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But as god would, of swough she tho abraide',
And gan to sighe, and TROILUS she cride:
And he answerid, Lady mine Creseide,
Livin ye yet? And let his sword doune glide,
Yes, hertè mine, that thankid be Cupide,
Quoth she and therwithall she sorè sight"
And he began to glad her as he might.

Toke her in armis two, and kist her oft,
And her to glad he did all his entent:
For which her ghost, that flickered aie alofte
Into her woefull breast aien it went:
But at the last, as that her eyin glent
Aside, anon she gan his swerde aspie,
As it lay bere, and gan for fere to crie:

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And askid him why he had it outdrawe?
And Troilus anon the cause hir tolde,

And how therwith himself he would have slawe :
For which Creseide upon him gan behold,

And gan him in her armis fast to fold;
And said, O mercy, God, lo whiche a dede
Alas! how nere we werin bothè dede! x

Pathetic description is one of Chaucer's peculiar excellencies.

In this poem are various imitations from Ovid, which are of too particular and minute a nature to be pointed out here, and belong to the province of a professed and formal commentator on the piece. The Platonic notion in the third book about universal love, and the doctrine that this principle acts with equal and uniform influence both in the natural and moral world, are a translation from Boethius. And in the KNIGHT'S

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TALE he mentions, from the same favorite system of philosophy, the FAIRE CHAINE OF LOVE. It is worth observing, that the reader is referred to Dares Phrygius, instead of Homer, for a display of the atchievements of Troilus.

His worthi dedis who so list him here,

Rede DARES, he can tel hem all ifere. a

Our author, from his excessive fondness for Statius, has been guilty of a very diverting and what may be called a double anachronism. He represents Cresside, with two of her female companions, sitting in a pavid parlour, and reading the THEBAID of Statius, which is called the Geste of the Siege of Thebes, and the Romance of Thebis. In another place, Cassandra translates the Arguments of the twelve books of the THEBAID. In the fourth book of this poem, Pandarus endeavours to comfort Troilus with arguments concerning the doctrine of predestination, taken from Bradwardine, a learned archbishop and theologist, and nearly Chaucer's cotemporary f.

This poem, although almost as long as the Eneid, was intended to be sung to the harp, as well as read.

And redde where so thou be, or ellis songe.

It is dedicated to the morall Gower, and to the philosophical Strode. Gower will occur as a poet hereafter. Strode was

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a L. iv. v. 1770. b L. ii. v. 81. L. ii. v. 84. 4 L. ii. v. 100. Bishop Amphiorax is mentioned, ib. v. 104. Pandarus says v. 106:

All this I know my selve,

often cited by Du Cange and Carpentier. Gl. Lat. This is Parthenopeus, a hero of the Theban story. It was translated into English, and called PERTONAPE. See vol. i. p. 126.

[The romance of Partonepex de Blois, cited by Du Cange, has no connexion

And all the assiege of Thebes, and all with the Theban story. See Mr. Rose's

the care;

For herof ben ther makid bokis twelve. In his Dreme, Chaucer to pass the night away, rather than play at chess, calls for a Romaunce; in which "were writtin fables of quenis livis and of kings, and many othir thingis smale." This proves to be Ovid. v. 52. seq. See Man. of L. T. v. 54. Urr. There was an old French Romance called PARTONEPEX,

version after Le Grand.-EDIT.]

c L. v. v. 1490. I will add here, that Cresside proposes the trial of the Ordeal to Troilus. L. iii. v. 1048. Troilus, during the times of truce, amuses himself with hawking. L. iii. v. 1785.

f In his book DE CAUSA DEI, published by Sir Henry Savile, 1617. He touches on this controversy, Nonne's Pr. T. v. 1349. Urr. See also Tr. Cr. L. iv. v. 961. seq. L. ult. v. 1796.

eminent for his scholastic knowledge, and tutor to Chaucer's son Lewis at Merton college in Oxford.

Whether the HOUSE OF FAME is Chaucer's invention, or suggested by any French or Italian poet, I cannot determine. But I am apt to think it was originally a Provencial composition, among other proofs, from this passage:

And ther came out so gret a noise,

That had it standin upon OYSE,
Men might have herd it esily,
I trow, to ROME sikerly."

The Oyse is a river in Picardy, which falls into the river Seine, not many leagues from Paris. An Englishman would not have expressed distance by such an unfamiliar illustration. Unless we reconcile the matter, by supposing that Chaucer wrote this poem during his travels. There is another passage where the ideas are those of a foreign romance. To the trumpeters of renown the poet adds,

All that usid clarion

In Casteloigne or Arragon.i

Casteloigne is Catalonia in Spain. The martial musicians of English tournaments, so celebrated in story, were a more natural and obvious allusion for an English poet'.

This poem contains great strokes of Gothic imagination, yet bordering often on the most ideal and capricious extravagance. The poet, in a vision, sees a temple of glass,

In which were more images

Of gold stondinge in sundrie stages,

L. ii. v. 838. [See infra Sect. xviii. But he says, that the Galaxy is called Note †, from the Additions.]

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Watlyng-strete. B. ii. v. 431. He swears by Thomas Becket, B. iii. v. 41. In one place he is addressed by the name of GEOFFREY. B. ii. v. 221. But in two others by that of PETER. B. ii. v. 526. B. iii. v. 909. Among the musicians, he mentions" Pipirs of all the Duche tong." B. iii. v. 144.

Sette in more riche tabernacles,
And with perrem more pinnacles,
And more curious pourtraituris,
And quaint manir of figuris,

Of golde work than I sawe evir."

On the walls of this temple were engraved stories from Virgil's Eneid, and Ovid's Epistles P. Leaving this temple, he sees an eagle with golden wings soaring near the sun.

Faste by the sonne on hie,

As kennyng myght I with mine eie,
Methought I sawe an egle sore;
But that it semid mochil more,
Then I had any egle sene'.

It was af gold, and shone so bright,

That nevir man sawe suche a sight, &c.'

The eagle descends, seizes the poet in his talons, and mounting again, conveys him to the House of Fame; which is situated, like that of Ovid, between earth and sea. In their passage thither, they fly above the stars; which our author leaves, with clouds, tempests, hail, and snow, far beneath him. This aerial journey is partly copied from Ovid's Phaeton in the chariot of the sun. But the poet apologises for this extravagant

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jewels. " B. i. v. 120. Where he mentions Virgil's hell, he likewise refers to Claudian De Raptu Proserpine, and Dante's Inferno. v. 450. There is a translation of a few lines from Dante, whom he calls "the wise poet of Florence," in the WIFE OF BATH'S TALE, v. 1125. p. 84. Urr. The story of Hugolin of Pisa, a subject which Sir Joshua Reynolds has lately painted in a capital style, is translated from Dante, "the grete poete of Italie that hight Dante," in the MONKES TALE, v. 877. A sentence from Dante is cited in the LEGENDE OF GOOD WOMEN, v. 360. In the FREERE'S TALE, Dante is compared with Virgil, v. 256.

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It was not only in the fairy palaces

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fiction, and explains his meaning, by alledging the authority of Boethius; who says, that Contemplation may soar on the wings of Philosophy above every element. He likewise recol

lects, in the midst of his course, the description of the heavens, given by Marcianus Capella in his book De Nuptiis Philologia et Mercurii', and Alanus in his Anticlaudian". At his arrival in the confines of the House of Fame, he is alarmed with confused murmurs issuing from thence, like distant thunders or billows. This circumstance is also borrowed from Ovid's temple". He is left by the eagle near the house, which is built of materials bright as polished glass, and stands on a rock of ice of excessive height, and almost inaccessible. All the southern side of this rock was covered with engravings of the names of famous men, which were perpetually melting away by the heat of the sun. The northern side of the rock was alike covered with names; but being here shaded from the warmth of the sun, the characters remained unmelted and uneffaced. The structure of the house is thus imagined.

Me thoughtin by sainct Gile,

That all was of stone of berille,

Both the castle and the toure,

And eke the hall and everie boure* :
Without pecis or joynynges,
And many subtill compassyngs,
As barbicans and pinnacles,
Imageries and tabernacles
I sawe, and full eke of windowis

As flakis fallin in grete snowis.

In these lines, and in some others which occur hereafter 2, the poet perhaps alludes to the many new decorations in archi

* See The MARCHAUNT'S Tale, v. 1248. p. 70. Urr. And Lidg. Stor. Theb. fol. 357.

"A famous book in the middle ages. There is an old French translation of it. Bibl. Reg. Paris. MSS. Cod. 7632.

See Met. xii. 39. And Virg. Æn. iv. 173. Val. Flacc. ii. 117. Lucan. i.

469.

* chamber.
y turrets.
B. iii. v. 211.

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