  in  prison  ;  compared  to  Palamon  and  Arcite ;  his 
[p.  134]  admiration  for  Chaucer ;  traces  of  similarity  in  their  writings.] 

The  Mutability  of  Literature. 

[p.  185 n.]  [Quotation  from  "Chaucer's  Testament  of  Love."] 
[p. i86n.]  Holinshed,  in  his  Chronicle,  observes,  "Afterwards  also,  by 
diligent  travel]/ of  Geffry  Chaucer  and  John  Gowre,  in  the  time 


1819]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  117 

of  Kichard  the  Second,  and  after  them  of  John  Scogan  and 
John  Lydgate,  Monke  of  Berrie,  our  said  toong  was  brought 
to  an  excellent  passe."  [Holinshed's  Chronicles,  1808,  6  vols., 
vol.  i,  p.  24  ;  see  below,  App.  A,  1577.] 

[p.  193]  The  setting  may  occasionally  be  antiquated,  and  require  now 
and  then  to  be  renewed,  as  in  the  case  of  Chaucer ;  but  the 
brilliancy  and  intrinsic  value  of  the  gems  continue  unaltered. 

Motto  to  Envoy, 
[p.  522]  Go,  little  Booke,  God  send  thee  good  passage 

[and  four  following  lines]. 
Chaucer's  [or  rather  Ros's]  Belle  Dame  sans  Mercie. 


1819.  Jeffrey,  Francis.     Beview  of  Campbell's  Specimens  of  the  British 

Poets,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  March  1819,  vol.  xxxi,  p.  474. 
(Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review,  1853,  p.  365.) 

The  following  sketch  of  Chaucer,  and  of  the  long  inter 
regnum  that  succeeded,  is  likewise  given  with  great  grace  and 
spirit. 

[Here  follows  a  quotation  from  Campbell's  Essay  on  English 
Poetry,  pp.  71-3,  79-84,  q.  v.  above,  1819.] 


1819.  Keats,  John.  Letters.  (The  Complete  Works  of  John  Keats,  ed. 
H.  Buxton  Forman,  1900-1,  vol.  v,  pp.  31,  67,  93,  121,  133.) 

[p.  si]  [To  George  and  Georgiana  Keats.  March,  1819.]  Besides 
this  volume  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher — there  are  on  the 
table  two  volumes  of  Chaucer.  ... 

[p.  87]      [To  B.  E.  Haydon.     June  17,  1819.]     My  purpose  is  now 

to  make  one  more  attempt  in  the  Press — if  that  fail,  "  ye  hear 

no  more  of  me  "  as  Chaucer  says, 
[p.  93]       [To  J.  H.  Reynolds.    Sept.  22.]  I  always  somehow  associate 

Chatterton  with  autumn.  .  .  .   He  has  no  French  idiom  or 

particles,  like  Chaucer. 

[p.  121]  [To  George  and  Georgiana  Keats.  September  17.]  .  .  .  The 
purest  English,  I  think — or  what  ought  to  be  the  purest — is 
Chatterton's.  The  language  had  existed  long  enough  to  be 
entirely  iricorrupted  of  Chaucer's  Gallicisms,  and  still  the  old 
words  are  used. 


118  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819 

tp.  133]  [To  John  Taylor.  ]STov.  17,  1819.]  Wonders  are  no 
wonders  to  me.  I  am  more  at  home  amongst  Men  and 
women.  I  would  rather  read  Chaucer  than  Ariosto. 


1819.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell.  Letter  from  Miss  Mitford  to  Sir  William 
Elford,  Jan.  9,  1819,  [in]  The  Life  of  Mary  Russell  Mitford,  ed. 
Rev.  A.  G.  L'Estrange,  1870,  vol.  ii,  p.  49. 

Considering  my  doleful  prognostications,  you  will  like  to 
know,  my  dear  friend,  that  I  have  outlived  the  ball,  so  I 
must  write.  It's  a  thing  of  necessity.  Yes,  I  am  living  and 
"  lifelich,"  as  Chaucer  says. 


1819.  Moore,  Thomas.  Diary  for  April  14, 1819,  [in]  Memoirs,  Journals 
and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Moore,  ed.  by  the  Rt.  Hon.  Lord 
John  Russell,  M.P.,  8  vols.,  1853-6,  vol.  ii,  p.  290. 

Walked  to  Bo  wood  to  see  the  Lansdownes  .  .  .  [Lord  Lans- 
downe]  told  me  that  Murray  had  offered  Stewart  Rose  £2,000 
for  a  translation  of  "  Ariosto."  .  .  .  We  all  acknowledged  the 
convenience  of  such  a  thing.  ...  I  could  [not]  sympathise 
with  the  world  in  some  of  its  admirations,  but  thought  it 
better  to  be  silent  in  these  cases,  than  risk  an  impeachment  of 
my  own  taste  in  questioning  that  of  others.  Chaucer,  for 
instance,  in  what  terms  some  speak  of  him !  while  I  confess  I 
find  him  unreadable.  Lord  L.  said  he  was  glad  to  hear  me 
say  so,  as  he  had  always  in  silence  felt  the  same. 


1819.  Ormerod,    George.     The  History  of  the   County  Palatine  and 
City  of  Chester,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  84,  and  n. 

[Chaucer  and  the  Scrope-Grosvenor  suit.  The  passage  is 
the  same  in  the  second  edition  of  the  book,  revised  by  Thomas 
Helsby,  1882,  vol.  iii,  p.  146.] 


1819.  Bees,  Abraham.  The  Cydopcedia,  vol.  vii,  Chaucer,  Geoffrey ; 
vol.  xxi,  Lydgate,  John. 

troi.  vii]  CHAUCER,  Geoffrey  .  .  .  the  earliest  English  classic  poet  .  .  . 
[here  follows  life].  .  .  .  His  works  are  numerous :  his  fame 
ranks  high  as  an  original  poet.  .  .  .  He  enriched  his  native 
language  by  new  forms  of  diction  and  versification ;  but  there 


1819]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  119 

is  nothing  in  which  he  excels  his  contemporaries  more  than  in 
possessing  that  true  poetical  character  of  which  they  were 
almost  wholly  void. 

In  many  of  his  tales  are  to  be  found  fine  figures  and  splendid 
imagery  displayed  in  glowing  and  elegant  language  .  .  . 

The  Canterbury  Tales  have  been  handsomely  published  by 
Mr.  Tyrwhitt  .  .  .  but  the  editions  of  Chaucer's  other  works 
do  no  credit  to  the  lovers  of  ancient  English  poetry. 


1819.  [Reynolds,  John  Hamilton.]  Preface  to  Peter  Bell,  a  Lyrical 
Ballad,  p.  v. 

[Footnote.]  A  favourite  flower  of  mine  [i.  e.  the  daisy].  It 
was  a  favourite  with  Chaucer,  but  he  did  not  understand  its 
moral  mystery  as  I  do. 

[This  travesty  of  Peter  Bell  was  published  anonymously  before  the  actual 
appearance  of  Wordsworth's  poem  of  that  name  ;  the  above  footnote  was  quoted  in  a 
review  by  John  Keats,  which  appeared  ia  the  Examiner,  April  25,  1819.] 

1819.  Sanford,  Ezekiel.  Select  Poems  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer.  With  a 
life  of  the  author,  by  E.  Sanford,  [in]  Works  of  the  British  Poets, 
Philadelphia,  1819-23,  50  vols.,  vol.  i,  Chaucer,,  etc.,  Preface, 
pp.  vii-ix,  Life  and  Poems,  pp.  1-216,  and  vol.  ii,  pp.  7,  15. 

[Vol.  i  contains  a  Life  of  Chaucer  by  Sanford,  which  con 
sists  largely  of  criticism,  explicit  or  implicit,  of  Godwin  and 
other  biographers  of  Chaucer  for  their  guesses  and  irrelevancies. 
The  select  poems  are  from  the  Canterbury  Tales  with  the 
Flower  and  Leaf.  Gower,  Skelton,  Wyatt,  Surrey  and  Gas- 
coigne  complete  the  volume.] 

1819.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor,  vol.  i,  ch.  xi, 
p.  289.  (Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  i,  ch.  xii, 
p.  166.) 

[Chapter  heading.] 

"Now  dame,"  quoth  he,  "  Je  vous  dis  sans  doute 
[and  five  following  lines]. 

Chaucer,  Sumner's  Tale  [11.  130-5]. 

1819.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.     Ivanhoe.     See  above,  1817. 


[1819  ?]  Unknown.  Childe  Harold  in  the  Shades,  an  infernal 
Romaunt.  [Not  in  B.  M.  The  extract  given  below  is  taken  from 
a  review  in  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  April,  1819,  vol.  Ixxxix, 
pp.  336-7.] 


120  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1819- 

The  Noble  Shade  .  .  .  also  vieweth  the  shades  of  Dr. 
Johnson  and  Dan  Chaucer  .  .  . 

The  father  of  English  Poetry  is  more  kindly  treated  [than 
Dr.  Johnson]  : 

In  antique  vest  arrayed  stands  Chaucer  there, 
Telling  quaint  stories  to  a  listening  throng  ; 
Maid,  widow,  wife,  old,  young,  ill-favoured,  fair, 
Cruel  and  yielding,  in  his  motley  song 
Together  flowed  :  unpolished,  rough,  but  strong, 
And  full  of  fire  the  merry  notes  he  used ; 
Bightly  to  him  our  earliest  bays  belong, 
Though  much  by  modern  copyists  abused, 
Who  imitate  the  faults  the  age  in  him  excused. 


1819.  Unknown.  Review  of  Campbell's  Specimens  of  English  Poetry, 
[in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  March  1819,  vol.  iv,  pp. 
(598,  702-4.  [For  Campbell,  see  above,  1819.] 

[Quotations  from  Campbell's  passages  on  Chaucer,  with  the 
comment,  p.  704  :] 

The  existence  of  the  works  of  Chaucer  changes,  it  may  be 
said,  to  our  apprehension,  the  whole  character  of  the  age — 
raising  up  to  our  mind  an  image  of  thoughtful,  intellectual 
cultivation,  and  of  natural  and  tender  happiness  in  the  sim 
plicity  of  life,  which  would  otherwise  be  wanting  in  the  dark 
stern  picture  of  warlike  greatness  and  power. 

1819.  Unknown.  Review  of  Crabbe's  Tales  of  the  Hall,  [in]  The  Gentle 
man's  Magazine,  July,  vol.  Ixxxix,  p.  46. 

Ever  since  "  The  Canterbury  Tales  "  of  Chaucer,  poets  who 
have  dealt  much  in  narrative  have  generally  been  anxious  to 
string  together  their  tales  by  some  connecting  chain,  however 
slight.  The  "  Tales  of  the  Hall "  are  in  this  respect  quite 
dramatic. 

[For  Crabbe  on  this  point,  see  above,  1812.] 

[a.  1819.]  Watt,  Kobert.  Bibliotheca  Britannica;  in  Two  Parts: — 
Authors  and  Subjects.  Edinburgh,  1824,  volume  i. — Authors, 
p.  218  d-t,  Chaucer,  Jeffery  ;  volume  iii. — Subjects,  sign.  2J2: 
Chaucer,  Jefl'ery. 

[Watt  died  12th  March,  1819,  when  only  a  few  sheets  had  been  printed  off.  The 
book  appeared  in  parts,  Glasgow,  1819-20,  and  the  complete  work  has  title-pages 
dated  1824.  See  D.N.B.] 


1820]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  121 

1819.  Webb  (or  Webbe),  Cornelius.  Sonnet:  To  Italy,  [in]  Sonnets, 
Amatory,  Incidental,  and  Descriptive,  by  Cornelius  Webb,  1820, 
p.  15. 

XXV.— To  Italy. 

On    C S    L H's   (i.e.    Chandos   Leigh's)    Visit   to 

Rome  in  1819. 
Old  Chaucer  loved  thee  [Italy]  for  Boccaccio's  stories — 


[1820  ?]  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  and  Other  Poems,  published 
by  John  Cumberland,  2  vols. 

[See  E.  P.  Hammond,  Chaucer,  pp.  136-7.     This  edn.  is  not  in  the  Douce  Collec 
tion,  as  Miss  Hammond  states,  nor  in  the  Bodleian,  nor  the  B.  M.] 


1820.  Collier,  John  Payne.  The  Poetical  Decameron,  or,  Ten  Con 
versations  on  English  Poets  and  Poetry,  particularly  of  the  Reigns 
of  Elizabeth  and  James  I,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  xxi,  81,  297  ;  vol.  ii, 
pp.  165,  166. 

[TGI.  j,  "For  out  of  the  old  fields,  as  men  saith, 

Cometh  all  this  new  corn  fro  year  to  year, 
And  out  of  old  books,  in  good  faith, 

Cometh  all  this  new  science  that  men  lere ; " 

is  the  language  of  Chaucer  in  his  "Assembly  of  Foules" 
\Pc(rlement  of  Foules,  11.  22-5],  and  if  it  were  true  at  the  time 
he  wrote  how  much  more  likely  is  it  to  be  true  at  the  time 
when  we  are  speaking  ] 

[p.  si]  MORTON.  There  is  a  passage  in  Ascham's  Schoolmaster,  which 
expressly  alludes  to  the  admirers  and  imitators  of  Petrarch  .  .  . 
"  Some  (he  says)  that  make  Chaucer  in  English,  and  Petrarch 
in  Italian,  their  gods  in  verses,  .  .  .  would  needs  be  counted 
like  unto  him."  [See  vol.  i,  pp.  97,  98,  above.] 

[p.  297]  MORTON.  Chaucer,  in  his  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  I  remember, 
has  a  pretty  passage  in  praise  of  a  good  woman : 

"In  her  is  hie  beautie,  without  pride  .  .   . 
Her  honde  minister  of  fredome  &  almes." 

[11.  162-8.] 

BOURNE.  But  that  is  by  no  means  equal  to  his  description 
of  a  good  and  obedient  wife,  and  the  comfort  to  be  derived 
from  her,  in  his  Merchant's  Tale  : 


122  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1820 

"A  wife  !  ah  saint  Mary  benedicite  ! 
How  might  a  man  haue  any  aduersiiie 
That  hath  a  wife." — 

And  so  on  for  about  ten  lines  farther,  but  my  memory  does  not 
serve  me  to  repeat  them. 

ELLIOT.  I  recollect  it  goes  on  thus — 

[p.  298]  "  Certes  I  can  not  say 

The  blisse  that  is  betwixt  hem  twey." — 

But  the  wife  of  Bath  could  have  told  him. 

MORTON.  You  have  a  knack  of  finding  out  ambiguities 
never  dreamt  of  by  the  pure  simplicity  of  the  author : 

^Evo  rarissima  nostro 

Simplicitas. 

BOURNE.  Chaucer's  "pure  simplicity,"  as  you  call  it,  upon 
those  subjects  is  very  questionable. 

fv°i65]'  BOURNE  .  .  .  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  separate  printed  poem 
by  William  Painter ;  I  mean  unconnected  with  "  the  Palace 
of  Pleasure?" 

MORTON.  Certainly  never. 

BOURNE.  Yet  such  a  poem,  or   rather  collection  of  poems, 

[p.  166]  was  shown  me  not  long  since  .  .  .  The  title  page  is  wanting, 
but  the  running-title  is  "  Chaucer  painted : "  why  it  is  so 
called  I  cannot  guess,  as  in  the  cursory  view  I  had  of  the 
book  I  saw  nothing  that  had  any  relation  to  Chaucer:  the 
greater  portion  was  proverbs  strung  together  in  four-line 
stanzas.  Towards  the  end  was  a  poem  lamenting  the  de 
generacy  of  shepherds,  and  an  anagram  on  the  mother  of  the 
author,  Jone  Clark.  [See  above,  1623,  vol.  i,  p.  198.] 

[c.  1820.]  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Journal.  [Quoted  in  the 
Biographical  Sketch  in  his  Works,  Centenary  Edition,  1903. 
vol.  i,  p.  xvi.] 

[Alluding  to  himself  in  his  Journal,  he  writes  of]  the 
youth  who  has  no  faculty  for  mathematics  and  weeps  over 
the  impossible  analytical  geometry,  to  console  his  defeats  with 
Chaucer  and  Montaigne,  with  Plutarch  and  Plato  at  night. 

1820.  H.,  R.  On  the  Connexion  between  the  Character  and  Poetry  of 
Nations,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  Oct.,  1820,  pp.  423-4. 

[The  works  of  Gower,  Chaucer,  and  Langlande  are  strongly 


1820]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  123 

[p.  424]  characteristic  of  their  times ;  love  and  arms  being  their 
principal  occupations,  form  the  basis  of  their  poetry,  which 
seldom  aims  at  more  than  the  amusement  of  the  reader.] 

We  may  fairly  take  Chaucer  as  the  poet  of  the  age  we  are 
now  describing,  and  we  shall  find  all  the  ingredients  of  the 
character  of  that  age  collected  in  his  works  :  his  Canterbury 
Tales  are  full  of  broad  but  not  deep  feeling — replete  with 
humour  and  waggery,  and  thus  well  calculated  to  attract  the 
attention  of  a  people  whose  simplicity  was  full  of  archness. 
Let  us  suppose  that  the  works  of  Collins  had  been  put  into 
the  hands  of  one  of  Chaucer's  cotemporaries,  and  that  his  eye 
rested  on  that  immortal  '  ode  on  the  Poetical  Character ; ' 
how  completely  unintelligible  it  must  have  been  to  him. 


1820.  Hazlitt,  William.  Lectures,  chiefly  on  the  Dramatic  Literature 
of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed. 
Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  v,  pp.  190,  195,  196,  239, 
240,  261,  289,  296.) 

IP.  195]  [Ferrex  and  Porrex,  or,  Gorboduc.]  There  seems  a  reference 
to  Chaucer  in  the  wording  of  the  lines — 

"  Then  saw  I  how  he  smiled  with  slaying  knife 
Wrapp'd  under  cloke,  then  saw  I  deep  deceit 
Lurk  in  his  face,  and  death  prepared  for  me."  l 

[p.  196]      The  Induction  to  the  Mirrour  for  Magistrates  .  .  .  sometimes 

reminds  one  of  Chaucer. 

[p.  239]      [Brief  reference  to  "  patient  Grizzel."] 
[p.  240]      Deckar  is  more  like  Chaucer  or  Eoccaccio ;    as  Webster's 

mind   appears   to   have   been   cast   more   in   the    mould    of 

Shakespear's.  .  .   . 
tp.  261]      [Chaucer's  "Palamon  and  Arcite,"  especially  the  latter  part, 

is  more  powerfully  dramatic  than  the  Two  Noble  Kinsmen.] 

1  " The  smiler  -with  the  knife  under  his  cloke." — Knight" s  Tale. 

1820.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  A  Few  Tlioughts  on  Sleep,  [in]  The 
Indicator,  Jan.  12,  1820,  pp.  107-8. 

Chaucer  has  drawn  the  cave  of  the  same  God  [Morpheus] 
with  greater  simplicity  [than  Spenser] ;  but  nothing  can  have 
a  more  deep  and  sullen  effect  than  his  cliffs  and  cold  running 
waters.  It  seems  as  real  as  an  actual  solitude  or  some  quaint 


124  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1820 

old  picture  in  a  book  of  travels  in  Tartaiy.  He  is  telling  the 
Story  of  Ceyx  and  Alcyone  in  the  poem  called  his  Dream 
[i.  e.  The  Book  of  the  Duchesse.  Quotation,  11.  153-69]. 


1820.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Seamen  on  Shore,  [in]  The  Indicator, 
March  15,  1820,  pp.  182-3. 

[p.  182]  Chaucer,  who  wrote  his  "  Canterbury  Tales "  about  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  has  among  his  other  characters 
in  that  work  a  Shipman,  who  is  exactly  of  the  same  cast  as  the 
modern  sailor — the  same  robustness,  courage,  and  rough  drawn 
virtue,  doing  its  duty,  without  being  very  nice  in  helping 
itself  to  its  recreations.  There  is  the  very  dirk,  the  com 
plexion,  the  jollity,  the  experience,  and  the  bad  horsemanship. 
The  plain,  unaffected  ending  of  the  description  has  the  air  of 
a  sailor's  own  speech;  while  the  line  about  the  beard  is 
exceedingly  picturesque,  poetical,  and  comprehensive.  [23 
lines  quoted  from  the  Prologue  (11.  388-410)  and  4  (11.  1187- 
90)  from  the  Shipman's  Prologue.] 


1820.  Hunt,    James    Henry    Leigh.     Spring   and    Daisies,   [in]    The 
Indicator,  April  19,  1820,  pp.  219-21. 

[Reference  to  and  quotation  from  Chaucer's  '  beautiful  poem 
of  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf,'  and  also  quotation  from  the 
passage  in  the  Legend  of  Good  Women  [11.  29-53]  where  '  he 
says  that  nothing  but  the  daisied  fields  in  spring  could  take 
him  from  his  books.'  Lines  178-84  are  further  quoted,  and 
Hunt  then  states  in  a  footnote  that  it  is  not  generally  known 
that  Chaucer  was  four  years  in  prison  in  his  old  age  for  the 
freedom  of  his  opinions]. 


1820.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.     Mayday,  [in]  The  Indicator,  April 
26,  1820,  pp.  228-31. 

But  when  morning  pleasures  are  to  be  spoken  of,  the  lovers 
of  poetry  who  do  not  know  Chaucer,  are  like  those  who  do  not 
know  what  it  is  to  be  up  in  the  morning.  He  has  left  us  two 
exquisite  pictures  of  the  solitary  observance  of  May,  in  his 
"  Palamon  and  Arcite."  They  are  the  more  curious  inasmuch 
as  the  actor  in  one  is  a  lady,  and  in  the  other  a  knight.  How 
far  they  owe  any  of  their  beauty  to  his  original,  the  "  Theseide" 
of  Boccaccio,  we  cannot  say.  ...  To  begin,  as  in  duty 


1820]  Chaucer  Criticism  ami  Allusion.  125 

bound,  with  the  lady.  How  she  sparkles  through  the  anti 
quity  of  the  language,  like  a  young  beauty  in  an  old  hood  ! 

Thus  passeth  yere  by  yere,  and  day  by  day, 
Tille  it  felle  ones  in  a  morrowe  of  May, 
That  Emelie— 

But  we  will  alter  the  spelling  where  we  can,  as  in  a  former 
instance,  merely  to  let  the  reader  see  what  a  notion  is  in  his 
way  if  he  suffers  the  look  of  Chaucer's  words  to  prevent  his 
enjoying  him. 

Thus  passeth  year  by  year,  and  day  by  day, 
[and  29  more  lines,  ending] 

There  as  this  Emily  had  her  playning. 

Bright  was  the  sun,  and  clear  that  morwening- — 

[Knightes  Tale,  11.  1033-62.] 

How  finely,  to  our  ears  at  least,  the  second  line  of  the 
couplet  always  rises  up  from  this  full  stop  at  the  first ! 

Bright  was  the  sun,  and  clear  that  morwening 

[and  seven  more  lines]. 

Sir  "Walter  Scott,  in  his  edition  of  Dryden  [q.  v.  above, 
1808],  says  upon  the  passage  before  us,  and  Dryden's  version 
of  it,  that  'the  modern  must  yield  the  palm  to  the  ancient, 
in  spite  of  the  beauty  of  his  versification.'  We  quote  from 
memory,  but  this  is  the  substance  of  his  words.  For  our  parts 
we  agree  with  them,  as  to  the  consignment  of  the  palm,  but 
not  as  to  the  exception  about  the  versification.  With  some 
allowance  as  to  our  present  mode  of  accentuation,  it  appears 
to  us  to  be  touched  with  a  finer  sense  of  music  even  than 
Dryden's.  It  is  more  delicate,  without  any  inferiority  in 
strength,  and  still  more  various. 

[A  comparison  of  Chaucer's  and  Dryden's  descriptions  of 
Arcite  follow — both  passages  are  quoted  and  Dryden's 
declared  inferior.  The  passage  ends :] 

There  was  as  much  difference  between  him  and  his  original, 
as  between  a  hot  noon  in  perukes  at  St.  James's,  and  one  of 
Chaucer's  lounges  on  the  grass,  of  a  May  morning. 


1820.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.     La  Belle  Dame  sans  Mercy,  [in] 
The  Indicator,  May  10,  1820,  pp.  246-7. 

[p.  246]      Among  the  pieces  printed  at  the  end  of   Chaucer's  works, 


126  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1820 

and  attributed  to  him,  is  a  translation,  under  this  title,  of  a 
poem  of  the  celebrated  Alain  Chartier,  secretary  to  Charles 
the  Sixth  and  Seventh.  It  was  the  title  which  suggested  to 
a  friend  the  verses  at  the  end  of  our  present  number  [Keats's 
'Belle  Dame  sans  Mercy,'  signed  'Caviare']  .  .  . 
[p.  247]  We  know  not  in  what  year  Chartier  was  born,  but  he  must 
have  lived  to  a  good  age  and  written  the  poem  in  his 
youth  if  Chaucer  translated  it;  for  he  died  in  1449,  and 
Chaucer,  an  old  man,  in  1400.  The  beginning,  however,  as 
well  as  the  goodness  of  the  version,  looks  as  if  our  country 
man  had  done  it,  for  he  speaks  of  the  translation  having  been 
enjoined  him  by  way  of  penance.  And  the  Legend  of  Good 
Women  was  the  result  of  a  similar  injunction  in  consequence 
of  his  having  written  some  stories  not  so  much  to  the  credit 
of  the  sex !  He  who,  as  he  represents,  had  written  infinite 
things  in  their  praise  !  But  the  Court-ladies,  it  seems,  did  not 
relish  the  story  of  Troilus  and  Cressida.  The  exordium, 
which  the  translator  has  added,  is  quite  in  our  poet's  manner. 
He  says  that  he  rose  one  day,  not  well  awaked ;  and  thinking 
how  he  should  best  enter  on  his  task,  he  took  one  of  his 
morning  walks, 

Till  I  came  to  a  lusty  green  valiy 
[and  four  following  lines]. 


1820.  [Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh?]  Death  and  the  Drunkards  [the 
Pardoneres  Tale]  modernized  from  Chaucer,  [in]  Oilier^  Literary 
Miscellany,  No.  1  [and  last],  pp.  48-53. 

IP.  53]  [Appended  is  the  following  note :]  The  above  is  a  prose 
modernisation  of  one  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer.  The 
reader,  who  has  been  deterred  from  the  pages  of  this  great 
poet,  in  consequence  of  the  vulgar  opinion  that  they  are  insur 
mountably  obsolete  and  difficult,  will  perhaps  be  struck  with 
the  grand  and  simple  power  shown  here ;  and  when  he  learns 
that  the  words  are  Chaucer's  own,  he  may  get  rid  of  his 
timidity  and  go  at  once  to  the  original  works  where  he  will 
be  richly  rewarded  for  a  little  preliminary  trouble.  This  is 
the  only  aim  of  the  above ;  for  every  alteration  of  Chaucer  is 
an  injury. 

[This  is  attributed  here  to  Leigh  Hunt  on  account  of  its  similarity  to  parts  of  the 
passage  from  his  Mayday,  of  the  same  year ;  some  of  which  is  quoted  above.] 


1820]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  127 

1820.  [Lamb,  Charles.]  Oxford  in  the  Vacation,  signed  'Elia,'  [in] 
The  London  Magazine,  Oct.  1820,  p.  366.  (Published  in  Elia, 
1823.  The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas, 
7  vols..  1903-5,  vol.  ii,  Elia  [no.  2],  p.  9.) 

The  walks  at  these  times  are  .  so  much  one's  own, — 
the  tall  trees  of  Christ's,  the  groves  of  Magdalen  !  The  halls 
deserted,  and  with  open  doors,  inviting  one  to  slip  in  un- 
perceived.  .  .  .  Then,  to  take  a  peep  in  by  the  way  of  the 
butteries,  and  sculleries,  redolent  of  antique  hospitality  :  the 
immense  caves  of  kitchens,  kitchen  fireplaces,  cordial  recesses; 
ovens  whose  first  pies  were  baked  four  centuries  ago ;  and 
spits  which  have  cooked  for  Chaucer !  'Not  the  meanest 
minister  among  the  dishes  but  is  hallowed  to  me  through  his 
imagination,  and  the  Cook  goes  forth  a  Manciple. 

1820.  Lamb,  Charles.  Review  of  Keats's  Lamia  and  other  Poems,  [in] 
The  New  Times,  July  19,  1820.  (The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary 
Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5,  7  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  201.) 

Like  the  radiance,  which  comes  from  those  old  windows 
upon  the  limbs  and  garments  of  the  damsel  [in  the  Eve  of 
St.  Agnes],  is  the  almost  Chaucer-like  painting,  with  which 
this  poet  illumes  every  subject  he  touches.  .  .  .  The  finest 
thing  in  the  volume  is  the  paraphrase  of  Boccaccio's  story  of 
the  Pot  of  Basil.  .  .  .  Her  [Isabella's]  avowal  at  it  [the 
grave]  and  digging  for  the  body,  is  described  in  the  following 
stanzas,  than  which  there  is  nothing  more  awfully  simple  in 
diction,  more  nakedly  grand  and  moving  in  sentiment,  in 
Dante,  in  Chaucer,  or  in  Spenser : 

She  gazed  into  the  fresh-thrown  mould  [etc.]. 

1320.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell.  Letter  to  Sir  William  Elford,  Aug.  24, 
1820,  [in]  The  Life  of  Mary  Russell  Mitford,  ed.  Rev.  A.  G. 
L'Estrange,  1870,  vol.  ii,  p.  108. 

I  have  as  yet  only  seen  some  extracts  from  Mr.  Keats's 
new  poems.  Those  extracts  seem  to  me  finer  than  anything 
that  has  been  written  these  two  hundred  years — finer  than 
Wordsworth  even — more  Dantesque,  a  compound  of  Chaucer 
and  the  old  Florentine.  I  hope  and  trust  he  will  live  to 
answer  his  barbarous  critics  by  many  such  works. 

1820.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Abbot,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  ch.  i,  p.  9.  (Border 
Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  ii,  ch.  vii,  p.  108.)  [Brief 
reference  to  Chaucer's  Pardoner.  For  references  added  in  Intro 
duction  and  notes  to  later  edns.,  see  below,  1831.] 


128  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1820 

1820.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Monastery,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  ch.  x,  p.  302  ; 
vol.  ii,  ch.  i,  pp.  9-10  and  n.  ;  vol.  iii,  ch.  iv,  pp.  94-5.  (Border 
edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1894,  vol.  i,  ch.  xi,  p.  132  ;  ch.  xii% 
p.  154  ;  vol.  ii,  ch.  xii,  p.  164.)  [For  an  additional  reference  iii 
the  introduction  to  later  edns.,  see  below,  1830.] 

[TO!,  i,       It  is  an  old  proverb,  used  by  Chaucer,  and  quoted  by  Eliza- 
P-132-]  beth,  that  "the  greatest  clerks  are  not  the  wisest  men";  and 

it  is  as  true  as  if  the  poet  had  not  rhymed  or  the   Queen 

reasoned  on  it. 

[For  other  references  by  Scott  to  Queen  Elizabeth's  quotation  of  this  line,  see 
below,  1821,  Kenilworth,  and  1828,  Tales  of  a  Grandfather.] 

[vol.  i^       But  then  a  miller  should  always  be  of  manly  make,  and 

has  been  described  so  since  the  days  of  Chaucer  and  James  I.1 

[voi  ii,      [Brief  reference  to  Chaucer's  Knight,  and  quotation  of  Prol. 

P-1641    1.   69.] 

1  The  verse  we  have  chosen  for  a  motto,  is  from  a  poem  imputed  to 
James  I.  of  Scotland.  As  for  the  Miller  who  figures  among  the 
Canterbury  Pilgrims,  besides  his  sword  and  buckler,  lie  boasted  other 
attributes,  all  of  which,  but  especially  the  last,  shew  that  he  relied 
more  on  the  strength  of  the  outside  than  of  the  inside  of  his  skull. 

The  miller  was  a  stout  carl  for  the  nones, 

Full  big  he  was  of  brawn,  and  eke  of  bones  ; 

That  proved  well,  for  wheresoe'r  he  cam, 

At  wrestling  he  wold  bear  away  the  ram  : 

He  was  short-shoulder'd,  broad,  a  thick  gnar  ; 

There  n'as  no  door  that  he  n'old  heave  of  bar, 

Or  break  it  at  a  running  Avith  his  head,  &c.         [Prol.,  11. 545-51.] 


1820.  Unknown.  Ancient  State  of  the  Jews  in  England,  [in]  The 
London  Magazine,  May,  pp.  505,  509  and  n. 

Chaucer,  who  so  clearly  shews  us  the  minutest  peculiarities, 
as  well  as  the  deepest  feelings  of  his  times,  gives  us,  in  the 
Prioresses  Tale,  the  feeling  of  the  pious  as  to  the  motives 
of  this  toleration  of  princes. 

There  was  in  Asie  in  a  gret  citee 

[and  four  following  lines.] 

[Prioresses  Tale,  11.  36-40.] 

[p.  509]  Chaucer,  who  used  the  poet's  licence  of  supporting  any 
fable,  however  mischievous,  from  which  he  might  produce 
a  striking  effect,  alludes,  in  the  beautiful  tale  which  we  have 
already  quoted, — and  which  is  as  powerful  in  the  expression 
of  devout  implicit  faith,  as  '  the  story  of  Cambuscan  bold '  or 
the  Knight's  tale,  is  in  romantic  or  chivalrous  feeling, — to  the 
story  of  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  and  puts  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Prioress  an  excellent  reason  for  her  belief  in  it ; — 


1820]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  129 

0  Young  Hew  of  Lincoln  !  slain  also 

With  cursed  Jews,  as  it  is  notable 

For  it  n'  is  but  a  litel  while  ago, 

Pray  else  for  us,  we  sinful  folks  unstable,  etc. 

[Prioresses  Tale,  11.  232-5.] 

This  'little  while  ago'  was  about  130  or  140  years,  so 
that  the  Prioress  of  Chaucer  must  have  had  as  accurate  a 
personal  knowledge  of  the  fact,  as  we  have  of  the  young 
Pretender's  being  conveyed  into  the  bed  of  James  the  Second's 
Queen,  in  a  warming  pan,  in  the  year  1688. 

1820.  Unknown.  Manners  of  the  Athenians,  [in]  The  Quarterly 
Eeview,  May,  1820,  vol.  xxiii,  p.  267  n. 

In  his  [Aristophanes']  Birds,  the  sycophant,  more  bold  than 
Chaucer's  summoner,  whom  he  there  resembles  in  vocation, 
announces  his  trade  and  justifies  it  by  reasoning.  [Brief 
quotation,  Freres  Tale,  11.  1393-4.] 

1820.  [Waine wright,   Thomas   Griffiths  ?]     Modest   Offer  o/  Service 

from  Mr.  Bonmot  to  the  Editor  of  the  "  London  Magazine,"  [in] 

The  London  Magazine,  Jan.,  1820,  pp.  22,  24.    [Ascribed  to  Waine- 

wright   conjecturally  and  reprinted"  in  Essays  and  Criticisms  by 

.  T.  G.  Wainewright,  1880,  pp.  2,  9.] 

[The  '  modest  offer '  in  the  form  of  a  letter  is  followed  by 
twelve  stanzas,  which,  says  the  editor,  "  We  believe  we  owe 
to  Mr.  Eonmot's  goodness."  One  stanza  alludes  to  Chaucer :] 

I'm  glad  to  find  there  is  a  doubt 

From  what  trunk  Chaucer  was  a  sprout ; — 

A  noble  one  some  say  : 
But  whispers  go,  that  Chaucer's  father 
A  vintner  was — or  cobbler  rather — 

Hence  his  French  name — Chancier. 

1820.  [Wainewright,  Thomas  Griffiths.]  Sentimentalities  on  the  Fine 
Arts,  by  Janus  Weathercock,  Esq.,  nos.  ii,  iii,  [in]  The  London 
Magazine,  March  and  April,  pp.  285,  287,  402-3.  (Essays  and 
Criticisms,  1880,  pp.  23,  29,  38.) 

[P.  23]       [Quotation  for  heading : 

Through  the  trees  the  Sunne  shone  [to] 

Ne  in  all  the  welkin  was  no  cloud. 

[P.  29]       [Quotations,  Prol.,  1.  81,  and  Rom.  Eose,  1.  826.] 
[P.  38]       [Quotation,  Legend  of  Good  Women,  11.  31  sqq.~] 

CHAUCER   CRITICISM. II.  K 


130  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1820- 

1820.  Wordsworth,  Dorothy.  Journal  of  a  Tour  on  the  Continent, 
[in]  the  Journals  of  Dorothy  Wordsworth  (ed.  W.  Knight,  2  vols., 
1897,  vol.  ii,  pp.  179,  186). 

IP.  iro]  Cologne,  Saturday,  July  22nd. — .  ,  .  We  turned  our  backs 
upon  the  cathedral  tower  of  Cologne,  an  everlasting  monument 
...  of  sublime  designs  unaccomplished — remaining,  though 
not  wholly  developed,  sufficient  to  incite  and  guide  the  dullest 
imagination, — 

Call  up  him  who  left  half-told 

The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold  ! 

[p.  186]  Mayence  [no  date]  .  .  .  Last  night,  in  reading  Chaucer's 
Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales,  mine  host  of  the  Tabard 
recalled  to  my  memory  our  merry  master  in  the  dining  room 
at  Mayence. 

A  seemly  man  our  Hoste  was  withalle 

To  han  bene  a  Marshal  in  an  Halle ; 

A  large  man  he  was — bold  of  his  speech. 

1820.     Wordsworth,  William.     Seathwaite  Chapel  :  sonnet  xviii  [in 
.      the  River  Duddon  series].     (Poetical  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1896, 
8  vols.,  vol.  vi,  p.  249,  269-70  [Notes].) 

In  those  days 

When  this  low  pile  a  Gospel  Teacher  knew, 
Whose  good  works  formed  an  endless  retinue : 
Such  Priest  as  Chaucer  sang  in  fervent  lays. 
[The  revised  text  of  1845  reads  : 

"  A  Pastor  such  as  Chaucer's  verse  portrays."] 

tr.  269]  [Note  on  the  above  lines  following  an  extract  from  parish 
register  of  Seathwaite  Chapel  concerning  the  burial  of  the 
Eev.  Robert  Walker  :] 

IP.  270]  This  individual  is  the  Pastor  alluded  to,  in  the  eighteenth 
Sonnet,  as  a  worthy  compeer  of  the  Country  Parson  of 
Chaucer. 


1820-21.  [Hazlitt,  Willicim.]  The  Plain  Speaker.  Vol.  i.  On  the 
Pleasure  of  Hating,  p.  321.  Vol.  ii.  On  Reading  Old  Books,  p.  78. 
On  Personal  Character,  p.  111.  On  Antiquity,  p.  147.  On  the 
Difference  between  Writing  and  Speaking,  p.  183.  On  a  Portrait 
of  an  English  Lady,  p.  208.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt, 
ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  133-4,  227, 
240,  255,  270,  280.) 

[Some  of  the  Essays  appeared,  as  "  Table  Talk,"  in  the  London  Magazine,  1820-21.] 


1821]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  131 

[On  the  Pleasure  of  Hating.] 

[p.  133]  To  cry  up  Shakespeare  as  the  God  of  our  idolatry,  seems 
like  a  vulgar  national  prejudice  ;  to  take  down  a  volume  of 
Chaucer,  or  Spencer,  or  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  or  Ford,  or 
Marlowe,  has  very  much  like  the  look  of  pedantry  and 
egotism. 

•          ••••••••• 

[On  Antiquity.] 

[p.  255]  When  Chaucer,  in  his  Troilus  and  Cressida,  makes  the 
Trojan  hero  invoke  the  absence  of  light,  in  these  two  lines — 

Why  proffer'st  thou  light  for  me  to  sell? 
Go  selle  it  them  that  smalle  seles  grave ! 

he  is  guilty  of  an  anachronism;  or  at  least  I  much  doubt 
whether  there  was  such  a  profession  as  that  of  seal-engraver  in 
the  Trojan  war. 

1821.  Byron,  George  Gordon,  Lord.  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  Preface 
[signed  "Quevedo  Redivivus"].  (The  Works  of  Lord  Byron, 
Poetry,  ed.  E.  Hartley  Coleridge,  1899,  etc.,  vol.  iv,  p.  484 ;  one 
volume  ed.,  1905,  p.  517.) 

The  whole  action  passes  on  the  outside  of  heaven;  and 
Chaucer's  Wife  of  Bath,  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore,  Swift's 
Tale  of  a  Tub,  .  .  .  are  cases  in  point  of  the  freedom  with 
which  saints,  etc.,  may  be  permitted  to  converse  in  works  not 
intended  to  be  serious. 

[The  Allusion  is  to  the  Ballad,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  288,  and  below,  App.  A.,  c. 
1670.  The  Vision  of  Judgment  was  finished  on  October  4,  1821.  The  Preface, 
though  written  at  the  same  time,  was  not  published  with  the  poem  in  the  Liberal 
(no.  1,  Oct.  15,  1822),  tee  Works,  Poetry,  ed.  B.  H.  Coleridge,  vol.  iv,  p.  478.  ] 


1821-4.  [Cary,  Henry  Francis.]  The  Early  French  Poets,  [in]  The 
London  Magazine,  Dec.  1821,  vol.  iv,  pp.  588,  591 ;  March  1822, 
vol.  v,  p.  231  ;  Jan.  1823,  vol.  vii,  p.  44 ;  May,  1823,  vol.  vii, 
p.  554 ;  Sept.  1823,  vol.  viii,  pp.  305-6  n  ;  April  1824,  vol.  ix, 
pp.  402-3.  (Volume  edn.,  1846,  pp.  3-4, 12,  51, 185,  212,  232-4  n, 
271,  273,  275.) 

[pp.  3-4]  [Marot's  Temple  of  Cupid  worthy  of  Chaucer.] 
tp.  12]  It  may  be  seen  from  this  view  of  one  of  his  poems  (the 
Temple  of  Cupid)  how  strong  a  resemblance  Marot  bears  to 
Chaucer.  He  has  the  same  liveliness  of  fancy;  the  same 
rapidity  and  distinctness  of  pencil;  the  same  archness;  the 
same  disposition  to  satire :  but  he  has  all  these  generally  in  a 


132  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1821 

less  degree.  His  language  does  not  approach  much  nearer  to 
the  modern  than  old  Geoffrey's,  though  his  age  is  so  much 
less  remote  from  ours. 

[p.  51]  When  we  consider,  that  .  .  .  the  Father  of  English  poetry 
used  to  refresh  himself  largely  at  the  same  fountain  [French 
poetry],  we  cannot  but  look  upon  it  as  a  source  of  hallowed 
waters. 

[p.  212]  [Ros's  translation  of  "  La  Belle  Dame  sans  Merci,"  mis 
takenly  attributed  to  Chaucer.] 


1821.  De  Quincey,  Thomas.  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater, 
pt.  ii,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  Oct.  1821,  p.  364.  (Works, 
1862-71,  vol.  i,  p.  218.) 

Here  I  take  the  liberty  of  an  Eclectic  philosopher,  and  I 
look  out  for  some  courteous  and  considerate  sect  that  will 
condescend  more  to  the  infirm  condition  of  an  opium-eater ; 
that  are  "  sweet  men,"  as  Chaucer  says,  "to  give  absolution," 
and  will  show  some  conscience  in  the  penances  they  inflict, 
and  the  efforts  of  abstinence  they  exact,  from  poor  sinners 
like  myself. 

[In  the  later  editions  "  sweet  men,  &c."  was  replaced  by 
"pleasant  men  and  courteous,  such  as  Chaucer  describes,  to 
hear  confession  or  to  give  absolution  .  .  ."] 


1821.  Hazlitt,  William.  Pope,  Lord  Byron,  and  Mr.  Bowles,  [in]  The 
London  Magazine,  June  1821,  pp.  605-6.  (Collected  Works  of 
William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  505-6.) 

[p.  605]  Natural  interests  are  those  which  are  real  and  inevitable,  and 
are  so  far  contradistinguished  from  the  artificial,  which  are 
factitious  and  affected.  If  Lord  Byron  cannot  understand  the 
difference,  he  may  find  it  explained  by  contrasting  some  of 
Chaucer's  characters  and  incidents  with  those  in  the  Rape  of 
the  Lock,  for  instance.  Custance  floating  in  her  boat  on  the 
wide  sea,  is  different  from  Pope's  heroine, 

*  Launched  on  the  bosom  of  the  silver  Thames.' 

[p.  606]  Griselda's  loss  of  her  children,  one  by  one,  of  her  all,  does 
not  belong  to  the  same  class  of  incidents,  nor  of  subjects  for 
poetry,  as  Belinda's  loss  of  her  favourite  curl  .  .  .  There  is 


1821]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  133 

more  true,  unfeigned,  unspeakable,  heartfelt  distress  in  one 
line  of   Chaucer's  Tale  just  mentioned  [The  Clerkes  Tale], 

1  Let  me  not  like  a  worm  go  by  the  way,'  p.  880] 

than  in  all  Pope's  writings  put  together  j  and  we  say  it  with 
out  any  disrespect  to  him  too. 

1821.  Markland,  James  Heywood.  Some  Remarks  on  the  early  use  of 
Carriages  in  England,  read  February  22,  1821,  [in]  Archaeologia, 
vol.  xx  (1824),  pp.  445,  452. 

{p.  445]  Our  female  ancestors  despised  both  distance  and  weather ; 
and  the  Wife  of  Bath,  whose  praise  it  was  that,  "  girt  with 
a  pair  of  sporres  sharps"  "  upon  an  ambler  esily  she  sat," 
would  doubtless  have  felt  herself  insulted  had  a  carriage  been 
selected  for  her  use. 

1821.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Pirate,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  ch.  xv,  p.  339. 
(Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  ii,  chap,  xxii,  p.  331.) 

Enveloped  in  the  vain  occult  sciences  which  she  [Norna] 
pretended  to  practise,  her  study,  like  that  of  Chaucer's  phy 
sician,  had  been  "but  little  in  the  Bible." 

1821.  Scott,  Sir  "Walter.  Kenilworth,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  ch.  i,  p.  4,  ch.  xi, 
p.  265  ;  vol.  ii,  ch.  xii,  p.  312  ;  vol.  iii,  ch.  vi,  p.  92.  (Border 
Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  2  vols.  vol.  i,  ch.  i,  p.  2,  ch.  xi, 
p.  173  ;  vol.  ii,  ch.  vii,  pp.  109-10,  eh.  xiv,  pp.  185-6.) 

(vol.  i,      Since  the  days  of  old  Harry  Baillie  of  the  Tabbard  [sic]  in 
p>21  South wark,  no  one  had  excelled  Giles  Gosling  in  the  power 

of  pleasing  his  guests  of  every  description. 
[vol  if  [Heading  to  Chapter  II.] 

P-  1Y31  I  say,  my  lord  can  such  a  subtilty 

[and  six  following  lines]. 

The  Canon's  Yeoman's  Prologue  [ed.  Skeat,  11.  620-26]. 

rvoi  H,      "  0,  she  is  well  attended,  Madam,"  replied  the  dame  whom 
p.  109]  ghe  address^   who  from  her  jolly  and  laughter-loving  de 
meanour,  might  have  been  the  very  emblem  of  the  wife  of  Bath. 
[vol.  ii,       "I  doubt,"  she  [Queen  Elizabeth]  said,  "this  same  poetical 
p.  185]  Master   Tressillian  .   .   .  may   be   one    of    those    of   whom 
Geoffrey  Chaucer  says  wittily,  the  greatest  clerks  are  not  the 
wisest  men." 

[For  other  references  by  Scott  to  Queen  Elizabeth's  quotation  of  this  line  see 
above,  1820,  The  Monastery,  and  below,  1823,  Tales  of  a  Grandfather.} 


134  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1821 

1821.  Shelley,  Mary  Wollstonecraft.  Journal,  [printed  in]  Shelley 
and  Mary,  4  vols.  [privately  printed,  1882],  vol.  iii,  p.  716. 

Shelley  reads  Chaucer's  "  Flower  and  the  Leaf,"  and  then 
Chaucer's  "  Dream  "  to  me. 

[Chaucer's  "  Dream  "  may  be  either  the  Book  of  the  Duchess  or  the  non-Chaucerian 
Isle  of  Ladies. 

Mary  Shelley  says  of  Shelley  (perhaps  referring  only  to  his  earlier  years),  in  her 
note  to  Queen  Mab  (Poetical  Works,  1908,  ed.  T.  Hutchinson,  p.  828),  "Our  earlier 
poetry  was  almost  unknown  to  him."] 

1821.  Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe.  A  Defence  of  Poetry.  (The  Works  of 
P.  B.  Shelley  in  Verse  and  Prose,  ed.  H.  Buxton  Forman,  1880 
[1876-80],  vol.  vii,  pp.  130,  134.) 

[The  Defence  of  Poetry  was  written  in  1821,  and  was  intended  to  be  published  in 
Oilier' t  Literary  Miscellany,  as  an  answer  to  Peacock's  Four  Ages  of  Poetry,  but  it  only 
appeared  posthumously  in  1840  in  Essay  t  and  Letters.} 

[p.  130]  The  age  immediately  succeeding  to  that  of  Dante,  Petrarch 
and  Boccaccio,  was  characterised  by  a  revival  of  painting, 
sculpture  and  architecture.  Chaucer  caught  the  sacred  in 
spiration,  and  the  superstructure  of  English  literature  is  based 
upon  the  materials  of  Italian  invention.  .  .  . 

[p.  134]  But  it  exceeds  all  imagination  to  conceive  what  would  have 
been  the  moral  condition  of  the  world,  if  neither  Dante, 
Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  Chaucer,  Shakspeare,  Calderon,  Lord 
Bacon,  nor  Milton  had  ever  existed ;  if  Raphael  and  Michael 
Angelo  had  never  been  born ;  if  the  Hebrew  poetry  had 
never  been  translated ;  if  a  revival  of  the  study  of  Greek 
literature  had  never  taken  place ;  if  no  monuments  "of  ancient 
sculpture  had  thus  been  handed  down  to  us ;  and  if  the 
poetry  of  the  religion  of  the  ancient  world  bad  been 
extinguished  together  with  its  belief. 

1821.  Unknown.  Mad.  de  Genlis — Petrarque  et  Laure,  [in]  The 
Quarterly  Eeview,  vol.  xxiv,  p.  542. 

[Similitude  in  scheme  of  the  Dream,  Flower  and  Leaf,  and 
Hous  of  Fame,  with  the  Trionfi  of  Petrarch.] 

1821.  Unknown.  Chaucer  and  Don  Juan,  [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh 
Magazine,  Oct.  1821,  vol.  x,  pp.  295-8. 

[An  article  claiming  that  Chaucer  introduced  the  serio-comic 
style  into  English  Literature  long  before  Byron,  and  criticising 
Godwin,  especially  for  his  estimate  of  Troilus,  from  which 
extracts  are  given.] 


1821]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  135 

1821.  Unknown.  Criticism  of  Poems,  Songs  and  Sonnets  .  .  .  by 
Thomas  Carew,  [by]  The  Book  Worm,  no.  vii,  [in]  The  European 
Magazine,  June  1821,  p.  514.  [Headed  by  an  extract :] 

If  that  olde  bokes  were  awaie, 
Ylorne  were  of  remembrance  the  key  ; 
"Wei  ought  us  then  honouren  and  beleve 
These  bokes. — CHAUOER. 

[Legend  of  Good  Women,  Prologue,  25-8,  Text  B.] 
[See  also  below,  c.  1833,  Haslewood,  J.,  Collections  for  the  Lives  of  English  Poets.} 


1821.  Unknown.     Obituary    Notice    of   Edward    Gatacre,    [in]    The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Sept.,  vol.  xci,  p.  281. 

The  late  gentleman  married  his  lady  at  Qual  in  1767,  from 
Dudmaston,  late  the  seat  of  Lady  "Wolryche,  with  whom 
he  became  possessed  of  ...  several  valuable  memorials  .  .  . 
From  this  source  the  original  painting  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer 
on  board,  at  Gatacre,  a  valuable  relick  of  that  reverend  poet, 
was  doubtless  obtained. 


1821.  Unknown.     Review  of   Scott's  Eob   Eoy  .  .  .  Heart  of  Mid 
lothian,  etc.,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Keview,  Oct.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  116. 

But  when  the  author  paints  a  peasant,  a  cowfeeder,  or  a 
queen,  he  takes  from,  a  class  with  which  the  reader  is  so  little 
acquainted,  that,  if  the  figure  be  but  spirited  and  consistent, 
and  contain  nothing  obviously  incompatible  with  its  supposed 
situation,  we  are  willing,  indeed  we  are  forced,  to  take  its  resem 
blance  upon  trust.  And  perhaps  the  author's  consciousness  of 
the  reliance  of  his  reader  is  even  more  valuable  to  him  than 
that  reliance  itself.  ...  He  has  the  same  advantage  which 
Dry  den  translating  Chaucer  had  over  Dry  den  translating 
Virgil. 


1821.  [Wainewright,  Thomas  Griffiths.]  Exhibition  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  July,  1821,  p.  67.  (Essays 
and  Criticisms,  by  Thomas  Griffiths  Wainewright,  1880,  p.  138.) 

[p.  IBS]  I  have  an  utter  distaste  for  Pope,  and  a  most  marvellous 
clinging  to  Chaucer's  fragrant  lusty  descriptions  of  May 
Scenery. 


136  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1821- 

1821.  [Waine wright,  Thomas  Griffiths.]  C.  Van  Vinkbooms,  his 
Dogmas  for  Dilettanti,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  Sept.  1821, 
p.  285.  (Essays  and  Criticisms,  1880,  p.  165.)  [Quotations  from 
The  Book  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  398-404,  414-20,  424-6,  443-9.] 

1821.  Wordsworth,  William.  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets,  Part  n,  No.  xxxi, 
Edward  VI.  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1896,  8  vols., 
vol.  vii,  p.  59.) 

*'  Sweet  is  the  holiness  of  Youth  " — so  felt 

Time-honoured  Chaucer  speaking  through  that  Lay 

By  which  the  Prioress  beguiled  the  way, 

And  many  a  Pilgrim's  rugged  heart  did  melt. 

Hadst  thou,  loved  Bard !  whose  spirit  often  dwelt 

In  the  clear  land  of  vision,  but  foreseen 

King,  child,  and  seraph,  blended  in  the  mien 

Of  pious  Edward  kneeling  as  he  knelt 

In  meek  and  simple  infancy,  what  joy 

For  universal  Christendom  had  thrilled 

Thy  heart !  what  hopes  inspired  thy  genius,  skilled 

(0  great  Precursor,  genuine  morning  Star) 

The  lucid  shafts  of  reason  to  employ, 

Piercing  the  Papal  darkness  from  afar ! 

[The  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets— previously  Ecclesiastical  Sketches— were,  with  some  exception*, 
written  at  Rydal  Mount  in  1821,  and  printed  in  1822.] 


1822.  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  [vols.  i-v  of]  The  British  Poets, 
in  one  hundred  volumes,  Chiswick. 

[The  apocryphal  pieces,  included  in  vol.  v,  are  Cuckow  and 
Nightingale,  Court  of  Love,  Chaucer's  Dream,  and  Flower 
and  Leaf.  For  the  life  by  S.  W.  Singer  see  below.] 

1822.  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer.  To  which  are  added,  an 
essay  upon  his  language  and  versification ;  an  introductory 
discourse  and  notes.  In  four  volumes.  [A  re-issue  of  Tyrwhitt's 
edn.  of  1775-78,  with  his  glossary  added  in  a  fifth  volume.] 

1822-35.  Booth,  David.  An  Analytical  Dictionary  of  the  English 
Language,  1835,  Introduction,  pp.  xiii,  cxvi,  cxx,  cxxiii,  clii, 
clxii,  clxvi,  clxxx,  clxxxvi,  clxxxvii. 

[The  references  in  the  Introduction  are  brief  allusions  to 
words  and  grammatical  forms  in  Chaucer.  Booth's  Intro 
duction  to  an  Analytical  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language, 
1806,  contains  only  two  slight  references. 


1822]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  137 

1822.  Bullar,  John.  Selections  from  the  British  Poets,  commencing 
with  Spenser  .  .  .  with  .  .  .  short  biographical  notices,  pp.  103-5 
[Dryden]. 

tp.  103]  [Quotes  Hazlitt's  saying  that  "Dryden  and  Pope  are  the 
great  masters  of  the  artificial  style  of  poetry  in  our  language, 
as  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  were  of  the 
natural,"  q.v.  above,  1818.] 

IP-  104]       The  Good  Parson  [extract  from  Dryden's  Prologue]. 


1822,  Digby,  Kenelm  Henry.  The  Broad  Stone  of  Honour,  or  Rules 
for  the  Gentlemen  of  England,  Additional  Appendix,  pp.  370-2. 

[Quotation    of    Chaucer's   description    of   the   Knight,    in 
illustration  of  the  Age  of  Chivalry.] 

1822.'  [Irving,  Washington.]  Bracebridge  Hall,  or  the  Humourists: 
a  Medley,  by  Geoffrey  Crayon,  Gent.,  New  York,  2  vols,  vol.  i, 
pp.  46,  97  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  115-20.  (Works,  Geoffrey  Crayon  edition, 
[1880-83,]  vol.  iii,  pp.  38,  79,  403-7.) 

[p.  38]  [Chapter  heading :] 

She  was  so  charitable  and  pitious 

[to] 
Or  if  man  smote  them  with  a  yard  smart. 

[Prol./U.  143-9.] 

[p.  403]  The  good  Squire's  remarks  brought  to  mind  a  visit  which 
I  once  paid  to  the  Tabard  Inn,  famous  for  being  the  place  of 
assemblage,  from  whence  Chaucer's  pilgrims  set  forth  for 
Canterbury.  It  is  in  the  borough  of  Southwark,  not  far  from 
London  bridge,  and  bears,  at  present,  the  name  of  "  the 
Talbot."  It  has  sadly  declined  in  dignity  since  the  days  of 
Chaucer,  being  a  mere  rendezvous  and  packing  place  of  the 

[p.  404]  great  wagons  that  travel  into  Kent  .  .  .  An  inscription 
over  the  gateway  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  inn  where  Chaucer's 
pilgrims  slept  on  the  night  previous  to  their  departure,  and 
at  the  bottom  of  the  yard  was  a  magnificent  sign,  repre 
senting  them  in  the  act  of  sallying  forth.  I  was  pleased  too 
at  noticing,  that  though  the  present  inn  was  comparatively 
modern,  yet  the  form  of  the  old  inn  was  preserved.  There 
were  galleries  round  the  yard,  as  in  old  times,  on  which 
opened  the  chambers  of  the  guests  .  .  . 

[p.  405]  My  fancy  peopled  the  place  with  the  motley  throng  of 
Canterbury  pilgrims.  [Here  follows  a  description  of  the 
pilgrims,  with  quotations  from  the  Prologue,  concluding  with 


138  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1822 

[p. 406]  "the  ancient  host  of  the  Tabard,  giving  them  his  farewell 
God-send  to  Canterbury";  Irving  having  apparently  for 
gotten  that  the  host  accompanied  the  pilgrims,  and  that  he  is 
not  described  by  Chaucer  as  old.] 

1822.  [Laing,  David.]  Select  Remains  of  the  Ancient  Popular  Poetry  of 
Scotland.  [The  book  is  without  pagination.  There  are  various 
Chaucer  references  in  the  Introductions  by  Laing  :  Prefatory 
note  to  The  Pystyll  of  Swete  Susan.  On  northern  poets'  use  of 
alliteration;  Laing  quotes  Chaucer's  'rum,  ram,  ruf,'  Parson's 
Prol.,  1.  43,  and  also  Gascoigne's  reference  to  it,  q.v.  above,  1575, 
vol.  i,  p.  110.]  No.  12  :  The  Tale  o/  ColJcelbie  Soiv,  p.  1  n.  For 
the  reference  in  the  text  of  Colkelbie  Sow,  (11.  852-3)  see  above 
[1440  ?],  vol.  i.,  p.  44.  Appendix,  p.  14. 

1822.  Nares,  Robert.  A  Glossary  .  .  .  of  words  .  .  .  in  the  works  of 
English  authors.  Preface,  p.  vi. 

I  have  carefully  abstained  from  inserting  the  words  and 
phrases  of  an  earlier  period  than  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  except 
where  the  writers  of  her  time  at  all  affected  the  phraseology 
of  Chaucer ;  which  affectation,  in  my  opinion,  is  almost  the 
only  blemish  of  the  beautiful  poems  of  Spenser.  My  reason 
was  this ;  that,  to  complete  the  rational  view  and  knowledge 
of  our  language,  a  separate  dictionary  must  be  required,  for 
the  works  of  Chaucer,  Gower,  Lydgate,  Occleve,  and  all  those 
writers  who  can  properly  be  called  English ;  that  is,  who 
wrote  when  the  language  was  no  longer  Saxon.  [A  Saxon 
and  a  British  Dictionary  would  complete  the  historical  view 
of  the  language.] 

1822.  P.  Chaucer's  Monument,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Sept., 
vol.  cxii,  p.  221. 

On  my  visit  to  "Westminster  Abbey,  in  July  last,  I  was 
much  disappointed  at  the  slight  shown  to  the  monument  of 
my  old  favourite  Poet,  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  father  of  English 
Poesy.  I  did  expect,  among  other  repairs  and  restorations,  to 
have  seen  this  tomb  noticed,  at  least  the  inscription  made 
legible,  and  the  figure  of  the  old  Bard  restored,  which  have 
long  been  nearly  obliterated;  but  it  is  at  present  merely 
coloured  black,  probably  the  restoration  will  follow ;  decency 
demands  something  should  be  done.  [The  inscription  on 
Chaucer's  tomb  is  then  given ;  with  a  mistake  in  the  third 
line  of  "mortis"  for  "vitae."] 


1822]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  139 

1822.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii, 
ch.  xii,  p.  330  n.  (Border  edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  2  vols., 
vol.  ii,  chap,  xx,  p.  331  n.) 

Chaucer  says,  there  is  nothing  new  but  what  it  has  been 
old. 


1822.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Peveril  of  the  Peak,  4  vols.,  vol.  ii,  ch.  ix, 
pp.  226-7  ;  vol.  iv,  ch.  vi,  p.  122.  (Border  Edition,  ed.  Andrew 
Lang,  1893,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  chap,  vii,  pp.  108-9,  vol.  iii,  ch.  ii, 
p.  165.) 

[V°i08j  '<J^  dainty  dame,  and  dangerous,  is  the  miller's  wife,"  said 
the  stranger,  looking  at  Peveril.  "  Is  not  that  old  Chaucer's 
phrase  1 " 

"  I — I  believe  so,"  said  Peveril,  not  much  read  in  Chaucer, 
who  was  then  even  more  neglected  than  at  present  .  .  . 

"  Yes,"  answered  the  Stranger;  "I  see  that  you,  like  other 
young  gentlemen  of  the  time,  are  better  acquainted  with 
Cowley  and  Waller  than  with  '  the  well  of  English  undefiled.' 
I  cannot  help  differing.  There  are  touches  of  nature  about 
the  old  bard  of  Woodstock  that,  to  me,  are  worth  all  the  turns 
of  laborious  wit  in  Cowley,  and  all  the  ornate  and  artificial 
simplicity  of  his  courtly  competitor.  The  description,  for 
instance,  of  his  country  coquette, — 

Wincing  she  was,  as  is  a  wanton  colt, 
Sweet  as  a  flower,  and  upright  as  a  bolt. 

Then  again  for  pathos,  where  will  you  mend  the  dying  scene 
of  Arcite  ? 

Alas,  my  heartis  queen  !  alas,  my  wife  ! 
Giver  at  once,  and  ender  of  my  life. 
What  is  this  world  ? — what  axen  men  to  have  ? 
Now  with  his  love — now  in  his  cold  grave 
Alone,  withouten  other  company. 

But  I  tire  you,  sir;  and  do  injustice  to  the  poet,  whom  I 
remember  but  by  halves." 

lp?ioi]  "On  *ke  contrary,  snV'  replied  Peveril,  "you  make  him 
more  intelligible  to  me  in  your  recitation,  than  I  have  found 
him  when  I  have  tried  to  peruse  him  myself." 

"You  were  only  frightened  by  the  antiquated  spelling,  and 
'  the  letters  black,' "  said  his  companion.  "  It  is  many  a 
scholar's  case,  who  mistakes  a  nut,  which  he  could  crack  with 


140  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1822- 

a  little  exertion,  for  a  bullet,  which  he  must  needs  break  his 
teeth  on  .  .  ." 

Cp0li65]  ^ur  imPatient  friend  [Geoffrey  Hudson]  scrambled,  with 
some  difficulty,  on  the  top  of  the  bench  intended  for  his  seat ; 
and  there,  "  paining  himself  to  stand  a-tiptoe,"  like  Chaucer's 
gallant  Sir  Chaunticlere,  he  challenged  the  notice  of  the 
audience. 


1822.  Singer,  Samuel  Weller.  Life  of  Chaucer,  [prefixed  to]  Poetical 
Works  of  Chaucer,  The  British  Poets,  one  hundred  vols.,  1822 
[q.v.  above,  p.  136],  vol.  i,  pp.  v-xxx. 

[The  Testament  of  Love,  Complaint  of  The  Blade  Knight, 
Court  of  Love,  Flower  and  Leaf,  and  Chaucer's  Dream  (Isle  of 
Ladies)  are  all  accepted  as  genuine,  and  the  biography,  based 
to  some  extent  on  Speght,  contains  the  usual  incorrect  account 
of  the  exile  and  imprisonment  of  the  poet.  The  traditions  are 
mentioned  of  his  living  at  Woodstock  and  buying  Donnington 
Castle.  A  brief  account  of  the  great  editions  of  Chaucer  closes 
the  Life.] 


1822.  Thurlow,  Edward  Ho  veil,  Lord.  Arcita  and  Palamon  after  the 
Excellent  Poet  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  Preface,  pp.  v,  vi  ;  Arcita  and 
Palamon,  pp.  1-113. 

(P.  v]        I  did  not  lay  down   to  myself   any   precise    rule  in  the 
manner  of  making  my  version :    but  the  sense,  which  I  had, 
of  the  great  beauties  of  the  Original,  would  not  allow  me  far 
to  wander  from  it.   ... 
[The  rendering  begins  :] 

In  the  old  time,  as  the  old  stories  say, 

A  duke  in  Athens,  did  the  sceptre  sway, 

His  name  was  Theseus,  and  of  mighty  state, 

And  such  a  victor  in  his  time  and  date, 

Under  the  bright  sun  there  was  none  more  great.  .  .  . 

1822.  Unknown.  Astrology  and  Alchemy,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review, 
vol.  xxvi,  pp.  201,  202. 

(p.  201]  From  the  relation,  it  is  equally  evident  that  the  Baron  of 
Chaos  [Blchterhausen,  a  quack]  practised  one  of  the  juggling 
tricks  of  the  u  elvish  craft  "  which  have  been  so  well  described 
by  Dan  Chaucer.  [Quotation  from  Canon's  Yeoman's  Tale, 
11.  705-29.] 


1823]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  141 

1822.  Unknown.     Eeview  of  Nares'  Glossary,  [in]   The  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  Dec.,  vol.  xcii,  p.  524. 

[For  Nares,  see  abore,  1822.] 

There  are  three  works  which  exhibit  the  state  of  our 
language  at  three  aeras,  in  a  very  satisfactory  form.  The  first 
is  Eobert  of  Gloucester  ...  He  is,  generally  speaking, 
more  intelligible  than  Chaucer,  there  being  only  a  few 
mixtures  of  Norman-French. 

The  next  author  is  Chaucer.  In  "Tyrwhitt's  Essay  on 
the  Language  and  Versification  of  Chaucer,"  annexed  to  the 
fourth  volume  of  his  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  we  have  all  the 
changes  of  the  language  minutely  particularized. 


1823.  Brayley,  Edward  Wedlake.  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the 
Abbey  Church  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster.  .  .  illustrated  by  John 
Preston  Neale,  1818-23,  vol.  ii  (1823),  pp.  33  n.,  265,  267. 

[P.  33,  The  View  in  Poet's  Corner,  Plate  XL  [on  the  left  of  p.  33], 
note]  gives  a  complete  idea  of  the  south-east  part  of  this  (south) 
Transept.  It  shows,  also,  the  situations  and  forms  of  the 
following  Monuments,  commencing  from  the  left :  1,  Dr. 
Anthony  Horneck;  2,  Mrs.  Martha  Birch;  3,  the  Poet 
Cowley;  4,  John  Eoberts,  Esq.;  5,  Sir  Geoffrey  Chaucer; 
...  8,  Michael  Dray  ton,  Esq. ;  ...  10,  the  immortal 
Shakespeare.  .  .  . 

[p. 265]  Chaucer,  the  "Father  of  English  Poetry,"  if  that  appella 
tion  be  not  more  justly  due  to  his  contemporary  Gower,  died  in 
October  1400  [etc.,  detailed  description  of  his  tomb,  his  epitaph 
quoted,  the  portrait  which  used  to  be  beside  it  mentioned,  of 
which  not  a  vestige  is  left].  On  the  ledge  of  the  Tomb  were 
these  lines : 

Si  rogitas  qvis  erarn,  forsan  te  fama  docebit, 
Quod  si  fama  negat,  mvndi  qvia  gloria  transit, 
Hsec  Monvmenta  Lege. 

From  Camd en's  words — "  Musarum  nomine  hujus  ossa  trans- 
tulit" — it  would  seem  that  Chaucer's  ashes  were  removed  to 
the  new  tomb.  Dart  [q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  363]  states  that 
his  gravestone  was  taken  up  when  Dryden's  Monument  was 
erected,  and  sawn  in  pieces  to  mend  the  pavement ! 


142  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1823 

1823.  [De  Q/uincey,  Thomas.]  Letters  to  a  Young  Man  whose  Educa 
tion  has  been  Neglected,  by  the  Author  of  The  Confessions  of  an 
English  Opium-Eater,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  Jan.,  March, 
vol.  vii,  pp.  89,  329.  (Collected  Writings  of  Thomas  De  Quincey 
.  .  .  ed.  David  Masson,  Edinburgh,  1890,  vol.  x,  pp.  18,  42.) 

{p.  18]       He  [Coleridge]  should  adopt  as  his  motto  (which  I  make 
it  my  pride  to  have  done  from  my  earliest  days)  the  simple 
grandeur  of  that  line  in  Chaucer's  description  of  his  scholar : 
"  And  gladly  would  he  learn  and  gladly  teach." 

1823.  D'Israeli,  Isaac.  Curiosities  of  Literature,  7th  edn.,  5  vols., 
1823,  vol.  i,p.  183,  vol.  ii,  pp.  101,  103,  104,  105,  106,  107,vol.iii, 
p.  204,  vol.  iv,  pp.  7,  139,  157.  (14th  edn.,  3  vols.,  1849,  vol.  i,  pp. 
108,  249,  250,  vol.  ii,  pp.  30,  109,  120,  vol.  iii,  p.  487.) 

[For  an  earlier  edn.  see  above,  1807.] 

VOM  *dn'  Tlw  Progress  of  old  age  in  New  Studies.     Chaucer's  Canter- 
P.  108]  "bury  Tales  were  the  composition  of  his  latest  years ;    they 
were  begun  in  his  fifty-fourth  year,  and  finished  in  his  sixty- 
first. 

lp.  249]  Anecdotes  of  Fashion.  Chaucer  has  minutely  detailed  in  "The 
Persone's  Tale  "  the  grotesque  and  costly  fashions  of  his  day  ; 
and  the  simplicity  of  the  venerable  satirist  will  interest  the 
antiquary  and  philosopher.  Much,  and  curiously,  has  his 
caustic  severity  or  lenient  humour  descanted  on  the  "moche 
superfluitee,"  and  "  wast  of  cloth  in  vanitee,"  as  well  as  "  the 
disordinate  scantnesse."  In  the  spirit  of  the  good  old  times,  he 
calculates  "the  coste  of  the  embrouding  or  embroidering;  .  .  . 
the  costlewe  furring  in  the  gounes ;  so  much  pounsoning  of 
chesel  to  maken  holes  (that  is  punched  with  a  bodkin) ;  so 
moche  dagging  of  sheres  (cutting  into  slips) ;  with  the  super 
fluitee  in  length  of  the  gounes  trailing  in  the  dong  and  in  the 
myre  .  .  ."  [His  Parson  also  is  bitter  against  the  "horrible 
disordinat  scantnesse  of  clothing,"  etc.] 

[p.  250]  [Prevalence  of  French  fashions  in  Chaucer's  time.]  In  the 
Prologue  to  the  Prioresse  [sic]  Chaucer  has  these  humorous 
lines  : — 

Entewned  in  her  voice  full  seemly  [etc.] 

[Prol.  11.  123-6.] 

lv°30]'  Origin  of  the  Materials  of  Writing.  Table  books  written 
upon  with  styles  were  not  entirely  laid  aside  in  Chaucer's 
time,  who  describes  them  in  his  Sompners  tale  : — 

His  fellaw  had  a  staffe  tipp'd  with  home 
[and  four  following  lines  (32-6)]. 


1823]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  143 

fvolio9]  Poetical  Imitations  and  Similarities.  Gray  in  his  Elegy 
has — 

"  Even  in  our  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires." 
From  the  following  lines  of  Chaucer,  one  would  imagine  Gray 
caught  the  recollected  idea.     The  old  Eeve,  in  his  prologue, 
says  of  himself,  and  of  old  men, 

"  Eor  what  we  may  not  don  than  wol  we  speken ; 
Yet  in  our  ashen  cold  is  fire  yreken." 

-Tyrwhit's  Chaucer,  vol.  i,  p.  153,  v.  3879. 

[For  this  comparison  see  above,  1782,  vol.  i,  p.  465.] 

Ip°1i20]  "The  laughing  air."  Dryden  has  employed  this  epithet 
boldly  in  the  delightful  lines,  almost  entirely  borrowed  from 
his  original,  Chaucer  : — 

"The  morning  lark,  the  messenger  of  day," 
[and  three  following  lines]. 

— Palamon  and  Arcite,  B.  ii 
p.°487J      Poets — Eonsard,  the  French  Chaucer. 

1823.  F.,  G.  On  Ancient  House  Signs,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
vol.  xciii,  pt.  1,  Suppl.,  p.  601. 

We  are  told  by  an  inscription  over  the  Talbot  Inn-yard,  in 
the  Borough,  that  Geoffrey  Chaucer  and  twenty-nine  pilgrims 
rested  there  on  their  journey  to  Canterbury,  in  1489.  Its 
present  title  is  a  corruption  of  Tabard,  the  name  given  "  to  a 
jacket  or  sleeveless  coat." 

The  witty  poet  of  "  olden  time "  notices  at  length  the 
accommodation  afforded  in  "  Southwerk,  at  the  Tabard." 

[Quotations,  Prol.,  11.  24-5,  28-9,  718-21  (i.e.  716-19).] 

1823.  [Haslewood,  Joseph.  (Hood,  Eu.,  pseud.).]  A  Note  on  the 
habit  of  payment  of  money  at  Chaucer's  Tomb,  and  a  print  of  an 
Elegie  upon  the  death  of  the  auncient  English  poetts  [see  above, 
vol.  i,  1596,  p.  143,  Caesar,  1614,  p.  188,  Freeman],  [in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xciii,  part  1,  p.  226.  [See  below, 
c.  1833,  where  a  similar  note  is  quoted.] 

Vol.  xciii,  part  2,  pp.  109-10.  Inscription  on  Fly-leaf  of  an  im 
perfect  copy  of  Chaucer's  Works.  [See  above,  vol.  i,  p.  425,  1764, 
Gough,  Kichard  ?] 

1823.  H[azlitt],  W[illiam].  My  first  acquaintance  with  Poets,  [in] 
The  Liberal,  vol.  ii,  p.  32.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt, 
ed.  Waller  and  Glover.  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  xii,  p.  265.) 

The  scholar  in  Chaucer  is  described  as  going 

'  Sounding  on  his  way.' 

So  Coleridge  went  on  his. 

[For  a  note  on  Hazlitt 's  quotations  of  this  ««  below,  1825,  p.  156.] 


144  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1823 

1823.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  First  Canto  of  the  Squire's 
Tale  of  Chaucer,  modernized,  [in]  The  Liberal,  No.  iv,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  317-31. 

[The    modernization,    which    is    very   free    in    rendering, 
begins  :] 

At  Sarra,  in  the  land  of  Tartary, 
There  dwelt  a  king,  the  best  beneath  the  sky : 
In  prime  of  life  he  was  a  valiant  man, 
And  Cambus  was  he  called,  the  noble  Khan. 

[At  the  end,  p.  330,  where  Leigh  Hunt  adds  a  good  deal  of 
his  own,  there  is  this  allusion  to  Chaucer :] 

Wake  much,  if  life  go  right :  if  it  go  wrong, 
Learn  how  to  dream  with  Chaucer  all  day  long. 

[For  Leigh  Hunt's  preface  to  the  reprint  of  this,  sec  below,  1855.] 

1823.  [Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh  ?]  The  Book  of  Beginnings,  [a  poem, 
in]  The  Liberal,  vol.  ii,  pp.  93, 114,  115, 117-18  n.,  122  n.,  124-5  n. 

[p.  H7]      [Note]  Where  the  cold  waters  lull  old  Sleep  to  sleep. — See 
Chaucer's  Dream  [i.  e.  The  Book  of  the  Duchesse],  beginning 
I  have  great  wonder,  by  this  light, 
How  I  live  : — 

for  there  is  another  [poem]  under  the  same  title :  [i.  e.  the 
non-Chaucerian  Isle  of  Ladies].  The  poem  in  question  is 
full  of  the  deepest  imagination  and  sentiment.  The  beginning 
conveys  some  touching  information  respecting  the  poet  him 
self.  .  .  . 

[p.  122]  Among  other  poets,  who  begin  small  compositions  in  a 
spirited  and  enjoying  manner,  I  must  not  omit  Theocritus 
and  Chaucer.  .  .  . 

tp.  124]  I  have  gone  a  great  way  from  Chaucer,  but  it  is  always 
easy  to  return  to  him.  His  exquisite  series  of  portraits,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  may  be  accounted 
a  string  of  happy  exordiums.  But  see  also  the  dream  referred 
to  in  note  6,  The  Complaint  of  Mars  and  Yenus,  The  Flower 
and  the  Leaf,  etc.,  never  forgetting  the  exordium  of  the  Wife 
of  Eath's  Tale,  in  which  he  jokes  the  friars  so  happily  upon 
their  succeeding  to  the  ubiquitous  privileges  of  the  fairies. 
Readers  of  taste,  who  have  suffered  themselves  to  be  dis 
mayed  by  the  imaginary  difficulties  of  Chaucer's  language, 
are  astonished  when  they  come  to  find  how  melodious,  as 
well  as  easy  to  read,  is  this  "rude  old  poet"  as  some  have 


1823]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  145 

called  him. — The  syllables,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  form  the 
plural  terminations,  are  to  be  pronounced, — motes,  burghes, 
etc.,  as  they  are  to  this  day  in  many  instances  among  the 
uneducated  classes  of  the  Metropolis ;  and  it  is  a  pity  we 
ever  left  off  pronouncing  them,  our  consonants  being  at  all 
times  too  ready  to  crowd  together,  and  thrust  out  their  softer 
neighbours,  like  fellows  in  a  pit  at  the  theatre.  The  final  e 
also  in  many  words  must  be  humoured,  as  it  still  is  in  French 
poetry,  the  common  ancestor  of  our  own. 

In  olde  dayes  of  the  King  Artour 
[and  23  following  lines  :  Wife  of  B.ith'.s  Tale,  11.  857-80]. 

1823.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  My  Books,  [in]  The  Literary 
Examiner,  July  5th  and  12th  1823.  (Indicator  and  Companion, 
1834.)  [Reprinted  for  the  first  time  in  complete  form  in  Essays  of 
Leigh  Hunt,  edited  by  Richard  Brimley  Johnson,  Dent's  Temple 
Edition,  1891,  pp.  181,  186,  189,  195,  198,  199,  200.] 

U>.  isi]  Sitting  last  winter,  among  my  books  ...  I  looked  ...  on 
my  left  side  at  my  Chaucer,  who  lay  on  a  writing  desk  ; 
and  thought  how  natural  it  was  in  C[harles]  L[amb]  to  give 
a  kiss  to  an  old  folio,  as  I  once  saw  him  do  to  Chapman's 
Homer.  .  .  . 

[p.  186]  It  [Charles  Lamb's  library]  looks  like  what  it  is,  a  selec 
tion  made  at  precious  intervals  from  the  bookstalls : — now 
a  Chaucer  at  nine  and  twopence ;  now  a  Montaigne  or  a  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  at  two  shillings.  [For  Lamb's  library  see 
below,  1823.]  .  .  . 

[p.  189]  The  books  I  like  to  have  about  me  most  are,  Spenser, 
Chaucer,  the  minor  poems  of  Milton,  the  Arabian  ]STights, 
Theocritus,  Ariosto,  and  such  old  good-natured  speculations 
as  Plutarch's  Morals.  .  .  . 

(pp.19 1-5]  It  is  true  that  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  love  many  books, 
in  order  to  love  them  much.  The  Scholar,  in  Chaucer,  who 
would  rather  have  — 

At  his  beddes  head 

A  twenty  Bokes,  clothed  in  black  and  red, 
Of  Aristotle  and  his  philosophy 
Than  robes  rich,  or  fiddle,  or  psaltry, 

doubtless  beat  all  our  modern  collectors  in  his  passion  for 
reading.  .  .  . 

[p.  198]      I  take  our  four  great  English  poets  to  have  all  been  fond 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. — II.  L 


146  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1823 

of  reading.     Milton  and  Chaucer  proclaim  themselves  for  hard 
sitters  at  books.  .  .  . 

In.  199]  Chaucer's  account  of  himself  must  be  quoted,  for  the  delight 
.and  sympathy  of  all  true  readers:  — 

And  as  for  me,  though  that  I  can  but  lite, 
On  bookes  for  to  rede  I  rne  delite, 

[to] 
Farewell  my  book  and  my  devocion. 

The  Legend  of  Good  Women. 

[11.  29-38.] 

And  again  in  the  second  book  of  his  " House  of  Fame" 
where  the  eagle  addresses  him. 

— Thou  wilt  make 
At  night  full  oft  thine  head  to  ake, 

[to] 
IP.  200]  Till  full/  dazed  is  thy  looke. 

[11.  631-58.] 

1823.  [Kent,  — ,  Miss.]  Flora  Domestica  .  .  .  with  .  .  .  illustrations 
from  the  works  of  the  poets,  The  Daisy,  pp.  121-4,  127. 

[Chaucer's  love  of  the  daisy,  with  quotations,  Legend  of 
Good  Women,  11.  36-65,  103-24,  171-87,  212-25,  508, 
510-19,  531-4;  Assembly  of  Ladies,  11.  57-63  (quoted  as 
Chaucer's).] 

1823.  Laing,  David.  The  Buke  of  the  Howlat  by  Holland,  ed.  D.  Laing, 
Bannatyne  Club,  pp.  xvi,  xxii,  5. 

[For  Laing's  print  of  Alexander  Thomson's  MS.  Critique 
on  the  Howlat,  see  above,  a.  1803,  Thomson.] 

1823.  Lamb,  Charles.  Letter  to  Mr.  Ainsworth,  [dated]  Dec.  9,  1823. 
(The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5, 
7  vols,  vol.  vii,  p.  631.) 

I  have  not  a  Blackletter  book  among  mine,  old  Chaucer 
excepted,  and  am  not  Bibliomanist  enough  to  like  Blackletter. 

[Mr.  Lucas  gives  the  following  in  his  list  of  Lamb's  Books 
(Life  of  Charles  Lamb,  1906,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  App.  iii,  p.  314), 
with  a  quotation  from  the  above  letter  : 

Chaucer  (Geoffrey).  The  Works  of  our  Ancient  and 
Learned  English  Poet,  and  Lidgate's  Story  of  Thebes. 
Speght's  edition.  Lond.,  1598.  Black-Letter.  Folio. 

MS.  notes  and  extracts  on  the  fly-leaves.] 


1823]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  147 

1823.  Montgomery,     Gerard.      La    Belle    Try  amour,    [in]    Knight's 
Quarterly  Magazine,  June,  pp.  162-3,  173. 

IP.  162]        ...  a  beauteous  and  majestic  Maid, 
In  a  fair  garden  taking  her  diversion, 
Like  Emily  in  Chaucer,  when  her  far  sight 
Captured  the  captive  Palamon  and  Arcite. 

[p.  163]        I  wish  I  could  describe,  like  that  same  Chaucer, 
Or  sweeter  Spenser  in  his  Bower  of  Bliss ; 
And  then  I'd  tell  you  all  King  Arthur  saw,  Sir, 
Of  the  bright  beauties  of  that  dainty  Miss ;  .  .  . 

(P.  ITS]        Forth  on  the  road  to  Holyhead  they  pass'd, 

A  goodly  party — Lords  and  Knights  and  Squires, 

Monks,  tailors,  mountebanks,  and  such  small  deer, 
Jumbled  like  Chaucer's  pilgrims,  closed  the  rear. 

1823.  Skelton,  Joseph.  Engraved  Illustrations  of  the  Principal  An 
tiquities  of  Oxfordshire,  from  Original  Drawings  by  F.  Mackenzie, 
pp.  3,  8,  23. 

[p.  8]  [Ewelme  Hundred.]  Coeval  with  the  de  la  Poles  was  the 
family  of  the  Chaucers  in  Ewelme,  descended  from  the  vener 
able  poet  sir  Geoffrey,  whose  son  Thomas  had  considerable 
possessions  in  these  parts,  and  who,  in  right  of  his  wife  Maud, 
the  daughter  and  coheiress  of  sir  John  Burghurst,  became 
lord  of  the  manors  of  Ewelme  and  Donnington,  Berks.,  in 
1431. 

(P.  8]  [Wootton  Hundred.]  The  manor  of  Kidlington  formerly 
belonged  to  Thomas  Chaucer,  the  son  of  Geoffrey  the  poet,  of 
whom  more  will  be  found  in  the  account  of  Ewelme  church 
in  the  Hundred  of  Ewelme. 

(P.  23]  [Ibid.]  The  town  of  Woodstock  was,  according  to  Kennet 
[q.  v.  below,  App.  A.,  1695],  graced  with  the  birth,  and  it 
certainly  was  long  a  principal  residence,  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
the  ancient  learned  poet ;  of  whom  Warton,  in  his  History 
of  English  Poetry,  informs  us,  that  he  procured  a  portrait 
on  pannel  from  an  old  quadrangular  stone  house  at  Wood 
stock,  where  it  had  been  preserved :  the  last  remains  of 
this  building,  chiefly  consisting  of  what  was  called  Chaucer's 
bedchamber,  with  a  carved  oaken  roof,  were  demolished  about 
twenty-five  years  before  Warton's  publication  appeared  [in 
1774,  1778,  1781,  see  above,  vol.  i,  pp.  439,  454,  464].  That, 


148  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1823- 

and  the  one  in  the  Bodleian  library,  appear  to  have  been 
taken  from  the  painting  which  accompanies  the  epitaph  on 
him  by  his  scholar  Occleve,  in  MS.  in  the  royal  library, 
British  Museum,  marked  17. D.Y.I,  copied  in  a  Harleian  MS. 
written  in  Occleve's  time,  No.  4866,  fol.  91,  and  again  in  one 
in  the  Cotton  library,  marked  Otho,  A.  XVIII.  Occleve 
mentions  the  drawing  in  his  "  Consolatio  servilis." 
[Various  biographical  facts  follow.] 


1823.  Thurlow,  Edward  Hovell,  Lord.  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf  after 
Geoffrey  Chaucer,  London,  J.  Warwick,  Brooke  St.,  Holborn, 
1823,  8°. 

[There  is  a  notice  of  this  book  in  A  Bibliographical  Catalogue  of  privately  printed 
books,  by  John  Martin,  2nd  edn.,  1854,  p.  313;  a  reference  is  given  to  Catalogue 
of  the  Sale  of  P.  A.  Hanrott's  Library,  1823,  part  iv,  p.  28,  No.  511— "  Thurlow's 
[Lord]  Select  Poems,  Chiswick,  1821,  Odes  to  Anaoreon,  by  Lord  Thurlow,  1823, 
The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  1823,  3  vols.  in  1,  all  privately  printed."] 


1823.  Unknown.     Footnote  [to]  Review  of  Rose's  Orlando  Furioso,  [in] 
The  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxx,  p.  51. 

Had  the  reformation  extended  to  Italy,  Ariosto  would 
have  been  reckoned  one  of  its  early  promoters  in  that  country, 
as  Langlande  and  Chaucer  were  in  our  own. 


1823.    W.,  C.    Sonnet  to  Chaucer,  [signed  C.  W.,  printed  in]  The  Poems 
of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  modernized,  ed.  R.  H.  Home,  1841,  p.  cxlvii. 

ENGLISH  CHAUCER  !  oft  to  thy  glory  old — 

Thy  sire-ship  in  poesy,  thy  fame, 

Dull'd  not  by  dusty.  Time  (which  aye  will  hold 

Thy  name  up,  banner  high,  bright  as  a  flame 

That  burns  on  holy  altar) — have  my  ears, 

Like  portals,  wide  been  opened.     Great  fears 

And  worldly  cares  were  on  me  ;  but  a  hand 

Power-fraught  with  this  rich  gift,  hath  gently  fann'd 

My  sorrow'd  spirit  to  a  ripe  zeal  fine. 

Now  gaze  I  like  young  Bacchus  on  his  wine, 

And  own  no  check  from  sorrow's  hollow  frown, 

Pull-hearted  that  the  wrestler  is  down  ; 

Strong  as  an  eagle  gone  up  to  the  sun, 

Dull  earth  I  quit,  and  stray  with  CHAUCER  on  ! 

C.  W.     1823. 


1824]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion,  149 

1823.  Wordsworth,  William.     Letter  to  Allan  Cunningham,  [dated] 
R,yd;il  Mount,  Nov.  23,  1823.    (Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family, 
eel.  W.  Knight,  1907,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  209-10.) 

Do  not  say  I  ought  to  have  been  a  Scotchman.  Tear  me 
not  from  the  country  of  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and 
Milton. 

1824.  Chaucer's    Canterbury    Tales,    and    other    Poems,   with 
Glossary.     2  vols. 

[There  is  no  copy  of  this  edition  in  B.M.    The  dealer's  list  from  which  this  entry  is 
taken  described  it  as  illustrated  with  a  portrait  and  engravings  in  Bewick's  style.] 

1824  Chalmers,  George.  The  Poetic  Remains  of  some  of  the  Scottish 
Kings,  now  first  collected  by  George  Chalmers,  pp.  19,  [Footnotes] 
24,  43,  45-8,  52,  70,  97,  102,  137-44,  146,  148,  149,  151-69, 
171-6. 

1824.  [Chalmers,  George.]  Preface  and  Notes  [to]  Robene  and  Makyne, 
and  The  Testament  of  Cresseid,  by  Robert  Heiiryson,  Bannatyne 
Club,  pp.  v-vi,  1-10. 

[The  Testament  printed  with  Chaucer's  Works,  1532; 
Kynaston,  pp.  v-vi ;  illustrative  quotations  in  the  notes  to 
Robene  and  Makyiie,  pp.  1-10.] 

1824.  De  Quincey,  Thomas.  False  Distinctions,  No.  1.  That  Women 
have  more  Imagination  than  Men,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  June 
1824,  vol.  ix,  p.  643.  (The  Collected  Writings  of  Thomas  de 
Quincey  .  .  .  ed.  D.  Masson,  Edinburgh,  1890,  vol.  x,  p.  442.) 

Where  is  the  female  rival  of  Chaucer,  of  Cervantes,  of 
Calderon?  Where  is  Mrs.  Shakespeare? 

1824.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  The  Library  Companion,  2  vols., 
vols.  ii,  pp.  246,  265-77  and  notes. 

[A  gossiping  account  of  early  editions  of  Chaucer,  and 
of  the  copies  then  extant  of  some.  The  following  are 
mentioned — 

(1)  Canterbury  Tales,  Caxton  ed.  1 ;  King's,  Merton  Coll., 

Spencer,  Wentworth  House,  Ham  House. 

(2)  Canterbury  Tales,  Caxton  ed.  2;  St.  John's  Coll.,  Camb., 

Pcpys,  Heber,  Spencer. 

(3)  Book  of  Fame ;  reference  to  Typographical  Antiquities, 

vol.  i,  p.  313. 

(4)  Troilus   and  Cressida;   Grenville  and  Towneley,  with 

the   remark   that   "  copies    of  it  will   be  found   in 

distinguished  private  and  public  libraries."     Quota- 

tation    from    the    Complaint    of  Chaucer    unto   his 
Empty  Purse. 


150  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1824 

(5)  Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson's  ed.  1  ;  Spencer. 

(6)  Canterbury  Tales,  Pynson,  1526;  Roxburghe,  West. 

Edns.  of  Canterbury  Tales  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde, 
1495,  Pynson,  1520  and  1522,  are  apocryphal. 

(7)  Troilus    and    Cressida,   Wynkyn    de   Worde,    1517; 

Wilbraham,  Roxburghe. 

(8)  Works,    Godfray,     1532;     Douce,    Heber,    Utterson, 

Towneley   (Dibdin's   own). 

(9)  Works,  Bonham,  Kele,  Toy,  Petit,  1542. 

(10)  Works,  1561 ;  Nassau. 

(11)  Works,  1597. 

(12)  Works,  1602;  Nassau. 

(13)  Ed.  Urry,  1721. 

(14)  Canterbury  Tales,  ed.  Tyrwhitt,   1775-8   (with   high 

praise  of  the  editor). 

Reference  to  Todd,  1810,  for  MSS. ;   Stafford  (now  Elles- 
mere)  and  Roxburghe-Devonshire  MSS.  mentioned.] 

1824.  Drake,  Nathan.  Montchensey,  a  Tale  of  the  Days  of  Shahspeare, 
[in]  Noontide  Leisure,  by  Nathan  Drake,  vol.  i,  p.  40,  vol.  ii, 
p.  51. 

[Montchensey    finds    in    Shakspeare's    study   portraits    of 
Chaucer  and  Spenser.] 

1824.  Drake,  Nathan.  Observations  Critical  &  Miscellaneous,  on  the 
First  Book  of  the  Anonymous  Version  of  "  Les  Jardins"  par 
M.  1'Abbe  de  Lille,  [in]  Noontide  Leisure,  by  Nathan  Drake, 
vol.  i,  p.  111. 

[A  quotation  from  the  prefatory  address  of  the  translator. 
See  above,  Powell,  1789,  vol.  i,  p.  489.] 

1824.  Hazlitt,  William.  Select  British  Poets,  or  new  Elegant  Extracts 
from  Chaucer  to  the  present  time,  ivith  critical  remarks,  pp.  ii,  iii, 
v,  1-34.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and 
Glover,  1902-6, 13  vols.,  vol.  v,  pp.  366-71.) 

Frontispiece  [portrait  of  Chaucer] ;  Preface,  pp.  ii,  iii,  v. 
[A  short  critical  account  of  Chaucer.  Chaucer  is  in  the  first 
class  of  poetry,  the  natural ;  in  invention  he  has  not  much  to 
boast ;  but  the  masterly  execution  is  his  own.  He  has  little 
fancy,  but  he  has  great  wit,  humour,  strong  manly  sense, 
power  of  description,  perfect  knowledge  of  character,  occa 
sional  sublimity.  Extracts,  pp.  1  -34.  Prologue  to  Canter 
bury  Tales,  The  Squieres  Tale,  The  Prioresses  Tale,  The 
Floure  and  the  Leafe,  part  of  The  Knujhtes  Tale,  The  Wif 
of  Bathes  Prologue,  Similes  from  Chaucer. ,] 


1824]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  151 

1824.  Hazlitt,  William.  Sketches  of  the  Principal  Picture- Galleries  in 
England.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and 
Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  ix,  p.  74.) 

[Speaking  of  the  Cupid  and  Psyclie  by  Titian  at  Blenheim  :} 
Did  ever  creature  of  mortal  mould  see  any  thing  comparable 
to  the  back  limbs  of  the  Psyche,  or  conceive  or  read  anything 
equal  to  it,  but  that  unique  description  in  the  Troilus  and 
Cressida  of  Chaucer? 

1824.  Lamb,  Charles.  Letter  to  Bernard  Barton,  [dated]  May  15, 1824. 
(The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5, 
7  vols.,  vol.  vii,  p.  643.) 

His  [Blake's]  Pictures — one  in  particular,  the  Canterbury 
Pilgrims  (far  above  Stothard's) — have  great  merit,  but  hard, 
dry,  yet  with  grace.  He  has  written  a  Catalogue  of  them 
with  a  most  spirited  criticism  on  Chaucer,  but  mystical  and 
full  of  Vision. 

1824.  [Park,  Thomas.]  Editor's  Preface  [to]  Warton's  History  of 
English  Poetry,  new  [3rd]  edn.,  4  vols,  vol.  i,  pp.  46-9  [Chaucer 
and  Fairies],  65-6  [Chaucer  and  Minstrels],  105.  [Also  additional 
notes  throughout  by  Park,  Ritson,  Ashby,  Douce,  etc.] 

1824.  [Procter,  Bryan  Waller  ("Barry  Cornwall").]  Effigies  Poetic*.- 
or  the  Portraits  of  the  British  Poets,  illustrated  by  notes,  etc., 
2  vols.,  vol.  i,  no.  1,  Chaucer,  no.  2,  Gower,  no.  3,  Lydgate,  no.  4, 
James  I  of  Scotland,  no.  5,  Occleve,  pp.  7-9,  11,  13,  15,  vol.  ii, 
p.  12,  Dryden. 

[to  face      [Portrait    "from    a   Limning   in    Occleve' s   De   Kegimine 
p. 7]   principiSj  preserved  in  the  Harleian  Library"  engraved  by 

W.  Finden.] 

[p.  7]  Our  collection  opens  with  the  head  of  the  venerable 
CHAUCER.  He  had  been  called  the  patriarch  of  our  poetry ; 
yet  he  left  no  posterity  behind  him  .  .  .  Chaucer  was  a 
prodigy,  considering  the  age  in  which  he  lived..  He  was 
beyond  doubt  the  greatest  spirit  that  preceded  Shakespeare  .  .  . 
The  head  now  offered  to  the  public  is  a  likeness  of  the 
poet  in  his  age.  It  has  nothing  of  his  wit  or  humour, 
nothing  of  the  flash  of  genius  which  would  probably  have 
tr.  8]  illuminated  the  features  of  his  youth ;  but  his  sweet  and 
sedate  expression,  his  grave  good  sense,  his  deep  observation 
and  pathos,  have  been  well  caught  by  the  artist  .  .  .  Chaucer 
was  rather  a  portrait-painter  than  an  imaginative  artist  .  .  . 
and  accordingly,  in  the  place  of  the  fantastic  attitude  or  the 


152  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1824 

soaring  eye,  we  have  a  staid  and  gentle  aspect,  a  steady- 
glance,  and  that  particular  expression  about  the  mouth  which 
almost  invariably  denotes  an  observing  man. 

1824.  Roscoe,  William.  The  Works  of  Alexander  Pope,  Esq.  [with] 
.  .  .  occasional  remarks  by  William  Roscoe.  Vol.  i,  The  Life  of 
Alexander  Pope,  pp.  42-3,  48  ;  vol.  ii,  Estimate  of  the  Poetical 
Character  and  Writings  of  Pope,  pp.  x,  xi,  xiii ;  Notes,  pp.  252, 
253,  254,  255,  297,  301,  302,  303-311,  315,  339,'  340,  341,  342, 
357,  358. 

t^1-1'  These  pieces  [the  modernizations  of  January  and  May, 
and  Wife  of  Bath's  Prologue]  are  executed  with  a  degree  of 
freedom,  ease,  and  spirit,  and  at  the  same  time  with  a  judg 
ment  and  delicacy,  which  not  only  far  exceed  what  might 
have  been  expected  from  so  young  a  writer,  but  which  leave 
nothing  to  be  wished  for  in  the  mind  of  the  reader.  The 

[p.  43]  humour  of  Chaucer  is  transfused  into  the  lines  of  Pope,  almost 
without  suffering  any  evaporation. 

^°x']ii'  Of  English  authors  those  to  whom  Pope  stands  the  nearest 
related  in  genus  and  poetical  character,  are  Chaucer  and 
Dryden  .  .  .  Chaucer  may  be  said  to  be,  like  Pope,  a  general 
poet.  His  excellence  was  not  confined  to  any  particular 
department  ...  In  this  respect  Chaucer  is  unrivalled  by  any 
of  his  successors,  except  Shakespeare  and  Pope,  both  of  whom 

[p.  xi]  resemble  him  also  in  that  moral  and  contemplative  character 
which  delights  in  comparing  and  illustrating  the  phenomena 
of  the  moral  and  physical  world  .  .  . 

18.24.  S.,  W.  Letter  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  May,  vol.  xciv, 
pp.  411-12. 

"Whan,  hys  lotte  was  to  wake  a  night 

[to] 
.  .  .  home  pijns  of  Corneicayle. 

[Rom.  Rose,  11.  4243-50.] 

[Chaucer  probably  mistook  Cornouaille,  the  Cornell  or  wild 
cheiry  tree,  for  Comewaille — Cornwall.  This  occurs  in  the 
non-Chaucerian  portion  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose.  See 
Skeat's  note  on  the  line.] 

1824.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  An  Essay  on  Romance,  [in]  Supplement  to 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  vol.  vi,  pp.  436,  442,  454.  (Scott's 
Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  Edinburgh,  1834-71,  30  vols,  vol.  vi, 
pp.  132-3,  158,  209.) 

[P.  132]  Chaucer,  unable  to  sleep  during  the  night,  informs  us  that, 
in  order  to  pass  the  time, 


1824]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  153 

"Upon  my  bed  I  sate  upright, 
And  bade  one  recbin  me  a  boke, 
A  Romaunce,  and  he  it  me  took 
To  read  and  drive  the  night  away." 

{Book  of  the  Duchetse,  11.  46-9.] 

The   book    described    as   Eomance    contained,    as    we   are 
[p.  133]  informed, 

"  Fables 

That  clerkes  had,  in  old  tyme, 
And  other  poets,  put  in  rhyme." 

[ib.  ,11.52-4.] 

And  the  author  tells  us  a  little  lower, 

"  This  boke  ne  spake  of  but  such  things 
Of  Queens'  lives  and  of  Kings'." 

[i&.,  11.  57-8.] 

The  volume  proves  to  be  no  other  than  Ovid's  Metamorphoses; 
and  Chaucer,  by  applying  to  that  work  the  name  of  Romance, 
sufficiently  establishes  that  the  word  was,  in  his  time,  correctly 
employed  under  the  modern  acceptation  .  .  . 

[p.  153]  Chaucer  also  in  his  Ryme  of  Sir  Thopas,  assigns  to  the 
minstrels  of  his  hero's  household  the  same  duty  of  reciting 
romances  .  .  . 

"Do  cum,"  he  sayed,  "my  minestrales  [to] 
And  eke  of  love-longing." 

[Sir  Thopas,  11.  134-fl.] 

[P.  209]  It  is  certain,  and  is  proved  by  the  highest  authority,  that 
of  Chaucer  himself,  that  even  in  his  time  these  rhyming 
Romances  had  fallen  into  great  contempt.  The  Rime  of  Sir 
Thopas,  which  that  poet  introduces  as  a  parody,  undoubtedly, 
of  the  rhythmical  Romances  of  the  age,  is  interrupted  by 
mine  host  Harry  Bailly  with  the  strongest  and  most  energetic 
expressions  of  total  and  absolute  contempt. 

1824.  Unknown.  The  Works  of  Cliaucer,  [in]  The  Retrospective 
Review,  vol.  ix,  pp.  173-206. 

[Researches  into  old  writers  very  creditable  to  modern  taste, 
especially  where,  as  in  English,  the  language  has  undergone 
considerable  changes.  This  may  be  carried  to  excess,  and 
imitation  be  substituted  for  research.] 

There  is  no  reason,  however,  why  the  treasures  of  their  wit 
should  not  be  among  the  objects  of  our  study  and  research. 
.  .  .  They  are  the  beacons  and  landmarks  of  our  language,  to 
which  our  eyes  should  occasionally  be  turned.  .  .  .  The 
wisdom  that  is  preserved  in  a  language  that  is  obsolete,  is  a 


154  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1824 

treasure  buried  in  the  earth,  which  we  know  not  where  to 
delve  for. 

[p.  174]  In  treasures  of  this  description  [i.e.  of  instruction  and 
delight]  the  neglected  glebe  of  Chaucer  is  particularly  affluent. 
As  a  fabulist  and  a  poet,  Dryden  gives  him  the  decided 
preference  over  Ovid  :  though  Dryden,  as  we  shall  hereafter 
shew,  was  not  capable  of  appreciating  all  his  beauties.  But 
there  are  other  reasons  for  recommending  him  to  the  attention 
of  the  English  student. 

To  the  philologist,  he  is  a  classic  of  the  first  order :  for  lie 
is  pre-eminently  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  makers  and 
methodizers  of  the  language  :  the  first  who  taught  it  to  flow 
in  expressive  harmony,  and  gave  to  it  consistency  and  energy. 
Not  that  he  invented  and  introduced  a  verbiage  and  idiom  of 
his  own,  or  compounded,  as  some  have  supposed,  a  melange 
of  imported  phraseology ;  but  because,  (as  will  be  obvious  to 
those  who  consult  his  contemporaries,  Lydgate,  Gower, 
Hocleve,  Scogan,  &c.)  he  selected  and  methodized  from  the 
unsettled  idioms  then  in  use,  what  was  fittest  and  most  con- 
[p.  175]  gruous,  and  gave  consistence  and  solidity  to  that  foundation, 
upon  which  the  polished  structure  of  our  present  language  has 
gradually  risen. 

Even  in  point  of  rhythmical  harmony,  the  obligations  of  our 
language  to  Chaucer  are  not  less  decisive  than  in  phraseology 
and  structure,  and  ...  in  his  versification  are  to  be  found, 
not  only  the  less  rigid  models  of  our  present  septasyllabic 
and  octosyllabic  measures,  but  the  exemplars  also,  which 
Spenser  has  acknowledged,  and  of  which  Milton  has  availed 
himself,  of  that  heroic  metre,  to  which  the  former  gave  so 
much  sweetness,  and  the  latter  such  majestic  sublimity : 
.  .  .  But  it  is  not  only  to  the  philologist  and  the  prosodist 
that  the  memory  of  Chaucer  should  be  dear.  He  has  other 
claims  upon  our  admiration  and  gratitude,  or  he  could  never 
have  had  these.  .  .  . 

That  Chaucer  had  the  soul,  as  well  as  the  voice  of  poesy, 
is  sufficiently  evinced  in  the  admiration  he  has  excited  in 
those  who  were  neither  familiar  with  his  language,  nor  in 
possession  of  the  clue  that  would  unravel  the  harmony  of  his 
numbers  :  nay,  who  could  not,  from  the  defective  transcripts 
they  consulted,  or  by  their  mode  of  pronunciation,  make  out 
even  the  numerical  proportion  of  his  feet. 


1824]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  155 

[p-  176]  It  is  not  merely  in  a  literary  point  of  view,  as  works  of 
[p.  177]  amusement  and  effusions  of  a  poetical  imagination,  that  the 
writings  of  Chaucer  are  entitled  to  particular  attention.  They 
are  pregnant  with  instruction  of  a  higher  order.  They  are  an 
essential  portion  of  the  authentic  history  of  his  country  ;  .  .  . 
of  the  history  of  the  national  mind  .  .  .  The  works  of 
Chaucer,  his  Canterbury  Tales  in  particular,  .  .  .  bring  the 
genuine  picture  of  society  alive  and  breathing  before  us.  .  .  . 
The  imaginative  historian,  who  adorns  his  record  with  names 
of  his  own  creation,  and  selects  the  character  he  assigns  to  his 
[p.  178]  imaginary  agents  from  the  great  book  of  nature,  .  .  .  may  use 
with  freedom  the  genuine  colours  of  truth,  and  delineate  man 
as  he  really  is,  with  all  the  modifications  of  morals,  manners, 
and  characteristics,  which  the  institutions,  the  necessities,  and 
the  habitudes  of  the  age  have  imposed  upon  him.  Whoever 
does  this  is,  in  fact,  an  historian  of  the  highest  order :  an  his 
torian,  instructive,  not  to  the  statesman  and  politician  only, 
but  to  all  who  may  peruse  his  record.  And  such  an  historian 
is  the  great  father  of  our  English  poetry — the  venerable 
Geffrey  Chaucer. 

[Here  follows  the  life  of  Chaucer  and  some  further  criticism 
of  his  poetry.] 

1824.  Unknown.    The  Literary  History  of  the  Provencals,  [in]  Knight's 
Quarterly  Magazine,  vol.  iii,  p.  131. 

Chaucer,  in  one  or  two  of  his  smaller  poems,  appears  to 
have  followed  the  style  of  the  later  Troubadours;  and  Dry  den, 
in  the  preface  to  his  Fables,  has  borrowed  from  Eymer  the 
remark,  that  the  Prove^al  was  in  that  age  the  most  cultivated 
of  modern  languages,  and  that  Chaucer  profited  by  it  to  adorn 
and  enrich  the  English. 


o 


1824.  Wordsworth,  William.  Letter  to  Alaric  Watts,  [dated]  No 
vember  16,  1824,  [printed  in]  Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,, 
ed.  W.  Knight,  3  vols.,  1907,  vol.  ii,  p.  228. 

"  I  am  disposed  strenuously  to  recommend  to  your  habitual 
perusal  the  great  poets  of  our  own  country  who  have  stood 
the  test  of  ages.  Shakespeare  I  need  not  name,  nor  Milton, 
but  Chaucer  and  Spenser  are  apt  to  be  overlooked.  It  is 
almost  painful  to  think  how  far  these  surpass  all  others." 

[This  paragraph  is  reprinted  as  it  stands  from  Professor  Knight's  text.  From  the 
stops  and  quotation-marks  Wordsworth  seems  to  be  quoting,  but  from  what  is 
not  clear ;  nor  has  the  passage  any  relation  to  the  paragraphs  that  precede  and 
follow  it.] 


156  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1825 

1825.  Collier,  John  Payne.  The,  Poet's  Pilgrimage,  pp.  iv  [preface], 
118,  120  [notes  2,  3,  18  ;  quotations  from  the  Assemble  of  Foules, 
the  Floure  and  the  Lefe,  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  and  Troilus]. 

1825.  Cunning-ham,  Allan.  The  Songs  of  Scotland,  vol.  i,  pp.  12, 
13,  51,  59,  73,  77,  82  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  35,  156. 

[Slight  references.] 

1825.  D.,  W.  C.  On  the  Pronunciation  of  Heard,  etc.,  [in]  The  Gentle 
man's  Magazine,  Sept.  1825,  vol.  xcv,  pp.  219-20. 

[Reply  to  J.  S.  H.,  q.v.  below.] 

[Concerning  the  changes  in  English  grammar  and  pronun 
ciation,  with  several  references  to  Chaucer,  and  quotations 
from  his  poems.] 

1825.  Elmes,  James.  The  Arts  and  Artists,  London,  1825,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  70,  71.  [The  Occleve  and  Phillips  portraits  of  Chaucer.] 

1825.  H.,  J.  S.  Critical  Disquisition  on  the  words  "Heard,"  "Bead," 
etc.,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xcv,  part  i,  suppl., 
pp.  584-5. 

[For  a  reply  see  above,  D.,  W.  C.] 

[Quotations  from  the  Bible;  and  from  Chaucer  (fifteen)  as 
examples.] 

1825.  Hazlitt,  William.  The  Spirit  of  the  Age  :  or  Contemporary  Por 
traits.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and 
Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  210,  214,  225,  244,  276,  285, 
326.) 

{p.  2io]  [William  Godwin.]  His  Life  of  Chaucer  would  have  given 
celebrity  to  any  man  of  letters  possessed  of  three  thousand  a 
year,  with  leisure  to  write  quartos  :  .  .  . 

Ip.  214]  [S.  T.  Coleridge.]  He  .  .  .  '  goes  sounding  on  his  way ' 
in  eloquent  accents  uncompelled  and  free  ! 

[Hazlitt  is  fond  of  this  quotation,  though  he  is  hazy  in  his 
recollection  of  it  and  confuses  two  passages  in  Chaucer's 
Prologue.  See  above,  1818  and  1823.  In  'My  First 
Acquaintance  with  the  Poets'  (1823)  he  says  the  scholar  in 
Chaucer  is  described  as  going  'sounding  on  his  way,'  and  in 
his  'Lectures  on  the  English  Poets'  (1818)  he  says  the 
'merchant  as  described  in  Chaucer  went  on  his  way  "  sound 
ing  always  the  increase  of  his  winning."'  The  two  passages 
are  Prol.  1.  275  and  1.  307  (not  'sounding  on  his  way'  but 
*  Souninge  in  moral  vertu  was  his  speche ').] 


1825]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion  157 

[p.  225]  [The  Eev.  Edward  Irving.]  ...  he  might  have  defied 
the  devil  and  all  his  works,  and  by  the  help  of  a  loud  voice 
and  strong-set  person — 

'  A  lusty  man  to  ben  an  Abbot  able.' 

[Prol.  1.  167.] 

[p.  244]     What  is  there  (in  his  [Scott's]  ambling  rhymes)  of  the  deep 

pathos  of  Chaucer  1 
[p.  2T6]      Chaucer  is  another  prime  favourite  of  his  [Wordsworth's], 

and   he   lias    been  at   the   pains  to  modernize  some  of   the 

Canterbury  Tales. 

[p.  285]      [Sir  James  Macintosh.]     'And  gladly  would  he  learn,  and 
LPJS]    gladly  teach.' 
[p.  326]       [Lord  Eld  on.]     We  are  apt  to  conclude  from  so  fair  an 

outside,  that 

'  All  is  conscience  and  tender  heart ' 

[Prol.  1.  150.] 

within  also,  and  that  such  a  one  would  not  hurt  a  fly.     And 
neither  would  he  without  a  motive. 

1825.  [Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh  ?]  My  Books,  Part  ii,  Originality  of 
Milton's  harmonious  use  of  Proper  Names,  [in]  The  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  New  Series,  vol,  xiv,  p.  392. 

[Not  in  R.  B.  Johnson's  edn.  of  Leigh  Hunt's  Essays.] 

Chaucer,  though  he  had  a  finer  ear  than  some  of  his  imi 
tators  have  been  willing  to  acknowledge,  does  not  think  it 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  it  [melody]  when  he  comes  to  a 
set  of  names.  He  takes  no  more  heed  of  a  list  in  poetry, 
than  he  would  have  taken  of  an  Abbey  roll. 

1825.  Jeffrey,  Francis.  Review  of  Braybrooke's  edn.  of  Pepys'  Diary, 
[in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  Nov.,  no.  Ixxxv,  p.  26.  (Jeffrey's 
Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  .Review,  1853,  p.  226.) 

[Passages  on  the  abundant  minute  record  of  feudal  times  in 
the  tales  of  Chaucer.] 

1825.  [Keble,  John.]  Review  [of  Gender's]  The  Star  in  the  East. 
See  below,  App.  A. 

1825.  Roscoe,  Thomas.  The  Italian  Novelists,  4  vols.  ;  vol.  i,  Preface, 
pp.  ii  [obligations  of  English  to  Italian  writers  earlier  than  Chaucer], 
xix,  xxiii  [reference  to  the  Clerkes  Tale]. 

[p.  xix]  Dioneo  and  Fiammetta  .  .  .  are  said  to  recite  together  the 
adventures  of  Arcite  and  Palamon  .  .  .  The  same  adventures, 
so  beautifully  imitated  in  the  poem  of  our  own  Dryden,  form 
the  subject  of  Boccaccio's  Teseide. 


158  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1825 

1825.  [Smith,  Horatio.]  Address  to  the  Orange  Tree  at  Versailles,  [in] 
Gaieties  and  Gravities,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  166.  (Poetical  Works, 
1846,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  17-18.) 

Chaucer,  so  old  a  bard  that  time 

Has  antiquated  every  chime 

And  from  his  tomb  outworn  each  rhyme 

Within  the  Abbey : 
And  Gower  .... 

Lived  in  thy  time — the  first  perchance 
Was  beating  monks l  .  .  .  . 

1  There  is  a  tradition  (though  not  authenticated)  that  Chaucer  was  fined 
for  beating  a  friar  in  Fleet  Street. 

1825.  Turner,  Sharon.  The  History  of  England  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  vol.  v,  pp.  256,  257,  259,  268  ;  chap,  iv,  Life  and  Poems  of 
Chaucer,  pp.  289-333,  334,  335,  336,  341,  343,  347,  348,  350,  391, 
392,  393. 

(p.  330]  The  modern  reader  ....  cannot  peruse  his  [Chaucer's] 
works  without  perceiving  the  fewness  and  the  defects  of  the 
mental  and  moral  associations  which  they  contain.  He 
wanted  Gower's  knowledge  and  ethical  taste,  as  much  as  Gower 
wanted  his  command  of  language  and  poetical  power.  .  .  . 

{p.  33i]  Few  poets  have  written  so  much  [as  Chaucer],  which  so  few 
desire  to  peruse  or  attempt  to  disturb.  .  .  . 

lp.  350]  As  Chaucer  became  dissatisfied  with  Gower,  and  twice,  at 
least,  censures  him,  we  have  long  since  become  dissatisfied 
with  Chaucer ;  and  by  the  aid  of  the  very  lights  which  they 
have  given  us,  we  have  passed  far  beyond  both. 

1825.  Unknown.  Review  of  Roscoe's  Italian  Novelists,  [in]  The  Edin 
burgh  Review,  vol.  xlii,  p.  180. 

We  cannot  agree  with  Warton  that  the  frame-work  of  the 
Canterbury  Tales  is  in  its  general  design  superior  to  that  of 
the  Decameron.  For  though,  as  Mr.  Dunlop  [q.  v.  above, 
1814],  has  remarked,  Chaucer's  plan  of  a  pilgrimage  has  this 
advantage,  that  the  subject  has  thus  a  natural  limitation, 
while  Boccaccio's  has  no  other  limit  but  the  imagination  of 
the  author,  the  design  of  the  former  seems  to  us  to  be  liable  to 
a  more  formidable  objection — that  tales  told  on  horseback 
to  a  party  of  twenty-nine  persons,  could  never  have  been  heard 
by  them  all. 


1825]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  159 

1825.  Unknown.  Amonim  Troile  [sic]  et  Cresseidse,  libri  duo  priores 
Anylo-Latine,  per  Franc.  Kinaston,  Oxon.,  1635,  4to.,  [in]  The 
Retrospective  Review,  vol.  xii.,  article  vi,  pp.  106,  110. 

tp.  106]  Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Creseide  was  the  first  example  of  a 
regular  serious  narrative  poem,  on  a  large  scale,  in  the  English 
language.  It  may  be  considered  as  our  oldest  epic,  to  use  the 
word  in  its  common,  though  sufficiently  vague,  acceptation ; 
and  for  a  long  time,  with  the  exception  of  the  Knyghtes*  Tale 
by  the  same  author,  it  continued  to  be  the  only  one.  Hence, 
it  was  held  in  that  value  which  always  attaches  to  the  first  of 
any  thing,  and  which  adheres  to  it  even  for  some  time  after  it 
has  been  superseded  by  more  beautiful  .and  finished  specimens 
of  the  same  kind.  It  was  reverenced  as  the  earliest  work  in 
which  the  powers  of  English,  as  a  cultivated  language,  were 
developed;  its  author  was  regarded  as  the  Virgil  of  his 
country ;  his  poem  was  made  the  foundation  of  the  fictions  of 
subsequent  writers ;  and,  according  to  a  practice  common  in 
former  ages,  when,  as  a  contemporary  critic  expresses  it,  "  the 
notion  of  the  perishableness  of  modern  tongues,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  preserving  works  worthy  to  last,  by  embalming 
them  in  the  immortal  language  of  Eome,"  was  not  yet 
exploded,  it  was  thought  expedient,  upwards  of  two  centuries 
after  its  publication,  to  translate  it  into  Latin.  .  .  . 

tp.  no]  [Kyriaston's  version  more  universally  intelligible  than  the 
original.]  Considering  the  difficulties  of  his  task,  Sir  Francis 
must  be  allowed  to  have  acquitted  himself  with  much  dexterity; 
and  he  deserves  praise  for  the  fidelity  with  which  he  adheres 
to  his  original,  in  spite  of  the  temptations  afforded  by  so 
ornamental  a  language  as  the  Latin. 

[For  Kynaston,  see  above,  1635,  vol.  i,  p.  207.] 

1825.  Unknown.  Poetry,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xlii,  pp. 
48,  49. 

£P.  48)  Chaucer  .  .  .  raised  poetry  from  the  dust.  He  has  been 
likened  to  'the  spring,'  and  has  been  called  the  'morning 
star '  of  English  poetry.  He  was  so  ;  or  rather,  he  was  a  sun 
whom  no  star  preceded, — who  rose  above  our  literary  horizon, 
dissipating  the  wandering  lights  and  sullen  vapours  which 
hung  about  it ;  and  who,  by  a  power  independent  of  accident 
or  the  time,  threw  out  a  dazzling  splendour,  which  showed 
at  once  his  own  lustre,  and  the  wastes  by  which  he  was 
surrounded. 


160  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1825- 

1825.  Unknown.     Poke's  Works  and  Character,  [a  review  of]  Roscoe's 
Work*  of  Alexander  Pope,  [in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxxii, 
pp.  275,  290-3. 

[p.  292]  Had  the  '  Temple  of  Fame '  been  entirely  an  original  com 
position,  it  would  have  approached  nearer,  though  not  have 
attained,  to  an  equality  with  these  [Thomson's  Seasons,  and 
Castle  of  Indolence] ;  but  so  much  of  the  ingenuity  of  the 
allegory,  and  so  many  of  the  images  are  Chaucer's,  that,  with 
all  its  beauty  of  versification,  brilliancy  of  expression,  and 
variety  of  added  congenial  beauty,  it  still  wears  the  livery  of 
a  master.  Pope,  accordingly,  with  his  usual  candour, 
premises  in  the  advertisement,  that  '  whenever  any  hint  is 
taken  from  Chaucer,  the  passage  itself  shall  be  set  down  in 
the  marginal  notes ' :  and  Mr.  Bowles,  with  his  wonted  candour, 
observes,  '  Pope  seems  unwilling  to  confess  all  he  owes  to 
Chaucer'  (Bowles,  [edn.  of  Pope's  Works,  1806,]  vol.  ii, 

[p.  293]  p.  107).  .  .  .  But  this  and  other  imitations  from  Chaucer,  as 
well  as  all  his  minor  translations,  were  done  'as  exercises/ 
in  extreme  youth ;  and  we  cannot,  therefore,  wonder  either 
at  occasional  failures  in  execution,  or  injudicious  selections. 

1826.  Barrett,  afterwards   Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.     Notes  on 
proof  sheets  of  a  work  by  Uvedale  Price,  [printed  in]  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,   Hitherto     Unpublished    Poems    and    Stories, 
Bibliophile  Society,  Boston,  1914,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  67-8. 

It  has  appeared  to  me  that  a  trochee  introduced  before  the 
last  foot  (supposing  the  last  foot  to  be  an  iambus)  produces 
an  agreeable  relief  from  the  monotony  of  the  usual  heroic 
structure.  The  following  examples  from  Chaucer's  Knight's 
Tale  are  among  the  most  melodious  I  can  recollect — 

1  'And  solitaire  hS  was  evSr  alone 
And  wailing  all  the7  night  making  his  mone." 


1826.  Dallaway,  James.  Anecdotes  of  Painting  in  England  .  .  . 
by  .  .  .  Horace  Walpole,  with  .  .  .  additions  by  the  Hev.  James 
Dallaway,  vol.  i,  pp.  56,  57  n.  ;  vol.  v,  pp.  304-5  [list  of  Vertue's 
Works,  in  the  Catalogue  of  Engravers,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  1763, 
p.  424]. 


portrait  of    Chaucer    [on  his   tomb  at   Westminster] 
57  ».]  '  could  not  have  afforded  any  specimen  of  painting  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  IV.  ,  for  it  was  copied  from  some  known  miniature 
of  him,  when   Nicholas  Bingham  [sic]   erected  a  monument 


1826]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion*  161 

to  his  memory  in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  1550,  as  the 
inscription  proves,  at  which  time  it  was  painted  against  the 
wall.  No  trace  is  now  visible.  A  miniature  of  Chaucer, 
on  horseback,  as  he  represents  himself  journeying  with  the 
pilgrims  to  Canterbury,  is  preserved  in  a  MS.  of  his  poems, 
belonging  to  the  Marquis  of  Stafford  [the  Earl  of  Ellesmere], 
which  has  been  engraved  in  Todd's  Illustrations  of  Gower 
and  Chaucer,  8vo,  1810.  Other  MSS.  have  his  portrait,  but 
usually  of  half  length  only. 

[For  Walpole's  original  edn.  see  above,  vol.  i,  17G2,  p.  423.] 

1826.  Digby,  Kenelm  Henry.     The  Broad  Stone  of  Honour,  Book  I, 
Godefridus,  1829  edn.  [1st  of  the  enlarged  version  in  B.M.],  p.  167. 

It  is  always  men  who  are  impious  and  obscene,  like  our 
'  reverend '  Chaucer,  who  have  the  most  bitter  sarcasm  for 
expressing  the  impiety  and  vice  of  others. 

[For  a  reference  in  the  first  and  short  version   of  the  book  see  above,  1822. 
According  to  D.N.B.,  the  1st  edn.  of  this  enlarged  version  appeared  in  1S2G-7.] 


1826.  Hazlitt,  William.     Of  Persons  One  Would  Wish  to  Have 

[in]  The  New  Monthly  Magazine,  Jan.,  new  series,  vol.  xvi,  p.  35. 
(Reprinted  in  Winsterslow,  1839,  pp.  41-3  ;  Collected  Works  of 
William  Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols.,  vol.  xii, 
pp.  29-30.) 

Some  one  then  inquired  of  B [Charles  Lamb]  if  we 

could  not  see  from  the  window  the  Temple-walk  in  which 
Chaucer  used  to  take  his  exercise;  and  on  his  name  being 
put  to  the  vote,  I  was  pleased  to  find  that  there  was  a  general 

sensation  in  his  favour,  in  all  but  A [William  Ayrton, 

the  musician],  who  said  something  about  the  ruggedness  of 
the  metre,  and  even  objected  to  the  quaintness  of  the  ortho 
graphy.  I  was  vexed  at  this  superficial  gloss  .  .  .  and  asked 
if  he  did  not  think  it  wTould  be  worth  while  to  scan  the  eyo 
that  had  first  greeted  the  muse  in  that  dim  twilight  and 
early  dawn  of  English  literature,  ...  to  watch  those  lips  that 
"  lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came" — as  by  a  miracle, 
or  as  if  the  dumb  should  speak  !  Nor  was  it  alone  that  he  had 
been  the  first  to  tune  his  native  tongue  (however  imperfectly 
to  modern  ears) ;  but  he  was  himself  a  noble,  manly  character, 
standing  before  his  age  and  striving  to  advance  it ;  a 
pleasant  humourist  withal.  .  .  . 

B put  it  to  me  if  I  should  like  to  see  Spenser  as  well  as 

Chaucer;  and  I  answered  without  hesitation,  "No";  for  that 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — II.  H 


162  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1826 

his  beauties  were  ideal,  visionary,  not  palpable  or  personal, 
and  therefore  connected  with  less  curiosity  about  the  man. 

-1826.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Specimens  of  a  Dictionary  of  Love 
and  Beauty,  [in]  The  New  Monthly  Magazine,  July,  New  Series, 
vol.  xvii,  pp.  49-50. 

Chaucer's  modulation  is  not  among  the  least  of  his  beauties  ; 
nor  is  there  any  passage  in  his  writings,  in  which  it  is  more 
delicately  turned,  than  in  this  description  of  the  Prioress  .  .  . 
It  is  she  that  tells  the  beautiful  story  of  the  little  boy  that 
went  through  Jewry  singing  Alma  Redemptoris  .  .  .  [quotes 
Prol.  11.  118-21.] 

Then  follows  a  good-natured  banter  of  the  poet's  upon  the 
mode  of  singing  service  in  nunneries,  their  boarding-school 
French,  and,  what  appears  to  have  been  no  great  part  of 
politeness  in  those  days,  the  importance  they  attached  to  nicety 
of  behaviour  at  dinner  .  .  .  [quotes  Prol.  11.  137—150.] 

This  last  line  [1. 150]  has  become  a  favourite  quotation.  The 
poet  proceeds  to  say  that  she  was  finely  grown,  and  concludes 
with  the  lines  about  the  Crowned  A  and  the  motto  .  .  .  The 
device,  though  taken  from  Ovid,  is  meant  to  be  religious  .  .  . 
Love  conquers  all  things,  quoth  Ovid.  Love  conquers  all  things, 
repeats  the  fair  nun ;  and  raises  her  eyes  to  heaven,  swimming 
with  all  the  pieties  of  heaven  and  earth. 

1826.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Imaginary  Conversations;  Johnson  and 
Tooke,  pp.  220,  245,  253,  258.  (Works,  ed.  by  Charles  G.  Crump, 
6  vols.,  1891,  vol.  iii,  pp.  413,  426,  430,  433,  436.) 

[The  Chaucer  references  do  not  occur  in  the  first  edition ;  the  dialogue  was  again 
expanded  and  broken  in  two  in  the  ed.  of  1846 ;  a  few  references  appear  there  for 
the  first  time.  For  other  dialogues  see  1828,  1S29,  1837,  1842,  1846,  1853,  1861.] 

IP.  426]  Johnson.  Who  would  read  Chaucer  and  Spenser  for  their 
language  1 

Tooke.  Spenser  I  would  not,  delightful  as  are  many  parts 
of  his  poetry ;  but  Chaucer  I  would  read  again  and  again  both 
for  his  poetry  and  his  language. 

tp.  433]  Johnson.  I  recollect  no  expression  in  Chaucer  worth 
retaining  and  not  retained. 

Tooke.  What   think   you   of   SwougTi,  the  long  continued 

sound  of  wind  1 

"  A  swough 
As  thof  a  storme  should  brasten  every  bough." 

Palamon  and  Arcite. 
Johnson.  It  sounds  grandly  .  .  . 


1826]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  163 

1826.  Lytton,  Edward  Bnlwer,  Lord.  Sketch  of  the  Progress  of  English 
Poetry.  [Of  the  MS.  of  this,  which  was  written  in  1826  and  which 
was  never  printed,  nearly  forty  pages  are  devoted  to  an  enquiry, 
"  how  far  did  Chaucer  and  Langlande  contribute  by  their  works  to 
the  Reformation  in  England?"  (Life  of  Edward  Bulwer  Lord 
Lytton,  by  his  son,  1883,  vol.  ii,  p.  99.)] 

1826.  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  Testamenta  Vetusta,  2  vols., 
vol.  i. 

[(Preface)  pp.  2-3 ;  (Preliminary  Observations :  Nicolas 
promises  that  "  the  very  accurate  and  picturesque  descriptions 
given  by  Chaucer  of  the  habiliments,  jewels,  and  furniture 
peculiar  to  his  own  age,  will  be  sometimes  quoted ")  iv ; 
(Notes :  quotations  as  promised,  to  illustrate  the  jewels,  etc., 
mentioned  in  the  wills)  xix-xxi,  xxvi,  xxix,  xxxi-ii,  xxxiv- 
vi ;  (Text :  Philippa  Duchess  of  York  appoints  Thomas 
Chaucer  executor  of  her  will,  elated  1430  and  proved  1431) 
219.] 

1826.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Journal,  Jan.  11,  1826,  Edinburgh,  1890, 
2  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  79. 

James  [Ballantyne]  is  in  an  awful  stew,  and  I  cannot  blame 
him ;    but  then  he  should  consider  the  hyoscyamus  which  I 
was  taking  and   the   anxious   botheration   about  the  money 
market.     However,  as  Chaucer  says  : — 
"  There  is  na  workeman 
That  can  bothe  work  en  wel  and  hastilie ; 
This  must  be  done  at  leisure  parfitly." 

[Marchantet  Tale,  11.  9706-8,  slightly  altered.] 

1826.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Woodstock,  or  the  Cavalier,  3  vols.,  vol.  i, 
title  page,  ch.  i,  p.  8  ;  vol.  ii,  chap,  iv,  pp.  98-100.  (Border 
Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1894,  vol.  i,  ch.  i,  pp.  4-5,  ch.  xvi, 
pp.  278-80.) 

[Motto,  Title  page  (omitted  in  later  editions) :] 

He  was  a  very  perfect  gentle  knight. 

pp°4-5]  With  these  grave  seniors  sate  .  .  .  their  pretty  daughters, 
whose  study,  like  that  of  Chaucer's  physician,  was  not  always 
in  the  Bible.  .  .  . 

[Vp'278]  "Dreams,  dreams,  dreams,  my  simple  Colonel,"  said 
Bletson  ..."  Old  Chaucer,  sir,  hath  told  us  the  real  moral 
on't — He  was  an  old  frequenter  of  the  forest  of  Woodstock, 
here—" 

"Chaser'?"  said  Desborough  ; . " some  huntsman  belike,  by 
his  name — Does  he  walk,  like  Hearne  at  Windsor  1 " 


164  five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1826- 

[p. 279]  "Chaucer,"  said  Bletson,  "my  dear  Desborough,  is  one  of 
those  wonderful  fellows,  as  Colonel  Everard  knows,  who  live 
many  a  hundred  years  after  they  are  buried,  and  whose  words 
haunt  our  ears  after  their  bones  are  long  mouldered  in  the  dust." 

"Ay,  ay!  well  [answered  Desborough,  to  whom  this  descrip 
tion  of  the  old  poet  was  unintelligible,  (later  edd.)],  I  for  one 
desire  his  room  rather  than  his  company — one  of  your  con 
jurers,  I  warrant  him.  But  what  says  he  to  the  matter  1 " 

"  Only  a  slight  spell,  which  I  will  take  the  freedom  to  repeat 
to  Colonel  Everard,"  said  Bletson  ;  "  but  which  would  be  as  bad 
as  Greek  to  thee,  Desborough.  —  Old  Geoffrey  lays  the  whole 
blame  of  our  nocturnal  disturbances  on  superfluities  of  humours 
[quotes  Nonne  P.  T.,  11.  109-116]. 

While  he  was  thus  declaiming  .  .  .  Everard  saw  a  book 
sticking  out  from  beneath  the  pillow  ...  "Is  that  Chaucer  1 " 
he  said,  making  for  the  volume — I  would  like  to  look  at  the 
passage — "  Chaucer,"  said  Bletson,  hastening  to  interfere  : 
[p. 280]  "No,  that  is  Lucretius  .  .  .  [Everard  finds  it  to  be  the  Bible, 
and  tells  Bletson  it  may  "serve  him  in  better  stead  than 
Lucretius  or  Chaucer  either."] 

1826.  Unknown.  Notice  of  Gillies' s  German  StorieSj  [in]  Blackwood's 
Edinburgh  Magazine,  Dec.  1826,  vol.  xx,  p.  849. 

In  the  Canterbury  Tales,  the  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  the  Knight's- 
Tale,  and  that  of  the  Lady  Abbess  [Prioress],  might  be  trans 
ferred  to  any  language  which  was  capable  .of  doing  them 
justice;  for  they  depend  upon  nature  and  universal  passion. 
But  in  the  comic  part  of  the  same  work,  (as  the  Miller's 
Tale,  the  Eeeve's,  etc.)  the  exquisite  colouring  of  English  life 
with  which  Chaucer  has  invested  them  would  be  an  effectual 
bar  to  their  translation. 

[The  mistake  of  "the  Lady  Abbess,"  which  reappears  the  next  year  in  Murder  at 
a  Fine  Art,  also  in  Blackwood's  (q.v.  below,  1827),  and  again  in  1S4S  (q.v.),  might 
suggest  that  this  article  is  by  De  Quincey,  though  it  does  not  occur  in  any  collection 
of  his  writings.  But  Leigh  Hunt  is  found  making  the  same  mistake  (q.v.  below,  1834).] 

1826.  Unknown.     [Review  of  various   editions   of  Chaucer,  in]    The 
Retrospective  Review,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  305-57. 

[The  article  contains  severe  criticism  of  modernized  versions 
of  Chaucer.] 

1827.  Adolphus,  J.  L.    Memoranda,  [in]  J.  G.  Lockhart's  Memoirs  of 
'  Sir  Walter    Scott,   Edinburgh,   1838,    vol.  vii,   pp.  56-7.      (Ed. 

A.  W.  Pollard,  1900,  vol.  v,  p.  130.) 

The  chief  ornament  in  Scott's    study]  was  the   print  of 


1827]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  165 

Stothard's  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  which  hung  over  the  chim- 
neypiece,  and,  from  the  place  assigned  to  it,  must  have  been 
in  great  favour,  though  Sir  Walter  made  the  characteristic 
criticism  upon  it,  that,  if  the  procession  were  to  move,  the 
young  squire  who  is  prancing  in  the  foreground  would  in 
another  minute  be  over  his  horse's  head. 

1827.  [De  Quincey,  Thomas.]  On  Murder  considered  as  one  of  the 
Fine  Arts,  [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  Feb.  1827, 
p.  202.  (Collected  Writings,  ed.  D.  Masson,  Edinburgh,  1889-90, 
14  vols.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  20.) 

Indeed,  the  Jewish  School  [of  the  Art  of  Murder]  was  always 
respectable,  even  in  the  dark  ages,  as  the  case  of  Hugh  of 
Lincoln  shows,  which  was  honoured  with  the  approbation 
of  Chaucer,  on  occasion  of  another  performance  from  the  same 
school,  which,  in  his  Canterbury  Tales,  he  puts  into  the  mouth 
of  the  Lady  Abbess. 

[For  another  reference  of  De  Qnincey  to  the  Prioresses  Tale,  see  below,  1848  ;  tee 
also  above,  1826.  Unknown,  in  Blackwood's.] 

1827.  Hood,  Eu.,  pseud,  [i.  e.  Haslewood,  Joseph].  Notes  on  Mayster 
of  the  Game,  by  Edmond  de  Langley,  fifth  son  of  Edward  III, 
(Fly  Leaves  no.  xxxvii),  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  April, 
1827,  p.  309. 

['•Eu.  Hood"  is  identified  with  Haslewood  by  his  album  of  these  Fly  Leaves 
(B.M.,  1077.  g.  26).] 

"Alauntz,  or  Mastiff.     [Quotation,  Knightes  Tale,  1.  1290.] 

1827.  Johnstone,  John.  Specimens  of  Sacred  and  Serious  Poetry, 
from  Chaucer  to  the  Present  Day,  pp.  175-87, 

[The  Prioresses  Tale  and  Character  of  a  Good  Parson, 
modernised,  with  a  brief  account  of  Chaucer  prefixed.] 

1827.  Laing,  Malcolm.  The  Knightly  tale  of  Golagrus  and  Gawane,  and 
other  ancient  poems.  Printed  at  Edinburgh  by  W.  Chepman  and 
A.  Myll.ar  in  the  year  MDVIIJ,  ed.  by  M.  Laing. 

[Poem  No.  viii  is  The  Mai/ing  or  Disport  of  Chaucer, 
i.  e.  The  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight  (by  Lydgate).  On 
p.  14  of  the  Introduction,  Laing  has  a  note  on  the  poem, 
merely  stating  that  it  is  included  in  all  the  editions  of 
Chaucer's  works.] 

1827.  Lamb,  Charles.  Letter  to  B.  E.  Haydon,  March,  1827,  [in]  The 
Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  by  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5, 
vol.  vii,  Letters,  p.  725. 

I  think  I  have  hit  on  a  subject  for  you,  but  can't  swear  it 
was  never  executed — I  never  heard  of  its  being — "  Chaucer 


166  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1827 

beating  a  Franciscan  Friar  in  Fleet  Street."  Think  of  the 
old  dresses,  houses,  etc.  [Lamb  then  quotes  from  Speght's 
Life,  1598.] 

1827.  Lamb,  Charles.    A  Death-bed,  in  a  Letter  to  E.  H.,  Esy ,  o/B . 

(The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  by  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5, 
7  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  246-7.) 

[p.  24«]  Lettered  he  was  not ;  his  reading  scarcely  exceeded  the 
obituary  of  the  old  Gentleman's  Magazine  .  .  .  Yet  there 
was  the  pride  of  literature  about  him  from  that  slender 

[p.  247]  perusal  .  .  .  Can  I  forget  the  erudite  look  with  which, 
having  tried  to  puzzle  out  the  text  of  a  Black  lettered  Chaucer 
in  your  Corporation  Library,  to  which  he  was  a  sorb  of 
Librarian,  he  gave  it  up  with  this  consolatory  reflection — 
"Jemmy,"  said  he,  "I  do  not  know  what  you  find  in 
these  very  old  books,  but  I  observe,  there  is  a  deal  of  very 
indifferent  spelling  in  them." 

[The  hero  of  this  story  was  Randal  Norris,  Sub-Treasurer  of  the  Inner  Temple. 
It  is  very  slightly  altered  from  a  letter  which  Lamb  wrote  to  Crabb  Robinson  on 
Jan.  20,  1827  (ed.  Lucas,  vol.  vii,  p.  721).  For  a  note  on  the  Essay  see  Lucas,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  452-3.] 

1827.  Neele,  Henry.  Lectures  on  English  Poetry.  Delivered  at  the 
Russell  Institution  in  .  .  .  1827,  [in]  The  Literary  Remains  of  the 
late  Henry  Neele,  1829.  (3rd  edn.,  1839,  pp.  3,  6-10,  19-20,  39, 
48,  49-51,  70.) 

[The  Lectures  on  English  Poetry  were  reprinted  separately.  The-  third  edition, 
1839,  is  the  earliest  in  B.M.] 

[In  the  introductory  lecture  Neele  describes  Chaucer's  genius 
as  *  vast,  versatile,  and  original,'  p.  7.  His  attainments,  both 
in  learning  and  knowledge  of  human  nature,  he  declares,  were 
profound.  He  follows  Tyrwhitt's  lead  in  his  brief  remarks  on 
Chaucer's  language,  p.  8  :  ] 

[p.  8]  Chaucer's  versatility  was  most  extraordinary.  .  .  .  His 
humour  and  wit  are  of  the  brightest  and  keenest  character; 
but  then  his  pathos  is  tremendous,  and  his  descriptive  powers 
are  of  the  highest  order.  .  .  . 

[p.  49]  Chaucer's  outlines  are  more  spirited  and  graceful ;  but 
Spenser  is  the  finer  colourist.  Chaucer  I  should  compare  to 
Kaffaelle,  Spenser  to  Eubens;  but  then  Chaucer  combined 
with  all  his  elegance  and  beauty,  many  laughing  graces  .  .  . 
1  should  say  that  Chaucer  was  Baffaelle  and  Teuiers  united  : 
Eaffaelle,  perhaps,  a  little  lowered  from  his  pinnacle  of 
dignity  and  elegance,  and  Teniers  certainly  much  elevated 
above  his  vulgarity  and  grossness. 


1827]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  16T 

1827.  Taylor,  George  Watson.  Misreading,  [in  the  transcript  of]  Poems,, 

written    in    English,    by  Charles    Duke   of  Orleans,   [from   MS.. 

Harleian,  682,  producing  a  supposititious  reference  to  Chaucer],, 

Koxburghe  Club,  1827,  p.  17. 

[MS.  Harl.  682  is  a  very  clear,  well- written  fifteenth-century 
text,  and  the  original  poem  in  it,  fol.  8,  reads  : 

When  y  am  leyd  to  slepe  as  for  a  stound 
To  haue  my  rest  y  can  in  no  manere 
For  all  the  nyght  myn  hert  aredith  round 
As  in  the  romaunce  of  pleasaimt  pancer, 

this  being,  so  far  as  the  last  line  is  concerned,  an  exact 
translation  of  line  4,  Ballade  viii,  in  Charles  of  Orleans' 
French  Poeme  de  la  Prison  (ed.  d'H6ricault,  Paris,  1874, 
tome  i,  p.  21),  which  reads 

Car  toute  la  nuit  mon  cueur  lit 
Ou  Kommant  de  Plaisant  Penser. 

It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  Mr.  Taylor,  the  editor  of  the 
Eoxburghe  Club  print,  read  the  "  pancer "  of  the  MS.  as 
"  Chaucer,"  but,  at  any  rate,  he  renders  (without  comment) 
the  above  passage  as  follows  : 

For  all  the  nyght  myn  hert  aredith  round 
As  in  the  romaunce  of  plesaunt  cliaucer, — 

thus,  with  no  foundation  in  the  manuscript,  turning  the 
passage  into  a  Chaucer  reference.  This  is  misleading  for  those 
readers  who  are  not  able  to  examine  the  MS. ;  see,  for  instance, 
the  conjecture  of  Dr.  H.  N.  MacCracken  in  Publications  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association  of  America,  vol.  xxvi, 
pp.  150-1,  that  William  de  la  Pole,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  may,  in 
translating  the  poems,  have  inserted  this  Chaucer  reference.] 

1827.  Unknown.     Chaucer,  Sir  Geoffrey,  [in]  Encyclopaedia  Edinensis, 
1827,  vol.  ii,  pp.  254-5. 

[A  short  article,  beginning  with  a  cautious  biography,  in 
which  nothing  is  stated  as  certainty  except  the  birth-date 
1328,  Chaucer's  promotions  in  1389,  and  death-date.] 

Chaucer  was  not  only  the  first,  but  also  one  of  the  best 
English  poets.  He  was  great  in  every  kind  of  poetry,  and 
displays  every  kind  of  excellence,  excepting  melody  and 
accuracy  of  measure,  defects  which  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
imperfect  state  of  the  language  .  .  .  [Dry den  quoted.  The 
Court  of  Love,  Chaucer's  first  poem,  followed  by  Troilus  and 
Criseyde.  Many  of  the  poems  are  allegories  ;  the  Dream  (i.  e. 
the  Isle  of  Ladies)  and  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf  mentioned, 


168  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1827- 

as  well  as  The  Book  of  the  Ducltesse,  Romaunt  of  the  Rose 
and  Hous  of  Famel\ 

The  Canterbury  Tales  .  .  .  are  alone  sufficient  to  transmit 
his  name  to  posterity.  ...  In  his  delineation  of  character  he 
is  not  considered  inferior  to  Shakespeare  himself. 

1827.  Unknown.     Magaziniana,  [in]  The  London  Magazine,  vol.  vii, 
Jan.  1827,  new  series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  139-40. 

[A  modernization  of  Chaucer's  poems  much  needed  ;  Dryden 
departs  too  much  from  his  text.  A  version  of  the  Friar  from 
the  Prologue  (11.  223-26)  is  given  as  a  "  very  fair  specimen 
of  what  is  wanted."] 

The  penance  he  imposed  was  never  hard — 
Whereby  he  gained  a  plentiful  reward; 
And  in  such  cases  an  abundant  gift 
"Was  proof  enough  of  an  effectual  shrift  [etc.]. 

1828.  Allen,  Thomas.     The  History  and  Antiquities  of  London,  vol.  iv, 
pp.  117,  525-6. 

[p.  H7]  The  monument  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  ...  is  now  much  defaced, 
and  is  often  only  very  slightly  glanced  at.  Geoffrey  Chaucer 
.  .  .  was  the  son  of  Sir  John  Chaucer,  a  citizen  of  London. 

[pp.525-  [Passages  on  the  Tabard  Inn  and  the  pilgrims,  with 
quotations  from  Prologue.] 

1828.  Angelo,  Henry.  Reminiscences  of  Henry  Angelo,  2  vols.,  1828- 
30,  vol.  i,  pp.  vi,  8. 

[p.  8]  I  remember  being  at  Hampton  many  years  before  he 
[Garrick]  left  the  stage  [i.e.  c.  1770 ;  see  above,  vol.  i,  p.  436], 
and  after  supper,  to  amuse  us  boys,  his  reading  Chaucer's  Cock 
and  the  Fox. 

1828.  Drake,  Nathan.  Mornings  in  Spring  or  Retrospections,  [Paper] 
No.  xiii,  Chaucer,  Dunbar,  and  Burns  Compared,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-17, 
297  [quotation  of  Lady  Pembroke's  letter  to  Selden,  q.v.  below, 
App.  A.,  1649]. 

[Drake  fills  a  good  deal  of  the  space  devoted  to  Chaucer 
with  appreciation  of  the  poet's  descriptions  of  nature — among 
the  landscapes  selected  for  praise  being  those  in  the  spurious 
Flower  and  Leaf  and  Complaint  of  the  Blade  Knight. .] 

1828.  Gorton,  John  G.,  A  General  Biographical  Dictionary,  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  473-4. 

[The  article  on  Chaucer  is  abridged  from  Aikin's  General 
Biography,  q.v.  above,  1801.] 


1828]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  169 

1828.  Hazlitt,  William.  A  Farewell  to  Essay-Writing,  [in]  The  Lon 
don  Weekly  Review,  March  29.  (Collected  Works  of  William 
Hazlitt,  ed.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6,  13  vols,  vol.  xii,  p.  327.) 

[Praise  of  "  Chaucer's  Flower  and  Leaf."] 

1828.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Fine  Days  in  January  and  February, 
[in]  The  Companion,  Jan.  30,  1826,  pp.  26-7.  (Indicator  and  Ex 
aminer,  1834  ;  Essays,  1891,  p.  27-9.) 

AVe  think  we  see  him  [Chanticleer],  as  in  Chaucer's  home 
stead  : 

He  looketh  as  it  were  a  grim  leoun 
[and  4  following  lines,  Nonne  Prestes  Tale,  11.  4369-73]. 
[p.  28]       ...  As  fine,  considered  as  mere  music  and  versification,  as 
the  description  is  pleasant  and  noble  : 

His  combe  was  redder  than  the  fine  corall 

[and  5  following  lines,  11.  4049-54]. 

Hardly  one  pause  like  the  other  throughout,  and  yet  all 
flowing  and  sweet.  .  .  .  The  accent,  it  is  to  be  observed,  in 
those  concluding  words,  as  coral  and  colour,  is  to  be  thrown 
on  the  last  syllable. 

1828.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Lord  Byron  and  Some  of  his  Con 
temporaries,  pp.  376,  398-9  [also  a  few  passing  references]. 

[p.  376]  Chaucer,  one  of  my  best  friends,  I  was  not  acquainted  with 
till  long  afterwards  [i.  e.  after  his  schooldays]. 

[p.  398]  It  is  to  him  [Mr.  Bell]  the  public  are  indebted  for  the  small 
edition  of  the  Poets  that  preceded  Cooke's,  and  which,  with 
all  my  predilections  for  that  work,  was  unquestionably  superior 
to  it.  Besides,  it  included  Chaucer  and  Spenser.  The  omis 
sion  of  these  in  Cooke's  edition  was  as  unpoetical  a  sign  of  the 
times,  as  the  existing  familiarity  with  their  names  is  the 

ip.  399]  reverse.  .  .  .  He  knew  nothing  of  poetry.  .  .  .  Yet  a  certain 
liberal  instinct,  and  turn  for  large  dealing,  made  him  include 
Chaucer  and  Spenser  in  his  edition;  he  got  Stothard  to  adorn 
the  one,  and  Mortimer  the  other. 

1828.  Joimstone,  John.  Specimens  of  the  Lyrical,  Descriptive  and 
Narrative  Poets  of  Great  Britain,  from  Chaucer  to  the  Present  Day, 
pp.  6,  12,  25-58. 

[There  are  no  extracts  from  Chaucer  in  the  text,  which 
begins  with  Surrey ;  but  the  earlier  history  of  English  poetry 
is  told  in  the  introduction,  and  here  a  very  appreciative 
account  is  given  of  Chaucer,  with  extracts  from  Troilus  and 
Criseyde,  the  Prologue  and  the  Kniglites  Tale.  Headers  are 


170  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1828 

exhorted  to  master  the  few  difficulties  of  his  language,  and 
modernisers  are  criticised ;  but  Wordsworth's  version  of  the 
Prioresses  Tale  receives  praise.] 

1828.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Imaginary  Conversations :  Landor, 
English  Visiter  and  Florentine  Visiter,  [in]  Imaginary  Conversa 
tions,  vol.  iii,  1828,  p.  427.  (Ed.  0.  G.  Crump,  1891,  6  vols., 
vol.  vi,  p.  446.) 

[p.  446]  [Verses  to  Keats  :] 

Yet  I  would  dream  to  meet  thee  at  our  home 
With  Spenser's  quiet,  Chaucer's  livelier  ghost. 

[Printed  in  first  and  second  editions  only  ;  given  in  the  appendix  of  Crump's 
edition.] 

[1828?]  Moore,  Thomas.  Note  [to]  Song  of  the  Departing  Spirit  of 
Tithe.  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  A.  D.  Godley,  1910,  p.  613.) 

Chaucer's  Plowman  complains  of  the  Parish  rectors,  that 
*  For  the  tithing  of  a  duck, 
Or  an  apple  or  an  aye  (egg), 
They  make  him  swear  upon  a  Loke  ; 
Thus  they  foulen  Christ's  fay.' 

[The,  Plowman' t  Tale,  author  unknown,  11.  861-64.  We  have  not  been  able  to 
trace  the  first  appearance  of  this  piece.  In  Moore's  Poetical  Works,  collected  by 
himself,  1840-41,  10  vols.,  it  appears  (vol.  ix.,  pp.  17-21)  between  pieces  dated  1828, 
and  immediately  following  those  published  in  Odes  on  Corn,  Cash  and  Catholics, 
1828.  It  is  not  found  in  Palmer's  Index  to  the  Times  for  1828.  The  note  containing 
the  Chaucer  reference  may  have  been  added  by  Moore  in  1841.] 

1828.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  St.  Valentine's  Eve,  or,  The  Fair  Maid  of 
Perth,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  ch.  x,  p.  300,  vol.  iii,  ch.  iv,  p.  61.  (Border 
edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1894,  vol.  ii,  chap,  v,  p.  84,  chap,  x, 
p.  147.) 

[p. 84]        "How  now,  Sir  Leech!"  said  the  Dominican.     "Do  you 
call   prayers  for   the   dead   juggling   tricks']      I   know   that 
Chaucer,  the  English  maker,  says  of  you  mediciners  that  your 
study  is  but  little  on  the  Bible."     [Prologue,  i.  438.] 
[p.  147]  [Chapter  Heading] 

"  This  Austin  humbly  did."—"  Did  he  ? "  quoth  he. 
"  Austin  may  do  the  same  again  for  me." 

Pope's  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales  from  Chaucer. 

1828.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  On  Landscape  Gardening,  [review  of]  The 
Planter's  Guide  ...  by  Sir  Henry  Steuart,  [in]  The  Quarterly 
Review,  March,  vol.  xxxvii,  p.  311. 

The  ancient  English  poets,  Chaucer  and  Spenser  in  particular, 
never  luxuriate  more  than  when  they  get  into  a  forest; 
by  the  accuracy  with  which  they  describe  particular  trees, 


1828]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  171 

and  from  their  noticing  the  different  characters  of  the  different 
species,  and  the  various  effects  of  light  and  darkness  upon 
the  walks  and  glades  of  the  forest,  it  is  evident  that  they 
regarded  woodland  scenery  not  merely  as  associated  with 
their  favourite  sports,  but  as  having  in  itself  beauties  which 
they  could  appreciate. 

1828.  Smith,  John  Thomas.  Nollekens  and  his  Times,  vol.  i,  p.  179 
[conversation  between  Nollekeus  and  Catling  in  Westminster 
Abbey;  a  short  note  on  Chaucer's  tomb];  vol.  ii,  pp.  467-71 
[an  account  of  Blake's  quarrel  with  Cromek  and  Stothard  ;  q.v. 
above,  1808  and  1809.  See  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  ser..  ii, 
420]. 

1828.  Southey,  Robert.  Letter  to  Grosvenor  C.  Bedford,  dated  Keswick, 
Nov.  28, 1828.  (Life  and  Correspondence  of  Southey,  1850,  vol.  v, 
p.  332.) 

[Southey  says  if  he  were  confined  to  twelve  English  books 
his]  library  .  .  .  would  consist  of  Shakespeare,  Chaucer, 
Spenser  and  Milton;  Lord  Clarendon;  Jackson,  Jeremy 
Taylor,  and  South;  Isaac  Walton,  Sidney's  Arcadia,  Fuller's 
Church  History,  and  Sir  Thomas  Brown. 

1828.  Tytler,  Henry  William.  Miscellanies,  Calcutta.  [Modernizations 
of  the  Clerk's  Tale  and  the  Tale  of  Gamely n.  Not  in  B.M., 
Bodleian,  etc.,  or  Watt,  Allibone,  English  Catalogue,  etc.  See 
Chaucer,  by  E.  P.  Hammond,  1908,  p.  229.] 

1828.  "Unknown.  Critique  of  Woman's  Love;  or,  the  Triumph  of 
Patience  (played  at  Theatre  Royal,  Co  vent  Garden,  Dec.  17,  19, 
23,  1828),  [in]  The  Times,  Dec.  18,  p.  2,  col.  3. 

[Quotation  from  ClerJces  Tale.  The  play  was  a  dramatisation 
of  the  Griselda  story.  Kemble  played  the  leading  part, 
Andrea,  Duke  of  Saluzzo.  The  playbill  gives  no  author.] 

1828.  Unknown.  The  Worthies  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  or  Biographi 
cal  Accounts  of  the  Lives  of  the  most  illustrious  Men,  in  Arts,  Arms, 
Literature,  and  Science,  connected  with  Great  Britain. 

[No.  4.  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  Father  of  English  Poetry, 
pp.  73-82,  with  engraved  portrait,  to  face  p.  73,  dated  June  1, 
1827.  A  Life  (with  the  old  mistakes),  and  a  short  account 
of  his  Works.  His  language  not  obsolete.] 

The  Canterbury  Tales  is  the  great  basis  of  the  fame  of 
Chaucer.  .  .  .  The  .  .  .  Tales  are  certainly  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  monuments  of  human  genius.  .  .  .  The  Prologue 
...  is  a  copious  and  extensive  review  of  the  private  life  of 
the  fourteenth  century  in  England . 


172  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1829 

1829.  Hartshorne,  Charles  Henry.  The  Book  Rarities  in  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  pp.  135-6  [Some  Minor  Poems  of  Chaucer,  Lydgate 
and  others,  Caxton,  n.d.J,  138  [The  Book  of  Fame,  Caxton,  n.d.], 
149  [Troy Ins  and  Creseyde,  1517],  202  [Troylus  and  Creseyde, 
152(5],  211  [The  Workes  of  Geffray  Chaucer,  Godfray,  1532],  232 
[The  Book  of  the  Tales  of  Caunterburye,  1st  edn.],  297  [Chaucer's 
Works,  n.d.,  fol.  The  first  three  are  in  the  University  Library, 
the  fourth  and  fifth  in  the  King's  College  Library,  the  sixth  in 
the  Pepysian  Library,  and  the  seventh  in  the  Trinity  College 
Library.] 

1829-30.  Hazlitt,  William.  Conversations  of  James  Northcote,  Esq., 
Conversation  the  Fifteenth.  (Collected  Works  of  William  Hazlitt, 
eel.  Waller  and  Glover,  1902-6, 13  vols.,  vol.  vi, pp.  378, 418,, 466, 523.) 

[This  Conversation  probably  appeared  first  in  the  Atlas,  1829,  of  which  the  B.M. 
has  only  one  no.] 

Northcote  .  .  .  said,  '  Sir  Richard  Phillips  .  .  .  came 
here  once  with  Godwin  to  shew  me  a  picture  which  they 
had  just  discovered  of  Chaucer,  and  which  was  to  embellish 
Godwin's  Life  of  him.  I  told  them  it  was  certainly  no 
picture  of  Chaucer,  nor  was  any  such  picture  painted  at 
that  time.' 


1829.  Hood,  Thomas.     A  Widow,  [in]  The  Gem,  p.  26. 

Are  the  traditional  freaks  of  a  Dame  of  Ephesus,  or  a  Wife 
of  Bath,  or  a  Queen  of  Denmark  to  cast  so  broad  a  shadow 
over  a  whole  sisterhood  1 

[This  paper  is  a  parody  of  Lamb  by  Hood,  and  is  signed  "  C.  Lamb."  See  Works 
of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  E.  V.  Lucas,  1903-5,  vol.  vii,  pp.  785-6.] 

1829.  Jameson,  Anna.  The  Loves  of  the  Poets,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
133-60.  [Reprinted  in  1837  as  Romance  of  Biography  (same 
pagination).] 

[Chaucer  and  Philippa  Picard.] 

1829.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Imaginary  Conversations,  5  vols., 
1824-9  ;  vol.  iv,  1829,  pp.  209-76  ;  Works,  1846,  vol.  i,  pp. 
402-18.  (Imaginary  Conversations,  ed.  C.  G.  Crump,  1891, 
6  vols.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  66-108.) 

[There  are  various  changes  in  the  language  between  the 
editions  of  1829  and  1846.  In  the  opening  speech,  for 
instance,  after  '  Decameron,'  the  1829  edition  reads  "which 
I  shewed  to  you  in  his  manuscript,  you  expressed  so  ardently 
your  admiration,"  &c.  The  speech  of  Petrarca  (p.  403),  in 
reply  to  Chaucer's  remarks  on  the  cataract  of  Terni,  is  a  later 
addition.] 


1829]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  173 

CHAUCER,  BOCCACCIO,  AND  PETRARCA. 

[p.  66]       Petrarca.  You  have  kept  your  promise  like  an  Englishman, 

[p.  67]    Ser    Geoffreddo :    welcome    to    Arezzo.       This    gentleman   is 

Messer  Giovanni  Boccaccio,  of  whose  unfinished  Decameron, 

which  I  opened  to  you  in  manuscript,  you  expressed  your 

admiration  when  we  met  at  Florence  in  the  spring. 

Boccaccio.  I  was  then  at  Certaldo,  my  native  place,  filling 
up  my  stories,  and  have  only  to  regret  that  my  acquaintance 
with  one  so  friendly  and  partial  to  me  has  been  formed  so 
late.  Plow  did  Rome  answer  your  expectation,  siH 

Chaucer.  I  had  passed  through  Pisa;  of  which  city  the 
Campo  Santo,  now  nearly  finished,  after  half  a  century  from 
its  foundation,  and  the  noble  street  along  the  Arno,  are 
incomparably  more  beautiful  than  anything  in  Rome. 

Petrarca.  That  is  true.  I  have  heard,  however,  some  of 
your  countrymen  declare  that  Oxford  is  equal  to  Pisa,  in  the 
solidity,  extent,  and  costliness  of  its  structures. 

Chaucer.  Oxford  is  the  most  beautiful  of  our  cities  :  it 
would  be  a  very  fine  one  if  there  were  no  houses  in  it. 

Petrarca.  How  is  that  1 

Chaucer.  The  lath-and-plaster  white-washed  houses  look 
despicably  mean  under  the  colleges. 

Boccaccio.  Few  see  anything  in  the  same  point  of  view. 
It  would  gratify  me  highly,  if  you  would  tell  me  with  all 
the  frankness  of  your  character  and  your  country,  what  struck 
you  most  in  "  the  capital  of  the  world"  as  the  vilest  slaves 
in  it  call  their  great  open  cloaca. 

Chaucer.  After  the  remains  of  antiquity,  I  know  not 
whether  anything  struck  me  more  forcibly  than  the  superiority 
of  our  English  churches  and  monasteries.  .  .  . 

[p.  68]  Boccaccio.  "We  can  not  travel  in  the  most  picturesque 
and  romantic  regions  of  our  Italy,  from  the  deficiency  of 
civilisation  in  the  people. 

Chaucer.  Yet,  Messer  Giovanni,  I  never  journeyed  so  far 
through  so  enchanting  a  scenery  as  there  is  almost  the  whole 
of  the  way  from  Arezzo  to  Rome,  particularly  round  Terni 
and  Kami  and  Perugia. 

Our  master  Virgil  speaks  of  dreams  that  swarm  upon  the 
branches  of  one  solitary  elm.  In  this  country  more  than 
dreams  swarm  upon  every  spray  and  leaf ;  and  every  murmur 
of  wood  or  water  conies  from  and  brings  with  it  inspiration. 


174  live  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1829 

Never  shall  I  forget  the  hour  when  my  whole  soul  was  carried 
away  from  me  hy  the  cataract  of  Terni,  and  when  all  things 
existing  were  lost  to  me  in  its  stupendous  waters.  The 
majestic  woods  that  bowed  their  heads  before  it ;  the  sun 
that  was  veiling  his  glory  in  mild  translucent  clouds  over  the 
furthest  course  of  the  river;  the  moon,  that  suspended  her 
orb  in  the  very  centre  of  it,  seemed  ministering  Powers, 
themselves  in  undiminished  admiration  of  the  marvel  they 
had  been  looking  on  through  unnumbered  ages.  "What  are  the 
works  of  man  in  comparison  with  this?  What  indeed,  are 
the  other  works  of  Nature? 

Petrarca.-  Ser  Giovanni  f  this,  which  appears  even  too  great 
for  Nature,  was  not  too  great  for  man.  Our  ancestors  achieved 
it.  Curius  Dentatus,  in  his  consulate,  forbade  the  waters  of 
the  Velinus  to  inundate  so  beautiful  a  valley,  and  threw  them 
down  this  precipice  into  the  Nar.  .  .  . 

[p,  69]  Chaucer.  I  was  not  forgetful  that  we  heard  the  story  from 
our  guide;  but  I  thought  him  a  boaster:  and  now  for  the 
first  time  I  learn  that  any  great  power  hath  been  exerted  for 
any  great  good.  Roads  were  levelled  for  aggression,  and  vast 
edifices  were  constructed  either  for  pride  or  policy,  to  com 
memorate  some  victory,  to  reward  the  Gods  for  giving  it,  or 
to  keep  them  in  the  same  temper.  There  is  nothing  of  which 
men  appear  to  have  been  in  such  perpetual  apprehension,  as 
the  inconstancy  of  the  deities  they  worship. 

Many  thanks,  Ser  Francesco,  for  reminding  me  of  what 
the  guide  asserted,  and  for  teaching  me  the  truth.  I  thought 
the  fall  of  the  Velinus  not  only  the  work  of  Nature,  but  the 
most  beautiful  she  had  ever  made  on  earth.  My  prevention, 
in  regard  to  the  country  about  Borne,  was  almost  as  great, 
and  almost  as  unjust  to  Nature,  from  what  I  had  heard  of  it 
both  at  home  arid  abroad.  In  the  approach  to  the  eternal 
city,  she  seems  to  have  surrendered  much  of  her  wildness, 
and  to  have  assumed  all  her  stateliness  and  sedateness,  all  her 

aw ful ness  and  severity 

lp.  70]  Boccaccio.  If  Ser  Geoff reddo  felt  in  honest  truth  any 
pleasure  at  reading  my  Decameron,  he  owes  me  a  tithe  at  least 
of  the  stories  it  contains  :  for  I  shall  not  be  so  courteous  as 
to  tell  him  that  one  of  his  invention  is  worth  ten  of  mine,  until 
I  have  had  all  his  ten  from  him  :  if  not  now,  another  day. 

Chaucer.  Let  life  be  spared  to  me,  and  I  will  carry  the 
[p.  71]    tithe  in  triumph  through  my  country,  much  as  may  be  shed 


1829]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  175 

of  the  heavier  and  riper  grain  by  the  conveyance  and  the 
handling  of  it.  And  I  will  attempt  to  show  Englishmen  what 
Italians  are;  how  much  deeper  in  thought,  intenser  in 
feeling,  and  richer  in  imagination,  than  ever  formerly :  and 
I  will  try  whether  we  can  not  raise  poetry  under  our  fogs,  and 
merriment  among  our  marshes.  We  must  first  throw  some 
litter  about  it,  which  those  who  come  after  us  may  remove. 

Petrarca.  Do  not  threaten,  Ser  Geffreddo  !    Englishmen  act. 

Boccaccio.  Messer  Francesco  is  grown  melancholy  at  the 
spectre  of  the  tribune.  Relate  to  us  some  amusing  tale,  eithei 
of  court  or  war. 

Chaucer.  It  would  ill  become  me,  signers,  to  refuse  what 
I  can  offer :  and  truly  I  am  loth  to  be  silent,  when  a  fair 
occasion  is  before  me  of  adverting  to  those  of  my  countrymen 
who  fought  in  the  battle  of  Cressy,  as  did  one  or  two  or  more 
of  the  persons  that  are  the  subjects  of  my  narrative. 

Boccaccio.  Enormous  and  horrible  as  was  the  slaughter  of 
the  French  in  that  fight,  and  hateful  as  is  war  altogether  to 
you  and  me,  Francesco !  I  do  expect  from  the  countenance  of 
Ser  Geoffreddo,  that  he  will  rather  make  us  merry  than  sad. 

Chaucer.  I  hope  I  may,  the  story  not  wholly  nor  principally 
relating  to  the  battle. 

[Here  Chaucer  tells  the  story  of  Sir  Magnus  Lucy  of 
Charlecote.] 

tp.  97]  Now  Messer  Francesco,  I  may  call  upon  you,  having  seen 
you  long  since  throw  aside  your  gravity,  and  at  last  spring 
up  alert,  as  though  you  would  mount  for  Picardy. 

Petrarca.  A  right  indeed  have  you  acquired  to  call  upon 
me,  Ser  Geoff  redo ;  but  you  must  accept  from  me  the  produce 
of  our  country.  .  .  . 
{p.  98]       Boccaccio.  Well,  go  on  with  him. 

Petrarca.  I  do  think,  Giovanni,  you  tell  a  story  a  great  deal 
more  naturally ;  but  I  will  say  plainly  what  my  own  eyes 
have  remarked,  and  will  let  the  peculiarities  of  men  appear 
as  they  strike  me,  whether  they  are  in  symmetry  with  our 
notions  of  character,  or  not. 

Chaucer.  The  man  of  genius  may  do  this :  no  other  will 
attempt  it.  He  will  discover  the  symmetry,  the  relations, 
and  the  dependencies,  of  the  whole :  he  will  square  the 
strange  problematic  circle  of  the  human  heart.  .  .  . 
(p.  108]  After  this  narration,  Messer  Francesco  walked  toward  the 
high  altar  and  made  his  genuflexion :  the  same  did  Messer 


176  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1829- 

Giovanni,  and,  in  the  act  of  it,  slapped  Ser  Geoffreddo 
on  the  shoulder,  telling  him  he  might  dispense  with  the 
ceremony,  by  reason  of  his  inflexible  boots  and  the  buck-skin 
paling  about  his  loins.  Ser  Geoffreddo  did  it  nevertheless, 
and  with  equal  devotion.  His  two  friends  then  took  him 
between  them  to  the  house  of  Messer  Francesco,  where  dinner 
had  been  some  time  waiting. 


1829.  Ritson,  Joseph.  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads  from  the  Reign  of 
King  Henry  the  Second  to  the  Revolution,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  xi 
[women  "  tomblesteres "  in  the  time  of  Chaucer],  xxii  ["timbe- 
stere  "  and  "tymbres"  in  Romaunt  of  the  Rose],  xxviii-ix,  xlv-vi 
[vocal  melody  in  the  age  of  Chaucer],  xlvi  n.,  xlvii,  li  n.  ["horn 
pipes  of  Cornewaile  "  in  Romaunt  of  the  Rose],  Ivii,  [harp],  Ivii  n., 
lix  [the  rote],  Ix  n.,  Ixi  [giterne],  Ixi  n,  Ixxii  n.,  Ixiii  ["joly 
Absolon,"  and  the  lute],  Ixiv  [the  symphonic],  Ixv  [Chaucer's 
Miller  plays  the  bagpipe],  Ixvi  [floite  and  liltying  home,  pipes, 
trompes,  nakeres  and  clariounes],  68  ;  vol.  ii,  p.  3. 

1829,  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Memoir  of  George  Bannatyne,  [in]  Memorials 
of  George  Bannatyne,  Bannatyne  Club,  Edinburgh,  1829,  p.  14. 
(Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh, 
1834-71,  30  vols,  vol.  xxx,  pp.  82-83.) 

This  darling  of  the  Scottish  Muses  [Dunbar]  has  been 
justly  raised  to  a  level  with  Chaucer  by  every  judge  of 
poetry,  to  whom  his  obsolete  language  has  not  rendered -him 
unintelligible  ...  In  the  pathetic  Dunbar  is  Chaucer's 
inferior,  and  accordingly  in  most  of  his  pieces  he  rather 
wishes  to  instruct  the  understanding,  or  to  amuse  the  fancy, 
than  to  affect  the  heart. 

1829.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Tales  of  a  Grandfather,  2nd  series,  vol.  i, 
pp.  37-8.  (Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edin 
burgh,  1834-71,  30  vols.,  vol.  xxiii,  p.  238.) 

The  Queen  [Elizabeth]  .  .  .  told  the  preacher  [the  Bishop 
of  St.  David's]  to  keep  his  admonitions  to  himself,  since  she 
plainly  saw  the  greatest  clerks  .  .  .  were  not  the  wisest  men. 

[For  other  references  by  Scott  to  Queen  Elizabeth's  quotation  of  this  line  see  also 
above,  1820,  The  Monastery,  and  1821,  Kenilworth.] 

1829.  Wordsworth,  William.  Liberty.  (The  Poetical  Works  of  William 
Wordsworth,  1896,  vol.  vii,  p.  219.) 

Is  there  a  cherished  bird  (I  venture  now 

To  snatch  a  sprig  from  Chaucer's  reverend  brow)— 


1S30]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  177 

Is  there  a  brilliant  fondling  of  the  cage, 

Though  sure  of  plaudits  on  his  costly  stage, 

Though  fed  with  dainties  from  the  snow-white  hand 

Of  a  kind  mistress,  fairest  of  the  land, 

But  gladly  would  escape  ;  and,  if  need  were, 

Scatter  the  colours  from  the  plumes  that  bear 

The  emancipated  captive  through  blithe  air 

Into  strange  woods,  where  he  at  large  may  live 

On  best  or  worst  which  they  and  Nature  give  1 

[This  is  from  the  sequel  to  the  Gold  and  Silver  fishes  in  a  Vase,  written  in  1829> 
printed  in  1835.] 

1830.  Campbell,  Thomas.  Chaucer,  [in]  Brewster's  Edinburgh 
Encyclopaedia,  vol.  v,  pt.  ii,  pp.  756-62. 

[A  long  and  very  appreciative  article,  echoing  in  parts  the 
author's  Essay  of  181  i),  q.  v.  above.  The  earlier  and  bio 
graphical  part  is  careful,  and  describes  Godwin's  Life  as  "a 
series  of  suppositions,"  but  the  story  of  Chaucer's  exile  and 
imprisonment  is  treated  as  certain.  Campbell  notes  that  the 
inscription  and  figures  on  Chaucer's  tomb  were  at  the  time  of 
writing  almost  obliterated. 

Chaucer  found  English  poetry  in  the  rudest  state ;  he 
introduced  the  heroic  iambic  line.  The  Court  of  Love ,  "  his 
first  poem,"  noticed  at  length.  Troilus  and  Criseyde,  his  next 
poem,  analysed ;  its  anachronisms.] 

[p.  760]  Next  to  the  length  of  the  poem,  the  greatest  obstacle  to  our 
interest  in  it  is  an  inconsistency  between  the  strength  and 
tenderness,  and  the  lawlessness  and  secrecy  of  Troilus's  passion. 
The  poet  represents  no  sufficient  cause  to  prevent  the  Trojan 
from  marrying  Cresseide.  .  .  .  This  is  a  departure  from 
nature  and  probability,  the  more  remarkable  in  a  poet  whose 
characteristic  merit  is  generally  adherence  to  both.  Yet  this 
tale  of  Troy  divine,  which  Sir  Philip  Sydney  adored,  and 
which  was  once  regarded  as  an  ornament  to  our  language,  did 
not  fascinate  our  forefathers  without  a  reason.  As  an  ancient 
novel  in  verse,  it  reminds  us  very  frequently  of  the  minute 
touches  and  pathos  of  Richardson.  [The  confession  of  Criseyde 
and  the  grief  of  Troilus  (as  in  1819).] 

[The  Dream  (Isle  of  Ladies),  Book  of  the  Duchessr,  Parle- 
ment  of  Foules,  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  Flower  and  the  Leaf, 
Horn  of  Fame.  The  Canterbury  Tales  the  work  of  his  old 
age ;  the  plan  from  Boccaccio ;  the  naturalism  of  the  characters, 
and  the  dramatic  contrasts  between  them.  Chaucer's  other 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. — II.  N 


178  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1830 

virtues  inferior  to  this ;  his  incongruities,  e.  g.  the  "  cooke 
scalded  for  all  his  longe  ladle."  The  great  architect  of  our 
versilication,  but  not  an  importer  of  French  words.  His 
prolixity,  like  his  coarseness,  a  fault  of  his  time.] 

[p.  762]  [The  beauties]  of  Chaucer  may  be  compared  to  flowers  which 
we  collect  in  a  long  journey,  numerous  in  the  sum,  but 
collected  widely  asunder.  This  expression  may  appear 
irreverend  to  those  who  are  enamoured  of  old  English  and 
obsolete  spelling,  merely  because  it  is  old  and  obsolete;  but 
the  reader  who  sits  down  to  Chaucer,  expecting  wonders  in 
every  page,  will  find,  that  though  there  is  much  to  reward 
his  patience,  there  is  also  something  to  exercise  it. 


1830.  Moore,  Thomas.  Letters  and  Journals  of  Lord  Byron,  ivith 
Notices  of  his  Life  by  Thomas  Moore,  2  vols,  vol.  i,  p.  30. 
(1  vol.  ed.  1908,  pp.  15,  49,  123,  391.)  [See  above,  Byron,  1807, 
1811,  1819.] 

[Moore  quotes  Dr.  Glennie,  Byron's  schoolmaster  at  Dul- 
wich  :]  His  reading  in  history  and  poetry  was  far  beyond  the 
usual  standard  of  his  age,  and  in  my  study  he  found  many 
books  .  .  .  among  others,  a  set  of  our  poets  from  Chaucer  to 
Churchill,  which  I  am  almost  tempted  to  say  he  had  more 
than  once  perused  from  beginning  to  end. 

1830.  Murray,  Sir  Charles  Augustus.  Memorandum,  [dated  June,  1830, 
printed  in]  Goethes  Gesprache,  Gesamtausgabe,  neu  herausgegeben 
von  Flodoard  Frhr.  von  Biedermann,  1909-11,  5  vols.,  vol.  iv, 
p.  286.  (The  Hon.  Sir  Charles  Murray,  K.C.B.,  a  memoir,  by  ... 
Sir  Herbert  Maxwell,  1898,  p.  75.) 

After  a  few  minutes  general  conversation  he  [Goethe] 
pointed  to  a  large  volume  lying  before  him  on  the  table, 
and  said — 

"  It  is  curious  that  when  your  visit  was  announced  to  me, 
I  was  engaged  in  making  a  few  notes  on  your  Old  English 
literature.  Is  that  a  subject  that  has  ever  engaged  your 
attention  ? "  To  this  I  was  fortunately  able  to  make  an 
affirmative  reply,  as  I  had  not  long  before,  when  at  Oxford, 
spent  some  time  in  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon,  and  was,  more 
over,  well  up  in  Chaucer,  which  enabled  me  to  elucidate  a 
few  old  words  and  phrases  which  he  had  marked  as  requiring 
explanation. 


1830]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  179 

1830.  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  Elizabeth 
of  York.  Index  and  Notes,  [Illustrative  quotations  under]  Gray 
ling,  p.  198;  Housell,  p.  202;  Pardon,  p.  214;  Purfle,  p.  217; 
Stations,  p.  224 ;  Combe  Coverchiefs,  pp.  241-2. 

1830.  Robson,  Thomas.  The  British  Herald  or  Cabinet  of  Armorial 
Searings  of  the  Nobility  and  Gentry  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
vol.  i. 

[Note,  under  Chaucer,  on  his  coat-of-arms.] 

1830.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Letters  on  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,  John 
Murray's  edition,  1830,  pp.  173-75,  178  ;  Reprint  in  Morley's 
Universal  Library,  1884,  pp.  144-5,  148.  (Miscellaneous  Prose 
Works,  Edinburgh,  1834-71,  30  vols.,  vol.  xxix,  pp.  168-70,  173.) 

[Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  11.  1-25;  Chaucer  ascribes  the  exile 
of  fairies  to  the  prayers  of  the  "limitours  "  and  "  freres."] 

1830.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  History  of  Scotland,  [in]  The  Cabinet 
Cyclopaedia,  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Dionysius  Lardner,  vol.  i, 
pp.  333,  351. 

[References  to  Dunbar  as  "  the  Scottish  Chaucer."] 

1830.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Introduction  to  The  Monastery,  dated  Nov.  1, 
1830,  [in]  Introductions  ...  to  the  Novels,  Tales  and  Romances 
of  the  Author  of  Waverley,  3  vols.  1833,  vol.  ii,  p.  117.  (Border 
Edition;  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  i,  pp.  xxii,  xxiii.) 

(p.  xxii]     There  are  evenings  when  the  spectator  might  believe,  with 

Father  Chaucer,  that  the — 
[p.  xiiii]  Queen  of  Faery, 

"With  harp,  and  pipe,  and  symphony, 
Were  dwelling  in  the  place. 

[Sir  Thopat,  11.  2004-6.} 

1830.  Unknown.  Review  of  Sotheby's  Specimens  of  a  New  Version  of 
Homer,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review,  July  1830,  vol.  li,  p.  464. 

Of  all  the  British  poets,  the  two  most  Homeric  in  spirit, 
however  different  in  style,  both  from  the  Grecian  bard  and 
from  each  other,  are  Shakespeare  and  Scott ;  but  Chaucer, 
behind  all  three  in  fancy  and  invention,  comes  nearest  to 
Homer  in  manner  and  expression.  He  might  have  given  an 
English  Homer,  in  which  the  few,  who  would  in  the  present 
day  have  read  it,  would  have  recognised  the  character  and 
bearing  of  the  great  original. 

In  delivering  his  rule  for  a  narrator,  Chaucer  has  at  least 


180  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1830- 

prescribed  a  law  equally  incumbent  upon  all  who  aspire  to 
translate  the  Homeric  poems  : — 

"  Whoso  shall  tello  a  tale  after  a  man  .  .  .       [to] 
All  spoke  he  never  so  rudely  and  so  large." 

[Prologue,  11.  731-4.] 

1830.  Warner,  Richard.  Literary  Recollections,  2  vols.,  1830,  vol.  i, 
pp.  141-2. 

[p.  141]  He  himself  [the  Rev.  Henry  Richman]  has  frequently  told 
me,  that  in  early  manhood,  he  had  written  a  sequel  to  Chaucer's 
Qanterbury  Tales,  which  (as  I  have  been  informed  by  a 
competent  judge,  who  perused  them)  breathed  much  of  the 
spirit,  style,  and  diction,  of  the  venerable  bard.  13ut  of  this 

Fp.  142]  work  I  never  could  obtain  a  sight.  He  always  declined  per 
mitting  his  friends  to  peruse  it,  upon  the  principle,  that  the 
levity  of  such  compositions,  was  inconsistent  with  the  decorum 
of  the  clerical  character. 

1830.  Wordsworth,  William.     Letter  to  Alexander  Dyce,  May,  1830, 
[in]  Letters  of  the   Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W.  Knight,  1907, 
3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  419. 

The  poetic  genius  of  England,  with  the  exception  of 
Chaucer,  Spenser,  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  and  a  very  few 
more,  is  to  be  sought  in  her  drama. 

1831.  Bentley,  Samuel.    Excerpta  Historica,  or  Illustrations  of  English 
History.     Issue  of  Katherine  Swynford,  pp.  148,  155,  205-7,  210, 
230-1,  239,  253,  353. 

[p.  155]  The  following  document  and  other  notices  will  throw 
some  light  on  the  subject;  and  as  the  Swynfords,  besides 
being  closely  connected  with  the  blood-royal,  were,  according 
to  the  poet's  biographers,  though  the  fact  is  very  questionable, 
nearly  allied  to  Chaucer,  this  article  may  be  deemed  to  possess 
more  interest  than  is  generally  found  in  genealogical  statements. 

Sir  Payne  Roelt,  a  Knight  of  Ilainault,  and  Guieime  King- 
of-Arms,  had,  it  is  said,  two  daughters  and  co-heirs,  Philippa 
and  Katherine.  No  particulars  of  his  pedigree  have  been 
discovered ;  his  arms,  in  allusion  to  his  name,  were  Gules, 
three  Katherine  wheels  Or. 

Philippa,  his  eldest  daughter,  is  stated  to  have  been  the 
maid  of  honour  to  Philippa  Queen  of  Edward  the  Third 
who  by  the  name  of  "Philippa  Pycard"  obtained  a  grant 
of  one  hundred  shillings  per  annum  on  the  28th  January 


1831]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  181 

1370,  and  married  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  to  whom,  in  consequence, 
it  is  supposed,  of  this  connection,  the  Duke  of  Lancaster 
granted  the  Castle  of  Dodington  [sic].  Of  John  of  Gaunt's  con 
nection  with  Chaucer,  however,  no  proof  has  been  found  ;  and 
the  circumstance  of  the  lady  assigned  to  him  for  his  wife 
being  styled  "  Philippa  Pycard,"  instead  of  Eoelt,  renders  the 
assertion,  that  she  was  the  sister  of  the  Duchess  of  Lancaster, 
extremely  doubtful. 

(P.  353]  Letters  relating  to  the  Stonor  Family. 

The  following  ;  .  .  deserve  insertion  as  illustrative  of  the 
private  history  of  the  family.  The  first  is  a  letter  from 
Alice,  Duchess  of  Suffolk,  wife  of  William  de  la  Pole,  Duke 
of  Suffolk,  to  William  Stonor.  The  Duchess,  as  being  the 
grand-daughter  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  is  an  object  of  interest. 
The  poet's  eldest  son  is  said  to  have  been  Thomas  Chaucer, 
who  became  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  was  a 
very  eminent  person  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  the  Fifth  and 
Sixth.  His  only  child,  Alice,  married  William  de  la  Pole, 
Earl,  Marquess,  and  Duke  of  Suffolk;  but  her  issue  became 
extinct  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  when  all  the 
descendants  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  failed.  Their  son,  John  de 
la  Pole,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  had  a  natural  daughter,  Johanna, 
who  married  Thomas  Stonor,  and  had  issue  by  him  Sir 
William,  Thomas  (from  whom  descended  the  Stonors  of 
Stonor),  and  two  other  sons  who  died  without  issue. 

1831.  Collier,  John  Payne.  The  History  of  English  Dramatic  Poetry  to 
the  time  of  Shakespeare;  and  Annals  of  the  Stage  to  the  Restora 
tion,  3  vols,  vol.  i,  p.  12  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  124  n.t  134  n.,  147,  150 
[Chaucer's  allusions  to  Miracle  Plays],  189  n.,  237  n.,  285  [note 
on  the  phrase  "  lefe  on  linde  "],  291  n.;  vol.  iii,  p.  103  n.  [the  mention 
of  Chaucer  by  Edward  Guilpin  in  Skialetheia,  1598,  q.v.,  above, 
vol.  i,  p,  157]. 

1831.  Hallam,  Arthur  Henry.  Oration  on  the  Influence  of  Italian 
Works  of  Imagination  on  the  same  class  of  Composition  in  England. 
Delivered  in  Trinity  Coll.  Chapel,  Dec.  16,  1831,  [in]  Remains 
in  Verse  and  Prose  of  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  1834,  pp.  159, 178-181. 

[Chaucer  influenced  by  Italian  study.] 

1831.  [Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh  ?]  [Extracts  from  Chaucer,  modern 
ised,  in]  The  Taller,  June  30,  July  6,  9,  1831,  vol.  ii,  p.  1027, 
vol.  iii,  pp.  18,  31. 

p!°i627]     In  tlle  passages  we  propose  to  extract  out  of  this  great  Poet 


182  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1831 

from  time  to  time,  the  spelling  will   be  modernized,  and  the 
lines  (with  all  humility)  new  framed  on   occasion  ;  so  as   to 
accommodate  general  readers,  and  warrant  the  insertion  where 
obsoleteness  of  language  might  otherwise  be  complained  of. 
[Three  short  extracts ;  the  first  begins  :] 

At  mortal  battles  had  he  been  fifteen, 

And  foughten  for  the  faith  at  Tramisene  .   .  .  [etc.] 

[Prologue,  11.  60-74.] 

1831.  [Peacock,  Thomas  Love.]    Crotchet  Castle,  chap,  iii.,  p.  39.    (Ed. 
Kichard  Garnett,  1891,  p.  39.) 

The  Eeverend  Doctor  Folliott  having  promised  to  return  to 
dinner,  walked  back  to  his  vicarage,  meditating  whether  he 
should  pass  the  morning  in  writing  his  next  sermon,  or  in 
angling  for  trout,  and  had  nearly  decided  in  favor  of  the 
latter  proposition,  repeating  to  himself,  with  great  unction, 
the  lines  of  Chaucer  : 

And  as  for  me,  though  that  I  can  but  lite, 

On  bokis  for  to  read  I  me  delite, 

[to] 

Farewell  my  boke  and  my  devocion. 

[Legend  of  Good  Women,  Prol.,  11.  29-39.] 

1831.  Ritson,  Joseph.     Fairy  Tales,  pp.  26-8  [Dissertation  on  Fairies], 
89  [Tale  viii,  Dray  ton's  Nymphidia,  q.v.,  above,  1627,  vol  i,  p.  201 J. 

[pp.  26-7]    [Fairies  or  elves  peculiar  to  the  British  Isles ;  Wife  of  Bath's 

Tale,  11.  1-16,  quoted.] 

[p.  27]        [Chaucer]  knew  nothing,  it  would  seem,  of  Oberon,  Titania, 
or  Mdb,  but  speaks  of  : 

"  PLUTO,  that  is  the  King  of  Faerie, 
And  many  a  ladie  in  his  cornpagnie, 
Folwing  his  WIF,  THE  QUENE  PROSERPINA,  &c." 
[p.  28]        Mr.  Tyrwhitt  "  cannot  help  thinking  that   his  Pluto  and 
Proserpina  were  the  true  progenitors  of  Oberon  and  Titania." 
In  the  progress  of   The  wf  of  Bathes  tale,  it  happed  the 
knight 

" in  his  way  ...  to  ride 

In  all  his  care,  under  a  forest  side 
Whereas  he  saw  upon  a  dance  go 
Of  ladies  foure-and-twenty,  and  yet  mo  .  .  .  [to] 
Yvanished  was  this  dance,  he  wist  not  wher." 
These  ladies  appear  to  have  been  fairies,  though  nothing  is 
insinuated  of  their  size. 


1831]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 

1831.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Introduction  to  The  Abbot,  dated  1  Jan.  1831,. 
[in]  Introductions  ...  to  the  Novels,  Tales,  and  Romances  of  the 
Author  of  Waverley,  3  vols.,  1833,  vol.  ii,  p.  173.  (Border  edition, 
ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1893,  vol.  i,  pp.  xxii-iii.) 


xxiii  ^  ^°°^e^  roun(l  m7  library  and  could  not  but  observe,  that, 
from  the  time  of  Chaucer  to  that  of  Eyron,  the  most  popular 
authors  had  been  the  most  prolific. 

1831.  Southey,  Robert.  Select  Works  of  the  British  Poets,  from  Chaucer 
to  Jonson,  with  biographical  Sketches  by  Robert  Southey,  1831, 
Preface  ;  biography  of  Chaucer,  p.  1,  poems,  pp.  2-60. 

[The  selected  poems  of  Chaucer  are  :  The  Prologue  to  the 
Canterbury  Tales,  the  Knightes,  the  Man  of  Law's,  the 
Clerkes  and  the  Sqmeres  Tales,  The  Parlement  of  Foules,  The 
Cuckoo  and  the  Nightingale  (not  by  Chaucer),  The  Flower 
and  the  Leaf  (not  by  Chaucer),  Good  Counsail  of  Chaucery 
and  To  His  Empty  Purse.  The  biography  is  a  short  summary 
of  the  facts  as  then  known  or  assumed,  based  on  the  Testament 
of  Love  and  the  Court  of  Love,  &c.  The  following  are  the 
principal  critical  remarks  :] 

Chaucer  is  not  merely  the  acknowleged  father  of  English 
poetry,  he  is  also  one  of  our  greatest  poets.  His  proper 
station  is  in  the  first  class,  with  Spenser,  Shakspeare,  and 
Milton  •  and  Shakspeare  alone  has  equalled  him  in  variety 
and^  versatility  of  genius.  In  no  other  country  has  any 
writer  effected  so  much  with  a  half-formed  language  :  retain 
ing  what  was  popular,  and  rejecting  what  was  barbarous,  he 
at  once  refined  and  enriched  it  ;  and  though  it  is  certain  that 
his  poetry  is  written  rhythmically  rather  than  metrically,  his 
ear  led  him  to  that  cadence  and  those  forms  of  verse,  which, 
after  all  subsequent  experiments,  have  been  found  most 
agreeable  to  the  general  taste,  and  may,  therefore,  be  deemed 
best  adapted  to  the  character  of  our  speech.  In  some  of  his 
smaller  pieces,  he  has  condescended  to  uso  the  ornate  style 
which  began  to  be  affected  in  his  age  ;  but  he  has  only  used  it  as 
if  to  show  that  he  had  deliberately  rejected  it  in  all  his  greater 
and  better  works  .  .  .  his  original  works  are  distinguished  by 
a  life,  and  strength,  and  vivacity,  which  nothing  but  original 
genius,  and  that  of  the  highest  order,  can  impart.  Whoever 
aspires  to  a  lasting  name  among  the  English  poets  must  get 
the  writings  of  Chaucer,  and  drink  at  the  well-head.  .  .  . 
[Then  follow  the  selected  poems,  as  above.] 

[For  a  more  expanded  expression  of  Southey's  opinion  that  Chaucer's  verse  is 
rhythmical  rather  than  metrical,  see  below,  1833-6.     For  Nott,  see  above,  1815-16.] 


184  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1831- 

1831.  Southey,  Kobert.  Essay,  [in]  Attempts  in  Verse,,  by  John  Jones, 
with  an  introductory  essay  on  the  .  .  ,  lives  of  our  uneducated 
poets,  p.  38. 

[John  Taylor,  the  Water  Poet]  has  imitated  Chaucer  in  a 
catalogue  of  birds,  which  .  .  .  has  some  sweet  lines  in  it. 

1831.  Wordsworth,  William.  Letter  to  John  Kenyan,  [dated]  Kydal 
Mount,  Sept.  13,  1831,  [in]  Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family, 
ed.  W.  Knight,  1907,  3  vols,  vol.  ii.  p.  455. 

Our  Summer  .  .  .  has  been  ...  a  brilliant  one.  .  .  .  Our 
Youths  and  Maidens,  like  Chaucer's  Squire,  "have  slept  no 
more  than  doth  the  nightingale." 

1831.  Wordsworth,   William.      Letter    to  J.  K.  Miller,  dated    Eydal 
Mount,  Dec.  17,  1831,  [in]  Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  col 
lected  and  edited  by  W.  Knight,  1907,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  476. 

I  am  no  ready  master  of  prose  writing.  .  .  .  This  last 
consideration  will  not  weigh  with  you;  nor  would  it  have 
done  with  myself  a  few  years  ago ;  but  the  bare  mention  of  it 
will  serve  to  show  that  years  have  deprived  me  of  courage,  in 
the  sense  the  word  bears  when  applied  by  Chaucer  to  the 
animation  of  birds  in  Spring  time. 

1832.  Boucher,  Jonathan.     Glossary  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words. 
A  Supplement  to  the  Dictionaries  of  the  English  Language,  1832, 
edited  by  the  Eev.  Joseph  Hunter  and  Joseph  Stevenson,  pp.  vii, 
xviii-xx,  xxxi-ii,  xl,  xli,  xlv,  xlvi,  Ii,  liii-iv,  Ivi.     [Words  from 
Chaucer  on  nearly  every  page.     See  above,  1804,  Boucher.] 

1832.  Collier,  John  Payne.  An  Old  Man's  Diary,  privately  printed, 
1871-2  j  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  part  i,  pp.  12-13  ;  part  ii,  p.  57. 

[p.  12]  Where  is  Cressida  spoken  of  as  a  widow  1  I  find  two  or 
three  passages  in  Chaucer's  first  book  of  Troylus  that  seem 
more  than  to  intimate  it,  and  even  that  she  may  have  had 
children.  Thus : 

[p.  13]  "And  as  a  widowe  was  she,  and  al  alone, 

And  nyst  to  whom  she  might  make  her  mone". 

[Troilus,  bk.  i,  11.  97-8.] 

[Further  reference  to  her  "  widowes  habit "  (1.  1 70)  and 
"blackewede"  (1.  177).] 

I  must  look  to  Filostrato  and  the  old  romance.  Shakes 
peare  does  not  represent  her  as  a  widow. 

[For  vol.  ii  tte  below,  1833.1 


1832]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  185 

1832.  Fitzgerald,  Edward!  Letter  to  John  Allen,  [dated]  London,  Nov. 
21,  1832.  (Letters  and  Literary  Eemains  of  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
ed.  W.  A.  Wright,  1889,  vol.  i,  p.  10.) 

I  have  read  some  Chaucer  too,  which  I  like. 

1832.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Preface  [to  the]  Poetical  Works  of 
Leigh  Hunt,  pp.  viii,  xv,  xxxii-vi. 

[P.  xxxii]  To  return  to  double  rhymes.  They  are  as  old  in  our 
language  as  Chaucer,  whose  versification  is  as  unlike  the 
crabbed  and  unintentional  stuff  it  is  supposed  to  be,  as 
possible,  and  has  never  had  justice  done  it.  The  sweet  and 
delicate  gravity  of  its  music  is  answerable  to  the  sincerity  of 
the  writer's  heart.  Take  a  specimen  of  his  character  of  the 
"  Good  Priest, "  including  some  double  rhymes  : — 

"  Benigne  he  was,  and  wonder  diligent  .  .   .  [to] 
[p.  xxxiii]      He  was  a  shepherd,  and  no  mercenarie." 

[Prol.,  11.  483-90,  507-14.] 

fPP-    .      [Chaucer's  practice  of  ending  a  paragraph  in  the  middle  of  a 
V1  couplet  a  musical  one  and  '  very  fit  to  be  revived ' ;  passages 
from  Squieres  Tale  and  Knightes  Tale  quoted  in  illustration.] 

1832.  Hunter,  William.  An  Anglo-Saxon  Grammar,  and  Derivatives; 
with  Proofs  of  the  Celtic  Dialects  being  of  Eastern  Origin ;  and  an 
Analysis  of  the  Style  of  Chaucer,  Douglas  and  Spenser. 

[The  examination  of  the  style  of  Chaucer  consists :  1.  Of 
a  discussion  of  parts  of  speech,  with  examples  from  Chaucer ; 
2.  of  a  very  brief  biographical  account  of  Chaucer,  pp.  62—9, 
including  some  remarks  on  his  versification,  and  some  extracts 
showing  the  pronunciation  of  genitive  and  plural  endings.] 

1832.  [Irving,  David.]  Preface  [to]  The  Moral  Fables  of  Esope,  compyled 
by  Robert  Henryson,  Maitland  Club,  p.  v  ["  Henryson's  Tale  of  Sire 
Chauntecleire  and  the  Foxe  evidently  borrowed  from  Chaucer's 
Nonnes  Preestes  Tale"],  and  n.,  vi-vii  and  nn.  [the  Testament  of 
Cresseid  a  sequel  to  Chaucer's  poem,  and  formerly  attributed  to 
him ;  neither  drawn  from  classical  sources ;  quotations  from 
Kynaston  and  from  the  H ous  of  Fame],  viii-ix  [anachronisms  in 
Henryson's  Testament  of  Cresseid  as  in  Chaucer's  Troilus]. 

1832.  Le  Bas,  Charles  Webb.     The  Life  of  Wiclif,  pp.  211-12. 

[Wiclif's  zeal  and  charity]  have  given  occasion  to  the  con 
jecture  that  he  may  have  been  the  real  original  of  Chaucer's 
celebrated  picture  of  the  Village  Priest. 

[Prol  11.  477-528  quoted.] 

1832.  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  The  Scrope  and  Grosvenor  Contro 
versy  [edited  by  Sir  N.  H.  Nicolas],  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  178  [Chaucer's 
deposition],  vol.  ii,  pp.  404-412  [a  biography  of  Chaucer,  based 


186  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1832- 

on  the  documents,  and  ignoring  his  works.  For  a  fuller  account, 
fresh  documents  having  meanwhile  been  discovered,  see  Nicolas's 
Life  of  Chaucer,  prefixed  to  Chaucer's  Poetical  Works,  1845]. 

[The  publication  by  Godwin  of  Chaucer's  deposition  in  1386  (q.v.  above,  vol.  i, 
p.  8,  vol.  ii,  1803)  that  he  was  'del  age  de  xl  ans  &  plus,'  first  led  to  a  redating 
of  his  birth  (1340  instead  of  1328).  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  himself  (vol.  ii,  p.  405)  seems 
to  lean  to  about  the  year  1331.] 

1832.  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Castle  Dangerous,  chap,  ii,  pp.  265-6,  [in]  Tales 
of  my  Landlord,  4th  series,  vol.  iii,  1832.  (Border  edn.,  ed.  Andrew 
Lang,  1894,  ch.  ii,  p.  34.)  [For  the  "modest  as  a  maid"  and 
" eleve "  of  the  first  edition,  later  editions  read  "meek  as  a  maid" 
and  "pattern."] 

As  to  the  first  [his  looks]  he  [Aymer  de  Valence]  was  mild, 
gentle,  and  "  modest  as  a  maid,"  and  possessed  exactly  of  the 
courteous  manners  ascribed  by  our  father  Chaucer  to  the 
young  eleve  of  chivalry  whom  he  describes  upon  his  pilgrimage 
to  Canterbury. 

[n.a.  1832.]  Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Library  Catalogue.  (Catalogue  of  the 
Abbotsford  Library,  by  J.  G.  Lockhart,  Maitland  Club,  1838,  pp. 
41,  154-5,172,  185,  190,  239.) 

[Scott  possessed  the  following  editions,  etc. :  Works,  [1561], 
1602  (Speght).  1721  (Urry),  1810  (English  Poets),  Canter 
bury  Tales,  1798  (Tyrwhitt),  Canterbury  Tales  (Ogle's 
modernisation),  1741  ;  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  1803  ; 
Todd's  Illustrations,  1810. 

Under  Godwin,  Lockhart  gives  a  reference  to  Scott's  review 
(Prose  Works,  vol.  xvii),  and  under  the  [1561]  and  1602 
Works  to  Scott's  "Poetical  Works,  passim."] 

1832,  Tennyson,  Alfred.  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women,  stanzas  1-4,  [in] 
Poems,  1833  [1832],  pp.  123-4.  (Work?,  1895,  pp.  56-7.) 

I  read,  before  my  eyelids  dropt  their  shade, 
'  The  Legend  of  Good  Women,'  long  ago 

Sung  by  the  morning  star  of  song,  who  made 
His  music  heard  below  ; 

Dan  Chaucer,  the  first  warbler,  whose  sweet  breath 
Preluded  those  melodious  bursts  that  fill 

The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth 
With  sounds  that  echo  still. 

And,  for  a  while,  the  knowledge  of  his  art 
Held  me  above  the  subject,  as  strong  gales 

Hold  swollen  clouds  from  raining,  tho'  my  heart, 
Brimful  of  those  wild  tales, 

Charged  both  mine  eyes  with  tears.  .  .  . 


1833]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  ]87 

1832.  Unknown.     Chaucer's  House  of  Fame,  [in]  The  Penny  Magazine^ 
August  11,  1832,  vol.  i,  pp.  190-1. 

[A  short  notice  on  the  Hous  of  Fame,  more  particularly 
in  reference  to  its  value  as  giving  a  picture  of  the  learning 
and  opinions  of  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century.] 

1832.  Wordsworth,  William.    Letter  to  John  Kenyan,  [dated]  Jan.  26, 
1832,   [in]    Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W.  Knight, 
1907,  3  vols,  vol  ii,  p.  484. 

He  [Hogarth]  reminds  me  both  of  Shakespeare  and 
Chaucer  ;  but  these  great  poets  seem  happy  in  softening  and 
diversifying  their  views  of  life,  as  often  as  they  can,  by 
metaphors  and  images  from  rural  nature. 

1833.  Clarke,  Charles   Cowden.      Tales  from   Chaucer  in  Prose   [i.e. 
The  Prologue,  The  Knightes  Tale,  The  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  The 
Wife   of  Bath's  Tale,   The  Clerkes  Tale,   The  Squieres  Tale,  The 
Pardoneres  Tale,  The  Prioresses  Tale,  The   Nonne   Prestes  Tale? 
The  Chanouns  Yemannes  Tale,  and  The  Tale  of  Gamelyn].  Designed 
chiefly  for  the  use  of  young  persons.     [Second  edition,  revised, 


leny 
70.] 


1870 

1833.  Collier,  John  Payne.     An  Old  Man's  Diary,  privately  printed „ 
1871-2,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  pp.  38-9,  85  ;  part  ii,  45-6,  106. 

[pp.  38-9]  [Discussion  on  Sleep.  Chaucer's  Shipman's  Tale  quoted. 
.  ."  .  Question  whether  Chaucer  was  more  gross  than  his  age 
"  voted  in  the  affirmative."] 

[For  voL  i  see  above,  1832.] 

[c.  1833 .]  Haslewood,  Joseph,  and  Bliss,  Philip.  Notes  and  Newspaper 
Cuttings  in  an  interleaved  copy  of  William  Wmstaiiley's  Lives 
of  the  English  Poets,  1687  [B.M./C.  45.  d.  13]. 

[At  the  beginning,  no  pagination,  cutting  of  advertisement 
of]  Part  I  of  A  Series  of  Portraits  of  the  British  Poets,  from 
Chaucer  to  Cowper  and  Beattie  .  .  .  published  by  C.  &  H. 
Baldwin,  Newgate  Street. 

[On  next  page,  advertisement  of]  a  new  edition  of  the 
British  Poets,  in  100  vols.,  commencing  with  Chaucer,  Dec. 
1821.  [See  above,  1822.] 

[MS.  list  of  poets  cited,  and  another  of  those  omitted,  in 
England's  Parnassus,  1600;  Chaucer's  name  in  the  second.] 
[p?if8]Ce     [Newspaper  cutting  from]  The  Daily  Courant,  March  4, 
1731.    Essay  against  law  proceedings  being  in  English.     [See 
above,  1731,  vol.  i,  p.  373.] 


188  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1833 

[Quotations  from  the  following  in  Haslewood's  writing  :] 

(1)  The  Art  of  Poetry,  1715  [q.v.  below,  App.  A]. 

(2)  The    Debates  .  .  between   the    Heraudes    of   England 
and  France  by  Tho.  Coke,  1550  [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  90]. 

(3)  The  British  Warrior,  a  poem  addressed  to  Lord  Cutts, 
1706  [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  293]. 

(4)  Inscription  on  Fly-leaf  of  imperfect  copy  of  Chaucer's 
Works.     [See  above,  1764  [GougM],  vol.  i,  p.   425, 
and  Hood,  1823.] 

fT°2f4]Ce      (5)  Procter's  Preface  to  <  Of  the  Knowledge  and  Conduct 

of  War,  1578  '  [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  116]. 
tT°2f5]Ce     [Newspaper  cutting  of]  Notice  of  Publication  of  the  works 

of  Chaucer  by  J.  Urry,  Feb.  1722.     [See  above,  1721, 

vol.  i,  p.  353.] 
[To  face     ^n   Elegie    upon    the    death    of    the    auncient    English 

poetts.     [See  above,  1823,  Hood.] 
{To  face     [Quotations  in  Haslewood's  hand  from] 

(1)  Wesley's  Epistle  on  Poetry,  1700  [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  289]. 

(2)  Yerses  and  Small  Poems  by  Sir  A.  Cokain,  1658  [q.v. 
vol.  i,  p.  235]. 

(3)  Ancient    State  ...  of  the    Court  of   Requests,   1596 
[q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  143,  on  the  payment  of  money  at  Chaucer's 
tomb;  to  which  Haslewood  adds  the  following  MS.  note] : 

Q.  The  nature  of  this  payment,  and  if  Chaucer's  tomb  was 
not  nominally  legalized  as  a  place  for  fixed  payments,  after  the 
manner  that  there  is  usually  inserted  in  Mortgage  Securities 
Lincolns  Inn  Hall,  or  other  similar  place,  for  the  purpose  of 
alledging  a  certain  default.  Money  tendered  does  not  I  con 
ceive  mean  any  public  gift  at  the  tomb  whereto  Richard 
Puttenham  became  entitled  by  way  of  perquisite.  Rob. 
Cheynie  I  consider  to  have  been  the  Trustee  upon  the  marriage 
and  the  name  of  Spencer  inserted  for  legal  form. 

This  construction  is  added  at  the  time  of  copying  without 
referring  to  see  if  any  authority  notices  the  Tomb  as  an 
appointed  place  for  any  purpose  here  required.  [See  also  a 
similar  note  by  Haslewood  ('  Eu.  Hood ')  in  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  1823.] 
Cp.  32]  [A  note  that  in  Winstanley's  Select  Lives  of  England's 

Worthies  is  a  Life  of  Chaucer  almost  verbatim  with  this.] 
[To  face     [Cutting  of]    Surrey's   Excellent   Epitaffe  of    Syr  Thomas 

Wyat  [c.  1542,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  84]. 

[The    last   sheet   inserted  in   this   volume   is   an   extract, 


1833]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  189 

probably  from  a  publisher's  catalogue,  giving]  Proposals  for 
Macklin's  British  Poets  .  .  .  particularly  .  .  .  Chaucer,  Skelton, 
etc.  [The  date  is  given  in  MS.  as  1792,  q.v.  below,  App.  A.] 


[c.  1833.]  Haslewood,  Joseph,  and  Reed,  Isaac.  Notes  and  Newspaper 
Cuttings  in  interleaved  copy  of  Theophilus  Gibber's  Lives  of  the 
Poets,  1753  [B.M.,  10854.  a.  1]. 

[Newspaper  cutting  from  Daily  Advertiser,  2  Jan.  1753,  of 
the  publisher's  advertisement  of  Gibber's  Lives,  immediately 
before  title-page  of  vol.  i.  See  1753,  Unknown,  vol.  i, 
p.  407.  Another  before  contents.] 

^T°  io]G  [Newspaper  cutting  :]  An  account  of  Chaucer,  translated 
from  the  French.  [See  1777,  Unknown,  Morning  Post  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  449.] 

[Cutting  from  a  book  (?)  page  23.  A  notice  of  Gower  and 
Chaucer :]  Johannes  Gower,  Anglorum  Poeta  [a  picture  of 
Gower  prefixed  to  this  cutting]  Taken  from  his  monumental 
effigy  in  St.  Mary  Overie's  Church,  Southwark.  .  .  .  Gower, 
who  with  Chaucer,  helped  to  refine  the  English  language 
has  ever  been  esteemed  the  next  in  merit  to  him  of  his 
contemporary  poets. 


fc.  1833.]  Haslewood,  Joseph.     Collections  for  the  Lives  of  the  English 
Poets  [B.M.,  C.  45.  d.  9-11]. 

[vol.  i,        [Newspaper  cutting  :]  Observations  on  the  Eise  &  Progress 
"81of  English  Poetry,  [from]  Whitehall  Evening  Post.     Jan.  7, 

1769  [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.  432,  Unknown.] 
[p.  7i]       A  Familiar  Epistle  from,  the   Shades  below  .  .  .  from  a 

Collection  of  Poems  ...  by  Jemmy  Copywell,  [from]  Lloyd's 

Evening   Post.     April   11,  1760   [q.v.  vol.  i,  p.   371,  1730, 

Unknown], 
[pp.  98-9]  [Cutting  from  the  British  Bibliographer,  on  the  projected 

Bibliotheca  Critica.     See  above,  1810,  Brydges.] 
[p.  204]      [Cutting  from]  The  Grub  Street  Journal,  3  Sept.,  1730  [q.v. 

above,  vol.  i,  p.  373,  Unknown], 
[p.  216]      [Cutting,  headed  by  a  quotation  from  Chaucer,  from]  The 

European  Magazine  for  June,  1821,  vol.  Ixxix,  p.  514  [q.v. 

above], 
[p.  217]      [Notice   of   publication   of  an  edition  of  Urry's    Chaucer 

(price   bound   one   guinea)    quoting   Dryden's   praise   in  the 

Preface  to  his  Fables,  and  giving  date  in  MS.  5  Jan.  1753, 


190  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1834 

but  not  name  of  paper.     No  edition  of  this  year  is  known, 
and  probably  the  date  is  an  error.] 

(p.  354]  [Magazine  cutting,  without  name,  but  dated  Sep.  1752, 
and  numbered  pp.  420,  421,  422  :]  The  Life  of  JOHN 
DRYDEN,  Esq.  With  his  Head  neatly  engraved.  [A  refer 
ence  to  Dryden's  modernizations  of  Chaucer.] 

pv°447]'  [Cutting  from]  The  Monthly  Miscellany  for  June  1774 
[q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  438,  Unknown]. 

[P468]9~  [Cutting  from]  The  British  Bibliographer,  by  Sir  Egerton 
Brydges  and  J.  Haslewood,  vol.  ii,  1812,  q.v.  above. 
No.  VI,  Memoirs  of  Gower  &  Chaucer. 

[Cutting  from]  The  Edinburgh  Magazine  for  April  1801, 
Remarks  on  the  Writings  of  Allan  Ramsay  [q.v.  above]. 

1834.  Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Table  Talk,  March  15,  1834.  (The 
Table  Talk  and  Omniana,  ed.  T.  Ashe,  1884,  pp.  276-7.) 

(p.  276]  I  take  unceasing  delight  in  Chaucer.  His  manly  cheerful 
ness  is  especially  delicious  to  me  in  my  old  age.  How  ex 
quisitely  tender  he  is,  and  yet  how  perfectly  free  from  the 
least  touch  of  sickly  melancholy  or  morbid  drooping  !  The 
sympathy  of  the  poet  with  the  subjects  of  his  poetry  is 
[p.  277]  particularly  remarkable  in  Shakspeare  and  Chaucer ;  but  what 
the  first  effects  by  a  strong  act  of  imagination,  and  mental 
metamorphosis,  the  last  does  without  any  effort,  merely  by 
the  inborn  kindly  joyousiiess  of  his  nature.  How  well  we 
seem  to  know  Chaucer!  How  absolutely  nothing  do  we 
know  of  Shakspeare ! 

I  cannot  in  the  least  allow  any  necessity  for  Chaucer's 
poetry,  especially  the  Canterbury  Tales,  being  considered 
obsolete.  Let  a  few  plain  rules  be  given  for  sounding  the 
final  e  of  syllables,  and  for  expressing  the  termination  of 
such  words  as  ocean,  and  nation,  etc.,  as  dissyllables, — or  let 
the  syllables  to  be  sounded  in  such  cases  be  marked  by  a 
competent  metrist. 

This  simple  expedient  would,  with  a  very  few  trifling 
exceptions,  where  the  errors  are  inveterate,  enable  any  reader 
to  feel  the  perfect  smoothness  and  harmony  of  Chaucer's 
verse.  As  to  understanding  his  language,  if  you  read  twenty 
pages  with  a  good  glossary,  you  surely  can  find  no  further 
difficulty,  even  as  it  is ;  but  I  should  have  no  objection  to 
see  this  done : — Strike  out  those  words  which  are  now  obso 
lete,  and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  I  will  replace  every  one 


1834]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  191 

of  them  by   words  still  in  use  out  of   Chaucer  himself,  or 
Gower  his  disciple. 

I  don't  want  this  myself ;  I  rather  like  to  see  the  significant 
terms  which  Chaucer  unsuccessfully  offered  as  candidates  for 
admission  into  our  language;  but  surely  so  very  slight  a 
change  of  the  text  may  well  be  pardoned,  even  by  black- 
letterati,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  so  great  a  poet  to  his 
ancient  and  most  deserved  popularity. 

1834.  D'Israeli,  Isaac.  Curiosities  of  Literature,  9th  edn.,  1834,  6  vols., 
vol.  vi,  p.  68.  (Edn.  1849,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  321.) 

[For  other  edns.  see  above,  1807  and  1823.] 

Dreams  at  the  Dawn  of  Philosophy. 

(p.  321]  But  that  they  [enchantments]  were  not  unknown  to  Chaucer, 
appears  in  his  "  Frankelein's  Tale,"  where,  minutely  describing 
them,  he  communicates  the  same  pleasure  he  must  himself 
have  received  from  the  ocular  illusions  of  the  "  Tregetoure  " 
or  "Jogelour."  Chaucer  ascribes  the  miracle  to  "a  natural 
magique,"  in  which,  however,  it  was  as  unsettled,  whether  the 
"  Prince  of  Darkness  "  was  a  party  concerned. 

"  For  I  am  siker  that  there  be  sciences  " 
[and  twelve  following  lines,  Frarikeleyns  Tale,  11.  411-23]. 

1834.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Fairies,  [in]  Leigh  Hunt's  London 
Journal,  Oct.  8,  1834,  p.  217.  [Reprinted  in  A  Day  by  the  Fire, 
1870,  pp.  98-9.] 

Chaucer's  notion  of  Fairies  was  a  confused  mixture  of  elves 
and  romance-ladies,  and  Ovid  and  Catholic  diablerie.  .  .  . 
His  Lady  Abbess  [sic]  wears  a  broach  exhibiting  a  motto  out 
of  Virgil.  Elves,  therefore,  and  Provencal  Enchantresses,  and 
the  Nymphs  of  the  Metamorphoses,  and  the  very  devils  of 
the  Pope  and  St.  Anthony,  were  all  fellows  well  met,  all 
supernatural  beings,  living  in  the  same  remote  regions  of 
fancy,  and  exciting  the  gratitude  of  the  poet.  He  is  angry 
with  the  friars  for  making  more  solemn  distinctions,  and  dis 
placing  the  little  elves  in  their  walks ;  and  he  runs  a  capital 
jest  upon  them,  which  has  become  famous. 

In   olde  dayes  of  the    Kinge  Artour 
[and  23   following  lines]. 

In  another  poem,  we  meet  with  Pluto  and  Proserpine  as 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Faerie ;  where  they  sing  and  dance 


192  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1834 

about  a  well,  enjoying  themselves  in  a  garden,  and  quoting 
Solomon. 

1834.  Laing,  David.  The  Poems  of  William  Dunbar  .  .  .  with  Notes 
and  a  Memoir  of  His  Life  by  David  Laing.  Memoir,  vol.  i, 
p.  19,  22,  35,  36,  47-50,  56,  61  ;  vol.  ii,  Notes,  pp.  213  [quotation 
from  Hailes],  214,  216,  221,  222  [quotation  from  Warton],  223 
[quotation  from  Drake],  224,  234,  247,  259  [268,  269,  271],  273, 
283,  308,  331,  339  [340,  342],  349,  357  [374,  375,  376,  377,  383, 
385,  401],  450  [451,  458]. 

[The  references  in  square  brackets  are  quotations  given  by  Laing  from  other 
authors  mentioning  Chaucer.] 

1834.  Lowndes,  William  Thomas.  The  Bibliographer's  Manual  of 
English  Literature,  4  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  216-17,  246,  395-8. 

[List  of  editions,   etc.,  with  bibliographical  notes  and  sale 
prices.] 

1834.  Planche,  James  Eobinson.  History  of  British  Costume,  pp.  94, 
96,  102  n.,  113,  125,  148-9,  151,  154-5,  156-7,  161,  162,  163,  165, 
166,  167,  181,  229. 

[p.  94]      [Queintise,  in  Rom.  Rose.~\ 

[p.  06]      [Shoes  "  decoped  with  lace,"  Rom.  Rose.] 

[p.  H3]      [Quotations  from  G.  de  Lorris  on  surquayne,  and  mention 

that  Chaucer  translates  it  rocket! e.     Rom.  Rose,  1240.] 
[p.  125]      The   apron    is    seen   upon   a   female   figure    of    this    date 

[Edward  II].     It  is  afterwards  mentioned  by  Chaucer  as  the 

barme,  or  lap-cloth.     [Milleres  T.,  50.] 
[p.  us]      [Quotation  of  Knightes  T.,   2026,   Troilus,  i,   109,  &c.  on 

mourning  garments.] 
[p.  151]      Chaucer,  who  wrote  his  "  Canterbury  Tales  "  towards  the 

close  of  this  reign  [Richard  II],  puts  a  two-fold  lamentation 

into  the  mouth  of  the  parson  concerning  the  "  sinful  costly 

array  of  clothing  ..."     [Persones  Tale,  415.] 
[pp.  154-7]  [Descriptions  of  the  dress  of  the  Richard  II  period,  with 

Chaucer  quotations.] 
[pp.  iei-3]  [Description  of   knightly  accoutrements,   with   quotations 

from  The  Knightes  Tale,  etc.] 
[pp.  165-7]  [Description  of  ladies'  dress  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II,  with 

quotations  from  the  Canterbury  Tales.] 

[n.  a.  1834.]  Stothard,  Thomas.  Paintings,  etc.,  illustrating  Chaucer. 
See  below,  App.  A. 

1834.  Unknown.  Review  of  Clarke's  Tales  from  Chaucer,  [q.v.  above, 
1833,  in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  August  1834,  new  series 
vol.  ii,  pp.  173-4. 

[Although  agreeing  that  by  this  prose   rendering,    "some 
idea  of  Chaucer's  spirit  is  imparted  to  the  multitude,"  the  critic 


1834]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  193 

advocates  rather  the  mere  modernization  of  Chaucer's  spelling, 
and  gives  a  specimen  from  the  Kniyhtes  Tale,  which  he 
contrasts  with  Dryden's  translation  and  Clarke's  paraphrase.] 

1834-6.  Unknown.     Bibliotheca  Heberiana.     Catalogue  of  the  Library 
of  Richard  Heber,  Esq.,  13  pt. 

[Different  auctioneers  take  the  parts.  Edns.,  etc.,  of  the  18th  and  19th  centuries 
are  omitted  here.] 

[Pt.  iv,  Dec.  1834  ;  lots  119,  Conusance  d'amours  (Chaucer 
reference  quoted);  160,  Bradshaw,  Lyfe  of  St.  Werburge, 
1521  (Chaucer  reference  quoted) ;  290,  Chaucer's  Ghoast, 
1672;  3[4]7,  Assemble  of  Foules,  1530  (unique,  now  at 
Britwell) ;  742,  Eeylde's  Contrauersye  bytwene  a  louer  and 
a  Jaye  (Chaucer  reference  quoted);  808,  Works,  1532;  80^r 
Works,  Toye;  810,  Works,  Kele;  811-12,  Works,  1542; 
813,  Works,  1598;  814,  Works,  1602;  815,  Cant.  Tales, 
imperf.,  Caxton  edn.  1  ;  816,  Cant.  Tales,  imperf.,  Caxton 
edn.  2;  817,  Cant.  Tales,  Pynson ;  818,  Plowman's  Tale; 
819,  Troylus  and  Creseyde,  etc.,  Pynson;  1383,  Love  and 
Complayntes  bytwene  Mars  and  Venus,  J.  Notary;  1563, 
Mylner  of  Abington,  with  note  :  "  It  is  similar  to  Chaucer's 
Eeve's  Tale,  and  both  are  derived  from  the  same  original, 
Boccaccio."] 

[Pt.  vii,  May-June,  1835;  lots  1271-2,  Works,  1561, 1602.] 
[Pt.  viii,  Eeb.-March,  1836;  lots  396,  Jack  Upland; 
458-9,  Kynaston  (2  copies) ;  783,  Works,  Toye  ;  784,  Cant. 
Tales,  Pynson,  imperf.,  Works,  frag.;  785-6,  Works,  1532; 
788,  Works,  1561,  imperf.;  789,  Works,  1602,  imperf.; 
790,  Works,  1561,  etc.;  791,  Works,  1598,  imperf.;  792, 
Works,  imperf. ;  793,  Cant.  Tales,  Pynson,  3  copies,  imperf. ; 
794,  Glossary  to  Urry's  edn.,  with  MS.  additions.] 
[Pt.  ix,  April,  1836  ;  lot  682,  Works,  1561.] 
Pt.  x,  May-June,  1836  ;  lot  750,  Works,  1602,  imperf.] 
'Pt.  xi,  MSS.,  Feb.  1836  ;  lots  495,  Cant.  Tales,  14th  cent.; 
495*,  item,  15th  cent.;  496,  Speght's  MS.  of  the  'Dream,' 
i.  e.  Isle  of  Ladies ;  1088,  Spelman's  MS.  containing  Troilus 
and  Criseyde ;  1163,  Occleve  MS.,  with  note  of  Occleve's 
allusions  to  Chaucer;  1333,  MS.  containing  the  Clerkes 
Tale;  1334,  MS.  of  poems  by  Chaucer,  Lydgate,  etc.] 

[J.  T.  Payne  had  Part  iv  reprinted,  with  purchaser's  names 
and  prices,  also  further  notes  by  J.  P.  Collier,  as  '  A  Catalogue 
of  Heber's  Collection  of  Early  English  Poetry.'] 

1834.  Unknown.  The  King's  Library,  British  Museum,  [in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Jan.,  March,  1834,  new  ser.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
18,  243, 

[The  various  early  editions  of  Chaucer  in  the  King's  Library.] 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. —  II.  O 


194  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1834- 

1834.  Willmott,  Eobert  Aris.     Lives  of  Sacred  Poets,  2  vols,    1834, 
Introduction,  vol.  i,  pp.  1-91;   vol.  ii,  pp.  48,  73,  78,  306,  364. 
(2nd  edn.,  1839,  vol.  i,  pp.  2-3,  5-9,  24,  27-8,  77  ;  vol.  ii,  as  in 
1st  edn.) 

lvoi.  1.  It  should  never  be  forgotten,  in  speaking  of  Chaucer,  that 
he  was  among  the  first  to  resort  to  that  precious  fountain 
which  his  contemporary  Wickliffe  had  opened,  and  that  he 
drank  of  the  tl  water  springing  up  to  everlasting  life." 

[In  the  2nd  edition  of  this  work  (2  vols,  1839),  the  remarks 
on  Chaucer — which  are  of  a  general  and  appreciative  kind — 
are  amplified  ;  and  the  above  sentence  appears  as  follows  : — 

fp.  6]  "  Though  accommodating  himself  to  the  popular  spirit,  he  was 
not  altogether  uninlluenced  by  that  graver  and  more  solemn 
train  of  thought  which  .  .  .  Wicliffo  subsequently  diffused  .  .  . 

IP-  7]  The  serious  vein  of  sentiment  has  not  been  unobserved  by 
Thomson  [who  is  quoted,  q.v.  1744,  vol.  i,  p.  391.]  .  .  .  We 
may  find  religion  in  the  faith  of  a  Constance  ;  in  the  purity 
...  of  Grisildis ;  in  the  lamentation  of  Mary  Magdalene ;  in 
the  legend  of  Hew  of  Lincoln,  and  in  that  most  beautiful  .  .  . 
story  of  the  Christian  martyr,  related  by  the  Prioress."] 

1835.  Clarke,  Charles  Cowden.     The  Riches  of  Chaucer,  in  which  his 
impurities  have  been  expunged  ;    his  spelling   modernized  ;  his 
rhythm  accentuated  ;  and  his  obsolete  terms  explained  ;  also  have 
been  added  a  lew  explanatory  notes,  and  a  new  memoir  of  the 
poet. 

[These  are  selections  from  the  poems,  prefaced  by  a  life  of 
Chaucer,  pp.  1-57.  The  book  was  re-edited,  in  1870,  with  a 
new  short  prefatory  note,  the  life  of  Chaucer  remaining  un 
altered,  in  which  the  Court  of  Love,  the  Plowman's  Tale,  Jack 
Upland,  the  Testament  of  Love  and  other  spurious  poems 
are  ascribed  to  him,  and  the  fictitious  story  of  his  exile  and 
imprisonment  is  given  in  full.] 

1835.  Cunningham,  George  Godfrey.  Lives  of  Eminent  and  Illustrious 
Englishmen,  Glasgow  [1835-7],  8  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  299,  301,  303, 
305,  420  [Chaucer  a  member  of  Wyclif  s  party],  458,  459-63, 
465-473  [Life  of  Chaucer,  with  portrait  engraved  by  S.  Freeman 
from  that  in  the  Sloane  collection],  473-5,  477,  478,  481.  [An 
edition  of  1863-68  is  entitled  The  English  Nation^  or  a  History  of 
England  in  the  Lives  of  Englishmen. 

lp.  299]  The  names  of  Chaucer  and  Gower,  with  some  of  minor 
note,  as  those  of  Richard  Hampole  and  Robert  Langlande, 
afford  ample  proof  of  this  commencement  of  a  new  era. 

[The  Critical  Biography  of  Chaucer  abounds  in  all  the 
usual  errors  due  to  the  acceptance  as  Chaucer's  of  the  Testa 
ment  of  Love,  etc.  Tyrwhitt,  Godwin  and  Thynne  are  drawn 


1835]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  195 

upon.  In  the  controversy  upon  Chaucer's  metre,  which  took 
a  new  turn  on  the  publication  of  Xott's  edition  of  the  poems 
of  Surrey  and  Wyatt,  Cunningham  sides  with  Tyrwhitt 
aainst 


1835.  [De  duincey,  Thomas.]  Sketches  of  Life  and  Character  ;  from 
the  Autobiography  of  an  English  Opium-Eater  :  Oxford,  [in]  Tait's 
Edinburgh  Magazine,  Aug.  1835,  p.  542.  (Collected  Writings,  ed. 
D.  Masson,  1890,  14  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  58.) 

In  Chaucer,  though  acquainted  as  yet  only  with  part  of 
his  works,  I  had  perceived  and  had  felt  profoundly  those 
divine  qualities  which,  even  at  this  day,  are  so  languidly 
acknowledged  by  his  unjust  countrymen. 

1035.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Journal.  (Works,  Centenary  Edition, 
1903,  12  vols.,  vol.  vii,  p.  361  [note].) 

Poetry  to  be  sterling  must  be  more  than  a  show,  must  have 
or  be  an  earnest  meaning.  Chaucer,  Wordsworth,  —  per 
contra,  Moore  and  Byron. 

1835.  Gray,  William.  Origin  and  Progress  of  English  Prose  Literature, 
Oxford,  [Motto  :]  "  For  out  of  the  old  tieldes  as  men  saieth  "  [and 
three  following  lines],  pp.  29,  36-45,  54,  61,  64,  92,  97. 

[VA  general  account  of  Chaucer,  with  special  reference  to  his 
prose,  including  the  Testament  of  Love.  The  author  does  not 
dispute  that  Chaucer  owed  the  conception  of  the  Canterbury 
Tales  to  the  Confessio  Amantis,  and  says  that  the  Man  of 
Law's  Tale  was  certainly  purloined  from  Gower.] 

1835.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Characteristic  Specimens  of  the 
English  Poets,  [in]  Leigh  Hunt's  London  Journal,  nos.  63-8,  70, 
72,  June  13,  20,  27,  July  4,  11,  18,  Aug.  1,  15,  1835,  pp.  180-1, 
187-8,  195-6,  218-9,  22S,  250-1,  268.  [Reprinted  in  'The  Seer, 
1840,  pp.  55-66.] 

[Copious  extracts  from  Chaucer,  given  in  Cowden  Clarke's 
modern-spelling  text,  interspersed  with  comments,  and  pre 
ceded  by  a  brief  biography  and  criticism.  The  former  retails 
the  story  of  Chaucer's  exile,  imprisonment,  and  release  on 
condition  of  abandoning  his  associates. 

The  criticism  :  Chaucer  one  of  the  four  great  English  poets  ; 
his  youth  and  freshness,  consistent  with  maturity  of  mind  ; 
his  width  of  sympathy  ;  "his  gaiety  equal  to  his  gravity,  and 
his  sincerity  to  both  "  ;  "  his  graphic  faculty,  and  his  healthy 
sense  of  the  material  "  ;  "  he  was  at  once  the  Italian  and 
the  Flemish  painter  of  his  time  ;  his  faults  coarseness  and 


196  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1835 

prolixity,  both  of  the  time.  Chaucer  not  only  a  smooth  but 
a  powerful  and  various  versifier ;  still  doubtful  whether  his 
prosody  was  always  correct  in  the  modern  sense. 

The  5  nos.  are  apportioned  as  follows :  1,  biography  and 
criticism,  Prologue;  2,  physical  life  and  movement,  Knightes 
Tale;  3,  pathos,  Knightes  and  Man  of  Law's  Tales;  4, 
Griselda;  5,  "  further  specimens  "  of  his  pleasantry  and  satire, 
Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  Nonne  Presles  Tale,  etc. ;  6,  descrip 
tion,  portrait  painting,  and  fine  sense ;  [7]  omission  from  the 
preceding  no.,  a  long  extract  from  the  Flower  and  the 
Leaf.} 

1835.  Hunt,  Jamea  Henry  Leigh.  Beview  [of]  Three  New  Books, 
[including  Cowden  Clarke's  Riches  of  Chaucer,  in]  Leigh  Hunt's 
London  Journal,  March  25,  1835,  p.  89. 

We  have  also  to  express  a  doubt,  whether  Chaucer's  versi 
fication  is  so  invariably  regular  in  its  construction  as  Mr. 
Clarke  supposes;  a  doubt  which  we  express  with,  the  less 
willingness,  because  we  have  done  something  in  our  day 
towards  spreading  the  contrary  notion.  But  we  must  own,  it 
now  appears  to  us,  that  although  the  divine  old  bard,  generally 
speaking,  is  as  correct  in  his  prosody  as  he  is  instinctively 
melodious,  his  lines  are  now  and  then  short,  or  superfluous,  of 
a  syllable  or  so,  and  his  time  marked  only  by  quantity  .  .  . 
Here  is  a  sample  in  Chaucer,  from  the  very  first  page  that  we 
have  opened  at  random — 

"The  hand  was  knowen  that  the  letter  wrote, 
And  all  the  venom  of  this  cursed  deed, 
But  in  what  wise  certainly  I  n'ot : " — 

that  is,  "know  not."  Now  on  these  two  syllables,  "what 
wise,"  the  voice  lingers  by  reason  of  their  natural  emphasis 
and  thus  makes  the  two  serve  the  purpose  of  three ;  for  in 
this  verse  there  is  a  syllable  wanting.  Mr.  Clarke,  however, 
has  made  a  present  to  the  reading  world,  which  they  ought 
to  seize  with  joy.  He  has  put  an  end  to  the  old  bugbear  of 
"difficulty"  by  modernising  the  spelling  of  Chaucer,  without 
hurting  the  spirit  of  his  poetry ;  and  if  it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  he  has  put  too  gratuitous  a  faith  in  the  far  too 
gratuitous  conclusions  of  Mr.  Godwin's  otherwise  valuable 
life  of  the  poet,  his  fault  in  that  respect,  as  in  others,  is  still 
a  fault  of  faith,  and  leaves  him  a  character  for  bonhommie, 
[sic]  not  unbecoming  a  recommender  of  childlike  and  loving 
genius.  .  .  . 


1835]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  197 

[Then  follows  the  account  of  Keats  writing  his  Sonnet  on 
The  Flower  and  the  Leaf  in  Cowden  Clarke's  Chaucer,  q.v. 
above,  1817.] 

1835.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  Streets  of  the  Metropolis, 
Supplement  to  Leigh  Hunt's  London  Journal,  1835,  pp.  iii,  xviii- 
xix,  xxxi.  [Republished  as  The  Town,  1848  ;  ed.  1859,  pp.  19, 
38,  103,  106-7,  173.] 

(P.  los]  The  oldest  mention  of  the  Temple  as  a  place  for  lawyers 
has  been  commonly  said  to  be  found  in  a  passage  of  Chaucer, 
who  is  reported  to  have  been  of  the  Temple  himself.  [Quotes 
Chaucer's  character  of  the  Manciple,  Prol,  11.  566-575.]  * 

[pp.  ioc-7]  [Discussion  of  Chaucer's  connection  with  the  Temple. 
Quotes  Francis  Thynne's  "  Animadversions,"  q.v.  above,  1598, 
vol.  i,  p.  154.] 

[Leigh  Hunt's  Note.]  *  "We  quote  no  edition,  because,  where  we 
could,  we  have  modernized  the  spelling  ;  which  is  a  justice  to  this 
fine  old  author  in  a  quotation,  in  order  that  nobody  may  pass  it 
over. 

1835.  Long-fellow,  Henry  Wadsworth.  Outre-Mer,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p. 
84.  [This  chapter  is  not  in  the  first  edition  of  1833.]  (Works, 
Riverside  Edition,  [1886,]  11  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  182-3.) 

One  holyday,  when  mass  was  said  and  the  whole  village  was 
let  loose  to  play,  we  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  ruins  of  this  old 
Moorish  alcazar.  Our  cavalcade  was  as  motley  as  that  of  old, — 
the  pilgrims  "  that  toward  Canterbury  wolden  ride  : "  for  we 
had  the  priest,  and  the  doctor  of  physic,  and  the  man  of  laws 
[sic],  and  a  wife  of  Bath,  and  many  more  whom  I  must 
leave  unsung. 

1835.  Strickland,  Agnes.  The  Pilgrims  of  Walsingham,  3  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  i,  iii,  23,  34,  56,  216,  274,  [Notes]  307-8. 

[p.  il          Geoffrey  Chaucer  (the  Sir  Walter  Scott  of  the  thirteenth 

[sic]  century)   .  .  . 
[p.  iii]        Each  of  the  votaries  to  the  shrine  of  our  Lady  of  Walsing- 

ham,  in  this   work,  like    Chaucer's  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  is 

pledged  to  relate  a  tale. 

Il<ti6,4si4]  [Chapter-heading  quotations  from  Chaucer.] 
[PP.  sor-8]  As  to  the  rhyming  chronicler,  Eobert  of  Gloucester,  he 

assuredly   fills    the    same    place,  in   English   poetry,   that   is 

attributed    to    Chaucer,    for    amidst   the   ruggedness    of    his 

constructions,  may  now  and  then  be  perceived  a  line  that 

rises  into  beauty. 


198  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1835 

1835.  T.,  "W.  I.  The  Court  Magazine  in  the  Fourteenth  Century, 
[in]  The  Court  Magazine,  vol.  vi,  pp.  254-57. 

[p.  254]      [The  writer  entering  Westminster  Abbey,  notices  one  present:] 

The  individual  who  excited  this  interest  in  me  was  of 
middle  stature,  somewhat  inclined  to  corpulency,  and  expen 
sively  attired  in  a  robe  of  deep  purple.  His  countenance  was 
placid  and  benevolent;  his  eyes,  which  were  large  and  mild, 
were  kept  constantly  upon  a  richly  illuminated  missal  which 
he  held  in  his  hand,  with  the  contents  of  which,  however,  he 
seemed  not  so  deeply  busied  but  that  some  fleeting  and  not 
very  grave  thoughts  had  power  ever  and  anon  to  diffuse  a 
satirical  but  good-natured  smile  over  his  face.  His  com 
plexion  was  fair,  his  forehead  broad  and  smooth,  his  hair  thin 
and  of  silvery  whiteness,  as  was  likewise  his  graceful  and 
becoming  beard. 

At  length  the  service  concluded,  and  I  took  the  opportunity 
of  inquiring  of  my  companion  whether  he  knew  the  individual 
who  had  so  arrested  my  attention. 

"Know  him  indeed,"  quoth  Master  Scrope,  "  Marry  do  I — 
and  so  shalt  thou  too."  .  .  . 

[After  the  service  the  writer  and  Scrope  follow  Chaucer 
to  the  house  adjacent :] 

[p.  255]  "Give  you  good  even,  Master  Geoffrey,"  said  Scrope,  "I 
have  brought  a  friend  with  me  who  loveth  the  Muse,  and 
would  fain  hold  a  little  converse  'with  her  favourite  son, 
Master  Geoffrey  Chaucer." 

Master  Geoffrey  Chaucer !  How  the  words  rang  in  my 
ears — I  could  scarce  return  thanks  for  the  kindly  welcome 
with  which  the  great  bard  greeted  me,  so  intense  was  the 
delight  I  experienced  at  finding  myself  thus  suddenly  and 
agreeably  confronted  with  him.  There  before  me  sat  he 
whose  muse  I  had  so  long  and  so  earnestly  admired. 


[Chaucer  provides  wine,  and  proceeds  :] 

"  When  I  have  done  my  reckonings  in  the  Exchequer,  I  have 
gotten  a  copy  of  verses  to  write  for  my  good  Lord  of  Yere,  or 
my  Lady  Blanche.  Let  alone  his  Majesty  himself,  who  is 
ever  and  anon  crying  out,  'Is  your  muse  turned  sluggard, 
Master  Geoffrey,  that  we  hear  nought  of  her  faith  [sic,  for 
"  i'  faith  "]  ! '  I  believe  they  wish  me  to  write  every  week 
a  poem  as  long  as  the  siege  of  Troy.  So  my  scribe  Adam 


1835]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  199 

Scrivener  and  myself  have  taken  council,  and  here  is  our 
resolve." 

Here  he  handed  to  Scrope  and  myself  a  slip  of  parchment, 
on  which  was  written  as  follows  : — 

"  KNOW    ALL    MEN     BY     THESE     PRESENTS  :     ON     THE     1ST    OF 

JANUARY  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  OUR  LORD  13 —  AND  IN  THE  —  YEAR 
OF  THE  REIGN  OF  OUR  MOST  GRACIOUS  SOVEREIGN,  KlNG 
RICHARD  THE  SECOND — WE,  GEOFFREY  CHAUCER,  PURPOSE, 
BY  THE  ASSISTANCE  OF  OUR  TRUSTY  SCRIBE,  ADAM  SCRIVENER, 

TO   INDITE   A   GOODLY  VOLUME,    CONTAINING   SUNDRY  AND    DIVERS 

POEMS,  SONGS,  AND  BALLADES  BY  us  THE  SAID  GEOFFREY 
CHAUCER,  OUR  TRUSTY  FRIEND  JOHN  GOWER,  AND  OTHERS  OP 
His  MAJESTY'S  LIEGES  ;  AND  WE  PURPOSE  TO  INDITE  A  SIMILAR 

VOLUME  UNDER  THE  TITLE  OF 


THE   COUET   MAGAZINE, 

EDITED   BY 

GEOFFREY    CHAUCER, 

ON  THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  EVERY  MONTH,  UNTIL  FURTHER  NOTICE. 
COPIES  OF  THE  SAID  VOLUME  MAY  BE  PROCURED  OF  ADAM 
SCRIVENER  AT  OUR  HOUSE  ABUTTING  ON  THE  ABBEY  OF  ST. 
PETER,  WESTMINSTER,  AT  REASONABLE  CHARGES. — GOD  SAVE. 
THE  KING." 

"  Now  my  masters,  to-morrow  is  the  first  of  January,  and 
I  am  going  to  present  my  book  to  his  Majesty  as  a  New  Year's^ 
Gift — and  as  Adam  Scrivener — plague  on  him  ! — is  very  apt  to 
make  my  verses  halt  like  Dame  Jukket's  dog,  I  must  needs  con 
over  the  manuscript  before  I  hand  it  over  to  my  royal  master." 

[Chaucer  shows  them  the  volume  :] 

Imprimis,  was  an  address  to  His  Majesty  on  the  New  Year, 
followed  by  a  translation  by  Chaucer  himself  of  Petrarch's 
Sonnet  "  S'amor  non  £,"  and  which  if  my  memory  serves  me 
rightly,  ran  much  in  this  strain  : — 

If  no  love  is,  0  God  what  fele  I  so  1 

And  if  love  is,  what  thing  and  whiche  is  he  ]  ... 

[Troilus,  i.  400,  and  two  following  stanzas. J 

"  By  the  blessed  Virgin,  Master  Geoffrey,"  said  Scrope, 
"  but  thou  has  rendered  the  Italian  poesy  into  very  delectable 


200  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1835 

English.  Thou  encounteredst  Master  Francis  Petrarch,  didst 
not,  when  thou  wentest  on  the  embassy  to  Genoa?" 

Chaucer's  answer  was  in  the  affirmative  and  was  a  long  one, 
for  it  related  the  history  of  the  interview  between  the  learned 
inhabitant  of  Arqua  and  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  poet  of  Britain, 
which  interview  our  readers  shall  have  fully  described  on  some 
future  occasion. 

A  French  '  ballade'  by  the  "  Moral  Gower,"  of  which  the 
'  burthen '  was 

"  En  toutz  errours  amour  se  justifie," 

77as  the  next  piece  recited  by  our  host,  in  a  style  which  showed 
that  his  acquaintance  with  the  French  language  had  not  been 
acquired  "  at  Stratford-le-Bow."  When  Chaucer  had  finished 
it,  he  said — 

"  A  book  a  month  is  much  to  do,  and  I  have  been  fain  to 
beg  for  the  assistance  of  my  friends,  and  they  have,  as  you 
see,  kindly  given  it  to  me.  Master  Gower's  is  to  my  fancy  a 
very  choice  piece  of  verse,  and  this  "  Dit  du  Marguerite"  by 
the  gallant  French  knight  Sir  John  Froissart,  is  likewise  in 
good  sooth  much  to  my  mind.  You  must  come  and  crack  a 
bowl  with  Sir  John — he's  a  merry  man,  and  learned  withal. 
Oh ! — but  King  Richard  will  be  well  pleased  to-morrow,  for 
Sir  John's  new  year's  gift  to  his  Majesty  will  be  those  chron 
icles  of  the  affairs  of  our  times,  which  he  has  so  long  busied 
himself  in  compiling." 

"I  met  Sir  John  in  France,"  said  Scrope,  "when  I  was 
with  the  Count  de  Foix — but  had  no  converse  with  him ;  he 
stayed  but  one  night.  .  .  . 

"  Master  Froissart  is  a  good  friend  of  mine,"  said  Chaucer, 
"  and  even  now  I  have  just  gotten  from  him  a  goodly  poem, 
which  has  so  delighted  me,  that  I  purpose  putting  it  into 
English  rhyme  for  the  amusement  of  our  court  dames."  So 
saying  he  rose  from  his  chair,  and  reached  from  a  shelf  where 
on  stood  more  than 

Twenty  bokes  clothed  in  blake  or  red, 

a  beautifully  written  manuscript,  the  title  of  which  he  recited 
as  follows  : — 

"  *  Le  Roman  de  Thesee,  ou  d'Arcite  et  Palemon,  Tun  et 
Tautre  de  Thebes,  de  royal  sang  extraits,  lesquels  etant  cousins- 
germains,  par  superfine  amour  de  la  belle  Emilie,  eurent 
ensemble  question  et  dabat,  Tun  desquels  a  cette  occasion  perdit 


1835]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  201 

la  vie,  et  Vautre  vint  a  son  intention!  It  is  indeed  a  piteous 
story,  but  if  I  translate  it  I  think  I  shall  make  it  somewhat 
different  and  somewhat  shorter.  But  it  is  a  long  job,  and  the 
1  Eomaunt  de  la  Rose '  I  found  a  somewhat  tedious  under 
taking.  .  .  . 

[The  writer  recites  a  spurious  verse,  and  asks  who  com 
posed  it  :] 

"By  my  troth,  I  know  not  who  composed  it.  ...  Let  him 
translate  the  beautiful  Romance  of  "  Le  Chevalier  au  Lion" 
which  is  making  such  a  coil  even  now.  I  showed  my  copy  of 
it  to  a  gallant  high  German  knight,  who  was  lately  travelling 
in  these  parts,  one  Master  Hartman  von  der  One  (what  out 
landish  names  they  have  in  the  countries  over  sea),  and  he 
was  so  greatly  charmed  with  it,  that  he  straightway s  made  a 
copy  thereof,  and  is  going  incontinent  to  turn  it  into  his 
mother  tongue.  You  shall  read  a  bit  of  the  French  poem  ;  it 
is  a  dainty  work,  by  my  faith." 

The  glorious  old  bard  reached  down  a  huge  folio  from  the 
shelves  which  we  have  already  described  :  and,  like  all  lovers 
of  poetry,  himself  read  the  passages  which  he  had  proposed  I 
should  have  read.  While  he  was  turning  over  the  leaves  of 
the  manuscript,  a  slip  of  paper  fell  from  it.  ...  I  found  that 
Chaucer  himself  had  commenced  the  task  he  so  earnestly 
recommended  to  another.  By  his  permission,  I  read  the  few 
lines  which  he  had  already  executed :  they  were  from  the  com 
mencement  of  the  Poem*. 

Almightie  God  that  made  mankyn, 
He  schilde  his  servandes  out  of  syn, 
And  mayntene  tham,  with  might  and  mayne 
That  herkens  Swayne  [sic]  and  Gawayne  : 
Thai  war  knightes  of  the  tabyl  rownde, 
Tharfore  listens  a  lytel  stownde. 

[And  so  for  26  lines  further.    The  dreamer  then  awakes.] 
*  Is  tins  the  long  lost  "  Book  of  the  Lion  "  ?— W.  I.  T. 

1835.  Wordsworth,  William.    Postscript  to  the  Poetical  Works.    (Prose 
Works,  2  vols.,  1896,  vol.  ii,  p.  364.) 

How  agreeable  to  picture  to  one's  self,  as  has  been  done  by 
poets  and  romance-writers,  from  Chaucer  down  to  Goldsmith, 
a  man  devoted  to  his  ministerial  office,  with  not  a  wish  or  a 
thought  ranging  beyond  the  circuit  of  its  cares  ! 


202  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1835- 

1835.  Wordsworth,  William.     MS.,  dated    1835,  describing  his  tour 
with  Dorothy  Wordsworth  to  Scotland  in  1831,  quoted  by  Prof. 
W.  A.  Knight  as  a  note  to  Bothwell  Castle.    (Poetical  Works,  1896, 
8  vols.,  vol.  vii,  p.  301  ?i.) 

These  rude  warriors  cared  little,  perhaps,  about  either  [sea 
or  rivers]  ;  and  yet  if  one  may  judge  from  the  writings  of 
Chaucer,  and  from  the  old  romances,  more  interesting  passions 
were  connected  with  natural  objects  in  the  days  of  chivalry 
than  now ;  though  going  in  search  of  scenery,  as  it  is  called, 
had  not  then  been  thought  of. 

1836.  [Bandinel,  Bulkeley.]     Catalogue  of  Early  English  Poetry  .  .  . 
collected   by  Edmond  Malone,  Esq.)    and   now  preserved  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  Oxford,  p.    7. 

CHAUCER  (Geffrey) 

The  ploughman's  tale  .  .  .  1606  [q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  177], 

1836.  Brayley,  Edward  Wedlake,  and  Britton,  John.  The  History 
of  the  Ancient  Palace  and  late  Houses  of  Parliament  at  West 
minster,  pp.  275-6. 

[The  appointment  of  Chaucer,  on  July  13th,  1389,  as  Clerk 
of  the  Works  at  Westminster,  the  Tower,  and  the  Mews  near 
Charing  Cross ;  with  a  lengthy  biographical  note  based  on 
Godwin  and  the  Testament  of  Love.~\ 

1836.  [Browning-,  Eobert  1]  Life  of  Strafford,  Browning  Soc.,  1892, 
pp.  129,  196-7  n. 

Chaucer  and  Dr.  Donne  appear  to  have  been  Wentworth's 
favourite  poets.  Chaucer  indeed,  to  the  court  readers  of  that 
day,  was  as  Shakespeare  in  our  own.  It  is  clear  too,  from 
the  frequent  use  of  peculiar  expressions  in  his  dispatches,  that 
the  lord  deputy  was  not  unacquainted,  and  that  intimately, 
with  the  great  dramatist,  though  he  never,  as  with  Chaucer 
and  Donne,  quotes  connected  passages.  [Passages  from  letters 
of  and  to  Strafford,  q.v.  below,  App.  A.,  1635,  1637,  Went- 
worth,  1636,  Con  way.] 

[c.  1836-40.]  Campbell,   Thomas.     Chaucer  and  Windsort  [in]  The 
Pilgrim  of  Glencoe  and  other  Poems,  1842,  pp.  100-1.     (Poetical 
Works,  ed.  J.  Logic  Kobertson,  Oxford,  1907,  p.  307.) 
[Mr.  Robertson  places  this  poem  between  poems  of  1836  and  of  1840.] 

Long  shalt  thou  nourish,  Windsor  .  .  . 
Bat,  should  thy  towers  in  ivied  ruin  rot, 
There's  one,  thine  inmate  once,  whose  strain  renowned 
Would  interdict  thy  name  to  be  forgot ; 
For  Chaucer  loved  thy  bowers  and  trode  this  very  spot. 


1836]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion,  203 

Chaucer  !  our  Helicon's  first  fountain  stream, 
Our  morning  star  of  song — that  led  the  way 
To  welcome  the  long-after  comirrg  beam 
Of  Spenser's  light,  and  Shakespeare's  perfect  day. 
Old  England's  fathers  lived  in  Chaucer's  lay, 
As  if  they  ne'er  had  died.     He  grouped  and  drew 
Their  likeness  with  a  spirit  of  life  so  gay, 
That  still  they  live  and  breathe  in  Fancy's  view, 
Fresh  beings  fraught  with  truth's  imperishable  hue. 

1836.  [Carey,  William  ?]  Reminiscences  of  Stothard,  [in]  Blackwood's 
Edinburgh  Mauazine,  May  and  June,  1836,  vol.  xxxix.  pp.  681-4, 
753-7,  759.  [References  to  Stothard's  painting,  The  Canterbury 
Pilgrims.'] 

[p.  68i]  So  little  conscious  was  he  [Stothard]  of  the  pecuniary  value 
of  his  talents,  that  I  believe  I  speak  perfectly  true  when  I  say 
that  he  received  but  £200  for  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims ;  a 
picture  which  was  afterwards  exhibited  by  itself,  at  one 
shilling  a  head,  in  all  the  great  towns  of  England;  was 
engraved  .  .  .  and  had  the  most  extensive  sale  of  any  thing 
of  the  kind  published  within  the  last  century. 

[p.  753]  [No  artist  had  previously  attempted  to  illustrate  Chaucer  so 
fully  and  elaborately.  Indeed  Chaucer  had  been  most  un 
deservedly  neglected  both  by  artists  and  readers.  Stothard's. 
Canterbury  Pilgrims  owe  their  existence  to  Mr.  Cromek,  the 
engraver,  who  told  the  writer  that  he  always  wished  to  see  a 
picture  of  Chaucer's  pilgrims  on  the  road,  travelling  in  com 
pany  together.  But  he  saw  that  the  great  objection  to  such  a 
picture  would  be  the  monotonous  uniformity  of  a  procession 
Who  could  hope  to  make  anything  of  if?  There  follows  a 
close  account  of  Stothard's  picture,  and  the  several  figures  in 
it  (pp.  753-6),  with  a  quotation  from  Hoppner's  letter,  q.v* 
above,  1807.] 

[p.  759]  [A  reference  to  Stothard's]  beautiful  little  picture  of  the 
Cock  and  the  Eox,  from  Chaucer. 

[These  articles  are  most  probably  written  by  William  Carey,  the  picture  dealer, 
as  they  closely  resemble  much  in  his  pamphlet,  q.v.  above,  1818.] 

1836.     Dale,  Thomas.     Lecture  on  Chaucer.     See  below,  Ruskin. 

1836.  Dibdin,  Thomas  Frognall.  Reminiscences  of  a  Literary  Life, 
2  vok,  vol.  i,  pp.  119-20,  235,  237,  241,  273,  387,  390,  416,  497  ; 
vol.  ii,  pp.  788-9,  905. 

p™88]'        When  Blake  entered  the  arena  with  Stothard,  as  a  rival 
[voi.ii,  in  depicting  the  Dramatis  Personce  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury 


204  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1836 

Tales  he  seems  to  have  absolutely  lost  his  wits ;  his  pencil  was 
as  inferior  to  that  of  the  former,  as  his  burin  was  to  that  of 
Cromek,  who  engraved  Stoth aid's  immortal  picture. 

[Stothard's  picture  was  published  by  Cromek,  but  engraved  by  Schiavonetti.] 


1836.  Dunham,  Samuel  Astley.  Chaucer,  [in  Lardner's]  Cabinet 
Cyclopaedia  (Lives  of  the  most  eminent  literary  and  scientific 
men  of  Great  Britain.— Early  Writers),  pp.  125-172,  188,  205, 
215,  298-9,  312-13,  315,  319,  351. 

[p.  125]  [A  life  of  the  poet,  forty-seven  pages,  followed  by  a  detailed 
notice  of  all  his  poems ;  as  well  as  of  some  not  by  him.] 

tp.  169]  Of  the  literary  and  poetical  character  of  Chaucer,  it  may 
be  remarked,  that  to  no  individual,  perhaps,  has  our  language 
been  more  indebted  than  to  the  author  of  the  Canterbury 
Tales.  He  found  his  native  tongue  a  mixed  and  uncouth 
dialect  of  Norman-Saxon,  rude,  and  undigested,  and  with  no 
writers  whom  he  could  consider  in  any  respect  as  a  guide  or 

{p.  170]  model.  .  .  .  He  therefore  necessarily  turned  his  eyes  to 
foreign  resources;  and  we  find  that  the  greater  part  of  his 
poetical  career  was  employed  in  translating  .  .  .  from  the 
Latin,  French,  and  Italian.  In  doing  this,  however,  he  en 
riched  his  own  language  with  a  vast  store  of  verbal  wealth  .  .  . 
and,  moreover,  moulded  what  he  had  taken  into  a  form  of 
such  unprecedented  beauty  and  perspicuity,  when  compared 
with  any  previous  English  poem,  that  those  who  immediately 
succeeded  him  scarcely  ever  speak  of  his  style  but  in  terms  of 
enthusiastic  rapture.  When  we  consider,  indeed,  how  greatly 
superior  to  his  contemporaries  was  the  mechanism  of  his 
versification,  which,  though  from  change  of  accent  unaccom 
modated  to  a  modern  ear,  was,  in  the  then  construction  of  the 
language,  beyond  all  example  harmonious  and  correct  .  .  . 
the  admiration  of  his  disciples,  however  warmly  expressed, 
seems  justly  his  due.  It  may,  in  short,  be  affirmed,  that  even 
now,  by  him  who  will  take  the  trouble  of  becoming  familiar 
with  the  style  of  Chaucer,  there  will  often  be  found,  both  in 
his  diction  and  versification,  a  certain  natural  sweetness, 
simplicity,  and  naivete,  hardly  to  be  met  with  elsewhere. 

If,  turning  ...  to  the  consideration  of  the  higher 
attributes  which  more  immediately  constitute  the  poet,  we 
contrast  what  he  has  produced  in  these  departments  with  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  .  .  .  can  we  hesitate  in  pronouncing 


1836]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  205 

him  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  to  which  his  country 
has  given  birth  1  .  .  . 

[p.  171]  In  knowledge  of  human  life,  and  in  the  power  of  delineating 
it,  he  has  no  superior,  save  Shakspeare,  with  whom,  indeed, 
in  universality  of  talent,  he  may  justly  be  compared. 

1836.  Garnett,  Richard,  the  Elder.  English  Dialects,  [in]  The 
Quarterly  Review,  Feb.,  1836,  vol.  Iv,  pp.  380-82.  (The  Philo 
logical  Essays  of  R.  Garnett,  edited  by  his  Son,  1859,  pp.  70-72.) 

[Chaucer's  use  of  north  country  dialect  in  the  Reves  Tale, 
and  especially  of  the  word  "lathe,"  a  barn.] 

1836.  Buskin,  John.  Letter  to  his  father,  from  Herne  Hill,  25th 
March.  (Works,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12, 
39  vols.,  vol.  xxxvi,  p.  6.) 

I  sit  down  to  write  of  I  know  not  what.  I  intend  to 
commence  with  our  third  lecture,  English  literature  [by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Dale].  Four  lectures  on  this  subject  have  spoken 
of  four  celebrated  authors  of  old  time — Sir  John  Maudeville, 
Sir  John  Gower,  Chaucer,  and  Wickliffe.  We  are  made 
acquainted  with  their  birth,  parentage,  education,  etc. ;  the 
character  of  their  writings  is  spoken  of,  and  extracts  are  read 
as  examples  of  their  style.  These  extracts  are  always  interest 
ing,  frequently  entertaining,  sometimes  laughable,  although 
the  laugh  of  the  hearer  is  generally  at,  not  with,  the  author. 

The  writings  of  the  poets  before  Chaucer  are  like Lifting 

my  eyes  off  the  paper  in  search  of  a  simile,  they  encounter  a 
piece  of  the  sky  seen  through  one  of  the  very  large  panes  of 
our  drawing-room  window  .  .  .  [there]  are  long  lines  of  grey 
cloud,  broken  away  into  thin  white  fleeces,  which  are  standing 
still  in  the  heavens,  for  there  is  no  breeze  to  move  them,  and 
between  those  grey  clouds  is  seen  here  and  there  a  piece  of 
excessive  value,  which  is  not  dark,  but  deep,  pure,  far  away, 
which  the  eye  seems  to  plunge  into  and  go  on,  on,  on,  into  the 
stillness  of  its  distance,  until  the  grey  cloud  closes  over  it  and 
it  is  gone.  That  bit  of  sky  is  like  one  of  these  old  poems, 
cloudy  and  grey,  uninteresting;  but  ever  and  anon  through 
the  quaintness  of  his  language  or  uncouthness  of  expression 
breaks  the  mind  of  the  poet,  pure  and  noble  and  glorious,  and 
leading  you  away  with  it  into  fascination,  and  then  the  cloud 
closes  over  him  and  he  is  gone. 


206  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1836 

1836.  Southey,  Robert.  Sketch  of  the  Progress  of  English  Poetry  from 
Chaucer  to  Cowper,  [in]  The  Works  of  William  Cowper,  with  a 
life  of  the  author  by  the  editor,  Robert  Southey,  1835-7,  15  vols., 
vol.  ii,  1836,  pp.  114-121,  134-5,  148-9,  177. 

CT°ii4]  ^ie  ^rs^  re^orma^on  which  it  [vernacular  poetry]  under 
went  was  to  free  it  from  some  gratuitous  difficulties,  and  divest 
it  of  the  cumbrous  ornaments  with  which  it  had  been  over 
loaded.  Chaucer,  who  is  deservedly  accounted  the  Father  of 
English  Poetry,  effected  this  .  .  . 

[p.  115]  Father  Chaucer,  throwing  off  all  trammels,  simplified  our 
verse.  Nature  had  given  him  the  ear  and  the  eye  and  the 
imagination  of  a  poet ;  and  his  diction  was  such  as  that  of  all 
great  poets  has  ever  been,  and  ever  will  be,  in  all  countries, — 
neither  cramped  by  pedantic  rules  .  .  .  nor  drooping  for  want 
of  strength,  but  rising  and  falling  with  the  subject,  and  always 
suited  to  it. 

The  seven-lined  stanza  of  his  Troilus.  and  Cresseide  [foot 
note,  quoting  Sidney's  praise  in  the  Defence  of  Poesy]  was 
adopted  from  the  Provenceal  [sic]  poets.  I  know  not  whether 
he  had  any  example  of  the  ten-syllable  couplet  in  the  poets  of 
France,  Provence,  and  Italy,  but  the  Hermit  of  Hampole, 
Kichard  Eolle,  .  .  .  had  shown  him  the  way  in  this.  That 
the  one  form  of  verse  was,  in  his  judgement,  as  well  fitted  for 
grave  and  lofty  subjects  as  the  other,  is  certain,  for  in  such 
subjects  he  has  employed  them  both :  but  it  appears  that  the 
couplet  took  its  character  in  common  opinion  from  his  lighter 
pieces,  and  was  supposed  to  be  adapted  for  nothing  better. 
And  while  the  "Troilus  verse,"  as  King  James  called  it, 
obtained  the  dignified  title  of  Rhythm  Royal,  [footnote, 
quoting  Puttenham,  Art  of  English  Poetry,  on  the  metre  of 

tp.  H6]  Troilus  and  "  riding  rhyme  "  ]  the  strain  in  which  the  knight 
related  his  tale  of  Palamon  and  Arcite,  and  in  which  "  the 
story  of  Cambuscan  bold"  had  been  pitched,  was  degraded 
in  public  estimation,  and  distinguished  by  the  contemptuous 
term  of  riding  rhymes.  [Footnote :  Perhaps  Shakespeare 
alludes  to  this  appellation  when  he  describes  a  still  more 
familiar  kind  of  measure,  as  the  "  right  butter-woman's  rate 
to  market."] 

It  is  a  disputed  question  whether  Chaucer's  verses  be 
rhythmical  or  metrical.  I  believe  them  to  have  been  written 

[r.  117]  rhythmically,  upon  the  same  principle  on  which  Coleridge 
composed  his  beautiful  fragment  of  Christabel, — that  the 
number  of  beats,  or  accentuated  syllables  in  every  line  should 


1836]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  207 

be  the  same,  although  the  number  of  syllables  themselves  might 
vary.  [Footnote,  slating  that  James  Boswell  (the  younger)  had 
impugned  that  opinion,  but  that  in  it  Southey  had  the  sup 
port  of  Farmer  and  Dr.  !N"ott,  Avho,  he  thought,  had  established 
the  point.  He  also  quotes  Gascoigne  in  this  connexion. 
See  above,  1831,  and,  for  Nott,  above,  1815-16.]  Verse 
so  composed  will  often  be  strictly  metrical;  and  because 
Chaucer's  is  frequently  so,  the  argument  has  been  raised  that 
it  is  always  so  if  it  be  read  properly.  .  .  But  to  suppose  that 
it  was  written  as  iambic  verse,  and  that  the  lines  were 
lengthened  or  shortened  to  the  required  measure  by  some 
times  pronouncing  a  final  syllable,  and  sometimes  letting  it 

[p.  us]  remain  mute,  ...  is  supposing  that  Chaucer  took  greater 
liberties  witli  the  common  pronunciation  (which  must 
always  be  uniform)  and  relied  more  on  the  judgement  of  the 
reader,  than  one  who  so  perfectly  understood  the  character  of 
his  mother  tongue,  and  was  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
ordinary  capacities  of  men,  can  be  supposed  to  have  done, 
without  impeachment  of  his  sagacity.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is 
no  slight  proof  of  that  sagacity,  that  he  should  have  pitched 
the  key  and  determined  the  length  of  verse,  which  .  .  .  have 
been  found  to  accord  best  with  the  genius  of  the  language; 
and  that  his  "riding  rhyme,"  under  the  more  dignified 
denomination  of  the  "  heroic  couplet,"  should  be  the  measure 
which  Dryden  and  Pope  and  their  followers  have  preferred  to 
all  others  for  grave  and  lofty  subjects. 

The  "  ornate  style,"  which  is  the  worst  fashion  that  has  ever 
been  introduced  into  English  verse,  began  in  Chaucer's  time, 
and  he  adopted  it  in  some  of  his  smaller  and  later  pieces  ;  per 
haps  as  an  experiment  towards  the  improvement  of  a  language 
then  in  a  state  in  which  experiments  might  allowably  be  tried, 
....  but  unless  his  faculties  were  impaired  by  age,  of  which 
there  is  no  proof  or  indication,  it  is  not  possible  that  he  could 
have  approved  of  it  himself.  His  language  was  what  he  had 
learnt  in  the  country,  in  the  city,  and  in  the  court  .  .  .  what 
every  one  could  understand,  and  every  one  could  feel ;  it  was 
the  language  of  passion  and  of  real  life,  and  therefore  the 
language  of  poetry.  .  .  . 

[p.  no]  The  age  after  Chaucer  was  in  many  respects  darker  than 
that  which  preceded  it ;  his  name,  however,  was  held  in 
reverence,  and  succeeding  poets  were  instructed  to  look  to  him 
as  their  exemplar. 


208  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1836 

[p.  120]  From  Chaucer's  time  Hie  line  of  five  feet  (whether  in  coup 
lets  or  in  stanzas)  has  been  the  most  approved  measure. 

[p.  121]  Neither  the  diction  of  Chaucer,  nor  of  Surrey,  .  .  tlie 
father  and  the  reformer  of  our  poetry,  .  .  could  have  been  more 
perfect  than  it  was.  It  will  not  be  supposed  that  because 
Surrey  is  thus  named  with  Chaucer,  he  is  placed  in  the  same 
rank  with  him ;  for  Chaucer  stands  in  the  first  rank,  with 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton  ;  and  in  variety  of  power 
Shakespeare  is  his  only  peer. 

[p.  134]  [Reference  to  Dryden's  metre  in  his  modernization  of 
Chaucer.] 

[pp.148-  [Remarks  on  the  schemes,  of  1777,  of  John  Bell  and  rival 
publishers  for  producing  an  edition  of  the  Poets  of  Great 
Britain,  from  Chaucer  to  Churchill.  Bell's  edition  comprised 
only  three  writers  before  Cowley,  viz.,  Chaucer,  Spenser  and 
Donne,  and  on  this  point  Southey  observes :]  it  is  not  to  the 
honour  of  our  country  that  his  collection,  which  was  a  mere 
bookseller's  affair  .  .  .  should  still  contain  the  only  convenient 
and  most  complete  edition  of  the  works  of  the  great  father 
of  English  poetry. 

[p.  177]  In  one  of  his  first  poems,  Mason  had  in  a  puerile  fiction, 
ranked  Chaucer  and  Spenser  and  Milton  below  Pope,  which  is 
like  comparing  a  garden  shrub  with  the  oaks  of  the  forest. 
But  he  would  have  maintained  no  such  absurdity  in  his 
riper  years. 


1836.  Unknown.      Cliaucer,    [in]    The    Gentleman's    Magazine,    new 
series,  vol.  v,  pp.  501-4  ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  44-8. 


[vol.  v,  pew  writers  are  more  neglected,  less  studied,  or  less  known, 
though  none  are  more  talked  of,  than  Geoffrey  Chaucer.  And 
yet,  whether  we  consider  the  richness  and  diversity  of  his 
genius,  the  soundness  of  his  feelings,  the  harmony  of  his 
verse,  or,  in  most  instances,  the  subjects  he  has  chosen,  few 
poets  are  less  deserving  of  neglect.  The  language,  too,  after 
all,  is  not  so  far  removed  from  our  own,  as  to  throw  much 
difficulty  in  the  way  even  of  the  general  reader.  .  . 

[P.  502]  The  neglect  which  Chaucer  has  experienced,  arises,  perhaps, 
in  a  great  measure,  from  the  failings  of  his  editors.  [On  the 
loss  of  final  e,  destroying  the  secret  of  Chaucer's  metre,  and 
the  failure  of  the  early  printers,  except  Caxton,  to  adhere  to 
the  MSS.] 


[vol.  vi, 
PP. 


1836]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  209 

Early  in  the  last  century,  John  Urry,  of  Christ's  [sic]  Church, 
Oxford,  first  undertook  to  give  a  perfect  and  complete  text  of 
Chaucer's  works;    and,  to  judge  by  the  list  of  manuscripts 
which  he  has  left  us,  he  had  no  reason  for  complaining  of  lack 
of  materials.     But,  in  spite  of  the   encomiums  which  were 
lavished  upon  him  by  the  editor  who  finished  his  edition ;  in 
spite  of  "his   skill   in  the  northern  language   spoken  in  the 
Lowlands  of   Scotland,"  which  "  qualified  him  to  read  this 
poet  with  more   ease   and  pleasure  than  one  altogether  bred 
be-south   the  Trent  could   do,   without   more    than    common 
application  ; "   still  Urry  was  too  ignorant  of  the  language  and 
spirit  of  his  author,  too  deficient  in  correct  philological  know 
ledge,  to  perform,  with  any  degree  of  success,  the  task  he  had! 
undertaken   .   .  .     His    list    of   manuscripts,    too,    is    a   mere* 
parade  .  .   . 

[p.  504]  [A  passage  in  praise  of  Tyrwhitt's  work,  with  some  remarks 
on  orthography,  and  some  quotations  from  Orm,  the  philo 
logical  value  of  whose  work  Tyrwhitt  overlooked.] 

[An  attack  on  Cowden  Clarke's  Riches  of  Chaucer,  fol 
lowed  by  eulogy  of  the  Prologue,  with  extracts,  descriptions. 
of  the  characters,  and  quotations  from  Piers  Plowman.] 

1836.  Unknown.  Antiquarian  Researches,  Society  of  Antiquaries, 
[in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  June  1836,  new  series,  vol.  v,, 
p.  648. 

Mr.  Limburne  exhibited  [at  the  Society  of  Antiquaries] 
a  portrait  in  oil  of  Chaucer,  supposed  to  be  an  original  from 
Harbottle  Castle,  Northumberland. 


1836.  Unknown.     Review   of    Sir    Harris    Nicolas's    The    Controversy 
between  Sir  Richard  Scrape  and  Sir  Robert  ^Grosvenor  in  the  Court 
of  Chancery,  [q.  v.  above,  1832,  in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  vol  Ivi 
pp.  15.  27-8. 

gP^  In  Chaucer's  deposition  .  .  .  we  think  there  are  traces  of 
the  liveliness  and  picturesque  fancy  of  the  poet.  Being  asked, 
among  other  questions,  if  he  had  ever  heard  of  any  interruption 
or  challenge  made  by  Sir  Robert  Grosvenor,  or  his  ancestors, 
to  the  use  of  the  arms  in  dispute  by  the  Scropes,  he  does  not 
content  himself  with  saying  "  No  ! "  but  adds  the  following 
anecdote  :— 

"  lie  was  once  in  Friday-street,  London,  and  walking  through. 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. II.  P 


210  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1836- 

thc  street  he  observed  a  new  sign  hanging  out  with  these  arms 
thereon,  and  inquired  '  What  man  that  was  that  had  hung  out 
those  arms  of  Scrope?'  and  one  answered  him,  saying,  "They 
are  not  hung  out,  Sir,  for  the  arms  of  Scrope,  nor  painted  there 
for  those  arms,  but  they  are  painted  and  put  there  by  a  knight 
of  the  county  of  Chester,  called  Sir  Robert  Grosvenor ; '  and 
that  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  ever  heard  speak  of  Sir  Robert 
Grosvenor,  or  his  ancestors,  or  of  any  one  bearing  the  name." 

[1836.]  Wordsworth.,  William.  MS.  Note  on  a  remark  of  Hazlitt's 
in  The  Spirit  of  the  Age,  [printed  in]  The  Academy,  Dec.  23,  1905, 
p.  1334,  col.  1. 

[Barren  Field,  in  his  (unpublished)  Critical  Memoirs  on 
the  Life  and  Poetry  of  William  Wordsworth,  quotes  Hazlitt's 
remark  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Age,  1825  :  "Chaucer  is  a  prime 
favourite  of  his  [Wordsworth's],  but  we  do  not  think  he  has 
any  cordial  sympathy  with  Shakespeare."  Opposite  to  this 
"Wordsworth  wrote,  in  his  note  on  Barren  Field's  MS. :] 

This  is  monstrous.  I  extol  Chaucer,  and  others ;  because 
the  world  at  large  knows  little,  or  nothing,  of  their  merits. 
Modesty,  and  a  deep  feeling  how  superfluous  a  thing  it  is  to 
praise  Shakespeare  have  kept  me  often — and  almost  habitually 
— silent  on  that  subject.  Who  thinks  it  necessary  to  praise 
the  Sun  1 

[The  article  in  the  Academy  is  by  Prof.  W.  Knight.] 

1836.  Wordsworth,  William.    Letter  to  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd,  [dated] 
Nov.   28,  [1836,  in]  Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W. 
Knight,  1907,  3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  115. 

I  cannot  help  catching  at  the  hope  that,  in  the  evening  of 
life,  you  may  realize  those  anticipations  which  you  throw  out. 
Chaucer's  and  Milton's  great  works  were  composed  when  they 
were  far  advanced  in  life. 

1837.  Burrowes,  Amyas  Deane.     The  Modern  Encyclopaedia,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  190-1  ;  vol.  v,  pp.  627-8  ;  vol.  vii,  p.  201. 

[The  Chaucer  and  Lydgate  articles  are  reprinted  from  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  q.v.  above,  1778,  vol.  i,  pp.  452-4.] 

1837.  Collier,  John  Payne.  A  Catalogue,  Bibliographical  and  Critical, 
of  Early  English  Literature,  forming  a  portion  of  the  Library  at 
Bridge  water  House,  pp.  58-9,  93,  118,  144,  179,  250,  268,  286, 
304,  327. 

[Works,  1561  and  1602  (pp.  58-9).  Full  literary  as  well 
as  bibliographical  accounts  are  given  of  the  books,  from  which 


1837]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  211 

the  following  Chaucer  allusions  are  quoted :  Davy,  1596 
(p.  93) ;  Fairfax  anticipated  by  Chaucer  in  his  account  (from 
Tasso)  of  the  singing  of  birds  (p.  118) ;  Feylde,  1509  (p.  144)  ; 
'  Fortune '  printed  in  various  editions  of  Chaucer,  and  also  in 
the  "Proverbs"  of  Lydgate  (p.  179);  'Kemedy  for  Sedition,' 
1536  (p.  250);  Eowlands,  1620  (p.  268);  Guilpin,  1598 
(p.  286);  Taylor,  1620  (p.  304);  Warner,  1606  (p.  327); 
q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  under  the  various  dates  here  given.] 

1837.  [Craik,  George  Lillie,  and  Macfarlane,  Charles.]  The  Pictorial 
History  of  England  [published  by  Charles  Knight  and,  with  The 
Pictorial  History  of  England  during  the  reign  of  George  the  Third, 
4  vols.  1841-4,  commonly  called  "  Knight's  Pictorial  History  of 
England"],  4  vols.,  1837-41,  vol.  i,  1837,  pp.  604,  812,  850-1,  862, 
865-(3,  868-71,  873,  880 ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  203-4,  206,  209-10,  217-18, 
222,  824,  837-9. 

[vol.  i,  [Chaucer  distances  Langland,  and  compared  with  his  pro 
ductions  all  that  precedes  is  barbarism  :  he  is  the  founder 
of  our  language  and  literature.  Only  Shakespeare  surpasses 
his  range  of  qualities,  fancy  and  observation,  tenderness  and 
humour.  His  sources  as  diverse  as  his  qualities.  The  Canter 
bury  Tales  mentioned  as  his  crowning  work  and  as  comprehend 
ing  all  his  powers.] 

lv°269i'  [Occleve's  portrait  of  Chaucer.]  Occleve  repeatedly  speaks 
of  Chaucer  as  his  master  .  .  .  All  that  Occleve  appears  to 
have  gained,  however,  from  his  admirable  model,  is  some 
initiation  into  that  smoothness  and  regularity  of  style  of  -which 
Chaucer's  writings  set  the  first  great  example. 

[p.  218]      [Specimens  of  Chaucer  from  Prologue  and  Persones  Tale.] 
[p.  839]       [Chaucer,  in  spite  of  contentions  to  the  contrary,  as  regular 
as    Surrey  in   syllabic   as  well  as    accentual    metre ;    Surrey 
merely  restored  the  art  that  had  been  lost  since  Chaucer.] 


1037.   Devon,    Frederick.     Issues    of  the  Exchequer  .  .  .  from  King 
Henry  III.  to  King  Henry  VI. 

Pp.  203  [allowance  to  Philippa  Chaucer,  27  Nov.  1376], 
210  [payment  of  .£12.  13s.  on  account  of  Chaucer's  pension, 
24  May,  1379],  214  [payment  of  £14  on  account  of  his 
wages  and  expenses  in  going  upon  the  King's  message  to 
Lombardy,  28  Nov.  1380],  215  [gift  of  £22  by  Eichard  II. 
to  Chaucer  for  going  to  France  in  the  time  of  Edward  III., 
6  March,  1381],  239  [payment  to  Chaucer,  as  Clerk  of  the 
Works,  of  £66.  13s.  4d.,  7  Oct.  1389].  [See  above,  vol.  i, 
pp.  3-4  (6  July  1374),  1-2  (6  Nov.  1367),  6,  9  (14  and 
22  July  1389).] 


212  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1837 

1837.  Emerson,  Kalph  Waldo.  The  American  Scholar,  an  oration 
delivered  .  .  .  August  31,  1837.  (Works,  Centenary  Edition, 
1903,  12  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  91.) 

We  read  the  verses  of  the  great  English  poets,  of  Chaucer, 
of  Marvell,  of  Dryden,  with  the  most  modern  joy, — with  a 
pleasure,  I  mean,  which  is  in  great  part  caused  by  the  abstrac 
tion  of  all  time,  from  their  verses. 

1837.  Hallam,  Henry.  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  Europe, 
4  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  47,  62-5,  72,  170-1,  366,  592-5;  vol.  ii,  pp.  305, 
328,  333  ;  vol.  iv,  p.  436.  (4th  edn.,  1854,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  34, 
46-9,  54-5,  125,  262,  311n,  427-9  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  121-2,  138-42  ; 
vol.  iii,  pp.  486-7.) 

[vol.  i,       But  our  greatest  poet  of  the  middle  ages,  beyond  comparison, 
was  Geoffrey  Chaucer ;   and  I  do  not  know  that  any  other 
country,  except  Italy,  produced  one  of  equal  variety  in  inven 
tion,   acuteness  in  observation,  or  felicity  of  expression.     A 
tp.  63]   vast  interval  must  be  made  between   Chaucer  and  any  other 

English  Poet.  .  .  . 

[p.  65]        [Chaucer's  use  of  French  and  Latin  words.] 
[p.  170]      That  which  we  sometimes  call  pedantry  and  innovation,  the 
[p.  171]  forced   introduction   of   French   words   by    Chaucer,   though 
hardly  more  by  him  than  by  all  his  predecessors  who  trans 
lated  our  neighbours'    poetry,  and  the  harsh  latinisms  that 
began  to  appear  soon  afterwards,  has  given  English  a  copious 
ness  and  variety  which  perhaps  110  other  language  possesses. 

Surrey  rarely  lays  an  unnatural  stress  on  final  syllables,  .  .  . 
another  usual  trick  of  the  school  of  Chaucer. 

[Pott's  theory  of  Chaucer's  verse  as  rhythmical  (q.  v.  above, 
1815-16)  stated  and  cautiously  set  aside  in  favour  of  the 
metrical  theory  established  by  Tyrwhitt.] 

[TCI.  ii,  Sackville's  Induction  forms  a  link  which  unites  the  school 
of  Chaucer  and  Lydgate  to  the  Faery  Queen.  It  would 
certainly  be  vain  to  look  in  Chaucer,  wherever  Chaucer  is 
original,  for  the  grand  creations  of  Sackville's  fancy,  yet  we 
should  never  find  any  one  who  would  rate  Sackville  above 
Chaucer. 

1837.  Hippisley,  John  Henry.  Chapters  on  Early  English  Literature. 
Introduction,  pp.  ix-xii,  ch.  i,  English  Language  and  Literature 
previous  to  Chaucer — Characterof  Chaucer's  earlier  poems— Literary 
taste  during  the  reign  of  Edward  III  ;  ch.  ii,  Reputation  of  Chaucer 
in  various  ages ;  ch.  iii,  Remarks  on  the  biography  of  Chaucer ;  ch.  iv, 
Observations  on  some  of  Chaucer's  earlier  poems ;  ch.  v,  The 
Canterbury  Pilgrimage  ;  ch.  vi,  Prose  Works  of  Chaucer  and  his 


1837]          Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Hippisley.']    213 

contemporaries;  cli.  vii,  English  Literature  from  Chaucer  to 
Spenser  ;  ch.  viii,  English  Literature  in  the  age  of  Shakespeare 
[numerous  Chaucer  references]  ;  Appendix,  Specimens  of  Chaucer's 
poetry. 

[p.  ix]  [Chaucer  gives  the  best  picture  in  early  literature  of  con 
temporary  manners  and  is  most  valuable  to  students  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  conditions  of  man.] 

tp.  x]       [Difficulty  of  Chaucer's  language  easily  surmounted.] 

[Chapter  II.  Admiration  for  Canterbury  Tales,  which  open 
to  us  the  true  character  of  his  genius,  not  evinced  till  com 
paratively  late  period  doubtless  because  of  the  satire  they 
contain  on  the  Catholic  Clergy.] 

[p.  42]  But  the  neglect  which  this  great  work  experienced  at  the 
hands  of  critics,  extends  beyond  the  period  of  the  Beforma- 
tion.  Fox,  the  martyrologist,  eulogises  Chaucer,  not  for  his 
comic  and  satiric  powers,  but  for  "  his  true  Wicklevian  spirit ; " 
and,  with  the  exception  of  Beaumont's  apology  [1602  edition 
of  Chaucer],  for  the  ribaldry  of  the  comic  tales,  and  a 
passage  in  Puttenham's  Arte  of  English  Poetrie,  there  is 
scarcely  any  distinct  recognition  of  the  poetical  merits  of  the 
Canterbury  Pilgrimage  anterior  to  Dryden. 

(P.  45]  [Chaucer  affords  a  wonderful  contrast  of  pathos  and  humour 
and  in  neither  was  he  understood  previous  to  the  days  of 
Puttenham  and  Spenser.] 

The    earliest   successors   of   Chaucer,   John   the   Chaplain, 

lp.  40]  Occleve,  and  Lydgate,  in  celebrating  the  praises,  or  lamenting 
the  death,  of  their  "  greate  maister,"  all  harp  upon  one  theme  : 
the  eloquence,  or  "rhetorieke,"  as  they  usually  style  it,  of  the 
departed  poet. 

(P.  49]  [Chaucer  compared  to  Petrarch.  Leland  and  Thynne 
praise  Chaucer  for  his  style  and  learning,  not  for  his  poetry.] 

This  practical  and  philosophical  view  of  the  merits  of 
Chaucer  continued  in  force  till  the  latter  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Webbe,  in  his  "Discourse  of  English  Poetry," 
praises  the  poet  in  the  spirit  of  Fox,  Bale,  or  the  most  zealous 
Protestants. 

Puttenham,  a  contemporary  of  Webbe,  is  the  first  critic 
who  seems  in  any  degree  to  understand  either  the  history  of 
our  author's  works,  or  their  poetical  merits. 

tp.  50]       [Puttenham  is  then  quoted  ;  see  above,  vol.  i,  p.  125.] 

This  passage,  though  it  does  not  display  any  very  deep 
knowledge  in  literary  history,  may,  considering  the  age  in 
which  it  was  written,  be  regarded  as  a  masterly  outline  of 


214  [Hippisley.]      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1837 

the  poetical  character  of  our  author,   and   forms   a   striking 

[p.  51]  contrast  to  the  vagueness  with  which  Sidney,  in  his  "  Defence 
of  Poesie,"  characterized  the  poet,  "as  seeing  clearly  in  a 
mystic  [sic  for  '  mystie  ']  time,"  and  as  "  beautifying  our  mother 
tongue."  .  .  . 

Up  to  the  days  of  Leland  and  William  Thynne,  there  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  but  one  opinion  on  this  subject.  Chaucer  was 
the  "  floure  of  rhetoricke,"  the  "  garnish er  of  Englishe  rude." 
Webbe  first  ventures  to  hint  that  "  the  manner  of  his  style  may 
seeme  blunt  and  course  to  many  fine  English  eares  at  these  days." 
In  the  days  of  which  Webbe  speaks,  the  English  tongue,  besides 
the  natural  polish  which  it  had  acquired  from  the  labours  of 

[p.  52]  successive  writers,  was  also  affectedly  interlarded  with  artificial 
ornaments,  borrowed  chiefly  from  the  Spanish  and  Italian 
languages.  These  "  ink-horn  terms,"  as  they  were  called,  form 
a  frequent  theme  of  ridicule  in  the  comedies  of  Ben  Jonson 
and  Shakspeare.  .  .  .  [Prevalence  of  Euphuism,  and  Spenser's 
preference  for  Chaucer's  speech.]  The  genuine  English  style 
of  this  age  lay  between  the  obsolete  diction  of  Chaucer,  and 
the  affectations  above-mentioned.  This  is  accurately  felt, 
and  sensibly  pointed  out,  by  an  old  writer  somewhat  senior  to 
Spenser.  [Ashton  is  then  quoted;  see  above,  vol.  i,  p.  87.] 

[P.  53]  Yerstegan,  in  his  Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence 
[q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  176],  and  Skinner,  in  the  preface  to  his 
Etymologicon  Anglicanum  [q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  243],  have 
censured  Chaucer  for  what  formed  the  constant  argument  in 
his  praise,  up  to  the  Elizabethan  period  of  our  literature  : 
namely,  for  the  introduction  of  Erench  terms  into  English. 

[p.  54]  Eymer  [q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  265],  in  a  passage  which  shows 
that  he  has  reaped  the  full  advantage  of  the  philological 
labours  of  our  poet,  first  introduces  him  to  us  as  a  recruiting 
officer  of  our  language;  and  afterwards,  proceeding  more 
scientifically  to  explain  the  chemical  process,  by  which  that 
tongue  was  formed,  he  represents  Chaucer  as  a  skilful  brewer 
of  English.  .  .  . 

[On  the  increase  of  expressions  from  a  foreign  tongue,  as  a 
nation  becomes  more  literary.] 

Amongst  those  who  first  "employed  themselves  to  the 
beautifying  and  bettering  of  the  English  tongue  "  (to  use  the 
words  of  his  oldest  editor,  William  Thynne),  was  "  that  noble 
and  famous  clerke,  Geffray  Chaucer." 


1837]          Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.      \Hippisley. ~\    215 

[p.  55]       But  in  the  interval  which  had  elapsed  between  the  days  of 
"  Old  Dan  Geffrey,  in  whose  gentle  spright 
The  pure  well-head  of  poetry  did  dwell," 
and  those  of  his  illustrious  successor,  who  thus  characterises 
him,   the  innovations  which  Yerstegan   and   Skinner  charge 
solely   upon    Chaucer,   had   been    so  far  increased,   that   his 
language  had  become  obsolete ;    and  the  adoption  of   it  by 
Spenser  is  only  to  be  justified,  on  the  ground  of  its  being  in 
harmony  with  his  theme.  .  .  . 

[From  Spenser  to  the  present  day,  only  Cowley  of  English 
poets  did  not  imitate  or  extol  Chaucer.  Spenser's  indebtedness 
to  Chaucer  is  here  pointed  out  in  detail.] 

[p.  58]  Judging  from  Spenser's  imitations  of  Chaucer,  we  might 
conclude  that  his  favourite  works  were  The  Dutchesse,  The 
Parliament  of  Fowles,  and  The  Squier's  Tale  :  but,  perhaps, 
(as  also  in  the  case  of  Milton's  well-known  and  pathetic 
allusion  to  the  latter  poem)  these  imitations  are  rather  to 
be  received  as  evidence  of  the  general  admiration  of  Spenser 

[p.  59]  for  the  works  of  his  predecessor,  than  of  his  partiality  for 
any  particular  passages.  ...  It  seems,  that  during  the  life 
time  of  Spenser  .  .  .  the  poetical  character  of  Chaucer  was 
rather  viewed  in  reference  to  his  pathetic,  than  to  his  comic 
powers.  .  .  . 

tp.  eo]  Amongst  the  pathetic  poems,  the  Knight's  Tale,  and  the 
"Troilus  and  Cresseide"  have  always  maintained  a  prece 
dency.  The  latter  especially  seems  to  have  been  a  favourite 
in  the  age  of  Spenser.  Puttenharn  and  Sidney,  the  former 
in  his  Art  of  Poetrie,  the  latter  in  his  Defence  of  Poesie, 
both  select  this  work  as  especially  worthy  of  praise :  and 
Sidney  indeed  scarcely  mentions  any  other.  With  Beaumont 
also  this  was  a  favourite  work.  Shakspeare,  although  there 
can  scarcely  exist  any  doubt  that  he  was  an  admirer  of  the 
beauties  of  this  work,  has,  in  the  plot  of  his  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  given  us  yet  clearer  proof  of  his  acquaintance 
with  the  Knight's  Tale.  .  .  . 

[The  Fairies  of  Chaucer,  Spenser  and  Shakespeare.] 

[p.  72]  From  the  days  of  Shakspeare,  the  comic  powers  of  Chaucer 
have  been  the  constant  theme  of  admiration  both  with  critics 
and  poets.  In  allegorical  description  he  may  have  been 
excelled  by  Spenser,  in  pathos  by  Shakspeare,  in  sublimity  by 
Milton ;  but  in  true  uomic  humour,  and  more  especially  in  the 


216    [Hippisley.]      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1837 

delineation  of  professional  characters,  he  has  few  equals,  no 
superiors. 

[p.  78]  On  a  general  review  of  the  history  of  Chaucer's  reputa 
tion,  we  may  say  that  his  language,  which  seems  chiefly  to 
have  attracted  the  notice  of  his  immediate  successors,  rude 

[p.  79]  as  it  now  appears,  was  Avith  reference  to  his  own  age  in  itself 
a  marvel.  How  just  were  the  grounds  upon  which  the  critics 
of t  the  days  of  Henry  the  Eighth  extolled  his  learning,  will 
be  more  fully  shown  in  the  following  chapter.  His  pathetic 
powers,  which  engaged  the  admiration  of  the  poets  and  critics 
of  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  continue  even  now  to  rival  his  genuine 
comic  humour  .  .  .  The  vigorous  yet  finished  painting — 
both  of  scenes  and  characters,  serious  as  well  as  ludicrous 
— with  which  his  works  abound,  are  still,  notwithstanding 
the  roughness  of  their  clothing,  beauties  of  a  highly 
poetical  nature.  The  ear  may  not  always  be  satisfied, 

fp.  so]  but  the  mind  of  the  reader  is  always  filled;  and  even  the 
roughness  of  his  verse,  which  may  offend  some  readers,  is  in 
many  instances — at  least  in  the  case  of  his  earlier  poems — 
rather  to  be  attributed  to  the  errors  of  transcribers  (that 
mis-writing  and  "  misse-metring  "  against  which  he  warns  his 
copyists)  than  to  his  own  negligence. 

[r.  ni]  [Chapter  IV.]  Chaucer,  like  Ariosto  and  Spenser,  is 
essentially  a  descriptive  rather  than  a  dramatic  poet.  .  .  .  But 
his  descriptive  powers  are  of  every  kind;  satirical,  pathetic, 
picturesque  .  .  . 

[p.  112]  The  most  striking  instances  of  the  poetical  powers  of 
Chaucer,  under  all  the  three  above-mentioned  heads,  are  cer 
tainly  to  be  found  in  his  great  work.  But,  if  we  take  into 
consideration  that  of  that  great  work,  the  general  prologue, 
and  the  ludicrous  tales,  are  the  most  original  portions,  while 
the  serious  stories  are,  without  any  exceptions,  either  imita 
tions  or  translations,  perhaps  we  shall  be  inclined  to  admit 
that  the  minor  or  earlier  poems  of  our  author,  afford  the  best 
instances  of  those  of  his  pathetic  or  picturesque  descriptions 
which  may  be  strictly  called  his  own.  In  these  poems,  the 
playful  satire  which,  on  a  general  view  of  Chaucer's  works, 
seems  to  form  the  leading  characteristic  of  his  mind,  scarcely 
appears  at  all.  .  .  . 

fp.  124]  Chaucer  is  a  picturesque  poet  in  the  narrowest  and  strictest 
sense  of  the  term.  [The  Book  of  the,  Duchesse,  Parlement 
of  Foules,  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight,  etc.,  instanced.] 


1837]        Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Hippisley.]       217 

[p.  138]  The  difference  between  the  earlier  poems  of  Chaucer,  and 
his  "Canterbury  Pilgrimage,"  as  regards  the  portraiture  of 
manners,  consists  in  this  : — that,  in  the  former,  the  tastes, 
habits,  and  opinions  of  the  court  are  represented  to  us :  in 
the  latter,  the  habits  of  middle  and  low  life.  The  total  change 
of  theme,  spirit,  and  style,  observable  in  the  general  prologue, 
and  in  the  comic  portions  of  Chaucer's  principal  and  later 

[p.  139]  works,  is  perhaps  to  be  attributed  to  his  political  disgraces, 
by  which  he  must  necessarily  have  been  estranged  from  the 
court,  in  which  many  of  his  earlier  years  had  been  spent,  and 
re-united  in  habits  and  interests  with  those  classes  of  society 
in  which  his  birth  and  parentage  seem  originally  to  have 
placed  him. 

[p.  iso]  [Chapter  V.]  In  the  choice  of  the  occasion ;  in  the 
variety  and  delicate  discrimination  of  the  characters,  and 
in  the  vivacity  and  dramatic  effect  with  which  the  whole 
plot  is  conducted ;  in  all  these  respects,  Boccaccio,  when  com 
pared  with  Chaucer,  is  but  a  mere  shadow.  As  a  lively  and 
agreeable  fabulist,  the  Italian,  especially  in  his  serious  tales, 
has  the  advantage.  Prolixity,  a  fault  common  to  all  our  old 
poets,  is  one  of  the  principal  blemishes  of  Chaucer's  serious 
productions.  .  .  . 

[p.  200]  The  interest  to  be  derived  from  the  prose  works  of  Chaucer 
is'  twofold :  first,  as  they  illustrate  his  own  life,  or  afford  a 
comment  on  his  poetry ;  secondly,  as  they  throw  a  light  upon 
the  spirit  and  taste  of  the  age. 

[There  is  a  long  and  appreciative  review  of  Hippisley  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
March  1839,  new  series,  vol.  xi,  pp.  278-9,  q.  v.  below.] 

1837.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Blue  Stocking  Revels ;  or  the  Feast 
of  the  Violets.  Canto  in.  Of  the  supper  that  Apollo  gave  his 
Visitors  and  with  what  sort  of  spectacle  and  of  after  Course  he 
amazed  them,  [in]  The  Monthly  Depository,  1837,  new  ser.,  vol.  i, 
p.  53.  (Poetical  Works,  Boston,  1866,  vol.  i,  pp.  276-7.) 

Then  Petrarch  appear'd 
Him  follow'd,  still  modestly  keeping  behind, 

Boccaccio,  with  faces  a  martyr  might  bless, 

Griselda's  among  them,  the  patient  excess. 

Her  look  was  the  sweetest  that  never  knew  laughter  ; 

And  backward  she  turn'd  tow'rds  the  shape  that  came  after, 


218  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1837 

Great  Chaucer.     As  humbly  as  maiden  went  lie. 
Young  queens  held  their  diadems  of  him  in  fee  ; 
Young  mothers  and  beauties,  clear  angels  of  earth ; 
I  know  not  which  grac'd  them  most,  sorrow  or  mirth. 

1837.  [Landor,  Walter  Savage.]  The  Pentameron  and  Pentalogia, 
pp.  213-15,  217-18.  (Longer  Prose  Works,  ed.  C.  G.  Crump,  1893, 
2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  92-4.) 

[p.  92]  Petrarca.  The  English,  I  remember  Ser  Geoff reddo 1  telling 
us,  never  kill  singing  birds  nor  swallows. 

Boccaccio.  Musick  and  hospitality  are  sweet  and  sacred 
things  with  them  .  .  . 

[p.  93]  Petrarca.  Ser  Geoffreddo  felt  more  pleasure  in  the  gener 
osity  and  humanity  of  his  countrymen,  than  in  the  victories 
they  had  recently  won,  with  incredibly  smaller  numbers,  over 
their  boastful  enemy. 

Boccaccio.  I  know  not  of  what  nation  I  could  name  so 
amusing  a  companion  as  Ser  Geoffreddo  .  .  .  Eichard  da 
Bury  was  sent  Ambassador  to  Rome  by  King  Edward.  .  .  . 
This  prelate  came  into  Italy  attended  by  Sir  Geoffreddo,  in 
whose  company  we  spent,  as  you  remember,  two  charming 
evenings  at  Arezzo  .  .  . 

[p.  94]  Ser  Geoffreddo  is  not  only  the  greatest  genius,  but  likewise 
the  most  amiable  of  his  nation.  He  gave  his  thoughts  and 
took  yours  with  equal  freedom  .  .  . 

Petrarca.  Ser  Geoffreddo,  I  well  remember,  was  no  less 
remarkable  for  courtesy  than  for  cordiality. 

Boccaccio.  He  was  really  as  attentive  and  polite  toward  us 
as  if  he  had  made  us  prisoners.     It  is  on  that  occasion  the 
English  are  most  unlike  their  antagonists  and  themselves  .  .  . 
1  [Landor's  note  :]  Chaucer. 

1837.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  An  Ode  [to  Wordsworth],  [in]  Literary 
Hours  with  Various  Authors  [edited  by  Joseph  Ablett],  1837,  p.  163. 
(Works,  Poems,  ed.  C.  G.  Crump,  2  vols.,  1892,  vol.  ii,  p.  180.) 

To  learn  my  lore  on  Chaucer's  knee, 
I  left  much  prouder  company ; 
Thee  gentle  Spenser  fondly  led, 
•     But  me  he  mostly  sent  to  bed. 

[For  another  expression  of  this  by  Landor  see  below,  n.  a.  1814.] 

1837.  Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  Lord.  Lord  Bacon,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Review,  July  1837,  vol.  Ixv,  p.  10.  (Wsrks,  1898, 
12  vols.,  vol.  viii,  p.  510.) 

In   looking    round    a    well-furnished    library,    how   many 


1837]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  219 

English  or  French  books  can  we  find  which  were  extant 
when  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  Queen  Elizabeth  received  their 
education1?  Chaucer,  Gower,  Froissart,  Comines,  Eabelais, 
nearly  complete  the  list. 

1837.  Southey,  Robert.  Preface  to  his  Poetical  Works,  collected  by 
himself,  10  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  viii,  193  n. 

...  I  took  Spenser  for  my  master.  I  drank  also  betimes  of 
Chaucer's  well.  The  taste  which  had  been  acquired  in  that 
school  was  confirmed  by  Percy's  "  Reliques "  and  AVarton's 
"  History  of  English  Poetry,"  and  a  little  later  by  Homer  and 
the  Bible. 

1837.  Unknown.  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Penny  Cyclopaedia,  1833-58, 
vol.  vii,  1837,  pp.  10-11. 

[This  article  is  chiefly  biographical,  and  contains  the  usual 
incorrect  account  of  Chaucer's  education  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  his  authorship  of  the  Court  of  Love,  the  Black 
Knight,  and  the  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  and  his  exile  and 
imprisonment.  "  A  little  pains  would  enable  any  one  to  master 
his  language  and  versification,  and  the  pains  would  be  amply 
rewarded."  Quotations  from  Warton  and  Godwin.] 

1837.  Unknown.  Griselda,  the  Clerhe's  Tale.  He-made  from  Chaucer, 
[in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  May,  1837,  vol.  xli,  pp. 
655-67. 

[This  version  begins : 
In  fair  Saluzzo,  lovely  to  behold, 
Down  at  the  root  of  Yesulus  the  cold, 
A  marquis  whilom  ruled  that  pleasant  plain,  etc.] 

1837.  Unknown.  Review  of  Hallam's  Introduction  to  the  Literature 
of  Europe,  [q.v.  above,  1837,  in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  Feb.  1837, 
vol.  Iviii,  pp.  37,  38. 

After  Italy,  England  could  boast  in  Chaucer,  the  greatest 
poet  of  these  ages.  But  Chaucer's  excellence  lay  in  fertile 
and  graceful  invention ;  and  in  the  vivid  and  humorous  de 
lineation  of  manners  .  .  .  rather  than  in  the  high  perfection 
of  language  or  melody  of  verse.  The  foreign  element,  the 
French,  with  which  Chaucer,  or  perhaps  the  fashion  of  the 
time,  the  Norman  blood  and  the  French  wars,  enriched  our 
language,  is  not  yet  blended  and  harmonized;  it  lies,  as  it 
were,  in  separate  and  distinct  masses,  not  yet  having  passed 
through  the  amalgamating  process  of  common  usage.  The- 
difficulties  of  Chaucer's  versification  are  perhaps  most  reason- 


220  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1837- 

ably  traced  to  the  uncertain  state  of  pronunciation,  or  rather 
accentuation — the  letters  or  syllables  which  afterwards  became 
mute,  still  retaining  their  proper  sounds,  as  in  French  and 
in  other  Ian gunges. 


1837.  Unknown.     Chateaubriand  on  the  Literature  of  England,  [in]  The 
Edinburgh  Keview,  Jan.,  1837,  vol.  Ixiv,  pp.  520-23,  525-6,  528. 

{p.  521]  When  Chaucer  wrote,  though  borrowing  largely  from  the 
{p.  522]  early  Italian  poetry — though  not  untinctured  by  the  Norman 
— it  was  at  once  a  national  poet  formed  by  national  circum 
stances,  and  appealing  to  a  nation  !  Though,  as  we  before 
said,  a  scholar  and  a  courtier,  it  was  in  Chaucer  that  the 
literary  spirit  of  the  English  people,  vigorous,  simple,  and 
truthful,  found  its  voice.  It  was  an  immense  encouragement 
to  the  English  language  that  a  man  so  clerkly  and  so  well 
with  the  great,  should  have  given  it  the  preference  to  the 
French.  Unquestionably  the  extraordinary  popularity  of  the 
*  Canterbury  Tales,'  and  the  '  Troilus  and  Cresseide '  had  a 
prodigious  effect  in  rendering  the  language  of  a  conquered 
people  not  only  familiar  but  musical  to  the  conquerors. 
Chaucer  wrote  for  the  people,  but  it  was  in  the  style  of  a 
gentleman.  And  he  at  once  familiarized  the  Anglo-Norman 
and  refined  the  Anglo-Saxon  genius.  The  sympathies  of 
Chaucer  are  not  those  of  coteries  and  courts,  they  are  with 
common  and  universal  feelings.  He  has  a  passionate  love  of 
nature,  and  his  minute  and  close  descriptions  are  very  different 
indeed  from  the  pastoral  affectations  of  the  Trouveres  and 
Troubadours.  He  has  also  that  clear  and  racy  power  of  dis 
criminating  and  individualizing  character,  which  springs  from 
tin  observant  eye  and  a  social  temper.  Chaucer  is  the  earliest 
writer  in  modern  literature  whose  characters  are  strongly 
marked  and  distinct.  His  passages  ore  to  those  of  Boccaccio 
what  Homer's  are  to  those  of  Virgil ;  and  the  study  of 
Chaucer  would,  like  that  of  Homer,  conduce  insensibly  to  the 
Drama.  It  was,  perhaps,  his  constitutional  sympathy  with 
broad  interests  and  universal  feelings,  no  less  than  the  con 
cession  of  his  reason  to  the  tenets  of  Wickliff,  that  made 
Chaucer  a  satirist  of  monks  and  priests.  He  seems  to  have 
liad  a  practical  and  shrewd  philosophy  in  his  easy  sarcasms  on 
these  holy  men,  which  is  more  subtile  and  thoughtful  than 
the  careless  gibes  of  the  Troubadours.  The  active  career  of 


1838]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  221 

Chaucer,  his  keen  observation  of  the  natural,  whether  in  men 
or  scenery,  tended,  perhaps,  to  make  him  the  great  founder  of 
a  very  remarkable  distinction  of  English  literature, — namely, 
the  mixture  of  the  humorous  and  pathetic — the  solemn  and 
the  comic.  .  .  . 
Li-.  523]  [Sterility  of  genius  after  Chaucer.] 

1837.  Wade.  Thomas.    The  Contention  of  Death  and  Love,  [printed  in] 
W.  R.  Nicoll  and  T.  J.  Wise's  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Nine 
teenth  Century,  189,5,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  132. 

[Death  speaks  of  the  dying  poet  :] 

Thinkst  thou  that  I,  whose  strong  decree 

Swept  Homer  from  Ionian  air 

When  his  allotted  years  were  run, 

And  Dante  from  Italia' s  Sun 

When  all  his  griefs  accomplished  were, 

Down-looking  Chaucer  from  his  theme, 

And  Spenser  from  his  Faery  dream, 

Thinkst  thou  that  I  ... 
.   .  .  can  pause  for  him  1 

1838.  [Bar ham,  Richard  Harris.]      Grandpapa's  Story— The  Witches' 
Frolic  (Family   Stories,  no.   x.      By    Thomas    Iiigoldsby),    [in] 
Berkley's    Miscellany,    1838,  vol.   iv,    p.   509.      (The    Ingoldsby 

Legends,  1st  ser.,  1840,  p.  176  ;  Oxford  edn.,  1905,  p.  108.) 

How  our  ancestors  managed  to  do  without  tea 
I  must  fairly  confess  is  a  myst'ry  to  me ; 

Yet  your  Lydgates  and  Chaucers 

Had  no  cups  and  saucers ; 

Their  breakfast,  in  fact,  and  the  best  they  could  get, 
Was  a  sort  of  a  dejeuner  a  la  fourcliette  .  .  . 

1838.  Chappell,  William.  An  Essay  on  the  Ancient  Minstrelsy  of 
England,  [in]  A  Collection  of  National  English  Airs,  1838-40,  pp. 
12-13. 

[Chaucer's  references  to  music.] 

[The  musical  scores  were  published  in  a  separate  vol.  in  1840.  The  Chaucer 
references  are  fuller  in  the  much  enlarged  edn.,  The  Ballad  Literature  and  Popular 
Music  of  the  Olden  Time,  1855-9.] 

1838-9.  [De  Quincey,  Thomas.]  A  Brief  Appraisal  of  the  Greek  Litera 
ture  in  its  Foremost  Pretensions,  [in]  Tait's  Magazine,  Dec.  1838, 
and  June,  1839.  (The  Collected  Writings  of  Thomas  de  Quincey, 
Edinburgh,  1889-90,  ed.  D.  Masson,  14  vols.,  vol.  x,  pp.  309-313.) 

[Chaucer,  "  a  poet  worth  five  hundred  of  Homer."   Dry  den's 


222  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1838 

eulogy  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.  Chaucer  and  Homer  as 
narrators.  Chaucer  superior  in  the  Homeric  characteristics  of 
life,  motion,  and  picturesque  simplicity.] 

1838.  Emerson,  Ealph  Waldo.  Literary  Ethics,  an  oration  delivered 
.  .  .  July  24, 1838.  (Works,  Centenary  Ed.,  12  vols. ;  vol.  i,  p.  168.) 

Whilst  I  read  the  poets,  I  think  that  nothing  new  can  he 
said  ahout  morning  and  evening.  But  when  I  see  the  day- 
hreak  I  am  not  reminded  of  these  Homeric,  or  Shakespearian, 
or  Miltonic,  or  Chaucerian  pictures. 

1838.  Guest,  Edwin.  A  History  of  English  Ehythms,  2  vols.  ;  vol.  i, 
pp.  25-34,  121,  153,  177,  215,  237  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  2,  110,  155,  164, 
186,  236-41,  255-8,  308,  312,  357-9,  363,  367-8,  417,  429.  [Also 
brief  references  and  illustrative  quotations  throughout  vol.  i.] 

[vol.  i,       [After  an  account  of  e  final,  Guest  continues  :]  Tyrwhitt 

P-  34J  deserves  our  thanks  for  the  manly  experiment  of  editing  our 
oldest  classic,  and  for  accumulating  a  decent  share  of  general 
knowledge,  to  serve  for  his  occasional  elucidation.  But  what 
can  we  say  of  an  editor  who  will  not  study  the  language  of 
his  author? — of  one  who,  having  the  means  of  accuracy  (at 
least  to  a  great  extent)  within  reach,  passes  them  by,  and 
judges  of  Chaucer's  grammar  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  that 
of  Pope  in  the  eighteenth  1 

[p.  121]  [Ehyme.]  When  .  .  .  the  verse  was  lengthened  and  allitera 
tion  banished,  we  had  a  fair  right  to  expect  greater  caution, 
and  very  rarely  indeed  does  Chaucer  disappoint  us.  His  rhimes 
are,  for  the  most  part,  strictly  correct. 

[p.  153]  [Middle  pause.]  It  was  not  till  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  that  the  dot,  which  indicated  the  middle  pause,  began 
to  be  omitted  in  our  manuscripts,  and  no  edition  of  Chaucer 
or  his  contemporaries  can  be  perfect  without  it. 

[p.  177]  [English  rhythms.]  Our  heroic  verse,  as  it  has  been  called 
of  late,  was  formerly  known  by  the  more  homely  appellation 
of  riding  rhime.  .  .  . 

Chaucer  strictly  confined  this  rhythm  to  five  accents,  but 
certainly  allowed  himself  great  freedom  in  the  number  of 
his  syllables.  His  rhythm,  however,  always  approaches  that 
of  the  common  measure.  .  .  . 

[p.  215]  [Verse  of  five  accents.  Quotation  of  Prol.,  11.  1-18,  from 
MSS.  Harl.  1758  and  7333,  giving  the  middle  and  end 
stops.] 

[p.  237]      Webbe  [q.  v.  above,  1586,  vol.  i,  p.  129]  has  laid  it  down 


1838]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  223 

that  "  the  natural  course  "  of  English  verse  "  ran  upon  the 
lambicke  stroke.  .  .  .  He  might  have  been  taught  sounder 
doctrine  by  his  contemporary  Gascoigne  [q.  v.  above,  1575, 
vol.  i,  p.  111].  This  critic  .  .  .  admires  "the  libertie  in 
feete  and  measures"  used  by  their  Father  Chaucer.  .  . 

[vol.  ii,       [Couplet  metre.]     Loose  as  is  the  rhythm  of  these  verses 

p-  237]  [an  extract  from  Hollo's  Prick  of  Conscience],  I  have  seen  few 
manuscripts  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  which  admit  of  a  more 
definite  scansion.  The  best  copies  indeed  T  have  not  seen; 
and  I  think  it  probable  that  Chaucer  at  least  confined  his 
metre  to  the  verse  of  five  accents  ;  but  any  more  particular 
definition  I  dare  not  venture  upon.  Before  we  can  understand 
the  nature  of  his  versification — before  we  can  render  Chaucer 
that  justice,  which  his  genius  so  loudly  calls  for — we  have  to 
settle  questions  that  require  for  their  solution  the  most  search 
ing  .  .  .  investigations.  [Untrustworthiness  of  the  MSS.] 

That  Chaucer  was  a  master  of  English  versification  no  one, 
that  reads  him  with  due  care  and  attention,  can  well  doubt. 
There  are  many  passages  in  his  works,  which,  from  the  agree 
ment  of  MSS.  and  the  absence  of  all  those  peculiarities  of 
structure  that  leave  matter  for  doubt,  have,  in  all  probability, 
come  down  to  us  as  Chaucer  wrote  them — and  in  these  the 

(p.  238]  versification  is  as  exquisite  as  the  poetry.  It  needs  not  the 
somewhat  suspicious  apology  of  Dryden.  I  am  not  one  of 
those  who  assert,  that  Chaucer  has  always  "  ten  syllables  in 
a  verse,  where  we  find  but  nine";  but  I  am  as  far  from 
believing,  that  "  he  lived  in  the  infancy  of  our  poetry,"  because 
the  scheme  of  his  metre  somewhat  differs  from  our  own.  As 
far  as  we  have  the  means  of  judging,  it  was  not  only  "  auribus 
istius  temporis  accommodata,"  but  fulfilled  every  requisite 
that  modern  criticism  has  laid  down,  as  either  essential  to  the 
science,  or  conducive  to  the  beauty  of  a  versification. 

The  metre  of  five  accents,  with  couplet-rhyme,  may  have 
got  its  earliest  name  of  "riding  rhyme"  from  the  mounted 
pilgrims  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.  [Quotes  Gascoigne  and 
Puttenham,  q.  r.  above,  1575  and  1584-8,  vol.  i,  pp.  Ill 
and  125.] 

[p.  239]  [Blank  verse.]  The  unrhimed  metre  of  five  accents,  or  as 
it  is  generally  termed  blank  verse,  we  certainly  owe  to  Surrey. 
English  verse  without  rhime  was  no  novelty;  and  the 
"  cadence  "  of  Chaucer  comes  full  as  near  to  the  blank  verse 
of  five  accents,  as  the  loose  rhythms  of  some  of  our  dramatists. 


224  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1838- 

[p.  255]  [Measured  prose.]  In  the  House  of  Fame,  Chaucer  repre 
sents  himself  as  thus  addressed, 

Thou — has  [sic]  set  thy  wit, 
(Although  in  thy  head  full  little  is) 
To  maken  bookes,  songes  and  dities 
In  ryme,  or  els  in  cadence, 
As  thou  best  canst,  in  reverence 
Of  love— 

and  Tyrwhitt  conjectured,  with  his  usual  sagacity,  that  he 
had  written  in  a  "  species  of  poetical  composition,  distinct 
from  rhyming  verses."  The  Tale  of  Melibeus  has  been  con 
sidered,  by  some  persons,  as  "  blank  verse " ;  but  though  its 
claim  to  such  a  title  may  be  questioned,  it  is  certainly  a 
specimen  of  cadence.  The  model,  which  Chaucer  had 
floating  before  him,  was  clearly  his  favourite  metre  of  five 
accents.  .  .  .  The  following  extract  I  have  endeavoured  to 
arrange  according  to  its  metrical  structure  .  .  . 

A  yonge  |  man  cal  |  led  :  Mel  |  ibe  |  us 
Migh  |  ty  and  rich  |  e  :  begate  |  upon  |  his  wif  | 

That  cal  |  led  was  Pruden  |  ce 
A  dough  |  ter  which  |  :  that  cal  |  led  was  Sophi  |  e. 

[p.  258]      This  |  is  more  wis  |  dom 

Than  |  for  to  we  |  pe  :  for     thy  frend  | 

Which   that   |  thou    hast    lorne  |  :    for  |   ther  |  ein   is   |  no 
bote  |  . 

[Tale  of  Melibeus,  11.  2157-83.] 

As  the  Tale  proceeds,  the  rhythmical  structure  gradually 
disappears. 
iPP-  [Ballet-staves  of  eight  and  of  seven.] 

1838.  Madden,  Sir  Frederic.  The  Old  English  Versions  of  the  Gesta 
Komanorum,  Introduction,  pp.  xii-xiii  [the  poems  of  Chaucer 
furnish  many  instances  of  his  familiarity  with  the  Gesta  Roman- 
orwm],  xx-xxi  [the  Gesta  gave  Gower  and  Chaucer  their  tale  of 
Constance  (Man  of  Law's  Tale}'],  Notes,  p.  519  [Chaucer  intro 
duces  into  his  Sompnours  Tale,  11.  2017-42,  from  Seneca,  the  same 
story  as  Gesta  58]. 

1838.  Wright,  Thomas.  Note  [on]  Alliterative  Poem  on  the  Deposition 
of  Richard  II.,  ed.  by  T.  Wright,  Caniden  Soc.,  p.  53. 

P.  7,  1.  14 — Hurlewaynis  Kynne.     The  only  other  instance 
of  this  word  that  I  have  observed  in  early  English  poetry, 


L839]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  225 

occurs  in  the  prologue  to  the  Tale  of  Beryn,  printed  at  the 
end  of  Urry's  Chaucer. 

As  Hurlewaynes  meyne  in  every  hegg  that  rapes. 

Hurlewaynes  meyne  is  the  Maisnie  Hellequin  of  old  French 
popular  superstition,  in  Latin  familia  Harlequini. 

1839.  H.,   H.     MSS.  of  Chaucer  in  the  Bodleian  Library,   [in]    The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  January,  1839,  new  series,  vol.  xi,  pp.  50-1. 

[A  letter  drawing  attention  to  different  readings  in  the 
spurious  Cuckoo  and  Nightingale  in  Fairfax  16,  and  Arch. 
Seld.  B.  24,  and  to  the  ending  of  the  Parlement  of  Foules  in 
Arch.  Seld..B.  24,  the  last  11  stanzas  of  which  differ  entirely 
from  the  13  stanzas  which  ordinarily  end  it.] 

1839.  Hood,  Thomas.     Up  the  Rhine,  1840,   pp.   65,  256.     (Works, 
1869-73,  10  vols.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  56,  207.) 

[Likeness  of  Mrs.  Wilmot  to  Chaucer's  Prioress — for  her 
"  tender  heart "  and  her  "  Stratford  atte  Bowe  "  French.] 

[According  to  the  D.  N.  B.  Up  the  Rhine  was  begun  in  1836  and  published  in  1839  ; 
the  imprint  is  dated  1840.] 

1839.  [Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth.]  Hyperion,  pp.  65-6.  (Works, 
Eiverside  ed.  [1886],  11  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  51.) 

Blot  out  from  England's  history  the  names  of  Chaucer, 
Shakespeare,  Spenser,  and  Milton  only,  and  how  much  of 
her  glory  would  you  blot  out  with  them ! 

1839.  Madden,  Sir  Frederic.  Sir  Gawayne,  ed.  Sir  F.  Madden, 
Bannatyne  Club,  Introd.  pp.  xn.,  xxxix,  Notes,  301,  321,  358. 

[p.  xxxix]   [Reference  to  Chaucer's  lines  on  Sir  Gawain,  Squieres  Tale, 

1.  75,  and  Rom.  of  the  Rose,  B.  1.  2209.] 
tp.  358]      [Bishop  Percy  considered  that  Chaucer  borrowed  the   Wife 

of  Bath's  Tale  from  Sir  Gawain,  see  above,  1765,  vol.  i,  p.  428.] 

1839.  Unknown.  Review  of  Chapters  on  Early  English  Literature,  by 
J.H.  Hippisley,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  March,  1839,  new 
series,  vol.  ii,  pp.  278-9. 

[For  Hippisley,  see  above,  1837.] 

[The  review  begins  with  a  favourable  notice  of  Hippisley's 
book  and  concludes  with  the  correction  of  some  errors  j  the 
main  part  is  occupied  by  an  estimate  of  Chaucer :] 

There  is  in  him  [Chaucer]  that  which  is  not  to  be  found 
in  any  preceding  or  contemporary  poet  in  any  modern 
language — a  groundwork  or  plot  of  his  great  poem  laid  on 
observation  of  ...  real  life  in  its  different  grade  and  appear 
ances.  At  all  times  and  in  every  age,  human  character  must 
have  been  a  prevailing  subject  of  human  observation ;  but  to. 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — II.  Q 


226  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1839- 

draw  that  out  from  the  recesses  of  private  life  and  oral  com 
munication  ;  to  leave  without  regret  those  favourite  topics 
which  had  so  long  enchained  the  muse  amid  the  enchanted 
bowers  of  fairyland  .  .  .  and  to  descend  to  the  hostelry  and 
mill  .  .  .  this  is  the  distinctive  mark  of  superior  genius  .  .  . 
Chaucer  certainly  cannot  be  placed  on  an  equality  with 
those  mighty  masters  of  song  who  have  accompanied  the 
awful  career  of  human  passions  through  the  various  scenes  of 
well-constructed  fable.  .  .  .  He  had  not  the  height  of  genius 
which  could  have  produced  an  CEdipus  or  a  Hamlet. 

1839.  Unknown.      Review  of  A    Treatise,  on  Wood   Engraving  .  .  • 
by  John  Jackson,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Aug.,  1839,  new 
series,  vol.  xii,  p.  112. 

A  popular  superstition  .  .  .  induced  people  to  believe 
that  the  day  on  which  they  should  see  an  image  of  St. 
Christopher,  they  should  not  meet  with  a  violent  death,  or 
die  without  confession.  ...  It  is  not  unlikely  that  to  his 
faith  in  this  article  of  belief,  the  Squire,  in  Chaucer's 
"  Canterbury  Tales,"  wore 

'A  Christofre  on  his  breast,  of  silver  shene.' 

1840.  [Bandinel,   Bulkeley  ?]      Catalogue   of  the  Printed  Books  and 
Manuscripts  bequeathed  by  Francis  Douce,  Esq.,  to  the  Bodleian 
Library,  Oxford,  pt,  i,  p.  63,  pt.  ii  [MSS],  p.  28. 

[tl         [Works,   Pynson,  n.d.,   1532,    1598,  1602,   1721    (Urry); 

P.  68]  Canterbury  Tales,  1737,  1775  (Tyrwhitt),  1798;  Canterbury 
Tales  and  other  poems,  n.d.,  2  vols.,  8°;  Chaucer's  ghoast, 
1673;  Chaucer's  incensed  ghost,  in  Morgan's  Phoenix  Britan- 
nicus,  1732  ;  Kynaston's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  specimen,  1796  ; 
Tales  from  Chaucer  in  prose  by  C.  C.  Clarke,  1833;  Chanon's 
Yeoman's  Tale,  p.  227  of  Ashmole's  Theatr.  Chem.,  1652; 
Life  by  Singer,  n.d.] 
D 


t  ii         [MS.  c^xx-     J°kn  Dane's  continuation  of  the  Squieres  Tale 
P.  28]'   q.v.  above,  1614,  vol.  i,  p.  189.] 

1840.  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.  Letter  to 
R.  H.  Home  [on  Chaucer  Modernised,  dated]  Dec.  17th,  1840,  [in] 
Letters  of  E.  B.  Browning  to  R.  H.  Home,  ed.  S.  R.  T.  Mayer, 
1877,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  107-10. 

[p.  IDS]  Notwithstanding  all  the  merit  and  the  grace,  do  not  some 
of  the  poems  militate  against  the  principle  you  set  out  with 
["  gracefully  and  poetically  to  retain  as  much  of  the  original 
language  of  Chaucer  as  possible"  (p.  100)]]  I  venture  to 
think  that  the  re-fashioners  stand  —  some  of  them,  and  in  a 


1840]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  227 

measure — too  far  from  Chaucer's  side — however  graceful  the 
attitude.  You,  yourself,  and  Wordsworth  are  most  devoutly 
near.  Most  of  the  contributors  are  so,  but  not  all,  for  even 
Mr.  Leigh  Hunt  is  sometimes  satisfied  in  being  with  Chaucer 
in  the  spirit,  and  spurns  the  accidents  of  body.  But  Mr. 
Bell's  {  Mars  and  Venus '  is  too  smooth  and  varnished,  and 
redolent  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  appears  to  ine,  for  spirit 
or  body.  I  think  people  will  say,  you  might  'keep  more 
Chaucer.  .  .  .' 

1840.  Halliwell,  afterwards  Halliwell-Phillips,  James  Orchard. 
The  Volvelle,  and  on  Chaucer's  Treatise  of  the  Astrolabe,  [in] 
Arcbeeologia,  vol.  xxix,  1842,  pp,  374-5.  [Communicated  to  the 
Society,  19th  March,  1840.] 

[A  vellum  volvelle  exhibited;  its  use  explained  from 
Ashmole  MS.  191,  The  Rewle  of  the  Volvelle;  Chaucer's 
Astrolabe  a  translation  ultimately  from  a  Sanscrit  original; 
this  fact  discovered  by  Reuben  Burrow  (reference  to  Professor 
Davies'  History  of  Chemical  Discovery,  p.  257) ;  Nicholas 
Strode  was  tutor  to  Chaucer's  son  at  Oxford,  as  shown  by 
the  colophon  to  a  Cambridge  MS.  (Dd.  iii.  53)  of  Chaucer's 
Astrolabe.] 

[We  have  not  been  able  to  trace  the  reference  to  Davies.] 

1840.  Hanmer,  Sir  John  (afterwards  Baron  Hanmer).  Sonnets,  xvi, 
Chaucer. 

I  bless  thee  with  a  kindred  heart,  Provence  : 
For  to  thy  tales,  like  waves  that  come  and  go, 
Sat  Chaucer  listening  with  exulting  ear ; 
And  casting  his  own  phrase  in  giant  mould  : 
That  still  had  charms  for  sorrow's  gentlest  tear, 
Telling  the  story  of  Griselda's  woe, 
"  Under  the  roots  of  Vesulus  the  cold." 

1840.  Lawrance,  Hannah.  Historical  Memoirs  of  the  Queens  of 
England,  2  vols.,  1838-40  ;  vol.  ii,  1840,  pp.  9,  22,  24-5,  36,  150, 
154-5,  176,  238-41,  254,  264-8,  270-3,  454n. 

[Vol.  i,  1838,  only  contains  two  unimportant  references,  on  pp.  281,  441.] 

[vol.  ii,       [Beauty  of  many  of  Chaucer's  female  characters.     He  must 
l'p>5]     have  seen  such  women   among  "  the  gentle   company    that 

adorned  the  court  of  the  noble-minded  Philippa,  aud  of  the 

gracious  lady  .  .  .  Anne  of  Bohemia."] 
tpp-238-     [Anne  of  Bohemia,  a  friend  and  patroness  of  Chaucer  ;  some 

account  of  him  and  of  his  relations  to  her  is  given.] 
tp-cs2]64     t^n  account  of  Chaucer.     Interesting  and  admirable  though 

the   Canterbury  Tales  are,  full  justice  cannot  be  done  to  hia 

poetical  character  unless  we   turn  to  his   allegorical   poems, 


228  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1840- 

Prologue  to  Legend  of  Good  Women,  Book  of  the  Duchesse, 
etc.,  also  the  (spurious)   Chaucer's  Dream   (Isle   of  Ladies), 
Flower  and   the  Leaf  and  Complaint  of  the  Blade  Knight. 
His  description  of  natural  scenery  is  highly  praised.] 
IPP- 3^0     [Occleve,  Lydgate  and  Chaucer.] 

1840-3.  Strickland,  Agnes  and  Elizabeth.  Lives  of  the  Queens  of 
England,  12  vols.,  1840-3,  vol.  ii,  pp0  359,  388,  389n.,  395n. ;  vol. 
iii,  pp.  177,  236  ;  vol.  vi,  p.  I7n. 

pV0359]'  [Philippa  of  Hainault,  by  Elizabeth  Strickland.  Chaucer 
Philippa's  protege  j  quotation  of  the  lines  (described  as  his) 
on  the  maple — 

"  That  is  fair  and  green 
Before  the  chamber  windows  of  the  queen 
At  Woodstock."] 

[P.  388]  [Ibid.  On  Margaret,  fifth  daughter  of  Edward  III,  "a 
distinguished  patroness  of  Chaucer."] 

[p.  389]  [Ibid.  Philippa  Chaucer's  patroness,  with  whom  the 
court  favour  of  the  father  of  English  verse  expired.] 

J^yj1'  [Katherine  of  Valois,  by  Elizabeth  Strickland.  A  note  on 
the  royal  minstrel  James  Stuart,  who  had  been  captive  in 
England,  was  educated  at  Windsor  by  Henry  IV,  wrote 
poetry,  and  took  Chaucer  and  Gower  for  his  models.] 

[p.  236]  [Margaret  of  Anjou,  by  Agnes  Strickland.  An  allusion  to 
Alice  Chaucer  as  "the  only  child  and  heiress  of  Geoffrey 
Chaucer" — corrected  in  the  edition  of  1851,  vol.  ii,  p,  178, 
to  "  the  grand-daughter  and  heiress,"  etc.] 

[V9j;vi>  [Elizabeth,  by  Agnes  Strickland.  A  note  on  Donnington 
as  once  belonging  to  Chaucer.] 

[The  references  in  the  new  and  revised  edition,  eight  vols.,  London,  1851,  are: 
vol.  i,  pp.  563,  577, 584, 588n. ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  83,  132n,  178  ;  vol.  iv,  p.  I5n.  One  of  these, 
vol.  i,  p.  577,  an  allusion  to  Philippa's  patronage  of  Chaucer,  is  not  in  the  first  edition.  ] 

1840.  Wordsworth,  William.  Letter  to  Moxon,  [dated]  Feb.  24th, 
1840.  (Letters  of  the  Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W.  Knight,  3  vols., 
1907,  vol.  iii,  p.  193.) 

Mr.  Powell,  my  friend,  has  some  thought  of  preparing  for 
publication  some  portion  of  Chaucer  modernised,  as  far  and  no 
farther  than  is  done  in  my  treatment  of  the  "  Prioress'  Tale." 
That  would,  in  fact,  be  his  model.  He  will  have  coadjutors, 
among  whom,  I  believe,  will  be  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt,  a  man  as 
capable  of  doing  the  work  well  as  any  living  writer.  I  have 
placed  at  my  friend  Mr.  Powell's  disposal  three  other  pieces 
which  I  did  long  ago,  but  revised  the  other  day.  They  are 
"  The  Manciple's  Tale,"  "  The  Cuckoo  and  the  Nightingale," 
and  twenty-four  stanzas  of  "Troilus  and  Cressida."  This 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  229 

I  have  done  mainly  out  of  my  love  and  reverence  for  Chaucer 
in  hopes  that,  whatever  may  be  the  merits  of  Mr.  Powell's 
attempt,  the  attention  of  other  writers  may  be  drawn  to  the 
subject,  and  a  work  hereafter  produced,  by  different  persons, 
which  will  place  the  treasures  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  poets 
within  the  reach  of  the  multitude,  which  now  they  are  not. 

[For  Wordsworth's  modernisations  tee  above,  1801  ;  for  Chaucer  Modernited,  and 
for  Powell,  both  below,  1841.] 

\n.a.  1841.]  The  Canterbury  Tales,  [in]  Dove's  Classics. 

[A  cheap  reprint,  classed  with  that  in  Bell's  Poets  by  the  anonymous  reviewer  of 
Chaucer  Modernised  in  the  Athenaeum  (q.v.  below,  1841).  Nothing  is  known  of  this 
series  or  of  the  edn.  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  which  formed  part  of  it.  The  date  is 
more  probably  near  1820-25,  when  there  were  many  cheap  series  of  poets  like  the 
Chiswick.] 

1841.  Collier,  John  Payne.  Introduction  [to]  Patient  Grissil,  a  comedy 
by  Thomas  Dekker,  Henry  Chettle  and  William  Haughton. 
Keprinted  for  Shakespeare  Soc.,  1841,  pp.  vi,  vii. 

tp.  vi]        [Chaucer's  visit  to  Padua.] 

English  readers  first  became  acquainted  with  the  story  [of 

Griselda]    by   means   of    Chaucer's   beautiful   and   extended 

versification  of  the  incidents ;  and  comparing  them  with  those 
tp.  vii]  in  Boccaccio's  novel,  it  may   be  inferred  that  Chaucer  saw 

Petrarch  after  he  had  read,  if  not  translated,  what  Boccaccio 

had  sent  to  him. 

[There  is  no  reference  to  Chaucer  either  in  the  play  itself  or  by  older  editors  of  it.] 

1841.  [De  Quincey,  Thomas.]  Homer  and  the  Homeridx,  [in]  Black- 
wood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  Dec.  1841,  vol.  1,  pp.  747-9,  751. 
(Collected  Writings,  ed.  D.  Masson,  1889-90,  14  vols.,  vol.  vi, 
pp.  69-73,  78.) 

tp.  69]  Precisely  on  this  very  summer  day,  so  bright  and  brilliant, 
of  1841,  are  the  five  hundred  years  completed  (less  by 
forty-five  years  than  the  interspace  between  Homer  and  Pisis- 

(P.  70]  tratus)  since  Chaucer  was  a  stout  boy,  "  alive,"  and  probably 
"kicking";  for  he  was  fined  about  1341  for  kicking  a 
Franciscan  friar  in  Fleet  Street,  though  Ritson  erroneously 
asserts  that  the  story  was  a  "hum,"  invented  by  Chatterton. 
Kow,  what  was  the  character  of  Chaucer's  diction  ?  A  great 
delusion  exists  on  that  point.  Some  ninety  or  one  hundred 
words  that  are  now  obsolete,  certainly  not  many  more,  vein 
the  whole  surface  of  Chaucer ;  and  thus  a  primd  facie  im 
pression  is  conveyed  that  Chaucer  is  difficult  to  understand : 
whereas  a  very  slight  practice  familiarises  his  language. 
The  Canterbury  Tales  were  not  made  public  till  1380;  but 


230  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

the  composition  was  certainly  proceeding  between  1350 
and  1380,  and  before  1360  some  considerable  parts  were 
published.  Here  we  have  a  space  greater  by  thirty-five  years 
than  that  between  Homer  and  Pisistratus.  And  observe — 
had  Chaucer's  Tales  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  an  oral  recitation, 
were  they  assisted  to  the  understanding  by  the  pauses  in  one 
place,  the  hurrying  and  crowding  of  unimportant  words  at 
another,  and  by  the  proper  distribution  of  emphasis  every 
where  .  .  .  there  is  no  man,  however  unfamiliar  with  old 
English,  but  might  be  made  to  go  along  with  the  movement 
of  his  admirable  tales,  though  he  might  still  remain  at  a  loss 
for  the  meaning  of  insulated  words. 

Not  Chaucer  himself,  however,  but  that  model  of  language 
which  Chaucer  ridicules  and  parodies,  as  becoming  obsolete  in 
his  days,  the  rhyme  of  Sir  Thopas — a  model  which  may  be 
safely  held  to  represent  the  language  of  the  two  centuries 
previous — is  the  point  of  appeal.  Sir  Thopas  is  clearly  a 
parody  of  the  Metrical  Bomances.  Some  of  those  hitherto 
published  by  Kitson,  &c.,  are  not  older  than  Chaucer ;  but 
some  ascend  much  higher,  and  may  be  referred  to  1200,  or 
perhaps  earlier.  Date  them  from  1240,  and  that  places  a 
period  of  six  centuries  complete  between  ourselves  and  them. 
Notwithstanding  which  the  greater  part  of  the  Metrical 
Romances,  when  aided  by  the  connection  of  events  narrated, 
[P.  71]  or  when  impassioned,  remain  perfectly  intelligible  to  this 
hour. 

[p.  73]  There  is  also  a  philosophic  reason,  why  the  range  of  diction 
in  Chaucer  should  be  much  wider,  and  liable  to  greater  changes 
than  that  of  Homer.  Review  those  parts  of  Chaucer  which 
at  this  day  are  most  obscure,  and  it  will  uniformly  be  found 
that  they  are  the  subjective  sections  of  his  poetry;  those,  for 
instance,  in  which  he  is  elaborately  decomposing  a  character. 
A  character  is  a  subtle  fugacious  essence  which  does,  or  does 
not,  exist  according  to  the  capacity  of  the  eye  which  is  applied 
to  it.  In  Homer's  age,  no  such  meditative  differences  were 
perceived.  All  is  objective  in  the  descriptions  and  external. 

[p.  78]  Chaucer  alsu,  whom  Urydeii  in  this  point  so  thoroughly 
misunderstood,  was  undoubtedly  a  most  elaborate  master  of 
metre,  as  will  appear  when  we  have  a  really  good  edition  of 
him. 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  231 

1841.  D'Israeli,  Isaac.  Amenities  of  Literature,  vol.  i,  pp.  34,  115n. 
117-19,  164,  182-3,  19bi.,  198,  201,  215,  217-18,  236n.,  252-82 
[article  on  Chaucer],  286,  291-4,  302-5,  308-12,  314-16n.,  320, 
347,  369;  vol.  ii,  pp.  30-31,  83,  112,  114,  254,  366,  376  ;  vol.  iii, 
pp.  3-4. 

[voi.^i,  The  creative  faculty  in  Chaucer  had  not  broken  forth 
in  his  translations,  which  evidently  were  his  earliest  writings. 
The  native  bent  of  his  genius,  the  hilarity  of  his  temper, 
betrays  itself  by  playful  strokes  of  raillery  and  concealed 
satire  when  least  expected.  His  fine  irony  may  have  some 
times  left  his  commendations,  or  even  the  objects  of  his 

[p.  260]  admiration,  in  a  very  ambiguous  condition  .  .  .  Our  poet 
has  stamped  with  his  immortal  ridicule  the  tale  told  in  his 
own  person — "  The  Eime  of  Sir  Thopas." 

tp.  268]  Yet  humour  and  irony  are  not  his  only  excellencies,  for 
those  who  study  Chaucer  know  that  this  great  poet  has 
thoughts  that  dissolve  in  tenderness  ;  no  one  has  more  skil 
fully  touched  the  more  hidden  springs  of  the  heart. 

The  Herculean  labour  of  CHAUCER  was  the  creation  of  a 
new  style.  In  this  he  was  as  fortunate  as  he  was  likewise 
unhappy.  He  mingled  with  the  native  rudeness  of  our 
English,  words  of  Provencal  faucy,  and  some  of  French  and 
of  Latin  growth.  He  banished  the  superannuated  and  the 
uncouth,  and  softened  the  churlish  nature  of  our  hard  Anglo- 
Saxon  ;  but  the  poet  had  nearly  endangered  the  novel  diction 
when  his  artificial  pedantry  assumed  what  he  called  "  the 
ornate  style"  in  the  "Komaunt  of  the  Eose,"  and  in  his 
"Troilus  and  Cressida." 


[p.  269]  We  have,  however,  a  glorious  evidence  amid  this  struggle 
both  with  a  new  and  with  a  false  style,  of  Chaucer's  native  good 
taste ;  he  finally  wholly  abandoned  this  artificial  diction ;  and 
his  later  productions,  no  longer  disfigured  by  such  tortured 
phrases  and  such  remote  words,  awaken  our  sympathy  in  the 
familiar  language  of  life  and  passion. 

TYRWHIT  has  ingeniously  constructed  a  metrical  system  to 
arrange  the  versification  to  the  ear  of  a  modern  reader  .  .  . 
He  maintained  that  the  lines  were  regular  decasyllabics. 
But  who  can  read  this  poet  for  any  length,  even  the 
Canterbury  Tales,  in  the  elaborated  text  of  Tyrwhit,  without 

[p.  270]  being  reminded  of  its  fallacy?  Even  the  E  final,  on  which  our 
critic  has  laid  such  stress,  though  often  sounded,  assuredly  is 


232  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

sometimes  mute.  Dan  Chaucer  makes  at  his  pleasure  words 
long  or  short,  dissyllabic  or  trisyllabic  j  and  this  he  has 
himself  told  us — 

"  But  for  the  rime  is  light  and  lewde, 
Yet  make  it  somewhat  agreable, 
Though  some  verse  fail  in  a  syllable." 

.  .  .  The  verse  of  Chaucer  seems  more  carefully  regulated 
in  his  later  work,  the  Tales ;  but  it  is  evident  that  Chaucer 
trusted  his  cadences  to  his  ear,  and  his  verse  is  therefore 
usually  rhythmical,  and  accidentally  metrical. 

[p.  272]  Are  the  works  of  our  great  poet  to  be  consigned  to  the  literary 
dungeon  of  the  antiquary's  closet  1  I  fear  that  there  is  more 
than  one  obstruction  which  intervenes  between  the  poet's 
name,  which  will  never  die,  and  the  poet's  works,  which  will 
never  be  read.  A  massive  tome,  dark  with  the  Gothic  type, 
whose  obsolete  words  and  difficult  phrases,  and,  for  us, 
uncadenced  metre,  are  to  be  conned  by  a  glossary  as  obsolete 
as  the  text,  to  be  perpetually  referred  to,  to  the  interruption 
of  all  poetry  and  all  patience,  appalled  even  the  thorough 
paced  antiquary,  Samuel  Pegge,  as  appears  by  his  honest 
confession  [q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  502].  Already  a  practised 
bibliosopher  proclaims,  alluding  to  the  edition  by  Tyrwhit 
of  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  "And  who  reads  any 
other  portion  of  the  poet  ? "  Yet  the  Canterbury  Tales 
are  but  the  smallest  portion  of  Chaucer's  works !  But 
some  skilful  critics  have  perpended  and  decided  differently ; 
even  among  the  projected  labours  of  Johnson  was  an  edition 

[p.  273]  of  Chaucer's  works,  and  Godwin,  when  diligently  occupied  on 
this  great  poet,  with  just  severity  observed  that  "a  vulgar 
judgment  had  been  propagated  by  slothful  and  indolent 
persons,  that  the  Canterbury  Tales  are  the  only  part  of  the 
works  of  Chaucer  worthy  the  attention  of  a  modern  reader, 
and  this  has  contributed  to  the  wretched  state  in  which  his 
works  are  permitted  to  exist." 

(p.  274]  It  is  true  that  the  language  of  Chaucer  has  failed,  but  not 
the  writer.  The  marble  which  Chaucer  sculptured  has  be 
trayed  the  noble  hand  of  the  artist ;  the  statue  was  finished  ; 
but  the  grey  and  spotty  veins  came  forth,  clouding  the  lucid 
whiteness. 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  233 

For  the  poet  or  the  poetical,  the  difficulty  of  the  language  may 
be  surmounted  with  a  reasonable  portion  of  everyday  patience. 

[p.  277]  Ogle,  with  others,  attempted  to  modernise  Chaucer ;  but  it 
is  as  impossible  to  give  such  a  version  of  Chaucer  as  to  translate 
the  Odes  of  Horace. 

1841.  Eller,  Irvin.     The  History  of  Belvoir  Castle,  p.  207. 

[The  Eegent's  Gallery.]  In  a  carved  oak  frame,  a  Portrait 
of  Chaucer,  1400;  9J  inches  broad,  by  12  inches  high.  The 
author  of  this  work  would  hazard  an  opinion,  that  this  was 
painted  by  Occleve,  one  of  the  first  of  our  poets  ;  and  who,  it 
is  known,  was  so  attached  to  Chaucer,  that  he  calls  him  his 
master,  and  his  father,  and  affectionately  and  repeatedly 
laments  him.  What  renders  this  opinion  more  probable,  is, 
that  Yertue  mentions  an  illuminated  manuscript  of  Thomas 
Occleve,  in  which  there  is  a  portrait  of  Chaucer,  painted  by 
Occleve  himself. 

[An  anonymous  reviewer  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  July  1841,  new  ser.  rol.  xvi, 
pp.  57-8,  scouts  this  ascription.] 

1841.  Emerson,  Kalph  Waldo.  History,  and  The  Over-Soul,  [in]  Essays, 
First  Series,  London,  1841,  pp.  25,  238.  (Works,  Centenary 
edition,  1903,  vol.  ii,  pp.  29-30,  288.) 

[The    Essays  first  appeared    at  Boston  in  1841 ;  the  first  edn.  in  B.M.  is  the 
London  reprint  of  the  same  year.] 

[p.  29]  The  advancing  man  discovers  how  deep  a  property  he  has  in 
literature  .  .  .  One  after  another  he  comes  up  in  his  private 
adventures  with  every  fable  of  ^Esop,  of  Homer,  of  Hafiz,  of 
Ariosto,  of  Chaucer,  of  Scott,  and  verifies  them  with  his 
own  head  and  hands. 

[p.  288]  Humanity  shines  in  Homer,  in  Chaucer,  in  Spenser,  in 
Shakspeare,  in  Milton. 

[1841.  Fox,  William  Johnson.]  Hymns  and  Anthems  used  at  the 
Unitarian  Chapel,  South  Place,  Finsbury.  No.  cxxiii.  [Ed. 
W.  J.  Fox,  published  by  Chas.  Fox,  1841.] 

Britain's  first  poet, 
Famous  old  Chaucer, 
Swanlike  in  dying 

Sung  his  last  song, 
When  at  his  heartstrings 
[  Death's  hand  was  strong. 
[Then  follows  a  paraphrase  of  'Fie  fro  the  pres.'] 

[See  Notet  and  Queriet,  June  12,  1852,  Tol.  v,  p.  574 ;   also  E.  Qarnett'a  Life  of 
W.  J.  Fox,  1910,  pp.  218-21.    The  1845  edn.  is  the  first  in  B.M.] 


234  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

1841.  Halliwell,  afterwards  Halliwell-Phillipps,  James  Orchard. 
Ludus  Coventrice.  A  collection  of  Mysteries,  formerly  represented 
at  Coventry  on  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi.  (Shakespeare  Society.) 
Notes,  pp.  407,  416  ;  Glossary,  pp.  419-21,  423-4,  426-8,  432-4. 

[p.  407]      [Chaucer's  definition  of  Tragedy  in  the  Morikes  Tale  quoted, 
[p.  416]      Chaucer's    reference    to    the    player's    "  scaffold "    in    the 

Milleres  Tale  quoted. 

Glossary.     Remarks  on  Chaucer's  use  of  asmatryk  ;  belle ; 

berde ;    brayde ;   bysmare  ;  do,  don  •   fytt ;    flem  ;    herborwe  ; 

lymyd ;  nale  ;  ore ;  pillid ;  stevene ;  upryth ;  ^emanry.] 

1841.  Home,  Eichard  Hengist,  Wordsworth,  William,  etc.  The 
Poems  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  modernised.  [Selections  from  the 
Canterbury  Tales  and  other  works  modernized  in  verse,  by  E.  H. 
Home,  W.  Wordsworth,  Leigh  Hunt,  E.  B.  Barrett,  T.  Powell, 
and  E.  Bell.  Preceded  by  a  life  of  Chaucer  by  L.  Schmitz.  See, 
for  an  account  of  this  book,  above,  Introduction,  pp.  1-lii;  for 
Wordsworth's  contributions  to  it  see  above,  1801  and  1840  ;  and, 
for  Powell's,  below,  1841.] 

[Contents  :  ] 

Title  page,  with  quotation  from  Drayton's  poem,  'To  ... 
Henry  Reynolds'  [q.  v.  above,  1627,  vol.  i,  p.  200],  wrongly 
signed  '  Wordsworth.' 

Introduction,  by  R.  H.  Home,  headed  by  quotation  "For 
out  of  the  olde  fieldes,"  etc.,  pp.  v-cv. 

Life  of  Chaucer,  by  Professor  Leonhard  Schmitz,  pp.  cviii, 
cxxxviii. 

Eulogies  on  Chaucer,  by  his  contemporaries  and  others,  pp. 
cxxxix-cxlvii. 

Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales,  by  R.  H.  Home,  pp. 
3-33. 

The  Cuckoo  and  the  Nightingale,  by  William  Wordsworth, 
pp.  37-53. 

The  Legends  of  Ariadne,  Philomene,  and  Phillis,  by  Thomas 
Powell,  pp.  57-86. 

The  Manciple's  Tale,  by  Leigh  Hunt,  pp.  88-106. 

The  Rime  of  Sir  Thopas,  by  Z.  A.  Z.,  pp.  109-123. 

Extract  from  Troilus  and  Cressida,  by  William  Wordsworth, 
pp.  127-135. 

The  Reve's  Tale,  by  R.  H.  Home,  pp.  138-159. 

The  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  by  Thomas  Powell,  pp.  162-191. 

The  Friar's  Tale,  by  Leigh  Hunt,  pp.  195-209. 

The  Complaint  of  Mars  and  Venus,  by  Robert  Bell,  pp.  213- 
234. 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.     [Home.]    235 

Queen  Annelida  and  False  Arcite,  by  Elizabeth  B.  Barrett, 
pp.  237-257. 

The  Squire's  Tale,  by  Leigh  Hunt,  pp.  260-287  [Hunt's 
second  version  :  for  the  first  see  above,  1823]. 

The  Franklin's  Tale,  by  E.  H.  Home,  pp.  290-331. 

[From  Home's  Introduction,  we  print  the  following :] 
[P.  v]  The  present  publication  does  not  result  from  an  antiquarian 
feeling  about  Chaucer,  as  the  Father  of  English  Poetry,  highly 
interesting  as  he  must  always  be  in  that  character  alone ;  but 
from  the  extraordinary  fact,  to  which  there  is  no  parallel  in 
the  history  of  the  literature  of  nations, — that  although  he  i^ 
one  of  the  great  poets  for  all  time,  his  works  are  compara 
tively  unknown  to  the  world.  Even  in  his  own  country,  only 
a  very  small  class  of  his  countrymen  ever  read  his  poems. 
Had  Chaucer's  poems  been  written  in  Greek  or  Hebrew,  they 
[p.  vi]  would  have  been  a  thousand  times  better  known.  They 
would  have  been  translated.  Hitherto  they  have  had  almost 
everything  done  for  them  that  a  nation  could  desire,  in  so  far 
as  the  most  careful  collation  of  texts,  the  most  elaborate 
essays,  the  most  ample  and  erudite  notes  and  glossaries,  the 
most  elaborate  and  classical  (as  well  as  the  most  trite  and 
vulgar)  paraphrases,  the  most  eloquent  and  sincere  admiration 
and  comments  of  genuine  poets,  fine  prose  writers,  and  scholars- 
— everything,  in  short,  has  been  done,  except  to  make  them 
intelligible  to  the  general  reader. 

Except  in  the  adoption  of  a  modern  typography,  Chaucer's 
poems  have  always  appeared  hitherto,  under  no  better 
auspices  for  modern  appreciation  than  on  their  first  day  of 
publication,  some  three  centuries  and  a  half  ago.  Concerning 
the  various  attempts  to  render  several  of  his  poems  available 
to  the  public,  which  have  been  made  at  intervals  by  poet& 
and  lovers  of  Chaucer,  a  few. remarks  will  shortly  be  sub 
mitted.  With  whatever  reverence  or  admiration  these  latter 
may  have  been  received  by  the  readers  of  those  poets  who  in- 
[p.  vii]  troduced  such  specimens  among  their  own  works,  it  is  certain 
that  they  produced  no  perceptible  effect  in  the  popularity  of 
the  original  author. 

Whether  there  has  been  a  feeling  in  the  public  about 
Chaucer,  amounting  to  a  sort  of  unconscious  resentment  at  the 
total  inability  to  read  his  poems  without  first  bestowing  the 
same  pains  upon  his  glossary,  which  has  been  more  willingly 


236    [Home.]          Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

accorded  to  poetry  and  prose  in  the  Scottish  dialect ;  or 
whether  on  account  of  certain  passages  which  in  the  present 
state  of  refinement  appear  offensive  to  a  degree  that  the  good 
folks  of  Chaucer's  time,  as  well  as  the  poet  himself,  could 
never  have  contemplated,  it  is  not  necessary  to  determine. 
Such  an  antipathy  to  the  study  of  his  language  does  exist ; 
and — while  we,  curiously  enough,  find  Chaucer  sometimes 
apologizing,  with  meek  humility  and  gentilesse,  for  using 
some  expressions  which  are  now  in  common  use,  but  which 
were  considered  very  improper  in  his  day — it  is  un deniable 
that  various  passages  and  expressions  occur  here  and  there, 

(P  viii]  in  his  works,  which  are  calculated  to  startle  a  modern  reader, 
and  make  him  doubt  his,  eyes.  Howbeit,  this  great  fact  is 
/sufficiently  apparent, — that  Chaucer  is  a  poet,  and  a  founder 
of  the  language  of  his  country ;  (taking  rank  as  such,  with 
Homer  and  with  Dante,  and  being  the  worthy  forefather  of 
Shakespeare,  Spenser,  and  Milton  ;)  whose  poetry  is  compara 
tively  unread  and  unknown  even  in  his  own  country.  The 
simple  statement  of  such  a  fact  will  sufficiently  explain  the 
feeling  which,  in  all  sincerity  and  reverent  admiration,  has 
prompted  those  who  have  united  in  this  present  undertaking. 
From  what  has  been  said,  it  will  be  readily  apprehended, 
that  this  attempt  at  a  translation,  or  transfusion,  of  Chaucer 
into  modern  English,  is  by  no  means  intended  for  the  reading 
of  those,  who,  being  learned  in  the  black  letter,  or  familiar 
with  the  dialect  of  the  period,  can  and  do  read  the  great  poet 
with  facility  and  delight.  It  is  expressly  intended  for  all 
that  vast  majority  of  our  countrymen,  and  of  foreigners 
acquainted  with  the  English  and  English  literature,  who 

[p.  ix]  are  unable  to  do  this ;  and  who,  either  from  indisposition, 
or  the  want  of  sufficient  leisure,  have  never  given  the  study 
requisite  for  a  right  appreciation  of  the  author's  meaning, 
but  who,  at  the  same  time,  having  a  genuine  love  for  noble 
poetry,  would  rejoice  to  find  such  labours  superseded  by  a 
faithful  version  of  the  great  poet,  bereft  of  his  obsolete  dialect. 
The  project  has  already  received  demonstration  of  the  utmost 
sympathy  from  many  high  quarters  at  home  and  abroad, 
while  the  work  was  going  through  the  press ;  and  we  have 
at  present  only  met  with  one  individual  of  literary  eminence 
[Landor,  q.v.  below,  1841],  who  boldly  declared,  that  he  still 
wished  "to  keep  Chaucer  for  himself  and  a  few  friends." 
The  grand  obstacle  to  be  surmounted  in  reading  Chaucer 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.    [Home.]  237 

lias,  of  course,  been  always,  that  of  his  obsolete  dialect ;  but 
one  of  the  main  causes  of  his  poems  remaining  so  long  with 
out  modernizing  (for  they  have  hitherto  been  only  para 
phrased  in  a  very  free  manner),  is  because  they  are  all  in 
rhyme.  Here  begins  the  first  and  most  trying  difficulty  in 

[p.  x]  rendering  his  poems  available  to  the  public  of  the  present 
time.  To  translate  his  poems  into  blank  verse,  would  be 
losing  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  original ;  to  give  the 
rhymes  he  uses  is  often  impossible,  because  the  words  them 
selves,  or  the  grammatical  structure  of  the  terminations  are 
obsolete ;  to  substitute  rhymes  of  similar  quantity  and  sound 
can  seldom  be  successfully  accomplished,  because  it  has  a 
tendency,  when  you  are  struggling  to  obtain  the  sense  of  the 
passage,  to  induce  a  mechanical  awkwardness  ;  and  to  supply 
new  rhymes  generally  requires  that  a  whole  line,  if  not  the 
couplet,  must  be  changed  in  rhythm  or  totally  remodelled. 
In  the  attempts,  therefore,  which  have  been  hitherto  made 
(with  the  exception  of  two  of  the  Tales,  modernized  by  Lord 
Thurlow  and  Mr.  Wordsworth)  the  whole  substantial  material 
of  Chaucer  has  been  left  as  it  stood,  and  the  leading  ideas  only 
being  adopted,  a  new  poem  has  been  written  with  more  or  less 
ability  and  verisimilitude,  according  to  the  genius  and  talent 
of  the  individual  and  the  principle  on  which  he  proceeded. 
The  versions  of  Chaucer  which  have  been  given  by  Dryden 

tr.  xi]  and  Pope,  are  elaborate  and  highly  finished  productions,  read 
ing  exactly  like  their  own  poems,  and  not  bearing  the  slightest 
resemblance  to  Chaucer.  Even  his  finest  lines  and  couplets 
which  often  require  little  or  nothing  more  than  a  change  in 
the  orthography,  have  scarcely  ever  been  retained.  Every 
thing  was  paraphrased,  made  fluent,  sounding,  and  full  of 
"  effects  "  ;  though  it  is  equally  true,  that  Chaucer  occasionally 
received  a  very  noble  present  from  Dryden,  for  which  nothing 
more  than  a  suggestion  is  traceable  in  the  original.  Their 
versions  of  several  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  bearing  the  dates 
of  1699  and  1711,  were  subsequently  adopted  by  Ogle, 
together  with  some  of  his  own,  and  of  sundry  other  writers, 
and  published  in  three  volumes  in  1741.  The  same  versions, 

[p.  xii]  with  additions,  were  collected  by  Lipscombe,  and  published 
in  1795.  As  it  is  impossible  to  praise  these  editions  for  any 
resemblance  to  the  original,  it  would  be  far  more  agreeable 
to  pass  them  without  further  remark ;  but  our  readers  will 
naturally  expect  some  proofs  in  support  of  the  judgment 


238    [Home.]  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

thus  hazarded.  It  is  earnestly  requested,  however,  that  the 
following  brief  review  may  not  be  understood  as  given  for 
the  sake  of  criticism,  but  solely  out  of  reverence  towards 
Chaucer,  who  has  not  been  fairly  treated.  .  .  . 

tp.  xxi]  Perhaps  the  best  in  execution  of  these  paraphrases  (of 
course  excepting  those  of  Dryden  and  Pope)  are  the  tales 
furnished  by  Mr.  Boyce;  at  all  events  they  are  the  most 
ambitious.  He  renders  the  "  Squire's  Tale  "  in  stanzas.  The 
opening,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  is  high  and  imposing  : — 

"  Where  peopled  Scythia's  verdant  plains  extend  " 
[and  six  following  lines]. 

Many  readers  may  perhaps  admire  the  lofty  tone  of  this  open 
ing  stanza — but  why  associate  it  with  the  name  of  Chaucer  ? 

tpp.  xii-  [A  review  in  more  detail  of  previous  modernisations,  in 
which  severe  criticism  is  passed  upon  the  freedoms  and  the 
vulgarisations  allowed  themselves  by  many  of  the  modernisers ; 
but  Lord  Thurlow's  version  of  The  Flower  and  the  Leaf  is 
praised  for  its  fidelity.] 

(P.  xxxi]  There  may  be  several  methods  of  rendering  Chaucer  in 
modern  English.  It  will  be  sufficient,  however,  to  mention 
the  two  extremes.  The  advocates  of  the  one  argue — that  in 
order  to  render  Chaucer  truly,  it  must  be  done  in  the  spirit 
rather  than  in  the  letter;  simply  because  so  much  of  the 
letter,  or  words,  of  his  period  differ  both  in  sound  and  sense 

(p.xxxiijfrom  those  now  in  use.  .  .  .  The  advocates  of  the  opposite 
method  argue,  that  all  the  substantial  material  and  various 
rhythm  of  Chaucer  should  be  adopted  as  far  as  possible.  .  .  . 
To  retain  or  preserve  the  existing  substance  is  the  rule ;  to 
rewrite  and  paraphrase  is  the  exception.  .  .  . 

[p.  xxxiii]  The  safest  method,  as  the  most  becoming,  is  manifestly  that 
of  i (reserving  as  much  of  the  original  substance  as  can  be 
rendered  available.  ... 

IPP-  ..        [An  examination  of   Chaucer's  rhythm,  shewing  that  he 

xciii]    "was  a  most  harmonious  and  melodious  poet."] 

[pp.  [Chaucer's  broad  sympathy,  pathos,  graphic  power  and  true 

xclii-cv]morality  and  piety.] 

(i.p.cyii-     [Professor  L.   Schmitz's  "Life  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,"  con- 

l-XXXVlll]          .V    •  .1  T  1  i  £      i\  f^  P     T 

taming  the  errors  based  on  acceptance  of  the  Court  of  Love 
and  the  Testament  of  Love.] 
1841.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.     See  below,  1841,  Powell. 

[n.a.  1841.]  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Letter  to  Richard  Hengist  Home, 
[not  published  in  Landor's  letters  ;  partly  printed  in]  Letters  of 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  addressed  tp  Richard  Hengist  Home, 
ed.  by  S.  R.  Townshend  Mayer,  1877,  vol.  i,  p.  99. 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  239 

[Home  is  writing :  In  answer  to  an  application  from 
Home  to  take  part  in  the  modernisation  of  Chaucer,  brought 
out  in  1841,  Landor  first  replied  that  he  believed]  "as  many 
people  read  Chaucer "  (meaning  in  the  original)  "  as  were  fit 
to  read  him."  As  I  [i.  e.  Home]  took  leave  to  doubt  this, 
Landor  again  wrote,  saying — "Indeed  I  do  admire  him,  or 
rather  love  him.  In  my  opinion,  he  is  fairly  worth  a  score  or 
two  of  Speusers.  He  had  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  and 
not  of  doll-making  and  fantoccini  dressing.  .  .  .  Pardon  me  if 
I  say  I  would  rather  see  Chaucer  quite  alone,  in  the  dew  of 
his  sunny  morning,  than  with  twenty  clever  gentlefolks  about 
him,  arranging  his  shoe-strings  and  buttoning  his  doublet. 
I  like  even  his  language.  I  will  have  no  hand  in  breaking 
his  dun  but  rich-painted  glass  to  put  in  (if  clearer)  much 
thinner  panes." 

[Landor  afterwards  changed  his  mind  and  defended  Wordsworth  for  his  share  in 
these  modernisations  ;  see,  below,  1856.  For  Home's  comment  on  this  letter  see  above, 
1841.  In  the  American  edition  of  these  letters,  with  a  Preface  and  Memoir  by  B.  H. 
Stoddard,  New  York,  1877,  the  reference  is  vol.  i,  pp.  78-9.] 

1841 .  N[icolas,  Sir]  Nicholas]  H  [arris].  The  French  of  Stratford  atle 
Bowe,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Aug.,  1841,  new  series,  vol. 
xvi,  p.  154. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Prioress's  French  was  none  of  the 
purest ;  but  there  is  some  reason  for  supposing  that  Chaucer 
really  meant  that  the  Prioress  could  not  speak  any  French  at 
all.  [Quotation  from  Feme,  q.v.,  above,  1586,  vol.  i,  p.  129.] 

The  Prioress's  greatest  oath  was  "  by  St.  Loy,"  which  Tyr- 
whitt  has  elongated  for  the  sake  of  the  metre  to  "St.  Eloy " ; 
but  for  which  he  says  he  has  no  other  authority  than  Urry. 
It  may  therefore  be  as  well  to  remark,  that  many  towns  in 
France  are  called  St.  Eloy. 

1841.  Powell,  Thomas  [or  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh '?].  The  Nun's 
Priesfs  Tale;  or,  the  Cock  and  the  Fox.  Modernised  from  Chaucer. 
[in]  The  Monthly  Chronicle,  Feb.  1841,  vol.  vii,  pp.  119-33. 

(p.  120]  A  widow  poor,  and  bent  with  age,  I  wot, 

"Was  whilome  dwelling  in  a  little  cot, 
Beside  a  grove,  within  a  rustic  dale. 
This  widow,  of  the  which  I  tell  my  tale, 
In  cheerful  patience  led  a  simple  life, 
Since  that  sad  day  when  she  was  last  a  wife  [etc.]. 

[Robert  Browning  stated  in  a  letter  (q.v.,  below,  1846)  that  Powell  "  bought  two 
modernisations  of  Chaucer — '  Ugolino '  and  another  story  from  Leigh  Hunt — and 
one  '  Sir  Thopas  '  from  Home,  and  printed  them  as  his  own." 

The  Chaucer  modernisations  printed  by  Powell  are  as  follows  :  (i)  The  Floure  and 


240  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841 

the  Lefe;  (ii)  The  Legends  of  Ariadne,  Philomcne  and  Phillis,  from  L.G.W.;  (iii)  The 
Rimr  of  Sir  Thopas ;  (iv)  The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale;  (v)  Ugolino  of  Pisa,  from  The 
Monkes  Tale. 

Of  these  i-iv  are  found  in  Powell's  Poems,  London,  1842,  pp.  3-114,  and  v  in  his 
Poems,  London,  1845,  pp.  209-11.  Nos.  i-iii  had  already  appeared  in  Chaucer 
Modernised,  1841  (q.v.,  above,  Home),  i  and  ii  under  his  own  name,  and  iii  signed 
"Z.A.Z.";  iv  is  that  to  which  this  note  is  appended,  and  for  v  we  have  found  no 
appearance  other  than  the  1845  Poems. 

The  versions  (i,  ii)  appearing  over  Powell's  name  in  Chaucer  Modernised  at  least 
cannot  be  Home's  or  Hunt's  ;  and  if,  as  Browning  says,  iii  be  Home's  (though  why 
^Horne  should  sign  this  version  "Z.A.Z.",  when  he  signs  others  by  his  own  name, 
it  is  difficult  to  see),  and  v  Leigh  Hunt's,  then  the  only  remaining  one  of  the  five  to 
be  the  second  tale  bought  from  Leigh  Hunt  is  iv,  this  version  of  The  Nonne  Prestes 
Tale,  Browning  says  that  he  helped  Powell  with  his  verses,  and  certainly  the 
modernisations  are  superior  to  the  original  poems,  which  are  very  poor  in  both 
volumes.  That  Powell  was  the  instigator  of  Chaucer  Modernised  is  shown  by  Words 
worth's  letter  to  Moxon  (q.v.  above,  1840).] 

1841.  Saunders,  John.  Tlie  Tabard,  [in]  London,  ed.  Charles  Knight, 
1841-4,  6  vols.,  vol.  i,  1841,  pp.  57-72. 

[A  full  and  excellent  account  of  the  Tabard,  with  four 
woodcuts.] 

1841.  [Saunders,  John.]  Chaucer's  Portrait  Gallery,  [in]  The  Penny 
Magazine,  vol.  x,  Feb.-Dec.,  pp.  65-7,  79-80,  93-5,  101-3,  145-6, 
171-2,  185-6,  230-32,  245-6,  271-2,  293-4,  322-4,  345-6,  375-6, 
393-4,  442-3,  449-50,  460-62,  481-2,  495-6. 

[A  series  of  sketches  of  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  with  quota 
tions;  enlarged  and  published  in  1845  in  volume  form  as 
Cabinet  Pictures  of  English  Life  :  Chaucer,  q.v.  below.  Each 
sketch  has  a  woodcut ;  these  reappear  in  the  volume.] 

1841.  Schmitz,  Leonhard.  A  Life  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
Poems  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  Modernised.  See  above,  Home. 

1841.  Smith,  John.  The  Life,  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  Samuel 
Pepys,  Esq.,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  254-255n. 

[The  Editor  reprints  Dry  den's  Letter  to  Pepys  of  July  14, 
1699  (from  Scott's  Dry  den,  1808,  xviii,  156)  and  Pepys' 
answer  to  Dryden  of  same  date  (q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  pp.  270-71). 
He  adds  a  few  notes  to  the  letters,  and  in  one  in  vii,  254,  to 
the  Good  Parson,  says  :] 

To  Chaucer's  other  poems  Pepys  appears  to  have  been 
attracted.  Thus,  in  Percy's  Reliques,  there  is  an  original  ballad 
by  Chaucer,  printed  for  the  first  time,  from  an  ancient  MS.  in 
the  Pepysian  library,  that  contains  many  other  poems  of  its 
venerable  author. 

[The  'ballad'  is  the  Roundel  of  Merciles  .Beaute,  and  the  MS.  Pepys  2006,  p.  390. 
See  Percy's  Reliques,  ed.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  1876-7,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  14-16.] 

1841.  Unknown.  The  Persone  of  a  Toun,  1370;  his  character  from 
Chaucer,  imitated  and  enlarged  by  Mr.  Dryden,  now  again  altered 
and  abridged.  Together  with  the  Persones  prologue  and  tale.  By 
the  Persone  of  a  Toun. 


1841]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  241 

[A  small  tract  of  24  pages;  the  editor  says  in  a  prefatory 
note:  "'The  Parson's  Tale,'  which  in  Chaucer  is  a  Homily, 
has  been  abridged  and  adapted  as  a  specimen  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  '  Holy  Chirche '  of  England,  in  the  olden  time  (circa) 
1370."  The  ''Postscript"  at  the  end  (p.  22)  begins,  "The 
Prologue  has  been  adapted,  and  the  concluding  lines  metred, 
from  Chaucer:  the  latter  being,  in  the  original,  a  prayer 
at  the  end  of  his  '  Canterbury  Tales,'  in  which  he  expresses 
his  sorrow  and  regret  at  the  ribaldry  and  pollution  contained 
in  his  writings.  An  author  should  never  forget,  that  when  he 
has  passed  into  another  world,  his  works,  if  calculated  to 
corrupt,  may  still  be  doing  their  mischief,  and  .  .  .  his  crimes 
may  thus  be  extended  .  .  .  through  centuries."  A  few  notes, 
follow.] 

[a.  1841.]  Unknown.  The  Book  of  the  Poets  (Ghaucer  to  BeatlieJ,  pp. 
xvi-xviii  [Essay  on  English  Poetry  ;  enthusiastic  praise  of  Chaucer's 
poetry],  2  [biographical  sketch  of  Chaucer],  3-7  [Extracts,  un- 
modernized,  from  the  Knightes  Tale,  Prologue  and  Sir  Thopas, 
and  the  Good  Counsail.  On  p.  3  is  an  engraving  of  the  inter 
ruption  by  Theseus  of  the  duel  between  Palamon  and  Arcite. 
F%or  the  serial  review  by  Elizabeth  Barrett,  see  below,  1842]. 

[The  "  new  edition  "  of  this  book,  1841,  is  the  first  in  the  English  Catalogue  ;  tliat 
of  1846,  with  steel  engravings  after  Corbould,  is  the  first  in  B.M.  The  references 
given  above  are  to  this  edn.] 

1841.  Unknown.  Review  of  Home  and  "Wordsworth's  Poems  of 
Geoff reij  Chaucer  Modernised,  [in]  The  Athenaeum,  6  Feb.  1841r 
pp.  107-8. 

[p.  107]  To  extend  a  taste  for  this  great  poet  has  been  the  task 
of  the  several  writers  who  have  united  to  produce  the  work 
before  us,  which  we  venture  to  predict,  without  much  pre 
tension  to  prophecy,  will  do  no  more  to  make  Chaucer  read, 
than  Ogle,  or  Lipscombe,  Pope,  Dryden,  or  Wordsworth,  have 
done  already.  To  our  thinking,  the  greatest  help  ever  given 
to  Chaucer,  has  been  in  the  cheap  reprint  of  his  '  Canterbury 
Tales,'  in  Dove's  Classics  and  Bell's  Poets  ;  the  low  price 
of  the  volumes  induced  purchasers ;  and  if  men  will  only 
attempt  to  read,  they  will  soon  relish  and  appreciate,  for 
Chaucer  is  as  much  a  poet  for  the  many  as  Shakspeare 
himself.  .  .  . 

Chaucer,  in  this  modern  version,  is  as  much  like  old 
Geoffrey  as  Sprat  and  Flatman  are  like  Pindar.  [Much  more 
very  severe  condemnation  of  the  plan  and  execution  of  tho 
book.] 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. — II.  R 


242  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1841- 

1841.  Wordsworth,  William.  Letter  to  Henry  .Reed  of  Philadelphia, 
[printed  in]  Memoirs  of  William  Wordsworth,  by  Christopher 
Wordsworth,  1851,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  373-5.  (Letters  of,  the 
Wordsworth  Family,  ed.  W.  Knight,  vol.  iii,  p.  218.) 

There  has  recently  been  published  in  London  a  volume 
of  some  of  Chaucer's  tales  and  poems  modernised.  This  little 
specimen  originated  in  what  I  attempted  with  the  '  Prioress's 
Tale ' ;  and  if  the  book  should  find  its  way  to  America,  you 
will  see  in  it  two  further  specimens  from  myself.  I  had  no 
further  connection  with  the  publication  than  by  making  a 
present  of  these  to  one  of  the  contributors  [Powell ;  see 
above,  1840,  Wordsworth].  Let  rne,  however,  recommend 
to  your  notice  the  'Prologue,'  and  the  'Franklin's  Tale'; 
they  are  both  by  Mr.  Home,  a  gentleman  unknown  to  me, 
but  are,  the  latter  in  particular,  very  well  done.  Mr.  Leigh 
Hunt  has  not  failed  in  the  *  Manciple's  Tale,'  which  I  myself 
modernised  many  years  ago  ;  but,  though  I  much  admire 
the  genius  of  Chaucer  as  displayed  in  this  performance,  I 
could  not  place  my  version  at  the  disposal  of  the  editor,  as 
I  deemed  the  subject  somewhat  too  indelicate,  for  pure  taste, 
to  be  offered  to  the  world  at  this  time  of  day.  Mr.  Home 
has  much  hurt  this  publication  by  not  abstaining  from  the 
*  Reve's  Tale ' ;  this,  after  making  all  allowance  for  the  rude 
manners  of  Chaucer's  age,  is  intolerable,  and  by  indispensably 
softening  down  the  incidents,  he  has  killed  the  spirit  of  that 
humour,  gross  and  farcical,  that  pervades  the  original.  When 
the  work  was  first  mentioned  to  me,  I  protested  as  strongly  as 
possible  against  admitting  any  coarseness  or  indelicacy ;  so 
that  my  conscience  is  clear  of  countenancing  aught  of  that  kind. 
So  great  is  my  admiration  of  Chaucer's  genius,  and  so  profound 
my  reverence  for  him  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
Providence  for  spreading  the  light  of  literature  through  his 
native  land,  that,  notwithstanding  the  defects  and  faults  of 
this  publication,  I  am  glad  of  it,  as  a  means  for  making  many 
acquainted  with  the  original  who  would  otherwise  be  ignorant 
of  everything  about  him  but  his  name. 

1842.  [Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.]  The  Book  of 
the  Poets,  [a  review  of  the  anonymous  anthology  so  named  (q.  v. 
above  [a.  1841]),  in]  The  Athenaeum,  1842,  pp.  497-99,  520-22, 
558-60,  706-8,  728-9.  [Reprinted  (enlarged)  in  The  Greek  Chris 
tian  Poets  and  the  English  Poets,  1863.]  (Poetical  Works,  1890, 
6  vols.,  vol.  v,  pp.  203-4,  207-17,  226-9,  250-1,  259,  267.) 

[P.  498]      But  it  is  in  Chaucer  we  touch  the  true  height,   and  look 


1842]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  243 

abroad  into  the  kingdoms  and  glories  of  our  poetical  literature, 
— it  is  \vith  Chaucer  that  we  begin  our  '  Book  of  the  Poets.' 
.  .  .  And  the  genius  of  the  poet  shares  the  character  of  his 
position :  he  was  made  for  an  early  poet,  and  the  metaphors 
of  dawn  and  spring  doubly  become  him.  A  morning-star,  a 
lark's  exaltation,  cannot  usher  in  a  glory  better.  The  "  cheerful 
morning  face,"  "the  breezy  call  of  incense-breathing  morn,"  you 
recognize  in  his  countenance  and  voice  :  it  is  a  voice  full  of 
promise  and  prophecy.  He  is  the  good  omen  of  our  poetry, 
the  "good  bird,"  according  to  the  Romans,  "  the  best  good 
angel  of  the  spring,"  the  nightingale,  according  to  his  own 
creed  of  good  luck,  heard  before  the  cuckoo. 

Up  rose  the  sunne,  and  uprose  Ernilie, 

and  uprose  her  poet,  the  first  of  a  line  of  kings,  conscious  of 
futurity  in  his  smile.  He  is  a  king  and  inherits  the  earth, 
and  expands  his  great  soul  smilingly  to  embrace  his  great 
heritage.  Nothing  is  too  high  for  him  to  touch  with  a  thought, 
nothing  too  low  to  dower  with  an  affection  .  .  .  His  senses  are 
open  and  delicate,  like  a  young  child's — his  sensibilities 
capacious  of  supersensual  relations,  like  an  experienced 
thinker's.  Child-like,  too,  his  tears  and  smiles  lie  at  the  edge 
of  his  eyes,  and  he  is  one  proof  more  among  the  many,  that 
the^  deepest  pathos  and  the  quickest  gaieties  hide  together  in 
the  same  nature  .  .  .  And  because  his  imagination  is  neither 
too  "  high  fantastical  "  to  refuse  proudly  the  gravitation  of  the 
earth,  nor  too  "  light  of  love "  to  lose  it  carelessly,  he  can 
create  as  well  as  dream,  and  work  with  clay  as  well  as  cloud, 
— and  when  his  men  and  women  stand  close  by  the  actual 
ones,  your  stop-watch  shall  reckon  no  difference  in  the  beating 
of  their  hearts.  He  knew  the  secret  of  nature  and  art, — that 
truth  is  beauty, — and  saying  "I  will  make  'A  Wife  of  Bath' 
as  well  as  Emilie,  and  you  shall  remember  her  as  long,"  we  do 
remember  her  as  long.  And  he  sent  us  a  train  of  pilgrims, 
each  with  a  distinct  individuality  apart  from  the  pilgrimage, 
all  the  way  from  Southwark  and  the  Tabard  Inn,  to  Canterbury 
and  Becket's  shrine  ;  and  their  laughter  comes  never  to  an  end, 
and  their  talk  goes  on  with  the  stars,  and  all  the  railroads 
which  may  intersect  the  spoilt  earth  for  ever,  cannot  hush  the 
"  tramp,  tramp  "  of  their  horses'  feet. 

[More  on  Chaucer's  versification,  the  supposed  quarrel  with 
Gower,  etc.] 


244  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1842 

1842.  Black,  William  Henry.  Introduction  [to]  Paraphrase  of  the 
Seven  Penitential  Psalms,  pp.  viii  [Ploughman's  Tale  sometimes 
inserted  in  Canterbury  Tales],  xiv  [anapaests  strange  to  those  used 
to  Chaucer's  regular  iambic  measures],  Notes,  pp.  55,  57-8,  59,  61, 
65,  69-70. 

1842.  C[larke,]  C[harles]  C[owden].  Chaucer,  [in  the]  Encyclopaedia 
Britannia,  7th  edition,  vol.  vi,  pp.  336-8. 

[This  is  a  new  article  on  Chaucer,  the  previous  one  (author 
unknown)  having  appeared  in  all  editions  of  the  E.B.  from 
1778.] 

[Possibly  1345  is  more  correct  for  Chaucer's  birth  than 
1328,  usually  assigned  because  of  Chaucer's  deposition  as  to 
his  age  in  Oct.  1386.  Account  of  Chaucer's  offices  and  service 
abroad ;  his  flight  and  imprisonment.  Short  notice  of  the 
editions,  in  which  the  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight  is 
treated  as  authentic.  Chaucer's  chief  merit  in  regard  to 
versification  consisted  in  rendering  it  more  natural,  regular 
and  comprehensive,  by  discarding  alliteration,  and  by  reduc 
ing  the  irregular  Alexandrine  metre  to  the  heroic  measure  in 
an  uniform  and  equal  number  of  syllables.  But  Wicklif  con 
tributed  far  more  than  Chaucer  to  the  improvement  of  the 
English  language.  There  follows  a  short  account  of  the  Canter 
bury  Tales,  and  a  quotation  from  Campbell's  appreciation 
of  Chaucer  in  Specimens  of  the  British  Poets  (2-  v.  above, 
1819).] 

1842-6.  Guest,  Edwin.  [Philological  Papers,  in]  Proceedings  of  the 
Philological  Society  for  1842-6,  vols.  i-iv,  1844-6. 

[Many  quotations  from  Chaucer  throughout.] 

1842.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Southey  and  Porson  (Second  Conversa 
tion},  [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  Dec.  1842,  vol.  lii, 
p.  710.  (Works,  1846,  vol.  i,  pp.  80-81 ;  Imaginary  Conversations, 
ed.  C.  G.  Crump,  1891,  6  vols.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  250-52.) 

[voi.ii,  SOUTHEY  AND  PORSON. 

p.  250]  Porson.  There  is  scarcely  a  poet  of  the  same  eminence 
[as  Spenser]  whom  I  have  found  it  so  delightful  to  read  in,  or 
so  tedious  to  read  through.  Give  me  Chaucer  in  preference. 
He  slaps  us  on  the  shoulder,  and  makes  us  spring  up  while  the 
dew  is  on  the  grass,  and  while  the  long  shadows  play  about  it 
in  all  quarters.  We  feel  strong  with  the  freshness  round  us, 
and  we  return  with  a  keener  appetite,  having  such  a  companion 
in  our  walk.  Among  the  English  poets,  both  on  this  side  and 
the  other  side  of  Milton,  I  place  him  next  to  Shakspeare ;  but 
the  word  next,  must  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  word  near.  . . . 

[p. 251]     I    like  Pietro  Perugino  a  thousand-fold  better  than  Carlo 


1842]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  245 

Maratta,  and  Giotto  a  thousand-fold  better  than  Carlo  Dolce. 
On  the  same  principle,  the  daybreak  of  Chaucer  is  pleasanter 
to  me  than  the  hot  dazzling  noon  of  Byron. 

Southey.  .  .  .  His  [Byron's]  partisans,  no  one  of  whom  prob 
ably  ever  read  Chaucer,  would  be  indignant  at  your  preference. 
They  would  wonder,  but  hardly  with  the  same  violence  of 
emotion,  that  he  was  preferred  to  Shakspeare.  Perhaps  his 
countrymen  in  his  own  age,  which  rarely  happens  to  literary 
(r.  252]  men  overshadowingly  great,  had  glimpses  of  his  merit.  One 
would  naturally  think  that  a  personage  of  Camden's  gravity, 
and  placed  beyond  the  pale  of  poetry,  might  have  spoken  less 
contemptuously  of  some  he  lived  among,  in  his  admiration  of 
Chaucer.  He  tells  us  both  in  prose  and  verse  by  implication, 
how  little  he  esteemed  Shakspeare.  Speaking  of  Chaucer 
he  says,  "  he,  surpassing  all  others,  without  question,  in  wit, 
and  leaving  our  smattering  poetasters  by  many  leagues  behind 

him, 

'jam  monte  potitus 

Eidet  anhelantem  dura  ad  fastigia  turbani.1 

1842.  [Landor,  Walter  Savage.]  Review  of  Theocritus,  Bio.  et 
Moschus,  ex  recog.  Aug.  Meinekii,  [in]  The  Foreign  Quarterly 
Eeview,  Oct.  1842,  vol.  xxx,  p.  180.  (Longer  Prose  Works,  ed. 
C.  G.  Crump,  1893,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  195,  as  'The  Idylls  of 
Theocritus.') 

Chaucer  was  born  before  that  epidemic  [of  conceits]  broke 
out  which  soon  spread  over  Europe,  and  infected  the  English 
poetry  as  badly  as  any. 

1842.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell.  Letter  to  Miss  Barrett  [E.  Barrett 
Browning,  dated]  Aug.  18,  1842,  [printed  in]  The  Lite  of  Mary 
Eussell  Mitford,  related  in  a  selection  from  her  letters,  ed.  by  the 
Eev.  A.  G.  L'Estrange,  1870,  vol.  iii,  p.  157-8. 

What  you  say  of  Milton  is  full  of  truth.  But  one  truth  you 
have,  I  think,  not  perceived,  that  the  want  of  distinctive 
character  causes  much  of  the  heaviness  of  character,  individu 
ality,  the  power  of  identification,  which  is  the  salt  of  all 
literature  from  Horace  to  Scott.  It  is  the  one  great  merit  of 
your  own  Chaucer. 

1842.  Thoreau,  Henry  David.  Journal,  Jan.  2,  1842,  [printed  in] 
Winter.  (Writings,  Eiverside  edn.,  1894-5,  10  vols.,  vol.  viii, 
p.  96.) 

[Chaucer's  regret  for  the  grossness  of  his  early  poems  very 
creditable  to  him.] 


246  live  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1842- 

1842.  Unknown.  Hints  for  a  New  Boole  o?  Literary  Parallels;  Dante, 
Virgil,  Chaucer,  Milton  and  Petrarch,  [in]  Eraser's  Magazine, 
March,  1842,  vol.  xxv,  pp.  251,  254-5. 

[pp.  254-5]  [Chaucer  compared  for  his  "  vivid  picturesque  of  manners  " 
with  Homer  and  Dante,  and  also,  for  his  (supposed)  exile,  to 
the  latter.] 

1842.  Unknown      Review  of  Poems   by   Alfred   Tennyson,   [in]   The 
Quarterly  Keview,  vol.  Ixx,  p.  391. 

See  how  Chaucer  exhibits  to  us  all  that  lay  around  him, 
the  roughness  and  ignorance,  the  honour,  faith,  fancy,  joyous- 
ness  of  a  strong  mind,  and  a  strong  age,  both  tranquil  within 
bounds  which,  as  large  enough  for  their  uses,  neither  had  tried 
to  pass.  ...  Of  all  these  peculiarities  of  character,  so  blended 
in  that  world  are  strength  and  unconsciousness,  not  one  ever 
rises  into  individuality  of  principle.  In  clearness,  freedom, 
fulness,  what  delineation  of  our  actual  life  can  be  at  all 
compared  with  this  1  Of  this  poet  how  truly  may  it  be  said, 

c  O'er  Chaucer's  blithe  old  world,  for  ever  new, 
In  noon's  broad  sunbeam  shines  the  morning  dew ; 
And  while  tired  ages  float  in  shade  away, 
Unwearied  glows  with  joy  that  clear  to-day.' 

[We  have  not  been  able  to  trace  this  reference.] 

1843.  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  with  an  essay  on  his  language, 
etc.  by  T.  Tyrwhitt ;  Moxon.    [The  Canterbury  Tales  and  essay  are 
reprinted  from  Tyrwhitt's  edition  of  1775-8.     For  an  account  of 
this  edn.,  see  Chaucer,  by  E.  P.  Hammond,  p.  139.] 

1843,  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning",  Elizabeth  Barrett.  Letter  to- 
John  Kenyan,  [dated]  March  25th,  1843,  [in]  Letters  of  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,  1897,  \ol.  i,  p.  128. 

The  poetical  faculty,  which  expresses  the  highest  moods 
of  the  mind,  passes  naturally  to  the  highest  objects.  "Who 
can  separate  these  things  1  Did  Dante  ?  Did  Tasso  ?  Did 
Petrarch?  Did  Calderon?  Did  Chaucer?  .  .  .  Chaucer, 
with  all  his  jubilee  of  spirit  and  resounding  laughter,  had 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  God  as  frequently  to  familiarity 
on  his  lips  as  a  child  has  his  father's  name. 

1843.  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.  Letter  to 
Mrs.  Martin,  [dated]  May  26,  1843,  [in]  Letters  of  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,  1897,  vol.  i,  p.  143. 

No,  you  would  certainly  never  recognise  my  prison  if  you 
were  to  see  it.  [Here  follows  description  of  alterations  in  her 


1843]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  247 

bedroom]  .    .   .   And  Chaucer's  and  Homer's  busts  on  guard 
over  those  two  departments  of  English  and  Greek  poetry. 

1843.  Carlyle,  Thomas.  Past  and  Present,  p.  175.  (Works,  Centenary 
Edition,  1896-7,  30  vols.,  vol.  x,  p.  130.) 

Thinkest  thou  there  were  no  poets  till  Dan  Chaucer1?  No 
heart  burning  with  a  thought,  which  it  could  not  hold,  and 
had  no  word  for;  and  needed  to  shape  and  coin  a  word 
for, — what  thou  callest  a  metaphor,  trope,  or  the  like  1  For 
every  word  we  have  there  was  such  a  man  and  poet. 

1843.  [Chambers,  Robert.]  Chaucer,  [in  the]  Cyclopedia  of  English 
Literature,  1844  [preface  dated  1843].  See  below,  App.  A. 

1843.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Europe  and  European  Books,  [in]  The 
Dial  (Boston),  April,  1843,  vol.  iii,  p.  515.  (Works,  Centenary 
Edition,  1903,  12  vols.,  vol.  xii,  p.  366.) 

The  poet  must  not  only  converse  with  pure  thought, 
but  he  must  demonstrate  it  almost  to  the  senses.  .  .  . 
In  the  debates  on  the  Copyright  Bill,  in  the  English 
Parliament,  Mr.  Sergeant  Wakley,  the  Coroner,  quoted 
Wordsworth's  poetry  in  derision,  and  asked  the  roaring 
House  of  Commons,  what  that  meant,  and  whether  a  man 
should  have  public  reward  for  writing  such  stuff.  Homer, 
Horace,  Milton  and  Chaucer  would  defy  the  Coroner.  Whilst 
they  have  wisdom  to  the  wise,  he  would  see  that  to  the 
external  they  have  external  meaning. 

1843.  Hood,  Thomas.  Mrs.  Gardiner,  [in]  The  New  Monthly  Magazine, 
1843,  vol.  Ixviii,  pt.  ii,  p.  151.  (Works,  1869-73,  10  vols.,  vol. 
viii,  p.  341.) 

Let  the  Horticulturists  hunt  through  their  Dictionaries, 
.  .  .  they  will  never  invent  such  apt  and  pleasant  names  as 
the  old  English  ones,  to  be  found  in  Chaucer,  Spenser,  and 
Shakespeare. 

1843.  L[aing],  D[uvid].  Reliquix  Antique,  1841-3,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii, 
1843,  pp.  11,  58-70. 

[p.  ii]  Palamon  and  Ersyte.  [A  fragmentary  poem  in  dialogue 
from  a  MS.  at  Trinity  Coll.,  Dublin.  The  speakers  are  Paia- 
inon,  Emlyn,  and  Ersyte.] 

tp.  59]  Folio  MS.  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Naples,  on  paper,  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  marked  on  the  back  "  MS.  di  Poesio 


248  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1843 

Tedesclii,  0  4n6.— 12  A.  47."     [flyleaf,  'Lingua  Tedescha' 

corrected  to  'Inglese.'] 

[The  Chaucer  references  in  the  course  of  the  description  of 

the  contents  are  as  follow  :] 
[p-65]        p.  87-113  [of  the  MS.].     Libious  Disconious. 

The    romance    of    Sir   Libeaux    Desconus   belongs  to  the 

thirteenth  century,  and  is  mentioned  by  Chaucer  as  a  popular 

romance. 
[p.  67]        p.  114-8  [of  the  MS.].     Fragment  of  Sir  Isumbras. 

Two  copies  of  this  romance  of  an  old  date    are    known : 

also  an  edition  in  black  letter.     It  is  usually  considered  to 

have   been    one   of   this  class    of   compositions   ridiculed   by 

Chaucer  in  his  Ryme  of  Sir  Thopas,  which  is  "  full  of  phrases 

taken   from   Isumbras  and    other   romances."     (v.  Tyrwhitt's 

Chaucer.) 
[P.  68]         p.  119-46  [of  the  MS.].     Griselde. 

This   poem  on   the   subject   of  Patient    Griseldis   has   no 

title,  but  is  in  fact  Chaucer's    Griselde,   or   The    Clerke   of 

Oxenfordes  Tale,  which,  as  the  Clerke  declares  in  his  prologue, 

he  learned  of  Petrark  at  Padua. 

[1843-4.]  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  Life  of  Chaucer.  [Prefixed 
to  the  Aldine  edn.  of  the  Works,  1845,  issued  separately  in  1843, 
or  early  in  1844.  See  below,  1845,  Works,  and  for  reviews,  etc., 
below,  1844,  Palgrave  and  Unknown.] 

1843.  Quillinan,  Edward.  Letter  to  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  [in]  Diary, 
Keminiscences  and  Correspondence  of  H.  C.  Kobinson,  1869, 
3  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  224. 

Pope  also  taught  me  to  read  Chaucer  and  the  "Fairy 
Queen." 

1843.  Saunders,  John.  Westminster  Abbey;  IV.  Poets'  Corner,  [in] 
London,  edited  by  Charles  Knight,  1841-4,  6  vols.,  vol.  iv,  1843, 
pp.  114-17. 

^P5]U~      [Chaucer's  tomb  and  its  history.] 

As  we  pause  to  gaze  on  its  decayed  and  blackened  front, 
and  to  examine,  with  an  interest  that  finds  little  to  repay  it, 
the  remains  of  the  poet's  effigy,  a  kind  of  melancholy  simi 
larity  between  the  fate  of  Chaucer's  reputation  and  that  of  his 
memorial  suggests  itself  :  what  Spenser  calls  "black  oblivion's 
rust"  has  been  almost  as  injurious  to  the  first  as  to  the  last, 
and  has  caused  one  of  the  greatest,  and,  as  far  as  qualifications 


1843]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  249 

are  concerned,  most  popular  of  poets,  to  be  the  most  neglected. 
.  .  There  is  a  rust  upon  his  verses,  it  is  true,  that  mars, 
upon  the  whole,  their  original  music  (such  as  we  find  it  break 
ing  out  at  intervals  where  time  has  not  played  his  fantastic 
tricks  with  the  spelling  and  pronunciation).  .  .  .  He  who 
devotes  one  day  to  studying  Chaucer  will  be  delighted  the 
next,  and  on  the  third  will  look  back  with  amazement  on  his 
ignorance  of  the  writer  who,  all  circumstances  of  time  and 
position  considered,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  had  yet  a 
superior,  unless  it  be  Shakspere.  And  even  he  has  not 
equalled,  in  some  respects,  the  man  who  at  once  made  England 
a  poetical  country ;  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  range  of 
literature  that  can  be  compared,  for  instance,  to  the  pathos  of 
the  story  of  Griselda.  .  .  .  Chaucer,  like  Shakspere,  seems 
to  have  combined  in  himself  all  the  qualities  which  are 
generally  found  to  belong  to  different  individuals. 

1843.  Shaw,  Henry.  Dresses  and  Decorations  of  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i. 
[No  pagination.] 

[Vol.  i,  sig.  B4,  b:  Quotations  from  Prologue.  Chaucer's 
description  of  the  pilgrims  our  best  authority  for  dresses  in  the 
time  of  Eichard  II.  There  are  various  other  brief  references. 
Vol.  i  concludes  with  a  coloured  portrait  of  Chaucer,  from 
Additional  MS.  5141,  and  a  short  article  on  his  life  and  work. 
In  vol.  ii,  engraving  no.  62,  the  Canterbury  Pilgrimage,  from 
MS.  Eeg.  18  D  ii,  and  references  on  2  pp.  of  letterpress 
following.] 

[n.  a.  1843.]  Southey,  Eobert.  Commonplace  Book,  ed.  J.  W.  Warter, 
1849-51,  4  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  438  [quotes  Habington's  Castara,  q.  v. 
above,  1635,  vol.  i,  p.  216]  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  315-16  [quotations  from 
Rom.  Rose  for  Primitive  Dance,  Idilnesse,  Yellow  Hair,  Wall- 
Puinting,  Fastening  on  of  Clothes  with  a  Needle,  the  Undress  of 
Avarice,  and  the  Game  of  Bilbo-Catch,  the  last  with  a  quotation 
from  the  French  original],  333  [Frankeleyri s  Prol.  quoted  for 
borel] ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  227  [see  above,  c.  1810],  544  [Pinkerton  pro 
posed  to  J.  Nichols  to  publish  the  select  works  of  Chaucer,  1783 
(q.  v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  473)]  ;  vol.  iv,  p.  259  [we  have  no  language 
into  which  to  translate  the  early  (i.e.  the  Anglo-Saxon?)  poets; 
"that  of  Chaucer  is  too  rugged,  and  almost  as  difficult"],  310 
[quotations  from  Jackson  (q. v.  below,  App.  A.,  1657)  :  "our  pos 
terity  within  few  years  will  hardly  understand  some  passages  in 
.  .  .  Chaucer,  better  known  at  this  day  to  old  courtiers  than  to 
young  students"],  322-3  [Malcolm's  account  of  Chaucer,  taken 
from  Stowe  (q.  v.  above,  1803),  Lane's  Squire's  Tale  (q.v.  above, 
1614,  vol.  i,  p.  189),  Dryden's  account  of  Cowley's  distaste  for 
Chaucer  (q.  v.  above,  1700,  vol.  i,  p.  281,  and  below,  App.  A. 


250  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1845 

[a.  1667]  Cowley),  and  other  references,  quoted],  326  [Ben  Jonson, 
in  The  Golden  Age  Restored,  calls  up  Gower  and  Lydgate  with 
Chaucer  and  Spenser  (q.  v.  above,  1615,  vol.  i,  p.  190)],  331  [quota 
tions  from  the  Monthly  Review  (q.  v.  below,  App.  A.,  1761),  that 
"  Spenser,  Jonson,  Beaumont,  Fletcher  ...  are  now  almost  as  little 
known  or  read  as  Chaucer,  Lydgate,  Gower  .  .  ."],  634  [Gavin 
Douglas'  reference  to  Chaucer  quoted  (q.v.  above,  1501,  vol.  i, p.  65)]. 

1843.  Thoreau,  Henry  David.  Homer,  Ossian,  Chaucer.  Extracts  from 
a  Lecture  on  Poetry.  Read  before  the  Concord  Lyceum,  Nov.  29, 
1843,  by  Henry  D.  Thoreau,  [printed  in]  The  Dial'(Boston),  vol.  iv, 
Jan.  1844,  pp.  297-303.  [Reprinted  (revised)  .in]  A  Week  on  the 
Concord  and  Merrimack  Rivers,  1849,  pp.  386-93.  (Writings, 
Riverside  Edn.,  1894-5,  10  vols.,  voL  i,  pp.  364-5,  417-8,  436, 
483-94.) 

[p.  4S8]  What  a  contrast  between  the  stern  and  desolate  poetry  of 
Ossian,  and  that  of  Chaucer.  .  .  .  When  we  come  to  the 

[p.  484]  pleasant  English  verse,  the  storms  have  all  cleared  away,  and 
it  will  never  thunder  and  lighten  more.  The  poet  has  come 
within  doors.  .  .  . 

[p.  485]  Notwithstanding  the  broad  humanity  of  Chaucer,  and  the 
many  social  and  domestic  comforts  which  we  meet  with  in  his 
verse,  we  have  to  narrow  our  vision  somewhat  to  consider  him, 
as  if  he  occupied  less  space  in  the  landscape,  and  did  not 
stretch  over  hill  and  valley  as  Ossian  does.  Yet,  seen  from 
the  side  of  posterity,  as  the  father  of  English  poetry,  preceded 
by  a  long  silence  or  confusion  in  history,  unenlivened  by  any 
strain  of  pure  melody,  we  easily  come  to  reverence  him.  .  .  . 
Chaucer's  is  the  first  name  after  that  misty  weather  in  which 
Ossian  lived,  which  can  detain  us  long.  Indeed,  though  he 
represents  so  different  a  culture  and  society,  he  may  be 
regarded  as  in  many  respects  the  Homer  of  the  English  poets. 
Perhaps  he  is  the  youthfulest  of  them  all.  .  .  .  He  is  so 
natural  and  cheerful,  compared  with  later  poets,  that  we  might 

[p.  486]  almost  regard  him  as  a  personification  of  spring.  ...  It  is 
still  the  poetry  of  youth  and  life  rather  than  of  thought.  .  .  . 

[p.  487]  Chaucer  had  eminently  the  habits  of  a  literary  man  and  a 
scholar.  There  were  never  any  times  so  stirring  that  there 
were  not  to  be  found  some  sedentary  still.  He  was  surrounded 
by  the  din  of  arms.  .  .  .  He  regarded  himself  always  as  one 
privileged  to  sit  and  converse  with  books.  He  helped  to 
establish  the  literary  class.  His  character  as  one  of  the 
fathers  of  the  English  language  would  alone  make  his  works 
important,  even  those  which  have  little  poetical  merit.  He 
was  as  simple  as  Wordsworth  in  preferring  his  homely  but 


1843]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  251 

vigorous  Saxon  tongue,  when  it  was  neglected  by  the  court, 
and  had  not  yet  attained  to  the  dignity  of  a  literature,  and 
rendered  a  similar  service  to  his  country  to  that  which  Dante 
rendered  to  Italy  ...  In  the  [Prologue  to  the]  Testament  of 

[P.  4SS]  Love  he  writes,  "  Let  then  clerkes  enditen  in  Latin,  for  they 
have  the  propertie  of  science  .  .  .  and  let  Frenchmen  in  their 
French  also  enditen  their  queinte  termes  .  .  .  and  let  us 
shewe  our  fantasies  in  soche  wordes  as  we  lerneden  of  our 
dames  tonge."  He  will  know  how  to  appreciate  Chaucer  best 
who  has  come  down  to  him  the  natural  way,  through  the 
meagre  pastures  of  Saxon  and  ante-Chaucerian  poetry.  .  .  . 

[P.  489]  There  is  no  wisdom  that  can  take  place  of  humanity,  and 
we  find  that  in  Chaucer.  We  can  expand  at  last  in  his 
breadth.  .  .  He  was  worthy  to  be  a  citizen  of  England,  while 
Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  lived  in  Italy,  and  Tell  and  Tamerlane 
in  Switzerland  and  in  Asia,  and  Bruce  in  Scotland,  and 
Wickliffe,  and  Gower,  and  Edward  the  Third,  and  John  of 
Gaunt,  and  the  Black  Prince  were  his  own  countrymen  as  well 
as  contemporaries ;  all  stout  and  stirring  names.  .  .  .  On  the 
whole,  Chaucer  impresses  us  as  greater  than  his  reputation.  .  .  . 
The  affectionate  mention  which  succeeding  early  poets  make 
of  him,  coupling  him  with  Homer  and  Virgil,  is  to  be  taken 
into  the  account  in  estimating  his  character  and  influence.  .  .  . 

p.  490]  We  admire  Chaucer  for  his  sturdy  English  wit.  .  .  .  But 
though  it  [the  Prologue]  is  full  of  good  sense  and  humanity, 
it  is  not  transcendent  poetry.  .  .  . 

[p.  491]  Humor,  however  broad  and  genial,  takes  a  narrower  view 
than  enthusiasm.  To  his  own  finer  vein  he  added  all  the 
common  wit  and  wisdom  of  his  time.  .  .  .  His  genius  does 
not  soar  like  Milton's,  but  is  genial  and  familiar.  .  .  .  The 
charm  of  his  poetry  consists  often  only  in  an  exceeding 
naturalness,  perfect  sincerity,  with  the  behaviour  of  a  child 
rather  than  of  a  man. 

Gentleness  and   delicacy  of   character  are  everywhere   ap 
parent  in  his  verse.  .  .   .  JN^or  can  we  be  mistaken  respecting 

[P.  492]  the  essential  purity  of  his  character,  disregarding  the  apology 
of  the  manners  of  the  age.  A  simple  pathos  and  feminine 
gentleness,  which  Wordsworth  only  occasionally  approaches 
but  does  not  equal,  are  peculiar  to  him.  .  .  . 

Such  pure  and  genuine  and    childlike  love  of   Nature   is 
hardly  to  be  found  in  any  poet.  .  .   . 

[P.  403]      There  are  many  poets  of  more  taste,  and  better  manners,. 


252  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1843- 

who  knew  how  to  leave  out  their  dullness,  but  such  negative 
genius  cannot  detain  us  long :  we  shall  return  to  Chaucer 
still  with  love. 

1843.  Wright,  Thomas.  A  Selection  of  Latin  Stories  from  manu- 
scri2its  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  [in]  Early  English 
Poetry,  Percy  Soc.,  vol.  viii,  Notes,  pp.  233-4. 

[The  story  "de  caeco  et  ejus  uxore,"  in  the  Appendix  to 
Aesop  and  in  Adolf  us,  the  source  of  the  Marcliantes  TaleJ] 

[1838-44.]  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.  The  Lost 
Bower,  and  A  Vision  of  Poets,  [in]  Poems  by  Elizabeth  Barrett 
Barrett,  1844,  vol.  ii,  pp  -24,  104,  112-13.  [In  the  preface 
these  poems  are  said -to  have  been  written  between  1838  and 
1844.] 

'j°ji?'  And  Chaucer,  with  his  infantine 

Familiar  clasp  of  things  divine — 
That  mark  upon  his  lip  is  wine. 

tp.  104]  ...  If  Chaucer  had  not  travelled 

Through  a  forest  by  a  well, 
He  had  never  dreamt  nor  marvelled 
At  those  ladies  fair  and  fell 
Who  lived  smiling  without  loving,  in  their  island-citadel. 

{p.  112]  If  it  were  a  bird,  it  seemed 

Most  like  Chaucer's,  which,  in  sooth, 
He,  of  green  and  azure  dreamed, 

[p.  us]  While  it  sate  in  spirit-ruth 

On  that  bier  of  a  crowned  lady,  singing  nigh  her  silent  mouth. 

[The  reference  in  the  stanza  quoted  from  p.  104  is  to  the  non-Chaucerian  Isle  of 
Ladies.] 

1844-5.  Craik,  George  Lillie.  Sketches  of  Literature  and  Learning 
in  England,  with  Specimens  of  the  Principal  Writers,  6  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  45,  103,  122,  189,  198-9,  215-16,  233-4,  242-3; 
vol.  ii,  pp.  9-90  [Chapter  on  Chaucer,  much  of  it  criticism  of 
the  theories  of  Tyrwhitt  and  Dr.  Nott],  91-2,  96  [Chaucer  and 
Gower],  101,  104,  108,  112-13  [Chaucer  and  Barbour],  138-146 
[Chaucer's  prose],  165,  166  [Caxton's  edition],  175  [Chaucer  and 
science],  183-4  [Occleve  and  Lydgate],  191-3  [the  Scottish 
Chaucerians],  227  [English  prose  after  Chaucer],  238  [Dean 
Colet's  study  of  Chaucer],  248-9  [English  poetry  alter  Chaucer  ; 
Hawes,  Lydgate],  257-8  [Scottish  poets  of  early  sixteenth  cen 
tury],  260  [Chaucer  and  Surrey]  ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  79,  80,  84,  91 
[influence  of  Chaucer  on  Spenser],  p.  88  [Chaucer  mentioned 
with  Homer  and  Shakespeare]  ;  vol.  v,  pp.  84-5. 


1844]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  253 

1844.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  The  Poet,  [in]  Essays,  Second  Series, 
London,  1844,  pp.  20,  26.  (Works,  Centenary  edition,  12  vols.r 
London,  1903,  vol.  iii,  p.  31.) 

[The  Second  Series  of  Essays  appeared  at  Boston  in  1844  ;  the  1st  edn.  in  B.M.  is 
the  London  reprint  (in  the  "Catholic  Series ")  of  the  same  year.] 

"When  Chaucer,  in  his  praise  of  '  Gentilesse,'  compares 
good  blood  in  mean  condition  to  fire,  which,  though  carried 
to  the  darkest  house  betwixt  this  and  the  mount  of  Caucasus, 
will  yet  hold  its  natural  office  and  burn  as  bright  as  if  twenty 
thousand  men  did  it  behold  ...  we  take  the  cheerful  hint 
of  the  immortality  of  our  essence,  and  its  versatile  habit  and 
escapes,  as  when  the  gypsies  say  "it  is  in  vain  to  hang  them, 
they  cannot  die." 

1844.  Home,  Richard  Hengist.  "  Comment,  [in]  Letters  of  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning  to  R.  H.  Home,  1877,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
239-41. 

[Home  says  that,  to  console  Miss  Barrett  for  his  criticism 
that  her  Eve  travelled  too  far  for  a  single  night,  he  pointed 
out  to  her  that  Chaucer  makes  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  elapse 
during  the  action  of  the  Knight es  Tale.] 

1844.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  A  Jar  of  Honey  from  Mount 
Hybla,  no.  ix,  [in]  Ainsworth's  Magazine,  vol.  vi,  Sept.,  1844, 
p.  278.  (Ed.  1870,  p.  172.) 

Chaucer  was  a  courtier  and  a  companion  of  princes  ;  nay, 
a  reformer  also  and  a  stirrer  out  in  the  world.  .  .  .  Yet  as 
he  was  a  true  great  poet  in  everything,  so  in  nothing  more 
was  he  so  than  in  loving  the  country  and  the  trees  and 
fields. 

1844.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Imagination  and  Fancy,  or  Selections 
from  the  English  Poets,  illustrative  of  those  First  Requisites  of 
their  Art ;  with  markings  of  the  best  passages,  critical  notices  of 
the  writers.  And  an  Essay  in  Answer  to  the  Question,  "  What 
is  Poetry?",  pp.  vii,  5-6,  15-17,  32-3,  62-3,  66,  72,  87,  141,  149, 
151-2,  186-8,  213,  218-19,  253,  261-2,  278,  335. 

[Preface,     [The  scope  of  the  editor's  intentions  outlined  and  a  refer- 
ii]  ence   to   the    Balade  "  Hide,   Absolon,"  in  Legend  of  Good 
Women,  Prol.] 

[p. 5]  [What  is  Poetry?]     Nay,  the   simplest  truth  is  often  so 

beautiful  and  impressive  of  itself,  that  one  of  the  greatest 
proofs  of  his  [the  Poet's]  genius  consists  in  his  leaving  it  to 
stand  alone,  illustrated  by  nothing  but  the  light  of  its  own 


254     [Leigh  Hunt.]    Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1844 

tears  or  smiles,  its  own  wonder,  might,  or  playfulness.  Hence 
IP.  6]  the  complete  effect  of  many  a  simple  passage  in  our  old 
English  ballads  and  romances,  and  of  the  passionate  sincerity 
in  general  of  the  greatest  early  poets,  such  as  Homer  and 
Chaucer,  who  nourished  before  the  existence  of  a  "  literary 
world,"  and  were  not  perplexed  by  a  heap  of  notions  and 
opinions,  or  by  doubts  how  emotion  ought  to  be  expressed. 

£p.  15]  Chaucer,  for  all  he  was  "  a  man  of  this  world  "  as  well  as 
the  poets'  world,  and  as  great,  perhaps  a  greater  enemy  of 
oppression  than  Dante,  besides  being  one  of  the  profoundest 
masters  of  pathos  that  ever  lived,  had  not  the  heart  to  con- 

£p.  16]  elude  the  story  of  the  famished  father  and  his  children,  as 
finished  by  the  inexorable  anti-Pisan. 

Chaucer's  steed  of  brass,  that  was 

So  horsly  and  so  quick  of  eye, 

[Squieres  T.,  1.  186] 

is  copied  from  the  life.  You  might  pat  him  and  feel  his 
brazen  muscles.  Hobbes,  in  objecting  to  what  he  thought 
childish,  [in  his  letter  prefixed  to  Gondibert]  made  a  childish 
mistake.  .  .  . 

£P.  17]  Hobbes  did  not  see  that  the  skill  and  beauty  of  these 
fictions  lay  in  bringing  them  within  those  very  regions  of  truth 
and  likelihood  in  which  he  thought  they  could  not  exist. 
Hence  the  serpent  Python  of  Chaucer, 

[Maunciples  T.,  L  5] 

Sleeping  against  the  sun  upon  a  day, 
when  Apollo  slew  him. 


(p.  32]  Fancy,  however,  is  not  incapable  of  sympathy  with 
Imagination.  She  is  often  found  in  her  company ;  always, 
in  the  case  of  the  greatest  poets  ;  often  in  that  of  less,  though 

tp.  33]  with  them  she  is  the  greater  favourite.  Spenser  has  great 
imagination  and  fancy  too,  but  more  of  the  latter;  Milton 
both  also,  the  very  greatest,  but  with  imagination  predomi 
nant  ;  Chaucer,  the  strongest  imagination  of  real  life,  beyond 
any  writers  but  Homer,  Dante,  and  Shakspeare,  and  in  comic 
painting  inferior  to  none  ;  Pope  has  hardly  any  imagination, 
but  he  has  a  great  deal  of  fancy ;  Coleridge  little  fancy,  but 


1844]        Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.    [Leigh  Hunt.]    255 

imagination    exquisite.      Sliakspeare  alone,   of  all  poets  that 
ever  lived,  enjoyed  the  regard  of  both  in  equal  perfection. 

(P.  62]  Next  to  Homer  and  Sliakspeare  come  such  narrators  as 
the  less  universal,  but  still  intenser  Dante  ;  Milton,  with  his 
dignified  imagination ;  the  universal,  profoundly  simple 
Chaucer ;  and  luxuriant,  remote  Spenser — then  the  great 
second-rate  dramatists,  unless  those  who  are  better  acquainted 

(p.  63]  with  Greek  tragedy  than  I  am,  demand  a  place  for  them 
before  Chaucer. 


(P.  72]  [Spenser.]  Superfluousness,  though  eschewed  with  a  fine 
instinct  by  Chaucer  in  some  of  his  latest  works,  where  the 
narrative  was  fullest  of  action  and  character,  abounded  in  his 
others. 

tp.87]  Upton,  one  of  Spenser's  commentators,  in  reference  to  the 
trickling  stream,  has  quoted  in  his  note  .  .  .  some  fine 
lines  from  Chaucer,  in  which,  describing  the  "  dark  valley  " 
of  Sleep,  the  poet  says  there  was  nothing  whatsoever 
in  the  place,  save  that, 

A  few  wells 

Came  running  fro  the  clyffes  adowne, 
That  made  a  deadly  sleeping  sowne. 

[B.  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  160-162.] 

(p.  145]  [Shakespeare.]  He  is  equal  to  the  greatest  poets  .  .  . 
except  in  a  certain  primeval  intensity,  such  as  Dante's  and 
Chaucer's. 

(P.  151]  Most  people  would  prefer  Ariosto's  and  Chaucer's  narrative 
poetry  to  his  [Shakspeare's]  ;  the  Griseida,  for  instance,  and 
the  story  of  Isabel, — to  the  Rape  of  Lucrece.  The  intense 
passion  is  enough.  The  misery  is  enough.  We  do  not  want 
even  the  divinest  talk  about  what  Nature  herself  tends  to 
petrify  into  silence.  Cures  ingentes  stupent.  Our  divine  poet 
had  not  quite  outlived  the  times  when  it  was  thought  proper 

[p.  152]  for  a  writer  to  say  everything  that  came  into  his  head.  He 
was  a  student  of  Chaucer  :  he  beheld  the  living  fame  of 
Spenser ;  and  his  fellow-dramatists  did  not  help  to  restrain 
him. 

[The  references  and  passages  are  identical  in  the  second  edition,  1S15.] 


256  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1844 

1844.  Knight,  Charles.  William  Caxton,  the  First  English  Printer, 
pp.  21,  26,  32-34  [quotations  illustrating  city  life  in  London], 
38-40  [quotation  from  Caxton's  preface  to  Canterbury  Tales,  edn. 
2],  41-3,  46,  47,  51,  152,  157,  187-8  [Caxton  "the  devoted  printer 
of  Chaucer  "],  214,  216. 

[n.a.  1844.]  Lander,  Walter  Savage.  Extract  from  a  Letter  to  a  Friend, 
[quoted  in]  R.  H.  Home's  New  Spirit  of  the  Age,  1844,  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  174-5. 

I  found  the  *  Faery  Queen '  the  most  delightful  book  to  fall 
asleep  upon  by  the  sea-side.  Geoffrey  Chaucer  always  kept  me 
wide  awake,  and  beat  at  a  distance  all  other  English  poets  but 
Shakspeare  and  Milton.  In  many  places  Keats  approaches 
him. 

[See  also  above,  1837,  Landor,  An  Ode.] 

1844.  Milnes,  Richard  Monckton  (Lord  Houghton).  From  Chaucer, 
[in]  Poems  of  Many  Years,  pp.  274-5. 

[Not  in  first  edn.,  1838.  The  poem  is  a  modernisation  of 
*  Truth,'  and  begins  :] 

Fly  from  the  world  and  dwell  with  Truthfulness ; 
Sufficient  be  thy  wealth,  albeit  small  .  .  . 

1844.  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  The  Wife  of  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Feb.,  1844,  new  ser.,  vol.  xxi,  p.  160. 

[Nicolas  points  out  that  the  reviewer  in  the  Jan.  no.  (see 
below,  Unknown),  mistakenly  states  that  Chaucer  married 
Philippa  Picard,  whereas  Nicolas  clearly  said  that  he  married 
Philippa  Roet.] 

1844.  Palgrave,  formerly  Cohen,  Sir  Francis.  Fifth  Report  of  the 
Deputy  Keeper  of  the  Public  Records  (March  25,  1844),  p.  21. 

For  biographical  purposes  they  [the  Pell  Records]  abound 
in  information  which  cannot  be  found  elsewhere ;  and  by 
their  means  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  has  been  enabled  to  complete 
the  collection  of  all  the  information  which  the  Records  afford 
concerning  the  Life  of  Chaucer,  and  for  the  composition  of 
that  very  small  volume  he  was  compelled  to  examine  from 
20  to  50  Rolls  per  diem. 

[For  Nicolas's  Life  of  Chaucer,  see  below,  Works,  1845.] 

1844.  Patmore,  Coventry  Kersey  Dighton.     Sonnet,  [in]  Poems,  p.  103. 

Rich  Spenser,  deep-toned  Wordsworth,  Chaucer  green, 
Shakspere,  and  mighty  Milton,  sought  their  fame 
First  in  their  own  approval :  we  have  seen 
How  the  world's  followed. 


1844]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  257 

1844.  Thorns,  William  John.  Tlie  History  of  Reynard  the  Fox, 
Percy  Soc.,  Preface,  p.  i,  Introd..  p.  Ixxiii  [Chaucer's  Nonnes 
Prestes  Tale  a  Reynard  history],  Notes,  pp.  173,  176-8,  180,  182, 
184-6,  190-1,  193. 

1844.  Unknown.  Review  of  Sir  N.  Harris  Nicolas's  Life  of  Chaucer, 
prefixed  to  the  Aldine  edition  of  Chaucer's  works,  [q.  v.  below, 
1845,  in]  The  Athenaeum,  Feb.  10,  1844,  pp.  125-7. 

[This  long  review  (seven  columns,  principally  a  summary  of 
the  main  events  in  Chaucer's  career)  gives  full  credit  to  Nicolas 
for  his  discovery  and  use  of  documents  relating  to  Chaucer's 
life,  and  contrasts  it  favourably  with  Godwin's  speculative 
theories.] 

1844.  Unknown.  Review  of  Sir  N.  Harris  Nicolas's  Life  of  Chaucer, 
[q.  v.  below,  1845,  in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Jan.  1844,  new 
ser.,  vol.  xxi,  pp.  3-19. 

[This  long  and  careful  article  gives  a  good  appreciation  of 
Chaucer's  work,  his  '  spirited  representations  of  life  and  native 
manners,'  his  '  rich  and  quaint  humour.'  It  characterises 
correctly  the  'Lives  '  by  Tyrvvhitt  and  Godwin,  and  then  gives 
an  abridgment  of  the  facts  as  recorded  by  Nicolas,  pointing 
out  that  the  exile  to  Zealand  is  pure  fiction,  as  there  is  now 
proof  that  Chaucer  was  in  London,  personally  receiving  his 
pension,  from  1380  to  1388.  Some  space  is  then  given  to 
emphasising  the  influence  of  the  active  life  Chaucer  led,  and 
of  the  various  offices  he  filled,  upon  his  poetical  work.] 

[p.  17]  His  various  occupations  and  calls  into  the  world  must  have 
been  to  him  the  richest  volume  of  information  he  could  open, 
for  he  thus  enlarged  his  views  of  society,  and  increased  his 
knowledge  of  the  characters  of  men.  .  .  . 

[p.  18]  In  truth,  every  description  by  Chaucer  has  a  fresh,  out-of- 
door,  open-air  look  with  it ;  it  has  the  light  of  the  sky  upon 
it;  to  him  the  market-place  was  a  practical  volume  of  moral 
philosophy ;  his  embassy  to  Genoa  and  Florence,  a  rich  and 
princely  picture-book,  filled  with  the  costliest  forms  of  nature 
and  art ;  and  his  comptrollership  of  the  customs,  an  excellent 
tome  of  never-ending  casuistry. 


1844.  Wright,  Thomas.  Anecdota  Literaria  .  .  .  ed.  by  Thomas 
Wright,  pp.  v,  vi,  13-27. 

[p.  T]  I  was  led  to  insert  a  few  inedited  fabliaux,  by  the  accidental 
discovery  of  one  [the  Miller  and  the  two  Clerks,  from  MS. 
Berne]  which  appears  to  be  the  immediate  original  of  one 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. II.  S 


258  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1844^ 

of  Chaucer's  tales,  which  I  have  therefore  chosen  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  how  much  remains  to  be  done  to  produce 
even  a  tolerable  text  of  Chaucer's  works. 

[p.  13]  After  the  fabliau  of  Dame  Siriz,  we  can  scarcely  point  out 
a  regular  English  fabliau  till  the  time  of  Chaucer,  who  entered 
more  than  any  other  old  English  writer  into  the  spirit  of  the 
French  originals.  Many  of  the  stories  in  the  Canterbury 
Tales  are  translations  from  French  fabliaux.  It  is  singular 
that  a  poet  of  so  much  talent  as  Chaucer  should  have  written 
scarcely  a  single  original  poem.  I  owe  to  the  friendly  com 
munication  of  M.  Paulin  Paris  of  the  Bibliotheque  Eoyale  at 
Paris,  the  copy  of  the  following  stanzas  addressed  to  Chaucer 
by  his  friend  and  contemporary,  the  French  poet  Eustache 
Deschamps.  They  .  .  .  are  remarkable  as  stating  so  strongly 
his  real  character  of  a  "  great  translator."  .  .  . 

[Text  of  Deschamps'  ballade ;  q.v.  below,  App.  B.  [1386  ?].] 

[pp.  14-  [Chaucer's  stories  probably  not  taken  from  Boccaccio,  but 
from  earlier  French  fabliaux.  The  text  of  the  Miller  of 

[P.  23]  Trumpington,  from  MS.  Berne,  no.  354,  follows.  Tyrwhitt's 
text  very  corrupt:  "there  is  perhaps  not  a  single  line  in 
Tyrwhitt's  edition  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  which  Chaucer 
could  possibly  have  written  ...  all  grammar  is  set  at 
defiance  .  .  .  the  essay  on  the  versification  of  Chaucer  .  .  . 
is  a  mass  of  confusion."  Chaucer's  version  of  the  Tale  is 

[P.  24]  given  from  MS.  Had.,  no.  7334,  collated  with  MS.  Lansdowne, 
no.  861  (a)  and  MS.  Harl.,  no.  1758  (b).  "In  almost  every 
one  of  these  variations,  Tyrwhitt  is  wrong."] 


1345.  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  with  memoir  by  Sir  N.  H.  Nicholas 
[q.v.  below],  6  vols.,  Aldine  edition  of  British  Poets,  vols.  xlvii-lii. 
[Reprinted,  1852,  and  re-edited,  1866,  by  R.  Morris.  The  text  is 
Tyrwhitt's  for  the  Canterbury  Tales,  that  of  the  Chiswick  edn., 
1822,  for  the  other  works.] 


1845.  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.  Letter,  [dated 
12  May,  1845,  in]  The  Letters  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning 
to  II.  H.  Home,  ed.  S.  R.  Townshend  Mayer,  1877,  2  vol.,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  175-6. 

[P.  170]  Chaucer  wrote  on  precisely  the  same  principles  (eternal 
principles)  [of  metre]  as  the  Greek  poets  did,  I  believe  un 
alterably;  and  you,  who  are  a  musician,  ought  [in  Chaucer 
Modernised]  to  have  sung  it  out  loud  in  the  ears  of  the 
public. 


1845]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  259 

1845.  Barrett,  afterwards  Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett.  Letters  to 
Robert  Browning,  [dated]  1845,  [printed  in]  The  Letters  of  Robert 
Browning  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Barrett,  1899,  vol.  i,  pp.  160,  267, 
336-7. 

(P.  160]  [13  Aug.  1845.]  Does  not  the  old  word  King  Lud's  men 
stomped  withal,  claim  identity  with  our  '  stamping '  ?  The  a 
and  o  used  to  '  change  about,'  you  know,  in  the  old  English 
writers — see  Chaucer  for  it. 

[p.  267]  [6  Nov.  1845.]  I  have  considered  about  Mr.  Kenyon 
and  it  seems  best,  in  the  event  of  a  question  or  of  a  remark 
equivalent  to  a  question,  to  confess  to  the  visits  '  generally 
once  a  week '  .  .  because  he  may  hear,  one,  two,  three  different 
ways,  .  .  not  to  say  the  other  reasons  and  Chaucer's  charge 
against  '  doubleness.'  I  fear  .  .  I  fear  that  he  (not  Chaucer) 
will  wonder  a  little — and  he  has  looked  at  me  with  scanning 
spectacles  already  and  talked  of  its  being  a  mystery  to  him 
how  you  made  your  way  here.  .  . 

Cp3373]3t3'  [19  Dec.  1845.]  And  speaking  of  verse  —somebody  gave  me 
a  few  days  ago  that  Mr.  Lowell's  book  you  once  mentioned  to 
me.  [ .  .  .  ]  But  these  American  books  should  not  be  reprinted 
here — one  asks,  what  and  where  is  the  class  to  which  they 
address  themselves  1  [  .  .  .  ]  here,  with  us,  whoever  wanted 
Chaucer,  or  Chapman,  or  Ford,  got  him  long  ago — what  else 
have  Lamb,  and  Coleridge,  and  Hazlitt,  and  Hunt  and  so  on 
to  the  end  of  their  generations  .  .  what  else  been  doing 
this  many  a  year  1 

[The  stops,  except  those  in  square  brackets,  are  in  the  original  text.] 


1845—51.  Brown,  Ford  Madox.     Chaucer  at  the  Court  of  Edward  III. 

[A  painting  on  a  large  scale,  now  in  the  Municipal  Gallery,  Sydney.  It  was  only 
finished  in  time  for  exhibition  at  the  Academy  in  1851,  but  Brown  conceived  and 
began  work  for  it  in  the  autumn  of  1845,  taking  the  first  suggestion  from  a  passing 
reference  in  Sir  James  Mackintosh's  History  of  England.  He  at  once  read  the  life 
(Godwin's)  and  the  works  of  Chaucer,  apparently  for  the  first  time.  Chaucer 
(whose  figure  was  painted  from  D.  G.  Rossetti)  stands  on  a  dais  and  reads  at  a 
lectern  to  the  Court  assembled  below  him  the  lines  from  the  Tale  of  the  Man  of 
Law,  11.  834-40  :— 

Hire  litel  child  lay  weping  on  hire  arm  .  .  . 

And  unto  the  heven  hire  eyen  up  she  cast. 

See  Brown's  Diary  in  Praeraphaelite  Diaries  and  Letters,  ed.  Wm.  Rossetti,  1900, 
passim,  his  own  Exhibition  Catalogue,  1865,  and  F.  M.  Eueffer's  Ford  Madox 
Brown,  1896,  where  the  picture  is  reproduced,  to  face  p.  71.  The  Chaucer  is  said 
by  W.  M.  Rossetti  (Dante  Gabriel  Rossttti ;  his  Family  Letters,  1895,  2  vols,  vol.  i, 
p.  1VO)  to  be  'a  very  fair  portrait  of  Rossetti,'  in  whom,  as  well  as  in  Morris  and 
R.  W.  Dixon  (q.v.  below,  both  1855),  their  friends  found  a  resemblance  to  the 
Occleve  portrait.] 


260  ,      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1845 

1845.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Death  and  the  Ruffians,  [a  modern 
ization  of  the  Pardoneres  Tale,  in]  The  New  Monthly  Magazine, 
Aug.  1845,  vol.  Ixxiv,  p.  509.  [Reprinted,  revised,  and  with  a 
preface  in  place  of  the  brief  note  which  appeared  in  1845,  in 
Stories  in  Verse,  1855,  q.v.]  (Poetical  Works,  ed.  S.  A.  Lee, 
Boston,  1866,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  218-26.) 

[The  version  begins :] 

In  Flanders  once  there  liv'd  a  company 
Of  foolish  youth,  a  lawless  set  of  three, 
That,  haunting  every  place  of  foul  repute, 
And  giddy  with  the  din  of  harp  and  lute, 
,  Went  dancing,  and  sat  dicing,  day  and  night, 
And  eat  and  drank  beyond  their  nature's  might, 
And  thus  upon  the  devil's  own  altar  laid 
The  bodies  and  the  souls  that  God  had  made.   .  . 


1845.  [Leigh,  Percival.]  The  Lament  of  the  Statues,  [in]  Punch,  1845, 
p.  185. 

[Protests  of  the  poets  against  the  proposal  in  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  of  the  Royal  Commission  to  erect  statues  of 
them  in  the  new  Houses  of  Parliament.  (Fourth  Report  of 
the  Commission,  1845,  p.  9.) 

Mr.  M.  H.  Spielmann  (The  Portraits  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
Chaucer  Soc.,  1900,  p.  17)  says  that  this  is  by  P,  Leigh. 

Chaucer  speaks  first :] 

Good  sirs,  I  marvel  what  we  here  maken, 
Crete  folk,  certes,  be  sometimes  mistaken, 
We  standen  in  this  stound  by  much  errour, 
Ne  poet  was  in  Parlement  before  .  .  . 

[and  four  more  lines ;  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden 
and  Pope  follow,  in  more  recognizable  styles.] 

1845.  Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth.  The  Poets  and  Poetry  of 
Europe,  Philadelphia,  pp.  423-4  [Rom.  Rose,  11.  21-134],  439 
[La  Belle  Dame  sans  Merci,  from  Alain  Chartier,  the  translation 
(really  by  Sir  Richard  Ros)  given  as  Chaucer's],  508  [Chaucer's 
mention  of  Petrarch,  Clerkes  Prol,  11.  31-3]. 


1845.  Lowell,  James  Russell.  Conversations  on  Some  of  the  Old  Poets, 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  First  Conversation,  "Chaucer,"  pp.  1-121; 
Second  Conversation,  "The  Old  Dramatists,"  pp.  126,  169-70. 
[Not  in  the  Riverside  Edn.  of  Lowell's  works.  The  quotations 
are  all  more  or  less  modernized  by  Lowell  himself ;  see  p.  86.] 


1845]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion  261 

(PP.  15       PHILIP  :   .      .  You  must  put  no  faith  at  all  in  any  idea 

and  16]  *  rf 

you  may  have  got  of  Chaucer  from  Dryden  or  Pope.  Dryden 
appreciated  his  original  better  than  Pope ;  but  neither  of  them 
had  a  particle  of  his  humor,  nor  of  the  simplicity  of  his 
pathos.  .  .  .  Pope  was  not  a  man  to  understand  the  quiet 
tenderness  of  Chaucer,  where  you  almost  seem  to  hear  the 
hot  tears  falling,  and  the  simple,  choking  words  sobbed  out. 
I  know  no  author  so  tender  as  he,  not  even  Shakspeare. 

[A  comparison  of  the  KnigJites  Tale,  11.  1903-1924,  with 
Dryden's  version  follows ;  and  while  Dryden's  version  is 
described  as  "  the  sentiment  of  Giles  Scroggins,  and  the  verse 
of  Blackmore,"  Chaucer's  is  considered  "  perfect."  After  some 
further  discussion  Philip  continues  :] 

(P.  21]  The  recording  angel  had  but  little  trouble  in  footing 
Chaucer's  account.  The  uncleanness  of  his  age  has  left  a 
smooch  here  and  there  upon  his  poems ;  but  it  is  only  in  the 
margin,  and  may  be  torn  off  without  injury  to  the  text.  His 
love  of  beauty  was  too  sincere  not  to  have  made  him  truly 
pious.  .  .  . 

[p.  22]  I  love  to  call  him  old  Chaucer.  The  farther  I  can  throw 
him  back  into  the  past,  the  dearer  he  grows ;  so  sweet  is  it  to 
mark  how  his  plainness  and  sincerity  outlive  all  changes  of 

[P.  24]  the  outward  world.  .  .  .  His  simplicity  often  reminds  me 
of  Homer ;  but,  except  in  the  single  quality  of  invention, 
I  prefer  him  to  the  Ionian.  Yet  we  must  remember  that  he 
shares  this  deficiency  with  Shakspeare,  who  scarcely  ever 
scrupled  to  run  in  debt  for  his  plots.  .  .  . 

[p.  25]  There  is  in  him  the  exuberant  freshness  and  greenness 
of  spring.  Everything  he  touches  leaps  into  full  blossom. 
His  gladness  and  humor  and  pathos  are  irrepressible  as  a 

(p.  26]  fountain.  .  .  .  There  is  no  nebulosity  of  sentiment  about 
him,  no  insipid  vagueness  in  his  sympathies.  His  chief  merit, 
the  chief  one  in  all  art,  is  sincerity. 

[A  discussion,  with  quotations  from  the  Nonne  Prestes  Tale, 
follows,  pp.  29-33,  40-47.  Chaucer  and  Crabbe  are  compared, 
p.  35 ;  and  the  description  of  the  Shipman  in  the  Prologue 
is  read.  Elizabeth  Barrett's  lines  on  Chaucer  (q.v.  above, 
1844)  cited,  p.  38.  Chaucer's  piety  is  discussed,  p.  58, 
and  the  possibility,  from  the  Clerlces  Tale,  of  his  having 
been  in  Italy  and  met  Petrarch,  pp.  G3-64.  The  Clerkes  Tale 
is  next  discussed,  pp.  65-7.  Some  of  the  other  references 
are:  Troilus,  pp.  73,  93,  112;  Chaucer's  love  of  nature, 
p.  77;  Legend  of  Good  Women,  pp,  84,  99;  Cowden  Clarke's 


262  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1845 

Riches  of  Chaucer,  p.  86  ;  Kninhtes  Tale,  pp.  88,  100 ;  Book 
of  the  Duchesse,  p.  96;  Chaucer's  early  love,  p.  98 ;  Man  of 
Law's  Tale,  p.  107;  Pardoneres  Tale,  p.  108;  Wordsworth's 
modernization  of  Troilus,  pp.  86-112. 

Second  Conversation:  p.  126.  Chaucer,  when  in  prison, 
wrote  a  treatise  on  the  astrolabe  for  his  son;  pp.  169-70. 
Sguieres  Tale  and  Maunciples  Tale,  quotations.] 

1845.  Nicolas,  Sir  Nicholas  Harris.  Memoir  of  Chaucer  [prefixed  to 
the  Aldine  edition  of  the  Works,  q.v.  above],  pp.  9-107,  Notes, 
pp.  119-144. 

[This  very  carefully  -written  memoir  is  the  first  '  Life '  of 
Chaucer  to  be  based  entirely  on  documentary  evidence,  and  it 
is  consequently  a  valuable  addition  to  Chaucer  biography. 
Nicolas  prints  many  more  documents  than  Godwin  had  done. 
He  disposes  of  the  story  (built  up  on  the  spurious  Testament 
of  Love}  of  Chaucer's  flight  and  exile  in  1384,  the  return  to 
England  in  1386,  and  imprisonment  in  the  Tower  till  1389, 
by  showing  that  Chaucer  must  have  been  in  London  from 
1380  to  May  1388,  for  during  that  period  he  regularly  re 
ceived  his  pension  at  the  Exchequer  with  his  own  hands 
(Issue  Rolls  from  Easter,  3  Hie.  II  to  Easter,  11  Ric.  II). 
Also  at  the  very  time  when  he  was  supposed  to  have  been 
a  prisoner,  he  was  sitting  in  Parliament  as  a  knight  of  the 
shire  of  Kent.  Nicolas,  however,  does  not  doubt  the  authen 
ticity  of  the  Testament  of  Love,  but  regards  it  as  an  allegorical 
composition. 

This  'Life*  must  have  been  published  in  1843,  probably 
in  a  limited  edition,  before  it  was  issued  with  the  Aldine 
Poets;  for  it  is  reviewed  in  the  Athenceum,  Feb.  10,  1844 
(as  'about  to  be  published  in  the  Aldine  edition'),  in  the 
Monthly  Review,  March,  1844,  and  the  Gentleman  s  Magazine, 
Jan.  1844;  for  the  first  and  last  see  above.] 

1845.  North,  Christopher  [ps.,  i.e.  John  Wilson].  Specimens  of  the 
British  Critics,  [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  April  1845, 
vol.  Ivii,  pp.  503,  508  ;  May,  pp.  617-46  ;  June,  pp.  771-93  ;  July, 
vol.  Iviii,  pp.  114-28.  [Published  in  volume  form  in  1846  ;  the 
references  are  :  pp.  63-4,  66,  77,  95,  111,  120,  157-266.] 

[p.  617]  Nothing  is  gained  by  attempting  to  deny  or  to  disguise  a 
known  and  plain  fact,  simply  because  it  happens  to  be  a  dis 
tasteful  one — Time  has  estranged  us  from  Chaucer.  Dryden 
and  Pope  we  read  with  easy,  unearned  pleasure.  Their  speech, 
their  manner  of  mind,  and  their  facile  verse,  are  of  our  age, 
almost  of  our  own  day.  The  two  excellent,  graceful,  and 
masterly  poets  belong,  both  of  them,  to  THIS  NEW  WORLD. 
Go  back  a  little,  step  over  an  imperceptible  line,  to  the  con- 


1845]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  263 

temporary  of  Dryden,  Milton,  and  you  seem  to  have  overleaped 
some  great  chronological  boundary ;  you  have  transported 
yourself  into  THAT  OLD  WORLD  .  .  . 

We  call  Chaucer  the  Father  of  our  Poetry,  or  its  Morn 
ing  Star.  The  poetical  memory  of  the  country  stretches  up  to 
him,  and  not  beyond.  The  commanding  impression  which  he 
has  made  upon  the  minds  of  his  people  dates  from  his  own 
day.  The  old  poets  of  England  and  Scotland  constantly  and 
unanimously  acknowledge  him  for  their  master.  Greatest 
names,  Dunbar,  Douglas,  Spenser,  Milton,  carry  on  the 
tradition  of  his  renown  and  his  reign. 

In  part  he  belongs  to,  and  in  part  he  lifts  himself  out  of,  his 
age.  The  vernacular  poetry  of  reviving  Europe  took  a  strong 
stamp  from  one  principal  feature  in  the  manners  of  the  times. 
The  wonderful  political  institution  of  Chivalry — turned  into  a 
romance  in  the  minds  of  those  in  whose  persons  the  thing 
itself  subsisted — raised  up  a  fanciful  adoration  of  women 
[p.  618]  into  a  law  of  courtly  life ;  or,  at  the  least,  of  courtly  verse,  to 
which  there  was  nothing  answerable  in  the  annals  of  the  old 
world.  .  .  . 

This  exaggeration  of  an  immense  natural  power,  Love — 
making,  one  might  almost  say,  man's  worship  of  woman  the 
great  religion  of  the  universe,  and  which  was  the  "amabilis 
insania"  of  the  new  poetry — long  exercised  an  unlimited 
monarchy  in  the  poetical  mind  of  the  reasonable  Chaucer. 
See  the  longest  and  most  desperate  of  his  Translations — which 
Tyrwhitt  supposes  him  to  have  completed,  though  we  have 
[p.  6i9j  only  two  fragments — seven  thousand  verses  in  place  of  twenty- 
two  thousand — the  "  ROMAUNT  OF  THE  EOSE  "... 

1845.  Saunders,  John.  Cabinet  Pictures  of  English  Life:  Chaucer. 
[One  of  ''Knight's  Weekly  Volumes."  Eevised  and  enlarged  from 
the  Penny  Magazine  and  Knight's  London,  q.v.  above,  both  1841. 
This  and  the  same  author's  Canterbury  Tales  from  Chaucer  (q.v. 
below)  were  reprinted  together,  revised,  in  1889  ;  this  volume 
forms  the  first  half  of  the  reprint.] 

[The  contents  of  the  volume  are  : 

1.  Introduction,    with    a   general    discussion    of    Chaucerian 

matters,  language,  versification,  and  Dry  den's  criticism. 

2.  Section  I.     "A  Visit  to  the  Tabard,"  with  notes  on  the 

Tabard  from  without  and  within,  and  its  locality,  and  a 
general  description  of  the  pilgrims,  with  quotations 
(revised,  not  from  the  Penny  Magazine,  bub  from 
Knight's  London,  1841,  q.v.  above). 


264  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1845 

3.  Section  II.  "  Chivalry." — The  Knight,  Squire  and  Yeoman. 

4.  Section   III.      "Religion," — The    Monk,    Friar,    Prioress, 

Sumpnour,  Pardoner,  and  Parson. 

5.  Section  IV.     "Domestic  Life:   Professional  Men."     The 

Sergeant  at  law,  Doctor  of  Physic,  Alchemist,  Clerk  of 
Oxenford. 

6.  Section  V.    "  Domestic  Life — Agriculture  "  :  The  Franklin, 

Miller,  Reeve  and  Ploughman. 

7.  Section   VI.     "Domestic   Life:    Trade    and    Commerce." 

The   Merchant,   Shipman,   Haberdasher,   etc.,    Prentice, 

Cook,  and  Wife  of  Bath. 

The  book  illustrates  social  and  political  conditions  in 
Chaucer's  times  by  means  of  general  discussion  and  the 
examination  of  his  characters.  Each  chapter  has  a  woodcut.] 

1845.  [Saunders,  John.]  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  [in]  The  Penny 
Magazine,  vol.  xiv,  [Knightes  Tale]  pp.  65-7,  81-3,  110-12, 118-20  ; 
[Man  of  Laws  Tale]  137-9,  146-8  ;  [Wife  of  Bath's  Tale]  185-6, 
235-6  ;  [Freres  Tale]  241-2,  258-9  ;  [Clerkes  Tale]  300-2,  310-11, 
323-4  ;  [Squieres  Tale]  361-2,  406-7  ;  [Frankeleyns  Tale]  437-8, 
455-6  ;  [Pardoneres  Tale]  461-2  ;  [Nonne  Prestes  Tale]  481-3  ; 
Chanouns  Yemannes  Tale]  497-8.  [Epitomes  interspersed  with 
extracts  from  the  Tales.  For  the  revised  edn.  in  2  vols.,  see 
immediately  below.] 

1845-7.  Saunders,  John.  Canterbury  Tales  from  Chaucer,  2  vols. 
Vol.  i  is  one  of  "  Knight's  Weekly  Volumes  "  ;  vol.  ii,  1847,  was 
published  by  C.  Cox.  The  series  which  appeared  in  the  Penny 
Magazine,  1845  (q.v.  immediately  above),  only  contains  a  few 
sentences  of  the  preface,  and  the  extracts  and  prose  summaries 
differ  throughout.  Of  the  contents  of  vol.  ii,  1847,  only  the 
lst-4th  Tales  had  appeared  in  the  Penny  Magazine.  For  the 
revised  edn.  of  1889,  see  above,  the  same  author's  Cabinet  Pictures 
of  English  Life  :  Chaucer,  1845.] 

[vol.  i,  Three  different  modes  have  been  adopted  by  the  lovers  of 
Chaucer  in  their  attempts  to  popularize  his  works. 

First,  they  have  modernized  his  poetry;  that  is  to  say, 
re-written  it,  as  poetry.  Now,  whenever  a  man  shall  arise 
possessing  exactly  the  same  powers,  views,  tastes,  and  individual 
characteristics  as  the  great  father  of  our  literature,  and  will 
undertake  to  give  us  a  new  version  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
we  have  no  doubt  the  task  may  be  satisfactorily  accomplished, 
and  not  till  then.  .  .  . 

[p.  6]  Secondly,  the  poetical  has  been  transformed  into  a  prose 
narration ;  and  thus  the  story,  at  least,  has  been  freed  from 
the  difficulties  and  hindrances  caused  by  antiquated  words  or 
pronunciations;  but  then  it  has  necessarily  been  relieved  at 
the  same  time  from  all  the  subtler  elements  of  the  poetry.  .  .  . 


1845]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  265 

Thirdly,  Chaucer's  poetry  has  been  presented  in  its  own 
proper  form,  with  a  modernized  spelling,  and  an  accented 
pronunciation.  Eventually,  perhaps,  this  will  be  the  method 
permanently  adopted  for  all  popular  editions  of  the  poet ;  but, 
at  present,  such  books  attract  neither  the  student  nor  the 
general  reader :  too  lax  for  the  one,  they  still  remain — 
apparently — too  irksome  for  the  other. 

In  the  following  pages  we  have  endeavoured  to  combine  the 
peculiar  advantages  offered  by  the  two  methods  last  named, 
and  to  get  rid  of  their  drawbacks.  We  have  proposed  to 
ourselves  to  make  the  whole  course  of  the  story  clear  by 
resolving  inconvenient  or  difficult  passages  of  the  poetry  into 
prose;  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  allow  the  reader  to  be 
[p.  7]  constantly  refreshing  himself  from  the  "  well  of  English 
undefiled"  by  leaving  all  the  remainder,  including  the  finest 
portions  of  the  poetry,  in  its  own  nervous  and  beautiful 
language.  .  . 
[p.  ii]  [Specimen  of  the  rendering  of  the  Knightes  Tale :] 

Once,  as  old  stories  tell,  there  was  a  duke  named  Theseus, 
the  lord  and  governor  of  Athens,  and  who,  in  his  time,  was 
such  a  conqueror,  that  there  was  not  a  greater  under  the  sun. 
He  had  won  many  a  rich  country.  With  his  wisdom  and 
his  chivalry,  he  conquered  all  the  realm  of  the  Amazons  that 
was  formerly  called  Scythia, — 

And  wedded  the  freshe  queen  Hypolita, 

and  brought  her,  and  also  her  young  sister  Emily,  home  with 
him  to  his  own  country,  with  much  glory  and  great  solemnity. 

[p.  15]  When  that  this  worthy  duke,  this  Theseus,  hath  slain  Creon 
and  won  Thebes, 

Still  in  the  field  he  took  all  night  his  rest. 

[p.  16]  And  he  did  as  he  pleased  with  all  the  country.  After  the 
battle  and  discomfiture,  the  pillers  did  their  business ;  they 
ransacked  the  heap  of  dead  bodies,  in  order  to  strip  them  of 
their  armour  and  garments.  And  it  so  befell  that  they  found 
in  the  heap,  pierced  through  with  many  a  bloody  grievous 
wound,  two  young  knights,  lying  by  each  other,  in  the  same 
kind  of  armour,  which  was  full  richly  wrought.  Of  these  two, 
one  was  named  Arcite,  the  other  Palamon, 

Not  fully  quick  nor  fully  dead  they  were  ; 
But  by  their  coat  armour,  and  by  their  gear, 


2G6  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1845- 

the  heralds  knew  them  well,  as  those  who  were  of  the  royal 
blood  of  Thebes,  and  born,  of  two  sisters.  [&c.,  &c.] 
[Then  follow : 

The  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  The  Freres  Tale, 

The  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  The  Clerkes  Tale, 

with  "  Eemarks  "  on  each  at  the  end. 

Vol.  II: 

The  Squieres  Tale,  The  Second  Nonnes  Tale, 

The  Frankeleyns  Tale,  The  Chanouns  Yemannes 

The  Pardoners  Tale  Tale, 

The  Prioresses  Tale,  The  Maunciples  Tale, 

The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale,  The  Phisiciens  Tale ; 

and  selections  from  : 

The  Milleres  Tale,  The  Marchantes  Tale, 

The  Reves  Tale,  Tlie  Shipmannes  Tale. 

Concluding  remarks  on  Chaucer's  essential  morality,  with 
special  reference  to  the  Frankeleyns  Tale,  and  on  his  achieve 
ment  as  restorer  of  learning  and  founder  of  our  language  and 
literature.] 

Each  Tale  is  also  followed  by  "  Eemarks,"  and  is  illustrated 
by  the  woodcut  which  appeared  in  The  Penny  Magazine,  q.v. 
above,  1845,  Saunders.] 

1845.  [Saunders,  John.]  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Cabinet  Portrait  Gallery 
of  British  Worthies,  1845-7,  12  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  120-144. 

[A  biographical  sketch,  without  criticism  of  Chaucer's  poetry  ; 
based  in  the  main  on  the  private  first  issue  of  Sir  H. 
]STicolas's  Life,  described  as  not  yet  published.  The  Court 
of  Love,  the  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight  and,  except 
so  far  as  Nicolas  had  disproved  the  story  of  exile  and  imprison 
ment,  the  Testament  of  Love,  are  accepted.  Reviewed  as  the 
work  of  Saunders,  with  his  Chaucer  and  Canterbury  Tales, 
in  the  AtJiemeum,  1847,  q.v.  below,  Unknown.] 

[c.  1845.]  Skeat,  Walter  William.     See  below,  App.  A,  1823,  Markham. 

[1845.]  Unknown.  Griselda,  [in]  Ballads  and  Metrical  Tales,  selected 
from  Percy,  Ritson,  etc.,  pp.  27-37. 

[An  abridgement,  modernised,  of  the  ClerJces  Tale.'] 

1845.  Unknown.  Glimpses  of  the  Pageant  of  Literature,  no.  1,  [in] 
Eraser's  Magazine,  Jan.  1845,  vol.  xxxi,  pp.  27,  29-30. 

[pp.  29-30]  This  is  precisely  the  simple  truthfulness  of  contemporary 
manners  portrayed  by  our  own  Chaucer  .  .  .  Homer's  hero 
wiping  the  moisture  from  his  face,  and  Chaucer's  nun  letting 


1846]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  267 

no  particle  of  food  drop  into  her  lap,  belong  to  similar  ages 
of  imagination. 

1845.  Wright,  Thomas.     Meeting  of  the  British  Archaeological  Asso 
ciation  at  Canterbury,  [in   1844,  in]  The  Archaeological  Alburn^ 
1845,  pp.  19-23. 

[Account  of  the  Chequer  Inn,  where  the  Pilgrims  are  sup 
posed  to  have  lodged,  with  quotations  from  the  "supplement  " 
to  the  Canterbury  Tales  printed  by  Urry  (i,  e.  the  Tale  of 
Beryn).] 

1846.  Chaucer's  Romaunt  of  the   Rose,  Troilus    and  Creseide, 
and  the  Minor  Poems,  with  the  life  of  the  poet,  by  Sir  N.  H. 
Nicolas.     Pickering,  3  vols. 

[A  reprint  of  vols.  iv-vi  of  Pickering's  1845  Aldine  edn.,  with  Nicolas's  "Life"" 
only.] 

1846.  Brewer,  Ebenezer  Cobham.  Poetical  Chronology  of  Inventions^ 
Discoveries,  Battles,  and  of  Eminent  Men,  pp.  51—2. 

[p.  5i]       In  Richard's  reign  SIDE-SADDLES  first,  came  into  English  use,. 
And   GOWER  with   merry  CHAUCER,  too,   their  rhapsodies 

produce  .  .  . 
[p.  52]        Cannons   and  Gunpowder  disclose  their  most   destructive 

power ; 

Dante  &  Petrarch  sing  their  lays  with  Chaucer  &  John 
^Gower. 

1846.  Browning,  Robert.  Letter  to  Alfred  Domett,  [dated]  New  Cross,. 
Hatcham,  March  19,  1846,  [in]  Robert  Browning  and  Alfred 
Domett,  ed.  F.  G.  Kenyon,  1906,  pp.  124-5. 

You  received,  of  course,  I  trust,  the  last  number  [Dramatic 
Romances]  with  a  letter.  I  don't  think  that  at  that  time 
Lanclor's  all  too  generous  lines  about  it  had  appeared.  .  .  . 
The  first  thing  to  notice  is  the  kindness,  and  after,  the  blind 
ness  of  such  praise ;  but  these  acknowledged  duly,  surely 
one  may  remark  on  the  happy  epithet  "hale"  as  applied  to 
Chaucer.  .  .  . 

[For  Landor's  poem  «««  below,  1846.] 

1846.  Browning,  Robert.  Letters,  [in]  The  Letters  of  Robert  Browning 
and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Barrett,  1899,  vol.  i,  pp.  393,  429. 

[p.  393]  [12  Jan.  1846.]  That  Mr.  Powell  .  .  .  When  I  took  pity  on 
him  once  on  a  time  and  helped  his  verses  into  a  sort  of 
grammar  and  sense,  I  did  not  think  he  was  a  buyer  of  other 
men's  verses,  to  be  printed  as  his  own ;  thus  he  bought  two- 


268  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1846 

modernisations  of  Chaucer — '  Ugolino '  and  another  story  from 
Leigh  Hunt— and  one  «  Sir  Thopas'  from  Home,  and  printed 
them  as  his  own,  as  I  learned  only  last  week. 

[p.  429]  [23  Jan.  1846.]  But  when  you  find  Chaucer's  graver  at  his 
Avork  of  '  graving  smale  seles '  by  the  sun's  light,  you  know 
that  the  sun's  self  could  not  have  been  created  on  that  day — 
do  you  '  understand'  that,  Ba? 

["  Ba  "  was  Elizabeth  Barrett's  pet-name.    For  Powell's  modernizations  see  above, 
1841.] 

1.846.  Ellis,  Sir  Henry.     Original  Letters,  Third  Series,  vol.  i,  p.  xi,  n. 

[On   the   cultivation    of   French  in    the  monasteries :    the 
Prioress's  French.] 

1846.  Fairholt,  Frederick  "William.  Costume  in  England :  a  History 
of  Dress  to  the  end  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  pp.  140-1,  144-6, 
167-8,  177,  215,  232,  407-618.  (Third  edition,  2  vols.,  1885, 
enlarged  and  thoroughly  revised  by  the  Hon.  H.  A.  Dillon,  vol.  i., 
pp.  128-29,  132-33,  154-55,  163,  200-220;  vol.  ii.,  Glossary.) 

•{p.  140]  Chaucer, — the  Shakspeare  of  the  middle  ages  and  certainly 
the  most  original  and  extraordinary  writer  that  Fngland  up  to 
that  period  had  produced  .  .  .  has,  in  his  immortal  Canterbury 
Tales,  given  us  the  best  information  connected  with  the  costume 
of  the  different  grades'  in  English  society  during  this  reign. 

[p.  141-6]    [Account  of  costumes  described  in  the  Prologue,  Milleres 

Tale,  Persones  Tale,  and  Ploicmans  Tale  (treated  as  Chaucer's), 

the  last  with  many  quotations.] 
[pp.  ier    [Chaucer's  description  of  knightly  costume,  with  quotations 

~8]   from  Sir  Thopas.] 
frP6148OT     [A  Glossary  of  terms  used  in  the  description  of  costume  from 

the   early   times,  contains  many  allusions  to  and  quotations 

from  Chaucer.] 

[The  third  edition  in  2  vols,  1S85,  by  H.  A.  Dillon,  shows  no  material  alteration 
in  the  above  passages,  except  that  the  quotations  are  in  some  cases  freed  from 
modernization  and  that  here  and  there  Fairholt's  text  is  slightly  cut  down.] 

1846.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Stories  from  the  Italian  Poets: 
with  Lives  of  the  Writers,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  5,  55,  407m  ;  vol.  ii, 
pp.  21,  72,  88,  170. 

[vol.  i,  Chaucer  has  told  the  greater  part  of  this  story  [Ugolino] 
"'•"beautifully  in  his  "  Canterbury  Tales ; "  but  he  had  not  the 
heart  to  finish  it.  He  refers  for  the  conclusion  to  his  original 
bight  "Dant,"  the  "  grete  poete  of  Itaille;"  adding,  that 
Dante  will  not  fail  his  readers  a  single  word — that  is  to  say, 
not  an  atom  of  the  cruelty. 


1846]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  269 

Our   great  gentle-hearted   countryman,   who    tells   Fortune 
that  it  was 

"  great  cruel te 
Such  birdes  for  to  put  in  such  a  cage," 

adds  a  touch  of  pathos  in  the  behaviour  of  one  of  the  children, 
which  Dante  does  not  seem  to  have  thought  of : 

"  There  day  by  day  this  child  began  to  cry, 
Till  in  his  father's  barme  (lap)  adown  he  lay; 
And  said,  'Farewell,  father,  I  muste  die,' 
And  kissed  his  father,  and  died  the  same  day." 

1846.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Wit  and  Humour,  Selected  from 
the  English  Poets.  With  an  Illustrative  Essay,  and  Critical  Com 
ments,  pp.  12,  18-19,  63,  73-121. 

[p.  12.]  Humour  ;  .  .  deals  in  incongruities  of  character  and 
circumstance,  .  .  .  Such  is  the  melting  together  ...  of 
the  professional  and  the  individual,  or  the  accidental  and  the 
permanent,  in  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims  .  .  . 

[pp^is,       phe  Cock's  address  to  the  Hen  : 

For  also  siker  as  in  principio  .  .  . 

\. 

etc.  (Nonne  Prestes  Tale),  quoted  as  an  example  of  irony.] 
[p.  63]       [Chaucer  famous  for  the  humours  of  nations  and  classes.] 

fc,  74]  I  wish  I  could  have  given  more  than  one  comic  story  out 
cf  Chaucer;  but  the  change  of  manners  renders  it  difficult  at 
any  time,  and  impossible  in  a  book  like  the  present. 

[p.  75]  When  Chaucer  is  free  from  this  taint  of  his  age  \i.  e. 
coarseness],  his  humour  is  of  a  description  the  most  thoroughly 
delightful ;  for  it  is  at  once  entertaining,  profound,  and  good- 
natured.  If  this  last  quality  be  thought  a  drawback  by  some, 
as  wanting  the  relish  of  personality,  they  may  supply  even 
that  (as  some  have  supplied  it),  by  supposing  that  he  drew 
his  characters  from  individuals,  and  that  the  individuals  were 
very  uncomfortable  accordingly.  I  confess  I  see  no  ground 
for  the  supposition  beyond  what  the  nature  of  the  case 
demands.  Classes  must  of  course  be  drawn,  more  or  less, 
from  the  individuals  composing  them ;  but  the  unprofessional 
particulars  added  by  Chaucer  to  his  characters  (such  as  the 
Merchant's  uneasy  marriage,  and  the  Franklin's  prodigal  son) 
are  only  such  as  render  the  portraits  more  true,  by  including 


270  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1846 

them  in  the  general  category  of  human  kind.  The  gangrene 
which  the  Cook  had  on  his  shin,  and  which  has  been  con 
sidered  as  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  gratuitous,  is,  on  the 
contrary  (besides  its  masterly  intimation  of  the  perils  of  luxury 
in  general),  painfully  in  character  with  a  man  accustomed  to 
breathe  an  unhealthy  atmosphere,  and  to  be  encouraging  bad 
humours  with  tasting  sauces  and  syrups.  Besides,  the  Cook 
turns  out  to  be  a  drunkard. 

[p.  76]  Chaucer's  comic  genius  is  so  perfect,  that  it  may  be  said  to 
include  prophetic  intimations  of  all  that  followed  it  ... 
One  of  its  characteristics  is  a  certain  tranquil  detection  of 
particulars,  expressive  of  generals ;  as  in  the  instance  just 
mentioned  of  the  secret  infirmity  of  the  Cook.  Thus  the 
Prioress  speaks  French  ;  but  it  is  "  after  the  school  of  Stratford 
at  Bow."  Her  education  was  altogether  more  showy  than 
substantial.  The  Lawyer  was  the  busiest  man  in  the  world, 
and  yet  he  "  seemed  busier  than  he  was."  He  made  something 
out  of  nothing,  even  in  appearances. 

Another  characteristic  is  his  fondness  for  seeing  the  spiritual 
in  the  material ;  the  mind  in  the  man's  aspect.  He  is  as 
studious  of  physiognomy  as  Lavater,  and  far  truer.  Observe, 
too,  the  poetry  that  accompanies  it, — the  imaginative  sympathy 
in  the  matter  of  fact.  His  Yeoman,  who  is  a  forester,  has  a 
head  "  like  a  nut."  His  Miller  is  as  brisk  and  healthy  as  the 
air  of  the  hill  on  which  he  lives,  and  as  hardy  and  as  coarse 
grained  as  his  conscience.  We  know,  as  well  as  if  we  had 
ridden  with  them,  his  oily-faced  Monk ;  his  lisping  Friar  (who 
was  to  make  confession  easy  to  the  ladies) ;  his  carbuncled 

Cr-  "7]  Summoner  or  Church-Bailiff,  the  grossest  form  of  ecclesiastical 
sensuality ;  and  his  irritable  money-getting  Reve  or  Steward, 
with  his  cropped  head  and  calf-less  legs,  who  shaves  his  beard 
as  closely  as  he  reckons  with  his  master's  tenants. 

The  third  great  quality  of  Chaucer's  humour  is  its  fair 
play ; — the  truth  and  humanity  which  induces  him  to  see 
justice  done  to  good  and  bad,  to  the  circumstances  which 
make  men  what  they  are,  and  the  mixture  of  right  and  wrong, 
of  wisdom  and  of  folly,  which  they  consequently  exhibit. 
His  worst  characters  have  some  little  saving  grace  of  good 
nature,  or  at  least  of  joviality  and  candour.  Even  the  Pardoner, 
however  impudently,  acknowledges  himself  to  be  a  "  vicious 
man."  His  best  people,  with  one  exception,  betray  some 
infirmity.  The  good  Clerk  of  Oxford,  for  all  his  simplicity 


1846]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  271 

and  singleness  of  heart,  has  not  escaped  the  pedantry  and 
pretension  of  the  college.  The  Good  Parson  seems  without 
a  blemish,  even  in  his  wisdom ;  yet  when  it  comes  to  his  turn 
to  relate  a  story,  he  announces  it  as  a  " little"  tale,  and  then 
tells  the  longest  and  most  prosing  in  the  hook, — a  whole 
sermonizing  volume.  .  .  . 

Cp.  78]  The  only  character  in  Chaucer  which  seems  faultless, 
is  that  of  the  Knight ;  and  he  is  a  man  who  has  been  all  over 
the  world,  and  bought  experience  with  hard  blows.  The  poet 
does  not  spare  his  own  person.  He  describes  himself  as  a  fat, 
heavy  man,  with  an  "  elvish "  (wildish  1)  countenance,  shy, 
and  always  "staring  on  the  ground.  ..." 

This  self-knowledge  is  a  part  of  Chaucer's  greatness; 
and  these  modest  proofs  of  it  distinguish  him  from  every 
other  poet  in  the  language.  Shakespeare  may  have  had  as 
much,  or  more.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose  otherwise.  .  .  . 
His  sonnets  are  not  without  intimations  of  personal  and  other 
defects ;  but  they  contain  no  such  candid  talking  as  Chaucer. 

IP.  79]  The  father  of  English  poetry  was  essentially  a  modest  man. 
He  sits  quietly  in  a  corner,  looking  down  for  the  most  part 
and  meditating ;  at  other  times  eyeing  everything  that  passes, 
and  sympathising  with  everything ;  chuckling  heartily  at  a 
jest,  feeling  his  eyes  fill  with  tears  at  sorrow,  reverencing 
virtue,  and  not  out  of  charity  with  vice.  When  he  ventures 
to  tell  a  story  himself,  it  is  as  much  under  correction  of  the 
Host  as  the  humblest  man  in  the  company ;  and  it  is  no 
sooner  objected  to,  than  he  drops  it  for  one  of  a  different 
description. 

[Here  follow  selections,  each  with  a  modernized  version 
printed  below,  and  notes  :  Characters  of  Pilgrims  (Prologue). 
The  Friar's  Tale.  The  Pardoner's  way  of  Preaching.  The 
Merchant's  Opinion  of  Wives.  Gallantry  of  Translation  (Cock 
and  the  Fox).  The  Disappearance  of  the  Fairies.] 

1846.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Imaginary  Conversations,  [in]  Works, 
1846,  vol.  i,  pp.  337,  402-8  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  164-7,  229.  (Imaginary 
Conversations,  eel.  C.  G.  Crump,  1891,  6  vols.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  159, 
352,  389,  394 ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  66-108,  239,  274-5,  283 ;  vol.  vi, 
p.  45  ?i.) 

[There  was  no  Chaucer  allusion  in  the  1st  edn.,  1824,  and  only  a  very  few  insig 
nificant  ones  in  the  2nd,  1826 ;  for  the  1st  edn.  of  Chaucer,  Boccaccio,  Petrarca,  tee 
above,  1827.] 

[vol.  vi,      LANDOR,  ENGLISH  YISITER  [sic],  AND  FLORENTINE  VISITER. 
Landor.  .  .   .  Since   the  time  of  Chaucer  there  have  only 


272  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1846 

been  two  poets  who  at  all  resemble  him ;  and  these  two  are 
widely  dissimilar  one  from  the  other,  Burns  and  Keats.  The 
accuracy  and  truth  with  which  Chaucer  has  described  the 
manners  of  common  life,  with  the  fore-ground  and  back-ground, 
are  also  to  be  found  in  Burns,  who  delights  in  broader  strokes 
of  external  nature,  but  equally  appropriate.  He  has  parts 
of  genius  which  Chaucer  has  not  in  the  same  degree;  the 
animated  and  pathetic.  Keats,  in  his  Endymion,  is  richer  in 
imagery  than  either. 

[This  passage  is  not  in  the  1st  edn.  of  1S29.] 

[vol.  iv,      [Chaucer,  Boccaccio,  and  Petrarca,  slightly  enlarged  from 
108]66"  the  first  edition  of  1829.] 

SOUTHEY   AND  1.ANDOR. 

[p.  274]  Landor.  .  .  .  Keats  is  the  most  imaginative  of  our  poets 
after  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakspeare,  and  Milton. 

Southey.  I  am  glad  you  admit  my  favourite,  Spenser. 
Landor.  He  is  my  favourite  too,  if  you  admit  the  expression 
without  the  signification  of  precedency.  I  do  not  think 
him  equal  to  Chaucer  even  in  imagination,  and  he  appears 
to  me  very  inferior  to  him  in  all  other  points,  excepting 
harmony.  Here  the  miscarriage  is  in  Chaucer's  age,  not  in 
Chaucer,  many  of  whose  verses  are  highly  beautiful,  but  never 
(as  in  Spenser)  one  whole  period.  I  love  the  geniality  of  his 
temperature :  no  straining,  no  effort,  no  storm,  no  fury.  His 
vivid  thoughts  burst  their  way  to  us  through  the  coarsest 
integuments  of  language.  .  .  .  Chaucer  first  united  the  two 
glorious  realms  of  Italy  and  England.  Shakspearo  came 
after,  and  subjected  the  whole  universe  to  his  dominion. 
But  he  mounted  the  highest  steps  of  his  throne  under  those 

[p.  275]  bland  skies  which  had  warmed  the  congenial  breasts  of 
Chaucer  and  Boccaccio.  [Chaucer's  and  Shakespeare's  powers 
of  imagination  greater  than  Spenser's.] 

[Some  brief  remarks  follow  on  Dryden's  criticism  of  Chaucer's 
metre  and  his  comparison  of  Chaucer  with  Boccaccio.] 

[p  288  Southey  [to  Landor]  ...  It  is  hard  upon  Milton,  and 
harder  still  upon  inferior  poets,  that  every  expression  of  his 
used  by  a  predecessor  should  be  noted  as  borrowed  or  stolen. 
Here  in  v.  822, 

Will  bathe  the  drooping  spirits  in  delight 
is  traced  to  several,  and  might  be  traced  to  more.     Chaucer, 
in  whose  songs  it  is  more  beautiful  than  elsewhere,  writes, 


1846]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  273 

His  harte  bathed  in  a  bath  of  blisse. 

Probably  he  took  the  idea  from  the  bath  of  knights.  You 
could  never  have  seen  Chaucer  nor  the  rest  when  you  wrote 
those  verses  at  Rugby  on  Godiva.  .  .  . 

1846.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  To  Robert  Browning,  [in]  Works, 
1846,  vol.  ii,  p.  673.  (Poems,  eel.  C.  G.  Crump,  2  vols.,  1892, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  194-5.) 

There  is  delight  in  singing,  tho'  none  hear 

Eeside  the  singer :  and  there  is  delight 

In  praising,  tho'  the  praiser  sit  alone 

And  see  the  prais'd  far  off  him,  far  above. 

Shakspeare  is  not  our  poet,  but  the  world's, 

Therefore  on  him  no  speech  !  and  brief  for  thee, 

Browning !     Since  Chaucer  was  alive  and  hale, 

No  man  hath  walkt  along  our  roads  with  step 

So  active,  so  inquiring  eye,  or  tongue 

So  varied  in  discourse.     But  warmer  climes 

Give  brighter  plumage,  stronger  wing :  the  breeze 

Of  Alpine  highths  [sic]  thou  playest  with,  borne  on 

Beyond  Sorrento  and  Amain,  where 

The  Siren  waits  thee,  singing  song  for  song. 

[Fqr  Browning's  comment  on  this  tee  above,  1846.] 

1846.  Ruskin,  John.  Modern  Painters,  vol.  ii,  1846,  part  iii,  sec.  ii, 
ch.  ii,  §  13,  p.  149.  (Works,  eel.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn, 
1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  iv,  p.  240.) 

[Passing  reference  in  a  simile  to]  The  grain  upon  the  tongue 
of  Chaucer's  sainted  child. 

[For  the  further  references  in  Modern  Painters,  tee  below,  1854-6.] 

1846.  Unknown.  Chaucer — His  Age  and  Writings,  [in]  The  British 
Quarterly  Review,  Feb.-May,  vol.  iii,  pp.  105-33. 

[In  Chaucer's  time  poetry  was  conceived  to  be  the  metrical 
dissemination  of  information.  Hence  his  prolixity  and 
pedantry.  Great  scale  and  elaborate  detail  in  his  poetry.] 

[p.  132]  In  the  age  of  Chaucer,  writers  had  ...  to  drive  the  plough 
of  their  ideas  through  the  stubborn  soil  of  an  unformed 
language.  And  therefore  it  is  that  the  word  naivete  becomes 

[p.  133]  less  applicable  to  the  productions  of  English  writers  after  the 
age  of  Shakespeare ;  while  it  continues  applicable  to  those  of 
Scottish  writers  to  a  later  period. 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — II.  T 


274  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1847 

1847-51.  The  Canterbury  Tales  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  a  new  text, 
3  vols.,  printed  for  the  Percy  Society,  ed.  T.  Wright,  vols.  xxiv- 
xxvi. 

[Vol.  i.  Introduction,  pp.  v-xlii.  Text,  pp.  1-295  (with  the 
dokes  Tale  of  Gamelvn). 

Vol.  ii.     Text,  pp."  1-386. 

Vol.  iii.  Text,  pp.  1-318,  with  the  "Merchauntes  Second  Tale" 
(the  Tale  of  Benjn). 

The  edition  is  annotated  at  the  bottom  of  the  pages. 
Wright's  introduction  consists  of  a  sketch  of  Chaucer's  life, 
based  on  Sir  N.  H.  Nicolas's  "Life";  an  examination  of 
the  Tales,  especially  of  their  unfinished  state  and  arrange 
ment;  an  account  of  the  editions;  and  a  statement  of  the 
"  Plan  of  the  present  Edition,"  beginning  with  some  remarks 
on  Chaucerian  English,  and  stating  the  editor's  reasons  for 
the  selection  of  Harleian  MS.  7334  as  the  basis  of  the  text. 
Reprinted  in  the  Universal  Library,  1853,  q.v.  below.] 


1847.  Deshler,  C.  D.  Selections  from  the  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey 
Chaucer.  With  a  concise  life  of  that  Poet  ...  by  C.  L>.  Deshler, 
London.  [Wiley  and  Putnam's  Library  of  American  Books.] 

[The  volume  contains  an  Introduction,  notes  on  pronuncia 
tion,  and  five  chapters  of  biography  and  criticism  (vitiated 
through  the  usual  acceptance  of  the  Court  of  Love,  Testament 
of  Love,  etc.),  discussing  the  condition  of  the  language  and 
Chaucer's  effect  on  it,  characteristics  of  his  poetry,  estimate  of 
women,  omission  to  celebrate  the  great  personages  of  his  age, 
&c.  The  selections  which  follow  are  divided  into  five 
categories  :  I.  Rural  Descriptions  ;  II.  Paintings — Female 
Characters ;  III.  Paintings — Masculine  Characters ;  IV.  Nar 
rative  Poetry ;  V.  Miscellaneous.  Among  these  are  extracts 
from  the  non-Chaucerian  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight, 
Cuckoo  and  Nightingale,  &c.  An  Appendix  gives  some 
information  on  and  extracts  from  Gower,  Lydgate,  Gavin 
Douglas,  Story  of  Cockaygne,  and  Herrick.] 

1847.  Halliwell  (afterwards  Halliwell-Phillips),  James  Orchard. 
A  Dictionary  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words,  obsolete  phrases, 
proverbs  and  ancient  customs,  from  the  fourteenth  century. 

[Contains  many  words  from  Chaucer.] 


1847.  Hare,  Julius  Charles  and  Augustus  William.  Guesses  at  Truth, 
by  tii'o  Brothers.  First  Series,  pp.  60,  151;  151-2  [use  of  wight 
and  folk  in  Chaucer]  ;  171  [use  of  you  in  Chaucer] ;  307  [Chaucer's 
language]  ;  350  [union  of  grave  and  light  in  Chaucer],  371. 


1847]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  275 

[1847-8.]  Knight,  Charles.  Half  Hours  with  the  Best  Authors,  4  vols., 
vol.  i,  p.  235  [Flowers] ;  vol.  ii,  p.  34  [Griselda]  ;  vol.  iii,  p.  180 
[Chaucer  gave  our  literature  a  more  popular  and  national 
character]  ;  pp.  318-23  [Godwin] ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  514-17  ["  Dryden's 
Good  Parson"]. 

[vol.  i,  The  exquisite  simplicity  of  our  first  great  poet's  account  of 
his  love  for  the  daisy  may  well  follow  Shakspere's  spring- 
garland.  Barely  could  he  move  from  his  books ;  no  game 
could  attract  him ;  but  when  the  flowers  begin  to  spring, 

"  Farewell  my  book  and  my  devotion." 

[L.  G.  W.,  Prol.  1.  39.] 

Above  all  the  flowers  in  the  mead  he  loves  most 

"...   these  flowres  white  and  red  .  .  .    [to] 
Of  it,  to  doen  it  all  reverence." 

[/&.,  11.  42-52.] 

1847.  Thackeray,  William  Makepeace  ['Titmarsh,  Michael  Angelo '.] 
A  Grumble  about  the  Christmas  Books,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine, 
Jan.  1847,  vol.  xxxv,  p.  125. 

Do  you  remember  the  dainty  description  of  the  Prioress  in 
Chaucer?    It  has  lately  been  quoted  in  Leigh  Hunt's  charming 
volume  of  Wit  and  Humour,  and  concludes  with  the  account 
of  a  certain  talisman  this  delicate  creature  wore  : — 
"  About  hire  arm  a  broche  of  golde  ful  shene 
On  which  was  first  written  a  crowned  A 
And  after  Amor  vincit  omnia." 

[Prol.  11.  158-62,  misquoted. 

The  works  of  the  real  humourist  have  always  this  sacred 
press-mark,  I  think. 

1847.  Unknown.  Review  of  Canterbury  Tales  from  Chaucer  by  John 
Saunders,  [in]  The  Athenaeum,  no.  1037,  Sept.  11,  1847,  p.  950. 

[A  long  review,  in  the  main  appreciative  of  Saunders's 
work,  but  the  reviewer  considers  the  plan  of  his  Canterbury 
Tales  to  savour  too  much  of  modernisation,  which  he  strongly 
condemns.] 

1847.  Wright.  Thomas.  On  some  early  Latin  Stories,  imitated  at  a 
later  period  by  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare,  read  Dec.  16th,  1847, 
[in]  Archaeologia,  vol.  xxxii,  1847,  pp.  362-5. 

[The  Freres  Tale  derived  from  a  lost  fabliau,  a  Latin  version 
of  which,  "De  Advocato  et  Diabolo,"  (MS.  Cott.  Cleopatra, 
D.  viii,  f.  110)  Wright  describes  as  nearer  to  Chaucer  than 
that  printed  in  his  Percy  Society  collection  of  Latin  stories.] 

1847-51.  Wright,  Thomas.  Introduction  and  Notes  [in]  The  Canter 
bury  Tales,  Percy  Society.  See  above,  p.  274. 


276  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1848 

[n.a.  1848.]  Coleridge,  Hartley.  Chaucer,  [printed  in]  Poems,  1851, 
2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  289-91.  (Complete  Poetical  Works,  Muses' 
Library,  [1907,]  pp.  317-8.) 

[According  to  information  kindly  given  by  Mr,  E.  H.  Coleridge,  the  copy  of  Ander 
son's  Poets  in  which  this  was  written  probably  did  not  come  into  Hartley  Coleridge's 
possession  (though  nominally  given  to  him  by  his  father  in  1803)  till  the  death  of  his 
uncle  Southey  in  1843.  These  lines  must  therefore  have  been  written  between  that 
year  and  the  end  of  1848,  as  Hartley  Coleridge  died  6  Jan.  1849.] 

How  wayward  oft  appears  the  poet's  fate, 
Who  still  is  born  too  early  or  too  late  !  .  .  . 
The  fleeting  language,  to  its  trust  untrue, 
Vext  by  the  jarring  claims  of  old  and  new, 
Defeats  his  beauty,  makes  his  sense  the  fee 
Of  a  blind,  guessing,  blundering  glossary. 
Thus  CHAUCER,  quaintly  clad  in  antique  guise, 
With  unfamiliar  mien  scares  modern  eyes. 
No  doubt  he  well  invented — nobly  felt — 
But  0  ye  Powers  !  how  monstrously  he  spelt. 
His  syllables  confound  our  critic  men, 
Who  strive  in  vain  to  find  exactly  ten  .  .  . 
His  language  too,  unpolished  and  unfixt, 
Of  Norman,  Saxon,  Latin,  oddly  mixt — 
Such  words  might  please  th'  uneducated  ears 
That  hail'd  the  blaring  trumpets  of  Poictiers  .   .  . 

Yet,  thou  true  Poet !  let  no  judgment  wrong 
Thy  rich,  spontaneous,  many-coloured  song; 
Just  mirror  of  a  bold,  ambitious  age 
In  passion  furious,  in  reflection  sage  !  .  .  . 
When  every  beast,  and  bird,  and  flower,  and  tree, 
Convey'd  a  meaning  and  a  mystery ; 
And  men  in  all  degrees,  sorts,  ranks,  and  trades, 
Knights,  Palmers,  Scholars,  Wives,  devoted  Maids, 
In  garb,  and  speech,  and  manners,  stood  confest  .  .  . 
And  told  their  state  and  calling  by  their  vest. 

[n.a.  1848.]  Coleridge,  Hartley.  Notes  on  Shakespeare,  [written  in  a 
copy  of  Stockdale's  edition  of  the  Plays,  printed  in]  Essays  and 
Marginalia,  ed.  Derwent  Coleridge,  1851,  p.  189. 

It  is  remarkable  that  he  [Shakespeare]  has  scarce  adopted  a 
single  expression  from  the  "  Troilus  and  Cresseide  "  of  Chaucer, 
the  most  beautiful  diary  of  love  ever  written.  The  work  of 
Lollius  is  not  to  be  found.  I  am  disposed  to  think  that 
Chaucer,  in  disowning  the  invention  of  this  sweet  poem,  only 
followed  the  common  practice  of  the  minstrels. 


1848J  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  277 

1848.  [De  duincey,  Thomas.]  Review  of  T.  N.  Talfourd's  Final 
Memorials  of  Charles  Lamb,  [in]  The  North  British  Review, 
Nov.  1848,  vol.  x,  p.  208.  (Collected  Writings,  ed.  D.  Masson,  1890, 
14  vols.,  vol.  v,  p.  253.) 

[Lamb]  Being  himself  a  Lincoln  man,  he  treated  Sir  Hugh 
of  Lincoln,  ...  as  a  true  historical  personage  on  the  rolls 
of  Martyrdom. 

[Author's  footnote.]  The  story  which  furnishes  a  basis  to  ...  the 
Canterbury  Tale  of  Chaucer's  Lady  Abbess. 

[For  another  reference  by  De  Quincey  to  the  Prioresses  Tale,  with  the  same  error 
of  'Abbess  '  for  '  Prioress,"  see  abora,  1827.] 

1848.  [De  Quincey,  Thomas.]  Review  of  the  Works  of  Alexander  Pope, 
ed.  W.  Roscoe,  [in]  The  North  British  Review,  Aug.  1848,  vol.  ix, 
p.  305.  (Collected  Writings,  ed.  D.  Masson,  1890,  14  vols.,  vol.  xi, 
p.  58.) 

At  this  hour,  five  hundred  years  since  their  creation,  the 
tales  of  Chaucer,  never  equalled  on  this  earth  for  their  tender 
ness,  and  for  life  of  picturesqueness,  are  read  familiarly  by 
many  in  the  charming  language  of  their  natal  day,  and 
by  others  in  the  modernisations  of  Dryden,  of  Pope,  and 
Wordsworth. 

1848.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  ShaJcspeare :  or,  the  Poet,  [in]  Repre 
sentative  Men,  London,  1850,  pp.  145-6, 160.  (Centenary  Edition, 
London  [1903],  vol.  iv,  pp.  197-8,  216.) 

[This  essay  was  read  at  a  lecture  in  London  in  1848,  and  was  published  in  Repre 
sentative  Men,  Boston,  1850.  The  London  reprint  of  the  same  year  is  the  first  edn. 
in  B.M.] 

(p.  197]  He  [the  great  poet  who  appears  in  illiterate  times]  knows 
the  sparkle  of  the  true  stone,  and  puts  it  in  high  place,  wher 
ever  he  finds  it.  Such  is  the  happy  position  of  Homer 
perhaps,  of  Chaucer,  of  Saadi.  .  .  .  The  influence  of  Chaucer 
is  conspicuous  in  all  our  early  literature ;  and  more  recently 
not  only  Pope  and  Dryden  have  been  beholden  to  him,  but,  in 
the  whole  society  of  English  writers,  a  large  unacknowledged 
debt  is  easily  traced.  One  is  charmed  with  the  opulence  which 
feeds  so  many  pensioners.  But  Chaucer  is  a  huge  borrower. 
Chaucer,  it  seems,  drew  continually,  through  Lydgate  and 
Caxton  [sic,  see  below,  Notes  and  Queries,  April  9,  1853,  and 
Aug.  12,  1854],  from  Guido  di  Colonna,  whose  Latin  romance 
of  the  Trojan  war  was  in  turn  a  compilation  from  Dares 
Phrygius,  Ovid  and  Statius.  Then  Petrarch,  Boccaccio  and 

r_p.  198]  the  Provengal  poets  are  his  benefactors  :  the  Romaunt  of  the 
Rose  is  only  judicious  translation  from  William  of  Lorris  and 


278  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1848- 

John  of  Meung ;  Troilus  and  Creseida  from  Lollius  of  Urbino  : 
the  Cock  and  the  Fox  from  the  Lais  of  Marie :  the  House  of 
Fame,  from  the  French  or  Italian  j  and  poor  Gower  he  uses  as 
if  he  were  only  a  brick-kiln  or  stone-quarry  out  of  which  to 
build  his  house.  He  steals  by  this  apology, — that  what  he 
takes  has  no  worth  where  he  finds  it  and  the  greatest  where 
he  leaves  it. 

1848.  [G-arnett,  Richard,  the  Elder.]  Antiquarian  Club-Books,  [in] 
The  Quarterly  Review,  March  1848,  vol.  Ixxxii,  pp.  323,  339. 
[Reprinted  in  The  Philological  Essays  of  JR.  Garnett,  edited  by 
his  Son,  1859,  pp.  126,  143-4.] 

[p.  323]  [Seriously  questions  Thomas  Wright's  qualifications  for  edit 
ing  the  Canterbury  Tales.  ] 

[p.  339]  [Strong  resemblance  in  grammar  and  idiom  between  Chaucer, 
Orm,  and  Mannyng.  Possibly  Chaucer  and  Wyclif  exercised 
the  same  kind  of  influence  in  England  as  Dante  and  Boccaccio 
did  in  Italy  and  Luther  in  Germany.] 

1848.  Hare,  Julius  Charles  and  Augustus  William.  Guesses  at  Truth, 
by  two  Brothers.  Second  Series,  p.  100. 

[On  the  unwisdom  of  compressing  Chaucer's  heroic  line  into 
an  octosyllable.] 

1848.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Letter  to  Monckton  Milnes,  [printed 
in]  John  Keats,  by  Sidney  Colvin,  1917,  p.  537. 

On  my  return  to  Bath  ...  I  find  your  valuable  present 
of  Keatses  [sic]  Works.  ...  Of  all  our  poets,  excepting 
Shakespeare  and  Milton,  and  perhaps  Chaucer,  he  has  most 
of  the  poetical  character.  .  .  .  There  is  ...  a  freshness  such 
as  we  feel  in  the  glorious  dawn  of  Chaucer. 

1848.  Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  Lord.  History  of  England^ 
1849-61,  5  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  20,  342.  (Works,  1898,  12  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  21,  358.) 

[Vols.  i  and  ii  were  published  in  November  1848  (D.  N.  J5.).] 

[p.  21]  Nor  were  the  arts  of  peace  neglected  by  our  fathers  during 
that  stirring  period  [the  fourteenth  century].  ...  A  copious 
and  forcible  language,  formed  by  an  infusion  of  French  into 
German,  was  now  the  common  property  of  the  aristocracy  and 
of  the  people.  Nor  was  it  long  before  genius  began  to  apply 
that  admirable  machine  to  worthy  purposes.  While  English 
warriors,  leaving  behind  them  the  devastated  provinces  of 
France,  entered  Yalladolid  in  triumph  and  spread  terror  to 


1849]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  279 

the  gates  of  Florence,  English  poets  depicted  in  vivid  tints 
all  the  wide  variety  of  human  manners  and  fortunes,  and 
English  thinkers  aspired  to  know,  or  dared  to  doubt,  where 
bigots  had  been  content  to  wonder  and  to  believe.  The  same 
age  which  produced  the  Black  Prince  and  Derby,  Chandos 
and  Hawkwood,  produced  also  Geoffrey  Chaucer  and  John 
Wycliffe. 

[p.  358]  About  a  day's  journey  south  of  Leeds,  on  the  verge  of 
te\d'  a  W^  moorlall(i  tract,  lay  an  ancient  manor  .  .  .  which 
was  known  by  the  name  of  Hallamshire.  Iron  abounded 
there;  and,  from  a  very  early  period,  the  rude  whittles 
fabricated  there  had  been  sold  all  over  the  kingdom.  They 
had  indeed  been  mentioned  by  Geoffrey  Chaucer  in  one  of  his 
Canterbury  Tales.  [Reves  T.  1.  13.] 

1849.  B.,  N.     Chaucer  s  Grave,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Dec. 
1849,  new  ser.,  vol.  xxxii,  pp.  594-5. 

[Was  Chaucer's  grave  desecrated  on  the  occasion  of  Dryden's 
interment]  Eeference  to  Dart's  account,  q.v.  above,  1723, 
vol.  i,  pp.  363-6.] 

1849.  Froude,  James  Anthony.     The  Nemesis  of  Faith,  p.  151. 

The  poets,  from  Chaucer  to  Milton,  were,  without  exception, 
on  the  reforming  side. 

[n.a.  1849.]  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.     Sonnet.     [Quoted  by  C.  Day 
in  Notes  and  Queries,  22  Dec.  1849,  vol.  i,  p.  122.] 

Were  I  to  name  out  of  the  times  gone  by, 
The  poets  dearest  to  me,  I  should  say, 
Pulci  for  spirits,  and  a  fine,  free  way, 
Chaucer  for  manners,  and  a  close,  silent  eye  .  .  . 

1849.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  series,  vol.  i,  pp.  81,  122,  126. 

Author.  Date.        Reference.  Subject. 

Editor.         Dec.  8.       1st  S.  i,       Contributors  of  notes  resemble 

81.  Chaucer's  Scholar. 

Day,  C.       Dec.  22.     1st  S.  i,       Quotation     of     Leigh     Hunt's 
122.  Sonnet,  q.v.  above  [n.a.  1849].' 

Unknown.  Dec.  22.     1st  S.  i,       Quotation  of  entry  of  Caxton's 
126.  edn.   of   the    Boethius    from 

Thorpe's  catalogue,  with  extract  from  Caxton's  epilogue, 
q.v.  above,  1479,  vol.  i,  p.  58. 

[The  Chaucer  articles  and  correspondence  in  Notes  and 
Queries  have  been  analysed,  and  the  result  of  this  is  given 
up  to  1867,  although  limits  of  space  make  it  impossible  to 
print  an  analysis  throughout.] 


280  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1849 

1849.  Buskin,  John.  The  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture,  Note  to 
chapter  ii,  §  10,  p.  202.  (Works,  Library  edition,  ed.  E.  T. 
Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  39  vols.,  1903-12,  vol.  viii,  pp.  269-70.) 

[p. 269]  [On  the  lines  :  "It  may  be  perhnps  permitted  me  to  assume 
that  true  architecture  does  not  admit  iron  as  a  constructive 
material,"  Ruskin  says  :] 

Except  in  Chaucer's  noble  temple  of  Mars  : 
"  And  dounward  from  an  hill  under  a  bent, 
Ther  stood  the  temple  of  Mars,  armipotent  .   .  .   [to] 
Was  tonne-gret  of  yren  bright  and  shene." 

The  Knightcs  Tale  [11. 1981-94]. 

[p.  270]  There  is,  by  the  bye,  an  exquisite  piece  of  architectural 
colow  just  before  : 

"  And  northward,  in  a  turret  on  the  wall 
Of  alabaster  white,  and  red  corall, 
An  oratorie  riche  for  to  see, 
In  worship  of  Diane  of  Cliastitee." 

[11.  1909-12.] 

[This  note  was  reprinted  as  it  stands  in  the  second  edition 
of  1855 ;  in  the  third  edition  of  1880,  however,  it  was  altered 
somewhat,  the  spelling  of  the  lines  quoted  being  modernised 
and  explanatory  notes  added.] 

1049.  Ticknor,  George,  History  of  Spanish  Literature,  New  York, 
3  vols,  vol.  i,  pp.  22  n.,  85-6. 

[pp.  85-6.]  [Juan  Ruiz  de  Hita,  comparable  to  Chaucer,  who  wrote 
a  little  later  in  the  same  century,  in  his  prevailingly  natural 
and  spirited  tone,  in  seeking  materials  in  northern  French 
poetry,  in  the  mixture  of  devotion  and  immorality,  in  know 
ledge  of  human  nature,  and  in  being  a  reformer  of  prosody ; 
he  has  riot,  however,  "  the  tenderness,  the  elevation,  or  the 
general  power  of  Chaucer."] 

1849.  Unknown.  The  Times  and  Poetry  of  Chaucer,  by  a  New  Con 
tributor,  [in]  The  Knickerbocker  Magazine,  New  York,  Sept.  and 
Oct.  1849,  vol.  xxxiv,  pp.  236-41,  292-98. 

[p.  238]  He  who  shall  study  the  poetry  of  this  father  of  English 
verse,  will  not  be  a  dull,  dry,  dead  piece  of  humanity ;  but  if 
he  read  with  deep  attention,  he  will  feel  that  he  is  in  the 
presence  of  a  master  spirit,  who  is  striking  every  chord  that 
vibrates  in  harmony  with  truth  and  nature  in  his  soul.  .  .  . 

tp.  296]      Few  poets  have  equalled  Chaucer  in  word  painting.     In  one 


1849]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  281 

bold,  though  antiquated  expression,  he  shows  us  the  character 
of  a  "  Doctour  of  Phisicke." 

"  For  gold  in  phisike  is  a  cordial, 
Therefore  he  loved  gold  in  special." 

[Prol.  11.  443-4.] 

Such  are  a  few  samples  of  his  manner  of  describing  his 
heroes  and  heroines :  he  gives  us  an  outline  cap-a-pie ;  un 
covers  the  mind  and  shows  us  the  very  heart.  Like  Shakspeare 
lie  had  an  intellect  which  rose  far  above  all  competition  in 
its  power  of  judging  character.  .  .  .  For  conciseness  and  energy 
united,  come  to  the  Tales  of  Chaucer. 

1849.  Unknown.  Chaucer,  [in]  The  North  British  Keview,  Edinburgh, 
1849,  vol.  x,  pp.  293-328.  [A  review  of  Nicolas's  edition  of  the 
Works,  Saunders'  Cabinet  Pictures  and  Canterbury  Tales,  Deshlers 
Selections,  Home's  Poems  Modernised,  and  Cowden  Clarke's  Tales 
from  Chaucer  and  Riches  of  Chaucer. ] 

[p.  234]  The  first  question,  as  it  seems  to  us  which  we  are  bound 
at  once  to  ask  or  to  answer,  is — belongs  he  [Chaucer] 
to  the  living  or  to  the  dead ;  does  he  or  does  he  not  speak 
words  of  living  interest  to  living  men  ;  is  he  or  is  he  not 
an  integral  part  of  our  existing  civilisation  1  .  .  . 

...  So  far  is  his  story  from  being  strange  and  distant  to  us, 
that  we  believe  every  one  who  investigates  it  for  the  first 
time  will  feel  astonished  that  it  should  have  been  possible 
for  any  one,  in  the  times  of  Cressy  and  of  Poictiers,  to 
lead  a  life  in  all  respects  so  nearly  resembling  that  of  an 
accomplished  and  successful  civilian  at  the  present  day. 

[Here  follow  an  appreciation  of  recent  work  on  Chaucer, 
especially  that  of  Saunders  and  Nicolas,  who  are  both  con 
trasted  favourably  with  Godwin  ;  and  a  life  of  Chaucer,  largely 
based  on  the  latter,  occupies  pp.  299-314.] 

[p.  324]  In  its  form  it  [the  speech  which  Chaucer  employed]  was 
the  Saxon  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  with  such  flectional 
modifications  as  three  centuries  of  further  development  had 
effected  ;  and  in  its  substance  it  had  superadded  to  the  great 
Saxon  substratum  such  Norman  words  as  the  contact  of  three 
centuries  had  gradually  introduced  .  .  . 

[p.  325]  A  few  observations  before  parting,  for  the  purpose  of  fixing, 
in  some  measure,  the  rank  that  he  is  entitled  to  hold  among 
our  poets.  .  .  .  T\re  do  not  venture  to  equal  him  to 
the  two  greatest  of  them.  With  Milton,  indeed,  he  can  in 


282  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1849- 

no  wise  be  compared,  for  the  difference  in  kind  is  so  absolute 
as  to  render  it  impossible  to  measure  the  degree ;  and  by 
Shakespeare  he  is  unquestionably  surpassed  in  his  own 
walk.  .  .  . 

As  a  poet  of  character — and  as  such  chiefly  he  must  be 
viewed,  we  believe  him  to  come  nearer  to  Shakespeare  than 
any  other  writer  in  the  language.  There  is  the  same  vigour 
in  all  that  he  pourtrays,  the  same  tone  of  health  belongs  to  it. 
.  .  .  AVe  believe  that  no  writer  ever  was  so  healthy  as 
Chaucer.  .  .  . 

[p.  326]  Chaucer  is  essentially  the  poet  of  man.  Brought  up  from 
the  first  from  among  his  fellows  and  discharging  to  the  last 
the  duties  of  a  citizen,  he  wandered  not, — nor  wished  to 
wander  in  solitary  places.  _  His  poetry  is  that  of  reality.  .  ,  . 

[pp.  327-  ...  In  many  respects  it  seems  to  us  that  Chaucer  resembles 
8]  Goethe  more  than  any  of  the  poets  of  our  own  country.  He 
has  the  same  mental  completeness  and  consequent  versatility 
which  distinguish  the  German ;  the  same  love  of  reality ; 
the  same  clearness  and  cheerfulness ;  and,  in  seeming  con 
tradiction  to  this  latter  characteristic,  the  same  preference  for 
grief  over  the  other  passions,  in  his  poetical  delineations.  In 
minor  respects,  he  also  resembles  him,  and  in  one,  not 
unimportant,  as  marking  a  similarity  of  mental  organization, 
that,  namely,  of  betaking  himself  at  the  close  of  a  long  life 
spent  in  literature  and  affairs,  to  the  study  of  the  physical 
sciences,  as  if  here  alone  the  mental  craving  for  the  positive 
could  find  satisfaction. 

1849.  Whittier,  John  Greenleaf.     Margaret  Smith's  Journal,  Boston, 
1859  [not  in  B.M.].     (Writings,  Riverside  Edn.,  1888-89,  7  vols., 
vol.  v,  Prose,  vol.  i,  p.  51.) 

I  think  old  Chaucer  hath  it  right  in  his  Pardoner's  Tale 
[11.  549-55]  :— 

A  likerous  thing  is  wine,  and  drunkenness 
Is  full  of  striving  and  of  wretchedness  [etc.]. 

1850.  Boker,  George  Henry.     Letter  to  E.  H.  Stoddard,  [dated]  Jan.  7, 
1850,  [quoted  in]   Recollections  .  .  .  by  R.  H.  Stoddard,  New 
York,  1903,  p.  186. 

Read  Chaucer  for  strength,  read  Spenser  for  ease  and 
sweetness,  read  Milton  for  sublimity  and  thought,  read 
Shakespeare  for  all  these  things  and  for  something  else  which 
is  his  alone.  Get  out  of  your  age  as  far  as  you  can. 


1850]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  283 

1850.  Bright,  John.  Speech  on  abolition  of  capital  punishment. 
The  Life  and  Speeches  of  John  Bright,  2  vols.  1881,  by  George 
Barnett  Smith,  vol.  i,  p.  307. 

If  you  wish  to  teach  the  people  to  reverence  human  nature, 
you  must  first  show  them  that  you  reverence  it  yourselves. 
An  old  English  writer,  Chaucer,  says  of  his  "  Parson  " — 
"  Christ's  lore,  and  his  Apostles  twelve 
He  preached,  but  first  he  followed  it  himself ; " 

[Prol.  11.  527-8.] 

and  if  we  would  teach  men  to  reverence  the  lives  of  their 
fellow-men  the  first  and  most  powerful  step  we  could  take 
would  be  to  abandon  the  halter  and  the  scaffold. 

1850.  Bruce,  John,  and  Others.  (Committee  for  the  Repair  of  the 
Tomb  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer.)  Advertisement,  [on  the  cover  of]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Aug.  1850,  new  ser.,  vol.  xxxiv,  also  in 
Notes  and  Queries,  Feb.  22,  and  May  10,  1851,  1st  ser.,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  159,  383. 
[The  names  of  the  Committee  are — 

John    Bruce,   Esq.,    Treasurer   Sir  Frederick  Madden,  K.IT. 


S.A. 

J.Payne  Collier, Esq.,V.P.S. A. 
Peter  Cunningham,  Esq., F.  S.A. 
W.  Eichard  Drake,Esq.,F.S.A. 


John  G.  Nichols,  Esq.,  F.S.A. 
Henry  Shaw,  Esq.,  F.S.A. 
Samuel  Shepherd,  Esq.,  F.S.A. 
William  J. Thorns,  Esq.,F.S.A. 


Thomas  W.  King,  Esq.,  F.S.A. 

A-statement  follows  that  the  tomb  "is  fast  mouldering  into 
irretrievable  decay,"  and  that  £100  "will  effect  a  perfect 
repair;"  with  an  appeal  for  this  sum. 

On  pp.  182-3,  293,  632  of  vol.  xxxiii,  and  on  pp.  75, 
280-2,  485  of  vol.  xxxiv,  of  The  Gentleman's  Maf/azine,  are 
further  notes,  articles  and  appeals.] 

1850.  Collier,  John  Payne.  Chaucer's  Monument  and  Spenseifs  Death, 
[in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Nov.  1850,  new  series,  vol.  xxxiv, 
pp.  485-7. 

[Collier  argues  from  a  passage  in  "Win.  "Warner's  Albion's 
England  [q.v.  above,  1606,  vol.  i,  p.  178]  that  Spenser  was 
only  accidentally  and  not  designedly  buried  near  Chaucer,  the 
couplet  being  : 

"  Per  accidens  only  interr'd 
Nigh  venerable  Chaucer."] 

1850.  Dickens,  Charles.  David  Copperjield,  chap,  xxvii,  Iii,  pp.  287, 
536.  (Works,  Gadshill  Edition,  ed.  Andrew  Lang,  1892-1908, 
36  vols.,  vol.  xiv,  David  Copperfield  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp,  487-8; 
vol.  ii,  p.  386.) 

[p.287]  "It  was  at  Canterbury  where  we  last  met.  Within  the 
shadow,  I  may  figuratively  say,  of  that  religious  edifice, 


Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1850 

immortalized  by  Chaucer,  which  was  anciently  the  resort  of 
Pilgrims  from  the  remotest  corners  of — in  short,"  said  Mr. 
Micawber,  "in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  cathedral." 
tp.  £36]  [Mr.  Micawber  is  again  speaking  :]  "  So  be  it !  For  myself, 
my  Canterbury  Pilgrimage  has  done  much ;  imprisonment  on 
civil  process,  and  want,  will  soon  do  more." 


1850.  Hunter,  Joseph.  The  Seal  of  Chaucer:  copy  of  the  deed  to 
which  it  is  appended  :  copy  of  a  public  instrument  notifying  to  him 
his  removal  from  his  office  of  Clerk  of  the  King's  Works  .  .  .  Eead 
May  14,  1850,  [in]  Archaeologia,  vol.  xxxiv,  1852,  pp.  42-5. 

[With  a  drawing  of  the  seal  and  counterseal.  The  first 
document  is  a  deed  of  Thomas  Chaucer  of  Ewelme,  dated 
20  May,  10  Henry  IV  (1409),  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  19,  the 
second  is  of  17  June,  14  Eichard  II  (1391),  (Life  Eecords 
of  Chaucer,  p.  300),  q.v.  below,  App.  A,  1391.] 


[c.  1850.]  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  James  I  of  Scotland,  [lines  printed 
in]  Letters  and  other  Unpublished  writings  of  Walter  Savage  Landor, 
ed.  Stephen  Wheeler,  1897,  p.  205. 

James  !  I  will  never  call  thy  fortunes  hard, 
A  happy  lover  and  unrival'd  bard. 
For  Chaucer,  Britain's  firstborn,  was  no  more, 
And  the  Muse  panted  after  heavy  Gower. 


[c.  1850.]  Noble,  T.  Ovid's  Art  of  Love,  Bemedy  of  Love  and  Art  of 
Beauty  :  to  which  is  added  Chaucer  s  Court  of  Love  [Maynwaring's 
version],  etc.,  London,  T.  Noble. 

[A  reprint  of  the  original  edn.  of  1709,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  310.  The  Chaucerian 
authorship  of  the  Court  of  Love  is  nowhere  questioned  in  the  little  book,  which 
is  a  plain  reprint  without  notes.] 

1850.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  i,  pp.  155-6,  203,  218,222, 
229,  235,  254,  281,  303,  307,  335,  343,  395,  419-420;  vol.  ii,  pp. 
27,  31,  108-9,  164,  199,  237,  269,  316,  322-3,  376,  403-4,  420-21, 
442,  485,  495. 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

1850.  Todd,        Jan.  5.     1st  S.  i,  155-6.     'Rehete':  Tyrwhitt's  glossary 

J.  H.  quoted. 

Thorns,     Jan.  26.    1st  S.  i,  203.        Sonnet  written  on  the  opening 
W.  J.  of  the  Session,  1847. 

It  is  not  mine  to  commune  with  the  men 
[i.e.  the  great  Parliamentarians]. 
Not  so  when  I  unfold  some  favorite  book. 
Chaucer  and  I  grow  boon  companions  then  .   .  . 
Quotation,  Prol.  11.  293-6. 


1850]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  285 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Corney,     Feb.  2.    IstS.  i,  21 8.         'Poke.' 
Bolton. 

Thorns,      Feb.  2.    1st  S.  i,  222.       Sonnet  written  on  the  close  of 
W.  J.  the  Session,  1849. 

Now  am  I  free  .  .  . 
Free,  and  I  wish  to  go  a  pilgrimage 
With  Chaucer,  my  companion  long  approved  .  .  . 
Quotation  : 
The  tyme  came  that  resoun  was  to  ryse.— Chaucer. 

Thorns,     Feb.  9.    lstS.i,229.       Chaucer's  Night  Charm  in  the 
W.  J.     Miller es    Tale  (11.  3483-6).      Has   it   been  met  with 
elsewhere  1 

Editor.      Feb.  9.     1st  S.  i,  235.      'Gibbe  our  cat'  (Rom.  Rose,  C. 

6204). 
B., E. M.     Feb.  16.    1st  S.  i,  254.      «  Dulcamon '  (Troilus,  iii,  933). 

Bock,        Mar.  2.     1st  S.  i,  281.      Chaucer's  Night  Charm.     The 
D.  Pater   noster    was  sometimes  used  by   witches,  and 

this  might  be  the    "white"    Pater  noster.     f'Seynte 

Petres    Soster"    refers  possibly  to   the  legend  of  St. 

Petronilla,  or  St.    Pernell,  said  to  be  the  daughter  of 

St.  Peter. 

B.,  J.  M.     Mar.  9.     1st  S.  i,  (i)  Lollius  (Troilus  and  Hons 

303-4.  of  Fame};  (ii)Trophee  (Monkes 

Tale};   (iii)  Corinna  (for   'Colonna'?);  (iv.)  'Friday 

weather '  (Knightes  Tale}. 

Corney,     Mar.  9.     1st  S.  i,  307.        '  Beaver  hat '  (Prol.  1.  272). 
Bolton. 

Foss/E.     Mar.  23.  1st  S.  i,  335.         '  The  Temple,  or  '  A  Temple  ' 

(Prol.  1.  567). 

Editor,  Mar. 23.  IstS  i,  343.  Preliminary  announcement  of 
the  scheme  for  restoring  Chaucer's  monument  in  West 
minster  Abbey  [q.v.  above,  1850,  Bruce]. 

Editor.       April  20.     1st  S.  i,  395.     '  To-break  '  (Lenvoy  a  Scogan, 

1.  1). 
B.,  C.  I,     April  27.     1st  S,  i,  419.     '  Gourd '  (Manciple's  Prol.,  1. 

82). 

F. ,  P.  H.     April  27.     1st  S.  i,  420.     '  The  Temple,'  or  '  A  Temple.' 
Foss,  E.     June  8.       1st  S.ii,  27.      '  The  Temple,'  or  '  A  Temple.' 

B.,  C.  June  8.  IstS.  ii,  31.  '  Hoppesteris'  (Knightes  Tale, 
1.  2017);  Chaucer  must  have  read  Boccaccio's  'bella- 
trici '  as  '  ballatrid.' 

B.,  C,         July  13.      IstS.  ii,          '  Dulcamon,'  from  Arabic  Dhoul 
108-9.  carnun  =  with  the  two  horns. 

Y.,T.  Aug.  10.  IstS. ii,  164.  Chaucer  quoted  on  the  screech- 
owl  :  "  The  oule  eke  that  of  deth  the  bode  bringeth." 

Philo-        Aug.  24.     1st  S.  ii,  199.    What  is  the  route  of  the  Can- 
Chaucer,  terbury  pilgrims  ? 
H.,  S.         Sept.  7.     1st  S.  ii,  237.     Pilgrim's  Road  to  Canterbury. 


286 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1850 


Author.              Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Jackson,    Sept.  21.  1st  S.  ii,  269.  Pilgrim's  Road  to  Canterbury. 
E.  S. 

Oct.  12.  1st  S.  ii,  316.  Pilgrim's  Eoad  to  Canterbury. 

Oct.  19.  1st  S.  ii,  Chaucer's  Damascene  (Pro?-.  1. 


V.,B. 

Jackson. 

E.  S.   ' 


r.,  j.  M. 

Corney, 

Bolton. 

C.,  D. 

B.  M.  N. 


322-3).  Mr.  Saunders,  in  Cabinet  Pic 
tures  of  English  Life,  has  confounded  Damascenus, 
the  Physician,  with  Johannes  Damascenus  Chrysorrhoas, 
"  the  last  of  the  Greek  Fathers,"  a  voluminous  writer 
on  ecclesiastical  subjects,  but  no  physician,  and  there 
fore  not  at  all  likely  to  be  found  among  the  books  of 
Chaucer's  Doctour,  "  Whose  studie  was  but  litel  on  the 
Bible." 

Nov,  2.  1st  S.  ii,  376.  Meaning  of  *  la 
Pandras '  in  Descharnps'  ballade  to  Chaucer  ? 
Nov.  16.  1st  S.  ii,  403.  Deschamps'  ballade. 


Nov.  16.    lstS.ii,403-4.    Deschamps'  ballade. 
Nov.  23.      1st  S.  ii,       Chaucer's  Monument.    Evidence, 
420.        in  Smith's  Life  of  Nollekens,  vol.  i. 
p.  179  [q.v.  above,  1828],  that  remains  of  the  painted 
figure  of  Chaucer  were  to  be  seen  in  Nollekens'  time. 
An  editorial  note  follows  stating  that  one   of  the 
lay  vicars  of  Westminster  Abbey  said  that  when  he  was 
a  boy,  some  sixty-five  or  seventy  years  since,  the  figure 
of  Chaucer  might  be  made  out  by  rubbing  a  wet  finger 
over  it. 

P.  Nov.  30.      1st  S.  ii,        Chaucer's  portrait  by  Occleve. 

442.  Is  this  portrait  to  be  found  in  all 
the  MSS.  of  Egidius  de  Boma,  and,  if  so,  has  it  ever 
been  engraved  ? 

CD. ,  J.  I.,1  -Q       ,,       1st  S.  ii,         Chaucer's   Portrait  by  Occleve 

J  Editor,  I  485.        is  engraved  in — (1)  Strutt's  Regal 

1      and       land  Ecclesiastical  Antiquities  ;    (2)  Canterbury  Tales, 

\JP.f  W.    J  edited   by  Tyrwhitt,  published  by  Pickering;    (3)  in 

octavo  and  folio  by  Vertue.     A  full-length  portrait  of 

Chaucer  is  given  in  Shaw's  Dresses  and  Decorations 

of  the  Middle  Ages;  another,  on  horseback,  in  Todd's 

Illustrations  of  Gower  and  Oiaucer. 

Campkin,  -^      91        1st  S.  ii,        "Mercenary  preacher"  ;  Chau- 
Henry.  495.      cer's   "Good   Parson"  quoted    to 

illustrate  the  phrase. 

[a.  1850  ?]  Buskin,  John.     Letter  on  his  early  poem,  The  Last  Song  of 
Arion,  to  W.  H.  Harrison.     (Works,  Library  edition,  ed.  E.  T. 
Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  123.) 
[The  editors  state  that  this  letter  is  undated  but  was  probably  written  before  1850.] 

[Writers  comparing   their   mistresses    to    the    sun :]    Only 
one  man  has  done  iliat  rightly,  in  the  pure  way — Chaucer. 

'  Up  rose  the  Sonne,  and  up  rose  Emilie  ! ' 

[Knightes  T.,  1.  1415.] 


1850]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  287 

1850.  Unknown.  History  of  the  English  Language,  [in]  The  Edin 
burgh  Review,  Oct.  1850,  vol.  xcii,  pp.  306,  310,  313-315,  317, 
320,  323. 

[p?.3i3-  [Chaucer's  influence  on  the  language;  he  introduced  a 
large  number  of  words  from  the  French,  and  endeavoured, 
though  unsuccessfully,  to  introduce  innovations  of  accent  and 
pronunciation. 

As  regards  vocabulary ;  our  most  idiomatic  writers  have 
never  admitted  more  than  a  tenth  that  is  not  Anglo-Saxon  ; 
our  least  never  less  of  Anglo-Saxon  than  two-thirds. 

Even  in  his  translations,  Chaucer  will  more  than  bear  the 
latter  test,  and  in  his  original  compositions  he  will  more  than 
bear  the  former.] 

[p.  314]  Excepting  a  very  few  passages  in  which  he  makes  a  large 
demand  on  general  and  abstract  nouns  (as  of  ethical  qualities), 
or  of  terms  of  art  (as  of  physic  or  alchemy),  his  diction  is  more 
purely  Saxon  than  that  of  Swift.  In  his  most  graphic  descrip 
tions  of  character  and  incident,  it  will  be  found  that  all  the 
more  vivid  and  expressive  words  and  phrases — those  which 
are  most  poetical  in  their  effect — are  Anglo-Saxon;  as,  for 
example,  in  his  picture  of  the  jovial  monk  of  whom  he  says 
that 

'  When  he  rode,  men  might  his  bridle  hear 
Gingling  in  a  whistling  wind,  as  clear 
And  eke  as  loud  as  doth  his  chapel  bell ; ' 

[Prol.,  11.  169-71.] 

and  of  the  poor  parson,  of  whom  he  writes 


'  That  Cristes  lore  and  his  apostles  twelve 

hims( 

[Prol.,  11.  527-8.] 


He  taught — but  first  he  followed  it  himselve.'1 


[The  other  references  are  brief.] 

1  [Author's  Note.]  The  beautiful  imitation  by  Dryden  of  Chaucer's 
description  of  the  genuine  minister  of  Christ  is  decidedly  inferior,  in 
simple  force  and  vividness,  to  the  original.  Nor  have  Goldsmith  or 
Cowper,  in  treating  the  same  theme,  equalled  the  graphic  touches  of 
our  antique  poet. 

f H.a,  1850.]  Wordsworth,  William.  Miscellaneous  Memoranda,  [in] 
Memoirs  of  W.  Wordsworth,  by  Christopher  Wordsworth,  1851, 
2  vols,  vol.  ii,  p.  470. 

[Wordsworth  died  in  1850.] 

When  I  began  to  give  myself  up  to  the  profession  of  a  poet 
for  life,  I  was  impressed  with  a  conviction,  that  there  were 
four  English  poets  whom  I  must  have  continually  before  me 


288      Five  Hundred  Years  of  Chaucer  Criticism.     [A.D.  1850 

as  examples — Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Spenser  and  Milton. 
These  I  must  study,  and  equal  if  I  could ;  and  I  need  not 
think  of  the  rest. 

[This  paragraph  was  communicated  to  Christopher  Words 
worth  by  Crabb  Robinson.  The  former  says  (vol.  i,  p.  27) 
that  in  the  dining-room  at  Eydal  Mount  "are  engravings 
of  poets — Chaucer,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Ben  Jonson  and 
Milton;  "  and  (vol.  i,  p.  49)  that  "  the  mind  of  Wordsworth  was 
indeed  cheered  at  Cambridge  ...  by  visions  of  the  illustrious 
dead  who  had  been  trained  in  that  University — Chaucer, 
Spenser,  Ben  Jonson,  Milton,  Cowley,  Dryden."] 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 

BRUNSWICK   ST.,    STAMFORD   ST.,    S.E.  1,    AND   BUNGAY,    SUFFOLK. 


0 


T'i 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS 

OF 

CHAUCER  CRITICISM  AND   ALLUSION 

(1357-1900) 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS 
OF  CHAUCER  CRITICISM 
AND  ALLUSION  (1357-1900) 


BY 

CAROLINE  F.   E.   SPURGEON 

DOCTEUR    DE    I/UNIVERSITE    DE    PARIS 
PROFESSOR    OF    ENGLISH    LITERATURE    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    LONDON 


PART   III 
TEXT   1851-1900 


LONDON : 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  CHAUCER  SOCIETY 
BY  KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRCBNER  &  CO.,  LTD., 

BROADWAY    HOUSE,    LUDGATE    HILL,    B.C.    4, 

AND  BY  HUMPHREY  MILFORD,  OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS, 

AMEN  CORNER,  B.C.  4,  AND  IN  NEW  YORK. 

1921  for  the  Issue  of  1913, 

o- 


£mt8,  No.  52. 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 
PARIS  GARDEN,  STAMFORD  ST.,  S.E.  1,  AND  BUNOAY,  SUFFOLK. 


CONTENTS 

TEXT  OF  ALLUSIONS  (1851-1900) 


FIVE  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  CHAUCER 
CRITICISM  AND  ALLUSION 


1851.  Craik,  George  Lillie.  Outlines  of  the  History  of  the  English 
Language  .  .  .  for  Colleges  and  Schools,  pp.  62,  70,  87-8  [Chaucer 
did  not  introduce  French  diction,  the  Testament  of  Love  quoted  as 
genuine],  95-102,  110-15,  117  [Chaucer's  English  transitional, 
many  references  to  Guest's  History  of  English  Rhythms],  135-6, 
Illustrative  Specimens  [from  the  Heves  T.  and  Persones  T.]. 

1851.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  The  Conduct  of  Life,  London,  1860, 
pp.  5-6  [Essay  on  Fate,  Knightes  Tale,  11.  1663-72,  quoted],  40 
[Hous  of  Fame,  11.  43-51,  quoted],  116  [Essay  on  Culture],  182 
[Essay  on  Worship,  Legend  of  Good  Women,  11.  1037-43,  quoted 
for  "  Chaucer's  extraordinary  confusion  of  heaven  and  earth  in 
the  picture  of  Dido"].  (Works,  Centenary  Edition,  1903,  12 
vols.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  5,  6,  46,  132,  207.) 

[Delivered  as  lectiires  in  1851,  and  published  at  Boston  in  1860  ;  the  London  reprint 
of  the  same  year  is  the  first  edn.  in  B.M.] 

1851.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Journal  [quoted  in  notes  to  Represen 
tative  Men,  Centenary  Edition,  [1903,]  vol.  iv,  p.  374]. 

[Emerson  notices  the  absence  in  Goethe's  Faust  of]  the 
cheerful,  radiant,  profuse  beauty  of  which  Shakspeare,  of 
which  Chaucer,  had  the  secret. 

1851.  FitzGerald,  Edward.  Euphranor,  a  Dialogue  on  Youth,  pp.  63-6, 
70.  (Letters  and  Literary  Remains,  ed.  W.  A.  Wright,  1902-3, 
7  vols.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  237-40,  243-4,  246-7.) 

tp.  63]       [Quotation  of  ProL,  11.  79-100  : 

'  With  him  there  was  his  Sonn,  a  yonge  Squire.   .  .' 
to 

'  And  karft  before  his  Fadir  at  the  table.'] 

'  Chaucer,  however,'  said  Euphranor  when  he  had  finished 
[p. 64]   the    passage,    'allows    his    young   squire    more    accomplish 
ments   than   you   would   trust   him   with,  Doctor.     See,  he 
dances,  draws,  and  even  writes  songs — quite  a  petit  maitre' 

'But  also,'  I  added,  'is  of  "grete  strength,"  "fair  y-rides," 
and  had  already  "  born  him  well  in  Chivanchie."  Besides,'  con 
tinued  I  .  .  .  'in  those  days,  you  know,  there  was  scarce  any 
reading,  which  usurps  so  much  of  knighthood  now.  Men  left 
that  to  the  clergy ;  contented,  as  we  before  agreed,  to  follow 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — III.  B 


2  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1851 

their  bidding  to  pilgrimages  and  holy  wars.  Some  gentler 
accomplishments  were  needed  then  to  soften  manners,  just  as 
we  want  rougher  ones  to  fortify  ours.  .  .  . 

[p.  65]  *  And  look  at  dear  old  Chaucer  himself,'  said  I,  '  how  the 
fresh  air  of  the  Kent  hills,  over  which  he  rode  four  hundred 
years  ago,  breathes  in  his  verses  still.  They  have  a  perfume 
like  fine  old  hay,  that  will  not  lose  its  sweetness,  having  been 
cut  and  carried  so  fresh.  All  his  poetry  bespeaks  a  man  of 
sound  mind  and  body.' 

tp.  36]        [Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  men  of  business.] 

[p.  70]        [Tenderness  of  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare.] 

[In  May,  1882,  FitzGerald  caused  to  be  printed  50  copies 
of  a  revised  edn.  of  Eupliranor.  In  this  the  passage  on  p.  65 
of  the  1851  edn.,  quoted  above,  disappears;  while  another 
is  inserted,  which  concludes  (p.  50)  with  the  following 
paragraph  :] 

"They  [Pepys  and  Parson  Adams]  were  both  prefigured 
among  those  Canterbury  Pilgrims  so  many  years  before,"  said  I. 
"  Only  think  of  it !  Some  iiine-and- twenty,  I  think,  *  by 
aventure  yfalle  in  feleweship,'  High  and  Low,  Rich  and  Poor, 
Saint  and  Sinner,  Cleric  and  Lay,  Knight,  Ploughman, 
Prioress,  Wife  of  Bath,  Shipman,  hunting  Abbot-like  Fryar, 
Poor  Parson  (Adams'  Progenitor)  —  Webster  (Pepys') — on 
rough-riding  '  Stot '  or  ambling  Palfrey,  marshal!' d  by  mine 
Host  of  the  Tabard  to  the  music  of  the  Miller's  Bag-pipes,  on 
their  sacred  errand  to  St.  Thomas' ;  and  one  among  them 
taking  note  of  all  in  Verse  still  fresh  as  the  air  of  those 
Kentish  hills  they  travelled  over  on  that  April  morning  four 
hundred  years  ago." 

[Corresponding  to  the  passing  allusion  on  p.  70  of  edn.  1851 
to  '  the  whole  familiar  tenderness  of  this  very  Shakspeare  and 
Chaucer  of  ours '  is  (pp.  53-4)  the  following  :] 

"  Wordsworth  ? "  said  I — a  man  of  the  Milton  rather  than 
of  the  Chaucer  and  Shakspeare  type — without  humour,  like 
the  rest  of  his  Brethren  of  the  Lake." 

"  Not  but  he  loves  Chaucer  as  much  as  you  can,  Doctor, 
for  those  f resh  touches  of  Nature,  and  tenderness  of  Heart — 
insomuch  that  he  has  re-cast  the  Jew  of  Lincoln's  Story  into 
a  form  more  available  for  modern  readers." 

"  And  successfully  1 " 


1851]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  3 

"Ask  Lexilogus  —  Ah!  I  forgot  that  he  never  read 
Chaucer 

[On  p.  56  is  added  a  comparison  of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby, 
author  of  The  Broad  Stone  of  Honour,  to  Chaucer's  Squire  in 
physical  strength,  and  to  Chaucer  himself  in  his  eye  for 
humours.] 

1851.  Innes,  Henry.     A  Lecture  on  the  Genius  of  Chaucer,  Malta. 

[A  short  sketch  of  Chaucer's  life,  followed  by  stories  from 
the  Canterbury  TalesJ] 

1851.  Meredith,  George.  Poems,  p.  22.  [The  dedication  to  T.  L. 
Peacock  is  dated  May,  1851.] 

The  Poetry  of  Chaucer. 
Gray    with    all    honours    of    age !    but    fresh    featured    and 

ruddy 
As    dawn    when    the    drowsy    farm-yard    has    thrice    heard 

Chaunticlere. 

Tender  to  tearfulness — childlike,  and  manly,  and  motherly  ; 
Here   beats   true  English    blood   richest    joyance   on    sweet 

English  ground. 

1851.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  iii,  pp.  74,  92,  109,  131-3, 
156,  158-9,  188,  201-3,  205-6,  235,  252,  258,  263,  297,  300,  306, 
308^315-17,  330,  345-6,  361-3,  368,  383,  385-7,  419-21,  429-30, 
434,  450,  473-4,  492-3,  496,  507-8,  515  ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  54,  65,  68, 
76,  88,  93,  145-7,  159,  176,  189,  255,  275,  318,  337,  475. 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

a.,  F.  S.        Jan.  25.     1st  S.  iii,     «  Pilled '  (Reves  Tale). 

74. 
Q.,  F.  S.  •     Feb.  1.      1st  S.  iii,      'Velouttes    blew,     in    signe  of 

92.       trouth.' 
"  Good         Feb.  8.      1st  S.  iii,      «  By  and  by '  =  side  by  side. 

B'ye."  109. 

E.  Feb.  22.     1st  S.  iii,        Note       on      Knightes      Tale. 

131-2.      Chaucer  specially  mentions   the 

arrival  of  Palamon  and  Arcite  at  Athens  on  a  Sunday, 

and  this  circumstance  is  astrologically  connected  with 

the  issue  of  the  contest. 

Anon.  Feb.  22.     1st  S.  iii,        'Nettle  in,  dock  out'  (Troilus, 

133.         iv,  st.  66)  is  the  beginning  of  a 
Northumbrian  charm  for  a  nettle-sting. 
Anon.          Feb.  22.     1st  S.  iii,       Short  notice   of  Wright's    Can- 

158.       terbury  Tales,  vol.  iii. 

Bruce,          Feb.  22.     1st  S.  iii,      Chaucer's  tomb  ;  see  above,  1850, 
John,  and  159.       and  below,  May  10. 

Others. 


Five  Hundred   Years  of 


[A.D.  1851 


Author.  Date.          Reference.  Subject. 

M.,  C.  R.      March  8.    1st  S.  iii,      Chaucer's   descendants,  if  any, 
188.       might  contribute  to  the  repair  of 
his  tomb. 

B[rae],          Mar.  15.    1st  S.  iii,       The    astrological    note    on   the 
A.  E.  201-3.     24  hours  of   the  day  in  Knightes 

Tale     (Feb.    22)     anticipated     by 
Tyrwhitt. 

Crossley,     March  15.  IstS.  iii,       'Nettle  in,  dock  out.3 
Fras.,  and  205-6. 

Editor. 

B[rae],          Mar.  29.    1st  S.  iii,       The  astronomical   allegory  con- 
A.  E.  235.       tained  in   Chaucer's  Complaint  of 

Mars  and  Venus. 

X  ,  A.  L.       Mar.  29.    1st  S.  iii,       Chaucer's  'Fifty  Wekes.'— With 

252.       regard    to    Chaucer    meaning    by 

this  the  interval  of  a  solar  year ;  compare  it  with  his 

original,   the    Teseide   of    Boccaccio  ;    where   (V.   98) 

Theseus  says,  appointing  the  listed  fight : 

'  E  TERMINE  vi  sia  a  cio  donato 

D'UN   ANNO   INTERO.3 

To  which  the  poet  subjoins  : 
'  E  cosi  fu  ordinato.' 

B[rae],          April  5.     1  st  S.  iii,       Further  notes  on  the  Complaint 
A.  E.  258,  306.   of  Mars  and  Venus. 

B[rae],          Apr.  26.     1st  S.  iii,       Tyrwhitt's     astronomical     mis- 
A.  E.  315-7.      takes  in  his  notes  on  the  opening 

lines  of  the  Prologue  and  Marchantes  Tale,  1.  889. 

Editor.         April  26.    1st  S.  iii.       '  Span-newe.' 
330. 

B[rae],         May  3.       1st  S.  iii,       Introduction    to    the   Man    of 

A.  E.  345.        Law's   Prologue.     'The  Arke   of 

Artificial  Day'   means   the   Azimuthal  Arch  of   the 

horizon  included  between  the  point  of  sunrise  and 

that  of  sunset. 

Editor.  May  10.  1st  S.  iii,  Chaucer's  prophetic  view  of  the 
361-3.  Crystal  Palace,  as  shown  in  his 
description  of  the  'temple  y-made  of  Glas'  in  the 
Hous  of  Fame.  Several  extracts  pieced  together.  [For 
a  parallel  see  below,  1854,  Unknown.]  The  article 
concludes  with  an  appeal  for  money  towards  restoring 
Chaucer's  tomb. 


1st  S.  iii,       '  Nettle  out,  dock  in.' 
368. 

Chaucer's  tomb  ;  a  fuller  appeal, 
383.      with  a  woodcut  of  it  as  it  should  be ; 
**  the  portrait  and  the  inscriptions  have  disappeared  ; 
the  overhanging  canopy  has  suffered  damage  ;  the  table 


"  Arun.3'       May  10. 

Bruce,          May  10.     1st  S.  iii, 
John,  and 
Others,, 


1851]  CJiaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  5 

Author  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

is  chipped  and  broken  ;  the  base  is  fast  mouldering 
into  irretrievable  decay."  See  above,  1850,  and  Feb.  22, 
p.  159  in  this  vol. 

B[rae],          May  17.     1st  S.  iii,       The   date    of   the    journey    to 
A.E.  385-7.      Canterbury  as  deduced  from  the 

Prologue  to  the  Man  of  Law's  Tale.  .  .  .  Speaking 
strictly,  this  declination  would  more  properly  apply  to 
the  17th  of  April,  in  Chaucer's  time,  than  to  the  18th  ; 
but  since  he  does  not  profess  to  critical  exactness,  .  .  . 
such  MSS.  as  name  the  18th  of  April  ought  to  be 
respected  ;  but  Tyrwhitt's  '  28th '  .  .  .  .  ought  to,  be 
scouted  at  once. 

[See  Skeat's  note  on  1.  3  of  Introduction  to  the  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  Chaucer's 
Works,  vol.  v,  p.  132.] 

With  regard  to  '  Ten  on  the  clokke '  in  the  afternoon 
observation  [Parson's  ProL,  1.  5],  there  seems  no  need  to 
retain  a  reading  '  by  which  broad  sunshine  is  attributed 
to  ten  o'clock  at  night ;!  It  may  be  explained  in 
the  circumstance  that  'ten'  and  'four'  in  horary 
reckoning  were  convertible  terms.  The  old  Roman 
method  of  naming  the  hours,  wherein  noon  was  the 
sixth,  was  long  preserved,  especially  in  conventual 
establishments :  and  doubtless  the  idiomatic  phrase 
'o'clock3  originated  in  the  necessity  for  some  dis 
tinguishing  mark  between  hours  'of  the  clock' 
reckoned  from  midnight,  and  hours  of  the  day 
reckoned  from  sunrise  or  6  A.M.  So  that  Ten  was  very 
likely  a  gloss  upon  four  by  some  monkish  transcriber, 
ignorant  perhaps  of  the  meaning  of  *  o'clock';  since 
four  o'clock  is  the  tenth  hour  of  the  day  reckoning 
from  6  A.M. 

[See  Skeat's  note,  confirming  this,  to  1.  5  of  the  Parson's  Prologue,  Chaucer's 
Works,  vol.  v,  p.  444.] 

B[rae],          May  31.    1st  S.  iii,       The  Star  Min  Al  Auwa— 
A.  E.  419-21. 

'Therewith  the  mones  exaltacioun 
In  libra,  men  alawai  gan  ascende 
As  we  were  entrying  at  a  townes  end.' 
The  meaning  of  these  lines  is  discussed,  and  it  is 
suggested  that  Chaucer  intended  to  mark  the  moon's 
place  by  associating  her  rising  with  that  of  a  known 
fixed  star;  compare,  for  this  same  method,  11.  263-5  of 
the  Squire's  Tale. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  only  year,  perhaps 
in  the  whole  of  Chaucer's  lifetime,  in  which  the  moon 
could  have  arisen  with  this  star  on  the  18th  of  April, 
should  be  the  identical  year  to  which  Tyrwhitt,  reason 
ing  from  historical  evidence  alone,  would  fain  attribute 
the  writing  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  i.  e.  1388. 

"Arun."       May  31.     1st  S.  iii,       Pilgrims'  Road  to  Canterbury 
429-30. 


Five  Hundred  Tears  of 


[A.D.  1851 


Author. 

Date. 

Reference. 

Subject. 

Editor. 

May  31. 

IstS.iii, 
434. 

'  Went'  =  way. 

C.,  J,  H. 

June  7. 

IstS.iii, 
450. 

'  Hernshaw.' 

B[rae], 
A.  E. 

June  14. 

IstS.iii, 
473-4. 

The  Armorican 
(Frankeleyns     Tal 

Thorns, 
W.  J. 


June  21. 


word  '  menez ' 
Tale)  =  points    or 
summits  of  rocks. 

Coincidence   between    Chaucer 
and   Gray.     Did   Gray    owe   the 


T.,  H.  G. 

B[rae], 
A.  E. 


1st  S.  iii 
492-3. 
well-known  line, 

E'en  in  our  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires, 
to  the  one  in  Chaucer's  Reves  Prologue, 

Yet  in  our  ashen  cold  is  fire  yreken  1  (I.  28). 

[For  this  comparison  see  above,  1782  [Dodsley,  J.  ?],  vol.  i,  p.  465.] 

Editor.         June  21.  IstS.iii,        Chaucer's  reference  (Nonnes  P.  T. 
496.       11. 4537-42)  to  Geoffrey  de  Vinsauf's 
lament  for  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion. 
June  21.  1st  S.  iii,        f  Hernshaw.' 

507-8. 

June 28.  IstS.iii,  The  Astronomical  evidence  of 
515.  the  true  date  of  the  Canterbury 
Pilgrimage.  When  it  is  recollected  that  some  at  least 
of  the  facts  recorded  by  Chaucer  must  have  been 
theoretical  ...  it  must  be  admitted  that  his  near 
approach  to  truth  is  remarkable  .  .  . 

Assuming  that  the  true  date  intended  by  Chaucer  was 
Saturday  the  18th  of  April  1388,  the  following  particu 
lars  of  that  day  are  those  which  have  reference  to  his 
description.  Astronomical  particulars  are  then  given. 

Chaucer's  knowledge  of  astronomy  is  most  probably 
the  result  of  real  observation  at  the  time  named. 
Probable  that  he  wrote  the  prologues  to  his  Canterbury 
Tales  more  as  a  narration  (with  some  embellishments) 
of  events  that  really  took  place,  than  that  they  were 
altogether  the  work  of  his  imagination. 

July  26.  1st  S.  iv,  Chaucer  and  Gray  (iii,  492.) — 
Gray  himself  refers  in  a  note  to 
Petrarch  as  his  original  for  the 
line — 

;  Even  in    our  ashes  live   their 
wonted  fires.' 

The     thought     also     occurs     in 
Shakespeare. 

Gray's     line     was     originally 
written — 

'Awake    and    faithful    to    her 
wonted  fires,' 

which  has  but  little  to  do  with 
'Chaucer. 


well], 
J.  0. 


Varro. 


54. 


1851] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


Author.  Date, 

Campkin,  July 
Henry. 

P.,  G.  July 


26. 


26. 


Editor. 


Aug.  2. 


Editor         Aug. 
and  others. 


30. 


Reference. 

IstS.iv, 
65,  68. 

IstS.iv, 
76. 

1st  S.  iv, 

88. 

1st  S. 
145- 


Subject. 


Eisel.' 


>•  iv,     r 


'  Hernshaw.' 

'  Deal,' '  never  a  del.' 

Chaucer  and  Caxton.  —  Why 
I  not  repair  Chaucer's  tomb  with 
-I  the  money  of  the  Caxton  fund  ? 
I  Nothing  would  be  more  agree- 
lable  to  Caxton  himself. 


L[aing], 
DFavidl. 
P.,  J.  W. 

Sept.  6.    1st  S.  iv,         Where  is  Kinaston's  MS.  of  his 
176.          Latin  version  of  Troilus? 
Sept.  13.  IstS.iv,         *Ruell.' 
189. 

Laurie, 
James. 

Oct.  4.      1st  S.  iv,         What    was    the    original    pro- 
255.          n  im  elation   of  the   name   of  the 
poet  Chaucer  ?     Was  not  the  ch  in  his  day  a  guttural  1 
And  was  not  the  name  Hawker,  or  Howker? 

Editor. 

Oct.  11.    1st  S.  iv,        '  Livery.' 
275. 

"  A  Lon 
doner." 

Oct.  25.    1st  S.  iv,         '  Cockney.' 
318. 

"  A  Lon 
doner." 

Dec.  13.    IstS.iv,        'Cocknev.' 
475. 

1851.  Turner,  Thomas  Hudson.  Some  Account  of  Domestic  Archi 
tecture  in  England  from  the  Conquest  to  the  End  of  the  Thirteenth 
Century,  Oxford  1851,  pp.  122,  146.  [For  the  continuation  of  this 
work,  by  J.  H.  Parker,  see  below,  1853.] 

[p.  122]  Perhaps  the  earliest  [hostel  or  tavern]  in  London  was  the 
Saracen's  Head  in  Friday  Street,  Chepeside,  where  Chaucer, 
in  his  youth,  saw  the  Grosvenor  arms  hanging  out ;  the  poet 
did  not  make  his  acquaintance  with  the  Tabard  in  Southwark 
till  a  later  date. 


1851.  Unknown.     Review  of  Wright's  Canterbury  Tales,  vol.  iii,  [in] 
The  Athenaeum,  March  15,  1851,  pp.  294-5. 

[A  long  review,  praising  Wright's  principle  of  printing  from 
a  single  MS.  and  giving  the  variations  of  others ;  surprise  is 
expressed  that  he  had  not  used  the  Ellesmere  MS.,  and  hope 
that  he  would  add  the  other  poems,  a  glossary,  and  a  bio 
graphy  which  should,  without  being  diffuse  like  Godwin's, 
contain  the  new  facts  which  have  come  to  light  since  Nicolas 
published  his.] 


8  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1851- 

1851.  Unknown.  Biographical  Sketches  of  Eminent  British  Poets  .  .  . 
intended  for  teachers,  Dublin,  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  pp.  1-11. 

[A  very  brief  biography,  accepting  the  events  based  on  The 
Testament  of  Love,  followed  by  quotations  in  praise  of  Chaucer 
from  Campbell,  Southey,  Leigh  Hunt,  etc.] 

[This  book  was  probably  intended  to  be  a  companion  to  the  Selections  from  the 
British  Poets,  Dublin,  1851,  q.v.  below.  Both  were  published  by  direction  of  the 
Commissioners  of  National  Education  in  Ireland.] 

1851.  Unknown.     Selections  from  the  British  Poets,  .  .  .  from  Chaucer 
to  the  present  Time  .  .  .  Dublin,  1851,  vol.  i,  p.  337  ["Truth"]  ; 
vol.  ii,  pp.  4-5    ["Spring"],    105-6  ["An  April  Day"],  210-12 
["The  Good  Parson"],  253  ["  The  Daisy"],  365,  399. 

[The  first  four  pieces  are  more  or  less  modernised,  the  third 
so  much  so  that  its  original  cannot  be  identified.  The  first 
stanza  reads : 

All  day  the  low-hung  clouds  have  dropt 

Their  garner'd  fulness  down ; 
All  day  the  soft  grey  mist  hath  wrapt 

Hill,  valley,  grove  and  town. 

This  reappears  in  several  later  school  anthologies,  the  latest 
we  have  found  being  H.  C.  Bowen's  Studies  in  English,  1876.] 

1852.  Clough,  Arthur  Hugh.     Lecture  on  the  Development  of  English 
Literature  from  Chaucer  to  Wordsworth,  [printed  in]  Prose  Remains 
of  A.  H.  Clough,  1888,  pp.  333-42. 

[p.  334]  In  commencing  such  a  conspectus  [of  the  mutual  reaction  of 
literature  and  national  character  in  England],  I  can  have  no 
hesitation  in  selecting  the  first  name  :  English  Literature 
begins  with  Chaucer.  .  .  .  The  picture  of  all  that  pertains  to 
those  first  exhibitions  (for  good  or  for  evil,  or  for  both)  of  our 
English  genius  and  temper  you  may  see  surviving  unfaded  in 
the  lively  colouring  of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales."  .  .  .  What, 

[p.  335]  for  example,  can  be  truer  to  permanent  English  likings 
and  dislikings  .  .  .  than  these  lines  in  description  of  the 
Monk?  [Quotation,  ProL,  11.  173-8,  183-8.]  Certainly  we 
may  still  find  in  old  England  ladies  —  I  quote  Chaucer  — 
paining  themselves  to  counterfeit  cheer  of  court,  and  be 
estately  of  manere,  and  to  be  held  worthy  of  reverence ;  busy 
or  busy-seeming  lawyers  [quotation,  ProL,  11.  321—2]  ;  country 
gentlemen,  great  at  the  sessions,  and  greater  at  the  dinner 
table ;  the  tried  soldier,  silent  and  unpretending ;  the  young 

[p.  336]  soldier,  much  the  reverse ;  the  merchant,  so  discreet  and 
steadfast  [quotation,  ProL,  1.  282]  ;  religious  and  laborious 
parish-clergymen,  and  church  dignitaries,  not  very  religious, 
and  not  at  all  laborious, 


1852]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  9 

[p.  342]  [Chaucer,  by  the  copious  admission  of  Norman-French 
elements,  completed  and  transformed  'our  homely  meagre 
Semi-Saxon  into  a  civilised  and  living  speech.'] 

1852.  Edgar,  Andrew.  Popular  Literature,  [in]  Tusculana,  pp.  116, 
118-19,  127-8. 

[p.  us]  We  never  rise  from  their  perusal  [V.  e.  of  the  Canterbury 
Tales]  without  a  conviction  that,  but  for  their  antique 

[p.  119]  phraseology,  their  popularity  at  the  present  day  would  be  un 
bounded.  .  .  They  present  to  us  men  as  they  were,  and  in 
truth,  as  they  always  will  be.  .  .  The  masterly  narrative  of 
Hume  conveys  but  an  imperfect  notion  of  those  times,  in 
comparison  with  what  may  be  derived  from  the  "  Canterbury 
Tales."  We  are  presented  with  the  very  form  and  pressure  of 
the  age.  .  .  We  are  admitted  behind  the  scenes  ;  we  inspect 
the  interior  of  society.  We  see  causes  beginning  to  operate  of 
which  we  now  enjoy  the  effects.  We  see  the  clergy  meeting 
with  the  contempt  and  sneers  of  wise  observers.  .  .  We  see 
the  rising  influence  of  the  people.  .  .  Then  in  addition  to 
all  this  we  have  fancy  and  imagination  shedding  their  radiance 
over  all,  romance  so  like  truth,  poetry  so  full  of  nature. 
Would  not  a  writer  of  such  powers,  and  such  a  character,  but 
for  the  unfortunate  drawback  to  which  we  have  alluded,  and 
which  the  failure  of  every  attempt  has  rendered  us  almost 
hopeless  of  ever  seeing  removed,  be  likely  to  find  favour  in  the 
eyes  of  a  generation  who  pay  such  homage  to  the  mirrored  life 
of  Shakespeare,  and  who  take  such  delight  in  "  the  pictured 
page  "  of  Scott  1 

[This  passage  was  quoted  in  extenso  by  a  reviewer  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
March,  1853,  new  ser.,  vol.  xxxix,  pp.  286-7,  and  commended  as  "a  little  over 
wrought,  but  in  the  main  just."] 

1852.  Mitford,  Mary  Russell.  Recollections  of  a  Literary  Life,  3  vols.  ; 
vol.  i,  p.  Ill;  vol.  ii,  pp.  176,  236  ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  189-91,  194. 

[iii.  190]  These  towers  [Donnington]  with  their  battlements,  and  the 
deep,  arched  entrance  .  .  .  speak  of  little  but  war  in  its 
sternest  form ;  but  the  little  hall,  with  its  beautiful  groined 
roof,  and  a  certain  mixture  of  rude  splendour  and  homely 
comfort,  .  .  .  tells  of  the  genial  poet  whose  healthy,  cordial, 

tp.  191]  hearty  spirit  must  have  made  him  the  delight  of  every  board, 
and  most  especially  of  his  own. 

I  was  mu,ch  tempted  to  extract  some  passage  in  harmony 


10 


Mve  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1852 


with  this  feeling;  some  bright  and  life-like  portrait  from  the 
description  of  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  or  that  inimitable 
character  of  the  good  Parson,  which  amongst  its  innumerable 
merits  has  none  higher  than  the  proof  it  affords  of  Chaucer's 
own  love  of  piety  and  virtue.  ...  I  subjoin  (taking  no  othei1 
freedom  than  that  of  changing  the  orthography)  one  of  my 
own  favourite  bits,  .  .  .  full  as  it  seems  to  me  of  tenderness, 
pathos  and  truth. 

[Quotation—  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  11.  722-875.] 

[For  Miss  Mitford's  letter  and  sonnet  on  this  occasion,  see  above,  1815.] 

1852-3.  N.,  F.  M.  Letters,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Sept.  1852, 
Jan.,  Feb.,  March.  1853,  new  series,  vol.  xxxviii,  pp.  274-5,  vol. 
xxxix,  pp.  52-4,  169-70,  276-7. 

[On  English  etymology,  with  many  examples  from  Chaucer.] 


1852.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  v,  pp.  26,  141,  170,  237, 
252-3,  267-8,  319,  325-6,  373,  466,  536,  574,  607,  621 ;  vol.  vi, 
pp.  118,  167,  304,  409,  424,  603. 

Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

1st  S.  v,        Johnson    the    author    of    the 
26.  newspaper       announcement      of 

Gibber's  Lives  of  the  Poets,  with  Chaucer  allusions; 
q.  v.  above,  1753^  vol.  i,  p.  407. 
Feb.  7.          IstS.  v,         'Buxom.' 


Author. 

Editor?     Jan.  10. 


A,E. 


141. 


B[rael        Feb.  21. 
A.  E. 

1st  S.  v, 
170. 

Warde,    j 
H.  Cor-     f  Feb.  21. 
ville,  and  I 
Editor,     l 

1st  S.  v, 
180. 

To  do '  =  to  cause. 


Dulcarnon,'  still  current. 


Juvenis.      Mar.  6.        1st  S.  v,        '  Dun  is  in  the  mire.' 

237. 

Singer,      v 
Samuel  / 

Weller,  >  Mar.  13.      IstS.v, 
and        \  252-3. 

N.,  A.        > 

Campkin,    Mar.  20.      IstS.v,        Burlesque  on  Cowley's  epitaph, 
Henry.  267-8.     with     Chaucer     allusions  ;     q.v. 

below,  App.  A.,  [1667  ?]. 

'  Philo-      April  3.       1st  S.  v,        Is  the  copy  of  Speght's  Chaucer 
Chaucer.'  319.         in  existence,  in  which  was  a  note 

by  Gabriel  Harvey  on  Hey  wood's  Epigrams  ?     [See  a 
note  in  Warton's  Poetry,  vol.  iii,  p.  86  (ed.  1840).] 


Dulcarnon,'  from  the  Arabic. 


1852] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


11 


Author. 

Singer, 

Samuel 
Weller. 

Benmo- 
hel, 

N.  L. 

<  Philo- 
Chaucer.' 

<  Eliza.' 


Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

April  3.       1st  S.  v,         '  Dulcarnon.'  'Are  we  never  to 
325-6.    have     an     edition     of    Chaucer 
worthy  of  him  and  creditable  to  us  1 ' 

April  17.      IstS.  v,         'Kehete,'   ' 
373. 

May  15.      1st  S.  v,        '  Soth  play  quod  play '  (Cokes 

466.         Pro?.,  1.  33). 

June  5.       1st  S.  v,         Who    is    the    author    of    the 
536.         following  lines  on  Chaucer? 
*  Swan-like,  in  dying 
Famous  old  Chaucer 
Sang  his  last  song.' 

June  12.     1st  S.  v,         Reference  given  for  the  above, 
q.v.  above,  1841. 

'  Gat-tothed.' 


1  Jaydee.' 
R.,  J.  C. 

r. 

T.,F.W 
M.,  J.E. 

B.,  J.  N.       Dec.  25.     1st  S.  vi, 


A  slight  correction  in  the  above. 
*  Vernicle.' 


574. 

June  26.      IstS.  v, 
607. 

June  26.     1st  S.  v, 
621. 

Sept.  25.      1st  S.  v, 
304. 

Oct.  30.       1st  S.  vi,        The  Man  in  the  Moon  ;  Henry- 
424.         son's     Testament     of      Cresseide 
quoted  as  Chaucer's. 

What  authority  is  there  for  the 
603.         statement  (made  by  Aikin)  that 
Chaucer  studied  law  at  the  Temple  ? 


1852.  Smith,  Alexander.  A  Life  Drama,  sc.  iv.  (Poems,  1853  [1st  in 
B.M.,  a  reissue  ?],  p.  52  ;  Poetical  Works,  ed.  W.  Sinclair,  1909,  p.  36.) 

Breezes  are  blowing  in  old  Chaucer's  verse. 

1852.  Unknown.  Review  of  The  Life  of  Thomas  Stothard,  R.A.,  by 
Anne  Eliza  Bray,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Feb.  1852, 
new  ser.,  vol.  xxxvii,  pp.  148-50. 

P.  150]  Should  Mrs.  Bray  .  .  .  reprint  her  life  of  her  famous 
father-in-law  .  .  .  she  should  certainly  refer  to  the  rival 
Pilgrimage  which  Blake  painted  and  engraved — a  rival  only 
in  the  co-incidence  of  its  appearance — for  it  is  not  only 
Blake's  poorest  production,  but  a  most  sorry  performance  itself, 
while  Stothard's  fine  composition  has  been  happily  described 
by  Scott,  in  his  Life  of  Dryden,  as  "  executed  with  the  genius 
and  spirit  of  a  master,  and  all  the  rigid  attention  to  costume 
that  could  be  expected  by  the  most  severe  antiquary." 


12  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1853 

[1853.]  The  Canterbury  Tales  ;  A  New  Text,  with  illustrative  Notes 
by  T.  Wright.  Universal  Library  (Iiigram,  Cooke  and  Co.), 
Poetry,  Vol.  ii.  [Reprinted  with  additions  in  I860.] 

[A  reprint  of  Wright's  Percy  Society  edn.,  1848-51,  q.v.] 

1853.  The  Canterbury  Tales  .  .  .  from  the  text  and  with  the  notes 
and  glossary  of  T.  Tyrwhitt,  ...  A  new  edition.  Illustrated  by 
Edward  Courbould.  (Routledge's  British  Poets.)  [Re-issued  in 
Routledge's  Standard  Library  in  1878,  1882,  etc.] 

1853.  Clough,  Arthur  Hugh.  Letter  to  Charles  E.  Norton,  [dated] 
Dec.  9,  1853,  [printed  in]  Prose  Remains  of  A.  H.  dough,  1888, 
pp.  221-2. 

Tell  Child  not  to  be  too  learned  about  his  Chaucer,  for  my 
sake  ;  and  above  all,  to  make  the  verses  scan.  I  hesitate 
about  recommending  any  indications  of  the  metre  in  the 
typography.  But  a  set  of  simple  directions  emphatically  and 
prominently  given  at  the  outset  (e.  g.  for  the  sounding  or 
silencing  of  the  final  e)  will,  I  think,  be  essential.  People 
won't  read  Chaucer  against  their  ears. 

[Professor  F.  J.  Child  abandoned  the  scheme  of  editing  Chaucer,  considering  the 
time  unripe.    For  another  letter  by  Clough  on  the  same  subject,  see  below,  1854.] 

1853.  FitzGerald,  Edward.      Six  Dramas  of  Calderon,   freely  trans- 
•    lated  by  Edward  FitzGerald,  pp.  173-471.     (Letters  and  Literary 
Remains,  ed.  W.  Aldis  Wright,  1902-3,  7  vols.,  vol.  v,  p.  27  bi.) 

[To  illustrate  - 

.  .  .  give  me  my  staff. 

Alas,  alas  !  and  I  with  no  strength  left 
To  wield  it,  only  as  I  halt  along, 
Feeling  about  with  it  to  find  a  grave, 
And  knocking  at  deaf  earth  to  let  me  in ! 

Three  Judgments  at  a  Blow.    Act  II,  scene  1. 

FitzGerald  quotes  in  a  note  : 

Ne  dethe  alas  !  lie  wolle  not  [han]  my  life  .  .  . 
Leve  moder,  let  me  yn. 

Chaucer's  Pardoner's  Tale. 

A  better  text  of  Chaucer's  lines  has  been  printed  in 
subsequent  editions.  For  another  reference  by  FitzGerald 
to  this  passage,  see  below,  1856.] 

1853.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Imaginary  Conversation,  Archdeacon 
Hare  and  Walter  Landor,  [in]  Last  Fruit  off  an  Old  Tree,  pp. 
107-8,  124.  (Works,  ed.  C.  G.  Crump,  1891-3;  Imaginary 
Conversations,  vol.  iv,  pp.  407,  426.) 

[Landor  persuades  Hare  that  Chaucer's  spelling  is  much 
better  than  the  modern.] 


1853] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


13 


[p.  426]  Shakespeare  and  Milton  and  Chaucer  have  more  imagination 
than  any  of  those  to  whom  the  quality  is  peculiarly  attributed. 

1853.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  38,  69-70,  160-1, 
201,  274,  282,  284,  335,  356-7,  391,  392,  397-99,  401,  424,  440, 
512,  517-19,  542,  560,  568-9,  584-5,  620,  622,  624;  vol.  viii, 
pp.  10,  161,  180,  311,  323,  450,  455,  475,  502,  584. 


Author. 

Date.           Reference.                                     Subject. 

'Tyro.' 

Jan.  15.    1st  S.  vii,        Two  extracts,  (1)  from  the  Life 

69-70.     of  Chaucer  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas, 

and  (2)  from  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  giving  what 

authority  there   is    for    the    assertion    that    Chaucer 

studied  law  at  the  Temple. 

Keight- 

Feb.  12.     IstS.  vii,         'Its,'  not  used  by  Chaucer,  or 

ley, 

160-1.     by  any  poet  earlier  than  the  end  of 

Thomas. 

the  sixteenth  century,  a  test  for 

Kowley. 

S.,T.  A. 

Feb.  26.    1st  S.  vii,        Inedited    Poem    on     Chaucer, 

201.         called      «  Eulogium      Chaucerj,' 

found  in  MS.  in  a  black-letter  Chaucer  [1561],  q,v. 

above,  vol.  i,  p.  109. 

*  Erica.' 

Mar.  19.     1st  S.  vii,        «  Bather.' 

282. 

M. 

Mar.  19.     1st.  S.  vii,        'Rape  and  renne.' 

284. 

Singer, 

April  2.      1st  S.  vii,        '  Seldom-when,'  '  selden-tirne.' 

Samuel 

335. 

Weller. 

'An 

April  9.    1st  S.  vii,        Emerson    states    (q.v.    above, 

Oxford 

356-7.     1848)    that    Chaucer's    Hous    of 

B.C.L.' 

Fame  is  taken  '  from  the  French 

or  Italian.'     Is  this  so  ?  and  if  so,  from  what  sources  ? 

Crossley, 

April  16.    1st  S.  vii,        '  Rather.' 

Francis. 

392. 

Bede, 

April  23.    1st  S.  vii,        A  list  of  the  epithets  given  by 

Cutli- 

397-9.       British  poets  to  the  nightingale  ; 

bert. 

Chaucer's  are  :  evening,  good,  heavenly,  lusty,  merry, 

new-abashed,  shrill,  sweet. 

Arrow- 

April  23.    1st  S.  vii,        '  More  '  =  root. 

smith, 

401. 

W.B. 

B.,  J.  M. 

April  30.    1st  S.  vii,         '  Latin  '  =  Italian  (Trottus,  ii, 

425.         Prohem.  1.  14). 

B.,J.M. 

April  30.    1st  S.  vii,        No  foreign  original  has  ever 

440.  been  found  for  Chaucer's  Hous 
df  Fame  .  .  .  We  may  fairly  presume  that  Emerson 
never  took  the  trouble  to  investigate  the  matter. 


14 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1853- 


Author. 

Anon. 

Date.              Reference.                                  Subject. 

May  21.      1st  S.  vii,        '  Rathe.' 
512. 

B.,  J.  M. 

May  28.      1st  S.  vii,        On    Chaucer's    knowledge   of 
517-19.      Italian.     Sir  Harris  Nicolas  (in 
Aldine  edn.  of  Chaucer,  1845)  says  Chaucer  was  not 
acquainted  with   the    Italian   language   or   literature. 
This  is  not  the  case,  and  many  passages  from  Chaucer's 
writings  are  quoted  which  are  either  translations  or 
paraphrases  from  lines  in  Dante,  Petrarch  or  Boccaccio. 

Arrow- 
smith, 
W.  R. 

June  4.       1st  S.  vii,        '  Dare  '=  lurk    or    cause    to 
542.        lurk. 

G.,W.  H. 

June  11.      1st  S.  vii,        An  early  satirical  poem  men- 
568-9.       tioning     Chaucer,    q.v.     below, 
App.  A.,  [n.b.  1506]. 

M,J. 

June  11.      1st  S.  vii,        Chaucer's  knowledge  of  Italian 
584-5.       (1st  S.  vii,  517)  upheld  by  Dr. 
Nott  (in   his  edn.  of  Surrey  and  Wyatt,  q.v.  above, 
1815-16). 

Editor. 

June  25.      1st  S.  vii,        '  Bumble,'  used  of  the  bittern. 
620. 

B.,E.  M. 

June  25.      1st  S.  vii,        'Leden'  =  Latin,  used  of  the 
622.         song  of  birds,  etc. 

Chever- 
ells. 

June  25.      1st  S.  vii,        *  Parvise.' 
624. 

Editor. 

July  2.        1st  S.  viii,        «  Dissimulate.' 
10. 

H.,T.H. 

de. 

Aug.  13.      1st  S.  viii,        '  Unneath.' 
160-1. 

B.,  C.  I. 

Aug.  20.     1st  S.  viii,        Lyd^ate's  '  Balade  warnynge 
180.          men    to    beware    of    deceitful 
women,'  quoted  as  Chaucer's. 

'  Broc- 
tuna.' 

Nov.  5.        1st  S.  viii,        '  Lozenges. 
450.                                                     . 

Editor. 

Nov.  5.       1st  S.  viii,        Brief    notice   of   Routledge's 
455.         edition  of  the  Canterbury  Tales. 

Pinker- 
ton,W. 

Nov.  12.      1st  S.  viii,        Poetical     epithets     of     the 
475,         nightingale  ;      Chaucer     uses, 
beside  those  given  in  vii,  397-9,  '  sely.' 

C.,  B.  H. 

Nov.  19.      1st  S.  viii,        Black  as  a  mourning  colour 
502.         first    alluded    to    by    Chaucer 
(Troilus  and  Knightes  Tale)  and  Froissart. 

Whit- 
borne, 
J.B. 

Dec.  17.    '  1st  S.  viii,        Church  reves. 

584. 

1854]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  15 

1853-9.  Parker,  John  Henry.  Some  Account  of  Domestic  Architecture 
in  England,  [vol.  ii]  by  the  Editor  of  "The  Glossary  of  Architec 
ture"  [J.  H.  Parker],  Edward  I.-Kichard  II.,  1853,  pp.  41,  48-50, 
54,  66  w.,  67,  74,  87,  94,  97  n.,  98,  116-7,  128,  132,  184  [quotations 
from  Chaucer  illustrating  the  high  table,  painted  chambers,  eating 
utensils,  the  Squire's  carving,  minstrelsy  at  meals,  door  locks, 
sleeping  chambers,  gardens,  the  cook,  sauces  and  inns],  270  [Chaucer 
retired  to  Donyngton  Castle,  in  Berkshire,  in  the  seventieth  year  of 
his  age,  about  1396] ;  [vol.  iii]  Richard  II.-Henry  VIII.,  1859, 
pt.  i,  p.  47  [the  Tabard,  its  destruction  and  rebuilding  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.]. 

[Vol.  i,  by  T.  Hudson  Turner,  appeared  in  1851,  q.v.] 

1854-56.  Works  of  Chaucer,  8  voK,  in  Bell's  Annotated  Edition  of 
the  English  Poets.  [The  introductions  and  notes  are  by  Robert 
Bell.  Re-edited  in  1878,  q.v.  below.] 

[Vol.  i  contains  the  Biography  and  Literary  Introduction. 
The  Biography,  though  the  usual  apocryphal  pieces,  except 
the  Testament  of  Love,  are  accepted,  is  a  good  gathering-lip 
of  the  facts  then  known,  based  on  Tyrwhitt,  Godwin,  Nicolas, 
etc.  The  residence  at  Donnington  Castle  is  not  accepted. 
The  Introduction  deals  with  Chaucer's  learning,  language, 
metre,  etc.  The  various  pieces  in  the  text  have  each  an  Intro 
duction  and  notes.  The  apocryphal  pieces  include  The  Court 
of  Love,  Parlement  of  Foules,  Cuckoo  and  Nightingale,  Flour 
and  Lefe,  vol.  iv;  Chauceres  Dreme  (The  Island  of  Ladies), 
vol^  vi ;  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight,  Balade  de  Vilage 
( =  Vissage)  sans  Peynture,  Chaucer's  Prophecy,  Orisoun  to 
the  Virgin,  Lamentation  of  Mary  Magdalen,  Praise  of 
Women,  Eight  Goodly  Questions,  Lines  to  the  King  and 
Knights  of  the  Garter,  vol.  viii,  the  latter  four  pieces  being 
included  in  Poems  Attributed  to  Chaucer.] 

1854-6.  Bell,  Robert.  Introduction  and  Notes  to  the  Works  of  Chaucer 
[q.  v.  above]. 

1854.  Case,  M.  P.  Chaucer  and  his  Times,  [in]  Bibliotheca  Sacra, 
Andover,  Mass.,  April,  1854,  art.  viii,  2nd  series,  vol.  xi,  pp.  394- 
416. 

[Chaucer  "  a  dim  and  shadowy  figure."  An  account  of  the 
age  of  Chaucer,  Wiclifs  religious  reform,  Edward  III  and  his 
Queen  Philippa,  &c.] 

[p.  404]  [Remarks  on  the  '  foreign  air '  of  Chaucer's  language  at  a 
cursory  glance.] 

The  English  tongue  .  .  .  was  a  rude  mass,  rmlis  indi- 
gestaque  moles,  a  material  the  most  unpromising  possible  for 


16  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1854 

genius  to  find  an  utterance  in.  The  French  had  been  used 
by  the  higher  classes,  Latin  by  the  learned,  and  the  Saxon 
by  the  common  people ;  and  during  the  period  of  Norman 
ascendency,  for  more  than  two  centuries,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
had  ceased  to  be  a  written  language.  It  was  only  a  dialect 
of  slaves,  the  patois  of  a  crushed  and  despised  race  .  .  . 

[p.  405]  Rarely,  if  ever,  has  the  history  of  letters  recorded  such 
a  phenomenon  as  we  here  behold.  A  great  genius,  one  of 
the  world's  elect  bards,  arises  in  a  country  and  in  an  age 
where  the  language  is  an  unfit  and  an  insufficient  medium  for 
his  utterances,  and  where  he  must  not  only  create  his  forms 
and  conceptions,  but,  in  some  sense,  the  language  also,  with 
which  to  clothe  them  .  .  . 

[pp.406-     [Remarks  on  the  uncertainty  of  the  chronology  of  Chaucer's 
7]       life  and  writings,  followed  by  a  criticism  of  *  the  two  capital 
allegories  of  Chaucer,'  the  Hous  of  Fame,  and  the  Flour  and 
the  Lefe.] 

tp.  409]  In  the  Canterbury  Tales,  our  poet  leaves  this  fanciful 
region  where  he  had  so  fondly  lingered,  and  places  before 
us  persons  and  scenes  of  the  most  matter-of-fact  kind  possible. 
This  was  his  last  and  greatest  work  ;  the  labor  of  his  old  age. 

[pp.409-     [Here  follows  a  detailed  criticism  of  the  characters  in  the 
14]     Prologue.] 

[p.  414]  In  seeking  for  Chaucer's  prominent  characteristics,  we 
recognize  at  once  his  great  descriptive  power.  Every  scene 
and  every  character  lives  before  us.  His  naturalness,  also, 
is  most  observable.  Nothing  is  artificial ;  nature  reigns 
supreme  everywhere.  He  is,  in  fact,  preeminently  a  poet  of 
nature.  He  is  the  poet  of  spring,  of  the  singing  of  the  birds, 
of  the  zephyrs,  and  the  flowers.  He  is  no  weak  nor  lazy 
copyist ;  he  takes  nothing  at  second  hand. 

Cpi5]414"     [Chaucer  contrasted  with  Byron.] 

[p.  413]  The  popularity  of  Chaucer  has  experienced  various  vicissi 
tudes.  In  the  age  of  Queen  Elisabeth  [sic],  he  was  truly 
regarded  as  the  first  of  English  poets ;  and  Spenser,  his  fond 
admirer  and  copyist,  when  dying,  requested,  as  an  especial 
honor,  to  be  buried  near  his  tomb.  At  other  periods  he  has 
not  been  so  generally  read.  .  .  . 

[Hindrances  to  his  popularity,  the  grossness  of  the  times, 
and  the  obsoleteness  of  the  language ;  the  latter  easily 
surmountable.] 


1854]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  17 

[p.  416]  Whatever  the  general  and  popular  estimation  of  his  writings 
may  be,  he  will  be  read  so  long  as  a  love  for  nature  and  truth 
shall  remain  among  those  who  speak  the  English  language. 
He  was  worthy  to  lead  off  that  noble  band  of  British  bards, 
who  will  long  reflect  glory  on  the  English  name.  It  is  a 
conspicuous  place  which  he  holds  among  his  compeers  in 
that  '  House  of  Fame,'  which  he  has  so  graphically  described 
to  us. 

1854.  Clough,  Arthur  Hugh.  Letter  to  F.  J.  Child,  [dated]  Sept.  2, 
1854,  [printed  in]  Prose  Remains  of  A.  H.  Clough,  1888,  p.  228-9. 

I  hope  the  Chaucer  is  going  on  prosperously.  I  think  you 
should  adopt  means  to  make  the  metre  quite  obvious,  at  any 
sacrifice  of  typographical  prettiness.  Yet  I  don't  like  the 
grave  accent,  'When  Zephyrus  eke  with  his  sote  breth,'  and 
should  almost  prefer  the  ",  sote",  but  that  it  seems  unmeaning 
to  use  a  mark  of  quantity.  Yet  it  is  not  a  case  of  accent, 
either.  I  think  I  should  in  one  way  or  another  mark  every 
syllable  that  would  not  now  be  pronounced,  grove's  and  leves 
and  Emperoure's  daughter — the  most  correct  mark  would  be 
e  :  Emperoure's ;  sote.  And  I  should  prefix  to  the  whole  a 
very  plain  and  short  statement  of  the  usage  in  these  points. 
I  suppose  there  is  not  much  doubt  about  a  few  general  rules, 
though  Chaucer  did  not  regularly  observe  them,  as,  for  ex 
ample,  the  use  of  the  £  in  adjectives  after  definite  articles, 
which  it  seems  to  me  lie  omits  occasionally,  with  French 
adjectives,  as  if  it  was  a  matter  of  ear  rather  than  rule.  So 
also  with  such  Saxon  dissyllables,  as  tyme,  which  is  not  in 
variably  a  dissyllable,  I  think.  And  yet  it  would  be  worth 
while  giving  a  list  of  such  words  as  are  liable  to  be  dissyllables. 
However,  ere  this,  I  daresay  you  have  settled  all  these  pre 
liminaries.  I  don't  quite  see  what  you  should  do  about  the 
Miller's  and  the  Eeve's  Tales.  I  think  explanation  might  be 
lp. 220]  a  little  retrenched  there,  so  as  to  leave  them  in  the  "decent 
obscurity  of  a  learned  language. 

[For  another  letter  by  Clough  on  the  same  subject  see  above,  1853.] 

1854.  Lowell,  James  Russell.  Leaves  from  my  Journal  in  Italy  and 
Elseuihere,  [in]  Graham's  Monthly,  April-June,  1854  [not  in  B.M. 
See  Bibliography  of  J.  R.  Lowell  by  G.  W.  Cooke].  (Writings, 
Riverside  Edn.,  11  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  184.) 

I  cannot  describe  our  drive   [from  Subiaco  to  Tivoli]  .   .  . 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. III.  C 


18 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1854 


It  is  not  often  that  we  can  escape  the  evil  genius  of  analysis 
that  haunts  our  modern  daylight  of  self-consciousness  .  .  . 
and  enjoy  a  day  of  right  Chaucer. 


1854.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  ix,  pp.  54,  112,  307,  351, 
383,  399,  433,  470-1  ;  vol.  x,  pp.  82,  96,  135,  182,  203,  208, 
387,  398,  411,  474,  535. 


Author. 

a. 

Middle - 
ton, 
KM. 

Foss, 

Edward, 


Editor. 
'Zeus.' 

Riley, 
H.  T. 


Biley, 
H.  T. 

B.,  J.M. 
G.,H.T. 
P.,J. 

Editor. 


C.,T.Q. 


Date. 

Jan.  21. 


Reference. 

1st  S.  ix, 
54. 


Subject. 

Starve'  =  die. 


April  1.      1st  S.  ix,         The  chase  of  the  fox  in  Nonnes 
307.         P.T.  the  embryo  of  fox-hunting. 

April  22.  1st  S.  ix,  In  the  reign  of  Henry  IV, 
383.  there  was  a  Club  called  'La 
Court  de  bone  Compagnie/  of  which  Occleve  was  a 
member,  and  probably  Chaucer.  So  also  was  Henry 
Somer,  who  received  Chaucer's  pension  for  him. 


April  29. 
May  20. 


1st  S.  ix, 
399. 

1st  S.  ix, 
470-1. 


'  Gossip.' 
'Galoche.' 


Aug.  12.  1st  S.  x,  Chaucer  and  Emerson  (vii, 
135.  356).  Is  an  Oxford  B.C.L.  correct 
in  his  quotation  from  Emerson's  Representative  Men  ? 
'  Chaucer,  it  seems,  drew  continually,  through  Lydgate 
and  Caxton,  from  Guido  di  Colonna,'  &c.  Surely  Mr. 
Emerson  never  penned  such  nonsense  as  this. 

[For  the  passage  in  Emerson's  Shakespeare*  in  Re 
presentative  Men,  see  above,  1848.] 

Sept.  2.       1st  S.  x,          '  Tabard '  and  '  Talbot.' 
182. 


Sept,  9. 
Sept.  9. 


1st  S.  x, 
203. 


Jack  of  Dover.' 


1st  S.  x,          Mention  in  Sompnoures  T.  of 
208.         kissing. 

Nov.  11.       1st  S.  x,          What  are  the  grounds  for  the 
387.          surmise    that    Chaucer's    Parish 
Priest  was  sketched  from  Wiclif  in  his  later  days  ? 

This  is  merely  conjectural,  probably  from  the  fact 
that  when  Wiclif  was  warden  of  Canterbury  College, 
Oxford,  he  is  said  to  have  had  Chaucer  under  his 
tuition.  The  Persone  of  a  Town  (1841),  [q.v.  above], 
and  Le  Bas,  Life  of  Wiclif  [q.v.  above,  1832], 
quoted. 

Nov.  18. 


1st  S.  x, 
398 


Quotation:    Pardoneres  ProL, 
11.  361-5. 


1854]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  19 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

S.,  J.  D.      Nov.  18.      1st  S.  x,          'Harlot,'  applied  to  males,  de- 
411.         rived,  like  varlet,  from  'hyran,' 
to  hire. 

Q,.  Dec.  9.         1st  S.  x,          'A  perse.' 

474. 

'  'Ouris.'      Dec.  30.        1st  S.  x,          Doubtless      the      notion      of 

535.         Chaucer  having  portrayed  Wick- 

liff    as    his    "Parish    Priest"    (x.    387)    is    of    equal 

authenticity  with  the  tradition  that  Dryden  drew  his 

beautiful  exemplification  of  it  from  Bishop  Ken. 

[c.  1854.]  Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel.  Beauty  and  the  Bird,  [a  sonnet, 
in]  Poems,  1870  (edn.  2,  1870,  1st  in  B.M.)  p.  278.  (Collected 
Work?,  ed.  W.  M.  Rossetti,  1897,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  286.) 

She  fluted  with  her  mouth  as  when  one  sips  .   .  . 

Till  her  fond  bird,  with  little  turns  and  dips, 

Piped  low  to  her  of  SAveet  companionships. 

And  when  he  made  an  end,  some  seed  took  she 

And  fed  him  from  her  tongue  .  .  . 

And  like  the  child  in  Chaucer,  on  \vhose  tongue 

The  Blessed  Mary  laid,  when  he  Avas  dead, 

A  grain, — Avho  straightway  praised  her  name  in  song  : 

Even  so,  Avlien  she,  a  little  lightly  red, 

Now  turned  on  me  and  laughed,  I  heard  the  throng 

'Of  inner  voices  praise  her  golden  head. 

[Placed  chronologically  in  the  Collected  Works  after  a  poem  attributed  to'about 
1854  (see  note,  vol.  i,  p.  521). 

Mr.  W.  M.  Rossetti  (ib.  vol.  i,  p.  xxvii),  after  giving  a  list  of  poets  who  influenced 
D.  G.  Rossetti,  says:  "The  reader  may  perhaps  be  surprised  to  find  some  names 
unmentioned  in  this  list  .  .  .  Chaucer,  Spensey,  the  Elizabethan  dramatists  (other 
than  Shakespeare),  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope,  Wordsworth,  are  unnamed.  It  should 
not  be  supposed  that  he  read  them  not  at  all  or  cared  not  for  any  of  them  ;  but  if 
we  except  Chaucer  in  a  rather  loose  way  .  .  .  they  were  comparatively  neglected."] 

1854.  Thoreau,  Henry  David.  Walden,  Boston,  p.  228.  (Writings, 
Riverside  Edn.,  1894-5,  10  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  330-31.) 

Thus  far  I  am  of  the  opinion  of  Chaucer's  nun,  who 
Yave  not  of  the  text  a  pulled  hen 
That  saith  that  hunters  ben  not  holy  men. 

ProL  11.  177-8. 
[It  was,  of  course,  not  the  nun,  but  the  monk,  who  held  this  opinion.] 

1854.  Unknown.  The  Crystal  Palace,  [in]  Blackwood's  Edinburgh 
Magazine,  Sept.  1854,  vol.  Ixxvi,  p.  335. 

We  summon  then,  our  oldest  poet,  to  celebrate  as  afar  off, 
for  coming  time,  our  neAvest  Crystal  Palace  and  its  wonders,  in 


20  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  185.4- 

CHAUCER'S  DREAM 
OF  THE  CRYSTAL  PALACE. 

'  As  I  slept  I  dreamt  I  was 
Within  a  temple  made  of  glass  .  .  . 
Of  metal  that  shone  out  full  clear.  .   .   . 

[Hous  of  Fame,  11.  119-27,  and  other  passages  strung  together.] 
[For  a  parallel  see  above,  1851,  Notes  and  Queries,  May  10.] 

1854.  Unknown.    The  Beard,  [in]  The  Westminster  Keview,  July,  1854, 
new  ser.,  vol.  vi,  p.  58. 

In  Richard  II's  reign,  .   .  .  the  beard  was  "forked,"  .  .  . 
The  venerable  authority  of  Chaucer  now  comes  in ;  and  what 
a  glimpse  is  this  he  gives  us  of  his  "  Shipman"  : — 
"  Hardy  he  was,  and  wise  I  undertake, 

With  many  a  tempest  hadde  his  berd  be  shake  "  ! 
Here  is  vigour  of  delineation  ! 

[The  Frankeleyns  "  white  berd "  and  the  Merchantes 
"  forked  berd  "  also  noted.] 

1854.  Wall,    James    W.      Early    English    Poets,    Chaucer,    [in]  The 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  New  York,  May,  vol.  xliii,  pp.  441-50. 

[A  short  life,  followed  by  some  notice  of  the  estimation  in 
which  Chaucer  was  held  by  his  successors  (pp.  446-7),  ending 
with  a  short  account  and  criticism,  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.] 

1855,  Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.     See  below,  1855,  Morris. 


1855.  Chatelain,  Jean  Baptiste  Fran§ois  Ernest  de.  La  Fleur  et  la 
Feuille :  poeme,  avec  le  texte  en  regard,  traduit  en  vers  fran9ais 
de  G.  Chaucer  par  le  Chevalier  de  Chatelain,  London.  See  below, 
App.  B, 

1855-8.  Clarke,  Mary  Cowden.  Music  among  the  Poets  and  Poetical 
Writers,  [in]  The  Musical  Times,  vol.  vi,  1855,  Feb.  1,  p.  290, 
Feb.  5,  p.  311,  March  15,  p.  343,  April  1,  p.  353,  May  1,  p.  383; 
vol.  vii,  May  15,  p.  6,  June  15,  p.  37,  July  1,  p.  54,  Aug.  1,  p.  85  ; 
1856,  May  1,  p.  235,  July  1,  p.  261,  Aug.  1,  p.  283,  Dec.  1,  p.  347  ; 
vol.  viii,  1857,  March  1,  p.  6,  July  1,  pp.  74,  79,  Sept  1,  p.  106, 
Nov.  1,  pp.  137-8  ;  1858,  Jan.  1,  pp.  169-70,  Feb.  1,  p.  186,  March 
1,  p.  207,  June  1,  p.  252,  Aug.  1,  p.  286,  Oct.  1,  pp.  317-18. 

[Quotations  with  comments,  more  freely  from  Chaucer  than 
from  any  other  poet.] 


1855]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  21 

[c.  1855  ?]  Dixon,  Richard  Watson.     A  Wedding  Scene  from  Chaucer. 

[A  painting,  the  only  one  of  Dixon's  that  survives,  according 
to  PI.  C.  Beeching,  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  1st  Suppl.,  vol.  ii,  1901, 
p.  139.  Dixon  was  a  college  friend  of  William  Morris  and 
Burne-Jones,  and  no  doubt  shared  their  readings  in  Chaucer 
(see  below,  1855,  Morris).  Dean  Beeching  further  notes  (ib. 
p.  140)  that  'Dixon  had  a  great  look  of  Chaucer  as  he  appears 
in  Hoccleve's  portrait,  and  the  resemblance  was  more  than 
external,  reaching  to  a  characteristic  and  humorous  interest  in 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  people.'  That  the  same  resemblance 
was  also  noticed  in  Morris  and  in  D.  G.  Eossetti  (q.v.  above, 
1845,  F.  M.  Brown)  is  perhaps  only  a  sign  of  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  Pre-raphaelites  for  Chaucer.] 

1855.  Dobell,  Sydney  Thompson.  America,  [printed  in]  Poetical  Works, 
1875,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  235. 

Ye  shall  be 

Lords  of  an  Empire  wide  as  Shakespeare's  soul, 
Sublime  as  Milton's  immemorial  theme, 
And  rich  as  Chaucer's  speech,  and  fair  as  Spencer's  dream. 

1855.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  or,  The 
Finest  Scenes,  Lyrics  and  other  Beauties  of  those  two  Poets  .  .  . 
with.  .  .  notes  and  .  .  .  preface  by  Leigh  Hunt,  pp.  288  n.t  294  n. 

[p.  288]  [The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen.] 
Who  dost  pluck 
With  arm  armipotent,  etc. 

A  most  magnificent  image.  The  epithet  armipotent  is  from 
Chaucer,  and  employed  in  a  manner  not  unworthy  of  that  ill- 
understood  master  of  versification.  Chaucer  took  it  from 
Boccaccio,  but  turned  it  from  prose  into  poetry,  by  putting 
it  in  a  right  place : — 

Yide  in  questa  la  casa  del  suo  Dio 
Armipotente,  ed  essa  edificata 
Tutta  d'acciajo  isplendido  e  pulio. 

Teseidejlilo.  vii.  st.  32. 
And  downward  from  an  hill,  under  a  bent, 
There  stood  the  temple  of  Mars  armipotent, 
Wrought  all  of  burned  stele,  etc. 

[This  example,  from  the  Two  Nobd  Kinsmen,  of  the  use  of  "armipotent"  is  not 
given  in  the  New  English  Dictionary,  one  from  '  Fairfax's '  Tasso,  1600,  being  given  for 
this  period.  It  is  probable  that  the  word  lias  never  been  used  in  English  without 
conscious  reference  to  the  passage  from  the  Knightes  Tale  quoted  by  Leigh  Hunt 
above.] 


22  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1855 

[e.  1855.]  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  An  Essay  on  the  Sonnet,  [in] 
The  Book  of  the  Sonnet,  ed.  Leigh  Hunt  and  S.  Adams  Lee, 
Boston,  1867,  vol.  i,  pp.  65-6. 

[For  the  date,  which  should  be  two  years  later,  see  below,  App.  A.,  [c.  18571. 

[p.  65]  How  are  we  to  account  for  the  non-appearance  of  a  Sonnet 
in  the  poems  of  Chaucer? — of  Chaucer,  who  was  so  fond  of 
Italian  poetry,  such  a  servant  of  love,  such  a  haunter  of  the 
green  corners  of  revery,  particularly  if  they  were  "  small,"- 
of  Chaucer,  moreover,  who  was  so  especially  acquainted  with 
the  writings  of  Petrarca's  predecessor,  Dante,  with  those  of 
his  friend  Boccaccio,  and  who,  besides  eulogizing  the  genius 
of  Petrarca  himself,  is  supposed  to  have  made  his  personal 
acquaintance  at  Padua  1  Out  of  the  four  great  English  poets, 
Chaucer  is  the  only  one  who  has  left  us  a  sonnet  of  no  kind 

[p.  66]  whatsoever,  though  he  was  qualified  for  every  kind,  and 
though  of  none  of  the  four  poets  it  would  seem  more  naturally 
to  have  fallen  in  the  way. 

[Three  reasons  for  this  are  suggested  :  (1)  Chaucer's  close 
connection  with  France  led  him  to  French  miscellaneous 
poetry  rather  than  Italian,  (2)  the  sonnets  of  Dante  and 
Petrarch  were  not  yet  known  in  England,  (3)  Chaucer's  own 
propensity  to  narrative  in  poetry.]  The  second  of  these 
reasons,  however,  I  take  to  have  been  the  chief.  Had  Chaucer 
been  familiar  with  the  Sonnets  of  men  whom  he  so  admired, 
the  very  lovingness  of  his  nature  would  hardly  have  failed  to 
make  him  echo  their  tones  ! 

1855.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  [Preface  to]  Death  and  the  Ruffian*, 
modernized  from  Chaucer,  [in]  Stories  in  Verse,  pp.  262-3. 

[This  modernization  of  the  Pardoners  Tale  first  appeared, 
without  a  preface,  in  1845,  q.v.  It  is  followed  in  Stories  in 
Verse  by  Camlms  Khan,  Hunt's  second  version  of  part  of 
the  Squiers  Tale,  which  first  appeared  in  Home's  Chaucer 
Modernized,  1841,  q.v.] 

[p.  262]  The  reader  will  do  me  great  injustice,  if  he  thinks  that 
modernizations  like  these  are  intended  as  substitutes  for 
what  they  modernize.  Their  only  plea  for  indulgence  is,  that 
they  may  act  as  incitements  towards  acquaintance  with  the 
great  original.  Chaucer's  stories  are  all  complete  of  their 
kind,  all  interesting  in  their  plots,  and  surprising  in  their 
terminations ;  and.  the  satirical  stories  are  as  full  of  amuse- 


1855]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  23 

ment,  as  the  serious  are  of  nobleness  and  pathos.  It  is 
therefore  scarcely  possible  to  repeat  any  one  of  them,  in  any 
way,  without  producing,  in  intelligent  readers,  a  desire  to 
know  more  of  him  ;  and  so  far,  and  so  far  only,  such  ventures 
as  the  first  of  the  two  following  become  excusable.  I  heartily 
[p.  263]  agree  with  those  critics  who  are  of  opinion,  that  no  modern 
izations  of  Chaucer,  however  masterly  they  might  be,  could 
do  him  justice  ;  for  either  they  must  be  little  else  but  re- 
spellings  (in  which  case  they  had  better  be  wholly  such  at 
once,  like  Mr.  Clarke's,  and  profess  to  be  nothing  but  aids 
to  perusal),  or,  secondly,  they  must  be  something  betwixt 
old  style  and  new,  and  so  reap  the  advantages  of  neither 
(which  is  the  case,  I  fear,  with  the  one  just  mentioned) ;  or 
lastly,  like  the  otherwise  admirable  versions  by  Dryden  and 
Pope,  they  must  take  leave  in  toto  of  the  old  manner  of  the 
original,  and  proceed  upon  the  merits,  whatever  those  may  be, 
of  the  style  of  the  modernizers ;  in  which  case  Chaucer  is  sure 
to  lose,  not  only  in  manner  but  in  matter. 

"  Conscience,"  for  example,  is  now  a  word  of  two  syllables. 
In  Chaucer's  time  it  was  a  word  of  three — Con-sci-ence.  How 
is  a  modern  hand  to  fill  up  the  concluding  line  in  the  character 
of  the  Nun,  without  spoiling  it1? 

"  And  all  was  con-sci-ence  and  tender  heart." 
"  A  tender  heart "  would  not  do  at  all ;  nor  can  you  find  any 
monosyllable  that  would. 

So,  still  more  emphatically,  in  the  use  of  the  old  negative 
n'as  (was  not)  in  the  exquisite  couplet  about  the  officious 
lawyer — 

"  No  where  so  busy  a  man  as  he  there  n'as." 
(Pronounce  noz), 

"And  yet  he  seemed  busier  than  he  was." 
Here  the   capital  rhyme   with  those  two  smart   peremptory 
monsyllables  (noz  and  woz)  and  consequently  the  perfection  of 
the  couplet,  and  part  of  the   very  spirit  of  the  wit,  must  be 
lost  in  the  necessity  for  turning  the  old  words  into  new. 

1855.  Milman,  Henry  Hart.     History  of  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  vi,  pp. 
432,,  536,  545-550  ;  3rd  edition,  1864,  vol.  ix,  pp.  97, 232-3,  244-50. 

[p.  224]       [Outlines  of  Chaucer's    biography,  with   mention    of    the 
tradition  that  he  was  present  at  the  wedding  of  Lionel  and 


2i  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1855 

Violante  Visconti  at  Milan,  and  there  met  Petrarch.   Sir  Harris 
Nicolas  cited.] 

[p.  245]  Chaucer  \vas  master  of  the  whole  range  of  vernacular  poetry, 
which  was  bursting  forth  in  such  young  and  prodigal  vigour, 
in  the  languages  born  from  the  "Romance  Latin.  He  had  read 
Dante,  he  had  read  Petrarch ;  toiBoccaccio  he  owed  the  ground 
work  of  two  of  his  best  poems — The  Knight's  Tale  .  .  .  and 
Griselidis.  I  cannot  but  think  that  he  was  familiar  with  the 
Troubadour  poetry  of  the  Langue  d'Oc  ;  of  the  Langue  d'Oil, 
he  knew  well  the  knightly  tales  of  the  Trouveres  and  the 
Fabliaux,  as  well  as  the  later  allegorical  school,  which  was 
then  in  the  height  of  its  fashion  in  Paris. 

[References  to  Man  of  Laic's  Tale,  Troilus,  Squieres  Tale, 
Knightes  Tale,  Franlteleyns  Tale,  Clerkes  Tale,  Merchantes 
Tale,  Milleres  Tale,  Reves  Tale,  Sir  Tlwpas,  Nonnes  Prestes 
Tale,  Rom.  Rose,  Hous  of  FameJ\ 

[p.  246]  Yet  all  the  while  Chaucer  in  thought,  in  character,  in 
language  is  English — resolutely,  determinately,  almost  boastfully 
English  [footnote  :  quotation  from  Testament  of  Love  in  sup- 
tp.247]  port  of  this].  The  creation  of  native  poetry  was  his  deliberate 
aim  ;  and  already,  that  broad,  practical,  humorous  yet  serious 
view  of  life,  of  life  in  its  infinite  variety,  that  which  reaches  its 
height  in  Shakespeare,  has  begun  to  reveal  itself  in  Chaucer. 
The  Canterbury  Tales,  even  in  the  Preface,  represent,  as  in  a 
moving  comedy,  the  whole  social  state  of  the  times ;  they 
display  human  character  in  action  as  in  speech ;  and  that 
character  is  the  man  himself.  .  .  .  There  is  an  example  of  every 
order  and  class  of  society,  high,  low,  secular,  religious.  As  yet 
each  is  distinct  in  his  class,  as  his  class  from  others.  Contrast 
Chaucer's  pilgrims  with  the  youths  and  damsels  of  Boccaccio. 
Exquisitely  as  these  are  drawn,  and  in  some  respects  finely 
touched,  they  are  all  of  one  gay  light  class ;  almost  any  one 
might  tell  any  tale  with  equal  propriety  ;  they  differ  in  name, 
in  nothing  else. 

In  his  religious  characters,  if  not  in  his  religious  tales  .  .  . 
Chaucer  is  by  no  means  the  least  happy.  In  that  which  is 
purely  religious  the  poet  himself  is  profoundly  religious ;  in 
his  Prayer  to  the  Virgin,  written  for  the  Duchess  Blanche 
of  Lancaster,  for  whom  also  he  poured  forth  his  sad  elegy ;  in 
his  Gentle  Martyrs,  S.  Constantia  and  S.  Cecilia :  he  is  not 
without  his  touch  of  bigotry,  as  has  been  said  in  Hugh  of 


1855]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  25 

Lincoln.  But  the  strong  Teutonic  good  sense  of  Chaucer  had 
[p.  248]  looked  more  deeply  into  the  whole  monastic  and  sacerdotal 
system.  His  wisdom  betrays  itself  in  his  most  mirthful,  as  in 
his  coarsest  humour.  He  who  drew  the  Monk,  the  Pardoner, 
the  Friar  Limitour,  the  Summoiier,  had  seen  far  more  than  the 
outer  form,  the  worldliness  of  the  Churchmen,  the  abuse  of 
indulgences,  the  extortions  of  the  friars,  the  licentiousness  of 
the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  of  the  Ecclesiastics  themselves ;  he 
had  penetrated  into  the  inner  depths  of  the  religion.  Yet  his 
wisdom,  even  in  his  most  biting  passages,  is  tampered  with 
charity.  Though  every  order,  the  Abbot,  the  Prioress,  the 
Friar,  the  Pardoner,  the  Summoner,  are  impersonated  to  the 
life,  with  all  their  weaknesses,  follies,  affectations,  even  vices 
and  falsehoods,  in  unsparing  freedom,  in  fearless  truth,  yet  none, 
or  hardly  one,  is  absolutely  odious.  .  .  .  The  Summoner,  whose 
[p.  249]  office  and  the  Archdeacon's  Court  in  which  he  officiated  seem  to 
have  been  most  unpopular,  is  drawn  in  the  darkest  colours,  with 
his  fire-red  cherubim's  face,  lecherous,  venal,  licentious.  Above 
all,  the  Parish  Priest  of  Chaucer  has  thrown  off  Roman  mediaeval 
sacerdotalism  ;  he  feels  his  proper  place ;  he  arrays  himself 
only  in  the  virtues  which  are  the  essence  of  his  holy  function. 
This  i;nrivalled  picture  is  the  most  powerful  because  the  most 
quiet,  uninsulting,  unexasperating  satire.  Chaucer's  Parish 
Priest  might  have  been  drawn  from  Wycliffe  .  .  .  not  at 
Oxford  .  .  .  but  the  affectionate  and  beloved  teacher  of  his 
humble  flock.  .  .  .  [The  rest  of  the  Chaucerian  passage  refers 
to  incidents  and  subjects  connected  with  Chaucer  only  by  the 
acceptance  of  the  Testament  of  Love  as  his.] 


1855.  Morris,  William,  and  Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.  Reading 
of  Chaucer  at  Oxford  [recorded  in]  The  Life  of  William  Morris,  by 
J.  W.  Mackail,  2  vols.,  1901,  vol.  i,  p.  61. 

["  During  this  year  (1855)  he  (Morris)  and  Burne-Jones  read 
through  Chaucer.  He  found,  in  the  poet  whom  he  afterwards 
took  for  his  special  master,  not  merely  the  wider  and  sweeter 
view  of  life  which  was  needed  to  correct  the  harsh  or  mystical 
elements  of  his  own  medievalism,  but  the  conquest  of  English 
verse  as  a  medium  boundless  in  its  range  and  perfect  in  its 
flexibility."  Of  Morris  in  1854,  Mr.  Mackail  says  (ib.  p.  39), 
"The  two  books,  which  afterwards  stood  with  him  high  and 
apart  beyond  all  others,  Chaucer  and  Malory,  were  as  yet 


26 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1855 


unknown  to  him."     See    also  Memorials  of  Edward  £ur?ie- 
Jones,  by  G.  B.-J.,  2  vols.,  1904,  vol.  i,  p.  104. 

Morris  is  said  (like  D.  G.  Rossetti,  see  above,  1845,  Brown, 
and  like  R.  W.  Dixon,  q.v.  1855)  to  have  resembled  the 
Occleve  portrait  of  Chaucer  at  this  time.] 

1855.  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  Series,  vol.  xi,  pp.  82-3,  213,  280,  334, 


356,  434,  440,  454 
308. 


vol.  xii,  pp.  58,  70-1,  123,  140-1,  244, 


Subject. 
The  man  in  the  moon  (Troilus). 


Author.  Date.  Keference. 

S.,  H.         Feb.  3.      1st  S.  xi, 

82. 

Aveling,  Feb.  3.      1st  S.  xi,         A  note  about  the  mutilation  of 
J.  H.  83.          Chaucer  in  a  lecture  On  Desultory 

and  Systematic  Reading,  by  Sir  James  Stephen,  where 
11.  193-4  of  the  Prologue  are  quoted  thus  : 
"  I  saw  his  sleeves  perfumed  at  the  hand 

With  grease,  and  that  the  finest  in  the  land." 
Perfumed  for  purfiled  =  worked    on   the    edge,   and 
grease  for  gris  —  a  species  of  fur. 

Wodewale.' 


'Te-he.' 

Dr.  Davy's  Observations  on  Mr. 
Fox's  Letter  to  Mr'.  Grey  (on  the 
nightingale  and  Chaucer's  use  of 

Survival  of  Chaucerian  expres 
sions  in  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland. 
Nuns  acting  as  priests  (the 
Prioress's  nun-chaplain). 

Quotes  Testament  of  Love  as 
Chaucer's. 

Trees  and  flowers  ;  quotations 
from  Chaucer. 

A  note  on  "win  of  ape,"  the 
expression  used    by  Chaucer  in 
Manciple's  Prol,  1.  44. 

"  I  trow  that  ye  have  dronken  win  of  ape." 

Philo-      Aug.  25.    1st  S.  xii,        Inedited  Poem  by  Chaucer.    The 
Chaucer.  140-1.         'Orisonne    to    the   Holy   Virgin,' 

E reserved  in  a  MS.  of  John  de  Irlandia,  Opera  Theo- 
>gica,  1490  [q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  64]. l 

[i  This  poem  deceived  even  Dr.  Furnivall,  who  printed  it  in  his  Parallel-Text 
edition  of  Chaucer's  Minor  Poems  (Part  II,  No.  vi,  Mother  of  God),  1878,  and  again 


War 
wick, 
Eden. 

Mar.  17. 

1st  S.  xi, 
213. 

F. 

April  28. 

IstS.xi, 
334. 

Bede, 
Cuth- 

June  2. 

IstS.xi, 
434. 

bert. 

merry  note  of  th< 
the  word). 

Y. 

June  9, 

1st  S.  xi, 
440. 

Denton, 
W. 

June  9. 

1st  S.xi, 
454-5. 

Singer, 
Samuel 

July  28. 

IstS.xii, 
58. 

Weller. 

Denton, 
W. 

July  28. 

1st  S.  xii, 
70-1. 

Dukes, 

Leopold, 

Aug.  18. 

1st  S.  xii, 
123. 

1855]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  27 

in  1880,  in  No.  Ixi,  "A  One-Text  Print  of  Chaucer's  Minor  Poems,"  Part  II.  It  had 
been  previously  printed  by  Dr.  R.  Morris  in  his  Aldine  edition  of  Chaucer's  Poetical 
Works,  I860.  In  a  note  to  the  Parallel-Text  edition,  Dr.  Purnivall  says,  "  No  one 
can  suppose  that  poor  Hoccleve  had  the  power  of  writing  his  Master's  Mother  of 
God."— Notwithstanding  this,  it  has  now  been  definitely  decided  that  the  poem 
is  undoubtedly  by  Hocoleve,  and  it  has  been  printed  by  Dr.  Furnivall  amongst 
Hoccleve's  Works  (E.E.T.S.,  1892,  pp.  52-6).  See  also  Ten  Brink's  History  of  English 
Literature,  1895,  vol.  ii,  p.  216 ;  vol.  iii,  Appendix,  p.  272.  Also  John  Koch  in 
Anglia,  iii,  183  f.  ;  iv,  Anz.,  101 ;  vi,  104  f.] 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

'A  Sept.  29.     IstS.xii,        'Racket.' 

Backet  244. 

Player.' 

White,  Oct.  20.  1st  S.  xii,  « Racket'  (Troilus,  Testament  of 
A.  Holt.  308.  Love,  cited  as  Chaucer's). 

1855.  Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn.  Historical  Memorials  of  Canterbury, 
pp.  104?i.,  118,  146,  164-77,  184-7,  189,  206. 

[The  second  and  third  Essays,  which  originally  appeared  in  1853  and  1852,  contain 
only  passing  references.  ] 

[P.  165]      [Canterbury  Tales.]     In  the  first  place  we  may  observe  that 

[p.  ice]  every  element  of  society  except  the  very  highest  and  lowest 

was   represented  .  .  .  These    no  doubt    are    selected  as  the 

types  of  the  classes  who  would  ordinarily  have  been  met  on 

such  an  excursion.  .  .   . 

[p.  167]  And  further,  though  the  particular  plan  laid  out  in  his 
prologue,  and  the  regulation  of  the  whole  by  the  host,  is 
evidently  the  poet's  own  creation ;  yet  the  practice  of  telling 
stories  on  the  journeys  to  and  from  Canterbury  must  have 
been  common  in  order  to  give  a  likelihood  to  such  a  plan.  It 
was  even  a  custom  for  the  bands  of  pilgrims  to  be  accompanied 
by  hired  minstrels  and  story-tellers.  .  . 

[These  marvellous  tales  gave  rise  to  the  proverbial  expression 
'a  Canterbury  Tale,'  probably  now  extinct  in  England,  but 
surviving  in  America  in  the  exclamation  'What  a  Canter 
bury  ! ' 

The  tales  were  in  other  cases  probably  related  at  the  halts ; 
but  in  this  instance  on  the  road,  those  of  the  party  who  were 
distant  thus  hearing  nothing — '  a  circumstance  which  to  some 
extent  palliates  the  relation  of  the  coarser  stories  in  a  company 
which  contained  the  prioress,  the  nuns,  the  parson,  and  the 
scholar.' 

Remarks  follow  on  the  auspicious  start  in  spring-time  giving 
'  the  colour  to  Chaucer's  whole  poem ' ;  on  the  topographical 
details  of  the  route,  the  Tabard,  and  the  approach  to  the  city. 
There  are  many  other  minor  allusions.] 


28  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1855- 

1855.  Trench,  Richard  Chenevix.  English  Past  and  Present  pp.  33-6 
46,  56,  79,  84,  86-7,  97-8,  101,  103.  110-13,  118,  121,  138-9,  143, 
152,  159. 

[pp.  33-  [Trench  believes,  with  Tyrwhitt,  that  Chaucer's  influence  in 
6]  introducing  French  words  into  the  language  has  been  much 
exaggerated;  he  only  furthered  a  tendency  already  existing. 
Yet  his  diction  is  much  more  French  than  Wycliffe's ;  some 
of  his  French-derived  words  failed  to  retain  their  place  in 
English.] 

1855.  Unknown.  English  Surnames,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review, 
vol.  ci,  p.  355. 

Camden,  in  a  list  of  names  of  occupations,  inserts  that  of 
the  great  father  of  English  poetry,  Chaucer,  adding  by  way  of 
necessary  explanation,  *  id  est  Hosier.'  .  .  . 

The  Chaussure,  commonly  used  in  England  when  surnames 
were  first  adopted  by  the  commonalty,  was  of  leather,  covered 
both  the  foot  and  the  leg,  and  appears  to  have  been  called 
Hose*  Hosier  therefore  is  the  same  with  Chancier,  which 
comes  from  the  Latin  Calcearius.^ 

*  Hose  occurs  as  a  surname  Hosatus,  etc. ,  in  the  Close  Rolls. 
t  Adelung,  Wb'rterbuch,  under  Hose  and  Schuster ;  Du  Cange,  v.  Ossa  ;  and 
Gesenius,  Dissertatio  Grammatica  de  Lingua  Chauceri,  p.  4. 

1855.  Unknown.  The  Genius  of  Dryden,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review, 
July,  1855,  vol.  cii,  pp.  1,  3,  6,  9,  14,  26. 

[p.  14]  The  early  versification  of  Dryden  is  as  superior  to  that  of 
Fairfax  and  Sandys  as  the  versification  of  Fairfax  and  Sandys 
is  superior  to  that  of  Chaucer. 

1855.  Unknown.  Review  of  Kingsley's  Novels  and  Poems,  [in]  The 
National  Review,  July  1855,  vol.  i,  pp.  126-7. 

[Thousands  who  only  know  Roger  Bacon  in  connection  with 
his  brazen  head  are  familiar  with  the  bright  and  living  word- 
pictures  of  Chaucer.  History  and  records  go  but  a  little  way 
in  helping  common  minds  towards  the  conception  of  bygone 
manners  and  institutions.]  But  the  poet  comes,  and  not  an 
intelligent  artisan  nowadays  but  can  ride  with  him  and  his 
four  and  twenty  [sic]  in  a  company  from  the  South wark  Tabard 
that  bright  May  morning  on  their  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of 
Thomas  a  Beckett.  [Chaucer  was  familiar  with  the  specula 
tions  of  his  day,  but  shows  his  knowledge  in  characters  and 
tales,  not  in  discourses.] 


1856]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  29 

1855.  Wiseman,  Nicholas  Patrick  Stephen,  Cardinal.  On  the  Percep 
tion  of  Natural  Beauty,  (a  lecture,  delivered  10  Dec.,  1855),  1856, 
pp.  5-8,  24. 

[p.  5]  This  intense  love  [of  Nature]  is  to  be  found,  in  the  father 
of  our  poetry,  Chaucer.  Narrow  as  was  the  limit  of  his 

[p.  6]  knowledge,  or  the  range  of  his  observation,  he  had  those 
instinctive  perceptions  which  affection  always  bestows.  His 
descriptions  of  every  aspect  of  nature  .  .  .  have  not  been 
surpassed  by  any  modern  poet. 

[pp.  6-8]  [Comparison  of  passages  from  the  Parlement  of  Foules  (11. 
190-96  and  176-82)  with  Spenser,  F.  Q.,  Bk.  ii,  c.  1  and  2  ; 
reference  to  the  Flour  and  the  Lefe.] 

[p.  8]  But  before  leaving  these  authors,  I  cannot  but  express  a 
natural  regret,  that  in  both  too  much,  but  I  think  exclusively 
in  the  later  one,  every  rich  description  of  natural  beauty 
is  connected  with  wantonness,  voluptuousness,  and  debauch 
ery  ... 

241        [The  idea  that  May  is  the  month  of  the  Virgin  Mary  is  as 
old  as  Chaucer;  quotes  Man  of  Law's  Tale,  11.  848-54.] 

[For  Leigh  Hunt's  criticism  on  the  passage  from  p.  8,  see  below,  185J).] 


1856.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  English  Traits.  Universities,  p.  113, 
Literature,  pp.  131-2,  144.  (Works,  Centenary  edn.,  1903,  vol.  v, 
pp.  200,  233-4,  256.) 

[p.  233]     A  taste  for  plain  strong  speech,   what  is  called  a  biblical 
[p.  234]  style,    marks    the  English.   .   .  .     Chaucer's  hard  painting  of 

his  Canterbury  pilgrims  satisfies  the  senses, 
tp.  256]      We  want  the  miraculous ;  the  beauty  we  can  manufacture 

at  no    mill,  can  give  no  account  of ;    the  beauty   of  which 

Chaucer  and  Chapman  had  the  secret. 


1866.]  FitzGerald,  Edward.  Saldmdn  and  Absal,  p.  v,  Prefatory 
Letter  to  Professor  E.  B.  Cowell.  (Letters  and  Literary  Remains, 
ed.  W.  Aldis  Wright,  1902-3,  7  vols.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  191,  210.) 

[p.  191]  As  for  the  much  bodily  omitted — it  may  readily  be 
guessed  that  an  Asiatic  of  the  15th  Century  might  say  much 
on  such  a  subject  that  an  Englishman  of  the  19th  would  not 
care  to  read.  Not  that  our  Jami  is  ever  licentious  like  his 
contemporary  Chaucer,  nor  like  Chaucer's  Posterity  in  Times 
that  called  themselves  more  civil. 


30  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1856 

tp.  210]      [In  later  editions  of  Saldmdn  and  Absal,  on  the  lines 
Yearn,  as  is  likely,  to  my  Mother  Earth, 
Upon  whose  bosom  I  shall  cease  to  weep, 
And  on  my  Mother's  bosom  fall  asleep. 

FitzGerald  added  the  note :]  The  same  figure  is  found  in 
Chaucer's  "Pardoner's  Tale,"  and,  I  think,  in  other  Western 
poems  of  that  era. 

[FitzGerald  quoted  this  passage  from  the  Pardoner's  Tale  in  his  Calderon.  a.v. 
above,  1853.] 

1856.  Knight,  Charles.  The  Popular  History  of  England.  8  vols. 
1856-62;  vol.  i,  479-83,  489  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  11-13. 

[VOl479-      [Social  classes  in  the  fourteenth  century  illustrated  by  the 
S3]        Statute  of  Apparel,  1363,  and  Chaucer's  pilgrims ;  quotations 
from  ProL] 

[vol.  ii,      [Chaucer  a  contributor  to  and  a  symptom  of  the  spread  of 
is]        knowledge  in  his  day.] 

1856.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  On  Orthography.  [Letter]  To  the  Bev. 
Augustus  Jessopp,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine,  Feb.  1856,  vol.  liii, 
p.  244. 

I  much  commend  the  late  publisher  of  Milton's  works  for 
observing  his  authography  [sic].  The  same  had  been  done  by 
the  judicious  Tyrwhitt  in  his  edition  of  Chaucer  .  .  . 

I  do  not  join  you  in  your  reprehension  of  Wordsworth  for 
modernizing  Chaucer;  because  there  are  many  who  cannot 
comprehend  that  admirable  poet's  versification,  in  which  the 
mute  e,  as  in  the  French,  is  prolonged  and  sounded.  Words 
worth  is  a  poet  of  high  merit,  but  neither  of  the  same  kind 
nor  of  the  same  degree  as  Chaucer.  He  could  no  more  have 
written  the  Canterbury  Tales,  nor  any  poetry  so  diversified, 
than  he  could  have  written  the  Paradise  Lost  .  .  . 

[Cf.  Lander's  letter,  declining  to  take  part  in  Home's  modernization,  above,  1841.] 

1856.  Lloyd,  William  Watkiss.  Critical  Essay  on  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
[in]  The  Dramatic  Works  of  William  Shakespeare,  ed.  S.  W.  Singer, 
10  vols.,  vol.  vii,,  pp.  316-9.  [Reprinted  in  "  Critica  Essays  on 
the  Plays  of  Shakespeare,"  1875,  pp.  322-4.] 

Chaucer's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  in  five  long  books,  is  a  work 
remarkable  for  more  than  its  length  ;  it  is  exceedingly  full  and 
diffuse,  a  mere  modicum  of  incident  furnishes  the  simplest 
skeleton  to  the  large  bulk,  yet  slowly  as  the  story  moves,  it  is 


1856]  Chaucer  Criticism  arid  Allusion.  31 

[p.  317]  always  moving,  minute  as  are  its  details,  they  are  ever  touched 
with  liveliness ;  and  archness  and  mock  simplicity,  irony  most 
delicate  in  grain  is  [sic]  thrown  over  the  whole,  and  gives  a 
fanciful  glow  to  descriptions  of  otherwise  literal  nature.  .  .  . 

[p.  sis]  There  is  some  flatness  perhaps  in  the  last  book  both  of 
Chaucer  and  Boccaccio,  from  the  falsehood  of  Cressida  being 
conveyed  to  Troilus  at  second-hand,  by  hearsay,  cold  letters, 
and  conclusively  only  by  his  love  tokens  being  captured  with 
the  equipments  of  .Diomed.  Shakespeare  relieved  this  by 
carrying  him  personally  to  the  Greek  tents. 

The  actual  conclusion  of  Chaucer's  poem  is  replete  with 
spirit  generally  in  both  conception  and  execution,  but  in  no 
point  more  so  than  in  the  compensation  allotted  to  Troilus, 
less  it  must  be  said  for  his  merit,  than  for  his  simplicity  and 
suffering.  It  is  after  his  troubles  are  over  with  his  life  that 
he  rises  superior  to  the  false  loves  and  poor  passions  and  pride 
of  a  low  world,  and  beholds  the  better  end  of  existence. 

[These  Essays  are  reprinted  from  an  edition  of  Shakespeare,  of  the  same  year, 
edited  by  W.  W.  Lloyd  ;  there  are  further  Chaucer  allusions  in  the  footnotes  to  this.] 


1856.  Maurice,  Frederick  Denison.  The  Friendship  of  Books,  [a  lecture 
delivered  in  1856,  printed  in]  The  Friendship  of  Books,  and  other 
lectures,  1874,  p.  16. 

I  might  have  spoken  of  the  time  of  our  Edward  III.,  and 
have  given  you  some  proofs  that  our  first  poet,  Chaucer,  was 
a  cordial,  genial,  friendly  man,  who  could  tell  us  a  great 
many  things  which  we  want  to  know  about  his  own  time, 
and  could  also  break  down  the  barrier  between  his  time  and 
ours. 

1856.  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol.  i,  pp.  52,  234,  357,  401, 
414,  426,  451  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.'  3,  9,  70,  236,  277,  285,  338,  391, 
420,  429. 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

T.,  B.  Jan.  19.  2nd  S.  i,  The  name  of  Walter  le  Chaucer 
52.  (1292  and  1293)  is  to  be  found 
in  Kirkpatrick's  History  of  the  Religious  Orders  and 
Communities,  and  of  the  Hospitals  and  Castle  of 
Norwich ,  and  he  is  not  mentioned  in  the  list  given  by 
Sir  Harris  Nicolas  of  all  known  persons  bearing  the 
poet's  name.  Might  not  further  search  in  the  records 
in  the  Guildhall  at  Norwich  reveal  farther  traces  of 
the  family? 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1856 


Author.  Date.  Reference. 

Sartor.       Mar.  22.     2nd  S.  i, 
234. 

D[en-         May  17.     2nd  S.  i, 
401. 

B.,  G.          May  24.     2nd  S.  i, 

•J%*  414. 
2nd  S.  i, 
426. 


Subject. 

'Vernage.' 

Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight 
quoted  as  Chaucer's.   a 

'Kibible,'  'ribibe.' 


Dent  on. 
W. 


May  31. 


Proverbs  from  Chaucer  (also 
Testament  of  Love,  etc.,  quoted 
as  his). 

<  A  De-      June  7.       2nd  S.  i,        A  Word  for  Chaucer.     A  plea 
sultory  451.         that  Chaucer's  name   should   be 

Header.'  classed  with  that  of  Cervantes  as  coming  nearest  to 

Shakespeare  as  a  painter  of  human  nature. 
Height-     July    5.     2nd  S.  ii,         '  Merry.' 
ley,  3. 

Thomas. 

Barnfield's    Poems    in    divers 


Collier, 
John 
Payne. 


July    5.     2nd  S.  ii, 


humors,  1598,   q.v.  above,  vol.  i, 
p.  156. 


and     the     '  merry 


P.,  T.  H.I  July  26.     2nd  S.  ii,         Chaucerian  oaths. 
Editor.    /  70. 

S.,  S.  S.     Sept,  20.    2nd  S.  ii,         « Kalends. 

.  236. 
Bede,         Oct.  4.        2nd  S.  ii,         Dr.    Davy 

Cuth-  277.  nightingale.' 

bert. 

B.,  E.G.,  Oct.  25.  2nd  S.  ii,  'Medlar  ;'  I  have  heard  it  so 
338.  called  [i.  e.  by  Chaucer's  name 
for  it,  Eeves  Prol.  1.  17]  by  old  men  in  Norfolk. 
The  Eeve  is  described  by  Chaucer  as  a  Norfolk  man.  .  . 
And  more  than  one  instance  of  Norfolk  dialect  may  be 
found  in  his  language. 

Wilkin-     Nov.  29.     2nd  S.  ii,         « Squaimous.' 
son,  429. 

J.B. 


1856.  Buskin,  John.  Modern  Painters,  1854-6,  Volume  iii,  1856, 
Part  iv,  Chapter  vii,  §  19,  Chapter  xiv,  §  33.  (Works,  Library 
edn.,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols., 
vol.  v,  pp.  127,  273-4.) 

lp.  127]  Finally,  as  far  as  I  can  observe,  it  is  a  constant  law  that 
the  greatest  men,  whether  poets  or  historians,  live  entirely  in 
their  own  age,  and  that  the  greatest  fruits  of  their  work  are 
gathered  out  of  their  own  age.  Dante  paints  Italy  in  the 
thirteenth  century ;  Chaucer,  England  in  the  fourteenth ; 


1856]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  33 

Masaccio,  Florence  in  the  fifteenth ;  Tintoret,  Venice  in  the 
sixteenth  :  all  of  them  utterly  regardless  of  anachronism  and 
minor  error  of  every  kind,  but  getting  always  vital  truth  out 
of  the  vital  present. 

tp.  273]  It  is  quite  true  that  this  [horror  of  a  forest]  is  partly  a  char 
acteristic,  not  merely  of  Dante,  or  of  mediaeval  writers,  but  of 
southern  writers ;  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  forest, being  with 
them  higher  upon  the  hills,  and  more  out  of  the  way  than  in  the 
north,  was  generally  a  type  of  lonely  and  savage  places  ;  while 
in  England,  the  ( greenwood,'  coming  up  to  the  very  walls  of  the 
towns,  it  was  possible  to  be  'merry  in  the  good  greenwood,' 
in  a  sense  which  an  Italian  could  not  have  understood.  Hence 
Chaucer,  Spenser,  and  Shakspere  send  their  favorites  per 
petually  to  the  woods  for  pleasure  ou  meditation ;  and  trust 
their  tender  Canace,  or  Rosalind,  or  Helena,  or  Silvia,  or 
Eelphoebe,  where  Dante  would  have  sent  no  one  but  a  con 
demned  spirit. 

1856.  Ruskin,  John.  The  Harbours  of  England,  [Illustrative  text  to 
Turner's  drawings,]  pp.  6-8.  (Works,  Library  edn.,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook 
and  A.  Wedderburn,  39  vols.,  1903-12,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  20-23.) 

fp.  20]  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  how  repugnant  every  oceanic 
[p.  21]  idea  appears  to  be  to  the  whole  nature  of  our  principal 
English  mediaeval  poet,  Chaucer.  Eead  first  The  Man 
of  Lawe's  Tale,  in  which  the  Lady  Constance  is  continually 
floated  up  and  down  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  German 
Ocean,  in  a  ship  by  herself;  carried  from  Syria  all  the  way 
to  Northumberland,  and  there  Wrecked  upon  the  coast; 
thence  yet  again  driven  up  and  down  among  the  waves  for 
five  years,  she  and  her  child ;  and  yet,  all  this  while,  Chaucer 
does  not  let  fall  a  single  word  descriptive  of  the  sea,  or 
express  any  emotion  whatever  about  it,  or  about  the  ship. 
He  simply  tells  us  the  lady  sailed  here  and  was  wrecked 
there ;  but  neither  he  nor  his  audience  appear  to  be  capable 
of  receiving  any  sensation,  but  one  of  simple  aversion,  from 
waves,  ships,  or  sands.  Compare  with  his  absolutely  apathetic 
recital,  the  description  by  a  modern  poet  of  the  sailing  of  a 
vessel,  charged  with  the  fate  of  another  Constance : 
"  It  curled  not  Tweed  alone,  that  breeze — 
For  far  upon  Northumbrian  seas 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. — III.  D 


34  Five  Hundred  Tears  of  [A.D.  1856 

It  freshly  blew,  and  strong ; 

.  .   .  [to]  The  merry  seamen  laughed  to  see 
Their  gallant  ship  so  lustily 
Furrow  the  green  sea  foam." 

[Marmion,  ii.  1.] 

Xow  just  as  Scott  enjoys  this  sea  "breeze,  so  does  Chaucer 
the  soft  air  of  the  woods ;  the  moment  the  older  poet  lands, 
he  is  himself  again,  his  poverty  of  language  in  speaking  of 
the  ship  is  not  because  he  despises  description,  but  because 
he  has  nothing  to  describe.  Hear  him  upon  the  ground  in 
Spring  : 

"  These  woodes  else  recoveren  greene, 
That  drie  in  winter  ben  to  sene, 

[p.  22]  [to]  Through  which  the  ground  to  praisen  is." 

[Rom.  Rose,  11.  57-70.] 

In  like  manner,   wherever  throughout  his   poems  we  find 
Chaucer  enthusiastic,  it    is    on    a    sunny  day  in  the  "  good 
greenwood,"  but  the  slightest  approach  to  the  seashore  makes 
him  shiver;  and  his  antipathy  finds  at  last  positive  expression, 
and  becomes  the  principal  foundation  of  the  Frankeleine's  Tale, 
in  which  a  lady,  waiting  for  her  husband's  return  in  a  castle 
by  the  sea,  behaves  and  expresses  herself  as  follows  : — 
"  Another  time  wold  she  sit  and  thinke, 
[to]  '  Why  ban  ye  wrought  this  werk  unresonable  1 ' ' 

[Frankeleyns  T.,  129-44.] 

The  desire  to  have  the  rocks  out  of  her  way  is  indeed  severely 
punished  in  the  seguel  of  the  tale ;  but  it  is  not  the  less 
[p.  23]  characteristic  of  the  age,  and  well  worth  meditating  upon,  in 
comparison  with  the  feelings  of  an  unsophisticated  modern 
French  or  English  girl  among  the  black  rocks  of  Dieppe  or 
Kamsgate. 

[n,b.l85Q.]    Smith,   Alexander.       Sydney  Dobell,   [in]    Last  Leaves, 
1868,  p.  179. 

[Writteu  after  the  publication  (in  1856)  of  Dobell's  England  in  Time  oj  War.     Smith 
died  in  1867.] 

Chaucer  and  Spenser  are  the  fountain-heads  of  all.  succeed 
ing  English  poetry.  Chaucer  is  the  father  of  the  humorous, 
kindly,  dramatic,  genially-lyrical  men ;  Spenser  of  the  intense, 
allegorical,  didactic,  remote,  and,  by  comparison,  unsocial  men. 


1856]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  35 

Shakespeare,  Dryden,  Burns,  Byron,  Browning,  draw  descent 
from  Chaucer.  Milton,  Young,  Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and 
Tennyson  from  Spenser. 

1856.  Unknown.  Review  of  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  ed. 
Eobert  Bell,  [in]  The  Christian  Remembrancer,  Oct.  1856, 
vol.  xxxii,  new  series,  pp.  327-56. 

[A  general  account  and  welcome  of  Bell's  edition,  with 
references  to  previous  editions.  The  treatment  of  The  Testament 
of  Love  for  biographical  purposes  is  new.  The  writer  does 
not  pretend  "to  trace  all  the  particulars  of  his  [Chaucer's] 
life  in  The  Testament  of  Love,  or  to  distinguish  what  is 
purely  fictitious  from  what  is  intended  to  relate  to  real 
events "  :  though  he  cannot  help  thinking  that  in  one 
sentence  Chaucer  intended  to  convey  his  love  for  his  birth 
place.  The  Court  of  Love  is  considered  genuine,  much  space 
is  devoted  to  it,  and  there  is  some  speculation  as  to  Chaucer's 
life  at  the  University.  The  Cuckow  and  Nightingale  and 
Flour  and  Lefe  are  likewise  accepted.  The  possibilities  of 
Chaucer's  adventures  in  Italy  and  the  effect  of  his  journeys 
on  his  work  are  dwelt  upon,  pp.  3^4-5.  There  is  a  long 
account  and  examination  of  the  Hous  of  Fame,  pp.  347-50, — 
"  one  of  the  most  admirable  burlesque  poems  in  the  English 
language," — "which  has  not  attracted  so  much  attention  as, 
in  our  opinion,  it  deserves."  The  review  contains  much 
quotation  from  Chaucer,  and  the  main  pieces  are  examined 
in  some  detail.] 

1856.  Unknown.  Review  of  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  ed. 
Robert  Bell,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine,  April,  vol.  liii,  pp.  461-72. 

[p.  462]  As  regards  Chaucer,  indeed,  there  is  some  excuse  for 
the  comparative  neglect  of  his  writings  by  his  countrymen. 
In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  written  about  the  harmony  of 
his  verse,  and  his  portraiture  of  life,  manners  and  nature,  his 
language  is  beset  with  no  ordinary  difficulties.  As  a  language, 
indeed,  it  is  almost  anomalous.  It  is  not  a  foreign  tongue, 
neither  is  it  our  own.  .  .  . 

[pp.  463-  [«piie  area  Of ^  an(j  public  for,  written  English  very  limited 
in  Chaucer's  time ;  that  for  his  new  art  still  more  so.] 

(P.  465]      [The  biographies ;  inadequacy  of  all  before  Nicolas's.] 

]*p'™~    [An  account  of  Chaucer's  life.] 

[P.  470]  From  the  circumstances  of  his  position,  Chaucer  therefore 
enjoyed  the  most  abundant  means  of  study  ing  and  representing 


36  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1856- 

the  character  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  And  lie  liad  not 
only  the  fairest  opportunity  for  studying,  but  also  a  genius 
and  disposition  peculiarly  suited  to  the  task.  His  powers  of 
observation  were  most  keen  and  catholic ;  his  sympathy  with 
every  form  of  humanity  intense  ;  his  curiosity  was  indefatig 
able.  .  .  . 

tp.  47i]  Our  age  moves  onward  with  such  rapidity  that  we  cannot 
hope  for  any  looking  back  to  our  elder  literature  as  to  a 
general  source  of  amusement  or  instruction.  ...  It  would 

[p.  472]  accordingly  be  rash  to  predict,  or  even  to  hope,  that  Chaucer 
will  ever  resume  his  station  as  a  popular  favourite.  All  that 
we  can  claim  for  him  is,  therefore,  the  recognition  of  his 
surpassing  worth  as  an  adjunct  to  the  historian. 

1856.  Unknown.  Revieiv  of  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  ed. 
.Robert  Bell,  [in]  Bentley's  Miscellany,  March  1856,  vol.  xxxix, 
pp.  252-9. 

[pp.  262-  ["Quotationg  from  Byron,  Berington,  Denham,  North,  Tenny 
son,  and  Knight  on  Chaucer.  Reference  to  the  modernizations 
published  by  Hofne,  1841.  On  this  work,  following  Bell, 
the  writer  says :] 

[p.  255]  Wordsworth's  Chaucer  Wordsworthises.  Leigh  Hunt's 
Chaucer  is  Leigh  Huntish.  Mrs.  Browning's  Chaucer  in 
dulges  in  Elizabeth  Barrettisms.  A  reader  acquainted  with 
the  Lyrical  Ballads,  with  the  Story  of  Rimini,  and  with  the 
Vision  of  the  Poets,  has  little  difficulty,  when  conning  these 
several  versions  of  the  old  bard,  to  discriminate  between  this 
and  that  "  eminent  hand,"  and  distribute  unhesitatingly  suum 
cuique. 

[p.  256J  [Praise  of  Bell's  edition,  as  making  the  true  Chaucer  known 
to  popular  readers,  with  an  account  of  Chaucer's  versification 
and  language  and  a  reprint  of  an  accented  passage  from  Bell.] 

[pp.  256-  [Further  quotations  from  De  Quincey,  Alexander  Smith, 
1  Camdeu,  Elizabeth  B.  Browning,  Coleridge,  Dryden,  Fitz- 
Gerald,  Knight,  Hippisley,  and  Beli,  with  a  running  com 
mentary  on  the  Canterbury  Tales,  Troilus  and  certain  of 
the  minor  poems.  Chaucer's  Dream  (The  Isle  of  Ladies)  is 
considered  genuine.] 

1856.  Unknown.  Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  [in]  The  English  Cyclopaedia  .  .  . 
conducted  by  Charles  Knight,  Biog.  vol.  i,  coll.  209-10. 

[A   life    of    Chaucer    containing   all  the   old   legends,    and 
attributing  to  him  the  supposititious  works,  except  the  Testa- 


1857]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  37 

ment  of  Love,  Nicolas's  rejection  of  which  is  quoted.  Few  can 
read  him  with  ease,  and  none  without  a  dictionary  ;  yet  his 
language  can  be  mastered  with  a  little  pains,  which  would 
be  amply  rewarded.] 

1857-60.  Chatelain,  Jean  Baptiste  Francois  Ernest  de.  Contes  de 
Cantorbe'ry,  traduits  en  vers  i'rangais,  9  torn,  London.  [See  below, 
App.  B.,  and  Chaucer  devant  la  Critique,  par  C.  F.  E.  Spurgeon, 
Paris,  1911,  p.  316.] 

1857-9.  Child,  Francis  James.  English  and  Scottish  Ballads,  8  vols., 
vol.  i,  pp.  80,  131  ;  vol.  ii,  p.  'i  ;  vol.  iii,  p.  137  ;  vol.  iv,  p.  207  ; 
vol.  v,  p.  38  ;  vol.  viii,  p.  152. 


tv°isi]       [Guy  of  Warwick  mentioned  by  Chaucer  among  '  romances 
of  pris.' 

[Vp']]'      [Glasgerion.] 

HUGH  OF  LINCOLN.  The  exquisite  tale  which  Chaucer  has 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Prioress  exhibits  nearly  the  same 
incidents  as  the  following  ballad. 


1857.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  MS.  Notes,  Illustrations  of  the 
Prologue  to  Chaucer  s  Canterbury  Tales,  dated  "  Working  Men's 
College,  1857."  [The  Notes  consist  of  passages  copied  from  different 
books  in  illustration  of  the  various  characters  in  the  Prologue,  and 
were  used  for  lectures  at  the  Working  Men's  College  in  1857-8. 
See  Biography  of  Furnivall  by  John  Munro  in  Frederick  James 
Furnivall,  1911,  p.  xxxvi.  The  original  note-book  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  present  Editor.  The  contents  are  as  follows.] 

[P.  2]         "The  Fat  Friar."     Extract  from  Piers  Plowman's  Creed, 

I.  435  (ed.  Wright,  1856),  beginning— 

"  Than  turned  I  ayen 
Whan  I  hadde  all  y-toted, 
And  fond  in  a  freitoure 
A  frere  on  a  benche,"  etc. 

[p- 3]         "The  Ploughman."      Paraphrase  of  long  passage  from  the 

Creed,  1.  475  [or  rather  831],  etc. 
[p.  6]         "  The  Ploughman's  Diet  and  Work — recommended  for  the 

Friars."      Extract    from    Creed,   1.    1553,    etc.,    and  a   note. 

"  See  Vis.  [vol.]  i,  [p.]  134." 
[p.  9]         "  The   Friars'   Laziness,    Greediness   and    Selfishness,    and 

want   of   kindness   to    one    another."      Extract   from    Creed, 

II.  1437-82. 

[p.  13]  "  Priests — their  residing  in  London."  Extract  from  Piers 
Plowman,  Prol.  11.  163-72. 


38  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1857 

fp.  ir]        "  Knight."    Extract  from  Leland,  Itinerary  (Somersetshire), 
voL  II,  fol.  53-4,  vol.  iii,  91  (of  original). 

[pp.  26,  27,  28  and  inserted  leaves] 

"The    Assault   of  Massoura  (Fxcerpta  Historica,  Bentley, 

1831,    p.    64)."        The    valour    of    Longespee    fighting    the 

Saracens. 
[p.  so]        "  Franklins."       Extract  from  Fortescue,  de  Laudibus  Leguin 

Angliae,  cap.  29,  temp.  Hen.  VI,  1422-61. 
[p.  si]        Extract  from  W.  Lambarde*  Perambulation  of  Kent,  1570, 

published  1576,  copied  from  edn.   1826,  p.   8.     Note  on  the 

"  Franklyns  and  Yeomen  of  England." 
[p.  32]        "  Doctor  of  Phisic."     "  For  a  first-rate  skit  on  *  thes  fisisiens 

that  helpeth  men  to   dye  '    see    '  A  Poem   on  the  Times  of 

Edward   II/   ed.   Hardwick   (Percy   Society),  stanzas  39-44, 

pp.  18-21." 

Extract  from  Piers  Plowman,  [vol.]  I,  [p.]  133  : — 

"  For  murtheris  are  many  leches,"  etc. 
[p.  39]        "The  Merchant,  as  to  his  selling  scheeldes." 

Extract  from  Piers  Plowman,  C,  vii,  1.  278  : — 

"  And  if  I  sente  over  see 
My  servaunt^  to  Brugges,"  etc. 

[B.  v,  392  ;  C.  vii,  278.] 

[p.  4i]        "  Sergeant}  (at  law)." 

Extract  from  Piers  Plowman,  i,  418  : — 
"  Yet  hoved  there  an  hundred 

In  howves  of  selk,"  etc. 
[pp.  42-3]  "Sergeant."      "Pervise."      Selden's  note  in  Fortescue  de 

laudibus  Legum  Angliae,  cap.  51. 

[p.  43]        Extract  from  Songs  and  Carols,  15th  Century,  ed.  Wright, 
for  Percy  Society,  p.  36  : 

"  If  thou  have  out  to  do  with  the  law  to  plete,"  etc., 
and  from  notes,  p.  100  :  ''The  Parvis  or  portico  of  St.  Paul's,  in 
London,  was  the    common  place    of    consultation  among  the 
Lawyers."     "  See  Victor  Hugo's  Notre  Dame  as  to  the  Parvise 
there,  in  Paris." 

[End  pages  of  book,  an  index  of  personages  (such  as  Ancres, 
Bachelers,  Bishop,  Clerks,  etc.)  mentioned  in  Piers  Plowman, 
under  heads  of  "Church,"  "State  and  Household,"  and 
"  Trades  and  Professions."] 

1857.  Kingsley,  Charles.  Two  Years  Ago,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  chapter  vii, 
p.  168  [quotation  of  the  beginning  of  ProL,  perverted  to  suit  the 
context]  ;  vol.  iii,  chapter  iii,  p.  112  [reference  to  "  Chaucer's  house 
of  fame"].  (Works,  1880-85,  28  vols.,  vol.  viii,  chapter  vii,  p. 
105,  chapter  xxi,  p.  386.) 


1857] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


39 


1857.  Maurice,  Frederick  Denison.  Milton  considered  as  a  School 
master,  [a  lecture  delivered  in  Jan.  1857,  printed  in]  The  Friendship 
of  Books,  and  other  Lectures,  1874,  p.  273. 

Geoffrey  Chaucer  was  probably  born  in  London.  He  was 
Comptroller  of  the  Petty  Customs  in  the  port  of  London. 
He  fell  into  disgrace  with  the  Court  by  the  part  he  took  in 
the  election  of  a  Lord  Mayor.  We  have  reason  to  remember 
these  facts  ;  for  if  we  owe  "  the  Testament  of  Love "  and 
the  "  Legend  of  Fair  Women "  to  the  knowledge  which  he 
acquired  in  Courts,  or  while  on  foreign  embassies,  we  should 
never,  I  conceive,  have  had  the  "Canterbury  Tales,"  but  for 
the  acquaintance  with  homely  English  life  which  he  learned 
as  a  London  citizen. 


1857.  Notes  and   Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol.  iii,  pp.  49,  152-3,  170, 
193,  216-7,  228,  253,  264,  268,  299,  329,  352-3,  376,  389-90,  419, 

435,  465,  471,  509,  511;  vol.  iv,  pp.  82,  199,  297,  383,  397,  407-8, 

436,  450,  505,  509-10. 


Author. 

N.,  G. 
0.,J. 

T.,W.  H. 
W, 

Taylor, 
Henry 
W.  S. 

W.,  B. 
C.,  G.  R. 


K.,H.C. 
Anon. 


Subject. 

The  Wife  of  Beith  (the  ballad). 


Date.  Reference. 

Jan.  17.     2nd  S.  iii, 
49. 

Feb.  21.    2nd  S.  iii,       The    Wife    of  Beith   and    TJie 
152-3.      Wanton  Wife  of  Bath. 

Feb.  28.    2nd  S.  iii,        '  Carrenare.' 
170. 

Mar.  7.     2nd  S.  iii, 
193. 


'  Lollard,'  '  loller.' 


Mar.  14.    2nd  S.  iii,       '  Carrenare  '      =       '  carnerie 
217.         (charnel  house). 

Mar.  21.  2nd  S.  iii,  Has  any  attempt  been  made  to 
228.  identify  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Pilgrims  ?  The  writer  thinks  he  has  identified  the 
Host,  Harry  Bailly.  In  the  Parliament  held  at  West 
minster,  in  50th  Edw.  Ill,  Henry  Bailly  was  one  of  the 
representatives  for  that  borough.  And  he  was  again 
returned  to  the  Parliament  held  at  Gloucester  2nd 
Richd  II.  In  the  Subsidy  Rolls,  4  Richard  II,  in 
South wark,  occurs  the  name  of — 

"  Henr'  Bayliff,  Ostyler,  Xpian  Ux  eius.  .  ij  8." 
Can  Roger  the   Cojce   be  identified?     What  was  a 
Jack  of  Dover  ?     [Cokes  ProL,  11.  21-23.] 

Mar.  28.     2nd  S.  iii,  '  Bane '  and  '  bale.' 

253. 

April  11.   2nd  S.  iii,  'Carrenare'  =   careening-dock 

299,  (Spanish  'carenero'). 


40 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1857- 


Author. 


Boys, 

Tho 
mas. 


Subject. 

Blue  the  colour  of  truth  (Court 
of  Love,  1.  246,  quoted  as 
Chaucer's). 

2nd  S.  iii,       'Jack  of  Dover'  =  the   stock- 
352-3.  fish  called  'Poor  John'  ;    in 

Chaucer's  time  there  were  Priors  of  Dover  named  John. 


Date.  Reference. 

April  25.   2nd  S.  iii, 
329. 


May  2. 


Leo,  May  16.     2nd  S.  iii,        'Watling    Street '=  the  Milky 

F.  A.  390.         Way  (flows  of  Fame,  ii.  427). 

Norman,  May  30.     2nd  S.  iii,       Chaucer's      reminiscence      of 

Louisa  435.         Dante's  'nessun  maggior  dolore' 

Julia.  in  T.  <k  C.  iii. 


Mat. 

thews, 
Wil 
liam. 

Allen,  R 
James. 

Shep- 
pard, 

John. 

East 
wood, 
J. 

Boys, 

Tho 
mas. 


East 
wood. 
J. 

Boys, 

Thos. 


June  13.    2nd  S.  iii, 
471. 


June  27.    2nd  S.  iii, 
509-10. 


Maze.' 


'  Persoun '    or    *  Persone,'    and 
'  Parson ' ;  *  Parishens.' 


June  27.    2nd  S.  iii,       'Tabard,'  recently  corrupted  to 
511.          'Talbot.' 


Oct.  10. 


2nd  S. 
297. 


'  Scarcely '  =  temperately. 


Nov.  14.    2nd  S.  iv,        '  Envelope  '    (Chaucer,    '  envo- 
397.        lupe ')  from  Italian  *  inviluppo.' 

Nov.  21.  2nd  S.  iv,  CHAUCER  DIFFICULTIES. — 'The 
407-8.  shippes  hopposteries.'  Is  'hop- 
posteres '  an  old  form  of  the  word  upholsteries  ?  op  for 
up  is  Dutch — the  '  h  '  is  a  little  out  of  place,  but  there 
are  other  instances  of  this  in  Chaucer. 

Ships'  hopposteres  would   then  mean  the  dockyards 
or  arsenals  where  the  ships  are  refitted. 

Early  satirical  poem  (cf.  1853, 
vii,  569). 


Nov.  28.     2ndS.iv 
436. 


Dec.  5.       2nd  S.  iv,        CHAUCER    DIFFICULTIES    (2). 
450.  'Broken     harm'      (Marchantes 

Tale,  1.  181).     The  reading: 

'So  moch  eLbroken  ha,rm,  is  suggested,  el-brooken  = 
ittbrooked ;  t*  refore  harm,  not  easily  brooked.  '  A 
Cristofre '  (PrdLtl.  115).  Did  this  not  mean  something 
bearing  a  cross  or  crucifix  ?  The  yeman  would  be 
allowed  to  wear  a  silver  Cristofre  (in  spite  of  Stat.  37 
Edw.  Ill)  because  it  was  a  sacred  emblem  or  badge,  not 
an  ornament, 


1858]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  41 

Author.  Date.  Reference.";  Subject. 

Stein-        Dec.  26.     2nd  S.  iv,          'A  mouse's  hert.' 
metz,  505. 

Andrew. 

Boys,          Dec.  26.    2nd  S.  iv,       CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (3). 

Thos.  509-10.      <  Kewel-bone '  (Sir  Thopas,  1. 167). 

Might   this    not  be    whalebone?    Rewel    bone  =  Revel 

bone,  i.e.  bone  from  Revel,  one  of  the  Hanse  Towns? 

'  Hadrian  '  (Monk's  Pro?.,  1.  4).     Does  this  not  stand 

for  Madre   Anna,   Anna  the   mother  of  the   Virgin 

Mary? 


1857.  Pauli,  Reinhold.     Confessio  Amantis  of  John  Gower,  edited  and 
collated  ...  by  Dr.  R.  Pauli,  3  vols.,  vol.  i,  Introductory  Essay, 
pp.  vi,  xiii-xvi,  xxix,  xxxii,  xxxv-vi,  xxxviii,  xliii. 

tP-xvX]U1     [Gower's  relations  with  Chaucer  ;  the  evidence  for  a  breach 
in  their  friendship  insufficient.] 

1858.  Bagehot,  Walter.    Article  on  Charles  Dickens  [in]  The  National 
Review,  Oct.  5,  1858,  p.  462.     (Reprinted  in  Literary  Studies,  1879, 
p.  188.) 

[The  symmetry  of  Chaucer's  mind,  his  healthy  sagacity  and 
ordered  comprehension.]  The  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales 
is  in  itself  a  series  of  memorial  tablets  to  mediaeval  society  \ 
eacli  class  has  its  tomb,  and  each  its  apt  inscription. 

1858.  Burne- Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.     The  Prioresses  Tale. 

[A  painting  in  oils  on  a  cabinet  belonging  to  William 
Morris,  representing  the  Virgin  placing  the  grain  on  the  "  little 
clergeon's  "  tongue.  Burne-Jones  began  a  replica  of  this- picture 
in  1869,  which  was  only  completed  and  exhibited  in  1898. 
See  Sir  Edward  Burne-Jones,  by  Malcolm  Bell,  1899,  pp.  40,  70. 
See  also  the  list  of  Burne-Jones's  works  by  J.  P.  Anderson  in 
0.  G.  Destree,  Les  Premphaelites,  Bruxelles,  [1895].] 


1858.  Clough,  Arthur  Hugh.  Letter  to  Professor  F.  J.  Child,  [dated] 
April  10,  1858,  [printed  in]  Prose  Remains  of  Arthur  H.  Clough, 
1888,  p.  241. 

Do  you  see  that  the  Frenchman  [de  Chatelain]  who  trans 
lated  '  the  Canterbury  Tales '  has  found  at  Paris  the  original 
of  the  'Squire's  Tale,'  30,000  lines?  I  wonder  if  it  is  like 
Spenser's  in  any  respect. 


42  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1858 

1858.  Gust,  Katherine  Isabella.  Introduction  [to]  The  Ancient  Poem  of 
Guillaume  de  Gnileville  entitled  le  Pelerinage  de  I'Homme,  compared 
iuith  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  of  John  Bunyanj  edited  [by  K.  I.  Gust] 
from  Notes  collected  by  the  late  Mr.  Nathaniel  Hill,  pp.  ix,  xi,  3- 
9,  11,  38-9,  41-2,  appendix  p.  xxxv. 

[P.  ix.]  [Quotation  from  a  translation  in  a  hand  of  c.  1630  from 
Pits  (q.v.  below,  App.  A.,  a.  1616)  in  MS.  Harl.  4826,  on 
Lydgate.] 

[pp.  5-6]  [Chaucer's  A. B.C.;  three  stanzas  of  the  English  text,  side 
by  side  with  De  Guileville's  French.] 

[p.  7]  [Chaucer's  imitation  at  the  end  of  The  Book  of  the  Duchesse, 
"  Eight  thus  me  mett,  as  I  you  tell,"  etc.,  of  De  Guileville's 
description  (also  quoted)  of  being  waked  by  the  convent-bell, — 

Ce  me  sembla  en  ce  moment 
Si  que  de  lespouentement 
Esueille  et  desdormy  fu  [etc.]. 

[pp.  8-9]  [Quotation  from  Lydgate's  Pilgrimage  of  the  passage  excus 
ing  himself  from  translating  the  A, B.C.,  already  translated  by 
Chaucer,  with  the  proofs  that  the  translation  of  the  Pilgrimage 
from  De  Guileville  in  MS.  Cotton  Yitellius,  C.  xiii,  was  by 
Lydgate.] 

[pp.  38-9]  [On  the  Dream  Prologue  in  O.F.  literature,  with  extracts 
from  De  Guileville's  Pelerinage  and  Chaucer's  Booh  of  the 
Duchesse.] 

[pp.  41-2]  [On  the  "  Go  little  book  "  formula  with  which  early  poets 
and  dreamers  sent  forth  their  books,  with  quotation  from 
"  Chaucer's  "  Flour  and  the  Lefe.] 


1858.  De  Vere,  Aubrey  Thomas.  Select  Specimens  of  the  English  Poets 
with  Biographical  Notices,  &c.,  ed.  Aubrey  de  Vere,  pp.  1-3  [bio 
graphical  and  critical  notice  of  Chaucer]  ;  pp.  3-8  [extracts 
from  Canterbury  Tales,  11.  43-164,  2765-808,5240-96],  20-1,  131. 
[Reprinted  in  The  Household  Poetry  Book,  an  Anthology  of 
English-speaking  Poets  from  Chaucer  to  Fader,  1893  (same 
pagination).] 


1858.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Persian  Poetry  [in]  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  April,  1858,  vol.  i,  p.  729,  [reprinted  in]  Letters 
aud  Social  Aims,  1875,  p.  226  [ed.  1876,  the  first  in  B.M.]. 
(Works,  Centenary  Edition,  1903,  12  vols.,  vol.  viii,  p.  252.) 

The  law  of  the  ghaselle,  or  shorter  ode,  requires  that  the 
poet  insert  his  name  in  the  last  stanza.  .  .  .  We  remem 
ber  but  two  or  three  examples  in  English  poetry  :  that  of 
Chaucer,  in  the  "  House  of  Fame  "  .  f  .  , 


1858]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  43 

1858.  H.  Chaucer's  Monument,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  new 
series,  vol.  iv,  Feb.  1858,  p.  83. 

[A  letter  complaining  that  Chaucer's  tomb  was  still  not 
restored  and  was  moreover  "  entirely  hemmed  in  by  umbrella 
stands."] 

1858.  Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell.  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table, 
ch.  iv,  v,  [in]  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb.,  March,  1858,  vol.  i, 
p.  462,  619  ;  1st  vol.  edn.,  Boston,  1858,  pp.  92,  125.  (Writings, 
1891,  13  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  82-3,  110.) 

[pp.  82-3]  Men  often  remind  me  of  pears  in  their  way  of  coming  to 
maturity.  .  .  .  Rich,  juicy,  lively,  fragrant,  russet-skinned  old 
Chaucer  was  an  Easter-Beurre ;  the  buds  of  a  new  summer 
were  swelling  when  he  ripened. 

[p.  no]  As  the  one  word  "moi"  revealed  the  Stratford-atte-Bowe- 
taught  Anglais  .  .  . 

1858.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  The  Tapiser's  Tale,  attempted  in 
the  manner  of  Chaucer,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine,  Feb.  1858,  vol.  Ivii, 
pp.  160-3. 

[The  Tale  is  that  of  the  miracle  of  the  Field  of  Flowers, 
from  Mandeville,  and  is  preceded  by  an  introductory  note, 
and  by  a  prologue,  in  which  "  occasion  has  been  taken  to 
suppose  that  the  Carpenter  has  just  been  telling  a  tale,  which 
his  hearers  have  found  tedious  .  .  .  and  that  the  Host  .  .  . 
feels  himself  warranted  in  rebuking  the  narrator." 
The  Prologue  begins  :] 

The  Carpenter,  whan  that  his  tale  was  done, 
Which  sette  us  nigh  on  sleopyng  everych  one  .  .  . 
Looked  as  big  and  highe,  as  thof  his  lore 
Gaf  him  Saint  Joseph  for  his  auncestor  .  .   . 

1858.  Landor,  Walter  Savage,  Old-fashioned  Verse,  [in]  Dry  Sticks, 
p.  44. 

In  verse  alone  I  ran  not  wild 
When  I  was  hardly  more  than  child, 
Contented  with  the  native  lay 
Of  Pope  or  Prior,  Swift  or  Gay  .   .  . 
Then  listened  I  to  Spencer's  strain, 
Till  Chaucer's  Canterbury  train 
Came  trooping  past,  and  carried  me 
In  more  congenial  company. 


44  Five  Hundred  Years  of  |A.D.  1858 

Soon  my  soul  was  hurried  o'er 
This  bright  scene  :  the  "  solemn  roar  " 
Of  organ,  under  Milton's  hand, 
Struck  me  mute  .  .   . 

1858-9.  Marsh,  George  Perkins.  Lectures  on  the  English  Language. 
New  York,  1860,  pp.  18,  22  and  n.,  30,  49-50,  71,  103,  111-3,' 
168-9,  174-7,  180,  252  n.,  257-8,  323  and  n.,  391,  415,  424,  432-3, 
468,  473,  500-1,526-8,  530,  534  n.,  539,  546.  603,  625,  675-6. 

[These  lectures  were  delivered  in  1858-9,  and  the  Congress  copyright  entry  is 
dated  1859.  An  edn.  of  1860,  is  in  Bodl. ;  edn.  4,  London,  1863,  is  the  first  in  B.M. 
For  Marsh's  second  series  of  lectures  see  below,  1862.] 

[p.  22]  In  original  power,  and  in  all  the  highest  qualities  of  poetry, 
no  Continental  writer  of  that  period,  with  the  single  exception 
of  Dante,  can,  for  a  moment,  be  compared  with  Chaucer,  who, 
only  less  than  Shakespeare,  deserves  the  epithet,  myriad- 
minded. 

[p.  168]  There  are  few  instances  .  .  .  where  a  single  writer  has 
exerted  so  great  ...  an  influence  on  the  language  of  his  time 
as  Chaucer.  .  .  .  Gower  and  Chaucer,  writing  for  ladies  and 
cavaliers,  used  the  phraseology  most  likely  to  be  intelligible 
and  acceptable  to  courtiers.  .  .  .  Wycliffe  and  his  associates, 

[p.  169]  in  their  biblical  translations,  use  few  foreign  words  .  .  .  but 
in  their  own  original  writings,  they  employ  as  large  a  propor 
tion  of  Romance  vocables  as  occurs  in  those  of  Chaucer's 
works  where  they  are  most  numerous.  In  the  Squires  Tale, 
nine  per  cent,  of  the  words  are  of  Continental  origin,  in  the 
Nonne  Prestes  Tale  the  proportion  falls  to  seven,  while  in  the 
prose  Persones  Tale  ...  it  rises  to  eleven.  ...  It  is  the 
selection  of  his  vocabulary,  and  the  structure  of  his  periods, 
that  mark  his  style  as  his  own,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that  of 
the  small  number  of  foreign  words  employed  by  him  and  by 
Gower,  a  large  share  were  in  a  manner  forced  upon  them  by 
the  necessities  of  rhyme ;  for  while  not  less  than  ninety  parts 
in  a  hundred  of  their  vocabularies  are  pure  Anglo-Saxon, 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  terminal  words  of  their  verses  are 
Latin  or  French. 

1858,  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol.  v,  pp.  22,  24-5,  123,  166-7, 
225,  229-30,  271,  290-91,  309-10,  337-8,  359,  362,  375,  387, 
392,  402-3,  432-3,  453,  471,  511-2,  521  ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  18, 
37-8,  45,  57,  77,  108,  120,  199,  229-30,  314,  335,  356,  371, 
416,  428,  437,  521,  534. 


1858]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  45 

Author.  Date.          Reference.  Subject. 

Madden,     Jan.  9.      2nd  S.  v,         John     Shirley,    his    lines     on 
Sir  Frederic.  22          Chaucer     (q.v.    above,    [c.    1450] 

vol.  i,  p.  49)  quoted. 

Boys,          Jan.  9.     2nd  S.  v,        CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (4). 

Thos.  24-5.         « Whipultre '  (Knightes  T. ,  1.  2065). 

May  not  this  be  the  "willow-palm"  or  palm-sallow? 

'Poudre  Marchant'  (Prol.,  1.  381).     Is  not  poudre 

a  verb,  not  a  noun,  meaning  here,  to  season  the  three 

following  things,  viz.  marchant,  tart  and  galingale  1 

Boys,         Feb.  13.      1st  S.  v,  CHAUCER    DIFFICULTIES     (5). 

Thos.  123.    '      « Marchant '  (Pro?.,  1.381).   This  is 

a  name  for  waterfowl,  in  German  merchente,  properly 

the  Mergus  albellus,  but  here  probably  used  in  a  generic 

sense. 

*GnoF  (Milleres  Tale,  1.  2).  This  appears  to  be  a 
word  of  Jewish-German  origin  =  a  thief.  From  the 
Hebrew  the  Jews  have  gannov,  a  thief.  The  meaning 
might  change  from  extortioner  to  miser. 

Boys,         Feb.  27.     2nd  S.  v,         CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (6). 
Thos.  166.         'Tidifies'  (Squieres  Tale,  1.    648) 

=  sea-mews  (tide-wives). 

White,      Mar.  13.     2nd  S.  v,         'Whipultre'   (2nd    S.   v,   24). 
A.  Holt.  225.         The   writer  believes  this  to   be 

the  wild  apple  tree,  or  crab.  It  is  nearly  the  only  tree 
Chaucer  has  omitted  that  was  in  his  day  known  in 
England.  '  Whippletree '  still  used  in  Essex  for  the 
bar  by  which  a  pair  of  horses  a-breast  draw  the  plough, 
now  generally  made  of  ash. 

N.,  H.  F.     Mar.  13.     2nd  S.  v,        Might  not  this  be   the   Horn- 
225.         bean  [sic],  or  whip-pulling  tree 
not  otherwise  mentioned  by  Chaucer  ? 

Boys,         Mar.  20.     2nd  S.  v,        CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (7). 
Thos.  229.         <  Eclympasteire '     (Book     of    the 

Duchesse,  1.  167).  The  writer  suggests  that  this  stands 
for  Death,  and  is  a  very  anomalous  derivative  from 
the  Gr.  eK\i/j.irdv(a,  which  is  nearly  equivalent  to  foAcbrw, 
which  sometimes  signifies  to  die.1 

^  Parodie'  (Troilus,  v.  1548).  The  more  modern 
editions  have  jeopardie  for  parodie.  But  the  writer 
thinks  Tyrwhitt  is  right,  and  that  it  is  parodie,  to  be 
understood  here  in  the  sense  of  episode.2 

1  See  Skeat,  Chaucer's  Complete  Works  (1894),  vol.  i,  p.  468. 

2  See  Skeat,  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  502. 

Boys,          April  3.     2nd  S.  v,        CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (8). 
Thos.  271.          '  Cost' 

"That  nedes-cost  he  most  him  selven  hide" 

(Knightes  Tale,  1.  619). 

The  writer  would  understand  by  "nedes  cost"  the 
O.Fr.  ne  discoste,  meaning  not  far  off,  near. 


46 


Five  Hundred   Years  of 


[A.D.  1858 


Author. 

Boys, 

Thos. 


Boys, 

Thos. 


B.,  T. 
Bock,  D, 


Berry, 
M.  E. 


Crossley, 
Fran. 


White, 
A.  Holt. 

Boys, 

Thos. 


Boys, 

Thos. 


White, 
A.  Holt, 


Date.  Eefen-nce.  Subject. 

April       2nd  S.  v,         CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES     (9). 
10.  290.         'Blake  beried'  (Pardoner's  ProL, 

].  78).     Might  this  mean  the  poorest  kind  of  funeral, 
a   black  bier  ? 

See  Skeat,  Chaucer' 8  Complete  Works,  vol.  v,  p.  272.    Also  N.  &  Q., 
4th  8.  x,  222 ;  xii,  55. 

April       2nd  S.  v,         CHAUCER    DIFFICULTIES    (10). 
17.  309.         'Blake  beried.' 

1.  beried  =  bier'd,  i.  e.  carried  on  a  bier. 

2.  blake  =  black,  i.  e.  a  bier  with  the  ordinary  cover 
ing  of  a  black  cloth. 

3.  a  may  =  in,  i.  e.  in  black, 

or  (preferably)  a  may  =  the  auxiliary  have. 

April       2nd  S.  v,         'Cost  or  nedescost'  (2nd  S.  v, 

24.  337-8.        271).     The    writer    takes    it    to 

mean  of  necessity,  necessarily.     It  is  the  genitive  nedes 

plus  cost,  manner, way,  and  is  equivalent  to  "by  way  of 

necessity."     Many  examples  from  M.E.  texts  quoted. 

This  meaning  is  confirmed  by  Prof.  Skeat,  Chaucer's  Works,  vol.  v, 
p.  71. 

'Wade.' 


May  1. 

May  1. 


2nd  S.  v, 

359. 
2nd  S.  v, 

362. 


Separation  of  the  sexes  in 
churches  ;  ProL,  11.  449-50 
quoted. 

May  8.      2nd  S.  v,         '  Blake  beried.'     Is  not  blake  an 
387.         old  word   meaning   naked?     See 
Elisha  Coles'  English  Dictionary,  edit.   1677,  for  the 
meaning  of  "black  beried." 

*  Eclympasteyre.'     Coles    gives   this  word:    Eclym- 
pastery,  son  to  Morpheus,  the  god  of  sleep. 

May  8.      2nd  S.  v,         '  Blake     beried.'     Surely    the 

387.         meaning     of    this      passage      is 

"  Though  their  souls  go  a  black  berrying  ; ''  i.  e.  "  go 

gathering  blackberries."     In  this  sense  we  have  the  full 

force  of  the  reckless  speech  of  the  Pardoner. 

May  8.      2nd  S.  v,         The    Harleian    MS.    No.   7334 
387.         reads  "black  bered." 

May  15.     2nd  S.  v,         CHAUCER    DIFFICULTIES    (11). 
392.         'Gat-toothed'    (Wife    of    Bath's 
ProL,  603).    This  clearly  =  goat-toothed.    The  goat  was 
an  animal  sacred  to  Venus. 

May  15.     2nd  S.  v, 

402. 
that  this  expression  comes  from  O.Fr.  ne  discoste. 

May  15.     2nd  S.  v,         On  the  analogy  of  needs  mnsl, 
403.         why   should    this    not  =  need  is 
caused  ? 


'  Nedes  cost.'    A  reply  to  2nd  S. 
v,  337,  defending  the   argument 


1858]                   Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  47 

Author.               Date.            Reference.  Subject. 

Boys,         May  29.    2nd  S.,  v,  CHAUCER   DIFFICULTIES  (12). 

Thos.                             432.  '  Spiced  conscience  '  =  '  salved.' 

'  Cankedort'  =  'kinked  ort'  or-vulg.  'fix'? 

R.,  C.  J.     June  5.     2nd  S.  v,  MS.    of     Troilus     in     Bishop 

453.  Cosin's  Library,  Durham. 

Carring-    June  5.    2nd  S.,  v,  '  Gut-toothed.' 
ton,  F.  A.                       465. 

Boys,         June  12.    2nd  S.,  v,  Suggests   other  difficulties    for 

Thos.                         471.  others   to    settle,    e.g.    'Fortenid 

crese,'     'Limote,'  'Ballenus,'     'Farewell     feldefare/ 
'  Wades  bote.' 

D.,  C.  de.    June  12.    2nd  S.,  v,  'Blake  beried.' 

487. 

K,  H.  C.    June  26.    2nd  S.,  v,        CHAUCER     DIFFICULTIES.  —  1. 

511-2.  '  Farewel  feldefare.'    2.  '  Fortenid 
crese.'    3.  '  Hawebake.'    4.  *  Wades  bote.' 

Thorns,      June  26.    2nd  S.,  v,  'Whipultre.' 
W.  J.                            521. 

Sansom,    July  3.      2nd  S.  vi,  '  Dives '    as    a    proper    name, 

J.                                   18.  Sompnoures  Tale,  1.  1877. 

Rock,  D.  July  10.    2nd  S.,  vi,  CHAUCER  DIFFICULTIES.— '  Car- 

37.  renare  '  =  Quarentena  1 

H.,  F.  C.    July  10.    2nd  S.,  vi,  '  Whipultre'  =  holly  (whip  pole 

38.  tree)  ? 

Mackin-  July  17.    2nd  S.,  vi,  'Whipultre';    confirming    the 

tosh,  J.                       57.  last. 

Boys,       July  24.    2nd  S.  vi,  *  Carrenare  ' ;   interpretation  as 

Thomas.                      77.  careening  dock  defended. 

Anon.       Aug.  7.     2nd  S.  vi,  Sale  of  the  MS.    of  Kynaston's 

120.  Troilus,  the  property  of    S.  W. 

Singer  and  formerly  of  Dean  Aldrich. 

A.,  A.        Sept.  4.    2nd  S.  vi,  '  Gat-toothed'  =  gap-toothed. 

199. 

"  Silver-  Sept.  18.  2nd  S.  vi,  Annotations,  dated  1577,  copied 

stone."  229-30.  from  the  flyleaf  of  a  copy  of  The 
Vision  of  Pierce  Ploiuman,  1561 ;  see  below,  App.  A., 
1577. 

Picton,     Oct.  16.     2nd  S.  vi.  'Koam.' 

J.  A.  314. 

Buck-       Oct.  23      2nd  S.  vi,  'Some';    'all    and    some'    in 

ton,  T.  J.                   335.  Chaucer  =  all  and  total. 

R.,  A.  B.    Nov.  6.     2nd  S.  vi,  Chaucer's      Balade     of     Gode 

371.  Counsaile;  'prees'  in  1.  4  =  pre 
eminence  (prreesse)  ? 

Rock,       Nov.  20.  2nd  S.  vi,  Separation    of    the     sexes    in 

D.                               416.  churches  ;   the  Wife  of  Buth. 


48  Five  Hundred   Years  of  [A.D.  1858- 

Author.          Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

P.  Nov.  27.    2nd  S.  vi,         Dr.  Dan-ell's  satire  011  Browne 

428.          Willis,  q.v.  above  [a.  17601,  vol.  i, 
p.  417. 

B.,  E.       Nov.  27.    2nd  S.  vi,         '  Bedstaff '  ;     Eeves     Tale,     11. 
G.,  437.  4292-6,  quoted. 

P.  Dec.  25.     2nd  S.  vi,          Popularity   of  hot  condiments 

521.  in  Chaucer's  time  : — 

*  Woe  was  his  cook,  but  that  his  sauces  were 
Poinant  and  sharp.' 

1858-9.  Unknown.  The  Arms,  Armour  and  Military  Usages  of  the 
Fourteenth  Century,  [in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Jan.  1858 — 
April,  1859,  new  ser.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  3-18,  123-38,  235-51,  347-55, 
459-67,575-92;  vol.  v,  pp.  3-19,  99-114,  211-27;  323-39; 
435-51,  547-63  ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  3-21,  111-23,  227-43,  339-55. 
[Quotations  from  Chaucer  throughout.] 

1859.  B.  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Dublin  University  Magazine, 
March,  1859,  vol.  liii,  pp.  272-87. 

[p.  272]  [An  account  of  Chaucer's  seven  chief  biographers  and  com 
mentators — Leland,  Thomas  Speght,  Thomas  Fuller,  Urry, 
Tyrwhitt  ("  a  gentlemanlike  and  learned  dryasdust "),  and 
Sir  Harris  Nicolas :] 

The  copious  Godwin  closes  the  roll  in  his  quartette  of  four 
volumes,  octavo.  Doctor  Johnson  has  no  life  of  Chaucer,  as  he 
has  none  of  Shakspeare,  or  of  Spenser.  At  times  he  celebrates 
the  owls,  and  passes  by  the  eagles.  There  is  a  very  full  and 
agreeable  little  book  published  ...  in  1841,  entitled  "Chaucer 
Modernized."  It  is  a  highly  Philo-Chaucerian  and  chivalric 
small  volume,  and  sets  out  like  Don  Quixote  .  .  .  bent  on 
righting  wrongs  on  behalf  of  its  poet  against  every  translator 
who  had  ventured  to  meddle  with  the  ark  of  the  antique  text, 
or  the  sacredness  of  the  Saxon  ;  and  thus  he  casts  out  of  the 
saddle  Messrs.  Ogle,  Lipscombe,  and  Boyce  .  .  .  and  runs  a 
tilt  against  Henry  Brooke  .  .  .  and  is  only  half  pleased  with 
Lord  Thurlow,  who  revised  and  published  "  The  Knight's 
Tale  " ;  also  "  the  Flower  and  Leaf,"  which  is  the  most  beautiful 
and  pure  of  all  Chaucer's  works  .  .  . 

[p.  278]  Beyond  all  doubt  his  works  are  not  known  in  proportion  to 
their  great  merit.  The  early  English  must  be  learned  before 
they  can  be  enjoyed ;  .  .  .  the  tongue  of  Chaucer  has  passed 
away,  except  from  the  pages  of  works  as  old  as  his  own. 
Yet  to  his  intense  admirers,  the  difficulties  of  his  language  are 
regarded  as  producing  a  kind  of  esoteric  sacredness  which 


1859]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  49 

involves  the  text  with  a  mystery  akin  to  the*  Books  of  the 
Sibyl.  .  .  His  unintelligible  obsoleteness,  to  minds  so  framed, 
resembles  the  high  flavour  of  an  antique  Stilton  or  the  taste 
of  an  neruginous  coin;  and  one  connoisseur  [Landor,  q.v. 
above,  1841]  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  "lie  would  wish  to 
keep  Chaucer  for  himself  and  a  few  friends." 

[A  life  of  the  poet  is  given,  containing  the  old  inaccuracies, 
due  to  acceptance  of  the  apocryphal  pieces.] 

1859.     Braune,  George  Martin.     The  Persone  of  a  Toun. 

[A  poem  (92  pp.)  in  imitation  of  the  style  and  stanza  of 
Spenser,  '  as  a  mean  between  the  times  of  Chaucer  and  our 
own/  but  owing  no  more  than  the  suggestion  to  Chaucer's 
Parson.] 

1859.  FitzGerald,  Edward.  Letter  to  George  Crabbe,  Oct.  4,  1859, 
[printed  in]  More  Letters  of  Edward  FitzGerald,  with  Preface  by 
W.  Aldis  Wright,  1901,  p.  50. 

Chaucer  I  don't  want :  and  am  glad  you  should  take  to 
him.  I  told  you  of  the  Tales  I  thought  would  please  you  : 
The  Clerk  of  Oxford  (Griseldis),  the  Pardoners,  and  the 
Knight  and  Squire.  Read  also  all  the  Prologue  Narrative 
between  the  Tales.  One  must  feel  Chaucer  is  akin  to  Shake 
speare,  in  his  Humour,  Sympathy  and  Activity  of  Life,  but 
he  has  not  Sounded  such  Depths  of  Thought  and  Feeling. 

1859.  Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh.  English  Poetry  versus  Cardinal 
Wiseman,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine,  Dec.,  vol.  lx.,  pp.  749-53,  755, 
760-2. 

[A  defence  of  Chaucer  and  Spenser  against  the  charge  of 
associating  natural  beauty  with  "wantonness,  voluptuousness, 
and  debauchery."] 

[Cardinal  Wiseman's  opinions,  here  controverted,  were  expressed  in  liis  lecture 
"On  the  Perception  of  Natural  Beauty,"  q.v.  above,  1855.  Hunt  had  announced  his 
intention  of  replying  in  Fraser's  Magazine.  See  his  letters  to  Edmund  Peol  and 
B.  W.  Proctor  (Barry  Cornwall)  of  4  Nov.  and  5  Dec.  1858  (Correspondence,  1862, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  240,  264). 

1859.  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  21,  66,  89,  96, 
218,  229,  440,  465,  500  ;  vol.  viii,  pp.  257,  276,  283-4,  338, 
351,  360,  439,  444,  474-5. 

Author.  Date.        Reference.  Subject. 

Thorns,        Jan.  8.     2nd  S.  vii,        Chaucer's  debt   to   Italy;    did 
William  21.  he    owe    anything    to   Germany 

John.  or  the  Low  Countries?  Was  his  Book  of  fhe  Lion 
a  translation  of  Hartman  von  Aue's  Hitter  tuit  der 
Lowe  ? 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. III.  E 


50  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1859 

Author.  Date.        Reference.  Subject. 

Wonfor,       Jan  22.  2nd  S.  vii,        '  Nesh ' ;  Court   of  Love  quoted 
T.  W.  66.  as  Chaucer's. 

Libya.         Jan.  29.  2nd  S.  vii,        Achilles'  spear- ;    references  by 
89.  Fielding,     Bishop      Earle,      and 

Chaucer  (Squieres  Tale,  1.  239)  ;  a  classical  reference 
asked  for. 

Wonfor,       Jan.  29.  2nd  S.  vii,        '  Coverchief.' 
T.  W.  96. 

/x,.  Mar.  12.  2nd  S.  vii,        From  what  text  is  the  Aldine 

218.          Ed.  taken? 

p.  Mar.  19.  2nd  S.  vii,        Clogie's     attribution     of     The 

229-30.      Shepherd's  Tale, '  conceived  in  the 

old  dialect  of  Tusser  and  Chaucer,'  to   Bishop  Bedell 

impossible.     See  below,  App.  A.,  [1605,  Bedell?]  and 

[c.  1675-6],  Clogie. 

Blades,        May  28.  2nd  S.  vii,        Discovery    at,    St.    Albans    of 
William.  440.          fragments  of    books   printed   by 

Caxton,  including  the  Assemble  of  Fowls  (14  leaves). 

Eastwood,  June  18.  2nd  S.  vii,        '  Silk.' 
J.  500. 

W.,  H.  Sept.  24.  2ndS.  viii,        '  Pill-garlick '  ;      Prol.     Mer- 

257.          chant's     2nd     Tale,    quoted    as 
Chaucer's. 

Eastwood,  Oct.  1.      2nd  S.  viii,        The  grotesque   in   churches  ; 
J.  276.  hatred,  etc.,  are  painted  on  the 

outside   of  the  garden  wall  of  the  Rose  in  Chaucer's 
Rom.  Eose. 

Myers,         Oct.  8.      2nd  S.  viii,         'To    tote';     Plowman's  Tale 
Gustavus  282-3.          quoted  ;     doubtful     authorship 

A.  admitted. 

M.,  J.  Oct.  8.      2nd  S.  viii,        Notice  of  Sandras's  Etude  sur 

284.  Chaucer   (q.  v.    below,   App.    B., 

1859). 

Thomp-       Oct.  22.    2nd  S.  viii,        '  To  tote.' 
son,  338. 

Pishey. 

Eastwood,  Oct.  29.    2nd  S.  viii,        Origin  in  Perceval  Ic  Galois 
J.  351.          oi'  the  last  stanza  of  Sir  Thopas. 

Boys,            Oct.  29.    2nd  S.  viii,  '  Smalle  '  =  '  semle,'  similar  ? 
Thomas.                          360. 

„          Nov.  26.   2nd  S.  viii,  (  Undermele.' 

439. 

C.,  H.  C.        Nov.  26.   2nd  S.  viii,  «  Eclympasteire  ';      Sandras's 

444.  comparison        of        Froissart's 
'  Enclimpostair.' 

Eastwood,  Dec.  10.    2nd  S.  viii,        'In    h-ie'    or    'on    hie'=in 
J.  474-5.         haste. 


1859]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  51 

1859.  Riley,  Henry  Thomas.  Munimenta  Gildhallse  Londoniensis 
(Eolls  Ser.),  vol.  i,  1859,  Liber  Albus,  p.  553. 

Dimissio  Portse  de  Algate  facta  Galfrido  Chaucer. 

[For  this  lease  see  above,  1374,  May  10,  vol.  i,  p.  3.  The 
entry  given  here  is  translated  in  Riley's  Liber  Albus,  I860, 
p.  475,  and  the  lease  itself  is  translated  in  his  Memorials  of 
London  and  London  Life,  1868.] 

1859.  [Riley,  Henry  Thomas?].  Lease  of  the  'mansio*  over  Aldgate 
to  Chaucer,  extracted  from  Guildhall,  Letter  Book  G.,  in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine^  March  1859,  new  ser.,  vol.  vi,  p.  243. 

[See  above,  1374,  May  10,  vol.  i,  p.  8.] 

[1859.]  Starkey,  Alfred.     The  Prioress'  Tale,  and  other  Poems. 

[Xot  in  B.M.;  Bodl.  280.  s.  229;  information  kindly  given  by  Miss  K.  M. 
Pogson.] 

[The  title-poem,  which  is  in  sixty-two  sesta  rima  stanzas, 
is  stated  in  the  preface  to  be  "  founded  on  the  same  subject  as 
Chaucer's  of  the  same  name.  I  do  not  think,"  the  author 
adds,  "  that  I  can  justly  be  accused  of  plagiarism.  .  .  It  is 
something,  however,  to  have  trodden,  ever  so  vaguely,  near 
the  footsteps  of  a  great  genius."  The  tale  is  "protestantized," 
e.g.  such  details  as  the  "Alma  Kedemptoris  Mater"  are 
omitted.] 

1859.  Unknown.  Review  [of]  The  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
edited  by  Robert  Bell  .  .  .  1855,  [in]  The  London  Review,  July 
1859,  vol.  xii,  pp.  285-303. 

[pp.(285-  [A  short  sketch  of  Chaucer's  life,  noting  the  rejection  by 
Nicolas  of  the  episodes  dependent  on  the  Testament  of  Love, 
and  laying  stress  on  the  substantial  nature  of  the  patronage 
Chaucer  received.] 

[p.  292]  All  that  is  peculiar,  all  that  seems  now  so  distant  and 
unattainable,  in  the  poetry  of  Chaucer,  arises  from  the  one 
great  typical  fact,  that  it  is  always  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
the  telling  of  a  story  .  .  . 

We  must  conceive  of  the  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  as 
children  in  their  love  of  stories,  and  in  their  adoration  of 
those  who  could  tell  them.  .  .  Hence  originated  a  poetical 
complexion  or  turn,  which  everything  seems  to  have  assumed, 
and  the  passionate  cultivation  of  poetry  by  all  clashes.  It 
seems  incredible  to  us,  but  it  was  undoubtedly  the  case,  that 
in  the  Middle  Ages  poetry  formed  the  chief  delight  of  the 
people.  [Evidence  of  this  in  Chaucer  :  Troilus  and  Book  of 
the  Duchesse  quoted.] 


52  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1859- 

[P.  293]  He  [Chaucer]  cares  not  at  all  for  the  praise  of  originality  or 
invention  ...  he  cares  for  nothing  but  his  story.  Hence  he 
is  quite  content  to  become  a  translator,  if  lie  has  seen  a  good 
story  in  a  foreign  tongue.  [Contrast  in  this  between  the  age 
of  Chaucer,  like  all  great  periods,  and  the  unpoetical  and 
would-be  original  nineteenth  century.  Explanation  of  the 
cause:  loss  of  enjoyment.  "To  our  forefathers  every  old 
thing  was  really  a  new  thing  :  every  new  thing  is  an  old  thing 
to  us."  The  cure,  a  study  of  such  as  Chaucer.] 

tp.  298]  We  come  then  to  discuss  the  great  distinguishing  marks  of 
the  mind  and  power  of  Chaucer.  They  seem  to  be  four  in 
number :  dramatic  fearlessness  and  breadth,  workmanlike 
directness,  comparatively  non-intellectual  character,  and  sense 

IP.  599]  of  beauty.      [Expansion  of  these  four  points.] 

1859.  Vaughan,  Robert.    Revolutions  in  English  History,  3  vols.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  479-81,  563-5. 

tp.  479]  Poet  of  manners  as  lie  is,  the  compass  of  subject  included 
in  his  works  is  a  conspicuous  fact  .  .  .  Chaucer  appears  to 
have  the  power  of  understanding  the  pleasures  of  the  most 
ethereal  virtue,  and  those  found  in  the  most  free  and  riotous 
indulgence  of  the  sensuous  passions.  The  comedy  and  tragedy 
of  earth,  the  hell  in  it,  and  the  heaven  above  it,  were  open  to 
him. 

[PP.  480-  [Chaucer's  material  partly  derived  from  literature,  partly  from 
the  world  about  him.] 

[p.  5«4]  [The  Canterbury  Tales  shew  grossness  side  by  side  with 
simple  faith  :]  The  clerk  and  the  monk,  the  prioress  and  the 
nun,  are  all  among  the  listeners  to  these  impure  stories. 

1860.  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer,  to  which  are  added,  An  Essay 
on  his  language  and  versification,  and  an  Introductory  Discourse, 
together  with  notes  and  a  glossary,  by  T.  Tyrwhitf,  F.R.S.,  with 
memoir  and  critical  dissertation  by  the  Rev.  G.  Gilfillan,  Edin 
burgh,  3  vols. 

[The  glossary  is  arranged  in  the  margin.  Gilfillan's  memoir 
and  dissertation,  "  The  Genius  and  Poetry  of  Chaucer,"  pre 
cede  the  second  and  third  vols.  respectively. 

The  memoir  contains  all  the  old  mistakes,  based  on  the 
Court  of  Love  and  Testament  of  Love,  and  is  very  flamboyantly 
written;  e.g.  Chaucer's  position  was  at  best  that  "  of  a  pen 
sionary  dependent,  nourished  on  the  rinsings  of  the  royal 
cellar."  Doubtful  whether  lie  died  "  a  Papist  or  a  Protestant." 


1860]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  53 

The  Dissertation  is  written  in  the  same  style  and  contains 
many  allusions  to  Chaucer's  "ruggedness,"  and  to  his  Wycliffite 
views.] 

1860.  Bulwer,  Edward,  1st  Lord  Lytton.  Latter  to  his  son,  [printed 
in]  The  Life  of  Edward  Bulwer,  by  his  grandson,  1913,  2  vols., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  419-20. 

I  am  amazed  at  his  [Chaucer's]  wonderful  accuracy  of 
rhythm;  according  to  his  own  accentuation,  there  are  as  few 
lines  with  a  defective  foot  as  there  are  in  Dryden.  His  metre, 
too,  is  extremely  artful.  As  a  general  rule,  he  always  has  his 
stop  at  the  end  of  a  couplet,  does  not  break  into  verses  as 
blank  verse  does.  But  he  makes  his  pause  of  the  ultimate 
sense,  by  a  preference  so  marked  that  he  must  have  arrived  afc 
it  by  a  rule  of  art,  at  the  end  of  a  first  line.  .  .  The  effect  of 
this  is  both  [sic]  surprise,  and  with  him  it  is  music ;  the  relief 
from  the  rhyme  has  a  melody. 

1860.  Gilfillan,  George.     See  above,  Canterbury  Tales. 

[a.  I860.]  Irving,  David.  The  History  of  Scottish  Poetry,  by  David 
Irving  .  .  .  edited  by  John  Aitken  Carlyle  [from  the  MS.  which 
Irving  left  unpublished  at  his  death  in  1860],  Edinburgh,  1861, 
pp.  37n.,  52,  68n.,  70>i.,  73,  85,  95,  102n.,  107-9,  134n.,  136?t., 
141-2,  170,  173,  175n.,  187,  193,  212-14,  218,  219w.,  221,  231-2, 
239,  242n.,  244,  267-8,  272,  283n.,  298,  310>i.,  326,  341.  [Some 
of  the  references  are  almost  identical  with  those  in  the  Lives  of  the 
Scottish  Poets,  1804.  Some  chapters,  including  that  on  Barbour, 
had  appeared  as  articles  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.] 

[p.  95]        [Eeference   to   Barbour  as  the  contemporary  and  in  some 

respects  the  rival  of  Chaucer.] 
[p.  107]      [Comparison,  by  quotation  of  passages  in  Barbour's  Bruce 

and  Chaucer's  RomauntJ] 

[Many  other  brief  references,  Avith  quotations  from  Tyrwhitt 

and  Xott  on  versification,  language,  &c.] 

1860.  J.,  J.  C.  MS.  of  Chancels  Minor  Poems,  [letter,  in]  The  Gentle 
man's  Magazine,  Dec.  1860,  new  ser.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  642-5. 

[The  Sion  Coll.  MS.  of  the  A.B.C.  The  writer  comments 
severely  on  Bell's  text.] 

1860.  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol.  ix,  pp.  51,  83,  107,  141, 
240,  251,  350,  435,  441,  479  ;  vol.  x,  pp.  135,  227,  302,  358, 
403-4,  453,  459,  499,  510,  523. 

Author.  Date.         Reference .  Subje:'. 

Thomp-       Jan.  21.  2nd  S.  ix,          'Quishen.' 
son,  P.  51. 


54  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1860- 

Author.  Date.         Keference.  Subject. 

Offer,       ] 

George.  J-  Feb.  4.    2nd  S.  ix,         '  Soote  '  =  sweet. 
Editor.    J  83. 

Eastwood,  Feb.  11.  2nd  S.  ix,         'Marish.' 

J.  107. 

Eastwood,  Feb.  25.  2nd  S.  ix,         '  Whippletree.' 

J.  141. 

L.  Mcar.  31.  2nd  S,  ix,        'Hackney.' 

240. 
Buckton,     Mar.  31.  2nd  S.  ix,     ") 

T.  J.  251.          (< 


Eastwood,  May  5.    2nd  S.  ix,       ( 


Boll.' 
x>      I 
J.  350. 

'Ache.'       June  2.     2nd  S.  ix,        'The  kinges  note'  (Milleres  T., 
435.        1.32 17)  =  the    'Anthem    of    the 
Three  Kings  of  Colon  '  ? 

T.,  C.          June  9.     2nd  S.  ix,       '  Cole,'  '  cole-blake.' 
441. 

Tennent,    June  23.  2nd  S.  ix,       *  Vermelet,'  vermilion. 
J.  E.  479. 

Para-  Sept.  22.  2nd  S.  x,        Tubal's      invention     of     music 

thina.  227.       (Book  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  1162-6)  ; 

why  was  Chaucer's  couplet  called  '  riding-rhyme  '  ? 

C.,  T.  Q.     Sept.  22.  2nd  S.  x.         '  Hoppesteres '  =  '  hoppesterres  ' 
227.        or  meteors  ? 

Height-     (Oct.  20.  2nd  S.  x.  ^      The  Tale  of  Melibeus  and  the 
ley,  302.        I  Persones  Tale  are  in  blank  verse, 

Thomas.  1  Nov. 24.  2nd  S.  x.  fas  are  all  the  'prose'  passages  of 
[  403-4.     J  the  dramatists. 

N  Wh°L1S'    1  Dec  8     2nd  S   x    f     Confute  the  Preceding  bv  Print- 
YV..L.       iJJec,  ».    znu&.  x.^       extracts  from  his  articles  as 
Collins,  453. 


Mortimer.;  ^ 

C.,  W.  Dec.  8.    2nd  S.  x,       Curate  and  Vicar  (Parson's  ProL, 

459.        11. 22-3). 

Keightley,  Dec,  22.  2nd  S.  x,        Chaucer    intended   his    *  metric 
Thomas.  499.        prose'  for  verse,   writing  it  con 

tinuously  to  save  paper. 

Q,.  Dec.  29.  2nd  S.  x,        Chaucer  at  King's  Lynn. 

510. 

R.,  E.  G.       Dec.  29.  2nd  S.  x.        Doubts  explanations  of  'hoppe- 
523.        steres '  as    '  female    dancers  '    and 
'  St.  Elmo's  fires.' 

1861-2.  Arnold,  Matthew.  On  Translating  Homer,  and  Last  Words 
on  Translating  Homer,  lectures  delivered  at  Oxford,  1861-2. 
(Works,  1903-4,  15  vols.,  vol.  v,  pp.  186,  222,  274,  276,  278-9.) 

[P.186]      <To  translate  Homer  suitably,'  says  Mr.  Newman,  'we  need 


1861]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  55 

a  diction  sufficiently  antiquated  to  obtain  pardon  of  the  reader 
for  its  frequent  homeliness.'  .  .  .  Antiquated  ! — but  to  whom  ? 
.  .  .  The  diction  of  Chaucer  is  antiquated ;  does  Mr.  Newman 
suppose  .  .  .  that  Homer's  diction  seemed  antiquated  to 
Sophocles,  as  Chaucer's  diction  seems  antiquated  to  us  1  ... 

[p.  222]  It  is  in  didactic  poetry  that  the  ten-syllable  couplet  has 
most  successfully  essayed  the  grand  style.  In  narrative  poetry 
this  metre  has  succeeded  best  when  it  essayed  a  sensibly  lower 
style,  the  style  of  Chaucer,  for  instance ;  whose  narrative 
manner,  though  a  very  good  and  sound  manner,  is  certainly 
neither  the  grand  manner  nor  the  manner  of  Homer. 

[p.  274]  And  another  [of  Mr.  Newman's  readers]  says  :  (  Doubtless 
Homer's  dialect  and  diction  were  as  hard  and  obscure  to  a  later 
Attic  Greek  as  Chaucer  to  an  Englishman  of  our  day '  .  .  . 

[p.  278]  When  language  is  antiquated  for  that  particular  purpose  for 
which  it  is  employed, — as  numbers  of  Chaucer's  words,  for 
instance,  are  antiquated  for  poetry, — such  language  is  a  bad 
representative  of  language  which,  like  Homer's,  was  never 
antiquated  for  that  particular  purpose  for  which  it  was 
employed.  .  .  .  When  Chaucer,  who  uses  such  [antiquated] 
words,  is  to  pass  current  amongst  us,  to  be  familiar  to  us, 
as  Homer  was  familiar  to  the  Athenians,  he  has  to  be  modern 
ised,  as  Wordsworth  and  others  set  to  work  to  modernise 
him  .  .  . 

[p.  279]  Chaucer's  words,  the  words  of  Burns,  great  poets  as  these 
were,  are  yet  not  thus  an  established  possession  of  an  English 
man's  mind,  and  therefore  they  must  not  be  used  in  rendering 
Homer  into  English. 

1861-3.  Blades,  William.  The  Life  and  Typography  of  William 
Caxton,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  4871.,  73,  80,  151-2,  173-4,  278  ;  vol.  ii, 
pp.  xviii,  xxxvi,  Iviii,  45-7,  51-2,  61-71,  138,  162-7,  169-70,  254, 
260,  263,  265-77,  281-8,  290-91,  plates  xiv,  xvii,  xlii. 

[Descriptions  of  and  references  to  Caxton's  editions  of 
Chaucer.] 

1861.  Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.     Cupid's  Forge. 

[A  painting  in  water-colour,  illustrating  the  opening  of  the 
Parlement  of  Joules.  See  M.  Bell,  Sir  E.  Burne-Jones,  1899, 
p,  27.1 


56  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1861 

1861.  Craik,  George  Lillie.  A  Compendious  History  of  English  Litera 
ture  and  of  the  English  Language,  2  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  vii,  viii,  98n., 
107,  170-1, 191, 207-8,  227,  245-306  [a  chapter  on  Chaucer],  307-8, 
316-7,  319,  321,  324-5,  342-7,  360-1,  367,  378-9,  382,  385-6,  410-1, 
425,  432-4,  441,  488-9,  493,  495,  497  ;  vol.  ii,  p.  102. 

[The  chapter  on  Chaucer  is  largely  devoted  to  a  refutation 
of  JSTott's  theory  that  Chaucer's  verse  is  rhythmical,  shewing 
both  by  old  tradition  and  by  the  evidence  of  the  changes  in 
the  language,  that  Chaucer  was  a  metrist,  and  the  introducer 
into  English  of  iambic  metre  (pp.  247-69).  Chaucer  a  great 
poet  and  "the  Homer  of  his  country"  (pp.  269-72).  His 
sources.  Specimens  from  Rom.  Rose,  Horn  of  Fame,  and 
Canterbury  Tales.  Some  non-Chaucerian  pieces  are  quoted  as 
genuine.] 

1861.  De  Vere,  Aubrey  Thomas.  Chaucer,  and  Spenser,  [in]  The 
Sisters,  Inisfail,  and  other  Poems,  pp.  64-5,  100. 

[p.  65]          In  Spring,  when  the  breast  of  the  lime-grove  gathers 

Its  roseate  cloud,  when  the  flusli'd  streams  sing, 
And  the  mavis  tricks  her  in  gayer  feathers  ; 
Read  Chaucer  then  ;  for  Chaucer  is  spring  ! 

On  lonely  evenings  in  dull  Novembers  .  .  . 
Read  Chaucer  still ! 

tp.  ioo]     ["  Spenser"  :  brief  reference  to  "  the  well-head  of  Chaucer."] 

1861.  Edman,  L.  E.  A  Specimen  of  Chaucer  s  Language,  with  Ex 
planatory  Note?,  a  Philological  Essay,  Upsala. 

[Introduction  with  short  life  of  Chaucer  and  analysis  of  the 
Canterbury  Tales,  followed  by  a  specimen  of  the  lirst  100  lines 
of  the  Prologue,  then  58  pages  of  notes  on  the  language  of 
those  lines.] 

1861.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.  Letter  to  A.  de  N.  Walker,  [dated] 
Florence,  August,  1861,  [printed  in]  Letters  and  other  Unpublished 
Writings  of  Walter  Savage  Landor,  ed.  Stephen  Wheeler,  1897,  pp. 
123,  171. 

It  would  be  worth  a  scholar's  while  to  trace  the  different 
spellings  of  the  same  words  from  Chaucer  down  to  the  pre 
sent  day.  Many  are  spelt  better  by  him  than  by  any  author 
since.  He  avoids  the  reduplication  of  vowels  ea  etc.,  and 
ends  the  word  with  e. 

[Landor  expresses  the  same  opinion  in  a  letter  to  the 
Athenxum  (April  20,  1861,  pp.  529-30),  remarking  that  he 
has  read  Chaucer  attentively  several  times.  See  also  above, 
1856,  and  immediately  below.] 


1861]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  57 

[c.  1861.]  Landor,  Walter  Savage.     Chaucer. 

[An  unpublished  prose  fragment  of  some  50  lines,  the  autograph 
MS.  of  which  was  sold  by  Messrs.  Maggs,  Catalogue  no.  340,  1915, 
no.  1789]. 

[Messrs.  Maggs  have  very  kindly  given  us  the  following  note  :  "  The  little  MS.  was 
not  dated,  but  judging  from  our  remembrance  of  the  handwriting,  we  should  think  it 
would  be  of  a  rather  late  date  in  his  career."  Internal  evidence  confirms  this.  See 
immediately  above.] 

There  is  no  poet  excepting  Homer  whom  I  heave  studied  so 
attentively  as  Chaucer.  They  are  the  ablest  of  their  respective 
countries.  It  may  be  doubted,  and  must  be  whether  the 
language  in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssee  was  exactly  as  we  find  it 
now  .  .  . 

The  learned  Pisistratus  and  his  sons  collected  all  they 
found.  .  .  Chaucer  by  the  care  of  studious  and  learned  men 
remains  as  we  find  him,  even  in  spelling.  This  is  worthy  of 
notice  and  thankfulness.  We  find  many  words  in  his  Canter 
bury  Tales  spelt  better  than  we  spell  them  now.  Several 
of  these  I  have  noted  in  my  Imaginary  Conversations  and 
elsewhere  .  .  . 

Chaucer  was  the  builder  of  our  language  .   .  . 

1861.  Landor,  Walter  Savage,  Milton  and  Marvel,  [in]  The  Athenaeum, 
May  18,  1861,  p.  661.  (Imaginary  Conversations,  ed.  C.  G.  Crump, 
189J,  6  vols.,  vol.  v,  p.  34.) 

Milton.  Frequently  do  I  read  the  Canterlury  Tales,  and 
with  pleasure  undiminislied.t  They  are  full  of  character  and 
of  life.  You  would  hardly  expect  in  so  early  a  stage  of  our 
language  such  harmony  as  comes  occasionally  on  the  ear;  it 
ceases  with  the  verse,  but  we  are  grateful  for  it,  shortly  as 
it  stays  with  us. 

f  [Lander's  note  :]  A  Bachelor  of  Arts,  a  Mr.  Pycroft,  without  any 
authority,  classes  W.  S.  Landor  with  Byron  and  Wordsworth,  as  holding 
Chaucer  cheap.  Let  this  Conversation  indicate  the  contrary.  There  is 
one  art — namely,  the  ars  poetica — in  which  the  Bachelor  is  unlikely  to 
take  his  Master's  degree. 

[For  a  further  allusion  to  Pycroft  by  Landor  see  below,  1863.] 

1861.  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  Series,  vol,  xi,  pp.  11,  99-100,  150, 
161,  181,  239,  371,  417,  433,  474,  493  ;  vol.  xii,  pp.  45,  151, 
172,  235-6,  239,  286-8,  325,  360,  373-4,  434,  482. 
Author.  Date.         Reference.  Subject. 

'Melle'  is   Chaucer's  form  for 
mill,   the    Suffolk    pronunciation 

R.,  E.  G.     Jan.  5.     2nd  S.  xi,!  now  ;  perhaps   Chaucer  intended 
11.        j  his  Reeve  to  speak  the  Icenian,  as 
it  is  admitted  that  the  two  scholars 
^speak  a  Northern,  dialect. 


58  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1861 

Author.  Date.         Reference.  Subject. 

Editor.        Feb.  2.     2nd  S.  xi,       Brief  notice  of  Chatelain's  Contes 
100.        de  Cantorbery,  torn.  iii. 

P.,  H.  T.     Feb.  23.  2nd  S.  xi,        Enquires  for  information  as  to 
150.         any  MSS.  of   Chaucer  not  men 
tioned  by  Tyrwhitt  or  Todd,  as  he  desires  to  make  a 
complete  lis'. 

[Yeowell,  March  9.  2nd  S.  xi,       Extract  from  W.  Oldys3  Adver- 
James.]  181.       saria,  on  the  Occleve  portrait  of 

Chaucer;  see  below,  App.  A.,  [a.  1735.] 

C.,  W.         March  23.  2nd  S.  xi,        '  Barm-cloth  3    =    bosom  -  cloth 
239.        (Miller es  T.,  1.  3236). 

Editor.       May  11.     2nd  S.  xi,        St.    Thomas     Wattering,    'the 
371.        watering  of  Seint  Thomas'  (Prol., 
11.  825-7). 

H.,  E.  C.     June  22.    2nd  S.  xi,        '  Antem '  (Prioresse  T.,  11.  1849- 
493.        50). 

Jebb,          Aug.  24.    2ndS.  xii,       '  Antem 3  from  antiphona. 
John.  151. 

'  Queen's   Sept.  21.    2nd  S.  xii,       The    Canterbury   Pilgrims    de- 
Gardens.'  235-6.       picted     (by     Stothard T)     riding 

Flemish  cart-horses. 

A  parody  of  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  published 
soon  after  Queen  Victoria's  marriage,  shewing  the 
Queen,  Prince  Consort  and  retinue  riding  to  Dun- 
mow.  [This  is  really  no.  669-70  of  H.  B.'s  Political 
Sketches,  "Stothard's  admired  picture  of  'The  Proces 
sion  of  the  Flitch  of  Bacon  '  (i.e.  "  The  ceremony  of  the 
Dimmow  Flitch")  somewhat  metamorphosed,"  drawn 
in  1841,  and,  except  for  a  similarity  of  composition,  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims.] 

'  Aure-        Sept.  21.    2nd  S.  xii,       The    seven  planets  (Chanouns 
lian.'  239.         Yemannes  T.,  11.  825-9). 

Mewburn,  Oct.  12.     2nd  S.  xii,       '  Daffe  '  (Reves  T.,  1.  288). 
Fra.  286. 

'Ithuriel.'  Oct,  12.     2nd  S.  xii,       Copy  of  the  writ  of  Nov.  11, 
287-8.       1373,  to  pay  Chaucer  £25  6s.  8d. 
for   his  journey  to  Genoa   and   Florence    (q.v.  above, 
vol.  i,  p.  3),  not  noticed  by  Godwin. 

T.,  J.  Oct.  26.     2nd  S.  xii,       Was   the  Tabard  really  burnt 

325.         down  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II., 
as  stated  in  Parker's  Domestic  Architecture? 

Corner,       Nov.  9.      2nd  S.  xii,       Evidence  from  various  sources 
George  K.  373-4.       of  the  destruction  of  the  Tabard 

in  1676. 

Height-     Nov.  30.    2nd  S.  xii,       To  what  was  Addison  referring 
ley,  434.          in  his  Chaucer  quotation,  Spec- 

Thos.       tator  no.  73  (q.v.  above,  1711,  vol.  i,  p.  314)  ? 


1861]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  59 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

P.,  W.         Dec.  14.     2nd  S.  xii,       The    document    communicated 
482.          by  Ithuriel  (xii,  287-8)  is  in  Sir 
Harris  Nicolas's  Life  of  Chaucer. 

1861.  Pauli,  Reinliold.  Pictures  of  Old  England,  translated  by  E.  C. 
Otte,  1861.  [The  German  original  was  published  at  Gotha, 
I860.] 

1861.  Peacock,  Thomas  Love.  Gryll  Grange,  capp.  viii  and  xxxiv, 
pp.  59  n.,  296.  (Ed.  1896,  introd.  by  G.  Saintsbury,  pp.  53  n.,  273). 

[Cap.  viii :  quotation  from  Cook's  Prologue,  A,  11.  4347-8 
(Jakke  of  Dover).  Cap.  xxxiv  :  quotation  from  Prologue, 
11.  731-6.] 

1861.  Reynolds,  Samuel  Harvey.  Dante  and  his  English  Translators, 
[in]  The  Westminster  Review,  January,  1861,  vol.  xix,  pp.  203, 
229.  [Reprinted  in  Studies  in  Many  Subjects,  1898,  pp.  3,  34.] 

[p.  34]  It  would  hardly  be  untrue  to  say  that  there  is  more  of 
Dante's  influence  traceable  in  Chaucer's  poems — more  genuine 
evidence  that  Dante  had  been  read  and  loved — than  in  the 
whole  body  of  English  literature  (Milton's  writings  alone 
excepted)  from  Chaucer's  time  to  our  own. 

1861.  Buskin,  John.  Tree  Twigs,  [a  lecture  delivered  at  the  Royal 
Institution,  April  19,  1861,  printed  in]  The  London  Review,  April 
27/1861,  pp.  476-7.  (Works,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn, 
1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  vii,  p.  474.) 

[p.  474]  The  main  function  of  the  flower,  therefore,  is  accomplished 
only  in  its  death  ;  that  of  the  leaf  depends  on  prolonged  work 
during  its  life. 

This  difference  in  the  operation  of  the  flower  and  leaf  has 
attracted  the  attention  of  all  great  nations,  as  a  type  of  the 
various  conditions  of  the  life  of  man.  Chaucer's  poem  of 
the  Flower  and  the  Leaf,  in  which  the  strongest  knights  and 
noblest  ladies  worship  the  goddess  of  the  leaf  in  preference  to 
the  goddess  of  the  flower,  is  perhaps  the  clearest  expression  of 
the  feeling  of  the  middle  ages  in  this  respect. 

1861.  Unknown.  Revieiv  of  Bell's  Annotated  Series  of  British  Poets, 
[in]  The  Quarterly  Review,  Oct.  1861,  vol.  ex,  pp.  436-8,  440,  442, 
449. 

[P.  437]  The  Anglo-French  dialect  of  Chaucer,  interspersed  with 
Latinisms,  which,  like  Milton,  he  failed  to  naturalize,  was  not 
aptly  described  as  a  "  well  of  English  undefiled."  It  is  rather 


60  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1861- 

such  chivalric  English  as  Froissart  might  have  employed,  and 
within  a  century  it  was  obsolete.  Except  in  the  rare  passages 
of  humour  and  vivid  description,  which  in  style  belongs  to  no 
special  age,  the  substance  of  his  bulky  volume  refers  as  closely 
[P.  438]  to  the  mediaeval  times,  as  Homer's  to  the  heroic.  Chaucer's 
longest  production  is  his  translation  of  the  once-famous 
"  Eoman  de  la  Eose."  ...  He  seems  to  have  been  wanting 
in  a  certain  lightness  of  touch,  conciseness,  and  melody ;  and 
hence  the  lyrical  manner  of  the  Troubadours  and  of  the  early 
poets  of  Italy  and  Swabia  is  unrepresented  in  his  collection. 
But,  this  excepted,  he  has  given  admirable  specimens  of  every 
form  of  poetical  literature  then  practised ;  closing  in  his  old 
age  with  that  magnificent  Prologue  to  the  Pilgrimage,  which 
gives  intimations  of  a  vast  advance  in  nature  and  invention. 
.  .  .  His  poems  neither  were,  nor  could  be,  precursors  or  models 
in  any  strict  sense  for  the  poets  of  modern  England.  Chaucer 
is  the  Hesperus  of  what,  in  absence  of  a  better  term,  we  must 
call  our  Feudal  Ages. 

1861.  Wright,   Thomas.     Essays   on   Archaeological   Subjects,    2    vols., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  45,  57-60,  75-6,  259. 

pV<W]H>  [While  nearly  all  the  obsolete  words  in  the  other  writers  are 
Anglo-Saxon,  the  great  proportion  in  Chaucer  are  French  : 
hence  he  is  easier  to  read,] 

[pp.  75-6]  [Chaucer  (Boke  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  434-42,  quoted)  shews 
that  Arabic  numerals  were  not  yet  in  general  use.] 

pV<259]'  t-^16  fabliaux  of  the  thirteenth  century,  with  all  their 
spirit  and  satire,  and  much  of  their  objectionable  characteristics, 
took  an  English  form  in  the  hands  of  Chaucer.] 

1862.  Arnold,  Thomas.      A  Manual  of  English  Literature,  pp.  47-58, 
60-1,  63,  65,  68,  270-7,  279,  290,  412. 

[In  the  first,  historical,  section  of  the  book  is  a  short 
biography  (pp.  47-55),  in  which  the  Court  of  Love  and 
Testament  of  Love  are  accepted  as  genuine,  followed  by  a 
chronological  table  and  account  of  the  periods  of  his  work. 
The  second  half  is  divided  into  accounts  of  the  various  genres, 
and  under  Narrative  Poetry  an  account  is  given  of  the  Canter 
bury  Tales.  This  very  jejune  work  was  frequently  revised 
and  reprinted,  in  1867,  1873,  1885,  1888,  and  1897.] 

1862.  Borrow,  George.  Wild  Wales — Its  People,  Language  and 
Scenery,  3  vols.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  216-7. 

[On  a  miller's  man    shewing  a  knowledge  of   Taliesin  and 
Huw  Morris :] 


1862]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  61 

"  What  «i  difference,"  said  I  to  my  wife,  after  we  had 
departed,  "between  a  Welshman  and  an  Englishman  of  the 
lower  class.  What  would  a  Suffolk  miller's  swain  have  said 
if  I  had  repeated  to  him  verses  out  of  Beowulf  or  even  Chaucer, 
and  had  asked  him  about  the  residence  of  Skelton  1 " 


1862.  Burne -Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.  Designs  to  illustrate  "  The 
Legend  of  Good  Women." 

[Some  of  these  were  executed  in  glass  in  1864  by  Morris,  and 
are  at  Peterhouse,  Cambridge,  as  also  is  a  portrait  of  Chaucer, 
designed  by  Burne- Jones  in  1874.  See  M.  Bell,  Sir  E.  Burne- 
Jones,  1899,  p.  32.] 

1862.  Child,  Francis  James.  Observations  on  the  Language  of  Chaucer 
[in  the]  Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy,  new  ser.,  vol.  viii, 
1863,  pp.  445-502.  [Rearranged  and  reprinted  by  A.  J.  Ellis  in 
Early  English  Pronunciation,  1869-75,  q.v.,  below.] 

[This  is  the  first  minute  and  scholarly  analysis  of  Chaucer's 
language,  and  it  marks  an  epoch  in  the  study  of  the  poet,  for 
it  made  possible  the  full  solution  of  the  question  of  the  right 
scansion  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.  It  consists  of  classified 
lists  of  Chaucer's  vocabulary  and  grammatical  forms,  and  is 
preceded  by  an  introductory  note :] 

[pp.445-  [Wright's  edn.  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  employed,  as  being 
based  on  a  single  good  MS.  and  fairly  accurate.  The  prevalent 
ignorance  of  the  English  language  of  that  period.] 

[p.  446]  We  are  a  long  way  off  from  a  knowledge  of  the  English  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  and  still  further  from  a  satisfactory 
edition  of  Chaucer. 

Indeed,  there  is  reason  to  doubt  (and  the  editors  may  find 
some  comfort  in  the  thought)  whether  there  ever  was  an 
accurate  copy  of  a  poem  by  Chaucer,  except  his  own,  or  a 
manuscript  corrected  by  his  hand.  Certainly  this  would  not 
be  an  absolutely  extravagant  inference  from  what  he  says 
<:  unto  his  own  Scrivener." 

Adam  Scrivener  was  only  the  first  in  a  long  line  of  cor- 
rupters  .  .  .  Adam  may  have  been  heedless  and  stupid,  but 
...  he  might  justly  plead  the  unsettled  state  of  the  language 
in  part  excuse.  It  was  undoubtedly  very  hard  for  an  humble 
scribe  to  remember  and  observe  all  the  nice  differences  between 

[p.  447]  the  courtly  style  of  his  patron  and  the  vulgar  dialect . . .  Chaucer 
thought  the  prospect  of  his  verses  being  preserved  as  he  wrote 


62  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1862 

them   very  unpromising  and   he  expresses   his  apprehension 
thus  .  .  .  [Troilus,  v,  1793-6]. 

This  anxiety  of  Chaucer  about  the  writing  and  reading  of 
his  verses  was  a  thousand  times  justified  by  the  course  of 
events.  [The  copyists  and  editors.  Tyrwhitt's  textual  prin 
ciple  his  weak  point.  A  new  edition  undesirable  until  an 
editor  arises  who  will  make  thorough  work  with  the  MSS. 
Bell's  edition  likely  to  block  the  way  for  a  good  while.] 

[p.  449]  That  diversity  in  English  which  made  Chaucer  apprehensive 
of  damage  to  his  verses  may  have  been  so  considerable,  that 
we  could  not  be  sure  of  restoring  them  to  perfect  purity,  even 
if  we  had  several  manuscripts  of  the  date  1400  before  us.  Bat 
by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  irregularities  and  corruptions  with 
which  the  text  is  now  loaded  are  undoubtedly  of  later  origin, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why,  (if  we  are  allowed  only  to  take  for 
granted  that  Chaucer  had  an  ear,  and  meant  to  write  good 
metre,  J)  by  taking  pains  enough,  by  a  patient  comparison  of 

[p.  450]  apparently  uncorrupted  verses,  followed  by  a  collation  of  good 
contemporary  manuscripts,  and  of  the  forms  of  earlier  and 
contemporary  authors,  we  should  not  at  last  obtain  a  text 
approximately  correct. 

[p.  449         +  [Child's  note.]     Of  course,  unless  Chaucer  wrote  good  metre,  there 

n^     is  an  end  to  all  inquiry  into  the  forms  of  his  language.     Nothing  can 

be  more  absurd  than  Dr.  Nott's  theory  upon  this  point  ...  or  more 

[p.  450  just  than  Tyrwhitt's  remarks  .  .  .  Is  it  not  surprising  .  .  .  that  a  man 
»•]  of  sense  and  taste  should  write  as  follows  ?  "At  the  same  time,  many 
of  his  lines  evidently  consist  ...  of  ten  syllables  only  ;  and  such  a 
construction  of  verse,  for  ordinary  purposes,  is  become  so  much  more 
agreeable  to  modern  usage  and  taste,  that  his  poetry  had  better  be  so  read 
whenever  it  can  be  done,  even  at  the  cost  of  thereby  somewhat  violating  the 
exactness  of  the  ancient  pronunciation." — Craik's  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.  i.  249. 

1862.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  Preface  [to]  Robert  of  Brunne's 
Handling  Synne  (Roxburghe  Club),  pp.  iv,  xxii,  xxv,  435,  447. 

[p-  iv]  So  far  as  narrative  power  and  versification  are  concerned, 
he  [Brunne]  seems  to  me  the  worthiest  forerunner  of  Chaucer, — 
the  cheery  dear  old  man,  who  so  loved  women,  and  the  "  glad 
light  green"  of  spring  [from  the  Flour  and  the  Lefe],  and 
made  his  verse  instinct  with  the  grace  and  brightness  that 
he  saw  in  the  objects  of  his  love. 

P.  xxii]  The  MS.  [of  Handlyng  Synne\  was  accordingly  copied,  and 
then  came  the  question  as  to  how  much  of  the  text  was 
Robert's  own,  and  how  much  translated  from  Wadington. 


1862]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  63 

The  only  way  to  answer  this  was  by  printing  Wadington's 
text  opposite  Brunne's — a  course  I  had  often  desired  to  see 
taken  with  Chaucer  and  his  originals,  so-called. 

1862.  Kent,  William  Charles  Mark.  Chaucer  at  Woodstock,  [in]  Dream 
land,  with  other  Poems,  pp.  10-16. 

[A  poem  describing  Chaucer  basking  in  the  sun  in  his 
garden,  and  seeing  his  Canterbury  Pilgrims  pass  by  as  in  a 
vision.] 

1862.  Lytton,  Edward  Bulwer,  Lord.  Essay  on  the  Influence  of  Love 
upon  Literature  and  Real  Life,  [first  printed  in  Miscellaneous 
Prose  Works,  1868,  3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  371-2  ;  and  reprinted  in 
Works,  Knebworth  edn.,  Quarterly  Essays,  1875,  pp.  351-2.] 

[p.  351]  Chaucer  receives  him  [Love]  from  the  Provengal  and  the 
Italian,  as  they  had  received  him  from  the  Saracen  and  the 
Arab.  Where  Chaucer,  however,  appears  to  write  most  from 
his  own  Anglo-Norman  inspiration,  love  is  not  very  serious.  .  .  . 

[p. 352]  We  may  doubt  whether  Chaucer  experienced  in  his  own 
life  more  of  actual  love  than  a  chivalrous  fantasy,  or  a  light 
intrigue. 

1862.  Marsh,  George  Perkins.  Origin  and  History  of  the  English 
Language  [based  on  lectures  delivered  at  Boston,  U.S.A.,  in 
1860-61],  London,  1862,  pp.  10,  17,  19,  134-6,  138,  147,  196-8, 
215-6,  284,  286-7,  297,  303,  315-7,  335,  365,  372  ;  Lecture  IX, 
Chaucer  and  Gotcer,  pp.  379-453,  454,  455,  456,  458,  463,  465, 482-5, 
506,  511,  566,  569-70. 
[For  Marsh's  earlier  scries  of  lectures  see  above,  1858-9.] 

[Lecture  ix  begins  with  a  general  account  of  the  English 
language  at  Chaucer's  birth,  pp.  379-81.] 

[p.  38i]       Chaucer  did  not  introduce  into  the  English  language  words 

lp.882]  which  it  had  rejected  as  aliens  before,  but  out  of  those  which 

had  been  already  received  he  invested  the  better  portion  with 

the  rights  of   citizenship,  and  stamped  them   with  the  mint 

mark  of  English  coinage.  .  .  . 

Of  the  Romance  words  found  in  his  writings,  not  much 
above  one  hundred  have  been  suffered  to  become  obsolete, 
while  a  much  larger  number  of  Anglo-Saxon  words  employed 
by  him  have  passed  altogether  out  of  use. 

[Linguistic  conditions  ready  for  Chaucer,  p.  385.  Chaucer's 
introduction  of  Romance  words  less  than  is  supposed  ;  the 
translation  of  the  llomaunt  is  used  in  evidence,  pp.  390—1. 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1862 


Chaucer  not  an  historical  poet,  pp.  393-5.  Chaucer's  sources 
and  his  acknowledgments  :  contents  of  books  common  property 
in  the  middle  ages,  pp.  395—99.  His  Italian  sources,  pp.  400-1.' 
Discussion  of  the  Romaunt,  pp.  401—7.] 

[p.  413]  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  poem  [Troilus]  is  essentially 
improved  by  the  changes  of  the  translator,  though,  in  some 
passages,  great  skill  in  the  use  of  words  is  exhibited,  and  the 
native  humour  of  Chaucer  pervades  many  portions  of  the 
story.  .  .  . 

[The  Flour  and   the  Lefe  discussed,  pp.   414—6.     General 
account  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  pp.  417—31.] 

IP.  419]  He  is  essentially  a  dramatist,  and  if  his  great  work 
does  not  appear  in  the  conventional  dramatic  form,  it  is  an 
accident  of  the  time. 


1862.  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  Series,  vol.  i,  pp.  99,  193,  199,  260,  322, 
484  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  48,  165,  190,  204,  218,  319,  327,  347,  37,5-7, 
400,  461,  463-4,  479,  507. 

Subject. 

Chaucer's  Tabard  Inn  and  Fire 
of  Southwark,  1667  and  1676. 

'  Nockynge  and  Dowell  money ' 
(Prd.  11.  507-11  quoted). 

*  Tabard '  ;   Chaucer's   Plowman 
described    as   wearing    one  ;    the 
Southwark   inn    perhaps   named    in    compliment    to 
Kentish  farmers. 


Author. 

w.  s. 

Corner, 
G.  R. 

East 
wood,  J 

Allport, 

Douglas. 

Date. 
Feb.  1. 

March  8. 
March  8. 
March  29. 

Reference. 
3rd  S.  i/ 
99 
3rd  S.  i, 
193. 

3rd  S.  i, 
199. 

3rd  S.  i, 
260. 

Collier, 
J.  P. 


W.,  W.  \ 
Editor.  J 


Ap.  26. 


July  19. 


3rd  S.  i,         Entry   by  A.    Jeffes,   1592,   of 
322.         Chaucer's  Works,  in  the  Registers 
of  the  Stationers'  Company. 

3rd  S.  ii,        '  Citryne  eyes  '  (Knightea  Tale, 
48.        1.  2162). 


Mayhew,   Sept.  6. 
A.  L. 


3rd  S.  ii, 
190. 


'  mystery '  =  craft. 


Hazlitt,      Sept.  13.     3rd  S.  ii,        Some    copies    of    the     Works, 
W.  C..  204.        1561,  purport  to    he    printed  by 

Henry  Bradslia  or  Bradshaw. 


Mewburn,  Nov.  1. 
Fra. 


Work-        Nov.  8. 
ard,  B. 


3rd  S.  ii,        The      Yeoman's     (or     rather 
347.        Frankelein's)    bake-meats    (Prol. 
11.  343-4). 

3rd  S.  ii,        'Forthink.' 
377. 


1862]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  65 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Height-       Dec.  13.      3rd  S.  ii,        All  English  prose  from  Chaucer 
ley,  T.  463-4.      to  Dryden  is  written  in  rhythmi 

cal  lines  of  five  beats  ;  Chaucer  perhaps  introduced  this, 
as  he  did  the  five-foot  verse-line. 

'Chess-       Dec.  13.       3rd  S.  ii,        'Forthink';    identification   of 
borough.'  479.        an  edition  of  1560  (really  1561) 

asked  for. 

1862.  Peacock,  Thomas  Love.  Letter  to  Lord  Broughton,  [dated]  Feb. 
22,  1862,  [printed  in]  A  Biographical  Notice  by  his  grand-daughter 
Edith  Nicolls,  p.  xlvii.  (Works,  ed.  Cole,  1875,  vol.  i,  p.  xlvii.) 

I  have  more  pleasure  in  reading  through  books  which  I 
have  read  and  admired  before  than  in  reading  anything  new. 
The  three  last  old  works  which  I  have  so  gone  through  were 
"Rabelais,"  Chaucer's  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  and  the  "Morgante 
Maggiore." 

1862-3.  Buskin,  John.  Munera  Pulveris>  chapters  iii,  v,  vi,  Coin- 
keeping,  Government*  and  Mastership,  and  Appendix  vi,  [first 
published  as  Essays  on  Political  Economy,  in]  Fraser's  Magazine, 
Dec.  1862,  vol.  Ixvi,  p.  749?i.,  April,  1863,  vol.  Ixvii,  pp.  446?i., 
457,  462  ;  1st  vol.  ed.,  1872  (as  Munera  Pulveris),  in  Works,  1871- 
80,  11  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  84,  126re.,  162-3n,,  186.  (Works,  ed. 
E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  xvii,  pp. 
208,  244,  273,  292.) 

[p.  208j      [Chaucer,    like    Plato,    Dante,    Shakspere,   etc.,   spoke    in 

enigmas.] 

[P.  244]      [Quotation  from  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  11.  177-80.] 
[p.  273]      [Chaucer's  feeling  respecting  birds.] 
[p.  292]      [Appendix  vi :    Quotation  from  Romaunt  of  the   Rose,  11. 

1142-3.] 

1862.  Smith,  Alexander.  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Museum,  Jan. 
1862,  vol.  i,  pp.  459-66.  [Reprinted,  much  revised,  in  Dream- 
thorp,  1863,  pp.  211-45.] 

[p.  459]  Chaucer  is  admitted  on  all  hands  to  be  a  great  poet,  but  by 
the  general  public,  at  least,  he  is  not  frequently  read.  He  is 
like  a  cardinal  virtue,  a  good  deal  talked  about,  a  good  deal 
praised,  a  good  deal  admired,  but  very  seldom  practised. 
[Reasons  for  this  :]  He  is  an  ancient  ...  He  is  garrulous, 
homely  and  slow-paced  .  .  .  He  does  not  dazzle  by  sentences ; 

[p.  460] he  is  not  quotable.  [His  kindliness;  visible  in  his  face. 
Inadequacy  of  the  modernizers  :]  Dryden  and  Pope  did  not 
translate  Chaucer,  or  modernize  Chaucer;  they  committed 
assault  and  battery  upon  him  .  .  . 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — III.  f 


66  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1862- 

[p.  46i]  [Chaucer's  clearness  of  outline  justifies  Hazlitt's  epithet 
'intense.'  Colour  and  gaiety  of  his  world.  The  Canterbury 
Tales  a  gathering  up  of  tales  written  at  different  times. 
Observation  shewn  in  the  Prologue  ;  dramatic  variety  of  the 
tales;  pathos  of  the  tale  of  Constance.] 

[In  Dreamthorp  the  passage  on  the  modernizers  is  replaced  by  a  contrast  between 
Chaucer  and  Spenser,  which  is  extracted  from  an  article,  Edmund  Spenser,  in  The 
Museum,  July,  1862,  vol.  ii,  p.  151.  The  latter  part  of  the  essay  is  practically 
rewritten,  and  concludes  with  prose  summaries  of  the  Knightes  and  Man  of  Law's 
Tales.] 

1862.  Unknown.  Mediaeval  English  Literature:  Chaucer,  [in]  The 
National  Keview,  Jan.  1862,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  1-37. 

[The  book  nominally  reviewed  is  Bell's  edn.  of  the  Poetical 
Works  of  Chaucer,  in  8  vols.,  1854—56.  Chaucer's  literary 
character  and  genius  is  reviewed  as  influenced  by  his  age  and 
its  limitations;  hence  he  is  often  careless  and  prolix,  and  he 
lacks  historical  perspective  (p.  8).  His  genius,  though  of  the 
rarest  kind,  was  not  of  the  highest  order  (p.  9).  The  essential 
characteristic  of  it  is  a  strong  sense  of  the  real  (p.  12).  Some 
account  follows  of  Chaucer's  life  and  reading  (pp.  14-16),  and 
his  works  are  then  reviewed  in  some  detail,  arranged  in 
six  divisions  :  Grave  Stories  ;  Comic  Stories ;  Pieces  of  suffi 
cient  extent  to  stand  alone  ;  Allegorical  and  Personal  Poems ; 
Miscellaneous  Pieces  ;  Prose  Works.] 

1862.  Weymouth,  Richard  Francis.  Bishop  Grossetestes  "  Castle  of 
Love"  [a  paper,  read  Nov.  13,  1862,  printed  in]  Transactions  of  the 
Philological  Society,  1862-3,  [1864,]  p.  59. 

Chaucer  .  .  .  has  generally  preferred  a  five-fold  ictus  in  his 
Canterbury  Tales,  though  the  number  of  his  syllables  varies 
from  eight  to  twelve :  see  for  instance,  in  his  description  of 
the  Friar,  the  second  and  fourth  of  these  lines  [ProL,  11.  246- 
50],- 

It  is  not  honest,  it  may  not  avaunce, 

For  |  to  de|len  with  |  such  |  poraile, 

But  al  with  riche  and  sellers  of  vitaille. 

And  6ver|al  ther  e|ny  pro|fyt  schulde  |  arise, 

Curteys  |  he  was    and  lowle  of  |  servise. 

1862.  Wright,  Thomas.  History  of  Domestic  Manners  and  Sentiments 
in  England  during  the  Middle  Ages,  (reprinted,  with  additions,  as 
The  Homes  of  Other  Days,  a  History,  etc.,  1871),  pp.  133-4,  139, 
142,  155,  171-2,  188,  210-1,  217,  242,  248-9,  279,  281,  284-6, 
288-9,  313,  315,  319-22,  325,  335,  372,  395-8,  405,  419,  439. 

[pp.iss-     [Details  of  houses  in  Miller es  T.,  T.  of  Gametyn,  Somp- 
1   noures  T.,  Nonne  Prestes  T.] 


1863]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  67 

1863.  Arnold,  Matthew,  Maurice  de  Gue'rin,  [in]  Fraser's  Magazine, 
Jan.  1863,  vol.  Ixvii,  p.  48.  [Reprinted  in  Essays  in  Criticism, 
1865,  p.  83,  and  as  a  preface  to  the  Journal  of  Maurice  de  Gue'rin, 
1867.]  (Works,  1903-4,  15  vols.,  vol.  iii,  p.  91.) 

For  English  poetical  production  on  a  great  scale,  for  an 
English  poet  deploying  all  the  forces  of  his  genius,  the  ten- 
syllable  couplet  was,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  established, 
one  may  almost  say  the  inevitable,  channel.  Now  this 
couplet,  admirable  (as  Chaucer  uses  it)  for  story-telling  not 
of  the  epic  pitch,  and  often  admirable  for  a  few  lines  even  in 
poetry  of  a  very  high  pitch,  is  for  continuous  use  in  poetry 
of  this  latter  kind  inadequate. 

1863.  [Blanchard,  Edward  Litt  Leman.  ("Francisco  Frost.")] 
Harlequin  and  Friar  Bacon;  or  great  grim  John  of  Gaunt,  and 
the  enchanted  lance  of  Robin  Goodfelloiv :  an  entirely  new  .  .  . 
pantomime,  (Astley's  Pantomime,  1863-4),  [1864]. 

[Scene  n  shews  Chaucer,  the  Host,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Pilgrims  at  the  Tabard  ;  Scene  in  shews  them  on  the  road. 
Chaucer  has  a  speaking  part,  but  no  attempt  at  archaism  is 
made.  The  text  is  followed  by  a  note  on  the  Tabard  Inn. 
For  the  authorship,  see  The  Life  and  Reminiscences  of  E.  L. 
Blanchard,  by  Clement  Scott  and  Cecil  Howard,  1891,  2  vols., 
vol.  i,  p.  285.] 


1863-64.  Chambers,  Robert.  The  Book  of  Days,  a  Miscellany  of  Popular 
Antiquities  in  connection  with  the  Calendar,  edited  by  R. 
Chambers,  2  vols.  ;  vol.  i,  1833,  pp.  53,  220,  339,  472  ;  vol.  ii,  1864, 
pp.  493-4. 

iTss]*1  [Chaucer's  allusion  to  the  Man  in  the  Moon,  Troihis,  i, 
1024.] 

[p.  220]  In  the  middle  ages,  solemn  betrothal  by  means  of  the 
ring  often  preceded  matrimony,  and  was  sometimes  adopted 
between  lovers  who  were  about  to  separate  for  long 
periods.  Chaucer,  in  his  Troilus  and  Cresseide,  describes  the 
heroine  as  giving  her  lover  a  ring,  upon  which  a  love-motto 
was  engraved,  and  receiving  one  from  him  in  return. 

tp.  472]  [Reference  made  to  Chaucer  being  often  called  poet- 
laureate,  to  the  offices  held  by  him,  and  to  several  curious 
grants  of  which  he  was  the  recipient.] 

)0l493-4]  [Bi°graPaical  notice.] 


68  Five  Hundred  Years  oj  [A.D.  1863 

1863.  Landor,  Walter  Savage.     Heroic  Idylls,  with  additional  Poems, 
pp.  142-3,  181,  224,  270. 

To  CHAUCER. 

[P.  H2]  Chaucer,  0  how  I  wish  thou  wert 

Alive  and,  as  of  yore,  alert ! 
Then,  after  bandied  tales,  what  fun 
Would  we  two  have  with  monk  and  nun. 
Ah,  surely  verse  was  never  meant 
To  render  mortals  somnolent. 
In  Spenser's  labyrinthine  rhymes 
I  throw  my  arms  o'erhead  at  times, 
Opening  sonorous  mouth  as  wide 
As  oyster  shells  at  ebb  of  tide.  .  . 
No  bodyless  and  soulless  elves 
I  seek,  but  creatures  like  ourselves.  .  . 
Thou  wast  content  to  act  the  squire 
Becomingly,  and  mount  no  higher, 
Nay,  at  fit  season  to  descend 
Into  the  poet  with  a  friend, 
Then  ride  with  him  about  the  land 
In  lithesome  nut-brown  boots  well  tann'd  .  .  . 

The  lesser  Angels  now  have  smiled 
To  see  thee  frolic  like  a  child, 
And  hear  thee,  innocent  as  they, 
Provoke  them  to  come  down  and  play. 

[SQUIBS,  CKACKERS,  SERPENTS,  etc.  .  .] 
[P.  isi]  I  leaving  good  old  Homer,  not  o'erlong, 

Enjoy  the  merriment  of  Chaucer's  tales. 

[WRONGS  HAVE  i  SUFFERED  .  .  .] 
[P.  224]  Wrongs  have  I  suffered,  great  and  many, 

Insufferable  never  any 
Like  that  prepensely  murderous  one 
An  Oxford  hang-dog  rogue  has  done, 
Who  shoved  me  on  a  bench  with  men 
Biting  the  point  of  Chaucer's  pen. 
Chaucer  I  always  loved,  for  he 
Led  me  to  woo  fair  Poesie. 
He  of  our  craft  the  worthy  foreman 
Stood  gallantly  against  the  Norman, 


1863] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


69 


And  in  good  humour  tried  to  teach 
Eeluctant  churls  our  native  speech. 
Now  I  must  mount  my  cob  and  hurry 
To  join  his  friends  at  Canterbury, 
A  truly  English  merry  party, 
Tho'  none  so  jocular  and  hearty. 

[James  Pycroft's  Ways  and  Works  of  Men  of  Letters,  1861,  pp.  79,  379,  is  here 
referred  to.     See  above,  1861,  Landor.] 

[P.  27oj    ON  THE  WIDOW'S  ORDEAL,  BY  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 
Chaucer  I  fancied  had  been  dead 

Some  centuries,  some  four  or  five ; 
By  fancy  I  have  been  misled 
Like  many  ;  he  is  yet  alive. 

The  Widoiv's  Ordeal  who  beside 

Could  thus  relate  1   Yes,  there  is  one, 

He  bears  beyond  the  Atlantic  wide 
The  glorious  name  of  Washington. 

1863.  Notes  and  aueries,  3rd  Series,  vol.  iii,  pp.  2,  17,  77,  95,  134, 
137,  243,  371,  389,  427-8,  432-3,  453-5,  476-8,  496-7  ;  vol. 
iv,  pp.  18,  26,  158,  359,  365-6,  423. 


Author. 

Collier, 
John 
Payne. 

Work- 
ard, 
J.  J.  B. 

A.,  A. 


Subject. 

Entry  by  Islip  on  20  Dec.,  1594, 
in  the '  Register  of  the  Stationers' 

See 


Date.  Reference. 

Jan.  3.       3rd  S.  iii, 

2. 

Company,  of  Speght's  edition  of  Chaucer's  Works, 
below,  App.  A.,  1594. 

Jan.  3.       3rd  S.  iii,       'Forthink';  editions  of  Chaucer. 
17.          Reply  to  'Chessborough'  (3rd  S. 
ii,  377,  479). 

Jan.  24.     3rd  S.  iii,       '  Hoppesteres '  =  hopping,   dis- 
77.          abled,  on  the  analogy  of  '  tomble- 
steres '  =  tumblers. 

'Hackney'     (Rom.     Rose,     A. 
1137)  ;  origin  of  the  word? 

'  Hackney.' 


A.,  A. 

Jan.  31. 

3rd  S.  iii, 
95. 

B.,N. 

Feb.  14. 

3rd  S.  iii, 
134. 

Burn, 

JohnS. 

Feb.  14. 

3rd  S.  iii, 
137. 

Pinker- 
ton, 
William. 

Mar.  28. 

3rd  S.  iii, 
243. 

Editor.       May  9. 


'Rood  coat';  Plowman's  Tale, 
quoted  as  Chaucer's. 

Lydgate's  Story  of  Thebes  printed 
by  William  Thynne,  at  the  end  of 
Chaucer's  Works,  1561,  as  an 
additional  Canterbury  Tale. 

3rd  S.  iii,       Shakespeare's    '  Patience    on    a 
371.         monument'  imitated  from  Chaucer 
(Parl.  Foules,  11.  242-3). 


70 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1863- 


Author 

<Her- 

men- 
trude.' 

'Daniel.' 


'  Tweed- 

side.' 
Editor.     J 

1  Chess-       June  G. 
borough.' 


Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

May  16.     3rd  S.  iii,       Griselda ;    origin    of  the   tale  ? 
389.         Chaucer's  and  Edwin  Arnold's  ver 
sions  ;    modernisation  of  the  former  in  Blackwood's, 
1838  [q.v.]. 

May  30.     3rd  S.  iii,       '  Dan    Chaucer ' ;    meaning    of 
427-8.       'Dan'? 

3rd  S.  iii,       Ralph    Strode,    the    friend    of 
432-3.      Chaucer  and  praised  by  him  for 
his  philosophy. 

3rd  S.  iii,       Reply    to    W.    Pinkerton    and 
453-5.      J.  J.  B.  Workard  ;  further  enquiry 
for  evidence  of  a  1560  edition  of  Chaucer. 


May  30. 


East 
wood, 
J . 

Buck- 
ton, 
T.J. 


June  13. 


3rd  S.  iii, 
476-7. 


Dan '  is  from  '  dominus.' 


June  13.    3rd  S.  iii, 


496-7. 


Addis, 

John. 

Work-        June  20. 
ard, 
J.  J.  B. 

Pinker-      June  20.    3rd  S.  iii, 
ton, 
William. 


Troilus,  i.  108,  quoted  in  refer- 
478.         ence  to  the  phrase  'A.I.' 

3rd  S.  iii,  '  Chessborough's '  '1560'  copy 
of  Chaucer's  Works  probably  of 
one  of  Speght's  editions. 

f  ChessboroughV  Chaucer;  War- 
497.         ton  records  the  insertion  of  Lyd- 
gate's  Story  of  Thebes  by  William  Thynne 
in  the  1561  edition. 

3rd  S.  iv,  Thynne,  who  died  in  1546,  could 
not  have  edited  the  1561  Chaucer. 

'  Wailed.' 


18. 


*  Juxta       July  4. 
Turrim.' 

Camp-        July  11.  3rd  S.  iv, 

bell,  2G. 
J.  D. 

Buckton,    Aug.  22.  3rd  S.  iv,       '  Fast '     (Cfianouns     Yemannes 

T.  J.  158.          Prol,  11.  127-30,  quoted). 

,,           Oct.  31.  3rd  S.  iv,        '  Rochette  '  (Rom.  Rose,  B.  4754, 
referred  to). 


'  Juxta       Nov.  7. 
Turrim.' 

Editor.        Nov.  21. 


359. 

3rd  S.  iv, 
365-6. 


An  account  of  William  Thynne, 
the  editor  of  Chaucer. 


3rd  S.  iv,       Longfellow's  Tales  of  a  Wayside 

423.         Inn  ;  the  introductions,  as  in  the 

Canterbury  Tales,  are  the  best  part. 


In.  a.  1863.]   Smith,   Alexander.     William   Dunbar,  [in]   Dreamthorp, 
1863,  pp.  67-72,  81. 

I  p.  68]        Chaucer  .  .  .  appeared   at    a    time  when    the    Saxon  and 
Norman  races  had  become  fused.  .  .  .  He  was  the  first  great 


1864]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  71 

poet  the  island  produced ;  and  he  wrote  for  the  most  part  in 
the  language  of  the  people.  .  .  .  In  his  earlier  poems  he  was 
under  the  influence  of  the  Provencal  Troubadours,  and  in  his 
"Flower  and  the  Leaf"  and  other  works  of  a  similar  class,  he 
riots  in  allegory.  .  .  .  He  lived  in  a  brilliant  and  stirring 
time ;  he  was  connected  with  the  court ;  he  served  in  armies ; 
he  visited  the  Continent;  and,  although  a  silent  man,  he 
carried  with  him,  wherever  he  went,  and  into  whatever 

[p.  69]  company  he  was  thrown,  the  most  observant  eyes  perhaps  that 
ever  looked  curiously  out  upon  the  world.  .  .  .  And  so  it  was 
that,  after  mixing  in  kings'  courts,  and  sitting  with  friars  in 
taverns,  and  talking  with  people  on  country  roads,  and  travel 
ling  in  France  and  Italy,  and  making  himself  master  of  the 
literature,  science,  and  theology  of  his  time,  and  when  perhaps 
touched  with  misfortune  and -sorrow,  he  came  to  see  the  depth 
of  interest  that  resides  in  actual  life.  ...  It  is  difficult  to 
define  Chaucer's  charm.  He  does  not  indulge  in  fine  senti 
ments  ;  he  has  no  bravura  passages ;  he  is  ever  master  of  him 
self  and  of  his  subject.  The  light  upon  his  page  is  the  light 

[P.  70]  of  common  day.  ...  It  is  his  shrewdness,  his  conciseness,  his 
ever-present  humour,  his  frequent  irony,  and  his  short  homely 
line — effective  as  the  play  of  the  short  Roman  sword — which 
strikes  the  reader  most.  [Chaucer  and  Fielding  compared  in 
their  common-sense  and  English  relish  for  fact.]  Chaucer  was 
a  Conservative  in  all  his  feelings ;  he  liked  to  poke  his  fun  at 
the  clergy,  but  he  was  not  of  the  stuff  of  which  martyrs  are 
made  .  .  . 

[p.  7i]        Chaucer  was  born  about  1328,  and  died  about  1380. 

[Probably  reprinted  from  a  review.     Irving's  History  of  Scottish  Poetry  (1860)  is 
spoken  of  (p.  75)  as  "  published  the  other  day."] 

1864.  Works.     [Projected  editions.] 

[In  1864  Professor  Eaiie,  W.  Aldis  Wright  and  Henry 
Bradshaw  undertook  to  edit  for  the  Clarendon  Press  a  standard 
library  edition  of  Chaucer.  Work  on  it  was  in  progress  in 
1866  and  1867.  In  1870  Professor  Earle  gave  up  the  editor- 
ship-in-chief,  and,  after  refusals  by  Aldis  Wright  and  Skeat, 
Bradshaw  accepted  it,  but  soon  found  that  ho  had  not  the 
time. 

Also  in  1864  Alexander  Macmillan  proposed  to  Bradshaw  a 
small  edition  in  the  Globe  series.  So  late  as  1879,  in  con 
junction  with  Furnivall,  Bradshaw  had  some  specimen  pages 


72  Five  Hundred  Tears  of  [A.D.  1864 

printed,  but  no  more  came  of  it.  See  for  these  schemes, 
G.  W.  Prothero,  A  Memoir  of  Henry  Bradshaw,  1888,  pp. 
108-9,  223-5,  and,  for  Bradshaw's  Chaucer  studies  in  general, 
ib.,  pp.  14,  122,  143,  212-23.] 

1864.  The  Prologue  to  the  Legend  of  Good  Women.  [The  text  of 
the  earlier  version,  privately  printed  from  the  Cambridge  MS.  for 
Henry  Bradshaw.  See  Hammond,  Chaucer,  p.  381.  No  copy  in 
B.M.  or  University  Library,  Cambridge.] 

1864.  Bradshaw,  Henry.  See  above,  Works,  and  The  Prologue  to  the 
Legend  of  Good  Women. 

1864.  Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.  The  Dream  of  Good  Women. 
[A  stained  glass  window,  at  Peterhouse,  Cambridge.] 

1864.  Dickens,  Charles.  Our  Mutual  Friend,  2  vols.,  1864-5,  vol.  i, 
chap,  iii,  x,  pp.  13,  89.  (Works,  Gadshill  edition  [1897-1908], 
36  vols.,  vol.  xxiii,  pp.  21,  145.) 

[p.  21]  Mortimer  looked  at  the  boy,  and  the  boy  looked  at  the 
bran-new  pilgrims  on  the  wall,  going  to  Canterbury  in  more 
gold  frame  than  procession,  and  more  carving  than  country. 

[p.  145]  Veneering  shoots  out  of  the  study  wherein  he  is  accus 
tomed,  when  contemplative,  to  give  his  mind  to  the  carving 
and  gilding  of  the  Pilgrims  going  to  Canterbury  [i.  e.  probably 
the  print  after  Stothard]. 

1864.  Earle,  John.     See  above,  Works. 

1864-7.  Morley,  Henry.  English  Writers,  vol.  i,  pp.  21-2  [Chaucer's 
debt  to  Italy],  771-5  [his  debt  to  France  ;  his  life,  without  the 
apocryphal  episodes,  the  Testament  of  Love  being  treated  as  a 
genuine  but  purely  imaginative  work]  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-5  [Chaucer 
the  first  fully  English  writer] ;  39-43  [Petrarch  and  Boccaccio]  ; 
66-9,  107-8,  135-6,  138-9  [Gower] ;  140-338  [chapters  iv-vii, 
devoted  to  Chaucer  ;  p.  140,  his  character  sociable  and  free  from 
bitterness;  pp.  141-65,  his  life;  The  Court  of  Love  treated  as 
genuine  ;  pp.  165-335,  his  works  described  and  analysed  in  a 
chronological  order  (Troilus  being  compared  at  some  length  with 
the  F&oftrato,  and  Chaucer's  refinements  on  Boccaccio  pointed 
out,  pp.  237-43)  ;  pp.  335-6,  cause  of  his  greatness  ;  pp.  336-7,  his 
verse  regular;  pp.  337-8,  his  English] ;  425,  429-32  [Lydgate]  ; 
434  [Occleve]. 

[In  the  revised  and  enlarged  edn.,  11  vols.,  1887-95,  chapters 
vi-xiii,  pp.  83-347,  of  vol.  v  (1890)  are  devoted  to  Chaucer  ;  many 
brief  passages  relating  to  him  are  scattered  up  and  down  the  whole 
work.] 


1864] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


73 


1864.  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  Series,  vol.  v,  p.  53  ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  125, 
200,  259,  284,  288,  432,  464-5. 

Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Jan.  16.     3rd  S.  v,        Neglect     of    the     swallow    by 
53.         Chaucer,  perhaps  owing  to  its  lack 
of  song. 

Aug.  13.     3rd  S.  vi,       No  allusion  to  Chaucer  beyond 


Author. 

Heath, 
R.  C. 


*  Chau 
cer.' 

Con- 
g-e 


ve 


Hender 
son, 

John. 


125.         the  signature. 

Sept.  10.  3rd  S.  vi,  The  Squieres  Tale  derived  from 
200.  an  Eastern  original,  perhaps  The 
Enchanted  Horse,  in  The  Arabian  Niyhts,  by  way  of 
the  thirteenth  century  romance  Cleomades  and  Clare- 
mond. 

Sept.  24.    3rd  S.  vi,       '  Raines,'  *  cloth  of  raines  '  (Book 
259.        of  the  Duchesse,  11.  251-5),  derived 
by  Tyrwhitt  from  Rennes. 


Dixon,  J.    Oct.  8.       3rd  S.  vi,       Strange    that    Milton    accented 
284.        Cambuscan    differently    from    his 
original. 


Nov.  26.   3rd  S.  vi, 
432. 


1  Dun  is  in  the  mire ' ;   doubts 
whether  '  dun '  =  donkey. 


Carey, 

Stafford. 


Dec.  3.  3rd  S.  vi,  Milton's  misaccentuation  of 
464-5.  *  Cambuscan,'  though  not  without 
sonorous  grandeur,  shews  how  imperfectly  our  earlier 
poets  were  understood  in  the  latter  half  [sic]  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Dryden,  with  all  his  veneration 
for  Chaucer,  had  no  adequate  conception  of  the  beauties 
of  his  versification.  Long  quotation  from  the  preface 
to  the  Fables,  1700,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  276-7. 


1864.  O'Hagan,  John.  Chaucer,  [in]  The  Afternoon  Lectures  on 
Literature  and  Art,  delivered  in  the  Theatre  of  the  Museum  of 
Industry,  St.  Stephen's  Green,  Dublin,  1863-9,  5  series,  ser.  ii, 
1864,  pp.  247-77. 

tP50]47~     [Chaucer's  language  having  very  soon  become  obsolete,  he 

never  could  nor  can  be  a  popular  favourite;  even  Dryden's 
[pp.250-excellent  imitations  are  as  much  Dryden  as  Chaucer.  Chaucer's 

life,  with  no  mention  of  the  Testament  of  Love  or  the  episodes 

tPP-253~founded  on  it.     His  versification ;    the  final  vowel  and  the 

[Pp.254-French  element  in  the  pronunciation.     The    Court   of  Love 

7]  r    '  Chaucer's    earliest    work.'      The    Canterbury    Tales ;     the 

?7]J  "characters  and  their  stories.     Chaucer's  coarseness  inexcusable 

and  also  dramatically  inartistic.     His  vivid  pictures  of  society 

iu  the  fourteenth  century.] 


74  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1864- 

[n.  a.  1864  ?]  Pater,  Walter  Horatio.  Conversation  with  Mr.  Richard 
C.  Jackson,  [in]  The  Life  of  Walter  Pater,  by  Thomas  Wright,  1907, 
2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  267-8. 

[p.  2C8]  One  day,  when  Pater  and  Mr.  Jackson  were  visiting  an 
acquaintance,  Pater  chanced  to  take  up  a  rather  rare  little  book 
called  Chaucer  Modernised.  He  remarked  that  he  had  never 
seen  it  before,  and  frankly  admitted  that  he  was  entirely 
ignorant  of  the  literature  connected  with  Chaucer ;  that,  more 
over,  of  Chaucer  himself  and  his  work  he  knew  very  little. 
"  Of  course,"  he  added,  "  I  have  heard  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
but  I  did  not  know  that  they  were  considered  of  sufficient 
importance  to  be  modernised." 

[Mr.  Jackson  exclaims  upon  Pater's  ignorance  of  English 
literature,  which  however  he  finds  natural  in  "a  Tutor  of 
Oxford,"  and  offers  to  shew  him  a  work  in  his  library  which 
cannot  fail  to  open  his  eyes.] 

Pater  duly  presented  himself  early  one  morning,  and  Mr. 
Jackson  placed  before  him  the  magnificent  Black  Letter 
Chaucer  above  described  [ed.  Speght,  1598].  Opening  the 
book,  Pater  gave  an  exclamation  of  wonder  and  delight,  and 
all  that  day  he  sat  poring  over  its  pages,  scarcely  saying  a 
word. 

[In  the  evening  he  made  severe  observations  on  the  neglect 
of  English  in  education,  concluding  :] 

"  Books  like  this  or  facsimiles  of  them  ought  to  be  in  all 
schools  and  colleges."  .  .  .  Then  pointing  to  the  portrait  of 
Chaucer  he  said :  "  This  portrait,  dight  with  heraldry,  has  as 
much  within  it  as  a  vast  number  of  the  so-called  commentaries 
of  the  Bible." 

[It  is  obvious  from  the  phrasing  alone  that  this  story  is  untrue  as  it  stands.  The 
whole  book  is  full  of  equal  and  even  greater  absurdities.  But  it  may  be  based  on 
some  real  expression  of  regret  on  Pater's  part  at  his  ignorance  of  Chaucer,  and  is 
perhaps  worth  quoting  on  that  account. 

If  Pater  was  "a  Tutor  of  Oxford"  at  the  time,  it  must  have  been  in  or  after  1864, 
when  he  took  his  Fellowship  at  Brasenose. 

Mr.  Jackson  had  inherited  Charles  Lamb's  library,  and  this  may  have  been  the 
copy  mentioned  above,  1823.  He  also  (Wright,  vol.  ii,  p.  ISO)  owned,  and  shewed  to 
Pater,  Blake's  original  oil-sketch  for  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims.] 

1864.  Huskin,  John.  Sesame  and  Lilies,  Lecture  ii,  Of  Queen's 
Gardens.  [Delivered  14  Dec.,  1864,]  1st  vol.  ed.,  1865,  p.  138. 
(Works,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols., 
vol.  xviii,  pp.  118-19.) 

Now  1  could  multiply  witness  upon  witness  of  this  kind 


1865]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  75 

[of  the  queenly  power  of  women]  upon  you  if  I  had  time. 
I  would  take  Chaucer  and  show  you  why  he  wrote  a  Legend 
of  Good  Women ;  but  no  Legend  of  Good  Men. 

1864.  Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord.     Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  [printed 
in]  Tennyson  ;  a  Memoir  by  his  Son,  1897,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  3. 

One  cannot  exactly  say  of  him  [Garibaldi]  what  Chaucer 
says  of  the  ideal  knight,  "  As  meke  he  was  of  port  as  is  a 
maid."  He  is  more  majestic  than  meek. 

[Tennyson  enjoyed  reading  Chaucer  aloud  more  than  any  poet  except  Shakespeare 
and  Milton.     See  Tennyson:  a  Memoir,  vol.  ii,  pp.  83,  284.] 

1864.  Wright,  William  Aldis.     See  above,   Works. 


1865.  Bradshaw,  Henry.  [Advertisement  of]  An  Attempt  to  Ascertain 
the  State  of  Chanced s  Works,  as  they  were  left  at  his  death,  with 
some  notices  of  their  subsequent  history. 

[The  advertisement,  inserted  by  Macmillan  on  the  front  page 
of  Notes  and  Queries,  Aug.  12,  1865,  begins  with  the  words 
"  Shortly  will  be  published,"  but  Bradshaw  did  not  advance 
far  into  the  work,  of  which  only  the  introductory  pages  were 
found  after  his  death.  The  Skeleton  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Tales  summed  up  his  results;  see  below,  1867.] 

1865.  Burne- Jones,  Sir  Edward  Coley.     Chaucer's  Dream. 

[A  water-colour,  illustrating  the  non-Chaucerian  Isle  of 
Ladies.  Burne-Jones  painted  a  larger  and  much  altered 
version  in  1871.  For  other  Chaucerian  subjects  painted  by 
him  see  above,  1858,  1861,  1862,  1864.  He  also  painted,  in 
1874  and  succeeding  years,  a  series  of  scenes  from  the 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose.  See  M.  Bell,  Sir  E.  Burne-Jones,  1899, 
and  0.  G.  Destree,  Les  Preraphaelites  [1895].] 

1865.  Collier,  John  Payne.  A  Bibliographical  and  Critical  Account  of 
the  Rarest  Books  in  the  English  Language,  vol.  i,  pp.  viii*,  xii*, 
xli*,  xliv*,  87,  97-8,  128-9,  147,  191,  '200,  227,  255,  267,  280,  338, 
400,  526  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  92,  101-2,  145,  178,  183,  238,  295,  378,  418, 
424,  427-8,  440,  464,  477,  485-6,  546. 

[Editions  of  Chaucer  and  allusions  to  him  in  old  literature.] 

[p. xii*]  We  do  not  know  that  it  has  been  observed  upon,  but  it  is  a 
fact,  that  no  less  a  poet  than  Chaucer  was  the  earliest  intro 
ducer  of  classical  measures  into  our  language.  He  commences 


76  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1865 

his   prose    version    of  Boethius    with    these    two    hexameter 
lines  .  .  . 

"  Alas,  I  wepyng  am  constrayned  to  begin  verse  of  sorowful 

mater, 
That  whilom  in  flourisshyng  studye  made  delytable  verses." 


1865.  Furnivall,  Frederick   James.      The   Wright's  Chaste   Wife,   by 
Adam  of  Cobsam,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall,  E.E.T.S.,  Preface,  p.  vii. 


our  White-Rose  king.     He  must  have  been  one  of  the  Chaucer 
breed.  .  .  . 

[To  this  a  footnote  was  added  in  ed.  2,  1869,  on  Chaucer's 
Carpenter  and  the  Miller es  TJ\ 


1865.    [Furnivall,  Frederick  James  ?]   [Article  in]  The  Reader,  May  27, 
1865,  p.  598. 

[No  thorough  testing  of  Chaucer  MSS.  ever  yet  carried  out.] 
It  may  be  that  a  further  testing  of  the  two  texts  [the  Haiieian, 
used  by  Wright,  and  the  Ellesmere]  will  establish  the  supe 
riority  of  the  ''Ellesmere  "  MS.  in  readings,  though  it  is  later 
in  date,  and  may  necessitate  its  being  taken  as  the  basis  of  the 
new  Oxford  edition,  should  the  University  Press  proposal  for 
one  ever  be  carried  into  effect.  .  .  .  It  is  clear  to  any  eye  that 
these  illustrations  [i.  e.  those  of  the  Ellesmere  MS.]  are  much 
later  than  the  MS.  (which  is  about  1430  A.D.)  .  .  .  and  have 
thus  unfortunately  thrown  discredit  on  the  MS.  itself.  On 
the  question  of  which  of  the  two  schemes— Professor  Child's, 
of  printing  the  six  or  eight  texts,  or  the  Oxford  one,  of  print 
ing  one  and  collating  the  others — is  the  more  deserving  of 
support,  we  can  only  say  that  we  wish  well  to  both, 
though  we  fear  the  Oxford  one,  if  carried  out  first,  might 
prevent  the  success  of  Professor  Child's.  The  true  way  would 
be  for  the  Oxford  Press  delegates  to  take  both  schemes  in 
hand,  to  print  the  six  or  eight  texts  as  material  for  their 
editor,  or  better,  their  editors,  and  then  issue  their  one  text, 
without  collations,  which  are  always  a  bother.  .  .  .  They 
would  be  producing  a  book  worthy  of  their  own  reputation, 
and  of  our  own  bright  poet  of  the  dawn. 


1865]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  77 

1865.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  Chaucer  and  Arthur,  [review  of 
Thynne1  a  Animadversions,  ed.  Kingsley,  and  Morte  Arthure,  ed. 
Perry  (E.E.T.S.),  in]  The  Header,  18  November,  1865,  pp.  565-6. 

We  put  Chaucer  before  Arthur,  for  we  care  more  about 
him;  the  more  we  read  him  the  more  we  love  him,  sunning 
ourselves  in  the  bright  sheen  of  his  humour,  and  sniffing  the 
fragrance  of  his  verse,  as  on  a  bright  spring  day  on  his  own 
Kent  downs.  The  old  man  is  the  foremost  and  most 
glowing  figure  of  all  the  troop  of  our  early  writers;  and, 
of  all,  he  is  the  one  we  can  take  closest  home  to  ourselves, 
for  he  has  written  himself  in  his  books,  if  ever  writer  has, 
and  we  know  the  man  from  soul  to  skin. 

1865,  Hook,  Walter  Farquhar.  Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury, 
1860-76,  12  vols.,  vol.  iii,  1865,  pp.  37n.,  40-1,  47,  67,  69n. 

[p.  67]  [Against  Chaucer's  evidence  of  the  demoralisation  of  the 
clergy  of  his  time  must  be  set  his  picture  of  a  parish  priest.] 

tp.  69]  [Identification  of  Chaucer's  good  priest  with  Wyclif  im 
possible;  if  intended  by  Chaucer,  it  must  have  been  as  a 
masked  sarcasm.  Robert  Bell  quoted.  Further  improbability 
"  that  the  gay  and  licentious  poet  should  have  been  intimate 
with  the  reformer."] 

1865.  Kingsley,  George  Henry.  Chaucer.  Animaduersions  .  .  .  by 
Francis  Thynne  .  .  .  edited  by  G.  H.  Kingsley,  Early  English 
Text  Soc.,  pp.  iv,  vi,  viii,  ix,  xi,  xii. 

[p.  xi]  The  old  story  of  Chaucer's  having  been  fined  for  beating 
a  Franciscan  friar  in  Fleet  Street  is  doubted  by  Thynne, 
though  hardly,  I  think,  on  sufficient  grounds.  Tradition 
(when  it  agrees  with  our  own  views)  is  not  lightly  to  be 
disturbed,  and  remembering  with  what  more  than  feminine 
powers  of  invective  "spiritual"  men  seem  to  be  not  unfre- 
quently  endowed,  and  also  how  atrociously  insolent  a  Fran 
ciscan  friar  would  be  likely  to  be  (of  course  from  the  best 
motives)  to  a  man  like  Chaucer,  who  had  burnt  into  the 
very  soul  of  mpnasticism  with  the  caustic  of  his  wit,  I  shall 
continue  to  believe  the  legend  for  the  present.  If  the 
mediaeval  Italians  are  to  be  believed,  the  cudgelling  of  a  friar 
was  occasionally  thought  necessary  even  by  the  most  faithful, 
and  I  see  no  reason  why  hale  Dan  Chaucer  should  not  have 
lost  his  temper  on  sufficient  provocation. 


78  Mve  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1865 

[A  review  of  Kingsley  in  the  Saturday  Review  led  to  a 
strong  denunciation  of  the  reviewer  by  Furnivall  in  The 
Reader,  Feb.  3,  1866,  q.v.  below.  The  second  edition,  1875, 
edited  by  F.  J.  Furnivall,  with  a  new  preface  by  Kings- 
ley,  and  hindwords  by  Fnrnivall,  contains  other  Chaucer 
references.] 

1865.  I.amg,  David.  The  Poems  and  Fables  of  Robert  Henryson,  ed. 
David  Laing,  pp.  xix,  xxi-ii,  xxv-ix  [The  Testament  of'Cresseid 
and  Chaucer's  Troilus.  Also  numerous  references  to  Chaucer, 
chiefly  quotations  from  Chalmers,  in  the  notes.] 

1865.  Maurice,  Frederick  Denison.  On  Books,  [a  lecture  delivered 
Nov.  1865,  printed  in]  The  Friendship  of  Books  and  other 
Lectures,  1874,  pp.  76-7. 

tpp.  76-     Chaucer  was   possibly    the    friend   of  Wycliffe — certainly 
shared  many  of  his  sympathies  and  antipathies.      He  loved 
the  priest,  or,  as  he  was  called,  the  secular  priest,  who  went 
among  the  people,  and  cared  for  them  as  his  fellow-country 
men  ;  he  intensely  disliked  the  friars,  who  nattered  them  and 
cursed  them,  and  in  both  ways  governed  them  and  degraded 
them.     His  education  had  been  different  from  Wycliffe's,  his 
early  poetical  powers  had  been  called  forth  by  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  court.     He  mingled  much  French  with  his 
speech,   as    they    did ;     he   acquired    from    them   a   kind    of 
acquaintance  with  life  which   Wycliffe  could  not  obtain  in 
the  Oxford  schools.     Had  he  remained  under  their  influence 
he  might  have  been  merely  a  very  musical  court  singer ;  but 
he  entered  into  fellowship  with  common  citizens.     He  became 
a  keen  observer  of  all  the  different  forms  of  life  and  society 
in  his  time — a  keen  observer,  and,  as  all  such   are,  genial, 
friendly,  humorous,  able  to  understand  men  about  him  by 
sympathising  with  them,  able  to  understand  the  stories  of  the 
past  by  his  experience  of  the  present.      Without   being   a 
reformer  like  Wycliffe,  he  helped  forward  the  Reformation 
by  making  men  acquainted  Avith  themselves  and  their  fellows, 
by  stripping    off  disguises,  and   by  teaching  them  to   open 
their  eyes  to  the   beautiful   world   which   lay  about   them. 
Chaucer  is  the  genuine  specimen  of  an  English  poet — a  type 
of  the  best  who  were  to  come  after  him;  with  cordial  affection 
for  men  and  for  nature;  often  tempted  to  coarseness,  often 
yielding  to  his  baser  nature  in  his  desire  to  enter  into  all  the 


1865] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


79 


different  experiences  of  men  ;  apt  through  this  desire,  and 
through  his  hatred  of  what  was  insincere,  to  say  many  things 
of  which  he  had  need  to  repent,  and  of  which  he  did  repent ; 
but  never  losing  his  loyalty  to  what  was  pure,  his  reverence 
for  what  was  divine.  .  .  .  The  English  books  which  live 
through  ages  are  those  which  connect  themselves  with  human 
life  and  action.  His  other  poems,  though  graceful  and 
harmonious,  are  only  remembered,  because  in  his  "  Canter 
bury  Tales "  lie  has  come  directly  into  contact  with  the 
hearts  and  thoughts,  the  sufferings  and  sins,  of  men  and 
women,  and  has  given  the  clearest  pictures  we  possess  of  all 
the  distinctions  and  occupations  in  his  own  day. 

1865.  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  Series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  268,  279,  345, 
436,  486,  492  ;  vol.  viii,  pp.  13,  63,  77,  104,  front  cover  of  no.  for 
Aug.  12,  pp.  145,  164,  221-2,  260,  348,  360,  367-8,  419,  459,  483, 
532. 

thor.  Date.  Reference. 

a,  J.  S.  Apr.  1.       3rd  S.  vii, 
268. 

'Dalfe,'  'dolven,'  not  'delved,3 
the  past  of  '  delve '  in  Chaucer. 

'  Cole '  =  charcoal. 

Verses  by  Eoger  North  in  the 
Ellesmere  MS.  of  the  Canter 
bury  Tales. 

'  Chevisaunce/ 

Adam's  Description  of  King's 
Lynn    (q.v.    above,     [1676  ?], 
vol.  i,  p.  272)  claiming  Chaucer  as  a 
native. 


Author. 

Date. 

Reference. 

Burn,  J.  S. 

Apr.  1. 

3rd  S.  vii, 
268. 

N.,  N. 

Apr.  8. 

3rd  S.  vii, 
279. 

T.,C. 

Apr.  29. 

3rd  S.  vii, 
345. 

Furnivall, 
F.  J. 

June  3, 

3rd  S.  vii, 
436. 

A.  A. 

June  17. 

3rd  S.  vii, 
486. 

Norgate, 
F. 

June  17. 

3rd  S.  vii, 
486. 

Subject. 
*  Dagon '  =  remnant. 


Hermen-  June  24. 
trude. ' 


Dixon,  J.     July  1. 


3rd  S.  vii,         Extracts     from     the     Issue 
492.  Kolls,  including  life-records  of 

Chaucer. 

3rd  S.  viii,  Improbabilities  in  the  frame- 
13.  work  of  the  Canterbury  Tales; 
the  pilgrims  never  halt ;  between  Boughton  and  the 
"litel  town"  there  is  only  time  for  one  short  tale,  the 
Chanouns  Yemannes  ;  but,  between  the  "litel  town" 
and  Canterbury  come  four  tales,  the  Manciples,  the 
Prestes,  the  Cokes,  and  the  Plowmans,  all  told  while 
they  are  riding  a  mile  and  a  half.  Is  it  possible,  by 
any  rearrangement  of  the  order  of  the  tales,  to  adapt 
them  to  the  time  of  the  journey  with  probability? 
Can  this  be  done  by  a  careful  collation  of  MSS.  ? 


80 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1865- 


Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

'  Hermen-  July  22.    3rd  S.  viii,        Extracts     from     the     Issue 
trude.'  63.  Rolls,  including  life-records  of 

Chaucer. 
Jacobson,  July  22.    3rd  S.  viii,        '  Fonne,3  to  be  foolish. 

P.  a.  77. 

Brad-  Aug.  12.    front  cover.       Announcement  of  Bradshaw's 

shaw,  Attempt  to  Ascertain  the  State 

Henry.  of  Chaucer's  Works,  as  they  were 

left  at  his  death,  q.v.  above,  Bradshaw,  1865. 

'Schin.'     Aug.  19.      3rd  S.  viii.       Difficulties    of    Chaucer:    an 
145.  explanation   of    '  Wades    Bote  ' 

in   "  They   connen   so   moch   cral't   on    Wades    bote " 
(Marchantes  Tale,  1.  180). 

„  Aug.  26.    3rd  S.  viii,        Difficulties  of  Chaucer  :  '  for- 

164.  tened  crese'  (Rom.  Rose,  B., 
1.  4875)  ;  an  emendation  to  '  forten  decrese  '  =  further 
decrease,  is  suggested. 

H.,  A.          Sept.  16.    3rd  S.  viii,         An  appeal  for  preventing  the 
221-2.          demolition  of  the  Tabard  Inn, 
with  an  extract  to  the  same  effect  from  the  London 
Review,  Aug.  26. 
Editor.       Sept.  23.    3rd  S.  viii,        References  for  '  Wades  bote.' 

260. 

Addis,        Oct.  28.     3rd  S.  viii, 
John.  360. 


*  Hermen-  Nov.  4.  3rd  S.  viii, 

trude.'  367-8. 

Hahn,        Nov.  18.  3rd  S.  viii, 

J.  C.  419. 

P.,  J.  A.      Dec.  2.  3rd  S.  viii, 
459. 

<  Verb        } 

Sap.'       I  Dec  9.  3rd  S.  viii, 


Meeting  eyebrows  considered 
a  blemish  by  Chaucer  (Troilus, 
quoted). 

Extracts  frorn  the  Issue 
Rolls,  including  life-records  of 
Chaucer. 

'Yeoman';  quotations  from 
Prol 

'  By  and  by ' ;  quotations  from 
Rom.  Rose  and  Kniyhtes  Tale. 

1  Let  make. ' 


Wright,     ( 

lis.J 


483. 
W.Aldis. 

Editor.       Dec.  23.    3rd  S.  viii,        Brief  notice  of  G.  H.  Kings- 
532.          ley's  E.E.T.  Soc.  edn.  of  Thynne's 
Animadversions. 


1865.  Ruskin,  John.     The  Cestiis   of  Aglaia,    Chapter  iii,   Patience, 

[in]  The  Art  Journal,  April,  1865,  vol.  iv,  pp.  101-2 ;    [revised 

and  enlarged  in]  On  the  Old  Road,  1885,  vol.  i,  pt.  ii,  pp.  468,  471-2. 

'  (Works,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols., 

vol.  xix,  pp.  82-6.) 

tp.  82]  "  Dame  Pacience  sitting  there  I  fonde, 

With  face  pale,  upon  an  hill  of  sonde." 

[Parlcnient  of  Foules,  11.  242-3.] 


1866]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion-.  81 

[p.  84j  I  should  like  truly  to  know  what  Chaucer  means 
by  his  sand-hill.  .  .  .  Sometimes  I  would  fain  have  it  to 
mean  the  ghostly  sand  of  the  horologe  of  the  world.  .  .  . 
Sometimes  I  like  to  think  that  she  is  seated  on  the  sand 
because  she  is  herself  the  Spirit  of  Staying,  and  victor  over 
all  things  that  pass  and  change.  .  .  .  And  sometimes  I 
think,  though  I  do  not  like  to  think  (neither  did  Chaucer 
mean  this,  for  he  always  meant  the  lovely  thing  first,  not 
the  low  one),  that  she  is  seated  on  her  sand-heap  as  the 
only  treasure  to  be  gained  by  human  toil.  .  .  . 

But  of  course  it  does  not  in  the  least  matter  what  it 
means.  All  that  matters  specially  to  us  in  Chaucer's  vision, 
is  that,  next  to  Patience  (as  the  reader  will  find  by  looking 
at  the  context  in  the  Assembly  of  Foules),  were  "  Beheste  " 
and  "  Art  " ; — Promise,  that  is,  and  Art :  and  that  although 
these  visionary  powers  are  here  waiting  only  in  one  of  the 
outer  courts  of  Love,  and  the  intended  patience  is  here  only 
the  long-suffering  of  love  ;  and  the  intended  beheste,  its 
promise ;  and  the  intended  art,  its  cunning, — the  same  powers 
companion  each  other  necessarily  in  the  courts  and  ante 
chambers  of  every  triumphal  home  of  man. 

1866.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer.  Aldine  edition, 
ed.  R.  Morris,  6  vols. 

[With  Sir  N.  H.  Nicolas'  Life,  and  Tyrwhitt's  Essay  and 
Discourse,  and  a  glossary.  To  the  Essay  are  appended  some 
sections  on  Chaucer's  metres  by  "W.  W.  Skeat.  The  Court  of 
Love  and  the  Cuclww  and  the  Nightingale,  Chaucer  s  Dream 
(The  Isle  of  Ladies}  and  the  Flour  and  the  Lefe  are  included 
in  the  text.] 

[Preface,     In  this  edition  of  Chaucer's  poetical  works  Tyrwhitt's  text 
p' v;i    has  been  replaced  by  one  based  upon  manuscripts  .   .  . 

No  better  manuscript  of   the  Canterbury  Tales  could    be 

found  than  the  Harleian  manuscript,  7334,  which  is  far  more 

uniform  and  accurate  than  any  other  I  have  examined ;  it  has, 

therefore,  been  selected  and  faithfully  adhered  to  throughout 

[pp.vi-  as  the  text  of  the  present  edition.     [MS.  Lansdowne  851  and 

viii]   the  MSS.  employed  by  Tyrwhitt  also   used   to    check   MS. 

Harl.    Examples  of  successful  emendations  introduced,  and  of 

the  final  e.     A  list  of  the  poems  included  and  of  the  MSS. 

used.] 

CHAUCER     CRITICISM. — III.  G 


82  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1866 

1866.  Arnold,  Matthew.  The  Study  of  Celtic  Literature,  part  iv,  [in] 
The  Cornhill  Magazine,  May  1866,  p.  541,  and  July  1866,  p.  113. 
(Works,  1903-4,  15  vols.,  vol.  v,  p.  79.) 

German  schools  have  the  good  habit  of  reading  and  com 
menting  on.  German  poetry,  as  we  read  and  comment  on 
Homer  and  Virgil,  but  do  not  read  and  comment  on  Chaucer 
and  Shakespeare. 


1866.  Bond,  Sir  Edward  Augustus.     New  Facts  in  the  Life  of  Geoffrey 
Chaucer,  [in]  The  Fortnightly  Eeview,  Aug.,  1866,  vol.  vi,  pp.  28-35. 

[Essay  on  the  two  parchment  leaves  which  had  been  pasted 
down  to  the  covers  of  MS.  Add.  18,632,  and  were  found  to 
be  fragments  of  the  Household  Accounts  of  the  Duchess  of 
Clarence.  The  name  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  is  met  with  three 
times,  the  period  covered  being  the  regnal  years  30,  31,  32, 
and  33 — evidently  of  Edward  III. — corresponding  with  the 
years  1356  to  1359.  The  record  shows  that  Chaucer,  at  the 
outset  of  his  career,  was  closely  connected  with  the  court  and 
its  functions.  See  above,  vol.  i,  p.  1.] 


1866.  Chatelain,  Jean  Eaptiste  Francois  Ernest  de.     L' Hosteller  ie  du 
Tabard,  1866,  [in]  A  travers  Champs,  London,  1867. 

[The  Cheyalier  de  Chatelain  lived  and  wrote  in  England  ;  this  poem  is  noticed  in 
Notes  and  Queries,  March  16,  1867,  3rd  ser.,  vol.  xi,  p.  227.] 


1866.  Dickens,  Charles.  Letter  to  Sir  James  Emerson  Tennent,  [dated] 
Aug.  20th,  1866,  [in]  Letters  of  Charles  Dickens,  1880-2  [1879-81], 
3  vols.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  259-60. 

Chaucer  certainly  meant  the  Pardonere  to  be  a  humbug, 
living  on  the  credulity  of  the  people.  After  describing  the 
sham  reliques  [sic]  he  carried,  he  says  : 

But  with  these  relikes  whawne  [sic]  that  he  found 

[and  five  following  lines.] 

And  the  worthy  Watts  (founder  of  the  charity  [the  Refuge  for 
Poor  Travellers])  may  have  had  these  very  lines  in  his  mind 
when  he  excluded  such  a  man. 


1866.  Eastwood,  Jonathan,  and  Wright,  William  Aldis.  The  Bible 
Word-Book.  [Many  quotations  from  Chaucer  or  poems  then 
attributed  to  him.] 


1866]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  83 

1866.  Green,  Henry.  Obsolete  Words  in  Wliitney,  with  parallels  chiefly 
from  Chaucer,  Spenser  and  Shakespeare,  [in]  Whitney's  "  Choice  of 
Emblems"  (1586)  .  .  .  eel.  H.  Green,  pp.  253-65. 

[Agaste,  amisse,  annoy,  bale,  bane,  boorde,  carle,  carpes, 
create  (=  created),  deface,  defame,  fardle,  feare  (=  terrify), 
fonde,  gate,  let,  mislike,  moe,  mowes,  newfanglenes,  nones, 
pill,  roome,  shamefastnes,  sield  ( =  happy),  sithe,  stithe,  teene, 
unrest,  ure,  wonne,  worlde.] 

1866.  Hazlitt,  William  Carew.  Remains  of  tlie  Early  Popular  Poetry 
of  England  .  .  .  edited  .  .  .  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt  (Library  of  Old 
Authors),  4  vols.,  1864-6,  vol.  iii,  1866,  pp.  98-9  [Introduction  to 
The  Mylner  of  Abin<jton\. 

[p.  99]  In  an  artistic  and  constructive  point  of  view,  the  Mylner  of 
Abington  is  superior  to  its  predecessor  [Chaucer's  Reves 
Tale],  and  while  it  is  quite  as  entertaining,  it  is  much  less 
gross. 

[J.  R.  Lowell  singled  out  this  judgment  as  evidence  that  Hazlitt  was  "an  editor 
without  taste,  discrimination  or  learning."  (Review  of  the  Library  of  Old  Authors, 
in  Works,  Riverside  Edn.,  1890,  11  vols.,  vol.  i,  p.  320.)] 

1866.  Maurice,  Frederick  Denison.  On  the  Representation  and  Educa 
tion  of  the  People,  pp.  57-9,  67. 

tp.  57]       Chaucer  appears  certainly  to  have  been  concerned  in   the 

insurrection  of  John  of  Northampton. 
[p.  58]        [Chaucer,  as  essentially  the  English  citizen,  the  link  between 

the  literature  of  Court  and  Commons.     His  wide  appreciation 

of  English  life.] 

He  has  been  called  ax  Wycliffite.     He  is  not  that.     He  is 

simply  an  Englishman.     He  hates  Friars,  because  they  are  not 

English  and  not  manly, 
tp.  59]        [Jacket's  shrine  had  acquired  a    national  sanctity,  of  the 

origin  of  which  Chaucer  was  not  critical.] 

1866.  Morris,  Richard.     See  above,  The  Poetical  Works,  ed.  R.  Morris. 

1866.  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  series,  vol.  ix,  pp.  10,  47,  57,  198, 
264-5,  306,  327,  409,  414-5,  483;  vol.  x,  pp.  49,  104,  297,  307, 
356,  390,  400,  414,  430,  442,  485,  508-9,  518. 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

A.,  A.  Jan.  6.       3rd  S.  ix,          'Husbands  at  the  Church  door' 

10.  (Wife   of  Baths  Prol).      Hus 

bands  endowed   their  wives  with  their  goods   at  the 
Church  door  ;  does  this  passage  mean  that  the  Wife  of 
'  Bath's  husbands  were  all  men  of  property  ? 


84                             Five  Hundred  Years  of               [A.D.  1866 

Author.                 Date.            Reference.  Subject. 

Skeat,         Jan.  13.     3rd  S.  ix,  'Duresse.' 
W.  W.                              47. 

Chate-         Jan.  20.     3rd  S.  ix,  'A  Plea  for  Chaucer,'  i.  e.  for 

lain,                                57.  the  preservation  of  the  Tabard 

Chev.  de.  Inn. 

W.,  T.          April  14.    3rd  S.  ix,  '  Night-spell.' 
306. 

Sandys,      April  21.    3rd  S.  ix,  'Baggepipe.' 
Wm.                                327. 

Foss,  E.      April  21.    3rd  S.  ix,  Henry   Somer,  who   received 

383.  Chaucer's  pension  for  him. 

D.,  A.      \  ,  r      ,  Q      3rd  S.  ix,  '  A  Canterbury  story ' ;  quota- 
Editor.    J        *               414-5.  tion  from    an  unspecified  book 
of  1737,  q.v.  above,  vol.  i,  p.  383. 

Skeat,         June  9.      3rd  S.  ix,  Chaucer  on  daisies. 
W.  W.                             483. 

Atkinson,  July  21.     3rd  S.  x,  The    lapwing    (Parlement    of 

J.  C.                                   49.  Foules,  1.  347,  quoted). 

'Este.'         Oct.  13.      3rd  S.  x,  The       '  Scheffield       thwitel' 

297.  Eeves  T.,  1.  13). 

A.,  A.           Oct.  20.      3rd  S.  x,  « Wardrobe '     (Prioresses    T., 

307.  1.  120). 

Editor.        Nov.  3.       3rd  S.  x,  '  Ambes-as'  (T.  of  the  Man  of 

356.  Lawe,  1.  26). 

Beisly,  S.    Nov.  17.     3rd  S.  x,  Evidence  of  tooth  sealing  in 

390.  Chaucer's  lines, 
In  witness  that  this  is  sooth 
I  bite  the  wax  with  my  wang  tooth. 

[This  couplet  is  not  by  Chaucer ;  nor  is  it  in  the  Chaucerian  Pieces  edited  by 
Skeat.] 

Skeat,         Nov.  17.     3rd  S.  x,  'Whittle'  (Eeves  T.,  1.  13). 
W.  W.                           400. 

Williams,  Nov.  24.     3rd  S.  x,  '  Murder    will    out '    (Nonne 

W.  H.                            414.  Presbes  T.,  1.  232). 

Larwood,  Dec.  29.      3rd  S.  x,  'LeveselP  (Reves  and  Personcs 

Jacob.                            508.  Tales)  =  lattice  1 

Tilius       Dec.  29.      3rd  S.  x,  'Joly,'  first  used  in  English  by 

Ecclesiae.'                    509.  Chaucer? 

Fishwick,  Dec.  29.      3rd  S.  x,  '  Murder  will   out '    ( Wife  of 

H.                                   518.  Bath's      Prol. — in      error      for 

N.P.T.,  ].  232). 

1866.  Skeat,  Walter   William.     See  above,  The   Poetical    Works,  ed. 
R.  Morris. 


1866]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  85 

1866.  Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles.  William  Blake,  2nd  edn.,  1868, 
pp.  50,  58,  61,  89n.,  137.  (New  edn.,  1906,  pp.  55,  64,  67,  97-8«., 
152.) 

[The  2nd  edn.,  1868,  is  the  first  in  B.M.] 

[pp.  97-8*1.]  [A  long  note  on  "  Chaucer's  "  Court  of  Love,  his  "  most 
beautiful  of  young  poems/'  calling  attention  to  the  paganism 
of  its  tone,  and  comparing  it  in  this  respect  with  Aucassin  and 
Nicolette.] 

[p.  152]  Mixed  with  this  [Blake's]  fervour  of  desire  for  more  perfect 
freedom,  there  appears  at  times  an  excess  of  pity  (like  Chaucer's 
in  his  early  poems)  for  the  women  and  men  living  under  the 
law,  trammelled  in  soul  or  body. 

1866.  Unknown.  Chaucer — His  Position,  Life,  and  Influence,  [in] 
The  Westminster  Eeview,  July,  1866,  vol.  xxx,  pp.  184-200. 

[A  long  and  appreciative  article  of  a  general  nature,  with 
a  good  deal  about  Chaucer's  life  and  times,  and  something 
on  his  language,  and  on  the  text  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  in 
recent  editions.] 

[p.  184]  Chaucer  .  .  .  may  be  read  with  comparative  ease.  There 
are  a  few  of  his  phrases  obscure ;  a  few  of  his  endings  silent ; 
a  few  of  his  words  obsolete.  But  we  require  neither  grammar 
nor  glossary  to  understand  and  enjoy  him. 

[P.  199]  Not  much  has  yet  been  done  to  make  Chaucer's  works 
more  popular  or  more  intelligible.  [There  are  great  difficulties, 
his  text  is  uncertain,  often  obscure.  Tyrwhitt  has  done  a 
great  deal  to  remove  obscurities,  though  he]  often  unnecessarily 
and  pretentiously  displays  his  abstruse  and  curious  learning. 
[But  in  spite  of  his  pedantry,  Tyrwhitt's  text  of  the  C.  Tales 
in  1755  [sic],  seems  as  good  as  that  of  Wright,  in  1847. 
The  worst  features  of  Tyrwhitt's  edn.  reappear  in  that  of 
Koutledge  [1863],  where  "  none  of  Tyrwhitt's  mistakes  are 
corrected  nor  his  defects  supplied."  Kobert  Bell's  edn. 
1854,  is  the  best,  by  this  editor  nearly  everything  which 
can  explain  or  illustrate  his  author  has  been  skilfully  con 
densed.]  But  it  is  not  likely  that  all  Chaucer's  writings — 
consisting,  as  they  mostly  do,  of  translations, — can  ever 
become  popular.  We  still  require  an  edition  of  the  "  Canter 
bury  Tales "  in  which  the  obsolete  words,  opinions  and 
customs  will  be  explained,  and  the  obsolete  pronunciation 
indicated. 


86  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1866- 

1866.   Unknown.    Catalogue  of  the  First  Special  Exhibition  of  National 
Portraits  .  .  .  on  Loan  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  April 
1866,  pp.  3,  193. 
[These  portraits  are  Spielmann's  nos.  VI  and  VII.] 

[p.  3]       8.  GEOFFREY    CHAUCER.    Lent    by    Bodleian    Library, 
Oxford. 

Poet;  b.  in  London;  believed  to  have  been  partly  educated 
at  Cambridge ;  was  in  the  service  of  King  Edward  III ; 
patronised  by  John  of  Gaunt;  married  Pbilippa  Rouet, 
daughter  of  a  knight  of  Hainault ;  imprisoned  on  occasion  of 
the  persecution  of  the  Lollards;  d.  25th  Oct.  1400;  bu.  in 
Westminster  Abbey. 

Three-quarters  miniature,  looking  to  r.,  white  head- 
covering  and  dress ;  inscribed  "  Caucer,  1400."  Panel,  1  ft. 
2  in.  x  10J  in. 

9.  GEOFFREY  CHAUCER.     [Lent  by]  Mr.  J.  P.  Seddon. 

...  To  waist,  small  life-size,  face  three-quarters  to  r. ; 
dated  1400.  Panel,  19  x  14  in. 

Stated  to  have  been  preserved  for  more  than  three  cen 
turies  in  the  family  of  Stokes  of  Llanshaw  Court,  Gloucester ; 
given  in  1803  to  Benjamin  Dyke. 

[p.  193]     [Quotation  from  the  Athenaeum,  Ap.  14,  1866,  q,v.  immedi 
ately  below.] 

1866.  Unknown.     National  Portrait  Exhibition  (see  last  entry),  [in] 
The  Athenaeum,  April  14,  1866,  p.  502,  col.  2. 

In  the  two  portraits  of  Chaucer  (7  and  8)  [a  mistake  for 
8  and  9]  we  see  reproductions  of  that  which  Occleve  painted 
from  memory  (Harleian  MS.  4866)  treated  by  different 
hands,  of  which  those  which  produced  No.  8  [meaning 
No.  9]  were  by  far  the  more  skilful. 

1867.  Chaucer.     The  Prologue,  the  Knightes  Tale,  the  Nonne 
Prestes  Tale,  from  the  Canterbury  Tales,  edited  by  K.  Morris, 
Oxford.     (Clarendon  Press  Series.) 

[Introduction,  pp.  v-xlviii.  The  Court  of  Love,  Complaint 
of  the  Black  Knight,  Chaucer's  Dream  (Isle  of  Ladies),  the 
Flower  and  the  Leaf,  and  all  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  are  certainly, 
the  Testament  of  Love  hesitatingly,  allowed  to  be  genuine.  A 
brief  biography,  based  on  the  facts  then  known,  followed  by 
analyses  of  the  Prologue  and  two  Tales  included  in  this 
volume,  a  summary  of  Chaucerian  grammar  andt  metre,  and  a 
table  of  contemporary  events.] 


1867]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  87 

1867.  The  Clerk's  Tale,  edited  by  W.  Aldis  Wright,  from  MS.  D.  4. 
24.  in  the  University  Library,  Cambridge.  Privately  printed, 
Cambridge. 

1867-71.  Bradshaw,  Henry.  The  Skeleton  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Tales :  an  attempt  to  distinguish  the  several  fragments  of  the  work  as 
left  by  the  author  (Memoranda,  no.  iv),  preface  dated  1867,  title  page 
1868,  and  postscript  1871.  (Collected  Papers,  1889,  pp.  102-48.) 

[This  is  the  only  printed  result  of  Bradshaw's  Chaucer 
work,  which  was  largely  the  cause  of  the  foundation  of  the 
Chaucer  Society.  For  the  editions  of  the  Works  projected  by 
him  see  above,  1864,  Works.  In  1865  "An  attempt  to 
ascertain  the  state  of  Chaucer's  works  as  they  were  left  at  his 
death,  with  some  notices  of  their  subsequent  history"  was 
advertised  as  shortly  to  be  published  (q.  v.  above,  1865);  of 
this  the  introductory  pages  alone  were  found  among  his  papers 
(see  G.  W.  Prothero,  A  Memoir  of  Henry  Bradshaw,  1888, 
p.  347).  This  memorandum  was,  it  seems,  printed  as  a  tenta 
tive  preparation  for  the  larger  work.  But  in  the  postscript  of 
1871  Bradshaw  bids  farewell  to  Chaucer  work,  the  Library 
claiming  his  time. 

He  divides  the  Canterbury  Tales  into  twelve  fragments,  and 
prints  the  beginnings  and  ends  of  these  and  of  his  subdivisions 
of  them.  The  MSS.  are  classified  by  their  arrangement  of  the 
Tales,  which  corresponds  with  their  classification  by  textual 
value.  Not  only  mentions  of  time  and  place  occurring  in  the 
'  links '  are  used,  but  orthographical  and  rhyme  tests.  Gamelyn 
is  retained,  in  Frag.  1.] 

1867.  Collier,  John  Payne.  General  Introduction  [to]  Seven  English 
Poetical  Miscellanies,  7  vols.,  vol.  i  [Tottell],  pp.  i-iii. 

[Godf ray's  1532  edn.  of  Chaucer's  Works  really  the  first 
English  miscellany.  The  Testament  of  Love,  which  appears 
there  first,  is  one  of  the  non-Chaucerian  pieces.  This  a 
new  point,  in  the  writer's  belief,  for  Warton  and  later  bio- 
graphers,  including  Sir  Harris  Nicolas,  attribute  it  to  Chaucer, 
though  the  last  notices  the  contradiction  it  seems  to  give 
to  the  tradition  of  Chaucer's  committal  to  the  Tower,  etc. 
Quotation  from  the  end  of  The  Testament  of  Love,  in  which 
Troilus  and  its  author  are  highly  praised;  an  impossibility 
for  Chaucer  to  have  written  this.  Thus  all  that  the  book 
contains  as  to  the  author's  share  in  the  tumults  in  the  city 
and  his  imprisonment  does  not  apply  to  Chaucer.  This 
conclusion  supported  by  a  comparison  of  style.  The  Testament 
of  Love  probably  written  by  some  admiring  imitator  of 
Chaucer's  translation  of  Boethius.] 

i      See  also  below,  Notes  and  Queries,  1867,  Collier. 


88  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1867 

1867.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  Early  English  Text  Society,  Third 
Annual  Report  of  the  Committee,  Jan.  1867,  pp.  2,  5-6. 

[p.  2]  Two  other  events  the  Committee  also  allude  to  with 
pleasure  :  1.  The  publication  of  an  accurate  Text  from 
the  best  MS.  of  each  of  Chaucer's  Poetical  Works  by 
Mr.  Richard  Morris  (though,  unfortunately,  without  the 
collation  and  notes  that  the  editor  desired  to  add) ;  and, 
2,  The  undertaking  to  edit  Bishop  Percy's  long-hidden 
folio  MS. 

[p.  5]  [In  a  list  of  32  Texts  that  can  be  produced  this  year,  if 
funds  enough  are  supplied  :] 

Chaucer.  The  Household  Accounts  of  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
Prince  Lionel,  in  which  Chaucer  is  mentioned;  with  the 
other  documents  relating  to  the  Poet.  To  be  edited  by 
E.  A.  Bond,  Esq.,  Keeper  of  the  MSS.  in  the  British 
Museum. 

tp.  6]  Chaucer's  Prose  "Works.  To  be  edited  from  the  MSS., 
with  an  Essay  on  the  Dialect  of  Chaucer,  by  R.  Morris,  Esq. ; 
and  a  Treatise  on  the  Poet's  Pronunciation,  by  Alexander 
J.  Ellis,  Esq.,  F.R.S.  .  .  . 

A  glance  at  the  List  above  will  show  what  important  and 
interesting  contributions  will  be  made  to  our  Literature  if 
only  the  first  twenty  of  these  books  can  be  produced  this 
year :  a  new  Romance  .  .  .  traces  of  CHAUCER  (with  a 
discussion  of  his  dialect  and  pronunciation). 

1867.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  The  Early  English  Text  Society, 
[an  announcement  of  the  Extra  Series,  to  begin  with  an  edition  of 
Chaucer's  prose  works,  and  an  appeal  for  more  support,  in]  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Aug.  1867,  new  ser.,  vol.  iv,  p.  213. 

1867.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  A  New  'Envoy*  of  Chaucer's,  in 
The  Athenseum,  no.  2081,  Sept,  14,  1867,  p.  333. 

[A  copy  of  'Fie  fro  the  pres,'  from  MS.  Add.  10,340 
(Boethius),  then  being  copied  for  the  E.E.T.S.;  the  best  and 
completest  text  known,  the  envoy  not  having  been  printed 
before.] 

1867.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  The  Chaucer  Society,  [the  Society's 
Manifesto,  in]  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Dec.  1867,  new  ser.,  vol. 
iv,  pp.  782-3. 

This  Society  has  been  founded  in  order  to  do  honour  to 
Chaucer,  and  to  let  the  lovers  and  students  of  him  see  how 
far  the  best  unprinted  manuscripts  of  his  works  differ  from  the 


1867]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  89 

printed  texts.  It  will  deal  with  the  works  of  no  other  man — 
except  so  far  as  may  be  found  necessary  for  the  illustration  of 
Chaucer — and  will  be  dissolved  as  soon  as  all  the  good  manu 
scripts  of  the  poet's  works,  and  all  matter  wanted  for  their 
illustration,  are  in  type.  It  is  not  intended  to  interfere  with 
any  edition  of  Chaucer's  works,  past  or  future,  but  to  sup 
plement  them  all,  and  afford  material  for  the  improvement  of 
his  text.  Eight  or  ten  years  will  suffice,  if  the  Society  be  well 
supported,  to  finish  its  work. 

If  men  said  it  was  well  done  for  Lord  Vernon  to  reprint  the 
first  four  printed  texts  of  Dante's  "  Divina  Commedia  " — if  we 
know  it  is  well  done  of  the  Early  English  Text  Society  to 
print  the  three  versions  of  Chaucer's  great  contemporary's 
work,  William  Langland's  "  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman  " — it 
cannot  be  ill  done  of  us  to  print  all  the  best  MSS.  of  him  who 
is  allowed  to  be  the  greatest  among  our  early  men.  ...  It  is 
hardly  too  much  to  say  that  every  line  of  Chaucer  contains 
points  that  need  reconsideration.  Our  proposal  then  is  to 
begin  with  ''The  Canterbury  Tales,"  and  to  give  of  them  (in 
parallel  columns  in  royal  4to)  six  of  the  best  unprinted  manu 
scripts  known,  and  to  add  in  another  quarto  the  six  next  best 
MSS.,  if  300  subscribers  join  the  Society.  The  first  six  MSS. 
to  be  printed  will  probably  be,  The  Lansdowne  (Brit.  Mus.), — 
The  best  Ashburnham  (if  Lord  Ashburnharn  will  consent  to  its 
publication ;  if  not,  the  best  Sloan e), — The  Ellesmere, — The 
Hengwrt, — The  best  Oxford  (probably  the  Corpus  MS.), — The 
best  Cambridge  (Univ.  Libr.). 

In  securing  the  fidelity  of  the  texts,  Mr.  Richard  Morris, 
Mr.  J.  W.  Hales,  myself,  and  others  (who  will  form  the 
Committee  of  the  Society)  will  take  part.  The  first  essay  in 
illustration  of  Chaucer's  works  that  will  be  published  by 
the  Society  will  be,  "A  detailed  Comparison  of  Chaucer's 
'  Knight's  Tale '  with  the  '  Teseide '  of  Boccaccio,"  by  Henry 
Ward,  Esq.,  of  the  MS.  Department  of  the  British  Museum  .  .  . 

The  Society  will  begin  its  work  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1868.  Professor  Child  gives  501.  to  start  it  ... 

Members'  names  and  subscriptions  may  be  sent  pro  tempore 
to  yours,  &c. 

FREDK.  J.  FURNIVALL, 

3,  Old  Square,  Lincoln's  Inn,  W.  C. 

P.S.  —  An    honorary    secretary    who    cares    enough    for 


90  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1867 

Chaucer   to    take    some   trouble   in    working   the    Society   is 
.    wanted  .  .   . 

[This  letter,  or  manifesto,  appeared  also  in  the  Athenaeum  in  an  earlier  and  slightly 
shorter  form  (no.  2108,  1867,  vol.  ii,  p.  467),  and  was  heralded  by  a  brief  announce 
ment  in  the  preceding  no.,  p.  435.  Various  modifications  in  the  plan  outlined  above 
were  made.  In  the  Six-Text  Print  the  Petworth  and  not  a  Sloane  MS.  was  substituted 
for  the  Ashburnhara,  and  Dr.  Ward's  study  of  the  Knightes  Tale  and  the  Teseide  never 
appeared.  ] 

1867.     [Furnivall,  Frederick  James?]     See  below,  Unknown. 

1867.  Hazlitt,  William  Carew.  Handbook  to  the  Popular,  Poetical 
and  Dramatic  Literature  of  Great  Britain  from  the  Invention  <>f 
Printing  to  the  Restoration,  pp.  96-9. 

[A  list  of  editions  of  Chaucer,  with  notes  of  some  copies.] 

1867.  Longfellow,  Henry  Wads  worth.  Notes  [to]  The  Divine  Comedy 
of  Dante  Alighieri,  translated  by  H.  W.  Longfellow,  1867,  [re 
printed  in]  Writings,  Kiverside  edn.,  11  vols.,  [1886],  vol.  ix, 
pp.  187,  203  ['perse,'  ProL,  1.  441],  208  [gluttony,  Persvnes  Tale], 
218  [avarice,  ib.],  222  [wrath,  ib.],  223,  242  [Theseus,  Knightes 
Tale,  11.  1-16],  244  [Deianire,  Monkes  Tale],  248  [description  of  a 
wood,  Inferno  xiii,  compared  with  Knightes  Tale],  252,  274  [Jason, 
L.G.W.],  276  [simony, Persones  Tale],  287  [reference  to  Henryson's 
Testament  of  Creseidd  as  Chaucer's],  293,  332-3,  342-3,  347  ;  vol.  x, 
pp.  171,  214  [Chaucer's  quotation  from  Purg.  vii,  121,  etc.  in  Wife 
of  Bath's  Tale,  11. 269-76],  230  [the  sculptures  on  the  wall  of  Purga 
tory  (Purg.  x,  29,  etc.)  compared  with  the  temples  of  Venus,  Mars 
and  Diana  in  Knightes  Tale],  275  [Fortuna  Major,  Troilus,  iii, 
1415-20],  306  [<  vernage,'Merc/ian*ea  Me,  1.  563],  308  [reference  to 
the  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight  as  Chaucer's]  ;  vol.  xi,  pp.  168-9 
[quotations  from  Hous  of  Fame,  Anelida,  and  (Lydgate's)  Ballade 
in  commendation  of  Our  Lady],  212  [Demophoon,  L.G.W.,  11. 
2441-51],  250  [Testament  of  Love  quoted  as  Chaucer's],  252,  254, 
258  [imitation  in  Troilus,  v,  1863-5,  of  Paradiso,  xiv,  28-30],  264, 
277,  289-90  [Troilus,  iv,  995-1043,  with  the  original  passage  on 
foreknowledge  from  Boethius,  quoted],  341,  382  [the  invocation  to 
the  Virgin,  Second  Nonnes  Tale,  11.  36-56,  quoted  to  illustrate  the 
opening  of  Paradiso,  xxxiii]. 

1867.  Mackay,  Charles.  A  Thousand  and  One  Gems  of  English  Poetry, 
selected  and  arranged  by  Charles  Mackay,  Introduction,  p.  iii 
[On  pp.  1  and  2  are  the  following  extracts  from  Chaucer  :]  Praise 
of  Women,  The  Young  Squire  [Prol.  11.  79-100],  Arcita's  Dying 
Address  [Knightes  T.,  11.  2771-2780],  Good  Counsel  of  Chaucer. 

1867.  Morris,  Richard.  Specimens  of  Early  English  .  .  .  A.D.  1250- 
A.D.  1400,  with  grammatical  introduction,  notes  and  glossary, 
Oxford.  (Clarendon  Press  Series.) 

[Various     references     to     Chaucer     in     the    Grammatical 
Introduction. 

The    specimens    from    Chaucer    (pp.    345-366)    are    the 


1867]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  91 

Pardoneres  Tale,  and  the  Prioresse  Tale.  In  the  preface 
(p.  vii)  the  editor  says  :  "  the  extracts  from  Chaucer's  Canter 
bury  Tales  are  limited  to  two  short  narratives,  because  a  more 
extended  selection,  by  the  present  editor,  is  in  the  press  "  (i.  e. 
the  Prologue,  etc.,  q.v.  above).] 

1867.  Morris,  William.    The  Life  and  Death  of  Jason,  Book  xvii,  11.  5-24, 
pp.  317-8. 

Would  that  I 

Had  but  some  portion  of  that  mastery 
That  from  the  rose-hung  lanes  of  woody  Kent 
Through  these  five  hundred  years  such  songs  have  sent 
To  us,  who,  nieshed  within  this  smoky  net 
Of  unrejoicing  labour,  love  them  yet. 
And  thou,  0  Master ! — Yea,  my  Master  still, 
Whatever  feet  have  scaled  Parnassus'  hill, 
Since  like  thy  measures,  clear,  and  sweet,  and  strong, 
Thames'  stream  scarce  fettered  drave  the  dace  along 
tin  to  the  bastioned  bridge,  his  only  chain. — 
0  Master,  pardon  me,  if  yet  in  vain 
Thou  art  my  Master,  and  I  fail  to  bring 
Before  men's  eyes  the  image  of  the  thing 
My  heart  is  filled  with :  thou  whose  dreamy  eyes 
Beheld  the  flush  to  Cressid's  cheeks  arise, 
As  Troilus  rode  up  the  praising  street, 
As  clearly  as  they  saw  thy  townsmen  meet 
Those  who  in  vineyards  of  Poictou  withstood 
The  glittering  horror  of  the  steel-topped  wood. 

[This  is  taken  from  the  final  edition  as  printed  in  Works,  with  introductions  by 
his  daughter,  May  Morris,  1910,  vol.  ii,  pp.  259-60.  The  only  difference  in  the  1867 
version  is  that  line  14  there  reads — 

'Thames'  stream  scarce  fettered  bore  the  bream  along.'] 


1867.  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  series,  vol.  xi,  pp.  47,  65,  67,  144,  146, 
161,  227,  284,  287,  337-8,  352,  384-5,  403,  466,  504  ;  vol.  xii,  pp. 
18,  58,  107,  114.  119,  140,  249,  300,  303-5,  391,  422,  424-5,  462, 
491. 

Author.  Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

W.,C.A.    Jan.  12.     3rd  S.  xi,       "Murder  will  out"  probably  a 
47.         colloquial  saying,  not  original  in 
Chaucer. 

A.,  A.         Jan.  19.     3rd  S.  xi,       '  LeveselP  =  a  tavern-bush. 
65. 


92 


Five  Hundred  Years  of 


[A.D.  1867 


Author. 

Addis, 

John, 
jun. 

Skeat, 
W.  W 

Editor. 


Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Jan.  19.     3rd  S.  xi,       'Jolly'  earlier  in  English  than 
67.         Chaucer. 


Feb.  16.     3rd  S.  xi,       '  Callable,'  the  physician's  dress 
144.        (Prol.  11.  439-40). 

Feb.  16.     3rd  S.  xi,       Notice  of  the  Aldine  (Morris's) 
146.        edn.    of    Chaucer's    Works    (q.v. 
above,  1866). 

Shaw,         Feb.  23.     3rd  S.  xi,      '  Jolly.' 

J.  B.  161. 

Editor.       Mar.  16.    3rd  S.  xi,      Notice  of  the  Chevalier  de  Chate- 
227.       Iain's  A  trovers  Champs :  Fldneries, 
containing  a  poem  on  the  destruction  of  the  Tabard 
Inn,  q.v.  above,  1866. 

Skeat,         April  6.     3rd  S.  xi,       '  Levesell,'   an    overgrown   trel- 
W.  W.  284.        lised  porch. 

Baily,  J.     April  6.     3rd  S.  xi,       The  original  idea  of  a  song  on 
287.        the  creation  of  Eve,  quoted  vol.  xi, 
pp.  96,  163,  to  be  found  in  the  Persones  Tale,  §  79. 


Skeat, 
W.W. 

Bouch- 
ier,  J. 

<St. 
Swith- 


Skeat, 
W.W. 

P.,J.  A. 


Skeat, 
W.W. 

Peacock, 
E. 

Bede, 

Cuth- 
bert, 

Skeat, 
W.  W. 

Addis,  J. 


April  27.  3rd  S.  xi,       '  Gab.' 
337-8. 


May  4.       3rd  S.  xi,       '  Christ-cross ' ;    quotation  from 
352.        the  Astrolabe. 

May  11.     3rd  S.  xi,       <  Caitiff'  and  '  mock.' 
384-5. 

May  18.     3rd  S.  xi,       '  Atone.' 
403. 

June  8.      3rd  S.  xi,       '  Pair  of  beads '  (Prol.,  1.  1 59). 
466. 

June  22.    3rd  S.  xi,       Quotation  from  The  Cuckoo  and 
504.        the  Nightingale  as  Chaucer's. 

July  20.     3rdS.xii,      '  Butterfly' '(N. P. T.t  11.  453-5). 

58. 

Aug.  10.     3rd  S.  xii,      « Beauty  unfortunate  '  (Words  of 
114.        the  Host,  following  Phisiciens  T.t 
11.  293-300). 

Aug.  10.     3rd  S.  xii,      '  Butterfly '  (Marchantes  T.,  11. 
119.        259-60,  and  Prol.  N.P.T.,  1.  24). 

Aug.  17.     3rd  S.  xii,      '  Algate '  (T.  &  C.,  bk.  v,  1. 1071). 
140. 


1867] 


Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion. 


93 


Author. 

Editor. 

Collier, 
J.  P. 


Fish- 
wick, 
H. 

Addis,  J. 

Butler, 
T. 


Date.  Reference.  Subject. 

Oct.  12.     3rd  S.  xii,      Notice  of  the  formation  of  the 

300.        Chaucer  Society. 

Oct.  19.     3rd  S.  xii,      Doubts  whether  the  Testament  of 
303-4.    Love  can  be  by  Chaucer,  especially 
in  view  of  the  passage  on  himself  and  his  Troilus  (see 
above,  1867,  Collier). 
Nov.  23.     3rd  S.  xii,      *  Laund.3 

422. 

Nov.  23.     3rd  S.  xii,      *  No  fors.' 

424-5. 
Dec.  7.       3rd  S.  xii.      Yemanrie  (Reves  T.,  11.  22-9). 

462. 


1867.  Part,  William  A.  Spenser,  [a  letter,  in]  The  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  April,  1867,  new  ser.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  501-2. 

[Lancashire  words  used  by  Chaucer.] 

1867.  Ruskin,  John.  On  the  Present  State  of  Modern  Art.  [A  lecture, 
delivered  June  7,  1867;  first  printed  in  full  in]  Works,  ed.  E.  T. 
Cook  and  A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  xix,  pp.  207-8. 

tp.  207]  This  first  cartoon  is  a  sketch  for  tapestry,  from  Chaucer, 
of  Love  bringing  in  Alcestis.  ...  In  Chaucer  the  Spirit 
of  Love  which  leads  her  is  only  that  of  perfect  human 
passion  : — 

"  Yclothed  was  this  mighty  God  of  Love 

In  silk,  embroudered  full  of  red  rose  leaves — 
The  freshest  since  the  world  was  first  begun — 
And  his  gilt  hair  was  crowned  with  a  sun 
Instead  of  gold ; 

And  in  his  hand  methought  I  saw  him  hold 
Two  fiery  darts,  as  the  coals  red ; 
And  angel-like  his  wings  I  saw  him  spread.1 

[p.  208]  But  in  this  design  the  painter  has  gone  farther  into  the 
meaning  of  the  old  Greek  myth,  and  he  has  given  the  Spirit 
of  the  Love  that  lives  beyond  the  grave.  .  .  . 

Then  this  second  cartoon,  also  from  the  Legend  of  Good 
Women,  is  of  the  two  wives  of  Jason — Hypsipyle  and 
Medea. 

i  [Editor's  note] :  "From  the  Prologue  to  the  Legende  of  Qoode  Women.  Chaucer 
wrote,  after  the  first  line— 

'  In  silke  embrouded,  ful  of  grene  graves 
In  which  a  fret  of  rede  rose  leves.' 

The  fifth  line  continues,  'for  hevynesse  andwyghte';  and  then  Ruskin  omits  two 
lines.  The  last  line  but  one  is,  in  the  original,  '  Two  firy  dartes,  as  the  gledes 
rede.'  The  sketches  (by  Burne-Jones)  are  Plates  VI,  VII,  in  vol.  xix.] 


94  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1867- 

1867.  Buskin,  John.  Time  and  Tide  by  Wcare  and  Tyne,  Letter  xvn, 
ZKJfeutttet,  [dated]  April  3,  1867.  [in]  Leeds  Mercury,  [and  in] 
Manchester  Daily  Examiner  and  Times,  April  13,  1867.  (2nd 
vol.  ed.,  1868,  [1st  in  B.M.],  p.  104.  (Works,  ed.  E.  T.  Cook  and 
A.  Wedderburn,  1903-12,  39  vols.,  vol.  xvii,  p.  402.) 

Shakespeare  and  Chaucer, — Dante  and  Virgil, —  ...  all 
the  men  of  any  age  or  country  who  seem  to  have  had  Heaven's 
music  on  their  lips,  agree  in  their  scorn  of  mechanic  life. 

1867.  Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles.  Review  of  Morris's  Life  and 
Death  of  Jason,  [in]  The  Fortnightly  Review,  July,  1867,  new 
ser.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  22-3,  26,  28. 

[p.  22]  "  Jason  "  is  a  large  and  coherent  poem,  completed  as  con 
ceived  ;  the  style  throughout  on  a  level  with  the  invention. 
In  direct  narrative  power,  in  clear  forthright  manner  of  pro 
cedure,  not  seemingly  troubled  to  select,  to  pick  and  sift  and 
winnow,  yet  never  superfluous  or  verbose,  never  straggling  or 
jarring;  in  these  high  qualities  it  resembles  the  work  of 
Chaucer.  Even  against  the  great  master  his  pupil  may  fairly 
be  matched  for  simple  sense  of  right,  for  grace  and  speed  of 
step,  for  purity  and  justice  of  colour.  In  all  the  noble  roll  of 
our  poets  there  has  been  since  Chaucer  no  second  teller  of 
tales,  no  second  rhapsode  comparable  to  the  first,  till  the 
advent  of  this  one. 

tp.  23]  The  romance  poets  have  never  loved  the  sea  as  have  the 
tragic  poets  ;  Chaucer  simply  ignores  it  with  a  shiver ;  .  .  . 

1867.  Unknown.  Early  English  Texts,  [in]  The  Edinburgh  Review, 
Jan.  1867,  vol.  cxxv,  pp.  225,  231-2,  244,  251. 

[Criticism  of  the  chauvinism  of  Frencli  critics,    especially 
•  Sandras  and  Le  Clerc  (q.v.  below,  App.  B.,  1859,  1862)  for 
their  attempt  to  class  Chaucer  with  the  trouveres.] 

1867.  Unknown.  [Furnivall,  Frederick  James  ?]  Note,  [in]  The 
Athenaeum,  no.  2094,  Dec.  14,  1867. 

A  new  and  interesting  testimony  to  Chaucer's  worth  turns 
up  unexpectedly  in  the  Courtesy  poem  of  'Lytil  Johan/  in 
the  Balliol  MS.  .  .  .  The  writer,  a  disciple  of  Lydgate,  is 
telling  his  Little  Jack  what  to  read,  and,  like  a  wise  man, 
names  the  best  poets  of  the  day,  Gower,  Chaucer,  Occleve, 
Lydgate,  and  thus  apostrophizes  Chaucer.  [Quotes  stanzas 
48-50.  See  above,  1477.  vol.  i,  p.  57.] 

1867.  Wright,  William  Aldis.     See  above,  The  Clerk's  Tale. 


1868]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  95 

1868-77.  A  Six-Text  Print  of  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  in 
Parallel  Columns  from  the  following  MSS.  :  1.  The  Ellesmere; 
2.  The  Hengwrt  154  ;  3.  The  Cambridge  Univ.  Libr.  Gg.  4.  27  ; 
4.  The  Corpus  Christ!  Coll.,  Oxford  ;  5.  The  Petworth ;  6.  The 
Lansdowne  851.  Edited  by  F.  J.  Furnivall.  Chaucer  Society, 
8  parts,  1868-77,  oblong  8vo. 

[The  six-text  edition  contains  when  complete  : — 

(1)  The  Dedication  :  To  Prof.  Francis  James  Child,  etc. 

(2)  Specimens  of  the  two  chief  moveable  Prologues  in  the 
Canterbury    Tales    when   they   are    moved    from   their   right 
places,  and  of  some  of  the  substitutes  for  them  (pp.  i*-xx*) : 

I.  Specimens  of  the  Man  of  Law's  End-Link,  the  real 
SJiipman's  Prologue,  when  moved  from  its  right 
place. 

II.  Specimens  of  the  Spurious  Prologue  to  the  Shopman's 
Tale. 

III.  Specimens  of  the  Squire's  End-Link  (which  should 

head  the  Franklin's  Tale),  when  the  Franklin's 
Tale  is  moved  from  its  right  place,  and  the 
Squire's  End-Link  is  used  as  the  Merchants' 
Prologue. 

IV.  Specimens  of  the  False  Prologues  to  the  Franklin's 

Tale  when  it  is  moved  from  its  right  place  after 
the  Squire's  Tale. 

'(3)  Trial-Tables  (now  superseded)  of  the  Groups  of  Tales, 
and  their  order  in  Chaucer's  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  according  to 
the  Edited  Manuscripts  and  Tyrwhitt.  (pp.  xxi*-xxiii*.) 

(4)  Drawings  of  the  23  tellers  of  the  24  Canterbury  Tales, 
copied  from  the  Ellesmere  MS.,  and  cut  on  wood,  by  Mr.  W. 
H.  Hooper,  and  coloured  after  the  originals,  under  his  direction^ 
(9  leaves,  bound  at  the  end  of  vols.  i  and  ii — pts.  iii  and  iv — 
in  the  B.M.  copy.) 

(5)  The  Texts  of  the  Tales  from  the  six  MSS.  (pp.  1-685), 
and   including,   (5)  Appendix   to    Group    A.     The    Spurious 
Tale  of  Gamelyn  (with  its  spurious   Head-Links)  from    the 
following    6  MSS.:— Koyal  MS.   18.  C.  ii. ;   Harleian  1758; 
Sloane,     1685;     Corpus    MS.    (Oxford);     Petworth    MS.; 
Lansdowne  MS.  851  (pp.  xxv-lxxvii.) 

(6)  Byrne-Index  to  the  Ellesmere  Manuscript  of  Chaucer's 
Canterbury   Tales.     By    Henry    Cromie,    M.A.,    1875.      [pp. 
l*-255*, — or  in  oblong  triple  pages,  if-lxxxvf  :  and  including 
the  Notes  and  Corrections  for  the  Eyme-Index,  i j"-lxxxviiif ; 
1st  ser.  45  and  46.] 


£6  five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1868- 

[In  1868  Dr.  Furnivall  published  separately  (2nd  ser.  3) : 
A  Temporary  Preface  to  the  Six-Text  Edition  of  Chaucer's 
Canterbury  Tales,  attempting  to  shew  the  true  order  of  the 
Tales,  and  the  days  and  stages  of  the  pilgrimage,  etc.,  etc.] 

[See  Skeat's  Evolution  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  for  a  study 
of  the  sequence  of  the  Tales  as  set  forth  in  the  Six-Text 
edition.  Each  of  the  texts  constituting  the  Six-Text  edition 
was  printed  separately,  for  editorial  use,  1868-77  :  Child 
himself  had  conceived  the  idea  of  printing  a  six  or  eight- 
text  Chaucer.  See  the  notice  of  a  note  on  the  subject  in  the 
Reader,  under  1865,  Furnivall  (?)] 

[Later  publications  of  the  Chaucer  Society  have  for  the  most  part  been  omitted, 
as  being  generally  accessible  and  known  to  members  of  the  Society.] 

1868-70.     Morris,  William.     The  Earthly  Paradise.    Prologue  :   The 
Wanderers,  Part  i,  1868,  p.  3 ;  L'Envoi,  Part  iv,  1870,  pp.  439-442. 

Forget  six  counties  overhung  with  smoke, 

Forget  the  snorting  steam  and  piston  stroke, 

Forget  the  spreading  of  the  hideous  town  ; 

Think  rather  of  the  pack-horse  on  the  down, 

And  dream  of  London,  small,  and  white  and  clean, 

The  clear  Thames  bordered  by  its  gardens  green  ; 

Think,  that  below  bridge  the  green  lapping  waves 

Smite  some  few  keels  that  bear  Levantine  staves, 

Cut  from  the  yew  wood  on  the  burnt-up  hill, 

And  pointed  jars  that  Greek  hands  toiled  to  fill, 

And  treasured  scanty  spice  from  some  far  sea, 

Florence  gold  cloth,  and  Ypres  napery, 

And  cloth  of  Bruges,  and  hogsheads  of  Guienne; 

While  nigh  the  thronged  wharf  Geoffrey  Chaucer's  pen 

Moves  over  bills  of  lading — mid  such  times 

Shall  dwell  the  hollow  puppets  of  my  rhymes. 

[p.  439]        [L'Envoi.     The  poet  addresses  his  book  :] 

Nay,  let  it  pass,  and  hearken  !     Hast  thou  heard 
That  therein  *  I  believe  I  have  a  friend, 
Of  whom  for  love  I  may  not  be  afeard? 
It  is  to  him  indeed  I  bid  thee  wend  .   .  . 

Well,  think  of  him,  I  bid  thee,  on  the  road, 
And  if  it  hap  that  midst  of  thy  defeat, 
Fainting  beneath  thy  follies'  heavy  load, 

*  i.e.  in  "  The  Land  of  Matters  Unforgot.   ; 


1869]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  9? 

My  Master,  GEOFFREY  CHAUCER,  thou  do  meet, 
Then  shalt  thou  win  a  space  of  rest  full  sweet ; 
[p.  440]        Then  be  thou  bold,  and  speak  the  words  I  say, 
The  idle  singer  of  an  empty  day  ! 

"  0  Master,  0  thou  great  of  heart  and  tongue, 
Thou  well  mayst  ask  me  why  I  wander  here 
In  raiment  rent  of  stories  oft  besung ! 
But  of  thy  gentleness  draw  thou  anear, 
And  then  the  heart  of  one  that  held  thee  dear 
Mayst  thou  behold  !  "  .  .  . 
[p.  441]        O  Master,  if  thine  heart  could  love  us  yet, 

Spite  of  things  left  undone,  and  wrongly  done, 
Some  place  in  loving  hearts  then  should  we  get, 
For  thou,  sweet-souled,  didst  never  stand  alone, 
But  knew'st  the  joy  and  woe  of  many  an  one — 
—By  lovers  dead,  who  live  through  thee,  we  pray, 
Help  thou  us  singers  of  an  empty  day  !  " 

Fearest  thou,  Book,  what  answer  thou  mayst  gain 
Lest  he  should  scorn  thee,  and  thereof  thou  die  ? 
Nay,  it  shall  not  be. — Thou  mayst  toil  in  vain 
And  never  draw  the  House  of  Fame  anigli ; 
,Yet  he  and  his  shall  know  whereof  we  cry, 
Shall  call  it  not  ill-done  to  strive  to  lay 
The  ghosts  that  crowd  about  life's  empty  day. 

1868.  Waller,  John  Green.     [A   Painted  Window,  designed  by  J.  G. 
Waller,  with  medallions  of  Chaucer  and  Gower,  and  with  scenes 
from  Chaucer's  life  and  poems,  placed  over   Chaucer's   tomb   in 
Westminster  Abbey  as  the  gift  of  Dr.  Rogers.] 

1869.  Browne,    Matthew,     [pseud.,  i.e.   Rands,    William    Brighty.] 
Chaucer's  England,  2  vols. 

[Chapters  on  "  The  Poet  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,"  and  "  The 
Story  and  the  Pilgrims,"  followed  by  others  on  various  aspects  of 
mediaeval  life.  Diffuse  and  inaccurate  but  not  without  merit.] 

1869-89.  Ellis,  Alexander  James.  On  Early  English  Pronunciation, 
with  especial  reference  to  Shakspere  and  Cliaucer.  Including  a 
rearrangement  of  Prof.  F.  J.  Child's  memoirs  on  the  landings  of 
Cliaucer  and  Gower  \_q.v.  above,  1862],  Parts  i  and  ii,  Loud  on, 
Chaucer  Society  and  KE.T.  Soc.,  1869  ;  Part  iii,  1871  ;  Part  iv, 
1875  ;  Part  v,  1889. 

[The  parts  directly  concerning  Chaucer's   language   are  : 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — III.  H 


98  five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

Part  i,  chap,  i,  pp.  26-30,  summary  of  the  method  of 
investigation  used  in  chap,  iv,  and  comparative  table  of 
the  pronunciation  of  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Dryden  and 
Goldsmith ;  chap,  iv, '  On  the  pronunciation  of  English  during 
the  14th  century,  as  deduced  from  an  examination  of  the 
rhymes  in  Chaucer  and  Gower,'  pp.  241-416 :  Principles  of 
the  investigation  (no  real  faulty  rhymes  in  Chaucer),  pp. 
241-57;  The  Vowels,  pp.  258-307;  The  Consonants,  pp. 
308-17;  On  the  pronunciation  of  e  final  in  the  14th 
century  [its  use  proved  by  rhymes  from  the  Harl.  MS. ; 
table  of  rules,  p.  342],  pp.  318-42;  F.  J.  Child's  Obser 
vations  on  the  language  of  Chaucer  and  Gower  [q.v.  a'bove, 
1862],  pp.  342-97 ;  Chaucer's  pronunciation  and  ortho 
graphy  [with  a  table  of  probable  sounds  of  the  letters], 
pp.  397-404.  Part  iii,  1871,  chap,  vii,  '  Illustrations  of 
the  Pronunciation  of  English  during  the  14th  century,' 
pp.  633-742 :  Chaucer,  pp.  633-725  :  Critical  text  of 
Prologue  [illustrating  the  previous  conclusions,  the  text  from 
the  seven  MSS.  on  the  versos,  and  the  phonetic  transcript 
on  the  rectos],  pp.  680-725  [prefaced  by  notes  on]  : 
Pronunciation  of  long  u  and  of  ay,  ey,  as  deduced  from 
a  comparison  of  the  orthographies  of  seven  MSS.  of  the 
Canterbury  Tales  [the  Society's  six  texts  and  MS.  Harl. 
7334],  pp.  634-56;  Treatment  of  final  e  in  the  critical 
text,  pp.  646-8 ;  Metrical  peculiarities  of  Chaucer,  pp.  648-9 ; 
Chaucer's  treatment  of  French  words,  pp.  650-1 ;  Penn 
sylvania  German  the  analogue  of  Chaucer's  English,  pp. 
652-63;  F.  W.  Gesenius  on  the  language  of  Chaucer, 
pp.  664-71 ;  M.  Rapp  on  the  pronunciation  of  Chaucer, 
pp.  672-7 ;  Instructions  for  reading  the  phonetic  transcript 
of  the  Prologue,  pp.  677-9.] 

1870.  [Bayn.es,  Thomas  Spencer.]  The  Text  of  Chaucer,  [in]  the  Edin 
burgh  Review,  July,  1870,  vol.  cxxxii,  pp.  1-45. 

[Information  as  to  the  authorship  of  this  article  was  kindly  supplied  by  the 
Editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.] 

[p.  i]  It  is  a  national  reproach  that  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  five 
hundred  years  we  are  still  without  a  critical  and  illus 
trative  edition  of  Chaucer's  poetical  works.  Excepting 
Shakspeare,  no  English  poet  so  thoroughly  requires  and 

[P.  2]  deserves  careful  editing  as  Chaucer ;  and,  in  the  essential 
characteristics  of  his  genius,  no  English  poet  comes  nearer 
to  Shakspeare. 

[PP.  2,8]  [Chaucer's  dramatic  insight,  love  of  nature,  wide  human 
interest,  and  felicity  of  expression.] 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  99 

[p.  3]  These  excellences  have  justly  made  Chaucer  not  only  the 
father  of  English  poetry,  the  greatest  of  our  dramatists  before 
the  rise  of  the  regular  drama,  but  one  of  the  most  delightful 
and  habitually  read  of  all  English  poets.  The  many  eulo 
gistic  references  to  him  by  later  writers  both  in  prose  and 
verse,  down  to  the  close  of  the  Elizabethan  period,  show  how 
constantly  he  was  studied  during  the  two  centuries  after  his 
death. 

[Lydgate,  Occleve,  Douglas,  Wilson,  Puttenham,  Ascham, 
Fox,  Camden,  Sidney,  Spenser,  Milton,  among  his  admirers.] 

Dryden,  again,  did  his  utmost  to  popularise  the  more 
striking  of  the  '  Canterbury  Tales,'  and  has  left,  perhaps, 
the  best  critical  estimate  of  their  author  we  possess.  During 
the  eighteenth  century  there  were  several  elaborate  attempts 
to  make  English  readers  better  acquainted  with  Chaucer, 
whose  language  had  by  that  time  become  too  archaic  for 
the  effortless  enjoyment  of  ordinary  readers.  And  in  our 
own  day,  notwithstanding  the  obstacles  interposed  by  a 
grammar  and  vocabulary  partially  obsolete,  Chaucer  has 
reappeared  in  a  greater  number  of  forms,  and  is,  perhaps, 
more  generally  read  and  studied,  than  any  of  the  great 
Elizabethan  poets  except  Shakspeare. 

These  circumstances  render  it  the  more  surprising,  and, 
we  may  add,  the  more  discreditable  to  our  national  scholar 
ship,  that  no  complete  critical  edition  of  Chaucer's  poetical 
works  should  yet  have  been  produced.  The  reproach  is  one 
of  old  standing,  and  many  suggestions  have  from  time  to 
time  been  made  with  the  view  of  wiping  it  away. 

[Quotation  of  Dr.  Johnson's  note  on  his  projected  edition. 
A  correct  edition  called  for  by  Godwin  and  Todd.] 

[p.  5]  The  truth  is,  that  until  the  last  few  years  the  greater  part 
of  Chaucer's  poetical  works  have  never,  strictly  speaking, 
been  edited  at  all.  '  Troilus  and  Cressid,'  a  story  nearly  as 
long  as  the  '^Eneid,'  the  '  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,'  the  '  House 
of  Fame,'  the  '  Legend  of  Good  Women,'  and  the  minor 
poems,  collected  and  published  together  for  the  first  time 
by  Thynne  in  1532,  were  printed  from  defective  and  im 
perfect  manuscripts  without  any  critical  oversight  or  correc 
tion  ;  and  from  that  time  to  our  own  day  they  have  been 
reprinted  from  the  black-letter  folios  without  any  attempt 


100     [Baynes.]         Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

at  systematic  critical  revision.  The  '  Canterbury  Tales ' 
have,  indeed,  fared  somewhat  better,  having  been  more  than 
once  carefully  edited  by  critics  in  many  respects  well  qualified 
for  the  task.  But  much  still  remains  to  be  done  for  the  text 
of  Chaucer's  greatest  work ;  and  still  more,  perhaps,  for  the 
adequate  explanation  of  its  language  and  allusions.  We 
have  as  yet  no  satisfactory  and  authoritative  text  even  of 
the  '  Canterbury  Tales  ' ;  and  the  best  published  text,  that 
recently  revised  by  Mr.  Morris,  to  which  we  shall  presently 
refer  in  detail,  is  without  note  or  comment  of  any  kind. 
The  work  which  Johnson  projected,  and  which  a  succession 
of  eminent  scholars  and  critics  have  so  earnestly  desiderated, 
still  remains,  therefore,  to  be  done. 

In  these  circumstances  the  formation  of  a  Chaucer  Society, 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  printing  the  best  existing  manu 
scripts  of  the  poet's  works,  ought  to  be  matter  of  hearty  con 
gratulation  to  all  lovers  of  English  literature.  Our  public 
and  private  libraries  are  rich  in  Chaucer  manuscripts,  and 
the  best  of  these  must  be  available  for  critical  use  before  an 
authoritative,  complete  and  satisfactory  text  of  Chaucer  can 
be  produced.  But  the  only  way  of  placing  these  manu 
scripts  within  the  reach  of  English  scholars  is  by  printing 
them;  and,  if  done  at  all,  this  must  obviously  be  the  work 
of  a  special  Society.  With  this  end  in  view,  the  Chaucer 
Society  was  accordingly  founded  two  years  ago. 

[Account  of  the  Chaucer  Society's  aims  and  publications. 
[p.  7]    Value  of  the  latter  to  students.     Only  seventy  subscribers 
in   England,    and   thirty  in  the  United   States.      Readers 
recommended  to  subscribe.] 

[p.  8]  From  what  we  have  said  it  will  be  seen  that  the  publi 
cations  of  the  Chaucer  Society  are  preparing  the  way  for  a 
complete  edition  of  Chaucer's  works  in  the  twofold  direction 
of  text  and  commentary.  The  requirements  of  such  an 
edition  are  an  authoritative  text  based  on  a  comparison  of 
the  best  manuscripts,  and  an  adequate  explanation  in  the 
shape  of  notes  and  commentary  of  Chaucer's  learning  and 
literary  studies,  his  allusions,  language  and  versification. 
The  first  point  is  the  text;  and,  in  order  to  estimate  fairly 
the  work  the  Chaucer  Society  is  doing  in  this  respect,  it  is 
necessary  to  glance  at  the  history  of  the  printed  texts  down 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  \_BaynesJ]  101 

to  the  present  time.  Caxton  printed  the  '  Canterbury 
Tales  '  twice,  the  first  time  from  a  very  corrupt  manuscript, 
and  the  second  time  from  a  much  better  one.  '  Troilus  and 
Cressid,'  '  The  House  of  Fame,'  '  The  Assembly  of  Fowls,' 
and  some  minor  pieces,  were  printed  by  Caxton's  coadjutors 
and  successors,  Wynken  de  Worde  and  Pynson.  The  first 
edition  of  Chaucer's  poetical  works  was  that  published  in 
1532,  and  edited  by  W.  Thynne.  In  his  curious  dedication 
to  Henry  VIII,  Thynne  claims  to  have  corrected,  by  com 
parison  with  the  manuscripts,  those  parts  of  the  poet's  works 
already  printed,  and  to  have  published  the  rest  for  the  first 
time.  [Thynne  quoted ;  see  above,  1532,  vol.  i,  p.  79]. 

As  may  be  surmised  from  this  extract,  Chaucer  did  not 
benefit  much  from  Thynne's  supervision,  his  text  of  the 
'  Canterbury  Tales  '  being  in  some  respects  inferior  to  that 
of  Caxton's  second  reprint,  while  the  minor  poems  are 
crowded  with  verbal  corruptions.  Stowe,  the  next  editor, 
added  little  to  Thynne's  work,  except  some  miscellaneous 
poems,  '  now  imprinted  for  the  first  time,'  which  fill  twenty 
pages  of  his  massive  folio.  These  poems  are  of  doubtful 
authority,  being  more  in  Lidgate's  manner  than  Chaucer's; 
but  the  longest  of  them,  '  The  Court  of  Love,'  has  kept  its 
place  in  the  subsequent  editions  of  the  poet's  works.  The 
third  chief  edition  published  during  the  sixteenth  century  is 
[P.  9]  that  edited  by  Speight,  and  in  many  respects  he  may  fairly 
be  regarded  as  the  first  editor,  strictly  so  called,  of  Chaucer. 
Thynne  and  Stowe  paid  but  little  attention  to  the  text; 
and  neither  of  them  attempted  anything  in  the  way  of 
illustration  or  commentary.  Speight  attended  in  a  manner 
to  both  these  departments  of  an  editor's  duty ;  and,  though 
his  alterations  in  the  text  are  comparatively  few  and  unim 
portant,  they  are  still  in  the  main  improvements.  But  his 
claims  as  an  editor  rest  mainly  on  his  explanations  of 
Chaucer's  language.  He  is  the  first  that  attempted  any 
detailed  explanation  of  archaic  words  and  phrases;  and  his 
glossary,  with  all  its  imperfections,  entitles  him  to  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  Chaucer  students.  .  .  .  Speight's  compact 
folio,  first  published  in  1598,  again  in  1602,  with  some  im 
provements,  and  a  third  time  in  1687,  with  a  few  trifling 
additions,  continued  to  be  the  standard  edition  of  Chaucer 


102     [BaynesJ]      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

throughout  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Down  to 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  indeed,  the  collected 
works  of  our  more  celebrated  poets  generally  appeared  in 
the  folio  form,  and  the  folio  belongs  to  the  pre-critical  period 
of  our  literary  history.  Urry's  ambitious  work,  which  ap 
peared  in  1721  and  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  tallest  of 
all  the  Chaucer  folios,  is  certainly  no  exception.  The  licen 
tious  alterations  of  the  text,  in  which  Urry  habitually  in 
dulged,  have  simply  made  it  perversely  corrupt  in  every 
part.  .  .  . 

Lp.  10]  The  first  editor  of  any  part  of  Chaucer's  works  who  dis 
played  anything  like  the  spirit  and  power  of  genuine  criticism 
was  undoubtedly  Dr.  Thomas  Morell,  best  remembered  per 
haps  by  his  learned  '  Thesaurus  '  .  .  .  Dr.  Morell  was,  how 
ever,  an  English  as  well  as  a  classical  scholar,  having  edited 
Spenser,  and  commenced  the  publication  of  the  '  Canterbury 
Tales  '  on  a  thoroughly  complete  and  satisfactory  plan.  The 
only  matter  of  regret  is  that  he  did  not  carry  out  his  admirable 
scheme  and  finish  the  work  he  had  so  well  begun.  The  first 
volume  of  the  projected  work,  and  we  believe  the  only  one 
ever  issued,  appeared  in  1737,  and  was  entitled  '  The  Can 
terbury  Tales  of  Chaucer  in  the  original,  from  the  most 
authentic  manuscripts,  with  references  to  authors  ancient 
and  modern,  various  readings,  and  explanatory  notes.' 
This  volume  contains  the  '  Prologue  '  and  the  '  Knight's 
Tale,'  a  modern  version  of  each  being  appended  to  the 
original  text.  Tyrwhitt  refers  to  it  in  terms  of  high  but  just 
praise ;  and  it  appears  from  his  reference  to  have  been  the 
only  part  of  the  work  that  had  been  published.  .  .  .  This 
part  is,  however,  quite  sufficient  to  show  that  in  undertaking 
to  edit  Chaucer  Dr.  Morell  took  a  just  and  comprehensive 
view  of  the  work  to  be  done,  and  that  he  possessed  many 
of  the  higher  qualities  essential  to  its  successful  execution. 
His  plan  includes  minute  attention  both  to  text  and  com 
mentary  ;  and  in  dealing  with  the  text  '  he  set  out,'  says 
Tyrwhitt,  '  upon  the  only  rational  plan,  that  of  collating  the 
best  manuscripts  and  selecting  from  them  the  genuine  read 
ings.'  [Then  follow  comments  and  quotations  on  Morell  and 
Urry's  views  of  Chaucer's  versification.] 

[p.  12]       Tyrwhitt  comes  next  as  an  editor  of  Chaucer,  and  his 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  [Bayncs.~\  103 

edition  of  the  '  Canterbury  Tales '  is  so  well  known  that  it 
is  needless  to  specify  its  merits  and  defects  in  detail.     In 
our  judgment,  the  merits  of  the  work  far  outweigh  its  defects, 
although  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  the  text 
must  no  doubt  be  regarded  as  seriously  defective.     Still  on 
the  whole  Tyrwhitt  has  done  more  for  Chaucer  than  any 
other  single  editor.     It  is  no  doubt  true  that  he  was  un 
acquainted  with  the  niceties  of  Chaucer's  grammar,  and  their 
intimate  connexion  with  the  mechanism  of  his  verse;  and 
•[p.  is]  Mr.  Wright,  in  the  introduction  to  his  edition  of  the  '  Canter 
bury  Tales,'  has  emphasized  these  deficiencies  in  somewhat 
sweeping  terms.     But  Tyrwhitt  was  a  sagacious  critic,  pos 
sessing  great  literary  knowledge,  taste,  and  industry;  and 
he  brought  all  his  powers  and  acquirements  to  the  illustration 
of  his  favourite  author,  often  with  the  happiest  results.  .  .  . 
The  next  step  in  the  history  of  Chaucer  texts  is  the  publi 
cation  of  this  manuscript — the  Harleian — by  Mr.  Wright  in 
1847.     This  publication  represents  something  like  a  revolution 
in  the  plan  of  editing  Chaucer,  and  at  once  raises  the  whole 
question  as  to  the  best  method  of  dealing  with  the  text.     At 
first  sight  Mr.  Wright  seems  to  make  out  a  strong  case  for  his 
own  plan.     After  noticing  that  the  grammatical  forms  of  the 
fourteenth  century  underwent  a  considerable  change  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth,  and  that  copyists  of  this  date  usually 
employed  the  language  of  the  time  rather  than  of  the  author 
they  are  copying,  he  contends  that  the  only  satisfactory  plan 
of  editing  Chaucer  is  to  select  the  oldest  and  best  manuscript, 
and  to  adhere  to  it  faithfully  throughout.     The  opposite  plan, 
which   had  hitherto   been  usually  followed,   he   condemns 
indeed  in  no  very  measured  terms  : — 

'  It  is  evident,  therefore,'  he  says,  '  that  the  plan  of  forming 
the  text  of  any  work  of  the  periods  of  which  we  are  speaking 
from  a  number  of  different  manuscripts,  written  at  different 
times  and  different  places,  is  the  most  absurd  plan  which  it 
is  possible  to  conceive.  Yet  this  was  the  method  professedly 
followed  by  Tyrwhitt  in  forming  a  text  of  the  "  Canterbury 
Tales  "  of  Chaucer.' 

And  after  pointing  out  Tyrwhitt's  special  disqualifications 
as  a  student  of  manuscripts,  he  adds  : — 
'  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  clear  that  to  form  a  satis- 


104     [Bayiies.]      Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

factory  text  of  Chaucer,  we  must  give  up  trie  printed  editions, 
and  fall  back  upon  the  manuscripts;  and  that  instead  of 
bundling  them  altogether,  we  must  pick  out  one  best  manu 
script  which  also  is  one  of  those  nearest  to  Chaucer's  time. 
The  latter  circumstance  is  absolutely  necessary,  if  we  would 
reproduce  the  language  and  versification  of  the  author.  At 
the  same  time  it  cannot  but  be  acknowledged  that  the  earliest 
manuscript  might  possibly  be  very  incorrect  and  incomplete, 
from  the  ignorance  or  negligence  of  the  scribe  who  copied 
it.  This,  however,  is  not  the  case  with  regard  to  Chaucer's 

[P.  14]  "  Canterbury  Tales."  The  Harleian  manuscript,  No.  7334, 
is  by  far  the  best  manuscript  of  Chaucer's  "  Canterbury 
Tales  "  that  I  have  yet  examined,  in  regard  both  to  antiquity 
and  correctness.  The  handwriting  is  one  which  would  at 
first  sight  be  taken  by  an  experienced  scholar  for  that  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  it  must  have  been 
written  within  a  few  years  after  1400,  and  therefore  soon 
after  Chaucer's  death  and  the  publication  of  the  "  Canterbury 
Tales."  Its  language  has  very  little,  if  any,  appearance  of 
local  dialect;  and  the  text  is  in  general  extremely  good,  the 
variations  from  Tyrwhitt  being  usually  for  the  better.' 

This  reasoning  seems,  as  we  have  said,  sufficiently  conclu 
sive,  and  it  has  very  naturally  determined  the  course  of  sub 
sequent  editors,  both  Mr.  Bell  and  Mr.  Morris  having  followed 
Mr.  Wright's  plan,  and  adopted  the  text  he  had  selected. 
But  the  publication  of  the  Chaucer  Society  six-text  edition 
of  the  '  Prologue '  and  '  Knight's  Tale  '  has  very  much 
destroyed  the  force  of  Mr.  Wright's  plea  in  favour  of  adhering 
strictly  to  a  single  text.  A  comparison  of  the  Harleian 
text  with  the  six  now  publishing  by  the  Society,  will  show 
that  there  are  numberless  points  of  grammar,  metre,  or  sense 
in  which  it  may  be  improved  by  careful  collation,  and  that 
the  old  plan  must  still  be  followed  before  we  can  hope  to 
secure  a  satisfactory  and  authoritative  text.  .  .  . 

[p.  15]  The  latest  text  of  Chaucer's  poetical  works,  that  edited  by 
Mr.  Morris,  and  substituted  for  Tyrwhitt's  in  the  new  issue  of 
the  Aldine  Series,  is  undoubtedly  also  the  best.  Mr.  Morris 
is  one  of  our  most  accurate  and  accomplished  early  English 
scholars,  and  no  better  editor  of  a  medieval  text  could  possibly 
be  found.  After  examining  several  manuscripts  of  the 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  [Baynes.]  105 

'  Canterbury  Tales,'  he  agreed  with  Mr.  Wright  in  thinking 
the  Harleian  text  the  best,  and  it  has  accordingly  been 
selected  and  faithfully  adhered  to  throughout.  Clerical 
errors  and  corrupt  readings  were  corrected  by  collation  with 
other  manuscripts,  especially  the  Lansdowne,  and  a  careful 
examination  of  Mr.  Morris's  text  will  show  how  painstaking 
he  has  been  in  this  part  of  his  work.  The  rest  of  the  poems 
have  been  edited  from  the  manuscripts  where  they  existed, 
and  the  result  is  the  best  text  of  Chaucer  that  has  yet 
appeared.  .  .  . 

A  comparison  of  Mr.  Morris's  text  of  the  '  Prologue  '  and 
the  '  Knight's  Tale '  with  the  texts  of  the  Society,  has, 
however,  convinced  us  that  the  question  as  to  possible 
improvement  must  be  answered  decisively  in  the  affirmative. 
Knowing  beforehand  the  excellence  of  the  Harleian  text,  and 
the  general  agreement  of  the  six  other  manuscripts,  we  have 
tp- ic]  been  surprised  indeed  at  the  number  of  emendations  of 
greater  or  less  importance  they  afford.  In  the  '  Prologue  ' 
alone  there  are,  in  our  judgment,  upwards  of  fifty  lines  that 
may  be  improved  by  collation  either  in  sense  or  metre,  while 
in  the  '  Knight's  Tale  '  the  better  readings  are  in  proportion 
to  its  length  even  more  numerous  and  important.  These 
better  readings  affect  mainly  the  metre,  the  meaning,  or  the 
poetical  expressiveness  of  the  existing  text.  Some,  again, 
effect  marked  improvements  in  minutiae  of  grammar,  em 
phasis,  and  spelling. 

[pp.  16-33]  [Examples  are  given  and  various  readings  discussed.] 
[p.  33]  Quite  as  much  still  remains  to  be  done  for  the  illustration  as 
for  the  text  of  Chaucer's  poetical  works.  There  are  in  his 
writings  almost  innumerable  points  of  philological,  literary, 
or  historical  interest  that  require  to  be  elucidated.  Chaucer 
was  not  only  familiar  with  every  phase  of  contemporary  life, 
but  profoundly  read  in  all  existing  literature.  He  knew  by 
intimate  personal  experience  the  tastes  and  habits,  the 
pursuits  and  recreations,  the  superstitions  and  beliefs,  of  all 
ranks  and  classes  amongst  his  own  countrymen;  and  his 
public  employments  had  enlarged  the  field  of  his  observation 
so  as  to  include  almost  every  country  in  Europe.  He  had 
seen  active  military  service  abroad,  and  had  taken  part  in 
splendid  public  ceremonials  at  home;  had  lived  habitually 


106  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

in  courts,  camps  and  great  cities,  as  well  as  in  the  congenial 
[p.  34]  retirement  of  country  life.  The  whole  world  of  nature  and 
human  experience  was  in  this  way  mirrored  in  his  sunny 
intellect,  while  the  higher  influences  of  both  had  melted 
serenely  into  the  quiet  depths  of  his  curiously  meditative 
and  observant  mind.  As  a  natural  result  there  is  a  mellowed 
fulness  in  his  maturer  delineations;  a  joyous  animation,  a 
living  truth,  a  variety  and  completeness  of  detail  in  his  pictures 
of  life  that  obscure  at  first  the  purely  literary  or  academical 
accomplishments  of  his  mind ;  or  rather,  perhaps,  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  say  that  in  his  later  works  the  learning  and 
knowledge  of  life  are  so  fused  by  imaginative  sympathy  into 
a  new  poetical  whole,  that  there  is  at  first  no  distinct  con 
sciousness  of  the  separate  elements.  .  .  .  On  closer  ex 
amination,  however,  the  range  and  minuteness  of  Chaucer's 
learning  becomes  clearly  apparent.  He  employed  materials 
derived  from  all  existing  literatures  home  and  foreign ;  not 
only  the  early  English  chronicles  and  stories,  the  Norman- 
French  romances  and  fables,  the  new  epic  and  lyrical  poetry 
of  Italy,  and  the  whole  range  of  Latin  literature,  including 
not  only  the  classics  proper,  as  well  as  the  science  and  art, 
the  history  and  philosophy  of  the  time,  but  also  Byzantine 
legends  and  brilliant  fragments  of  Eastern  romance,  that 
had  passed  into  Europe  in  the  wake  of  the  returning 
Crusaders.  The  adequate  illustration  of  Chaucer  thus  re 
quires,  in  addition  to  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  state 
of  the  language  in  his  day,  a  full  knowledge  of  con 
temporary  literature  and  history.  No  single  editor  has  as 
yet  united  these  requirements.  Tyrwhitt,  who  studied  with 
some  care  the  literature  and  history  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  was  comparatively  ignorant  of  Chaucer's  language ; 
while  recent  editors,  such  as  Mr.  Wright  and  Mr.  Morris, 
who  are  well  acquainted  with  Chaucer's  language,  have 
attempted  hardly  anything  in  the  way  of  literary  or  historical 
illustration. 

But  the  primary  requirement  of  all  expository  criticism 
of  Chaucer  is  undoubtedly  the  full  interpretation  of  his 
language.  .  .  .  There  is  still,  however,  a  great  deal  to  be 
done  for  the  elucidation  of  Chaucer's  language;  and,  un 
fortunately,  Mr.  Morris,  who  of  living  scholars  is  in  many 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  107 

respects  best  qualified  for  the  work,  has  confined  his  labours 
in  this  direction  to  a  revision  of  previous  glossaries.  .  .  . 
[An  examination  of  Morris's  Glossary  follows.] 

[P.  40]  This  [comparison  with  Piers  Plowman]  points  to  an  import 
ant  means  of  interpreting  Chaucer's  language  which  has  not 
as  yet  been  turned  to  anything  like  adequate  account.  We 
refer  to  the  critical  examination  of  the  writings  of  his  con 
temporaries  and  immediate  successors.  The  more  carefully 
the  early  literature  of  the  fourteenth  century  is  studied,  the 
more  clearly  will  it  appear  that  Chaucer's  additions  to  the 
vocabulary  9f  the  language  are  far  less  numerous  than  is 
commonly  supposed.  He  has  been  charged  with  adulterating 
the  English  speech  of  his  time  by  the  wholesale  importation 
of  foreign,  and  especially  of  Norman-French,  words.  In  his 
early  translations  and  paraphrases  from  Norman-French  he 
occasionally,  it  is  true,  transfers  words  mainly  for  the  con 
venience  of  their  rhymes.  But  with  these  exceptions  his 
importations  are  comparatively  few.  His  real  superiority 
lies  in  the  admirable  taste  and  judgment  displayed  in  the 

[p.  4i]  selection  of  his  vocabulary,  the  natural  reflex  of  his  keen  and 
exquisite  sensibility  to  the  latent  significance  of  language. 
The  perfection  of  his  art  lies  in  his  subtle  insight  into  the 
deeper  meaning  of  words,  and  his  power  of  combining  them 
in  the  most  felicitous  manner.  He  is  not  fond  of  verbal 
novelties  for  their  own  sake,  and  his  obscurities  of  phrase 
and  diction  may  generally  therefore  be  explained  by  a 
reference  to  the  literature  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries.  The  works  of  Gower  and  Lidgate,  especially  the 
latter,  are  of  essential  service  in  this  respect. 

1870.  Brae,  Andrew  Edmund.  The  Treatise  of  the  Astrolabe  of  G-eoffrey 
Chaucer,  edited  by  A.  E.  Brae,  with  notes  and  illustrations. 

[The  volume  contains  seven  illustrations  of  Chaucer's  Astro 
labe,  witli  a  text  of  his  treatise,  an  Appendix  reprinting 
essays  on  the  astronomy  of  the  Canterbury  Tales ;  and  a 
series  of  notes  on  Chaucer's  astronomy.] 

1870.  Courthope,  William  John.     The  Paradise  of  Birds,  pp.  9,  122-3. 

[Man  has  exterminated  all    the  feathered   tribes,  and  the 

insect   is    becoming    the    lord   of    creation.      Maresnest,    the 

scientific  theorist,  and  Windbag,  the  romantic  poet,  come  to 


108  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870 

the  Paradise  of  Birds  to  beg  two  eggs  of  every  species.  They 
are  tried  by  a  jury  of  birds,  and  plead  the  "  kindliness  of 
men  to  birds,"  giving  as  examples  Aristophanes,  Chaucer, 
Gilbert  White,  etc.] 

[p.  9]  The  Bird  has  thoughts  like  Man,  but  while  he  lives, 

Each  to  one  feeling  various  utterance  gives, 
Even  in  this  life  the  grammar  of  the  tree 
Was  by  our  Chaucer  learned,  and  Canace. 

[p.  122]        If  Man's  good  work  may  cancel  Man's  ill  deed, 

For  us  let  English  Chaucer  intercede. 

Think  with  what  rhymes,  what  measures  old  and  quaint, 

He  sings  your  love-day,  and  exalts  your  saint ! 
tp.  123]         Think  how  he  rose  from  bed  betimes  in  spring, 

To  hear  the  Nightingale  and  Cuckoo  sing  ! 

NIGHTINGALE 

0  flower  of  the  prime  !     0  fountain  of  rhyme  ! 
0  lover  of  daisies  !     0  poet  of  May  ! 
Thy  boon  and  my  debt  if  I  ever  forget, 
Let  my  heart  have  forgotten  her  lay. 

Thou  did  drive  from  my  view  "  the  lewd  Cuckoo  " ; 
And  I  was  thy  singer  that  whole  May  long,* 
Time  since  has  grown  grey,  but  I  love  thee  to-day, 
And  I  solace  my  soul  with  thy  song. 

[The  illustrated  edition  of  1889  has  a  picture  of  Chaucer  in 
the  woods.] 

*  The  Cuckoo  and  the  Nightingale,  11.  226-30. 

1870.  Lowell,  James  Kussell.  Chaucer,  [in]  the  North  American 
Keview,  July  1870,  vol.  cxi,  pp.  155-198.  [Reprinted,  revised 
and  enlarged,  in  My  Study  Windows,  1871.]  (Riverside  edition 
of  Works,  10  vols.,  1890-91,  vol.  iii,  pp.  290-366.) 

[Passages  between  tt  did  not  appear  in  the  North  American  Revitw.] 

[p.  293]  It  is  good  to  retreat  now  and  then  beyond  earshot  of 
the  introspective  confidences  of  modern  literature,  and  to  lose 
ourselves  in  the  gracious  worldliness  of  Chaucer.  Here  was 
a  healthy  and  hearty  man,  so  genuine  that  he  need  not  ask 
whether  he  were  genuine  or  no,  so  sincere  as  quite  to  forget 
his  own  sincerity,  so  truly  pious  that  he  could  be  happy  in 
the  best  world  that  God  chose  to  make,  so  humane  that  he 
loved  even  the  foibles  of  his  kind.  Here  was  a  truly  epic 


1870]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  109 

poet,  without  knowing  it,  who  did  not  waste  time  in  consider 
ing  whether  his  age  were  good  or  bad,  but  quietly  taking  it  for 
granted  as  the  best  that  ever  was  or  ever  could  be  for  him, 
has  left  us  such  a  picture  of  contemporary  life  as  no  man  ever 
painted,  f  '  A  perpetual  fountain  of  good  sense/  Dryden  calls 
him,  yes,  and  of  good  humor,  too,  and  wholesome  thought. I 

[p.  300]  It  is  not  the  finding  of  a  thing,  but  the  making  something 
out  of  it  after  it  is  found,  that  is  of  consequence.  Accord 
ingly,  Chaucer,  like  Shakespeare,  invented  almost  nothing. 

[p.  322]  |  Chaucer  .  .  .  drew  from  the  Soutli  a  certain  airiness  of 
sentiment  and  expression,  a  felicity  of  phrase,  and  an  elegance 
of  turn  hitherto  unprecedented  and  hardly  yet  matched  in 
our  literature,  but  all  the  while  kept  firm  hold  of  his  native 
soundness  of  understanding,  and  that  genial  humour  which 
seems  to  be  the  proper  element  of  worldly  wisdom.  With 

tp.  323]  Dante,  life  represented  the  passage  of  the  soul  from  a  state 
of  nature  to  a  state  of  grace ;  .  .  .  With  Chaucer,  life  is  a 
pilgrimage,  but  only  that  his  eye  may  be  delighted  with  the 
varieties  of  costume  and  character.  There  are  good  morals 
to  be  found  in  Chaucer,  but  they  are  always  incidental. 
With  Dante  the  main  question  is  the  saving  of  the  soul,  with 
Chaucer  it  is  the  conduct  of  life.f 

tp.  324-5]  Chaucer  is  the  first  who  broke  away  from  the  dreary 
traditional  style,  and  gave  not  merely  stories,  but  lively 
pictures  of  real  life  as  the  ever-renewed  substance  of  poetry. 
He  was  a  reformer,  too,  not  only  in  literature,  but  in  morals. 
But  as  in  the  former  his  exquisite  tact  saved  him  from  all 
eccentricity,  so  in  the  latter  the  pervading  sweetness  of  his 
nature  could  never  be  betrayed  into  harshness  and  invective. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  touch  of  cynicism  in  all  he  wrote. 
Dante's  brush  seems  sometimes  to  have  been  smeared  with 
the  burning  pitch  of  his  own  fiery  lake.  Chaucer's  pencil  is 
dipped  in  the  cheerful  colour-box  of  the  old  illuminators,  and 
he  has  their  patient  delicacy  of  touch,  with  a  freedom  far 
beyond  their  somewhat  mechanic  brilliancy. 

[p.  330]  One  of  the  world's  three  or  four  great  story  tellers,  he  was 
also  one  of  the  best  versifiers  that  ever  made  English  trip  and 
sing  with  a  gayety  that  seems  careless,  but  where  every  foot 
beats  time  to  the  tune  of  the  thought.  By  the  skilful  arrange 
ment  of  his  pauses  he  evaded  the  monotony  of  the  couplet, 


110  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1870- 

and  gave  to  the  rhymed  pentameter,  which  he  made  our 
heroic  measure,  something  of  the  architectural  repose  of 
blank  verse.  He  found  our  language  lumpish,  stiff,  unwilling, 
too  apt  to  speak  Saxonly  in  grouty  monosyllables ;  he  left  it 
enriched  with  the  longer  measure  of  the  Italian  and  Provencal 
poets. 

[p.  353]  [Chaucer  is  a  great  narrative  poet.]  The  power  of  diffusion 
without  being  diffuse  would  seem  to  be  the  highest  merit  of 
narration,  giving  it  that  easy  flow  which  is  so  delightful. 
Chaucer's  descriptive  style  is  remarkable  for  its  lowness  of 
tone — for  that  combination  of  energy  with  simplicity  which 
is  among  the  rarest  gifts  in  literature.  ... 

Not  that  Chaucer  cannot  be  intense,  too,  on  occasion  ;  but 
it  is  with  a  quiet  intensity  of  his  own,  that  comes  in  as  it 
were  by  accident.  .  .  . 

Pandarus,  looking  at  Tro'ilus, 

'  Took  up  a  light  and  found  his  countenance 
As  for  to  look  upon  an  old  romance.' 

With  Chaucer  it  is  always  the  thing  itself  and  not  the 
description  of  it  that  is  the  main  object.  His  picturesque  bits 
are  incidental  to  the  story,  glimpsed  in  passing ;  they  never 
stop  the  way.  His  key  is  so  low  that  his  high  lights  are  never 
obtrusive. 

[p.  356]  Chaucer  never  shows  any  signs  of  effort,  and  it  is  a  main 
proof  of  his  excellence  that  he  can  be  so  inadequately  sampled 
by  detached  passages — by  single  lines  taken  away  from  the 
connection  in  which  they  contribute  to  the  general  effect. 
He  has  that  continuity  of  thought,  that  evenly  prolonged 
power,  and  that  delightful  equanimity,  which  characterize 
the  higher  orders  of  mind.  There  is  something  in  him  of  the 
disinterestedness  that  made  the  Greeks  masters  in  art.  His 

[p.  357]  phrase  is  never  importunate.  His  simplicity  is  that  of 
elegance,  not  of  poverty.  The  quiet  unconcern  with  which  he 
says  his  best  things  is  peculiar  to  him  among  English  poets, 
though  Goldsmith,  Addison,  and  Thackeray  have  approached 
it  in  prose. 

When  Chaucer  describes  anything,  it  is  commonly  by  one 
of  those  simple  and  obvious  epithets  or  qualities  that  are  so 
easy  to  miss.  Is  it  a  woman  1  He  tells  us  she  is  fresh,  that 


1871]-  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  Ill 

she  lias  glad  eyes.  .  .  .  Sometimes  he  describes  amply  by  the 
merest  hint,  as  where  the  Friar,  before  setting  himself  softly 
down,  drives  away  the  cat.  We  know  without  need  of  more 
words  that  he  has  chosen  the  snuggest  corner. 

[p.  360]  Chaucer  seems  to  me  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  purely 
[p  3d]  original  of  poets,  as  much  so  in  respect  of  the  world  that  is 
about  us  as  Dante  in  respect  of  that  which  is  within  us. 
There  had  been  nothing  like  him  before,  there  has  been 
nothing  since.  He  is  original,  not  in  the  sense  that  he  thinks 
and  says  what  nobody  ever  thought  and  said  before,  and  what 
nobody  can  ever  think  and  say  again,  but  because  he  is  always 
natural ;  because,  if  not  always  absolutely  new,  he  is  always 
delightfully  fresh,  because  he  sets  before  us  the  world  as  it 
honestly  appeared  to  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  and  not  a  world  as  it 
seemed  proper  to  certain  people  that  it  ought  to  appear, 
[p.  365]  In  spite  of  some  external  stains,  which  those  who  have 
studied  the  influence  of  manners  will  easily  account  for 
without  imputing  them  to  any  moral  depravity,  we  feel  that 
we  can  join  the  pure-minded  Spenser  in  calling  him  '  most 
sacred,  happy  spirit.'  If  character  may  be  divined  from 
works,  he  was  a  good  man,  genial,  sincere,  hearty,  temperate 
of  mind,  more  wise,  perhaps,  for  this  world  than  the  next,  but 
thoroughly  humane,  and  friendly  with  God  and  men.  I  know 
not  how  to  sum  up  what  we  feel  about  him  better  than  by 
saying  (what  would  have  pleased  most  one  who  was  indifferent 
to  fame)  that  we  love  him  more  even  than  we  admire. 

1871.  Brooke,  Stop  ford  Augustus.  The  Descriptive  Poetry  of  Chaucer, 
[in]  Macmillan's  Magazine,  Aug.  1871,  vol.  xxiv,  pp.  268-79. 

[p.  269]  The  landscape  of  Chaucer  is  sometimes  taken  from  the 
Italian  and  sometimes  from  the  French  landscape.  It  possesses 
almost  always  the  same  elements,  differently  mixed  up  in 
different  poems  :  a  May  morning — the  greenwood,  or  a 
garden — some  clear  running  water — meadows  covered  with 
flowers — some  delectable  place  or  other  with  an  arbour  laid 
down  with  soft  and  fresh-cut  turf.  There  is  no  sky,  except  in 
such  rapid  allusions  as  this, "  Bright  was  the  day  and  blue  the 
firmament ; "  no  cloud  studies ;  no  conception  of  the  beauty  of 
wild  nature. 

His  range,  therefore,  is  extremely  limited  ;  but  within  the 


112  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  18*71- 

limits  his  landscape  is  exquisitely  fresh,  natural,  and  true  in 
spite  of  its  being  conventional. 

[p.  272]  [Chaucer's  love  of  colour.]  But  of  all  the  colours  which 
Chaucer  loved  in  nature,  he  loved  best  the  harmony  of  white 
and  green  in  one  of  his  favourite  daisied  meadows.  .  .  . 

It  may  be  in  an  age  when  colours  in  art  had  each  their 
peculiar  religious  significance,  that  Chaucer,  a  man  who  had 
travelled  in  Italy  and  who  had  himself  the  instinct  of  sym- 

[p.  273]  bolism,  had  some  spiritual  meaning  in  the  constant  association 
of  these  two  colours  of  white  and  green.  Green,  the  hue  of 
spring,  signified  hope,  and  particularly  the  hope  of  Immor 
tality  ;  white  was  the  emblem,  among  other  things,  of  light 
and  joy.  .  .  . 

Still  dwelling  on  Chaucer's  colour,  it  is  curious  the  number 
of  concentrated  pictures  which  are  to  be  found  in  his 
poems,  pictures  so  sharply  drawn  in  colour  that  they  might 
be  at  once  painted  from  the  description.  He  looks  in  and 
the  arbour  is  full  of  scarlet  flowers,  and  down  among  them, 
sore  wounded,  "a  man  in  black  and  white  colour,  pale  and 
wan,"  is  lying,  bitterly  complaining.  Scarlet,  black,  white, 
one  sees  that,  "  flashing  upon  the  inward  eye,"  not  in  outline, 
nor  in  detail,  but  in  colour,  and  that  is  the  test  whether  a  poet 
is  a  good  colourist  or  not.  It  is  no  common  excellence.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  splendid  study  of  colour,  unequalled  in  its  way 
in  our  literature,  in  Chaucer's  picture  of  the  cock  in  the 
"  Nun's  Priests  Tale."  The  widow  keeps  in  her  yard  a  famous 
stock  of  poultry, 

"  In  which  she  had  a  cock,  hight  Chaunticlere  [to] 
And  lik  the  burnischt  gold  was  his  colour." 

[p.  274]  This  simple  childlikeness  and  intensity  of  Chaucer  .  .  . 
are  the  first  necessity  of  a  poetic  nature,  .  .  .  This  is  the  first 
of  those  elements  of  his  poetry  which  make  his  landscapes 
impossible  to  be  painted. 

Of  two  other  unpaintable  things  the  landscape  is  also  full— 
of  the  scent  of  flowers,  and  the  songs  of  birds,  and  now  and 
then  of  the  noise  of  water. 

1871-2.  Eliot,  George.  Chapter  headings,  [in]  Middlemarch,  1871-2, 
4  vols. 

Chap,  xii,  vol.  i,  p.  180  [Milleres  Tale,  11.  3774-5] ;  chap,  xxi, 


18*73]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  113 

vol.  i,  p.  369  [Phicisiens  Tale,  11.  50-52] ;  chap.  1,  vol.  iii,  p. 
108  [Shipmannes  ProL,  11.  15-20]  ;  chap.  Ixv,  vol.  iv,  p.  49 
[Wife  of  Bath's  ProL,  11.  440-442]. 

1871-3.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  Trial- Forewords  to  my  "  Parallel- 
Text  Edition  of  Chaucer  s  Minor  Poems"  for  the  Chaucer  Society 
(with  a  try  to  set  Chaucer's  works  in  their  right  order  of  time, 
1871). — Corrections  and  Additions,  1872. — Further  Corrections  and 
Additions,  1873.  (Chaucer  Society.) 

1873.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.  Recent  Work  at  Chaucer,  [in]  Mac- 
millan's  Magazine,  March,  1873,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  383-93. 

[p.  383]  Taking  it  ...  for  granted  that  the  study  of  Early  English 
has  revived  and  is  spreading,  though  miserably  slowly,  in 
England  and  elsewhere,  let  us  ask  what  that  study  has  done  for 
Chaucer,  that  tenderest,  brightest,  most  humourful  sweet  soul, 
of  all  the  great  poets  of  the  world,  whom  a  thousand  Englishmen 
out  of  every  thousand  and  one  are  content  to  pass  by  with  a 
shrug  and  a  sneer. 

[pp.383-  [The  gradual  settling  of  the  Chaucer  canon  which  had  been 
confused  by  Stowe  and  other  early  editors.  Tyrwhitt's  con 
tribution  to  this.  Nicolas  and  the  biographical  facts. 
Bradshaw's  and  ten  Brink's  work  on  the  text ;  the  rhyme- 
tests.  The  French  and  Italian  periods  first  distinguished  by 
ten  Brink.] 

tp.  387]  [The  Compleynte  to  Pite  the  key  to  Chaucer's  early  sad 
poetry,  telling  of  his  own  unhappy  love.] 

[pp.888-  J~A  suggested  chronological  list  of  the  works  in  four  periods, 
and  an  order  of  dates  for  the  Canterbury  Tales  "  not  yet  quite 
fully  worked  out.  Thus  far  had  one  got  when  Mr.  Hales 
supplied  the  generalization  wanted — '  Power  of  characterization 
is  the  true  test.  .  .  .  The  Tales  too  that  take  half-views  of 
life,  like  the  Clerk's  .  .  .  the  Man  of  Law's  .  .  .  must  be 
before  the  best  time  too.'  "] 

[P.  389]  With  this  guide  every  reader  can  work  out  the  succession 
of  the  Tales  for  himself,  and  mix  them  with  the  Minor  Poems 
as  ranged  above.  He  will  then  see  Chaucer,  not  only  out 
wardly  as  he  was  in  the  flesh — page,  soldier,  squire, 
diplomatist,  Custom-house  officer,  Member  of  Parliament,  then 
a  suppliant  for  protection  and  favour,  a  beggar  for  money; 
but  inwardly  as  he  was  in  the  spirit — clear  of  all  nonsense  of 
Courts  of  Love,  etc. — gentle  and  loving,  early  timid  and  in 
despair,  sharing  others'  sorrow,  and,  by  comforting  them, 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. — III.  I 


114  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1873 

losing  part  of  his  own ;  yet  long  dwelling  on  the  sadness  of 
forsaken  love,  seeking  the  "consolation  of  philosophy," 
watching  the  stars,  praying  to  the  "  Mother  of  God  " ;  studying 
books,  and,  more  still,  woman's  nature ;  his  eye  open  to  all 
the  beauties  of  the  world  around  him,  his  ear  to  the  "heavenly 
harmony "  of  birds'  song ;  at  length  becoming  the  most 
gracious  and  tender  spirit,  the  sweetest  singer,  the  best 
pourtrayer,  the  most  pathetic,  and  withal  the  most  genial 
and  humourful  healthy-souled  man  that  England  had  ever 
seen.  Still,  after  500  years,  he  is  bright  and  fresh  as  the 
glad  light  green  of  the  May  he  so  much  loved  ;  he  is  still 
second  only  to  Shakespeare  in  England,  and  fourth  only  to 
him  and  Dante  and  Homer  in  the  world.  When  will  our 
Victorian  time  love  and  honour  him  as  it  should  ?  Surely,  of 
.  all  our  poets  he  is  the  one  to  come  home  to  us  most. 
rp.  389]  [Contrast  between  Chaucer  and  Tennyson.] 
tpp-9oj9  [The  change  in  Chaucer  marked  by  the  development  of 

humour.] 

[pp.^390  [Tjie  work  of  tlie  Chaucer  Society  ;  the  Six-text  Edition  ;  a 
comparison  of  the  MSS.  made  the  'Tales  fall  into  their  proper 
places  in  the  pilgrimage,  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  real 
edition.  The  Society's  other  texts  and  studies.  An  appeal 
for  support.] 

[Dr.  FurnivaU's  copy  of  his  article  with  important  additions 
and  alterations,  is  in  the  possession  of  the  editor.  One  of 
Dr.  FurnivaU's  additions  reads  thus  :] 

One  may  fairly  claim  then,  for  the  Chaucer  Society  the 
credit  .of  having,  with  Mr.  Bradshaw's  and  Prof,  ten  Brink's 
help,  done  the  best  work  at  and  for  Chaucer  that  has  been 
done  since  his  death.  It  has  explained  the  secret  of  his  early 
life,  cleared  his  memory  from  the  reproach  of  having  written 
many  unworthinesses,  and  of  having  muddled  his  greatest 
work  ;  it  has  laid  the  sure  foundations  for  a  fitting  edition  of 
one  of  the  greatest  poets  of  mankind,  and  has  made  plainer  to 
modern  English  ears  the  music,  to  modern  English  eyes  the 
sunny  soul,  that  cheered  our  ancestors  in  Wicliffe's  day. 

1873,  etc.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James,  and  others.  Notices  of  Chaucer 
Discoveries,  Notes,  Correspondence,  etc.,  [in]  The  Athenaeum  [and] 
The  Academy. 

[In  1873  Dr.  Furnivall  contributed  a  series  of  notices  of 
recent  Chaucerian  discoveries  to  the  Athenceum,  and  later  he 


1873]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  115 

and  others  published  notes,  etc.,  frequently  in  the  Academy 
and  less  frequently  in  the  Athenceuiu.] 

1873.  Hales,  John  Wesley.  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare,  [in]  the  Quarterly 
Review,  Jan.  1873,  vol.  cxxxiv,  pp.  225-255.  (Reprinted  in  Notes 
and  Essays  on  Shakespeare,  by  John  W.  Hales,  1884,  pp.  56-104) 

[p.  226]  [An  account  of  the  Chaucer  Society  and  the  work  of 
Furnivall.] 

[p.  227]  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  have  much  in  common.  How 
ever  diverse  the  form  of  their  greatest  works,  yet  in  spirit 
there  is  a  remarkable  likeness  and  sympathy.  Their  geniuses 
differ  rather  in  degree  than  in  kind.  Chaucer  is  in  many 
respects  a  lesser  Shakespeare.  [Immaturity  of  the  drama 
as  a  literary  form  in  Chaucer's  day]  .  .  .  Chaucer  stands  in 
relation  to  the  supreme  Dramatic  Age  in  a  correspondent 
position  to  that  held  by  Scott.  Chaucer  lived  in  the  morning 
twilight  of  it,  Scott  in  the  evening.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  both  would  have  added  to  its  lustre — that  England 
would  have  boasted  one  more,  and  Scotland  at  least  one 
great  dramatist  had  they  been  born  earlier  and  later 
respectively.  .  .  . 

[p.  230]  Probably  it  was  these  piteous,  but  seemingly  not  inevi 
table  or  reproachless,  distresses  [embarrassments  due  to 
attachment  to  a  court  party]  that  impeded  the  completion 
of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales.''  The  original  design,  indeed, 
is  in  itself  too  vast  for  realisation.  Chaucer  commits  the 
same  error  in  this  respect  as  Spenser  does. 

[p.  231]  We  have  said  that  his  genius  exhibits  a  remarkable  affinity 
to  that  of  Shakespeare — a  closer  affinity,  we  think,  than  that 
of  any  other  English  poet.  To  Chaucer  belongs  in  a  high 
measure  what  marks  Shakespeare  supremely — a  certain 
indefinable  grace  and  brightness  of  style,  an  incomparable 
archness  and  vivacity,  an  incessant  elasticity  and  freshness, 
an  indescribable  ease,  a  never  faltering  variety,  an  incapability 
of  dulness.  .  .  . 

For  skill  in  characterization  who  can  be  ranked  between 
Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  ?  Is  there  any  work,  except  the 
'  theatre  '  of  Shakespeare,  that  attempts,  with  a  success 
in  any  way  comparable,  the  astonishing  task  which  Chaucer 
sets  himself  ?  He  attempts  to  portray  the  entire  society 
of  his  age  from  the  crown  of  its  head  to  the  sole  of  its  foot — 


116  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1873- 

from  the  knight,  the  topmost  figure  of  mediaeval  life,  down 
to  the  ploughman  and  the  cook;  and  the  result  is  a  gallery 
of  life-like  portraits,  which  has  no  parallel  anywhere,  with 
one  exception,  for  variety,  truthfulness,  humanity.  [This 
is  elaborated.]  .  .  . 

[p.  232]  We  ask,  who  among  our  poets,  except  Shakespeare,  shall 
be  placed  above  Chaucer  in  this  domain  of  art  ?  In  our 
opinion  there  is  not  one  of  the  Elizabethans  that  deserves 
that  honour.  .  .  . 

[P.  234]  [Chaucer's  pathos  contrasted  with  Sterne's  and  Shake 
speare's.] 

[pp.  236-7]  [Chaucer's  irony.] 

[p.  237]  It  is  because  his  spirit  enjoyed  and  retained  this  lofty 
freedom  that  it  was  so  tolerant  and  capacious.  He,  like 
Shakespeare,  was  eminently  a  Human  Catholic,  no  mere 
sectary.  He  refused  to  no  man  an  acknowledgment  of 
kindred.  .  .  . 

[pp.  ^238-  There  jg  just  one  p0int  of  personal  likeness  between  Chaucer 
and  Shakespeare  that  we  wish  to  notice.  Of  each  man,  as 
his  contemporaries  knew  him,  the  chief  characteristic  was 
a  wonderful  loveableness  of  Nature.  [Quotations  from 
Jonson,  Occleve,  Lydgate,  &c.  on  this  point.] 

[pp.  240-  j-Qn  Shakespeare's  probable  knowledge  of  Chaucer's  work, 
a  subject  not  yet  sufficiently  investigated;  with  remarks 
on  Chaucer's  fame  and  accessibility  in  Shakespeare's  time. 
The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen  considered,  and  the  reason  for  no 
mention  of  him  in  Richard  II  and  Henry  IV  thought  to  be 
that  he  would,  as  a  poet,  have  seemed  out  of  place  in  an 
historical  setting.  Shakspere's  acquaintance  with  the 
Knight's  Tale  and  Troylus  to  be  seen  in  Midsummer-Night's 
Dream,  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  Venus  and  Adonis,  Tarquin  and 
Lucrece,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  Romeo  and  Juliet ;  while  in 
As  You  Like  It  is  seen  knowledge  of  Gamelyn.  Parallel 
passages  are  quoted,  and  the  subject  is  further  discussed.] 

1873.  Rossetti,  William  Michael.  Chaucer  s  Troylus  and  Cryseyde 
compared  with  Boccaccio's  Filostrato,  Prefatory  Remarks,  pp.  iii-ix. 
(Chaucer  Soc.). 

pp.iii,  The  most  important  point  of  absolute  difference  between 
the  Italian  and  the  English  poets — the  most  important 
both  in  subject-matter  and  in  scale  of  treatment — is  in  the 
incidents  which  lead  up  to  the  actual  amour  between  Troilus 


1874]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  117 

and  Chryseis.  .  .  .  Chaucer  has  invented  an  entirely  new  series 
of  preliminaries ;  far  more  elaborate,  and  such  as  almost 
to  leave  his  Cryseyde  in  the  position  of  a  modest  and  chaste- 
minded  woman,  even  after  the  amour  is  in  full  career.  .  .  . 
The  English  poet  neither  schemes  nor  aiFects  (if  I  do  not 
misapprehend)  to  invent  an  essentially  different  character : 
but  he  leads  up  to  the  crisis  by  a  more  artful  and  more 
sympathetic  course  of  incident.  .  .  . 

[A  study  of  the  two  Paiidaruses,  the  sources,  etc.,  follows.] 

1873.  Unknown.     The  Cycle  of  English  Song,  n,  [in]   Temple   Bar, 
vol.  xxxviii,  June-July,  pp.  308-324,  458,  460-1. 

[p.  3ii]  He  talked,  a  child,  to  children — the  biggest,  oldest,  wisest, 
cleverest  child  of  the  company — and  so  he  amused  them 

[p.  3123  incessantly.  ...  In  a  sense,  ordinary  persons  now  alive 
may  be  said  to  have  overtaken  him,  just  as  extraordinary 
persons  have  far  outstripped  him.  In  the  early  dawn  of  English 
poetry  it  required  a  man  of  the  highest  genius  to  feel  what 
nearly  everybody  now  feels,  and  to  put  the  feeling  into  words 
which  have  almost  passed  into  commonplace,  and  which  would 
indeed  have  done  so  but  for  the  musical  and  cunning  fashion 
in  which  they  are  arranged.  ...  In  a  word,  it  is  the  childhood 

[p.  sis]  of ,  poetry.  .  .  .  Nor  is  it  nature  only  that  he  treats  in  this 
childish,  simple,  superficial,  non-artificial  way.  Men  and 
women,  and  all  that  men  and  women  do,  say,  eat,  drink,  and 
wear,  he  views  and  describes  in  the  same  plain,  matter-of-fact, 
exact,  truthful  fashion.  .  .  .  Who  are  they  1  Where  do  they 
come  from?  What  are  their  names  ?.  .  .  [Chaucer's  prolixity 

[P.  315]  typical  of  childhood.]  Neither  must  it  be  supposed,  in 
anticipation  of  the  criticism  of  later  times  .  .  .  that  he  is 
so  long-winded  .  .  .  from  the  very  depth  and  subtlety  of  his 
art,  and  from  a  conviction  that  this  is  the  only  way  of  making 
people  see  the  things  you  want  them  to  see.  For  it  is  not 
the  only  way,  nor  yet  the  best  way.  Indeed,  it  is  the  wors  t 
and  lowest  way  of  all  the  ways  that  do  achieve  the  object.  It 
is  the  earliest  way,  the  childish  way;  and  Chaucer  employed 
it  because  he  knew  no  other. 

1874.  Green,  John  Richard.     A  Short  History  of  the  English  People, 
pp.   163-4,   212-6,  229,  231,  248-9,  287-90. 

[P  214]      if  with  the  best  modern  critics  we  reject  from  the  list 


118  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1874 

of  his  genuine  works  the  bulk  of  the  poems  which  preceded 
;'  Troilus  and  Cressida,"  we  see  at  once  that,  familiar  as  he 
was  with  the  literature  of  the  Trouveres,  his  real  sympathies 
drew  him  not  to  the  dying  verse  of  France,  but  to  the  new 
and  mighty  upgrowth  of  poetry  in  Italy.  .  .  .  But  even 
while  changing,  as  it  were,  the  front  of  English  poetry, 
Chaucer  preserves  his  own  distinct  personality.  If  he  quizzes 
in  the  rime  of  Sir  Thopaz  the  wearisome  idleness  of  the 
French  romance,  he  retains  all  that  was  worth  retaining  of 
the  French  temper,  its  rapidity  and  agility  of  movement,  its 
lightness  and  brilliancy  of  touch,  its  airy  mockery,  its  gaiety 

[p.  215]  and  good  humour,  its  critical  coolness  and  self-control.  The 
French  wit  quickens  in  him  more  than  in  any  English 
writer  the  sturdy  sense  and  shrewdness  of  our  national  dis 
position,  corrects  its  extravagance,  and  relieves  its  somewhat 
ponderous  morality.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  echoes  the 
joyous  carelessness  of  the  Italian  tale,  he  tempers  it  with 
the  English  seriousness.  As  he  follows  Boccaccio,  all  his 
changes  are  on  the  side  of  purity;  and  when  the  Troilus  of 
the  Florentine  ends  with  the  old  sneer  at  the  changeableness 
of  woman,  Chaucer  bids  us  "  look  Godward,"  and  dwells  on 
the  unchangeableness  of  Heaven. 

But  the  genius  of  Chaucer  was  neither  French  nor  Italian, 
whatever  element  it  might  borrow  from  either  literature,  but 
English  to  the  core. 

[p.  216]  It  is  the  first  time  in  English  poetry  that  we  are 
brought  face  to  face  not  with  characters  or  allegories  or 
reminiscences  of  the  past,  but  with  living  and  breathing 
men,  men  distinct  in  temper  and  sentiment  as  in  face  or 
costume  or  mode  of  speech;  and  with  this  distinctness  of 
each  maintained  throughout  the  story  by  a  thousand  shades 
of  expression  and  action.  It  is  the  first  time,  too,  that  we 
meet  with  the  dramatic  power  which  not  only  creates  each 
character,  but  combines  it  with  its  fellows,  which  not  only 
adjusts  each  tale  or  jest  to  the  temper  of  the  person  who 
utters  it,  but  fuses  all  into  a  poetic  unity.  .  .  .  He  has 
received  his  training  from  war,  courts,  business,  travel — a 
training  not  of  books,  but  of  life.  And  it  is  life  that  he 
loves — the  delicacy  of  its  sentiment,  the  breadth  of  its  farce, 
its  laughter  and  its  tears,  the  tenderness  of  its  Grisildis  or 


1874]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.       "*  119 

the  Smollett-like  adventures  of  the  miller  and  the  schoolboy. 
It  is  this  largeness  of  heart,  this  wide  tolerance,  which  enables 
him  to  reflect  man  for  us  as  none  but  Shakspeare  has  ever 
reflected  it  [sic],  but  to  reflect  it  with  a  pathos,  a  shrewd 
sense  and  kindly  humour,  a  freshness  and  joyousness  of 
feeling,  that  even  Shakspeare  has  not  surpassed. 

[pp-_229     [Chaucer's  satire  on  the  clerics.] 

[p.  248]  Nothing  brings  more  vividly  home  to  us  the  social  chasm 
which  in  the  fourteenth  century  severed  the  rich  from  the 
poor  than  the  contrast  between  the  "  Complaint  of  Piers  the 
Ploughman  "  and  the  "  Canterbury  Tales."  The  world  of 
wealth  and  ease  and  laughter  through  which  the  courtly 
Chaucer  moves  with  eyes  downcast  as  in  a  pleasant  dream 
is  a  far-off  world  of  wrong  and  of  ungodliness  to  the  gaunt 
poet  of  the  poor. 

[The  passages  on  Chaucer  were  re-handled  in  Green's  History  of  the  English  People, 
1877-80.J 

1874.  Minto,  William.  ,  Characteristics  of  English  Poets  from  Chaucer 
to  Shirley,  Edinburgh*  pp.  vii,  1-58  [Chapter  I  :  Geoffrey 
Chaucer], '59 -66,  70-7,  81-2,  90,  91,  96,  99,  101-2,  105,  111-2, 
122-6,  129-30,  133-4,  143,  146,  149,  151,  153,  170-1,  177,  213, 
219-20,  300-1,  316,  392,  416,  453. 

[The  biography  of  Chaucer  is  based  on  the  latest  dis 
coveries  of  Furnivall  and  other  scholars,  as  well  as  on  the 
older  material.  Minto  thinks  the  idea  of  Chaucer's  "  hope 
less  passion  "  in  early  life  (based  on  the  Complaint  of  Pity, 
etc.)  has  been  made  too  much  of.  A  comparison  between 
Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  in  their  knowledge  of  men  is 
made,  p.  17.  Ten  Brink's  division  of  Chaucer's  work  into 
three  periods  is  rejected,  as  it  seems  to  Minto  that  from 
first  to  last  Chaucer  had  more  affinity  with  the  French  than 
with  the  Italians;  and  he  adds:  "I  can  distinguish  no 
change  either  in  his  methods  or  in  his  spirit  that  is  fairly 
attributable  to  Italian  influence,"  p.  19.  The  work  of  ten 
Brink,  Bradshaw  and  Furnivall  in  proving  the  non- 
Chaucerian  character  of  the  Testament  of  Love,  Assembly 
of  Ladies,  Lamentation  of  Mary  Magdalene,  Court  of  Love, 
Flower  and  Leaf,  and  Chaucer's  Dream,  is  described.  As  the 
chief  argument  is  the  y-ye  rhyme,  and  as  this  is  found  in  the 
Romaunt,  the  whole  question,  according  to  Minto,  depends 
largely  on  this  poem.  Minto  argues  for  the  genuineness 
of  the  Court  of  Love.  He  remarks  :] 
[p.  21]  It  is  simply  incredible  that  these  poems  could  have  been 


120  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1875- 

written  by  a  poet  whose  name  has  perished.  If  he  had 
written  before  Chaucer,  which  could  hardly  be  seriously 
maintained,  he  could  not  but  have  become  famous ;  and  the 
probability  is  that  Chaucer  would  have  mentioned  him  as 
[P.  22]  the  model  of  his  seven-line  stanza.  If  he  had  written  after 
Chaucer,  he  would  certainly  have  mentioned  Chaucer  in  his 
list  of  masters,  according  to  the  universal  habit  of  the  time. 
The  idea  of  deliberate  forgery  is  out  of  the  question ;  and  if 
the  "  Court  of  Love  "  had  been  the  work  of  a  forger  or  an 
imitator,  the  artificial  restriction  of  rhyme  was  precisely  the 
sort  of  thing  he  would  labour  to  observe.  Finally,  the 
"  Court  of  Love  "  is  unmistakably  imitated  in  the  '  King's 
Quhair '  of  James  I,  whose  captivity  in  England  began 
only  five  years  after  Chaucer's  death,  and  yet  he  mentions 
no  master  except  Chaucer,  Gower  and  Lydgate.  That 
makes  it  quite  clear  that  James  attributed  the  "  Court  of 
Love"  to  Chaucer;  and  what  need  is  there  for  further 
evidence  ? 

[Subsequent  sections  of  the  Chaucer  portion  are,  II. 
His  Language,  Metres  and  Imagery.  III.  The  Chief 
Qualities  of  his  Poetry.  IV.  His  Delineation  of  Character.] 

1875.  Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth.  The  Masque  of  Pandora,  and 
other  Poems,  pp.  95-6,  140.  (Writings,  Riverside  edn.,  vol.  v, 
pp.  195,  196,  200,  217.) 

[A  Book  of  Sonnets  :] 

CHAUCER. 
[p.  200]  An  old  man  in  a  lodge  within  a  park  ; 

The  chamber  walls  depicted  all  around 

With  portraitures  of  huntsman,  hawk,  and  hound, 

And  the  hurt  deer.     He  listeneth  to  the  lark, 

Whose  song  conies  with  the  sunshine  through  the  dark 
Of  painted  glass  in  leaden  lattice  bound ; 
He  listeneth  and  he  laughetli  at  the  sound, 

Then  writeth  in  a  book  like  any  clerk. 

He  is  the  poet  of  the  dawn,  who  wrote 
The  Canterbury  Tales,  and  his  old  age 
Made  beautiful  with  song ;  and  as  I  read 

I  hear  the  crowing  cock,  I  hear  the  note 
Of  lark  and  linnet,  and  from  every  page 
Kise  odors  of  ploughed  field  or  flowery  mead. 


1877]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  121 

1876.  Haweis,  Mary  Eliza.  Chaucer  for  Children  .  .  .  illustrated 
with  eight  coloured  pictures,  and  numerous  woodcuts  by  the 
Author,  1877. 

[Published  late  in  1876.] 

[With  a  preface  "To  the  Mother"  on  the  reading  and 
pronunciation  of  Chaucer,  followed  by  a  biographical  sketch, 
"  Chaucer  the  Tale  Teller."  Abridged  stories  from  ProL, 
Knightes,  Friers,  Clerkes,  FranJceleyns  and  Pardoneres  Tales, 
Complaint  to  his  Purse,  Two  Rondeaux  (Yoiir  yen  two  and 
Sin  I  fro  Love),  Virelai  and  Good  Counsel,  follow  in  original 
and  modernised  form  with  connecting  summary.] 

1876.  Minto,     William.      Chaucer,     [in]     Encyclopaedia     Britannica, 
ninth  edition.     See  above,  1778,  Unknown,  vol.  i,  p.  452. 

1877.  Fleay,  F.  G.     Guide  to  Chaucer  and  Spenser.     [One  of  Collins' 
School  and  College  Classics.] 

[The  section  given  to  Chaucer  occupies  pp.  1-72,  and  in 
this  short  space  is  contained  a  summary  of  the  latest  critical 
knowledge  of  his  life,  sources,  language,  works  and  their 
chronology,  arrangement  of  the  Tales  (in  two  days  instead  of 
four),  etc.  Fleay  rejects  the  rhyme-test  of  y,  ye,  arid  the 
conclusions  as  to  authenticity  of  poems  founded  on  it, 
retaining  e.g.  '  Chaucer's  Dream '  (the  Isle  of  Ladies),  and  also 
disbelieves  in  Chaucer's  early  unhappy  love,  interpreting  his 
'  sickness '  as  married  life.] 

[p.  10]  Of  the  practicability  of  acquiring  it  [a  sound  acquaintance 
with  Chaucer]  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or  thereabouts,  I  have 
had  many  proofs  among  my  own  pupils,  from  the  time  when 
I  first  introduced  English  literature  as  a  specific  subject  of 
education  in  our  grammar  schools,  now  twenty  years  ago. 
The  methods  1  was  then  almost,  if  not  quite,  alone  in  using, 
are  now  in  general  practice. 

1877.  Green,  John  Richard.  Letters  to  Dr.  F.  J.  Furnivall,  [the  first 
undated,  the  second  dated]  March  12,  1877  [in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Percy  Furnivall]. 

[1]  Anent  the  Chaucer,  I  hope  our  talk  cleared  your  mind 
into  hopefulness  and  a  practical  view  of  things.  What  we 
really  want  ('  we '  being  the  would-be-intelligent-readers-of- 
Chaucer)  is  simply  (1)  Sketch  of  Early  English  poetry  afore 
him  to  bring  out  the  great  step  he  made.  (2)  His  life 
with  what  pictures  of  men's  ways  and  manners  in  his  day 


122  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1877- 

you  like.  (3)  An  account  of  his  poems  one  by  one  in  as 
chronological  an  order  as  is  possible,  what  each  is,  whence 
it  came,  peculiarities  of  it,  necessary  information  about  it, 
and  the  like.  (4)  //  you  like,  a  chapter  on  Chaucer  influence 
on  later  poetry — And  (5)  another  on  Chaucer  bibliography. 

These  are  what  occur  to  me.  You  may  perhaps  think 
of  other  fitting  topics.  But  anyhow — if  you  will  do  a 
Division-Sum,  and  divide  140  pages  by  the  various  topics 
to  be  thus  treated — you  will  see  how  briefly  and  simply 
each  will  have  to  be  treated — and  how  simple  and  easy  your 
work  would  be.  Do  the  Life  first,  in  30  pages  or  so — then  the 
series  of  works — and  leave  the  head  and  tail  of  the  book 
till  the  last.  But  do  write  it. 

[2]  I  am  as  hungry  as  ever  for  your  '  Chaucer.'  Do  let 
me  have  it. 

[The  book  on  Chaucer  referred  to  was  to  form  one  of  the  series  of  primers  brought 
out  by  Green ;  the  Chaucer  one  was  eventually  written,  in  1893  (q.v.  below),  by 
A.  W.  Pollard.] 

1877.  Meredith,  George.  On  the  Idea  of  Comedy,  and  of  the  Uses  of 
the  Comic  Spirit,  [in]  The  New  Quarterly  Magazine,  vol.  viii,  April, 
1877,  p.  35.  (Works,  1897-8,  34  vols.,  vol.  xxxii,  p.  72.) 

The  Comic  spirit  is  not  hostile  to  the  sweetest  songfully 
poetic.  Chaucer  bubbles  with  it :  Shakespeare  overflows. 

1877.  Unknown.  Chaucer  s  Love-Poetry,  [in]  the  Cornhill  Magazine, 
March  1877,  vol.  xxxv,  pp.  280-97. 

tp.  281]  Before  going  further,  it  may  be  as  well  to  point  out  how 
very  small  a  portion  of  Chaucer's  work  decides  the  special 
impression  of  him  which  now  is  historically  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation. 

If  it  were  possible  to  take  away  only  a  little  more  than  a 
tenth  part  of  the  poet's  voluminous  writings,  there  would  be 
left  a  mass  of  outlandish  recital  having  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  anything  we  now  know  of  English  tastes.  Instead 
of  appearing  a  broad  humourist,  with  an  overpowering  love  of 
nature,  painting  persons  and  scenes  with  exact  reality,  there 
would  then  seem  to  be  no  English  poet  so  artificial,  so 
romantic,  so  lackadaisical  as  Chaucer.  The  truth  is,  that  the 
literary  associations  for  which  the  mention  of  his  name  is  the 
cue,  belong  to  the  Canterbury  Tales  only.  ...  If  the  match 
less  Introduction  had  not  been  written,  or  had  been  different, 


1879]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  123 

and  if  he  had  not  included  in  the  list  two  or  three  of  the 
stories,  or  not  given  prologues  to  the  others,  Chaucer  could 
not  have  survived  in  our  literature.  Of  course  there  is  a 
historical  explanation  for  it  all.  .  .  .  Put  at  its  briefest  the 
explanation  is  this :  his  object  was  to  give  Englishmen  a 
literature  bodily,  instantly  as  it  were,  by  transferring  into 
our  tongue,  such  as  he  found  it  and  made  it,  the  famous 
achievements  of  the  great  foreign  writers.  .  .  . 

[p.  282]  Our  business  here  is  instantly  to  narrow  all  we  have  been 
saying  into  the  statement,  that  with  the  above  exceptions, 
Chaucer's  writings  are  a  lackadaisical  exaggeration  of  one 
feeling — Love,  and  that  in  them  the  passion  is  taken  in  its 
weakest,  vainest  form  of  sentimentality.  He  is,  and  for  ever 
will  remain,  the  chief  erotic  poet  of  our  language. 

1878.  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  with  poems  formerly  printed  with 
his,  or  attributed  to  him.  Edited,  with  a  Memoir,  by  R.  Bell. 
Revised  edition.  .  .  .  With  a  preliminary  essay  by  W.  W.  Skeat. 
4  vols.  [A  revised  edition  of  that  of  1854-6,  q.v.  above.] 

[The  introductory  essay  (vol.  i,  pp.  1-12)  is  concerned  with 
the  Chaucer  canon.  The  Testament  of  Love,  Rom.  Rose, 
Complaint  of  the  Blade  Knight,  Cuckoo  and  Nightingale, 
Flower  and  the  Leaf,  Chaucer's  Dream  (Isle  of  Ladies},  Court 
of  Jjove,  Virelai,  etc.,  are  declared  to  be  spurious.  They  are 
printed  in  this  edition  at  the  end  of  the  genuine  works.] 

1878.  Skeat,  Walter  William.     See  above,  Poetical  Works. 

1878.  Storr,  Francis  (the  Younger),  and  Turner,  Hawes.  Canterbury 
Chimes,  or  Chaucer  Tales  retold  for  Children.  Illustrated  by 
woodcuts  from  the  Ellesmere  MS. 

[A  very  free  rendering,  in  simple  modern  English,  of  Prol., 
and  an  abridgment  of  the  Knightes,  Man  of  Law's,  Nonne 
Prestes,  Squieres,  Frarikdeyns  and  "  Chaucer's  "  Tales  (the  last 
=  Gamelyn,  which  is  purposely  inserted  instead  of  Sir  Thopas, 
as  being  more  suitable  ;  see  Preface,  p.  vi).] 

1879-80.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Chaucer,  to  which  are  appended 
poems  attributed  to  Chaucer,  edited  by  Arthur  Oilman,  3  vol?., 
Boston,  1880. 

[Gilman's  edition  of  Chaucer  is  the  first  considerable  use 
made,  by  way  of  an  edition,  of  the  work  of  Furnivall  and 
the  Chaucer  Society.  In  the  case  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 


124  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1879 

the  text  was  based  on  the  Ellesmere  MS.,  which  was  collated 
with  others.  It  was  considered  advisable  "  not  to  burden 
the  volume  with  the  various  readings."  The  line-numbers 
of  Tyrwhitt's  edition  are  given  in  parentheses  every  fiftieth 
line,  and  in  the  prose  tales  every  tenth  break  in  the  six-text 
edition  is  indicated.  The  greatest  praise  and  thanks  are 
given  to  the  Chaucer  Society.  The  edition  is  also  indebted 
to  the  labours  of  Child,  Skeat,  Morris,  Bradshaw  and  ten 
Brink. 

The  Biography  entitled  The  Times  and  the  Poet  is  by  the 
editor,  and  is  divided  into  sections  :  i.  The  Outer  Life ; 
ii.  The  Social  Life;  iii.  The  Poet's  Life;  iv.  The  Poet's 
Works;  v.  The  Poet's  Genius.  A  Section  On  Reading 
Chaucer  follows  with  information  on  pronunciation,  stress 
and  scansion.  Sections  on  Astrological  Terms  and  Biblical 
References  follow.  The  Tales  are  divided  into  four  days' 
recital. 

The  apocryphal  pieces  include :  Proverbe  of  Chaucer, 
Balade  de  Visage,  etc.,  Court  of  Love,  Flower  and  Leaf,  Cuckow 
and  Nightingale,  Praise  of  Women,  Chaucer's  Dream,  Virelai 
(Alone  walkyng,"  etc.),  Chaucer's  Prophesy  and  Go  Forth 
King. 

The  biography  is  dated  1879 ;  the  volumes  were  published 
in  1880.] 

1879-80.  Oilman,  Arthur.     See   above,  Poetical  Works   of  Chaucer, 
edited  by  A.  Gilman. 


iv,  «5z,  ou-oz  [Uiiaucer  s  treatment  01  JNature  in 
he  Left],  89,  93-4,  113,  137  [Chaucer's  praise  of 
6-59  [The  Clerkes  Tale,  copious  extracts],  162-5  [the 
f  calling  Chaucer  a  '  well  of  English  undefiled  '], 


1879-80.  Lanier,  Sidney.     Sfiakspere  and    his   Forerunners,  London, 
1902,  vol.  i,  pp.  xiv,  32,  56-62  [Chaucer's  treatment  of  Nature  in 
The  Flour  and  the 
wifehood],  140,146- 
enormous  error  of 

192  [Chaucer's  pronunciation],  202,  277,  287  ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  19-21 
[Chaucer's  testimony  as  to  English  love  of  music],  27,  34n.,to  f.  p.  102 
[pictures of  '  A  Poticary  and  a  Pardoner'  from  the  Ellesmere  MS.], 
188,  221,  298-300  [Knightes  Tale  and  Midsummer  Night's  Dream], 
306,  316-7.  [These  lectures,  printed  in  1902,  were  delivered  in 
Baltimore  during  the  winter  of  1879—80  ;  see  Preface.] 

[p.  56]  Chaucer's  poem  The  Flower  and  the  Leafe.  ...  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  pronounce  a  far  finer  poem  than  any  of  the  Canter 
bury  Tales — in  fact,  to  my  thinking,  worth  all  the  Canterbury 
Tales  put  together. 

1879.  Ward,  Sir  Adolphus  William.  Chaucer.    (English  Men  of  Letters.) 

tp.  146]     One  very  pleasing  quality  in  Chaucer  must  have  been  his 

modesty.     In  the  course  of  his  life  this  may  have  helped  to 


1879]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  125 

recommend  him  to  patrons  so  many  and  so  various,  and  to 
make  him  the  useful  and  trustworthy  agent  that  he  evidently 
became  for  confidential  missions  abroad.  ...  To  us,  of  course, 
this  quality  of  modesty  in  Chaucer  makes  itself  principally 
manifest  in  the  opinion  which  he  incidentally  shows  himself 
to  entertain  concerning  his  own  rank  and  claims  as  an  author. 
Herein,  as  in  many  other  points,  a  contrast  is  noticeable 
between  him  and  the  great  Italian  masters,  who  were  so 
sensitive  as  to  the  esteem  in  which  they  and  their  poetry 
were  held.  Chaucer  again  and  again  disclaims  all  boasts  of 

[p.  147]  perfection,  or  pretensions  to  pre-eminence,  as  a  poet.  .  .  . 
He  acknowledges  as  incontestable  the  superiority  of  the 
poets  of  classical  antiquity. 

[p.  179]  Closely  allied  to  Chaucer's  liveliness  and  gaiety  of  dis 
position,  and  in  part  springing  from  them,  are  his  keen  sense 
of  the  ridiculous  and  the  power  of  satire  which  he  has  at  his 
command.  His  humour  has  many  varieties,  ra-nging  from 
the  refined  and  half-melancholy  irony  of  the  House  of  Fame 

[P.  iso]  to  the  ready  wit  of  the  sagacious  uncle  of  Cressid,  the  burl 
esque  fun  of  the  inimitable  Nun's  Priest's  Tale,  and  the  very 
gross  salt  of  the  Reeve,  the  Miller,  and  one  or  two  others.  .  .  . 
Concerning,  however,  Chaucer's  use  of  the  power  which  he  in 
so  large  a  measure  possessed,  viz.  that  of  covering  with  ridi 
cule  the  palpable  vices  or  weaknesses  of  the  classes  or 
kinds  of  men  represented  by  some  of  his  character-types, 
one  assertion  may  be  made  with  tolerable  safety.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  first  stimulus  and  the  ultimate  scope  of 
the  wit  and  humour  which  he  here  expended,  they  are  not 
to  be  explained  as  moral  indignation  in  disguise.  And  in 
truth  Chaucer's  merriment  flows  spontaneously  from  a 
source  very  near  the  surface ;  he  is  so  extremely  diverting, 
because  he  is  so  extremely  diverted  himself. 

Herein,  too,  lies  the  harmlessness  of  Chaucer's  fun.  Its 
harmlessness,  to  wit,  for  those  who  are  able  to  read  him  in 
something  like  the  spirit  in  which  he  wrote.  .  .  . 

[p.  isi]  But  the  realism  of  Chaucer  is  something  more  than  exuber 
ant  love  of  fun  and  light-hearted  gaiety.  He  is  the  first 
great  painter  of  character,  because  he  is  the  first  great 
observer  of  it  among  European  writers.  .  .  .  More  especially 
with  regard  to  the  manners  and  ways  of  women,  which 


126  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1880 

often,  while  seeming  so  natural  to  women  themselves,  appear 
so  odd  to  male  observers,  Chaucer's  eye  was  ever  on  the 
alert. 

[P.  187]  His  descriptions  of  nature  are  as  true  as  his  sketches  of 
human  character;  and  incidental  touches  in  him  reveal  his 
love  of  the  one  as  unmistakably  as  his  unflagging  interest 
in  the  study  of  the  other.  Even  those  May-morning  exordia, 
in  which  he  was  but  following  a  fashion — faithfully  observed 
both  by  the  French  trouveres  and  by  the  English  romances 
translated  from  their  productions  and  not  forgotten  by  the 
author  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose — always 
came  from  his  hands  with  the  freshness  of  natural  truth. 

[Chap.  IV,  Epilogue,  giving  a  sketch  of  the  influence  of 
Chaucer.] 

1880.  Arnold,  Matthew.  The  Study  of  Poetry,  [the  General  Intro 
duction  to  The  English  Poets,  1880,  edited  by  T.  H.  Ward],  pp. 
xxxi-xxxvi,  xliv,  xlv.  [Eeprinted  in  Essays  in  Criticism,  2nd  ser., 
1888,  pp.  26-34,49-51.] 

tp.xxxi]  But  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  comes  an  Englishman 
nourished  on  this  poetry  [French  romance-poetry],  taught  his 
trade  by  this  poetry,  getting  words,  rhyme,  metre  from  this 
poetry ;  for  even  of  that  stanza  which  the  Italians  used,  and 
which  Chaucer  derived  immediately  from  the  Italians,  the  basis 
and  suggestion  was  probably  given  in  France.  Chaucer  (I 
have  already  named  him)  fascinated  his  contemporaries,  but  so 
too  did  Christian  of  Troyes  and  Wolfram  of  Eschenbach. 
Chaucer's  power  of  fascination,  however,  is  enduring;  his 
poetical  importance  does  not  need  the  assistance  of  the 
historic  estimate  ;  it  is  real.  He  is  a  genuine  source  of  joy 
and  strength,  which  is  flowing  still  for  us  and  will  flow 
always,  jle  will  be  read,  as. lime  goes.on^far  moxe^ generally 
than  he  is  read  now.  His  language  is  a  cause  of  difficulty  to 
us,  but  so  also,  and  I  think  in  quite  as  great  a  degree,  is  the 
language  of  Burns.  In  Chaucer's  case,  as  in  that  of  Burns,  it 
is  a  difficulty  to  be  unhesitatingly  accepted  and  overcome. 

If  we  ask  ourselves  wherein  consists  the  immense  supe 
riority  of  Chaucer's  poetry  over  the  romance  poetry — wny 
it  is  that  in  passing  from,  this  to  Chaucer  we  suddenly  feel 
ourselves  to  be  in  another  .world,  we  shall  find  that  his 


1880]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  127 

superiority  is  both  in  the  substance  of  his  poetry  and  in  the 
[p.  style  of  his  poetry.  His  superiority  in  substance  is  given  by 
his  large,  free,  simple,  clear  yet  kindly  view  of  human  life, — 
so  unlike  the  total  want,  in  the  romance-poets,  of  all  intelli 
gent  command  of  it.  Chaucer  has  not  their  helplessness ;  he 
has  gained  the  power  to  survey  the  world  from  a  central,  a 
truly  human  point  of  view.  We  have  only  to  call  to  mind 
the  Prologue  of  The  Canterbury  Tales.  The  right  comment 
upon  it  is  Dryden's  *  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  according  to  the 
proverb,  that  here  is  God's  plenty.'  And  again:  'He  is  a 
perpetual  fountain  of  good  sense.'  It  is  by  a  large,  free, 
sound  representation  of  things,  that  poetry,  this  high  criticism 
of  life,  has  truth  of  substance. 

Of  his  style  and  manner,  if  we  think  first  of  the  romance- 
poetry  and  then  of  Chaucer's  divine  liquidness  of  diction,  his 
divine  fluidity  of  movement,  it  is  difficult  to  speak  temperately. 
They  are  irresistible,  and  justify  all  the  rapture  with  which 
his  successors  speak  of  his  "  gold  dewdrops  of  speech." 
Johnson  misses  the  point  entirely  when  he  finds  fault  with 
Drydeu  for  ascribing  to  Chaucer  the  first  refinement  of  our 
numbers,  and  says  that  Gower  can  also  show  smooth  numbers 
and  easy  rhymes.  The  refinement  of  our  numbers  means 
something  far  more  than  this.  A  nation  may  have  versifiers 
with  smooth  numbers  and  easy  rhymes,  and  yet  may  have 
no  real  poetry  at  all.  Chaucer  is  the  father  of  our  splendid 
English  poetry ;  he  is  our  '  well  of  English  undeliled,'  because 
by  the  lovely  charm  of  his  diction,  the  lovely  charm  of  his 
movement,  he  makes  an  epoch  and  founds  a  tradition.  In 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Keats,  we  can  follow  the 
tradition  of  the  liquid  diction,  the  fluid  movement,  of 
Chaucer ;  at  one  time  it  is  his  liquid  diction  of  which  in  these 
poets  we  feel  the  virtue,  and  at  another  time  it  is  his  fluid 
movement.  And  the  virtue  is  irresistible. 

fp.  ...  I  must  yet  find  room  for  an  example  of  Chaucer's 

virtue.  ...  I  feel  disposed  to  say  that  a  single  line  is  enough 
to  show  the  charm  of  Chaucer's  verse ;  that  merely  one  line 
like  this — 

'  0  martyr  souded  l  in  virginitee  ! ' 

has  a  virtue  of  manner  and  movement  such  as  we  shall  not 
1  [Arnold's  note  :]  The  French  soude;  soldered,  fixed  fast. 


128     [Arnold.]       Mve  Hundred  Tears  of  [A.D.  1880 

find  in  all  the  verse  of  romance-poetry ; — but  this  is  saying 
nothing.  The  virtue  is  such  as  we  shall  not  find,  perhaps,  in 
all  English  poetry,  outside  the  poets  whom  I  have  named  as 
the  special  inheritors  of  Chaucer's  tradition.  A  single  line, 
however,  is  too  little  if  we  have  not  the  strain  of  Chaucer's 
verse  well  in  our  memory;  let  us  take  a  stanza.  It  is  from 
The  Prioress's  Tale,  the  story  of  the  Christian  child  murdered 
in  a  Jewry — 

'  My  throte  is  cut  unto  my  nekke-bone 
Saide  this  child,  and  as  by  way  of  kinde 
I  should  have  deyd,  yea,  longe  time  agone  [etc.], 

Wordsworth  has  modernised  this  Tale,  and  to  feel  how  delicate 
and  evanescent  is  the  charm  of  verse,  we  have  only  to  read 
Wordsworth's  first  three  lines  of  this  stanza  after  Chaucer's — 

'My  throat  is  cut  unto  the  bone,  I  trow, 
Said  this  young  child,  and  by  the  law  of  kind 
I  should  have  died,  yea,  many  hours  ago.' 

The  charm  is  departed.  It  is  often  said  that  the  power  of 
liquidness  and  fluidity  in  Chaucer's  verse  was  dependent 
upon  a  free,  a  licentious  dealing  with  language  such  as  is  now 
impossible;  upon  a  liberty,  such  as  Burns  too  enjoyed,  of 
making  words  like  neck,  lird,  into  a  dissyllable  by  adding  to 
[p.  .  them,  and  words  like  cause,  rhyme,  into  a  dissyllable  by  sound 
sounding  the  e  mute.  It  is  true  that  Chaucer's  fluidity  is 
conjoined  with  this  liberty,  and  is  admirably  served  by  it ; 
but  we  ought  not  to  say  that  it  was  dependent  upon  it.  It 
was  dependent  upon  his  talent.  Other  poets  with  a  like 
liberty  do  not  attain  to  the  fluidity  of  Chaucer ;  Burns  him 
self  does  not  attain  to  it.  Poe.tsr~again,  who  have  a  talent 
akin  to  Chaucer's,  such  as  Shakespeare  or  Keats,  have  known 
how  to  attain  to  his  fluidity  without  the  like  liberty. 

And  yet  Chaucer  is  not  one  of  the  great  classics.  His 
poetry  transcends  and  effaces,  easily  and  without  effort,  all 
the  romance-poetry  of  Catholic  Christendom ;  it  transcends 
and  effaces  all  the  English  poetry  contemporary  with  it,  it 
transcends  and  effaces  all  the  English  poetry  subsequent  to  it 
down  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth.  Of  such  avail  is  poetic  truth 
of  substance,  in  its  natural  and  necessary  union  with  poetic 
truth  of  style.  And  yet,  I  say,  Chaucer  is  not  one  of  the 


1880]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.    [Arnold]     129 

great  classics.  He  has  not  their  accent.  What  is  wanting  to 
him  is  suggested  by  the  mere  mention  of  the  name  of  the  first 
great  classic  of  Christendom,  the  immortal  poet  who  died 
eighty  years  before  Chaucer, — Dante.  The  accent  of  such 
verse  as 

"  In  la  sua  volontade  e  nostra  pace  .  .  ."  1 

is  altogether  beyond  Chaucer's  reach ;  we  praise  him,  but  we 
feel  that  this  accent  is  out  of  the  question  for  him.  It  may  be 
said  that  it  was  necessarily  out  of  the  reach  of  any  poet  in 
the  England  of  that  stage  of  growth.  Possibly ;  but  we  are  to 
adopt  a  real,  not  a  historic,  estimate  of  poetry.  However,  we 
may  account  for  its  absence,  something  is  wanting,  than,  fro 
the  poetry  of  Chaucer,  which  poetry  must  have  before  it  can 
be  placed  in  the  glorious  class  of  the  best.  And  there  "is  no" 
doubt  what  that'^sometEing  is.  It  isj"th'e  o-TrouSato-nys,  the 
high  and  excellent  seriousness  which  Aristotle  assigns  as  one 
[p.  of  the  grand  virtues  of  poetry.  The  substance  of  Chaucer's 
poetry,  his  view  of  things  and  his  criticism  of  lifey  lias 
largeness,  freedom,  shrewdness,  benignity ;  but  it  hiarliot 
this  high  seriousness.  Homer's  criticism  of  life  has  it, 
Dante's  has  it,  Shakespeare's  has  it.  It  is  this  chiefly 
which  gives  to  our  spirits  what  they  can  rest  upon ;  and  with 
the  increasing  demands  of  our  modern  ages  upon  poetry,  this 
virtue  of  giving  jgjyhat  we  can  rest  upon  will  be  more  and 
more  highly  esteemed^  A  voice  from  the  slums  of  Paris,  fifty 
or  sixty  years  after  Chaucer,  the  voice  of  poor  Villon  out  of 
his  life  of  riot  and  crime,  has  at  its  happy  moments  (as,  for 
instance,  in  the  last  stanza  of  La  Belle  Heaulmiere)  more  of 
this  important  poetic  virtue  of  seriousness  than  all  the  pro 
ductions  of  Chaucer.  But  its  apparition  in  Villon,  and  in 
men  like  Villon,  is  fitful ;  the  greatness  of  the  great  poets, 
the  power  of  their  criticism  of  life,  is  that  their  virtue  is 
sustained. 

To  our  praise,  therefore,  of  Chaucer  as  a  poet  there  must  be 
this  limitation  ;  he  lacks  the  high  seriousness  of  the  great 
classics,  and  therefore  an  important  part  of  their  virtue. 
Still,  the  main  fact  for  us  to  bear  in  mind  about  Chaucer  is 
his  sterling  value  according  to  that  real  estimate  which  we 

1  So  quoted  by  Arnold  ;  the  original  (Paradiso,  iii,  85)  reads  :  E  la  sua  volontate  .  .  . 
CHAUCER   CRITICISM. — III.  K 


130  Five  Hundred  Tears  of  [A.D.  1880 


fp.  xli 


ip.  xlv 


firmly  adopt  for  all  poets.  I  He  has  poetic  truth  of  substance 
though  he  has  not  high  porfeic  seriousness,  and  corresponding 
to  his  truth  of  substance  he  has  an  exquis;tejnrtue  of  style 
and  manner.  With  him  is  born  our  real  poetry.  /  .  . 

The  age  of  Dryden,  together  with  our~whole  eighteenth 
century  which  followed  it,  sincerely  believed  itself  to  have 
produced  poetical  classics  of  its  own,  and  even  to  have  made 
advance,  in  poetry,  beyond  all  its  predecessors.  Dryden 
regards  as  not  seriously  disputable  the  opinion  'that  the 
sweetness  of  English  verse  was  never  understood  or  practised 
by  our  fathers.'  *  Cowley  could  see  nothing  at  all  in  Chaucer's 
poetry.  Dryden  heartily  admired  it,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
praised  its  matter  admirably ;  but  of  its  exquisite  manner  and 
movement  all  he  can  find  to  say  is  that  'there  is  the  rude 
sweetness  of  a  Scotch  tune  in  it,  which  is  natural  and  pleasing, 
though  not  perfect.'  Addison,  wishing  to  praise  Chaucer's 
numbers,  compares  them  with  Dryden's  own.  And  all  through 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  down  even  to  our  own  times,  the 
stereotyped  phrase  of  approbation  for  good  verse  found  in  our 
early  poetry  has  been,  that  it  even  approached  the  verse  of 
)ryden,  Addison,  Pope  and  Johnson.  .  .  . 

Burns,  like  Chaucer,  comes  short  of  the  high  seriousness  of 
he  great  classics.  .  .  .  Yet  we  may  say  of  him  [Burns],  as  of 
3haucer,   that   of  life  and    the   world,  as   they    come   before 
lim,  his  view  is  large,  free,  shrewd,  benignant, — truly  poetic, 
herefore ;  and  his  manner  of  rendering  what  he   sees  is  to 
match.     But  we  must  note,  at  the  same  time,  his  great  differ- 
nce  from  Chaucer.    The  freedom  of  Chaucer  is  heightened  in 
Sums,  by  a  fiery,  reckless  energy ;  the  benignity  of  Chaucer 
eepens,  in  Burns,  into  an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  pathos 
f  things ; — of  the  pathos  of  human  nature,  the  pathos,  also, 
of  non-human  nature.    Instead  of  the  fluidity  of    Chaucer's 
manner,  the  manner  of  Burns  has  spring,  bounding  swiftness. 
:>urns  is  by  far    the    greater  force,  though   he   has   perhaps 
ess    charm.     The   world  of    Chaucer  is  fairer,   richer,  more 
ignificant  than  that  of  Burns. 

i  [Note  (unpublished)  added  by  Dr.  Furnivall :]  We  must  recollect  that,  till 
Tyrwhitt,  no  decent  edition  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  was  accessible,  and  till  Richard 
Morris,  none  of  the  Minor  Poems.  So  long  as  printers  and  editors  disregarded 
Chaucer's  final  e  and  printed  as  his,  pieces  that  he  never  wrote,  it  was  impossible 
for  any  readers  to  appreciate  his  poetic  powers. — F.  J.  F. 


1880]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  131 

1880.  Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles.  Short  Notes  on  English  Poets, 
Chaucer,  Spenser,  the  Sonnets  of  Shakespeare,  Milton,  [in]  The 
Fortnightly  Keview,  1880,  pp.  708-10.  [Reprinted  in  Mis 
cellanies,  1886,  pp.  2-6,  88,  150,  152,  175.] 

[Mr.  W.  Eossetti,  in  his  Lives  of  Famous  Poets,  has  selected 
four  of  our  poets  "  as  composing  the  supreme  quadrilateral  of 
English  song.''] 

[p.  2]  It  is  through  no  lack  of  love  and  reverence  for  the  name  of 
Chaucer  that  I  must  question  his  right,  though  the  first 
narrative  poet  of  England,  to  stand  on  that  account  beside 
her  first  dramatic,  her  first  epic,  or  her  first  lyric  poet.  But, 
being  certainly  unprepared  to  admit  his  equality  with  Shake 
speare,  with  Milton,  and  with  Shelley,  I  would  reduce  Mr. 
Kossetti's  mystic  four  to  the  old  sacred  number  of  three. 
Pure  or  mere  narrative  is  a  form  essentially  and  avowedly 
inferior  to  the  lyrical  or  the  dramatic  form  of  poetry ;  and 
the  finer  line  of  distinction  which  marks  it  off  from  the  epic 
marks  it  also  thereby  as  inferior. 

Of  all  whose  names  may  claim  anything  like  equality  of 
rank  on  the  roll  of  national  poets — not  even  excepting  Virgil — 
we  may  say  that  Chaucer  borrowed  most  from  abroad,  and  did 
most  to  improve  whatever  he  borrowed.  I  believe  it  would 
be  but  accurate  to  admit  that  in  all  his  poems  of  serious  or 
tragic  narrative  we  hear  a  French  or  Italian  tongue  speaking 
with  a  Teutonic  accent  through  English  lips.  It  has  utterly 
unlearnt  the  native  tone  and  cadence  of  its  natural  inflections ; 
it  has  perfectly  put  on  the  native  tone  and  cadence  of  a 
stranger's;  yet  it  is  always  what  it  was  at  first — lingua 
romana  in  bocca  tedesca.  It  speaks  not  only  with  more 
vigour  but  actually  with  more  sweetness  than  the  tongues  of 
its  teachers;  but  it  speaks  after  its  own  fashion  no  other 

[p.  3]  than  the  lesson  they  have  taught.  Chaucer  was  in  the  main 
a  French  or  Italian  poet,  lined  thoroughly  and  warmly 
throughout  with  the  substance  of  an  English  humourist.  And 
with  this  great  gift  of  specially  English  humour  he  combined, 
naturally  as  it  were  and  inevitably,  the  inseparable  twin-born 
gift  of  peculiarly  English  pathos.  .  .  .  Dante  represents, 
at  its  best  and  highest,  the  upper  class  of  the  dark  ages 
not  less  than  he  represents  their  Italy;  Chaucer  repre 
sents  their  middle  class  at  its  best  and  wisest,  not  less 
than  he  represents  their  England;  Villon  represents  their 


132  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1881- 

lower  class  at  its  worst  and  its  best  alike,  even  more 
than  he  represents  their  France.  And  of  these  three  the 
English  middle  class,  being  incomparably  the  happiest  and 
wisest,  is  indisputably,  considering  the  common  circumstances 
of  their  successive  times,  the  least  likely  to  have  left  us  the 
highest  example  of  all  poetry  then  possible  to  men.  And  of 
their  three  legacies,  precious  and  wonderful  as  it  is,  the 
Englishman's  is  accordingly  the  least  wonderful  and  the  least 
precious.  The  poet  of  the  sensible  and  prosperous  middle 
class  in  England  had  less  to  suffer  and  to  sing  than  the 
theosophic  aristocrat  of  Italy,  or  the  hunted  and  hungry 
vagabond.  .  .  . 

P.  5]  But  in  happy  perfection  of  manhood  the  great  and 
fortunate  Englishman  almost  more  exceeds  his  great  and 
unfortunate  fellow-singers  than  he  is  exceeded  by  them  in 
depth  of  passion  and  height  of  rapture,  in  ardour  and  intensity 
of  vision  or  of  sense.  With  the  single  and  sublimer 
exception  of  Sophocles,  he  seems  to  me  the  happiest  of  all 
great  poets  on  record ;  their  standing  type  and  sovereign 
example  of  noble  and  manly  happiness. 

IP.  152]  [Comparison  between  Chaucer  and  Wordsworth.  Chaucer 
superior  in  breadth  of  human  interest,  in  simplicity  of  varied 
sympathies,  in  straightforward  and  superb  command  of  his 
materials  as  an  artist,  in  warmth  and  wealth  of  humour,  in 
consummate  power  of  narrative  and  in  childlike  inanfulness  of 
compassionate  or  joyous  emotion ;  but  Wordsworth's  sublimity 
is  worth  all  the  rest  put  together.] 

[This  last  paragraph  was  added  in  1886.] 

1881.  Braddon,  Mary  Elizabeth  (Mrs.  Maxwell).     Asphodel,  3  vols. 

[Miss  Braddon  took  all  the  chapter  headings  of  this  novel 
from  Chaucer.] 

["The  reason  of  these  quotations  was  this.  Miss  Braddon's  '  Vixen '  came  out 
serially ;  and  week  by  week  in  the  dull  London  winter  brought  the  beautiful 
wilful  heroine  hunting  in  the  New  Forest  and  loving  her  horses  and  hounds  as 
a  fresh  bright  scene  to  one  reader,  F.  J.  Furnivall.  He  delighted  in  the  book, 
and  told  Mrs.  Maxwell  so  with  enthusiasm.  She  asked  him  to  visit  her  at  Richmond, 
and  afterwards,  meaning  to  please  him,  a  Chaucer  and  Shakspere  man,  put  the  above 
Chaucer  headings  to  the  chapters  in  her  next  novel,  and  laid  several  of  its  scenes  by 
Avonside  near  Stratford.  When  the  Avork  was  published,  she  sent  a  copy  to  Dr. 
Furnivall,  and  he,  not  knowing  the  kind  intent  of  it,  was  shocked  to  find  its  charming 
heroine  Daphne,  made  to  commit  suicide  at  the  end.  So,  in  his  letter  of  thanks  to 
the  generous  authoress,  he  accused  her  of  being  a  murderess,  for  killing  his  favourite 
character.  Then  Mrs.  Maxwell  heaped  coals  of  fire  on  his  head  by  telling  him  how 
she  had  tried  to  please  him,  and  how  he  ought  to  have  seen  from  the  first  that 
Daphne's  sad  end  was  inevitable,  and  was  prepared  for  from  her  first  appearance. 
Whereupon  he  repented,  and  apologized."  F.  J.  F,] 


1883]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  133 

1881.  Poole,  Henry.  Westminster  Abbey :  A  Study  on  Poets'  Corner, 
[in]  The  Antiquary,  October  1881,  vol.  iv,  pp.  137,  139. 

[p.  139]  Having  alluded  to  the  probability  that  the  table-tomb  of 
Chaucer  was  once  against  the  screen  of  St.  Benedict's  Chapel, 
it  may  not  be  inopportune  here  to  follow  out  the  probable 
story  of  it. 

The  tomb  proper  is  evidently  due  to  the  period  of  the  death 
of  Chaucer.  Its  quatre-foils  bear  his  shield  of  arms,  and 
around  at  least  three  of  the  sides  with  [sic]  the  verge  moulding, 
which  probably  bore  a  painted  inscription.  In  1556,  there 
was  perhaps  some  necessity  for  totally  removing  the  tomb,  of 
which  advantage  was  taken  by  Chaucer's  admirer,  Nicholas 
Brigham,  to  place  it  where  it  now  is,  and  add  to  it  a  handsome, 
though  debased,  canopy  of  Purbeck  marble,  and  also  a  similar 
marble  slab,  with  a  new  inscription  in  Latin,  that  of  the 
marble  table  having  become  decayed  and  illegible.  This  slab 
has  undergone  great  decay  and  disintegration,  so  much  so  as 
to  almost  totally  obscure  the  inscription,  as  reported  by  ISTeale 
in  1823  [or  rather  by  E.  "VV.  Brayley  in  his  History  and 
Antiquities  of  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster, 
illustrated  by  J.  P.  Neale,  1818-23,  vol.  ii,  1823,  q.v.  above]. 
Fifty  years'  more  disintegration  followed  with  still  further 
obscuration,  when  the  writer  closely  scrutinized  and  cleansed 
the  slab,  discovering  traces  of  all  the  letters  but  four. 
Without  any  attempt  to  strengthen  the  engraving,  the  lettering 
was  developed  by  painting  all  the  remaining  traces  with  gold- 
coloured  paint,  and  with  the  same  pigment  reproducing  the 
four  absent  letters;  and  now  the  inscription  of  1558  is  quite 
distinct  and  perfectly  durable. 

The  table  of  the  tomb  has  lately  been  fully  cleansed  of  dirt 
and  adhesions,  beneath  which  the  moulding,  as  well  as  much 
of  the  surface,  was  found  still  to  retain  its  original  polish, 
which  the  adhesion  had  preserved.  Now  the  table  displays 
a  fine  specimen  of  the  best  Purbeck  marble,  which  need  never 
become  dull  again. 

1883.  Coote,  Henry  Charles.     Chaucer's  Ten-Syllable  Verse,  [in]  The 
Antiquary,  July  1883,  vol.  viii,  pp.  5—8. 

[p.  5]  Chaucer's  Troilus  was  not  only  the  first  heroic  poem  and 
the  first  real  display  of  poetic  genius  in  the  language  of 
mediaeval  England,  but  was  the  starting-point  and  departure 


134  Five  Hwidrecl  Years  of  [A.D.  1883- 

from  which  English  metre  took  its  best  and  still  prevailing 
form.  .  .  . 

[p.  7]  At  the  very  threshold  of  his  task  [that  of  rendering  the 
Filostrato  into  English]  he  had  a  problem  to  solve.  .  .  . 
There  was  no  English  verse  at  all  fit  for  the  transfer  of  the 
Italian.  He  must  accordingly  invent  a  new  one.  .  .  . 

He  knew  of  two  metres  only,  always  excepting  those  used  for 
ballads  and  such  like,  which  were  of  course  out  of  the  question 
here.  Of  these  two  metres,  one  was  too  short  as  the  other  was 
too  long  for  his  taste.  I  mean,  of  course,  the  eight-syllabled 
distichs  of  himself  and  Gower,  and  the  popular  twelve-syllable 
[p.  8]  verse  such  as  is  exhibited  in  the  rough  tale  of  Gamelin.  .  .  . 

He  therefore  elected  to  invent  for  the  nonce  an  entirely  new 
metre  of  his  own,  and  to  apply  it  to  his  new  task.  There  was 
a  mean  between  eight  and  twelve,  viz.  ten.  He  accordingly 
invented  a  verse  of  ten  syllables  with  varying  and  appropriate 
caesuras;  and  utilized  his  new  invention  by  translating  the 
Filostrato  into  it ;  and  posterity  ratified  his  choice  by  adopting 
it  as  the  only  verse  to  be  employed  upon  themes  either  great 
or  graceful.  .  .  . 

The  consequences  of  this  invention  of  the  ten-syllable  metre 
it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  or  over-estimate.  The  obvious 
outcome  of  it  is  simply  this  and  no  other :  without  it  we 
should  have  had  no  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden,  or  Pope,  in 
the  sense  in  which  we  now  have  these  great  masters.  To 
convince  us  of  this,  we  have  only  to  imagine  Othello  and 
Hamlet,  not  as  we  now  have  them  through  the  remote  leader 
ship  of  Chaucer  in  a  verse  framed  upon  his  model,  but  told 
either  in  the  lilting  measure  of  Calderon,  or  the  drawling 
Alexandrines  of  France.  ...  Of  course  Milton  must  have 
been  better  than  Csedmon,  and  Pope  would  have  done  his  best 
to  surpass  Butler  even  in  his  own  light  measure,  but  that  is  all. 

Erom  all  this  Chaucer  saved  English  literature  and  the 
English  race.  .  .  . 

1883.  Fagan,  Charles  G.  Chaucer  in  Oxenforde,  [in]  The  Oxford 
Magazine,  Feb.  14,  1883,  vol.  i,  pp.  66-7. 

At  Oxenforde  I  sawe  in  that  citee 
Of  yonge  clerkes  a  ful  gret  coinpagnie, 
and  I  wol  nowe  you  tellen  everich  on 
hir  wone  and  eke  of  hir  condicion. 


1884]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  135 

An  aesthete  was  there  as  I  schell  you  tell, 
that  hadde  of  arte  lerned  every  del ; 
of  Michael-Ange  and  Raffael  and  Giote 
he  could  e  glosen  of  hem  al  by  rote. 

A  Schipman  was  there  eke,  a  bote  captain 
that  wolde  souffre  rnochel  toil  and  payne 
teachaud  the  fresche  clerkes  howe  to  rowe, 
[etc.]. 

1883.  Koch,   John.     A  Critical  Edition  of  some  of  Chaucer's  ( Minor 
Poems.,1  Berlin. 

[An  introduction  treating  of  the  orthography,  etc.,  of  the 
early  MSS.  of  Chaucer's  Works  is  followed  by  a  collated  text 
of  I.  An  ABC.  II.  Chaucers  Wordes  vnto  Adam,  his  owen 
Scriveyn.  III.  The  Former  Age.  IV.  Fortune.  V.  Truth. 
VI.  Gentilesse.  VII.  Lack  of  Stedfastnesse.  VIII.  Lenvoy 
de  Chaucer  a  Bukton.  IX.  Lenvoy  de  Chaucer  a  Scor/an. 
X.  La  Compleinte  de  Chaucer  a  sa  Bourse  Voide ;  followed 
by  notes  on  each.] 

1884.  a  Beckett,  Gilbert  Arthur,  and  Stanford,  Sir  Charles  Villiers. 
The  Canterbury  Pilgrims,  Opera  in  3  Acts,  written  by  Gilbert  a 
Beckett,  composed  by  C.  Yilliers  Stanford. 

[The  scene  of  the  1st  Act  is  the  exterior  of  the  Tabard 
Inn,  Southwark,  at  close  of  the  14th  century.  The  characters 
include  Sir  Christopher  Synge,  a  knight  of  the  shire,  Geoffry 
Blount,  the  Host  of  the  Tabard,  his  wife  and  daughter  and 
apprentice,  two  other  apprentices  and  Hal  o'  the  Chepe. 
In  Act  i,  sc.  3,  the  Pilgrims  enter  in  twos  and  threes  slowly 
assembling,  the  Merchant,  Clerk,  Doctor  of  Physick,  etc., 
all  with  appropriate  music. 

This  opera,  written  for  the  Carl  Rosa  Company,  was  first 
performed  at  Drury  Lane,  on  Wednesday,  April  23rd,  1884.] 


1884.  Pitt-Taylor,  Frank.  The  Canterbury  Tales;  being  selections 
from  the  Tales  of  Geoffrey  Chancer  rendered  into  Modern  English 
with  close  adherence  to  the  Language  of  the  Poet. 

[Brief  Preface,  followed  by  modernizations  of  the  Prologue 
and  Tales  by  the  Knight,  Man  of  Law,  Prioress,  Monk, 
Nun's  Priest,  Doctor,  Pardoner,  Wife  of  Bath,  Clerk,  Second 
Nun,  Canon's  Yeoman  and  Manciple,  with  occasional  omission 
of  various  passages.  The  Prologue  begins  :] 


136  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1884- 

When  April  with  its  sweet  refreshing  rain, 

After  the  drought  of  March,  hath  reached  again 

The  roots,  and  bathed  each  vein  with  gentle  shower, 

Of  which  virtue  engendered  is  the  flower ; 

When,  too,  the  Zephyr,  with  her  sweetest  breath, 

Inspired  hath  in  every  grove  and  heath 

The  tender  crops,  and  when  the  youthful  sun.  .  .  . 

1884.  Swinburne,    Algernon  Charles.     A   Midsmnmer  Holiday,   iii, 
On  a  Country  Road,  pp.  9-11.     (Poems,  1904,  6  vols.,  vol.  vi, 
pp.  9-10.) 

[p.  9]        Along  these  low  pleached  lanes,  on  such  a  day, 
So  soft  a  day  as  this,  through  shade  and  sun, 
With  glad  grave  eyes  that  scanned  the  glad  wild  way, 
And  heart  still  hovering  o'er  a  song  begun, 
And  smile  that  warmed  the  world  with  benison, 
Our  father,  lord  long  since  of  lordly  rhyme, 
Long  since  hath  haply  ridden,  when  the  lime 
Bloomed  broad  above  him,  flowering  where  he  came. 
Because  thy  passage  once  made  warm  this  clime, 
Our  father  Chaucer,  here  we  praise  thy  name. 

[p.  10J        Each  turn  of  the  old  wild  road  whereon  we  stray, 
Meseems,  might  bring  us  face  to  face  with  one 
Whom  seeing  we  could  not  but  give  thanks,  and  pray 
For  England's  love  our  father  and  her  son 
To  speak  with  us  as  once  in  days  long  done 
With  all  men,  sage  and  churl  and  monk  and  mime, 
Who  knew  not  as  we  know  the  soul  sublime, 
That  sang  for  song's  love  more  than  lust  of  fame. 
Yet,  though  this  be  not,  yet,  in  happy  time, 
Our  father  Chaucer,  here  we  praise  thy  name. 

Friend,  even  as  bees  about  the  flowering  thyme, 
Years  crowd  on  years,  till  hoar  decay  begrime 
Names  once  beloved ;  but,  seeing  the  sun  the  same, 
As  birds  of  autumn  fain  to  praise  the  prime, 
Onr  father  Chaucer,  here  we  praise  thy  name. 

1885.  Collins,  John  Churton.     The  Predecessors  of  Shakespeare,  [in] 
The  Quarterly  Review,  Oct.  1885,  vol.  clxi,  p.  338.     [Revised  and 

/     enlarged  in  Essays  and  Studies,  1895,  pp.  106-7.] 

The  verdict  of  the  age  which  immediately  succeeds  them 


1887]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  137 

[prose  writers]  is,  as  a  rule,  final.  .  .  .  How  different  has 
[p.  107]  been  the  fate  of  poets!  Take  Chaucer.  In  1500  his 
popularity  was  at  its  height.  During  the  latter  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  it  began  to  decline.  From  that  date  till  the 
end  of  William  Ill's  reign — in  spite  of  the  influence  which 
he  undoubtedly  exercised  over  Spenser,  and  in  spite  of  the 
respectful  allusions  to  him  in  Sidney,  Puttenham,  Drayton, 
and  Milton — his  fame  had  become  rather  a  tradition  than  a 
reality.  In  the  following  age  the  good-natured  tolerance* of 
Dryden  was  succeeded  by  the  contempt  of  Addison  and  the 
supercilious  patronage  of  Pope.  Between  1700  and  1782 
nothing  seemed  more  probable  than  that  the  writings  of  the 
first  of  England's  narrative  poets  would  live  chiefly  in  the 
memory  of  antiquarians.  In  little  more  than  half  a  century 
afterwards  we  find  him  placed,  with  Shakespeare  and  Milton, 
on  the  highest  pinnacle  of  poetic  renown. 

1887.  Marshall,  Isabel,  Porter,  Lela,  and  Skeat,  Walter  William. 
Ryme  Index  to  the  Manuscript  Texts  of  Chaucer's  Minor  Poems. 
By  Miss  I.  Marshall  and  Miss  L.  Porter.  With  an  introduction 
and  an  appendix  of  ryme-indexes  to  some  spurious  poems  ...  by 
W.  W.  Skeat. 

[For  use  with  the  Parallel-Text  edition,  Chaucer  Society,  and  reissued  in  1889  for 
use  with  the  One-Text  edition.] 

1887.  Morris,  William.  Feudal  England,  [in]  The  Commonweal, 
nos.  84-87.  [Reprinted,  with  slight  alterations  (as  Lecture  3),  in 
Signs  of  Change,  1887,  pp.  73-5.] 

[p°isl]  P^18  central  period  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  England]  has  a 
literature  of  its  own  too,  somewhat  akin  to  its  art,  yet  inferior 
to  it,  and  lacking  its  unity,  since  there  is  a  double  stream 
in  it.  On  the  one  hand  the  Court  poet,  the  Gentleman, 
Chaucer,  with  his  Italianizing  metres,  and  his  formal  recog 
nition  of  the  classical  stories ;  on  which,  indeed,  he  builds  a 
superstructure  of  the  quaintest  and  most  unadulterated 
medisevalism,  as  gay  and  bright  as  the  architecture  which 
his  eyes  beheld  and  his  pen  pictured  for  us,  so  clear,  defined 
and  elegant ;  a  sunny  world  even  amidst  its  violence  and 
passing  troubles,  like  those  of  a  happy  child,  the  worst  of 
them  are  amusement  rather  than  a  grief  to  the  onlookers; 
a  world  that  scarcely  needed  hope  in  its  eager  life  of  adventure 
and  love,  amidst  the  sunlit  blossoming  meadows,  and  green 


138  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1887- 

woods  and  white  begilded  manor-houses.  A  kindly  and 
human  muse  is  Chaucer's,  nevertheless,  interested  in  and 
amused  by  all  life,  but  of  her  very  nature  devoid  of  strong 
aspirations  for  the  future;  and  that  all  the  more,  since, 
though  the  strong  devotion  and  fierce  piety  of  the  ruder  Middle 
Ages  had  by  this  time  waned,  and  the  Church  was  more  often 
lightly  mocked  than  either  feared  or  loved,  still  the  habit 
of  looking  on  this  life  as  part  of  another  yet  remained  :  the 
world  is  fair  and  full  of  adventure ;  kind  men  and  true  and 
noble  are  in  it  to  make  one  happy ;  fools  also  to  laugh  at,  and 
rascals  to  be  resisted,  yet  not  wholly  condemned ;  and  when 
this  world  is  over  we  shall  still  go  on  living  in  another  which 
is  a  part  of  this.  Of  this  picture,  note  all  and  be  as  merry 
as  you  may,  never  forgetting  that  you  are  alive  and  that  it 
is  good  to  live. 

That  is  the  spirit  of  Chaucer's  poetry ;  but  alongside  of  it 
existed  yet  the  ballad  poetry  of  the  people  .  .  .  [and  what] 
you  may  call  Lollard  poetry,  the  great  example  of  which  is 
William  Langland's  "  Piers  Plowman."  It  is  no  bad  cor 
rective  to  Chaucer,  and  in  form  at  least  belongs  wholly  to  the 
popular  side. 

[ForSkeat  see  below,  1888.] 

1887.  Stevenson,  Robert  Louis.    A  Portrait,  [in]  Underwoods.  (Works, 
Edinburgh  Edition,  1894-8,  28  vols.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  123.) 

I  am  "  the  smiler  with  the  knife  "... 

1888.  Furnivall,  Frederick  James.     Note,  [in]  The  Academy,  Dec.  22, 
1888,  Notes  and  News,  vol.  xxxiv,  p.  403. 

Dr.  Furnivall  writes  : 

"  May  I  appeal  through  you  for  two  volunteer  editors  for 
the  Chaucer  Society  ?  .  .  .  I  want  (1)  somebody  with  access 
to  a  large  library,  to  compile  '  The  Praise  of  Chaucer  ' — all 
allusions  to  him  from  his  own  day  to  (say)  Dryden,  and  the 
chief  ones  since ;  and  (2)  a  history  and  record  man  to  write 
an  '  England  in  Chaucer's  Time  '  (1300-1400)— a  better 
Godwin.  .  .  .  The  '  England  in  Chaucer's  Time  '  would  form 
a  good  foundation  for  an  after  '  History  of  England  in  the 
Fourteenth  Century  ' — a  book  much  wanted." 

[The  present  work  attempts  to  fulfil,  and  in  some  respects  exceeds,  the  first  of 
these  ideals  laid  down  by  Dr.  Furnivall.] 


1891]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  139 

1889.  Bright,  James  W.  Review  of  Chaucer's  Minor  Poems,  ed.  W.  W. 
Skeat  (1888),  [in]  Modern  Language  Notes,  Baltimore,  June  1889, 
vol.  iv,  pp.  359-63. 

[p.  359]  Dr.  Furnivall  has  made  an  appeal  for  "  somebody  with 
access  to  a  large  library  to  compile  '  The  Praise  of  Chaucer  ' — 
— all  allusions  to  him  from  his  own  day 'to  (say)  Dryden,  and 
the  chief  ones  since"  [Academy,  Dec.  22.  1888].  This 
appeal,  it  is  hoped,  will  soon  find  a  fitting  response  :  for  a 
history  of  opinion  relating  to  Chaucer  as  a  poet,  which  would 
be  made  possible  by  such  a  collection  of  evidence,  would  con 
stitute  a  novel  and  important  adjunct  to  the  history  of  English 
Poetry.  Just  as  the  characteristics  of  the  dramatists  of  the 
Kestoration  Period  may  be  understood  by  their  treatment  of 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare,  so  the  repute  of  Chaucer  at  any 
given  time  will  serve  to  reveal  much  of  the  culture  and  of  the 
poetic  fashions  of  that  time. 

[For  Dr.   Furnivall's   appeal,  to  which  the  present  work   is   a    response,    see 
Immediately  above,  1888.] 


1890.  Koch,  John.    TJie  Chronology  of  Chaucer's  Writ  ings,  &c.    (Chaucer 
Soc.,  2nd  series,  27.) 

[A  carefully  reasoned  argument,  carrying  forward  the 
researches  of  ten  Brink,  Morley  and  Skeat.  At  the  end  are 
notes  by  Skeat  on  some  doubtful  points.] 


1890.  Manly,  John  Matthews.  Observations  on  the  Language  of 
Cfiancer's  Legend  of  Good  Women,  [in]  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes 
in  Philology  and  Literature,  1893,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-120. 

[Part  of  a  dissertation  prepared  in  1890  ;  modelled  on 
Professor  G.  L.  Kittredge's  similar  study  of  Troilus,  then 
(1893)  in  the  press,  q.v.  below,  1894.  Based  on  the 
Cambridge  MS.  Gg.  4.  27]. 


1891.  [To  Rosemounde.] 

[Professor  Skeat  discovered  the  text  of  the  balade  To 
Rosemounde  in  MS.  KaAvlinson  Poet.  163,  and  contributed  it 
to  the  Athenaeum,  April  4,  1891  ;  he  also  had  it  privately 
printed  in  a  double  leaflet  at  about  the  same  time,  but  we 
have  not  been  able  to  see  this.  See  Hammond,  Chaucer, 
p.  460.] 


140  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1891 

1891.  Butler,  Samuel.  The  Wife  of  Bath,  [Note,  dated  1891,  in]  The 
Notebooks  of  Samuel  Butler,  1912,  p.  262. 

There  are  Canterbury  Pilgrims  every  Sunday  in  summer 
who  start  from  close  to  the  old  Tabard,  only  they  go  by  the 
South-Eastern  Railway  and  come  back  the  same  day  for  five 
shillings.  And,  what  is  more,  they  are  just  the  same  sort  of 
people.  If  they  do  not  go  to  Canterbury  they  go  by  the 
Cladon  Belle  to  Clacton-on-Sea.  There  is  not  a  Sunday  the 
whole  summer  through  but  you  may  find  all  Chaucer's 
pilgrims,  man  and  woman  for  man  and  woman,  on  board  the 
Lord  of  the  Isles  or  the  Cladon  Belle.  Why,  I  have  seen  the 
Wife  of  Bath  on  the  Lord  of  the  Isles  myself.  She  was 
eating  her  luncheon  off  an  Ally  Sloped s  Half  Holiday,  which 
was  spread  out  upon  her  knees. 

1891.  K[er],  W[illiam]  P[aton].  Of  Chaucer's  Rosemounde,  Balade  to 
y*  Makeres,  [in]  The  Oxford  Magazine,  April  29,  1891,  vol.  ix, 
p.  305. 

[Occasioned  by  Professor  Skeat's  discovery  of  To  Rosemounde.] 

Maisters  that  in  the  goodly  sees  divyne 
the  brighte  Apolo  with  the  laurer  grounde, 
we  thanken  yow  that  of  youre  hye  ingyne     . 
on  erthe  yit  the  crommes  ben  yfounde : 
loo  Aristotle  in  Egipte  under  grounde 
that  of  Athenes  wroot  the  governaunce, 
and  Chaucer  thy  balade  of  Rosemounde 
of joye  encresing  oure  inheritaunce. 

L'Enuoy. 

Go  litel  lewede  rimes  cercling  rounde, 
loketh  ye  be  nat  blamed  of  bobaunce 
ther  sortil  \sic\  lore  is  and  the  craft  profounde 
of  joye  encresing  our  inheritaunce. 

1891.  Lounsbury,  Thomas  Raynsford.  Studies  in  Chaucer:  His  Life 
and  Writings.  In  three  volumes,  New  York,  1891.  [The  London 
issue,  1892,  is  in  B.  M.]. 

[The  eight  chapters  or  "  monographs  "  which  make  up  the 
book  are  as  follows  :] 

Vol.  I.   Chapter      I. — The  Life  of  Chaucer. 
„       Chapter    II. — The  Chaucer  Legend. 
,,       Chapter  III.— The  Text  of  Chaucer. 


1891]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  141 

Vol.     I.      Chapter      IV.— The  Writings  of  Chaucer. 

Vol.   II.      Chapter      IV.  (continued). — The  Romance  of  the  Rose. 
,,  Chapter        V. — The  Learning  of  Chaucer. 

,,  Chapter      VI. — The  Relations  of  Chaucer  to  the  English 

Language  and  to  the  Religion  of  his 
Time. 

Vol.  III.     Chapter    VII. — Chaucer  in  Literary  History. 
„  Chapter  VIII. — Chaucer  as  a  Literary  Artist. 

,,  Appendix. 

tiV°439iii'  ^  nave  sought  to  show  that  Chaucer  was  not  only  a  great 
artist,  but  that  he  became  so  at  the  cost  of  time  and  labour ; 
that  in  him,  standing  at  the  fountain-head  of  English  litera 
ture,  the  critical  spirit  was  as  highly  developed  as  the  creative. 
...  If  we  need  further  confirmation,  we  can  find  it  in  one 
marked  change  that  took  place  in  his  literary  methods.  In 
his  earlier  work  he  introduces  constantly  characters  that  are 
merely  personifications  of  qualities  or  acts  or  sentiments. 
In  so  doing  he  followed  the  practice  of  his  immediate  pre 
decessors.  As  he  advanced  in  knowledge  and  taste  he  shook 
himself  free  from  the  trammels  of  this  temporary  fashion.  He 
abandoned  almost  entirely  the  field  of  abstractions  in  which 
the  men  of  his  time  delighted,  and  in  which  his  contemporary 
Lan gland  was  contented  to  remain.  For  the  shadowy  beings 
who  dwell  in  the  land  of  types  he  substituted  living  men  and 
women;  for  the  allegorical  representations  of  feelings  and 
beliefs,  the  direct  outpourings  of  passion.  Changes  of  method 
such  as  these  are  not  the  result  of  freak  or  accident.  Chaucer, 
accordingly,  must  stand  or  fall  not  merely  by  our  opinion  of 
what  he  did,  but  by  our  knowledge  that  what  he  did  was  done 
consciously.  .  .  . 

It  is  impossible  to  take  final  leave  of  the  poet  without  some 
notice  of  what  is  on  the  whole  the  most  pronounced  character- 

[P.  44i]  istic  of  his  style.  This  is  the  uniformly  low  level  upon  which 
he  moves.  There  is  no  other  author  in  our  tongue  who  has 
clung  so  closely  and  so  persistently  to  the  language  of  common 
life.  Such  a  characteristic  appealed  strongly  to  the  men  who 
led  the  revolt  against  the  artificial  diction  that  prevailed  in 
the  poetry  of  the  last  century.  It  attracted  in  particular  the 
attention  of  Wordsworth.  The  course  of  his  predecessor  he 
cited  as  an  authority  for  the  one  which  he  himself  adopted.  .  .  , 


142    [Lounsbury.]    Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1891 

There  have  been  many  men  of  genius  who  have  been  able  to 
say  grand  things  grandly.  To  the  fewest  of  the  few  is  re 
served  the  achievement  of  the  far  harder  task  of  discoursing 
of  mean  things  without  discoursing  meanly  ;  of  recounting  the 
prosaic  events  of  life  without  becoming  prosaic  one's  self;  of  nar 
rating  them  in  the  plainest  terms,  and  yet  investing  them  with  a 
poetic  charm.  It  is  in  the  power  of  genius  only  to  accomplish 
this  at  all ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  in  the  power  of  all  genius. 

[p.  442]  It  is  because  he  stayed  so  persistently  on  these  low  levels 
that  Chaucer  was  enabled  to  combine  with  apparent  ease 
characteristics  and  methods  that  are  often  deemed  incompatible. 
His  words  are  the  more  effective  because  their  very  simplicity 
makes  upon  the  mind  the  impression  of  understatement.  The 
imagination  of  the  reader  fills  in  and  exaggerates  the  details 
which  have  been  left  half-told.  It  is  owing  to  this  restraint 
of  expression  that  whatever  he  says  is  not  only  at  all  times 
and  in  all  places  free  from  literary  vulgarity,  it  never  loses  the 
dignity  that  belongs,  as  well  in  letters  as  in  life,  to  consum 
mate  high-breeding.  There  is  an  exquisite  urbanity  in  his 
manner  which  gives  it  attractiveness  as  pervasive  and  yet  as 
indefinable  as  that  which  the  subtle  evanescent  flavour  of  arch 
allusion  imparts  to  his  matter.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  to 
convey  the  idea  that  Chaucer  abounds  in  ornate  and  brilliant 
passages,  or  that  he  is  constantly  saying  remarkable  things  in 
a  remarkable  way.  It  is  simply  that  in  dealing  with  the 
common  he  is  never  common-place.  ...  As  a  further  result 
of  this  absolute  naturalness,  he  is  enabled  to  pass  from  the 
gravest  to  the  lightest  topics  without  giving  the  reader  the 

[p.  443]  slightest  sensation  of  shock.  .  .  .  His  freedom,  indeed,  verges 
at  times  upon  audacity.  In  the  Knight's  tale,  for  illustration, 
following  close  upon  the  high-wrought  description  of  the  great 
tournament  comes  the  recital  of  the  methods  taken  by  the 
physicians  to  save  the  life  of  the  victor  in  the  struggle.  The 
failure  they  meet  with  is  told  in  the  simplest  terms.  Their 
efforts  were  fruitless  because  they  received  no  help  from  nature. 
Suddenly  the  poet  interposes  his  own  comment  on  the  useless- 
ness,  under  such  conditions,  of  the  medical  art  in  words  like 
these : — 

"  And  certainly  there  nature  will  not  wirche 
Farewell,  physic  !     Go  !  bear  the  man  to  church  !  " 


1891]        Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.    [Lounslury .]     143 

With  this  quaint  expression  of  personal  opinion,  he  passes  at 
once  to  the  pathetic  parting-scene  between  the  dying  lover 
and  the  woman  for  whom  he  is  about  to  die.  Yet  these  rapid 
transitions  do  not  produce  upon  the  mind  any  effect  of  inap- 
propriateness  or  incongruity.  Tears  and  laughter  stand  side 
by  side  in  Chaucer's  verse  as  they  do  in  life  .  .  . 

[p.  444]  I  am  not  claiming  for  Chaucer  that  he  is  one  of  the  few 
supremest  poets  of  the  race.  His  station  is  near  them,  but  he 
is  not  of  them.  Yet,  whatever  may  be  the  rank  we  accord 
him  among  the  writers  of  the  world's  chief  literatures,  the 
position  he  holds  in  bis  own  literature  is  one  that  can  no 
longer  be  shaken  by  criticism  or  disturbed  by  denial.  .  .  .  To 
one  alone  among  the  writers  of  our  own  literature  is  ho 
inferior.  Nor  even  by  him  has  he  been  surpassed  in  every 
way.  There  are  characteristics  in  which  he  has  no  superior, 
and,  it  may  be  right  to  add,  in  which  he  has  no  equal.  .  .  . 
There  is  one  particular  in  which  his  merits  in  reference  to  the 
literature  are  transcendent.  He  overcame  its  natural  tendencies 
to  a  dull  seriousness  which  could  sometimes  be  wrought  into 
vigorous  invective,  but  had  little  power  to  fuse  the  spiritual 
element  of  poetry  with  the  purely  intellectual.  Into  the  stolid 
English  nature,  which  may  be  earnest,  but  evinces  an  almost 
irresistible  inclination  towards  heaviness,  he  brought  a  light 
ness,  a  grace,  a  delicacy  of  fancy,  a  refined  sportiveness  even 
upon  the  most  unrefined  themes  which  had  never  been  known 

[p.  445]  before  save  on  the  most  infinitesimal  scale,  and  has  not  been 
known  too  much  since. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  distinctive  characteristic  in  which 
Chaucer  excels.  There  is  no  other  English  author  so  absolutely 
free,  not  merely  from  effort,  but  from  the  remotest  suggestion 
of  effort.  Shakspeare  mounts  far  higher;  yet  with  him 
there  are  times  when  we  seem  to  hear  the  flapping  of  the 
wings,  to  be  vaguely  conscious  that  he  is  lashing  his  imagina 
tion  to  put  forth  increased  exertions.  But  in  Chaucer  110 
slightest  trace  of  strain  is  to  be  detected.  As  on  the  lower  levels 
the  line  never  labours,  so  on  the  higher  he  never  makes  the 
impression  that  he  is  trying  to  make  an  impression.  It  is  the 
absolute  ease  with  which  he  rises  that  often  prevents  our  per 
ceiving  how  rapidly  he  has  risen.  .  .  .  Nor  is  it  alone  for  the 
naturalness  and  ease  which  result  from  this  union  of  strength 


144  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1892- 

and  simplicity  that  the  greatest  of  his  successors  have  delighted 
to  honour  the  poet.  Full  as  willingly  have  they  paid  homage 
to  the  qualities  of  character  displayed  in  his  works  as  to  those 
of  intellect ;  in  perfect  serenity  of  spirit  as  well  as  in  perfect 
sanity  of  view;  in  the  large-hearted  toleration  which  could 
[p.  446]  not  speak  bitterly  even  of  the  vicious ;  in  the  gracious  worldli- 
ness  which  never  hardened  into  the  callousness  of  insensibility; 
in  the  manly  tenderness  which  never  degenerated  into  senti 
mentality;  in  the  repose  of  conscious  strength  which  never 
wearied  itself  or  worried  itself  in  striving  for  effect ; — in  all 
these  characteristics  the  royal  line  of  English  poets  has  never 
refused  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  him  whom  it 
recognizes  as  its  founder. 

1892.  Kittredge,    George   Lyman.      The  Authorship  of   the   English 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  [in]  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology 
and  Literature,  Boston,  Mass.,  1892,  vol.  i,  pp.  1-65. 

[A  detailed  examination  and  rejection  of  Lounsbury's  claim 
that  the  M.  E.  Romaunt  is  Chaucer's,  in  his  Studies  in  Chaucer, 
q.v.  above,  1891.  Professor  Kittredge  says  in  conclusion  :] 

[p.  65]  The  affirmative  evidence  brought  forward  by  Mr.  Lounsbury, 
when  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  we  have  found  to  be 
entirely  consistent  with  the  belief  that  the  translation  is  not 
by  Chaucer,  but  by  an  imitator.  The  negative  evidence,  on 
the  other  hand,  from  dialect,  grammar,  and  metre,  if  it  does 
not  show  conclusively  that  Chaucer  and  the  translator  were 
two  persons,  still  creates  the  strongest  kind  of  probability  in 
favour  of  that  supposition.  We  must  therefore  be  allowed  to 
prefer  the  theory  that  is  in  accordance  with  all  the  facts  to  the 
theory  that  is  strongly  opposed  to  the  most  significant  of  them, 
and  to  believe  that  the  Romaunt  is  not  Chaucer's,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  first  seventeen  hundred  lines. 

1893.  Pollard,  Alfred  William.     Chaucer,    [one    of    the]    Literature 
Primers,  edited  by  J.  R.  Green. 

[Dr.  Eurnivall  was  originally  invited  to  write  the  Primer 
on  Chaucer  for  this  series:  see  above,  Green,  1877.  In  the 
little  book,  as  finally  written  by  Mr.  Pollard,  the  chapters 
are:  Introduction;  Chaucer,  the  King's  Servant;  Chaucer, 
the  Student ;  The  Contents  and  Order  of  Chaucer's  Writings 
(also  the  Canon) ;  Poems  of  Chaucer's  First  Period ;  Poems 
of  Chaucer's  Second  Period — Chaucer  at  work  on  Italian 


1894]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  145 

Models  j  The  Canterbury  Tales ;  Later  Minor  Poems — Chaucer's 
rank  as  a  Poet  (a  comparison  with  Shakespeare) ;  Appendix — 
Chaucer's  Metre  and  Versification — Spurious  and  Doubtful 
Works.  The  author,  while  summarising  the  best  knowledge, 
offers  throughout  much  fresh  and  suggestive  criticism.] 

[p.  75]  It  was  by  service  in  the  King's  Court,  on  diplomatic 
missions,  and  at  the  Custom  House,  that  a  living  had  to  be 
earned  and  a  substantial  position  won;  and  it  is  to  these 
objects,  trivial  in  his  case  as  we  may  now  think  them,  that 

[p.  76]  Chaucer  appears  to  have  devoted  the  best  years  of  his  life.  .  . . 
If  Shakspere  had  died  in  his  thirtieth  year  he  would  have 
been  remembered  as  a  botcher  of  a  few  poor  plays,  and  the 
author  of  Venus  and  Adonis,  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream, 
and  Richard  III.  Where  Shakspere  botched  Chaucer  trans 
lated,  and  the  charm  of  a  few  hundred  lines  in  the  Death  of 
Blaunche  and  the  pathos  of  the  stories  of  Grisilde  and  Con 
stance  are  the  chief  titles  to  remembrance  of  all  the  work  he 
did  on  the  younger  side  of  forty.  From  the  very  first  he  is 
distinguished  from  his  contemporaries  by  the  music  of  his 
verse ;  but  the  humour,  the  insight  into  character,  the  know 
ledge  of  life,  the  entire  mastery  of  words,  the  essential 
qualities,  that  is,  which  we  now  connect  with  his  name,  all 
came  to  Chaucer  exceptionally  late. 

[p.  lie]  The  portraits  [in  the  Prologue],  we  should  note,  are  all 
such  as  one  traveller  might  draw  of  another.  There  is  no 
attempt  to  show  that  the  best  of  the  pilgrims  had  their  weak 
points,  and  the  worst  their  good  ones.  For  the  best  Chaucer 
has  hearty  admiration,  for  the  worst  a  boundless  tolerance, 
which  yet  only  thinly  cloaks  the  keenest  satire.  One  and 
all  he  views  from  his  holiday  standpoint,  building  up  his 
descriptions  with  such  notes  as  he  would  naturally  gather 
as  he  rode  along  with  them  on  his  pilgrimage — notes  of  dress, 
of  speech,  of  manner,  of  their  talk  about  themselves  and 
their  doings,  until  we  can  see  his  fellow-pilgrims  as  clearly 
as  if  we  too  had  mounted  our  rouncies  and  ridden  along 
with  them. 

1894.  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  edited  with  notes  and  introduc 
tion  by  Alfred  W.  Pollard.  2  vols.  (In  Macmillan's  "  Eversley 
Series.") 

[The  text  is  preceded  by  an  Introduction  in  which,  after  a 
statement  as  to  the  history  of  the  edition  and  its  relation  to 

CHAUCER    CRITICISM. III  L 


146  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A. D.  1894 

the  projected  Library  Edition  and  as  to  the  treatment  of  the 
text,  the  editor  outlines  Chaucer's  progress  from  slavish  trans 
lation  in  the  early  Second  Nonnes  Tale,  through  the  Clerkes 
Tale,  Troilus  and  Kniglites  Tale>  to  complete  freedom  from  his 
source  or  analogue  in  his  latest  work,  such  as  the  Prioresses, 
Reves  and  Pardoneres  Tales.] 

1894-97.  The  Complete  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer.    Edited  .  .  . 
by  .  .  .  W.  W.  Skeat,  7  vols. 

[The  chief  contents  are :  Yol.  I,  Life  of  Chaucer,  etc. ; 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose  and  Minor  Poems,  with  introductions 
and  notes.  (See  also  vol.  iv  below,  for  additions  to  Minor 
Poems.) 

Vol.  II :  Boethius  and  Troilus,  with  introductions  and 
notes. 

Yol.  Ill :  House  of  Fame ;  Legend  of  Good  Women ; 
Astrolabe,  with  introductions  and  notes.  An  Account  of  the 
Sources  of  the  Canterbury  Tales. 

Yol.  IY :  The  Canterbury  Tales,  in  groups  A  to  I,  with 
the  Tale  of  Gamelyn  as  an  appendix ;  Introduction  on  the 
MSS.  and  the  plan  of  the  Tales  adopted.  The  Introduction 
contains  also  three  Minor  Poems  additional  to  those  in  vol.  i. 

Yol.  Y  :  Notes  to  the  Canterbury  Tales,  with  an  Intro 
duction  on  the  Chaucer  Canon ;  the  earlier  editions ;  the 
Text  of  the  Canterbury  Tales;  Chaucer's  scansion,  accentu 
ation  and  pronunciation  ;  with  rules  for  reading  and  a  note  on 
modernised  spelling. 

Yol.  YI :  General  Introduction,  discussing  the  texts  of  the 
various  pieces ;  the  editor's  obligations  to  others ;  the  dialect 
of  Chaucer ;  his  Kenticisms ;  pronunciation ;  scansion  and 
accents ;  open  and  close  o  and  e,  etc. ;  rime ;  assonances ;  final 
y  and  ye ;  metres  and  forms  of  verse ;  analysis  of  Chaucer's 
language  and  grammar ;  versification ;  his  authorities.  Glos 
saries,  indices,  etc. 

Yol.  YII  (Supplementary  Yolume),  Chaucerian  and  other 
Pieces,  contains : 

Introduction  on  the  (selected)  apocryphal  pieces,  generally 
and  individually,  and  the  texts  as  follows,  concluding  with 
indices,  etc.  : 

I.  Testament  of  Love  (Usk). 

II.  Plowman's  Tale. 

III.  Jack  Upland. 

IY.  Gower's  Praise  of  Peace. 

Y.  Hoccleve's  Letter  of  Cupid. 


1894]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  147 

VI.  To  the  Kinge's  most  noble  Grace    1 

To  the  Lordes  and  Knightes  of  the  VHoccleve. 

Garter  J 

VII.  Scogan's  Moral  Ballade. 
VIII.  Lydgate's  Complaint  of  the  Black  Knight. 
IX.  Lydgate's  Flour  of  Curtesye. 
X.  Lydgate's  Balade  in  Commendation  of  our  Lady. 
XI.  To  my  Soverain  Lady  (Lydgate). 
XII.  Ballad  of  Good  Counsel  (Lydgate). 

XIII.  Beware  of  Doubleness  (Lydgate). 

XIV.  Balade   Warning   Men  to  Beware  of  Deceitful 

Women  (Lydgate). 
XV.  Three  Sayings  (Lydgate). 
XVI.  Ros's  La  Belle  Dame  sans  Mercy. 
XVII.  Henryson's  Testament  of  Cressid. 
XVIII.  Clanvowe's  Cuckoo  and  Nightingale. 
XIX.  Envoy  to  Alison. 
XX.  Flower  and  Leaf. 
XXI.  Assembly  of  Ladies. 
XXII.  Goodly  Balade  (Lydgate). 

XXIII.  Go  Forth,  King  (Lydgate). 

XXIV.  Court  of  Love. 
XXV.  A  Virelai. 

XXVI.  Prosperity  (John  Walton). 
XXVII.  Leaulte  vault  Richesse. 
XXVIII.  Sayings  printed  by  Caxton. 
XXIX.  Balade  in  Praise  of  Chaucer. 

[vol.  vi.  In  the  first  place,  my  endeavour  has  been  to  produce  a 
thoroughly  sound  text,  founded  solely  on  the  best  MSS.  and 
the  earliest  prints,  which  shall  satisfy  at  once  the  requirements 
of  the  student  of  language  and  the  reader  who  delights  in 
poetry.  In  the  interest  of  both,  it  is  highly  desirable  that 
Chaucer's  genuiue  works  should  be  kept  apart  from  those 
which  were  recklessly  associated  with  them  in  the  early 
editions,  and  even  in  modern  editions  have  been  but  imper 
fectly  suppressed.  It  was  also  desirable,  or  rather  absolutely 
necessary,  that  the  recent  advances  in  our  knowledge  of  middle- 
English  grammar  and  phonetics  should  be  rightly  utilized, 
and  that  no  verbal  form  should  be  allowed  to  appear  which 
would  have  been  unacceptable  to  a  good  scribe  of  the 
fourteenth  century. 

I  have  also  provided  a  large  body  of  illustrative  notes,  many 
of  them  gathered  from  the  works  of  my  predecessors,  but 


148  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1894- 

enlarged  by  illustrations  due  to  my  own  reading  during  a  long 
course  of  years,  and  by  many  others  due  to  the  labours  of  the 

[p.  x]  most  recent  critics.  The  number  of  allusions  that  have  been 
traced  to  their  origin  during  the  past  fifteen  years  is  consider 
able  ;  and  much  additional  light  has  thus  been  thrown  upon 
Chaucer's  method  of  treating  his  originals.  .  .  . 

[P.  xviii]  As  regards  the  texts,  my  chief  debt  is  to  the  Chaucer 
Society,  which  means,  practically,  Dr.  Furnivall,  through 
whose  zeal  and  energy  so  many  splendid  and  accurate  prints  of 
the  MSS.  have  been  produced,  thus  rendering  the  actual  read 
ings  and  spellings  of  the  scribes  accessible  to  students  in  all 
countries.  It  is  obvious  that,  but  for  such  work,  no  edition  of 
Chaucer  could  have  been  attempted  without  an  enormous 
increase  of  labour  and  a  prodigal  expenditure  of  time. 

1894.  Kittredge,  George  Lyman.  Observations  on  the  Language  of 
Chaucer's  Troilus,  Chaucer  Society,  1894  [issue  for  1891].  (Also 
issued  as  vol.  iii  of  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology  and 
Literature,  Boston,  1894.) 

[A  detailed  and  most  valuable  linguistic  study,  based  on 
the  readings  of  four  MSS. :  Campsall,  Harl.  2280 ;  Camb., 
Gg.  4,  27;  and  Harl.  3943,  all  as  edited  for  the  Chaucer 
Society  by  Dr.  Furnivall.  It  consists  of  (1)  a  Grammatical 
Chapter  in  which  the  forms  occurring  in  Troilus  are  recorded 
and  analysed;  and  (2)  a  Metrical  Chapter,  with  special 
reference  to  final  e.] 

1894.  Pollard,    Alfred    William.    See    above,    Chaucer's    Canterbury 
Tales. 

1894-7.  Skeat,  Walter  William.  See  above,  The  Complete  Works  of 
Geoffrey  Chaucer. 

1895.  Ker,  William  Paton.     The  Poetry  of  Chaucer,  [review  of]  The 
Complete   Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  edited  by  the  Rev.  Walter 
W.  Skeat,  [in]  The   Quarterly  Review,  April,  1895,  vol.    clxxx, 
pp.  521-48.     [The  greater  part  of  this  article,  that  which,  is  more 
directly  concerned  with  Chaucer's  poetry,  i.  e.  pp.  534-47,  is  re 
printed,  with  slight  verbal  changes  and  omissions,  in  Essays  on 
Medieval  Literature,  by  W.  P.  Ker,  1905,  pp.  76-100.] 

[The  importance  of  Skeat's  edition.  Its  supreme  merit  is 
that  it  has  cleared  the  poems  of  Chaucer  from  blunders  of 
language  and  rhythm,  which  in  former  editions  interrupted 
the  flow  of  the  verse,  pp.  521-2,  Chaucer's  art  and  versi- 


1895]  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  149 

fication,   with    especial    reference  to   Dryden's    criticism,   pp. 
522-3.] 

[p.  522]  With  regard  to  some  of  the  strongest  parts  of  Chaucer's 
poetry,  110  later  writer  has  been  able  to  add  anything  essenti 
ally  new  to  the  estimate  given  by  Dryden.  '  Here  is  God's 
plenty '  is  still  the  best  criticism  ever  uttered  on  the  '  Canter 
bury  Tales.' 

[There  is  some  justification  for  Dryden's  censure  of  Chaucer's 
verse,  p.  523.  Decay  of  metrical  ability  after  Chaucer,  and 
Skeat's  method  in  adopting  readings,  pp.  524-5.  Examples 
of  Skeat's  emendations  and  readings,  pp.  525-6.  Account  of 
the  contents  of  the  volumes,  with  the  comment  that  "  the 
Clarendon  Press  has  done  little  to  relieve  the  general  aspect  of 
sobriety,  much  at  variance  with  the  demeanour  of  the  contents, 
and  very  unlike  the  appearance  of  the  illuminated  books  from 
which  the  poems  are  copied,"  pp.  526-7.  Complaint  of  the  over- 
insistence  on  Dr.  Furnivall's  classification  of  the  groups  of  the 
Canterbury  Tales,  pp.  527-8.  On  Skeat's  introductions,  his 
metrical  symbols,  his  remarks  on  Chaucer's  vowels  and  Kentish 
forms  and  knowledge  of  Old  French  verse — any  possible  flaws 
in  which  do  not  prejudice  his  handling  of  the  texts,  pp.  528- 
31.  The  texts  of  the  Momaunf,  Troylus  and  the  Legende 
acknowledged  and  praised,  p.  532.  Skeat's  abstention  from 
literary  criticism,  and  reference  of  the  reader  to  Lowell's  essay, 
deprecated,  p.  533.  Comparison  of  Chaucer  and  Dante  in  their 
use  of  mediaeval  habit  and  fashion,  pp.  534-5.  Historical 
commentary  on  Chaucer  inevitable  and  useful,  pp.  535-6. 
On  Skeat's  statement  of  the  debt  in  the  Hous  of  Fame 
to  Dante,  and  the  general  independence  of  Chaucer's  poom, 
p.  537.  How  much  of  Chaucer's  genius  can  be  seen  outside 
the  Canterbury  Tales,  pp.  537-8.] 

[p.  538]  It  is  difficult  to  speak  moderately  of  Chaucer's  "Troilus." 
It  is  the  first  great  modern  book  in  that  kind  where  the  most 
characteristic  modern  triumphs  of  the  literary  art  have  been 
won;  in  the  kind  to  which  belong  the  great  books  of  Cer 
vantes,  of  Fielding,  and  of  their  later  pupils — that  form  of 
story  which  is  not  restricted  in  its  matter  in  any  way,  but  is 
capable  of  taking  in  comprehensively  all  or  any  part  of  the 
aspects  and  humours  of  life.  No  other  mediaeval  poem  is  rich 
and  full  in  the  s^me  way  as  "  Troilus  "  is  full  of  varieties  of 
character  and  mood.  It  is  a  tragic  novel,  and  it  is  also  strong 
enough  to  pass  the  scrutiny  of  that  Comic  Muse  who  detects 
the  impostures  of  inflated  heroic  and  romantic  poetry.  More 
than  this,  it  has  the  effective  aid  of  the  Comic  Muse  in  that 


150  Five  Hundred  Years  of  [A.D.  1898- 

alliance  of  tragedy  and  comedy  which  makes  an  end  of  all 
the  old  distinctions  and  limitations  of  narrative  and  drama. 

[Troilus  and  the  Filostrato,  pp.  538-9.  The  dignity,  beauty 
and  proportion  of  Troilus,  pp.  539-40.  The  Knightes  Tale 
and  the  Teseide,  pp.  540-1.  Chaucer's  different  handling  of 
the  Troilus  and  Knightes  Tale  themes,  pp.  541-3.  Chaucer's 
changes  of  handling  throughout  his  works,  p.  543.  The 
House  of  Fame  an  indulgence  in  mediaeval  vanities,  pp.  544-5. 
Contradictions  and  problems  of  the  Canterbury  Tales,  pp. 
544-7.] 

1898.  The  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  edited  by  Alfred  W.  Pollard, 
H.  Frank  Heath,  Mark  H.  Liddell,  W.  S.  McCormick.  (The 
Globe  Edition.) 

[p.  ix]        [Preface  by  A.  W.  Pollard.] 

In  the  division  of  labour  ...  I  have  myself  remained 
responsible  for  the  Canterbury  Tales,  the  Legende  of  Good 
Women,  the  Glossary,  and  the  General  Introduction ; 
Professor  Liddell  has  taken  the  Boece,  the  Treatise  on  the 
Astrolabe,  and  the  Romaunt  of  the  Eose ;  Professor 
McCormick,  Troilus  and  Criseyde  ;  Dr.  Heath,  the  Nous  of 
Fame,  Parlement  of  Joules,  and  all  the  shorter  pieces.  .  .  . 
We  [the  editors]  all  believe  that  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  the  most  conservative  treatment,  consistent  with 
the  necessities  of  common  sense  and  the  known  rules  of 
Chaucerian  usage,  is  also  the  best. 

[Mr.  Pollard  in  the  Preface  gives  an  account  of  the  genesis 
and  history  of  the  edition,  its  abortive  undertaking  by  Henry 
Bradshaw  (see  above,  1864,  Works),  Aldis  Wright,  Skeat,  and 
Furnivall,  and  its  relation  to  the  "library  edition,"  ultimately 
edited  by  Skeat  in  1894  (q.v.).  The  Introduction  consists  of 
a  cautious  biography  setting  out  only  the  known  external 
facts  of  Chaucer's  life,  followed  by  a  more  tentative  chrono 
logical  account  of  his  writings.  Special  introductions  by  the 
various  responsible  editors  then  precede  the  text.] 

1898.  Pollard,  Alfred  William  ;  Heath,  Sir  Henry  Frank  ;  Liddell, 
Mark  Harvey  ;  McCormick,  Sir  William  Symington.  See  supra  : 
The  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  (Globe  edition). 

1900.  Skeat,  Walter  William.  The  Chaucer  Canon,  with  a  discussion 
of  the  works  associated  with  the  name  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer. 

[The  argument  starts  from  the  admitted  genuineness  of  the 
Canterbury  Tales;  Chaucer's  grammatical  practice  in  the 


1900J  Chaucer  Criticism  and  Allusion.  151 

Squieres  Tale,  and  that  of  the  Ormulum  and  the  metre  and 
rhyme-tests  of  the  Tales  are  analysed;  the  conclusions  are 
applied  to  the  poems  of  whose  genuineness  there  is  external 
testimony,  and  then  in  succession  to  the  non-Chaucerian 
pieces  printed  by  Thynne,  Stowe,  Speght,  Urry,  etc.] 

[P.  v]  Much  that  is  here  said  is  necessarily  repeated  from  what  I 
have  already  advanced  in  my  six  volume  edition  of  Chaucer 
and  in  the  supplementary  volume  entitled  Chaucerian  Pieces  ; 
but,  [with  other  new  matter]  .  .  .  the  account  here  given  of 
the  striking  parallel  between  Chaucer's  grammatical  usages 
and  the  regular  employment  of  various  grammatical  suffixes 
in  the  unassailable  text  of  the  Ormulum  is,  to  the  best  of  my 
belief,  wholly  new,  and  adds  much  firmness  and  certainty  to 
the  whole  argument.  .  .  . 

The  argument  which  I  adduce  is  briefly  this.  The  extreme 
regularity  of  the  metre  of  the  Ormulum  enables  us  to  deduce 

[p.  vi]  with  certainty  the  circumstances  under  which  grammatical 
inflexions  are  employed  in  it.  Precisely  similar  inflexions 
occur  in  the  genuine  works  of  Chaucer,  but  not  (speaking 
generally)  in  works  which  have  erroneously  been  connected 
with  his  name. 

Further,  the  genuine  works,  and  these  only,  satisfy  various 
rime-tests  which  are  duly  explained,  and  are  all  deducible 
from  the  Canterbury  Tales ;  and  in  this  way  the  true  Chaucer 
Canon  can  be  established. 

1900.  S[keat],  W[alter]  W[illiam].  In  Honorem  F.  J.  F.,  [issued 
separately,  and  inserted  in]  An  English  Miscellany  presented  to  Dr. 
Furnivall  on  his  15th  birthday,  Oxford,  1901. 

IN  HONOREM  F.  J.  F.  (A.D.  1900). 
(From  MS.  Harl.  7334,  fol.  999,  back.) 

A  Clerk  ther  was  of  Cauntebrigge  also, 
That  unto  rowing  hadde  longe  y-go. 
Of  thinne  shides  wolde  he  shippes  make, 
And  he  was  nat  right  fat,  I  undertake. 
And  whan  his  ship  he  wrought  had  atte  fulle, 
Eight  gladly  up  the  river  wolde  he  pulle, 
And  eek  returne  as  blythly  as  he  wente. 
Him  rekked  nevere  that  the  sonne  him  brente, 
Ne  stinted  he  his  cours  for  regn  ne  snowe ; 
It  was  a  joye  for  to  seen  him  rowe  ! 


152          Five  Hundred  Years  of  Chaucer  Criticism  [A.D.  1900 

Yit  was  him  lever,  in  his  shelves  newe, 

Six  olde  textes,  clad  iu  greenish  hewe, 

Of  Chaucer  and  his  olde  poesye 

Than  ale,  or  wyn  of  Lepe,  or  Malvoisye. 

And  therwithal  he  wex  a  philosofre  ; 

And  peyned  him  to  gadren  gold  in  cofre 

Of  sundry  folk  ;  and  al  that  he  might  hente, 

On  textes  and  emprinting  he  it  spente ; 

And  busily  gan  hokes  to  purveye 

For  hem  that  yeve  him  wherwith  to  scoleye. 

Souning  in  Erly  English  was  his  speche, 

"  And  gladly  wolde  he  lerne,  and  gladly  teche." 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 

l-AUIS  GARUKN,    STAMFORD   ST.,    S.E.    1,    AND  BUNGAV,    SUFFOLK- 


; 


PR      Chaucer  Society,  London 
1901       pPublications-j 

A3 

ser.    ? 

no .49,     CIRCULATE  AS  MONOGRAPH 

50,   52 


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