the son of a London citizen, murdered two hundred years before with the connivance of an English king. No one can read this list without thinking that if Chaucer be true and accurate in his descriptions of these persons, and make them talk as they did talk, his delineations are of inestimable value historically. He has been faithfully true. Like all great masters of the epic art, he doubtless drew them from the life; each, given in the outlines of the prologue, is a speaking portrait: even the horses they ride are as true to nature as those in the pictures of Rosa Bonheur.

And besides these historic delineations which mark the age and country, notwithstanding the loss of local and personal satire with which, to the reader of his day, the poem must have sparkled, and which time has destroyed for us, the features of our common humanity are so well portrayed, that to the latest generations will be there displayed the "forth showing instances" of the Idola Tribus of Bacon, the besetting sins, frailties, and oddities of the human race.

SATIRE. His touches of satire and irony are as light as the hits of an accomplished master of the small-sword; mere hits, but sig..ificant of deep thrusts, at the scandals, abuses, and Like Dickens, he employed his fic

oppressions of the age.

tion in the way of reform, and helped to effect it.

Let us illustrate. While sitting at the table, Chaucer makes

Of his diete mesurable was he,

And it was of no superfluite;

nor was it a gross slander to say of the many,

His studie was but litel on the Bible.

It was a suggestive satire which led him to hint that he was

but esy of dispense;

He kepte that he wan in pestilence;
For gold in physike is a cordial;

Therefore he loved gold in special.

Chaucer deals tenderly with the lawyers; yet, granting his sergeant of the law discretion and wisdom, a knowledge of cases even "from the time of King Will," and fees and perquisites quite proportional, he adds,

Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as,
And yet he seemed besier than he was.

Woman seems to find

HIS PRESENTATIONS OF WOMAN. hard judgment in this work. Madame Eglantine, the prioress, with her nasal chanting, her English-French, "of Stratfordatte-Bow," her legion of smalle houndes, and her affected manner, is not a flattering type of woman's character, and yet no doubt she is a faithful portrait of many a prioress of that day.

And the wife of Bath is still more repulsive. She tells us, in the prologue to her story, that she has buried five husbands, and, buxom still, is looking for the sixth. She is a jolly compagnon de voyage, had been thrice to Jerusalem, and is now seeking assoil for some little sins at Canterbury. And the host's wife, as he describes her, is not by any means a pleasant helpmeet for an honest man. The host is out of her hearing, or he would not be so ready to tell her char

acter:

I have a wif, tho' that she poore be;

But of her tongue a blabbing shrew is she,

And yet she hath a heap of vices mo.

She is always getting into trouble with the neighbors; and when he will not fight in her quarrel, she cries,

The best names she has for him are milksop, coward, and ape; and so we say, with him,

Come, let us pass away from this mattère.

THE PLAN PROPOSED. - With these suggestions of the nature of the company assembled "for to don their pilgrimage," we come to the framework of the story. table, the host proposes

While sitting at the

That each of you, to shorten with your way,
In this viage shall tellen tales twey.

Each pilgrim should tell two stories; one on the way to Canterbury, and one returning. As, including Chaucer and the host, there are thirty-one in the company, this would make sixty-two stories. The one who told the best story should have, on the return of the company to the Tabard inn, a supper at the expense of the rest.

The host's idea was unanimously accepted; and in the morning, as they ride forth, they begin to put it into execution. Although lots are drawn for the order in which the stories shall be told, it is easily arranged by the courteous host, who recognizes the difference in station among the pilgrims, tha: the knight shall inaugurate the scheme, which he does by telling that beautiful story of Palamon and Arcite, the plot of wi. h is taken from Le Teseide of Boccacio.

It

is received with cheers by the company, and with great delight by the host, who cries out,

The next in order is called for, but the miller, who has replenished his midnight potations in the morning, and is now rolling upon his horse, swears that "he can a noble tale," and, not heeding the rebuke of the host,

Thou art a fool, thy wit is overcome,

he shouts out a vulgar story, in all respects in direct contrast to that of the knight. As a literary device, this rude introduction of the miller breaks the stiffness and monotony of a succession in the order of rank; and, as a feature of the history, it seems to tell us something of democratic progress. The miller's story ridicules a carpenter, and the reeve, who is a carpenter, immediately repays him by telling a tale in which he puts a miller in a ludicrous position.

With such a start, the pilgrims proceed to tell their tales; but not all. There is neither record of their reaching Canterbury, nor returning. Nor is the completion of the number at all essential: for all practical purposes, we have all that can be asked; and had the work been completed, it would have added little to the historical stores which it now indirectly, and perhaps unconsciously, offers. The number of the tales (including two in prose) is twenty-four, and great additional value is given to them by the short prologue introducing each of them.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAUCER, (CONTINUED.) — REFORMS IN RELIGION AND

Historical Facts.

Reform in Religion.

The Clergy, Regular and
Secular.

L

HISTORICAL FACTS.

EAVING the pilgrims' cavalcade for a more philosophical consideration of the historical teachings of the subject, it may be clearly shown that the work of Chaucer informs us of a wholesome reform in religion, or, in the words of George Ellis, "he was not only respected as the father of English poetry, but revered as a champion of the Reformation."

+

Let us recur briefly to the history. With William the Conqueror a great change had been introduced into England: under him and his immediate successors his son William Rufus, his nephew Henry I., the usurper Stephen, and Henry II., the efforts of the "English kings of Norman race" were directed to the establishment of their power on a strong foundation; but they began, little by little, to see that the only foundation was that of the unconquerable English people; so that popular rights soon began to be considered, and the accession of Henry II., the first of the Plantagenets, was specially grateful to the English, because he was the first since the

1 Introduction to the Poets of Queen Elizabeth's Age,