Happily, a great arbiter arose at the critical moment to determine what share of the contributions of France should be permanently annexed to the linguistic inheritance of Englishmen. Chaucer did not introduce into our language words 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. In this way he formed a vocabulary which, with few exceptions, the taste of succeeding generations has approved. He is eminently the creator of our literary dialect, the introducer, if not the inventor, of some of our finest poetical forms; and so essential were his labors in the founding of our national literature that, without Chaucer, the seventeenth century could have produced no Milton, the nineteenth no Keats."-Geo. P. Marsh.

"Chaucer was the first great poet who really loved outward nature as the source of conscious pleasurable emotion. Chaucer took a true delight in the new green of the leaves and the return of singing birds-a delight as simple as that of Robin Hood. He has never so much as heard of the 'burthen and the mystery of all this unintelligible world.' He himself sings more like a bird than any other poet, because it never occurred to him that he ought to do so. He pours himself out in sincere joy and thankfulness. The pleasure which Chaucer takes in telling his stories has in itself the effect of consummate skill, and makes us follow all the windings of his fancy with sympathetic interest. His best tales run on like one of our inland rivers, sometimes hastening a little and turning upon itself in eddies that dimple, without retarding, the current; sometimes loitering smoothly, while here and there a quiet thought, a tender feeling, a pleasant image, or a golden hearted verse opens quietly as a water-lily, to float on the surface without breaking it into ripple.

But it is in his characters, especially, that his manner is large and free; for he is painting history, though with the fidelity of portrait. He brings out strongly the essential traits characteristic of the genus rather than of the individual. The Merchant who keeps so steady a counte nance that 'There wist no wight that he was e'er in debt,' the Sergeant at Law,' who seemed busier than he was,' the Doctor of Medicine whose 'study was but little on the Bible'-in all these cases it is the type and not the personage that fixes the attention. In his outside accessories, it is true he sometimes seems as minute as if he were illuminating a missal. Nothing escapes his eye for the picturesque-the cut of the beard, the soil of armor on the buff jerkin, the rust on the sword, the expression of the eye. But in this he has an artistic purpose. It is here that he individualizes, and, while every touch harmonizes with and seems to

complete the moral features of the character, makes us feel that we are among living men and not the abstracted images of men."-J. R. Lowell. BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHAUCER.-Chaucer Society's Publications; Clar. Press Ed. of Canterbury Tales; Prof. Lounsbury's Parlament of Foules; English Men of Letters Series; Minto's Characteristics of Eng. Poets; J. R. Lowell's My Study Windows; Ward's Anthology; Ecl. Mag., 1849, and Dec., 1866; Fort. Rev., v. 6, 1866; Quar. Rev., Jan., 1873; West. Rev., Oct, 1871.

LESSON 11.

From Chaucer's Prologue to Canterbury Tales.*
BYFEL' that, in that sesoun on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard," as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Wel3 nyne and twenty in a compainye
Of sondry folk, by aventure i-falle1
In felaweschipe, and pilgryms were thei alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde;
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.5
And schortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everychon
That I was of here' felaweschipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse
To take our wey ther as I yow devyse.
But natheles, whil I have tyme and space,
Or10 that I forther in this tale pace, "1
Me thinketh it acordaunt to resoun,

To telle yow al the condicioun

Of eche of hem, so as it semede me,

11

And whiche1 they weren and of what degre. 13

A Clerk 14 ther was of Oxenford 15 also,

That unto logik hadde longe i-go.16

* Syllables containing e with a diæresis (ë) are to be pronounced in reading and scanning.

1 It chanced. 2 An inn in Southwark. 9 Full. 4 Fallen by chance. 5 Entertained in the best manner. Them, everyone. 7 Their. 8 Agreement. Nevertheless.

10 Ere. 11 Pass on. 12 Who. 13 Rank. 14 Student. 15 Oxford. 16 Had long given

himself-i a prefix used to indicate the past participle, the ge of the A.S. and the German, and the y in yclept and ychained,

As lene was his hors as is a rake,
And he was not right fat, I undertake;

But lokede holwe,' and therto2 soberly.
Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy,3
For he hadde geten him yit no benefice,
Ne was so worldly for to have office.*
For him was levere5 have at his beddes heede
Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reede,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,

Then robes riche or fithele or gay sawtrie."
But al bes that he was a philosophre,

Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre;
But al that he mighte of his frendes hente9
On bookes and on lernyng he it spente,
And busily gan for the soulës preye
Of hem that gaf him wherwith to scoleye.10
Of studie took he most cure11 and most heede.
Not oo word spak he more than was neede,
And that was seid in forme and reverence
And schort and quyk and ful of high sentence. 12
Sownynge in13 moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.

A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a poure Persoun14 of a toun;
But riche he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk
That Cristës gospel trewely wolde preche;
His parischens15 devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was and wonder diligent,
And in adversité ful pacient;

And such he was i-proved ofte sithes. 16
Ful loth were him to curse for his tythes,"
But rather wolde he geven out of dowte

Unto his poure parisschens aboute

Of his offrynge18 and eek of his substaunce.

He cowde in litel thing han suffisaunce.

1 H llow. 2 Also. 3 Uppermost short cloak. 4 Secular calling. Rather. • Fiddle. Harp. Although-philosophers were thought to be able to transmute the baser metals into gold. Get. 10 Attend school. 11 Care. 12 Meaning. 13 Tending to. 14 Parson, priest. 15 Parishioners. 16 Often-times. 17 Excommunicate for failing to pay what was due him. 18 Contributions from his people.

1 Ceased.

Wyd was his parische, and houses fer asonder,
But he ne laftë1 not for reyne ne thonder,
In siknesse nor in meschief to visite

The ferreste in his parissche, moche and lite,3
Uppon his feet, and in his hond a staf.
This noble ensample to his scheep he gaf,
That first he wroughte, and afterward he taught.
Out of the gospel he tho wordes caughte,
And this figure he addede eek therto
That if gold rustë, what schal yren doo?
Wel oughte a prest ensample for to give

By his clennesse how that his scheep schulde lyve.
He settë not his benefice to hyre,

8

And leet his scheep encombred in the myre,
And ran to Londone, unto seyntë Poules,
To seeken him a chaunterie for soules,
Or with a bretherhede to ben withholde;
But dwelte at hoom, and keptë wel his folde,
So that the wolf ne made it not myscarye;
He was a schepherde and no mercenarie.
And though he holy were and vertuous,
He was to sinful man nought despitous,"
Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne,
But in his teching discret and benigne.
To drawe folk to heven by fairnesse,
By good ensample, this was his busynesse.
But it were eny persone obstinat,
What so he were, of high or lowe estat,
Him wolde he snybbe10 scharply for the nones. 11
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.
He waytede after no pompe and reverence
Ne makede him a spiced 12 conscience,
But Cristës lore13 and his apostles twelve

He taughte, but first he folwede it himselve

2 Misfortune. 3 Great and small. 4 Let, left. 5 An endowment for the

payment of a priest to sing mass. • Supported. If there were. 10 Reprove. 11 Nonce.

dainful.

7 Merciless.

8 Not affable, dis

12 Scrupulous.

13 Teaching.

From the Nonne Prestës1 Tale.

A poure wydow somdel stope2 in age
Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage
Bisyde a grove, stondyng in a dale.

This wydwe of which I telle yow my tale
Syne thilke day that sche was last a wif
In pacience ladde a ful symple lyf,

For litel was hire catel and hire rente.5

By housbondrye of such as God hire sente,
Sche fond hireself and eek hire doughtren tuo.8
Thre large sowes hadde sche and no mo,

Thre kyn and eek a scheep thet hightë Malle.
Ful sooty was hire bour1o and eek hire halle,
In which she eet ful many a sclender meel.
Of poynaunt11 sawce hire needede never a deel. 12
No deynté morsel passede thurgh hire throte;
Hire dyete was accordant to hire cote.13
Repleccioun ne made hire nevere sik;
Attempre1 dyete was al hire phisik
And exercise and hertës suffisance, 15
The goute lette16 hire nothing for to daunce.
Hire bord" was served most with whit and blak,
Milk and broun bred, in which sche fond no lak.
A yerd 18 sche hadde, enclosed al aboute
With stikkes and a dryë dich withoute,
In which she hadde a cok, highte Chauntecleer;
In al the lond, of crowyng nas19 his peer.
His vois was merier than the merye orgon 20
On masse dayes that in the chirche goon."
Wel sikerer22 was his crowyng in his logge
Than is a clok or an abbay orlogge.23
By nature knew he ech ascencioun

Of equinoxial 24 in thilke toun;

For whan degrees fyftene were ascended,

Thanne crew 25 he that it mighte not ben amended.

1 Nun's Priest. 2 Somewhat advanced.

Economy. Supported. Two daughters.

3 Since that. 4 Wealth. 5 Income. Was called. 10 Inner room.

11 Pun

gent. 12 Never a whit. 19 Cottage. 14 Spare. 15 Contented mind. 16 Gout hindered. 17 Table. 18 Yard. 19 Was not. 20 Organ or organs. 21 Go, sounds or sound. 22 Much surer. 23 Abbey-clock, clock in the tower. 24 Knew each hour. 25 Then he crowed, that is, each hour, as the sun climbs 15° .an hour.