Our eyes and ears distinctly perceive the jolly Monk, as he canters along:—
"And, whan he rood, men might his brydel here
Ginglen in a whistling wind as clere,
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel-belle."
II. Chaucer's pervasive, sympathetic humor is especially characteristic. We can see him looking with twinkling eyes at the Miller, "tolling thrice"; at the Monk, "full fat and in good point," hunting with his greyhounds, "swift as fowl in flight," or smiling before a fat roast swan; at the Squire, keeping the nightingale company; at the Doctor, prescribing the rules of astrology. The Nun feels a touch of his humor:—
"Ful wel she song the service divyne,
Entuned in hir nose ful semely."
Of the lawyer, he says:—
"No-wher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he semed bisier than he was."
Sometimes Chaucer's humor is so delicate as to be lost on those who are not quick-witted. Lowell instances the case of the Friar, who, "before setting himself softly down, drives away the cat," and adds what is true only of those who have acute understanding: "We know, without need of more words, that he has chosen the snuggest corner."
His humor is often a graceful cloak for his serious philosophy of existence. The humor in the Prologue does not impair its worth to the student of fourteenth-century life.
III. Although Chaucer's humor and excellence in lighter vein are such marked characteristics, we must not forget his serious qualities; for he has the Saxon seriousness as well as the Norman airiness. As he looks over the struggling world, he says with a sympathetic heart:—
"Infinite been the sorwes and the teres
Of olde folk, and folk of tendre yeres."[35]