3

sessed for literature, it would, in all probability, have been directed rather to French than English poetry. His mother was a French woman-his wife the patroness of Froissart. Froissart, and Gower, who wrote during this reign a long poem in French*, were amongst the most popular poets of the day. Mandeville, our earliest prose writer, composed his "Travels" in 1556, in French, and in Latin, as well as in English. And Gower continued to write in Latin ‡ even in the reign of Richard the Second.

The two ecclesiastics, who may be supposed to have had some influence in directing the taste of Edward, were not very likely to promote the study of poetry or polite literature in any language.

* The " Speculum Meditantis." A catalogue of a nobleman's library of the fourteenth century, given by Mr. Todd, in his "Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer," consists of a long list of French works. For Gower's French Ballads, see Todd's Illustrations, p. 102.

The popularity of Gower, as a poet, continued up to the Elizabethan period. John the Chaplain (after Chaucer), is the first to sing his praises; next to him, Skelton, in his "Crowne of Laurell," p. 240: then Leland; lastly, Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Defence of Poesy," couples the names of Chaucer and Gower, as great poets. See also a note of Warton, (vol. ii. 174,) on a copy of Gower, belonging to Henry the Eighth.

The "Vox Clamantis."

Walter Burley was a professed and distinguished schoolman. Richard Aungerville, of Bury, Bishop of Durham, and Chancellor of England, excuses, rather than recommends the study of the poets, as a means of understanding the Fathers who quote them. "It is objected," he observes, "to the poets, that they are licentious, or if not, that they relate mere fictions: but they are alluded to by the Fathers and Philosophers;—if we are ignorant of the poets, neither shall we understand Jerome, Boethius, Lactantius, or Sidonius*"

The hostility to elegant literature, entertained by the schoolmen and the clergy of Chaucer's day, was much like that professed by the sophists and philosophers of Athens towards the poets and dramatists. In all ages, indeed, there have been two parties in literature, one of which has been strongly opposed to all learning which did not

* Philo-Biblon, c. 13. Aungerville is well known as the collector of a library, which he left to Durham (afterwards Trinity) College, in Oxford. To his diligence and curiosity in matters of research, Petrarchi, in one of his letters to Bocaccio, bears witness. Petrarch complains that the Chancellor, whom he had formerly known at the papal court at Avignon, had neglected to notice his correspondence on literary subjects. It does not, however, appear that the Italian poet and scholar had any value for the taste of his acquaintance.

immediately bear, either upon religion, or practical utility. In the age of St. Jerome, and in that of Gregory the Great, the anti-classical spirit became conspicuous amongst the Christian clergy. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the style of their Latin writings evince some degree of attention to the best authors; but the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are marked, in Europe, by a decline of learning among the clerical orders, caused principally by the relaxed and indolent habits of the seculars, as well as regulars, and by the introduction into the universities, chiefly through the mendicant friars, of the scholastic philosophy.

Meanwhile the vernacular literatures received a polish from the genius of distinguished laymen, which they had scarcely hitherto possessed. Of these, Dante, Petrarch and Bocaccio in Italy, and Chaucer in England, are the most conspicuous in the fourteenth century +

* Guinguené, Hist. Litt. chap. i.

The Commedia of Dante was not published till the beginning of that century.

CHAPTER II.

REPUTATION OF CHAUCER IN VARIOUS AGES.

THE Canterbury Pilgrimage, upon which the poetical reputation of Chaucer now chiefly rests, and which opens to us the true character of his genius, does not appear to have obtained avowed and universal admiration till a comparatively late period. This circumstance is doubtless, in a great measure, to be attributed to the satire, which the great work of our poet contains, on the Catholic clergy. Hence perhaps it is, that we find the Canterbury Tales distinctly mentioned, by the poets immediately succeeding him, only on one occasion*; and hence the earliest imitators of his satirical writings, such as the authors of the Plowman's Tale, the Merchant's Second Tale, and Jack Upland, wrote only anonymously.

* Lydgate, in the prologue to his "Fall of Princes," gives a cold and prosaic enumeration of Chaucer's works, and speaks of the Canterbury Tales as endited full well in our language."

66

The poet character

ised by

himself.

But the neglect which this great work experienced at the hands of critics, extends beyond the period of the Reformation. Fox, the martyrologist, eulogises Chaucer, not for his comic and satiric powers, but for "his true Wicklevian spirit;" and, with the exception of Beaumont's apology* for the ribaldry of the comic tales, and a passage in Puttenham's Arte of Englishe Poetrie†, there is scarcely any distinct recognition of the poetical merits of the Canterbury Pilgrimage anterior to Dryden.

Considering that, in all probability, this great work was not begun at a very early period of our author's life, and that it was never finished; considering also the enmity which it must have excited against him from one party in the State, it will not appear very surprising that we find few allusions to it in his own works. Chaucer, indeed, always regards himself as the poet of Love. On two occasions only he alludes to the Canterbury

*See edition of Chaucer's works 1602.

See infra. The imitation of two at least of Chaucer's comic characters by Shakspeare are fully noticed in the sequel; I am here speaking rather of the testimonies of professed critics.

See Prologue to Legende-Man of Lawe's Prologue and Testament of Love.