renders it impossible to analyze; but it should be remembered that society in Chaucer's day, though perhaps not less moral in reality, was far more outspoken and simple, and permitted and enjoyed allusions which are proscribed by the more precise delicacy of this age. Two of these tales, as has been stated, are written in prose. These deviations from what seems to have been the original plan, are very naturally made. When Chaucer is applied to by the Host, he commences a rambling, puerile romance of chivalry, entitled the Rime of Sir Thopas, which promises to be an interminable story of knight-errant adventures, combats with giants, dragons, and enchanters, and is written in the exact style and metre of the Trouvère narrative poems-the only instance of this versification in the Canterbury Tales. He goes on gallantly "in the style his books of chivalry had taught him," like Don Quixote, "imitating, as near as he could, their very phrase;" but he is suddenly interrupted, with many expressions of comic disgust, by the merry host: "No mor of this, for Goddes dignite!' This may wel be rym dogerel, quod he." Chaucer took this ingenious method of ridiculing and caricaturing the Romance poetry, which had reached the lowest point of the commonplace. Then, with great goodnature and a readiness which marks the man of the world, he offers to tell "a litel thing in prose;" and commences the long allegorical tale of Melibeus and his wife Prudence, in which, though the matter is often tiresome enough, he shows himself as great a master of prose as of poetry. The other prose tale is narrated by the Parson. He is represented as a simple and narrow-minded though pious and large-hearted pastor, who characteristically refuses to indulge the company with what can only minister to vain pleasure, and proposes something that may tend to edification, "moralite and vertuous matiere;" and so he commences a long and very curious sermon on the seven deadly sins, their causes and remedies. His discourse is a most interesting specimen of the theological literature of the day. It is divided and subdivided with all the painful minuteness of scholastic divinity; but it breathes throughout a noble spirit of piety, and in many passages attains great dignity of expression. Besides these two Canterbury Tales, Chaucer wrote in prose a translation of Boethius's De Consolatione, an imitation of that work, under the title of The Testament of Love, and an incomplete astrological work, On the Astrolabe, addressed to his son Lewis. The general plan of the Canterbury Tales is believed. to have been taken from the Decameron of Boccaccio, though the English poet's conception is infinitely superior to that of the Italian, whose ten accomplished young gentlemen and ladies assemble in their luxurious villa to escape from the terrible plague which is devastating Florence. The difficulty of reading and understanding Chaucer has been much exaggerated. The principal facts that the student should keep in mind are, that the many French words in his writings had not been so modified, by changes in their orthography and pronunciation, as to become Anglicized, and are therefore to be read with their French accent; secondly, that the final e which terminates many English words is to be pronounced as a separate syllable, where the word following does not begin with a vowel or with the letter h; and, finally, that the past termination of the verb, ed, is almost invariably to be made a separate syllable* Some curious traces of the old Anglo-Saxon grammar, as the inflections of the personal and possessive pronouns, are still retained, together with a few details of the Teutonic formation of the verb. Many attempts have been made to reduce Chaucer's writings to modern English, in order to introduce him to popular favor; but these friendly efforts have failed of gaining appreciation for him. To be thoroughly enjoyed, his writings must be read in their original diction. Distinguished poets have tried their skill in interpreting him, but with indifferent success. Wordsworth has adhered with tolerable fidelity to the language, and consequently to the spirit, of the original. His Cuckoo and Nightingale, Prioress's Tale, and Troilus and Cresida, retain much of Chaucer; but the less sympathetic minds of Dryden and Pope, in attempting to improve his expression, have impaired his sentiment. * The following metrical division of the first twelve verses of The Prologue gives illustration of these peculiarities of accent and pronunciation: "Whan that! April | le with | his schow | res swoote, The drought of Marche | hath per | ced to the roote, And ba thud eve | ry veyne | in suich | licour In these verses the French accent must be given to the words licour, vertue, na- NOTE.-The student will find special pleasure in studying the annotations to the Prologue and the Knight's Tale in Professor Carpenter's Literature of the XIVth Century, James Russell Lowell's essay on Chaucer, and an essay of the Westminster Review, published in July, 1866. A CHAPTER V. THE CONTEMPORARIES OF CHAUCER. RARE intellectual power is never monopolized by one man of a generation; it is held and displayed by a group of men. In literature a "bright particular star" does not shine forth unattended. Other stars accompany it, and shed a steady, though less brilliant, lustre over the literary firmament. Throughout the epochs of English as well as of classical literature, we find the great names grouped into distinct constellations around stars whose surpassing radiance, by attracting the gaze exclusively to themselves, often makes us insensible to the real splendor of their humble companions. No writings-not even those of Chaucer himself—so faithfully reflect the popular feeling during the great social and religious movement of the fourteenth century, as that very remarkable series of poems which appeared under the name of Piers Ploughman. (11.) The deep-seated discontent of the Commons with the 1362.] course of affairs in Church and State found a voice in these 1385.] works. They are three in number,-the Vision, the Creed, 1399.] and the Complaint of Piers Ploughman. They bear the closest resemblance to one another in form and spirit, as well as in style of execution, and were all written within the same half century. The Vision, the longest of the three, was the first in merit and in date, and was the model for the others. Allusions to the treaty of Bretigny, made in 1360, and to the great tempest of 1362, seem to fix the latter year, or thereabouts, as the time of its composition; and tradition assigns its authorship to WILLIAM * LANGLANDE, who is otherwise unknown. Two facts are clear from *The author of this work is referred to as Robert, as William, and sometimes as John Langlande. He calls himself" William.” the work itself that the writer was a Churchman, and that he sympathized heartily with the awakening spirit of the laboring classes. In this work Piers Ploughman (or Peter the Ploughman) is a purely allegorical personage. The Latin title more exactly conveys the nature of the Vision; it is Visio Willelmi de Pietro Ploughman—a vision seen by the author, who is here called William, concerning Peter, a ploughman, who is the personification of the peasantry of England. The dreamer, exhausted by his long wanderings, goes to sleep on the Malvern Hills, and soon becomes aware of a goodly company gathered before him in a field: "A fair feeld ful of folk He is somewhat puzzled at first to understand what all this may mean, when a “lovely lady," descending from a castle, announces herself as Holy Church, expounds to him the meaning of the scene that lies before him, and after leaving the key of the mystery with him, departs. The poet describes the various incidents that took place in this typical assembly, each of which shadows forth in simple allegory some move in the great game played by king, ecclesiastic, and noble. The work contains nearly fifteen thousand verses, arranged in twenty sections, so little connected with one another as to appear almost separate poems. Its prevalent tone is one of spirited satire, aimed against abuses and vices in general, but specially against the corruptions of the Church. The Creed of Piers Ploughman is supposed to have been written twenty-three years later than the Vision. Though an imitation of the earlier work, it differs from it in many important respects. In it Piers Ploughman is no longer an allegorical character, but a real son of the soil. The author, an ardent disciple of Wycliffe, attacks the doctrines as well as the discipline of the Church, and refrains from political satire. The Complaint of Piers Ploughman is a mere fragment. These three works are without regularity in the length of the lines, and without rhyme. They attempt to revive the use of alliteration, which was a distinctive feature of poetry in England previous to the introduction of rhymes by the Normans. This |