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Chaucer, pp. 23-32; slightly enlarged from the previous Life by the same author. A paragraph on editions is added, and Phillips' remark about the Squire's Tale is repeated. To the statement that Brigham erected the tomb of Chaucer is added the fact that he buried his four-year old daughter near the grave on June 21, 1557,-which fact Winstanley probably took from Camden's Reges. Under the discussion of Lydgate Winstanley says that Chaucer wrote the Story of Thebes in Latin, and that Lydgate translated it into English verse; this he gets from Pits.

Blount. De Re Poetica: or, Remarks upon Poetry, with Characters and Censures of the most considerable Poets, whether Ancient or Modern. Extracted out of the Best and Choicest Criticks. By Sir Thomas Pope Blount. London 1694.

The first few paragraphs of the life of Chaucer are a compound of Winstanley and Phillips, except that Blount drops out the "evidence" as to Chaucer's London birth, and says that the conclusion of the Squire's Tale is not to be found. He then gives the "opinions" of Pits, Winstanley, Ascham, Sidney, Denham, citing a few lines of verse by Denham beginning "Old Chaucer, like the Morning Star", Savil (Preface to Bradwardine against Eligius), Sir Robert Baker, Camden, Sprat and Verstegan; the epitaph is then printed, p. 44.

Urry, in the Edition of Chaucer's Works, 1721. The Life of Chaucer for this edition was originally written by John Dart, but was revised and altered by William Thomas, whose brother Timothy had undertaken the completion of the work begun by Urry. See Tyrwhitt, Appendix to the Preface, note n; although the British Museum Catalogue credits "J. Thomas" with the life. See Dart's Westmonasterium for expression of his indignation at the alterations in his work. The groundwork of the biography is taken from preceding lives of Chaucer, and develops the stories of his college education, his complicity in John of Northampton's plot, etc.; but in spite of this large admixture of fiction, the Life contains much that is noteworthy and sensible. The Scrope-Grosvenor controversy, and Chaucer's testimony there, are first mentioned in this biography; a few of the non-Chaucerian poems of the black-letter editions are repudiated, and the tone of the whole is both sober and appreciative. Its statement, that the works of Chaucer were excepted from the 1546 Act of Parliament For the Advancement of True Religion, is endorsed by Furnivall, Ch. Soc. ed. of Thynne's Animadversions p. xiv footnote. The books specifically excluded from censure by this Act were

"Cronycles, Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's bokes, Gower's bokes and Stories of mennes lives." Although this Life is not so clearly an advance, in method and in thoughtfulness, over preceding work, as is the Preface by Timothy Thomas which appears in the same volume, it should be carefully sifted by students of the history of Chaucer-criticism.

Biographia Britannica: or, the Lives of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest Ages down to the present Times: Collected from the best Authorities, both printed and manuscript, and digested in the manner of Mr. Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary. Six vols., folio, London 1747-1763. Licensed 1744.

The life of Chaucer is in vol. ii, pp. 1293-1308, in English. Very extensive notes. Marginal references to Leland, Bale, Pits, Speght, Hearne, Urry, Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, Camden's Britannia, etc.

Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, (etc.) by Tanner, with Wilkins' preface, London, 1748, gives on pp. 166-170 the life of Chaucer in Latin, with extensive footnotes, one of which prints the table of contents of the 1602 Chaucer. Tanner says: "Quae de vita Chauceri notavi excerpta sunt ex Vita ejus per Thomam Speght operum edit. Lond. MDCII fol. praefixa.”

Bibliographia Poetica. A Catalogue of Engleish Poets of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centurys, with a Short Account of their Works. Joseph Ritson. London 1802.

The account of Chaucer, pp. 19-23, is mainly a list of works.

Godwin. Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Early English Poet: including Memoirs of his Near Friend and Kinsman, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster: with Sketches of the Manners, Opinions, Arts and Literature of England in the Fourteenth Century. By William Godwin, London, 1803, 2 vols., 4to. Second edition 4 vols., octavo, London, 1804. Translated into German by Breyer, 1812.

Reviewed at length, with liberal extracts, Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, II: 1141, 1229; at the close it is said that Godwin "has cleared up some points in Chaucer's history, but his partiality has been well supported by his imagination." The excessive introduction of contemporary history is commented upon, and Godwin's description of the Chaucer-Gower quarrel is termed “a copious flourish of matter, without an iota of

proof." The Edinburgh Review of 1804, 3: 437-452, is more severe. "The incidents of Chaucer's life bear the same proportion to the book that the alphabet does to the encyclopedia.” Godwin's flourishes and vague suppositions are condemned, and his attitude towards Tyrwhitt is described as "that dignified contempt of his predecessors which especially becomes an author at the moment when he is about to avail himself of the information they afford him." The style is termed “uncommonly depraved." (According to Poole's Index, this review was written by Sir Walter Scott.)

Blackwood's, 10:295 (1821), says of Godwin's work:-"A most unwieldy and unsatisfactory brace of quartos, contemptible in criticism, absurd and visionary in its inferences from facts, and altogether unworthy of the genius of the biographer."

Modern critics have treated Godwin with amused contempt: thus Morley, Eng. Writers V:215; Lounsbury, Studies I: 19198; Skeat, Canon 98; Mather, Eng. Misc. 301.

But Flügel, Anglia 21 : 245, Lowes, Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass'n. 19:593, note 4, point out that Godwin sometimes gives facts correctly. For Godwin's animus against Tyrwhitt see the list of references under Tyrwhitt in III C below.

Todd. Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer. Collected from authentick documents by the Rev. Henry J. Todd, M. A., F. S. A. London 1810.

Contains: a print of Thynne's Animadversions; a print of Gower's will, and of a deed signed by John Gower; an “Account of some valuable Manuscripts of Gower and Chaucer, which I have examined"; extracts from Gower's Confessio Amantis, with notes; extracts from the poetry of Chaucer, the text of the Prologue from Tyrwhitt, the Flower and the Leaf from a collation of Speght and Urry; "Poems supposed to be written by Chaucer during his imprisonment", taken from the flyleaves of the Ellesmere MS; a glossary, founded partly upon the work of Tyrwhitt.

Much of this work has been done over, and of course done better, since Todd; both the EETS and the Ch. Soc. have edited the Animadversions; Macaulay's edition of Gower has superseded all others; and in some respects modern students differ from Todd, e. g., the Flower and the Leaf is no longer considered Chaucer's, and the poems by Todd attributed to Chaucer are repudiated by Furnivall and by Skeat, see under Section V below. Nevertheless, the book has value and interest for students to-day; it is entirely free from the blemishes of Godwin's work, and breathes a spirit of genuine devotion to the subject.

B. The Appeal to Fact

Nicolas. The Life of Chaucer, by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, was prefixed to the Aldine Chaucer of 1845 and later, as noted below, Section II D.

Minto, in the Encycl. Brit., art. Chaucer, says that the Life was published in 1843; Lounsbury, Studies I: 199, says 1844. No separate publication is noted in the Brit. Mus. Catalogue or in Lowndes; but as the Life is reviewed Athenaeum Feb. 10, 1844, Monthly Review of March 1844, and Gentleman's Magazine, January 1844, it is probable that there was a limited or proof impression before the issue of the Aldine; indeed, the Athenaeum speaks of the Life as "to be prefixed to the Aldine edition of Chaucer about to be published by Pickering."

Reviewed as noted above, seven columns in the Athenaeum; commended by Hertzberg, p. 7.

This is the first life of Chaucer drawn up on sound methods, and the first deserving serious consideration by students. Nicolas used the documents discovered by Godwin, with recognition of his predecessor's work; but he printed many more, and his study is entirely free from the extravagances of Godwin. Some errors he made,-the "eleven months" of Chaucer's stay in Italy, the "only four days" before Henry IV's grant to Chaucer,see Flügel, Anglia 21 : 245 ff.; he treats as genuine some works now declared spurious, the Testament of Love, the Flower and Leaf, the Cuckoo and Nightingale; and he disbelieves Chaucer's knowledge of Italian, since overwhelmingly proved.

Nicolas' work was condensed in Wright's ed. of the Cant. Tales, 1847-51, used by Bell for the 1854 ed. of the Works, reprinted in the subsequent Aldine eds. and in the Pickering ed. of Romaunt, Troilus, etc., see Section IV B here. Owing to its presence in this latter, that collection is sometimes termed, like the 1845 Aldine, the "Nicolas" edition.

Chaucer Society. The investigations of Furnivall and the Chaucer Society (founded 1867-68) are reported from time to time in the columns of the Academy, Athenaeum, etc., and subsequently collected in the Ch. Soc. Life-Records, see below.

Minto. Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Geoffrey Chaucer, by William Minto.

The results of Furnivall's investigations are briefly given; much more space is devoted to literary comment. Bradshaw's rime-test for determining the authenticity of poems is dismissed contemptuously, and the genuineness of the Flower and the Leaf and the Court of Love is maintained. (See the subse

quent altercation between Furnivall, Minto, and Swinburne, Athenaeum for 1877 I: 417, 447, 481, 512.) Prof. ten Brink's classification of Chaucer's works into periods is scouted, and much emphasis laid upon "spontaneous expansion." The influence of Italian writers, in particular, is minimized; see citation under Troilus, Section IV here. Without bibliographical equipment, and of no profit to students.

Ward. Life of Chaucer, English Men of Letters Series, n. d. (1879, 1895). Adolphus William Ward.

The chapters are: Chaucer's Times, Chaucer's Life and Works, Characteristics of Chaucer and of his Poetry, Epilogue on the Influence of Chaucer. Reviewed by Koch, Anglia 3:554-559; by Vetter, Anglia Beibl. 1896, p. 77; in Acad. 1880 I: 208 (Furnivall); in Amer. Jour. Phil. 1 : 497.

Cautious and non-committal. Of no independent value, but a useful book for the beginner who desires some idea of the fourteenth century, or for the general reader.

Morley.

English Writers, by Henry Morley. London 1887 ff., II vols. Vol. V contains the discussion of Chaucer.

A very full treatment of the works separately, with citations and summaries. Includes poems now regarded as spurious,Court of Love, Flower and Leaf, Cuckoo and Nightingale, Chaucer's Dream. Biographical details from the work of the Chaucer Society. A useful outline for the general student, written without special knowledge, but without extravagance.

Hales. Dictionary of National Biography, art. Geoffrey Chaucer, by J. W. Hales.

A disappointing piece of work, especially when compared with the space and effort given by Pollard to Lydgate in the same Dictionary. Hales refers to Ward, Morley, etc., instead of using firsthand evidence; he introduces conjectures as fact, and bibliographical information is wanting. For criticism of some details see Flügel, Anglia 21:245, 257; Toynbee in Athen. 1905 I: 210, cited under Clerk's Tale, Section III G here.

Lounsbury. The first chapter of vol. I of Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, N. Y. 1892, contains a summary of the facts about Chaucer known up to that time (1892); the second chapter is on the legendary life of Chaucer. There are some small inaccuracies (cp. Flügel, Anglia 21:245), but the presentation is an admirable survey of the progress from romance to fact in the biography of Chaucer.

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