least of all qualities be effectively exemplified in extract: its subtle life, dependent upon the thousand minutiae of place and connection, perishes under the process of excision; it is to attempt to exhibit, not the building by the brick, but the living man by a "pound of his fair flesh." We will venture, however, to give one or two short passages. Nothing is more admirable in the Canterbury Tales than the manner in which the character of the Host is sustained throughout. He is the moving spirit of the poem from first to last. Here is his first introduction to us presiding over the company at supper in his own

gentle hostelry,

That hightc the Tabard faste by the Bell,

in Southwark, on the evening before they set out on their pilgrimage:

Great cheere made our Host us everich one,

And to the supper set he us anon,

And served us with vitail of the best;

Strong was the wine, and well to drink us lost.1
A seemly man our Hoste was with all
For to han been a marshal in an hall;
A large man he was, with eyen steep;

A fairer burgess is there none in Cheap;

4

Bold of his speech, and wise, and well ytaught,
And of manhood ylaked right him naught:
Eke thereto was he a right merry man;
And after supper playen he began,
And spake of mirth amonges other things,
When that we hadden made our reckonings,
And said thus: Now, Lordings, truely
Ye been to me welcome right heartily;
For, by my troth, if that I shall not lie,
I saw nat this yer swich a company
At ones in this herberwe as is now;
Fain would I do you mirth an I wist how;
And of a mirth I am right now bethought
To don you ease, and it shall cost you nought.
Ye gon to Canterbury; God you speed,
The blissful martyr quite you your meed:
And well I wot as ye gon by the way
Ye shapen you to talken and to play;
For truely comfort ne mirth is none
To riden by the way dumb as the stone;
And therefore would I maken you disport,

It pleased us. • Suchi.

2 Lacked. 5 Inn.

3 In addition, besides, also.
6 Prepare yourselves, intend.

They all gladly assent; upon which mine Host proposes further that each of them (they were twenty-nine in all, besides himself) should tell two stories in going, and two more in returning, and that, when they got back to the Tabard, the one who had told the "tales of best sentence and most solace" should have a supper at the charge of the rest. And, adds the eloquent, sagacious, and large-hearted projector of the scheme,

-for to make you the more merry
I woll my selven gladly with you ride
Right at mine owen cost, and be your guide.
And who that woll my judgement withsay
Shall pay for all we spenden by the way.

5

Great as the extent of the poem is, therefore, what has been executed, or been preserved, is only a small part of the design; for this liberal plan would have afforded us no fewer than a hundred and twenty tales. Nothing can be better than the triumphant way in which mine Host of the Tabard is made to go through the duties of his self-assumed post;-his promptitude, his decision upon all emergencies, and at the same time his good feeling never at fault any more than his good sense, his inexhaustible and unflagging fun and spirit, and the all-accommodating humour and perfect sympathy with which, without for a moment stooping from his own frank and manly character, he bears himself to every individual of the varied cavalcade. He proposes that they should draw cuts to decide who was to begin; and with how genuine a courtesy, at once encouraging and reverential, he first addresses himself to the modest Clerk, and the gentle Lady Prioress, and the Knight, who also was "of his port as meek as is a maid:"

Sir Knight, quod he, my maister and my lord,
Now draweth cut, for that is mine accord.

↑ Stand.

2 Work, do.

3 If ye shall not be merry.

Smite. The imperative has generally this termination.

Resist, oppose, withstand.

Cometh near, quod he, my Lady Prioress;
And ye, Sir Clerk, let be your shamefastness,
Ne studieth nought; lay hand to, every man.

But for personages of another order, again, he is another man, giving and taking jibe and jeer with the hardest and boldest in their own style and humour, only more nimbly and happily than any of them, and without ever compromising his dignity. And all the while his kindness of heart, simple and quick, and yet considerate, is as conspicuous as the cordial appreciation and delight with which he enters into the spirit of what is going forward, and enjoys the success of his scheme. For example,

When that the Knight had thus his tale told,
In all the company n'as there young ne old
That he ne said it was a noble storie,

And worthy to be drawen to memorie,1

2

And namely the gentles everich one.

3

Our Hoste lough and swore, So mote I gone,
This goth aright; unbokeled is the male;5
Let see now who shall tell another tale,
For truely this game is well begonne :
Now telleth ye, Sir Monk, if that ye conne,
Somewhat to quiten with the Knighte's tale.
The Miller, that for-dronken was all pale,
So that unneaths upon his horse he sat,
He n'old avalen 10 neither hood ne hat,
Ne abiden "no man for his courtesy,
But in Pilate's voice 12 he gan to cry,

9

And swore, By armes, and by blood and bones,
I can 13 a noble tale for the nones,"

14

With which I wol now quite the Knightes tale.
Our Hoste saw that he was dronken of ale,
And said, Abide, Robin, my leve 15 brother;
Some better man shall tell us first another;
Abide and let us werken 16 thriftily.

By Goddes soul, quod he, that woll not 1,
For I woll speak, or elles go my way.
Our Host answered, Tell on a devil way;

9 With difficulty.

7 To requite.
10 Would not doff or lower.

"Stop for.

12 In such a voice as Pilate was used to speak with in the Mysteries. Pilate, being an odious character, was probably represented as speaking with a harsh disagreeable voice."-Tyrwhitt.

13 Know.

16 Go to work.

14 For the nonce, for the occasion.

15 Dear.

Thou art a fool; thy wit is overcome.

Now, hearkeneth, quod the Miller, all and some;
But first I make a protestatioun

That I am drunk, I know it by my soun,

And therefore, if that I misspeak or say,

Wite it the ale of Southwark, I you pray.

The Miller is at last allowed to tell his tale-which is more accordant with his character, and the condition he was in, than with either good morals or good manners;-as the poet ob

serves:

What should I more say, but this Millere
He n'old his wordes for no man forbere,
But told his cherle's 2 tale in his manere;
Methinketh that I shall rehearse it here:
And therefore every gentle wight I pray
For Goddes love, as deem not that I say,
Of evil intent, but that I mote rehearse
Their tales all, al be they better or werse,
Or elles falsen some of my matere:
And, therefore, whoso list it not to hear,
Turn over the leaf, and chese3 another tale;
For he shall find enow, both great and smale,
Of storial thing that toucheth gentiless,
And ekę morality and holiness.

The Miller's Tale is capped by another in the same style from his fellow "churl" the Reve (or Bailiff)-who before he begins, however, avails himself of the privilege of his advanced years to prelude away for some time in a preaching strain, till his eloquence is suddenly cut short by the voice of authority:

When that our Host had heard this sermoning,

He gan to speak as lordly as a king,

And saide, What amounteth all this wit?
What, shall we speak all day of holy writ?
The devil made a Reve for to preach,
Or of a souter1 a shipman or a leech.5
Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time;
Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime;7
Lo Greenewich, there many a shrew is in :8
It were all time thy Tale to begin.

1 Lay the blame of it on.

4 Cobbler.

2 Churl's.

Physician.

3 Choose.

6 Deptford.

7 Tyrwhitt supposes this means half-past seven in the morning.
8 In which (wherein) is many a shrew.

The last specimen we shall give of "our Host" shall be from the Clerk's Prologue :—

Sir Clerk of Oxenford, our Hoste said,
Ye ride as still and coy as doth a maid
Were newe spoused, sitting at the board;
This day ne heard I of your tongue a word.
I trow ye study abouten some sophime,1
But Salomon saith that every thing hath time.
For Godde's sake as beth of better cheer;
It is no time for to studien here.
Tell us some merry tale by your fay ;3
For what man that is entered in a play
He needes must unto the play assent.
But preacheth not, as freres don in Lent,
To make us for our olde sinnes weep,
Ne that thy tale make us not to sleep.
Tell us some merry thing of aventures;
Your terms, your coloures, and your figures,
Keep them in store till so be ye indite
High style, as when that men to kinges write.
Speaketh so plain at this time, I you pray,
That we may understonden what ye say.

This worthy Clerk benignely answerd;
Hoste, quod he, I am under your yerde;
Ye have of us as now the governance,
And therefore would I do you obeisance,
As fer as reason asketh hardily.
I wol you tell a tale which that I
Learned at Padow of a worthy clerk,
As preved by his wordes and his werk:
He is now dead and nailed in his chest;
I pray to God so yeve his soule rest.
Francis Petrarch, the laureat poete
Highte this clerk, whose rhethoricke sweet
Enlumined all Itaille of poetry,

As Linian did of philosophy,

Or law, or other art particulere;

But death, that wol not suffre us dwellen here

But as it were a twinkling of an eye,

Them both hath slain, and alle we shall die.

And our last specimen of the Canterbury Tales, and also of Chaucer, being a passage exhibiting that power of pathos in the delicacy as well as in the depth of which he is unrivalled, shall

1 Sophism, perhaps generally for a logical argument. 2 Be.

Proved.

3 Faith.

4 Surely.

6 A great lawyer of the fourteenth century.