The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-25
CHAUCER,S ENGLAND.

H..
we feel confident that those who are the most
familiar with Chaucer will the most heartily
assent to our estimate of Matthew Brownies
4 attractive pages. As was intimated in a recent
> issue of this Journal Matthew Browne" is only
name assumed by our author so that in fact
the present work, like various other of the same
Writer'S contributions to our literature, is as good
Is anonymous. For our own parts we will not
hfOrward to remove the Disguise and, indeed,
. in very many cases we should as Il rule prefer
ihe anonymous to the onomatous mode OF ad-
dressing the public. If publicist makes per-
sODal attack on contemporary, or If he has
, special personal experience which peculiarly
fts him to speak with authority on given sub
ect, we should hold the anonymous utterance
10 be- in the one case to say the least perilOusy
iraught with temptations to reckless assertion,
and in the other to imply some latent
disregard for the intrinsic claims of
momentOus question. The present re-
l.siFcr has long been of opinion that when
II n theme which Il writer discusses belongs to
i The region of pure art, or speculative criticism,
he is more likely to be disengaged from all
merely personal considerations more likely TO
I be dominated by his subject and lose himself
4 in it 10y Withholding his name. The anonymous
authoT is at liberty to refer continually TO an
IDEAL standard-to what is strictly inLDerSOndl-
f and then as IN the well-lnown instances of the
Natural History of Enthusiasm and ''Ecce
Homo, he may have the special qualification of
4 Witnessing the impression which his specuations
Il by themselves create upon the public mind. un-
a fuenced either by prejudice against himself or
. pepOssession in his favor To be heard with
4 out being seen, to be but rOtce crying in the
wilderness, is doubtless very fascinating TO a
+ certain type of mind and so long as this able
critic chooses to retain his pseudOnym, and
watch the reception given to his essayings with
out throwing his own shadow on the page, by
Z all means let him indulge his humor. But
! while Mr.. Browne wells his personality
proper from his readers, the hidden
nan of him is of very sufficient and substan-
tal quality. He has been most happy i'm the
! election of Chaucer for his subject, and we can
4 not but think that the poet himself has found
/ in Mr.. Browne his most genial, sympathizng
and intelligent eXpOsitor. We are not speaking
at random. We have at hand rather consdera-
. bic means for enabling us to form just judg
ment of the respective merits of those who have
/ abored heartily in the Chaucerian field. Speght
the laudatory but quite uncritical Urry the
SCHOLARLY Tyrwhitt, the fanciful though always
. forceful Goodwin, Sir Harris Nicolas, the late
Robert Bell, John Saunders, a certain North
British reviewer, and the uniformly accurate
Thomas Wright, have all deserved well at the
hands of the lovers OF Chaucer by their
respective editions or Investigations: and
70 all of them with the exception, pro-
baaly, of the North British reviewer Mr..
Browne would be the first TO acknowledge his
obligations But whatever he has read--lnd he
has read immensely ON this special subiect-he
has made so entirely his own that his work is
entitled to the merit of being entirely original.
We made ourselves students of Chaucer and TO
our own thinking at least graduated in the
genuine old English gentleman's writings years
ago; but we feel ourselves only the more in
debted to Mr.. Browne for his racy and suggestive
volumes. His book lives in every page. There
/ is not dull commonplace sentence TO ba
found in ''Chaucer's England;" and sometimes,
in a foOt-note, our author throws out a hint
which indicates at once q very comprehensive
survey of human interests and fine moral dis
elimination. Let us take the following as an
illustrative example. Mr.. Browne in his chapter
entitled "Town and Country, gives us not little
picturesque and historically valuable infOrma-
lion. He riots, we might say, in his familiarity
with his old English life and modes of feeling,
while he presents to us, in contrast with the
modern WOrdswOrthian habit OF subterfusing
into the aspects of nature divine significance,
the old domesticated sense OF relation to the
outer world which characterized our ancestors
five centuries ago After quoting charming
passage from the tale of the Doctor of Physic on
4 Mature" as Gods 'Vicar- General who was
i ordained by the former principal to form and
paint all earthly creatures according to her list,
4 our author SAYS. "A mind trained in the modern
i school 49,. may possibly read into what
d Chaucer here writes a meaning or suggestion
which Chaucer himself had not. And then he
4 adds, in fOot-note-
"The practice is far too common IN criticism OF all
kinds including criticism of the Bible. wish those
who indulge in it would think, among other things
Of the harm they do themselves, since every act o
msincerty tends permanently to cloud the mind
The error am eondemning Is often defended on tne
ground that the prophet and the poet are the subjects
Of an inspiration, and do not always know the whole
meaning of their own words And this is true, hut
il is not an excuse which fits the case. The ques
ton what do certain words coUer? is quite dstinc
. nom the question, what did the writer OF then
mean?"
A paragraph like this supplies strong temp
tation to write lay sermon on the ethics of in
depreciation but we must resist it, and pass OF
| to other matters more specially pertinent t
Chaucer.
r Mr. Brownies book consists, in form, of
r 1Uhi Inn pvp
phase of English life in the great epoch during
!, which Chaucer lived and sang. The essay
themselves are eighteen in number and have
each of them, n title which, without being sen
sational. is frequently quaint, and always whet
the curiosity. First of all and naturally come
! The Poet of thr Canterbury Tales" then 9Th
Story of the Pilgrims" followed by such com
panions as ''The Gay Science" merry Eng
land" Motley" . Medieval Nuditanism,
Food, House, Dress, and Minor Morals" "Fo
Relief and Criticism" and "Under Shadow tn
Church." We may further mention that to eac
ESSAY is prefXed pictorial illustration, whic
at once adds to the outer attractions OF the oooB
and also furnishes, so to speak, the text o
which Mr. Browne discourses, and always wit
equal versatility, gracefulness, insight and sci
Geoffrev Chaucer, take him for all in all, Wa
Our first modern English gentleman lie
English to his hearts core, me clty OF Lonaol
i Love" be his, he was forth grower, was |
i him most dear and sweet; and readers who dl
not know the fact before, VIII learn from M
Matthew Browne how applicable 10 LONDON u
epthet sweet was IN Chaucer uineao, uira,,-,ia,,
don, with its fragrant hayhelds, It's strawberi
Gardens its shining ''saffron hills its luXurlal
- VINEYARDS its broad, fair river, lts aelectap
wells lis motley crowds of warrior, priest, trla
LAWYER. country gentleman, shopmani Plougl
man cook. prentice boy, with pale-iaced nun
,tyitra