Chapter IV: Introduction: TO THE MINOR POEMS.--§ 1. Principles of selection (3)

He was our first great metrist, and has frequent references to his poetical art. He never slept on Parnassus, C. T., F 721; and the Host (in the C. T.) even accused him of writing 'dogerel,' B 2115. He cannot write alliterative verse, C. T., I 43. He admits that his rime is 'light and lewed,' and that some lines fail in a syllable, H. F., 1096-8. Yet he hopes that none will 'mismetre' him, T. v. 1796. He writes books, songs, and ditties in rime or 'cadence,' H. F. 622; also hymns, balades, roundels, and virelays, L. G. W. 422; and complaints, such as the Complaint to Pity, to his Lady, to his Purse, the Complaints of Mars, Anelida, and Venus, and the Complaint D'amours (or Amorous Complaint). Specimens of his graphic and dramatic power, of his skill in story and metre, of his tenderness and his humour, need not be here specified. He is fond of astronomy, as shewn by his Treatise on the Astrolabe; and, though he has but little faith in astrology (Ast. ii. 4. 37), he frequently refers to it as well as to astronomy; see B. D. 1206; Compl. Mars, 29, 54, 69, 79, 86, 113, 120, 129, 139, 145; P. F., 56, 59, 67, 117; Envoy to Scogan, 3, 9; H. F. 932, 936, 965, 993-1017; T. ii. 50, iii. 2, 618, 625, 716, iv. 1592, v. 1809; L. G. W. 113, 2223, 2585-99; C. T., A 7, 1087, 1328, 1463, 1537, 1566, 1850, 2021, 2035, 2059, 2217, 2271, 2367, 2454-69, 3192, 3209, 3516; B 1-14, 191, 308, 312, 4045-8, 4378-89; D 613, 704; E 1795, 1969, 2132, 2222; F 47-51, 263-5, 386, 906, 1032-5, 1045-59, 1130, 1245-9, 1261-6, 1273-96; I 2-12. Even his alchemy has some reference to astrology; C. T., G 826-9; cf. H. F. 1430-1512.

He refers to optics, C. T., F 228-235; to Boethius on music, C. T., B 4484, H. F. 788-818; and to magical arts, H. F. 1259-81, C. T., F 115, 132, 146, 156, 219, 250, 1142-51, 1157-62, 1189-1208.

2. HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS. The references to contemporary history are but few. The death of the Lady Blaunche is commemorated in the Book of the Duchesse. He refers to good queen Anne, L. G. W. 255, 275, 496; to the archbishop of Canterbury, C. T., B 4635; to 'this pestilence,' C 679; to Tyler's rebellion, A 2459; and Jack Straw, B 4584. Perhaps the Complaints of Mars and Venus refer to real personages; see the Notes to those poems. He mentions Dante, H. F. 450, L. G. W. 360, C. T. B 3651, D 1126; Petrarch, C. T., E 31, 1147; Pedro the Cruel, king of Spain, C. T., B 3565, Bertrand du Gueschlin, 3573, and Sir Oliver Mauny, 3576; Peter, king of Cyprus, 3581; Bernabo Visconti, duke of Milan, 3589, and the 'tyrants' of Lombardy, L. G. W. 374; Ugolino of Pisa and the archbishop Ruggieri, C. T., B 3597, 3606. There are several allusions to recent events in the Prologue, A 51-66, 86, 276, 399; and perhaps in C. T., E 995-1001.

His literary allusions are too numerous to be here recited. The reader can consult the Index in vol. vi.

§ 47. ALLUSIONS TO CHAUCER. One of the earliest allusions to Chaucer as a poet occurs in the works of Eustache Deschamps, a contemporary poet of France. It is remarkable that he chiefly praises him as being 'a great translator.' Perhaps this was before his longest poems were written; there is express reference to his translation of Le Roman de la Rose, and, possibly, to Boethius. The poem tells us that Deschamps had sent Chaucer a copy of some of his poems by a friend named Clifford, and he hopes to receive something of Chaucer's in return. The poem is here quoted entire, from the edition of Deschamps by le Marquis de Queux de Saint-Hilaire, published for the Société des Anciens Textes Français, t. ii. p. 138:--

'O Socrates plains de philosophie,
Seneque en meurs et Anglux en pratique,
Ovides grans en ta poeterie,
Bries en parler, saiges en rethorique,
Aigles treshaulz, qui par ta theorique
Enlumines le regne d'Eneas,
L'Isle aux Geans, ceuls de Bruth, et qui as
Semé les fleurs et planté le rosier,
Aux ignorans de la langue pandras,
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.

Tu es d'amours mondains Dieux en Albie:
Et de la Rose, en la terre Angelique,
Qui d'Angela saxonne, est puis flourie
Angleterre, d'elle ce nom s'applique
Le derrenier en l'ethimologique;
En bon anglès le livre translatas;
Et un vergier ou du plant demandas
De ceuls qui font pour eulx autorisier,
A ja longtemps que tu edifias,
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.

A toy pour ce de la fontaine Helye
Requier avoir un buvraige autentique,
Dont la doys est du tout en ta baillie,
Pour rafrener d'elle ma soif ethique,
Qui en Gaule seray paralitique
Jusques a ce que tu m'abuveras.
Eustaces sui, qui de mon plant aras:
Mais pran en gré les euvres d'escolier
Que par Clifford de moy avoir pourras,
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.

LENVOY.

Poete hault, loenge destruye,
En ton jardin ne seroye qu'ortie:
Consideré ce que j'ay dit premier
Ton noble plant, ta douce mélodie,
Mais pour sçavoir, de rescripre te prie,
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.'

Gower alludes to Chaucer in the first edition of the Confessio Amantis; see the passage discussed in vol. iii. p. 414.

Henry Scogan wrote 'a moral balade' in twenty-one 8-line stanzas, in which he not only refers to Chaucer's poetical skill, but quotes the whole of his Balade on Gentilesse; see vol. i. p. 83.

Hoccleve frequently refers to Chaucer as his 'maister,' i. e. his teacher, with great affection; and, if he learnt but little more, he certainly learnt the true method of scansion of his master's lines, and imitates his metres and rimes with great exactness. The passages relating to Chaucer are as follows[179].

(1) From the Governail of Princes, or De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, p. 67, st. 267):--

'Thou were acqueynted with Chaucer, pardee--
God save his soule--best of any wight.'

(2) From the same, p. 75, stanzas 280, 281-283, 297-299, 301:--

'But weylawey! so is myn herte wo
That the honour of English tonge is deed,
Of which I wont was han conseil and reed.

O maister dere and fader reverent,
My maister Chaucer, flour of eloquence,
Mirour of fructuous entendement,
O universel fader in science,
Allas! that thou thyn excellent prudence
In thy bed mortel mightest not bequethe!
What eyled Deeth? Allas! why wolde he slee thee?

O Deeth! thou didest not harm singuler
In slaghtre of him, but al this land it smerteth!
But nathelees, yit hast thou no powèr
His name slee; his hy vertu asterteth
Unslayn fro thee, which ay us lyfly herteth
With bokes of his ornat endyting,
That is to al this land enlumining....

My dere maister--God his soule quyte--
and fader, Chaucer, fayn wolde han me taught;
But I was dul, and lernede right naught[180].

Allas! my worthy maister honorable,
This landes verray tresor and richesse!
Deeth, by thy deeth, hath harm irreparable
Unto us doon; hir vengeable duresse
Despoiled hath this land of the swetnesse
Of rethoryk; for unto[181] Tullius
Was never man so lyk amonges us.

Also who was heyr[182] in philosophye
To Aristotle, in our tonge, but thou?
The steppes of Virgyle in poesye
Thou folwedest eek, men wot wel y-now.
That combre-world, that thee (my maister) slow--
Wolde I slayn werë--Deeth, was to hastyf
To renne on thee, and reve thee thy lyf....

She mighte han taried hir vengeance a whyle
Til that som man had egal to thee be;
Nay, lat be that! she knew wel that this yle
May never man forth bringe lyk to thee,
And hir offyce nedes do mot she:
God bad hir so, I truste as for the beste;
O maister, maister, God thy soule reste!

(3) From the same, p. 179, stanzas 712-4:--

The firste finder of our fair langage
Hath seyd in caas semblable, and othere mo,
So hyly wel, that it is my dotage
For to expresse or touche any of tho.
Allas! my fader fro the worlde is go,
My worthy maister Chaucer, him I mene:
Be thou advóket for him, hevenes quene?

As thou wel knowest, O blessèd virgyne,
With loving herte and hy devocioun
In thyn honour he wroot ful many a lyne.
O, now thy help and thy promocioun!
To God, thy Sonë, mak a mocioun
How he thy servaunt was, mayden Marië,
And lat his lovë floure and fructifyë.

Al-thogh his lyf be queynt, the résemblaunce
Of him hath in me so fresh lyflinesse
That, to putte othere men in rémembraunce
Of his persone, I have heer his lyknesse
Do makë, to this ende, in sothfastnesse,
That they, that have of him lest thought and minde,
By this peynturë may ageyn him finde.'

Here is given, in the margin of the MS., the famous portrait of Chaucer which is believed to be the best, and probably the only one that can be accepted as authentic. A copy of it is prefixed to the present volume, and to Furnivall's Trial-Forewords, Chaucer Soc., 1871; and an enlarged copy accompanies the Life-Records of Chaucer, part 2. It is thus described by Sir H. Nicolas:--'The figure, which is half-length, has a back-ground of green tapestry. He is represented with grey hair and beard, which is biforked; he wears a dark-coloured dress and hood; his right hand is extended, and in his left he holds a string of beads. From his vest a black case is suspended, which appears to contain a knife, or possibly a 'penner,' or pen-case[183]. The expression of the countenance is intelligent; but the fire of the eye seems quenched, and evident marks of advanced age appear on the countenance.' Hoccleve did not paint this portrait himself, as is often erroneously said; he 'leet do make it,' i. e. had it made. It thus became the business of the scribe, and the portraits in different copies of Hoccleve's works vary accordingly. There is a full-length portrait in MS. Reg. 17 D. vi, marked as 'Chaucers ymage'; and another in a MS. copy once in the possession of Mr. Tyson, which was engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792, vol. lxii. p. 614; perhaps the latter is the copy which is now MS. Phillipps 1099. A representation of Chaucer on horseback, as one of the pilgrims, occurs in the Ellesmere MS.; an engraving of it appears as a frontispiece to Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer. A small full-length picture of Chaucer occurs in the initial letter of the Canterbury Tales, in MS. Lansdowne 851. Other portraits, such as that in MS. Addit. (or Sloane) 5141, the painting upon wood in the Bodleian Library, and the like, are of much later date, and cannot pretend to any authenticity.

Lydgate has frequent references to his 'maister Chaucer.' The most important is that in the Prologue to his Fall of Princes, which begins thus:--

'My maister Chaucer, with his fresh comédies,
Is deed, allas! cheef poete of Bretayne,
That somtym made ful pitous tragédies;
The "fall of princes" he dide also compleyne,
As he that was of making soverayne,
Whom al this land of right[e] ought preferre,
Sith of our langage he was the loodsterre.'

The 'fall of princes' refers to the Monkes Tale, as explained in vol. iii. p. 431. He next refers to 'Troilus' as being a translation of a book 'which called is Trophe' (see vol. ii. p. liv.); and to the Translation of Boethius and the Treatise of the Astrolabe. He then mentions many of the Minor Poems (in the stanzas quoted below, p. 23), the Legend of Good Women (see vol. iii. p. xx.), and the Canterbury Tales; and concludes thus:--

'This sayd poete, my maister, in his dayes
Made and composed ful many a fresh ditee,
Complaintes, balades, roundels, virelayes,
Ful delectable to heren and to see;
For which men shulde, of right and equitee,
Sith he of English in making was the beste,
Praye unto God to yeve his soule reste.'

So also, in his Siege of Troye, fol. K 2:--

'Noble Galfryde, chefe Poete of Brytayne,
Among our English that caused first to rayne
The golden droppes of Rethorike so fyne,
Our rudë language onely t'enlumine,' &c.

And again, in the same, fol. R 2, back:--

'For he our English gilt[e] with his layes,
Rude and boystous first, by oldë dayes,
That was ful fer from al perfeccioun
And but of lytel reputacioun,
Til that he cam, and with his poetrye
Gan our tungë first to magnifye,
And adourne it with his eloquence'; &c.

And yet again, at fol. Ee 2:--

'And, if I shal shortly him discryve,
Was never noon [un]to this day alyve,
To reken all[e], bothe of yonge and olde,
That worthy was his inkhorn for to holde.'

Similar passages occur in some of his other works, and shew that he regarded Chaucer with affectionate reverence.

Allusions in later authors have only a literary value, and need not be cited in a Life of Chaucer.

* * * * *

I subjoin (on p. lxii.) a List of Chaucer's genuine works, arranged, as nearly as I can conjecture, in their chronological order. Of his poetical excellence it is superfluous to speak; Lowell's essay on 'Chaucer' in My Study Windows gives a just estimate of his powers.

LIST OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.

The following list is arranged, _conjecturally_, in chronological order. It will be understood that much of the arrangement and some of the dates are due to guesswork; on a few points scholars are agreed. See further in pp. 20-91 below, &c. Of the Poems marked (a), there seem to have been _two_ editions, (a) being the earlier. The letters and numbers appended at the end denote the _metres_, according to the following scheme.

A = octosyllabic metre; B = ballad metre, in Sir Thopas; C = 4-line stanza, in the Proverbes; P = Prose.

The following sixteen metres are original (i. e. in _English_); viz. 1 = 8-line stanza, _ababbcbc_; 1 b = the same, thrice, with refrain. 2 = 7-line stanza, _ababbcc_; 2 b = the same, thrice, with refrain; 2 _c_ = 7-line stanza, _ababbab_. 3 = terza rima. 4 = 10-line stanza, _aabaabcddc_. 5 = 9-line stanza, _aabaabbab_; 5 b = the same, with internal rimes. 6 = virelai of 16 lines. 7 = 9-line stanza, _aabaabbcc_. 8 = roundel. 9 = heroic couplet. 10 = 6-line stanza, _ababcb_, repeated six times. 11 = 10-line stanza, _aabaabbaab_. 12 = 5-line stanza, _aabba_.

*** C. T. = Canterbury Tales; L. G. W. = Legend of Good Women; M. P. = Minor Poems.

Origenes upon the Maudeleyne (See L. G. W., A 418; lost.)
Book of the Leoun (C. T., I. 1087; lost).
(a) Ceys and Alcion (C. T., B. 57; Bk. Duch. 62-214).--A.
Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 1-1705; rest lost.--A.
A. B. C.; in M. P. I.--1.
1369. Book of the Duchesse; M. P. III.--A.
(a) Lyf of Seynt Cecyle (L. G. W., B 426; C. T.,
G. 1-553).--2[184].
(a) Monkes Tale (parts of); except B. 3565-3652.--1.
ab. 1372-3. (a) Clerkes Tale; except E. 995-1008, and the Envoy.--2.
(a) Palamon and Arcite (scraps preserved).--2.
Compleint to his Lady; M. P. VI.--2. 3. 4.
An Amorous Compleint, made at Windsor; M. P. XXII.--2.
Compleint unto Pitè; M. P. II.--2.
Anelida and Arcite (10 stt. from Palamon); M. P. VII.--
2. 5. 6. 5 b.
(a) The Tale of Melibeus.--P.
(a) The Persones Tale.--P.
(a) Of the Wreched Engendring of Mankinde (L. G. W., A. 414;
cf. C. T., B. 99-121, &c.)--2.
(a) Man of Lawes Tale; amplified in C. T.--2.
1377-81. Translation of Boethius.--P.
1379? Compleint of Mars; M. P. IV.--2. 7.
1379-83. Troilus and Criseyde (3 stt. from Palamon).--2.
Wordes to Adam (concerning Boece and Troilus);
M. P. VIII.--2.
The Former Age (from Boece); M. P. IX.--1.
Fortune (hints from Boece); M. P. X.--1 b. 2 c.
1382. Parlement of Foules (16 stt. from Palamon); M. P. V.--2. 8.
1383-4. House of Fame.--A.
1385-6. Legend of Good Women.--9.
1386. Canterbury Tales begun.
1387-8. Central period of the Canterbury Tales.
1389, &c. The Tales continued.--B. 1. 2. 9. 10. P.
1391. Treatise on the Astrolabe.--P.
1393? Compleint of Venus; M. P. XVIII.--1 b. 11.
1393. Lenvoy to Scogan; M. P. XVI.--2.
1396. Lenvoy to Bukton; M. P. XVII.--1.
1399. Envoy to Compleint to his Purse; M. P. XIX.--12.

The following occasional triple roundel and balades _may_ have been composed between 1380 and 1396:--

Merciless Beautè; M. P. XI--8.
Balade to Rosamounde; M. P. XII.--1 b.
Against Women Unconstaunt; M. P. XXI--2 b.
(_a_) Compleint to his Purse; M. P. XIX.--2 b.
Lak of Stedfastnesse; M. P. XV.--2 b.
Gentilesse; M. P. XIV.--2 b.
Truth; M. P. XIII.--2 b.
Proverbes of Chaucer; M. P. XX.--C.

* * * * *

ERRATA AND ADDENDA.

P. 95: l. 47. Insert a comma after 'oughte'

P. 98: l. 114. Omit the comma at the end of the line.

P. 123: l. 705. It would be better to read 'Withoute.' The scansion
then is:

Without | e fabl' | I wol | descryve.

P. 126: l. 793. Delete the comma at the end of the line.

P. 127: l. 806. Delete the comma at the end of the line.

P. 135: l. 997. _For_ shall _read_ shal

P. 136: ll. 1015-6. Improve the punctuation thus:--

As whyt as lilie or rose in rys
Hir face, gentil and tretys.

P. 136: l. 1021. Delete the comma after 'yelowe'

P. 141: l. 1154. Delete the comma after 'seide'

P. 168: l. 1962. _For_ Bu -if _read_ But-if

P. 176: l. 2456. _For_ joy _read_ Ioy

P. 201: l. 4035. For the comma substitute a semicolon.

P. 249: l. 7087. _For_ echerye _read_ trecherye

P. 253: l. 7324. _For_ weary _read_ wery

P. 255: l. 7437. Supply a comma at the end of the line.

P. 258: l. 7665. Insert a comma after 'helle'

P. 269: l. 145. The stop at the end should be a comma.

P. 278: l. 49. _For_ aud _read_ and

P. 282: l. 145. _For_ Aud _read_ And

P. 301: l. 716. The comma should perhaps be a semicolon or a full stop.

P. 313: l. 1069. For 'Antilegius,' a better form would be 'Antilogus,'
a French form of Antilochus.

P. 326: l. 74. Perhaps 'let' should be 'lete'

P. 330: l. 206. _For_ folke _read_ folk

P. 338: l. 91. _For_ Aud _read_ And

P. 340: l. 133. _For_ the _read_ thee

P. 362: l. 76. The final stop should be a comma.

P. 374: ll. 243, 248. _For_ desteny _and_ ful _better forms are_
destinee _and_ fulle

P. 377: l. 328. _For_ furlong wey _read_ furlong-wey

* * * * *