GEOFFRY CHAUCER,

THE FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY.

THE two names which, perhaps, do the greatest honour to the annals of English literature, are those of Chaucer and Shakspeare. Shakspeare we have long and justly been accustomed to regard as the first in the catalogue of poetical and creative minds; but after the dramas of Shakspeare, there is no production of man that displays more various and vigorous talent than the Canterbury Tales. Splendour of narrative, richness of fancy, pathetic simplicity of incident and feeling, a powerful style in delineating character and manners, and an animated vein of comic humour-each takes its turn in this wonderful performance, and each in turn appears to be that in which the author was most qualified to excel.

The times of Chaucer were, as far as poetry is concerned, times of barbarism. The sole efforts in the art of verse, which had been made in western Europe, previously to Chaucer, were romances of prodigious and supernatural adventure, prolix volumes of unvaried allegory, and the rhapsodies of the vagrant minstrel. Chaucer fixed and naturalised the genuine art of poetry in our island. But what is most memorable in his enlogy, is, that he is the father of our language, the idiom of which was by the Norman conquest banished from courts and civilised life, and which Chaucer was the first to restore to literature and the muses.

One circumstance which has contributed to the neglect into which the works of Chaucer have fallen, is the supposition that his language is obsolete. It is not obsolete. It is not more obscure than the language of Spencer, and scarcely more than that of Shakspeare. Most of the English writers, from the death of Chaucer to the times of Elizabeth, are more obscure than our poet. All that repels us in the language of Chaucer is merely superficial appearance and first impression: contemplate it only with a little perseverance, and what seemed to be deformity will, in many instances, be converted into beauty. A fortnight's application would be sufficient to make us feel ourselves perfectly at home with this patriarch of our poetry.

The birth of Chaucer, in 1328, is settled from an inscription on his tomb-stone, signifying that he died in 1400, at the age of 72. The seat of his nativity was the city of London. London, with its narrow lanes, and its dirty ways, its streets encumbered with commerce, and its people vexed with the cares of gain, was, in his eyes, beautiful, lovely, and engaging. "More kindely love and fuller appetite had he to that place WORTHIES, No. 4.

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than to any other in yerth." Yet London had at this time very little to boast on the score of its general architecture, but it was already the scene of considerable population and wealth. Its limits were from about the foot of Black-Friars Bridge west, to the Tower Stairs east on the north it extended to the street now denominated London Wall, and on the south it had another wall which skirted the whole length of the city, along the shores of the river.

The population of London was only forty thousand in the reign of King Stephen. In the reign of Edward the First, and the year 1285, the twenty-four wards of London are enumerated in a charter of that monarch nearly as at present. We must not, however, suppose that this space was covered with inhabitants; Cheapside, for example, we are told was 66 no manner of street, but a fair large place, commonly called Crown Field, and tournaments were held there in the reign of Edward III. Among the environs of London we find enumerated the villages of Strand, Charing, and Holborn, and Thorney, in Westminster. It covered, perhaps, two square miles, and it now covers thirty, and contains above 1,100,000 inhabitants.

Chaucer appears to have passed the latter years of his education at the university of Cambridge. He speaks of himself as residing there at the age of eighteen. Here doubtless Chaucer became acquainted with many of the Roman writers: of the Greek language it does not appear that he had any knowledge. While yet a student in the university of Cambridge, Chaucer produced a poem, entitled the Court of Love, consisting, as it has come down to us, of 1443 lines, but which could not originally have consisted of fewer than two thousand. During the period of his residence at Oxford, or shortly after his quitting that university, he produced one of his most considerable works, The Boke of Troilus and Creseide. The poem will appear to be little less than a miracle, when we combine our examination of it with a recollection of the times and circumstances in which it was produced. When Chaucer wrote it, the. English tongue had long remained in a languid and almost perishing state, overlaid and suffocated by the insolent disdain and remorseless tyranny of the Norman ravagers and dividers of our soil. He surprised his countrymen with a poem, eminently idiomatic, clear and perspicuous in its style, as well as rich and harmonious in its versification. His Court of Love, an earlier production, is not less excellent in both these respects; but it was too slight and short to awaken general attention. The Troilus and Creseide was of respectable magnitude, and forms an epoch in our literature.

After leaving Oxford, he spent several years in France, and acquired much applause by his literary exercises in that country. His fame followed him on his returning home; and, animated by his success abroad,

he resorted to the societies and courts of justice in his native metropolis, but soon after quitted the study of the law.

Among the works written by him at this time may be placed his version of the story of Palamon and Arcite. This story, as well as that of Troilus and Creseide, is among the poetical works of the celebrated Boccaccio; Boccaccio's poem of this name is considerably longer, consisting of more than ten thousand lines. But the Knightes Tale, which is all that we have of Chaucer on the subject, is extended to little above two thousand.

From the thirtieth year of his age, if not sooner, to his death, he was a courtier, the counsellor of princes, employed in various negotiations and embassies, and involved in the factions, contentions, and intrigues of his time. Chaucer was, during the greater part of his life, devoted to John of Gaunt, and he spent the greater part of his subsequent life at Woodstock, in a house still standing, and at that time Woodstock was the chief residence of the court of Edward the third. There is no record of his having received any gratuity from the crown, earlier than the twentieth of June, 1367. And Edward III., in the patent of Chaucer's annuity, assigns as a reason of the grant the services he had performed to the crown.

The first poem which Chaucer wrote, after he entered into the service of the court, is variously styled in different manuscripts, The Assembly of Fowls, and the Parliament of Birds. The subject of this poem is the suit or courtship to the Lady Blanche, and appears to have been written before the lady had accepted the addresses of her illustrious suitor. It is a poem marked with pregnancy of fancy and felicity of language. It is written in Rhythm Royal, the same species of stanza as that of the court of Love and the Troilus and Creseide.

Chaucer's next production is that entitled his Dream, and was first printed by Mr. Speght, in the edition of 1597. It may be regarded as an epithalamium upon the marriage of the Earl of Richmond and the Princess Blanche, which took place on the nineteenth of May, 1359.

In 1359, Chaucer fell in love with the daughter and coheiress of Paganus [Payne] de Rouet, or Roet, a native of Hainault, and king at arms for the province of Guienne. The station she occupied was that of maid of honour to the queen of Edward III.; and she had an elder sister named Catherine, who was attached to the person of Blanche consort to John of Gaunt, and who afterward became the governess to her daughters, Philippa queen of Portugal, and Elizabeth duchess of Exeter. Rouet's daughters must be supposed to have been highly accomplished, and the fortune of the elder was extraordinary, for she succeeded finally to the bed and the hand of John of Gaunt, and by him was great-grandmother of Margaret Countess of Richmond, mother to