תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

There is some humour in making our lawyer introduce the language of his pleadings into common conversation. He addresses the hoste,

Hoste, quoth he, de pardeux jeo assent.*

The affectation of talking French was indeed general, but it is here appropriated and in character.

Among the rest, the character of the HOSTE, or master of the Tabarde inn where the pilgrims are assembled, is conspicuous. He has much good sense, and discovers great talents for managing and regulating a large company; and to him we are indebted for the happy proposal of obliging every pilgrim to tell a story during their journey to Canterbury. His interpositions between the tales are very useful and enlivening; and he is something like the chorus on the Grecian stage. He is of great service in encouraging each person to begin his part, in conducting the scheme with spirit, in making proper observations on the merit or tendency of the several stories, in settling disputes which must naturally arise in the course of such an entertainment, and in connecting all the narratives into one continued system. His love of good cheer, experience in marshalling guests, address, authoritative deportment, and facetious disposition, are thus expressively displayed by Chaucer.

Gret chere made our Hoste everich on,
And to the souper sette he us anon;

my design to enter into the disputes con-
cerning the meaning or etymology of
parcis: from which parvisia, the name
for the public schools in Oxford, is de-
rived. But I will observe, that parvis is
mentioned as a court or portico before
the church of Notre Dame at Paris, in
John de Meun's part of the Roman de
la Rose, v. 12529.

A Paris n'eust hommes ne femme
Au parvis devant Nostre Dame.
The passage is thus translated by Chau-
cer. Rom. R. v. 7157.

Ther n'as no wight in all Faris
Before our Ladie at Parvis.

The word is supposed to be contracted

from Paradise. This perhaps signified
an ambulatory. Many of our old reli-
gious houses had a place called Paradise.
In the year 1300, children were taught to
read and sing in the Parris of St. Mar-
tin's church at Norwich. Biomf. Norf. ii.
748. Our Serjeant is afterwards said to
have received many fees and robes, v. 319.
The serjeants and all the officers of the
superior courts of law, antiently received
winter and summer robes from the king's
wardrobe. He is likewise said to cite
cases and decisions, "that from the time
of king William were full," v. 326. For
this line see the very learned and inge-
nious Mr. Barrington's Observations on
the antient Statutes.
* v. 309.

And served us with vitaille of the beste:

Strong was his win, and wel to drinke us leste".
A semely man our Hostè was with alle

For to han ben a marshal in a halle.
A large man he was, with eyen stepe,
A fairer burgeis is ther non in Chepe.
Bold of his speche, and wise, and wel ytaught,
And of manhood him lacked righte naught.

a

Eke therto was he right a mery man, &c. *

Chaucer's scheme of the CANTERBURY TALES was evidently left unfinished. It was intended by our author, that every pilgrim should likewise tell a Tale on their return from Canterbury. A poet who lived soon after the CANTERBURY TALES made their appearance, seems to have designed a supplement to this deficiency, and with this view to have written a Tale called the MARCHAUNT'S SECOND TALE, or the HISTORY OF BERYN. It was first printed by Urry, who supposed it to be Chaucer's. In the Prologue, which is of considerable length, there is some humour and contrivance: in which the author, happily enough, continues to characterise the pilgrims, by imagining what each did, and how each behaved, when they all arrived at Canterbury. After dinner was ordered at their inn, they all proceed to the cathedral. At entering the church one of the monks sprinkles them with holy water. The Knight

y "we liked."
z Cheapside.
a Prol. v. 749.

b Or rather, two on their way thither, and two on their return. Only Chaucer himself tells two tales. The poet says, that there were twenty-nine pilgrims in company but in the CHARACTERS he describes more. Among the TALES which remain, there are none of the Prioresse's Chaplains, the Haberdasher, Carpynter, Webbe, Dyer, Tapiser, and Hoste. The Chanon's Yeman has a TALE, but no CHARACTER. The Plowman's Tale is certainly supposititious. See supr. p. 142. And Obs. Spens. ii. 217. It is omitted

VOL. II.

in the best manuscript of the CanterBURY TALES, MSS. Harl. 1758. fol. membran. These TALES were supposed to be spoken, not written. But we have in the Plowman's, "For my WRITING me allow." v. S309. Urr. And in other places. "For my WRITING if I have blame."-" Of my WRITING have me excus'd." etc. See a NOTE at the beginning of the CANT. TALES, MSS. Laud. K. 50. Bibl. Bodl. written by John Barcham. But the discussion of these points properly belongs to an editor of Chaucer. [See Mr. Tyrwhitt's INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE to the Canterbury Tales.-EDIT.] Urr. Chauc. p. 595.

with the better sort of the company goes in great order to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. The Miller and his companions run staring about the church: they pretend to blazon the arms painted in the glass windows, and enter intò a dispute in heraldry: but the Hoste of the Tabarde reproves them for their improper behaviour and impertinent discourse, and directs them to the martyr's shrine. When all had finished their devotions, they return to the inn. In the way thither they purchase toys for which that city was famous, called Canterbury brochis, and here much facetiousness passes betwixt the Frere and the Sompnour, in which the latter vows revenge on the former, for telling a Tale so palpably levelled at his profession, and protests he will retaliate on their return by a more severe story. When dinner is ended, the Hoste of the Tabarde thanks all the company in form for their several Tales. The party then separate till supper-time by agreement. The Knight goes to survey the walls and bulwarks of the city, and explains to his son the Squier the nature and strength of them. Mention is here made of great guns. The Wife of Bath is too weary to walk far; she proposes to the Prioresse to divert themselves in the garden, which abounds with herbs proper for making salves. Others wander about the streets. The Pardoner has a low adventure, which ends much to his disgrace. The next morning they proceed on their return to Southwark and our genial master of the Tabarde, just as they leave Canterbury, by way of putting the company into good humour, begins a panegyric on the morning and the month of April, some lines of which I shall quote, as a specimen of our author's abilities in poetical description.

с

Lo! how the seson of the yere, and Averelld shouris,
Doith the bushis burgyn out blossomes and flouris.
Lo! the prymerosys of the yere, how fresh they bene to sene,
And many othir flouris among the grassis grene.

There is a good description of a ma

a April.

f shoot.

gical palace, v. 1973-2076.

e make.

Lo! how they springe and sprede, and of divers hue,
Beholdith and seith, both white, red, and blue.
That lusty bin and comfortabyll for mannis sight,
For I say for myself it makith my hert to light.

On casting lots, it falls to the Marchaunt to tell the first tale, which then follows. I cannot allow that this Prologue and Tale were written by Chaucer. Yet I believe them to be nearly coeval.

6 v. 690.

SECTION XVIII.

IT is not my intention to dedicate a volume to Chaucer, how much soever he may deserve it; nor can it be expected, that, in a work of this general nature, I should enter into a critical examination of all Chaucer's pieces. Enough has been said to prove, that in elevation, and elegance, in harmony and perspicuity of versification, he surpasses his predecessors in an infinite proportion: that his genius was universal, and adapted to themes of unbounded variety: that his merit was not less in painting familiar manners with humour and propriety, than in moving the passions, and in representing the beautiful or the grand objects of nature with grace and sublimity. In a word, that he appeared with all the lustre and dignity of a true poet, in an age which compelled him to struggle with a barbarous language, and a national want of taste; and when to write verses at all, was regarded as a singular qualification. It is true, indeed, that he lived at a time when the French and Italians had made considerable advances and improvements in poetry: and although proofs have already been occasionally given of his imitations from these sources, I shall close my account of him with a distinct and comprehensive view of the nature of the poetry which subsisted in France and Italy when he wrote: pointing out, in the mean time, how far and in what manner the popular models of those nations contributed to form his taste, and influence his genius.

I have already mentioned the troubadours of Provence, and have observed that they were fond of moral and allegorical fables. A taste for this sort of composition they partly acquired by reading Boethius, and the PSYCHOMACHIA of Pru

a See vol. i. p. 151. seq.

« הקודםהמשך »