dishonourable act of impeaching his confederates. Little did the poet think, when he sat down to write this laborious apology for his conduct, that he was hereby perpetuating an imputation, which without his interference Time was preparing to blot out for ever from the records of memory, while his poetical compositions were destined to render him dear to the lovers of the muse as long as the English language shall endure. How feeble and erroneous are the calculations of the wisest of mankind!-GODWIN, WILLIAM, 1803, Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. IV, p. 55. We are thankful that Chaucer's shoulders are finally discharged of that weary load, "The Testament of Love. LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 1870-90, Chaucer, Prose Works, Riverside ed., vol. III, p. 296. The Testament of Love was greatly relied upon by Godwin and others. They thence inferred that Chaucer was mixed up with the dispute as to the appointment of John of Northampton to the mayoralty of London in 1382; that he was imprisoned; that he fled to Zealand; that he was in exile for two years; that, on his return, he was sent to the Tower for three years, and not released till 1389; with more rubbish of the same sort. However, it so happens that Chaucer did not write this piece. SKEAT, WALTER W., 1894, Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. I, p. 53, note. I have lately made a curious discovery as to the "Testament of Love. The The first paragraph begins with a large capital M; the second with a large capital A; and so on. By putting together all the letters thus pointed out, we at once have an acrostic, forming a complete sentence. The sentence is MARGARET OF VIRTW, HAVE MERCI ON TSKNVI. Of course the last word is expressed as an anagram, which I decipher as KITSVN, i. e. Kitsun, the author's name. whole piece is clearly addressed to a lady named Margaret, and contains frequent reference to the virtues of pearls, which were supposed to possess healing powers. Even if "Kitsun" is not the right reading, we learn something; for it is quite clear that TSKNVI cannot possibly represent the name of Chaucer.-SKEAT, WALTER W., 1894, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. v, p. xii, note. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHT INGALE Chaucer.-TYRWHITT, THOMAS, 1775-78, THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF The various picturesque occurrences, the romantick vein, throughout the poem, are surely in no respect unworthy the pen of Chaucer.-TODD, HENRY JOHN, 1810, Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, p. 280. O, for that pencil, erst profuse Of chivalry's emblazoned hues, That traced of old, in Woodstock bower, There is, in the whole scenery and objects of the poem, an air of wonder and sweetness; an easy and surprising transition that is truly magical.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets. One of the brightest dreams that poet ever fashioned out of shadowy imaginings, is the allegory, "The Flower and the Leaf," with its beautiful moral, and an exuberance of fancy seldom met with out of the region of early poetry.-REED, HENRY, 1855, Lectures on English Literature, p. 136. It must be regarded as among the most truly original, as it certainly is one of the finest, of Chaucer productions. MARSH, GEORGE P., 1862, The Origin and History of the English Language, etc., p. 414. A beautifully-tinted dream. -SMITH, ALEXANDER, 1863, Dreamthorp, p. 221. I hold, therefore, that Chaucer's authorship of "The Flower and the Leaf" cannot yet be regarded as a settled question. Each reader may incline as freely as he will to one opinion or the other. Let him be positive in his own mind, if he will, but he must not turn his positive opinion into a dogma, and call all men heretics whose opinions face another way.-MORLEY, HENRY, 1890, English Writers, vol. v, p. 253. Although not equal to Chaucer's work in power, yet there is a tender refinement of feeling, a chivalrous note in this poem, which is less frequent in the great writer than one might wish.-PALGRAVE, FRANCIS T., 1897, Landscape in Poetry, from Homer to Tennyson, p. 122. COURT OF LOVE C. 1500 I am induced by the internal evidence to consider it as one of Chaucer's genuine productions.-TYRWHITT, THOMAS, 177578, An Account of the Works of Chaucer, p. 445. No At the age of eighteen, and while yet a student in the university of Cambridge, Chaucer produced a poem, entitled the "Court of Love," consisting, as it has come down to us, of 1443 lines, but which could not originally have consisted of fewer than two thousand. This poem was first committed to the press by John Stow, the well-known compiler of the Chronicle of England, in an edition he gave of the works of Chaucer in the year 1561. manuscript of it is known to exist. It is impossible however to entertain a rational doubt of its authenticity. The manner in which it is written is precisely the manner of Chaucer, and it is conspicuously superior to the composition of any other English poet, from the dawn of our language to Sackville earl of Dorset, whose poetical career commenced from about the time when Stow's edition of Chaucer made its appearance.-GODWIN, WILLIAM, 1803, Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. I, p. 328. As an early production, it presents, as may be anticipated, little attraction with regard to plot, variety of incident, or vigour of description: upon these points, indeed, it is positively defective; but it otherwise lays claim to eminent merits, and these will be found in an agreeably humourous delineation of manners and peculiarities of custom. CLARKE, CHARLES COWDEN, 1835, The Riches of Chaucer, vol. 1, p. 3. Now I am not particularly concerned to stand up for the "Court of Love" as Chaucer's, for the simple reason that my business is with his character as a poet; and it seems to me so thoroughly Chaucerian in spirit, that my impressions of the man would be the same whether it was written by him or not. In its curious mediæval doctrine on the subject of love, it is in complete harmony with the Prologue to the "Legend of Good Women," -Cupid's martyrology, the Lives of the Saints of Love. If not written by Chaucer, it must have been written by a very clever and observant imitatorone might even say, looking to small coincidences, a deliberate and dexterous forger. The great difficulty in the way of not assigning the "Court of Love" or the "Flower and the Leaf" to Chaucer is this, that between him and Surrey there is no English poem half so good, and that it is next to incredible that the name of any poet capable of such work should have perished. If Chaucer did not write. it, who did? This, I take it, is the feeling of everybody who still thinks it possible that Chaucer may have been the author. That the grammatical differences, which are doubtless very striking, should have been introduced by a transcriber, seems to them more likely on the whole than that a nameless poet, in an age whose known poets never rise anywhere near such a level, should have produced works that have received enthusiastic admiration from such judges as Dryden and Mr. Swinburne. MINTO, WILLIAM, 187485, Characteristics of English Poets, p. 15. Apart from the natural influence of the literature read in its own time, the "Court of Love" is an original poem, into which its author put the breath of his own life. Its allegory is no servile copy of other men's inventions, and it stops short of the prolixity usual in the refinements of the school from which it came. The verse has its own music, joyous, firm, elastic. A smooth measure-marred for us now sometimes by bad copying, and often by bad reading was the common property of all the rhyming of the fourteenth century. But here, as in Chaucer's undoubted verse, there is a rhythm of health in the beat of the music. The rhyming is unstrained, the clear stream of thought falls naturally into song, of which the cadences are not less felt to be an impulse of Heaven's gift ministering to man's health and pleasure, than the wind's treemusic, or the rush and rattle of the waves. Here, too, as in the "Canterbury Tales," there is practical, good-humoured simplicity of thought, that is as the salt which seasons healthy sentiment and keeps the rot out.-MORLEY, HENRY, 1890, English Writers, vol. v, p. 132. "The Court of Love" must be a composition considerably later in date than "The Temple of Glass." A complete master of his metrical instrument, the author is also far superior to Lydgate in fancy and invention: he knows how to construct a poetical action, and how to make a proper use of the machinery of personification. He is, however, working on precisely the same conventional theme; and the peculiarly interesting feature in his poem is, that the advance in literary and allegorical skill is accompanied by a distinct decline in the delicacy of chivalrous manners.-COURTHOPE, W. J., 1895, A History of English Poetry, vol. 1, p. 359. At In the present state of our knowledge of the history of the English language, any notion of attributing "The Court of Love" to Chaucer is worse than untenable; for it is wholly disgraceful. Everything points to a very late date, and tends to exclude it, not only from the fourteenth, but even from the fifteenth century. the same time, it will readily be granted that the poem abounds with Chaucerian words and phrases to an extent that almost surpasses even the poems of Lydgate. The versification is smooth, and the poem, as a whole, is pleasing. I have nothing to say against it, when considered on its own merits. SKEAT, WALTER W., 1897, Chaucerian and Other Pieces, p. 1xxx. GENERAL O Socrates, full of philosophy, Seneca in morals, and English in practice, great Ovid in thy poetry, brief in speech, wise in eloquence, most lofty eagle, who by thy philosophy dost illumine the kingdom of Aeneas, the Island of the Giants (those Brutus slew), and who hast sown the flowers and planted the rose-bush for those who are ignorant of the tongue of Pandrasus, great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer.-DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE, c 1370, Ballade Addressed to Geoffrey Chaucer. O maister dere and fader reverent, Allas! that thou thyn excellent prudence O Deeth! thou didest not harm singuler But nathelees, yit hast thou no powèr Unslayn fro thee, which ay us lyfly herteth -OCCLEVE, THOMAS, 1411-12, Governail of Princes, or De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, p. 75.) My maister Chaucer, with his fresh commedies, Is deed, alas! chefe poete of Bretayne. -LYDGATE, JOHN, c. 1420, The Story of Thebes, Prologue. O reverend Chaucere, rose of rethoris all, That raise in Britane evir, quho redis rycht, Thou beris of makaris the tryumph riall; Thy fresch anamalit termes celicall This matir coud illumynit have full brycht: Was thou noucht of oure Inglisch all the lycht, Surmounting eviry tong terrestriall, Alls fer as Mayes morow dois mydnycht. -DUNBAR, WILLIAM, c 1508, Golden Targe. The god of shepheards, Tityrus, is dead, Who taught mee homely, as I can, to make; Hee, whilst hee lived, was the soveraigne head Of shepheards all that bene with love ytake: Well couth hee waile his Woes, and lightly flake The flames which love within his heart had bredd, And tell us mery tales to keepe us wake, In Chauser I am sped, His mater is delectable, At those dayes moch commended, His termes were not darke, ---SKELTON, JOHN, 1508?, PHILLYP SPAROWE, v. 788-803, ed. Dyce, vol. 1, p. 75. Our Englyshe Homer.-ASCHAM, ROGER, ASCHAM, ROGER, 1544, Toxophilus, bk. A. Sometimes he turned into the speech of his native land works composed carefully, ornately and eloquently in the French tongue. Sometimes he translated Latin verse into English, but with learning, with skill, with harmony. Sometimes he committed to writings destined to survive many original things which equalled the happiest success of the Latins. Sometimes he strove with all his power to instruct the reader, and again took pains as sedulously to give him pleasure. Nor did he cease from his labors until he had carried our language to that height of purity, of eloquence, of conciseness and beauty, that it can justly be reckoned among the thoroughly polished languages of the world.-LELAND, JOHN, 1545? Itinerary. Diligence also must be used in keeping truly the order of time; and describing lively, both the site of places and nature of persons, not only for the outward shape of the body, but also for the inward disposition of the mind, as Thucydides doth in many places very trimly, and Homer every where, and that always most excellently, which observation is chiefly to be marked in him; and our Chaucer doth the same, very praiseworthily mark him well and confer him with any other that writeth in our time in their proudest tongue whosoever list. -ASCHAM, ROGER, 1552, A Report and Discourse of the Affaires and State of Germany, ed. Giles, vol. III, p. 6. Wittie Chaucer satte in a chaire of gold couered with roses, writying prose and risme, accompanied with the spirites of many kynges, knightes, and faire ladies, whom he pleasauntly besprinkeled with the sweete water of the welle, consecrated vnto the muses, ecleped Aganippe, and, as the heauenly spirite, commended his deare Brigham for the worthy entōbynging of his bones, worthie of memorie, in the long slepyng chamber of moste famous kinges. Euen so in tragedie he bewailed the sodaine resurrection of many a noble man before their time, in spoilyng of epitaphes, wherby many haue loste their inheritaunce. BULLEIN, WILLIAM, 156473? A Dialogue Both Pleasaunt and Pietifull wherin is a Godlie Regiment against the Fever Pestilence, etc., Reliquiæ Hearniana, vol. II, p. 118. Our father Chaucer hath vsed the same libertie in feete and measures that the Latinists do vse: and who so euer do peruse and well consider his workes, he shall finde that although his lines are not alwayes of one selfe same number of Syllables, yet beyng redde by one that hath vnderstanding, the longest verse and that which hath most Syllables in it, will fall (to the eare) correspondent vnto that whiche hath fewest sillables in it: and like wise that whiche hath in it fewest syllables, shalbe founde yet to consist of woordes that haue suche naturall sounde, as may seeme equall in length to a verse which hath many moe sillables of lighter accentes.-GASCOIGNE, GEORGE, 1575, Certayne notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Ryme in English, ed. Arber, p. 34. Chawcer, who for that excellent fame which hee obtayned in his Poetry, was alwayes accounted the God of English Poets (such a tytle for honours sake hath beene giuen him) was next after, if not equall in time to Gower, and hath left many workes, both for delight and profitable knowledge, farre exceeding any other that as yet euer since hys time directed theyr studies that way. Though the manner of hys stile may seeme blunte and course to many fine English eares at these dayes, yet in trueth, if it be equally pondered, and with good iudgment aduised, and confirmed with the time wherein he wrote, a man shall perceiue thereby euen a true picture or perfect shape of a right Poet. He by his delightsome vayne, so gulled the eares of men with his deuises, that, although corruption bare such sway in most matters, that learning and truth might skant bee admitted to shewe it selfe, yet without controllment, myght hee gyrde at the vices and abuses of all states, and gawle with very sharpe and eger inuentions, which he did so learnedly and pleasantly, that none therefore would call him into question. For such was his bolde spyrit, that what enormities he saw in any, he would not spare to pay them home, eyther in playne words, or els in some prety and pleasant couert, that the simplest might espy him-.WEBBE, WILLIAM, 1586, A Discourse of English Poetrie, ed. Arber, p.32. But of them all particularly this is myne opinion, that Chaucer with Gower, Lidgat, and Harding for their antiquitie ought to haue the first place and Chaucer as the most renowmed of them all, for the much learming appeareth to be in him. aboue any of the rest. And though many of his bookes be but bare translations out of the Latin and French, yet are they wel handled, as his bookes of "Troilus" and "Creffeid," and the Romant of the Rose, whereof he translated but one halfe, the deuice was John de Mehunes a French Poet. -PUTTENHAM, GEORGE, 1589, The Arte of English Poesie, ed. Arber, p. 75. That renowmed Poet Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled, On Fames eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled. -SPENSER, EDMUND, 1590, The Faerie Queene, bk. iv, c. ii, s. 32. Art, like yong grasse in the spring of Chaucers florishing, was glad to peepe vp through any slime of corruption, to be beholding to she car'd not whome for apparaile, trauailing in those colde countries. NASHE, THOMAS, 1593, Strange Newes, etc., ed. Grosart. That by his meanes came first adorn'd with Vnto the sacred Relickes of whose rime, For his verses, although, in divers places, they seem to us to stand of unequal measures, yet a skilful reader, who can scan them in their nature, shall find it otherwise. And if a verse, here and there, fall out a syllable shorter or longer than another, I rather aret* it to the negligence and rapet of Adam Scrivener, (that I may speake as Chaucer doth,) than to any unconning or oversight in the author. SPEGHT, THOMAS, 16021, Preface to Chaucer's Works. Some few ages after§ came Geoffrey Chaucer, who writing his poesies in English, is of some called the first illuminator of the English tongue: of their opinion I am not (though I reverence Chaucer as an excellent poet for his time). He was indeed a great mingler of English with French, unto which language, belike for that he was descended of French, or rather Walloon, race, he carried a great affection.-VERSTEGAN, RICHARD, 1605, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the Most Noble and Renowned English Nation. Although the style for the antiquity may distaste you, yet as under a bitter and rough rind there lieth a delicate kernel of conceit and sweet invention. PEACHAM, According to Chawcers English, there can be little adling, without much gabbing, that is, small getting, without great lying, and cogging. HARVEY, GABRIEL, 1593, Pierces Supererogation, Harvey's HENRY, 1622, The Compleat Gentleman. Works, ed. Grosart. vol. II, p. 311. O, that I could old Gefferies Muse awake. The God of English poets.-MERES, FRANCIS, 1597, Palladis Tamia. You must be contented to gyve me leave in discharge of the duetye and love whiche I beare to Chaucer, (whome I suppose I have as great intereste to adorne withe my smale skyll as anye other hath, in regarde that the laborious care of my father made hym most acceptable to the worlde in correctinge and augmentinge his woorkes.)-THYNNE, FRANCIS, 1598, Animaduersions uppon Chaucer's Workes, Early English Text Society, vol. IX, p. 4. Yet what a time hath he wrested from Time, And wonne vpon the mighty waste of dayes, Vnto th' immortale honour of our clime! * Impute. + Haste. Not in edition of 1598. That noble Chaucer in those former times So wise as our Chaucer is esteemed. MILTON, JOHN, 1641, Of Reformation in England, Prose Works, vol. II, p. 396. He was the prince of English poets. He was a great refiner and illuminer of our English tongue; and, if he left it so bad, how much worse did he find it! FULLER, THOMAS, 1655, The Church History of Britain, bk. iv, sec. i, par. 47-48. The Conquest. |