CHRONOS.

20

(Horns, or hunting music within.

*From the opera Albion and Albanius. 1685. Thamesis is the River God Thames, addressing Then, goddess of the silver bow, begin. Albanius, who represents the Duke of York (afterward James II.) The latter, in 1679. had been compelled to retire to Brussels, in temporary exile, until the excitement against the Roman Catholics, created by the "Popish plot," should die away. The flattery of James is evident; but the song has a haunting. beauty which sets it apart from mere eulogy.

1 Anciently the highest divinity, who presided over the beginnings of things.

The god of time; ruler of the world before Zeus. 3 The personification of mockery.

And chase the wild goats o'er summits of Sound the trumpet, beat the drum;

MOMUS.

All, all, of a piece throughout:

(Pointing to Diana.

Thy chase had a beast in view;

Thy wars brought nothing about;

Thy lovers were all untrue.

JANUS.

'Tis well an old age is out.

CHRONOS.

And time to begin a new.
Chorus of all.

All, all of a piece throughout:
Thy chase had a beast in view;
Thy wars brought nothing about;
Thy lovers were all untrue.

"Tis well an old age is out,

And time to begin a new.

(To Mars.

the beauties and faults of other poets, but only indulged himself in the luxury of writing; and perhaps knew it was a fault but hoped the reader would not find it. For this reason, though he must always be thought a great poet, he is no longer esteemed a good writer; and for ten impressions,2 which his works have had in so many successive years, yet at present a hundred books are scarcely purchased once a twelvemonth; for, as my last Lord Rochester 100 said, though somewhat profanely, "Not being of God, he could not stand."

(To Venus.

Chaucer followed nature everywhere, but was never so bold to go beyond her, and there is a great difference of being poeta and nimis poeta, if we believe Catullus, as much as betwixt a modest behaviour and affectation. The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; but 't is like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends, it was auribus istius temporis accommodata:4 they who lived with him,

(Dance of huntsmen, nymphs, warriors, and and some time after him, thought it musical;

lovers.)

ON CHAUCER.

FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FABLES.* It remains that I say somewhat of Chaucer in particular.

'Tis

and it continues so even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lydgate and Gower, his contemporaries; there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing though not perfect. true I cannot go so far as he who published the last edition of him,5 for he would make us In the first place, as he is the father of Eng- believe the fault is in our ears, and that there lish poetry, so I hold him in the same degree were really ten syllables in a verse where we of veneration as the Grecians held Homer or find but nine; but this opinion is not worth the Romans Virgil. He is a perpetual foun- confuting; 't is so gross and obvious an error tain of good sense, learned in all sciences, that common sense (which is a rule in everyand therefore speaks properly on all subjects. thing but matters of faith and revelation) As he knew what to say, so he knows also when must convince the reader that equality of numto leave off; a continence which is practised by berse in every verse which we call heroic? few writers, and scarcely by any of the was either not known or not always practised ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace. One in Chaucer's age. It were an easy matter to of our late great poets1 is sunk in his reputa- produce some thousands of his verses which tion because he could never forgive any conceit are lame for want of half a foot and somewhich came in his way, but swept, like a drag- times a whole one, and which no pronunciation net, great and small. There was plenty enough, can make otherwise. We can only say that but the dishes were ill sorted; whole pyramids he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that of sweetmeats for boys and women, but little nothing is brought to perfection at the first. of solid meat for men. All this proceeded, We must be children before we grow men. not from any want of knowledge, but of judg- There was an Ennius, and in process of time ment. Neither did he want that in discerning 1 Abraham Cowley, who could not "forgive" (i. e. give up, forego) strained fancies and distorted *The Fables, published in 1700, the last year of forms of expression. Dryden's life, were metrical translations, or rather paraphrases, of stories from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer. The Preface, in addition to being excellent criticism, is a good example of Dryden's style in prose-the modern English prose which he did so much toward regulating (Eng. Lit., 166-167). This particular example is characterized by Mr. George Saintsbury as "forcible without the slightest effort, eloquent without declamation, graceful yet thoroughly manly."

2 New printings.

3 "Overmuch a poet" (said by Martial, not Catul-
lus).
4 "Suited to the ears of that time."

5 That of Thomas Speght, 1597-1602.
6 Measures.

7 The iambic pentameter couplet (see Eng. Lit.,
58, 165, 187).

Dryden did not understand Chaucer's pronunciation nor sufficiently allow for imperfections in the manuscripts.

a Lucilius and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace; even after Chaucer there was a Spenser, a Harrington, a Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being, and our numbers were in their nonage till these last appeared.‡

He must have been a man of a most won

Even the grave and serious characters are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity; their discourses are such as belong to their age, their calling, and their breeding, such as are becoming of them and of them only. Some of his persons are vicious and some virtuous; some are unlearned, or (as Chaucer calls them) lewd, and some are learned. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook are several men, and distinguished from each other as much as the mincing Lady Prioress and the broad-speaking, gap-toothed Wife of Bath. But enough of this: there is such a variety of game springing up before me that I am distracted in my sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our forefathers and great-grand-dames all before us as they were in Chaucer's days: their general characters are still remaining in mankind, and even in England, though they are called by other names than those of monks and friars and canons and lady abbesses and nuns; for mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out Posterity has not sustained this verdict. But see of nature though everything is altered. Eng. Lit., pp. 141, 165.

derful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other, and not only in their inclinations but in their very physiognomies and persons. Baptista Portas could not have described their natures better than by the marks which the poet gives them.

The matter and manner of their tales and of their telling are so suited to their different educations, humours, and callings that each of them would be improper in any other mouth.

A Neapolitan physiognomist.

choice and know not which to follow. It is

EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The Tatler, No. 1. Tuesday, April 12, 1709. is not trodden upon by mere drudges of busi -