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For sure a priest the sample ought to give
By his own cleanness how his sheep should live.
He never set his benefice to hire,
Leaving his flock acomber'd in the mire,
And ran to London cogging at St. Paul's,
To seek himself a chauntery for souls,
Or with a brotherhood to be enroll'd;

But dwelt at home, and guarded well his fold,
So that it should not by the wolf miscarry.
He was a shepherd, and no mercenary.

Tho holy in himself, and virtuous,

He still to sinful men was mild and piteous:
Not of reproach imperious or malign;
But in his teaching soothing and benign.
To draw them on to heaven, by reason fair
And good example, was his daily care.
But were there one perverse and obstinate,
Were he of lofty or of low estate,

Him would he sharply with reproof astound.
A better priest is no where to be found.

He waited not on pomp or reverence,
Nor made himself a spiced conscience.
The lore of Christ and his apostles twelve

He taught but, first, he followed it himselve.

The following poem was the last production that emanated from Chaucer's It was written on his death-bed, and may properly close these

prolific pen.

extracts :

Fly from the press,1 and dwell with sothfastness;2
Suffice unto thy good3 though it be small;
For hoard hath hate, and climbing tickleness,

Press hath envy, and weal is blents o'er all;
Savours no more than thee behoven shall;
Rede well thyself, that other folk can'st rede,
And truth thee shall deliver 't is no drede.8
Pain thee not each croocked to redress

In trust of her that turneth as a ball;
Great rest standeth in little baseness;

Beware also to spurn against a nalle;9

Strive not as doth a crocke10 with a wall;
Deemeth thyself that deemest other's deed;
And truth thee shall deliver 't is no drede.
That12 thee is sent receive in buxomness;13
The wrestling of this world asketh a fall;
Here is no home, here is but wilderness;
Forth, pilgrim, forth, O beast out of thy stall;
Look up on high, and thank thy God of all;
Waiveth thy lust and let thy ghost1 thee lead,
And truth thee shall deliver 't is no drede.

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Though Chaucer was eminent chiefly as a poet, yet he deserves a passing notice as a writer in prose also. His longest unversified production is The 'Testament of Love,' to which we have already alluded. This is an allegorical and meditative work, and was written chiefly for the purpose of defending his character against certain imputations which had been cast upon it. Two of the 'Canterbury Tales,' also, are in prose; in one of which, the Tale of Melibeus, is found a passage on Riches, not less remarkable for the great amount of ancient wisdom which it contains, than for the clearness and simplicity of its diction. We have, however, already afforded to Chaucer so much space that we have not room to introduce this interesting passage, but must at once pass briefly to notice Gower, his illustrious contemporary.

Though the genius of Chaucer far transcended that of all preceding writers in England, yet he was not the solitary light of the age. The national mind, and the national language had now arrived at a certain degree of maturity favorable for the production of able writers in both prose and Besides Wickliffe, Gower and Mandeville also belong to the same

verse.

period.

JOHN GOWER was born of an illustrious family at Stitenham, in Yorkshire, 1320. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and at the time at which he was graduated, his eminence as a scholar was extensively known. Being designated by his parents for the legal profession, he removed to London immediately after he left the university, and entered the Middle Temple as a student at law; and though devoted to his profession, yet he did not permit it to engross his entire attention, but gave much of his leisure time to poetry and other literary pursuits. While thus occupied, and soon after he had completed his preparatory legal studies, he formed an acquaintance with Chaucer, who had just then returned from his travels on the continent, and the similarity of their tastes soon created a very close intimacy between them. Poetry, however, with Gower, was a pastime, while to his profession he devoted himself with such untiring industry, that before the close of the reign of Edward the Third, his position as a lawyer had become so commanding that when Richard the Second succeeded to the crown, that unfortunate monarch first selected him as his legal adviser, and Chancellor in Commons, and soon after raised him to the office of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

In this imposing position Gower remained until his royal patron was dethroned by the duke of Lancaster, afterward Henry the Fourth, when he being far advanced in age, and having also recently had the misfortune to lose his eyesight, retired from the busy scenes of life, and took leave at the same time, both of the muses and of the world, in his pathetic poem The Commendation of Peace. In this sweet production he plainly and affectingly indicates a full sense of his consciousness of an approaching death,

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which accordingly happened soon after at Southwark, where he then resided, in 1402. His remains were interred in St. John's Chapel, and to his memory a monument of unparalleled magnificence, for that age, was erected, upon which was inscribed a Latin Epitaph, that may be thus rendered into English.

His shield henceforth is useless grown,

To pay death's tribute slain,

His soul with joyous freedom flown,
Where spotless spirits reign.

Gower was a man of very extensive literary and legal attainments, and his poems, therefore, were rather the offspring of his learning than of his genius. His spirit was bold and uncompromising, and he accordingly inveighed in clear and energetic language against the debaucheries of the times, the immorality of the clergy, the wickedness of corrupt judges, and the vices of an abandoned court.

His principal poetic work was a poem in three parts, which were respectively entitled, Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis; the last of which, the 'Confession of a Lover,' was written in English, and was so pure and elevated in tone and sentiment, that Chaucer, upon reading it, immediately called its author, in spontaneous admiration, the Moral Gower-an encomium, to deserve which in that corrupt age, certainly argues very exalted merit. From this poem we select the following specimen, as it fully indicates the character of the author's poetic genius.

THE ENVIOUS MAN AND THE MISER.

Of Jupiter thus I find y-writ,

How whilom that he would wit,

Upon the plaints which he heard

Among the men, how it fared,

As of the wrong condition

To do justification;

And for that cause down he sent

An angel, that about went,

That he the sooth know may.

So it befel upon a day,

This angel which him should inform

Was clothed in a man's form,

And overtook, I understand,

Two men that wenten over lond;
Through which he thought to aspy
His cause, and go'th in company.
This angel with his words wise
Opposeth them in sundry wise;
Now loud words and now soft,
That made them to disputen oft;
And each his reason had,

And thus with tales he them led,

With good examination,

Till he knew the condition,

What men they were both two;
And saw well at last tho,1

That one of them was covetous,
And his fellow was envious.

And thus when he hath knowledging,
Anon he feigned departing,

And said he mote algate wend;

But hearken now what fell at end!
For than he made them understond
That he was there of God's sond,
And said them for the kindship,
He would do them some grace again,
And bade that one of them should sain,2
What thing is him levest to crave,3

And he it shall of gift have.

And over that ke forth with all

He saith, that other have shall

The double of that his fellow axeth;

And thus to them his grace he taxeth.

The Covetous was wonder glad;
And to that other man he bade,
And saith, that he first ax should;
For he supposeth that he would
Make his axing of world's good;
For then he knew well how it stood;
If that himself by double weight
Shall after take, and thus by sleight

Because that he would win,
He bade his fellow first begin.

This Envious, though it be late,
When that he saw he mote, algate,
Make his axing first, he thought,
If he his worship and profit sought
It shall be double to his fere,
That he would chuse in no manner.
But then he showeth what he was
Toward envy, and in this case,
Unto this angel thus he said,
And for his gift thus he prayed,
To make him blind on his one ee,
So that his fellow nothing see.
This word was not so soon spoke,
That his one ee anon was loke:
And his fellow forthwith also
Was blind on both his eyes two.
Tho was that other glad enough:
That one wept, that other lough.
He set his one ee at no cost,
Whereof that other two hath lost.

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE, the last writer to whom our attention will at present be directed, was born at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in the begin3 What thing he was most disposed to crave.

1 Then.

2 Say.

ning of the fourteenth century. He was liberally educated, and was designed for the medical profession; but early conceiving an unconquerable desire to visit foreign countries, he left England when in the twenty-third year of his age, and passed thirty-four years in travelling through various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, visiting Cythia, the Greater and the Lesser Armenia, Arabia, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Dalmatia, and Egypt, dwelling a sufficient length of time in each of these countries to acquire a thorough knowledge of their respective languages, and closely to inspect the habits and manners of the people.

On his return to his native country, Mandeville wrote an Iteniary, or account of his travels, in the Latin, the French, and the English languages respectively; but his absence had been so prolonged by his various journeyings in foreign lands, that when he returned home he could not be recognized even by his relatives and friends. This circumstance, together with the vices with which his native country then abounded, induced him again to leave his home, to pass the remainder of his life among strangers. He, accordingly, embarked once more for the continent, but soon after died at Liege in Holland, on the seventeenth of November, 1372, and in the seventy-third year of his age.

The travels of Mandeville contain little information that is important at the present time, farther than as they contribute to furnish us with another specimen of the English language in the fourteenth century. The following extract, however, presents a moral lesson which should not be neglected :

A MOHAMMEDAN'S LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN VICES.

And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords, and other; for he would speak to me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. And I said [to] him, 'Right well, thonked be God.' 'And he said [to] me, 'Truly nay, for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day and all night, and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. They shoulden ben simple, meek, and true, and full of alms-deeds, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they been all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they been so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han, [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serve God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living, (as they ben

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