he might have allowed his coarser characters to be guilty. We may well forgive him for his prosy ending, in view of the wonderful variety, fitness, narrative interest, and poetic power of his great collection of tales. In prose, he may be tedious and cumbersome; in poetry, and especially in narrative poetry, he is a consummate master. Chaucer's a Much of what is most characteristic in Chaucer's genius has already been suggested, and few words will serve by Character of way of summary. He was a strikingly original figure. In him were combined the competent Genius man of affairs and the genuine poet. His love of nature crops out here and there all through his poetry; it was not conventional, but true and sincere. No man has shown greater delight in life, and few have had greater power of observation and insight. The Prologue alone would rank him as one of the greatest of humorists genial spirit, keenly satirical but with no touch of bitterHe loved beauty like a true poet, and he had that gift of creative imagination which makes a poet great. He was first of all a great narrator, with the power of telling either a romantic or a realistic tale in felicitous Few men have ever approached his skill in vivid and lifelike description. In the ability to create character, he ranks with the great dramatists. His work is objective and sound, the work of a great literary artist and of a thoroughly sane and healthy nature. He was emphatically a man of his age, but he is no less truly a man for all time. ness. verse. Chere foloweth the fyrth boke of the noble and bo24 thy prynce kyng Arthur. how fyz Launcelot and fy? Lyonell Departed fro the courte foz to feke auens tures/how fy? Lyonell lefte fyz Laus celot depynge was taken. Capfm.. Rone after that the noble worthy kyng Arthur was comen fro Bome in to Eng: lande/all the knyghs tes of the roude table refozted bnto kyng and made many iuftes and turneymen tes/fome there were that were good knyghtes/whiche encreased fo in ar: mes and worthyp that they paffed all they felowes in prowelle noble dedes that was well proued on mang.But in efperyall it was pioued on fyz Laun celot du lake. Foz in all turneymentes and iußtes and dedes of armes/bothe for lyfe and deth he palled all knygbtes atno tyme he was neuer ouercomen but pfit were by treafon oz enchauntes ment.y: Launcelot encreased fo mer uaplouap in worthypa honour/Wher foze he is the first knyght the trendhe booke maketh mencyon of/after that Bynge Arthur came from Bome/Wher foze quene Gueneuer had hymn in gréte fauour aboue all other knyghtes/and certaynly he loued the quene agayne as boue all other ladyes and damoyfelles all the dayes of his lyfe/and for her he iii REDUCED FACSIMILE PAGE FROM MALORY'S MORT D'ARTHUR, 1529 CHAPTER VI THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY (1400-1500) AFTER the Age of Chaucer, the two streams of literature religious and romantic are hardly to be distinguished from each other; and the influences Decline of arising from the relations between the two races Literature have largely spent their force. Indeed, if this period stood by itself, it might be difficult to say that the influences of religion and romance were very clearly manifested as the guiding impulses of its literature. They are certainly not so in any fresh and vigorous way. Nevertheless, no new influences have as yet arisen to take their place; and as a consequence, literature rapidly sinks into that state of exhaustion and decay which marks the fifteenth century as one of the most barren tracts of all our literary history. Especially in the early part of the century, and more or less throughout its whole extent, literature is chiefly imitative of what went before; and so far as any vital forces are at work, they are the same as those which dominated the Age of Chaucer. In default, therefore, of any new and original impulses, and in view of the fact that the older impulses are still operative in weak and decadent form, we may still continue to speak of literature as growing out of the religious and the romantic spirit. Literary revival could come only with the advent of new and powerful quickening impulses; and toward the close of the century, we can feel the coming of those newer forces which are to exert so powerful an effect upon the literature of the sixteenth century. Chaucer's During a large part of the fifteenth century, imitation of Chaucer was a prevailing fashion. This would be an evidence of excellent literary taste, if it were not English Fol- for the fact that Gower was commonly ranked lowers with him and imitated in only a less degree. It is well to note, too, that Chaucer was imitated least where he was most original and masterful — that he was imitated most where he was chiefly medieval, French, allegorical, a child of his age. Among his English followers, two call for special mention. The first of these is Thomas Occleve. His principal work is a poem called Occleve Gouvernail of Princes. It deals with the duties of rulers, and was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, Shakespeare's Prince Hal, afterward Henry V. The best thing about the poem is its revelation of Occleve's love and admiration for his friend and master, Chaucer. Among other praises, he writes: O maister dere and fader reverent, My maister Chaucer! floure of eloquence, O universal fadir in science, Allas! that thou thyne excellent prudence In thy bedde mortel myghtest not bequethe; What eyled Dethe? allas, why wold he sle thee? A better poet and much more voluminous writer was John Lydgate, "the Monk of Bury." Lydgate His Storie of Thebes is represented as a new Canterbury Tale told by him after joining the pilgrims on their journey. His other chief poems are the Troye Book and the Falles of Princes, both of which titles sufficiently suggest the subjects of the poems. He seems to have been able to turn his hand to almost any kind of literary work, and produced more writings than anybody has yet been found willing to publish. One of his best known minor pieces is his ballad of London Lickpenny, which gives vivid and realistic pictures of the London life of his time. |