:

and revelation) must convince the reader, that equality of numbers in every verfe, which we call Heroic, was either not known, or not always practifed in Chaucer's age. It were an eafy matter to produce fome thousands of his verfes, which are lame for want of half a foot, and fometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwife. We can only fay, that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at the first. We must be children before we grow men. There was an Ennius, and in procefs of time a Lucilius, and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace ; even after Chaucer there was a Spenfer, a Harrington, a Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being and our numbers were in their nonage till these Jaft appeared. Ineed fay little of his parentage, life, and fortunes they are to be found at large in all the editions of his works. He was employed abroad, and favoured by Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Henry the Fourth, and was poet, as I fuppofe, to all three of them. In Richard's time, I doubt, he was a little dipt in the rebellion of the commons; and being brother-in-law to John of Graunt, it was no wonder if he followed the fortunes of that family; and v'as well with Henry the Fourth when he had depofed 1 his predeceffor. Neither is it to be admired, that Henry, who was a wife as well as a valiant prince, who claimed by fucceffion, and was fenfible that his title was not fund, but was rightfully in Mortimer, who had married the heir of York; it was not to be admired, I say, if that great politician fhould be pleafed to have the

:

greatest

greatest wit of thofe times in his interefts, and to be the trumpet of his praises. Auguftus had given him the example, by the advice of Mecenas, who recommended Virgil and Horace to him; whofe praifes helped to make him popular while he was alive, and after his death have made him precious to pofterity. As for the religion of our poet, he seems to have fome little bias towards the opinions of Wickliff, after John of Gaunt his patron; fomewhat of which appears in the tale of Piers Plowman: yet I cannot blame him for inveighing so sharply against the vices of the clergy in his age: their pride, their ambition, their pomp, their avarice, their worldly intereft, deferved the lafhes which he gave them, both in that, and in moft of his Canterbury tales: neither has his contemporary Boccace spared then. Yet both thofe poets lived in much efteem with good and holy men in orders for the fcandal which is given by particular priests, reflects not on the facred function. Chaucer's Monk, his Chanon, and his Fryer, took not from the character of his Good Parfon. A fatyrical poet is the check of the laymen, on bad priests. We are only to take care, that we involve not the innocent with the guilty in the fame condemnation. The good cannot be too much honoured, nor the bad too coarfely used for the corruption of the best becomes the worst. When a clergyman is whipped, his gown is first taken off, by which the dignity of his order is fecured : if he be wrongfully accufed, he has his action of flander; and it is at the poet's peril, if he tranfgrefs the law. But they will tell us, that all kind of fatire, though never

fo well deferved by particular priefts, yet brings the whole order into contempt. Is then the peerage of England any thing dishonoured, when a peer fuffers for his treafon? If he be libeled, or any way defamed, he has his "Scandalum Magnatum" to punish the offender. They, who u.e this kind of argument, seem to be confcious to themfelves of fomewhat which has deserved the poet's lafh, and are lefs concerned for their public capacity, than for their private; at least there is pride at the bottom of their reasoning. If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in fome fort parties: for, fince they fay the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure, that they will be impartial judges? How far I may be allowed to speak my opinion in this cafe, I know not: but I am fure a difpute of this nature caufed mifchief in abundance.betwixt a king of England and an archbishop of Canterbury; one standing up for the Laws of his land, and the other for the honour (as he called it) of God's Church; which ended in the murther of the prelate, and in the whipping of his majefty from poft to pillar for his penance. The learned and ingenious Dr. Drake has faved me the labour of inquiring into the esteem and reverence which the priests have had of old; and I would rather extend than diminish any part of it: yet I must needs fay, that when a priest provokes me without any occafion iven him, I have no reafon, unless it be the charity of a Chriftian, to forgive him. "Prior læfit" is justification sufficient in the Civil Law.

If I answer him in his own language, felf-defence, I am fure, must be allowed me; and if I carry it farther, even to a sharp recrimination, fomewhat may be indulged to human frailty. Yet my refentment has not wrought fo far, but that I have followed Chaucer in his character of a holy man, and have enlarged on that fubject with fome pleasure, referving to myself the right, if I fhall think fit hereafter, to defcribe another fort of priests, fuch as are more easily to be found than the good parson; such as have given the last blow to Christianity in this age, by a practice so contrary to their doctrine. But this will keep cold till another time. In the mean while, I take up Chaucer where I left him. He must have been a man of a moft wonderful comprehenfive 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 whole English nation, in his age. Not a fingle character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are feverally diftinguished from each other; and not only in their inclinations, but in their very phyfiognomies and perfons. Baptifta Porta could not have described their natures better, than by the marks which the poet gives them. The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are fo fuited to their different educations, humours, and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth. Even the grave and serious characters are distinguished by their feveral forts of gravity: their discourses are such as belong to their age, their calling, and their

breeding;

breeding; fuch as are becoming of them, and of them only. Some of his persons are vicious, and some virtuous; some are unlearned, or (as Chaucer calls them) lewd, and some are learned. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook, are feveral men, and diftinguished from each other, as much as the mincing lady priorefs, and the broad-peaking gap-toothed wife of Bath. But enough of this: there is fuch a variety of game springing up before me, that I am distracted in my choice, and know not which to follow. It is fufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our fore-fathers and great grand-dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer's days; their general characters are still remaining in mankind, and even in England, though they are called by other names than thole of Monks and Friars, and Chanons, and lady Abbeffes, and Nuns: for mankind is ever the fame, and nothing loft out of nature, though every thing is altered. May I have leave to do myself the juftice, (fince my enemies will do me none, and are so far from granting me to be a good poet, that they will not allow me fo much as to be a Chriftian, or a moral man); may I have leave, I fay, to inform my reader, that I have confined my choice to fuch tales of Chaucer as favour nothing of immodefty. If I had defired more to please than to inftruct, the Reeve, the Miller, the Shipman, the Merchants, the Sumner, and, above all, the Wife of Bath, in the prologue to her tale, would have procured me as many friends and readers, as there are