Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 52

39. =post.= Pillar, support. Compare with the modern expression, "A pillar of the church."

40. =frankeleyns.= Country gentlemen; wealthy landholders.

41. =licentiat.= He had license from the pope to grant absolution in all cases. A curate's powers did not extend so far.

42. "Where he knew he would have."

43. See note 27, above.

44. =sellers of vitaille.= Givers of food, or a livelihood. The original meaning of the word _sell_ was to _give_. From A.-S. _syllan_, to give.

45. "In the beginning." The first words of St. John's Gospel in the Vulgate.

46. =purchas.= Income from begging.

47. =love-dayes.= Days appointed for the amicable settlement of differences, without recourse to law.

48. "He wished the sea were guarded." =Middelburgh=, a port in the Netherlands. =Orewelle=, a port in Ess.e.x.

49. =scheeldes.= French crowns marked with a shield. Shillings.

50. =Oxenford.= Not the "ford of the ox," but the "ford of the river."

_Ox_, from Celtic _esk_, _ouse_, water.

51. The word _right_ used, as here, in the sense of _very_ is now considered a vulgarism. "A Southerner would say, 'It rains right hard.'"--_Bartlett._

52. =sawtrye.= Psaltery, a Greek instrument of music.

53. =sownynge.= Sounding; that is, in consonance with. =Sentence= = sense. So, also, construe =forme= and =reverence=, above, as meaning _propriety and modesty_.

ON READING CHAUCER.

"'How few there are who can read Chaucer so as to understand him perfectly,' says Dryden, apologizing for 'translating' him. In our day, with the wider spread of historical study, with the numerous helps to Old English that the care of scholars has produced for us, with the purification that Chaucer's text has undergone, this saying of Dryden's ought not to be true. It ought to be not only possible, but easy, for an educated reader to learn the few essentials of Chaucerian grammar, and for an ear at all trained to poetry to tune itself to the unfamiliar harmonies. For those who make the attempt the reward is certain. They will gain the knowledge, not only of the great poet and creative genius, but of the master who uses our language with a power, a freedom, a variety, a rhythmic beauty, that, in five centuries, not ten of his successors have been found able to rival."--_T. H. Ward._

The peculiarities of diction and grammar which distinguish Chaucer's poetry seem to make its reading and comprehension difficult and often discourage the student at the outset. A very little study, however, will show that the difficulties in the way are not nearly so great as they at first appear, and, after a little patient practice in reading, they will disappear entirely. By observing the following rules you will soon acquire the ability to read with a fluency which will be highly pleasing to you:

1. Final _e_ should be p.r.o.nounced as a separate syllable whenever the metre demands it.

2. In all words of French origin, such as visage, corage, manier, the final syllable is accented.

The greatest difficulty in reading Chaucer arises from the antiquated manner in which the words are spelled; but if the reader will change an occasional _y_ to _i_, and drop a final _e_ or a final _n_, here and there, the words which seemed at first so strange will appear more familiar to the eye and the understanding.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, "the morning-star of English poetry," was born in London in 1328,--according to some authorities, in 1340. He was the son of a vintner, and at an early age became acquainted with many persons of distinction. He was a page in the household of Prince Lionel, and afterwards valet and squire to Edward III. In 1372 he was sent abroad as a royal envoy, and on his return he was made Controller of the Customs In London. In the meantime he had married Philippa Rouet, one of the queen's maids of honor, a sister to the wife of John of Gaunt. Being thus closely related to one of the most powerful members of the royal family, he was often employed in important and honorable commissions connected with the government. In 1386 he was member of Parliament for Kent, and in 1389 was appointed Clerk of the King's Works, at Windsor.

He died in 1400, and was buried in Westminster Abbey,--"the first of the long line of poets whose ashes make that edifice ill.u.s.trious." His poetical history has been divided by Mr. Furnivall into four periods: (1) up to 1371, during which he wrote the "A B C" the "Compleynte to Pite," the "Boke of the d.u.c.h.esse," and the "Compleynte of Mars"; (2) from 1372 to 1381, which saw the production of "Troylus and Criseyde,"

"Anelida," and the "Former Age"; (3) from 1381 to 1389, during which his best works appeared, the "Parlament of Foules," the "House of Fame," the "Legende of Goode Women," and some of the "Canterbury Tales"; (4) from 1389 to the close of his life, in which period the remainder of the "Canterbury Tales" and some short poems were written.

M. Taine says, "Chaucer is like a jeweller with his hands full; pearls and gla.s.s beads, sparkling diamonds and common agates, black jet and ruby roses, all that history and imagination had been able to gather and fashion during three centuries in the East, in France, in Wales, in Provence, in Italy, all that had rolled his way, clashed together, broken or polished by the stream of centuries, and by the grand jumble of human memory, he holds in his hand, arranges it, composes therefrom a long sparkling ornament, with twenty pendants, a thousand facets, which by its splendor, variety, contrasts, may attract and satisfy the eyes of those most greedy for amus.e.m.e.nt and novelty."

=Other Poems to be Read:= The Knight's Tale; The Clerk's Tale; The Man of Law's Tale; The Legende of Goode Women; The Parlament of Foules; The House of Fame; Chaucer's A B C.

REFERENCES: Lowell's _My Study Windows_; Marsh's _Origin and History of the English Language_; Charles Cowden Clarke's _The Riches of Chaucer_; Morley's _English Writers_, vol. v; Carpenter's _English of the XIV Century_; Taine's _English Literature_; Lounsbury's _Studies in Chaucer_; Hazlitt's _English Poets_.