Hardy he was, and wise, I undertake;

With many a tempest hadde his berd be shake:
He knew wel alle the havens as they were

Fro Gotland to the Cape de Finistere,

And every creke in Bretagne and in Spaine :

His barge ycleped was the Magdelaine.14

1 “ Whanně that April," &c.—What freshness and delicacy in this exordium! It seems as if the sweet rains entered the ground, purely to reappear, themselves, as flowers.

2"The holy blissful martyr."-Thomas à Becket - the great pantomimic shifter from a favourite into a saint.

3 “In Southwark at the Tabard."—Readers hardly need be told, that this Tabard inn is still extant, under the misnomer of the Talbot. It is worthy of any gentleman's "pilgrimage," from the remotest regions of May-Fair. The Borough is one of the most classical spots in England. It has Chaucer at one end, and Shakspeare at the other (in the Globe Theatre); besides Gower, and Fletcher, and Massinger, lying in the churches.

4 “He was a veray parfit gentil knight."—And a very perfect line is it that so describes him. It would be

both audacious and cautious. With many a tempest had his beard been shaken. He knew the soundings of every harbour from Gothland to Cape Finisterre, and every creek in Brittany and Spain. His vessel was called the Magdalen.

à pity it did not conclude the portrait, but for the good sense and sobriety of what follows, and the smutted state of the knight's doublet, caused by his coat of mail. This renders the conclusion still better, by showing the crowning point of his character, which is the preference of substance to show, and action before the glory of it. He is a man who would rather conclude with being a perfect knight, than with being called one.

5" With lockes crull as they were laid in presse."-And perhaps the sly poet meant us to understand that they were; for manliness in youth is not always above the little arts of foppery.

6" And carf before his fader at the table."—A custom of the time, and a far more civilized one than that of assigning the office to old gentlemen and delicate ladies.

7“ And all was conscïence and tendre herte."—A lovely

verse.

8 “Amor vincit omnia."-Love conquers all things. We are to take this quotation from Ovid in a religious sense; whatever charitable thoughts towards others the good nun might combine with it.

9 “Preestes thre."-The Prioress, for all her fine boarding-school breeding, fed heartily as well as nicely, and was in good buxom condition. We are not to suppose that the "Preestes thre" were less so, or fared ill at her table. One of them, indeed, who is called a "sweete Preest," and a "goodly

F

man," is described as having a "large breast," and looking like "a sparrow-hawk with his eyen." It is he that tells the pleasant fable of the Cock and the Fox.

cess.

10A Frere ther was, a wanton and a mery,

A limitour, a ful solempně man."

This audacity of style, making the Friar at once merry and solemn, is in the richest comic taste. He is a "ful solempně man;" that is to say, excessively and ultra solemn, while he is about it; so much so, that you see the lurking merriment in the exHe shakes his head and cheeks, speaks hollow in the throat, and in a nasal tone of disapprobation. He particularly excels in deprecating what he approves. Next to money-getting, he would object to luxury. He had joined numbers of young women in marriage "at his own cost;" that is to say, for no better pay than being the merriest fellow at the wedding-dinner, and looking forward to every possible good thing in the household. If a widow had but a "shoe" left, he would get a farthing out of it. I have seen such jolly beggars in Italy. One of them, a fine handsome young man, who was having his panniers filled at a farmer's door (for he went about with a donkey), invited me to a pinch of snuff with all the unaffected grace of his country; and on my praising the beauty of the place (it was at Maiano, on the Fiesolan hills, looking towards Florence), he ac

quiesced with a sort of deprecating admission of the fact, worthy of his brother in Chaucer; observing, while he piously turned up his eyes, that it was good enough for this world."

66

11

“Litel gold in cofre."- A hit at the philosopher's stone; or, by inference, at the poverty of philosophy in general.

Povera e nuda vai, Filosofia.

Petrarch.

Naked and poor goest thou, Philosophy.

But the twenty books at the bed's head pay for all.

12 "And gladly wold he lerne and gladly teche.”—The consummation of a real unaffected lover of knowledge. Yet I cannot help being of opinion with Warton, that the three lines beginning "not a word spake he," are intended to imply a little innocent pedantry. Tyrwhitt supposes the credit of good letters to be concerned in our thinking otherwise. (Moxon's edition of Chaucer, p. 175.) But Chaucer thought that good letters could bear a little banter, without losing their credit. All purely serious scholars in those times had a tendency to pedantry and formality. Chaucer only escaped it himself by dint of the gayer part of his genius.

13 No wher so besy a man as he ther n'as ;

And yet he seměd besier than he was."

One is never tired of repeating this exquisite

couplet. So Lawyer Dowling, in Tom Jones, wishes he could cut himself into I forget how many pieces, in order that he might see to all the affairs which he had to settle.

14 “His barge ycleped was the Magdelaine.”—This gentle penitential name has a curious effect in connection with a man who had no nicety of conscience. Was it meant to show the frequently irrelevant nature of the names of ships? or to imply that the rough seaman had a soft corner in his heart for penitents of the fair saint's description? The line about the tempest-shaken beard is an effusion of the finest poetry. It invests the homely man with a sudden grandeur; as though a storm itself had risen in the horizon, dignifying his rude vessel with danger.

THE FRIAR'S TALE;

OR,

THE SUMMONER AND THE DEVIL.

A Summoner finds himself riding in company with a Devil, and makes an agreement with him which turns out to be of an unexpected nature.

A Summoner was a church officer, who cited offenders into the ecclesiastical court. The friars and the dignified clergy were at great variance in