Halleck's New English Literature Part 12

The author of this poem was also a fourteenth-century social reformer, protesting against the oppression of the poor, insisting on mutual service and "the good and loving life." In order to have a well-rounded conception of the life of the fourteenth century, we must read _Piers Plowman_. Chaucer was a poet for the upper cla.s.ses. _Piers Plowman_ gives valuable pictures of the life of the common people and shows them working--

"To kepe kyne In e field, e corne fro e bestes, Diken[27] or deluen[28] or dyngen[29] vppon sheues,[30]

Or helpe make mortar or here mukke a-felde."

We find in the popular poetry of _Piers Plowman_ almost as many words of French derivation as in the work of the more aristocratic Chaucer.

This fact shows how thoroughly the French element had become incorporated in the speech of all cla.s.ses. The style of the author of _Piers Plowman_ is, however, remarkable for the old Saxon sincerity and for the realistic directness of the bearer of a worthy message.

John Gower.--Gower, a very learned poet, was born about 1325 and died in 1408. As he was not sure that English would become the language of his cultivated countrymen, he tried each of the three languages used in England. His first important work, the _Speculum Meditantis_, was written in French; his second, the _Vox Clamantis_, in Latin; his third, the _Confessio Amantis_, in English.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY PORTRAIT OF GOWER HEARING THE CONFESSION OF A LOVER (CONFESSIO AMANTIS). _From the Egerton MS., British Museum._]

The _Confessio Amantis_ (_Confession of a Lover_) is princ.i.p.ally a collection of one hundred and twelve short tales. An attempt to unify them is seen in the design to have the confessor relate, at the lover's request, those stories which reveal the causes tending to hinder or to further love. Gower had ability in story-telling, as is shown by the tales about Medea and the knight Florent; but he lacked Chaucer's dramatic skill and humor. Gower's influence has waned because, although he stood at the threshold of the Renaissance, his gaze was chiefly turned backward toward medievalism. His contemporary, Chaucer, as we see, was affected by the new spirit.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, 1340?-1400.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEOFFREY CHAUCER. _From an old drawing in Occleve's Poems, British Museum._]

Life.--Chaucer was born in London about 1340. His father and grandfather were vintners, who belonged to the upper cla.s.s of merchants. Our first knowledge of Geoffrey Chaucer is obtained from the household accounts of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter-in-law of Edward III., in whose family Chaucer was a page. An entry shows that she bought him a fine suit of clothes, including a pair of red and black breeches. Such evidence points to the fact that he was early accustomed to a.s.sociating with the n.o.bility, and enables us to understand why he and the author of _Piers Plowman_ regard life from different points of view.

In 1359 Chaucer accompanied the English army to France and was taken prisoner. Edward III. thought enough of the youth to pay for his ransom a sum equivalent to-day to about $1200. After his return he was made valet of the king's chamber. The duties of that office "consisted in making the royal bed, holding torches, and carrying messages."

Later, Chaucer became a squire.

In 1370 he was sent to the continent on a diplomatic mission. He seems to have succeeded so well that during the next ten years he was repeatedly sent abroad in the royal service. He visited Italy twice and may thus have met the Italian poet Petrarch. These journeys inspired Chaucer with a desire to study Italian literature,--a literature that had just been enriched by the pens of Dante and Boccaccio.

We must next note that Chaucer's life was not that of a poetic dreamer, but of a stirring business man. For more than twelve years he was controller of customs for London. This office necessitated a.s.sessing duties on wools, skins, wines, and candles. Only a part of this work could be performed by deputy. He was later overseeing clerk of the king's works. The repeated selection of Chaucer for foreign and diplomatic business shows that he was considered sagacious as well as trustworthy. Had he not kept in close touch with life, he could never have become so great a poet. In this connection we may remark that England's second greatest writer, Milton, spent his prime in attending to affairs of state. Chaucer's busy life did not keep him from attaining third place on the list of England's poets.

There are many pa.s.sages of autobiographical interest in his poems. He was a student of books as well as of men, as is shown by these lines from the _Hous of Fame_:--

"For whan thy labour doon al is, And halt y-maad thy rekeninges, In stede of rest and newe thinges, Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon, And, also domb as any stoon, Thou sittest at another boke, Til fully daswed[31] is thy loke, And livest thus as an hermyte."[32]

Chaucer was pensioned by three kings,--Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV. Before the reign of Henry IV., Chaucer's pensions were either not always regularly paid, or they were insufficient for certain emergencies, as he complained of poverty in his old age. The pension of Henry IV. in 1399 must have been ample, however; since in that year Chaucer leased a house in the garden of a chapel at Westminster for as many of fifty-three years as he should live. He had occasion to use this house but ten months, for he died in 1400.

He may be said to have founded the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, as he was the first of the many great authors to be buried there.

Chaucer's Earlier Poems.--At the age of forty, Chaucer had probably written not more than one seventh of a total of about 35,000 lines of verse which he left at his death. Before he reached his poetic prime, he showed two periods of influence,--French and Italian.

During his first period, he studied French models. He learned much from his partial translation of the popular French _Romaunt of the Rose_. The best poem of his French period is _Dethe of Blanche the d.u.c.h.esse_, a tribute to the wife of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III.

Chaucer's journey to Italy next turned his attention to Italian models. A study of these was of especial service in helping him to acquire that skill which enabled him to produce the masterpieces of his third or English period. This study came at a specially opportune time and resulted in communicating to him something of the spirit of the early Renaissance.

The influence of Boccaccio and, sometimes, of Dante is noticeable in the princ.i.p.al poems of the Italian period,--the _Troilus and Criseyde, Hous of Fame_, and _Legende of Good Women_. The _Troilus and Criseyde_ is a tale of love that was not true. The _Hous of Fame_, an unfinished poem, gives a vision of a vast palace of ice on which the names of the famous are carved to await the melting rays of the sun. The _Legende of Good Women_ is a series of stories of those who, like Alcestis, are willing to give up everything for love. In _A Dream of Fair Women_ Tennyson says:--

"'The Legend of Good Women,' long ago Sung by the morning star of song, who made His music heard below; Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious bursts that fill The s.p.a.cious times of great Elizabeth With sounds that echo still."

In this series of poems Chaucer learned how to rely less and less on an Italian crutch. He next took his immortal ride to Canterbury on an English Pegasus.

General Plan of the Canterbury Tales.--People in general have always been more interested in stories than in any other form of literature.

Chaucer probably did not realize that he had such positive genius for telling tales in verse that the next five hundred years would fail to produce his superior in that branch of English literature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.]

All that Chaucer needed was some framework into which he could fit the stories that occurred to him, to make them something more than mere stray tales, which might soon be forgotten. Chaucer's great contemporary Italian storyteller, Boccaccio, conceived the idea of representing some of the n.o.bility of Florence as fleeing from the plague, and telling in their retirement the tales that he used in his _Decameron_. It is not certain that Chaucer received from the _Decameron_ his suggestions for the _Canterbury Tales_, although he was probably in Florence at the same time as Boccaccio.

In 1170 Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered at the altar. He was considered both a martyr and a saint, and his body was placed in a splendid mausoleum at the Cathedral. It was said that miracles were worked at his tomb, that the sick were cured, and that the worldly affairs of those who knelt at his shrine prospered. It became the fashion for men of all cla.s.ses to go on pilgrimages to his tomb. As robbers infested the highways, the pilgrims usually waited at some inn until there was a sufficient band to resist attack. In time the journey came to be looked on as a holiday, which relieved the monotony of everyday life. About 1385 Chaucer probably went on such a pilgrimage. To furnish amus.e.m.e.nt, as the pilgrims cantered along, some of them may have told stories. The idea occurred to Chaucer to write a collection of such tales as the various pilgrims might have been supposed to tell on their journey. The result was the _Canterbury Tales_.

Characters in the Tales.--Chaucer's plan is superior to Boccaccio's; for only the n.o.bility figure as story-tellers in the _Decameron_, while the Canterbury pilgrims represent all ranks of English life, from the knight to the sailor.

The _Prologue_ to the _Tales_ places these characters before us almost as distinctly as they would appear in real life. At the Tabard Inn in Southwark, just across the Thames from London, we see that merry band of pilgrims on a pleasant April day. We look first upon a manly figure who strikes us as being every inch a knight. His ca.s.sock shows the marks of his coat of mail.

"At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene.

And of his port as meke as is a mayde.

He never yet no vileinye ne sayde In al his lyf, un-to no maner wight.

He was a verray parfit gentil knight."

His son, the Squire, next catches our attention. We notice his curly locks, his garments embroidered with gay flowers, and the graceful way in which he rides his horse. By his side is his servant, the Yeoman, "clad in cote and hood of grene," with a sheaf of arrows at his belt.

We may even note his cropped head and his horn suspended from green belt. We next catch sight of a Nun's gracefully pleated wimple, shapely nose, small mouth, "eyes greye as glas," well-made cloak, coral beads, and brooch of gold. She is attended by a second Nun and three Priests. The Monk is a striking figure:--

"His heed was balled, that shoon as any glas, And eek his face, as he hadde been anoint.

He was a lord ful fat and in good point."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PILGRIMS LEAVING THE TABARD INN. _From Urry's Chaucer._]

There follow the Friar with twinkling eyes, "the beste beggere in his hous," the Merchant with his forked beard, the Clerk (scholar) of Oxford in his threadbare garments, the Sergeant-at-Law, the Franklyn (country gentleman), Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapycer (tapestry maker), Cook, Shipman, Physician, Wife of Bath, Parish Priest, Plowman, Miller, Manciple (purchaser of provisions), Reeve (bailiff of a farm), Summoner (official of an ecclesiastical court), and Pardoner. These characters, exclusive of Baily (the host of Tabard Inn) and Chaucer himself, are alluded to in the _Prologue_ to the _Tales_ as--

"Wel nyne and twenty in a companye, Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle In felawshipe, and pilgrims were they alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FACSIMILE OF LINES DESCRIBING THE FRANKLYN[33]. _From the Cambridge University MS._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FRANKLYN[34].]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FRIAR.]

The completeness of the picture of fourteenth century English life in the _Canterbury Tales_ makes them absolutely necessary reading for the historian as well as for the student of literature.

Certainly no one who has ever read the _Prologue_ to the _Tales_ will question Chaucer's right to be considered a great _original_ poet, no matter how much he may have owed to foreign teachers.

The Tales.--Harry Baily, the keeper of the Tabard Inn, who accompanied the pilgrims, proposed that each member of the party should tell four tales,--two going and two returning. The one who told the best story was to have a supper at the expense of the rest. The plan thus outlined was not fully executed by Chaucer, for the collection contains but twenty-four tales, all but two of which are in verse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE KNIGHT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PRIORESS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SQUIRE.]

The _Knightes Tale_, which is the first, is also the best. It is a very interesting story of love and chivalry. Two young Theban n.o.bleman, Palamon and Arcite, sworn friends, are prisoners of war at Athens. Looking through the windows of their dungeon, they see walking in the garden the beautiful sister of the queen. Each one swears that he will have the princess. Arcite is finally pardoned on condition that he will leave Athens and never return, on penalty of death; but his love for Emily lures him back to the forbidden land. Reduced almost to a skeleton, he disguises himself, goes to Athens, and becomes a servant in the house of King Theseus. Finally, Palamon escapes from prison, and by chance encounters Arcite. The two men promptly fight, but are interrupted by Theseus, who at first condemns them to death, but later relents and directs them to depart and to return at the end of a year, each with a hundred brave knights. The king prescribes that each lover shall then lead his forces in mortal battle and that the victor shall wed the princess.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CLERK OF OXFORD.]