For sure a priest the sample ought to give But dwelt at home, and guarded well his fold, He still to sinful men was mild and piteous: The following poem was the last production that emanated from Chaucer's prolific pen. It was written on his death-bed, and may properly close these extracts: 1 Crowd. Fly from the press, and dwell with sothfastness; 2 Pain thee not each croocked to redress That12 thee is sent receive in buxomness; 13 14 Spirit. Prosperity has ceased. Nail. 10 Earthen pitcher. Humility, obedience. 4 Striving. 8 Without fear. 12 That (which). Though Chaucer was eminent chiefly as a poet, yet he deserves a passing notice as a writer in prose also. His longest unversified production is The 'Testament of Love,' to which we have already alluded. This is an allegorical and meditative work, and was written chiefly for the purpose of defending his character against certain imputations which had been cast upon it. Two of the 'Canterbury Tales,' also, are in prose; in one of which, the Tale of Melibeus, is found a passage on Riches, not less remarkable for the great amount of ancient wisdom which it contains, than for the clearness and simplicity of its diction. We have, however, already afforded to Chaucer so much space that we have not room to introduce this interesting passage, but must at once pass briefly to notice Gower, his illustrious contemporary. Though the genius of Chaucer far transcended that of all preceding writers in England, yet he was not the solitary light of the age. The national mind, and the national language had now arrived at a certain degree of maturity favorable for the production of able writers in both prose and Besides Wickliffe, Gower and Mandeville also belong to the same verse. period. JOHN GOWER was born of an illustrious family at Stitenham, Yorkshire, in 1320. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and at the time at which he was graduated, his eminence as a scholar was extensively known. Being designated by his parents for the legal profession, he removed to London immediately after he left the university, and entered the Middle Temple as a student at law; and though devoted to his profession, yet he did not permit it to engross his entire attention, but gave much of his leisure time to poetry and other literary pursuits. While thus occupied, and soon after he had completed his preparatory legal studies, he formed an acquaintance with Chaucer, who had just then returned from his travels on the continent, and the similarity of their tastes soon created a very close intimacy between them. Poetry, however, with Gower, was a pastime, while to his profession he devoted himself with such untiring industry, that before the close of the reign of Edward the Third, his position as a lawyer had become so com manding that when Richard the Second succeeded to the crown, that unfortunate monarch first selected him as his legal adviser, and Chancellor in Commons, and soon after raised him to the office of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In this imposing position Gower remained until his royal patron was dethroned by the duke of Lancaster, afterward Henry the Fourth, when he being far advanced in age, and having also recently had the misfortune to lose his eyesight, retired from the busy scenes of life, and took leave at the same time, both of the muses and of the world, in his pathetic poem The Commendation of Peace. In this sweet production he plainly and affectingly indicates a full sense of his consciousness of an approaching death, which accordingly happened soon after at Southwark, where he then resided, in 1402. His remains were interred in St. John's Chapel, and to his memory a monument of unparalleled magnificence, for that age, was erected, upon which was inscribed a Latin Epitaph, that may be thus rendered into English. His shield henceforth is useless grown, To pay death's tribute slain, Gower was a man of very extensive literary and legal attainments, and his poems, therefore, were rather the offspring of his learning than of his genius. His spirit was bold and uncompromising, and he accordingly inveighed in clear and energetic language against the debaucheries of the times, the immorality of the clergy, the wickedness of corrupt judges, and the vices of an abandoned court. His principal poetic work was a poem in three parts, which were respectively entitled, Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis ; the last of which, the 'Confession of a Lover,' was written in English, and was so pure and elevated in tone and sentiment, that Chaucer, upon reading it, immediately called its author, in spontaneous admiration, the Moral Gower-an encomium, to deserve which in that corrupt age, certainly argues very exalted merit. From this poem we select the following specimen, as it fully indicates the character of the author's poetic genius. THE ENVIOUS MAN AND THE MISER. Of Jupiter thus I find y-writ, As of the wrong condition To do justification; And for that cause down he sent An angel, that about went, That he the sooth know may. So it befel upon a day, This angel which him should inform And thus with tales he them led, Till he knew the condition, What men they were both two; And his fellow was envious. And thus when he hath knowledging, And said he mote algate wend; The Covetous was wonder glad; This Envious, though it be late, This word was not so soon spoke, SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE, the last writer to whom ou attention will at present be directed, was born at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. He was liberally educated, and was designed for the medical profession; but early conceiving an unconquerable desire to visit foreign countries, he left England when in the twenty-third year of his age, and passed thirty-four years in travelling through various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, visiting Cythia, the Greater and the Lesser Armenia, Arabia, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Dalmatia, and Egypt, dwelling a sufficient length of time in each of these countries to acquire a thorough knowledge of their respective languages, and closely to inspect the habits and manners of the people. 1 Then. 2 Say. 3 What thing he was most disposed to crave On his return to his native country, Mandeville wrote an Iteniary, or account of his travels, in the Latin, the French, and the English languages respectively; but his absence had been so prolonged by his various journeyings in foreign lands, that when he returned home he could not be recognized even by his relatives and friends. This circumstance, together with the vices with which his native country then abounded, induced him again to leave his home, to pass the remainder of his life among strangers. He, accordingly, embarked once more for the continent, but soon after died at Liege, in Holland, on the seventeenth of November, 1372, and in the seventy-third year of his age. The travels of Mandeville contain little information that is important at the present time, farther than as they contribute to furnish us with another specimen of the English language in the fourteenth century. The following extract, however, presents a moral lesson which should not be neglected : A MOHAMMEDAN'S LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN VICES. And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords, and other; for he would speak to me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. And I said [to] him, 'Right well, thonked be God.' 'And he said [to] me, 'Truly nay, for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day and all night, and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. They shoulden ben simple, meek, and true, and full of alms-deeds, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they been all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they been so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han, [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serve God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living, (as they ben |