So wholesome was, and nourishing by kind,
That smalle buddis, and round blossoms lite,
In manner gan of her breath to delight,

To give us hope that there fruit shall y-take
Against autumn, ready for to shake.—

There saw I growing eke the fresh haw-thorn
In white motley, that so sweet doth y-smell;
Ash, fir, and oak, with many a young acorn,
And many a tree mo than I (now) can tell;
And, me before, I saw a little well

That had his course as I could well behold,
Under a hill, with quick streamis and cold.

The gravel, gold: the water pure as glass:
The bankis round the well environing,
And soft as velvet was the younge grass
That thereupon hastily came springing.
The suit of trees, abouten compassing,
Their shadow cast closing the well around,
And all the herbis growing on the ground, &c.

Chaucer has also taken care to tell us that he

was magnificently lodged.

And sooth to sayen, my chamber was
Full well depainted, and with glass

In its nature.

Were all the windows well y-glased·
Full clear, and not a hole y-crazed,
That to behold it was great joy:
For wholly all the story of TROY'
Was in the glazing y-wrought thus
Of Hector and king Priamus;
Achilles, and king Laomedon,
And eke Medea and Jason;
Of Paris, Helen, and Lavine.
And all the walls with colours fine
Were painted, bothe text and glose,

And all the Romant of the Rose, &c.

He mentions another room which was curiously painted

on the walls old portraiture

Of horsemen, hawkis, and houndis,

And hurt deer, all full of woundis,

Some like bitten, some hurt with shot, &c.

A modern reader may possibly not be aware that glass windows were so rare in the reign of Edward III. as to merit a particular description; but it appears

The Painted Chamber, adjoining the House of Lords, represents the siege of Troy; and the tapestry was placed there at the marriage of Richard II.

from Heywood's "Spider and Flie," that glazed windows were considered as a luxury in the time of Henry VIII. Heywood's window was only latticed. The Trojan war was indeed of little use, except as a provocative to dreaming, which Chaucer perhaps did not much want; but though an unnecessary, it must have been an expensive ornament. In the Legend of Cleopatra, we are surprised by the following description of the battle of Actium. The fleets having met―

Up goeth the trump, and for to shout, and shete,'
And painen them to set on with the sun,
With grisly sound out goeth the GREAT GUN:
And heartily they hurtlen all at once;

And from the top down cometh the great stones.
In goeth the grapinel," so full of crooks,
Among the ropis run the sheering hooks;
In with the pole-ax presseth he3 and he;
Behind the mast beginneth he to flee;
He rent the sail with hookis like a scythe;
He bringeth the cup, and biddeth them be blith;
He poureth pesen 4 upon the hatches' slider,
With pottis full of lime they gone together;.
And thus the longe day in fight they spend, &c.

In the Legend of Dido, the situation of Æneas at her court, is thus curiously described:

This Æneas is come to Paradise,

Out of the swallow of hell: and thus in joy
Remembereth him of his estate in Troy.
To dancing chambers, full of paraments,'
Of riche beddis, and of ornamentis,
This Æneas is led after the meat.

And with the queen when that he had y-set,
And spices parted, and the wine agone,
Unto his chamber was he led anon

To take his ease, and for to have his rest,
With all his folk, to doen whatso them list.

There ne was courser well y-bridled none,
Ne steede for the justing well to gone;
Ne large palfrey, easy for the nonce,
Ne jewel y-set full of riche stones,
Ne sackis full of gold of large weight,
Ne ruby none that shineth bright by night;

Ne gentil hautein falcon heronere,2

Ne hound for hart, or wilde boar, or deer;
Ne cup of gold with florins new y-bet 3
That in the house of Libya may been get,

1 Parement, Fr.; from parer, to adorn.

• Gentil, hautain, heronier. Fr.

Beaten, stamped, coined.

That Dido ne hath Æneas it y-sent:

AND ALL IS PAYED, WHAT THAT HE HATH

SPENT;

Thus can this worthy queen her guestis call

As she that can in freedom passen all, &c.

In the romance of Troilus and Cressida, Chaucer says—

And after this the story telleth us,

That she unto him gave the fair bay steed

The which she onis

won of Troilus

gave to Diomede :

And eke a broche (and that was little need)
That Troilus' was, she
And eke the bet' from sorrow him to relieve,
She made him wear a pencell3 of her sleeve, &c.

very

The attributes of chivalry, and the fashions and customs of the middle ages, do not, perhaps, sit gracefully on classical characters; but we are glad to find them any where.

The following description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, is inserted, because it seems to have suggested to Mr. Gray some very beautiful lines in his Latin Epistle from Sophonisba to Massinissa,

1 Once.

2 A clasp, or buckle; any jewel. Fr.

A small streamer; pennoncel. Fr.