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FIVE HUNDRED YEARS
OF
CHAUCER CRITICISM AND ALLUSION
(1357-1900)
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS
OF CHAUCER CRITICISM
AND ALLUSION (1357-1900)
BY
CAROLINE F. E. SPURGEON
* * \
DOCTEUR DE L'UNIVERSITE DE PARIS
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
PART III
TEXT 1851-1900
LONDON =
PUBLISHED FOR THE CHAUCER SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.,
BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. 4,
and by HUMPHREY MILFORD, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS,
AMEN CORNER, E.C. 4, AND IN NEW YORK.
1921 for the Issue of 1913,
Stcottir Series, No. 52.
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
raris garden, stamford st., s.e. 1, and bungay, suffolk.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Text of Allusions (1851-1900) 1
V
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF CHAUCER
CRITICISM AND ALLUSION
1851. Craik, George Lillie. Outlines of the History of the English
Language . . . for Colleges and Schools, pp. 62, 70, 87-8 [Chaucer
did not introduce French diction, the Testament of Love quoted as
genuine], 95-102, 110-15, 117 [Chaucer's English transitional,
many references to Guest's History of English Rhythms'], 135-6,
Illustrative Specimens [from the Reves T. and Persones T.].
1851. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Conduct of Life, London, 1860,
pp. 5-6 [Essay on Fate, Knightes Tale, 11. 1663-72, quoted], 40
[Hous of Fame, 11. 43-51, quoted], 116 [Essay on Culture], 182
[Essay on Worship, Legend of Good Women, 11. 1037-43, quoted
for " Chaucer's extraordinary confusion of heaven and earth in
the picture of Dido"]. (Works, Centenary Edition, 1903, 12
vols., vol. vi, pp. 5, 6, 46, 132, 207.)
[Delivered as lectures in 1851, and published at Boston in 1S60 ; the London reprint
of the same year is the first etln. in B.M.]
1851. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journal [quoted in notes to Represen¬
tative Men, Centenary Edition, [1903,] vol. iv, p. 374].
[Emerson notices the absence in" Goethe's Faust of] the
cheerful, radiant, profuse beauty of which Shakspeare, of
which Chaucer, had the secret.
1851. EitzGerald, Edward. Euphranor, a Dialogue on Youth, pp. 63-6,
70. (Letters and Literary Remains, ed. W. A. Wright, 1902-3,
7 vols., vol. vi, pp. 237-40, 243-4, 246-7.)
[p. 63] [Quotation of Pro!., 11. 79-100:
' With him there was his Sonn, a yonge Squire. . .'
to
' And karft before his Fadir at the table.']
' Chaucer, however,' said Euphranor when he had finished
[p. 64] the passage, ' allows his young squire more accomplish¬
ments than you would trust him with, Doctor. See, he
dances, draws, and even writes songs—quite a petit maitre'
'But also,' I added, 'is of "grete strength," "fair y-rides,"
and had already "born him well in Chivaucliie." Besides,' con¬
tinued I . . . 'in those days, you know, there was scarce any
reading, which usurps so much of knighthood now. Men left
that to the clergy ; contented, as we before agreed, to follow
CHAUCER CRITICISM.—III. B
9
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1851
their bidding to pilgrimages and lioly wars. Some gentler
accomplishments were needed then to soften manners, just as
we want rougher ones to fortify ours. . . .
[p. 65] 'And look at dear old Chaucer himself,' said I, 'how the
fresh air of the Kent hills, over which he rode four hundred
years ago, breathes in his verses still. They have a perfume
like fine old hay, that will not lose its sweetness, having been
cut and carried so fresh. All his poetry bespeaks a man of
sound mind and body.'
tp. 66] [Chaucer and Shakespeare men of business.]
[p. 70] [Tenderness of Chaucer and Shakespeare.]
[In May, 1882, FitzGerald caused to be printed 50 copies
of a revised edn. of Eaphranor. In this the passage on p. 65
of the 1851 edn., quoted above, disappears; while another
is inserted, which concludes (p. 50) with the following
paragraph :]
" They [Pepys and Parson Adams] were both prefigured
among those Canterbury Pilgrims so many years before," said I.
"Only think of it! Some nine-and-twenty, I think, 'by
aventure yfalle in feleweship,' High and Low, Rich and Poor,
Saint and Sinner, Cleric and Lay, Knight, Ploughman,
Prioress, Wife of Bath, Shipman, hunting Abbot-like Fryar,
Poor Parson (Adams' Progenitor) — Webster (Pepys')—on
rough-riding ' Stot' or ambling Palfrey, marshall'd by mine
Host of the Tabard to the music of the Miller's Bag-pipes, on
their sacred errand to St. Thomas'; and one among them
taking note of all in Yerse still fresh as the air of those
Kentish hills they travelled over on that April morning four
hundred years ago."
[Corresponding to the passing allusion on p. 70 of edn. 1851
to ' the whole familiar tenderness of this very Shakspeare and
Chaucer of ours' is (pp. 53-4) the following :]
"Wordsworth?" said I—a man of the Milton rather than
of the Chaucer and Shakspeare type—without humour, like
the rest of his Brethren of the Lake."
"Hot but he loves Chaucer as much as you can, Doctor,
for those fresh touches of Nature, and tenderness of Heart—
insomuch that he has re-cast the Jew of Lincoln's Story into
a form more available for modern readers."
" And successfully 1"
1851]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
"Ask Lexilogus — Ah! I forgot that he never read
Chaucer ..."
[On p. 56 is added a comparison of Sir Kenelm Higby,
author of The Broad Stone of Honour, to Chaucer's Squire in
physical strength, and to Chaucer himself in his eye for
humours.]
1851. Innes, Henry. A Lecture on the Genius of Chaucer, Malta.
[A short sketch of Chaucer's life, followed by stories from
the Canterbury Tales.]
1851. Meredith, George. Poems, p. 22. [The dedication to T. L.
Peacock is dated May, 1851.]
The Poetry of Chaucer.
Gray with all honours of age! but fresh featured and
ruddy
As dawn when the drowsy farm-yard has thrice heard
Chaunticlere.
Tender to tearfulness—childlike, and manly, and motherly ;
Here beats true English blood richest joyance on sweet
English ground.
1851. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. iii, pp. 74, 92, 109, 131-3,
156, 158-9, 188, 201-3, 205-6, 235, 252, 258, 263, 297, 300, 306,
308, 315-17, 330, 345-6, 361-3, 368, 383, 385-7, 419-21, 429-30,
434, 450, 473-4, 492-3, 496, 507-8, 515 ; vol. iv, pp. 54, 65, 68,
76, 88, 93, 145-7, 159, 176, 189, 255, 275, 318, 337, 475.
Reference. Subject.
1st S. iii, ' Pilled' (Eeves Tale).
74.
1st S. iii, 'Velouttes bletv, in signe of
92. trouth.'
Author.
Date.
a, f. s.
Jan. 25.
a, f. s.
Feb. 1.
" Good
Feb. 8.
B'ye."
E.
Feb. 22.
1st S. iii, ' By and by'
109.
side by side.
Anon.
Anon.
Bruce,
John,and
Others.
1st S. iii, Note on Knightes Tale.
131-2. Chaucer specially mentions the
arrival of Palamon and Arcite at Athens on a Sunday,
and this circumstance is astrologically connected with
the issue of the contest.
Feb. 22. 1st S. iii, 'Nettle in, dock out' (Troilus,
133. iv, st. 66) is the beginning of a
Northumbrian charm for a nettle-sting.
Feb. 22. 1st S. iii, Short notice of Wright's Can-
158. terbury Tales, vol. iii.
Feb. 22. 1st S. iii, Chaucer's tomb ; see above, 1850,
159. and below, May 10.
4
Five Hundred Years of
[a .P. 1851
Author.
M., C. K.
B[rae],
A. E.
Date.
March 8.
Mar. 15
Reference. Subject.
1st S. iii, Chaucer's descendants, if
188. might contribute to the repair of
Ids tomb.
1st S. iii. The astrological note on the
201-3.
Crossley,
Fras., and
Editor.
B[rae],
A. E.
March 15. 1st S. iii,
205-6.
24 hours of the day in Knightes
Tale (Feb. 22) anticipated by
Tyrwhitt.
' Nettle in, dock out.'
Mar. 29. 1st S. iii, The astronomical allegory con-
235. tained in Chaucer's Complaint of
Mars and Venus.
X , A. L. Mar. 29. 1st S. iii, Chaucer's 'Fifty Wekes.'—With
252. regard to Chaucer meaning by
this the interval of a solar year; compare it with his
original, the Teseide of Boccaccio ; where (V. 98)
Theseus says, appointing the listed fight:
' E tekmine vi sia a cio donato
D'un anno intero.'
To which the poet subjoins :
' E cosi fu ordinate.'
B[rae], April 5. 1st S. iii, Further notes on the Complaint
A. E. 258, 306. of Mars and Venus.
B[rae], Apr. 26. 1st S. iii, Tyrwhitt's astronomical mis-
A. E. 315-7. takes in his notes on the opening
lines of the Prologue and Marchantes Tale, 1. 889.
Editor. April 26. 1st S. iii. ' Span-newe.'
330.
B[rae],
A. E.
Editor.
May 3. 1st S. iii, Introduction to the Man of
345. Law's Prologue. 'The Arke of
Artificial Day' means the Azimuthal Arch of the
horizon included between the point of sunrise and
that of sunset.
May 10. 1st S. iii, Chaucer's prophetic view of the
361—3. Crystal Palace, as shown in his
description of the 'temple y-made of Glas' in the
Hons of Fame. Several extracts pieced together. [For
a parallel see below, 1854, Unknown.] The article
concludes with an appeal for money towards restoring
Chaucer's tomb.
" Arun.'' May 10.
1st S. iii,
368.
' Nettle out, dock in.'
Bruce, May 10. 1st S. iii, Chaucer's tomb ; a fuller appeal,
Jolin, and 383. with a woodcut of it as it should be;
Others, " the portrait and the inscriptions have disappeared ;
the overhanging canopy has suffered damage ; the table
1851]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
5
Date. Reference. Subject,
is chipped and broken ; the base is fast mouldering
into irretrievable decay." See above, 1850, and Feb. 22,
p. 159 in this vol.
May 17. 1st S. iii, The date of the journey to
385-7. Canterbury as deduced from the
Prologue to the Man of Law's Tale. . . . Speaking
strictly, this declination would more properly apply to
the 17th of April, in Chaucer's time, than to the 18th ;
but since he does not profess to critical exactness, . . .
such MSS. as name the 18th of April ought to he
respected; hut Tyrwhitt's '28th' .... ought to be
scouted at once.
[See Skeat's note on 1. 3 of Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale, Chaucer's
Works, vol. v, p. 132.]
With regard to ' Ten on the clokke' in the afternoon
observation [Parson's ProL, 1. 5], there seems no need to
retain a reading 'by which broad sunshine is attributed
to ten o'clock at night'! It may be explained in
the circumstance that 'ten' and 'four' in horary
reckoning were convertible terms. The old Roman
method of naming the hours, wdierein noon was the
sixth, was long preserved, especially in conventual
establishments: and doubtless the idiomatic phrase
'o'clock' originated in the necessity for some dis¬
tinguishing mark between hours 'of the clock'
reckoned from midnight, and hours of the day
reckoned from sunrise or 6 a.m. So that Ten was very
likely a gloss upon four by some monkish transcriber,
ignorant perhaps of the meaning of 'o'clock'; since
four o'clock is the tenth hour of the clay reckoning
from 6 a.m.
[See Skeat's note, confirming this, to 1. 5 of the Parson's Prologue, Chaucer's
Works, vol. v, p. 4-14.]
B[rael, May 31. 1st S. iii, Tbe Star Min A1 Auwa—
A. E. 419-21.
'Therewith the mones exaltacioun
In libra, men alawai gan ascende
As we were entrying at a townes end.'
The meaning of these lines is discussed, and it is
suggested that Chaucer intended to mark the moon's
place by associating her rising with that of a known
fixed star; compare, for this same method, 11. 263-5 of
the Squire's Tale.
It is very remarkable that the only year, perhaps
in the whole of Chaucer's lifetime, in which the moon
could have arisen with this star on the 18th of April,
should be the identical year to which Tyrwliitt, reason¬
ing from historical evidence alone, woidd fain attribute
the writing of the Canterbury Tales, i. e. 1388.
"Arun." May 31. 1st S. iii, Pilgrims' Road to Canterburv.
429-30.
Author
B[rael,
A. E.
6
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1851
Author.
Editor.
Date.
May 31.
C., J, H. June 7.
B[rae],
A. E.
Thorns,
W. J.
June 14.
June 21.
Reference.
1st S. iii,
434.
1st S. iii,
4r,o.
1st S. iii,
473-4.
Subject.
' Went' = way.
' Hernsliaw.'
The Armorican word ' inenez'
(Frankeleyns Tale) = points or
summits of rocks.
Coincidence between Chaucer
and Gray. Did Gray owe the
[For this
Editor.
T., H. G.
B[rae],
A. E
H[alli-
well],
J. 0.
Varro.
1st S. iii,
492-3.
well-known line,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires,
to the one in Chaucer's lie-re.s Prologue,
Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken ? (1. 28).
comparison sec above, 17S2 [Dodsley, J.?], vol. i, p. 405.]
June 21. 1st S. iii, Chaucer's reference (iVonnes P. T.
49G. 11.4537-42) to Geoffrey de Vinsauf's
lament for Richard Cmur de Lion.
June 21. 1st S. iii, 'Hernsliaw.'
507-8.
June 28. 1st S. iii, The Astronomical evidence of
515. the true date of the Canterbury
Filgrimage. When it is recollected that some at least
of the facts recorded by Chaucer must have been
theoretical ... it must be admitted that his near
approach to truth is remarkable . . .
Assuming that the true date intended by Chaucer was
Saturday the 18th of April 1388, the following particu¬
lars of that day are those which have reference to his
description. Astronomical particulars are then given.
Chaucer's knowledge of astronomy is most probably
the result of real observation at the time named.
Probable that he wrote the prologues to his Canterbury
Talex more as a narration (with some embellishments)
of events that really took place, than that they were
altogether the work of his imagination.
July 2G. 1st S. iv, r Chaucer and Gray (iii, 492.)—
54. I Gray himself refers in a note to
Petrarch as his original for the
line—
'Even in our ashes live tlieir
wonted fires.'
also
occurs in
was originally
The thought
Shakespeare.
Gray's line
written—
'Awake and faithful to her
wonted fires,'
which has but little to do with
Chaucer.
1851]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
1
Author.
Date.
Reference.
Campkin,
July 26.
IstS. iv,
Henry.
65, 68.
P., G.
July 26.
1st S. iv,
76.
Editor.
Aug. 2.
1st S. iv,
88.
Editor
Aug. 30.
1st S. iv,
and others.
145-7.
Subject.
L[aing], Sept
D[avid].
P., J. W. Sept
Laurie,
James.
Editor.
Oct. 4,
1st S. iv,
176.
. 13. 1st S. iv,
189.
1st S. iv,
255.
(Chaucer and Caxton. — Why
not repair Chaucer's tomb with
the money of the Caxton fund 1
Nothing would be more agree¬
able to Caxton himself.
Where is Kinaston's MS. of his
Latin version of Troilus?
' Ruell.'
poet
And
What was the original pro¬
nunciation of the name of the
Chaucer ? Was not the ch in his day a guttural ?
was not the name Hawker, or Howker ?
Oct. 11.
"A Ion- Oct.
doner."
"Alon- Dec.
doner."
25.
13.
IstS. iv,
275.
1st S. iv,
318.
1st S. iv,
475.
' Livery.'
' Cockney.'
' Cockney.'
1851. Turner, Thomas Hudson. Some Account of Domestic Archi¬
tecture in England from the Conquest to the End of the Thirteenth
Century, Oxford, 1851, pp. 122, 146. [For the continuation of this
work, by J. H. Parker, see below, 1853.]
[p. 122] Perhaps the earliest [hostel or tavern] in London was the
Saracen's Head in Friday Street, Chepeside, where Chaucer,
in his youth, satv the Grosvenor arms hanging out; the poet
did not make his acquaintance with the Tabard in Southwark
till a later date.
1851. Unknown. Review of Wright's Canterbury Tales, vol. iii, [in]
The Athenaium, March 15, 1851, pp. 294-5.
[A long review, praising Wright's principle of printing from
a single MS. and giving the variations of others; surprise is
expressed that he had not used the Ellesmere MS.; and hope
that he would add the other poems, a glossary, and a bio¬
graphy which should, without being diffuse like Godwin's,
contain the new facts which have come to light since Hicolas
published his.]
8 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1851
1851. Unknown. Biographical Sketches of Eminent British Poets . . .
intended for teachers, Dublin, Geoffrey Chaucer, pp. 1-11.
[A very brief biography, accepting the events based on The
Testament of Lore, followed by quotations in praise of Chaucer
from Campbell, Soutliey, Leigh Hunt, etc.]
[This hook was probably intended to be a companion to the Selections from the
British Poets, Dublin, 1S51, q.v. below. Both were published by direction of the
Commissioners of National Education in Ireland.]
1851. Unknown. Selections from the British Poets, . . . from Chaucer
to the present Time . . . Dublin, 1851, vol. i, p. 337 ["Truth"];
vol. ii, pp. 4-5 ["Spring"], 105-6 ["An April Day"], 210-12
["The Good Parson"], 253 ["The Daisy"], 365, 399.
[The first four pieces are more or less modernised, the third
so much so that its original cannot be identified. The first
stanza reads :
All day the low-liung clouds have dropt
Their garner'd fulness down ;
All day the soft grey mist hath wrapt
Hill, valley, grove and town.
This reappears in several later school anthologies, the latest
we have found being H. C. Ilowen's Studies in English, 1876.]
1852. Cloug-h, Arthur Hugh. Lecture on the Development of English
Literature from Chaucer to Wordsworth, [printed in] Prose Remains
of A. H. Clough, 1888, pp. 333-42.
[p. 334] In commencing such a conspectus [of the mutual reaction of
literature and national character in England], I can have no
hesitation in selecting the first name : English Literature
begins with Chaucer The picture of all that pertains to
those first exhibitions (for good or for evil, or for both) of our
English genius and temper you may see surviving unfaded in
the lively colouring of the " Canterbury Tales." . . . What,
[p. 335] for example, can he truer to permanent English likings
and dislikings . . . than these lines in description of the
Monk1? [Quotation, Pro!., 11. 173-8, 183-8.] Certainly we
may still find in old England ladies — I quote Chaucer —
paining themselves to counterfeit cheer of court, and he
estately of manere, and to he held worthy of reverence; busy
or busy-seeming lawyers [quotation, ProL, 11. 321-2] ; countrv
gentlemen, great at the sessions, and greater at the dinner
table; the tried soldier, silent and unpretending; the young
[p. 336] soldier, much the reverse; the merchant, so discreet and
steadfast [quotation, Prol., 1. 282] ; religious and laborious
parish-clergymen, and church dignitaries, not very religious,
and not at all laborious.
1852]
Chaucer Criticism ancl Allusion.
9
[p. 342] [Chaucer, by the copious admission of Norman-French
elements, completed and transformed 'our homely meagre
Semi-Saxon into a civilised and living speech.']
1852. Edgar, Andrew. Popular Literature, [in] Tusculana, pp. 116,
118-19, 127-8.
[p. lis] We never rise from their perusal [i.e. of the Canterbury
Tales] without a conviction that, hut for their antique
[p. 119] phraseology, their popularity at the present day would be un¬
bounded. . . They present to us men as they were, and in
truth, as they always will be. . . The masterly narrative of
Hume conveys but an imperfect notion of those times, in
comparison with what may be derived from the " Canterbury
Tales." We are presented with the very form and pressure of
the age. . . We are admitted behind the scenes ; we inspect
the interior of society. We see causes beginning to operate of
which we now enjoy the effects. We see the clergy meeting
with the contempt and sneers of wise observers. . . We see
the rising influence of the people. . . Then in addition to
all this we have fancy and imagination shedding their radiance
over all, romance so like truth, poetry so full of nature.
Would not a writer of such powers, and such a character, but
for the unfortunate drawback to which we have alluded, and
which the failure of every attempt has rendered us almost
hopeless of ever seeing removed, be likely to find favour in the
eyes of a generation who pay such homage to the mirrored life
of Shakespeare, and who take such delight in " the pictured
page " of Scott 1
[This passage was quoted in exten so by a reviewer in the Gentleman's Magazine,
March, 1853, new ser., vol. xxxix, pp. 280-7, and commended as "a little over¬
wrought, but in the main just."]
1852. Mitford, Mary Russell. Recollections of a Literary Life, 3 vols. ;
vol. i, p. Ill; vol. ii, pp. 176, 236 ; vol. iii, pp. 189-91, 194.
[iii. 190] These towers [Donnington] with their battlements, and the
deep, arched entrance . . . speak of little but war in its
sternest form; but the little hall, with its beautiful groined
roof, and a certain mixture of rude splendour and homely
comfort, . . . tells of the genial poet whose healthy, cordial,
[p. 191] hearty spirit must have made him the delight of every board,
and most especially of his own.
I was much tempted to extract some passage in harmony
10
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1852
with this feeling; some bright and life-like portrait from the
description of the Canterbury Pilgrims, or that inimitable
character of the good Parson, which amongst its innumerable
merits has none higher than the proof it affords of Chaucer's
own love of piety and virtue. ... I subjoin (taking no other
freedom than that of changing the orthography) one of my
own favourite hits, . . . full as it seems to me of tenderness,
pathos and truth.
[Quotation—Man of Laids Tale, 11. 722-875.]
[For Hiss Mitford's letter and sonnet on this occasion, see above, 1815.]
1852-3. N., F. M. Letters, [in] The Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1852,
Jan., Feb., March, 1853, new series, vol. xxxviii, pp. 274-5, vol.
xxxix, pp. 52-4, 169-70, 276-7.
[On English etymology, with many examples from Chaucer.]
1852. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. v, pp. 26, 141, 170, 237,
252-3, 267-8, 319, 325-6, 373, 466, 536, 574, 607, 621; vol. vi,
pp. 118, 167, 304, 409, 424, 603.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Editor? Jan. 10. 1st S. v, Johnson the author of the
26. newspaper announcement of
Cibber's Lives of the Poets, with Chaucer allusions;
q.v. above, 1753, vol. i, p. 407.
A., E.
B[rae],
A. E.
Warde, J
H. Cor- (
ville, and (
Editor, j
Juvenis.
Singer,
Samuel i
Weller,
and i
N., A.
Campkin,
Henry.
Feb.
Feb. 21.
Feb. 21.
Mar. 6.
Mar. 13.
Mar. 20.
1 st S. v,
141.
1st S. v,
170.
1st S. v,
180.
1st S. v,
237.
1st S. v,
252-3.
Buxom.
' To do' = to cause.
'Dulcarnon,' still current.
' Dun is in the mire.:
' Dulcarnon,' from the Arabic.
' Philo- April 3.
Chaucer.'
1st S. v, Burlesque on Cowley's epitaph,
267-8. with Chaucer allusions ; q.v.
below, App. A., [1667 ?].
1st S. v, Is the copy of Speght's Chaucer
319. in existence, in which was a note
by Gabriel Harvey on Heywood's Epigrams ? [See a
note in "Warton's Poetry, vol. iii, p. 86 (ed. 1840).]
1852]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
11
Author.
Singer,
Samuel
Weller.
Benmo-
hel,
N. L.
' Philo-
Chaucer.'
' Eliza.'
' Jaydee.'
R., J. C.
r.
T., F. W,
M., J. R.
Date. Reference. Subject.
April 3. 1st S. v, ' Dulcarnon.' 'Are we never to
325-6. liave an edition of Chaucer
worthy of him and creditable to us ?'
April 17. 1st S. v, ' Rehete,'
373.
May 15.
June 5.
June 12.
June 26.
June 26.
Sept. 25.
Oct. 30.
1st S. v, ' Soth play quod play' (Colics
466. Prol., 1. 33).
1st S. v, Who is the author of the
536. following lines on Chaucer 1
' Swan-like, in dying
Famous old Chaucer
Sang his last song.'
Reference given for the above,
q.v. above, 1841.
' Gat-tothed.'
B., J. N. Dec. 25.
1st S. v,
574.
1st S. v,
607.
1st S. v,
621.
1st S. v,
304.
1st S. vi,
424.
1st S. vi,
603.
Chaucer studied law at the Temple ?
A slight correction in the above.
' Yernicle.'
The Man in the Moon ; Henry-
son's Testament of Cresseide
quoted as Chaucer's.
What authority is there for the
statement (made by Aikin) that
1852. Smith, Alexander. A Life Drama, sc. iv. (Poems, 1853 [1st in
B.M., a reissue <], p. 52 ; Poetical Works, ed. W. Sinclair, 1909, p. 36.)
Breezes are "blowing in old Chaucer's verse.
1852. Unknown. Kevietv of The Life of Thomas Stothard, It.A., by
Anne Eliza Bray, [in] The Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1852,
new ser., vol. xxxvii, pp. 148-50.
p. iso] Should Mrs. Bray . . . reprint her life of her famous
father-in-law . . . she should certainly refer to the rival
Pilgrimage which Blake painted and engraved—a rival only
in the co-incidence of its appearance—for it is not only
Blake's poorest production, but a most sorry performance itself,
while Stothard's fine composition has been happily described
by Scott, in his Life of Dryden, as " executed with the genius
and spirit of a master, and all the rigid attention to costume
that could be expected by the most severe antiquary."
12 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1853
[1853.] The Canterbury Tales; A New Text, with illustrative Notes
by T. Wright. Universal Library (Ingram, Cooke and Co.),
Poetry, Vol. ii. [Reprinted with additions in 18G0.]
[A reprint of Wright's Percy Society edn., 1848-51, ^.r.]
1853. The Canterbury Tales . . . from the text and with the notes
and glossary of T. Tyrwlritt, ... A new edition. Illustrated by
Edward Courbould. (Routledge's British Poets.) [Re-issued in
Routledge's Standard Library in 1878, 1882, etc.]
1853. Clough, Arthur Hugh. Letter to Charles E. Norton, [dated]
Dec. 9, 1853, [printed in] Prose Remains of A. H. Clough, 1888,
pp. 221-2.
Tell Child not to be too learned about his Chaucer, for my
sake ; and above all, to make the verses scan. I hesitate
about recommending any indications of the metre in the
typography. But a set of simple directions emphatically and
prominently given at the outset (e. <j. for the sounding or
silencing of the final e) will, I think, he essential. People
won't read Chaucer against their ears.
[Professor F. J. Child abandoned the scheme of editing Chaucer, considering the
time unripe. For another letter by Clough on the same subject, see below, 1854.]
1853. FitzGerald, Edward. Six Dramas of Calderon, freely trans¬
lated by Edward FitzGerald, pp. 173-4n. (Letters and Literary
Remains, ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1902-3, 7 vols., vol. v, p. 271)i.)
[To illustrate —
. . . give me my stall.
Alas, alas ! and I with no strength left
To wield it, only as I halt along,
Peeling about with it to find a grave,
And knocking at deaf earth to let me in!
Three Judgments at a Bloic. Act II, scene 1.
FitzGerald quotes in a note :
Ne dethe alas ! ne wolle not [ban] my life . . .
Leve moder, let me yn.
Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale.
A better text of Chaucer's lines has been printed in
subsequent editions. For another reference by FitzGerald
to this passage, see below, 1856.]
1853. Landor, Walter Savage. Imaginary Conversation, Archdeacon
Hare and Walter Landor, [in] Last Fruit off an Old Tree, pp.
107—8, 124. (Works, ed. C. G. Crump, 1891—3; Imaginary
Conversations, vol. iv, pp. 407, 426.)
[Landor persuades Hare that Chaucer's spelling is much
better than the modern.]
1853]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
13
[p. 426] Shakespeare and Milton and Chaucer have more imagination
than any of those to whom the quality is peculiarly attributed.
1853. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. vii, pp. 38, 69-70, 160-1,
201, 274, 282, 284, 335, 356-7, 391, 392, 397-99, 401, 424, 440,
512, 517-19, 542, 560, 568-9, 584-5, 620, 622, 624; vol. viii,
pp. 10, 161, 180, 311, 323, 450, 455, 475, 502, 584.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Jan. 15. 1st S. vii, Two extracts, (1) from the Life
69-70. of Chaucer by Sir Harris Nicolas,
and (2) from Godwin's Life of Chaucer, giving what
authority there is for the assertion that Chaucer
studied law at the Temple.
Feb. 12. IstS. vii, 'Its,' not used by Chaucer, or
160-1. by any poet earlier than the end of
the sixteenth century, a test for
Rowley.
Feb. 26. 1st S. vii, Inedited Poem on Chaucer,
, 201. called ' Eulogium Chaucerj,'
found in MS. in a black-letter Chaucer [1561], q.v.
above, vol. i, p. 109.
' Tyro.'
Keight-
ley,
Thomas.
S., T. A.
'Erica.' Mar. 19. 1st S. vii,
282.
M. Mar. 19. 1st. S. vii,
284.
Singer, April 2. 1st S. vii,
Samuel 335.
Weller.
'An
Oxford
B.C.L.'
' Rather.'
' Rape and renne.'
' Seldom-when,' ' selden-tiine.'
Crossley,
Francis.
Bede,
Cutli-
bert.
Arrow-
smith,
W. R.
B., J. M.
B., J. M.
April 9. 1st S. vii, Emerson states (q.v. above,
356-7. 1848) that Chaucer's Hoiis of
Fame is taken 'from the French
or Italian.' Is this so 1 and if so, from what sources ?
April 16. 1st S. vii, ' Rather.'
392.
April 23. 1st S. vii, A list of the epithets given by
397-9. British poets to the nightingale ;
Chaucer's are : evening, good, heavenly, lusty, merry,
new-abashed, shrill, sweet.
Apidl 23. 1st S. vii,
401.
More' = root.
April30. 1st S. vii, 'Latin' = Italian (Troilus, ii,
425. Prohem. 1. 14).
April 30. 1st S. vii, No foreign original has ever
440. been found for Chaucer's Hons
of Fame ... We may fairly presume that Emerson
never took the trouble to investigate the matter.
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1853-
Autlior.
Anon.
B., J. M.
Date.
May 21.
Reference.
1st S. vii,
512.
; Bathe.'
Subject.
Arrow-
smith,
W. R.
G.,W. H. June 11.
May 28. 1st S. vii, On Chaucer's knowledge of
517-19. Italian. Sir Harris Nicolas (in
Aldine edn. of Chaucer. 1845) says Chaucer was not
acquainted with the Italian language or literature.
This is not the case, and many passages from Chaucer's
writings are quoted which are either translations or
paraphrases from lines in Dante, Petrarch or Boccaccio.
June 4. 1st S. vii, 'Dare' = lurk or cause to
542. lurk.
M., J. June 11.
1st S. vii, An early satirical poem men-
568-9. tioning Chaucer, q.v. below,
App. A., [n.b. 1506].
1st S. vii, Chaucer's knowledge of Italian
584-5. (1st S. vii, 517) upheld by Dr.
C., B. H.
Whit-
borne,
J.B.
Nott (in his edn. of Surrey and Wyatt, q.v. above,
' Bumble,' used of the bittern.
' Leden' = Latin, used of the
song of birds, etc.
' Parvise.'
' Dissimulate.'
' Unneath.'
Lydgate's ' Balade warnynge
men to beware of deceitful
women,' quoted as Chaucer's.
' Lozenges.
Brief notice of Routledge's
edition of the Canterbury Tales.
Poetical epithets of the
nightingale ; Chaucer uses,
beside those given in vii, 397-9, ' sely.'
Nov. 19. 1st S. viii, Black as a mourning colour
502. first alluded to by Chaucer
(Troilus and Knightes Tale) and Froissart.
Dec. 17. 1st S. viii, Church reves.
584.
1815-16).
Editor.
June 25.
1st S. vii,
620.
B.,E. M.
June 25.
1st S. vii,
622.
Chever-
June 25.
1st S. vii,
ells.
624.
Editor.
July 2.
IstS. viii,
10.
H.,T.H.
Aug. 13.
IstS. viii,
cle.
160-1.
R., C. I.
Aug. 20.
1st S. viii,
180.
' Broc-
Nov. 5.
1st S. viii,
tuna.'
450.
Editor.
Nov. 5.
1st S. viii,
455.
Pinker-
Nov. 12.
1st S. viii
ton,W.
475.
1854]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
15
1853-9. Parker, John Henry. Some Account of Domestic Architecture
in England, [vol. ii] by the Editor of "The Glossary of Architec¬
ture" [J. H. Parker], Edward I.-Richard II., 1853, pp. 41 48-50,
54, 66 n., 67, 74, 87, 94, 97 n., 98, 116-7, 128, 132, 184 [quotations
from Chaucer illustrating the high table, painted chambers, eating
utensils, the Squire's carving, minstrelsy at meals, door locks,
sleeping chambers, gardens, the cook, sauces and inns], 270 [Chaucer
retired to Donyngton Castle, in Berkshire, in the seventieth year of
his age, about 1396] ; [Ami. iii] Richard II.-Henry VIII., 1859,
pt. i, p. 47 [the Tabard, its destruction and rebuilding in the reign
of Charles II.].
[Vol. i, by T. Hudson Turner, appeared in 1801, q,.v.]
1854-56. Works of Chaucer, 8 vols., in Bell's Annotated Edition of
the English Poets. [The introductions and notes are by Robert
Bell. Re-edited in 1878, q.v. below.]
[Vol. i contains the Biography and Literary Introduction.
The Biography, though the usual apocryphal pieces, except
the Testament of Love, are accepted, is a good gathering-up
of the facts then known, based on Tyrwhitt, Godwin, Nicolas,
etc. The residence at Donnington Castle is not accepted.
The Introduction deals with Chaucer's learning, language,
metre, etc. The various pieces in the text have each an Intro¬
duction and notes. The apocryphal pieces include The Court
of Love, Parlement of Foules, Cuckoo and Nightingale, Flour
and Lefe, vol. iv; Chauceres Dreme (The Island, of Ladies),
vol. vi; Complaint of the Black Knight, Balade de Vilage
(= Vissage) sans Peynture, Chaucer''s Prophecy, Orisoun to
the. Virgin, Lamentation of Mary Magdalen, Praise of
Women, Eight Goodly Questions, Lines to the King and
Knights of the Garter, vol. viii, the latter four pieces being
included in Poems 'Attributed to Chaucer.]
1854-6. Bell, Robert. Introduction and Notes to the Works of Chaucer
[q.v. above].
1854. Case, M. P. Chaucer and his Times, [in] Bibliotheca Sacra, •
Andover, Mass., April, 1854, art. viii, 2nd series, vol. xi, pp. 394-
416.
[Chaucer " a dim and shadoAvy figure." An account of the
age of Chaucer, Wiclif's religious reform, Edward III and his
Queen Philippa, &c.]
[p. 404] [Remarks on the ' foreign air' of Chaucer's language at a
cursory glance.]
The English tongue . . . Avas a rude mass, rudis indi-
gestague moles, a material the most unpromising possible for
16
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1854
genius to find an utterance in. The French had heen used
by the higher classes, Latin by the learned, and the Saxon
by the common people; and during the period of Norman
ascendency, for more than two centuries, the Anglo-Saxon
had ceased to he a written language. It was only a dialect
of slaves, the patois of a crushed and despised race . . .
[p. 405] Lardy, if ever, has the history of letters recorded such
a phenomenon as we here behold. A great genius, one of
the world's elect bards, arises in a country and in an age
Avhere the language is an unfit and an insufficient medium for
his utterances, and where he must not only create his forms
and conceptions, but, in some sense, the language also, with
which to clothe them . . .
[pp. 406- [Eemarks on the uncertainty of the chronology of Chaucer's
71 life and writings, followed by a criticism of ' the two capital
allegories of Chaucer,' the Hous of Fame, and the Flour and
the Lefe.\
[p. 409] In the Canterbury Tales, our poet leaves this fanciful '■
region where he had so fondly lingered, and places before
us persons and scenes of the most matter-of-fact kind possible.
This was his last and greatest work ; the labor of his old age.
[pp.409- [Here follows a detailed criticism of the characters in the
14] Prologue.]
[p. 414] In seeking for Chaucer's prominent characteristics, we
recognize at once his great descriptive power. Every scene
and every character lives before us. His naturalness, also,
is most observable. Nothing is •artificial; nature reigns
supreme everywhere. He is, in fact, preeminently a poet of
nature. He is the poet of spring, of the singing of the birds,
of the zephyrs, and the flowers. He is no weak nor lazy
copyist; he takes nothing at second hand.
Hv 414- [Chaucer contrasted with Byron.]
[p. 415] The popularity of Chaucer has experienced various vicissi¬
tudes. In the age of Queen Elisabeth [.sic], he was truly
regarded as the first of English poets; and Spenser, his fond
admirer and copyist, when dying, requested, as an especial
honor, to be buried near his tomb. At other periods he has
not been so generally read. . . .
[Hindrances to his popularity, the grossness of the times,
and the obsoleteness of the language; the latter easily
surmountable.]
1854]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
17
[p. 41(3] Whatever the general and popular estimation of his writings
may be, he will be read so long as a love for nature and truth
shall remain among those who speak the English language.
He was worthy to lead off that noble band of British bards,
who will long reflect glory on the English name. It is a
conspicuous place which he holds among his compeers in
that ' House of Fame,' which he has so graphically described
to us.
1854. Clough, Arthur Hugh. Letter to F. J. Child, [dated] Sept. 2,
1854, [printed in] Prose Remains of A. II. Clough, 1888, p. 228-9.
I hope the Chaucer is going on prosperously. I think you
should adopt means to make the metre quite obvious, at any
sacrifice of typographical prettiness. Yet I don't like the
grave accent, 'When Zephyrus eke with his sote bretli,'and
should almost prefer the sote, but that it seems unmeaning
to use a mark of quantity. Yet it is not a case of accent,
either. I think I should in one way or another mark every
syllable that would not now be pronounced, grevSs and leves
and Emperoure's daughter—the most correct mark would be
e : Emperoure's; sote. And I should prefix to the whole a
very plain and short statement of the usage in these points.
I suppose there is not much doubt about a few general rules,
though Chaucer did not regularly observe them, as, for ex¬
ample, the use of the £ in adjectives after definite articles,
which it seems to me he omits occasionally, with French
adjectives, as if it was a matter of ear rather than rule. So
also with such Saxon dissyllables, as tynig, which is not in¬
variably a dissyllable, I think. And yet it would be worth
while giving a list of such words as are liable to be dissyllables.
However, ere this, I daresay you have settled all these pre¬
liminaries. I don't quite see what you should do about the
Miller's and the Reve's Tales. I think explanation might be
ti'. 229] a little retrenched there, so as to leave them in the " decent
obscurity of a learned language.
[For another letter by Clough on the same subject see above, 1853.]
1854. Lowell, James Russell. Leaves from my Journal in Italy and
Elseivhere, [in] Graham's Monthly, April-June, 1854 [not in B.M.
See Bibliography of J. R. Lowell by G. W. Cooke], (Writings,
Riverside Edn., 11 vols., vol. i, p. 184.)
I cannot describe our drive [from Subiaco to Tivoli] . . .
CHAUCER CRITICISM.—III. C
18
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1854
It is not often that we can escape the evil genius of analysis
that haunts our modern daylight of self-consciousness . . .
and enjoy a day of right Chaucer.
1854. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. ix, pp. 54, 112, 307, 351,
383, 399, 433, 470-1 ; vol. x, pp. 82, 96, 135, 182, 203, 208,
387, 398, 411, 474, 535.
Author.
a.
Middle -
ton,
F. M.
Foss,
Edward.
Editor.
' Zeus.'
Riley,
H. T.
Riley,
H. T.
B., J, M.
G.,H. T.
P., J.
Editor.
C., T. Q.
Date.
Jan. 21.
April 1.
April 22.
Reference.
1st S. ix,
54.
1st S. ix,
307.
Subject.
' Starve' = die.
The chase of the fox in Nonnes
P.T. the embryo of fox-hunting.
1st S. ix, In the reign of Henry IV,
383. there was a Club called ' La
Court de bone Compagnie,' of which Occleve was a
member, and pjrobably Chaucer. So also was Henry
Sorner, who received Chaucer's pension for him.
1st S. ix, ' Gossip.'
399.
April 29.
May 20.
1st S. ix,
470-1.
: Galoclie.'
Aug. 12. 1st S. x, Chaucer and Emerson (vii,
135. 356). Is an Oxford B.C.L. correct
in his quotation from Emerson's Representative Men?
' Chaucer, it seems, drew continually, through Lydgate
and Carton, from Guido di Colonna,' &c. Surely Mr.
Emerson never penned such nonsense as this.
[For the passage in Emerson's Shakespeare, in Re-
2>resentative Men, see above, 1848.]
Sept. 2.
Sept. 9.
Sept. 9.
Nov. 11.
1st S. x,
182.
1st S. x,
203.
1st S. x,
208.
■ Tabard' and ' Talbot.'
Jack of Dover.1
Mention in Sompnoures T. of
kissinm
1st S. x, What are the grounds for the
387. surmise that Chaucer's Parish
Priest was sketched from Wiclif in his later days ?
This is merely conjectural, probably from the fact
that when Wiclif was warden of Canterbury College,
Oxford, he is said to have had Chaucer under his
tuition. The Persone of a Toiva (1841), [q.v. above],
and Le Bas, Life of Wiclif [q.v. above, 1832k'
quoted.
Nov. 18. 1st S. x, Quotation: Pardoneres
398 11. 361-5.
Prol.,
1854]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
19
Author.
S., J. D.
a.
Date.
Nov. 18.
Dec. 9.
Reference.
1st S. X,
411.
1st S. x,
474.
Subject.
'Harlot,' applied to males, de¬
rived, like varlet, from ' hyran,'
to hire.
' A per se.'
' 'Oims.' Dec. 30.
1st S. x, Doubtless the notion of
535. Chaucer having portrayed Wick-
liff as his "Parish Priest" (x. 387) is of equal
authenticity with the tradition that Dryden drew his
beautiful exemplification of it from Bishop Ken.
[c. 1854.] Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Beauty and the Bird, [a sonnet,
in] Poems, 1870 (edn. 2, 1870, 1st in B.M.) p. 278. (Collected
Works, ed. W. M. Rossetti, 1897, 2 vols., vol. i, p. 286.)
She fluted with her mouth as when one sips . . .
Till her fond bird, with little turns and dips,
Piped low to her of sweet companionships.
And when he made an end, some seed took she
And fed him from her tongue . . .
And like the child in Chaucer, on whose tongue
The Blessed Mary laid, when he was dead,
A grain,—who straightway praised her name in song :
Even so, when she, a little lightly red,
Now turned on me and laughed, I heard the throng
Of inner voices praise her golden head.
[Placed chronologically in the Collected Works after a poem attributed to about
1854 (see note, vol. i, p. 521).
Mr. W. M. Rossetti (ib. vol. i, p. xxvii), after giving a list of poets who influenced
D. G. Rossetti, says : " The reader may perhaps be surprised to find some names
unmentioned in this list . . . Chaucer, Spenser, the Elizabethan dramatists (other
than Shakespeare), Milton, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, are unnamed. It should
not be supposed that he read them not at all or cared not for any of them ; but if
we except Chaucer in a rather loose way . . . they were comparatively neglected."]
1854. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, Boston, p. 228. (Writings,
Riverside Edn., 1894-5, 10 vols., vol. ii, pp. 330-31.)
Thus far I am of the opinion of Chaucer's nun, -who
Yave not of the text a pulled hen
That saith that hunters hen not holy men.
Prof. 11. 177-8.
[It was, of course, not the nun, but the monk, who held this opinion.]
1854. Unknown. The Crystal Palace, [in] Blackwood's Edinburgh
Magazine, Sept. 1854, vol. lxxvi, p. 335.
We summon then, our oldest poet, to celebrate as afar off,
for coming time, our newest Crystal Palace and its wonders, in
20
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1854-
Chatjcer's Dream
Of the Crystal Palace.
' As I slept I dreamt I was
Within a temple made of glass . . .
Of metal that shone out full clear. . . .
[Hons of Fame, 11. 119-27, and other passages strung together.]
[For a parallel see above, 1851, Notes and Queries, May 10.]
1854. Unknown. The Beard, [in] The Westminster Review, July, 1854,
new ser., vol. vi, p. 58.
In Richard II's reign, . . . the heard was "forked," . . .
The venerable authority of Chaucer now comes iii; and what
a glimpse is this he gives us of his " Shipman "
" Hardy he was, and wise I undertake,
With many a tempest liadde his herd be shake " !
Here is vigour of delineation !
[The Frankeleyns " white herd" and the Merchantes
" forked herd " also noted.]
1854. Wall, James W. Early English Poets, Chaucer, [in] The
Knickerbocker Magazine, New York, May, vol. xliii, pp. 441-50.
[A short life, followed by some notice of the estimation in
which Chaucer was held by his successors (pp. 446-7), ending
with a short account and criticism of the Canterbury Tales.]
1855. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. See below, 1855, Morris.
1855. Chatelain, Jean Baptiste Francis Ernest de. La Fleur et la
Feuille: poeme, aveo le texte en regard, traduit en vers fran^iis
de G. Chaucer par le Chevalier de Chatelain, London. See below,
App. B,
1855-8. Clarke, Mary Cowden. Music among the Poets and Poetical
Writers, [in] The Musical Times, vol. vi, 1855, Feb. 1, p. 290,
Feb. 5, p. 311, March 15, p. 343, April 1, p. 353, May 1, p. 383;
vol. vii, May 15, p. 6, June 15, p. 37, July 1, p. 54, Aug. 1 p. 85;
1856, May i, p. 235, July 1, p. 261, Aug. 1, p. 283, Dec. 1, p. 347 ;
vol. viii, 1857, March 1, p. 6, July 1, pp. 74, 79, Sept 1, p. 106,
Nov. 1, pp. 137-8 ; 1858, Jan. 1, pp. 169-70, Feb. 1, p. 186, March
1, p. 207, June 1, p. 252, Aug. 1, p. 286, Oct. 1, pp. 317-18.
[Quotations with comments, more freely from Chaucer than
from any other poet.]
1855]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
21
[c. 1855 ?] Dixon, Richard Watson. A Wedding Scene from Chaucer.
[A painting, the only one of Dixon's that survives, according
to H. C. Beeching, Diet. Nat. Biocp, 1st Suppl., vol. ii, 1901,
p. 139. Dixon was a college friend of William Morris and
Burne-Jones, and no doubt shared their readings in Chaucer
(see below, 1855, Morris). Dean Beeching further notes (ib.
p. 140) that 'Dixon bad a great look of Chaucer as he appears
in Hoccleve's portrait, and the resemblance was more than
external, reaching to a characteristic and humorous interest in
all sorts and conditions of people.' That the same resemblance
was also noticed in Morris and in D. G. Rossetti (q.v. above,
1845, F. M. Brown) is perhaps only a sign of the enthusiasm
of the Pre-raphaelites for Chaucer.]
1855. Dobell, Sydney Thompson. America, [printed in] Poetical Works,
1875, 2 vols., vol. i, p. 235.
Ye shall be
Lords of an Empire wide as Shakespeare's soul,
Sublime as Milton's immemorial theme,
And rich as Chaucer's speech, and fair as Spencer's dream.
1855. Hunt, James Henry Leigh. Beaumont and Fletcher, or, The
Finest Scenes, Lyrics and other Beauties of those two Poets . . .
with. . . notes and . . . preface by Leigh Hunt, pp. 288 n., 294 n.
[p. 28S] [The Two Noble Kinsmen.]
Who dost pluck
With arm armipotent, etc.
A most magnificent image. The epithet armipotent is from
Chaucer, and employed in a manner not unworthy of that ill-
understood master of versification. Chaucer took it from
Boccaccio, but turned it from prose into poetry, by putting
it in a right place:—
Yide in questa la casa del suo Dio
Armipoteiite, ed essa edificata
Tutta d'acciajo isplendido e pulio.
Teseide, lib. vii. st. 32.
And downward from an hill, under a bent,
There stood the temple of Mars armipotent,
Wrought all of burned stele, etc.
[This example, from the Tico Nobrl Kinsmen, of the use of "armipotent" is not
given in the New English Dictionary, one from 1 Fairfax's' Tasso, 1600, being given for
this period. It is probable that the word has never been used in English without
conscious reference to the passage from the Knightes Tale quoted by Leigh Hunt
above,]
22
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1855
[c. 1855.] Hunt, James Henry Leigh. An Essay on the Sonnet, [in]
The Book of the Sonnet, ed. Leigh Hunt and S. Adams Lee,
Boston, 1867, vol. i, pp. 65-6.
[For the date, which should he two years later, see below, App. A., 'c. 1S571.
[p. 65] IIow are we to account for the non-appearance of a Sonnet
in the poems of Chaucer?—of Chaucer, who was so fond of
Italian poetry, such a servant of love, such a haunter of the
green corners of revery, particularly if they were "small,"—
of Chaucer, moreover, who was so especially acquainted with
the writings of Petrarca's predecessor, Dante, with those of
his friend Boccaccio, and who, besides eulogizing the genius
of Petrarca himself, is supposed to have made his personal
acquaintance at Padua? Out of the four great English poets,
Chaucer is the only one who has left us a sonnet of no kind
[p. 66] whatsoever, though he was qualified for every kind, and
though of none of the four poets it would seem more naturally
to have fallen in the way.
|Three reasons for this are suggested: (1) Chaucer's close
connection with France led him to French miscellaneous
poetry rather than Italian, (2) the sonnets of Dante and
Petrarch were not yet known in England, (3) Chaucer's own
propensity to narrative in poetry.] The second of these
reasons, however, I take to have heen the chief. Elad Chaucer
been familiar with the Sonnets of men whom lie so admired,
the very lovingness of his nature would hardly have failed to
make him echo their tones !
1855. Hunt, James Henry Leigh. [Preface to] Death and the Ruffians,
modernized from Chaucer, [in] Stories in Verse, pp. 262-3.
[This modernization of the Pardoners Tale first appeared,
without a preface, in 1845, q.v. It is followed in Stories in
Verse by Camhus Klian, Hunt's second version of part of
the Sq(tiers Tale, which first appeared in Home's Chaucer
Modernized, 1841, q.vi]
[p. 262] The reader will do me great injustice, if he thinks that
modernizations like these are intended as substitutes for
what they modernize. Their only plea for indulgence is, that
they may act as incitements towards acquaintance with the
great original. Chaucer's stories are all complete of their
kind, all interesting in their plots, and surprising in their
terminations; and the satirical stories are as full of amuse-
1855]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
23
merit, as the serious are of nobleness and pathos. It is
therefore scarcely possible to repeat any one of them, in any
way, without producing, in intelligent readers, a desire to
know more of him ; and so far, and so far only, such ventures
as the first of the two following become excusable. I heartily
[p. 203] agree with those critics who are of opinion, that no modern¬
izations of Chaucer, however masterly they might be, could
do him justice; for .either they must he little else but re-
spellings (in which case they had better be wholly such at
once, like Mr. Clarke's, and profess to be nothing but aids
to perusal), or, secondly, they must be something betwixt
old style and new, and so reap the advantages of neither
(which is the case, I fear, with the one just mentioned); or
lastly, like the otherwise admirable versions by Dry den and
Pope, they must take leave in toto of the old manner of the
original, and proceed upon the merits, whatever those may be,
of the style of the modernizers; in Avhich case Chaucer is sirre
to lose, not only in manner but in matter.
" Conscience," for example, is now a word of two syllables.
In Chaucer's time it was a word of three—Con-sci-ence. How
is a modern hand to fill up the concluding line in the character
of the Hun, without spoiling it 1
" And all was con-sci-ence and tender heart."
" A tender heart" would not do at all; nor can you find any
monosyllable that would.
So, still more emphatically, in the use of the old negative
n'as (was not) in the exquisite couplet about the officious
lawyer—
" Ho where so busy a man as he there n'as."
(Pronounce noz),
"And yet he seemed busier than he was."
Here the capital rhyme with those two smart peremptory
monsyllables (noz and woz) and consequently the perfection of
the couplet, and part of the very spirit of the wit, must be
lost in the necessity for turning the old words into new.
1855. Milman, Henry Hart. History of Latin Christianity, vol. vi, pp.
432, 536, 545-550 ; 3rd edition, 1864, vol. ix, pp. 97, 232-3, 244-50.
[p. 224] [Outlines of Chaucer's biography, with mention of the
tradition that he was present at the wedding of Lionel and
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1855
Yiolante Yisconti at 1SIilan, and there met Petrarch. Sir Harris
Nicolas cited.]
245] Chaucer was master of the whole range of vernacular poetry,
which was bursting forth in such young and prodigal vigour,
in the languages horn from the Eomance Latin. He had read
Dante, he had read Petrarch ; to Boccaccio he owed the ground¬
work of two of his best poems—The Knight's Tale . . . and
Griselidis. I cannot but think that he was familiar with the
Troubadour poetry of the Langue d'Oc ; of the Langue d'Oil,
he knew well the knightly tales of the Trouveres and the
Fabliaux, as Avell as the later allegorical school, which was
then in the height of its fashion in Paris.
[References to Man of Law's Tale, Troilus, Squieres Tale,
Kuv/htes Tale, Franlceleyns Tale, Clerkes Tale, Merchantes
Tale, Milleres Tale, Reves Tale, Sir Thopas, Nonnes Prestes
Tale, Rom. Rose, Hons of Fame.']
246] Yet all the while Chaucer in thought, in character, in
language is English—resolutely, determinately, almost boastfully
English [footnote : quotation from Testament of Love in sup-
.247] port of this]. The creation of native poetry was his deliberate
aim ; and already, that broad, practical, humorous yet serious
view of life, of life in its infinite variety, that which reaches its
height in Shakespeare, has begun to reveal itself in Chaucer.
The Canterbury Tales, even in the Preface, represent, as in a
moving comedy, the whole social state of the times; they
display human character in action as in speech; and that
character is the man himself. . . . There is an example of every
order and class of society, high, low, secular, religious. As yet
each is distinct in his class, as his class from others. Contrast
Chaucer's pilgrims with the youths and damsels of Boccaccio.
Exquisitely as these are drawn, and in some respects finely
touched, they are all of one gay light class; almost any one
might tell any tale with equal propriety; they differ in name,
in nothing else.
In his religious characters, if not in his religious tales . . .
Chaucer is by no means the least happy. In that which is
purely religious the poet himself is profoundly religious; in
his Prayer to the Virgin, written for the Duchess Blanche
of Lancaster, for whom also he poured forth his sad elegy; in
his Gentle Martyrs, S. Constantia and S. Cecilia: he is not
without his touch of bigotry, as has been said in Hugh of
1855]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
25
Lincoln. But the strong Teutonic gootl sense of Chaucer had
[p. 248] looked more deeply into the whole monastic and sacerdotal
system. His wisdom betrays itself in his most mirthful, as in
his coarsest humour. He who drew the Monk, the Pardoner,
the Friar Limitour, the Summoner, had seen far more than the
outer form, the worldliness of the Churchmen, the abuse of
indulgences, the extortions of the friars, the licentiousness of
the Ecclesiastical Courts, of the Ecclesiastics themselves; he
had penetrated into the inner depths of the religion. Yet his
wisdom, even in his most biting passages, is tempered with
charity. Though every order, the Abbot, the Prioress, the
Friar, the Pardoner, the Summoner, are impersonated to the
life, with all their weaknesses, follies, affectations, even vices
and falsehoods, in unsparing freedom, in fearless truth, yet none,
or hardly one, is absolutely odious. . . . The Summoner, whose
[p. 249] office and the Archdeacon's Court in which he officiated seem to
have been most unpopular, is drawn in the darkest colours, with
his fire-red cherubim's face, lecherous, venal, licentious. Above
all, the Parish Priest of Chaucer has thrown off Roman mediaeval
sacerdotalism ; he feels his proper place; he arrays himself
only in the virtues which are the essence of his holy function.
This unrivalled picture is the most powerful because the most
quiet, uninsulting, unexasperating satire. Chaucer's Parish
Priest might have been drawn from Wycliffe . . . not at
Oxford . . . but the affectionate and beloved teacher of his
humble flock. . . . [The rest of the Chaucerian passage refers
to incidents and subjects connected with Chaucer only by the
acceptance of the Testament of Love as his.]
1855. Morris, William, and Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. Reading
of Chaucer at Oxford [recorded in] The Life of William Morris, by
J. W. Mackail, 2 vols., 1901, vol. i, p. 61.
[" During this year (1855) he (Morris) and Burne-Jones read
through Chaucer. He found, in the poet whom he afterwards
took for his special master, not merely the wider and sweeter
view of life which was needed to correct the harsh or mystical
elements of his own medievalism, but the conquest of English
verse as a medium boundless in its range and perfect in its
flexibility." Of Morris in 1854, Mr. Mackail says (ih. p. 39),
"The two books, which afterwards stood with him high and
apart beyond all others, Chaucer and Malory, were as yet
26
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1855
1855.
unknown to him." See also Memorials of Edward Burne-
Jones, by G. B.-J., 2 vols., 1904, vol. i, p. 104.
Morris is said (like I). G. Rossetti, see above, 1845, Brown,
and like R. W. Dixon, q.v. 1855) to have resembled the
Occleve portrait of Chancer at this time.]
Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. xi, pp. 82-3, 213, 280, 334,
356, 434, 440, 454 ; vol. xii, pp. 58, 70-1, 123, 140-1, 244,
308.
Subject.
The man in the moon (Troilus).
Author.
S., H.
Bate.
Feb. 3.
Aveling, Feb. 3.
J. H.
Reference.
1st S. xi,
82.
1st S. xi,
83.
A note about the mutilation of
Chaucer in a lecture On Desultory
and Systematic Reading, by Sir James Stephen, where
11. 193-4 of the Prologue are quoted thus :
" I saw his sleeves perf umed at the hand
With grease, and that the finest in the land."
Perfumed for purfded = worked on the edge, and
grease for gris = a species of fur.
War¬
wick,
Eden.
F.
Bede,
Cuth-
bert.
Y.
Denton,
W.
Singer,
Samuel
Weller.
Denton,
W.
Mar. 17.
April 28.
June 2.
1st S. xi,
213.
1st S. xi,
334.
1st S. xi,
434.
Wodewale.'
Te-he.'
Dr. Davy's Observations on Mr.
Fox's Letter to Mr. Grey (on the
merry note of the nightingale and Chaucer's use of
the word).
June 9, 1st S. xi,
440.
June 9. 1st S.xi,
454-5.
July 28. 1st S. xii,
58.
Survival of Chaucerian expres¬
sions in the Lowlands of Scotland.
Nuns acting as priests (the
Prioress's nun-chaplain).
Quotes Testament of Love as
Chaucer's.
July 28. 1st S. xii, Trees and flowers; quotations
70-1. from Chaucer.
Dukes, Aug. 18. 1st S. xii, A note on "win of ape," the
Leopold. 123. expression used by Chaucer in
Manciple's Prol., 1. 44.
" I trow that ye have dronken win of ape."
Philo- Aug. 25. 1st S. xii, Inedited Poem by Chaucer. The
Chaucer. 140-1. ' Orisonne to the Holy Virgin,'
preserved in a MS. of John de Irlandia, Opera Theo-
logica, 1490 [q.v. above, vol. i, p. 64],1
[i This poem deceived even Dr. Furnivall, who printed it in his Parallel-Text
edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems (Part II, No, vi, Mother of God), 1S7S, and again
1855] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
27
in 1880, in No. Ixi, "A One-Text Print of Chaucer's Minor Poems," Part II. It had
been previously printed by Dr. R. Morris in liis Aldine edition of Chaucer's Poetical
Works, I860. In a note to the Parallel-Text edition, Dr. Fnrnivall says, "No one
can suppose that poor Hoocleve hRd the power of writing his Master's Mother of
God."—Notwithstanding this, it has now been definitely decided that the poem
is undoubtedly by Hoccleve, and it has been printed by Dr. Fnrnivall amongst
Hoccleve's Works (E.E.T.S., 1892, pp. 52-6). See also Ten Brink's History of English
Literature, 1895, vol. ii, p. 216 ; vol. iii, Appendix, p. 272. Also John Koch in
Anglia, iii, 183 f. ; iv, Anz., 101 ; vi, 104 f.]
Author. Date.
'A Sept. 29.
Racket
Player.'
White, Oct. 20.
A.Holt.
Reference.
1st S. xii,
244.
1st S. xii,
308.
Subject.
Racket.'
'Racket' (Troilus, Testan^ent of
Love, cited as Chaucer's).
1855. Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn. Historical Memorials of Canterbury,
pp. 104»., 118, 140, 164-77, 184-7, 189, 206.
[The second and third Essays, which originally appeared in 1853 and 1S52, contain
only passing references.]
[p. 165] [Canterbury Tales.] In the first place we may observe that
[p. 166] every element of society except the very highest and lowest
was represented . . . These no doubt are selected as the
types of the classes who would ordinarily have been met on
such an excursion. . . .
[p. 167] And further, though the particular plan laid out in his
prologue, and the regulation of the whole by the host, is
evidently the poet's own creation; yet the practice of telling
stories on the journeys to and from Canterbury must have
been common in order to give a likelihood to such a plan. It
was even a custom for the hands of pilgrims to be accompanied
by hired minstrels and story-tellers. . .
[These marvellous tales gave rise to the proverbial expression
'a Canterbury Tale,' probably now extinct in England, hut
surviving in America in the exclamation ' What a Canter¬
bury !'
The tales were in other cases probably related at the halts;
hut in this instance on the road, those of the party who were
distant thus hearing nothing—' a circumstance which to some
extent palliates the relation of the coarser stories in a company
which contained the prioress, the nuns, the parson, and the
scholar.'
Remarks follow 011 the auspicious start in spring-time giving
' the colour to Chaucer's whole poem'; on the topographical
details of the route, the Tabard, and the approach to the city.
There are many other minor allusions.]
28
Five Hundred Years of [a.D. 1855-
1855. Trench, Richard Chenevix. English Past and Present, pp. 33-6,
46, 56, 79, 84, 86-7, 97-8, 101, 103. 110-13, 118, 121, 138-9, 143,
152, 159.
[pp. S3- [Trench believes, with Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer's influence in
6] introducing French words into the language has been much
exaggerated; he only furthered a tendency already existing.
Yet his diction is much more French than Wycliffe's; some
of his French-derived words failed to retain their place in
English.]
1855. Unknown. English Surnames, [in] The Edinburgh Review,
vol. ci, p. 355.
Camden, in a list of names of occupations, inserts that of
the great father of English poetry, Chaucer, adding by way of
necessary explanation, ' id est Hosier.' . . .
The Chaussure, commonly used in England when surnames
were first adopted by the commonalty, was of leather, covered
both the foot and the leg, and appears to have been called
Hose* Hosier therefore is the same with Chancier, which
comes from the Latin Calceariusf
* Hose occurs as a surname Hosatus, etc., in the Close Rolls,
t Adelung, "Worterbuch, under Hose and Schuster; Du Cange, v. Ossa ; and
Gesenius, Dissertatio Grammatica de Lingua Chauceri, p. 4.
1855. Unknown. The Genius of Dryden, [in] The Edinburgh Review,
July, 1855, vol. cii, pp. 1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 26.
[p. 14] The early versification of Dryden is as superior to that of
Fairfax and Sandys as the versification of Fairfax and Sandys
is superior to that of Chaucer.
1855. Unknown. Review of Kingslefs Novels and Poems, [in] The
National Review, July 1855, vol. i, pp. 126-7.
[Thousands who only know Roger Bacon in connection with
his brazen head are familiar with the bright and living word-
pictures of Chaucer. History and records go but a little way
in helping common minds towards the conception of bygone
manners and institutions.] But the poet comes, and not an
intelligent artisan nowadays but can ride with him and his
four and twenty [.sh'J in a company from the Southwark Tabard
that bright May morning on their pilgrimage to the shrine of
Thomas a Beckett. [Chaucer was familiar with the specula¬
tions of his day, but shows his knowledge in characters and
tales, not in discourses.]
1856] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
29
1855. Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick Stephen, Cardinal. On the Percep¬
tion of Natural Beauty, (a lecture, delivered 10 Dec., 1855), 1856,
pp. 5-8, 24.
[p. 5] This intense love [of Nature] is to be found in the father
of our poetry, Chaucer. Narrow as was the limit of his
[p. 6] knowledge, or the range of his observation, he had those
instinctive perceptions which affection always bestows. His
descriptions of every aspect of nature . . . have not been
surpassed by any modern poet.
[pp. 6-8] [Comparison of passages from the Parlement of Foules (11.
190-96 and 176-82) with Spenser, F. Q., Bk. ii, c. 1 and 2 ;
reference to the Flour and the Lefe.]
!p. 8] But before leaving these authors, I cannot but express a
natural regret, that in both too much, but I think exclusively
in the later one, every rich description of natural beauty
is connected with wantonness, voluptuousness, and debauch¬
ery .. .
24] [The idea that May is the month of the Virgin Mary is as
old as Chaucer; quotes Man of Laic's Tale, 11. 848-54.]
[For Leigli Hunt's criticism on the passage from p. 8, see below, 1859.]
1856. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. English Traits. Universities, p. 113,
Literature, pp. 131-2, 144. (Works, Centenary edn., 1903, vol. v,
pp. 200, 233-4, 256.)
[p. 233] A taste for plain strong speech, what is called a biblical
[p. 234] style, marks the English. . . . Chaucer's hard painting of
his Canterbury pilgrims satisfies the senses.
[p. 256] We want the miraculous; the beauty we can manufacture
at no mill, can give no account of; the beauty of which
Chaucer and Chapman had the secret.
1856.] FitzGerald, Edward. Saldmdn and Absal, p. v, Prefatory
Letter to Professor E. B. Cowell. (Letters and Literary Remains,
ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1902-3, 7 vols., vol. vii, pp. 191, 210.)
[p. 191] As for the liiuch bodily omitted—it may readily be
guessed that an Asiatic of the 15th Century might say much
on such a subject that an Englishman of the 19th would not
care to read. Not that our Jami is ever licentious like his
contemporary Chaucer, nor like Chaucer's Posterity in Times
that called themselves more civil.
30
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1856
[p. 210] [Iii later editions of Saldmdn and Absal, on the lines
Yearn, as is likely, to my Mother Earth,
Upon whose bosom I shall cease to weep,
And on my Mother's bosom fall asleep.
FitzGerald added the note:] The same figure is found in
Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale," and, I think, in other Western
poems of that era.
[FitzGerald quoted this passage from the Pardoner's Tale in liis Calderon, q,v.
above, 1S53.]
1856. Knight, Charles. The Popular History of England. 8 vols.
1856-62; vol. i, 479-83, 489 ; vol. ii, pp. 11-13.
[Social classes in the fourteenth century illustrated by the
S3j" Statute of Apparel, 1363, and Chaucer's pilgrims; quotations
front Pivl.]
[vol. ii, [Chaucer a contributor to and a symptom of the spread of
13] knowledge in his day.]
1856. Landor, Walter Savage. On Orthography. [Letter] To the llev.
Augustus Jessopp, [in] Fraser's Magazine, Feb. 1856, vol. liii,
p. 244.
I much commend the late publisher of Milton's works for
observing his angiography [s/c]. The same had been done by
the judicious Tyrwhitt in his edition of Chaucer . . .
I do not join you in your reprehension of Wordsworth for
modernizing Chaucer; because there are many who cannot
comprehend that admirable poet's versification, in which the
mute e, as in the French, is prolonged and sounded. Words¬
worth is a poet of high merit, but neither of the same kind
nor of the same degree as Chaucer. lie could no more have
written the Canterbury Tales, nor any poetry so diversified,
than he could have written the Paradise Lost . . .
[Cf. Landor's letter, declining to take part in Home's modernization, above, 1S41.]
1856. Lloyd, William Watkiss. Critical Essay on Troilns and Cressida,
[in] The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, ed. S. W. Singer,
10 vols., vol. vii, pp. 316-9. [Reprinted in " Critica Essays on
the Plays of Shakespeare," 1875, pp. 322-4.]
[p. 310] Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, in five long hooks, is a work
remarkable for more than its length; it is exceedingly full and
diffuse, a mere modicum of incident furnishes the simplest
skeleton to the large hulk, yet slowly as the story moves, it is
1856] Chaucer Criticism ctncl Allusion.
31
[p. 317] always moving, minute as are its details, they are ever touched
with liveliness; and archness and mock simplicity, irony most
delicate in grain is [st'c] tliroAvn over the Avliole, and gives a
fanciful glotv to descriptions of othertvise literal nature. . . .
[p. 318] There is some flatness perhaps in the last book both of
Chaucer and Boccaccio, from the falsehood of Cressida being
conveyed to Troilus at second-band, by hearsay, cold letters,
and conclusively only by bis love tokens being captured Avitli
tlie equipments of Diomed. Shakespeare relieved this by
carrying him personally to the Greek tents.
The actual conclusion of Chaucer's poem is replete with
spirit generally in both conception and execution, but in no
point more so than in the compensation allotted to Troilus,
less it must be said for his merit, than for his simplicity and
suffering. It is after bis troubles are over with bis life that
he rises superior to the false loves and poor passions and pride
of a low Avorld, and beholds tlie better end of existence.
[These Essays are reprinted from an edition of Shakespeare, of the same year,
edited by W. W. Lloyd ; there are further Chaucer allusions in tlie footnotes to this.]
1856. Maurice, Frederick Denison. The Friendship of Books, [a lecture
delivered in 1856, printed in] The Friendship of Books, and other
lectures, 1874, p. 16.
I might have spoken of the time of our Edward III., and
have given you some proofs that our first poet, Chaucer, was
a cordial, genial, friendly man, who could tell us a great
many things which we want to know about his own time,
and could also break down tlie barrier between his time and
ours.
1856. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. i, pp. 52, 234, 357, 401,
414, 426, 451 ; vol. ii, pp.- 3, 9, 70, 236, 277, 285, 338, 391,
420, 429.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
T., B. Jan. 19. 2nd S. i, The name of Walter le Chaucer
52. (1292 and 1293) is to be l'onnd
in Kirkpatriok's History of the JReliyious Orders and
Communities, and of the Hospitals and Castle of
Norwich, and he is not mentioned in the list given by
Sir Harris Nicolas of all known persons bearing the
. poet's name. Might not further search in the records
in the Guildhall at Norwich reveal farther traces of
the family I
32
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1856
Subject.
' Vernage.'
Complaint of the Black Knujht
quoted as Chaucer s.
' Ilibible,' '*ribibe.'
Proverbs from Chaucer (also
Testament of Love, etc., quoted
as his).
A Word for Chaucer. A plea
sultory 451. ' that Chaucer's name should be
Reader.' classed with that of Cervantes as coming nearest to
Shakespeare as a painter of human nature.
Author.
Date.
Reference.
Sartor.
Mar. 22.
2nd S. i,
234.
D[en-
May 17.
2nd S. i,
ton ?],
401.
W.
B., G.
May 24.
2nd S. i,
as!
& 414.
Denton,
May 31.
2nd S. i.
W.
426.
< A De-
June 7.
2nd S. i.
Keig-ht- July 5.
ley,
Thomas.
Collier, July 5.
John
Payne.
P.,T.II.) July 26.
Editor. J
S., S. S. Sept. 20.
Bede, Oct. 4.
Cuth-
bert.
R., E. G., Oct. 25.
2nd S. ii,
3.
2nd S. ii,
9.
2nd S. ii,
70.
2nd S. ii,
236.
2nd S. ii,
277.
' Merry.'
Barnfield's Poems in divers
hnmors, 1598, q.v. above, vol. i,
p. 156.
Chaucerian oaths.
' Kalends.
2nd S. ii,
338.
for it, Beves Prol.
Dr. Davy
nightingale.'
' Medlar
and the ' merry
Wilkin¬
son,
J.B.
I have heard it so
called [i. e. by Chaucer's name
1. 17] by old men in Norfolk.
The Reve is described by Chaucer as a Norfolk man. . .
And more than one instance of Norfolk dialect may be
found in his language.
Nov. 29. 2nd S. ii, 'Squaimous.'
429.
1856. Ruskin, John. Modern Painters, 1854-6, Volume iii, 1856,
Part iv, Chapter vii, § 19, Chapter xiv, § 33. (Works, Library
edn., ed. E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols.,
vol. v, pp. 127, 273-4.)
[p. 127] Finally, as far as I can observe, it is a constant law that
the greatest men, whether poets or historians, live entirely in
their own age, and that the greatest fruits of their work are
gathered out of their own age. Dante paints Italy in the
thirteenth century; Chaucer, England in the fourteenth;
1856]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
33
Masaccio, Florence in the fifteenth; Tintoret, Venice in the
sixteenth : all of them utterly regardless of anachronism and
minor error of every kind, but getting always vital truth out
of the vital present.
[p. 273] It is quite true that this [horror of a forest] is partly a char¬
acteristic, not merely of Dante, or of mediaeval writers, hut of
southern writers; for the simple reason that the forest,being with
them higher upon the hills, and more out of the way than in the
north, was generally a type of lonely and savage places ; while
in England, the ' greenwood,' coming up to the very walls of the
towns, it was possible to be 'merry in the good greenwood,'
in a sense which an Italian could not have understood. Hence
Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspere send their favorites per¬
petually to the woods for pleasure or meditation; and trust
their tender Canace, or Rosalind, or Helena, or Silvia, or
Eelplioebe, where Dante would have sent no one but a con¬
demned spirit.
*
1856. Ruskin, John. The Harbours of England, [Illustrative text to
Turner's drawings,] pp. 6-8. (Works, Library edn., ed. E. T. Cook
and A. Wedderburn, 39 vols., 1903—12, vol. xiii, pp. 20-23.)
[p. 20] It is very interesting to note how repugnant every oceanic
[p. 21] idea appears to be to the .whole nature of our principal
English mediaeval poet, Chaucer. Read first The Man
of Lawe's Tale, in which the Lady Constance is continually
floated up and down the Mediterranean, and the German
Ocean, in a ship by herself; carried from Syria all the way
to Northumberland, and there wrecked upon the coast;
thence yet again driven up and down among the waves for
five years, she and her child; and yet, all this while, Chaucer
does not let fall a single word descriptive of the sea, or
express any emotion whatever about it, or about the ship.
He simply tells us the lady sailed here and was wrecked
there; but neither he nor his audience appear to be capable
of receiving any sensation, but one of simple aversion, from
waves, ships, or sands. Compare with his absolutely apathetic
recital, the description by a modern poet of the sailing of a
vessel, charged with the fate of another Constance :
" It curled not Tweed alone, that breeze—-
For far upon Northumbrian seas
CHAUCER CRITICISM.—III. D
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1856
It freshly blew, and strong ;
. . . [to] The merry seamen laughed to see
Their gallant ship so lustily
Furrow the green sea foam."
[Marhiion, ii. 1.]
Now just as Scott enjoys this sea Freeze, so does Chaucer
the soft air of the woods; the moment the older poet lands,
he is himself again, his poverty of language in speaking of
the ship is not because he despises description, hut because
he has nothing to describe. Hear him upon the ground in
Spring :
" These woodes else recoveren greene,
That drie in winter hen to sene,
h>. 22] [to] Through which the ground to praisen is."
[Xom. Rose, 11. 57-70.]
In like manner, wherever throughout his poems we find
Chaucer enthusiastic, it is on a sunny day in the " good
greenwood," but the slightest approach to the seashore makes
him shiver; and his antipathy finds at last positive expression,
and becomes the principal foundation of the Frankeleiue's Tale,
in which a lady, waiting for her husband's return in a castle
by the sea, behaves and expresses herself as follows :—
" Another time wrnld she sit and thinke,
[to] ' Why ban ye wrought this werk unresonable?' "
[Frankeleyns T., 129-44.]
The desire to have the rocks out of her way is indeed severely
punished in the sequel of the tale; but it is not the less
tp. 23] characteristic of the age, and well worth meditating upon, in
comparison with the feelings of an unsophisticated modern
French or English girl among the black rocks of Dieppe or
Ramsgate.
[n.6.1856.] Smith, Alexander. Sydney Dobell, [in] Last Leaves,
1868, p. 179.
[Written after the publication (in 1850) of Dobell's England in Time oj War. Smith
died in 1867.]
Chaucer and Spenser are the fountain-heads of all succeed¬
ing English poetry. Chaucer is the father of the humorous,
kindly, dramatic, genially-lyrical men; Spenser of the intense,
allegorical, didactic, remote, and, by comparison, unsocial men.
1856]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
35
Shakespeare, Dryden, 15urns, Byron, Browning, draw descent
from Chaucer. Milton, Young, Wordsworth, Shelley, and
Tennyson from Spenser.
1856. Unknown. Review of Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed.
Robert Bell, [in] The Christian Remembrancer, Oct. 1856,
vol. xxxii, new series, pp. 327-56.
[A general account and welcome of Bell's edition, with
references to previous editions. The treatment of The Testament
of Love for biographical purposes is new. The writer does
not pretend " to trace all the particulars of his [Chaucer's]
life in The Testament of Love, or to distinguish what is
purely fictitious from what is intended to relate to real
events" : though he cannot help thinking that in one
sentence Chaucer intended to convey his love for his birth¬
place. The Court of Love is considered genuine, much space
is devoted to it, and there is some speculation as to Chaucer's
life at the University. The Cuclcoiv and Niglit in gale and
Flour and Lefe are likewise accepted. The possibilities of
Chaucer's adventures in Italy and the effect of his journeys
on his work are dwelt upon, pp. 344—5. There is a long
account and examination of the LIous of Fame, pp. 347-50,—
" one of the most admirable burlesque poems in the English
language,"—"which has not attracted so much attention as,
in our opinion, it deserves." The review contains much
quotation from Chaucer, and the main pieces are examined
in some detail.]
1856. Unknown. Review of Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed.
Robert Bell, [in] Fraser:s Magazine, April, vol. liii, pp. 461-72.
[p. 462] As regards Chaucer, indeed, there is some excuse for
the comparative neglect of his writings by his countrymen.
In spite of all that has been written about the harmony of
his verse, and his portraiture of life, manners and nature, his
language is beset with no ordinary difficulties. As a language,
indeed, it is almost anomalous. It is not a foreign tongue,
neither is it our own. . . .
[pp. 463- £qqie area 0f} an(j pUpiic for> written English very limited
in Chaucer's time; that for his new art still more so.]
[p. 465] [The biographies ; inadequacy of all before Hicolas's.]
1PP"to6]6" [An account of Chaucer's life.]
[p. 470] From the circumstances of his position, Chaucer therefore
enjoyed the most abundant means of studying and representing
36
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1856
the character of his fellow-countrymen. And he had not
only the fairest opportunity for studying, hut also a genius
and disposition peculiarly suited to the task. His powers of
observation were most keen and catholic; his sympathy with
every form of humanity intense ; his curiosity was indefatig¬
able. . . .
[p. 47i] Our age moves onward with such rapidity that we cannot
hope for any looking hack to our elder literature as to a
general source of amusement or instruction. ... It would
[p. 472] accordingly be rash to predict, or even to hope, that Chaucer
will ever resume his station as a popular favourite. All that
we can claim for him is, therefore, the recognition of his
surpassing worth as an adjunct to the historian.
1856. Unknown. Review of Poetical J Tories of Geoffrey Giaucer, ed.
.Robert Bell, [in] Bentley's Miscellany, March 1856, vol. xxxix,
pp. 252-9.
[pp. 252- [Quotations from Byron, Berington, Denham, North, Tenny¬
son, and Knight on Chaucer. Reference to the modernizations
published by Home, 1841. On this work, following Bell,
the writer says :]
[p. 255] Wordsworth's Chaucer Wordsworthises. Leigh Hunt's
Chaucer is Leigh Huntisli. Mrs. Browning's Chaucer in¬
dulges in Elizabeth Barrettisms. A reader acquainted with
the Lyrical Ballads, with the Story of Rimini, and with the
Vision of the Poets, has little difficulty, when conning these
several versions of the old bard, to discriminate between this
and that " eminent hand," and distribute unhesitatingly suum
cuique.
[p. 250] [Praise of Bell's edition, as making the true Chaucer known
to popular readers, with an account of Chaucer's versification
and language and a reprint of an accented passage from Bell.]
[pp.256- [Enrther quotations from l)e Quincey, Alexander Smith,
91 Camden, Elizabeth B. Browning, Coleridge, Dryden, Eitz-
Gerald, Knight, Hippisley, and Bell, with a running com¬
mentary on the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and certain of
the minor poems. Chaucer's Dream [The Isle of Ladies) is
considered genuine.]
1856. Unknown. Chaucer, Geoffrey, [in] The English Cyclopaedia . . .
conducted by Charles Knight, Biog. vol. i, coll. 209-10.
[A life of Chaucer containing all the old legends, and
attributing to him the supposititious works, except the Testa-
1857]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
37
ment of Love, Nicolas's rejection of which is quoted. Few can
read, him with ease, and none without a dictionary ; yet his
language can be mastered with a little pains, which would
he amply rewarded.]
1857-60. Chatelain, Jean Baptiste Francois Ernest de. Contest de
C'antorbery, traduits en vers framptis, 9 torn, London. [$ee below,
App. B., and Chancer devant ho Critique, par C. F. E. Spurgeon,
Paris, 1911, p. 31(3.]
1857-9. Child, Francis James. English and Scottish Ballads, 8 vols.,
vol. i, pp. 80, 131 ; vol. ii, p. i ; vol. iii, p. 137 ; vol. iv, p. 207 ;
vol. v, p. 38 ; vol. viii, p. 152.
p°i3i] [Gu.y 0Warwick mentioned by Chaucer among 'romances
of pris.'
[Glasgerion.]
pV.°i37j' Hugh of Lincoln. The exquisite tale which Chaucer has
put into the mouth of the Prioress exhibits nearly the same
incidents as the following ballad.
1857. Furnivall, Frederick James. MS. Notes, Illustrations of the
Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, dated "Working Men's
College, 1857." [The Notes consist of passages copied from different
books in illustration of the various characters in the Prologue, and
were used for lectures at the Working Men's College in 1857-8.
See Biography of Furnivall by John Munro in Frederick James
Furnivall, 1911, p. xxxvi. The original note-book is in the
possession of the present Editor. The contents are as follows.]
[p. 2] " The Fat Friar." Extract from Piers Ploivman's Creed,
I. 435 (ed. Wright, 1856), beginning—
" Than turned I ayen
Whan I hadde all y-toted,
And fond in a freitoure
A frere on a benclie," etc.
[p-3] "The Ploughman." Paraphrase of long passage from the
Creed, 1. 475 [or rather 831], etc.
[p. 6] " The Ploughman's Diet and Work—recommended for the
Friars." Extract from Creed, 1. 1553, etc., and a note.
" See Yis. [vol.] i, [p.] 134."
[p. 9] " The Friars' Laziness, Greediness and Selfishness, and
want of kindness to one another." Extract from Creed:,
II. 1437-82.
[p. 13] " Priests—their residing in London." Extract from Piers
Plowman, Prol. 11. 163-72.
38
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1857
[P. 17] " Knight." Extract from Belaud, Itinerary (Somersetshire),
vol. II, fol. 53-4, vol. iii, 91 (of original).
[pp. 26, 27, 28 and inserted leaves]
" The Assault of Massoura (Excerpt a Historica, Bentley,
1831, p. 64)." The valour of Longespee fighting the
Saracens.
[p. 30] " Franklins." Extract from Fortescue, de Laudibus Legum
Angliae, cap. 29, temp. Hen. VI, 1422-61.
[p. 3i] Extract from W. Lambarile, Perambulation of Kent, 1570,
published 1576, copied from edn. 1826, p. 8. ISTote on the
" Franklyns and Yeomen of England."
[p. 32] " Doctor of Pliisic." " For a first-rate skit on ' thes fisisiens
that lielpeth men to dye' see ' A Poem on the Times of
Edward II,' ed. Hardwick (Percy Society), stanzas 39-44,
pp. 18-21."
Extract from Piers Plowman, [vol.] I, [p.] 133 :—
" For murtlieris are many leches," etc.
[p. 39] "The Merchant, as to his selling scheeldes."
Extract from Piers Plowman, C, vii, 1. 278 :—
" And if I sente over see
My servaunt3 to Brugges," etc.
[B. v, 392 ; C. vii, 278.]
[p. 4i] " Sergeant} (at law)."
Extract from Piers Plowman, i, 418 :—
" Yet hoved there an hundred
In liowves of selk," etc.
(pp. 42-3] "Sergeant." " Pervise." Seidell's note in Fortescue de
laudibus Legum Angliae, cap. 51.
[p. 43] Extract from Songs and Carols, 15th Century, ed. Wright,
for Percy Society, p. 36 :
" If thou have out to do with the law to plete," etc.,
and from notes, p. 100 : " The Parvis or portico of St. Paul's, in
London, was the common place of consultation among the
Lawyers." " See Victor Hugo's Notre Dame as to the Parvise
there, in Paris."
[End pages of hook, an index of personages (such as Ancres,
Bachelers, Bishop, Clerks, etc.) mentioned in Piers Plowman,
under heads of "Church," "State and Household," and
" Trades and Professions."]
1857. Kingsley, Charles. Two Years Ago, 3 vols., vol. i, chapter vii,
p. 168 [quotation of the beginning of Prol., perverted to suit the
context] ; vol. iii, chapter iii, p. 112 [reference to " Chaucer's house
of fame"]. (Works, 1880-85, 28 vols., vol. viii, chapter vii, p.
105, chapter xxi, p. 386.)
1857]
Chaucer Criticism cincl Allusion.
39
1857. Maurice, Frederick Deuison. Milton considered as a School¬
master, [a lecture delivered in Jan. 1857, printed in] The Friendship
of Books, and other Lectures, 1874, p. 273.
Geoffrey Chancer was probably born in London. He was
Comptroller of the Petty Customs in the port of London.
He fell into disgrace witli the Court by the part be took in
the election of a Lord Mayor. We have reason to remember
these facts ; for if Ave owe " the Testament of Love" and
the "Legend of Fair Women" to the knotvledge which be
acquired in Courts, or Avhile on foreign embassies, Ave should
never, I conceive, have bad the "Canterbury Tales," but for
the acquaintance with homely English life Avhicli be learned
as a London citizen.
1857. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. iii, pp. 49, 152-3, 170,
193, 216-7, 228, 253, 264, 268, 299, 329, 352-3, 376, 389-90, 419,
435, 465, 471, 509, 511; vol. iv, pp. 82, 199, 297, 383, 397, 407-8,
436, 450, 505, 509-10.
SuUject.
The Wife of Beith (the ballad).
; Carrenare.'
' Carrenare ' = ' carnerie
(charnel house).
Has any attempt been made to
identify Chaucer's Canterbury
Pilgrims 1 The Avriter thinks he has identified the
Host, Harry Bailly. In the Parliament held at West¬
minster, in 50th EdAV. Ill, Henry Bailly was one of the
representatives for that borough. And be was again
returned to the Parliament held at Gloucester 2ni1
Rich'1 II. In the Subsidy Rolls, 4 Richard II, in
SouthAvark, occurs the name of—
"Henr' Bayliff, Ostyler, Xpian Ux eius. . ij s."
Can Roger the Coke be identified? What Avas a
Jack of Dover? [Cokes Prol., 11. 21-23.]
K., H. C. Mar. 28. 2nd S. iii, ' Bane' and ' bale.'
253.
Anon. April 11. 2nd S. iii, 'Carrenare' = careening-dock,
299, (Spanish 'carenero').
Author.
Date.
Reference.
nr., G.
Jan. 17.
2nd S. iii,
49.
O., J.
Feb. 21.
2nd S. iii,
152-3.
T., W. H.
Feb. 28.
2nd S. iii,
W.
170.
Taylor,
Mar. 7.
2nd S. iii,
Henry
193.
W. S.
W., B.
Mar. 14.
2nd S. iii,
217.
C., G. R.
Mar. 21.
2nd S. iii,
228.'
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1857-
Autlior.
F.,
Boys,
Tho-
Date. Reference.
April 25. 2nd S. iii,
329.
May 2.
Leo,
F. A.
Norman,
Louisa
J ulia.
Mat¬
thews,
Wil¬
liam.
Allen, R.
James.
Shep-
pard,
J ohn.
East¬
wood,
J.
Boys,
Tlio-
Snbject.
Line the colour of truth (Court
of Love, 1. 24G, quoted as
Chaucer's).
2nd S. iii, 'Jack of Dover' = the stock-
352-3.' fish called'Poor John'; in
Chaucer's time there were Priors of Dover named John.
May 16. 2nd S. iii, 'Watling Street'= the Milky
390. Way (Hons of Fa me, ii. 427).
May 30. 2nd S. iii, Chaucer's reminiscence of
435. Dante's 'nessun maggior dolore'
in T. <fi C. iii.
June 13. 2nd S. iii,
471.
Maze.'
June 27. 2nd S. iii, Tersoun' or ' Persone,' and
509-10. ' Parson'; ' Parishens.'
June 27. 2nd S. iii, 'Tabard,' recently corrupted to
511. ' Talbot.'
Oct. 10. 2nd S. iv, 'Scarcely' = temperately.
297.
Nov. 14. 2nd S. iv, ' Envelope ' (Chaucer, ' envo-
397. lupe') from Italian ' inviluppo.'
Nov. 21. 2nd S. iv, Chaucer Difficulties.—'The
407-8. shippes hopposteries.' Is 'hop-
posteres' an old form of the word upholsteries ? op for
up is Dutch—the ' 7t' is a little out of place, but there
are other instances of this in Chaucer.
Ships' hopposteres would then mean the dockyards
or arsenals where the ships are refitted.
East¬
wood.
J.
Boys,
Th os.
Nov. 28.
Dec. 5.
2nd S. iv, Early satirical poem (cf. 1853,
436. vii, 569).
2nd S, iv, Chaucer Difficulties (2).
450. ' Broken harm' (Marchantes
Tcde, 1. 181). The reading :
'So moch el-brohen harm, is suggested, el-brooken =
illbrooked; therefore harm not easily brooked. 'A
Cristofre' (.Prol., 1. 115). Did this not mean something
bearing a cross or crucifix ? The yeinan would he
allowed to wear a silver Cristofre (in spite of Stat. 37
Edw. Ill) because it was a sacred emblem or bad<'e, not
an ornament,
1858]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
41
Author. Date. Reference.j Subject.
Stein- Dec. 26. 2nd S. iv, £A mouse's liert.'
metz, 505.
Andrew.
Boys, Dec. 26. 2nd S. iv, Chaucer Difficulties (3).
Thos. 509-10. ' Rewel-bone' (Sir Thopns, 1.167).
Might this not be whalebonei Rewel bone = Revel
bone, i.e. bone from Revel, one of the Hanse Towns?
'Madrian' (Monl-Js Prol, 1. 4). Does this not stand
for Madre Anna, Anna the mother of the Virgin
Mary ?
1857. Pauli, Reinhold. Coufessio Amant-is of John Gower, edited and
collated ... by Dr. R. Pauli, 3 vols., vol. i, Introductory Essay,
pp. vi, xiii-xvi, xxix, xxxii, xxxv-vi, xxxviii, xliii.
tP-xv]1U [Grower's relations with Chaucer ; the evidence for a breach
in their friendship insufficient.]
1858. Bagehot, "Walter. Article on Charles Dichens [in] The National
Review, Oct. 5, 1858, p. 462. (Reprinted in Literary Studies, 1879,
p. 188.)
[The symmetry of Chaucer's mind, his healthy sagacity and
ordered comprehension.] The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
is in itself a series of memorial tablets to mediaeval society;
each class has its tomb, and each its apt inscription.
1858. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. The Prioresses Tale.
[A painting in oils on a cabinet belonging to William
Morris, representing the Virgin placing the grain on the " little
clergeon's " tongue. Bume-Jones began a replica of this picture
in 1869, which was only completed and exhibited in 1898.
See Sir Edward Burne-Jones, by Malcolm Bell, 1899, pp. 40, 70.
See also the list of Burne-Jones's works by J. P. Anderson in
O. G. Destree, Les Preraphaelites, Bruxelles, [1895].]
1858. dough, Arthur Hugh. Letter to Professor F. J. Child, [dated]
April 10, 1858, [printed in] Prose Remains of Arthur H. Clougli,
1888, p. 241.
Do you see that the Frenchman [de Chatelain] who trans¬
lated ' the Canterbury Tales' has found at Paris the original
of the 'Squire's Tale,' 30,000 lines? I wonder if it is like
Spenser's in any respect.
42
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1858
1858. Oust, Katherine Isabella. Introduction [to] The Ancient Poem of
Guillaume de Guileville entitled le Pelerinaye de Vflomme, compared
with the Pilgrim's Progress of John Banyan; edited [by K. I. Gust]
from Notes collected by the late Mr. Nathaniel Hill, pp. ix, xi, 3-
9, 11, 38-9, 41-2, appendix p. xxxv.
[p. ix.] [Quotation from a translation in a band of c. 1630 from
Pits (q.v. below, App. A., a. 1616) in MS. Harl. 4826, on
Lydgate.]
[pp. 5-6] [Chaucer's A.13.G. ; three stanzas of tbe English text, side
by side with De Guileville's French.]
Cp. 7] [Chaucer's imitation at the end of The Booli of the Duehesse,
" Eight thus me niett, as I you tell," etc., of De Guileville's
description (also quoted) of being waked by tbe convent-bell,—
Ce me sembla en ce moment
Si que de lespouentement
Esueille et desdonny fu [etc.].
[pp. 8-9] [Quotation from Lydgate's Pilgrimage of tbe passage excus¬
ing himself from translating the A.B.C., already translated by
Chaucer, with tbe proofs that tbe translation of tbe Pilgrimage
from De Guileville in MS. Cotton Yitellius, C. xiii, was by
Lydgate.]
[pp. 38-9] [On the Dream Prologue in O.F. literature, with extracts
from De Guileville's Pelerinage and Chaucer's Book of the
Duelt esse.~\
[pp. 4i-2] [On tbe " Go little book " formula with which early poets
and dreamers sent forth their books, with quotation from
"Chaucer's" Flour and the Lefe.~\
1858. De Vere, Aubrey Thomas. Select Specimens of the English Poets
with Biographical Notices, See., ed. Aubrey de Yere, pp. 1-3 [bio¬
graphical and critical notice of Chaucer] ; pp. 3-8 [extracts
from Canterbury Tales, 11. 43-164, 2765-808, 5240-96], 20-1, 131.
[Reprinted in The Household Poetry Book, an Anthology of
English-speaking Poets from Chaucer to Faber, 1893 (same
pagination).]
1858. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Persian Poetry [in] The Atlantic
Monthly, April, 1858. vol. i, p. 729, [rejirmted in] Letters
and Social Aims, 1875, p. 226 [ed. 1876, the first in B.M.].
(Works, Centenary Edition, 1903, 12 vols., vol. viii, p. 252.)
The law of the ghaselle, or shorter ode, requires that the
poet insert his name in the last stanza. . . . We remem¬
ber but two or three examples in English poetry : that of
Chaucer, in the "House of Fame" ....
1858] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 43
1858. H. Chaucer's Monument, [in] The Gentleman's Magazine, new
series, vol. iv, Feb. 1858, p. 83.
[A letter complaining that Chaucer's tomb was still not
restored and was moreover " entirely hemmed in by umbrella
stands."]
1858. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,
ch. iv, v, [in] The Atlantic Monthly, Feb., March, 1858, vol. i,
p. 462, 619 ; 1st vol. edn., Boston, 1858, pp. 92, 125. (Writings,
1891, 13 vols., vol. i, pp. 82-3, 110.)
Ipp. 82-3] Men often remind me of pears in their way of coming to
maturity. . . . Rich, juicy, livety, fragrant, russet-skinned old
Chaucer was an Easter-Beurre; the buds of a new summer
were swelling when he ripened.
[p. no] As the one word " moi" revealed the Stratford-atte-Bowe-
taught Anglais . . .
1858. Hunt, James Henry Leigh. The Tapiser's Tale, attempted in
the manner of Chaucer, [in] Fraser's Magazine, Feb. 1858, vol. lvii,
pp. 160-3.
[The Tale is that of the miracle of the Field of Flowers,
from Mandeville, and is preceded by an introductory note,
and by a prologue, in which " occasion has been taken to
suppose that the Carpenter has just been telling a tale, which
his hearers have found tedious . . . and that the Host . . .
feels himself warranted in rebuking the narrator."
The Prologue begins :]
The Carpenter, whan that his tale was done,
Which sette us nigh on sleepyng everych one . . .
Looked as big and liighe, as thof his lore
Gaf him Saint Joseph for his auncestor . . .
1858. Landor, Walter Savage, Old-fashioned Verse, [in] Dry Sticks,
p. 44.
In verse alone I ran not wild
When I was hardly more than child,
Contented with the native lay
Of Pope or Prior, Swift or Gay . . .
Then listened I to Spencer's strain,
Till Chaucer's Canterbury train
Came trooping past, and carried me
Iix more congenial company.
44
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1858
Soon my soul was hurried o'er
This bright scene : the " solemn roar "
Of organ, under Milton's hand,
Struck me mute . . .
1858-9. Marsh, George Perkins. Lectures on the English Language,
New York, 1860, pp. 18, 22 and n., 30, 49-50, 71, 103, 111-3,
168-9, 174r-7, 180, 252 n., 257-8, 323 and n., 391, 415, 424, 432-3,
468, 473, 500-1,526-8, 530, 534 n., 539, 546. 603, 625, 675-6.
[These lectures were delivered in 1S5S-9, and the Congress copyright entry is
dated 1859. An edn. of 1860, is in Bodl. ; edn. 4, London, 1863, is the first in B.M.
For Marsh's second series of lectures see helow, 1862.]
[p. 22] In original power, and in all the highest qualities of poetry,
no Continental writer of that period, with the single exception
of Dante, can, for a moment, he compared with Chaucer, who,
only less than Shakespeare, deserves the epithet, myriad-
minded.
[p. 168] There are few instances . . . where a single writer has
exerted so great ... an influence on the language of his time
as Chaucer. . . . (lower and Chaucer, writing for ladies and
cavaliers, used the phraseology most likely to he intelligible
and acceptable to courtiers. . . . Wycliffe and his associates,
[p. 169]in their biblical translations, use few foreign words ... but
in their own original writings, they employ as large a propor¬
tion of Pomanco vocables as occurs in those of Chaucer's
works where they are most numerous. In the Squires Tale,
nine per cent, of the words are of Continental origin, in the
Xonne Prestes Tale the proportion falls to seven, while in the
prose Persones Tale ... it rises to eleven. ... It is the
selection of his vocabulary, and the structure of his periods,
that mark his style as his own, and it is a curious fact, that of
the small number of foreign words employed by him and by
Gower, a large share were in a manner forced upon them by
the necessities of rhyme; for while not less than ninety parts
in a hundred of their vocabularies are pure Anglo-Saxon,
more than one-fourth of the terminal words of their verses are
Latin or French.
1858. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. v, pp. 22, 24-5 123 166-7,
225, 229-30, 271, 290-91, 309-10, 337-8 , 359, 362 , 375, 387,
392, 402-3, 432-3, 453, 471, 511-2, 521 ; vol vi up 18
37-8, 45, 57, 77, 108, 120, 199, 229-30, 314, 335, 356,371,
1858]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
45
Author. Date. Deference. Subject.
Madden, Jan. 9. 2nd S. v, John Shirley, his lines on
Sir Frederic. 22 Chaucer (q.v. above, [c. 1450]
vol. i, p. 49) quoted.
Boys, Jan. 9. 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (4).
Thos. 24-5. ' Whipultre' (Kniyhtes T., 1. 2065).
May not this be the "willow-palm" or palm-sallow?
' Poudre March ant' (Pro!., 1. 381). Is not pondre
a verb, not a noun, meaning here, to season the three
following things, viz. marchant, tart and galingale ?
Boys, Feb. 13. 1st S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (5).
Thos. 123. ' Marchant' (Pro?., 1. 381). This is
a name for waterfowl, in German merchente, properly
the Mergus albellus, but here probably used in a generic
sense. •
'Gnof' (Milleres Tale, 1. 2). This appears to be a
word of Jewish-German origin = a thief. From the
Hebrew the Jews have gannov, a thief. The meaning
might change from extortioner to miser.
Boys, Feb. 27. 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (6).
Thos. 166. 'Tidifies' (Squieres Tale, 1. 648)
= sea-mews (tide-wives).
White, Mar. 13. 2nd S. v, 'Whipultre' (2nd S. v, 24).
A. Holt. 225. The writer believes this to be
the wild apple tree, or crab. It is nearly the only tree
Chaucer has omitted that was in his day known in
England. ' Whippletree' still used in Essex for the
bar by which a pair of horses a-breast draw the plough,
now generally made of ash.
N., H. F. Mar. 13. 2nd S. v, Might not this be the Horn-
225. bean [sic], or whip-pulling tree
not otherwise mentioned by Chaucer ?
Boys, Mar. 20. 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (7).
Thos. 229. ' Eclympasteire' (Book of the
Ihichesse, 1. 167). The writer suggests that this stands
for Death, and is a very anomalous derivative from
the Gr. eK.Kifxir6.vw, which is nearly equivalent to cicXeiirw,
which sometimes signifies to died
'Parodie' (Troilus, v. 1548). The more modern
editions have jeopardie for parodie. But the writer
thinks Tyrwhitt is right, and that it is parodie, to be
understood here in the sense of episode?
1 See Skeat, Chaucer's Complete Works (1891), vol. i, p. 468.
2 See Skeat, ibid., vol. ii, p. 602.
Boys, April 3. 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (8).
Thos. 271. 'Cost,'
"That nedes-cost he most him selven hide"
(Kniyhtes Tale, 1. 619).
The writer would understand by "nedes cost" the
O.Fr. ne discoste, meaning not far off, near.
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1858
Author.
Boys,
Thos.
Boys,
Tlios.
B., T.
Rock, D,
Berry,
M. E.
Crossley,
Fran.
White,
A. Holt.
Boys,
Thos.
Boys,
Thos.
White,
A. Holt.
Date. Reference. Subject.
April 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (9).
10. 290. 'Blake heried(Pardoner's Prol.,
1. 78). Might this mean the poorest kind of funeral,
a black bier ?
See Skeat, Chaucer's Complete Works, vol. v, p. 2i2. Also N. <5c
4tli S. x, 222; xii, 55.
April 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (10).
17. 309. ' Blake heried.'
1. beriecl = bier'd, i. e. carried on a bier.
2. Make = black, i. e. a bier with the ordinary cover¬
ing of a black cloth.
3. ci may = in, i. e. in black,
or (preferably) a may = the auxiliary have.
April 2nd S. v, 'Cost or nedescost' (2nd S. v,
24. 337-8. 271). The writer takes it to
mean of necessity, necessarily. It is the genitive nedes
plus cost, manner,way, and is equivalent to "by way of
necessity." Many examples from M.E. texts quoted.
This meanim
p. 71.
is confirmed by Prof. Skeat, Chaucer's Works, vol. v,
May 1.
May 1.
2nd S. v,
359.
2nd S. v,
362.
: Wade.'
Separation of the sexes in
churches ; Prol., 11. 449-50
quoted.
May 8. 2nd S. v, ' Blake beried.' Is not Make an
387. old word meaning naked? See
Elisha Coles' English Dictionary, edit. 1677, for the
meaning of "black beried."
' Eclympasteyre.' Coles gives this word: Eclym-
pastery, son to Morpheus, the god of sleep.
May 8. 2nd S. v, ' Blake beried.' Surely the
387. meaning of this passage is
"Though their souls go a black berrying;'' i.e. "go
gathering blackberries." In this sense we have the full
force of the reckless speech of the Pardoner.
May 8. 2nd S. v, The Harleian MS. No. 7334
387. reads "black bered."
May 15. 2nd S. v, Chaucer Difficulties (11).
392. 'Gat-toothed' (Wife of Bath's
Prol., 603). This clearly = goat-tootlied. The goat was
an animal sacred to Venus.
May 15.
' Nedes cost.' A reply to 2nd S.
v, 337, defending the argument
2nd S. v,
4°2.
that this expression comes from O.Fr. ne discoste.
May 15. 2nd S. v, On the analogy of needs must
why should this not = need is
caused ?
403.
1858] Chaucer Criticism ancl Allusion. 47
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Boys, May 29. 2nd S., v, Chaucer Difficulties (12).
Thos. 432. ' Spiced conscience ' = ' salved.'
' Cankedort' = ' kinked ort' or vulg. ' fix' ?
R., C. J. June 5. 2nd S. v, MS. of Troilus in Bishop
453. Cosin's Library, Durham.
Carring- June 5. 2nd S., v, £ Gat-toothed.'
ton, F.A. 465. *
Boys, June 12. 2nd S., v, Suggests other difficulties for
Thos. 471. others to settle, e.g. 'Fortenid
crese,' 'Limote,' 'Ballenus,' 'Farewell feldefare,'
'Wades bote.'
D., C. de. June 12. 2nd S., v, 'Blake beried.'
487.
K, H. C. June26. 2nd S., v, Chaucer Difficulties. — 1.
511-2. 'Farewel feldefare.' 2. 'Fortenid
crese.' 3. ' Hawebake.' 4. ' Wades bote.'
Thorns, June 26. 2nd S., v, 'Whipultre.'
W. J. 521.
Sansom, July 3. 2nd S. vi, 'Dives' as a proper name,
J. 18. Sompnoures Tale, 1. 1877.
Rock, D. July 10. 2nd S., vi, Chaucer Difficulties.—'Car-
37. renare ' = Quarentena 1
H., F. C. July 10. 2nd S., vi, 'Whipultre' = holly (whip pole
38. tree) ?
Mackin- July 17. 2nd S., vi, 'Whipultre': confirming the
tosh, J. 57. last.
Boys, July 24. 2nd S. vi, ' Carrenare '; interpretation as
Thomas. 77. careening dock defended.
Anon. Aug. 7. 2nd S. vi, Sale of the MS. of Kynaston's
120. Troilus, the property of S. W.
Singer and formerly of Dean Aldrich.
A., A. Sept. 4. 2nd S. vi, ' Gat-tootlied' = gap-toothed.
199.
" Silver- Sept. 18. 2nd S. vi, Annotations, dated 1577, copied
stone." 229-30. from the flyleaf of a copy of The
Vision of Pierce Ploumian, 1561 ; see below, App. A.,
1577.
Picton, Oct. 16. 2nd S. vi. 'Roam.'
J. A, 314.
Buck- Oct. 23. 2nd S. vi, 'Some'; 'all and some' in
ton, T. J. 335. Chaucer = all and total.
R., A. B. Nov. 6. 2nd S. vi, Chaucer's Balade of Gode
371. Counsaile; 'prees' in 1. 4 = pre¬
eminence (pneesse) ?
Rock, Nov. 20. 2nd S. vi, Separation of the sexes in
D. 416. churches ; the Wife of Bath.
48
Five Hundred Years of
[A.I>. 1858-
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
p. Nov. 27. 2nd S. vi, Dr. Darrell's satire on Browne
428. Willis, q.v. above [a. 1760], vol. i,
p. 417.
R., E. Nov. 27. 2nd S. vi, ' Bedstaff' ; Beves Tale, 11.
G., 437. 4292-6, quoted.
P. Dec. 25. 2nd S. vi, Popularity of hot condiments
521. * in Chaucer's time :—
'Woe was his cook, but that his sauces were
Poinant and sharp.'
1858-9. Unknown. The Arms, Armour and Military Usages of the
Fourteenth Century, [in] The Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1858—
April, 1859, new ser., vol. iv. pp. 3-18, 123-38, 235-51, 347-55,
459-67,575-92; vol. v, pp. 3-19, 99-114, 211-27; 323-39;
435-51, 547-63 ; vol. vi, pp. 3-21, 111-23, 227-43, 339-55.
[Quotations from Chaucer throughout.]
1859. B. Geoffrey Chancer, [in] The Dublin University Magazine,
March, 1859, vol. liii, pp. 272-87.
[p. 272] [An account of Chaucer's seven chief biographers and com¬
mentators—Leland, Thomas Speght, Thomas Duller, Urry,
Tyrwliitt (" a gentlemanlike and learned dryasdust"), and
Sir Harris Nicolas :]
The copious Godwin closes the roll in his quartette of four
volumes, octavo. Doctor Johnson has no life of Chaucer, as he
has none of Shakspeare, or of Spenser. At times lie celebrates
the owls, and passes by the eagles. There is a very full and
agreeable little book published ... in 1841, entitled "Chaucer
Modernized." It is a highly Philo-Chaucerian and chivalric
small volume, and sets out like Don Quixote . . . bent on
righting wrongs on behalf of its poet against every translator
who had ventured to meddle with the ark of the antique text,
or the sacredness of the Saxon ; and thus he casts out of the
saddle Messrs. Ogle, Lipscombe, and Boyce . . . and runs a
tilt against Henry Brooke . . . and is only half pleased with
Lord Thurlow, who revised and published " The Knight's
Tale " ; also " the Blower and Leaf," which is the most beautiful
and pure of all Chaucer's works . . .
[p. 278] Beyond all doubt his works are not known in proportion to
their great merit. The early English must be learned before
they can be enjoyed; . . . the tongue of Chaucer has passed
away, except from the pages of works as old as his own.
Yet to his intense admirers, the difficulties of his language are
regarded as producing a kind of esoteric sacredness which
1859] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 49
involves the text with a mystery akin to the Books of the
Sibyl. . . His unintelligible obsoleteness, to minds so framed,
resembles the high flavour of an antique Stilton or the taste
of an teruginous coin; and one connoisseur [Landor, q.v.
above, 1841] has gone so far as to say "he would Avisli to
keep Chaucer for himself and a feAv friends."
[A life of the poet is given, containing the old inaccuracies,
due to acceptance of the apocryphal pieces.]
1859. Braune, George Martin. The Persone of a Toun.
[A poem (92 pp.) in imitation of the style and stanza of
Spenser, ' as a mean between the times of Chaucer and our
own,' but owing no more than the suggestion to Chaucer's
Parson.]
1859. FitzGerald, Edward. Letter to George Crabhe, Oct. 4, 1859,
[printed in] More Letters of Edward FitzGerald, with Preface by
W. Aklis Wright, 1901, p. 50.
Chaucer I don't want: and am glad you should take to
him. I told you of the Tales I thought would please you :
The Clerk of Oxford (Griseldis), the Pardoners, and the
Knight and Squire. Read also all the Prologue Narrative
betAveen the Tales. One must feel Chaucer is akin to Shake¬
speare, in his Humour, Sympathy and Activity of Life, but
he has not Sounded such Depths of Thought and Feeling.
1859. Hunt, James Henry Leigh. English Poetry versus Cardinal
Wiseman, [in] Fraser's Magazine, Dec., vol. lx., pp. 749-53, 755,
760-2.
[A defence of Chaucer and Spenser against the charge of
associating natural beauty Avith " Avantonness, voluptuousness,
and debauchery."]
[Cardinal Wiseman's opinions, here controverted, were expressed in his lecture
"On the Perception of Natural Beauty," q.v. above, 1855. Hunt had announced his
intention of replying in Fraser's Magazine. Ste his letters to Edmund Peel ami
B. AV. Proctor (Barry Cornwall) of 4 Nov. and 5 Dec. 1S58 (Correspondence, 1862,
vol. ii, pp. 240, 264).
1859. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. vii, pp. 21, 66, 89, 96,
218, 229, 440, 465, 500 ; vol. viii, pp. 257, 276, 283-4, 338,
351, 360, 439, 444, 474-5.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Thorns, Jan. 8. 2nd S. ATii, Chaucer's debt to Italy ; did
William 21. lie owe anything to Germany
John. or the Low Countries? Was his Book of the Lion
a translation of Hartman von Aue's Bitter init der
Lowe ?
CHAUCER CRITICISM, III. E
Five Hundred Years of
[A.d. 1859
Author.
Wonfor,
T. W.
Libya.
Wonfor,
T. W.
fi.
Date. Reference. Subject.
Jan 22. 2nd S. vii, 'Nesli'; Court of Love quoted
66. as Chaucer's.
Jan. 29. 2nd S. vii, Achilles' spear ; references by
89. Fielding, Bishop Earle, and
Chaucer (,Sqnieres Tale, 1. 239) ; a classical reference
asked for.
Jan. 29. 2nd S. vii, ' Coverchief.'
96.
Mar. 12. 2nd S. vii, From what text is the Aldine
218. Ed. taken?
p. Mar. 19. 2nd S. vii, Clogie's attribution of The
229-30. Shepherd's Tale,' conceived in the
old dialect of Tusser and Chaucer,' to Bishop Bedell
impossible. See below, App. A., [1605, Bedell?] and
[c. 1675-6], Clogie.
Blades, May 28. 2nd S. vii, Discovery at St. Albans of
William. 440. fragments of books printed by
Caxton, including the Assemble of Fowls (14 leaves).
Eastwood, June 18. 2nd S. vii, 'Silk.'
J. 500.
W., II. Sept. 24. 2nd S. viii, ' Pill-garlick '; Prol. Mer-
257. chant's 2nd Tale, quoted as
Chaucer's.
Eastwood, Oct. 1. 2nd S. viii, The grotesque in churches;
J. 276. hatred, etc., are painted on the
outside of the garden wall of the Rose in Chaucer's
Bom. Rose.
Myers, Oct. 8. 2nd S. viii, 'To tote'; Ploicmau's Tale
Gustavus 282-3. quoted ; doubtful authorship
A. admitted.
M., J. Oct. 8. 2nd S. viii, Notice of Sandras's Etude sur
284. Chaucer (q. v. below, App. B.,
' 1859).
Thomp- Oct. 22. 2nd S. viii, ' To tote.'
son, 338.
Pishey.
Eastwood, Oct. 29. 2nd S. viii,
J. 351.
Boys, Oct. 29. 2nd S. viii,
Thomas. 360.
„ Nov. 26. 2nd S. viii,
439.
c., H. C. Nov. 26. 2nd S. viii,
444.
Eastwood, Dec. 10. 2nd S. viii,
J. 474 -5.
Origin in Perceval le Galois
of the last stanza of Sir Thopas.
' Smalle ' = 'senile,' similar?
' Undermele.'
' Eel vmpasteire '; Sandras's
comparison of Froissart's
' Enclimpostair.'
'In hie' or 'on hie' = in
haste.
1859] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 51
1859. Riley, Henry Thomas. Munimenta Gildhallse Loncloniensis
(Rolls Ser.), vol. i, 1859, Liber Albus, p. 553.
Dimissio Porke de Algate facta Galfrido Chaucer.
[For this lease see above, 1374, May 10, vol. i, p. 3. The
entry given here is translated in Riley's Liber Albus, 1860,
p. 475, and the lease itself is translated in his Memorials of
London and London Life, 1868.]
1859. [Riley, Henry Thomas?]. Lease of the 'mansio' over Aide/ate
to Chaucer, extracted from Guildhall, Letter Book G., in] The
Gentleman's Magazine, March 1859, new ser., vol. vi, p. 243.
[See above, 1374, May 10, vol. i, p. 3.]
[1859.] Starkey, Alfred. The Prioress' Tale, and other Poems.
[Not in B.M.; Bodl. 2S0. s. 229; information kindly given by Miss K. M.
Pogson.]
[The title-poem, which is in sixty-two sesta rima stanzas,
is stated in the preface to he " founded on the same subject as
Chaucer's of the same name. I do not think," the author
adds, " that I can justly he accused of plagiarism. . . It is
something, however, to have trodden, ever so vaguely, near
the footsteps of a great genius." The tale is "protestantized,"
e.g. such details as the "Alma Kedemptoris Mater" are
omitted.]
1859. Unknown. Review [of] The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer,
edited by Robert Bell . . . 1855, [in] The London Review, July
1859, vol. xii, pp. 285-303.
[pp.285- [A short sketch of Chaucer's life, noting the rejection hy
2J1J Nicolas of the episodes dependent on the Testament of Love,
and laying stress on the substantial nature of the patronage
Chaucer received.]
[p. 292] All that is peculiar, all that seems now so distant and
unattainable, in the poetry of Chaucer, arises from the one
great typical fact, that it is always nothing more nor less than
the telling of a story . . .
We must conceive of the people of the Middle Ages as
children in their love of stories, and in their adoration of
those who could tell them. . . Hence originated a poetical
complexion or turn, which everything seems to have assumed,
and the passionate cultivation of poetry by all classes. It
seems incredible to us, but it was undoubtedly the case, that
in the Middle Ages poetry formed the chief delight of the
people. [Evidence of this in Chaucer : Troilus and Book of
the Duchesse quoted.]
52
Five, Hundred Years of [a.D. 1859
[p. 293] He [Chaucer] cares not at all for the praise of originality or
invention . . . lie cares for nothing hut his story. Hence he
is quite content to become a translator, if he has seen a good
story in a foreign tongue. [Contrast in this between the age
of Chaucer, like all great periods, and the unpoetical and
would-be original nineteenth century. Explanation of the
cause: loss of enjoyment. "To our forefathers every old
thing was really a new thing : every new thing is an old thing
to us." The cure, a study of such as Chaucer.]
[p. 29S] We come then to discuss the great distinguishing marks of
the mind and power of Chaucer. They seem to be four in
number: dramatic fearlessness and breadth, workmanlike
directness, comparatively non-intellectual character, and sense
lp. 299] of beauty. [Expansion of these four points.]
1859. Vaughan, Robert. Revolutions in English History, 3 vols., vol.i,
pp. 479-81, 563-5.
[p. 479] Poet of manners as he is, the compass of subject included
in his works is a conspicuous fact . . . Chaucer appears to
have the power of understanding the pleasures of the most
ethereal virtue, and those found in the most free and riotous
indulgence of the sensuous passions. The comedy and tragedy
of earth, the hell in it, and the heaven above it, were open to
him.
[pp. 4so- [Chaucer's material partly derived from literature, partly from
^ the world about him.]
[p. 594] [The Canterbury Tales sIicav grossness side by side with
simple faith :] The clerk and the monk, the prioress and the
nun, are all among the listeners to these impure stories.
1860. Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, to which are added, An Essay
on his language and versification, and an Introductory Discourse,
together with notes and a glossary, by T. Tyrwhitf, F.R.S., with
memoir and critical dissertation by the Rev. G. Gilfillan, Edin¬
burgh, 3 vols.
[The glossary is arranged in the margin. Gilfillan's memoir
and dissertation, " The Genius and Poetry of Chaucer," pre¬
cede the second and third vols, respectively.
The memoir contains all the old mistakes, based on the
Court of Love and Testament of Love, and is very flamboyantly
written; e. g. Chaucer's position was at best that " of a pen¬
sionary dependent, nourished on the rinsings of the royal
cellar." Doubtful Avhether he died " a Papist or a Protestant."
1860]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
53
The Dissertation is written in the same style and contains
many allusions to Chaucer's " ruggedness," and to his Wycliffite
views.]
1860. Eulwer, Edward, 1st Lord Lytton. Letter to his son, [printed
in] The Life of Edward Bulwer, by his grandson, 1913, 2 vols.,
vol. ii, pp. 419-20.
I am amazed at his [Chaucer's] Avonderful accuracy of
rhythm; according to his oavii accentuation, there are as feAV
lines Avith a defective foot as there are in Dryden. His metre,
too, is extremely artful. As a general rule, he ahvays has his
stop at the end of a couplet, does not break into verses as
blank verse does. But he makes his pause of the ultimate
sense, by a preference so marked that he must have arrived at
it by a rule of art, at the end of a first line. . . The effect of
this is both \sic\ surprise, and Avith him it is music; the relief
from the rhyme has a melody.
1860. G-ilflllan, George. See above, Canterbury Tales.
[a. I860.] Irving, David. The History of Scottish Poetry, by David
Irving . . . edited by John Aitken Carlyle [from the MS. Avhich
Irving left unpublished at his death in 1860], Edinburgh, 1861,
pp. 37m, 52, 68m, 70a., 73, 85, 95, 102m, 107-9, 134m, 136m,
141-2, 170, 173, 175m, 187, 193, 212-14, 218, 219m., 221, 231-2,
239, 242m, 244, 267-8, 272, 283m, 298, 310m, 326, 341. [Some
of the references are almost identical Avith those in the Lives of the
Scottish Poets, 1804. Some chapters, including that on Barbour,
had appeared as articles in the Encyclojmdia Britannicai]
[p. 95] [Reference to Barbour as the contemporary and in some
respects the rival of Chaucer.]
[p. 107] [Comparison, by quotation of passages in Barbour's Bruce
and Chaucer's Romtiunt.]
[Many other brief references, Avith quotations from Tynvhitt
and JSTott on versification, language, &c.]
1860. J., J. C. MS. of Chaucer's Minor Poems, [letter, in] The Gentle¬
man's Magazine, Dec. 1860, neiv ser., vol. ix, pp. 642-5.
[The Sion Coll. MS. of the A.B.C. The writer comments
severely on Bell's text.]
1860. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. ix, pp. 51, 83, 107, 141,
240, 251, 350, 435, 441, 479 ; vol. x, pp. 135, 227, 302, 358,
403-4, 453, 459, 499, 510, 523.
Author. Date. Reference. SubjeC,
Thomp- Jan. 21. 2nd S. ix, ' Quishen,'
son, P. 51.
54
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1860-
Autlior. Date. Reference.
Offor, 1
George. J- Feb. 4, 2nd S. ix,
Editor. J 83.
Eastwood, Feb. 11. 2nd S. ix,
J. 107.
Eastwood, Feb. 25. 2nd S. ix,
J. 141.
E. Mar. 31. 2nd S, ix,
240.
Buckton, Mar. 31. 2nd S. ix,
T. J. 251.
Eastwood, May 5. 2nd S. ix,
J. 350.
'Ache.'
T., C.
June 2. 2nd S. ix,
435.
June 9.
2nd S. ix,
441.
Subject.
' Soote ' = sweet.
' Marisli.'
' Whippletree.'
' Hackney.'
J' Boll.'
'The kinges note' (Milleres T.,
1. 3217) = the 'Anthem of the
Three Kings of Colon ' ?
' Cole,' ' cole-blake.'
Tennent, June 23. 2nd S. ix, ' Vermelet,' vermilion.
J. E.
Para-
thina.
479.
Sept. 22. 2nd S. x,
227.
Tubal's invention of music
(Book of the Duchesse, 11. 1162-6);
why was Chaucer's couplet called 'riding-rhyme '?
C., T. Q. Sept. 22. 2nd S. x.
227.
Height- [Oct. 20. 2nd S. x.
ley, I 302.
Thomas.! Nov. 24. 2nd S. x.
403-4.
' Hoppesteres' = ' hoppesterres'
or meteors ?
(The Tale of Melibeus and the
Persones Tale are in blank verse,
as are all the 'prose' passages of
the dramatists.
^i^kols, 1 „ 0 , „ ( Confute the preceding by print-
W. L. I Dec. 8. 2nd S. x. J his articles as
Collins, f
Mortimer. J
C., W.
453.
Dec. 8. 2nd S. x,
459.
Keightley, Dec,. 22. 2nd S. x,
Thomas. 499.
a.
R., E. G.
Dec. 29. 2nd S. x,
510.
Dec. 29. 2nd S. x.
523.
blank verse.
Curate and Vicar (Parson's Prol.,
11. 22-3).
Chaucer intended his ' metric
prose' for verse, writing it con¬
tinuously to save paper.
Chaucer at King's Lynn.
Doubts explanations of ' hoppe¬
steres' as 'female dancers' and
'St. Elmo's fires.'
1861-2. Arnold, Matthew. On Translating Homer, and Last Words
on Translating Homer, lectures delivered at Oxford, 1861-2.
(Works, 1903-4, 15 vols., vol. v, pp. 186, 222, 274, 276, 278-9.)
[p. 186] 'To translate Homer suitably,' says Mr. Newman, 'we need
1861]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
55
a diction sufficiently antiquated to obtain pardon of the reader
for its frequent homeliness.' . . . Antiquated!—but to whom?
. . . The diction of Chaucer is antiquated ; does Mr. Newman
suppose . . . that Homer's diction seemed antiquated to
Sophocles, as Chaucer's diction seems antiquated to usl . . .
[p. 222] It is in didactic poetry that the ten-syllable couplet has
most successfully essayed the grand style. In narrative poetry
this metre has succeeded best when it essayed a sensibly lower
style, the style of Chaucer, for instance; whose narrative
manner, though a very good and sound manner, is certainly
neither the grand manner nor the manner of Homer.
[p. 274] And another [of Mr. Newman's readers] says : ' Doubtless
Homer's dialect and diction were as hard and obscure to a later
Attic Greek as Chaucer to an Englishman of our day' . . .
[p. 27S] When language is antiquated for that particular purpose for
which it is employed,—as numbers of Chaucer's words, for
instance, are antiquated for poetry,—such language is a bad
representative of language which, like Homer's, was never
antiquated for that particular purpose for which it was
employed. . . . When Chaucer, who uses such [antiquated]
words, is to pass current amongst us, to be familiar to us,
as Homer was familiar to the Athenians, he has to be modern¬
ised, as Wordsworth and others set to work to modernise
him . . .
[p. 279] Chaucer's words, the words of Burns, great poets as these
were, are yet not thus an established possession of an English¬
man's mind, and therefore they must not be used in rendering
Homer into English.
1861-3. Blades, William. The Life and Typography of William
Caxton, 2 vols., vol. i, pp. 48a., 73, 80, 151-2, 173-4, 2'78 ; vol. ii,
pp. xviii, xxxvi, lviii, 45-7, 51-2, 61-71, 138, 162-7, 169-70, 254,
260, 263, 265-77, 281-8, 290-91, plates xiv, xvii, xlii.
[Descriptions of and references to Caxton's editions of
Chaucer.]
1861. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. Cupid's Forge.
[A painting in Avater-colour, illustrating the opening of the
Parlement of Foules. See M. Bell, Sir E. Burne-Jones, 1899,
p. 27.]
56
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1861
1861. Craik, George Lillie. A Compendious History of English Litera¬
ture and of the English Language, 2 vols., vol. i, pp. vii, viii, 98n.,
107, 170-1,191,207-8, 227, 245-306 [a chapter on Chaucer], 307-8,
316-7, 319, 321, 324-5, 342-7, 360-1, 367, 378-9, 382, 385-6,410-1,
425, 432-4, 441, 488-9, 493, 495, 497 ; vol. ii, p. 102.
[The chapter on Chaucer is largely devoted to a refutation
of Nott's theory that Chaucer's verse is rhythmical, shewing
hoth by old tradition and by the evidence of the changes in
the language, that Chaucer was a metrist, and the introducer
ii\to English of iambic metre (pp. 247—69). Chaucer a great
poet and "the Homer of his country" (pp. 269-72). His
sources. Specimens from Rom. Rose, Hons of Fame, and
Canterbury Tales. Some non-Chaucerian pieces are quoted as
genuine.]
1861. De Vere, Aubrey Thomas. Chaucer, and Spenser, [in] The
Sisters, Inisfail, and other Poems, pp. 64-5, 100.
[p. 65] In Spring, when the breast of the lime-grove gathers
Its roseate cloud, when the flush'd streams sing,
And the mavis tricks her in gayer feathers ;
Head Chaucer then ; for Chaucer is spring !
On lonely evenings in dull Novembers . . .
Eead Chaucer still!
[p. ioo] [" Spenser " : brief reference to " the well-head of Chaucer."]
1861. Edman, L. E. A Specimen of Chaucer s Language, with Ex¬
planatory Notes, a Philological Essay, Upsala.
[Introduction with short life of Chaucer and analysis of the
Canterbury Tales, followed by a specimen of the first 100 lines
of the Prologue, then 58 pages of notes on the language of
those lines.]
1861. Landor, Walter Savage. Letter to A. de N. Walker, [dated]
Florence, August, 1861, [printed in] Letters and other Unpublished
Writings of Walter Savage Landor, ed. Stephen Wheeler, 1897, pp.
123, 171.
It would be worth a scholar's while to trace the different
spellings of the same words from Chaucer down to the pre¬
sent day. Many are spelt better by him than by any author
since. He avoids the reduplication of vowels ea etc., and
ends the word with e.
[Landor expresses the same opinion in a letter to the
Athenaeum (April 20, 1861, pp. 529-30), remarking that he
has read Chaucer attentively several times. See also above,
1856, and immediately below.]
1861] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 57
[c. 1861.] Landor, Walter Savage. Chaucer.
[An unpublished prose fragment of some 50 lines, the autograph
MS. of which was sold by Messrs. Maggs, Catalogue no. 340, 1915,
no. 1789].
[Messrs. Maggs have very kindly given ns the following note : " The little MS. was
not dated, but judging from our remembrance of the handwriting, we should think it
would be of a rather late date in his career." Internal evidence confirms this. See
immediately above.]
There is no poet excepting Homer whom I have studied so
attentively as Chaucer. They are the ablest of their respective
countries. It may he doubted, and must he whether the
language in the Iliad and Odyssee was exactly as we find it
now . . .
The learned Pisistratus and his sons collected all they
found. . . Chaucer by the care of studious and learned men
remains as we find him, even in spelling. This is worthy of
notice and thankfulness. We find many words in his Canter¬
bury Tales spelt better than we spell them now. Several
of these I have noted in my Imaginary Conversations and
elsewhere . . .
Chaucer was the builder of our language . . .
1861. Landor, Walter Savage. Milton and Marvel, [in] The Athenaeum,
May 18, 1861, p. 661. (Imaginary Conversations, ed. C. G. Crump,
1891, 6 vols., vol. v, p. 34.) $
Milton. Prerpiently do I read the Canterbury Tales, and
with pleasure undiminished.]" They are full of character and
of life. You would hardly expect in so early a stage of our
language such harmony as comes occasionally on the ear; it
ceases with the verse, but we are grateful for it, shortly as
it stays with us.
f [Landor's note :] A Bachelor of Arts, a Mr. Pycroft, without any
authority, classes W. S. Landor with Byron and Wordsworth, as holding
Chaucer cheap. Let this Conversation indicate the contrary. There is
one art—namely, the ars poetica—in which the Bachelor is unlikely to
take his Master's degree.
[For a further allusion to Pycroft by Landor see below, 1863.]
1861. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol, xi, pp. 11, 99-100, 150,
161, 181, 239, 371, 417, 433, 474, 493 ; vol. xii, pp. 45, 151,
172, 235-6, 239, 286-8, 325, 360, 373-4, 434, 482.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
' ' Melle' is Chaucer's form for
mill, the Suffolk pronunciation
~R., E. G. Jan. 5. 2nd S. xij now ; perhaps Chaucer intended
11. ] his Reeve to speak the Icenian, as
it is admitted that the two scholars
.speak a Northern, dialect.
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1861
Author.
Editor.
Date.
Feb. 2.
Reference.
2nd S. xi,
100.
P., H. T.
Subject.
Brief notice of Cliatelain's Contes
de Cantorbery, torn. iii.
Feb. 23. 2nd S. xi, Enquires for information as to
150. any MSS. of Chaucer not men¬
tioned by Tyrwliitt or Todd, as he desires to make a
complete list.
[Yeowell, March 9. 2ndS. xi, Extract from W. Oldys' Adver-
James.] 181. saria, on the Occleve portrait of
Chaucer; see below, App. A., [a. 1735.]
March 23. 2nd S. xi, ' Barm-cloth ' = bosom - cloth
239. (Milleres T., 1. 3236).
St. Thomas Wattering, 'the
watering of Seint Thomas' (Prol.,
11. 825-7).
' Antem' (Prioresse T., 11. 1849—
50).
' Antem' from antiphona.
C., W.
Editor. May 11.
H., E. C. June 22.
Aug. 24.
Jebb,
John.
1 Queen's Sept. 21.
Gardens.'
2nd S. xi,
371.
2nd S. xi,
493.
2nd S. xii,
151.
' Aure-
lian.'
Mewburn, Oct, 12.
Era.
'Itburiel.' Oct, 12.
2nd S. xii, The Canterbury Pilgrims de-
235-6. picted (by Stothard'/) riding
Flemish cart-horses.
A parody of the Canterbury Pilgrims, published
soon after Queen Victoria's marriage, shewing the
Queen, Prince Consort and retinue riding to Dun-
mow. [This is really no. 669-70 of H. B.'s Political
Sketches, " ®tothard's admired picture of ' The Proces¬
sion of the Flitch of Bacon ' (i.e. " The ceremony of the
Dunmow Flitch") somewhat metamorphosed," drawn
in 1841, and, except for a similarity of composition, has
nothing to do with the Canterbury Pilgrims.]
Sept. 21. 2nd S. xii, The seven planets (Chanouns
239. Yemannes T., 11. 825-9).
' Daffe ' (Reves T., 1. 288).
2nd S. xii,
286.
2nd S. xii, Copy of the writ of Nov. 11,
287-8. 1373, to pay Chaucer £25 6s. 8d.
for his journey to Genoa and Florence (q.v. above,
vol. i, p. 3), not noticed by Godwin.
T., J. Oct. 26. 2nd S. xii, Was the Tabard really burnt
325. down in the reign of Charles II.,
as stated in Parker's Domestic Architecture?
Corner, Nov. 9. 2nd S. xii, Evidence from various sources
George R.
373-4.
of the destruction of the Tabard
in 1676.
Keight- Nov. 30. 2ndS. xii, To what was Addison referring
ley, 434. in his Chaucer quotation, Spec-
Thos. tator no. 73 (q.v. above, 1711, vol. i, p. 314) ?
1801]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
59
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
P., W. Dec. 14. 2nd S. xii, The document communicated
482. by Ithuriel (xii, 287-8) is in Sir
Harris Nicolas's Life of Chaucer.
1861. Pauli, Reinhold. Pictures of Old England, translated by E. C.
Otte, 1861. [The German original was published at Gotlia,
I860.]
1861. Peacock, Thomas Love. Gryll Grange, capp. viii and xxxiv,
pp. 59 n., 296. (Ed. 1896, introd. by G. Saintsbury, pp. 53 n., 273).
[Cap. viii: quotation from Cook's Prologue, A, 11. 4347-8
(Jakke of Dover). Cap. xxxiv : quotation from Prologue,
11. 731-6.]
1861. Reynolds, Samuel Harvey. Dante and his English Translators,
[in] The Westminster Review, January, 1861, vol. xix, pp. 203,
229. [Reprinted in Studies in Many Subjects, 1898, pp. 3, 34.]
[p. 34] It would hardly he untrue to say that there is more of
Dante's influence traceable in Chaucer's poems—more genuine
evidence that Dante had been read and loved—than in the
whole body of English literature (Milton's writings alone
excepted) from Chaucer's time to our own.
1861. Ruskin, John. Tree Tivigs, [a lecture delivered at the Royal
Institution, April 19, 1861, printed in] The London Review, April
27, 1861, pp. 476-7. (Works, ed. E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn,
1903-12, 39 vols., vol. vii, p. 474.)
[p. 474] The main function of the flower, therefore, is accomplished
only in its death; that of the leaf depends on prolonged work
during its life.
This difference in the operation of the flower and leaf has
attracted the attention of all great nations, as a type of the
various conditions of the life of man. Chaucer's poem of
the Elower and the Leaf, in which the strongest knights and
noblest ladies worship the goddess of the leaf in preference to
the goddess of the flower, is perhaps the clearest expression of
the feeling of the middle ages in this respect.
1861. Unknown. Review of Bell's Annotated Series of British Poets,
[in] The Quarterly Review, Oct. 1861, vol. cx, pp. 436-8, 440, 442,
449.
[p. 437] The Anglo-French dialect of Chaucer, interspersed with
Latinisms, which, like Milton, he failed to naturalize, was not
aptly described as a " well of English undefiled." It is rather
60
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1861-
sucli cliivalric English as Froissart might have employed, and
within a century it was obsolete. Except in the rare passages
of humour and vivid description, which in style belongs to no
special age, the substance of his bulky volume refers as closely
[p. 438] to the mediaeval times, as Homer's to the heroic. Chaucer's
longest production is his translation of the once-famous
" Eoman de la Rose." ... lie seems to have been wanting
in a certain lightness of touch, conciseness, and melody; and
hence the lyrical manner of the Troubadours and of the early
poets of Italy and Swabia is unrepresented in his collection.
But, this excepted, he has given admirable specimens of every
form of poetical literature then practised ; closing in his old
age with that magnificent Prologue to the Pilgrimage, which
gives intimations of a vast advance in nature and invention.
. . . His poems neither were, nor could be, precursors or models
in any strict sense for the poets of modern England. Chaucer
is the Hesperus of what, in absence of a better term, we must
call our Feudal Ages.
1861. Wright, Thomas. Essays on Archseological Subjects, 2 vols.,
vol. ii, pp. 45, 57-GO, 75-6, 259.
^V°57]'' [While nearly all the obsolete words in the other writers are
Anglo-Saxon, the great proportion in Chaucer are French:
hence he is easier to read.]
[pp. 75-6] [Chaucer (Boke of the Duehesse, 11. 434-42, quoted) shews
that Arabic numerals were not yet in general use.]
[V°259]' [The fabliaux of the thirteenth century, with all their
spirit and satire, and much of their objectionable characteristics,
took an English form in the hands of Chaucer.]
1862. Arnold, Thomas. A Manual of English Literature, pp. 47-58,
60-1, 63, 65, 68, 270-7, 279, 290, 412.
[In the first, historical, section of the book is a short
biography (pp. 47-55), in which the Court of Love and
Testament of Love are accepted as genuine, followed by a
chronological table and account of the periods of his work.
The second half is divided into accounts of the various genres,
and under ^Narrative Poetry an account is given of the Canter¬
bury Tales. This very jejune Avork was frequently revised
and reprinted, in 1867, 1873, 1885, 1888, and 1897.]
1862. Borrow, George. Wild Wales—Lts People, Language and
Scenery, 3 vols., vol. i., pp. 216-7.
[On a miller's man shewing a knoAvledge of Taliesin and
Huav Morris :]
1862]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
61
" What a difference/' said I to my wife, after we had
departed, " between a Welshman and an Englishman of the
lower class. What would a Suffolk miller's swain have said
if I had repeated to him verses out of Beowulf or even Chaucer,
and had asked him about the residence of Skelton 1"
1862. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. Designs to illustrate " The
Legend of Good Women."
[Some of these were executed in glass in 1864 by Morris, and
are at Peterhouse, Cambridge, as also is a portrait of Chaucer,
designed by Burne-Jones in 1874. See M. Bell, Sir E. Burne-
Jones, 1899, p. 32.]
1862. Child, Francis James. Observations on the Language of Chaucer
[in the] Memoirs of the American Academy, new ser., vol. viii,
1863, pp. 445-502. [Rearranged and reprinted by A. J. Ellis in
Early English Pronunciation, 1869-75, q.v., below.]
[This is the first minute and scholarly analysis of Chaucer's
language, and it marks an epoch in the study of the poet, for
it made possible the full solution of the question of the right
scansion of the Canterbury Tales. It consists of classified
lists of Chaucer's vocabulary and grammatical forms, and is
preceded by an introductory note :]
[pp.445- [Wright's edn. of the Canterbury Tales employed, as being
based on a single good MS. and fairly accurate. The prevalent
ignorance of the English language of that period.]
[p. 440] We are a long way off from a knowledge of the English of
the fourteenth century, and still further from a satisfactory
edition of Chaucer.
Indeed, there is reason to doubt (and the editors may find
some comfort in the thought) Avlietlier there ever was an
accurate copy of a poem by Chaucer, except his own, or a
manuscript corrected by his hand. Certainly this would not
be an absolutely extravagant inference from what he says
t: unto his own Scrivener."
Adam Scrivener was only the first in a long line of cor¬
rupters . . . Adam may have been heedless and stupid, but
... he might justly plead the unsettled state of the language
in part excuse. It was undoubtedly very hard for an humble
scribe to remember and observe all the nice differences between
[p. 447] the courtly style of his patron and the vulgar dialect... Chaucer
thought the prospect of his verses being preserved as he wrote
62 Five Hundred Years of [a.D. 1862
tliem very unpromising and he expresses his apprehension
thus . . . [Troilus, v, 1793-6].
This anxiety of Chaucer about the writing and reading of
his verses was a thousand times justified by the course of
events. [The copyists and editors. Tyrwhitt's textual prin¬
ciple his weak point. A new edition undesirable until an
editor arises who will make thorough work with the MSS.
Bell's edition likely to block the way for a good while.]
tp. 449] That diversity in English which made Chaucer apprehensive
of damage to his verses may have been so considerable, that
we could not be sure of restoring them to perfect purity, even
if we had several manuscripts of the date 1400 before us. But
by far the larger part of the irregularities and corruptions with
which the text is now loaded are undoubtedly of later origin,
and there is no reason why, (if we are allowed only to take for
granted that Chaucer had an ear, and meant to write good
metre,|) by taking pains enough, by a patient comparison of
[p. 450] apparently uncorrupted verses, followed by a collation of good
contemporary manuscripts, and of the forms of earlier and
contemporary authors, we should not at last obtain a text
approximately correct.
tp. 449 + [Child's note.] Of course, unless Chaucer wrote good metre, there
is an end to all inquiry into the forms of his language. Nothing cau
be more absurd than Dr. Nott's theory upon this point ... or more
[p. 450 just than Tyrwhitt's remarks . . . Is it not surprising . . . that a man
«•] of sense and taste should write as follows ? "At the same time, many
of his liues evidently consist ... of ten syllables only; and such a
construction of verse, for ordinary purposes, is become so much more
agreeable to modern usage and taste, that Ms poetry had better be so read
whenever it can be done, even at the cost of thereby somewhat violating the
exactness of the ancient pronunciation."—Craik's Hist. Eng. Lit. i. 249.
1862. Furnivall, Frederick James. Preface [to] Robert of Brunne's
Handlyng Synne (Roxburghe Club), pp. iv, xxii, xxv, 435, 447.
[p. iv] So far as narrative power and versification are concerned,
he [Brunne] seems to me the worthiest forerunner of Chaucer,—
the cheery dear old man, who so loved women, and the "glad
light green" of spring [from the Flour and the Lefe\, and
made his verse instinct with the grace and brightness that
he saw in the objects of his love.
p. xxii] The MS. [of Handlyng Synne] was accordingly copied, and
then came the question as to how much of the text was
Robert's own, and how much translated from Wadington.
1862]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
63
The only way to answer this was by printing Wadington's
text opposite Brunne's—a course I had often desired to see
taken with Chaucer and his originals, so-called.
1862. Kent, William Charles Mark. Chaucer at Woodstock, [in] Dream¬
land, with other Poems, pp. 10-16.
[A poem describing Chaucer basking in the sun in his
garden, and seeing his Canterbury Pilgrims pass by as in a
vision.]
1862. Lytton, Edward Bulwer, Lord. Essay on the Influence of Love
upon Literature and Real Life, [first printed in Miscellaneous
Prose Works, 1868, 3 vols., vol. ii, p. 371-2 ; and reprinted in
Works, Knebworth edn., Quarterly Essays, 1875, pp. 351-2.]
[p. 35i] Chaucer receives liim [Love] from the Provencal and tlie
Italian, as they had received him from the Saracen and the
Arab. "Where Chaucer, however, appears to write most from
his own Anglo-Xorman inspiration, love is not very serious. . . .
[p.352] We may doubt whether Chaucer experienced in his own
life more of actual love than a chivalrous fantasy, or a light
intrigue.
1862. Marsh., George Perkins. Origin and History of the English
Language [based on lectures delivered at Boston, U.S.A., in
1860-61], London, 1862, pp. 10, 17, 19, 134-6, 138, 147, 196-8,
215-6, 284, 286-7, 297, 303, 315-7, 335, 365, 372 ; Lecture IX,
Chaucer and Cower, pp. 379-453, 454, 455, 456, 458, 463, 465, 482-5,
506, 511, 566, 569-70.
[For Marsh's earlier series of lectures see above, 1S5S-9.]
[Lecture ix begins with a general account of the English
language at Chaucer's birth, pp. 379—81.]
[p. 38i] Chaucer did not introduce into the English language Avords
lp.382] which it had rejected as aliens before, but out of those which
had been already received he invested the better portion Avith
the rights of citizenship, and stamped them with the mint
mark of English coinage. . . .
Of the Pomance Avords found in his Avritings, not much
above one hundred have been suffered to become obsolete,
Avliile a much larger number of Anglo-Saxon Avords employed
by him have passed altogether out of use.
[Linguistic conditions ready for Chaucer, p. 385. Chaucer's
introduction of Pomance Avords less than is supposed ; the
translation of the Bomaunt is used in evidence, pp. 390-1.
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1862
Chaucer not an historical poet, pp. 393-5. Chaucer's sources
and his acknowledgments : contents of hooks common property
in the middle ages, pp. 395-99. His Italian sources, pp. 400-1.
Discussion of the Romaunt, pp. 401-7.]
413] It cannot he said that the poem [Troilus] is essentially
improved hy the changes of the translator, though, in some
passages, great skill in the use of words is exhibited, and the
native humour of Chaucer pervades many portions of the
story. . . .
[The Flour and the Lefe discussed, pp. 414-6. General
account of the Canterbury Tales, pp. 417—31.]
419] He is essentially a dramatist, and if his great work
does not appear in the conventional dramatic form, it is an
accident of the time.
102. Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. i, pp. 99, 193, 199, 260, 322,
484 ; vol. ii, pp. 48, 165, 190, 204, 218, 319, 327, 347, 376-7,
400, 461, 463-4, 479, 507.
Author.
w. s.
Corner,
G. R.
East¬
wood, J.
Allport,
Douglas.
Date.
Feb. 1.
March 8.
March 8.
Reference.
3rd S. i,"
QQ
3rd S. i,
193. .
3rd S. i,
199.
Subject.
Chaucer's Tabard Inn and Fire
of Southwark, 1667 and 1676.
' Nockynge and Do well money'
(.Frol. 11. 507-11 quoted).
' Tabard'; Chaucer's Plowman
described as wearing one; the
Southwark inn perhaps named in compliment to
Kentish farmers.
March 29. 3rd S. i,
260.
Collier,
J. P.
Ap. 26.
: } July
19.
w., w.
Editor
Mayhew, Sept. 6.
A. L.
Hazlitt,
W. C..
Sept. 13.
Mewl)urn, Nov. 1.
Fra.
"Work- Nov. 8.
ard, B.
3rd S. i,
322.
3rd S. ii,
48.
3rd S. ii,
190.
3rd S. ii,
204.
3rd S. ii,
347.
3rd S. ii,
377.
Entry by A. Jeffes, 1592, of
Chaucer's Works, in the Registers
of the Stationers' Company.
' Citryne eyes ' (Knightes Tale,
I. 2162).
' mystery' = craft.
Some copies of the Works,
1561, purport to be printed by
Henry Bradsha or Bradsbaw.
^ The Yeoman's (or rather
Frankelein's) bake-meats (Prol.
II. 343-4).
' Forthink.'
1862] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 65
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Kei.gh.t- Dec. 13. 3rd S. ii, All English prose from Chaucer
ley> T- 463-4. to Dryden is written in rhythmi¬
cal lines of five beats ; Chaucer perhaps introduced this,
as he did the five-foot verse-line.
'Chess- Dec. 13. 3rd S. ii, 'Forthink'; identification of
borough.' 479. an edition of 1560 (really 1561)
asked for.
1862. Peacock, Thomas Love. Letter to Lord Br ought on, [dated] Feb.
22, 1862, [printed in] A Biographical Notice by his grand-daughter
Edith Nicolls, p. xlvii. (Works, ed. Cole, 1875, vol. i, p. xlvii.)
I have more pleasure in reading through hooks which I
have read and admired before than in reading anything new.
The three last old works which I have so gone through were
" Rabelais," Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and the " Morgan te
Maggiore."
1862-3. Ruskin, John. Munera Pulveris, chapters iii, v, vi, Coin-
keeping, Government> and Mastership, and Appendix vi, [first
published as Essays on Political Economy, in] Eraser's Magazine,
Dec. 1862, vol. Ixvi, p. 749a., April, 1863, vol. Ixvii, pp. 446-a.,
457, 462 ; 1st vol. ed., 1872 (as Munera Pulveris), in Works, 1871 —
80, 11 vols., vol. ii, pp. 84, 126a., 162-3n., 186. (Works, ed.
E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols., vol. xvii, pp.
208, 244, 273, 292.)
[p. 20Sj [Chaucer, like Plato, Dante, Shakspere, etc., spoke in
enigmas.]
[p. 244] [Quotation from Romaunt of the Rose, 11. 177-80.]
[p. 273] [Chaucer's feeling respecting birds.]
[p. 292] [Appendix vi: Quotation from Romaunt of the Rose, 11.
1142-3.]
1862. Smith, Alexander. Geoffrey Chaucer, [in] The Museum, Jan.
1862, vol. i, pp. 459-66. [Reprinted, much revised, in Dream-
thorp, 1863, pp. 211-45.]
tp. 459] Chaucer is admitted on all hands to he a great poet, hut by
the general public, at least, he is not frequently read. He is
like a cardinal virtue, a good deal talked about, a good deal
praised, a good deal admired, but very seldom practised.
[Reasons for this :] He is an ancient ... He is garrulous,
homely and slow-paced . . . He does not dazzle by sentences;
[p. 460] he is not quotable. [His kindliness; visible in his face.
Inadequacy of the modernizers :] Dryden and Pope did not
translate Chaucer, or modernize Chaucer; they committed
assault and battery upon him . . .
CHAUCER CRITICISM.—III. F
66
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1862-
[p. 461] [Chaucer's clearness of outline justifies Hazlitt s epithet
'intense.' Colour and gaiety of liis world, lhe Canterbury
Tales a gathering up of tales written at different times.
Observation shewn in the Prologue ; dramatic variety of the
tales; pathos of the tale of Constance.]
[In Drecimthorp tlie passage on the modernizers is replaced by a contrast between
Chaucer and Spenser, which is extracted from an article, Ldmund Spenser, in The
Museum, July, 1SG2, vol. ii, p. 151. The latter part of tlie essay is practically
rewritten, and concludes with prose summaries of the Knightes and Man of Law's
Tales.]
1862. Unknown. Mediaeval English Literature: Chaucer, [in] The
National Keview, Jan. 1862, vol. xiv, pp. 1-37.
[The book nominally reviewed is Bell's edn. of the Poetical
Works of Chaucer, in 8 vols., 1854-56. Chaucer's literary
character and genius is reviewed as influenced by his age and
its limitations; hence he is often careless and prolix, and lie
lacks historical perspective (p. 8). His genius, though of the
rarest kind, was not of the highest order (p. 9). The essential
characteristic of it is a strong sense of the real (p. 12). Some
account follows of Chaucer's life and reading (pp. 14-16), and
his works are then reviewed in some detail, arranged in
six divisions : Grave Stories ; Comic Stories; Pieces of suffi¬
cient extent to stand alone ; Allegorical and Personal Poems;
Miscellaneous Pieces; Prose Works.]
1862. Weymouth, Kichard Francis. Bishop Grossetestes " Castle of
Love," [a paper, read Nov. 13, 1862, printed in] Transactions of the
Philological Society, 1862-3, [1864,] p. 59.
Chaucer . . . has generally preferred a five-fold ictus in his
Canterbury Tales, though the number of his syllables varies
from eight to twelve : see for instance, in his description of
the Friar, the second and fourth of these lines [ProI., 11. 246-
50],—
It is not honest, it may not avaunce,
For | to de|len with | such | poraile,
But al with riche and sellers of vitaille.
And 6ver|al ther e|ny pro|fyt schulde j arise,
Curteys | he was | and lowle of | servise.
1862. Wright, Thomas. History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments
in England during the Middle Ages, (reprinted, with additions, as
The Domes of Other Dags, a History, etc., 1871), pp. 133-4 139,
142, 155, 171-2, 188, 210-1, 217, 242, 248-9, 279, 281, 284-6,
288-9, 313, 315, 319-22, 325, 335, 372, 395-8, 405, 419, 439.
[pp. 133- [Details of houses in Milleres T., T. of Gamelyn, Somp-
4] noures T., Nonne Prestos Tf]
1863]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
67
1863. Arnold, Matthew, Maurice de Gue'rin, [in] Fraser's Magazine,
Jan. 1863, vol. lxvii, p. 48. [Reprinted in Essays in Criticism,
1865, p. 83, and as a preface to the Journal of Maurice de Gue'rin,
1867.] (Works, 1903-4, 15 vols., vol. iii, p. 91.)
For English poetical production on a great scale, for an
English poet deploying all the forces of his genius, the ten-
syllahle couplet was, in the eighteenth century, the established,
one may almost say the inevitable, channel. How this
couplet, admirable (as Chaucer uses it) for story-telling not
of the epic pitch, and often admirable for a few lines even in
poetry of a very high pitch, is for continuous use in poetry
of this latter kind inadequate.
1863. [Blanchard, Edward Litt Leman. (" Francisco Frost.")]
Harlequin and Friar Bacon; or great grim John of Gaunt, and
the enchanted lance of Robin Goodfellow: an entirely neio . . .
pantomime, (Astley's Pantomime, 1863-4), [1864],
[Scene n shews Chaucer, the Host, and the rest of the
Pilgrims at the Tabard ; Scene in shews them on the road.
Chaucer has a speaking part, but no attempt at archaism is
made. The text is followed by a note on the Tabard Inn.
For the authorship, see The Life caul Reminiscences of E. L.
Blancliard, by Clement Scott and Cecil Howard, 1891, 2 vols.,
vol. i, p. 285.]
1863-64. Chambers, Robert. The Book of Days, aMiscellany of Popular
Antiquities in connection with the Calendar, edited by It.
Chambers, 2 vols. ; vol. i, 1863, pp. 53, 220, 339, 472 ; vol. ii, 1864,
pp. 493-4.
p"^]1' [Chaucer's allusion to the Man in the Moon, Troilus, i,
1024.]
[p. 220] In the middle ages, solemn betrothal by means of the
ring often preceded matrimony, and was sometimes adopted
between lovers who were about to separate for long
periods. Chaucer, in his Troilus and Cresseidc, describes the
heroine as giving her lover a ring, upon which a love-motto
was engraved, and receiving one from him in return.
[p. 472] [Reference made to, Chaucer being often called poet-
laureate, to the offices held by him, and to several curious
grants of which he was the recipient.]
KsU] [Biographical notice.]
68
Five Hundred Years oj
[a.d. 1863
1863. Landor, Walter Savage. Heroic Idylls, ivith additional Poems,
pp. 142-3, 181, 224, 270.
To Chaucer.
[p. 142] Chaucer, 0 how I wish thou wert
Alive and, as of yore, alert!
Then, after bandied tales, what fun
Would we two have with monk and nun.
Ah, surely verse was never meant
To render mortals somnolent.
In Spenser's labyrinthine rhymes
I throw my arms o'erhead at times,
Opening sonorous mouth as wide
As oyster shells at ebb of tide. . .
No bodyless and soulless elves
I seek, but creatures like ourselves. . .
Thou wast content to act the squire
Becomingly, and mount no higher,
Nay, at fit season to descend
Into the poet with a friend,
Then ride with him about the land
In lithesome nut-brown boots well tann'd . . .
The lesser Angels now have smiled
To see thee frolic like a child,
And hear thee, innocent as they,
Provoke them to come down and play.
[Squibs, crackers, serpents, etc. . .]
[p. lsi] I leaving good old Homer, not o'erlong,
Enjoy the merriment of Chaucer's tales.
[Wrongs have i suffered . . .]
[p. 224] Wrongs have I suffered, great and many,
Insufferable never any
Like that prepensely murderous one
An Oxford liang-dog rogue has done,
Who shoved me on a bench with men
Biting the point of Chaucer's pen.
Chaucer I always loved, for he
Led me to woo fair Poesie.
He of our craft the worthy foreman
Stood gallantly against the Norman,
1863]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
69
And in good humour tried to teach
Reluctant churls our native speech.
Now I must mount my cob and hurry
To join his friends at Canterbury,
A truly English merry party,
Tho' none so jocular and hearty.
[James Pycroft's Ways and Works of Men of Letters, 1S01, pp. 79, 379, is here
referred to. See above, 1S61, Landor.]
[p. 27oj On the Widow's Ordeal, ry Washington Irving.
Chaucer I fancied had been dead
Some centuries, some four or five;
By fancy I have been misled
Like many ; he is yet alive.
The Widow's Ordeal who beside
Could thus relate? Yes, there is one,
He bears beyond the Atlantic wide
The glorious name of Washington.
1863. Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. iii, pp. 2, 17, 77, 95, 134,
137, 243, 371, 389, 427-8, 432-3, 453-5, 476-8, 496-7 ; vol.
iv, pp. 18, 26, 158, 359, 365-6, 423.
Author.
Collier,
John
Payne.
Work-
ard,
J. J. B.
A., A. Jan. 24.
A., A.
B., N.
Burn,
John S.
Pinker-
ton,
William.
Date. Reference. Subject.
Jan. 3. 3rd S. iii, Entry by Islip on 20 Dec., 1594,
2. in the Register of the Stationers'
Company, of Speglit's edition of Chaucer's Works. See
below, App. A., 1594.
Jan. 3. 3rd S. iii, 'Fortliink'; editions of Chaucer.
Reply to 'Chessborough' (3rd S.
ii, 377, 479).
' Hoppesteres' = hopping, dis¬
abled, on the analogy of 'tomble-
steres' = tumblers.
'Hackney' (Bom. Bose, A.
1137); origin of the word?
' Hackney.'
Jan. 31.
Feb. 14.
Feb. 14.
Mar. 28.
17.
3rd S. iii,
77.
3rd S. iii,
95.
3rd S. iii,
134.
3rd S. iii,
137.
3rd S. iii,
243.
Editor. May 9.
3rd S. iii,
371.
' Rood coat' ; Ploivmctn's Tcde,
quoted as Chaucer's.
Lydgate's Story of Tliehes printed
by William Thynne, at the end of
Chaucer's Works, 1561, as an
additional Canterbury Tale.
Shakespeare's ' Patience on a
monument' imitated from Chaucer
(Furl. Fuules, 11. 242-3).
70
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1863-
Author
Her-
men-
trude.'
Date.
May 16.
Daniel.' May 30
' Tweed-
side.'
Editor.
' Chess-
borough.
Reference. Subject.
3rd S. iii, Griselda; origin of the tale ?
389. Chaucer's and Edwin Arnold's ver¬
sions ; modernisation of the iormer in Blackwood's,
1838 [g.u.].
' Dan Chaucer'; meaning of
'Dan'?
Ralph Strode, the friend of
Chaucer and praised by him for
his philosophy.
Reply to W. Pinkerton and
J. J. B. Workard ; further enquiry
May 30.
June G.
3rd S. iii,
427-8.
3rd S. iii,
432-3.
3rd S. iii,
453-5.
for evidence of a 1560 edition of Chaucer.
June 13.
Addis, June 13.
John.
Work- June 20.
ard,
J. J. B.
Pinker- June 20.
ton,
William.
' Juxta July 4.
Turrim.'
Camp¬
bell,
J. D.
Buckton,
T. J.
July 11.
Aug. 22.
' Juxta
Turrim.'
Editor.
3rd S. iii,
476-7.
Dan' is from cdominus.'
3rd S. iii, Troilus, i. 108, quoted in refer-
478. ence to the phrase ' A.I.'
3rd S. iii, ' Chessborough's' '1560' copy
496-7. of Chaucer's Works probably of
one of Speght's editions.
3rd S. iii, f Chessborough's' Chaucer; War-
497. ton records the insertion of Lyd-
gate's Story of Thebes by William Thynne
in the 1561 edition.
3rd S. iv,
18.
3rd S. iv, ' Wailed.'
26.
Thynne, who died in 1546, could
not haATe edited the 1561 Chaucer.
Oct. 31.
Nov. 7.
Nov. 21.
3rd S. iv, 'Fast' (Chanouns Yemannes
158. Prol., 11. 127-30, quoted).
3rd S. iv, ' Rochette ' {Rom. Rose, B. 4754,
359. referred to).
3rd S. iv, An account of William Thynne,
365-6. the editor of Chaucer.
3rd S. iv, Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside
423. Inn ; the introductions, as in the
Canterbury Tales, are the best part.
[n. a. 1863.] Smith, Alexander. William Dunbar, [in] Dreamthorp,
1863, pp. 67-72, 81.
Li>. cs] Cliaucer . . . appeared at a time when the Saxon and
Norman races had become fused. ... He was the first great
1864]
Chaucer Criticism ancl Allusion.
71
poet the island produced; and he wrote for the most part in
the language of the people. ... In his earlier poems he was
under the influence of the Provencal Troubadours, and in his
"Flower and the Leaf" and other works of a similar class, he
riots in allegory. . . . He lived in a brilliant and stirring
time; he was connected with the court; he served in armies;
he visited the Continent; and, although a silent man, he
carried with him, wherever he went, and into whatever
[p. 69] company he was thrown, the most observant eyes perhaps that
ever looked curiously out upon the world. . . . And so it was
that, after mixing in kings' courts, and sitting with friars in
taverns, and talking with people on country roads, and travel¬
ling in France and Italy, and making himself master of the
literature, science, and theology of his time, and when perhaps
touched with misfortune and'sorrow, he came to see the depth
of interest that resides in actual life. ... It is difficult to
define Chaucer's charm. He does not indulge in fine senti¬
ments; he has no bravura passages; he is ever master of him¬
self and of his subject. The light upon his page is the light
[p. 70] of common day. ... It is his shrewdness, his conciseness, his
ever-present humour, his frequent irony, and his short homely
line—effective as the play of the short Koman sword—which
strikes the reader most. [Chaucer and Fielding compared in
their common-sense and English relish for fact.] Chaucer was
a Conservative in all his feelings; he liked to poke his fun at
the clergy, but he was not of the stuff of which martyrs are
made . . .
[p- 7i] Chaucer was born about 1328, and died about 1380.
[Probably reprinted from a review. Irving's History of Scottish Poetry (1800) is
spoken of (p. 75) as " published the other day."]
1864. Works. [Projected editions.]
[In 1864 Professor Earle, W. Aldis Wright and Henry
Bradsliaw undertook to edit for the Clarendon Press a standard
library edition of Chaucer. Work 011 it was in progress in
1866 and 1867. In 1870 Professor Earle gave up the editor¬
ship-in-chief, and, after refusals by Aldis Wright and Skeat,
Bradsliaw accepted it, but soon found that he had not the
time.
Also in 1864 Alexander Macmillan proposed to Bradsliaw a
small edition in the Globe series. So late as 1879, in con¬
junction with Furnivall, Bradsliaw had some specimen pages
72
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1864
printed, but no more came of it. See for these schemes,
G. A\r. Prothero, A Memoir of Henry Bnulshaw, 1888, pp.
108-9, 223-5, and, for Bradsliaw's Chaucer studies in general,
ib., pp. 14, 122, 143, 212-23.]
1864. The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. [The text of
the earlier version, privately printed from the Cambridge MS. for
Henry Bradsliaw. See Hammond, Chancer, p. 381. No copy in
B.M. or University Library, Cambridge.]
1864. Bradshaw, Henry. See above, Works, and The Prologue to the
Legend of Good Women.
1864. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. The Dream of Good Women.
[A stained glass window, at Peterhouse, Cambridge.]
1864. Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend, 2 vols., 1864-5, vol. i,
chap, iii, x, pp. 13, 89. (Works, Gadshill edition [1897-1908],
30 vols., vol. xxiii, pp. 21, 145.)
[p. 2i] Mortimer looked at the hoy, and the hoy looked at the
bran-new pilgrims on the wall, going to Canterbury in more
gold'frame than procession, and more carving than country.
[p. 145] Veneering shoots out of the study wherein he is accus¬
tomed, when contemplative, to give his mind to the carving
and gilding of the Pilgrims going to Canterbury \i. e. probably
the print after Stotliard].
1864. Earle, John. See above, Works.
1864-7. Morley, Henry. English Writers, vol. i, pp. 21-2 [Chaucer's
debt to Italy], 771-5 [his debt to France ; his life, without the
apocryphal episodes, the Testament of Love being treated as a
genuine but purely imaginative work] ; vol. ii, pp. 1-5 [Chaucer
the first fully English writer]; 39-43 [Petrarch and Boccaccio];
66-9, 107-8, 135-6, 138-9 [Gower]; 140-338 [chapters iv-vii,
devoted to Chaucer ; p. 140, his character sociable and free from
bitterness; pp. 141-65, his life; The Court of Love treated as
genuine ; pp. 165-335, his works described and analysed in a
chronological order (Troihts being compared at some length with
the Filostrato, and Chaucer's refinements on Boccaccio pointed
out, pp. 237-43) ; pp. 335-6, cause of his greatness ; pp. 336-7, his
verse regular; pp. 337-8, his English]; 425, 429-32 TLydgate];
434 [Occleve].
[In the revised and enlarged edn., 11 vols., 1887-95, chapters
vi-xiii, pp. 83-347, of vol. v (1890) are devoted to Chaucer ; many
brief passages relating to him are scattered up and down the whole
work.]
1864]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
73
Author.
Heath,
R. C.
' Chau¬
cer.'
Con-
greve,
H.
1864. Notes and. Queries, 3rd Series, vol. v, p. 53 : vol. vi, pp. 125,
200, 259, 284, 288, 432, 464-5.
Date. Reference. Subject.
Jan. 16. 3rd S. v, Neglect of the swallow by
53. Chaucer, perhaps owing to its lack
of song.
Aug. 13. 3rd S. vi, No allusion to Chaucer beyond
125. the signature.
Sept. 10. 3rd S. vi, The Squieres Tale derived from
200. an Eastern original, perhaps The
Enchanted Horse, in The Arabian Nights, by way of
the thirteenth century romance Cleomades and Clare-
mond.
Hender- Sept. 24. 3rd S. vi, ' Raines,' ' cloth of raines' {Book
son, 259. of the Dnchesse, 11. 251-5), derived
John. by Tyrwhitt from Rennes.
Dixon, J. Oct. 8. 3rd S. vi, Strange that Milton accented
284. Cambuscan differently from his
original.
„ Nov. 26. 3rd S. vi, 'Dun is in the mire'; doubts
432. whether ' dun' — donkey.
Carey, Dec. 3. 3rd S. vi, Milton's misaccentuation of
Stafford. 464-5. 'Cambuscan,' though not without
sonorous grandeur, shews how imperfectly our earlier
poets were understood in the latter half [sic] of the
seventeenth century. Dryden, with all his veneration
for Chaucer, had no adequate conception of the beauties
of his versification. Long quotation from the preface
to the Fables, 1700, q.v. above, vol. i, p. 276-7.
1864. O'Hagan, John. Chaucer, [in] The Afternoon Lectures on
Literature and Art, delivered in the Theatre of the Museum of
Industry, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, 1863-9, 5 series, ser. ii,
1864, pp. 247-77.
[Chaucer's language having very soon become obsolete, be
never could nor can be a popular favourite; even Dryden's
[pp.250-excellent imitations are as much Dryden as Chaucer. Chaucer's
53] life, with no mention of the Testament of Love or the episodes
[pp.253-f0unded on it. His versification; the final vowel and the
[pp.254-Drench element in the pronunciation. The Court of Love
71 r ' Chaucer's earliest work.' The Canterbury Tales ; the
[P7)]d7~characters and their stories. Chaucer's coarseness inexcusable
and also dramatically inartistic. His vivid pictures of society
in the fourteenth century.]
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1864-
ct. 1864 ?] Pater, Walter Horatio. Conversation with Mr. Richard
C. Jackson, [in] The Life of Walter Pater, by Thomas Wright, 1907,
2 vols., vol. ii, pp. 267-8.
20S] One day, when Pater and Mr. Jackson were visiting an
acquaintance, Pater chanced to take up a rather rare little book
called Chaucer Modernised, lie remarked that he had never
seen it before, and frankly admitted that he was entirely
ignorant of the literature connected with Chaucer; that, more¬
over, of Chaucer himself and his work he knew very little.
" Of course,"he added, "I have heard of the Canterbury Tales,
hut 1 did not know that they were considered of sufficient
importance to he modernised."
[Mr. Jackson exclaims upon Pater's ignorance of English
literature, which however he finds natural in "a Tutor of
Oxford," and offers to show him a work in his library which
cannot fail to open his eyes.]
Pater duly presented himself early one morning, and Mr.
Jackson placed before him the magnificent Black Letter
Chaucer above described [ed. Speglit, 1598]. Opening the
book, Pater gave an exclamation of wonder and delight, and
all that day he sat poring over its pages, scarcely saying a
word.
[In the evening he made severe observations on the neglect
of English in education, concluding :]
" Books like this or facsimiles of them ought to he in all
schools and colleges." . . . Then pointing to the portrait of
Chaucer he said: "This portrait, dight with heraldry, has as
much within it as a vast number of the so-called commentaries
of the Bible."
[It is obvious from the phrasing alone that this story is untrue as it stands. The
whole book is full of equal and even greater absurdities. But it may be based on
some real expression of regret on Pater's part at his ignorance of Chaucer, and is
perhaps worth quoting on that account.
If Pater was " a Tutor of Oxford " at the time, it must have been in or after 1864,
when he took his Fellowship at Brasenose.
Mr. Jackson had inherited Charles Lamb's library, and this may have been the
copy mentioned above, 1823. He also (Wright, vol. ii, p. ISO) owned, and shewed to
Pater, Blake's original oil-sketch for the Canterbury Pilgrims.]
64. Ruskin, John. Sesame and Lilies, Lecture ii, Of Queen's
Gardens. [Delivered 14 Dec., 1864,] 1st vol. ed., 1865, p. 138.
(Works, ed. E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols.,
vol. xviii, pp. 118-19.)
Now I could multiply witness upon witness of this kind
1865]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
75
[of the queenly power of women] upon you if I had time.
I would take Chaucer and show you why he wrote a Legend
of Good Women; but no Legend of Good Men.
1864. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. Letter to the Duke of Argyll, [printed
in] Tennyson ; a Memoir by his Son, 1897, 2 vols., vol. ii, p. 3.
One cannot exactly say of him [Garibaldi] what Chaucer
says of the ideal knight, " As meke he was of port as is a
maid." He is more majestic than meek.
[Tennyson enjoyed reading Chaucer aloud more than any poet except Shakespeare
and Milton. See Tennyson: a Memoir, vol. ii, pp. 83, 284.]
1864. Wright, William Aldis. See above, Works.
1865. Bradshaw, Henry. [Advertisement of] An Attempt to Ascertain
the State of Chaucer's Works, as they were left at his death, with
some notices of their subsequent history.
[The advertisement, inserted by Macmillan on the front page
of Hotes and Queries, Aug. 12, 1865, begins with the words
" Shortly xvill be published," but Bradshaw did not advance
far into the work, of which only the introductory pages were
found after his death. The Skeleton of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales summed up liis results; see below, 1867.]
1865. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. Chaucer's Dream.
[A water-colour, illustrating the non-Cliaucerian Isle of
Ladies. Burne-Jones painted a larger and much altered
version in 1871. For other Chaucerian subjects painted by
him see above, 1858, 1861, 1862, 1864. He also painted, in
1874 and succeeding years, a series of scenes from the
Romaunt of the Rose. See M. Bell, Sir E. Burne-Jones, 1899,
and 0. G. Destree, Les Preraphaelites [1895].]
1865. Collier, John Payne. A Bibliographical and Critical Account of
the Rarest Books in the English Language, vol. i, pp. viii*, xii*,
xli* xliv* 87, 97-8, 128-9, 147, 191, 200, 227, 255, 267, 280, 338,
400, 526 ; vol. ii, pp. 92, 101-2, 145, 178, 183, 238, 295, 378, 418,
424, 427-8, 440, 464, 477, 485-6, 546.
[Editions of Chaucer and allusions to him in old literature.]
[p.xii»] We do not know that it has been observed upon, but it is a
fact, that no less a poet than Chaucer was the earliest intro¬
ducer of classical measures into our language. He commences
76 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1865
his prose version of Boetliius with these two hexameter
lines . . .
"Alas, I wepyng am constrayned to begin verse of sorowful
mater,
That whilom in flourisshyng stndye made delytable verses."
1865. Furnivall, Frederick James. The, Wrijht's Chaste Wife, by
Adam of Cobsam, ed. F. J. Furnivall, E.E.T.S., Preface, p. vii.
Would that we knew as much of Adam of Cobsam as of
our White-Rose king. He must have been one of the Chaucer
breed. . . .
[To this a footnote was added in ed. 2, 1869, on Chaucer's
Carpenter and the Milleres 2'.]
1865. [Furnivall, Frederick James ?] [Article in] The Reader, May 27,
1865, p. 598.
[No thorough testing of Chaucer MSS. ever yet carried out.]
It may be that a further testing of the two texts [the Harleian,
used by Wright, and the Ellesmere] will establish the supe¬
riority of the "Ellesmere " MS. in readings, though it is later
in date, and may necessitate its being taken as the basis of the
new Oxford edition, should the University Press proposal for
one ever be carried into effect. . . . It is clear to any eye that
these illustrations [i. e. those of the Ellesmere MS.] are much
later than the MS. (which is about 1430 a.d.) . . . and have
thus unfortunately thrown discredit on the MS. itself. On
the question of which of the two schemes—Professor Child's,
of printing the six or eight texts, or the Oxford one, of print¬
ing one and collating the others—is the more deserving of
support, we can only say that we wish well to both,
though we fear the Oxford one, if carried out first, might
prevent the success of Professor Child's. The true way would
be for the Oxford Press delegates to take both schemes in
hand, to print the six or eight texts as material for their
editor, or better, their editors, and then issue their one text,
without collations, which are always a bother. . . . They
would be producing a book worthy of their own reputation,
and of our own bright poet of the dawn.
1865] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 77
1865. Furnivall, Frederick James. Chaucer and Arthur, [review of
Thynne's Animadversions, ed. Kingsley, and Morte Arthure, ed.
Perry (E.E.T.S.), in] Tlie Reader, 18 November, 1865, pp. 565-6.
We put Chaucer before Arthur, for we care more about
him; the more Ave read him the more we love him, sunning
ourselves in the bright sheen of his humour, and sniffing the
fragrance of his verse, as on a bright spring day on his own
Kent downs. The old man is the foremost and most
glowing figure of all the troop of our early writers; and,
of all, he is the one we can take closest home to ourselves,
for he has written himself in his books, if ever writer has,
and we know the man from soul to skin.
1865. Hook, Walter Farquhar. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury,
1860-76, 12 A'ols., vol. iii, 1865, pp. 2>1n., 40-1, 47, 67, 69».
tp. 67] [Against Chaucer's evidence of the demoralisation of the
clergy of his time must be set his picture of a parish priest.]
[p. 69] [Identification of Chaucer's good priest with Wyclif im¬
possible; if intended by Chaucer, it must have been as a
masked sarcasm. Robert Bell quoted. Further improbability
" that the gay and licentious poet should have been intimate
Avith the reformer."]
1865. Kingsley, George Henry. Chaucer. Animaduersions . . . by
Francis Thynne . . . edited by G. H. Kingsley, Early English
Text Soc., pp. iv, vi, viii, ix, xi, xii.
[p. xi] The old story of Chaucer's having been fined for beating
a Franciscan friar in Fleet Street is doubted by Thynne,
though hardly, I think, on sufficient grounds. Tradition
(when it agrees with our own vieAvs) is not lightly to be
disturbed, and remembering with what more than feminine
powers of invective "spiritual" men seem to be not unfre-
quently endoAved, and also hoAV atrociously insolent a Fran¬
ciscan friar would be likely to be (of course from the best
motives) to a man like Chaucer, Avho had burnt into the
very soul of monasticism Avith the caustic of his Avit, I shall
continue to believe the legend for the present. If the
mediaeval Italians are to be believed, the cudgelling of a friar
was occasionally thought necessary even by the most faithful,
and I see no reason Avhy hale Dan Chaucer should not have
lost his temper on sufficient provocation.
78
Five Hundred Years of [a.D. 1865
[A review of Kingsley in tlie Saturday Review led to a
strong denunciation of the reviewer by burnivail in The
Reader, beb. 3, 18G6, q.v. below. The second edition, 1875,
edited by b. J. burnivall, with a new preface by Kings-
ley, and hind words by burnivall, contains other Chaucer
references.]
1865. Laing, David. The Poems and Fables of Robert Ilenryson, ed.
David Laing, pp. xix, xxi-ii, xxv-ix [The Testament of Cresseid
and Chaucer's Troilus. Also numerous references to Chaucer,
chiefly quotations from Chalmers, in the notes.]
1865. Maurice, Frederick Denison. On Books, [a lecture delivered
Nov. 1865, printed in] The Friendship of Books and other
Lectures, 1874, pp. 76-7.
[pp. 76- Chaucer was possibly the friend of Wycliffe—certainly
shared many of his sympathies and antipathies. He loved
the priest, or, as he was called, the secular priest, who went
among the people, and cared for them as his fellow-country¬
men ; he intensely disliked the friars, who flattered tliem and
cursed them, and in both Avays governed them and degraded
them. His education had been different from Wycliffe's, his
early poetical poAvers had been called forth by the ladies and
gentlemen of the court. He mingled much French Avith his
speech, as they did; he acquired from them a kind of
acquaintance Avith life which Wycliffe could not obtain in
the Oxford schools. Had he remained under their influence
he might have been merely a very musical court singer; but
he entered into fellowship Avith common citizens. He became
a keen observer of all the different forms of life and society
in his time—a keen observer, and, as all such are, genial,
friendly, humorous, able to understand men about him by
sympathising with them, able to understand the stories of the
past by his experience of the present. Without being a
reformer like Wycliffe, he helped forward the Deformation
by making men acquainted Avitli themselves and their felloAVs,
by stripping off disguises, and by teaching them to open
their eyes to the beautiful Avorld which lay about them.
Chaucer is the genuine specimen of an English poet—a type
of the best Avho Avere to come after him; Avith cordial affection
for men and for nature; often tempted to coarseness, often
yielding to his baser nature in his desire to enter into all the
1865] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
79
different experiences of men ; apt through this desire, and
through his hatred of what was insincere, to say many things
of which lie had need to repent, and of which he did repent ;
hut never losing his loyalty to what was pure, his reverence
for what was divine. . . . The English books which live
through ages are those which connect themselves with human
life and action. His other poems, though graceful and
harmonious, are only remembered, because in his " Canter¬
bury Tales" he lias come directly into contact with the
hearts and thoughts, the sufferings and sins, of men and
women, and lias given the clearest pictures we possess of all
the distinctions and occupations in his own day.
1865. Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. vii, pp. 268, 279, 345,
436, 486, 492 ; vol. viii, pp. 13, 63, 77, 104, front cover of no. for
Aug. 12, pp. 145, 164, 221-2, 260, 348, 360, 367-8, 419, 459, 483,
532.
Author.
Date.
Reference.
Subject.
Burn, J. S.
Apr. 1.
3rd S. vii.
' Dagon' — remnant.
268.
N., N.
Apr. 8.
3rd S. vii,
'Dalfe,' 'dolven,' not 'delved,'
279.
the past of 'delve' in Chaucer.
T., C.
Apr. 29.
3rd S. vii,
' Cole' = charcoal.
345.
Furnivall,
June 3.
3rd S. vii,
Verses by Roger North in the
F. J.
436.
Ellesmere MS. of the Canter¬
bury Tales.
A. A.
June 17.
3rd S. vii,
' Chevisaunce.'
486.
Norgate,
June 17.
3rd S. vii,
Adam's Descript ion of King's
F.
486.
Lynn (q.v. above, [1676 ?],
vol. i, p. 272) claiming Chaucer as a
native.
(Hermen- June 24. 3rd S. vii, Extracts from the Issue
trude.' 492. Rolls, including life-records of
Chaucer.
Dixon, J. July 1. 3rd S. viii, Improbabilities in the frame-
13. work of the Canterbury Tales;
the pilgrims never halt; between Boughton and the
"litel town" there is only time for one short tale, the
Chauouns Yeviaunes ; but, between the "litel town"
and Canterbury come four tales, the Manciples, the
Prestes, the Cokes, and the Plowmans, all told while
they are riding a mile and a half. Is it possible, by
any rearrangement of the order of the tales, to adapt
them to the time of the journey with probability ?
Can this be done by a careful collation of MSS. 1
80
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1865-
Author.
' Hermen-
trude.'
Jacobson,
P. k.
Brad-
shaw,
Henry.
' Schin.'
Date. Reference.
July 22. 3rd S. viii,
63.
July 22. 3rd S. viii,
77.
Aug. ] 2. front cover.
Subject.
Extracts from the Issue
Rolls, including life-records of
Chaucer.
' Fonne,' to be foolish.
H., A.
Editor.
Addis,
John.
Announcement of Bradshaw's
Attempt to Ascertain the State
of Chaucer's Works, as they were
left at his death, q.v. above, Bradshaw, 1865.
Aug. 19. 3rd S. viii, Difficulties of Chaucer : an
145. explanation of ' Wades Bote'
in "They connen so moch craft on Wades bote"
(.Marchantes Tale, 1. 180).
Aug. 26. 3rd S. viii, Difficulties of Chaucer : 'for-
164. tened crese' {Rom. Rose, B.,
1. 4875); an emendation to ' forten decrese' = further
decrease, is suggested.
Sept. 16. 3rd S. viii, An appeal for preventing the
221-2. demolition of the Tabard Inn,
with an extract to the same effect from the London
Review, Aug. 26.
Sept. 23. 3rd S. viii, References for ' Wades bote.'
260.
Oct. 28. 3rd S. viii,
360.
Hermen-Nov. 4.
trude.'
3rd S. viii,
367-8.
Hahn,
J. C.
P., J. A.
'Verb
Sap.'
Wright,
W. Aldis.
Editor.
Nov. 18. 3rd S. viii,
419.
Dec. 2. 3rd S. viii,
459.
IDec 9. 3rd S. viii,
483.
Meeting eyebrows considered
a blemish by Chaucer (Troilus,
quoted).
Extracts from the Issue
Rolls, including life-records of
Chaucer.
' Yeoman'; quotations from
Prol.
' By and by'; quotations from
Rom. Rose and Knightes Tale.
' Let make.'
Dec. 23. 3rd S. viii, Brief notice of G. H. Kings-
532. ley's E.E.T. Soc.edn. of Thynne's
A nimadversions.
1865. Buskin, John. The Cestus of Aglaia, Chapter iii, Patience,
[in] The Art Journal, April, 1865, vol. iv, pp. 101-2; [revised
and enlarged in] On the Old Road, 1885, vol. i, pt. ii, pp. 468,471-2.
(Works, ed. E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols.,
vol. xix, pp. 82-6.)
tp. 82] " Dame Pacience sitting there I fonde,
With face pale, upon an hill of sonde."
[Parlcment of Foules, 11. 242-3.]
1866] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 81
[p. 84] I should like truly to know what Chaucer means
by his sand-hill. . . . Sometimes I would fain have it to
mean the ghostly sand of the horologe of the world. . . .
Sometimes I like to think that she is seated on the sand
because she is herself the Spirit of Staying, and victor over
all things that pass and change. . . . And sometimes I
think, though I do not like to think (neither did Chaucer
mean this, for he always meant the lovely thing first, not
the low one), that she is seated on her sand-heap as the
only treasure to be gained by human toil. . . .
But of course it does not in the least matter what it
means. All that matters specially to us in Chaucer's vision,
is that, next to Patience (as the reader will find by looking
at the context in the Assembly of Foules), were " Beheste "
and " Art ";—Promise, that is, and Art: and that although
these visionary powers are here waiting only in one of the
outer courts of Love, and the intended patience is here only
the long-suffering of love ; and the intended beheste, its
promise; and the intended art, its cunning,—the same powers
companion each other necessarily in the courts and ante¬
chambers of every triumphal home of man.
1866. The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Alcline edition,
ed. R. Morris, 6 vols.
[With Sir N. H. Nicolas' Life, and Tyrwhitt's Essay and
Discourse, and a glossary. To the Essay are appended some
sections on Chaucer's metres by W. W. Skeat. The Court of
Love and the Cuckoio and the Nightingale, Chaucer's Dream
(The Isle of Ladies) and the Flour and the Lefe are included
in the text.]
[Preface, In this edition of Chaucer's poetical works Tyrwhitt's text
p,v] has been replaced by one based upon manuscripts . . .
No better manuscript of the Canterbury Tales could be
found than the Harleian manuscript, 7334, which is far more
uniform and accurate than any other I have examined; it has,
therefore, been selected and faithfully adhered to throughout
[pp.vi- as the text of the present edition. [MS. Lansdowne 851 and
V111] the MSS. employed by Tyrwhitt also used to check MS.
Harl. Examples of successful emendations introduced, and of
the final e. A list of the poems included and of the MSS.
used.]
CHAUCER CRITICISM. III. G
82 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1866
1866. Arnold, Matthew. The Study of Celtic Literature, part iv, [in]
The Cornhill Magazine, May 1866, p. 641, and July 1866, p. 113.
(Works, 1903-4, 15 vols., vol. v, p. 79.)
German schools have the good habit of reading and com¬
menting on German poetry, as we read and comment on
Homer and Virgil, but do not read and comment on Chaucer
and Shakespeare.
1866. Bond, Sir Edward Augustus. New Facts in the Life of Geoffrey
Chaucer, [in] The Fortnightly Review, Aug., 1866, vol. vi, pp. 28-35.
[Essay on the two parchment leaves which had been pasted
down to the covers of MS. Add. 18,632, and were found to
be fragments of the Household Accounts of the Duchess of
Clarence. The name of Geoffrey Chaucer is met with three
times, the period covered being the regnal years 30, 31, 32,
and 33—evidently of Edward III.—corresponding with the
years 1356 to 1359. The record shows that Chaucer, at the
outset of his career, was closely connected with the court and
its functions. See above, vol. i, p. 1.]
1866. Chatelain, Jean Baptiste Francois Ernest de. L'Hostellerie du
Tabard, 1866, [in] A tracers Champs, London, 1867.
[Tlie Chevalier tie Chatelain lived and wrote in England ; this poem is noticed in
Notes and Queries, March 10, 1S67, 3rd ser., vol. xi, p. 227.]
1866. Dickens, Charles. Letter to Sir James Emerson Tennent, [dated]
Aug. 20th, 1866, [in] Letters of Charles Dickens, 1880—2 [1879-81],
3 vols., vol. ii, pp. 259-60.
Chancer certainly meant the Pardonere to he a humbug,
living on the credulity of the people. After describing the
sham reliques [.sac] he carried, he says :
But with these relikes whawne [.sic] that he found
[and live following lines.]
And the worthy "Watts (founder of the charity [the Refuge for
Poor Travellers]) may have had these very lines in his mind
when he excluded such a man.
1866. Eastwood, Jonathan, and Wright, William Aldis. The Bible
Word -Booh. [Many quotations from Chaucer or poems then
attributed to him.]
1866] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
83
1866. Green, Henry. Obsolete Words in Whitney, with parallels chiefly
from Chancer, Spenser and Shakespeare, [in] Whitney's " Choice of
.Emblems" (1586) . . . ed. H. Green, pp. 253-65.
[Agaste, amisse, annoy, bale, bane, boorde, carle, carpes,
create (= created), deface, defame, fardle, feare (— terrify),
fonde, gate, let, mislilce, moe, mowes, newfanglenes, nones,
pill, roome, shamcfastnes, sield ( =- bappy), sithe, stithe, teene,
unrest, ure, wonne, worlde.]
1866. Hazlitt, William Carew. Remains of the Early Popular Poetry
of England . . . edited ... by W. C. Hazlitt (Library of Old
Authors), 4 vols., 1864-6, vol. iii, 1866, pp. 98-9 [Introduction to
The Mylner of Abinyton],
[p. 99] In an artistic and constructive point of view, the Mylner of
Airing ton is superior to its predecessor [Chaucer's Reves
Tale], and while it is quite as entertaining, it is much less
gross.
[J. R. Lowell singled out this judgment as evidence that Hazlitt was "an editor
without taste, discrimination or learning." (Review of the Library of Old Authors,
in Works, Riverside Edn., 1S90, 11 vols., vol. i, p. 320.)]
1866. Maurice, Frederick Denison. On the Representation and Educa¬
tion of the People, pp. 57-9, 67.
[p. 57] Chaucer appears certainly to have been concerned in the
insurrection of John of Northampton.
[p. 58] [Chancer, as essentially the English citizen, tlie link between
the literature of Court and Commons. His wide appreciation
of English life.]
He lias been called a Wycliffite. He is not that. He is
simply an Englishman. He bates Eriars, because tliey are not
English and not manly.
[p. 59] [Becket's shrine bad acquired a national sanctity, of the
origin of which Chaucer was not critical.]
1866. Morris, Richard. See above, The Poetical Works, ed. R. Morris.
1866. Notes and Queries, 3rd series, vol. ix, pp. 10, 47, 57, 198,
264-5, 306, 327, 409, 414-5, 483; vol. x, pp. 49, 104, 297, 307,
356, 390, 400, 414, 430, 442, 485, 508-9, 518.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
A., A. Jan. 6. 3rd S. ix, 'Husbands at the Church door'
10. (Wife of Bath's Prol.). Hus¬
bands endowed their wives with their goods at the
Church door ; does this passage mean that the Wife of
Bath's husbands were all men of property ?
84 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1866
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
Skeat, Jan. 13. 3rd S. ix, 'Duresse.'
W. W. 47.
Chate- Jan. 20. 3rd S. ix, 'A Plea Tor Chaucer,' i. e. for
lain, 57. tlie preservation of the Tabard
Chev. de. Inn.
W., T. April 14. 3rd S. ix, 'Night-spell.'
306.
Sandys, April 21. 3rd S. ix, ' Baggepipe.'
Win. 327.
Foss, E. April 21. 3rd S. ix, Henry Somer, who received
383. Chaucer's pension for him.
D., A. 3rd S. ix, ' A Canterbury story'; quota-
Editor. J JUay iy' 414-5. tion from an unspecified book
of 1737, q.v. above, vol. i, p. 383.
Skeat, June 9. 3rd S. ix, Chaucer on daisies.
W. W. 483.
Atkinson, July 21. 3rd S. x, The lapwing (.Parlement of
J. C. 49. Foiiles, 1. 347, quoted).
' Este.' Oct. 13. 3rd S. x, The 'Scheffield thwitel'
297. Reves T., 1. 13).
A., A. Oct. 20. 3rd S. x, 'Wardrobe' (Prioresses T.,
307. 1. 120).
Editor. Nov. 3. 3rd S. x, ' Ambes-as' (T. of the Man of
356. Lciwe, h 26).
Beisly, S. Nov. 17. 3rd S. x, Evidence of tooth sealing in
390. Chaucer's lines,
In witness that this is sooth
I bite the wax with my wang tooth.
[This couplet is not by Chaucer; nor is it in the Chaucerian Pieces edited by
Skeat.]
Skeat, Nov. 17. 3rd S. x, 'Whittle' (Reves T., 1. 13).
W. W. 400.
Williams, Nov. 24. 3rd S. x, 'Murder will out' (Nonne
W. H. 414. Prcstes T., 1. 232).
Larwood, Dec. 29. 3rd S. x, ' Levesell' (Reves and Persones
Jacob. 508. Tales) = lattice ?
'Filius Dec. 29. 3rd S. x, 'Joly,' first used in English by
Ecclesiae.' 509. Chaucer?
Fishwick, Dec. 29. 3rd S. x, ' Murder will out' (Wife of
H. 518. Bath's Prol.—in error for
N.P.T., 1. 232).
1860. Skeat, Walter William. See above, The Poetical Works, ed.
R. Morris.
1866]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
85
1866. Swinburne, Algernon Charles. William Blake, 2nd edn., 1868,
pp. 50, 58, 61, 89n., 137. (New edn., 1906, pp. 55, 64, 67, 97-8?i.,
152.) ,
[The 2nd edn., 1868, is the first in B.M.]
[pp. 97-Sii.] [A long note on "Chaucer's" Court of Love, his "most
beautiful of young poems," calling attention to the paganism
of its tone, and comparing it in this respect with Aucassin and
Nicoletfe.~\
[p. 152] Mixed with this [Blake's] fervour of desire for more perfect
freedom, there appears at times an excess of pity (like Chaucer's
in his early poems) for the women and men living under the
law, trammelled in soul or body.
1866. Unknown. Chaucer—His Position, Life, and Influence, [in]
The Westminster Keview, July, 1866, vol. xxx, pp. 184-200.
[A long and appreciative article of a general nature, with
a good deal about Chaucer's life and times, and something
on his language, and on the text of the Canterbury Tales in
recent editions.]
[p. 184] Chaucer . . . may be read with comparative ease. There
are a few of his phrases obscure; a few of his endings silent;
a few of his words obsolete. But we require neither grammar
nor glossary to understand and enjoy him.
[p. 199] Not much has yet been done to make Chaucer's works
more popular or more intelligible. [There are great difficulties,
his text is uncertain, often obscure. Tyrwhitt has done a
great deal to remove obscurities, though he] often unnecessarily
and pretentiously displays his abstruse and curious learning.
[But in spite of his pedantry, Tyrwhitt's text of the C. Tales
in 1755 [sfc], seems as good as that of Wright, in 1847.
The worst features of Tyrwhitt's edn. reappear in that of
Routledge [1863], where " none of Tyrwhitt's mistakes are
corrected nor his defects supplied." Robert Bell's edn.
1854, is the best, by this editor nearly everything which
can explain or illustrate his author has been skilfully con¬
densed.] But it is not likely that all Chaucer's writings—
consisting, as they mostly do, of translations,—can ever
become popular. We still require an edition of the " Canter¬
bury Tales" in which the obsolete words, opinions and
customs will be explained, and the obsolete pronunciation
indicated.
86 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1866-
1866. Unknown. Catalogue of the First Special Exhibition of National
Portraits ... on Loan to the South Kensington Museum, April
1866, pp. 3, 193.
[These portraits are Spielmann's 110s. VI and VII.]
[p. 3] 8. Geoffrey Chaucer. Lent by Bodleian Library,
Oxford.
Poet; b. in London; believed to have been partly educated
at Cambridge; was in the service of King Edward III;
patronised by John of Gaunt; married Philippa Eouet,
daughter of a knight of Ilainault; imprisoned on occasion of
the persecution of the Lollards; d. 25tli Oct. 1400; bu. in
Westminster Abbey.
Three-quarters miniature, looking to r., white head-
covering and dress; inscribed " Caucer, 1400." Panel, 1 ft.
2 in. x 10| in.
9. Geoffrey Chaucer. [Lent by] Mr. J. P. Seddon.
... To waist, small life-size, face three-quarters to r.;
dated 1400. Panel, 19 x 14 in.
Stated to have been preserved for more than three cen¬
turies in the family of Stokes of Llanshaw Court, Gloucester;
given in 1803 to Benjamin Dyke.
[p. 193] [Quotation from the Athenceum, Ap. 14, 1866, q.v. immedi¬
ately below.]
1866. Unknown. National Portrait Exhibition (see last entry), [in]
The Atlieiueum, April 14, 1866, p. 502, col. 2.
In the two portraits of Chaucer (7 and 8) [a mistake for
8 and 9] we see reproductions of that which Occleve painted
from memory (Harleian MS. 4866) treated by different
hands, of which those which produced No. 8 [meaning
No. 9] were by far the more skilful.
1867. Chaucer. The Prologue, the Knightes Tale, the Nonne
Prestes Tale, from the Canterbury Tales, edited by R. Morris,
Oxford. (Clarendon Press Series.)
[Introduction, pp. v-xlviii. The Court of Love, Complaint
of the Black Knight, Chaucer's Dream (Isle of Ladies), the
Flower and the Leaf \ and all the Roman de la Rose, are certainly,
the Testament of Love hesitatingly, allowed to he genuine. A
brief biography, based on the facts then known, followed by
analyses of the Prologue and two Tales included in this
volume, a summary of Chaucerian grammar and metre, and a
table of contemporary events.]
1867]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
87
1867. The Clerk's Tale, edited by TV". Aldis Wright, from MS. D. 4.
24. in the University Library, Cambridge. Privately printed,
Cambridge.
1867—71. Bradshaw, Henry. The Skeleton of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales: an attempt to distinguish the several fragments of the work as
left by the author (Memoranda, no. iv), preface dated 1867, title page
1868, and postscript 1871. (Collected Papers, 1889, pp. 102-48.)
[This is the only printed result of Bradsliaw's Chaucer
work, which was largely the cause of the foundation of the
Chaucer Society. For the editions of the Works projected by
him see above, 18G4, Works. In 1865 "An attempt to
ascertain the state of Chaucer's works as they were left at his
death, with some notices of their subsequent history" was
advertised as shortly to be published (q. v. above, 1865); of
this the introductory pages alone were found among his papers
(see G. W. Prothero, A Memoir of Henry Bradshaw, 1888,
p. 347). This memorandum was, it seems, printed as a tenta¬
tive preparation for the larger work. But in the postscript of
1871 Bradshaw bids farewell to Chaucer work, the Library
claiming his time.
He divides the Canterbury Tales into twelve fragments, and
prints the beginnings and ends of these and of his subdivisions
of them. The MSS. are classified by their arrangement of the
Tales, which corresponds with their classification by textual
value. Hot only mentions of time and place occurring in the
' links ' are used, but orthographical and rhyme tests. Gamelyn
is retained, in Frag. 1.]
1867. Collier, John Payne. General Introduction [to] Seven English
Poetical Miscellanies, 7 vols., vol. i [Tottell], pp. i-iii.
[Godfray's 1532 edn. of Chaucer's Works really the first
English miscellany. The Testament of Love, whicli appears
there first, is one of the non-Chaucerian pieces. This a
new point, in the writer's belief, for Warton and later bio¬
graphers, including Sir Harris Hicolas, attribute it to Chaucer,
though the last notices the contradiction it seems to give
to the tradition of Chaucer's committal to the Tower, etc.
Quotation from the end of The Testament' of Love, in which
Troilus and its author are highly praised; an impossibility
for Chaucer to have written this. Thus all that the book
contains as to the author's share in the tumults in the city
and his imprisonment does not apply to Chaucer. This
conclusion supported by a comparison of style. The Testament
of Love probably written by some admiring imitator of
Chaucer's translation of Boetliius.]
See also below, Notes and Queries, 1S07, Collier.
88
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1867
1867. Furnivall, Frederick James. Early English Text Society, Third
Annual Report of the Committee, Jan. 1867, pp. 2, 5—6.
[p. 2] Two other events the Committee also allude to with
pleasure : 1. The publication of an accurate Text from
the best MS. of each of Chaucer's Poetical Works by-
Mr. Richard Morris (though, unfortunately, without the
collation and notes that the editor desired to add); and,
2, The undertaking to edit Bishop Percy's long-hidden
folio MS.
[p. 5] [In a list of 32 Texts that can be produced this year, if
funds enough are supplied :]
Chaucer. The Household Accounts of Elizabeth, wife of
Prince Lionel, in which Chaucer is mentioned; with the
other documents relating to the Poet. To be edited by
E. A. Bond, Esq., Keeper of the MSS. in the British
Museum.
[p. 6] Chaucer's Prose Works. To be edited from the MSS.,
with an Essay on the Dialect of Chaucer, by R. Morris, Esq.;
and a Treatise on the Poet's Pronunciation, by Alexander
J. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. . . .
A glance at the List above will show what important and
interesting contributions will be made to our Literature if
only the first twenty of these books can be produced this
year : a new Romance . . . traces of Chaucer (with a
discussion of his dialect and pronunciation).
1867. Furnivall, Frederick James. The Early English Text Society,
[an announcement of the Extra Series, to begin with an edition of
Chaucer's prose works, and an appeal for more support, in] The
Gentleman's Magazine, Aug. 1867, new ser., vol. iv, p. 213.
1867. Furnivall, Frederick James. A New 'Envoy' of Chaucer's, in
The Athenaeum, no. 2081, Sept. 14, 1867, p. 333.
[A copy of ' Fie fro the pres,' from MS. Add. 10,340
(Boethius), then being copied for the E.E.T.S.; the best and
completest text known, the envoy not having been printed
before.]
1867. Furnivall, Frederick James. The Chaucer Society, [the Society's
Manifesto, in] The Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1867, new ser., vol.
iv, pp. 782-3.
This Society has been founded in order to do honour to
Chaucer, and to let the lovers and students of him see how
far the best unprinted manuscripts of his works differ from the
1867]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
89
printed texts. It will deal with the works of no other man—
except so far as may he found necessary for the illustration of
Chaucer—and will he dissolved as soon as all the good manu¬
scripts of the poet's works, and all matter wanted for their
illustration, are in type. It is not intended to interfere with
any edition of Chaucer's works, past or future, hut to sup¬
plement them all, and afford material for the improvement of
his text. Eight or ten years will suffice, if the Society he well
supported, to finish its work.
If men said it was well done for Lord Yernon to reprint the
first four printed texts of Dante's " Divina Commedia "—if we
know it is well done of the Early English Text Society to
print the three versions of Chaucer's great contemporary's
work, William Langland's " Vision of Piers Ploughman "—it
cannot he ill done of us to print all the hest MSS. of him who
is allowed to he the greatest among our early men. ... It is
hardly too much to say that every line of Chaucer contains
points that need reconsideration. Our proposal then is to
hegin ivitli "The Canterbury Tales," and to give of them (in
parallel columns in royal 4to) six of the hest imprinted manu¬
scripts known, and to add in another quarto the six next hest
MSS., if 300 subscribers join the Society. The first six MSS.
to he printed will probably he, The Lansdowne (Brit. Mus.),—
The hest Ashhurnham (if Lord Ashburnham will consent to its
publication ; if not, the hest Sloane),—The Ellesmere,—The
Hengwrt,—The hest Oxford (probably the Corpus MS.),—The
hest Cambridge (Univ. Libr.).
In securing the fidelity of the texts, Mr. Richard Morris,
Mr. J. W. Hales, myself, and others (who will form the
Committee of the Society) will take part. The first essay in
illustration of Chaucer's works that will he published by
the Society will he, "A detailed Comparison of Chaucer's
' Knight's Tale ' with the ' Teseide' of Boccaccio," by Henry
Ward, Esq., of the MS. Department of the British Museum . . .
The Society will hegin its work on the 1st of January,
1868. Professor Child gives 501, to start it . . .
Members' names and subscriptions may he sent pro tempore
to yours, &c.
Predk. J. Eurnivall,
3, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, W. C.
P.S. — An honorary secretary who cares enough for
90
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1867
Chaucer to take some trouble in working the Society i&
wanted . . .
[This letter, or manifesto, appeared also in the Athenseum in an earlier and slightly
shorter form (no. 210S, 1867, vol. ii, p. 467), and was heralded by a brief announce¬
ment in the preceding no., p. 485. Various modifications in the plan outlined above
were made. In the Six-Text Print the Petworth and not a Sloane MS. was substituted
for the Ashburnham, and Dr. Ward's study of the Knightes Tale and the Teseide never
appeared.]
1867. [Furnivall, Frederick James P] See below, Unknown.
1867. Hazlitt, William Carew. Handbook to the Popular, Poetical
and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain from the Invention of
Printing to the Restoration, pp. 96-9.
[A list of editions of Chaucer, with notes of some copies.]
1867. Longfellow, Henry Wadswortli. Notes [to] The Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri, translated by H. W. Longfellow, 1867, [re¬
printed in] Writings, Riverside edn., 11 vols., [1886], vol. ix,
pp. 187, 203 ['perse,' Prol., 1. 441], 208 [gluttony, Persones Tale],
218 [avarice, ib.], 222 [wrath, ib.], 223, 242 [Theseus, Knightes
Tale, 11. 1-16], 244 [Deianire, Monkes Tale], 248 [description of a
wood, Inferno xiii, compared with Knightes Tale], 252, 274 [Jason,
L.G.W.], 276 [simony, Persones Tale], 287 [reference to Henryson's
Testament of Creseida as Chaucer's], 293, 332-3, 342-3, 347 ; vol. x,
pp. 171, 214 [Chaucer's quotation from Purg. vii, 121, etc. in Wife
of Ba th's Tale, 11.269-76], 230 [the sculptures on the wall of Purga¬
tory (Purg. x, 29, etc.) compared with the temples of Venus, Mars
and Diana in Knightes Tale], 275 [Fortuna Major, Troilus, iii,
1415-20], 306 [' vernage,' Merchantes Tale, 1. 563], 308 [reference to
the Complaint of the Black Knight as Chaucer's] ; vol. xi, pp. 168-9
[quotations from IIous of Fame, Anelida, and (Lydgate's) Ballade
in commendation of Our Lady], 212 [Demophoon, L.G.W., 11.
2441-51], 250 [Testament of Love quoted as Chaucer's], 252, 254,
258 [imitation in Troilus, v, 1863-5, of Paradiso, xiv, 28-30], 264,
277, 289-90 [Troilus, iv, 995-1043, with the original passage on
foreknowledge from Boethius, quoted], 341, 382 [the invocation to
the Virgin, Second Nonnes Tale, 11. 36-56, quoted to illustrate the
opening of Paradiso, xxxiii],
1867. Mackay, Charles. A Thousand and One Gems of English Poetry,
selected and arranged by Charles Mackay, Introduction, p. iii
[On pp. 1 and 2 are the following extracts from Chaucer :] Praise
of Women, The Young Squire [Prol. 11. 79-100], Arcita's Dying
Address [Knightes T., 11. 2771-2780], Good Counsel of Chaucer.
1867. Morris, Richard. Specimens of Early English . . . a.d. 1250-
a.d. 1400, with grammatical introduction, notes and glossary,
Oxford. (Clarendon Press Series.)
[Various references to Chaucer in the Grammatical
Introduction.
The specimens from Chaucer (pp. 345-366) are the
1867]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
91
Pardoneres Tale, and the Prioresse Tale. In the preface
(p. vii) the editor says : " the extracts from Chaucer's Canter¬
bury Tales are limited to two short narratives, because a more
extended selection, by the present editor, is in the press " (i. e.
the Prologue, etc., q.v. above).]
1867. Morris, William. The Life and Death of Jason, Book xvii, 11. 5-24,
pp. 317-8.
Would that I
Had but some portion of that mastery
That from the rose-hung lanes of woody Kent
Through these five hundred years such songs have sent
To us, who, meshed within this smoky net
Of unrejoicing labour, love them yet.
And thou, 0 Master!—Yea, my Master still,
Whatever feet have scaled Parnassus' hill,
Since like thy measures, clear, and sweet, and strong,
Thames' stream scarce fettered drave the dace along
Unto the bastioned bridge, his only chain.—
0 Master, pardon me, if yet in vain
Thou art my Master, and I fail to bring
Before men's eyes the image of the thing
My heart is filled with: thou whose dreamy eyes
Beheld the flush to Cressid's cheeks arise,
As Troilus rode up the praising street,
As clearly as they saw thy townsmen meet
Those who in vineyards of Poictou withstood
The glittering horror of the steel-topped wood.
[This is taken from the final edition as printed in Works, with introductions by
his daughter, May Morris, 1910, vol. ii, pp. 259-60. The only difference in the 1867
version is that line 14 there reads—
'Thames' stream scarce fettered bore the bream along.']
1867. Notes and Q/ueries, 3rd series, vol. xi, pp. 47, 65, 67, 144, 146,
161, 227, 284, 287, 337-8, 352, 384-5, 403, 466, 504 ; vol. xii, pp.
18, 58, 107, 114. 119, 140, 249, 300, 303-5, 391, 422, 424-5, 462,
491.
Author. Date. Reference. Subject.
W.,C.A. Jan. 12. 3rd S. xi, " Murder will out" probably a
47. colloquial saying, not original in
Chaucer.
A., A. Jan. 19. 3rd S. xi, ' Levesell' = a tavern-busli.
65.
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1867
Author.
Addis,
John,
jun.
Skeat,
W. W.
Editor.
Date. Reference.
Jan. 19. 3rd S. xi,
67.
Subject.
'Jolly' earlier in English than
Chaucer.
Feb. 16. 3rd S. xi, ' Callabre,' the physician's dress
144. (Prol. 11. 439-40).
Feb. 16. 3rd S. xi, Notice of the Aldine (Morris's)
146. edn. of Chaucer's Works (q.v,
above, 1866).
Shaw, Feb. 23. 3rd S. xi, 'Jolly.'
J. B. 161.
Editor. Mar. 16. 3rd S. xi, Notice of the Chevalier de Chate-
227. Iain's A trovers Champs : Fldneries,
containing a poem on the destruction of the Tabard
Inn, q.v. above, 1866.
Skeat, April 6. 3rd S. xi, ' Levesell,' ah overgrown trel-
W. W. • 284. lised porch.
Baily, J. April 6. 3rd S. xi, The original idea of a song on
287. the creation of Eve, quoted vol. xi,
pp. 96, 163, to be found in the Persones Tale, § 79.
Skeat,
W. W.
Bouch-
ier, J.
'St.
Swith-
in.'
Skeat, May 4. 3rd S. xi, 'Christ-cross'; quotation from
W. W. 352. the Astrolabe.
April 27. 3rd S. xi,
337-8.
Gab.
June 22. 3rd S. xi,
504.
'Caitiff' and 'mock.'
' Atone.'
' Pair of beads' {Prol., 1. 159).
Quotation from The Cuckoo and
the Nightingale as Chaucer's.
P., J. A. May 11. 3rd S. xi,
384-5.
Skeat, May 18. 3rd S. xi,
W. W. 403.
Peacock, June 8. 3rd S. xi,
E. 466.
Bede,
Cuth-
bert.
Skeat, July 20. 3rd S. xii, ' Butterfly' {N.P.T., 11. 453-5).
W. W. 58.
Addis, J. Aug. 10. 3rd S. xii, ' Beauty unfortunate ' (Words of
114. the Host, following Phisiciens T.,
11. 293-300).
„ Aug. 10. 3rd S. xii, ' Butterfly' (March-antes T., 11.
119. 259-60, and Prol. N.P.T., 1. 24).
„ Aug. 17. 3rd S. xii, ' Algate' (T. <0 C., bk. v, 1.1071).
140.
1867]
Chaucer Criticism ctnd Allusion.
93
Author.
Editor.
Collier,
J. P.
Fish-
wick,
H.
Addis, J.
Butler,
T.
"Date. Reference. Subject.
Oct. 12. 3rd S. xii, Notice of the formation of the
300. Chaucer Society.
Oct. 19. 3rd S. xii, Doubts whether the Testament of
303-4. Lore can be by Chaucer, especially
in view of the passage on himself and his Troilus (see
above, 1867, Collier).
Nov. 23. 3rd S. xii, 'Laund.'
422.
Nov. 23. 3rd S. xii,
424-5.
Dec. 7. 3rd S. xii.
462.
' No fors.'
Yemanrie (Beves T., 11. 22-9).
1867. Part, William A. Spenser, [a letter, in] The Gentleman's
Magazine, April, 1867, new ser., vol. iii, pp. 501-2.
[Lancashire words used by Chaucer.]
1867. Buskin, John. On the Present State of Modem Art. [A lecture,
delivered June 7, 1867; first printed in full in] Works, ed. E. T.
Cook and A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols., vol. xix, pp. 207-8.
[p. 207] This first cartoon is a sketch for tapestry, from Chaucer,
of Love bringing in Alcestis. ... In Chaucer the Spirit
of Love which leads her is only that of perfect human
passion :—
" Yclothed was this mighty God of Love
In silk, embroudered full of red rose leaves—
The freshest since the world was first begun—
And his gilt hair was crowned with a sun
Instead of gold;
And in his hand methought I saw him hold
Two fiery darts, as the coals red;
And angel-like his wings I saw him spread.1
[p. 20s] But in this design the painter has gone farther into the
meaning of the old Greek myth, and he has given the Spirit
of the Love that lives beyond the grave. . . .
Then this second cartoon, also from the Legend of Good
Women, is of the two wives of Jason—Hypsipyle and
Medea.
1 [Editor's note]: "From the Prologue to the Lcgende of Goode Women. Chaucer
wrote, after the first line—
' In silke embrouded, ful of grene greves
In which a fret of rede rose leves.'
The fifth line continues, 'for lievynesse andwyghte'; and then Ruskin omits two
lines. The last line but one is, in the original, ' Two firy dartes, as the gledes
rede.' The sketches (by Burne-Jones) are Plates VI, VII, in vol. xix.]
94
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1867-
1867. Ruskin, John. Time and Tide by Weave and Tyne, Letter xvn,
Difficulties, [dated] April 3, 18G7, [in] Leeds Mercury, [and in]
Manchester Daily Examiner and Times, April 13, 1867. (2nd
vol. ed., 1868, [1st in B.M.], p. 104. (Works, ed. E. T. Cook and
A. Wedderburn, 1903-12, 39 vols., vol. xvii, p. 402.)
Shakespeare and Chaucer,—Dante and Virgil,— ... all
the men of any age or country who seem to have had Heaven's
music on their lips, agree in their scorn of mechanic life.
1867. Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Review of Morris's Life and
Death of Jason, [in] The Fortnightly Review, July, 1867, new
ser., vol. ii, pp. 22-3, 26, 28.
[p. 22] " Jason " is a large and coherent poem, completed as con¬
ceived ; the style throughout on a level ivith the invention.
In direct narrative power, in clear forthright manner of pro¬
cedure, not seemingly troubled to select, to pick and sift and
winnow, yet never superfluous or verbose, never straggling or
jarring; in these high qualities it resembles the 'work of
Chaucer. Even against the great master his pupil may fairly
he matched for simple sense of right, for grace and speed of
step, for purity and justice of colour. In all the noble roll of
our poets there has been since Chaucer no second teller of
tales, no second rhapsode comparable to the first, till the
advent of this one.
[p. 23] The romance poets have never loved the sea as have the
tragic poets ; Chaucer simply ignores it with a shiver; . . .
1867. Unknown. Early English Texts, [in] The Edinburgh Review,
Jan. 1867, vol. exxv, pp. 225, 231-2, 244, 251.
[Criticism of the chauvinism of French critics, especially
Sandras and Le Clerc (q.v. below, App. B., 1859, 1862) for
their attempt to class Chaucer with the trouveres.]
1867. Unknown. [Furnivall, Frederick James ?] Note, [in] The
Athenaeum, no. 2094, Dec. 14, 1867.
A new and interesting testimony to Chaucer's worth turns
up rrnexpectedly in the Courtesy poem of 'Lytil Joliari,' in
the Balliol MS. . . . The writer, a disciple of Lydgatc, is
telling his Little Jack what to read, and, like a wise man,
names the best poets of the day, Gower, Chaucer, Occleve,
Lydgate, and thus apostrophizes Chaucer. [Quotes stanzas
48-50. See above, 1477, vol. i, p. 57.]
1867. Wright, William Aldis. See above, The Clerk's Tale.
1868] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
95
1868-77. A Six-Text Print of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in
Parallel Columns from the following MSS. : 1. The Ellesmere;
2. The Hengwrt 154; 3. The Cambridge Univ. Libr. Gg. 4. 27 ;
4. The Corpus Christi Coll., Oxford ; 5. The Petworth; 6. The
Lansdowne 851. Edited by F. J. Furnivall. Chaucer Society,
8 parts, 1868-77, oblong 8vo.
[The six-text edition contains when complete :—
(1) The Dedication: To Prof. Francis James Child, etc.
(2) Specimens of the tAvo chief moveable Prologues in the
Canterbury Tales Avhen they are moved from their right
places, and of some of the substitutes for them (pp. i*-xx"*):
I. Specimens of the Man of Law's End-Link, the real
Sliipman's Prologue, when moved from its right
place.
II. Specimens of the Spurious Prologue to the Sliiqoman's
Tale.
III. Specimens of the Squire's End-Link (which should
head the Franklin's Tale), when the Franklin's
Tale is moved from its right place, and the
Squire's End-Link is used as the Merchants'
Prologue.
IV. Specimens of the False Prologues to the Franklin's
Tale when it is moved from its right place after
the Squire's Tale.
(3) Trial-Tables (now superseded) of the Groups of Tales,
and their order in Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," according to
the Edited Manuscripts and Tyrwliitt. (pp. xxi*-xxiii*.)
(4) DraAvings of the 23 tellers of the 24 Canterbury Tales,
copied from the Ellesmere MS., and cut on wood, by Mr. W.
H. Hooper, and. coloured after the originals, under his direction,
(9 leaves, bound at the end of vols, i and ii—pts. iii and iv—
in the P.M. copy.)
(5) The Texts of the Tales from the six MSS. (pp. 1-685),
and including, (5) Appendix to Group A. The Spurious
Tale of Gamelyn (Avith its spurious Head-Links) from the
folloAving 6 MSS.:—Royal MS. 18. C. ii.; Harleian 1758;
Sloane, 1685; Corpus MS. (Oxford); PetAvorth MS.;
LansdoAvne MS. 851 (pp. xxv-lxxvii.)
(6) Ryme-Index to the Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales. By Henry Cromie, M.A., 1875. [pp.
l*-255*,—or in oblong triple pages, if-lxxxvf : and including
the Rotes and Corrections for the Ryme-Index, if-lxxxviiif;
1st ser. 45 and 46.]
96
Five Hundred Years of [a.D. 1868-
[In 1868 Dr. Furnivall published separately (2nd ser. 3):
A Temporary Preface to the Six-Text Edition of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales, attempting to shew the true order of the
Tales, and the days and stages of the pilgrimage, etc., etc.]
[See Skeat's Evolution of the Canterbury Tales for a study
of the sequence of the Tales as set forth in the Six-Text
edition. Each of the texts constituting the Six-Text edition
was printed separately, for editorial use, 1868-77 : Child
himself had conceived the idea of printing a six or eight-
text Chaucer. See the notice of a note on the subject in the
Reader, under 1865, Furnivall (?)]
[Later publications of the Chaucer Society have for the most part been omitted,
as being generally accessible and known to members of the Society.]
1868-70. Morris, William. The Earthly Paradise. Prologue : The
Wanderers, Part i, 1868, p. 3; L'Envoi, Part iv, 1870, pp. 439-442.
Forget six counties overhung with smoke,
Forget the snorting steam and piston stroke,
Forget the spreading of the hideous town ;
Think rather of the pack-horse on the down,
And dream of London, small, and white and clean,
The clear Thames bordered by its gardens green ;
Think, that below bridge the green lapping waves
Smite some few keels that bear Levantine staves,
Cut from the yew wood on the burnt-lip hill,
And pointed jars that Greek hands toiled to fill,
And treasured scanty spice from some far sea,
Florence gold cloth, and Ypres napery,
And cloth of Bruges, and hogsheads of Guienne;
While nigh the thronged wharf Geoffrey Chaucer's pen
Moves over bills of lading—mid such times
Shall dwell the hollow puppets of my rhymes.
[p. 439] [L'Envoi. The poet addresses his book :]
Kay, let it pass, and hearken ! Hast thou heard
That therein * I believe I have a friend,
Of whom for love I may not be afeard?
It is to him indeed I bid thee wend . . .
Well, think of him, I bid thee, on the road,
And if it hap that midst of thy defeat,
Fainting beneath thy follies' heavy load,
» i.e. in " The Land of Matters Unforgot.
1869]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
97
My Master, Geoffrey Chaucer, thou do meet,
ihen slialt tliou win a space of rest full sweet;
[p. 440] Then he thou hold, and speak the words I say,
The idle singer of an empty day !
" 0 Master, 0 thou great of heart and tongue,
Thou well mayst ask me why I wander here
In raiment rent of stories oft hesung!
But of thy gentleness draw thou anear,
And then the heart of one that held thee dear
Mayst thou heboid ! " . . .
[p. 44i] O Master, if thine heart could love us yet,
Spite of things left undone, and wrongly done,
Some place in loving hearts then should we get,
For thou, sweet-souled, didst never stand alone,
But knew'st the joy and woe of many an one—-
—By lovers dead, who live through thee, we pray,
Help thou us singers of an empty day ! "
Fearest thou, Book, what answer thou mayst gain
Lest he should scorn thee, and thereof thou die?
Hay, it shall not he.—Thou mayst toil in vain
And never draw the House of Fame anigh ;
Yet he and his shall know whereof we cry,
Shall call it not ill-done to strive to lay
The ghosts that crowd ahout life's empty day.
1868. Waller, John Green. [A Painted Window, designed by J. G.
Waller, with medallions of Chaucer and Gower, and with scenes
from Chaucer's life and poems, placed over Chaucer's tomb in
Westminster Abbey as the gift of Dr. Rogers.]
1869. Browne, Matthew, [pseud., i.e. Rands, William Briglity.]
Chaucer's England, 2 vols.
[Chapters on " The Poet of the Canterbury Tales," and " The
Story and the Pilgrims," followed by others on various aspects of
medneval life. Diffuse and inaccurate hut not without merit.]
1869-89. Ellis, Alexander James. On Early English Pronunciation, y
tvith especial reference to Sluilspere and Chaucer. Including a
rearrangement of Prof. F. J. Child's memoirs on the language of
Chaucer and Gower [q.v. above, 1862], Parts i and ii, London,
Chaucer Society and B.E.T. Soc., 1869 ; Part iii, 187 L ; Part iv,
1875 ; Part v, 1889.
[The parts directly concerning Chaucer's language are :
CHAUCER CRITICISM. III. II
98
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1870
Part i, chap, i, pp. 26-30, summary of the method of
investigation used in chap, iv, and comparative table of
the pronunciation of Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden and
Goldsmith ; chap, iv,' On the pronunciation of English during
the 14th century, as deduced from an examination of the
rhymes in Chaucer and Gower,' pp. 241-416 : Principles of
the investigation (no real faulty rhymes in Chaucer), pp.
241-57; The Vowels, pp. 258-307; The Consonants, pp.
308-17; On the pronunciation of e final in the 14th
century [its use proved by rhymes from the Harl. MS.;
table of rules, p. 342], pp. 318-42; F. J. Child's Obser¬
vations on the language of Chaucer and Gower [^.v. above,
1862], pp. 342-97; Chaucer's pronunciation and ortho¬
graphy [with a table of -probable sounds of the letters],
pp. 397-404. Part iii, 1871, chap, vii, ' Illustrations of
the Pronunciation of English during the 14th century,'
pp. 633-742 : Chaucer, pp. 633-725 : Critical text of
Prologue [illustrating the previous conclusions, the text from
the seven MSS. on the versos, and the phonetic transcript
on the rectos], pp. 680-725 [prefaced by notes on]:
Pronunciation of long u and of ay, ey, as deduced from
a comparison of the orthographies of seven MSS. of the
Canterbury Tales [the Society's six texts and MS. Harl.
7334], pp. 634-56; Treatment of final e in the critical
text, pp. 646-8; Metrical peculiarities of Chaucer, pp. 648-9;
Chaucer's treatment of French words, pp. 650-1; Penn¬
sylvania German the analogue of Chaucer's English, pp.
652-63; E. W. Gesenius on the language of Chaucer,
pp. 664-71; M. Kapp on the pronunciation of Chaucer,
pp. 672-7; Instructions for reading the phonetic transcript
of the Prologue, pp. 677-9.]
1870. [Baynes, Thomas Spencer.] The Text of Chancer, [in] the Edin¬
burgh Review, July, 1870, vol. exxxii, pp. 1-45.
[Information as to the authorship of this article was kindly supplied by the
Editor of the Edinburgh Rcvieic.]
[p. i] It is a national reproach that after the lapse of nearly five
hundred years we are still without a critical and illus¬
trative edition of Chaucer's poetical works. Excepting
Shakspeare, no English poet so thoroughly requires and
[p. 2] deserves careful editing as Chaucer; and, in the essential
characteristics of his genius, no English poet comes nearer
to Shakspeare.
[pp. 2,3] [Chaucer's dramatic insight, love of nature, wide human
interest, and felicity of expression.]
1870]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
99
[p. 3] These excellences have justly made Chaucer not only the
father of English poetry, the greatest of our dramatists before
the rise of the regular drama, but one of the most delightful
and habitually read of all English poets. The many eulo¬
gistic references to him by later writers both in prose and
verse, down to the close of the Elizabethan period, show how
constantly he was studied during the two centuries after his
death.
[Lydgate; Occleve, Douglas, Wilson, Puttenham, Ascham,
Fox, Camden, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, among his admirers.]
Dryden, again, did his utmost to popularise the more
striking of the ' Canterbury Tales,' and has left, perhaps,
the best critical estimate of their author we possess. During
the eighteenth century there were several elaborate attempts
to make English readers better acquainted with Chaucer,
whose language had by that time become too archaic for
the effortless enjoyment of ordinary readers. And in our
own day, notwithstanding the obstacles interposed by a
grammar and vocabulary partially obsolete, Chaucer has
reappeared in a greater number of forms, and is, perhaps,
more generally read and studied, than any of the great
Elizabethan poets except Shakspeare.
These circumstances render it the more surprising, and,
we may add, the more discreditable to our national scholar¬
ship, that no complete critical edition of Chaucer's poetical
works should yet have been produced. The reproach is one
of old standing, and many suggestions have from time to
time been made with the view of wiping it away.
[Quotation of Dr. Johnson's note on his projected edition.
A correct edition called for by Godwin and Todd.]
[p- 5] The truth is, that until the last few years the greater part
of Chaucer's poetical works have never, strictly speaking,
been edited at all. ' Troilus and Cressid,' a story nearly as
long as the 'TEneid,' the ' Romaunt of the Rose,' the ' House
of Fame,' the ' Legend of Good Women,' and the minor
poems, collected and published together for the first time
by Thynne in 1532, were printed from defective and im¬
perfect manuscripts without any critical oversight or correc¬
tion ; and from that time to our own day they have been
reprinted from the black-letter folios without any attempt
100 [.Baynes.] Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1870
at systematic critical revision. The ' Canterbury Tales'
have, indeed, fared somewhat better, having been more than
once carefully edited by critics in many respects well qualified
for the task. But imich still remains to be done for the text
of Chaucer's greatest work; and still more, perhaps, for the
adequate explanation of its language and allusions. We
have as yet no satisfactory and authoritative text even of
the ' Canterbury Tales '; and the best published text, that
recently revised by Mr. Morris, to which we shall presently
refer in detail, is without note or comment of any kind.
The work which Johnson projected, and which a succession
of eminent scholars and critics have so earnestly desiderated,
still remains, therefore, to be done.
In these circumstances the formation of a Chaucer Society,
mainly for the purpose of printing the best existing manu¬
scripts of the poet's works, ought to be matter of hearty con¬
gratulation to all lovers of English literature. Our public
and private libraries are rich in Chaucer manuscripts, and
the best of these must be available for critical use before an
authoritative, complete and satisfactory text of Chaucer can
be produced. But the only way of placing these manu¬
scripts within the reach of English scholars is by printing
them; and, if done at all, this must obviously be the work
of a special Society. With this end in view, the Chaucer
Society was accordingly founded two years ago.
[Account of the Chaucer Society's aims and publications.
[p. 7] Value of the latter to students. Only seventy subscribers
in England, and thirty in the United States. Readers
recommended to subscribe.]
[p. 8] From what we have said it will be seen that the publi¬
cations of the Chaucer Society are preparing the way for a
complete edition of Chaucer's works in the twofold direction
of text and commentary. The requirements of such an
edition are an authoritative text based on a comparison of
the best manuscripts, and an adequate explanation in the
shape of notes and commentary of Chaucer's learning and
literary studies, his allusions, language and versification.
The first point is the text; and, in order to estimate fairly
the work the Chaucer Society is doing in this respect, it is
necessary to glance at the history of the printed texts down
1870]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. [.Baynes.] 101
to the present time. Caxton printed the ' Canterbury
Tales ' twice, the first time from a very corrupt manuscript,
and the second time from a much better one. ' Troilus and
Cressid,' ' The House of Fame,' ' The Assembly of Fowls,'
and some minor pieces, were printed by Caxton's coadjutors
and successors, Wynken de Worde and Pynson. The first
edition of Chaucer's poetical works was that published in
1532, and edited by W. Thynne. In his curious dedication
to Henry VIII, Thynne claims to have corrected, by com¬
parison with the manuscripts, those parts of the poet's works
already printed, and to have published the rest for the first
time. [Thynne quoted; see above, 1532, vol. i, p. 79].
As may be surmised from this extract, Chaucer did not
benefit much from Thynne's supervision, his text of the
' Canterbury Tales ' being in some respects inferior to that
of Caxton's second reprint, while the minor poems are
crowded with verbal corruptions. Stowe, the next editor,
added little to Thynne's work, except some miscellaneous
poems, ' now imprinted for the first time,' which fill twenty
pages of his massive folio. These poems are of doubtful
authority, being more in Lidgate's manner than Chaucer's;
but the longest of them, ' The Court of Love,' has kept its
place in the subsequent editions of the poet's works. The
third chief edition published during the sixteenth century is
[p. 9] that edited by Speight, and in many respects he may fairly
be regarded as the first editor, strictly so called, of Chaucer.
Thynne and Stowe paid but little attention to the text;
and neither of them attempted anything in the way of
illustration or commentary. Speight attended in a manner
to both these departments of an editor's duty; and, though
his alterations in the text are comparatively few and unim¬
portant, they are still in the main improvements. But his
claims as an editor rest mainly on his explanations of
Chaucer's language. He is the first that attempted any
detailed explanation of archaic words and phrases; and his
glossary, with all its imperfections, entitles him to the grateful
remembrance of Chaucer students. . . . Speight's compact
folio, first published in 1598, again in 1602, with some im¬
provements, and a third time in 1687, with a few trifling
additions, continued to be the standard edition of Chaucer
102 [Uaynes.~\ Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1870
throughout the whole of the seventeenth century. Down to
the beginning of the eighteenth century, indeed, the collected
works of our more celebrated poets generally appeared in
the folio form, and the folio belongs to the pre-critical period
of our literary history. Urry's ambitious work, which ap¬
peared in 1721 and has the distinction of being the tallest of
all the Chaucer folios, is certainly no exception. The licen¬
tious alterations of the text, in which Urry habitually in¬
dulged, have simply made it perversely corrupt in every
part. . . .
[p. io] The first editor of any part of Chaucer's works who dis¬
played anything like the spirit and power of genuine criticism
was undoubtedly Dr. Thomas Morell, best remembered per¬
haps by his learned ' Thesaurus ' . . . Dr. Morell was, how¬
ever, an English as well as a classical scholar, having edited
Spenser, and commenced the publication of the ' Canterbury
Tales ' on a thoroughly complete and satisfactory plan. The
only matter of regret is that he did not carry out his admirable
scheme and finish the work he had so well begun. The first
volume of the projected work, and we believe the only one
ever issued, appeared in 1737, and was entitled ' The Can¬
terbury Tales of Chaucer in the original, from the most
authentic manuscripts, with references to authors ancient
and modern, various readings, and explanatory notes.'
This volume contains the ' Prologue ' and the ' Knight's
Tale,' a modern version of each being appended to the
original text. Tyrwhitt refers to it in terms of high but just
praise; and it appears from his reference to have been the
only part of the work that had been published. . . . This
part is, however, quite sufficient to show that in undertaking
to edit Chaucer Dr. Morell took a just and comprehensive
view of the work to be done, and that he possessed many
of the higher qualities essential to its successful execution.
His plan includes minute attention both to text and com¬
mentary ; and in dealing with the text ' he set out,' says
Tyrwhitt, ' upon the only rational plan, that of collating the
best manuscripts and selecting from them the genuine read¬
ings.' [Then follow comments and quotations on Morell and
Urry's views of Chaucer's versification.]
[p. 12] Tyrwhitt comes next as an editor of Chaucer, and his
1870]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. \_Bayncs.~\ 103
edition of the ' Canterbury Tales ' is so well known that it
is needless to specify its merits and defects in detail. In
our judgment, the merits of the work far outweigh its defects,
although in the present state of our knowledge the text
must no doubt be regarded as seriously defective. Still on
the whole Tyrwhitt has done more for Chaucer than any
other single editor. It is no doubt true that he was un¬
acquainted with the niceties of Chaucer's grammar, and their
intimate connexion with the mechanism of his verse; and
[p. 13] Mr. Wright, in the introduction to his edition of the ' Canter¬
bury Tales,' has emphasized these deficiencies in somewhat
sweeping terms. But Tyrwhitt was a sagacious critic, pos¬
sessing great literary knowledge, taste, and industry; and
he brought all his powers and acquirements to the illustration
of his favourite author, often with the happiest results. . . .
The next step in the history of Chaucer texts is the publi¬
cation of this manuscript—the Harleian—by Mr. Wright in
1847. This publication represents something like a revolution
in the plan of editing Chaucer, and at once raises the whole
question as to the best method of dealing with the text. At
first sight Mr. Wright seems to make out a strong case for his
own plan. After noticing that the grammatical forms of the
fourteenth century underwent a considerable change about the
middle of the fifteenth, and that copyists of this date usually
employed the language of the time rather than of the author
they are copying, he contends that the only satisfactory plan
of editing Chaucer is to select the oldest and best manuscript,
and to adhere to it faithfully throughout. The opposite plan,
which had hitherto been usually followed, he condemns
indeed in no very measured terms :—
' It is evident, therefore,' he says,' that the plan of forming
the text of any work of the periods of which we are speaking
from a number of different manuscripts, written at different
times and different places, is the most absurd plan which it
is possible to conceive. Yet this was the method professedly
followed by Tyrwhitt in forming a text of the " Canterbury
Tales " of Chaucer.'
And after pointing out Tyrwhitt's special disqualifications
as a student of manuscripts, he adds
' Under these circumstances it is clear that to form a satis-
104 [Baynes.~\ Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1870
factory text of Chaucer, we must give up the printed editions,
and fall back upon the manuscripts; and that instead of
bundling them altogether, we must pick out one best manu¬
script which also is one of those nearest to Chaucer's time.
The latter circumstance is absolutely necessary, if we would
reproduce the language and versification of the author. At
the same time it cannot but be acknowledged that the earliest
manuscript might possibly be very incorrect and incomplete,
from the ignorance or negligence of the scribe who copied
it. This, however, is not the case with regard to Chaucer's
[p. 14] " Canterbury Tales." The Harleian manuscript, No. 7334,
is by far the best manuscript of Chaucer's " Canterbury
Tales " that I have yet examined, in regard both to antiquity
and correctness. The handwriting is one which would at
first sight be taken by an experienced scholar for that of the
latter part of the fourteenth century, and it must have been
written within a few years after 1400, and therefore soon
after Chaucer's death and the publication of the " Canterbury
Tales." Its language has very little, if any, appearance of
local dialect; and the text is in general extremely good, the
variations from Tyrwhitt being usually for the better.'
This reasoning seems, as we have said, sufficiently conclu¬
sive, and it has very naturally determined the course of sub¬
sequent editors, both Mr. Bell and Mr. Morris having followed
Mr. Wright's plan, and adopted the text he had selected.
But the publication of the Chaucer Society six-text edition
of the ' Prologue ' and ' Knight's Tale ' has very much
destroyed the force of Mr. Wright's plea in favour of adhering
strictly to a single text. A comparison of the Harleian
text with the six now publishing by the Society, will show
that there are numberless points of grammar, metre, or sense
in which it may be improved by careful collation, and that
the old plan must still be followed before we can hope to
secure a satisfactory and authoritative text. . . .
[p. is] The latest text of Chaucer's poetical works, that edited by
Mr. Morris, and substituted for Tyrwhitt's in the new issue of
the Aldine Series, is undoubtedly also the best. Mr. Morris
is one of our most accurate and accomplished early English
scholars, and no better editor of a mediaeval text could possibly
be found. After examining several manuscripts of the
1870]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. [Baynes.] 105
' Canterbury Tales,' be agreed with Mr. Wright in thinking
the Harleian text the best, and it has accordingly been
selected and faithfully adhered to throughout. Clerical
errors and corrupt readings were corrected by collation with
other manuscripts, especially the Lansdowne, and a careful
examination of Mr. Morris's text will show how painstaking
he has been in this part of his work. The rest of the poems
have been edited from the manuscripts where they existed,
and the result is the best text of Chaucer that has yet
appeared. . . .
A comparison of Mr. Morris's text of the ' Prologue ' and
the ' Knight's Tale ' with the texts of the Society, has,
however, convinced us that the question as to possible
improvement must be answered decisively in the affirmative.
Knowing beforehand the excellence of the Harleian text, and
the general agreement of the six other manuscripts, we have
[p. 16] been surprised indeed at the number of emendations of
greater or less importance they afford. In the ' Prologue '
alone there are, in our judgment, upwards of fifty lines that
may be improved by collation either in sense or metre, while
in the ' Knight's Tale ' the better readings are in proportion
to its length even more numerous and important. These
better readings affect mainly the metre, the meaning, or the
poetical expressiveness of the existing text. Some, again,
effect marked improvements in minutiae of grammar, em¬
phasis, and spelling.
[pp. 16-33] [Examples are given and various readings discussed.]
[p. 33] Quite as much still remains to be done for the illustration as
for the text of Chaucer's poetical works. There are in his
writings almost innumerable points of philological, literary,
or historical interest that require to be elucidated. Chaucer
was not only familiar with every phase of contemporary life,
but profoundly read in all existing literature. He knew by
intimate personal experience the tastes and habits, the
pursuits and recreations, the superstitions and beliefs, of all
ranks and classes amongst his own countrymen; and his
public employments had enlarged the field of his observation
so as to include almost every country in Europe. He had
seen active military service abroad, and had taken part in
splendid public ceremonials at home; had lived habitually
106
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1870
in courts, camps and great cities, as well as in the congenial
[p- 34] retirement of country life. The whole world of nature and
human experience was in this way mirrored in his sunny
intellect, while the higher influences of both had melted
serenely into the quiet depths of his curiously meditative
and observant mind. As a natural result there is a mellowed
fulness in his maturer delineations; a joyous animation, a
living truth, a variety and completeness of detail in his pictures
of life that obscure at first the purely literary or academical
accomplishments of his mind; or rather, perhaps, it would be
more correct to say that in his later works the learning and
knowledge of life are so fused by imaginative sympathy into
a new poetical whole, that there is at first no distinct con¬
sciousness of the separate elements. . . . On closer ex¬
amination, however, the range and minuteness of Chaucer's
learning becomes clearly apparent. He employed materials
derived from all existing literatures home and foreign; not
only the early English chronicles and stories, the Norman-
French romances and fables, the new epic and lyrical poetry
of Italy, and the whole range of Latin literature, including
not only the classics proper, as well as the science and art,
the history and philosophy of the time, but also Byzantine
legends and brilliant fragments of Eastern romance, that
had passed into Europe in the wake of the returning
Crusaders. The adequate illustration of Chaucer thus re¬
quires, in addition to a minute acquaintance with the state
of the language in his day, a full knowledge of con¬
temporary literature and history. No single editor has as
yet united these requirements. Tyrwhitt, who studied with
some care the literature and history of the fourteenth
century, was comparatively ignorant of Chaucer's language;
while recent editors, such as Mr. Wright and Mr. Morris,
who are well acquainted with Chaucer's language, have
attempted hardly anything in the way of literary or historical
illustration.
But the primary requirement of all expository criticism
of Chaucer is undoubtedly the full interpretation of his
language. . . . There is still, however, a great deal to be
done for the elucidation of Chaucer's language; and, un¬
fortunately, Mr. Morris, who of living scholars is in many
1870]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
107
respects best qualified for the work, has confined his labours
in this direction to a revision of previous glossaries. . . .
[An examination of Morris's Glossary follows.]
[p. 40] This [comparison with Piers Plowman] points to an import¬
ant means of interpreting Chaucer's language which has not
as yet been turned to anything like adequate account. We
refer to the critical examination of the writings of his con¬
temporaries and immediate successors. The more carefully
the early literature of the fourteenth century is studied, the
more clearly will it appear that Chaucer's additions to the
vocabulary of the language are far less numerous than is
commonly supposed. He has been charged with adulterating
the English speech of his time by the wholesale importation
of foreign, and especially of Norman-French, words. In his
early translations and paraphrases from Norman-French he
occasionally, it is true, transfers words mainly for the-con¬
venience of their rhymes. But with these exceptions his
importations are comparatively few. His real superiority
lies in the admirable taste and judgment displayed in the
[p. 4i] selection of his vocabulary, the natural reflex of his keen and
exquisite sensibility to the latent significance of language.
The perfection of his art lies in his subtle insight into the
deeper meaning of words, and his power of combining them
in the most felicitous manner. He is not fond of verbal
novelties for their own sake, and his obscurities of phrase
and diction may generally therefore be explained by a
reference to the literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. The works of Gower and Lidgate, especially the
latter, are of essential service in this respect.
1870. Brae, Andrew Edmund. The Treatise of the Astrolabe of Geoffrey
Chaucer, edited by A. E. Brae, with notes and illustrations.
[The volume contains seven illustrations of Chaucer's Astro¬
labe, with a text of his treatise, an Appendix reprinting
essays on the astronomy of the Canterbury Tales; and a
series of notes on Chaucer's astronomy.]
1870. Courthope, William John. The Paradise of Birds, pp. 9, 122-3.
[Man has exterminated all the feathered tribes, and the
insect is becoming the lord of creation. Maresnest, the
scientific theorist, and Windbag, the romantic poet, come to
108
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1870
the Paradise of Birds to beg two eggs of every species. They
are tried by a jury of birds, and plead the "kindliness of
men to birds," giving as examples Aristophanes, Chaucer,
Gilbert White, etc.]
[p. 9] The Bird has thoughts like Man, but while he lives,
Each to one feeling various utterance gives,
Even in this life the grammar of the tree
Was by our Chaucer learned, and Canace.
[p. 122] If Man's good work xnay cancel Man's ill deed,
Eor us let English Chaucer intercede.
Think with what rhymes, what measures old and quaint,
He sings your love-day, and exalts your saint!
[p. 123] Think how he rose from bed betimes in spring,
To hear the Nightingale and Cuckoo sing !
NIGHTINGALE
O llower of the prime ! O fountain of rhyme !
O lover of daisies ! 0 poet of May !
Thy boon and my debt if I ever forget,
Let my heart have forgotten her lay.
Thou did drive from my view " the lewd Cuckoo " ;
And I was thy singer that whole May long,*
Time since has grown grey, but I love thee to-day,
And I solace my soul with thy song.
[The illustrated edition of 1889 has a picture of Chaucer in
the woods.]
* The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, 11. 226-30.
1870. Lowell, James Russell. Chaucer, [in] the North American
Review, July 1870, vol. cxi, pp. 155-198. [Reprinted, revised
and enlarged, in My Study Windows, 1871.] (Riverside edition
of Works, 10 vols., 1890-91, vol. iii, pp. 290-366.)
[Passages between ff did not appear in the North American Review.]
[p. 293] It is good to retreat now and then beyond earshot of
the introspective confidences of modern literature, and to lose
ourselves in the gracious worldliness of Chaucer. Here was
a healthy and hearty man, so genuine that he need not ask
whether he were genuine or no, so sincere as quite to forget
his own sincerity, so truly pious that he could be happy in
the best world that God chose to make, so humane that he
loved even the foibles of his kind. Here was a truly epic
1870] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 109
poet, without knowing it, who did not waste time in consider¬
ing whether his age were good or had, hut quietly taking it for
granted as the best that ever was or ever could be for him,
has left us such a picture of contemporary life as no man ever
painted, f ' A perpetual fountain of good sense,' Drydeu calls
him, yes, and of good humor, too, and wholesome thought.")"
[p. 300] It is not the finding of a thing, but the making something
out of it after it is found, that is of consequence. Accord¬
ingly, Chaucer, like Shakespeare, invented almost nothing,
[p. 322] "j" Chaucer . . . drew from the South a certain airiness of
sentiment and expression, a felicity of phrase, and an elegance
of turn hitherto unprecedented and hardly yet matched in
our literature, but all the while kept firm hold of his native
soundness of understanding, and that genial humour which
seems to be the proper element of worldly wisdom. With
[p. 323] Dante, life represented the passage of the soul from a state
of nature to a state of grace; . . . With Chaucer, life is a
pilgrimage, but only that his eye may be delighted with the
varieties of costume and character. There are good morals
to be found in Chaucer, but they are always incidental.
With Dante the main question is the saving of the soul, with
Chaucer it is the conduct of life, "j"
[p. 324-5] Chaucer is the first who broke away from the dreary
traditional style, and gave not merely stories, but lively
pictures of real life as the ever-renewed substance of poetry.
He was a reformer, too, not only in literature, but in morals.
But as in the former his exquisite tact saved him from all
eccentricity, so in the latter the pervading sweetness of his
nature could never be betrayed into harshness and invective.
. . . There is no touch of cynicism in all he wrote.
Dante's brush seems sometimes to have been smeared with
the burning pitch of his own fiery lake. Chaucer's pencil is
dipped in the cheerful colour-box of the old illuminators, and
he has their patient delicacy of touch, with a freedom far
beyond their somewhat mechanic brilliancy.
[p. 330] 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 gayety that seems careless, but where every foot
beats time to the tune of the thought. By the skilful arrange¬
ment of his pauses he evaded the monotony of the couplet,
110
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1870-
and gave to the rhymed pentameter, which he made our
heroic measure, something of the architectural repose of
blank verse. He found our language lumpish, stiff, unwilling,
too apt to speak Saxonly in grouty monosyllables; he left it
enriched with the longer measure of the Italian and Provencal
poets.
[p. 353] [Chaucer is a great narrative poet.] The power of diffusion
without being diffuse would seem to be the highest merit of
# narration, giving it that easy flow which is so delightful.
Chaucer's descriptive style is remarkable for its lowness of
tone—for that combination of energy Avith simplicity Avhich
is among the rarest gifts in literature. . . .
Hot that Chaucer cannot he intense, too, on occasion ; but
it is Avith a quiet intensity of his oavii, that comes in as it
Avere by accident. . . .
Pandarus, looking at Troilus,
' Took up a light and found his countenance
As for to look upon an old romance.'
With Chaucer it is always the thing itself and not the
description of it that is the main object. His picturesque hits
are incidental to the story, glimpsed in passing; they never
stop the Avay. His key is so Ioav that his high lights are never
obtrusive.
[p. 356] Chaucer never shows any signs of effort, and it is a main
proof of his excellence that he can he so inadequately sampled
by detached passages—by single lines taken away from the
connection in which they contribute to the general effect.
He has that continuity of thought, that evenly prolonged
power, and that delightful equanimity, which characterize
the higher orders of mind. There is something in him of the
disinterestedness that made the Greeks masters in art. His
[p. 357] phrase is never importunate. His simplicity is that of
elegance, not of poverty. The quiet unconcern Avith which he
says his best things is peculiar to him among English poets,
though Goldsmith, Addison, and Thackeray have approached
it in prose.
When Chaucer describes anything, it is commonly by one
of those simple and obvious epithets or qualities that are so
easy to miss. Is it a woman 1 He tells us she is fresh, that
1871]
Chcmcer Criticism and Allusion.
Ill
she lias glad eyes. . . . Sometimes he describes amply by the
merest hint, as where the Friar, before setting himself softly
down, drives away the cat. We know without need of more
words that he has chosen the snuggest corner.
[p. 360] Chaucer seems to me to have been one of the most purely
fp 3ci] original of poets, as much so in respect of the world that is
about us as Dante in respect of that which is within us.
There had been nothing like him before, there has been
nothing since. He is original, not in the sense that he thinks
and says what nobody ever thought and said before, and what
nobody can ever think and say again, but because he is always
natural; because, if not always absolutely new, he is always
delightfully fresh, because he sets before us the world as it
honestly appeared to Geoffrey Chaucer, and not a world as it
seemed proper to certain people that it ought to appear,
[p. 365] In spite of some external stains, which those who have
studied the influence of manners will easily account for
without imputing them to any moral depravity, we feel that
we can join the pure-minded Spenser in calling him ' most
sacred, happy spirit.' If character may be divined from
works, he was a good man, genial, sincere, hearty, temperate
of mind, more wise, perhaps, for this world than the next, but
thoroughly humane, and friendly with God and men. I know
not how to sum up what we feel about him better than by
saying (what would have pleased most one who was indifferent
to fame) that we love him more even than we admire.
1871. Brooke, Stopford Augustus. The Descriptive Poetry of Chaucer,
[in] Macmillan's Magazine, Aug. 1871, vol. xxiv, pp. 268-79.
[p. 269] The landscape of Chaucer is sometimes taken from the
Italian and sometimes from the French landscape. It possesses
almost always the same elements, differently mixed up in
different poems : a May morning—the greenwood, or a
garden—some clear running water—meadows covered with
flowers—some delectable place or other with an arbour laid
down with soft and fresh-cut turf. There is no sky, except in
such rapid allusions as this," Bright was the day and blue the
firmament;" no cloud studies; no conception of the beauty of
wild nature.
His range, therefore, is extremely limited ; but within the
112
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1871-
limits his landscape is exquisitely fresh, natural, and true in
spite of its being conventional.
[p. 272] [Chaucer's love of colour.] But of all the colours which
Chaucer loved in nature, he loved best the harmony of white
and green in one of his favourite daisied meadows. . . .
It may be in an age when colours in art had each their
peculiar religious significance, that Chaucer, a man who had
travelled in Italy and who had himself the instinct of sym-
[p. 273] holism, had some spiritual meaning in the constant association
of these two colours of white and green. Green, the hue of
spring, signified hope, and particularly the hope of Immor¬
tality ; white was the emblem, among other things, of light
and joy. . . .
Still dwelling on Chaucer's colour, it is curious the number
of concentrated pictures which are to be found in his
poems, pictures so sharply drawn in colour that they might
be at once painted from the description. He looks in and
the arbour is full of scarlet flowers, and down among them,
sore wounded, "a man in black and white colour, pale and
wan," is lying, bitterly complaining. Scarlet, black, white,
one sees that, " flashing upon the inward eye," not in outline,
nor in detail, but in colour, and that is the test whether a poet
is a good colourist or not. It is no common excellence. . . .
There is a splendid study of colour, unequalled in its way
in our literature, in Chaucer's picture of the cock in the
" Hun's Priests Tale." The widow keeps in her yard a famous
stock of poultry, 7
" In which she had a cock, hight Chaunticlere [to]
And lik the burnisclit gold was his colour."
[p. 274] This simple childlikeness and intensity of Chaucer . . .
are the first necessity of a poetic nature, . . . This is the first
of those elements of his poetry which make his landscapes
impossible to be painted.
Of two other unpaintable things the landscape is also full—
of the scent of flowers, and the songs of birds, and now and
then of the noise of water.
1871-2. Eliot, George. Chapter headings, [in] Middlemarch, 1871-2,
4 vols.
Chap, xii, vol. i, p. 180 [Milleres Tale, 11. 3774-5]; chap, xxi,
1873j Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 113
vol. i, p. 369 [.Phicisiens Tale, 11. 50-52] ; chap. 1, vol. iii, p.
108 [Shij/mannes Prol., 11. 15—20]; cliap. lxv, vol. iv, p. 49
[Wife of Bath's Prol., 11. 440-442],
1871-3. Furnivall, Frederick James. Trial-Forewords to my !< Parallel-
Text Edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems," for the Chaucer Society
(with a try to set Chaucer's works in their right order of time,
1871).—Corrections and Additions, 1872,—Further Corrections and
Additions, 1873. (Chaucer Society.)
1873. Furnivall, Frederick James. Recent Work at Chaucer, [in] Mac-
millan's Magazine, March, 1873, vol. xxvii, pp. 383-93.
[p. 3S3] Taking it . . . for granted that the study of Early English
has revived and is spreading, though miserably slowly, in
f England and elsewhere, let us ask what that study has done for
Chaucer, that tenderest, brightest, most humourful sweet soul,
of all the great poets of the world, whom a thousand Englishmen
out of every thousand and one are content to pass by with a
shrug and a sneer.
[pp.383- [The gradual settling of the Chaucer canon which had heen
confused by Stowe and other early editors. Tyrwhitt's con¬
tribution to this. jST icolas and the biographical facts.
Bradshaw's and ten Brink's work on the text; the rhyme-
tests. The French and Italian periods first distinguished by
ten Brink.]
[p. 387] [The Compleynte to Pite the key to Chaucer's early sad
poetry, telling of his own unhappy love.]
[pp.388- [A suggested chronological list of the works in four periods,
and an order of dates for the Canterbury Tales " not yet quite
fully worked out. Thus far had one got when Mr. Hales
supplied the generalization wanted—' Power of characterization
is the true test. . . . The Tales too that take half-views of
life, like the Clerk's . . . the Man of Law's . . . must he
before the best time too.' "]
[p. 389] "With this guide every reader can work out the succession
of the Tales for himself, and mix them with the Minor Poems
as ranged above. He will then see Chaucer, not oidy out¬
wardly as he was in the flesh—page, soldier, squire,
diplomatist, Custom-house officer, Member of Parliament, then
a suppliant for protection and favour, a beggar for money;
but inwardly as he was in the spirit—clear of all nonsense of
Courts of Love, etc.—gentle and loving, early timid and in
despair, sharing others' sorrow, and, by comforting them,
CHAUCEK CKITICISM.—III. I
114
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1873
rp. 3S9]
[pp. 389
-90]
losing part of liis own; yet long dwelling on the sadness of
forsaken love, seeking the " consolation of philosophy,"
watching the stars, praying to the " Mother of God " ; studying
hooks, and, more still, woman's nature; his eye open to all
the beauties of the world around him, his ear to the "heavenly
harmony" of birds' song; at length becoming the most
gracious and tender spirit, the swmetest singer, the best
pourtrayer, the most pathetic, and withal the most genial
and humourful healthy-souled man that England had ever
seen. Still, after 500 years, he is bright and fresh as the
glad light green of the May he so much loved ; he is still
second only to Shakespeare in England, and fourth only to
him and Dante and Homer in the world. When will our
Victorian time love and honour him as it should 1 Surely, of
all our poets he is the one to come home to us most.
Contrast between Chaucer and Tennyson.]
The change in Chaucer marked by the development of
humour.]
90
-3]
[pp. 390 [The work of the Chaucer Society ; the Six-text Edition ; a
comparison of the MSS. made the Tales fall into their proper
places in the pilgrimage, and prepared the way for a real
edition. The Society's other texts and studies. An appeal
for support.]
[Dr. Furnivall's copy of his article with important additions
and alterations, is in the possession of the editor. One of
Dr. Furnivall's additions reads thus :]
One may fairly claim then, for the Chaucer Society the
credit of having, with Mr. Bradshaw's and Prof, ten Brink's
help, done the best work at and for Chaucer that has been
done since his death. It has explained the secret of his early
life, cleared his memory from the reproach of having written
many unworthinesses, and of having muddled his greatest
work ; it has laid the sure foundations for a fitting edition of
one of the greatest poets of mankind, and has made plainer to
modern English ears the music, to modern English eyes the
sunny soul, that cheered our ancestors in Wicliffe's day.
1873, etc. Furnivall, Prederick James, and others. Notices of Chaucer
Discoveries, Notes, Correspondence, etc., [in] The Athenaeum [and]
The Academy.
[In 1873 Dr. Furnivall contributed a series of notices of
recent Chaucerian discoveries to the Athenaeum, and later he
1873] Chaucer Criticism ctncl Allusion.
115
and others published notes, etc., frequently in the Academy
and less frequently in the Athenaeum.]
1873. Hales, John Wesley. Chaucer and Shakespeare, [in] the Quarterly
Review, Jan. 1873, vol. cxxxiv, pp. 225-255. (Reprinted in Notes
and Essays on Shakespeare, by John W. Hales, 1884, pp. 56-104.)
[p. 226] [An account of the Chaucer Society and the work of
Furnivall.]
[p. 227] Chaucer and Shakespeare have much in common. How¬
ever diverse the form of their greatest works, yet in spirit
there is a remarkable likeness and sympathy. Their geniuses
differ rather in degree than in kind. Chaucer is in many
respects a lesser Shakespeare. [Immaturity of the drama
as a literary form in Chaucer's day] . . . Chaucer stands in
relation to the supreme Dramatic Age in a correspondent
position to that held by Scott. Chaucer lived in the morning
twilight of it, Scott in the evening. There can be little
doubt that both would have added to its lustre—that England
would have boasted one more, and Scotland at least one
great dramatist had they been born earlier and later
respectively. . . .
[p. 230] Probably it was these piteous, but seemingly not inevi¬
table or reproachless, distresses [embarrassments due to
attachment to a court party] that impeded the completion
of the " Canterbury Tales.'' The original design, indeed,
is in itself too vast for realisation. Chaucer commits the
same error in this respect as Spenser does.
[p. 231] We have said that his genius exhibits a remarkable affinity
to that of Shakespeare—a closer affinity, we think, than that
of any other English poet. To Chaucer belongs in a high
measure what marks Shakespeare supremely—a certain
indefinable grace and brightness of style, an incomparable
archness and vivacity, an incessant elasticity and freshness,
an indescribable ease, a never faltering variety, an incapability
of dulness. . . .
For skill in characterization who can be ranked between
Chaucer and Shakespeare ? Is there any work, except the
' theatre ' of Shakespeare, that attempts, with a success
in any way comparable, the astonishing task which Chaucer
sets himself ? He attempts to portray the entire society
of his age from the crown of its head to the sole of its foot—
116 Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1873—
from tlie knight, the topmost figure of mediaeval life, down
to the ploughman and the cook; and the result is a gallery
of life-like portraits, which has no parallel anywhere, with
one exception, for variety, truthfulness, humanity. [This
is elaborated.] . . .
[p. 232] we ask, who among our poets, except Shakespeare, shall
he placed above Chaucer in this domain of art ? In our
opinion there is not one of the Elizabethans that deserves
that honour. . . .
[p. 234] [Chaucer's pathos contrasted with Sterne's and Shake¬
speare's.]
[pp. 236-7] [Chaucer's irony.]
[p. 237] it is because his spirit enjoyed and retained this lofty
freedom that it was so tolerant and capacious. He, like
Shakespeare, was eminently a Human Catholic, no mere
sectary. He refused to no man an acknowledgment of
kindred. . . .
[pp. 238- There is just one point of personal likeness between Chaucer
and Shakespeare that we wish to notice. Of each man, as
his contemporaries knew him, the chief characteristic was
a wonderful loveableness of Nature. [Quotations from
Jonson, Occleve, Lydgate, &c. on this point.]
[rp' 2]°~ Shakespeare's probable knowledge of Chaucer's work,
a subject not yet sufficiently investigated; with remarks
on Chaucer's fame and accessibility in Shakespeare's time.
The Two Noble Kinsmen considered, and the reason for no
mention of him in Richard II and Henry IV thought to be
that he would, as a poet, have seemed out of place in an
historical setting. Shakspere's acquaintance with the
Knight's Tale and Troylus to be seen in Midsummer-Night's
Dream, Two Noble Kinsmen, Venus and Adonis, Tarquin and
Lucrece, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet; while in
As You Like It is seen knowledge of Gamelyn. Parallel
passages are quoted, and the subject is further discussed.]
1873. Rossetti, William Michael. Chancers Troylus and Cryseyde
compared with Boccaccio's Filostrato, Prefatory Remarks, pp. iii-ix.
(Chaucer Soc.).
pp. iii, The most important point of absolute difference between
^ the Italian and the English poets—the most important
both in subject-matter and in scale of treatment—is in the
incidents which lead up to the actual amour between Troilus
1874]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
117
ancl Chryseis. . . . Chaucer has invented an entirely new series
of preliminaries; far more elaborate, and such as almost
to leave his Cryseyde in the position of a modest and chaste-
minded woman, even after the amour is in full career. . . .
The English poet neither schemes nor affects (if I do not
misapprehend) to invent an essentially different character :
but he leads up to the crisis by a more artful and more
sympathetic course of incident. . . .
[A study of the two Pandaruses, the sources, etc., follows.]
1873. Unknown. The Cycle of English Song, ir, [in] Temple Bar,
vol. xxxviii, June-July, pp. 308-324, 458, 460-1.
[i>. 3ii] He talked, a child, to children—the biggest, oldest, wisest,
cleverest child of the company—and so he amused them
[p. 312] incessantly. ... In a sense, ordinary persons now alive
may be said to have overtaken him, just as extraordinary
persons have far outstripped him. In the early dawn of English
poetry it required a man of the highest genius to feel what
nearly everybody now feels, and to put the feeling into words
which have almost passed into commonplace, and which would
indeed have done so but for the musical and cunning fashion
in which they are arranged. ... In a word, it is the childhood
[p. 313] of poetry. . . . Nor is it nature only that he treats in this
childish, simple, superficial, non-artificial Avay. Men and
women, and all that men and women do, say, eat, drink, and
wear, he views and describes in the same plain, matter-of-fact,
exact, truthful fashion. . . . Who are they 1 Where do they
come from 1 What are their names ? . . . [Chaucer's prolixity
[p.315] typical of childhood.] Neither must it be supposed, in
anticipation of the criticism of later times . . . that he is
so long-winded . . . from the very depth and subtlety of his
art, and from a conviction that this is the only way of making
people see the things you Avant them to see. Eor it is not
the only way, nor yet the best Avay. Indeed, it is the Avors t
and lowest Avay of all the Avays that do achieve the object. It
is the earliest Avay, the childish Avay; and Chaucer employed
it because he knew no other.
1874. Green, John Richard. A Short History of the English People,
pp. 163-4, 212-6, 229, 231, 248-9, 287-90.
[p 214] if with the best modern critics we reject from the list
118
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1874
of his genuine works the bulk of the poems which preceded
" Troilus and Cressida," we see at once that, familiar as he
was with the literature of the Trouveres, his real sympathies
drew him not to the dying verse of France, but to the new
and mighty upgrowth of poetry in Italy. . . . But even
while changing, as it were, the front of English poetry,
Chaucer preserves his own distinct personality. If he quizzes
in the rime of Sir Thopaz the wearisome idleness of the
French romance, he retains all that was worth retaining of
the French temper, its rapidity and agility of movement, its
lightness and brilliancy of touch, its airy mockery, its gaiety
[p. 2i5] and good humour, its critical coolness and self-control. The
French wit quickens in him more than in any English
writer the sturdy sense and shrewdness of our national dis¬
position, corrects its extravagance, and relieves its somewhat
ponderous morality. If, on the other hand, he echoes the
joyous carelessness of the Italian tale, he tempers it with
the English seriousness. As he follows Boccaccio, all his
changes are on the side of purity; and when the Troilus of
the Florentine ends with the old sneer at the changeableness
of woman, Chaucer bids us " look Godward," and dwells on
the unchangeableness of Heaven.
But the genius of Chaucer was neither French nor Italian,
whatever element it might borrow from either literature, but
English to the core.
[p. 216] It is the first time in English poetry that we are
brought face to face not with characters or allegories or
reminiscences of the past, but with living and breathing
men, men distinct in temper and sentiment as in face or
costume or mode of speech; and with this distinctness of
each maintained throughout the story by a thousand shades
of expression and action. It is the first time, too, that we
meet with the dramatic power which not only creates each
character, but combines it with its fellows, which not only
adjusts each tale or jest to the temper of the person who
utters it, but fuses all into a poetic unity He has
received his training from war, courts, business, travel—a
training not of books, but of life. And it is life that he
loves—the delicacy of its sentiment, the breadth of its farce,
its laughter and its tears, the tenderness of its Grisildis or
1874] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
119
the Smollett-like adventures of the miller and the schoolboy.
It is this largeness of heart, this wide tolerance, which enables
him to reflect man for us as none but Shakspeare has ever
reflected it [sic], but to reflect it with a pathos, a shrewd
sense and kindly humour, a freshness and joyousness of
feeling, that even Shakspeare has not surpassed.
[pp.-229 [Chaucer's satire on the clerics.]
[p. 24S] Nothing brings more vividly home to us the social chasm
which in the fourteenth century severed the rich from the
poor than the contrast between the " Complaint of Piers the
Ploughman " and the " Canterbury Tales." The world of
wealth and ease and laughter through which the courtly
Chaucer moves with eyes downcast as in a pleasant dream
is a far-off world of wrong and of ungodliness to the gaunt
poet of the poor.
[The passages 011 Chaucer were re-handled in Green's History of the English People,
1877-80.J
1874. Minto, William. Characteristics of English Poets from, Chancer
to Shirley, Edinburgh, pp. vii, 1-58 [Chapter I : Geoffrey
Chaucer],'59-66, 70-7, 81-2, 90, 91, 96, 99, 101-2, 105, 111-2,
122-6, 129-30, 133-4, 143, 146, 149, 151, 153, 170-1, 177, 213.
219-20, 300-1, 316, 392, 416, 453.
[The biography of Chaucer is based on the latest dis¬
coveries of Furnivall and other scholars, as well as on the
older material. Minto thinks the idea of Chaucer's " hope¬
less passion " in early life (based on the Complaint of Pity,
etc.) has been made too much of. A comparison between
Chaucer and Shakespeare in their knowledge of men is
made, p. 17. Ten Brink's division of Chaucer's work into
three periods is rejected, as it seems to Minto that from
first to last Chaucer had more affinity with the French than
with the Italians; and he adds: "I can distinguish no
change either in his methods or in his spirit that is fairly
attributable to Italian influence," p. 19. The work of ten
Brink, Bradshaw and Furnivall in proving the non-
Chaucerian character of the Testament of Love, Assembly
of Ladies, Lamentation of Mary Magdalene, Court of Love,
Flower and Leaf, and Chaucer's Dream, is described. As the
chief argument is the y-ye rhyme, and as this is found in the
Romaunt, the whole question, according to Minto, depends
largely on this poem. Minto argues for the genuineness
of the Court of Love. He remarks :]
[p. 21] It is simply incredible that these poems could have been
120
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1875-
written by a poet whose name has perished. If he had
written before Chaucer, which could hardly be seriously
maintained, he could not but have become famous; and the
probability is that Chaucer would have mentioned him as
[p. 22] the model of his seven-line stanza. If he had written after
Chaucer, he would certainly have mentioned Chaucer in his
list of masters, according to the universal habit of the time.
The idea of deliberate forgery is out of the question; and if
the " Court of Love " had been the work of a forger or an
imitator, the artificial restriction of rhyme was precisely the
sort of thing he would labour to observe. Finally, the
" Court of Love " is unmistakably imitated in the ' King's
Quhair' of James I, whose captivity in England began
only five years after Chaucer's death, and yet he mentions
no master except Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate. That
makes it quite clear that James attributed the " Court of
Love" to Chaucer; and what need is there for further
evidence ?
[Subsequent sections of the Chaucer portion are, II.
His Language, Metres and Imagery. III. The Chief
Qualities of his Poetry. IV. His Delineation of Character.]
1875. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Masque of Pandora, and
other Poems, pp. 95-6, 140. (Writings, Riverside edn., vol. v,
pp. 195, 196, 200, 217.)
[A Book of Sonnets :]
Chaucer.
[p. 200] An old man in a lodge within a park ;
The chamber walls depicted all around
With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound,
And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,
Whose song conies with the sunshine through the dark
Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound;
He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound,
Then writeth in a book like any clerk.
He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote
The Canterbury Tales, and his old age
Made beautiful with song; and as I read
I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note
Of lark and linnet, and from every page
Rise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead.
1877] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 121
1876. Haweis, Mary Eliza. Chaucer for Children . . . illustrated
with eight coloured pictures, and numerous woodcuts by the
Author, 1877.
[Published late in 1876.]
[With a preface "To the Mother" on the reading and
pronunciation of Chaucer, followed by a biographical sketch,
" Chaucer the Tale Teller." Abridged stories from Prol.,
Knightes, Friers, Clerhes, Franheleyns and Pardoneres Tales,
Complaint to his Purse, Two Rondeaux (Your yen two and
Sin I fro Love), Virelai and Good Counsel, follow in original
and modernised form with connecting summary.]
1876. Minto, William. Chaucer, [in] Encyclopedia Britannica,
ninth edition. See above, 1778, Unknown, vol. i, p. 452.
1877. Fie ay, F. G. Guide to Chaucer and Spenser. [One of Collins'
School and College Classics.]
[The section given to Chaucer occupies pp. 1-72, and in
this short space is contained a summary of the latest critical
knowledge of his life, sources, language, works and their
chronology, arrangement of the Tales (in two days instead of
four), etc. Eleay rejects the rhyme-test of y, ye, and the
conclusions as to authenticity of poems founded on it,
retaining e.g. ' Chaucer's Dream' (the Isle of Ladies), and also
disbelieves in Chaucer's early unhappy love, interpreting his
' sickness' as married life.]
[p. 10] Of the practicability of acquiring it [a sound acquaintance
with Chaucer] at the age of thirteen or thereabouts, I have
had many proofs among my own pupils, from the time when
I first introduced English literature as a specific subject of
education in our grammar schools, now twenty years ago.
The methods I was then almost, if not quite, alone in using,
are now in general practice.
1877. Green, John Richard. Letters to Dr. F. J. Furnivall, [the first
undated, the second dated] March 12, 1877 [in the possession of
Mr. Percy Furnivall],
[1] Anent the Chaucer, I hope our talk cleared your mind
into hopefulness and a practical view of things. What we
really want (' we ' being the would-be-intelligent-readers-of-
Chaucer) is simply (1) Sketch of Early English poetry afore
him to bring out the great step he made. (2) His life
with what pictures of men's ways and manners in his day
122
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1877-
you like. (3) An account of his poems one by one in as
chronological an order as is possible, what each is, whence
it came, peculiarities of it, necessary information about it,
and the like. (4) If you like, a chapter on Chaucer influence
on later poetry—And (5) another on Chaucer bibliography.
These are what occur to me. You may perhaps think
of other fitting topics. But anyhow—if you will do a
Division-Sum, and divide 140 pages by the various topics
to be thus treated—you will see how briefly and simply
each will have to be treated—and how simple and easy your
work would be. Do the Life first, in 30 pages or so—then the
series of works—and leave the head and tail of the book
till the last. But do write it.
[2] I am as hungry as ever for your ' Chaucer.' Bo let
me have it.
[The book on Chaucer referred to was to form one of the series of primers brought
out by Green ; the Chaucer one was eventually written, in 1893 (q.v. below), by
A. W. Pollard.]
1877. Meredith, George. On the Idea of Comedy, and of the Uses of
the Comic Spirit, [in] The New Quarterly Magazine, vol. viii, April,
1877, p. 35. (Works, 1897-8, 34 vols., vol. xxxii, p. 72.)
The Comic spirit is not hostile to the sweetest songfully
poetic. Chaucer bubbles with it: Shakespeare overflows.
1877. Unknown. Chaucer s Love-Poetry, [in] the Cornhill Magazine,
March 1877, vol. xxxv, pp. 280-97.
[p. 281] Before going further, it may be as well to point out how
very small a portion of Chaucer's work decides the special
impression of him which now is historically transmitted from
generation to generation.
If it were possible to take away only a little more than a
tenth part of the poet's voluminous writings, there would be
left a mass of outlandish recital having nothing whatever to
do with anything we now know of English tastes. Instead
of appearing a broad humourist, with an overpowering love of
nature, painting persons and scenes with exact reality, there
would then seem to be no English poet so artificial, so
romantic, so lackadaisical as Chaucer. The truth is, that the
literary associations for which the mention of his name is the
cue, belong to the Canterbury Tales only. ... If the match¬
less Introduction had not been written, or had been different,
1879]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
123
and if he had not included in the list two or three of the
stories, or not given prologues to the others, Chaucer could
not have survived in our literature. Of course there is a
historical explanation for it all. . . . Put at its briefest the
explanation is this: his object was to give Englishmen a
literature bodily, instantly as it were, by transferring into
our tongue, such as he found it and made it, the famous
achievements of the great foreign writers. . . .
[p. 2S2] Our business here is instantly to narrow all we have been
saying into the statement, that with the above exceptions,
Chaucer's writings are a lackadaisical exaggeration of one
feeling—Love, and that in them the passion is taken in its
weakest, vainest form of sentimentality. He is, and for ever
will remain, the chief erotic poet of our language.
1878. Poetical Works of Chaucer, with poems formerly printed with
his, or attributed to him. Edited, with a Memoir, by E. Bell.
Bevised edition. . . . With a preliminary essay by W. W. Skeat.
4 vols. [A revised edition of that of 1854-6, q.v. above.]
[The introductory essay (vol. i, pp. 1—12) is concerned with
the Chaucer canon. The Testament of Love, Rom. Rose,
Complaint of the Black Knight, Cuckoo and Nightingale,
Flower and the Leaf, Chaucer's Dream (Isle of Ladies), Court
of Love, Virelai, etc., are declared to be spurious. They are
printed in this edition at the end of the genuine works.]
1878. Skeat, Walter William. See above, Poetical Works.
1878. Storr, Francis (the Younger), and Turner, Hawes. Canterbury
Chimes, or Chaucer Tales retold for Children. Illustrated by
woodcuts from the Ellesmere MS.
[A very free rendering, in simple modern English, of Prol.,
and an abridgment of the Knightes, Man of Law's, Nonne
Prestes, Squieres, Frankeleyns and " Chaucer's " Tales (the last
= Gamelyn, which is purposely inserted instead of Sir Thopas,
as being more suitable ; see Preface, p. vi).]
1879-80. The Poetical Works of Chaucer, to which are appended
poems attributed to Chaucer, edited by Arthur Gilman, 3 vols.,
Boston, 1880.
[Gilman's edition of Chaucer is the first considerable use
made, by way of an edition, of the work of Furnivall and
the Chaucer Society. In the case of the Canterbury Tales,
124
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1879
the text was based on the Ellesmere MS., which was collated
with others. It was considered advisable " not to burden
the volume with the various readings." The line-numbers
of Tyrwhitt's edition are given in parentheses every fiftieth
line, and in the prose tales every tenth break in the six-text
edition is indicated. The greatest praise and thanks are
given to the Chaucer Society. The edition is also indebted
to the labours of Child, Skeat, Morris, Bradshaw and ten
Brink.
The Biography entitled The Times and the Poet is by the
editor, and is divided into sections : i. The Outer Life;
ii. The Social Life; iii. The Poet's Life; iv. The Poet's
Works; v. The Poet's Genius. A Section On Reading
Chaucer follows with information on pronunciation, stress
and scansion. Sections on Astrological Terms and Biblical
References follow. The Tales are divided into four days'
recital.
The apocryphal pieces include: Proverbe of Chaucer,
Balade de Visage, etc., Court of Love, Flower and Leaf, CucTcow
and Nightingale, Praise of Women, Chaucer's Dream, Virelai
(Alone walkyng," etc.), Chaucer's Prophesy and Go Forth
King.
The biography is dated 1879; the volumes were published
in 1880.]
1879-80. Gilman, Arthur. See above, Poetical Works of Chaucer,
edited by A. Gilman.
1879-80. Lanier, Sidney. Shakspere and his Forerunners, London,
1902, vol. i, pp. xiv, 32, 56-62 [Chaucer's treatment of Nature in
The Flour and the Lefe], 89, 93-4, 113, 137 [Chaucer's praise of
wifehood], 140,146-59 [The Clerkes Tale, copious extracts], 162-5 [the
enormous error of calling Chaucer a 'well of English undefiled'],
192 [Chaucer's pronunciation], 202, 277, 287 ; vol. ii, pp. 19-21
[Chaucer's testimony as to English love of music], 27,34n.,to f. p. 102
[picturesof' A Poticary and a Pardoner' from the Ellesmere MS.],
188, 221, 298—300 [Knightes Tale and Midsummer Night's Dream],
306, 316-7. [These lectures, printed in 1902, were delivered in
Baltimore during the winter of 1879-80 ; see Preface.]
[p. 56] Chaucer's poem The Flower and the Leafe. ... I do not
hesitate to pronounce a far finer poem than any of the Canter¬
bury Tales—in fact, to my thinking, worth all the Canterbury
Tales put together.
1879. Ward, Sir Adolphus William. Chaucer. (English Men of Letters.)
[p. 146] One very pleasing quality in Chaucer must have been his
modesty. In the course of his life this may have helped to
1879] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. 125
recommend him to patrons so many and so various, and to
make him the useful and trustworthy agent that he evidently
became for confidential missions abroad. ... To us, of course,
this quality of modesty in Chaucer makes itself principally
manifest in the opinion which he incidentally shows himself
to entertain concerning his own rank and claims as an author.
Herein, as in many other points, a contrast is noticeable
between him and the great Italian masters, who were so
sensitive as to the esteem in which they and their poetry
were held. Chaucer again and again disclaims all boasts of
[p. 147] perfection, or pretensions to pre-eminence, as a poet. . . .
He acknowledges as incontestable the superiority of the
poets of classical antiquity,
tp. 179] Closely allied to Chaucer's liveliness and gaiety of dis¬
position, and in part springing from them, are his keen sense
of the ridiculous and the power of satire which he has at his
command. His humour has many varieties, ranging from
the refined and half-melancholy irony of the House of Fame
[p. 180] to the ready wit of the sagacious uncle of Cressid, the burl¬
esque fun of the inimitable Nun's Priest's Tale, and the very
gross salt of the Reeve, the Miller, and one or two others. . . .
Concerning, however, Chaucer's use of the power which he in
so large a measure possessed, viz. that of covering with ridi¬
cule the palpable vices or weaknesses of the classes or
kinds of men represented by some of his character-types,
one assertion may be made with tolerable safety. Whatever
may have been the first stimulus and the ultimate scope of
the wit and humour which he here expended, they are not
to be explained as moral indignation in disguise. And in
truth Chaucer's merriment flows spontaneously from a
source very near the surface; he is so extremely diverting,
because he is so extremely diverted himself.
Herein, too, lies the harmlessness of Chaucer's fun. Its
harmlessness, to wit, for those who are able to read him in
something like the spirit in which he wrote. . . .
[p. lsi] But the realism of Chaucer is something more than exuber¬
ant love of fun and light-hearted gaiety. He is the first
great painter of character, because he is the first great
observer of it among European writers. . . . More especially
with regard to the manners and ways of women, which
126
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1880
often, while seeming so natural to women themselves, appear
so odd to male observers, Chaucer's eye was ever on the
alert.
[p. is7] His descriptions of nature are as true as his sketches of
human character; and incidental touches in him reveal his
love of the one as unmistakably as his unflagging interest
in the study of the other. Even those May-morning exordia,
in which he was but following a fashion—faithfully observed
both by the French trouveres and by the English romances
translated from their productions and not forgotten by the
author of the earlier part of the Roman de la Rose—always
came from his hands with the freshness of natural truth.
[Chap. IV, Epilogue, giving a sketch of the influence of
Chaucer.]
1880. Arnold, Matthew. The Study of Poetry, [the General Intro¬
duction to The English Poets, 1*880, edited by T. H. Ward], pp.
xxxi-xxxvi, xliv, xlv. [Reprinted in Essays in Criticism, 2nd ser.,
1888, pp. 26-34, 49-51.]
[p. xxxi] But in the fourteenth century there comes an Englishman
nourished on this poetry [French romance-poetry], taught his
trade by this poetry, getting words, rhyme, metre from this
poetry; for even of that stanza which the Italians used, and
which Chaucer derived immediately from the Italians, the basis
and suggestion was probably given in France. Chaucer (I
have already named him) fascinated his contemporaries, but so
too did Christian of Troyes and "Wolfram of Eschenbach.
Chaucer's power of fascination, however, is enduring; his
poetical importance does not need the assistance of the
historic estimate ; it is real. He is a genuine source of joy
and strength, which is flowing still for us and will flow
always. He will be read, as time goes on, far more generally
than he is read now. His language is a cause of difficulty to
us, but so also, and I think in quite as great a degree, is the
language of Burns. In Chaucer's case, as in that of Burns, it
is a difficulty to be unhesitatingly accepted and overcome.
If we ask ourselves wherein consists the immense supe¬
riority of Chaucer's poetry over the romance poetry—why
it is that in passing from this to Chaucer we suddenly feel
ourselves to be in another world, we shall find that his
1880]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
127
superiority is both in the substance of his poetry and in the
xxxii] style ^1S poetry. His superiority in substance is given by
his large, free, simple, clear yet kindly view of human life,—
so unlike the total want, in the romance-poets, of all intelli¬
gent command of it. Chaucer has not their helplessness; he
has gained the power to survey the world from a central, a
truly human point of view. We have only to call to mind
the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. The right comment
upon it is Dryden's ' It is sufficient to say, according to the
proverb, that here is God's plenty.'' And again: 'He is a
perpetual fountain of good sense.' It is by a large, free,
sound representation of things, that poetry, this high criticism
of life, has truth of substance.
Of his style and manner, if we think first of the romance-
poetry and then of Chaucer's divine liquidness of diction, his
divine fluidity of movement, it is difficult to speak temperately.
They are irresistible, and justify all the rapture with which
his successors speak of his " gold dew drops of speech."
Johnson misses the point entirely when he finds fault with
Dryden#for ascribing to Chaucer the first refinement of our
numbers, and says that Gower can also show smooth numbers
and easy rhymes. The refinement of our numbers means
something far more than this. A nation may have versifiers
with smooth numbers and easy rhymes, and yet may have
no real poetry at all. Chaucer is the father of our splendid
English poetry; he is our 'well of English undefiled,' because
by the lovely charm of bis diction, the lovely charm of his
movement, he makes an epoch and founds a tradition. In
Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, we can follow the
tradition of the liquid diction, the fluid movement, of
Chaucer; at one time it is his liquid diction of which in these
poets we feel the virtue, and at another time it is his fluid
movement. And the virtue is irresistible,
[p. ... I must yet find room for an example- of Chaucer's
XXX1U] virtue. ... 1 feel disposed to say that a single line is enough
to show the charm of Chaucer's verse; that merely one line
like this—
' 0 martyr souded 1 in virginitee !'
has a virtue of manner and movement such as we shall not
1 [Arnold's note :] The French sonde; soldered, fixed fast.
128 [Arnold.] Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1880
find in all the verse of romance-poetry;—but this is saying
nothing. The virtue is such as we shall not find, perhaps, in
all English poetry, outside the poets whom I have named as
the special inheritors of Chaucer's tradition. A single line,
however, is too little if we have not the strain of Chaucer's
verse well in our memory; let us take a stanza. It is from
The Prioress's Tale, the story of the Christian child murdered
in a Jewry—
' My throte is cut unto my nekke-bone
Said£ this child, and as by way of kinde
I should have deyd, yea, long& time agone [etc.].
Wordsworth has modernised this Tale, and to feel how delicate
and evanescent is the charm of verse, we have only to read
Wordsworth's first three lines of this stanza after Chaucer's—
'My throat is cut unto the bone, I trow,
Said this young child, and by the law of kind
I should have died, yea, many hours ago.'
The charm is departed. It is often said that the power of
liquidness and fluidity in Chaucer's verse was dependent
upon a free, a licentious dealing with language such as is now
impossible; upon a liberty, such as Burns too enjoyed, of
making words like neck, bird, into a dissyllable by adding to
[p. . them, and words like cause, rhyme, into a dissyllable by sound
sounding the e mute. It is true that Chaucer's fluidity is
conjoined with this liberty, and is admirably served by it;
but we ought not to say that it was dependent upon it. It
was dependent upon his talent. Other poets with a like
liberty do not attain to the fluidity of Chaucer; Burns him¬
self does not attain to it. Poets, again, who have a talent
akin to Chaucer's, such as Shakespeare or Keats, have known
how to attain to his fluidity without the like liberty.
And yet Chaucer is not one of the great classics. His
poetry transcends and effaces, easily and without effort, all
the romance-poetry of Catholic Christendom; it transcends
and effaces all the English poetry contemporary with it, it
transcends and effaces all the English poetry subsequent to it
down to the age of Elizabeth. Of such avail is poetic truth
of substance, in its natural and necessary union with poetic
truth of style. And yet, I say, Chaucer is not one of the
1880] Chaucer Criticism ancl Allusion. [Arnold.~\ 129
great classics. He lias not their accent. What is wanting to
him is suggested by the mere mention of the name of the first
great classic of' Christendom, the immortal poet who died
eighty years before Chaucer,—Dante. The accent of such
verse as
" In la sua volontade e nostra pace . . 1
is altogether beyond Chaucer's reach; we praise him, but we
feel that this accent is out of the question for him. It may be
said that it was necessarily out of the reach of any poet in
the England of that stage of growth. Possibly ; but we are to
adopt a real, not a historic, estimate of poetry. However, we
may account for its absence, something is wanting, then, to
the poetry of Chaucer, which poetry must have before it can
be placed in the glorious class of the best. And there is no
doubt what that something is. It is the o-rrovSaioTrjs, the
high and excellent seriousness which Aristotle assigns as one
[p. of the grand virtues of poetry. The substance of Chaucer's
poetry, his view of things and his criticism of life, has
largeness, freedom, shrewdness, benignity; but it has not
this high seriousness. Homer's criticism of life has it,
Dante's has it, Shakespeare's has it. It is this chiefly
which gives to our spirits what they can rest upon; and with
the increasing demands of our modern ages upon poetry, this
virtue of giving us what we can rest upon will be more and
• more highly esteemed. A voice from the slums of Paris, fifty
or sixty years after Chaucer, the voice of poor Villon out of
his life of riot and crime, has at its happy moments (as, for
instance, in the last stanza of La Belle Heaulmiere) more of
this important poetic virtue of seriousness than all the pro¬
ductions of Chaucer. But its apparition in Villon, and in
men like Villon, is fitful; the greatness of the great poets,
the power of their criticism of life, is that their virtue is
sustained.
To our praise, therefore, of Chaucer as a poet there must be
this limitation ; he lacks the high seriousness of the great
classics, and therefore an important part of their virtue.
Still, the main fact for us to bear in mind about Chaucer is
his sterling value according to that real estimate which we
1 So quoted by Arnold ; the original (Paradiso, iii, 85) reads : E la sua volontate . . .
CHAUCER CRITICISM.—III. K
130
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1880
firmly adopt for all poets. He lias poetic truth of substance
though he has not high poetic seriousness, and corresponding
to his truth of substance he has an exquisite virtue of style
and manner. With him is born our real poetry. . . .
The age of Dryden, together with our whole eighteenth
century which followed it, sincerely believed itself to have
produced poetical classics of its own, and even to have made
advance, in poetry, beyond all its predecessors. Dryden
regards as not seriously disputable the opinion 'that the
sweetness of English verse was never understood or practised
by our fathers.'1 Cowley could see nothing at all in Chaucer's
poetry. Dryden heartily admired it, and, as we have seen,
praised its matter admirably; hut of its exquisite manner and
movement all he can find to say is that 'there is the rude
sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing,
though not perfect.' Addison, wishing to praise Chaucer's
numbers, compares them with Dryden's own. And all through
the eighteenth century, and down even to our own times, the
stereotyped phrase of approbation for good verse found in our
early poetry has been, that it even approached the verse of
Dryden, Addison, Pope and Johnson. . . .
[p. xiiv] Burns, like Chaucer, conies short of the high seriousness of
the great classics. . . . Yet we may say of him [Burns], as of
Chaucer, that of life and the world, as they come before
[p. xiv] him, his view is large, free, shrewd, benignant,—truly poetic,
therefore; and his manner of rendering what he sees .is to
match. But we must note, at the same time, his great differ¬
ence from Chaucer. The freedom of Chaucer is heightened in
Burns, by a fiery, reckless energy; the benignity of Chaucer
deepens, in Burns, into an overwhelming sense of the pathos
of things;—of the pathos of human nature, the pathos, also,
of non-liuman nature. Instead of the fluidity of Chaucer's
manner, the manner of Burns has spring, hounding swiftness.
Burns is by far the greater force, though he has perhaps
less charm. The world of Chaucer is fairer, richer, more
significant than that of Burns.
1 [Note (unpublished) added by Dr. Furnivall:] We must recollect that, till
Tyrwhitt, no decent edition of the Canterbury Tales was accessible, and till Richard
Morris, none of the Minor Poems. So long as printers and editors disregarded
Chaucer's final e and printed as his, pieces that he never wrote, it was impossible
for any readers to appreciate his poetic powers.—P. J. F.
1880]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
131
1880. Swinburne, Algernon Cliarles. Short Notes on English Poets,
Chaucer, Spenser, the Sonnets of Shakespeare, Milton, [in] The
Fortnightly Review, 1880, pp. 708-10. [Reprinted in Mis¬
cellanies, 1886, pp. 2-6, 88, 150, 152, 175.]
[Mr. W. Rossetti, in his Lives of Famous Poets, has selected
four of our poets " as composing the supreme quadrilateral of
English song."]
[p. 2] It is through no lack of love and reverence for the name of
Chaucer that I must question his right, though the first
narrative poet of England, to stand on that account beside
her first dramatic, her first epic, or her first lyric poet. But,
being certainly unprepared to admit his equality with Shake¬
speare, with Milton, and with Shelley, I would reduce Mr.
Rossetti's mystic four to the old sacred number of three.
Pure or mere narrative is a form essentially and avowedly
inferior to the lyrical or the dramatic form of poetry; and
the finer line of distinction which marks it off from the epic
marks it also thereby as inferior.
Of all whose names may claim anything like equality of
rank on the roll of national poets—not even excepting Virgil—
we may say that Chaucer borrowed most from abroad, and did
most to improve whatever he borrowed. I believe it would
be but accurate to admit that in all his poems of serious or
tragic narrative we hear a French or Italian tongue speaking
with a Teutonic accent through English lips. It has utterly
unlearnt the native tone and cadence of its natural inflections;
it has perfectly put on the native tone and cadence of a
stranger's; yet it is always what it was at first—lingua
romana in hocca tedesca. It speaks not only with more
vigour but actually with more sweetness than the tongues of
its teachers; but it speaks after its own fashion no other
[p. 3] than the lesson they have taught. Chaucer was in the main
a French or Italian poet, lined thoroughly and warmly
throughout with the substance of an English humourist. And
with this great gift of specially English humour he combined,
naturally as it were and inevitably, the inseparable twin-born
gift of peculiarly English pathos. . . . Dante represents,
at its best and highest, the upper class of the dark ages
not less than he represents their Italy; Chaucer repre¬
sents their middle class at its best and wisest, not less
than he represents their England; Villon represents their
132
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1881—
lower class at its worst and its best alike, even more
than he represents their France. And of these three the
English middle class, being incomparably the happiest and
wisest, is indisputably, considering the common circumstances
of their successive times, the least likely to have left us the
highest example of all poetry then possible to men. And of
their three legacies, precious and wonderful as it is, the
Englishman's is accordingly the least wonderful and the least
precious. The poet of the sensible and prosperous middle
class in England had less to suffer and to sing than the
theosophic aristocrat of Italy, or the hunted and hungry
vagabond. . . .
p. 5] But in happy perfection of manhood the great and
fortunate Englishman almost more exceeds his great and
unfortunate fellow-singers than he is exceeded by them in
depth of passion and height of rapture, in ardour and intensity
of vision or of sense. With the single and sublimer
exception of Sophocles, he seems to me the happiest of all
great poets on record ; their standing type and sovereign
example of noble and manly happiness.
[ p. r.52] [Comparison between Chaucer and Wordsworth. Chaucer
superior in breadth of human interest, in simplicity of varied
sympathies, in straightforward and superb command of his
materials as an artist, in warmth and wealth of humour, in
consummate power of narrative and in childlike manfulness of
compassionate or joyous emotion; but Wordsworth's sublimity
is worth all the rest put together.]
[This last paragraph was added in 1S86.]
1881. Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. Maxwell). Asphodel, 3 vols.
[Miss Braddon took all the chapter headings of this novel
from Chaucer.]
["The reason of these quotations was this. Miss Braddon's ' Vixen' came out
serially; and week by week in the dull London winter brought the beautiful
wilful heroine hunting in the New Forest and loving her horses and hounds as
a fresh bright scene to one reader, F. J. Fumivall. He delighted in the book,
and told Mrs. Maxwell so with enthusiasm. She asked him to visit her at Richmond,
and afterwards, meaning to please him, a Chaucer and Shakspere man, put the above
Chaucer headings to the chapters in her next novel, and laid several of its scenes by
Avonside near Stratford. When the work was published, she sent a copy to Dr.
Furnivall, and he, not knowing the kind intent of it, was shocked to find its charming
heroine Daphne, made to commit suicide at the end. So, in his letter of thanks to
the generous authoress, he accused her of being a murderess, for killing his favourite
character. Then Mrs. Maxwell heaped coals of fire on his head by telling him how
she had tried to please him, and how he ought to have seen from the first that
Daphne's sad end was inevitable, and was prepared for from her first appearance.
Whereupon he repented, and apologized." F. J. F.]
1883]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
133
1881. Poole, Henry. Westminster Abbey: A Study on Poets' Corner,
[in] The Antiquary, October 1881, vol. iv, pp. 137, 139.
[p. 139] Having alluded to the probability that the table-tomb of
Chaucer was once against the screen of St. Benedict's Chapel,
it may not be inopportune here to follow out the probable
story of it.
The tomb proper is evidently due to the period of the death
of Chaucer. Its quatre-foils bear his shield of arms, and
around at least three of the sides with \sic\ the verge moulding,
which probabty bore a painted inscription. In 1556, there
was perhaps some necessity for totally removing the tomb, of
which advantage was taken by Chaucer's admirer, Nicholas
Brigham, to place it where it now is, and add to it a handsome,
though debased, canopy of Purbeck marble, and also a similar
marble slab, with a new inscription in Latin, that of the
marble table having become decayed and illegible. This slab
has undergone great decay and disintegration, so much so as
to almost totally obscure the inscription, as reported by Neale
in 1823 [or rather by E. W. Brayley in his History and
Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster,
illustrated by J. P. Neale, 1818-23, vol. ii, 1823, q.v. above].
Fifty years' more disintegration followed with still further
obscuration, when the writer closely scrutinized and cleansed
the slab, discovering traces of all the letters but four.
Without any attempt to strengthen the engraving, the lettering
was developed by painting all the remaining traces with gold-
coloured paint, and with the same pigment reproducing the
four absent letters; and now the inscription of 1558 is quite
distinct and perfectly durable.
The table of the tomb has lately been fully cleansed of dirt
and adhesions, beneath which the moulding, as well as much
of the surface, was found still to retain its original polish,
which the adhesion had preserved. Now the table displays
a fine specimen of the best Purbeck marble, which need never
become dull again.
1883. Coote, Henry Charles. Chaucer's Ten-Syllable Verse, [in] The
Antiquary, July 1883, vol. viii, pp. 5-8.
tp. 5] Chaucer's Troilus was not only the first heroic poem and
the first real display of poetic genius in the language of
medireval England, but was the starting-point and departure
134
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1883—
from which English metre took its best and still prevailing
form. . . .
tp. 7] At the very threshold of his task [that of rendering the
Filostrato into English] he had a problem to solve. . . .
There was no English verse at all fit for the transfer of the
Italian. He must accordingly invent a new one. . . .
He knew of two metres only, always excepting those used for
ballads and such like, which were of course out of the question
here. Of these two metres, one was too short as the other was
too long for his taste. I mean, of course, the eight-syllabled
distichs of himself and Gower, and the popular twelve-syllable
[p. 8] verse such as is exhibited in the rough tale of Gamelin. . . .
He therefore elected to invent for the nonce an entirely new
metre of his own, and to apply it to his new task. There was
a mean between eight and twelve, viz. ten. He accordingly
invented a verse of ten syllables with varying and appropriate
csesurse; and utilized his new invention by translating the
Filostrato into it; and posterity ratified his choice by adopting
it as the only verse to be employed upon themes either great
or graceful. . . .
The consequences of this invention of the ten-syllable metre
it is impossible to exaggerate or over-estimate. The obvious
outcome of it is simply this and no other: without it we
should have had no Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, or Pope, in
the sense in which Ave noAV have these great masters. To
convince us of this, Ave have only to imagine Othello and
Hamlet, not as Ave now have them through the remote leader¬
ship of Chaucer in a verse framed upon his model, but told
either in the lilting measure of Calderon, or the drawling
Alexandrines of France. ... Of course Milton must have
been better than Csedmon, and Pope Avould have done his best
to surpass Butler even in his own light measure, but that is all.
From all this Chaucer saved English literature and the
English race. . . .
1883. Fagan, Charles G. Chancer in Oxenforde, [in] The Oxford
Magazine, Feb. 14, 1883, vol. i, pp. 66-7.
At Oxenforde I saAve in that citee
Of yonge clerkes a ful gret compagnie,
and I avoI nowe you tellen everich on
hir wone and eke of hir condicion.
1884]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
135
An aesthete was there as I schell you tell,
that liadde of arte lerned every del;
of Michael-Ange and Rallael and Giote
he couldij glosen of hem al by rote.
A Schipman was there eke, a bote captain
that wolde souffre mochel toil and payne
teachand the fresche clerkes liowe to rowe,
[etc.],
1883. Koch, John. A Critical Edition of some of Chaucer's 'Minor
Poems,' Berlin.
[An introduction treating of the orthography, etc., of the
early MSS. of Chaucer's Works is followed by a collated text
of I. An ABC. II. Chancers Wordes vnto Adam, his owen
Scriveyn. III. The Former Age. TV. Fortune. V. Truth.
VI. Gentilesse. VII. Lack of Stedfastnesse. VIII. Lenvoy
de Chaucer a Bukton. IX. Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scoyan.
X. La Compleinte de Chaucer a sa Bourse Voide; followed
by notes on each.]
1884. k Beckett, Gilbert Arthur, and Stanford, Sir Charles Villiers.
The Canterbury Pilgrims, Opera in 3 Acts, written by Gilbert a
Beckett, composed by 0. Villiers Stanford.
[The scene of the 1st Act is the exterior of the Tabard
Inn, Southwark, at close of the 14th century. The characters
include Sir Christopher Synge, a knight of the shire, Geoffry
Blount, the Host of the Tabard, his wife and daughter and
apprentice, two other apprentices and Hal o' the Chepe.
In Act i, sc. 3, the Pilgrims enter in twos and threes slowly
assembling, the Merchant, Clerk, Doctor of Physick, etc.,
all with appropriate music.
This opera, written for the Carl Rosa Company, was first
performed at Drury Lane, on Wednesday, April 23rd, 1884.]
1884. Pitt-Taylor, Frank. The Canterbury Tales; being selections
from the Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer rendered into Modern English
with close adherence to the Language of the Poet.
[Brief Preface, followed by modernizations of the Prologue
and Tales by the Knight, Man of Law, Prioress, Monk,
Nun's Priest, Doctor, Pardoner, Wife of Bath, Clerk, Second
Nun, Canon's Yeoman and Manciple, with occasional omission
of various passages. The Prologue begins :]
136
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1884-
When April with, its sweet refreshing rain,
After the drought of March, hath reached again
The roots, and bathed each vein with gentle shower,
Of which virtue engendered is the flower;
When, too, the Zephyr, with her sweetest breath,
Inspired hath in every grove and heath
The tender crops, and when the youthful sun. . . .
1884. Swinburne, Algernon Charles. A Midsummer Holiday, iii,
On a Country Road, pp. 9-11. (Poems, 1904, 6 vols., vol. vi,
pp. 9-10.)
[p. 9] Along these low pleached lanes, on such a day,
So soft a day as this, through shade and sun,
With glad grave eyes that scanned the glad wild way,
And heart still hovering o'er a song begun,
And smile that warmed the world with benison,
Our father, lord long since of lordly rhyme,
Long since hath haply ridden, when the lime
Bloomed broad above him, flowering where he came.
Because thy passage once made warm this clime,
Our father Chaucer, here we praise thy name.
[p. io] Each turn of the old wild road whereon we stray,
Meseems, might bring us face to face with one
Whom seeing we could not but give thanks, and pray
For England's love our father and her son
To speak with us as once in days long done
With all men, sage and churl and monk and mime,
Who knew not as we know the soul sublime,
That sang for song's love more than lust of fame.
Yet, though this be not, yet, in happy time,
Our father Chaucer, here Ave praise thy name.
Friend, even as bees about the flowering thyme,
Years croAvd on years, till hoar decay begrime
Fames once beloved; but, seeing the sun the same,
As birds of autumn fain to praise the prime,
Our father Chaucer, here Ave praise thy name.
1885. Collins, John Churton. The Predecessors of Shakespeare, [in]
The Quarterly Review, Oct. 1885, vol. clxi, p. 338. [Revised and
enlarged in Essays and Studies, 1895, pp. 106-7.]
The verdict of the age Avliich immediately succeeds them
1887] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
137
[prose writers] is, as a rule, final. . . . How different has
[p. 107] been the fate of poets! Take Chaucer. In 15Q0 his
popularity was at its height. During the latter part of the
sixteenth century it began to decline. From that date till the
end of William Ill's reign—in spite of the influence which
he undoubtedly exercised over Spenser, and in spite of the
respectful allusions to him in Sidney, Puttenham, Drayton,
and Milton—his fame had become rather a tradition than a
reality. In the following age the good-natured tolerance of
Dryden Was succeeded by the contempt of Addison and the
supercilious patronage of Pope. Between 1700 and 1782
nothing seemed more probable than that the writings of the
first of England's narrative poets would live chiefly in the
memory of antiquarians. In little more than half a century
afterwards we find him placed, with Shakespeare and Milton,
on the highest pinnacle of poetic renown.
1887. Marshall, Isabel, Porter, Lela, and Skeat, Walter William.
Byrne Index to the Manuscript 'Texts of Chaucer s Minor Poems.
By Miss I. Marshall and Miss L. Porter. With an introduction
and an appendix of ryme-indexes to some spurious poems ... by
W. W. Skeat.
[For use with the Parallel-Text edition, Chaucer Society, and reissued in 1889 for
use with the One-Text edition.]
1887. Morris, William. Feudal England, [in] The Commonweal,
nos. 84-87. [Reprinted, with slight alterations (as Lecture 3), in
Signs of Change, 1887, pp. 73-5.]
tp°282j [The central period of the Middle Ages in England] has a
literature of its own too, somewhat akin to its art, yet inferior
to it, and lacking its unity, since there is a double stream
in it. On the one hand the Court poet, the Gentleman,
Chaucer, with his Italianizing metres, and his formal recog¬
nition of the classical stories; on which, indeed, he builds a
superstructure of the quaintest and most unadulterated
medievalism, as gay and bright as the architecture which
his eyes beheld and his pen pictured for us, so clear, defined
and elegant; a sunny world even amidst its violence and
passing troubles, like those of a happy child, the worst of
them are amusement rather than a grief to the onlookers;
a world that scarcely needed hope in its eager life of adventure
and love, amidst the sunlit blossoming meadows, and green
138
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1887—
woods and white begilded manor-houses. A kindly and
human muse is Chaucer's, nevertheless, interested in and
amused by all life, but of her very nature devoid of strong
aspirations for the future; and that all the more, since,
though the strong devotion and fierce piety of the ruder Middle
Ages had by this time waned, and the Church was more often
lightly mocked than either feared or loved, still the habit
of looking on this life as part of another yet remained : the
world is fair and full of adventure; kind men and true and
noble are in it to make one happy; fools also to laugh at, and
rascals to be resisted, yet not wholly condemned; and when
this world is over we shall still go on living in another which
is a part of this. Of this picture, note all and be as merry
as you may, never forgetting that you are alive and that it
is good to live.
That is the spirit of Chaucer's poetry; but alongside of it
existed yet the ballad poetry of the people . . . [and what]
you may call Lollard poetry, the great example of which is
William Langland's " Piers Plowman." It is no bad cor¬
rective to Chaucer, and in form at least belongs wholly to the
popular side.
[ForSkeat see below, 1S8S.]
1887. Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Portrait, [in] Underwoods. (Works,
Edinburgh Edition, 1894-8, 28 vols., vol. xiv, p. 123.)
I am " the smiler with the knife . .
1888. Furnivall, Frederick James. Note, [in] The Academy, Dec. 22,
1888, Notes and News, vol. xxxiv, p. 403.
Dr. Furnivall writes :
" May I appeal through you for two volunteer editors for
the Chaucer Society ? . . . I want (1) somebody with access
to a large library, to compile ' The Praise of Chaucer '—all
allusions to him from his own day to (say) Dryden, and the
chief ones since; and (2) a history and record man to write
an ' England in Chaucer's Time ' (1300-1400)—a better
Godwin. . . . The ' England in Chaucer's Time ' would form
a good foundation for an after ' History of England in the
Fourteenth Century'—a book much wanted."
[The present work attempts to fulfil, and in some respects exceeds, the first of
these ideals laid down by Dr. Furnivall.]
1891]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
139
1889. Bright, James W. Review of Chaucer's Minor Poems, ed. W. W.
Skeat (1888), [in] Modern Language Notes, Baltimore, June 1889,
vol. iv, pp. 359-63.
tp.359] Dr. Furnivall has made an appeal for "somebody with
access to a large library to compile 1 The Praise of Chaucer '—
—all allusions to him from his own day to (say) Dryden, and
the chief ones since" [Academy, Dec. 22, 1888]. This
appeal, it is hoped, will soon find a fitting response : for a
history of opinion relating to Chaucer as a poet, which would
he made possible by such a collection of evidence, would con¬
stitute a novel and important adjunct to the history of English
Poetry. Just as the characteristics of the dramatists of the
Restoration Period may be understood by their treatment of
the plays of Shakespeare, so the repute of Chaucer at any
given time will serve to reveal much of the culture and of the
poetic fashions of that time.
[For Dr. Furnivall's appeal, to which the present work is a response, sre
immediately above, 18S8.]
1890. Koch, John. The Chronology of Chaucer's Writings, dec. (Chaucer
Soc., 2nd series, 27.)
[A carpfully reasoned argument, carrying forward the
researches of ten Brink, Morley and Skeat. At the end are
notes by Skeat on some doubtful points.]
1890. Manly, John Matthews. Observations on the Language of
Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, [in] Harvard Studies and Notes
in Philology and Literature, 1893, vol. ii, pp. 1-120.
[Part of a dissertation prepared in 1890 ; modelled on
Professor G. L. Kittredge's similar study of Troilus, then
(1893) in the press, q.v. below, 1894. Based on the
Cambridge MS. Gg. 4. 27].
1891. [To Rosemounde.]
[Professor Skeat discovered the text of the balade To
Rosemounde in MS. Rawlinson Poet. 163, and contributed it
to the Athenaeum, April 4, 1891 ; he also had it privately
printed in a double leaflet at about the same time, but we
have not been able to see this. See Hammond, Chaucer,
p. 460.]
140
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1891
1891. Butler, Samuel. The Wife of Bath, [Note, dated 1891, in] The
Notebooks of Samuel Butler, 1912, p. 262.
There are Canterbury Pilgrims every Sunday in summer
Avho start from close to the old Tabard, only they go by the
Soutli-Eastern Railway and come back the same day for five
shillings. And, what is more, they are just the same sort of
people. If they do not go to Canterbury they go by the
Clacton Belle to Clacton-on-Sea. There is not a Sunday the
whole summer through but you may find all Chaucer's
pilgrims, man and woman for man and woman, on board the
Lord of the Isles or the Clacton Belle. Why, I have seen the
Wife of Bath on the Lord of the Isles myself. She was
eating lier luncheon off an Ally Slopeds Half Holiday, which
was spread out upon her knees.
1891. K[er], W[illiam] P[aton], Of Chaucer's Bosemounde, Balade to
ye Makeres, [in] The Oxford Magazine, April 29, 1891, vol. ix,
p. 305.
[Occasioned by Professor Skeat's discovery of To Rosemounde.]
Maisters that in the goodly sees divyne
the brighte Apolo with the laurer grounde,
Ave tlianken yoAV that of youre bye ingyne
on erthe yit the crommes ben yfounde :
loo Aristotle in Egipte under grounde
that of Athenes Avroot the governaunce,
and Chaucer thy balade of Bosemounde
of joye encresing oure inheritaunce.
L'Enuoy.
Go litel lewede rimes cercling rounde,
loketh ye be nat blamed of bobaunce
ther sortil [,s7c] lore is and the craft profounde
of joye encresing our inheritaunce.
1891. Lounsbury, Thomas Raynsford. Studies in Chaucer: His Life
and Writings. In three volumes, NeAV York, 1891. [The London
issue, 1892, is in B. M.].
[The eight chapters or " monographs " Avhich make up the
book are as folloAvs :]
Yol. I. Chapter I.—The Life of Chaucer.
„ Chapter II.—The Chaucer Legend.
,, Chapter III.—The Text of Chaucer.
1891]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
141
Vol. I. Chapter IV.—The Writings of Chaucer.
Vol. II. Chapter IV. [continued).—The Romance of the Rose.
Chapter V.—The Learning of Chaucer.
" ,, Chapter VI.—The Relations of Chaucer to the English
Language and to the Religion of his
Time.
Vol. III. Chapter VII.—Chaucer in Literary History.
„ Chapter VIII.—Chaucer as a Literary Artist.
„ Appendix.
^*439]'' ^ ^ave sought to show that Chaucer was not only a great
artist, but that he became so at the cost of time and labour;
that in him, standing at the fountain-head of English litera¬
ture, the critical spirit was as highly developed as the creative.
... If we need further confirmation, we can find it in one
marked change that took place in his literary methods. In
his earlier work he introduces constantly characters that are
merely personifications of qualities or acts or sentiments.
In so doing he followed the practice of his immediate pre¬
decessors. As he advanced in knowledge and taste he shook
himself free from the trammels of this temporary fashion. He
abandoned almost entirely the field of abstractions in which
the men of his time delighted, and in which his contemporary
Lan gland was contented to remain. For the shadowy beings
who dwell in the land of types he substituted living men and
women; for the allegorical representations of feelings and
beliefs, the direct outpourings of passion. Changes of method
such as these are not the result of freak or accident. Chaucer,
accordingly, must stand or fall not merely by our opinion of
what he did, but by our knowledge that what he did was done
consciously. . . .
It is impossible to take final leave of the poet without some
notice of what is on the whole the most pronounced character-
[P. 44i] istic of his style. This is the uniformly low level upon which
he moves. There is no other author in our tongue who has
clung so closely and so persistently to the language of common
life. Such a characteristic appealed strongly to the men who
led the revolt against the artificial diction that prevailed in
the poetry of the last century. It attracted in particular the
attention of Wordsworth. The course of his predecessor he
cited as an authority for the one which he himself adopted. . . .
142 [Lounsbury.] Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1891
There have been many men of genius who have been able to
say grand things grandly. To the fewest of the few is re¬
served the achievement of the far harder task of discoursing
of mean things without discoursing meanly; of recounting fire
prosaic events of life without becoming prosaic one's self; of nar¬
rating them in the plainest terms, and yet investing them with a
poetic charm. It is in the power of genius only to accomplish
this at all; but it is by no means in the power of all genius,
[p. 442] It is because he stayed so persistently on these low levels
that Chaucer was enabled to combine with apparent ease
characteristics and methods that are often deemed incompatible.
His words are the more effective because their very simplicity
makes upon the mind the impression of understatement. The
imagination of the reader fills in and exaggerates the details
which have been left half-told. It is owing to this restraint
of expression that whatever he says is not only at all times
and in all places free from literary vulgarity, it never loses the
dignity that belongs, as well in letters as in life, to consum¬
mate high-breeding. There is an exquisite urbanity in his
manner which gives it attractiveness as pervasive and yet as
indefinable as that which the subtle evanescent flavour of arch
allusion imparts to his matter. I do not mean by this to
convey the idea that Chaucer abounds in ornate and brilliant
passages, or that he is constantly saying remarkable things in
a remarkable way. It is simply that in dealing with the
common he is never common-place. ... As a further result
of this absolute naturalness, he is enabled to pass from the
gravest to the lightest topics without giving the reader the
[p. 443] slightest sensation of shock. . . . His freedom, indeed, verges
at times upon audacity. In the Knight's tale, for illustration,
following close upon the high-wrought description of the great
tournament comes the recital of the methods taken by the
physicians to save the life of the victor in the struggle. The
failure they meet with is told in the simplest terms. Their
efforts were fruitless because they received no help from nature.
Suddenly the poet interposes his own comment on the useless-
ness, under such conditions, of the medical art in words like
these:—
" And certainly there nature will not wirche
Farewell, physic ! Go ! bear the man to church ! "
1891] Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. [Lounsbury.\ 143
With this quaint expression of personal opinion, he passes at
once to the pathetic parting-scene between the dying lover
and the woman for whom he is about to die. Yet these rapid
transitions do not produce upon the mind any effect of inap-
propriateness or incongruity. Tears and laughter stand side
by side in Chaucer's verse as they do in life . . .
lp. 444] I am not claiming for Chaucer that he is one of the few
supremest poets of the race. His station is near them, hut he
is not of them. Yet, whatever may be the rank we accord
him among the writers of the world's chief literatures, the
position he holds in his own literature is one that can no
longer he shaken by criticism or disturbed by denial. . . . To
one alone among the writers of our own literature is he
inferior. Nor even by him has he been surpassed in every
way. There are characteristics in which he has no superior,
and, it may be right to add, in which he has no equal. . . .
There is one particular in which his merits in reference to the
literature are transcendent. He overcame its natural tendencies
to a dull seriousness which could sometimes be wrought into
vigorous invective, but had little power to fuse the spiritual
element of poetry with the purely intellectual. Into the stolid
English nature, which may be earnest, but evinces an almost
irresistible inclination towards heaviness, he brought a light¬
ness, a grace, a delicacy of fancy, a refined sportiveness even
upon the most unrefined themes which had never been known
[p. 445] before save on the most infinitesimal scale, and has not been
known too much since.
Nor is this the only distinctive characteristic in which
Chaucer excels. There is no other English author so absolutely
free, not merely from effort, but from the remotest suggestion
of effort. Shakspeare mounts far higher; yet with him
there are times when we seem to hear the flapping of the
wings, to be vaguely conscious that he is lashing his imagina¬
tion to put forth increased exertions. But in Chaucer no
slightest trace of strain is to be detected. As on the lower levels
the line never labours, so on the higher he never makes the
impression that he is trying to make an impression. It is the
absolute ease with which he rises that often prevents our per¬
ceiving how rapidly he has risen. ... Nor is it alone for the
naturalness and ease which result from this union of strength
144
Five Hundred Years of
[a.d. 1892-
and simplicity that the greatest of his successors have delighted
to honour the poet. Full as willingly have they paid homage
to the qualities of character displayed in his works as to those
of intellect; in perfect serenity of spirit as well as in perfect
sanity of view; in the large-hearted toleration which could
[p. 446] not speak bitterly even of the vicious; in the gracious worldli-
ness which never hardened into the callousness of insensibility;
in the manly tenderness which never degenerated into senti¬
mentality ; in the repose of conscious strength which never
wearied itself or worried itself in striving for effect;—in all
these characteristics the royal line of English poets has never
refused to acknowledge the supremacy of him whom it
recognizes as its founder.
1892. Kittredge, George Lyman. The Authorship of the English
Romaunt of the Rose, [in] Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology
and Literature, Boston, Mass., 1892, vol. i, pp. 1-65.
[A detailed examination and rejection of Lounsbury's claim
that the M. E. Romaunt is Chaucer's, in his Studies in Chaucer,
q.v. above, 1891. Professor Kittredge says in conclusion :]
[p. 65] The affirmative evidence brought forward by Mr. Lounsbury,
when reduced to its lowest terms, we have found to be
entirely consistent with the belief that the translation is not
by Chaucer, but by an imitator. The negative evidence, on
the other hand, from dialect, grammar, and metre, if it does
not show conclusively that Chaucer and the translator were
two persons, still creates the strongest kind of probability in
favour of that supposition. We must therefore be allowed to
prefer the theory that is in accordance with all the facts to the
theory that is strongly opposed to the most significant of them,
and to believe that the Romaunt is not Chaucer's, with the
possible exception of the first seventeen hundred lines.
1893. Pollard, Alfred William. Chaucer, [one of the] Literature
Primers, edited by J. R. Green.
[Dr. Furnivall was originally invited to write the Primer
on Chaucer for this series: see above, Green, 1877. In the
little book, as finally written by Mr. Pollard, the chapters
are: Introduction; Chaucer, the King's Servant; Chaucer,
the Student; The Contents and Order of Chaucer's Writings
(also the Canon); Poems of Chaucer's First Period; Poems
of Chaucer's Second Period—Chaucer at work on Italian
1894]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
145
Models; The Canterbury Tales; Later Minor Poems—Chaucer's
rank as a Poet (a comparison with Shakespeare); Appendix—
Chaucer's Metre and Versification—Spurious and Doubtful
Works. The author, while summarising the best knowledge,
offers throughout much fresh and suggestive criticism.]
[p. 75] It was by service in the King's Court, on diplomatic
missions, and at the Custom House, that a living had to be
earned and a substantial position won; and it is to these
objects, trivial in his case as Ave may now think them, that
tp. 76] Chaucer appears to have devoted the best years of his life. . . .
If Shakspere had died in his thirtieth year he Avould have
been remembered as a botcher of a few poor plays, and the
author of Venus and Adonis, the Midsummer Night's Dream,
and Richard III. Where Shakspere botched Chaucer trans¬
lated, and the charm of a few hundred lines in the Death of
Blaunche and the pathos of the stories of Grisilde and Con¬
stance are the chief titles to remembrance of all the Avork he
did on the younger side of forty. From the very first he is
distinguished from his contemporaries by the music of his
verse; but the humour, the insight into character, the know¬
ledge of life, the entire mastery of words, the essential
qualities, that is, which Ave noAV connect Avith his name, all
came to Chaucer exceptionally late.
tp. ii6] The portraits [in the Prologue], Ave should note, are all
such as one traveller might draAV of another. There is no
attempt to show that the best of the pilgrims had their Aveak
points, and the Avorst their good ones. For the best Chaucer
has hearty admiration, for the Avorst a boundless tolerance,
which yet only thinly cloaks the keenest satire. One and
all he views from his holiday standpoint, building up his
descriptions with such notes as he Avould naturally gather
as he rode along with them on his pilgrimage—notes of dress,
of speech, of manner, of their talk about themselves and
their doings, until we can see his fellow-pilgrims as clearly
as if we too had mounted our rouncies and ridden along
Avith them.
1894. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, edited with notes and introduc¬
tion bv Alfred W. Pollard. 2 vols. (In Macmillan's " Eversley
Series.")
[The text is preceded by an Introduction in which, after a
statement as to the history of the edition and its relation to
CHAUCER CRITICISM. III L
146
Five Hundred Years of
[A.D. 1894
the projected Library Edition and as to the treatment of the
text, the editor outlines Chaucer's progress from slavish trans¬
lation in the early Second Nonnes Tale, through the Clerlces
Tale, Troilus and Knighfes Tale, to complete freedom from his
source or analogue in his latest work, such as the Prioresses,
Reves and Pardoneres Tales.]
1894-97. The Complete "Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited . . .
by . . . W. W. Skeat, 7 vols.
[The chief contents are: Yol. I, Life of Chaucer, etc.;
Bomaunt of the Eose and Minor Poems, with introductions
and notes. (See also vol. iv below, for additions to Minor
Poems.)
Yol. II: Boethius and Troilus, Avith introductions and
notes.
Yol. Ill: House of Fame; Legend of Good "Women;
Astrolabe, with introductions and notes. An Account of the
Sources of the Canterbury Tales.
Yol. IY: The Canterbury Tales, in groups A to I, Avith
the Tale of Gamelyn as an appendix; Introduction on the
MSS. and the plan of the Tales adopted. The Introduction
contains also three Minor Poems additional to those in vol. i.
Yol. Y : Notes to the Canterbury Tales, with an Intro¬
duction on the Chaucer Canon; the earlier editions; the
Text of the Canterbury Tales; Chaucer's scansion, accentu¬
ation and pronunciation ; with rules for reading and a note on
modernised spelling.
Yol. YI: General Introduction, discussing the texts of the
various pieces; the editor's obligations to others; the dialect
of Chaucer; his Kenticisms; pronunciation; scansion and
accents; open and close o and e, etc.; rime; assonances; final
y and ye; metres and forms of verse; analysis of Chaucer's
language and grammar; versification; his authorities. Glos¬
saries, indices, etc.
Yol. YII (Supplementary Yolurne), Chaucerian and other
Pieces, contains :
Introduction on the (selected) apocryphal pieces, generally
and individually, and the texts as folloAvs, concluding with
indices, etc. :
I. Testament of Love (Usk).
II. Plowman's Tale.
III. Jack Upland.
IY. Gower's Praise of Peace.
Y. Hoccleve's Letter of Cupid.
1894]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
147
VI. To the Kinge's most noble Grace ]
To the Lordes and Knightes of the .'-Hoccleve.
Garter J
VII. Scogan's Moral Ballade.
VIII. Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight.
IX. Lydgate's Flour of Curtesye.
X. Lydgate's Balade in Commendation of our Lady.
XI. To my Soverain Lady (Lydgate).
XII. Ballad of Good Counsel (Lydgate).
XIII. Beware of Doubleness (Lydgate).
XIV. Balade Warning Men to Beware of Deceitful
Women (Lydgate).
XV. Three Sayings (Lydgate).
XVI. Ros's La Belle Dame sans Mercy.
XVII. Henryson's Testament of Cressid.
XVIII. Clanvowe's Cuckoo and Nightingale.
XIX. Envoy to Alison.
XX. Flower and Leaf.
XXI. Assembly of Ladies.
XXII. Goodly Balade (Lydgate).
XXIII. Go Forth, King (Lydgate).
XXIV. Court of Love.
XXV. A Virelai.
XXVI. Prosperity (John Walton).
XXVII. Leaulte vault Richesse.
XXVIII. Sayings printed by Caxton.
XXIX. Balade in Praise of Chaucer.
[V<ix]Vi' ^ie P^ace> niy endeavour has been to produce a
thoroughly sound text, founded solely on the best MSS. and
the earliest prints, which shall satisfy at once the requirements
of the student of language and the reader who delights in
poetry. In the interest of both, it is highly desirable that
Chaucer's genuine works should be kept apart from those
which were recklessly associated with them in the early
editions, and even in modern editions have been but imper¬
fectly suppressed. It was also desirable, or rather absolutely
necessary, that the recent advances in our knowledge of middle-
English grammar and phonetics should be rightly utilized,
and that 110 verbal form should be allowed to appear which
would have been unacceptable to a good scribe of the
fourteenth century.
I have also provided a large body of illustrative notes, many
of them gathered from the works of my predecessors, but
148
Five Hundred Years of [a.d. 1894-
enlarged by illustrations due to my own reading during a long
course of years, and by many others due to the labours of the
[p. x] most recent critics. The number of allusions that have been
traced to their origin during the past fifteen years is consider¬
able ; and much additional light has thus been thrown upon
Chaucer's method of treating his originals. . . .
[p. xviii] As regards the texts, my chief debt is to the Chaucer
Society, which means, practically, Dr. Furnivall, through
whose zeal and energy so many splendid and accurate prints of
the MSS. have been produced, thus rendering the actual read¬
ings and spellings of the scribes accessible to students in all
countries. It is obvious that, but for such work, no edition of
Chaucer could have been attempted without an enormous
increase of labour and a prodigal expenditure of time.
1894. Kittredge, George Lyman. Observations on the Language of
Chaucer's Troilus, Chaucer Society, 1894 [issue for 1891], (Also
issued as vol. iii of Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and
Literature, Boston, 1894.)
[A detailed and most valuable linguistic study, based on
the readings of four MSS. : Campsall, Harl. 2280; Camb.,
Gg. 4, 27 ; and Harl. 3943, all as edited for the Chaucer
Society by Dr. Furnivall. It consists of (1) a Grammatical
Chapter in which the forms occurring in Troilus are recorded
and analysed; and (2) a Metrical Chapter, with special
reference to final e.]
1894. Pollard, Alfred William. See above, Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales.
1894-7. Skeat, Walter William. See above, The Complete Works of
Geoffrey Chaucer.
1895. Ker, William Paton. The Poetry of Chaucer, [review of] The
Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by the Rev. Walter
W. Skeat, [in] The Quarterly Review, April, 1895, vol. clxxx,
pp. 521-48. [The greater part of this article, that which is more
directly concerned with Chaucer's poetry, i. e. pp. 534-47, is re¬
printed, with slight verbal changes and omissions, in Essays on
Medieval Literature, by W. P. Ker, 1905, pp. 76-100.]
[The importance of Skeat's edition. Its supreme merit is
that it has cleared the poems of Chaucer from blunders of
language and rhythm, which in former editions interrupted
the flow of the verse, pp. 521-2. Chaitcer's art and versi-
1895]
Chaucer Criticism, and Allusion.
149
fication, with especial reference to Dryden's criticism, pp.
522-3.]
[p. 522] With regard to some of the strongest parts of Chaucer's
poetry, no later writer has been able to add anything essenti¬
ally new to the estimate given by Dryden. ' Here is God's
plenty' is still the best criticism ever uttered on the ' Canter¬
bury Tales.'
[There is some justification for Dryden's censure of Chaucer's
verse, p. 523. Decay of metrical ability after Chaucer, and
Skeat's method in adopting readings, pp. 524-5. Examples
of Skeat's emendations and readings, pp. 525-6. Account of
the contents of the volumes, with the comment that " the
Clarendon Press has done little to relieve the general aspect of
sobriety, much at variance with the demeanour of the contents,
and very unlike the appearance of the illuminated books from
which the poems are copied," pp. 526-7. Complaint of the over-
insistence on Dr. Furnivall's classification of the groups of the
Canterbury Tales, pp. 527-8. On Skeat's introductions, his
metrical symbols, his remarks on Chaucer's vowels and Kentish
forms and knowledge of Old French verse—any possible flaws
in which do not prejudice his handling of the texts, pp. 528-
31. The texts of the Romaunt, Troylus and the Legende
acknowledged and praised, p. 532. Skeat's abstention from
literary criticism, and reference of the reader to Lowell's essay,
deprecated, p. 533. Comparison of Chaucer and Dante in their
use of mediaeval habit and fashion, pp. 534-5. Historical
commentary on Chaucer inevitable and useful, pp. 535-6.
On Skeat's statement of the debt in the Hons of Fame
to Dante, and the general independence of Chaucer's poem,
p. 537. How much of Chaucer's genius can be seen outside
the Canterbury Tales, pp. 537-8.]
[p. 538] It is difficult to speak moderately of Chaucer's " Troilus."
It is the first great modern book in that kind where the most
characteristic modern triumphs of the literary art have been
won; in the kind to which belong the great books of Cer¬
vantes, of Fielding, and of their later pupils—that form of
story Avhich is not restricted in its matter in any way, but is
capable of taking in comprehensively all or any part of the
aspects and humours of life. No other mediaeval poem is rich
and full in the same way as " Troilus " is full of varieties of
character and mood. It is a tragic novel, and it is also strong
enough to pass the scrutiny of that Comic Muse who detects
the impostures of inflated heroic and romantic poetry. More
than this, it has the effective aid of the Comic Muse in that
150
Five Hundred Years of [a.D. 1898—
alliance of tragedy and comedy which makes an end of all
the old distinctions and limitations of narrative and drama.
[Troilus and the Filostrato, pp. 538-9. The dignity, beauty
and proportion of Troilus, pp. 539-40. The Knightes Tale
and the Teseide, pp. 540-1. Chaucer's different handling of
the Troilus and Knightes Tale themes, pp. 541-3. Chaucer's
changes of handling throughout his works, p. 543. The
House of Fame an indulgence in mediaeval vanities, pp. 544-5.
Contradictions and problems of the Canterbury Tales, pp.
544-7.]
1898. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Alfred W. Pollard,
Id. Frank Heath, Mark H. Liddell, W. S. McCormick. (The
Globe Edition.)
[p. ix] [Preface by A. W. Pollard.]
In the division of labour ... I have myself remained
responsible for the Canterbury Tales, the Legende of Good
Women, the Glossary, and the General Introduction;
Professor Liddell has taken the Boece, the Treatise on the
Astrolabe, and the Romaunt of the Rose; Professor
McCormick, Troilus and Criseyde ; Dr. Heath, the Hons of
Fame, Parlement of Foides, and all the shorter pieces. . . .
"We [the editors] all believe that in the present state of our
knowledge the most conservative treatment, consistent with
the necessities of common sense and the known rules of
Chaucerian usage, is also the best.
[Mr. Pollard in the Preface gives an account of the genesis
and history of the edition, its abortive undertaking by Henry
Bradsbaw (see above, 1864, War Is), Aldis Wright, Skeat, and
Furnivall, and its relation to the "library edition," ultimately
edited by Skeat in 1894 (q.v.). The Introduction consists of
a cautious biography setting out only the known external
facts of Chaucer's life, followed by a more tentative chrono¬
logical account of his writings. Special introductions by the
various responsible editors then precede the text.]
1898. Pollard, Alfred William ; Heath, Sir Henry Frank; Liddell,
Mark Harvey ; McCormick, Sir William Symington. See supra :
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (Globe edition).
1900. Skeat, Walter William. The Chaucer Canon, with a discussion
of the works associated with the name of Geoffrey Chaucer.
[The argument starts from the admitted genuineness of the
Canterbury Tales; Chaucer's grammatical practice in the
1900]
Chaucer Criticism and Allusion.
151
Squieres Tale, and that of the Ormulum and the metre and
rhyme-tests of the Tales are analysed; the conclusions are
applied to the poems of whose genuineness there is external
testimony, and then in succession to the non-Chaucerian
pieces printed by Thynne, Stowe, Speght, Urry, etc.]
[p. v] Much that is here said is necessarily repeated from what I
have already advanced in my six volume edition of Chaucer
and in the supplementary volume entitled Chaucerian Pieces ;
but, [with other new matter] . . . the account here given of
the striking parallel between Chaucer's grammatical usages
and the regular employment of various grammatical suffixes
in the unassailable text of the Ormulum is, to the best of my
belief, wholly new, and adds much firmness and certainty to
the whole argument. . . .
The argument which I adduce is briefly this. The extreme
regularity of the metre of the Ormulum enables us to deduce
[p. vi] with certainty the circumstances under which grammatical
inflexions are employed in it. Precisely similar inflexions
occur in the genuine works of Chaucer, but not (speaking
generally) in works which have erroneously been connected
with his name.
Further, the genuine works, and these only, satisfy various
rime-tests which are duly explained, and are all deducible
from the Canterbury Tales; and in this way the true Chaucer
Canon can be established.
1900. S[keat], W[alter] W[illiam]. In Honorem F. J. F., [issued
separately, and inserted in] An English Miscellany presented to Dr.
Furnivall on his 15th birthday, Oxford, 1901.
In Honorem P. J. P. (a.d. 1900).
(From MS. Harl. 7334, fol. 999, back.)
A Clerk ther was of Cauntebrigge also,
That unto rowing hadde longe y-go.
Of thinnfe shides wolde he shippes mak&,
And he was nat right fat, I undertake.
And whan his ship he wrought had atte fulffi,
Eight gladly up the river wolde he pulle,
And eek returne as blythly as he wente.
Him rekked nevere that the sonne him brente,
He stinted he his cours for regn ne snowe;
It was a joye for to seen him rowe !
152 Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism [a.d. 1900
Yit was him lever, in his shelves newk,
Six old& textes, clad in greenish hewe,
Of Chaucer and his olde poesye
Than ale, or wyn of Lepe, or Malvoisye.
And therwithal he wex a philosofre ;
And peyned him to gadren gold in cofre
Of sundry folk ; and al that he might hente,
On textes and emprinting he it spente;
And busily gan bokes to purveye
For hem that yeve him wherwith to scoleye.
Souning in Erly English was his speche,
" And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly techA"
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
i'aris garden, stamford st., s.e. 1, and bungay, suffolk-
Cljuttcei' Socictg.
Second Series, 52.
— — —
LIVE HUNDRED YEARS
OF CHAUCER CRITICISM
AND ALLUSION (1357-1900)
BY
CAROLINE F. E. SPURGEON
DOCTEUR DE L'uNIVERSITE DE PARIS
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
PART III
TEXT 1851-1900
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE CHAUCER SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.,
BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. 4,
AND BY HUMPHREY MILFORD, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS,
AMEN CORNER, LONDON, E.C. 4, AND IN NEW YORK.
1921 for the Issue of 1913.
Cljt Cljautcr Socittg.
The Founder and Director was Dr. F. J. Furnivall.
Hon. Sec. is W. A. Dalziel, Esq., 67 Victoria Road, Finsbury Park, London, N. 4,
To do honour to Chaucer, and to let the lovers and students of him see how far the
best unprinted Manuscripts of his works differd from the printed texts, this Society
was founded in 1868. There were then, and are still, many questions of metre, pro¬
nunciation, orthography, and etymology yet to be settled, for which more prints of
Manuscripts were and are wanted; and it is hardly too much to say that every line
of Chaucer contains points that need reconsideration. The founder (Dr. Furnivall)
began with The Canterbury Tales, and has given of them (in parallel columns in
Royal 4to) six of the best theretofore unprinted Manuscripts known. Inasmuch as
the parallel arrangement necessitated the alteration of the places of certain tales in
some of the MSS, a print of each MS has been issued separately, following the order
of its original. The first six MSS printed have been : the Ellesmere (by leave of the
Earl of Ellesmere) ; the Hengwrt (by leave of W. W. E. Wynne, Esq.) ; the Camb.
Univ. Libr., MS Gg. 4. 27; the Corpus, Oxford; the Petworth (by leave of Lord
Leconfield); and the Lansdowne 851 (Brit. Mus.). The Harleian 7334 has followd,
and the Cambridge Dd., completed by Egerton 2726 (the HaistwellMS.). Specimens
of all accessible MSS of the Tales are now nearly completed, edited by the late Prof.
Zupitza, Ph.D., and Prof. John Koch, Ph.D.
Of Chaucer's Minor Poems,—the MSS of which are generally later than the best
MSS of the Canterbury Tales,—all the available MSS have been printed, so as to
secure all the existing evidence for the true text.
Of Troilus, Parallel-Texts from the 6 best MSS have been issued (the Campsall
MS also separately), and a 7th MS text of it with the englisht Boccaccio Comparison,
Autotypes of most of the best Chaucer MSS have been publisht.
The Society's publications are issued in two Series, of which the First contains the
different texts of Chaucer's works; and the Second, such originals of and essays on
these as can be procured, with other illustrative treatises, and Supplementary Tales.
The yearly subscription, which constitutes Membership, is 2 guineas, beginning
with January 1, 1868. All the Society's Publications can still be had—except First
Series, No. LXII.
The Society's Hon. Sees, for America are, Prof. Kittredge, of Harvard College,
Cambridge, Mass., for the North and East, and Prof. Bright, of Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, for the South and West. Members' names and subscriptions
should be sent to the home Hon. Sec., W. A. Dalziel, Esq., 67 Victoria Road,
Finsbury Park, London, N. 4.
FIRST SERIES.
The Society's issue for 1868, in the First Series, is,
I. The Prologue and Knight's Tale, of the Canterbury Tales, in 6 parallel
Texts (from the 6 MSS named below), together with Tables, showing the
Groups of the Tales, and their varying order in 38 MSS of the Tales, and
in 5 old printed editions, and also Specimens from several MSS of the
"Moveable Prologues" of the Canterbury Tales,—The Shipman's Prologue,
and Franklin's Prologue,—when moved from their right places, and of the
Substitutes for tliem. (The Six-Text, Part I.)
II—VII. II. The Prologue and Knight's Tale from the Ellesmere MS, Part I; III.
Hengwrt MS, 154, Pt I; IV. Cambridge MS Gg. 4. 27, Pt 1 ; V. Corpus
MS, Oxford, Pt I ; VI. Petworth MS, PtI; VII. Lansdowne MS, 851,
Pt I. (Separate issues of the Texts foi'ming Parti of the Six-Text edition.)
The issue for 1869, in the First Series, is,
VIII—XIII. VIII. The Miller's, Reeve's, and Cook's Tales: Ellesmere MS, Part
II; IX. Hengwrt MS, Pt II ; X. Cambridge MS, Pt II; XI. Corpus MS,
Pt II; XII. Petworth MS, Pt II; XIII. Lansdowne MS, Pt II, with an
Appendix of "Gamelyn" from six MSS.
(Separate issues of the Texts forming the Six-Text, Part II, No. XIV.)
The issue for 1870, in the First Series, is,
XIV. The Miller's, Reeve's, and Cook's Tales, with an Appendix of the Spurious
Tale of Gamelyn, in 6 parallel Texts. (Six-Text, Part II.)
The issue for 1871, in the First Series, is,
XV. The Man of Law's, Shipman's, and Prioress's Tales, with Chaucer's own
Tale of Sir Thopas, in 6 parallel Texts from the MSS above named, and 9
coloured drawings of Tellers of Tales, after the originals in the Ellesmere MS.
(Six-Text, Part III.)
XVI. The Man of Law's Tale, from the Ellesmere MS. Part III.
XVII. ,, „ „ „ „ „ „ Cambridge MS. Part III.
XVIII. „ ,, ,, ,, „ „ Corpus MS. Part III.
XIX, The Shipman's, Prioress's, and Man of Law's Tales, from the Petworth MS.
Part III.
Chancer Society1 s Publication,»: L'irst Series.
3
XX. The Man of Law's Tale, from the Lansdowne MS. Part III.
(each with woodcuts of fourteen drawings of Tellers of Tales in the
Ellesmere MS.)
XXI. A Parallel-Text edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part I:—1C The Lethe
of Blaunche the Luchesse,' from Thynne's ed. of 1532, the Fairfax MS 16,
and Tanner MS 346; 2. 'the Coinpleynt to Lite,' 3. ' the Par lament of
Louies,' and 4. ' the Coinpleynt of Mars,' each from six MSS.
XXII. Supplementary Parallel-Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Parti, containing
1. 'The Parlament of Foules,' from three MSS. [Reprinted in LIX,
First Series.]
XXIII. Odd Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part I, containing 1. two MS fragments
of ' The Parlament of Foules ; ' 2. the two differing versions of ' The Prologue
to the Legende of Good Women,' arranged so as to show their differences;
3. an Appendix of Poems attributed to Chaucer, i. 'The Balade of Pitee
by Chauciers;' n. 'The Cronycle made by Chaucer,' both from MSS written
by Shirley, Chaucer's contemporary.
XXIV. A One-Text Print of Chaucer's Minor Poems, being the best Text from the
Parallel-Text Edition, Part I, containing, I. The Detbe of Blaunche the
Duchesse, II. The Complevnt to Pite, III. The Parlament of Foules, IV.
The Compleynt of Mars, V. The ABC, with its original from Be DeGuile-
ville's LHerinage de la Vie humaine (edited from the best Paris MSS by M.
Paul Meyer).
The issue for 1872, in the First Series, is,
XX V. Chaucer's Tale of Melibe, the Monk's, Nun's-Priest's, Doctor's, Pardoner's,
Wife of Bath's, Friar's, and Summoner's Tales, in 6 parallel Texts from the
MSS above named, with the remaining 14 coloured drawings of Tellers of
Tales, after the originals in the Ellesmere MS, and with Specimens of the
Variations of 30 MSS in the Doctor-Pardoner Link. (Six-Text, Part IV.)
XXVI. The Wife's, Friar's, and Summoner's Tales, from the Ellesmere MS, with
9 woodcuts of Tale-Tellers. (Part IV.)
XXVII. The Wife's, Friar's, Summoner's, Monk's, and Nun's-Priest's Tales, from
the Hengwrt MS, with 23 woodcuts of the Tellers of the Tales. (Part III.)
XXVIII. The Wife's, Friar's, and Summoner's Tales, from the Cambridge MS,
with 9 woodcuts of Tale-Tellers. (Part IV.)
XXIX. A Treatise on the Astrolabe, addressed to his son Lowvs, in 1391 a.p., by
Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by the Rev. Prof. Walter W. Skeat, M.A.
The issue for 1873, in the First Series, is,
XXX. The Six-Text Canterbury Tales, Part V, containing the Clerk's and Mer¬
chant's Tales.
The issue for 1874, in the First Series, is,-
XXXI. The Six-Text, Part VI, containing the Squire's and Franklin's Tales.
XXXII. The Clerk's, Merchant's, Squire's, Franklin's, Doctor's, Pardoner's, Ship-
man's, Prioress's Tales, Sir Thopas, Melibeus, Monk's, Nun's-Priest's,
Second Nun's Tales, Ellesmere MS, Part V.
XXXIII. The Clerk's, Merchant's, Squire's, Franklin's, Doctor's, Pardoner's, Ship-
man's, Prioress's Tales, Sir Thopas, Melibeus, Monk's, Nun's-Priest's,
Second Nun's Tales, Cambridge MS, Part V.
XXXIV. Squire's, Wife of Bath's, Friar's, Summoner's, Clerk's, Merchant's,
Franklin's Tales, Corpus MS, Part IV.
XXXV. Squire's, Merchant's, Wife of Bath's, Friar's, Summoner's, Clerk's, Frank¬
lin's, Second Nun's Tales, Petworth MS, Part IV.
XXXVI. Squire's, Wife of Bath's, Friar's, Summoner's, Clerk's, Merchant's,
Franklin's Tales, Lansdowne MS, Part IV.
The issue for 1875, in the First Series, is,
XXXVII. The Six-Text, Part VII, the Second Nun's, Canon's-Yeoman's, and
Manciple's Tales, with the Blank-Parson I,ink.
XXXVIII. Second Nun's, Canon's-Y eoman's, Manciple's Tales, Ellesmere MS,
Part VI.
XXXIX. Manciple's, Man of Law's, Squire's, Merchant's, Franklin's, Second
Nun's, Clerk's, Doctor's, Pardoner's, Shipman's, Prioress's Tales, Sir
Thopas, Melibeus Tales, Hengwrt MS, Part IV.
XL. Second Nun's, Canon's-Yeoman's, Manciple's Tales, Cambridge MS, Part VI.
XLI. Second Nun s, Canon's-Yeoman's, Doctor's, Pardoner's, Shipman's, Prioress'
'lales, Sir Thopas. Melibeus, Monk's, Nun's-Priest's, Manciple's Tales,
Corpus MS, Part V.
XLII. Second Nun's, Canon's-Yeoman's, Doctor's, Pardoner's Tales, Sir Thopas,
Melibeus, Monk's, Nun's-Priest's, Manciple's Tales, Petworth MS. Part Y.
XLIII. Second Nun s. Canon s-Veoman s, Doctor's, Pardoner's, Shipman's, Prioress's
Tales, Sir Thopas, Melibeus, Monk's, Nun's-Priest's, Manciple's Tales.
Lansdowne MS, Part Y. > v ,
4
Chaucer Society's Publications : Pirst Series.
XLIV. A detaild Comparison of the Troylus and Cryseyde with Boccaccio's Filos-
trato, with a Translation of all Passages used by Chaucer, and an Abstract
of the Parts not used, hv W. Michael Rossetti, Esq., and with a print of the
Troylus from the Harleian MS 3943. Part I.
XLY. Ryme-Index to the Ellesmere MS of the Canterbury Tales, by Henry Cromie,
Esq., M.A. In 8vo for the separate Ellesmere MS.
XLVI. Ryme-Index to the Ellesmere MS, by Henry Cromie, Esq., M.A. In Royal
4to for the Six-Text.
XLVII. Notes and Corrections for the 8vo Ryme-Index, by H. Cromie, Esq., M.A.
The issue for 1876, in the First Series, is,
XLVI1I. Autotype Specimens of the Chief Chaucer MSS, Part I, 16 Autotypes,
with a Note on the MSS, by Dr. F. J. Furnivall.
The issue for 1877, in the First Series, is,
XLIX. The Six-Text, Part VIII, containing the Parson's Tale, with a Table of its
Contents; and Mr Cromie's Notes and Corrections for the 4to Ryme-Index.
L—LV. L. The Parson's Tale, Ellesmere MS, Part VII ; LI. Hengwrt MS, Part
V; LII. Cambridge MS, Part VII; LIII. Corpus MS, Part VI; LIY.
Petworth MS, Part VI; LV. Lansdowne MS, Part VI.
The issue for 1878, in the First Series, is,
LV1. Autotype Specimens of the Chief Chaucer MSS, Part II ; 9 from the Cambridge
MS Gg. 4. 27, and 1 from Lord Leconfield's MS.
LVII. A Parallel-Text, edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part II ;—5. The ABC,
from 6 MSS ; 6. The Mother of God, from 3 MSS ; 7. Anelida and Arcyte,
from 5 ftiss and Caxton's print; 8. The Former Age, from 2 MSS (with
the Latin original, and Chaucer's prose Englishing) ; 9. To his Scrivener
from Shirley's MS and Stowe's print; 10. The House of Fame, from 2 MSS
and Caxton's and Tliynne's prints.
The issue for 1879, in the First Series, is,
LVIII. A Parallel-Text edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part III, completing the
Parallel-Text, and containing, 11. The Legend of Good Women from 5 MSS
and Thvnne's print; 12. Truth from 6 MSS ; i3. The Compleynt of Venus
from 6 MSS ; 14. The Envoy to Scogan from 3 MSS ; 15. Marriage, or The
Envoy to Jink ton, from 1 MS and Notary's and Tliynne's prints; 16. Gentil¬
esse from 6 MSS ; 17. Proverbs from 3 MSS ; 18. Stedfastness from 6 MSS;
19. Fortune from 6 MSS; 20. Chaucer to his empty Purse, from 6 MSS.
The issue for 1880, in the First Series, is,
LIX. Supplementary Parallel-Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part II:—la. The
Par lament of Foules from 3 MSS ; 2. The A B (J from 6 MSS ; 3. Anelida
and Ar cite from 6 MSS; 4. The Legend of Good Women, in whole or part
from 4 MSS; 5. The Complaint of Mars from 3 MSS; 6. Truth, from 6
MSS ; 7. The Compleynt of Venus from 3 MSS ; 8- Gentilesse from 3 MSS ;
9. Lack of Stedfastness from Tliynne's print and 2 MSS ; 10. Fortune from
2 MSS and Caxton's print.
LX. Odd-Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part II, containing, 3. The A B C, from
2 MSS ; 4. The House of Fame, from the Pepvs' MS, &c.; 5. The Legend
of Good Women from 3 MSS ; 6. The Dethe of Blaunche the Huchesse from
1 MS ; 7- The Complaint to Pity from 2 MSS ; 8. The Parlament of Fowles
from 1 MS ; 9. Truth from 3 MSS; 10. Envoy to Scogan from 1 MS; 11.
Purse from IMS.
LXI. A One-Text Print of Chaucer's Minor Poems, Part II, containing, VI. Mother
of God; VII. Anelida; VIII. The Former Age; IX. Adam Scrivener;
X. 'The Liouse of Fame; XI. Legende; XII. Truth; XIII. Venus; XIV.
Scogan; XV. Marriage; XVI. Gentilesse; XVII. Proverbs; XVIII.
Stedfastness; XIX. Fortune; XX. Furse.
LXII. Autotype Specimens of the chief Chaucer MSS. Part III : 2 from Henry
V's MS of the Troilus, when he was Prince of "Wales (now Mr. Bacon
Frank's) ; 1 from Shirley's MS of the ABC at Sion Coll (out of print).
The issue for 1881, in the First Series, is,
LXI11. A Parallel-Text edition of Chaucer's Troilus § Criseyde from the Campsall
MS, b. 1415 A.i). (written for Henry V when Prince of Wales), Harleian
MS. 2280, and Cambr. Univ. Libr. Gg. 4. 27. Part I. Books 1 and 2.
The issue for 1882, in the First Series, is,
P,X.1V. A Parallel-Text edition of Chaucer's Troilus Ss Criseyde from the Campsall
MS, before 1415 A.n. (written for Henry V when Prince of Wales), Harleian
MS 2280, and Cambr. Univ. Libr. Gg. 4. 27. Part II. Books 3, 4, 5.
The issue for 1883, in the First Series, is,
LXV. Part II of Mr. W. M. Rossetti's Comparison of Chaucer's Troilus and Cry¬
seyde with Boccaccio's Filostrato, completing the work.
The issue for 1884, in the First Series, is.
LXVI—LX3 I. 6 Appendixes to the 6 MSS of the Six-Text, with Wood-cuts of
6 Tellers of Tales and of 6 emblematical Figures from the Cambridge Univ.
MS, Gg. 4. 27, &c., and Process Engravings, for the Ellesmere MS Part.
Chancer Society'* Publications: First Series,
of the 23 Ellesmere MS Miniatures. The Hengwrt MS, Part VI, contains
The Canon's-Yeoman's Tale from the Lichfield MS.
LXXII. The Six-Text, Part IX, with colord Cuts of 6 Tellers of Tales and 6 emble¬
matical Figures from the Cambridge Univers. MS Gg.4. 27; and Prof.
Hiram Corson's Index of Proper Names and Subjects of The Canterbury
Tales. 8vo. [Issued in 1911.]
The issue for 1885, in the First Series, is,
LXX1II. The Harleian MS 7334 of The Canterbury Tales, with Woodcuts of 23
Tellers of Tales from the Ellesmere MS, &c.
LXXIV. Autotype Specimens of the chief Chaucer MSS. Pt IV. The Ellesmere.
The issue for 1886, in the First Series, is,
LXXV. Chaucer's JBoece from the Cambridge University MS. Ii. 3. 21.
LXXV1. Chaucer's Bocee from the Additional MS 10.340 in the British Museum,
as edited by the Rev. Dr. R. Morris for the E. E. Text Soc. in 18G8.
LXXVII. More Odd Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems, containing, 1. The Com-
pleynte to Pite ; 2. The Complaint of the Anelida and Arcite; 3. Truth;
4. Lack of Stedfastness; 5. Fortune; G. Purse. Appendix: I. The Unlade
o f Pite. II. lioundels (Mercilesse Beaute).
The issue for 1887, in the First Series, is,
LXXYIII. A llyme-lndex to Chaucer's Minor Poems, by Miss Isabel Marshall and
Miss Lela Porter, in Royal 4to for the Parallel-Text.
The issue for 1888, in the First Series, is,
LXXIX. A One-Text. Print of Chaucer's Troilus, from the Campsall MS bef.1415 a.D.
The issue for 1889, in the First Series, is,
LXXX. A llyme-lndex to Chaucer's Minor Poems, by Miss Isabel Marshall and
Miss Lela Porter, in 8vo for the One-Text print of the Minor Poems.
The issue for 1890, in the First Series, is,
LXXXI. Parallel-Text Specimens of all accessible imprinted Chaucer MSS: The
Pardoner's Prolog and Tale, edited by Prof. Zupit/.a, Ph.I). Part I, from
7 MSS : Cambridge Dd.4. 24, Christ-Church, Additional 5140. Devonshire,
Haistwell (or Egerton 3726), Ingilby, Northumberland : the Dd. Group.
LXXXII. The Romaunt of the Hose, from Thynne's print, 1532, ed. F. J. Furni vail.
[Issued in 1911.]
The issue for 1891, in the First Series, is,
LXXXIII. A Parallel text of The llomaunt of the Rose (of which the first 1705 lines
are most probably Chaucer's), from the unique MS at Glasgow, and its
French original, Le Roman de la Rose, edited by Dr Max Iialuza. Part I.
LXXXIV. A Rime-Index to Chaucer's Troilus, by Prof. Skeat, Litt.D.
The issue for 1892, in the First Series, is,
LXXXV. Parallel-Text Specimens of all accessible imprinted Chaucer MSS : The
Pardoner's Prolog and Tale, edited by Prof. Zupitza, Ph.D. Part II,
from 10 MSS.
The issue for 1893, in the First Series, is,
LXXXVI. Parallel-Text Specimens of all accessible imprinted Chaucer MSS: The
Pardoner's Prolog and Tale, edited by Prof. Zupitza, Ph.D. Part III,
from 6 MSS..
The issue for 1894, in the First Series, is,
LXXX VII. A Parallel-Text of 3 more MSS of Chaucer's Troilus, the St. John's
and Corpus, Cambridge, and Harl. 1239, Brit. Mus., put forth by Dr. F. J.
Furnivall. Part I, with a Note by G. C. Macaulay, M.A.
The issue for 1895, in the First Series, is,
LXXXV1II. A Parallel-Text of 3 more MSS of Chaucer's Troilus, Part II.
The issue for 1896, in the First Series, is,
LXXXIX. Specimen Extracts from the nine known imprinted MSS of Chaucer's
Troilus, and from Caxton's and Thynne's First Editions, edited by Sir
William S. McCormick and Dr. Robert Kilhurn Root. Part III.
(Publisht in 1914.)
The issue for 1897, in the First Series, is,
XC. Parallel-Text Specimens of all accessible imprinted MSS: The Pardoner's
Prolog and Tale, Part IV, from 17 MSS, edited by the late Prof. Zupitza,
Ph.D., and Prof. John Koch, Ph.D.
_ The issue for 1898, in the First Series, is,
XCI. Parallel-Text Specimens, Part V : The Pardoner's Prolog and Tale, a Six-
Text, from 3 MSS and 3 black-letters, edited by Prof. John Koch, Ph.D.
and Dr. P. J. Furnivall.
The issue for 1899, in the First Series, is,
XCII. Parallel-Text Specimens. Part VI: 'The Clerk's Tale, a Six-Text. Print from
6 MSS not containing- The Pardoner's Tale, put forth by Dr. P. J. Furnivall.
The issue for 1900, in the First Series, is,
XCIII. Parallel-Text Specimens, Part VII: The Clerk's Tale from the Phillippg
MS 8299 and the Longleat MS, put forth by Dr. F. J. Furnivall.
XCIV. Parallel-Text Specimens, Part VIII : The Pardoner s Prolog and Tale from
the Hodson MS 39. put forth by Dr. F. J. Furnivall with an Introduction
by Prof. John Koch, Ph.D.
6 Chancer Society's Publications : Pint and Second Series.
The issue for 1901, in the First Series, is,
XCY. The Cambridge MS Dd. 4. 24. of the Canterbury Tales, completed by the
Egerton MS 2726 (the Haistwell MS), ed. F. J. Furnivall. Part I.
The issue for 1902, in the First Series, is,
XCVI. The Cambridge MS Dd. 4. 24. of the Canterbury Tales, completed by the
Egerton MS 2726 (the Haistwell MS), with woodcuts of the 23 Tellers of
The Canterbury Tales, from the Ellesmere MS—and of 6 Tellers of Canter¬
bury Tales, and 6 emblematical figures from the Cambridge MS Gg. 4. 27,
ed. F. J. Furnivall. Part II.
XCVII. Parallel-Text Specimens, Part IX : An Introduction to the eight Specimens
of Chaucer's Clerk's 'Tale, by Prof. Dr. John Koch.
The issue for 1911, in the First Series [none in 1903-1910], is,
XCVIII. The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde with 23 collotype
facsimiles of all the handwritings. By Dr. Robert Kilburn Root. [Issued
in 1915.]
The issue for 1912, in the First Series, is,
XCIX. The Textual Tradition of Chaucer's Troilus. By Dr. Robert Kilburn.
Root. [Issued in 1916.]
SECOND SERIES.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1868 is,
1. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer,
by Alexander J. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Part I. This work includes an amalgamation of
Prof. F. J. Child's two Papers on the use of the final -e by Chaucer (in T. Wright's ed.
of The Canterb. Tales) and by Gower (in Dr. Pauli's ed. of the Confessio Amantis).
2. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part I.: 1. Prof. Ebert's Review of
Sandras's Etude sur Chaucer, translated by J. W. van Rees Hoets, M.A. ; 2. A
13th-century Latin Treatise on the Chiliudre (of the Shipman's Tale), edited by
Mr. E. Brock.
3. A Temporary Preface to the Society's Six-Text edition of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales, attempting to show the right Order of the Tales, and the Days and Stages
of the Pilgrimage, &c. &c., by F. J. Furnivall, Esq., M.A.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1869 is,
4. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer,,
by Alexander j. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Part II.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1870 is,
5. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer,
by Alexander 3. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Part III.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1871 is,
6. Trial-Forewords to my Parallel-Text edition of Chaucer's Alinor Poems for the
Chaucer Society (with a try to set Chaucer's Works in their right order of Time), by
Fredk. J. Furnivall.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1872 is,
7. Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Part I. 1. The
original of the Alan of Law's Tale of Constance, from the French Chronicle of
Nicholas Trivet, Arundel MS 56, ab. 1340 a.d., collated with the later copy, ab. 1400,
in the National Library at Stockholm; copied and edited, with a translation, by Mr.
Edmund Brock. 2. The Tale of " Merelaus the Emperor," englisht from the (Jesta
Romanorum by Thomas Hoccleve, in Harl. MS 7333 ; and 3. Part of Matthew Paris's
Vita Of<e Primi, both stories illustrating incidents in the Alan of Law's Tale. 4. Two
French Fabliaux like the Reeve's Tale. 5. Two Latin Stories like the Friar's Tale.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1873 is,
8. Albertano of Brescia's Liber Consilii et Consolationis, A.n. 1246 (the Latin
source of the French original of Chaucer's Alelibe), edited from the MSS, by Dr.
Thor Sundby.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1874 is,
9. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part II.: 3. John of Hoveden's
Practica Chilindri, edited from the MS. with a translation, by Mr. E. Brock. 4.
Chaucer's use of the final -e, by Joseph Payne, Esq. 5. Mrs. E. Barrett-Browning
on Chaucer: being those parts of her review of the Book of the Poets, 1842, which
relate to him ; here reprinted by leave of Mr. Robert Browning. 6. Professor
Bernhard ten Brink's critical edition of Chaucer's Compleynte to Pite.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1875 is,
10. Originals and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Part II. 6. Alphon-
sus of Lincoln, a Story like the Prioress's Tale. 7. How Reynard caught Chanti¬
cleer, the source of the Nun's-Priest's Tale. 8. Two Italian Stories, and a Latin
one, like the Pardoner's Tale. 9. The Tale of the Priest's Bladder, a story like the
Summoner's Tale, being 'Li dis de le Vescie a Prestre,' par Jakes de Basiw. 10.
Petrarch's Latin Tale of Griseldis (with Boccaccio's Story from which it was re-told),
the original of the Clerk's Tale. 11. Five Versions of a Pear-tree Story like that in
the Alercliant's Tale. 12. Four Versions of The Life of Saint Cecilia, the original
of the Second Nun's Tale. Edited by F. J. Furnivall.
Chaucer Society's Publications; Second Series.
1
11. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Sliakspere and Chau¬
cer, by Alexander J. Ellis, Esq., E.R.S. Part IV.
12. Life-Records of Chaucer, Part I, The Robberies of Chaucer by Richard Brere-
lay and others at Westminster, and at Hatcham, Surrey, on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1390,
with some Account of the Robbers, from the Enrolments in the Public Record Office,
by Walford D. Selby, Esq., of the Public Record Office.
13. Thynne's Animadversions (1599) on Speght's Chancers Workes, re-edited from
the unique MS, by Fredk. J. Furnivall, with fresh Lives_ of William and Francis
Thynne, and the only known fragment of The Pilgrim's Tale.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1876 is,
14. Life-Records of Chaucer, Part II, The Household Ordinances of King
Edward II, June 1323 (as englisht by Francis Tate in March 1601 a.d.), with ex¬
tracts from those of King Edward IV, to show the probable duties of Chaucek as
Valet or Yeoman of the Chamber, and Esquire, to Edward III, of whose Household
Book no MS is known ; together with Chaucer's Oath as Controller of the Customs,
and an enlargd Autotype of Hoccleve's Portrait of Chaucer, ed. by F. J. Furnivall.
15. Originals and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Part III. 13. The
Story of Constance, for the Man of Laic's Tale. 14. The Boy killd by a Jew for
singing ' Gaude Maria,' an Analogue of the Prioress's Tale. 15. The Paris Beggar-
boy murderd by a Jew for singing ' Alma redemptoris mater!' an Analogue of the
Prioress's Tale; with a Poem by Lydgate. Edited by F. J. Furnivall.
16. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part III. 7. Chaucer's Prioress, her
Nun Chaplain and 3 Priests, illustrated from the Paper Survey of St Mary's Abbey,
Winchester, by F. J. Furnivall. 8. Alliteration in Chaucer, by Dr. Paul Lindner.
9. Chaucer a Wicliffite; a critical Examination of the Parson's Tale, by IIerr Hugo-
Simon. 10. The sources of the Wife of Bath's Prologue : Chaucer not a borrower
from John of Salisbury, by the Rev. W. W. Woollcombe.
17. Supplementary Canterbury Tales: 1. The Tale of Beryn, with a Prologue of
the merry Adventure of the Pardoner with a Tapster at Canterbury, re-edited from
the Duke of Northumberland's unique MS, by Fredk. J. Furnivall. Part I, the
Text, with Wm. Smith's Map of Canterbury in 1588, now first engravd from his
unique MS., and Ogilby's Plan of the Road from London to Canterbury in 1675.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1878 (there was none in 1877) is,
18. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part IV. 11. On here and there
in Chaucer (his Pronunciation of the two e's), by Dr. R. F. Weymouth ; 12. On a. An
Original Version of the Knight's Tale ; (3. the Date (1381) and Personages of the
Parlament of Pontes ; y. on AneTula and Arcyte, on Lollius, on Chaucer, and Boc¬
caccio, &c., by Dr. John Koch, with a fragment of a later Palamon and Ersyte from
the Dublin MS I). 4. 18.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1884 (none in 1879, '80, '81, '82, '83, '85) is,
19. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part V: 13. Chaucer's Pardoner: his
character illustrated by documents of his time, by Dr. J. J. Jusserand. 14. Why the
Romaunt of the Rose is not Chaucer's, by Prof. Skeat, M.A. 15. Chaucer's Sc hip man,
and his Barge 'The Maudelayne,' by P. Q. Karkeek, Esq. 16. Chaucer's Parson's
Tale compared with Frere Lorens's Somme de Pices el de Vertus, by Wilhelm Eilers,
Ph.D., 1882, englisht 1884. 17- On Chaucer's Reputed Works, by T. L. Kington-
Oliphant, M.A. 6
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1886 is,
20. Originals and Analogs of the Canterbury Tales. Part IV. Eastern Analogs 1
by W. A. Clouston.
21. Life-Records of Chaucer, Part III, a. The Household book of Isabella, wife of
Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III, in which the name of Geoffrey Chauceh
first occurs; edited from the unique MS in the Brit. Mus., by Edward A. Bond
LL.D., Chief Librarian, b. Chaucer as Forester of North Petherton, Somerset'
1390—1400. by Walford D. Selby, Esq. With an Appendix by Walter Rye, Esq.'
on 1, Chaucer's Grandfather; II, Chaucer's connection with Lynn and Norfolk.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1887 is,
22. O) iginals and Analogs of the Canterbury Tiles, Part V (completing the
volume). Eastern Analogs, II, by W. A. Clouston.
23. John Lane's Continuation of Chaucer's Squire's Tale, edited by F. J. Furnivall
from the 2 MSS in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, a.d. 1616, 1630. Part I.
24. Supplementary Canterbury Tales: 2, The Tale of Beryn, Part II. Forewords
by F. J. Furnivall, Notes by F. Vipan. M.A. &c., and Glossary by W. G. Stone-
with an Essay on Analogs of the Tale, by W. A. Clouston.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1888 (wrongly markt No. 27 for 1889) is,
25. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and.
Chaucer, by Alexander J. Ellis. Esq , F.R.S. Part V, and last.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1889 is,
26. John Lane's Continuation of Chaucer's Squire's Tale. Part II, with an Essay
on the Magical Elements in the Squire s Tale, and Analogues, by W. A. Clouston.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1890 is,
27. The Chronology of Chaucer's Writings, by John Koch, Ph.D., Berlin.
8 , Chaucer Society's Publications: Second Series.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1891 is,
28. Observations on the Language of Chaucer's Troilus (a Study of its MSS, their
words and forms), by Prof. George Lyman Kittredge, M.A.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1892 is,
29. Essays on Chaucer, his Words and Works, Part VI, by Prof. Cowell, LL.D.,
Alois Brandl, Ph.D.- Rev. Prof. Skeat, Litt.R., and W. M. Rossetti.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1898 (none in 1893-97) is,
30. Notes on the Road from London to Canterbury, ed. H. Littlehales, Esq.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1900 (none in 1899) is,
31. The Portraits of Geoffrey Chaucer. By M. H. Spielmann.
32. Life-Records of Chaucer, Part IV, Enrolments and Documents from the Public
Record Office, the City of London Town-Clerk's Office, &c., ed. R. E. G. Kirk, Esq.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1901 is,
33. R. Brathwait's Comments on 2 Tales of Chaucer, 1665, ed. Miss C. Spurgeon.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1902 is,
34. Supplementary Canterbury Tales: 3, A new Ploughman's Tale, being Hoc-
cl eve's englisht Legend of the Virgin and her Sleeveless Garment, from the Christ-
church and Ashburnham MSS, edited by A. Beatty, M.A., Wisconsin. Part III.
35. The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, a critical edition by John Koch, Ph.D.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1903 is,
36. Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrimage, the 4-days' Journey from
London to Canterbury and back of the Aragonese Ambassadors, 31 J uly—3 Aug. 1415,
etc., etc., ed. R. E. G. Kirk and F. J. Furnivall. (Publishtin 1906.)
37- The Development and Chronology of Chaucer's Works, by John S. P. Tatlock,
Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English in the University of Michigan. (Issued in 1907.)
38. The Evolution of the Canterbury Tales, by Prof. W. W. Skeat, Litt.D. (1907.)
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1904 (publisht in 1907) is,
39. Studies in Chaucer's Hons of Fame, by Wilbur Owen Sypherd, Ph.D.,
Professor of English in Delaware College, U.S.A.
40. The Origin and Development of the Story of Troilus and Criseyde, by Karl
Young, Ph.D.
41. The Harleian MS 733b and Revision of the Canterbury Tales, by Prof.
Tatlock, Ph.D.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1905 (publisht in 1908) is,
42. The Date of Chaucer's Troilus and other Chaucer matters, by Prof. George
Lyman Kittredge, LL.D., Litt.D.
43. The Eight-Text Edition of the Canterbury Tales; with especial reference to
the Harleian MS 733b, by Prof. W. W. Skeat, Litt.D.
44. The Syntax of the Infinitive in Chaucer, by John Samuel Kenyon, Ph.D.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1906 (publisht in 1910-1) is,
45. A Study of the Miracles of Our Lady, told by Chaucer's Prioress, by Prof.
•Carleton Brown, Ph.D.
46. Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, ed. from the MSS by Prof. Axel Erdmann, Ph.D.
Part I, the Text (1911). Part II will be publisht by the E.E.T.S.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1907 (publisht in 1913) is,
47. A Detailed Comparison of the Eight Manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales, as completely printed by the Chaucer Society, by Professor John Kocb, Ph.D.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1908 (publisht in 1914) is,
48. Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion, 1357-1900 A.D., by
Professor Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Docteur de l'Universite de Paris. Part I.
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1909 & 1910 (publisht in 1918) is,
49 & 50. Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion, 1357-1900 A.D.,
by Professor Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Docteur de l'Universite de Paris. Part II.
Of the Second Series, the issue "-for 1911 is,
51. The Scene of the Franklin's Tale visited, by Professor J. S. P. Tatlock, Ph.D.
(publisht in 1914).
Of the Second Series, the issue for 1913 will be,
52. Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion, 1357-1900 A.D., by
Professor Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Docteur de l'Universite de Paris. Part III.
(Publisht in 1921.)
Among the Texts and Chaucer Essays, dec., preparing for the Society are:—
Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion. Part IV. Additional
English Allusions, and French Allusions; Part V. Introduction and Index,
completing the work.
A Comparative Study of all the MSS of the Canterbury Tales, by the late
Professor George Stevenson, B.A.
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
bungay, suffolk.