Chaucer

Two other early poems Chaucer later in cluded in the

Among Chaucer's minor works, written at various times, mention should be made of several. Complaint of Mars' is probably an allegory on a certain court-scandal. The fragmentary (Anelida and Arcite,) noteworthy for the great metrical skill shown in the iCom plaint> near the end, represents Chaucer's earlier use of Boccaccio's •(Teseide,> whence the first part is drawn, and may have been written about 1383-84. The little poem called Words unto Adam' upbraids his careless copyist with amiable raillery. The charming (Former Age' is based on a passage in Boethius. The prose treatise on the written in 1391, and based on a Latin version of a treatise by the Arabian Messahala, instructs the writer's little son Lewis in the use of that astronomical instrument. Of ethical and gnomic balades the best are (Truth' and (Gentilesse.) The two balades addressed to are vivacious and satirical; both men were courtier-friends of Chaucer's, and it is curious to learn that the latter of them lost no time in flouting the poet's advice not to marry, and wedded within two or three months of the writ ing of the poem. The triple rounded (Merciless Beauty,' which we can hardly doubt is by Chaucer, is no less musical and clever in metn cal form than animated and jolly in substance. The 'Complaint to His Purse,' addressed to Henry IV and therefore dating from 1399-1400, may be the last poem which Chaucer wrote, but certainly shows no failing of spirits or powers. Of other abalades, roundels, virelays' we have Chaucer's own word for it that he wrote many, most of which unhappily have perished. It should be remarked that several works attrib uted to Chaucer in old editions, such as (The Flower and the Leaf,' and the (Mother of God,' are not by him.

Legend of Good Women,' the poet's first attempt at the kind of composite poem at which he made his great success in the

ing his passionate devotion to the daisy, is up braided by the God of Love for having written such anti-feminine works as the 'Troilus' and the 'Romance of the Rose,' and is instructed by the mythical Greek heroine, who ac companies the god, to make amends by celebrat ing ladies who have been faithful to false men. The prologue is now known to be based largely on the poems of three 14th-century French writers, but with amazing vigor Chaucer vivifies the conventions which he borrows, and pro duces a poem full of fresh love of nature, biographical interest and quaintly pretty page antry, which has charmed other poets from the 14th century to Keats and Tennyson. The 'legends of Cupid's saints' which follow are largely drawn from Ovid; Chaucer wrote them with less sympathy than the prologue and ap pears to have wearied of their gloom and monotony. It is most probable that Queen Anne is celebrated in the prologue under the double guise of the daisy and of Alcestis. It is extant in two very different versions, of which 'B,' usually printed second, is now known to be the earlier-written; 'A' wasprobably pro duced in 1394 or 1395, after the Queen's death, and its cooler tone is due to the excision of the probable references to her.

From his sense of confinement in the (Legend' Chaucer emerged directly, in 1387, into the multifarious freedom of the (Canter bury Tales,' the greatest collection of narrative poems in the world's literature. The 'frame story," as it is often 'called, many subordinate tales fitted into a main narrative, is of Oriental origin, but was familiar in mediaeval Europe; Boccaccio's often wrongly as sumed to have been Chaucer's model, is only one of several such collections, and it is most unlikely that Chaucer was familiar with it. Nor is there any good reason to suppose that the poem originated in any actual pilgrimage made by the poet. His design is no less original than it is simple. At the Tabard Inn, Sduth wark, on 16 April, about 30 pilgrims assemble, drawn from every class of middling English society, and the day after set forth on their 60-mile ride, lasting four or (more likely) three days, to the tomb of Saint Thomas I Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, one of the most popular shrines in mediaeval Europe. The host of the inn proposes that by way of pastime they shall tell tales on the ride, and that on their return the teller of the best shall be given a supper,— at his own inn, he is careful to stipulate. These pilgrims are described with immortal charm in a