a translator, and some influence from the language he is translating passes into his own verse. The truth is that in his hands for the first time our language appears as it is; in structure of course purely Germanic, but rich, assimilative, bold in its borrowings, adopting and adapting at its pleasure any words of any language that might come in its way. How Chaucer used this noble instrument is not to be demonstrated; it is to be felt. De sensibus non est disputandum; it is vain to discuss matters of personal experience, to point to qualities in a poet's verse which must really be judged by the individual ear. Otherwise we might dwell on Chaucer's use of his metre, which varies in such subtle response to his subject and his mood; or on his skill in rhyming, though, as he says, 'ryme in Englisch hath such skarsetë'; or on the 'linked sweetness' of the love-passages in the Troylus; or on the grandeur of his tragic descriptions, where the sound gives so solemn an echo to the sense : First on the wal was peynted a forest, In which ther dwelleth neither man ne best, In which ther ran a swymbel in a swough.' These qualities come into view at a first reading of Chaucer; and why should the pleasure to be gained from them be kept for the few? How few there are who can read Chaucer so as to understand him perfectly,' says Dryden, apologising for 'translating' him. In our day, with the wider spread of historical study, with the numerous helps to old English that the care of scholars has produced for us, with the purification that Chaucer's text has undergone, this saying of Dryden's ought not to be true. It ought to be not only possible, but easy, for an educated reader to learn the few essentials of Chaucerian grammar, and for an ear at all trained to poetry to tune itself to the unfamiliar harmonies. For those who make the attempt the reward is certain. They will gain the knowledge, not only of the great poet and creative genius that these pages have endeavoured to sketch, but of the master who uses our language with a power, a freedom, a variety, a rhythmic beauty, that, in five centuries, not ten of his successors have been found able to rival. EDITOR. THE BOKE OF THE DUCHESSE. [The following passage is given as a specimen of Chaucer's earliest or French period. The date is 1369.] Me thoghtë thus, that hyt was May, Upon my chambre roof wythoute, Upon the tylës al aboute; And songen everych in hys wyse The mostë solempnë servise By noote, that ever man, Y trowe, Had herd. For somme of hem songe lowe, Was never herd so swete a steven, Was no-wher herd yet half so swete, Nor of acorde ne half so mete. For ther was noon of hem that feynede 1 I dreamed. 2 took trouble. To fynde out mery crafty notys; TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE. [Troylus sees Criseyde in the Temple, and loves her at first sight.] But though that Grekës hem of Troye in shetten', And hire cité beseged al aboute, Hire olde usages woldë thai noght letten, As for to honoure hire goddës ful devoute, 1 shut. And so byfel, whan comen was the tyme And to the temple, in alle hire bestë wise, Among thise other folk was Criseyda, As was Criseyde, as folk seyde everychon, This Troylus, as he was wont to gyde His yongë knyhtës, ladde hem up and down, Hadde he to non to reven1 him his reste, And in his walk ful fast he gan to wayten, And seye him thus :-'God wot sche slepeth softe 'I have herd telle, pardieux, of your lyvynge, And with that worde he gan caste up his browe, For, sodenly he hitte him attë fulle, O blynde world! O blynd intencioun ! How often falleth al the effecte contraire |