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Geoffrey Chaucer.

Chaucer, the father of English poetry, was born about the year 1328, probably in London, and educated at Cambridge. On arriving at man's estate, he joined the army with which Edward III. was trying to subjugate France. Taken prisoner at Poitiers, Chaucer, on being released, returned to England, and married a sister of the lady who became the wife of the Duke of Lancaster, better known as John of Gaunt.

King Edward regarded Chaucer with favor, and in 1372 sent him on a mission to Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Petrarch, then living at Padua. He was employed in other public services, sat in Parliament, shared in the downfall of John of Gaunt, fled to Holland, returned home in 1489, abandoned public life, and devoted himself to poetical composition. At the age of sixty-four he began the "Canterbury Tales," a picture of English life in the fourteenth century. He afterward wrote "The Romaunt of the Rose," "Troilus and Cresseide," "The Legende of Good Women," "Chaucer's Dream," "The Flower and the Leaf," "The House of Fame" (richly paraphrased by Pope), etc.

The accentuation in Chaucer's verse, by a license since abandoned, is different in many instances from that of common speech. For example, in

"Full well she sangé the service divine,"

sangé is two syllables, while service furnishes an example of a transposed accent. This poetical license of transposing an accent is not uncommon in the later poets.

Chaucer appears to have been of a joyous and happy temperament, generous and affectionate. He had that intense relish for the beauties of Nature so characteristic of the genuine poet. His works abound with enthusiastic descriptions of spring, the morning hour, the early verdure of groves, green solitudes, birds and flowNature, courts, camps, characters, passions, motives, are the topics with which he deals. He was opposed to the priests, whose hypocrisy he unmasked. A vigorous temperament, a penetrating, observing intellect, and a strong, comprehensive good-sense, are the instruments with which he fashions his poetical materials. Spenser refers to him as

ers.

"That renowned Poet,

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled,
On Fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be fyled."

In the following extracts the orthography is partially modernized. Where the change would impair either the measure or the spirit of the passage, the original spelling is retained.

AN EARTHLY PARADISE. FROM "THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF."

When that Phoebus his chair of gold so high
Had whirled up the starry sky aloft,
And in the Bull was entered certainly;
When showers sweet of rain descended soft,
Causing the ground, feole' times and oft,
Up for to give many a wholesome air;
And every plainé was y-clothéd fair

With newé green, and eth smallé flowers
To springen here and there in field and mead:
So very good and wholesome be the showers
That it reneweth that was old and dead
In winter time; and out of every seed
Springeth the herbé, so that every wight
Of this season wexeth glad and light;

1 Many; German, viel.

1

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