Mr. Francis Beaumont's letter to Mr. Speght, preffing him to print bis obfervations upon Chaucer, dated the last of June 1597, from the edit. of Chaucer 1602.

TOUCHING the incivilitie Chaucer is charged withall, what Romane poet hath lefs offended this way than he? Virgil in his Priapus is worse by a thousand degrees, and Ovid in De Arte Amandi, and Horace in manie places as deep as the reft, but Catullus and Tibullus in uncleane wantoneffe beyond measure paffe them all. Neither is Plautus nor Terence free in this behalfe; but these two laft are excufed above the rest, by their due obfervation of decorum,in giving to their comicall perfons fuch manner of fpeeches as did beft fit their difpofitions. And may not the fame be faid for Chaucer? how much had he fwarved from decorum if he had made his Miller, his Cook, and his Carpenter, tell fuch honeft and good tales as he made his Knight, his Squire, his Lawyer, and his Scholler? But fhewing the difpofition of the bafer fort of men he declareth in their Prologues and Tales that their chief delight was in undecent speeches of their owne, and in their falfe defamations of others. No man can imagine, in his fo large compaffe, purposing to deferibe all Englishmen's humours living in thofe daies, how it had been poffible for him to have left untouched their filthy delights, or in discovering their defires how to have expreft them without fome of their words.

And now to compare him with other poets; his Canterbury Tales containe in them almost the fame argument that is handled in comedies; his file therein for the most part is lowe and open like unto theirs; but herein they differ; the comedie writers doe all follow and borrowe one from another, as Terence from Plautus and Menander, Plautus from Menander and Demophilus, Statius and Cæcilius from Diphilus, Apollodorus, and Philemon, and almost all the laft comedians from that which was called Antiqua comedia. Chaucer's devife of his Canterbury pilgrimage is meerly his owne, his drift is to touch all forts of men, and to discover all vicis of that age, and that he doth fo feelingly, and with so true an ayme, as he never failes to hit whatfoever marke he levels at.

Sir Henry Savil in the preface to his edit. of Bradwar dine de Caufà Dei, Lond 1617.

DE Galfrido Chaucero illorum fere temporum æquali, poetarum noftrorum principe, acris judicii, non lepidi tantum ingenii, viro, qui de Thoma hoc noftrate non tacuit, nobis nefas fit hic tacere. Is, cum effet philofophicis Theologicifque haud mediocriter imbutus, ac hafce Cantuarienfis Archiepifcopi lucubrationes jam tum recens emiffas, ut videtur, pervolviffet, pro more fuo jocis feria intertexens, in fabella quadam Cantuarienfi arduam de Dei præfcientia, rerumque

contingentia quæftionem obiter attingit; ac Auguftino Bradwardinum annumerat, ex iis unum fcil. qui in difficili hac controverfia exagitanda farinam afque ad furfures (fic enim familiariter eleganterque ille nofter) excufferunt, hoc eft, veritatem in profundo demerfam elicuerunt. Ipfum, fi placet (placet autem antiqua Anglicana etiam ftyli fimplicitas) focco fuo indutum in medium deducamus.

But what that God afore wote muft needs bee,
After the opinion of certain clerkis,

Witneffe of him that any clerk is,
'That in fchoole is great altercation
In this matter, and great difputation,
And hath been of an hundred thousand men,
But I ne cannot boult it to the bren,
As can the holy doctour S. Auftin,
Or Boece, or the Bithop Bradwardin,
Whether that God's worthy foreweting
Strainith me needly to do a thing,
(Needly clepe I fimple neceffite)
Or if the free choice be granted me
'Fo do the fame thing or do it nought,
Tho God forewot it or it was wrought,
Or if his weting ftraineth never a dele,
But by neceffite conditionele,

I woll not have to done of fuch matere.

Which be thus renders into Latin.

Non evenire non poteft quicquid Deus
Præfcivit; ita fert crebra doctorum cohors.
Hic literatum quemlibet teftem voco
Quantis utrinque fluctibus lis hæc fcholas

Trivit, teritque, pene inextricabili

Ingenia nodo centies mille implicans.

Excutere nudos hæc ad ufque furfures,
(Quod ab Auguftino præfitum, & Boethio,
Ac Bradwardino Epifcopo) non fum potis.
Utrumne me divína præfcientia

Ad aliquid unum, ut exequar, neceffitet;
(Neceffitatem hic abfolutam intelligo)
An mihi ftet hujus five agendi feu minus
Electionis falva libertas, licet

Præfcierit ipfum hoc, antequam fieret, Deus.
An præfcientis obliget neceffitas

Illa una, quam fuppofita conditio ftruit,
In tam profundum haud ego infiliam mare.

Mr. Selden in his preface to Drayton's Polyollion. See Gloff. to Ur. in Dulcarnon.

Sir John Denham on Mr. Abrah. Cowley, in bis Works, printed 1709, p. 84.

OLD Chaucer like the morning star,

To us difcovers day from far,

His light thofe mifts and clouds diffolv'd
Which our dark nation long involv'd;
But he defcending to the fhades
Darkness again the age invades.
Next (like Aurora) Spenfer rofe,
Whofe purple blush the day foreshews.

8

Volume XIII.

と

Milton in his poem entituled Il Penferofo.

Bur, O fad Virgin! that thy power
Might raise Mufæus from his bower,
Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing-
Or call up him that left half told
The ftory of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball and of Algarfife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That own'd the vertuous ring and glass,
And of the wond'rous horse of brafs
On which the Tartar king did ride.-

Dr. Sprat (late Bishop of Rochester) in his Hiftory of the Royal Society, printed 1668, p. 41, 42.

THE truth is, it [the English language] has been hitherto too carelefly handled, and I think has had lefs labour spent about its polishing than it deferves: till the time of King Henry the Eighth there was fcarce any man regarded it but Chaucer, and nothing was written in it which one would be willing to read twice but fome of his poetry; but then it began to raise itfelf a little, and to found tolerably well.