The British Classical Authors. Select specimens of the national literature of England from Geoffrey Chaucer to the present time. Poetry and Prose, by L. H. Second edition

Front matter

THE BRITISH CLASSICAL AUTHORS. SELECT SPECIMENS OF THE NATIONAL LITERATURE OF ENGLAND 1 FROM G. CHAUCl_R '•'•• _\ TO THE PRESENT TIME. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SKETCHES. POETRY AND PROSE. BY L HERRIG. ' STEREOTYPE EDITION BRUNSWICK: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE WESTERMANN. THE BRITISH CLASSICAL AUTHORS. POETRY AND PROSE. THE BRITISH CLASSICAL AUTHORS. SELECT SPECIMENS OF THE NATIONAL LITERATURE OF ENGLAND FROM G. CHAUCER TO THE PRESENT TIME. POETRY AND PROSE. D. L. HERRIG, PROFESSOR OP MODERN LANGUAGES AT THE HIGH-SCHOOL OF KI.F.KP.FELD, M. CA5ID. S. AND OF THE PARIS SOCIETE GRAM...., M. CORRESr. OF THE INSTITUT HIST. DE FRANCE AND OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY" FOR USEFUL SCIENCES AT ERFURT. THIRD STEREOTYPE EDITION. BEUNSWICK: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE WESTERMANN; HANDBUCH DER ENGLISCHEN NATIONAL-LITERATUR VON G. CHAUCER BIS AUF DIE JETZIGE ZEIT.

DICHTER UND PROSAIKER. VON D* L. HERRIG, OBERLEHRER AN DER REALSCHULE IN ELBERFEI.D, MITGLIED DER CAMD. SOC. UND DER PARISER GRAMM. GESELLSCHAFT, CORRESP. MITGLIED DES 1NSTITUT HIST. DE FRANCE UND DER KOENIGLICHEN ACADEMIE GEMEINNUETZIGER WISSENSCHAFTEN IN ERFURT. MUTTER STEREOTrP-ABDRUCK. BRAUNSCHWEIG, DRUCK UND VERLAG VON GEORGE WESTERMANN; 185 2.

Preface

. ■ Among the various means of instruction which we possess, there cannot be a doubt that book-reading occupies a prominent and important place, and to attain the effect desired, claims the serious attention of the teacher. In order that the pupil may be enabled to garner up the knowledge thence derived, the selections for reading should be made with a constant view to unity of purpose and arranged according to their natural order. The various subjects thus grouped and classified should be studied by the pupil in such manner as to render him sensible of their necessary connexion and, by constantly comparing them, to give him a faithful impression both of their relative value and of the whole, composing this great variety of individual parts. But unfortunately the reverse of this too often takes place.

A multitude of unconnected facts, fortuitously gathered from desultory reading, jostle one another in the mind in chaotic confusion, and render the understanding turbid instead of enlightening it. To guide the pupil therefore in the selection of his readings is not less important than to teach him the laws of a language, by which he is enabled to arrive at the meaning of the words. For the upper classes of schools so little has been done in this way that they have been compelled to have recourse to the complete works of modern English authors ; thus occasioning a needless waste of time and trouble, the perfect and the imperfect models of style being studied without discrimination, and a far lesser portion of the richer treasures of English literature falling to the pupil's share than he might otherwise enjoy; his knowledge of English life, customs, manners and feeling is needlessly stinted ; nor is he so well able to appreciate and to enter into such elements of thought and action as may be termed peculiarly English.

If the study of modern languages may lay claim to intrinsic value and an honourable position in our educational establishments, equal to that of the classic languages, they should be taught so as to impart with the language, both the general information possessed by the respective people, and their history which is always found embodied in their literature. The language of a people elucidates only one point of its existence, is inseparable from it, and becomes, as it were, the corporeal mind of the nation ; whilst the various phases of that mind indicate the nation's history. Hence the teaching of a language imparts not the language alone , but — and this more particularly — furnishes the pupil with a key to the civilization, the social habits and the political organization of the people, all of which are most faithfully reflected in the national literature.

This national literature can only be taught in our schools by a method which will at once impart the material of which it consists, at least in its leading features. A mere abstract of reasoning would only lead to vague and fruitless speculation. We require a book that will furnish us with the original true colours for the national

PREFACE.

. VI picture, we must hear the orator deliver his harangue in the senate and on the platform, we must feel political parties grow hot in their controversy, we must watch the rural sport on the village green and listen to the country maiden's evening song; the rich and the poor, the powerful and the humble, the wise and good as well as the low and scurrilous must pass before our eyes, each arrayed in his own dress and speaking his own language. Then we shall not only have learned words, rules of grammar and a literature, but we shall have comprehended the innermost being and spirit of a nation. Encouraged by the advice of several friends I have ventured to publish a class-book of English national literature for the students of our schools, in chrono logical order. By this method the gradual developement of the English language and literature may be duly traced by the reader; whilst by sub-divisions of the great historical periods, the different kinds of composition also are distinguished, showing the relative importance of individual writers in each period; as well as their full influence in the general field of literature, and I hope thus to have ex hibited the matter in its clearest possible light and to have attained that degree of perfection so essentially desirable in our school-books.

The present compilation, of course, affords no place for ancient English literature ; and even to the authors of the middle-ages I could allot but a small space ; from the national songs in the Scottish and Northern dialects I have however made more copious extractions, having included more than will be found in any other collection, deeming them particularly valuable in as much as they not only necessitate the pupil's constant attention to Etymology — a study interesting as it is useful — but are also worthy of note from the very great influence they have exercised on modern Lyric poetry. It has been my object to give a historical organism of English literature, by pieces carefully selected and arranged in chrono logical order, so that all changes and peculiar features may readily be traced in the respective specimens.

And where pieces were too long or tedious to be in serted at full length, I have selected such parts as were complete in themselves — taking care that the characteristics of the author, and of his time, should in each be duly preserved. I have felt compelled, in certain instances, to omit pas sages offensive in a moral point of view, in order to render the work as pure as I trust it will be found useful and promotive of the interest now so generally felt for the treasures of English literature. It is in the very nature of a compilation like the present, that it should ap proach to perfection by degrees; we may remain true to one principle, and yet, when the store from which we select, is so vast as that of the whole Literature of a nation, alterations may be made in innumerable instances without materially affecting the character of the work.

I hope and trust that the fifth edition of this Collection of British Classical Authors, on a careful comparison, will be found to contain all essential and practicable improvements, and that its usefulness will be considerably extended. "ft/f A /"»/-. Berlin, August 7__ 1855. L. Herrig CONTENTS FIRST PERIOD. FROM CHAUCER TILL THE YEAR 1558. I. Early English Poetry. Page Geoffrey Chaucer. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales ... 1 The Pardoner's tale 8 John Gowcr. Fortune unjustly blamed 11 The tale of the coffers or caskets 12 Sir Thomas Wyatt. TheLady to aunswere directly with yea or nay 13 A renonncing of love 13 Lord Surrey. Description and praise of his love, Geraldine . 13 Description of spring, wherein eche thing renewes, save only the lover 14 Lord Vaux. The aged lover renounceth love 14 Ancient English popular Ballads.

The Chevy-Chase 14 The Battle of Otterbourne 17 On the death of King Edward 1 20 The Not-Browne Mayd 21 The legend of king Arthur 24 II. Early Scottish Poetry. John Barbour. Combat between Bruce and Sir Henry Bohun . 26 Page James I. of Scotland. Jane Beaufort 26 William Dunbar. Songs to the Rose 27 Gavin Douglas. Song of the birds to the sun 28 A winter morning 28 Ancient Scottish popular Ballads and Songs. Sir Patrick Spens 28 The Jew's daughter 29 Edward, Edward 30 Ettrick Banks 30 The Gaberlunzie-man 31 Lament 32 O gin my love 32 III. Early English Prose. John Wickliffe. The last Chapter of St. Luke 32 Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale of Meliboeus 34 Sir Thomas More. Letter to Lady More 35 SECOND PERIOD. THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. I. Poets. Edmund Spenser. The Legend of the knight of the Red Cross . 37 Encounter of St. George with the dragon . . 42 The bower of Bliss 42 Angelic Guardianship 43 Combat between Blandamour and Paridel , 43 From the Hymn of heavenly Beauty .... 43 Michael Drayton.

Night 44 Qneen Mab's chariot 45 The birth of Moses 45 Summer's eve 45 Virtue 45 Joseph Hall. Youthful desire of Travel 46 The hollow invitation 46 Robert He nick. To blossoms 47 To daffodils 47 To primroses filled with morning dew ... 47 To God, in his sickness 47 Humility 47 Meditation and prayer 47 John Donne. His picture 48 Sonnet CONTENTS VIII Page On Margaret Ratcliffe 93 To king James ■ ■ 93 On my first son 94 Advice to a reckless youth 94 The fall of Catiline 94 Towering sensuality 95 The witch 95 A meeting of witches 95 Beaumont and Fletcher. Caratach, Prince of the Britons, with his nephew Hengo asleep 97 Melancholy 98 Invocation to Sleep 98 An honest man's fortune 98 Philipp Massinger. The City Madam 98 III. Prose- Writers. Sir Philip Sidney. The defence of Poesy 101 Sir Walter Raleigh.

That the invisible God is seen in his creatures 103 Of Providence 103 Letter to his wife 105 Francis Bacon. Of Truth 106 Of Revenge 107 Of Goodness, and Goodness of nature . . . 108 Of Travel 108 Of Friendship 109 William Harrison. The languages of Britain 112 Page Francis Quarles. Man 48 Delight in God only 49 The shortness of life 49 On time 49 King James VI. To his eon Prince Henry 50 On tyme 50 William Drummond. To the nightingale 51 Sonnet I. and II 51 Of a bee 51 Pleasures of retirement 51 No trust in time 51 II. Dramatists. John Parfre. Candlemas-day, or the killing of the children of Israel (Miracle-play) 52 Henry Medwall. Nature ; a Moral-play 56 Christopher Marlowe. The tragical history of Doctor Faustus ... 57 William Shakspeare. King Richard n 60 Ben Jonson. To Celia 92 Song 93 Celia's triumph 93 Hymn to Diana 93 The sweet neglect 93 THIRD PERIOD.

THE AGE OF TRANSITION. I. Poets. Edmund Waller. Upon the death*Df the Lord Protector . . . 114 Of the Queen 115 English Genius 115 The British navy 115 Love of God to man 115 Abraham Cowley. Anacreontics : 1. Drinking 116 2. Gold 116 3. The Epicure ' . . . . 116 4. The Grasshopper 116 Description of the Creation 117 The shortness of life and uncertainty of riches 117 John Milton. Satan's recovery from his downfall .... 118 The fallen angels gathered again to war . . 119 Satan on the wing for earth 119 The meeting of Satan and Death 120 Adam's account of himself 120 Eve's first awakening to life 121 Morning hymn 121 On his own blindness 122 Glory 122 L'allegro 122 II Penseroso 124 Samuel Butler. Description of Hudibras 125 Fortune of Hudibras in battle 127 Combat between Trulla and Hudibras . . . 128 John Dryden.

Alexander's feast, or : the power of music . . 129 Character of the English, under the similitude of the Jewish people 130 London 131 A storm in harvest 132 The happy man J.32 On Milton 132 II. The great Divines. Richard Hooker. Defence of reason , 132 Church music 133 Jeremy Taylor. Holy dying 134 Wealth not productive of a proportionate degree of enjoyment 136 Isaac Barrow. Sermon. St. James IH 2 137 Sermon. Rom. XII. 18 .139 John Tillotson. On Sincerity 141 The advantages of early piety 142 Letter to Mr. Nicholas Hunt 142 Thomas Buruet. On the coming of our Saviour CONTENTS IX III. Philosophical, historical and miscellaneous writers. Page John Milton. Liberty of the press 146 John Locke. Causes of weakness in Men's understanding . 149 Presumption 150 Reading 150 Pleasure and pain 151 Thomas Fuller.

From theChnrch history osEngland Book I. II. 152 The good yeoman 154 Tngo Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. Charles 1 156 Cromwell 157 John Bunyan. Christian in the hands of Giant Despair . . . 160 John Dry den. The grounds of criticism in Tragedy .... 162 Shakspeare 165 Beaumont and Fletcher 165 Sir William Temple. Against excessive grief 166 FOURTH PERIOD. FROM THE EE1GN OF QUEEN ANNE TO THE YEAR 1780. I. The Wits of Queen Anne's reign. Mathew Prior. Charity 170 The remedy worse than the disease .... 171 The Cameleon 171 Alexander Pope. Contentment 172 The universal prayer 172 Self-knowledge 172 The order of nature 173 The origin of superstition and tyranny . . . 173 Restoration of Jerusalem 174 Thankfulness 175 Universal beneficence of providence .... 175 The dying Christian to his soul 176 John Gay.

To my native country 176 A ballad 176 The shepherd and the philosopher .... 177 The hare and many friends 177 The eagle and assembly of animals .... 178 The shepherd's dog and the wolf 178 The lion and the cub 179 The council of horses 179 Edward Young. On procrastination 180 The emptiness of riches 180 The last day 181 Description of the man whose thoughts are not of this world 181 The love of praise 182 II. The Essayists. Sir Richard Steele. The love of glory 182 The envious man 184 Joseph Addison. The political upholsterer 135 On politeness 187 The English language 188 The vision of Mirza 189 Endeavours of mankind to get rid of their burdens 191 Samuel Johnson. On the knowledge of the world 194 Jonathan Swift. The study of astronomy peculiarly delightful . 195 Thoughts on various subjects 196 III.

The great Novelists. Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe 19$ The great plague in London 204 Jonathan Swift. Voyage to Lilliput 206 Henry Fielding. The man of the Hill 218 Lawrence Sterne. The story of Le Fevre 223 Tobias Smollet. Roderick Random's journey to London . . . 227 The soldier's return 233 Oliver Goldsmith. The history of a philosophic vagabond . . 235 The disabled soldier 240 Every man in England a politician .... 242 A fable 248 Henry Mackenzie. La Roche 243 IV. The great Historians. David Hume. The ancient Britons 247 Character of Edward III 248 Character of Elizabeth 249 Irish insurrection and massacre 250 Edward Gibbon. Charlemagne . : . . 252 Mahomet 253 Pride of ancestry 255 Hereditary monarchy 256 William Robertson. The resignation of the emperor Charles V. . 256 Mary, queen of Scots 258 Execution of Mary 259 A view of the revolutions in the constitution of Scotland since the accession of James VI. 260 V. Miscellaneous Writers Samuel Johnson.

Shakspeare .... CONTENTS. X Page Dr. Hugh Blair. The folly and misery of idleness 272 The choice of our situation in life, a point of great importance 274 The good and the bad man compared in the season of adversity 276 On Death 277 Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield. Letters to his son 278 Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Letters 284 Edmund Burke. Dependence of English on American freedom . 287 The British monarchy ; 288 Marie Antoinette, Queen of France .... 288 The order of nobility 288 Reflections on the revolution in France . . . 289 Terror a source of the sublime 292 Sympathy a source of the subliinc .... 292 Effects of sympathy in the distresses of others 293 Junius. Letter to the king 293 VI. The Transition School. James Thomson. Charity inspired by spring 299 A summer noon 300 Evening in summer 300 Mists in autumn 300 Evening in autumn ', 301 A traveller lost in the snow 301 Reflections suggested by winter 301 The knight of arts and industry 302 Rule Britaunia 303 William Cowper.

Thoughts on nature 303 John Gilpin 304 On the loss of the Royal George 307 Negro slavery 307 The kite, or pride must have a fall .... 307 School days 308 Thomas Gray. Elegy written in a country church yard . . 308 Ode on the spring 309 The Bard 310 Tobias Smollet. The tears of Scotland 312 Oliver Goldsmith. The country clergyman 312 The traveller 313 The deserted village 313 William Collins. The Passions 314 Ode 315 Pago Mark Aken6ide. Genius 316 Greatness 316 William Shenstone. The Shepherd's Home 317 Ancient Britons 318 The princess Elizabeth 319 Description of virtue 319 James Macphersou. Calthon and Colmal 320 The songs of Selma 322 Death of Cuthullin 325 Thomas Chatterton. Resignation 327 The advice 328 From the battle of Hastings 328 The Minstrel's song in Aella 329 Dr. Thomas Percy.

Sir Lancelot du Lake 330 Gernutus the jew of Venice 331 King Leir and his three daughters .... 332 King John and the abbot of Canterbury . . 334 Scottish Poetry. Battle of Sheriff-Muir 336 The Waukin' o' the Fauld 337 The sun rises bright in France 337 His health in water 337 I ha'e nae kith 337 Over the hills and far away 338 Charlie he's my darling 338 The Lament ofDuncanSkeneof Clan-Donochie 338 The thistle and the rose 339 The old man's song 339 John o' Badeuyon 340 Robert Burns. John Barleycorn 341 Afton Water 341 Farewell to the Highlands 342 To Mary in Heaven 342 To a mouutain daisy 342 John Anderson 343 Bannochburn 343 Lord Gregory 343 Lament of Mary Queen of Scots 344 Sonnet 344 VII. Dramatists. Oliver Goldsmith. She stoops to conquer 345 Richard Briusley Sheridan. The Rivals 356 FIFTH PERIOD.

MODERN LITERATURE FROM 1780 TO THE PRESENT TIME. I. English Poets. James Montgomery. A field flower 389 The grave .'.!.. 390 Friends 390 Night 390 Home 390 Twilight 891 John Wolcot. (Peter Pindar.) The knight and the rats 391 A moral after-thought 392 To a fly, taken out of a bowl of punch . . . 392 John Leydeu The Mermaid 393 The evening star CONTENTS. XI Sir Walter Scott. Page The Lady of the lake 396 Henry Kirke White. A Hymn for family worship 418 The Christian's progress 418 To an early primrose 419 The star of Bethlehem 419 A Hymn 419 The Savoyard's return 419 The wandering boy 420 To the herb Rosemary 420 John Keats. Ode to a nightingale 420 To autumn 421 Moonlight 422 Rohert Bloomfield. The blind child 422 The Fakenham ghost 423 Solitude 423 Anna Letitia Barbauld. To Spring 424 Praise is due to the Creator 425 Benevolence and compassion 425 Lord Byron.

Sonnet on Chillon 426 The prisoner of Chillon 426 Greece 430 Worth of warlike fame ......... 430 The Eve of Waterloo 430 Napoleon 431 The Lake of Geneva 432 The Shipwreck 433 The Doge's speech before his execution . . . 433 Hebrew Melodies 434 Fare thee well 438 Abel's Prayer 438 Percy Bysshe Shelley. To a skylark 439 Time 440 The isle 440 Natural appearances of returning spring . . 440 The opening 441 George Crabbe. Story of a betrothed pair in humble life . . . 441 An English peasant 442 Autumnal sketch 443 Samuel Rogers. My native vale 443 Highlands of Scotland 443 Human life 444 Thomas Campbell. Hope triumphant in Death 445 Maternal Hope 446 Ye mariners of England 446 Battle of the Baltic 446 Thomas Moore. Paradise and the Peri 447 Letters 452 Before the battle 455 Weep on, weep on 456 'Tis the last rose of summer 456 The minstrel-boy 456 Where is the slave ? 456 Forget not the field 456 Sail on, sail on 467 Thee, thee, only thee 467 The mountain sprite 457 All that's bright must fade 457 Those evening bella 458 !

Thou art, o God 458 Jerusalem 468 Oh, teach me to love thee 458 Like morning, when her early breeze . . . 458 Come, ye disconsolate 459 ■ Page Awake, arise, thy light is come 459 Hark ! *tis the breeze 459 William Wordsworth. We are seven 460 Birds 460 To a skylark 461 The solitary reaper 461 Ruth 461 Lines written while sailing in a boat at evening 463 Sonnet 464 Robert Southey. Lord William and Edmund 464 The evening rainbow 465 Industry 465 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The ancient mariner 465 Lines to a beautiful spring in a village . . . 471 Hymn before sunrise, in the vale of Chamouni 472 Child's evening prayer 473 Thomas Hood. Ruth 473 The exile 473 The dream of Eugene Aram 473 Felicia Hemans. The better land 476 A domestic scene 476 The home of the spirit 476 The hour of prayer 477 Where is the sea? 477 Death 477 The homes of England 477 The rose 478 The rainbow 478 Laetitia Elisabeth Landon.

Children 478 Amelioration and the future, man's noble tasks 478 The orphan 479 The pilgrim 479 Thomas B. Macaulay. Horatius 480 Alfred Tennyson. The may Queen 485 Love and Death 487 The death of the old year 487 Break, break, break 488 Bugle song 488 Cradle song 488 Liberty 488 II. Scottish Poets. James Nicol. Where Quair rins sweet 490 While some to distant 490 John Mayne. Logan Braes 490 Richard Gall. My only Jo and Dearie O 491 Farewell to Ayrshire 491 Joanna Baillie. Woo'd and married and a' 492 The shepherd's song 492 James Hogg. Donald Macdonald 493 When the kye come hanie 494 The Brakens wi'me 494 Robert Tannahill. . The wood of Craigie-lea 495 Langsyne, beside 495 Gloomy winter , . CONTENTS, XII Page Edward III 618 Richard II 619 Henry V 619 Henry VI 619 Edward IV -620 Henry VIII 620 Edward VI 621 Mary 621 Henry Hallam.

Final reduction of Ireland aster the war of 1689. 622 Isaac d'lsraeli. Charles tho first 626 Thomas B. Macaulay. The duke of Monmouth 635 Robert Chambers. Present state of the British empire .... 649 V. Parliamentary Orators. W. Pitt, Earl of Chatham. On Amerian affairs 658 William Pitt. On the abolition of the Slave-Tradc .... 669 Charles James Fox. On American affairs. — 1778 666 Speech on General Fitzpatrick's motion relative to M. de la Fayette 667 Speech on the overtures of peace from the first consul 668 Henry Grattan. Speech against Napoleon 668 George Canning. On affordiug aid to Portugal ..... 671 Daniel O'Connell. On church rates and Parish cess 674 Lord Brougham. On the African Slave-Trade 676 Speech on Parliamentary Reform 677 Sir Robert Peel. Speech on Reform 680 VI. Miscellaneous Writers.

Thomas Erskine. On the origin of the English House of Commons 688 Edw. Daniel Clarke. Description of the Pyramids 692 William Hazlitt. Character of a Cockney 694 Robert Mudie. London 696 John Bull 69" George Canning. The Right Hon. W. Pitt 698 Charles Lamb. King Lear 700 Thomas Carlyle. The Succession of Races of Men 706 Attack upon the Bastille 7t>7 MA60 Page Allan Cunningham. She's gane to dwall in heaven 496 The town child and the country child ... 496 The mother's call «' Apostrophe to nature 497 William Motherwell. Jeanie Morrison 498 The midnight wind 499 Robert Nicol. We are Brethren a' 499 Thoughts of Heaven 500 Death 500 Alexander Rodger. Behave yoursel' before folk 601 It's no that thou'rt bonnie 502 William Miller. I had a dream 602 William Thorn. My heather land 503 III. Novelists.

Ann Radcliffe. The provencal tale . . . • 503 Maria Edgeworth. Irish Travelling 506 Sir Walter Scott. The tapestried chamber 509 The war of la Vende"e 515 Louis XI. and Charles the Bold 519 William Carleton. Picture of an Irish village and school-house . 522 Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer. Pelham, I. II 525 Captain Frederick Marryat. The three cutters ... 533 Charles Dickens. A Christmas carol 556 George P. R." James. The fisherman of Scarphout 589 Samuel Warren. The turned head 697 W. M. Thackeray. Miss Sharp 603 Oliver Goldsmith 605 IV. Historians. John Pinkerton. James I. of Scotland 610 James II of Scotland 611 James III. and his brothers 611 James IV. of Scotland 612 The regent, duke of Albany . 613 James V. of Scotland 613 Sir James Mackintosh. The Right Hon. C. J. Fox 614 John Lingard.

Henry I. . 616 Henry IU 617 Edward I 618 Edward II FIRST PERIOD. CHAUCER AND HIS TIMES. L EARLY ENGLISH POETRY. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Geoffrey Chaucer, who has been justly styled the ,father of English poetry', was born in London in the year 1328: he was an ornament to the courts of Ed ward III. and Richard II. and died in the first year of the reign of Henry IV. 1400. He is the Homer of Eng land , for as well as being the first poet he is one with whom very few can be compared, he may be said to have laid the foundation of the present English language. and he has certainly introduced into it a great number of words which were originally purely French. Tho greater part of his poetical works are written in the heroic metre, and as no author in England before him employed this style, Chaucer may be said to have in troduced it into the English versification.

In his nume rous works, we cannot help being struck with the force and elegance of expression, pervading them. He has written his descriptions of nature with great truth, liveliness, and depth of seeling, and his delineations of character display a profound knowledge of human life. When we consider the works of Chaucer separately, we at once place upon the first rank, his , Canterbury Tales' a long poem, in which every variety of human character is worked out with masterly skill and precision. Their origin is as follows. A number of persons make a pilgrimage to Canterbury, to the shrine of Tho mas Becket; they all relate something on the journey and as each pilgrim personifies one of the trades or professions then predominant in England, we gather through the whole poem a very good idea of the state of society at that period.

The , House of Fame' next deserves our notice: it is an allegory written in the f^rm of a dream, in which the author imagines the monuments of all the ancient poets of antiquity, each of them placed in a situation agreeing with his merit, and all in a large temple, built on a rock, situated between earth and sea. The whole poem is full of the extravagances usual to the ancient classical authors : but excites admiration by the richness of its fancy. We must not however pass over in silence the ,Romant of the Rose', a translation from the French. Chaucer has in many parts surpassed the original in Beauty of idea and has also made additions , although on the whole, he has translated very literally. The argument of the poem is, a lover who iu order to reach his mis tress, has to overcome innumerable difficulties: this idea is hidden under the allegory of a rose placed in a garden, and its admirer after having overcome many dangers succeeds in obtaining his desired object.

Among the poet's remaining works aro .Troilus and Cresseide* , Chaucer's dream' and .The flower and the leaf.' Chau cer was interred in Westminster Abbey and is the first of a long array of poets who have been buried amongst the kings of England , whose names aro en graved on tablets more everlasting than tomb-stones, and whose works will be handed down by posterity and always be revered as will the names of their authors. THE