The Treasury of English Literature. A book of selections from the best authors from Chaucer to the present time, with brief biographies. By R. Cochrane ... With portraits

Preface

. The favourable reception accorded to the three volumes already prepared by the Editor for this series, has encouraged the issue of the present work, which may be regarded as a sequel to them. Since the time when King Alfred collected his favourite sentences, and caused them to be endorsed in his ancient common-place book, wherewith to solace his few leisure moments in that early age, books of selections have kept pace with the increased volume of our literature. In modern times, one of the penalties a great author must pay, is to find a selection made of the brilliant, happy, notable, or representative passages from his complete works. We have had Selections from John EusJcin, a book scarcely now procurable ; two volumes each from the works of E. B. Browning and Robert Browning ; selections have also been made from the works of Alfred Tennyson, ' George Eliot,' Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, etc.

American authors and publishers, with a sublime disregard for all considerations of copyright, fostered by the absence of any law of international copyright, have carried the matter to even a finer issue. As a whet to their millions of readers, they have prepared and published selections from such authors as George MacDonald, Thomas Hughes, Charles Kingsley, and a host of other writers not so honoured in the ' old country.' In ordinary cases, the whole field of British literature can be laid under contribution by them, without recognition of the author, although there are honourable exceptions to this proceeding. In this age of hurry and competition, when the average reading of many busy men does not reach far beyond a perusal of the daily newspaper, one or two magazines, and occasionally a popular volume from the circulating library, a book of selections from a standard author has its value.

Some authors gain immensely by the win nowing process ; but for all purposes of study and critical comparison, wider and deeper reading is of course necessary. When we come to make a selection from the vast field of English literature, we attempt a more perplexing task than in the case of an isolated author. It practically comes to be a selection from a selection ; the work has already been s

PREFACE.

. 4 frequently done, and well done; there is not great room for originality of choice. The best pieces of our best authors are already ' familiar in our mouths as household words.' The scope of the present work has been confined to representative pieces from the authors of the first rank, with a preference, when possible, to short complete extracts as compared with longer but incomplete selections from works which cannot be given entire. For reasons of copyright, and the fact that the relative position of many writers of our era has not yet been established, few contemporary writers have been quoted. Critical works on English literature increase year by year, and we are in danger of growing more familiar with criticisms on our standard authors, to the neglect of the authors themselves. We may be more familiar with critical opinions on the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Addison, etc., than with their works.

Even a book of selections may be a help in another direction, and of some educative value. The following books, amongst many others, have been consulted : Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature, one of the first books of its kind, and in some respects still the best ; Typical Selections from English Writers, in the Clarendon Press Series ; and Professor Morley's scholarly and invaluable Library of English Literature, etc. Acknowledgments and thanks are here tendered to those authors and publishers who have kindly granted the use of copyright matter ; to Robert Browning, Esq. ; William Morris, Esq. ; A. C. Swinburne, Esq. ; Messrs. Longman and Co., Chapman and Hall, and R. Bentley and Son. CONTENTS.

PAGB Geoffrey Chaucer— Characters from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 9 Last Lines written by Chaucer, ... 15 Sir Thomas More— The Utopian Idea of Pleasure, .... 15 Letter to Lady More, 16 The Act 25th of Henry vm. in favour of Husbandry, 17 Hugh La timer. — What Card to play, 17 Contemplation and Action, .... 18 Story of Goodwin Sands and Tenterden Steeple, 18 The Busiest Bishop in England, ... 19 Sir "Walter Raleigh — Extracts from his History of the World :— Uncertainty of Human Happiness, . . 20 The Last Refuges of the Devil to maintain his Kingdom, 21 English Valour 21 Ambition and Death, 22 Three Rules to be observed for the Preservation of a Man's Estate, 22 The Silent Lover, 23 The Pilgrimage, 23 The Soul's Errand, 24 Edmund Spenser — Selections from the Faerie Queen :— Una and the Redcross Knight, ... 25 Una and the Lion, 26 The Procession of Pride and her Followers, . 26 The Passing of the Seasons, .... 28 Heavenly Love 30 From the Epithalamium, .... 30 Richard Hooker— Past and Present, 32 Scripture and the Law of Nature, ... 33 The Nature and Majesty of Law, ... 33 Sir Philip Sidney — The Scenery of Arcadia, 35 A Stag-hunt, 35 The Praise of Poesy, 35 Sonnets 36 Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam — Knowledge and Personal Advancement, . . 37 Learning and Business, . ' . . . 3S Poesy, 38 From Essays Civil and Moral; — Of Delays, 39 Of Expense, 39 Of Regimen of Health, '. .... 40 Of Discourse, 't f .... 40 Of Negotiating, 41 Of Studies, 41 Of Ceremonies and Respects, .... 42 Life, 43 Christopher Marlowe — The Passionate Shepherd to his Love, . . 43 The Nymph's Reply.

By Raleigh, ... 43 Scenes from Faustus, , . , , . 43 Scene from Henry II., . . . .45 William Shakespeare — Garden Scene, 46 Queen Mab, 47 Advice of Polonius to Laertes,. . . .48 Hamlet's Soliloquy, 48 Lorenzo and Jessica, 48 Mercy, 49 Dogberry's Charge to the Watch, ... 49 Mark Antony over Cæsar's Body, ... 51 Oberon's Vision, 52 Sleep 52 Falstaffs Cowardice and Boasting, ... 52 FalstafTs Regiment, 54 _ PAGE Perseverance, 54 Fear of Death 55 The World compared to a Stage, ... 55 Othello's Apology for his Marriage, . . .55 Songs and Madrigals :— Ariel's Songs, 56 Hark !

Hark ! the Lark, .... 56 Under the Greenwood Tree, .... 56 Ingratitude 56 Spring, 57 Winter, . ........ 57 Serenade to Sylvia, 57 Oh, Mistress Mine, where are you roaming? . 57 Take, O take those Lips away, ... 57 Fidele, . 57 It was a Lover, and his Lass 57 Sigh no more, Ladies 58 -Dirge, . . , 58 Love, 58 >Iarriage Song 58 Music 58 Fancy, 58 Crabbed Age aud Youth,. ..... 58 Selected Sonnets 59 Ben Jonson — Love, 61 A Simpleton, and a Braggadocio, ... 62 Bobadil's Plan for Saving the Expense of an Army 63 Advice to a Youth, 64 From Explorata, or Discoveries, . : . . 64 His Excuse for Loving 66 Her Triumph 66 In the Person of Womankind 66 An Elegy, ........ 67 To Celia.— From The Forest 67 The Sweet Neglect.— From The Silent Woman, . 67 Hymn to Diana.— From Cynthia's Revels, . . 67 To-Nigh t.— From The Vision of Delight, . . 67 Song.— From The Forest, 63 Good Life, Long Life 68 Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke. . . 68 Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H. 68 To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and what he hath left us, 68 On the Portrait of Shakespeare,. ... 69 William Drumuond— Summons to Love 69 Epitaph on Prince Henry, 69 To his Lute 69 The Praise of a Solitary Life 70 To a Nightingale 70 Sonnets 70 KORERT HERRJCK — __ To Ben Jonson, .

"I . . , . .70 To Violets 70 To Blossoms, 71 To Daffodils 71 On Himself, 71 To the Virgins, to make much of their Time, . 71 Mirth, 71 The Heart 71 Love, What is it 2 71 Dreams, 72 Ambition 72 Advisive Verse : To his Friend Mr. John Wicks, 72 The Kiss : A Dialogue, 72 Twelfth Night, or King and Queen, ... 72 The Bellman 73 The Night-Piece : To Julia 73 Julia 73 Upon Julia's Recovery, 73 The Bag of the Bee, ■ 73 Upon a Child that died, . . . . .73 CONTENTS. 6 PAGE Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle, . 129 Vanity Fair, 130 The Pilgrims before Lord Hategood, . . 131 Some Practical Directions, .... 132 Death of Mr. Badman, 133 Isaac Barrow — Goodness, 135 Prayer, . ...... 136 Incitements to Industry, 136 John Tillotson — The Dignity of Man, 137 Doing Good, 138 John Dryden — Shakespeare, 141 Ben Jonson, . 1*11 Translations of the Ancient Poets, . . . 142 History and Biography, 144 Character of Shaftesbury, ..... 140 Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, . . . . 147 Alexander's Feast ; or, The Power of Music : A Song in Honour of St. Cecilia's Day, 1697, . 14S A Song, 149 John Locke — Of Reading, 149 Of Haste, 150 Of Words, 151 The Christian Revelation the Sure Standard of Morality, ....... 151 Some Thoughts concerning Education, . . 154 Samuel Pepys— Progress of the Plague in London, . . . 156 Buried Gold, .158 Domestic Scene, 159 Butler's Hudibras, 160 Charles n. and the Queen, .... 160 Robert South — Friendships Human and Divine, . . . 160 Man at the Mercy of Fortune, .... 161 Daniel Defoe — Shortest Way with Dissenters, .... 162 Early Adventures of Colonel Jack, . . . 10S Jonathan Swift — A Meditation upon a Broomstick : According to the style and manner of the Hon. Robert Boyle's Meditations, 172 Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting, 172 The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. BickerstafTs Prediction : Being an Account of the Death of Mr. Partridge, the Almanack-maker, upon the 29th inst.

In a Letter to a Person of Honour, written in the year 170S,. 174 Gulliver and the King of Brobdingnag, . . 175 A Description of a City Shower : In imitation of Virgil's Gcorgics, written in October 1710 ; first printed in the Toiler, .... 177 Baucis and Philemon : On the ever-lamented Loss of the two Yew Trees in the parish of Culthorne, Somerset, 1706 : Imitated from the Eighth Book of Ovid, . . ' . .178 Sir Richard Steele — The Club at the Trumpet, 179 Scene of Domestic Felicity, .... 1S1 Death-bed Scene, 183 Memories of the Past, 184- The Spectator Club, 185 Joseph Addison — Sir Roger de Coverley, 188 Visit to Westminster Abbey, .... 190 Death of Sir Roger, 191 The Vision of Mirza : An Oriental Allegory, . 192 The Deputation, 194 St. Anthony's Sermon, 195 Ode, |. 196 Ode, 197 The Battle of Blenheim, 197 Alexander Pope — An Essay on Man.— Epistle in. : Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Society, . 198 The Rape of the Lock, 200 "Ode on Solitude (written at twelve years of age), 204 Messiah, 205 Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, . . . ; . . ... 205 The Dying Christian to his Soul, . . . 206- Thoughts in Retirement, 206 Death of Two Lovers by Lightning, . . , 207 PAGE Epitaph upon a Child, 73 A Thanksgiving for his House, . . . • , 73 To Primroses, rilled with Morning Dew, . . 74 To find God, 74 To Corinna, to go a-Maying, .... 74 Izaak Walton — The Life of Richard Hooker, ... 75 The Singing Birds, 76 In Praise of Angling, 76 The Angler's Wish, 77 The Angler's Song 77 Thankfulness for Worldly Blessings, ... 78 George Herbert — Selections from the Church Porch : — . .

SO Constancy, SI Virtue, 82 The Pulley, 82 Matin Hymn, 82 Man, 82 Man's Medley, 83 Sunday, 83 Mortification, S3 Sir Thomas Browne — Of Charity, . . 84 Of Affection, 85 Oblivion, 85 Letter to a Friend, . , 87 Thomas Fuller— The Faithful Minister, 89 Of Tombs, 92 Burning of Wickliffe's Body by Order of the Council of Constance, 93 Decayed Gentry, 93 Crusades and Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, . . 94 John Milton — Liberty of the Press, 95 Lycidas; 96 L'Allegro, 97 II Penseroso, ■ 99 To the Nightingale, 100 On his being arrived at the Age of Twenty- Three, 100 On the late Massacre in Piedmont, . . . 100 On his Blindness, 101 Song on May Morning, 101 Hymn on the Nativity, 101 Scene from Comus, . . . . . .103 Satan's Address to the Sun, .... 103 The Fallen Angels, . . . . .104 The Garden of Eden, 105 Morning Hymn in Paradise, .... 105 Evening in Eden, ._..... 106 Sir John Suckling — Signs of Love, 107 A Ballad upon a Wedding, .... 108 Two Hearts, 109 Constancy, 109 Song, 109 Samuel Butler — The Equipment and Personal Appearance of Hudibras, 109 Jeremy Taylor — Marriage, 113 Sir Richard Lovelace— To Lucasta on going beyond the Seas, . . 115 To Lucasta on going to the Wars, . . .116 To Althea, from Prison, 116 Song, ... 116 The Rose, 116 Song, 116 Abraham Cowley — Of Myself, 117 Martial, Lib. x. Epigr. xlv., .... 118 Martial, Lib. x. Epigr. xxxvn., . . . 119 Epitaphium vivi Auctoris, .... 119 Epitaph on the Living Author, . . . 119 Vision of Oliver Cromwell, .... 120 The Change, 121 My Picture, 121 The Wish, ........ 121 John Evelyn — The Great Fire in London in 1666, . . .122 Death, Accomplishments, and Virtue of his Daughter Mary, 124 Frost Fair on the Thames, .... 127 John Bunyan — Spiritual Struggles, 127 Thoughts in Prison, 129 John Bunyan — CONTENTS. 7 PAGE Lady Mary Wortley Montagu— Selected Letters : — To the Countess of , 208 To Mr.

Pope, 209 Turkish Verses addressed to the Sultana, Eldest Daughter of Sultan Achmet in., . 211 To Mrs. S. C. (Sarah ChisweU), . . .212 To the Countess of Mar 213 A German Court, 216 To the Lady Rich 216 To the Countess of Bute, . . . .217 Samuel Richardson — Letter to Mrs. Belfour on Clarissa Harlowe, . 218 Upon Correct Ideas of Love : Letter to Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone, . . . 222 Clarissa Harlowe dying 223 Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield — From Letters to his Son Philip Stanhope : — Letter xxxix 225 Letter clxviit 226 Letter clxix 228 On Johnsou's Dictionary 229 James Thomson — Hymn on the Seasons, . . . . . 230 Selections from the Seasons : — Spring 231 Summer, Noon and Evening 234 Autumn Evening 236 Winter, 237 The Castle of Indolence 239 Rule Britannia, - 241 Henry Fielding — Partridge at the Playhouse, .... 242 Character of Jonathan Wild 243 A Letter from Parson Adams, .... 245 Good Taste in Literature, ...... 249 Good Breeding in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century, 250 Samuel Johnson — Pope and Dryden 251 Samuel Butler 253 On Forgiveness and Sevenge 258 Anningait and Ajut : A Greenland History, . 259 On the Compiling of a Dictionary, . . . 262 Letter to Lord Chesterfield on the Dictionary,. 263 David Hume — Eloquence in Ancient and Modern Times, . 264 Laurence Sterne — The Story of Le Fevre 267 The Captive- Paris 271 The Dead Ass, 272 Noble Poverty, 272 The House of Feasting and the House of Mourning described, ..... 273 William Shenstone — Of Men and Manners, 276 The Schoolmistress 277 Hope,. ... .... 281 Jemmy Dawson 281 Thomas Gray — Thomas Gray to Richard West, . . * • 282 To Dr. Wharton 283 Grasmere 284 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, . 284 Ode on the Spring, 285 The Progress of Poesy 285 Ode to Adversity 287 The Epitaph 288 William Collins — The Passions : An Ode for Music, . . .288 Ode written in the Beginning of the Year 1740, 290 Ode to Evening . .290 Gilbert White of Selborne — The Naturalist's Summer Evening Walk, . . 290 Hedgehogs,. . . .... 291 House Doves and Stock Doves 291 The Tortoise, . 293 The House-Martin, 293 The Sand-Martin, 295 Voices of Birds 296 Tobias George Smollett — Commodore Trunnion's Ride, .... 298 Authors of a Century Ago 299 The Attack on Carthagena 303 The Tears of Scotland, 30S Ode to Independence, 308 Ode to Leven Water, 309 Song, 310 PAGE Adam Smith — Co-operation and Division of Labour, . , 310 Of the Different Employment of Capitals, . 311 The Results of Misdirected and Guilty Ambition, ....... 312 Oliver Goldsmith — A City Night-Piece 312 Description of an Author's Bedroom, . . 313 The Deserted Village,1 313 An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, . . 318 Stanzas on Woman, ...... 318.

Edmund Burke — The Royal Household in 1780, . . . .318 Prom Speech previous to Bristol Election, delivered Sept. 6, 1780, 320 On the Death of his Son, 322 William Cowper — The Winter Walk at Noon 323 On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture out of Norfolk, 324 Song on the Loss of the Royal George, . . 325 The Dog and the Water -Lily, . . . .325 Selected Letters to the Rev. William Unwin, . 326 To the Rev. John Newton, 327 To Lady Hesketh, 328 To the Rev. John Newton " . 328 To the Rev. John Newton 329 Edward Gibbon — The Rise, Progress, and Completion of his Great Work 330 Conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 1099, 332 Mohammed 333 John Wolcott — The Pilgrim and the Peas, 334 The Apple Dumplings and a King, . . . 334 The Rival Tradesmen, 335 Lines on Dr. Johnson, 335 Sir Philip Francis (' Junius ') — On the Duke of Bedford, . . . . .335 Letter to the King 336 Richard Brinsley Sheridan — From Speech against Warren Hastings, . . 337 Scene from The School for Scandal, . . . 333 George Craebe — Isaac Ashford, 340 Story of a Betrothed Pair, . . . .341 Woman 342 Robert Burns — The Cottar's Saturday Night 343 To a Mouse 345 To a Mountain Daisy 346 Oh, wert thou in the Cauld Blast, . . . 346 Is there for Honest Poverty, .... 347 Afton Water, 347 O' a' the Airts the Wind can blaw, . . . 34S Auld Langsyne, 348 My Bonnie Mary, ...... 348 John Anderson, my Jo, 348 The Banks of Doon, First Version, . . .348 The Banks of Doon, Second Version, . . 349 To Mary in Heaven, 349 William Cobbett — Woodland Countries 349 To the Labouring Classes of this Kingdom, . 850 Self-Education, . 351 In the Valley of the Wiltshire Avon, . , 352 Poverty, 352 Samuel Rogers — From Human Life 353 Ginevra, . . ' 354 A Wish 355 William Wordsworth — Ode : Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, .... 355 Lines, 357 Portraits, . . ' 358 Lines, 359 Lucy, 359 We are Seven, 359 Stepping Westward 360 The Solitary Reaper, 360 Yarrow Unvisited, 360 Yarrow Visited 361 The Daffodils 362 Resolution and Independence, .... 362 Selected Sonnets, 364 Sydney Smith — Fallacies summed up in Noodle's Oration, .

CONTENTS. 8 PAGE English Prisons in 1S20, 366 Mrs. Partington, . .... 367 Sir' Walter Scott — Love of Country, 368 Before Flodden, 368 A Highland Glen, '. ' 368 The Combat, 369 Lochinvar— Lady Heron's Song, . . .370 Boat Song, 371 The Scottish Borderer, 371 Battle of Prestonpans, 1745, . . . .374 James Hogg — Kilmeny's Return from Fairyland, . . .376 When the Kye comes Hame, .... 376 The Skylark, 377 Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Of the Importance of Method, . . . .377 The Use of Works of Imagination in Education, 378 Genevieve, 379 Love, 379 Answer to a Child's Question, .... 380 A Child's Evening Prayer, 380 Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni, 3S0 Kubla Khan ; or, A Vision in a Dream, . . 381 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, . . . 3S1 Robert Southey — The Evils of Half-Knowledge, . . . .388 Advice to Young Readers, 38S The Death of Nelson, 389 The Library, 391 The Holly Tree, 391 How the Water comes down at Lodore, . . 391 The Old Man's Comforts, how he gained them, 392 The Battle of Blenheim, 392 Charles Lamb — Old China, . ... .

"~ . . . .393 Distant Correspondents : In a Letter to B. F., :Esq., at Sydney, New South Wales, . . 395 The Old Familiar Faces, 398 A FareweT to Tobacco, 398 A Fragment of Autobiography, . . . . 399 Walter Savage Landor— Milton and Andrew Marvel, .... 400 Blanco White — Night, 404 Thomas Campbell — The Last Man, 404 Ye Mariners of England, 405 Battle of the Baltic, 405 The Exile of Erin, 406 Hohenlinden, 406 Lord Ullin's Daughter, 406 The Soldier's Dream, 407 Napoleon and the Sailor, . . . . 407 Domestic Love, 408 William Hazlitt — A Day by the Fire, *. 409 Thomas Moore — * Love's Young Dream 415 She is far from the Land, 415 The Minstrel Boy, 415 'Tis the Last Rose of Bummer, .... 416 Ballad Stanzas, 416 A Canadian Boat Song, 416 The Harp that once through Tara's Halls, . 416 Rich and Rare were the Gems she wore, . . 416 Believe me, if all those Endearing Young Charms, 417 The Turf shall be my Fragrant Shrine, , . 417 Leigh Hunt— On the Realities of Imagination, . . . 417 A Now : Description of a Hot Day, . . . 421 Abou Ben Adhein and the Angel, . . . 423 The Glove and the Lions, 423 John Wilson — Scene from Nodes Ambrosianœ, . . . 423 Christopher North at the Lakes, , . . 427 Thomas de Quincey — Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts, , 431 Lord Byron — The Dream, 437 Fare thee well, 439 She walks in Beauty, 440 Stanzas for Music, 440 440 The Destruction of Sennacherib, . . . 440 Darkness, . 441 The Isles of Greece, 441 PAGE Before Waterloo, .442 On the Day I complete my Thirty-Sixth Year, 443 Richard Harris Barham — The Jackdaw of Rheiins, 444 John Keble — Morning, 446 Evening, 446 Fourth Sunday in Lent 447 Monday in Easter "Week, 448 Eleventh Sunday afte^ Trinity, .... 448 Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity, . . 449 Percy Bysshe Shelley— The Cloud, 449 To a Skylark, 450 To ," 451 To -, ' 451 Arethusa, 451 Love's Philosophy, 452 Ode to the West Wind, 453 Stanzas written in Dejection near Naples, . 453 The Indian Serenade, 454 The Sensitive Plant, 454 Felicia Hemans— The Voice of Spring, 458 The Sound of the Sea, 459 The Treasures of the Deep, .... 459 - Casabianca, 460 The Hour of Death, 460 The Hour of Prayer, 461 The Homes of England 461 The Graves of a Household, .... 461 The Better Land, 462 The Dying Improvisatore, .... 462 The Wreck, 462 The Lost Pleiad, 463 The Palm Tree, .463 Thomas Carlyle — Reality in Authorship, 464 Self-Education, '. 466 To a Young Man on a, Choice of Reading, . 467 Periodical Literature in 1840, .... 468 What is wanted for a Young Man, . . . 469 John Keats — Ode to a Nightingale, 470 Ode on a Grecian Urn, 470 To Autumn, 471 Sonnets, 471 Stanzas, 472 Thomas Hood — Faithless Sally Brown, 472 Faithless Nelly Gray, 473 A Retrospective Review, 473 Ruth, 474 I remember, I remember, 475 The Dream of Eugene Aram, .... 475 The Furlough : An Irish Anecdote, . . . 477 Number One, 478 I'm not a Single Man, , 478 The Island, 479 Hugh Miller— The Young Geologist, 481 A Change of Employment, .... 483 Lord Macaulay — John

Hampden and His Times, . . . 486 Virginia, ........ 497 Elizabeth Barrett Browning — Cowpcr's Grave, 501 The Sleep, 502 Sonnet, 503 Charles Dickens— Bob Sawyer's Party, 503 The Bloomsbury Christening, .... 509 The Memorable Trial of Bardell against Pickwick, 516 Robert Browning — The Pied Piper of Hamelin, .... 524 How they brought the News from Ghent to Abc, 526 William Morris — March,. . 527 Atalauta's Race, \ 52S October, . 535 Algernon Charles Swinburne — Dedication, 535 In Memory of Walter Savage Landor, . . 536 Rococo, 536 A Song in Time of Order, 1852, .... 537 The Garden of Proserpine, 533 Biographical Notices, GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 1340-1400, Embroider'd was he, as it were a mead All full of freshe flowers, white and red.

Singing he was, or fluting all the clay ; He was as fresh as is the month of May. Short was his gown, with sleeves long and wide. "Well could he sit on horse, and faire ride. He coulde songes make, and well indite, Joust, and eke dance, and well pourtray and Characters from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. A Knight there was, and that a worthy man, That from the time that he first began To riden out, he loved chivalry, Truth and honour, freedom and courtesy. Full worthy was he in his Lorde's war, And thereto had he ridden, no man farre,1 As well in Christendom as in Heatheness, And ever honour'd for his worthiness, write. So hot he loved, that by nightertale 9 He slept no more than doth the nightingale. Courteous he was, lowly, and serviceable, And carv'd before his father at the table.10 And evermore he had a sovereign price.2 And though that he was worthy he was wise, And of his port as meek as is a maid.

A Yeoman had he, and servants no mo' At that time, for him list ride so,11 And he was clad in coat and hood of green. A sheaf of peacock arrows 12 bright and keen Under his belt he bare full thriftily. Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly : His arrows drooped not with feathers low ; And in his hand he bare a mighty bow. A nut-head 13 had he, with a brown visage : Of wood-craft coud I4 he well all the usage : Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer,15 And by his side a sword and a buckler, And on that other side a gay daggere, Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear : A Christopher16 on his breast of silver sheen. An horn he bare, the baldric was of green : A forster17 was he soothly 18 as I guess. He never yet no villainy 3 ne said In all his life, unto no manner wight. He was a very perfect gentle knight.

But for to telle you of his array, His horse was good, but yet he was not gay. Of fustian he weared a gipon, Alle' besmotter'd with his harbergeon,4 For he was late y-come from his voyage, And wente for to do his pilgrimage. "With him there was his son, a younge SQUIRE, A lover, and a lusty bachelor, "With lockes crulle 3 as they were laid in press. Of twenty years of age he was I guess. Of his stattire he was of even length, And wonderly deliver,6 and great of strength. And he had been some time in chevachie,7 In Flanders, in Artois, and Picardie, And borne him well, as of so little space,8 In hope to standen in his lady's grace. There was also a Nun, a Prioress, That of her smiling was full simple and coy ; Her greatest oathe was but by Saint Loy ; 19 1 Farther. 2 He was held in very high esteem. 3 Nothing unbecoming a gentleman. it For it pleased him so to ride. 12 Large arrows, with peacocks' feathers. 13 With nut-brown hair ; or, round like a nut, the 4 He wore a short doublet, all soiled by the contact of his coat of mail. hair being cut short. 14 Knew. 5 Curled. 6 Wonderfully nimble. 7 Engaged in cavalry expeditions or raids into the enemy's country. 15 Shield for an archer's arm, still called a ' bracer, from the French bras, arm. 16 A figure of St. Christopher, used as a brooch, and supposed to possess the power of charming away danger. 8 Considering the short time he had had. 9 Night-time. ro It was the custom for squires of the highest degree to carve at their fathers' tables. 17 Forester. !8 Certainly. 19 St. Eligius, or Eloy.

A MONK there was, a fair for the mast'ry,13 An out-rider, that loved venery ; 19 A manly man, to be an abbot able. Full many a dainty horse had he in stable : And when he rode, men might his bridle hear Jingeling 20 in a whistling wind as clear, And eke as loud, as doth the chapel bell, There as this lord was keeper of the cell. The rule of Saint Maur and of Saint Benet,21 Because that it was old and somedeal22 strait, This ilke 23 monk let olde thinges pace, And held after the newe world the trace. He gave not of the text a pulled hen,24 That saith, that hunters be not holy men ; Ne that a monk, when he is cloisterless ; Is like to a fish that is waterless _ And she was cleped : Madame Eglentine. Full well she sang the service divine, Entuned in her nose full seemely ; 2 And French she spake full fair and f etishly 3 After the school of Stratford atte Bow, For French of Paris was to her unknow.