ページの画像
PDF
ePub

that were before popular at once gave way to more exuberant fancies. The minstrels were breathing of action, they selected monarchs and warriors for their heroes: Charlemagne and Roland, Arthur and Merlin, Godfrey and Solyman, were favorites of their muse, and even the legends of ancient mythology furnished them with subjects. All was tinged with the religious and warlike enthusiasm of the times. Their characters were as devout as valiant, and their gallantry to the fair sex almost fantastic. They were the heroes of the bower as well as of the field; and whether delivering virgins from giants or monsters, from enchanters or infidels, were always jealous of their renown, and as tender to female delicacy, as they were fearless of danger and anxious for combat. These romances were prolix, and occasionally tedious, teeming with the superstitious feeling of the age. Their authors had more fancy than learning, and would clothe the renowned of classic times with the manners, and endue them with the feelings of their own. This inconsistency is often sufficiently ridiculous, and is very apparent in the many productions of the minstrels which have been handed down to modern times. In better taste, and with more unity of purpose, we have seen their style successfully imitated and embellished by Sir Walter Scott and other poets of the present age.

The reign of chivalry, fantastic as it may have been, forms a history of itself; and however wild the spirit which gave rise to the institution, its effects were con

siderable. It soon spread over Europe, and aroused a more generous and enlightened sentiment than had previously existed. The poetry to which it gave birth was courted throughout the more civilized countries, and in the early part of the fourteenth century aroused the sublime genius of Dante, the tender delicacy of Petrarch, and the warm imagination of Boccacio-circumstances necessary to be remembered-for it was the works of these three distinguished authors of Italy that gave a tone to the conception of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of the English muse, the earliest of our national poets, who wove our newly formed language into the measures of verse, and rejecting the extravagances of the French romancers, wrote with a system and precision, and at the same time with a vigor that was foreign to their works.

*

Our earliest specimen of Saxon poetry is a fragment by Cadmon, a monk of Whitby, which is preserved in the works of King Alfred. The poet, who was an unlearned man, paraphrased in rude but powerful verse such part of the scripture as he had gathered from the recitation of the the ecclesiastics. The venerable Bede, renowned for his learning and piety, who lived in the eighth century, composed a History of England and many other works in Latin, as was customary in the early ages when readers were few and learned, and authors looked for renown amongst the celebrated of other lands as well as their own. Alfred the Great translated Bede's History and other books

*Cædmon lived about 670.

into Anglo-Saxon, and there are examples of poetry in that language during the ninth century full of the wild and irregular imagination which is peculiarly adapted to the unfanciful yet superstitious minds of a generous but unlearned people.*

In the time of the Normans we have Wace, who translated into French the Brut of Geoffrey of Monmouth; Layamon, a priest, who translated Wace into the popular language of the period; Robert of Gloucester, the rhyming historian of Lear, Merlin, and Arthur; Robert De Brunne, the Chronicler; Lawrence Minot, famed for his battle songs; and Langlande, the author of the Visions of Piers Plowman. Yet these were but

unworthy precursors of Chaucer. Their poetry was generally vague, tedious, and obscure, their language harsh and unsettled; their fancies weak and uncertain; they had little of that sterling truth or glowing imagination which is requisite, in all ages and under all circumstances, to render verse lasting and impressive. Chaucer, when he came, rose like a superior power, to claim the desecrated temples from which poetry had fled; he was one to whose searching glance the mystery of human motive lay bare and plain, and he could appreciate the beautiful in nature and the great in man. been likened to the spring, and has been called the day star of English poetry, he was a sun whom no star

"He has

*The reader is referred to the notes at the end of the volume for a translation of a Saxon ode on a victory of King Athelstan in the year 938.

preceded. He arose upon us, like the morning, fresh and beautiful, and kept on his shining way, strong, untired, and rejoicing."

CHAUCER was born in the year 1328; and having graced the reigns of Edward the Third and his successor, Richard the Second, died in 1400, in his 72nd year. It is doubtful whether he was educated at the university of Oxford or Cambridge, but it appears probable that he studied at both. He afterwards visited France and the Low Countries, and on his return was entered at the Inner Temple, where we learn from an old record that "Geoffrey Chaucer was fined 2s. for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet-street." He was early attached to the king's son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by whose favor he obtained in marriage Philippa, the sister of the famous Catherine Swynford, the Duke's mistress and afterwards his wife. He enjoyed an office of trifling emolument under the patronage of Edward the Third, and made frequent tours to France and Italy, sometimes in a public character. In Italy he was introduced to Petrarch, at the marriage of Violante, daughter of Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, with the Duke of Clarence; and it is supposed that he was also personally acquainted with Boccacio. is combi

Ж

Our earlier poets were generally unlearned minstrels or recluse scholars, and their lays had either the rudeness of the hovel or the coldness of the convent. Chaucer, on

* Does Plimech my be of this in any

the other hand, rose to repute under the auspices of the courtly, and was placed in a sphere of life where he had wider and better opportunities for studying manners, and rendering his style and language pointed and refined. The fame of the Italian poets had filled Europe, the Provencial romances were still popular, the spirit of chivalry was at its height, the English and Continental courts were remarkable for their splendor and gallantry, and there was everything that could excite a lively fancy, or rouse a fervid imagination. And Chaucer neglected not these advantages, but drew largely from the rich store of his experience. He was a man of the world, and could hit off character in those happy lights which give his pictures the appearance of reality. At tournament or hostelrie, in romance or humor, in the every day world, or in scenes of his own creating, he is at home, earnest and unconstrained; and he describes the strong passions with an artlessness that is truth itself.

The Canterbury Tales contain examples of the wide scope of his genius. From the knight to the miller, from the prioress to the wife of Bath, there is an ample range of character-his knowledge of mankind appears universal. He dazzles us with elaborate displays of Gothic magnificence; but is equally powerful when he sketches the cottages of rustics. He is devotional, joyous, or satirical, without effort, and never o'erstepping the modesty of nature.' The Canterbury Tales were written at various periods of Chaucer's life, and were not completed until he

Apt. Ithack makes no pantur

Known in th his

[ocr errors]
« 前へ次へ »