The fame auther in bis Toxophilus, printed 1571, fol. 13, b. WHOSE horriblenes [fpeaking of gaming] is fo large that it paffed the eloquence of our Englishe Homer [Chaucer] to compaffe it :--I ever thought his fayinges to have as much authoritye as cyther Sophocles or Euripides in Greke. The fame author in his book of the State of Germany, written about 1552, fol. 1. DILIGENCE alfo must be used [by an hiftorian] in keeping traly the order of tyme, and defcribyng lyvely both the fire of places and nature of persons, not only for the outward shape of the body, but also for the inwarde difpofition of the minde, as Thucydides doth in many places very trimly, and Homer every where, and that always moft excellently, which obfervation is chiefly to be marked in hym; and our Chaucer doth the fame very praife worthely, mark hym well and conferre hym with any other that writeth in our tyme in their proudeft toung whosoever lyft. Sir Philip Sidney in bis Defence of Porfie, printed 1598, P. 492. In the Italian language the first that made it to aspire to be a treasure-houfe of fcience were the poets Dante, Boccace, and Petrarch; fo in cur English wer Gower and Chaucer, after whom, encouraged and delighted with their excellent foregoing, others have followed to beautifie our mother tongue, as well in the fame kind as other artes. Ibid. p. 513. CHAWCER undoubtedly did excellently well in his Troilus and Crefeid, of whom truly I know not whether to marvell more, either that he in that mystie time could fee fo clearly, or that we in this clear age go fo ftumblinglie after him; yet has he great wants, fit to be forgiven in fo reverent an antiquitie. The Arte of English Poesie, printed 1‹89, p. 48, supposed to be written by one Puttenham, a Gentleman Penfioner to Q. Eliz. See Wood's Athena Oxon, vol. i, col, 184, in Sidney. I Will not reach above the time of King Edward the Third and Richard the Second for any that wrote in English meeter, because before their times, by reafon of the late Normane conqueft, which had brought in to this realme much alteration both of our langage and lawes, and therewithall a certain martiall barba. roufnes, whereby the study of all good learning was fo much decayed as long time after no man, or very few, entended to write in any laudable science, fo as beyond that time there is little or nothing worth commendation to be founde written in this arte; and thofe Volume XIII. e of the first age were Chaucer and Gower, both of them, as I fuppofe, knightes, after whom followed John Lydgate the monke of Bury, and that nameles who wrote the fatyre called Piers Plowman. 1bid. P. 187. SIR Geffrey Chaucer, Father of our Englifa poets. Mr. Fox in his Acts and Mon. Lond. 1684, vol. ii. p. 42. I Marvel to confider this, how that the Bishops condemning and abolishing all manner of English books and treatifes which might bring the people to any light of knowledge, did yet authorise the Works of Chaucer to remain fill and to be occupied, who no doubt faw in religion as much almost as ever we do now, and uttereth in his Works no le fs, and feemeth to be a right Wicklivian, or elfe there was never any; and that all his Works almost, if they be throughly advised, will teftify, (albeit it be done in mirth and covertly) and efpecially the latter end of his third book of The Teftament of Love, for there purely he toucheth the highest matter, that is, the communion, wherein except a man be altogether blind he may efpy him at the full; although in the same book, (as in all other he useth to do) under fhadows covertly, as under a vizor, he fuborncth truth in fuch fort as both privily fhe may profit the godly-minded, and yet not be espied of the crafty adversary; and therefore the Bishops, belike taking his Works but for jefts and toys, in condemning other books yet permitted his books to be read. -So it pleafed God then to blind the eyes of them for the more commodity of his people, to the intent that through the reading of his treatifes fome fruit might redound thereof to his church, as no doubt it did to many. As alfo I am partly informed of certain which knew the parties, which to them reported that by reading of Chaucer's Works they were brought to the true knowledge of religion; and not unlike to be true, for to omit the other parts of his Volume, whereof fome are more fabulous than other, what tale can be more plainly told than The Tale of the Ploughman? or what finger can point out more directly the Fope with his prelates to be Antichrist than doth the poor pellican reafoning against the greedy griffon? under which hypotypofis or poefie who is fo blind that feeth not by the pellican the doctrine of Chrift and of the Lollards to be defended against the church of Rome or who is fo impudent that can deny that to be true which the pellican there affirmeth, in defcribing the prefumptious pride of that pretended church? Again, what egg can be more like, or fig, unto another than the words, properties, and conditions, of that ravenous gryphon resembleth the true image, that is the nature and qualities, of that which we call the church of Rome, in every point and degree ? and therefore no great marvel if that narration was exempted out of the copies of Chaucer's Works, which notwithstanding now is reftored again, and is extant for every man to read that is difpofed. Stephanus Surigonius Poet Laureat of Milan, wrote the following epitaph upon Chaucer at the defire of William Caxton, which anciently was hung up upon a pillar over against the place where he was buried. See Leland in the life of Chaucer, and Stow's Survey, edit. 1720. b. 6, P. 31. PIERIDES Mufæ, fi poffunt numina fletus Fundere, divinas atque rigare genas, Galfridi Chaucer vatus crudelia fata Plangite; fit lacrymis abstinuiffe nefas. Vos coluit vivens, at vos celebrate fepultum : 5 Reddatur merito gratia digna viro. Grande decus nobis eft docti Mufa Maronis, Qua didicit melius lingua Latina loqui: ΙΟ Grande novumque decus Chaucer famamque paravit, 15 |