Dr. Skinner in the preface to his Etymologicon Lingua Anglicana, p.5.

CHAUCERUS poeta, peffimo exemplo, integris vocum plauftris ex eadem Gallia in noftram linguam invectis, eam, nimis antea à Normannorum victoria adulteratam, omni fere nativa gratia & nitore fpoliavit, pro genuinus coloribus fucum illinens, pro vera facie larvam induens.

Sir Richard Baker in the Hiftory of England, printed 1684, p. 134.

SIR Geoffry Chaucher, the Homer of our nation, found as sweet a Muse in the groves of Woodstock as the Ancients did upon the banks of Helicon.

And p. 167.

The next place is justly due to Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, two famous poets in this time [of Henry IV.] and the fathers of English poets in all the times after.

Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, printed 1661, chap. x. of poetry, p. 94.

Or English poets of our own nation esteem Sir Jeoffrey Chaucer the Father; altho' the style for the antiquity may diftafte you, yet, as under a bitter and rough rinde, there lieth a delicate kernell of conceit and sweet invention. What examples, fimilitudes, times, places, and above all perfons, with their fpeeches

and attributes do (as in his Canterbury Tales, like the threads of gold, the rich arras) beautify his work quite through! And albeit divers of his Works are but meerly tranflations out of Latin and French, yet he hath handled them fo artificially, that thereby he hath made them his own. In brief, account him among the best of your English books in your library.

Wm. m. Winfanley in his England's Worthies, printed 1684, p. 117, [taken out of Mr. Beaumont's letter to Mr. Speght.]

-Or whom [Chaucer] for the sweetness of his poe try, may be faid that which is reported of Stefichorus; and as Cethegus was tearmed Suada Medulla, so may Chaucer be rightly called the pith and finews of eloquence, and the very life it self of all mirth and pleafant writing: befides, one gift he had above all other authors, and that is, by the excellencies of his descriptions to poffefs his readers with a fìronger imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read, than any other that ever writ in any tongue.

Edw. Phillips in the preface to his Theatrum Poetarum, P. 13, 14.

TRUE it is that the ftyle of poetry till Henry VIII's tine, and partly alfo within his reign, may very well

appear uncouth, strange, and unpleasant, to those that are affected only with what is familiar,and accustomed to them; not but there were even before thofe times fome that had their poetical excellencies, if well exa→ mined, and chiefly among the reft Chaucer, who thro' all the neglect of former-aged poets ftill keepsa name, being by fome few admired for his real worth, to others not unpleafing for his facetious way, c.

The fame author in the fecond part of that book, p. 50,5 [. SIR Geoffrey Chaucer, the prince and Coryphæus (generally fo reputed till this age) of our English poets, and as much as we triumph over his old fafhioned phrafe and obfolete words one of the firil refiners of the English language, &c.

Sir Tho. Pope Blount in his characters and cenfures of the moft confiderable poets, 1694, p. 41.

THIS is agreed upon by all hands, that he [Chaucer] was counted the chief of the English poets, not only of his time, but continued to be fo esteemed till this

Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, 1693, p 78. THEY who attempted verfe in English down till Chaucer's time made an heavy pudder, and are always miferably put to't for a word to clink, which

commonly fall fo awkward and unexpectedly as dropping from the clouds by fome machine or miracle. Chaucer found an Herculean labour on his hands, and did perform to admiration. He feizes all Provencal, French, or Latin, that came in his way, gives them a new garb and livery, and mingles them amongst our English, turns out English gowty or fuperannuated, to place in their room the foreigners fit for service, trained and accustomed to poetical difcipline.

And a little further.

Chaucer threw in Latin, French, Provencal, and other languages, like new ftum to raise a fermentation: in Queen Elizabeth's time it grew fine, but came not to an head and spirit, did not shine and sparkle, till Mr. Waller fet it a running.

Mr. Dryden in the preface to his Fables.

As he [Chaucer] is the Father of English poetry, foĮ hold him in the fame degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer or the Romans Virgil: he is a perpetual fountain of good fenfe, learned in all sciences, and therefore speaks properly on all fubjects; as he knew what to fay, fo he knows alfo when to leave off. Chaucer followed Nature every where, but was never fo bold to go beyond her.- -The verfe of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us, but 'tis like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends, It was auribus iftius temporis accommodata: they who

lived with him, and some time after him, thought it mufical, and it continues fo even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lydgate and Gower his contemporaries. There is the rude fweetnefs of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing, tho' not perfect. 'Tis true I cannot go so far as he who publifhed the laft edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really ten fyllables in a verfe where we find but nine; but this opinion is not worth confuting; 'tis fo grofs and obvious an errour that common sense must convince the reader that equality of numbers in every verfe which we call Heroick was either not known or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were an eafy matter to produce fome thousands of his verses which are lame for want of half a foot, and fometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwife. We can only say that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at the first.

And further.

He [Chaucer] must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly obferved of him, he has taken into the compafs of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the English nation in his age; not a fingle character has escaped him: all his Pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other, and not only in their inclinations but in their