Undir his belt he bare ful thriftily:
Wel couth he dress his tackle yomanly:
His arrows droupid not with featheris low;
And in his hand he bare a mighty bow.
Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer1,
And by his side a sword and bokeler.
A Christopher on his brest of silver shene:
A horn he bare, the baudrick was of grene3.

The character of the REVE, an officer of much greater trust and authority during the feudal constitution than at present, is happily pictured. His attention to the care and custody of the manors, the produce of which was then kept in hand for furnishing his lord's table, perpetually employs his time, preys upon his thoughts, and makes him lean and choleric. He is the terror of bailiffs and hinds: and is remarkable for his circumspection, vigilance, and subtlety, He is never in arrears, and no auditor is able to over-reach or detect him in his accounts: yet he makes more commodious purchases for himself than for his master, without forfeiting the good will or bounty of the latter. Amidst these strokes of satire, Chaucer's genius for descriptive painting breaks forth in this simple and beautiful description of the REEVE'S rural habitation.

His wonning was ful fayre upon a heth,

With grene trees yshadowed was his place.

In the CLERKE OF OXENFORDE our author glances at the inattention paid to literature, and the unprofitableness of philosophy. He is emaciated with study, clad in a threadbare cloak, and rides a steed lean as a rake.

For he had gotten him no benefice,

Ne was so worldly for to have office :
For him had lever han at his bedshed
Twentie bokis, yclad with black or red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,
Then robis rich, fithell', or gay sautrie:
But albe that he was a philosopher,

Yet had he but little gold in his coffers.

His unweared attention to logic had tinctured his conversation with much pedantic formality, and taught him to speak on all subjects in a precise and sententious style. Yet his conversation was instructive : the episcopal stores of the said castle, I find enumerated 1,421 great arrows for cross bows remaining over and above 371 delivered to the bishop's vassals tempore guerre. Under the same title occur cross-bows made of horn. Arrows with feathers of the peacock occur in Lydgate's Chronicle of Troy, B. iii. cap. 22, sign. O. iii. edit. 1555, fol.

- Many good archers

Of Boeme, which with their arrows kene
And with fethirs of pecocke freshe and shene, &c.

1 Armour for the arms.

2 A saint who presided over the weather. The patron of field sports.

5 v. 608.

6 Rather.

3 v. 103.

7 Fidule.

4 Dwelling.
S v. 293. Or it may be explained, Yet he could not find the philosopher's stone.

300 THE SERJEANT OF LAWE.-MINE HOSTE OF THE TABARDE.

and he was no less willing to submit than to communicate his opinion to others.

Sowning in moral virtue was his speche,

And gladly would he learn, and gladly teche1.

The perpetual importance of the SERJEANT OF LAWE, who by habit or by affectation has the faculty of appearing busy when he has nothing to do, is sketched with the spirit and conciseness of Horace. No where so busy'a man as he ther n'as,

And yet he semid busier than he was2,

There is some humour in making our lawyer introduce the language of his pleadings into common conversation. He addresses the hoste.

Hoste, quothe he, de pardeux jeo assent3.

The affectation of talking French was indeed general, but it is here appropriate and in character.

Among the rest, the character of the HOSTE, or master of the Tabarde inn where the pilgrims are assembled, is conspicuous. He has much good sense, and discovers great talents for managing and regulating a large company; and to him we are indebted for the happy proposal of obliging every pilgrim to tell a story during the journey to Canterbury. His interpositions between the tales are very useful and enlivening; and he is something like the chorus on the Grecian stage. He is of great service in encouraging each person to begin his part, in conducting the scheme with spirit, in making proper observations on the merit or tendency of the several stories, in settling disputes which must naturally arise in the course of such an entertainment, and in connecting all the narratives into one continued system. His love of good cheer, experience in marshalling guests, address, authoritative deportment, and facetious disposition, are thus expressively displayed by Chaucer.

1 v. 300.

Grete chere our Hoste made us everichone,
And to the suppere set he us anone;

v. 323. He is said to have often yben at the parvise.' v. 312. It is not my design to enter into the disputes concerning the meaning or etymology of parvis: from which parvisia, the name for the public schools in Oxford, is derived. But I will observe, that parvis is mentioned as a court or portico before the church of Notre Dame at Paris, in John de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose, v. 12529.

A Paris n'eust hommes ne femme

Au parvis devant Nostre Dame.

The passage is thus translated by Chaucer Rom. R. v. 7157.

Ther n'as no wight in all Paris

Before our Ladie at Parvis

The word is supposed to be contracted from Paradise. This perhaps signified an ambulatory. Many of our old religious houses had a place called Paradise. In the year 1300, children were taught to read and sing in the Parvis of St. Martin's church at Norwich. Blomf. Norf. ii, 748. Our Sergeant is afterwards said to have received many fees and robes, v. 319. The sergeants and all the officers of the superior courts of law, anciently received winter and summer robes from the king's wardrobe. He is likewise said to cite cases and decisions, that from the time of king William were full,' v. 326. For this line see Barrington's Observations on the ancient Statutes. 3 v. 309.

And servid us with vitailes of the best :
Strong was his wine, and wele to drink us lest1
A semely man our hoste was withal

To bene a marshall in a lordis hal.

A large man was he, with eyin stepe,

A fayrer burgeis is there none in Chepe2.

Bold of his speche, and wise, and well ytaught,
And of manhode lakid him right nought.
And eke thereto he was a merry man, &c3.

Chaucer's scheme of the CANTERBURY TALES was evidently left unfinished. It was intended by our author, that every pilgrim should likewise tell a Tale on their return from Canterbury. A poet who lived soon after the CANTERBURY TALES made their appearance, seems to have designed a supplement to this deficiency, and with this view to have written a Tale called the MARCHAUNT'S SECOND TALE, or the HISTORY OF BERYN. It was first printed by Urry, who supposed it to be Chaucer's". In the Prologue, which is of considerable length, there is some humour and contrivance: in which the author, happily enough, continues to characterise the pilgrims, by imagining what each did, and how each behaved, when they all arrived at Canterbury. After dinner was ordered at their inn, they all proceeded to the cathedral. At entering the church one of the monks sprinkles them with holy water. The knight with the better sort of the company goes in great order to the shrine of Thomas Beckett. The Miller and his companions run staring about the church: they pretend to blazon the arms painted in the glass windows, and enter into a dispute in heraldry: but the Host of the Tabarde reproves them for their improper behaviour and inpertinent discourse, and directs them to the martyr's shrine. When all had finished their devotions, they return to the inn. In the way thither they purchase toys for which that city was famous, called Canterbury brochis: and here much facetiousness passes betwixt the Frere and the Sompnour, in which the latter vows revenge on the former, for telling a Tale so palpably levelled at his profession, and protests he will retaliate on their return by a more severe story. When dinner is ended, the Hoste of the Tabarde thanks all the company in form for their several Tales. The party then separate till supper-time

1 'We liked.'

2 Cheapside.

3 Prol. v. 749.

4 Or rather, two on their way thither, and two on their return. Only Chaucer himself tells two tales. The poet says, that there were twenty-nine pilgrims in company: but in the CHARACTERS he describes more. Among the TALES which remain, there are none of the Prioresse's Chaplains, the Haberdasher, Carpynter, Webbe, Dyer, Tapifer, and Hoste. The Chanons Yeman has a TALE, but no CHARACTER. The Plowman's Tale is certainly supposi titious. See supr. p. 306. And Obs. Spens. ii. 217. It is omitted in the best manuscript of the CANTERBURY TALES, MSS. Harl. 1758. fol. membran. These TALES were supposed to be spoken, not written. But we have in the Plowman's, 'For my WRITING me allow.' v. 3309. Urr. And in other places. For my WRITING if I have blame.'-'Of my WRITING have me excus'd.' etc. See a NOTE at the beginning of the CANT. TALES, MSS. Laud. K. 50. Bibl. Bodl. written by John Barcham, But the discussion of these points properly belongs to an editor of Chaucer.

5 Urr. Chauc. p. 595.

302 THE RETURN FROM CANTERBURY.-MERITS OF CHAUCER.

by agreement. The Knight goes to survey the walls and bulwarks of the city, and explains to his son the Squier the nature and strength of them. Mention is here made of great guns. The Wife of Bath is too weary to walk far; she proposes to the prioresse to divert themselves in the garden, which abounds with herbs proper for making salves. Others wander about the streets. The Pardoner has a low adventure, which ends much to his disgrace. The next morning they proceed on their return to Southwark: and our genial master of the Tabarde, just as they leave Canterbury, by way of putting the company into good humour, begins a panegyric on the morning and the month of April, some lines of which I shall quote, as a specimen of our author's abilities in poetical description1.

Lo! how the seson of the yere, and Averell2 shouris,
Doith3 the busshis burgyn1 out blossomes and flouris.

Lo! the prymerosys of the yere, how fresh they bene to sene,
And many othir flouris among the grassis grene.

Lo! how they spring and sprede, and of divers hue,
Beholdith and seith, both white, red, and blue.
That lusty bin and comfortabyll for mannis sight,
For I say for myself it makith my hert to light3.

On casting lots, it falls to the Marchaunt to tell the first tale, which then follows. I cannot allow that this prologue and Tale were written by Chaucer. Yet I believe them to be nearly coeval.

SECTION XVIII.

It is not my intention to dedicate a volume to Chaucer, how much soever he may deserve it; nor can it be expected, that, in a work of this general nature, I should enter into a critical examination of all Chaucer's pieces. Enough has been said to prove, that in elevation and elegance, in harmony and perspicuity of versification, he surpasses his predecessors in an infinite proportion: that his genius was universal, and adapted to themes of unbounded variety that his merit was not less in painting familiar manners with humour and propriety, than in moving the passions, and in representing the beautiful or the grand objects of nature with grace and sublimity. In a word, that he appeared with all the lustre and dignity of a true poet, in an age which compelled him to struggle with a barbarous language, and a national want of taste; and when to write verses at all, was regarded as a singular qualification. It is true indeed, that he lived at a time when the French and Italians had made considerable advances and improve2 April.

1 There is a good description of a magical palace, v. 1973-2076.
3 Make.
4 Shoot.

Bv. 690.

ments in poetry: and although proofs have already been occasionally given of his imitations from these sources, I shall close my account of him with a distinct and comprehensive view of the nature of the poetry which subsisted in France and Italy when he wrote: pointing out in the mean time, how far and in what manner the popular models of those nations contributed to form his taste, and influence his genius.

I have already mentioned the troubadours of Provence, and have observed that they were fond of moral and allegorical fables. A taste for this sort of composition they partly acquired by reading Boethius, and the PSYCHOMACHIA of Prudentius, two favorite classics of the dark ages; and partly from the Saracens their neighbours in Spain, who were great iuventors of apologues. The French have a very early metrical romance DE FORTUNE et de Felicite, a translation from Boethius's book DE CONSOLATIONE, by Reynault de Louens a Dominican friar1. From this source, among many others of the Provencal poems, came the Tournament of ANTICHRIST above-mentioned, which contains a combat of the Virtues and Vices: the Romaunt of Richard de Lisle, in which MODESTY fighting with LUST2 is thrown into the river Seine at Paris: and, above all, the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, translated by Chaucer, and already mentioned at large in its proper place. Visions were a branch of this species of poetry, which admitted the most licentious excursions of fancy in forming personifications, and in feigning imaginary beings and ideal habitations. Under these we may rank Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME, which I have before hinted to have been probably the production of Provence3.

1 Mem. Lit. tom. xviii. p. 741, 4to. And tom. vii. 293, 294. I have before mentioned John of Meun's translation of Boethius. It is in verse. John de Langres is said to have made a translation in prose, about 1336. It is highly probable that Chaucer translated Boethius from some of the French translations. In the Bodleian library there is an EXPLANATIO of Boethius's CONSOLATION by our countryman Nicholas Trivett, who died before 1329.

2 PUTERIE. Properly Bawdry, Obscenity. MODESTY is drowned in the river, which gives occasion to this conclusion, 'Dont vien que plus n'y a BONTE dans Paris.' The author lived about the year 1300.

6

3 The ingenious editor of the CANTERBURY TALES treats the notion, that Chaucer imitated the Provencal poets, as totally void of foundation. He says, 'I have not observed in any of his writings a single phrase or word, which has the least appearance of having been fetched from the South of the Loire. With respect to the manner and matter of his compositions, till some clear instance of imitation be produced, I shall be slow to believe, that in either he ever copied the poets of Provence; with whose works, I apprehend, he had Ivery little, if any acquaintance.' Vol. i. APPEND. PREF. p. xxxvi. I have advanced the contrary doctrine, at least by implication: and I here beg leave to explain myself on a subject materially affecting the system of criticism that has been formed on Chaucer's works. I have never affirmed, that Chaucer imitated the Provencal bards: although it is by no means improbable, that he might have known their tales. But as the peculiar nature of the Provencal poetry entered deeply into the substance, cast, and character, of some of those French and Italian models, which he is allowed to have followed, he certainly may be said to have copied, although not immediately, the matter and manner of these writers. I have called his HOUSE OF FAME originally a Provencal composition. I did not mean that it was written by a Provencial troubadour: but that Chaucer's original was compounded of the capricious mode of fabling, and that extravagant style of fiction, which constitute the essence of the Provencial poetry. As to the FLOURE AND THE LEAFE, which Dryden pronounces to have been composed after their manner, it is framed on the old allegorising spirit of the Provencal writers, refined and disfigured by the fopperies of the French poets in the fourteenth century. The ideas of these fablers have been so strongly imbibed, that they continued to operate long after Petrarch had introduced a more rational method of composition.