Geoffrey Chaucer

“ We now desert the region of groundless conjecture, in order with the year 1357 to arrive at a firm though not very broad footing of facts. In this year, "Geoffrey Chaucer" (whom it would be too great an effort of scepticism to suppose to have been merely a namesake of the poet) is mentioned in the Household Book of Elizabeth Countess of Ulster, wife of Prince Lionel (third son of King Edward III, and afterwards Duke of Clarence) , as a recipient of certain articles of apparel. ”

“ Yet not a single incident of his life has come down to us from the men who admired his personality, who enrolled themselves as his disciples, and who celebrated his praises. With the exception of a few slight references to himself in his writings, all the knowledge we possess of the events of his career is due to the mention made of him in official documents of various kinds and of different degrees of importance. In these it is taken for granted that whenever Geoffrey Chaucer is spoken of, it is the poet who is meant, and not another person of the same name. ”

“ Some give him a vintner for a father, some a merchant, and some a knight. In our opinion the former of these is the most likely origin for Geoffrey Chaucer. His rich but broad humor seems as if it must have sprung from the merry, vigorous heart of the common people, and the variety of characters depicted in the "Canterbury Tales" proves that he must have mixed with all sorts of men and women, both high and low. ”

“ Something has been already said as to the conflict of opinion concerning the period of Geoffrey Chaucer's birth, the precise date of which is very unlikely ever to be ascertained. A better fortune has attended the anxious enquiries which in his case, as in those of other great men have been directed to the very secondary question of ancestry and descent,—a question to which, in the abstract at all events, no man ever attached less importance than he. ”

“ It was during the sitting of this parliament, viz. on Oct. 15, that Chaucer was examined at Westminster in the case of Richard, lord Scrope, against the claim of Sir Robert Grosvenor, as to the right of bearing the coat of arms described as 'azure, a bend or.' The account of Chaucer's evidence is given in French [123] ; the following is a translation of it, chiefly in the words of Sir H. Nicolas:—
'Geoffrey Chaucer, Esquire, of the age of 40 years and upwards, armed for 27 years, produced on behalf of Sir Richard Scrope, sworn and examined. ”

“ The very fetters on his great shins were wet with salt and bitter tears. "Alack!" quoth he, "Arcite, my cousin, of all our strife, God wot thine is the fruit. Thou walkest now in Thebes at large and heedest my woe but little. With thy prudence and manhood thou mayst assemble all the folk of our kindred, and make so sharp a war on this city that by some chance or treaty thou mayst have her to lady and wife for whom I must needs die. Great may be thy hopes over me that perish here in a cage, with all the woes of prison and eke with the pain of love, that doubleth all my torment." ”

“ In all the parish was no wife that should walk before her to the offering; but if any did, sooth, she was so wroth that she was clean out of charity. Her kerchiefs were wove full fine ; I durst swear they weighed ten pound that were on her head of a Sunday ; her hose were of fine scarlet, tied full close, and her shoes full new and supple. Her face was bold, fair and red of hue. All her life she was a worthy woman ; she had had five husbands at church-door, to say naught of other company in youth, but thereof needeth not now to speak. Thrice she had been at Jerusalem ”

“ Then came this woful Palamon, his hair all rough with ashes and his beard all ragged, in black clothes sprinkled with his tears; and Emily, that passeth others in weeping, the ruefullest of all. That the service might be the more noble and rich Duke Theseus let three great white steeds be brought out, that were trapped in steel and all glittering and covered with the arms of lord Arcite. Upon these steeds sat folk, of whom one bore the shield and another in his hands the spear; the third bore with him the Turkish bow, the case whereof and eke the harness were of burnished gold. ”

“ EITHER the Philippa Chaucer of 1366 was Geoffrey Chaucer's wife, whether or not she was Philippa Roet before marriage, and the lament of 1369 had reference to another lady—an assumption to be regretted in the case of a married man, but not out of the range of possibility. ”

“ The prayer of Arcite ended, the temple-doors and eke the rings that hung upon them clattered full loud, for which Arcite was somewhat aghast. The fires flared up upon the altar and gan illumine all the temple, and the ground gave up a smell most sweet. And Arcite anon lifted his hand and cast more incense upon the fire, with other rites. And at the last the statue of Mars began to ring his hauberk; and with that sound he heard a murmuring full low and dim that said "Victory," for which he gave honour and laud to Mars. ”

“ To be in touch throughout his life with the best French poets of the day was much for Chaucer. Even with their stimulus alone he might have developed no small part of his genius. But it was his great good fortune to add to this continuing French influence, lessons in plot and construction derived from Boccaccio’s Filostrato and Teseide, as well as some glimpses of the higher art of the Divina Commedia. He shows acquaintance also with one of Petrarch’s sonnets, and though, when all is said, the Italian books with which he can be proved to have been intimate are but few, they sufficed. ”

“ The animal expulsive virtue of his natural strength may not void the venom. The pipes of his lungs begin to swell, and every muscle from his breast down is wasted by venom and corruption. To save him availeth neither vomit upward nor downward laxative; all that region is crushed, nature hath now no dominion. And certainly, where nature will not act, farewell physic! go bear the man to church! This is all, that Arcite may not live. Wherefore he sendeth for Emily and Palamon his cousin, and then saith he thus as ye shall hear. ”

“ It may mean that Chaucer was accessory to her abduction, much as Geoffrey Stace and others were concerned in the abduction of the poet's father; or it may be connected with the fact that his 'little son Lowis' was ten years old in 1391, as we learn from the Prologue to the Treatise on the Astrolabe.
§ 21. 1381. On March 6, Chaucer received 22l. for his services in going to Montreuil and Paris in the time of the late king, i. e. in 1377, in order to treat for peace ”

“ Honours the princely chiefs, rewards the rest, And holds for thrice three days a royal feast. None was disgraced; for falling is no shame, And cowardice alone is loss of fame. The venturous knight is from the saddle thrown, But 'tis the fault of fortune, not his own; If crowds and palms the conquering side adorn, The victor under better stars was born: The brave man seeks not popular applause, Nor, overpowered with arms, deserts his canse; Unshamed, though foiled, he does the best he can: Force is of brutes, but honour is of man. ”

“ Cease, daughter, to complain, and stint the strife; Thy Palamon shall have his promised wife: And Mars, the lord of conquest, in the fight With palm and laurel shall adorn his knight. Wide is my course, nor turn I to my place, Till length of time, and move with tardy pace. Man feels me when I press the etherial plains; My hand is heavy, and the wound remains. Mine is the shipwreck in a watery sign; And in an earthy the dark dungeon mine. Cold shivering agues, melancholy care, And bitter blasting winds, and poisoned air, Are mine, and wilful death, resulting from despair. ”

“ So grant my suit, as I enforce my might, In love to be thy champion and thy knight, A servant to thy sex, a slave to thee, A foe professed to barren chastity: Nor ask I fame or honour of the field, Nor choose I more to vanquish than to yield: In my divine Emilia make me blest, Let Fate or partial Chance dispose the rest: Find thou the manner, and the means prepare; Possession, more than conquest, is my care. Mars is the warrior's god; in him it lies On whom he favours to confer the prize; With smiling aspect you serenely move In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love. ”

“ She is not his daughter, whatsoever he saith. Wherefore I pray to you, my lord judge, yield me my thrall, if it be your will." Lo! this was the sense of his petition.
Virginius gan look on the churl, but hastily ere he told his tale and would have proved as a knight should, and eke by many a witness, that what his accuser had said was false, this cursed judge would tarry no whit nor hear a word from Virginius, but gave his judgment and said, "I decree that straightway this churl have his servant ; thou shalt keep her in thy house no longer. Go bring her forth and put her here in our charge. ”

“ On peril of my soul, I shall not lien,
As me was taught to helpe with your eyen,
Was nothing better for to make you see,
Than struggle with a man upon a tree:
God wot, I did it in full good intent."
"Struggle!" quoth he, "yea, algate in it went.
God give you both one shame's death to dien!
He swived thee; I saw it with mine eyen;
And elles be I hanged by the halse."
"Then is," quoth she, "my medicine all false;
For certainly, if that ye mighte see,
Ye would not say these wordes unto me.
Ye have some glimpsing, and no perfect sight." ”

“ And sometimes, to refresh them, Theseus causeth them to rest, and drink, if they will. Full oft have these two Thebans met together and each wrought his fellow woe; twice hath each unhorsed the other. There is no tigress in the vale of Galgopheye, when her little whelp is stolen, so cruel on the hunt as Arcite, for his jealous heart is upon this Palamon; nor in Belmarye is there so fell a lion that is hunted or mad for hunger, or that desireth so the blood of his prey as Palamon to slay Arcite his foe. The jealous strokes bite in their helms ”

“ We fare as he that is drunk as a mouse; a drunken man wot well he hath an home, but wot not which is the right way thither, and to a drunken man the way is slippery. And certes in this world so we fare; much we seek after felicity, but full often we go wrong. Thus may we well say and I above all, who weened that, if I might escape, I should be in joy and perfect weal; yet now am I exiled from my happiness. Sith I may not see you, Emily, I die, there is no help."
On the other side, Palamon, when he wist that Arcite was gone, made such sorrow that the great tower resounded with his clamour. ”

“ He had very little sheer singing power, and though there are fine lines in his short poems, witness the famous “Flee fro the prees and dwell with soothfastnesse,” they lack the sustained concentration of great work. From the drama, again, Chaucer was cut off, and it is idle to argue from the innumerable dramatic touches in his poems and his gift of characterization as to what he might have done had he lived two centuries later. ”

“ Enjoying while we live the present hour, And dying in our excellence and flower. Then round our death-bed every friend should run, And joy us of our conquest early won; While the malicious world, with envious tears, Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs. Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed, Or call untimely what the gods decreed? With grief as just a friend may be deplored, From a foul prison to free air restored. Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife, Could tears recall him into wretched life? Their sorrow hurts themselves ”

“ Nor ease nor wealth nor life it self regard, For 'tis their maxim, love is love's reward. This is not all; the fair, for whom they strove, Nor knew before, nor could suspect their love, Nor thought, when she beheld the fight from far, Her beauty was the occasion of the war. But sure a general doom on man is past, And all are fools and lovers, first or last: This both by others and my self I know, For I have served their sovereign long ago; Oft have been caught within the winding train Of female snares, and felt the lover's pain, And learned how far the god can human hearts constrain. ”

“ Five London burgesses are described in a group, and a Nun and Priest [3] are mentioned as in attendance on the Prioress. Each of these, with Chaucer himself making the twenty-ninth, was pledged to tell two tales, but including one second attempt and a tale told by the Yeoman of a Canon, who overtakes the pilgrims on the road, we have only twenty finished stories, two unfinished and two interrupted ones. As in the case of the Legende of Good Women, our loss is not so much that of the additional stories as of the completed framework. ”

“ It occurs also twice in Golagros and Gawain, used of the gay dress of a woman; see Jamieson. Nares shews that gite is used once by Fairfax, and thrice by Gascoigne. The sense is usually dubious; it may mean 'robe,' or, in some places, 'head-dress.' The g was certainly hard, and the word is of F. origin. Godefroy gives 'guite, chapeau'; and Roquefort has 'wite, voile.' The F. Gloss. appended to Ducange gives the word witart as applied to a man, and witarde as applied to a woman. Cf. O. F. wiart, which Roquefort explains as a woman's veil, whilst Godefroy explains guiart as a dress or vestment. ”

“ Arcite is cold, and may Mars guide his soul! Now will I speak forth of the others.
Emily shrieked and Palamon wept, and Theseus anon took his sister swooning and bore her from the corpse. What helpeth it to tell all day how she wept both eve and morn? For when their husbands be gone from them, women for the more part sorrow so, or else fall in such sickness that at the last certainly they die. Infinite were the sorrow and the tears for this Theban's death, of old folk and folk of tender age in all the town, for him wept both man and child ”