STUDIES IN POETRY.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

Born 1329-Died 1400.

CHAUCER is the first true poet in the English language. Before the era of his writings we can discover but very few compositions even in the form of verse; and those few are of a character as unpoetical as can well be conceived. Previous to the Norman Conquest the Saxon language had been poetically cultivated, especially in popular ballads in praise of the heroes of England. The influence of that event upon the national tongue was like that of a great inundation, which at first buries the face of the landscape under its waters, but which at last subsiding leaves behind it the elements of new beauty and fertility.'

Poetry in an English form begins to dawn between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, till in the thirteenth the writings of Chaucer present us with its morning brilliancy. After him we pass through a long and barren interval before we are admitted to enjoy the genius of Spenser. The appearance of the former is beautifully compared by Warton, the historian of English poetry, to a premature day in an English spring; 'after which the gloom of winter returns, and the buds and blossoms, which have been called forth by a transient sunshine, are nipped by frosts and scattered by storms.'

His antiquated dialect, and far more than that, the manner in which his words are spelt, making them appear to the eye of a modern extremely uncouth, have given to his poetry an air of strangeness and distance, which prevents us from duly appreciating its beauty. It is not till the taste has been cultivated by a long familiarity with the writers of more modern times-not till we have arrived at a ripe acquaintance with the spirit and the language of the poets from Spenser downwards, that we can go to the pages of Chaucer with a true, easy relish for their various excellence.

He was educated probably at the university of Cambridge. He enjoyed during his life the patronage of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose sister-in-law he married, and

through whose influence he obtained the favor both of King Edward III, and his successor Richard II. His prosperity was clouded for a short time during the early part of Richard's reign by his connexion with the followers of Wickliffe; but his old age was passed in uninterrupted ease. He was interred in Westminster Abbey.

Chaucer excels in the description both of human character and of natural scenery. His descriptions of character and manners are distinguished for their rich humour, and for their minute and graphic delineation. They seem like pictures drawn from real life, rather than inventions of fancy. His descriptions of natural objects are fresh and beautiful. His poetry sometimes exhibits sublimity and true pathos. Yet its moral tendency is too generally sensual and degraded; insomuch that we may rejoice, notwithstanding its various excellence, that its obsolete dialect and its frequently tedious prolixity, remove it from the perusal of any persons, whose taste and moral principles are not firmly established, or whose susceptible minds might be injured by its influence.

A GOOD ́man ther was of religioun,
That was a pour Persone2 of a toun:
But riche he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,

That Christès gospel trewèly wolde preche.
His parishens devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitie ful patient;

And swiche3 he was ypreved1 often sithes.5
Ful lothe were him to cursen for his tithes,
But rather wolde he yeven6 out of doute
Unto his pourè parishens aboute

Of his offring, and eke of his substance.
He could in litel thing have suffisance.
Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder,
But he ne left nought, for no rain ne thonder,
In sickness and in mischief to visite

The ferrest in his parish, moche10 and lite,8
Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf.

This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf9

That first he wrought, and afterward he taught.
Out of the gospel he the wordès caught,

* In this extract the vowels marked with the accent are to be pronounced as separate syllables in reading; otherwise the measure is imperfect.

1Poor. 2Parson. 3Such. 4Proved. 5Times. 6Given. 7Most distant. 8Little. 9Gave. 10Much, in the sense of great.

And this figure he added yet therto-
That if gold rustè, what should iren do?
For if a preest be foule, on whom we trust,
No wonder is a lewèd9 man to rust.

Wel ought a preest ensample for to yeve,1
By his clenenessè, how his sheepe should hive.

He settè not his benefice to hire

And lette his shepe accombred2 in the mire
And ran unto London, unto Seint Poules,
To seken him a chanterie for soules,
Or with a brotherhede to be withhold:
But dwelt at home, and keptè wel his fold,
So that the wolf ne made it not miscarrie.
He was a shepherd, and no mercenarie.
And though he holy were, and vertuous,
He was to sinful men not dispitous,3
Ne of his spechè dangerous4 ne digne,5
But in his teching discrete and benigne.
To drawen folke to Heven with fairinesse,
By good ensample, was his besinesse ;
But it were any persone obstinat,
What so he were of high or low estat,

Him wolde he snibben sharply for the nones.7-
A better preest I trow that nowhers non is.
He waited for no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him no spiced conscience;
But Christès love, and his Apostles twelve
He taught, but first he folwed it himselve.

EDMUND SPENSER.

Born 1553-Died 1599.

SPENSER was born at London, of an ancient and honorable family, and was educated at the university of Cambridge. He was the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and through his influence, together with that of his other patrons, Lord Grey and the Earl of Leicester, obtained from Queen Elizabeth, in 1582, a large grant of land in Ireland. His residence there was romantic and pleasant. He was visited in his retreat by Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom he recited his poetical compositions, and by whom he was accompanied to London, introduced to Queen Elizabeth, and persuaded immediately to publish the

1Give. 2Be encumbered. 3Angry or unmerciful. 4Rash. 5Disdainful. 6Snub, reprove. 7For the occasion. 8Nowhere. 9A common man, one of the populace.

first books of the Fairy Queen. In 1597 he was compelled by an Irish rebellion to fly from his house, and in the hurry and confusion, one of his children being unfortunately left behind, perished in its conflagration. He died in London, two years after this melancholy event, broken-hearted it is to be feared, and comparatively poor.

Spenser displays in his poetry an invention almost endless, and a fancy extremely exuberant and gorgeous. His versification is rich, flowing, and harmonious, to a degree which perhaps no succeeding poet has surpassed. His imagery is luxuriant and romantic. In personification and allegory he is occasionally sublime. His poetry is sweet in its sentiment, enchanting in its melody, and exceedingly delightful for the vein of pensive tenderness and pathos, which runs though the whole of it.

'Of the manners, conversation, and private character of Spenser,' says Dr Aikin, we have no information from contemporaries; our conclusions must therefore be only drawn from his writings, and the few known events of his life. To the intimate friend of Sidney and Raleigh, especially of the former, it is reasonable to attribute virtue as well as genius. His works breathe a fervent spirit of piety and morality; and it would be difficult to conceive anything base or dissolute in conduct, in conjunction with the dignity of sentiment, which is uniformly supported in the productions of his muse.'

The moral tendency of the Fairy Queen may be learned from the nature of its leading purpose, which was, in the words of the poet, that of 'fashioning a gentleman of noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline.' This object he accomplishes by exhibiting twelve different knights, each of which, in the particular adventure allotted to him, proves an example of some different virtue, as of holiness, temperance, justice, chastity; and has one complete book assigned to him, of which he is the hero. Besides these individual examples, he exhibits Prince Arthur as his principal or general hero, in whose character he professes to pourtray, 'The image of a brave knight perfected in the twelve private moral virtues.'

UNA AND THE RED-CROSS KNIGHT..

A GENTLE knight was pricking on the plain,
Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield:
His angry steed did chide his foaming bit,
As much disdaining to the curb to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit,
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit.

But on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him adored:

Upon his shield the like was also scored,
For sovereign hope, which in his help he had :
Right faithful true he was in deed and word,
But of his cheer did seem too solemn sad;
Yet nothing did he dread; but ever was ydrad.

Upon a great adventure he was bound,
That greatest Gloriana to him gave,
The greatest glorious queen of fairy lond,
To win him worship and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he most did crave;
And ever as he rode, his heart did
yearn
To prove his puissance in battle brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learn;
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stern.

A lovely lady rode him fair beside
Upon a lowly ass more white than snow;
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Under a veil, that wimpled was full low,
And over all a black stole she did throw,
As one that inly mourned: so was she sad,
And heavy sat upon her palfrey slow;
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
And by her in a line a milk-white lamb she led.

So pure an innocent as that same lamb
She was in life and every virtuous lore,
And by descent from royal lineage came

Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore

Their sceptres stretched from east to western shore,
And all the world in their subjection held;

Till that infernal fiend with loud uproar

Forewasted all their land, and them expelled,

Whom to avenge she had this knight from far compelled.

Behind her, far away, a dwarf did lag,
That lazy seemed, in being ever last,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag

Of needments at his back. Thus as they past,
The day with clouds was sudden overcast,

As

angry Jove an hideous storm of rain

Did pour into the earth's green lap so fast,

That every wight to shroud, it did constrain,

And this fair couple eke to shroud themselves were fain,