CHAPTER V.

Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.-Analysis of the Prologue.

THE several elegant critics who have undertaken to point out the beauties of Chaucer, unite in expressing the warmest admiration for the felicitous prologue with which he prefaces his Canterbury Tales; and by which he unfolds the plan of his fable and displays his characters. Especially have they united in commending the rich humor which impregnates it; and in noticing that by it "is transmitted to posterity, such an accurate contemporaneous picture of ancient manners, of the pursuits and employments, the customs and diversions of our ancestors, copied from the life and represented with equal truth and spirit, as is possessed by no other nation."

Some, however, have been dissatisfied because Chaucer did not here delineate the characteristics, the foibles, the graces, and the employments of the nobility of his age, as well as of the lower classes. But it should be remembered that every essential char

Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, Vol. 1. To which those who desire a more intimate acquaintance with Chaucer are also referred, for an elegant and sprightly analysis of the characters in the Prologue; as well as for a discriminating criticism of that poet's writings generally. This admirable performance ought always to be published with the author whom it so beautifully illustrates. Indeed, it is chiefly to the fine taste of Warton, and the critical sagacity of Tyrwhitt, that we and our posterity owe the warmest gratitude, for having rescued from a mass of literary ruin, the riches of our old-time Bard. And we here acknowledge that to them and the polished George Ellis, the writer is indebted for the readings and interpretations of Chaucer which appear in these pages.

acteristic of the nobility, finds its counterpart in the great mass composed of the middling and lower classes. And that they not only form and direct the opinions of an age, but also furnish the most universal picture of real life. Those poets whose names are immortal have preferred to describe man as a species, and have seldom confined themselves to a class. They seize upon those universal attributes of humanity which are paramount to the artificial divisions of society, or the more arbitrary ones of time. They choose for their burden the gigantic crimes of man, or the nobler and more genial theme of his virtues, rather than the trappings of his social condition. They never caricature the whole race, for the sake of hitting off the staring outlines of an eccentric individual; but from the round of manners and habits, of emotions, passions, affections and processes of thought, select such as are held in common, though shared in varying degrees by all mankind. When, for instance, Shakspeare portrays the ignoble vice of cowardice in the person of Parolles, the vice does not depend upon the military gewgaws which invest it to excite our ridicule or disgust. Nor is the "infinite humor" of invincible Sir John Falstaff dependent upon his baronetcy or his obesity. That most vicious tyrant Richard the Third, whose detestable treachery our immortal Bard has depainted in such terrific characters, is the object of our hatred, just so far as he was a most abandoned and cruel man. The revengeful and obdurate Shylock excites our repugnance, and causes our hands to clench in anger, not because he is a Jew or a Miser, but because he repudiates and outrages the tenderest attributes of our humanity. And here lies the universal intelligibility and success of Shakspeare, that the crimes or virtues, the passions and customs delineated, are peculiar to no class or rank; but will apply to all of the species, in every age.

If Chaucer displayed wisdom by his choice of the middle classes, as the best point from which to observe and describe the men of England in the fourteenth century; it is by his skilful groupings

of the characters drawn from thence; by his happy arrangement of the petty peculiarities of each individual; and by his harmonious blending of the variant lights and shadows of their diverse characters, that his artistical ability and his poetical sensibility is chiefly made evident. And thus is his poetry impregnated with that invaluable quality which, without derogating from its higher attributes, affords us at this remote day a more accurate description of persons; their manners, habits, customs and apparel; and of the different degrees of superstition, of education, and of refinement possessed by each, than we can derive from the most creditable contemporaneous historians. Observe the ample fulness mingled with sententious brevity which signalize the following selections, descriptive of a young "SQUIER" and his "YEMAN." At one glance we scan their persons and habiliments; we note the shades of gaiety or of respectful sobriety apposite to each; we perceive the light-hearted gallantry, the refinements and accomplishments, together with the fondness for dress and finery so gracefully appropriate to him who was "as fresh as is the month of May ;" and also the less dazzling, but equally picturesque and manly decorations of his humbler companion. And we insensibly become as well acquainted with their several avocations, as if we were contemporaries or spectators.

"With him ther was his sone a young Squier,

1 Curled.

A lover and a lusty bachelor,

With lockes crull' as they were laid in presse.
Of twenty yere of age he was I gesse.
Of his stature he was of even lengthe,'
And wonderly deliver,' and grete of strengthe.
Embrouded was he, as it were a mede
Alle ful of fresshe floures, white and rede.
Singing he was, or floyting alle the day,

Embroidered.

He was as fresshe as is the moneth of May.
Short was his goune, with sleves long and wide.
Wel coude he sitte on hors, and fayre ride.
He coude songes make, and wel endite,

Juste and eke dance, and wel pourtraie and write.
Curteis he was, lowly and servisable,

And carf before his fader at the table.

grene.

A Yeman hadde he, and servantes no mo
At that time, for him luste to ride so;
And he was cladde in cote and hode of
A shefe of peacock arwes bright and kene
Under his belt he bare ful thriftily.
Wel coude he dresse his takel yemanly:
His arwes drouped not with fetheres lowe,
And in his hond he bare a mighty bowe.

A not-hed hadde he, with a broune visage,
Of wood-craft coude he wel alle the usage.
Upon his arme he bare a gaie bracier,
And by his side a swerd and bokeler,
And on that other side a gaie daggere,
Harneised wel, and sharp as point of spere:
A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene.

An horne he bare, the baudrik was of grene.
A forster was he sothely as I gesse."

The "tendre hearted Prioresse" having already occupied our attention,' we pass on to the next character in Chaucer's panoramic description. This is a MONK, one of those drones who fed upon the toil and sweat of the people; and at the same time forged the iron chain of superstition, which bowed their necks in disgraceful servitude. Right merrily does Chaucer belabor his lusty shoulders.

1 See page 34.

First he recounts the tastes and accomplishments of this son of the

cross:

"A Monk ther was, a fayre for the maistrie,
An outrider, that loved venerie ;'

A manly man to ben an abbot able.

Ful many a dainte hors hadde he in stable:
And whan he rode, men mighte his bridel here
Gingeling in a whistling wind as clere,
And eke as loude, as doth the chapell belle

Ther as this lord was keper of the celle."

He remarks the scrupulous attention of this holy man to the rules of his order, and encouragingly defends his logic and his practice:

"The rule of Seint Maure and of Seint Beneit,

Because that it was olde and somdele streit,

This ilke monke lette olde thinges pace,

And held after the newe worlde the trace.

He yave not of the text a pulled hen,

That saith, that hunters ben not holy men ;

Ne that a monk, whan he is rekkeles,

Is like to a fish that is waterles;

And I say his opinion was good.

What shulde he studie, and make himselven wood,

1 Hunting

2 Anciently, no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle was stuck full of bells. Wickliffe, in his Trialoge, inveighs against the Priests for their "fair hors, and jolly and gay saddles, and briddles ringing by the way."-Warton's His. Eng. Poetry, Vol. i., p. 164.

• Same

4 Lawless.