RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

CHAUCER, No. II.-PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES.

OUR observations upon Chaucer have been partly drawn forth by a new publication of his works, in which, as the advertisement informs us, his objectionable parts are omitted, his learning is modernized, and his metre is restored to him,' by Charles Cowden Clarke, to which our attention has been accidentally called by the circumstance of the publisher having sent us a copy.* We were little prepared to receive such a work in good part, had it been done well, which, by the way, was not very probable; we knew too well the impossibility of reconciling the two last terms of the foregoing proposition, of modernizing the spelling and even saving, much less restoring, the metre; and we were by no means inclined to patronize the process through which poor Chaucer was likely to pass. The book, when we came to examine it, exceeded even our expectations; the preface alone was enough to show us that its writer had little of that knowledge of Chaucer which could qualify him for an editor; and one single passage convinced us at once of his entire ignorance of the language -"The reader, it is assumed, need not be informed, that our poet was the first after the Norman conquest, who in his compositions restored, or at least mainly contributed to restore our native language. Nevertheless, his diction abounds with Gallicisms, as well as with positive French words!!" We lament nothing more than the circumstance that almost every attempt to render popular our older literature has been made by those who were quite ignorant of it, and that which was a consequence, that all those who have written grammars of our language, who have attempted to discover and explain the origin and reasons of its forms and principles, have filled their books with groundless conjectures and suppositions, where a knowledge of our tongue, in its older forms, would not have left room for a moment's doubt.

We will content ourselves with giving a very few samples of Mr. Clarke's proceedings upon Chaucer; two or three specimens which meet our eye first on opening the book in just so many places, for we are not much inclined to enter far into it. In his preface he dwells on the importance of attending to the pronunciation of the final e, and he has accordingly marked it with an acute accent throughout the book, but in so doing he has disregarded all system or principle, except his own fancy, and the consequence is that he is as often wrong as right. For instance, he never makes any scruple of accentuating the final e before a following vowel, as (p. 66)—

"His neck was white as the fleur de lis."

He was quite unaware that this e is not sounded at the end of a line, and consequently he has given us some rather curious rhymes. Thus (p. 118) we have— "I mean not her the goddess Diáné,

But Peneus' daughter, which that highté Dané."

In the last of which lines Chaucer's metre is certainly not restored to him. Again, at p. 146, the beginning of the Man of Law's Tale stands thus—

"O scatheful harm, conditión of poverty,

With thirst, with cold, with hunger, so confounded,

To asken help thee shameth in thine hearté,

If thou none ask, so sore art thou ywounded."

This, however, is one of the evils arising out of Mr. Clarke's process of modernization. The word in the original was poverte, which Mr. Clarke took to be the same as if it had been povrete; but he must have a curious notion of the sound of the dull final e, to suppose that it could have rhimed with the French

The Riches of Chaucer. By Charles Cowden Clarke, 2 vols. 12mo. London, Effingham Wilson.

final té, (answering to the older Norman tet, and the still older Latin tas,) any more than to the forms which have since taken its place in our tongue, tie and ty. The passage in the original stands thus:

"O scathful harm, condition of poverte,

With thirst, with cold, with hunger so confounded,

To asken help thee shameth in thin herte,

If thou non ask, so sore art thou y-wounded."

In the Clarke's Tale the same word occurs with the e mute before a consonant, "How that betwixen your magnificence

And my poverte no wight ne can ne may
Maken comparison."

Where Mr. Clarke, ridiculously enough, prints it with a mark as though he supposed that the y were cut off in pronunciation, and that too before an n (in his modernized English)- my povert' no wight.' We do not know what kind of metre Mr. Clarke calls such lines as the following

"Do tellé me, if that it may be amended."-(p. 87.)

We will give one specimen of his manner of modernizing. In the early part of the Knight's Tale, we are told that the effect of the brilliancy of the statue of Mars was

"That all the feldës gliteren up and down."

Which Mr. Clarke, not knowing the plural form of the present tense of the verb, has changed into

"That all the fieldés glittering up and down."

Lastly, as far as the change of the language goes, we can assure our readers that Mr. Clarke's Chaucer is in no language at all, either ancient or modern; and that it is far less agreeable and more difficult to read than Chaucer's pure text. Our desire is to encourage our countrymen to read that pure text, by drawing their attention to some of the beauties they will find in it, and by introducing to them, in a more popular manner, its language and style. At the same time we shall find ourselves obliged, sometimes, to make slight emendations of Tyrwhitt's text.

In the whole range of our language we know nothing superior to the general prologue to the Canterbury Tales, whether for perfect versification, for richness of language, for vigour of description, for truth of portraiture, or for honesty and excellence of sentiment. It is the most finished of Chaucer's works. The noblest and worthiest of all, the Knight,

"That fro the time that he firste began

To riden out, he loved chevalrie,

Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie,"

And who, after all his victories and all his honours, was-

"of his port as meke as is a mayde;

He never yet no vilanie ne sayde,

In alle his lif, unto no manere wight ;"

with the Squire, his son, in all the gaiety of youth, embroidered like a meadow, "Alle ful of fresshë flowres white and rede,"

and his nut-headed brown-visaged Yeoman: the delicate and affected Nun, who was cleped Madame Eglentine, and who lisped out her French,

"After the scole of Stratford attë Bowe,"

with her smale houndes' and her seemly wimple; the fat and sleek Monk, who loved well venerie,' and liked not the rule of St. Maure and St. Benet,

"Because that it was olde and somdele streit ;"

the wanton and merry Friar; the good Wife' of Bath, who could laugh and

carpe' well in fellowship; the poor' Parson, who was rich only in holy thoughts and works; the simple Plowman, living in peace and perfect charity; the choleric Reeve; the Sompnour with his fire-red face; and the Pardoner, who by his fained flattering and his japes,' gained in one day more than the Parson gained in two months; are characters differing widely from each other, but all equally perfect and delightful pictures.

The character of the Knight seems to have been a great favourite with our forefathers. We could point out passages as far back as the twelfth century where this feeling is expressed, and where the Kuight is pointed out as the friend of the labourer and the agriculturist, he whose duty it was to drive away and bring to justice all who should attempt to disturb their peaceful occupations. We suspect, from the quarter in which it is first traced, that this feeling is Saxon. There is another poem, which is well deserving our study, both for its language and its matter, if we had but a good edition of it; and in which also there are some magnificent portraitures of the different classes of people during the middle ages, that may be well compared with those of Chaucer. We allude to the Visions of Pierce Plowman. There, as also in Chaucer, the religious orders are satirized unmercifully; but the character of the Knight is always shown in an advantageous light-his business it was to "riden and rappen doun

in reaumes aboute,
and taken transgressores,
and tyen hem faste,

til Treuthe had y-termyned
hire trespas to the ende.

And that is profession apertli
that apendeth to knyztes."

The institution is here traced to the days of David, who dubbed kny3tes;' and Christ knyзted' ten cherubym and seraphym, and made them archangels. When the pilgrims ask Piers the Plowman the way to the dwelling of Truth, and Piers proposes that they shall help to finish his harvest, after which he will go with them and be their guide, the Knight is the first who proffers his services.

"By Crist," quod a knyzt thoo, "he kenneth us the beste, ac on the teme trewely

tauzt was I nevere,

but kenne me," quod the knyzt, "and, by Crist, I wole assaye."

"By Saint Poul," quod Perkyn,

"ye profre yow so faire,

that I shal swynke and swete

and sowe for us bothe,

and othere labours do for thi love, al my lyf tyme,

in covenaunt that thow kepe
holy kirke and my selve

fre wastours and fro wikked men
that this world destruyeth.
And go hunte hardiliche

to hares and to foxes,

to bores and to brokkes,
that breken doun myne hegges,
and so affaite thi faucons
wilde foweles to kille,
for swiche cometh to my croft
and croppeth my whete."

Curteisly the knyzt thanne comsed thise wordes;

"By my power, Piers," quod he,
"I pligte thee my trouthe
to fulfille this forwarde,

"By Christ," said a knight then,
"he teacheth us the best,
though on the team, truly,
taught was I never;

but teach me," said the knight,
"and, by Christ, I will try."

66

"By Saint Paul," said Peter,

ye proffer you so fairly.

that I will labour and sweat

and sow for us both,

and do other labours for thy love,
all my lifetime,

in covenant that thou guard
holy church and myself

from wasters and from wicked men
who destroy this world.
And go hunt boldly
after hares and foxes,
after boars and goats

which break down my hedges,
and so prepare thy falcons
wild fowl to kill,

for such come to my croft
and crop my wheat."

Courteously then the knight
uttered these words:

"By my power, Peter," said he,
"I plight thee my troth
to fulfil this stipulation,

thou; I fizte sholde,

als longe as I lyve

I shal thee mayntene."

though it be by fighting,
as long as I live

I will maintain thee."

Other stipulations of the Plowman, that he should not punish unjustly, that he should be merciful in his judgments, that he should be meek, and not take gifts from poor men, that he should treat well his bondsmen, are all as readily assented to by the Knight. After a little time comes Wastour, and will appropriate to his own gluttony the Plowman's gainings, and the latter applies to the Knight, who courteously, as his nature required,' threatens the offender with punishment. But the insolence of Wastour and his companions provokes the Plowman to call in a ruder ally-that was Hunger, who wrung the Waster by the belly till his eyes watered, so buffeted one of his companions about the cheeks that he looked like a lantern all his life after, and nearly killed some of the others.

The characters of the Monk and the Friar are full of delicate sarcasm. The pride of the former, who aped the manners and occupations of the nobles, and whose qualifications for the higher office of abbot were his manliness, and his courage in following the hunt, is strongly contrasted with the sleek-faced gluttony of the other.

"He gave not of the text a pulled hen,

That saith that hunters ben not holy men ;
Ne that a monk, whan he is rekkëles

Is like to a fish that is waterless ;

This is to say, a monk out of his cloistre,

This ilke text held he not worth an oistre ;

And I say his opinion was good.

What shulde he studie, and maken himselven wood,
Upon a book in cloistre alway to pore,

Or swinken with his hondes, and laboure,

As Austin bit? how shal the world be served?

Let Austin have his swink to him reserved.

Therfore he was a prickasoure a right;

Greihoundes he hadde as swift as foul of flight;

Of pricking and of hunting for the hare

Was all his lust, for no cost wold he spare.

Line 2: Chaucer uses indiscriminately as the plural of the verb to be, ben, and arn. In all languages which have undergone any changes, there are found certain verbs of very common use whose conjugations are made up from several more ancient verbs, of which only certain forms are preserved. Of this a most notable example is our modern declension of to be. In the Saxon there were two verbs, wesan and beón. The present tense of the first was declined, sing. eom, eart, is or ys; plur. synd or syndon, in all the persons. The three persons in the singular have been retained in our forms am, art, is; the plural is preserved in the first and third persons singular of the German, sind. The other Saxon verb was declined in the pres. sing. beó, byst, byð, pl. beoð, and beó, in all the persons. The plural was retained in the middle-English, plural ben and bin, which is still preserved in some of our dialects. The singular exists in the present German bin, bist, of which the third person ist, agrees with that of the Saxon v. wesan. The other middle-English forms of the plur. pres. aren, arn, or are, the latter of which is the form still retained, exists now in the present tense of the Danish verb, sing, er, pl. ere, Our imperfect is derived from that of the Saxon v. wesan.

We agree in the main with Tyrwhitt's interpretation of the word rekkeles, in the third line of our extract, but we doubt if such a word as reghelles would have been used at the time of our poet.

The Friar was altogether a different person

"A frere there was, a wanton and a mery,
A limitour, a ful solempnë man.

In all the ordrës foure is non that can
So moche of daliance and fayre langage."

It was not sternness and severity which characterized him, but rather his leniency towards the sinful part of the community, at least wherever his leniency was likely to be profitable to himself.

"Ful swetely herde he confession,
And plesant was his absolution.
He was an esy man to give penance,
Ther as he wiste to han a good pitance:
For unto a poure ordre for to give
Is signe that a man is wel y-shrive.
For if he gave, he dorstë make avant,
He wistë that a man was repentant.
For many a man so hard is of his herte,
He may not wepe although him sorë smerte.
Therfore instead of weeping and praieres,
Men mote give silver to the pourë freres."

His habits were totally different from the other. The father abbot associated with lords; the haunts of the limitour' were more frequently taverns, and, whilst the other emulated the pride of the great, he everywhere aped humility,

"His tippet was ay farsed ful of knives,
And pinnës, for to given fayrë wives.
And certainly he had a mery note,

Wel conde he singe and plaien on a rote.
Of yeddinges he bare utterly the pris.
His nekke white was as the flour de lis.
Therto he strong was as a champioun,

And knewe the taverners wel in every toun,
And every hosteler and gay tapstere,
Better than a lazar or a beggere.
For unto swiche a worthy man as he
Accordeth nought, as by his faculté,
To haven with sike lazars acquaintance.
It is not honest, it may not avance,
As for to delen with no swiche pouraille,

But all with riche, and sellers of vitaille."

In the sixth line of this passage we have transposed two words with MS. Harl. 7334, for the sake of the metre: MS. Harl. 1758 reads, His nek was white as is the;' but the word nekke has generally elsewhere the final e. In the eighth line, we have adopted a reading from one of these MSS. in preference to Tyrwhitt's And knew wel the tavernes.'

Courtesy in the Friar was a thing to be bestowed only where it might be expected that it would be attended with gain, which was his constant object. But, in that case,

"Somewhat he lisped for his wantonnesse,

To make his English swete upon his tonge :
An in his harping, whan that he hadde songe,
His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright,

As don the sterres in a frosty night."

In our next paper we shall perhaps illustrate the characters of the different orders of monks from the works of other writers. As we began this paper with Clarke's Chaucer, we will also conclude with it. In the two characters of the Monk and the Friar, Mr. Clarke has committed three serious errors against Chaucer's metre

1. The rule of Saint Maure and of Saint Benet.'

2. And pins for to given fairé wives.'

-In the first and third of which we have twice the final e accentuated before a vowel, and in the second a dissyllable transformed into a monosyllable.