English Literature
conversation. Of his education we know nothing, except that he was a great
reader. His father was a wine merchant, purveyor to the royal household,
and from this accidental relation between trade and royalty may have arisen
the fact that at seventeen years Chaucer was made page to the Princess
Elizabeth. This was the beginning of his connection with the brilliant
court, which in the next forty years, under three kings, he was to know so
intimately.
At nineteen he went with the king on one of the many expeditions of the
Hundred Years' War, and here he saw chivalry and all the pageantry of
mediæval war at the height of their outward splendor. Taken prisoner at the
unsuccessful siege of Rheims, he is said to have been ransomed by money out
of the royal purse. Returning to England, he became after a few years
squire of the royal household, the personal attendant and confidant of the
king. It was during this first period that he married a maid of honor to
the queen. This was probably Philippa Roet, sister to the wife of John of
Gaunt, the famous Duke of Lancaster. From numerous whimsical references in
his early poems, it has been thought that this marriage into a noble family
was not a happy one; but this is purely a matter of supposition or of
doubtful inference.
In 1370 Chaucer was sent abroad on the first of those diplomatic missions
that were to occupy the greater part of the next fifteen years. Two years
later he made his first official visit to Italy, to arrange a commercial
treaty with Genoa, and from this time is noticeable a rapid development in
his literary powers and the prominence of Italian literary influences.
During the intervals between his different missions he filled various
offices at home, chief of which was Comptroller of Customs at the port of
London. An enormous amount of personal labor was involved; but Chaucer
seems to have found time to follow his spirit into the new fields of
Italian literature:
For whan thy labour doon al is,
And hast y-maad thy rekeninges,
In stede of reste and newe thinges,
Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon,
And, also domb as any stoon,
Thou sittest at another boke
Til fully daswed is thy loke,
And livest thus as an hermyte.[71]
In 1386 Chaucer was elected member of Parliament from Kent, and the
distinctly English period of his life and work begins. Though exceedingly
busy in public affairs and as receiver of customs, his heart was still with
his books, from which only nature could win him:
And as for me, though that my wit be lyte,
On bokes for to rede I me delyte,
And to hem yeve I feyth and ful credence,
And in myn herte have hem in reverence
So hertely, that ther is game noon
That fro my bokes maketh me to goon,
But hit be seldom, on the holyday;
Save, certeynly, whan that the month of May
Is comen, and that I here the foules singe,
And that the floures ginnen for to springe--
Farwel my book and my devocioun![72]
In the fourteenth century politics seems to have been, for honest men, a
very uncertain business. Chaucer naturally adhered to the party of John of
Gaunt, and his fortunes rose or fell with those of his leader. From this
time until his death he is up and down on the political ladder; to-day with
money and good prospects, to-morrow in poverty and neglect, writing his
"Complaint to His Empty Purs," which he humorously calls his "saveour doun
in this werlde here." This poem called the king's attention to the poet's
need and increased his pension; but he had but few months to enjoy the
effect of this unusual "Complaint." For he died the next year, 1400, and
was buried with honor in Westminster Abbey. The last period of his life,
though outwardly most troubled, was the most fruitful of all. His "Truth,"
or "Good Counsel," reveals the quiet, beautiful spirit of his life,
unspoiled either by the greed of trade or the trickery of politics:
Flee fro the prees, and dwelle with sothfastnesse,
Suffyce unto thy good, though hit be smal;
For hord[73] hath hate, and climbing tikelnesse,
Prees[74] hath envye, and wele[75] blent[76] overal;
Savour no more than thee bihovë shal;
Werk[77] wel thyself, that other folk canst rede;
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
Tempest[78] thee noght al croked to redresse,
In trust of hir[79] that turneth as a bal:
Gret reste stant in litel besinesse;
And eek be war to sporne[80] ageyn an al[81];
Stryve noght, as doth the crokke with the wal.
Daunte[82] thyself, that dauntest otheres dede;
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
That thee is sent, receyve in buxumnesse,
The wrastling for this worlde axeth a fal.
Her nis non hoom, her nis but wildernesse:
Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste, out of thy stall,
Know thy contree, look up, thank God of al;
Hold the hye wey, and lat thy gost thee lede:
And trouthe shal delivere, hit is no drede.
WORKS OF CHAUCER, FIRST PERIOD. The works of Chaucer are roughly divided
into three classes, corresponding to the three periods of his life. It
should be remembered, however, that it is impossible to fix exact dates for
most of his works. Some of his _Canterbury Tales_ were written earlier than
the English period, and were only grouped with the others in his final
arrangement.
The best known, though not the best, poem of the first period is the
_Romaunt of the Rose_,[83] a translation from the French _Roman de la
Rose_, the most popular poem of the Middle Ages,--a graceful but
exceedingly tiresome allegory of the whole course of love. The Rose growing
in its mystic garden is typical of the lady Beauty. Gathering the Rose
represents the lover's attempt to win his lady's favor; and the different
feelings aroused--Love, Hate, Envy, Jealousy, Idleness, Sweet Looks--are
the allegorical persons of the poet's drama. Chaucer translated this
universal favorite, putting in some original English touches; but of the
present _Romaunt_ only the first seventeen hundred lines are believed to be
Chaucer's own work.
Perhaps the best poem of this period is the "Dethe of Blanche the
Duchesse," better known, as the "Boke of the Duchesse," a poem of
considerable dramatic and emotional power, written after the death of
Blanche, wife of Chaucer's patron, John of Gaunt. Additional poems are the
"Compleynte to Pite," a graceful love poem; the "A B C," a prayer to the
Virgin, translated from the French of a Cistercian monk, its verses
beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet; and a number of what
Chaucer calls "ballads, roundels, and virelays," with which, says his
friend Gower, "the land was filled." The latter were imitations of the
prevailing French love ditties.
SECOND PERIOD. The chief work of the second or Italian period is _Troilus
and Criseyde_, a poem of eight thousand lines. The original story was a
favorite of many authors during the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare makes use
of it in his _Troilus and Cressida_. The immediate source of Chaucer's poem
is Boccaccio's _Il Filostrato,_ "the love-smitten one"; but he uses his
material very freely, to reflect the ideals of his own age and society, and
so gives to the whole story a dramatic force and beauty which it had never
known before.
The "Hous of Fame" is one of Chaucer's unfinished poems, having the rare
combination of lofty thought and simple, homely language, showing the
influence of the great Italian master. In the poem the author is carried
away in a dream by a great eagle from the brittle temple of Venus, in a
sandy wilderness, up to the hall of fame. To this house come all rumors of
earth, as the sparks fly upward. The house stands on a rock of ice
writen ful of names
Of folk that hadden grete fames.
Many of these have disappeared as the ice melted; but the older names are
clear as when first written. For many of his ideas Chaucer is indebted to
Dante, Ovid, and Virgil; but the unusual conception and the splendid
workmanship are all his own.
The third great poem of the period is the _Legende of Goode Wimmen_. As he
is resting in the fields among the daisies, he falls asleep and a gay
procession draws near. First comes the love god, leading by the hand
Alcestis, model of all wifely virtues, whose emblem is the daisy; and
behind them follow a troup of glorious women, all of whom have been
faithful in love. They gather about the poet; the god upbraids him for
having translated the _Romance of the Rose_, and for his early poems
reflecting on the vanity and fickleness of women. Alcestis intercedes for
him, and offers pardon if he will atone for his errors by writing a
"glorious legend of good women." Chaucer promises, and as soon as he awakes
sets himself to the task. Nine legends were written, of which "Thisbe" is
perhaps the best. It is probable that Chaucer intended to make this his
masterpiece, devoting many years to stories of famous women who were true
to love; but either because he wearied of his theme, or because the plan of
the _Canterbury Tales_ was growing in his mind, he abandoned the task in
the middle of his ninth legend,--fortunately, perhaps, for the reader will
find the Prologue more interesting than any of the legends.
THIRD PERIOD. Chaucer's masterpiece, the _Canterbury Tales_, one of the
most famous works in all literature, fills the third or English period of
his life. The plan of the work is magnificent: to represent the wide sweep
of English life by gathering a motley company together and letting each
class of society tell its own favorite stories. Though the great work was
never finished, Chaucer succeeded in his purpose so well that in the
_Canterbury Tales_ he has given us a picture of contemporary English life,
its work and play, its deeds and dreams, its fun and sympathy and hearty
joy of living, such as no other single work of literature has ever equaled.
PLAN OF THE CANTERBURY TALES. Opposite old London, at the southern end of
London Bridge, once stood the Tabard Inn of Southwark, a quarter made
famous not only by the _Canterbury Tales_, but also by the first playhouses
where Shakespeare had his training. This Southwark was the point of
departure of all travel to the south of England, especially of those
mediæval pilgrimages to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. On a
spring evening, at the inspiring time of the year when "longen folk to goon
on pilgrimages," Chaucer alights at the Tabard Inn, and finds it occupied
by a various company of people bent on a pilgrimage. Chance alone had
brought them together; for it was the custom of pilgrims to wait at some
friendly inn until a sufficient company were gathered to make the journey
pleasant and safe from robbers that might be encountered on the way.
Chaucer joins this company, which includes all classes of English society,
from the Oxford scholar to the drunken miller, and accepts gladly their
invitation to go with them on the morrow.
At supper the jovial host of the Tabard Inn suggests that, to enliven the
journey, each of the company shall tell four tales, two going and two
coming, on whatever subject shall suit him best. The host will travel with
them as master of ceremonies, and whoever tells the best story shall be
given a fine supper at the general expense when they all come back
again,--a shrewd bit of business and a fine idea, as the pilgrims all
agree.
When they draw lots for the first story the chance falls to the Knight, who
tells one of the best of the _Canterbury Tales_, the chivalric story of
"Palamon and Arcite." Then the tales follow rapidly, each with its prologue
and epilogue, telling how the story came about, and its effects on the
merry company. Interruptions are numerous; the narrative is full of life