...must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a single character has escaped...

...must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character has escaped...

...different ages, their mimetic bias voices itself in surprisingly similar terms. Thus Dry den on Chaucer: "He must have been a Man of a most wonderful comprehensive...Compass of his Canterbury Tales the various Manners and Humours (as we now call them) of the whole English 45 Nation, in his age. Not a single Character has...

...fidelity particularly in evidence in his representation of character. Chaucer, Dryden famously said, has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character has escaped...

...superiority as one of superior characterization which encompasses the "various manners and humours. . .of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a single character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other; and not only in their inclinations,...

...that The Canterbury Tales held much historical appeal in presenting "the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age" (2:284). Dryden could make these claims because they dealt with what for him were the contingent values...

...Prologue: in terms that will become reminiscent of Shakespeare criticism, Dryden writes that here Chaucer "has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call theml of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a single character has escaped...

...Montaigne, Made English by Charles Cotton, 3 vols. (London, 17oo), 1n, 143. 26 Shakespeare, 1, 66. 27 "[H]e has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours of the whole English nation in his age; not a single character has escaped him;" "Preface to...

...must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character has escaped...

...universal human nature and the ability of his poetry to transmit the history of the English nation: Chaucer "has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character has escaped...