She is miroúr of alle curteisyë;

Hir herte is verray1 chambre of holynesse,
Hir hand ministre of fredom for aelmesse.

THE PRIORESS.

(a) Ther was alsó a nonne, a prioresse,

That of hire smylyng was ful symple and coy;
Hire grettest oothë 2 nas but3 by Seynt Loy;
And sche was clept1 madame Eglentyne.
Ful wel sche sang the servisë divyne,
Entuned in hire nose ful semyly;

And Frensch sche spak ful faire and fetysly,"
After the scole of Stratford-attë-Bowe,
For Frensch of Parys was to hire unknowe.
At metë wel i-taught was sche withalle;
Sche leet no morsel' from hire lippës falle,
Ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce deepe.
Wel cowde sche carie a morsel, and wel keepe,
That no dropë ne fil uppon hire breste.
In curtesié was sett ful moche hire leste 8
Hire overlippe9 wypede sche so clene,
That in hire cuppe was no ferthing 10 sene

Of grees, whan sche dronken had hire draught.
Ful semely 11 aftur hire mete sche raught.
And sikerly 12 sche was of gret disport,13
And ful plesánt, and amyable of port,14

1 Verray, in the sense of the French vrai (from Latin verus, true).

2 Oothe-the possessive plural-her greatest of oaths.

3 Nas but=ne was but; a French idiom (like n'était que), which has not survived in the language.

4 Clept cleped; i.e., called. Milton uses yclept for the past participle.

5 Entuned intoned.

6 Fetysly; i.e., neatly.

7 Morsel-old form of modern French morceau.

8 Leste pleasure.

9 Over lippe-upper lip. Ov is an old form of up. Up also appears as op in open, and as off in offing. Many names of villages still have over in the sense of upper, as Over Haddon in Derby. In Germany and Holland (High Dutch and Low Dutch) it takes the form of Ober, as in Oberyssel.

10 Ferthing farthing. An e before an r generally gets to be sounded a; as in clerk, Derby. But farthing means here small piece. The word is a dialectic form (of the East Midland dialect) of fourthing-fourth part. Compare riding (of Yorkshire). This comes from three. Three, threeth, thrid; and then thrid ing; and lastly riding. Hence there are only three Ridings in Yorkshire, and can be no more.

11 Semely seemly.

12 Sikerly certainly. Sicker is an old English and Scotch form of secure or sure. 13 Disport-deportment. 14 Port, i.e., carriage. The root is found also in porter.

And peynëd hire1 to counterfetë 2 cheere
Of court, and ben estatlich of manére,
And to ben holden3 digne of reverence.
But for to speken of hire conscience,
Sche was so charitable and so pitoús,
Sche wolde weepe if that sche sawe a mous
Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde.
Of smalë houndës1 hadde sche, that sche fedde
With rosted flesch, or mylk and wastel bredd.
But sore wepte sche if oon of hem were deed,
Or if men smot it with a yerde smertë ! 7
And all was conscïénce and tendre hertë.
Ful semely hire wymple i-pynched was;
Hire nose tretys;8 hire eyen grey as glas;
Hire mouth ful smal, and thereto soft and reed ;
But sikerly sche hadde a fair forheed.

Prologue: Canterbury Tales.

17. It does not lie within the scope of this little book to write criticisms on the authors whom we are to become acquainted with, but it may be well to quote what great and genial critics have said of him.

Dryden calls him "a perpetual fountain of good sense." Mr. Hazlitt says, "Chaucer was the most practical of all the great poets, the most a man of business and of the world. His poetry reads like history. Everybody has a downright reality, at least in the relator's mind. A simile or a sentiment is as if it were given in upon evidence."

1 Peyned hire, i.e., pained herself, i.e., took pains.

2 Counterfete, i.e., imitate.

3 Ben holden: the en in both is a sign of the infinitive. 4 Hounds, i.e., dogs.

5 Wastel, an English form of the Old French gastel. (The English w represents the French gu; as in ward and garde, wise and guise, etc.) Gastel then became gasteau, then gâteau. Small cakes were called petits gastels-a term corrupted into petticoat tails.

6 Yerde-any stick. The word yards (of a ship) is still used in this sense. The definite meaning given to such words as acre, furlong, gallon, and so on, is quite modern. Acre meant a field; furlong, a furrow long; and gallon, a pitcher. 7 Smertë is the adverb, and modifies smot.

8 Tretys, straight.

But the best critic of Chaucer's writings is the American poet, Mr. Lowell; and the following are extracts from his essay on the subject:

"Chaucer was the first great poet who really loved outward nature as the source of conscious pleasurable emotion."

"In insisting on a definite purpose, on veracity, cheerfulness, and simplicity, Chaucer shows himself the true founder of what is characteristically English literature."

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Chaucer, to whom French must have been almost as truly a mother-tongue as English, was familiar with all that had been done by troubadour or trouvère. In him we see the first result of the Norman yeast upon the home-baked Saxon loaf. The flour had been honest, the paste well kneaded, but the inspiring leaven was wanting till the Norman brought it over. Chaucer works still in the solid material of his race, but with what airy lightness has he not infused it? Without ceasing to be English, he has escaped being insular." 'There is in Chaucer the exuberant freshness and greenness of spring. Everything he touches leaps into full blossom. His gladness and humour and pathos are irrepressible as a fountain. Reading him is like brushing through the dewy grass at sunrise. Everything is new and sparkling and fragrant. His first merit, the chief one in all art, is sincerity. He does not strive to body forth something which shall have a meaning; but, having a clear meaning in his heart, he gives it as clear a shape. He is the most unconventional of poets, and the frankest."

"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 gaiety that seems careless, but where every foot beats time to the tune of the thought."

"His best tales run on like one of our inland rivers, sometimes hastening a little and turning upon themselves in eddies, that dimple without retarding the current; sometimes loitering smoothly, while here and there a quiet thought, a tender feeling, a pleasant image, a golden-hearted verse, opens quietly as a water-lily, to float on the surface without breaking it into ripple."

18. It is an excellent twofold lesson, in the language and in poetry, to compare the version of Chaucer made by later poets, and to examine the merits or defects of each. Dryden, Pope, and Wordsworth have "modernised" parts of Chaucer; and of them we will

CHAUCER.

A good man was ther of religioún,
And was a porë persoun1 of a toun2;

But riche he was of holy thought and werk.3
He was alsó a lernëd man, a clerk

That Cristës gospel trewely woldë preche;
His parischens devoutly wold he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder1 diligent,
And in adversité ful pacïént;
And such he was i-proved oftë sithes.5
Ful loth were him to curse for his tythes,
But rather wolde he geven out of dowte
Unto his porë parisschens 7 aboute

Of his offrynge and eek of his substaúnce.
He cowde in litel thing han suffisance.9
Wyd was his parisch, and houses fer asonder,
But he ne laftë 10 not, for reyne ne thonder,
In siknesse nor in meschief 11 to visíte
The ferrest in his parissche, moche 12 and lite,
Uppon his feet, and in his hond a staf.
This noble ensample unto his scheep he zaf,

That ferst he wroughte, and afterward he taughte.13

16

And though he holy were, and vertuous,
He was to sinful man nought dispitous,14
Ne of his speche daungerous 15 ne digne,1
But in his teching discrét and benigne.
To drawë folk to heven by fairënesse,
By good ensample, this was his busynesse :
But it were eny persone obstinát,

What so he were, of high or lowe estat,17
Him wolde he snybbe 18 scharply for the nonës.
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.
He wayted after no pompe and reverence;
Ne maked him a spiced conscïénce,
But Cristës lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himselve.

take Dryden and Wordsworth. The genius of the age of Dryden (the latter half of the seventeenth century) and of Pope (the first half of the eighteenth) was ill able to interpret the sweet, manly, and sincere mind of Chaucer. They were too much under French influence. Hence Dryden's version is too rhetorical, too "stylish," full of splendid phraseology (some of which does not mean much), but true neither in conception nor in execution. Let us take Dryden first, and place his version opposite the original.

DRYDEN.

A parish priest was of the pilgrim train ;
An awful, reverend, and religious man.
His eyes diffused a venerable grace,
And charity itself was in his face.

Rich was his soul, though his attire was poor
(As God hath clothed His own ambassador);
For such, on earth, his bless'd Redeemer bore.
Of sixty years he seem'd; and well might last
To sixty more, but that he lived too fast;
Refined himself to soul, to curb the sense,
And made almost a sin of abstinence.
Yet had his aspect nothing of severe,
But such a face as promised him sincere,
Nothing reserved or sullen was to see:
But sweet regards, and pleasing sanctity:
Mild was his accent, and his action free.
With eloquence innate his tongue was arm'd ;
Though harsh the precept, yet the people charm'd.
For, letting down the golden chain from high,

He drew his audience upward to the sky :
And oft with holy hymns he charmed their ears
(A music more melodious than the spheres):

For David left him, when he went to rest,
His lyre; and after him he sung the best.

He bore his great commission in his look,

But sweetly tempered awe, and softened all he spoke.
He preached the joys of heaven, and pains of hell,
And warned the sinner with becoming zeal;

But, on eternal mercy loved to dwell.

He taught the gospel rather than the law;

And forced himself to drive, but loved to draw.