A history of English literature

by Edward Albert

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340–1400)

1. His Life. In many of the documents of the time Chaucer’s name is mentioned with some frequency; and these references, in addition to some remarks he makes regarding himself in the course of his poems, are the sum of what we know about his life. The date of his birth is uncertain, but it is now generally accepted as being 1340. He was born in London, entered the household of the wife of the Duke of Clarence (1357), and saw military service abroad, where he was captured. Next he seems to have entered the royal household, for he is frequently mentioned as the recipient of royal pensions and bounties. When Richard II succeeded to the crown (1377) Chaucer was confirmed in his offices and pensions, and shortly afterward (1378) he was sent to Italy on one of his several diplomatic missions. More pecuniary blessings followed; then ensued a period of depression, due probably to the departure to Spain (1387) of his patron John of Gaunt; but his life closed with a revival of his prosperity. He was the first poet to be buried in what is now known as Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

2. His Poems. The order of Chaucer’s poems cannot be ascertained with certitude, but from internal evidence they can as a rule be approximately dated.

It is now customary to divide the Chaucerian poems into three stages: the French, the Italian, and the English, of which the last is a development of the first two.

(a) The poems of the earliest or French group are closely modeled upon French originals, and the style is clumsy and immature. Of such poems the longest is The Romaunt of the Rose, a lengthy allegorical poem, written in octosyllabic couplets, and based upon Jean de Meung’s Le Roman de la Rose. This poem, which, though it extends to eight thousand lines, is only a fragment, was once entirely ascribed to Chaucer, but recent research, based upon a scrutiny of Chaucerian style, has decided that only the first part, amounting to seventeen hundred lines, is his work. Other poems of this period include The Dethe of the Duchesse, probably his earliest, and dated 1369, the date of the Duchess’s death, The Compleynte unto Pité, Chaucer’s ABC, The Compleynte of Mars, The Compleynte of Faire Anelida, and The Parlement of Foules. Of these the last is the longest; it has a fine opening, but, as so often happens at this time, the work diffuses into long speeches and descriptions.

(b) The second or Italian stage shows a decided advance upon the first. In the handling of the meters the technical ability is greater, and there is a growing keenness of perception and a greater stretch of originality. Troilus and Cressida is a long poem adapted from Boccaccio. By far the greater part of the poem is original, and the rhyme royal stanzas, of much dexterity and beauty, abound in excellent lines that often suggest the sonnets of Shakespeare. The poem suffers from the prevailing diffuseness; but the pathos of the story is touched upon with a passionate intensity.

“If no love is, O God, what fele I so?

And if love is, what thing and which is he?

If love be good, from whennes com’th my wo?

If it be wikke, a wonder thinketh me

When every torment and adversite

That com’th of him may to me savory thinke;

For ay thurste I the more that ich it drinke.

“And if that in myn owne lust I brenne,

From whennes com’th my wailing and my pleynte?

If harm agree me, wher-to pleyne I thenne?

I n’ot, ne why unwery that I fainte.

O quike deth! O swete harm so queynte!

How may of thee in me swich quantite,

But if I consente that it be?”

The Hous of Fame, a shorter poem in octosyllabic couplets, is of the dream-allegory type, as most of Chaucer’s poems of this period are; and it is of special importance because it shows gleams of the genuine Chaucerian humor. In this group is also included The Legende of Good Women, in which Chaucer, starting with the intention of telling nineteen affecting tales of virtuous women of antiquity, finishes with eight accomplished and the ninth only begun. After a charming introduction on the daisy, there is some masterly narrative, particularly in the portion dealing with Cleopatra. The meter is the heroic couplet, with which Chaucer was to familiarize us in The Canterbury Tales.

(c) The third or English group contains work of the greatest individual accomplishment. The achievement of this period is The Canterbury Tales, though one or two of the separate tales may be of slightly earlier composition. For the general idea of the tales Chaucer may be indebted to Boccaccio, but in nearly every important feature the work is essentially English. For the purposes of his poem Chaucer draws together twenty-nine pilgrims, including himself. They meet at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, in order to go on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. The twenty-nine are carefully chosen types, of both sexes, and of all ranks, from a knight to a humble plowman; their occupations and personal peculiarities are many and diverse; and, as they are depicted in the masterly Prologue to the main work, they are interesting, alive, and thoroughly human. At the suggestion of the host of the Tabard, and to relieve the tedium of the journey, each of the pilgrims is to tell two tales on the outward journey, and two on the return. In its entirety the scheme would have resulted in an immense collection of over a hundred tales. But as it happens Chaucer finished only twenty, and left four partly complete. The separate tales are linked with their individual prologues, and with dialogues and scraps of narrative. Even in its incomplete state the work is a small literature in itself, an almost unmeasured abundance and variety of humor and pathos, of narrative and description, and of dialogue and digression. There are two prose tales, Chaucer’s own Tale of Melibœus and The Parson’s Tale; and nearly all the others are composed in a powerful and versatile species of the heroic couplet.

To this last stage of Chaucer’s work several short poems are ascribed, including The Lack of Stedfastness and the serio-comic Compleynte of Chaucer to his Purse.

There is also mention of a few short early poems, such as Origines upon the Maudeleyne, which have been lost.

During his lifetime Chaucer built up such a reputation as a poet that many works were at a later date ascribed to him without sufficient evidence. Of this group the best examples are The Flower and the Leaf, quite an excellent example of the dream-allegory type, and The Court of Love. It has now been settled that these poems are not truly his.

3. His Prose. The two prose tales cannot be regarded as among Chaucer’s successful efforts. Both of them—that is, The Tale of Melibœus and The Parson’s Tale on Penitence—are lifeless in style and full of tedious moralizings. Compared with earlier prose works they nevertheless mark an advance. They have a stronger grasp of sentence-construction, and in vocabulary they are copious and accurate. The other prose works of Chaucer are an early translation of Boëthius, and a treatise, composed for the instruction of his little son Lewis, on the astrolabe, then a popular astronomical instrument.

The following extract is a fair example of his prose:

“Now, sirs,” saith dame Prudence, “sith ye vouche saufe to be gouerned by my counceyll, I will enforme yow how ye shal gouerne yow in chesing of your counceyll. First tofore alle workes ye shall beseche the hyghe God, that he be your counceyll; and shape yow to suche entente that he yeue you counceyll and comforte as Thobye taught his sone. ‘At alle tymes thou shall plese and praye him to dresse thy weyes; and loke that alle thy counceylls be in hym for euermore.’ Saynt James eke saith: ‘Yf ony of yow haue nede of sapience, axe it of God.’ And after that than shall ye take counceyll in yourself, and examyne well your thoughtys of suche thynges as ye thynke that ben beste for your profyt. And than shall ye dryue away from your hertes the thynges that ben contraryous to good counceyl: this is to saye—ire, couetyse, and hastynes.”

The Tale of Melibœus

4. Features of his Poetry. (a) The first thing that strikes the eye is the unique position that Chaucer’s work occupies in the literature of the age. He is first, with no competitor for hundreds of years to challenge his position. He is, moreover, the forerunner in the race of great literary figures that henceforth, in fairly regular succession, dominate the ages they live in.

(b) His Observation. Among Chaucer’s literary virtues his acute faculty of observation is very prominent. He was a man of the world, mixing freely with all types of mankind; and he used his opportunities to observe the little peculiarities of human nature. He had the seeing eye, the retentive memory, the judgment to select, and the capacity to expound; hence the brilliance of his descriptions, which we shall note in the next paragraph.

(c) His Descriptions. Success in descriptive passages depends on vivacity and skill in presentation, as well as on the judgment shown in the selection of details. Chaucer’s best descriptions, of men, manners, and places, are of the first rank in their beauty, impressiveness, and humor. Even when he follows the common example of the time, as when giving details of conventional spring mornings and flowery gardens, he has a vivacity that makes his poetry unique. Many poets before him had described the break of day, but never with the real inspiration that appears in the following lines:

The bisy larke, messager of day,

Salueth in her song the morwe gay,

And firy Phœbus riseth up so brighte

That all the orient laugheth with the lighte.

The Knight’s Tale

The Prologue contains ample material to illustrate Chaucer’s power in describing his fellow-men. We shall add an extract to show him in another vein. Observe the selection of detail, the terseness and adequacy of epithet, and the masterly handling of the couplet.

First on the wal was peynted a forest,

In which ther dwelleth neither man nor best,

With knotty, knarry, barreyne trees olde

Of stubbes sharpe and hidouse to biholde,

In which ther ran a rumbel and a swough,

As though a storm sholde bresten every bough;

And dounward from an hille, under a bente,

Ther stood the temple of Mars armypotente,

Wroght al of burned steel, of which the entree

Was long and streit, and gastly for to see.

The northern light in at the dores shoon,

For wyndowe on the wal ne was ther noon

Thurgh which men myghten any light discern,

The dores were al of adament eterne,

Y-clenched overthwart and endelong

With iren tough, and for to make it strong,

Every pyler, the temple to sustene,

Was tonne greet, of iren bright and shene.

The Knight’s Tale

(d) His Humor and Pathos. In the literature of his time, when so few poets seem to have any perception of the fun in life, the humor of Chaucer is invigorating and delightful. The humor, which steeps nearly all his poetry, has great variety: kindly and patronizing, as in the case of the Clerk of Oxenford; broad and semi-farcical, as in the Wife of Bath; pointedly satirical, as in the Pardoner and the Summoner; or coarse, as happens in the tales of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Pardoner. It is seldom that the satirical intent is wholly lacking, as it is in the case of the Good Parson, but, except in rare cases, the satire is good-humored and well-meant. The prevailing feature of Chaucer’s humor is its urbanity: the man of the world’s kindly tolerance of the weaknesses of his erring fellow-mortals.

Chaucer lays less emphasis on pathos, but it is not overlooked. In the poetry of Chaucer the sentiment is humane and unforced. We have excellent examples of pathos in the tale of the Prioress and in The Legende of Good Women.

We give a short extract from the long conversation between Chaucer and the eagle (“with fethres all of gold”) which carried him off to the House of Fame. The bird, with its cool acceptance of things, is an appropriate symbol of Chaucer himself in his attitude toward the world.

Thus I longe in his clawes lay,

Til at the laste he to me spak

In mannes vois, and seyde, “Awak!

And be not so agast, for shame!”

And called me tho by my name.

And, for I sholde the bet abreyde—

Me mette—“Awak,” to me he seyde,

Right in the same vois and stevene

That useth oon I coude nevene;

And with that vois, soth for to sayn,

My minde cam to me agayn;

For hit was goodly seyd to me,

So nas hit never wont to be....

And sayde twyes “Seynte Marie!

Thou art noyous for to carie.”...

“O god,” thoughte I, “that madest kinde,

Shal I non other weyes dye?

Wher Ioves wol me stellifye,

Or what thing may this signifye?

I neither am Enok, nor Elye,

Ne Romulus, ne Ganymede

That was y-bore up, as men rede,

To hevene with dan Iupiter,

And maad the goddes boteler.”

(e) His Narrative Power. As a story-teller Chaucer employs somewhat tortuous methods, but his narrative possesses a curious stealthy speed. His stories, viewed strictly as stories, have most of the weaknesses of his generation: a fondness for long speeches, for pedantic digressions on such subjects as dreams and ethical problems, and for long explanations when none are necessary. Troilus and Cressida, heavy with long speeches, is an example of his prolixity, and The Knight’s Tale, of baffling complexity and overabundant in detail, reveals his haphazard and dawdling methods; yet both contain many admirable narrative passages. But when he rises above the weaknesses common to the time he is terse, direct, and vivacious. The extract given below will illustrate the briskness with which his story can move.

This sely widwe, and eek hir doghtres two,

Herden thise hennes crie and maken wo,

And out at dores stirten they anon,

And syen the fox toward the grove gon,

And bar upon his bak the cok away,

And cryden, “Out! Harrow! And weylaway!

Ha! Ha! The Fox!” And after hym they ran,

And eek with staves many another man;

Ran Colle, oure dogge, and Talbot, and Gerland

And Malkyn, with a dystaf in hir hand;

Ran cow and calf, and eek the verray hogges,

So were they fered for berkynge of the dogges,

And shoutyng of the men and wommen eek;

They ronne so hem thoughte hir herte breek.

They yolleden, as feendes doon in helle;

The dokes cryden, as men wolde hem quelle;

The gees, for feere, flowen over the trees;

Out of the hyve cam the swarm of bees;

So hidous was the noys, a benedicitee!

Certes, he Jakke Straw, and his meynee,

Ne made never shoutes half so shrille,

Whan that they wolden any Flemyng kille,

As thilke day was maade upon the fox.

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

(f) His Metrical Skill. In the matter of poetical technique English literature owes much to Chaucer. He is not an innovator, for he employs the meters in common use. In his hands, however, they take on new powers. The octosyllabic and heroic couplets, which previously were slack and inartistic measures, now acquire a new strength, suppleness, and melody. Chaucer, who is no great lyrical poet, takes little interest in the more complicated meters common in the lyric; but in some of his shorter poems he shows a skill that is as good as the very best apparent in the contemporary poems.

(g) Summary. We may summarize Chaucer’s achievement by saying that he is the earliest of the great moderns. In comparison with the poets of his own time, and with those of the succeeding century, the advance he makes is almost startling. For example, Manning, Hampole, and the romancers are of another age and of another way of thinking from ours; but, apart from the superficial archaisms of spelling, the modern reader finds in Chaucer something closely akin. All the Chaucerian features help to create this modern atmosphere: the shrewd and placidly humorous observation, the wide humanity, the quick aptness of phrase, the dexterous touch upon the meter, and, above all, the fresh and formative spirit—the genius turning dross into gold. Chaucer is indeed a genius; he stands alone, and for nearly two hundred years none dare claim equality with him.