Therewith she looketh backward to the land,
And said, 'Farewell, husband ruthless; '
And up she rist, and walketh down the strand,
Toward the ship her followeth all the press,
And ever she prays her child to hold his peace;
And taketh leave, and with a holy intent,

She blesseth her, and into the ship she went."

Another of the most beautiful of all these stories, and the one which is, I think, most read, is the story of patient Griselda, told by the Oxford student. This tale, which Chaucer says he got from the Italian poet Petrarch, is of a meek woman who has married a man above her in rank, and is put to all sorts of cruel trials by her husband to prove her virtuous patience. She triumphs over all these. tests, and is happy at last. Our modern ideas revolt so against her treatment that we can hardly read the poem in patience; and even Chaucer says:

This story is said, not for that wives should
Follow Grisilde, as in humility.

For it were importable,* tho' they would.
But for that every wight in his degree,
Should be as constant in adversitee,

As was Grisilde, therefore Petrarch

This story writeth, which in high style he inditeth.

If you do not care to read all the Canterbury Tales, these I have mentioned are the three I would advise you to read first. A few of the stories are too coarse for modern tastethose of the miller, the merchant, the reve, and one or two others. Chaucer, at the outset, declares he is not responsible for the moral of the stories, and only tells them as he heard them. I regret that he should have thought it worth while to tell all he heard. But it is easy enough for us to keep out of way of the gross persons of the company, and most of the tales are pure enough for any time.

Chaucer's quaint old English deters many students nowa-days from the attempt to read him. But a very little * Importable-unbearable.

familiarity with him will make his language plain, with the occasional aid of a glossary to look up a word which has now become obsolete. And when once mastered, the elder English of Chaucer is delightful, and close knowledge of it will help to revive many dear and homely words that are fast disappearing from our language, and aid to make clear the meanings of other words, which we use without a full consciousness of their worth and richness. If we want to appreciate the beauty of our English tongue, we shall get great help by an acquaintance with Chaucer, and shall learn what a debt we owe to the Father of English poetry. And so we leave our good old poet reluctantly, as one with whom we would like to be better acquainted, to enter upon a century which is notable for two of the greatest events in the world's history. Let us see what these events are, and what influence they will be likely to work on Literature.

TALK XIV.

TELLING SOME OF THE GREAT EVENTS OF THE 15TH CENTURY-OF Caxton and HIS PRINTING Press; and of THE ROMANCE OF MORTE D'ARTHUR.

CHAUCER died in the opening year of the 15th century. With him literature seemed for a time to die also. The reign of the house of Lancaster brought in the hosts of bloody war; insurrections at home and battles abroad filled up the first half of the century, and when the house of York took the throne there was little quiet in which to hear the voice of poet or scholar. Two names that closely follow that of Chaucer are all the literary names best remembered till the close of the century. The first is that of John Died 1461. Lydgate, a monkish schoolmaster, who spent his leisure in writing poetry which we should pronounce very

Born 1375.

dull, indeed; the second is that of a lawyer, Thomas Born 1370. Occleve, who wrote poetry even duller than Lyd- Died 1454. gate's. In the hundred years and more after Chaucer no such genius blazed out as we have seen in Wycliffe's prose and Chaucer's verse.

But although few new books were written, the old books grew more and more into demand, and in no previous century were handsomer copies made of the great masterpieces of literature than in this time. So great was the increase in the making of books, that manuscript copying was no longer done wholly by monks, but became the work of men in every-day life. This change led naturally to the invention of printing, for as soon as book-making came to be a business of life, and not the pastime of scholars and priests, it passed into the hands of practical men, who would cast about to do the work more easily and rapidly than by the tedious way of hand-writing. Wooden blocks as large as a book page were first made, which were soon superseded by single letters of movable type, and from that time books could be made quickly, although at first they were not beautiful books, like those made by the painstaking monks, with their many colored inks, and slow, patient pens.

William Caxton, the first English printer, was a young man when he went to live in Belgium, as appren- Born 1412. tice to a London merchant. He stayed there till Died 1492. past middle life, and rose to a respectable height in business. He was always of a book-loving turn, and in his spare time he copied manuscripts for his own delight. It was thus natural that he should have become interested in the new art of printing which had begun in Germany and flourished all about him, and when he was able to do so, he gladly dropped the pen and took up the quicker mode of type-setting. In 1474 he came home to England with a printing press of his own, and began business in one of the buildings belonging to Westminster Abbey. Here, under the walls that had sheltered Chaucer when he finished the Canterbury Tales, Caxton invited all who desired to come and buy his books or

give orders for printing. All sorts of people answered this invitation; noble ladies and gentlemen of the realm were ready and glad to lend him their precious manuscript books to be copied by the printing press, and his work was honored as ought to be the work of a man who adds faithfully to the knowledge and progress of the world.

The list of the books which Caxton printed, shows good taste on the part of our first printer and publisher. They are from all sources-a miscellaneous, but very interesting library. The first book issued was a work on Chess, soon followed by a translation of the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. He also published the first edition of Chaucer's works, and the first edition of Gower and John Lydgate. From his press came translations of Virgil's Æneid, Ovid's Metamorphosues and the Consolations of Boethius. He printed the tales of Reynard the Fox, so famous even to this day; he gave to the English reader the fables of Æsop and also gave them the Book of Good Manners, and The Craft to know well how to Die. Caxton deserves to be considered more than a mere craftsman in book-making, for many of these works he translated himself, and by using, whenever he could, the simple spoken English, he did good work in helping to form and make stable our language. One of the most important books to our literature of all the number issued from his press was The Morte D'Arthur-the old stories of Arthur and his Knights, which were translated by Sir Thomas Malory from the French. In this book we have again the stories which belong to the Arthurian romance, woven into one. Here we see more fully than ever before the forms of King Arthur, Merlin, Sir Launcelot du Lake, Sir Percival, Sir Gawain, Sir Tristram, and the peerless and perfect Galahad. Here figure the beautiful Queen Guinevere, Isoud the fair, and Isoud the white-handed, Elaine the mother of Gallahad, and Elaine the lily maid of Astolat; and many other knights and ladies who form part of this fascinating romance.

1485.

This Morte D'Arthur, a collection of the same stories,

added to and enlarged, that had been made by Walter Map and his contemporaries, is the old book from which the modern poet, Tennyson, has drawn some of the beautiful stories which he tells in his Idyls of the King. The whole book of Malory's is a proŝe poem, so beautiful that I am going to quote for you one chapter-that which tells of the beautiful Elaine as she floats down to Camelot in her funeral barge.* Morte D'Arthur, Chap. 20, Book 18:

So by fortune King Arthur and the Queen Guinevere were speaking together at a window, and so as they looked into the Thames they espied a black barget in the river, and had marvel what it meant. Then the King called Sir Kay, and showed it him. "Sir," said Sir Kay, “wit you well, there is some new tidings." "Go thither," said the King, "and take with you Sir Brandiles and Sir Agravaine, and bring me ready word what is there." Then these three knights departed, and came to the barget, and went in; and there they found the fairest corpse lying in a rich bed, and a poor man sitting in the barget's end, and no word would he speak. So these three knights returned unto the King again and told him what they found.

"That fair corse will I see," said the King. So then the King took the Queen by the hand and went thither. Then he made the barget to be holden fast, and the King and Queen entered, with certain knights that were with them. And there he saw the fairest woman lie in a rich bed, covered to her waist with many rich clothes, and all was of cloth of gold, and she lay as though she had smiled. Then the Queen espied a letter in her right hand, and told it to the King. Then the King took it, and said: "Now I am sure this letter will tell what she was and why she is come hither." And so when the King came within his chamber he called many knights about him, and said he would wit openly what was written within that letter. Then the King brake the seal, and made a clerk to read it, and this was the intent of the letter:

"Most Noble Knight-Sir Launcelot: Now has death made us two at debate for your love; I was your love, that men called the fair Maiden of Astolat; therefore, unto all ladies I make my moan; yet pray for my soul, and bury me at the last, and offer ye my masspenny. This is my last request. Pray for my soul, Sir Launcelot, as thou art peerless knight.”

* In reading this extract from Morte D'Arthur, you should read after it the same account in Tennyson's Elaine, in order to see the contrast between the old form and the modern,