The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-11-02
A CANTERBURY TALE
toid by Rev. Or. Dalton at Baxter
Hall Last Evening.

The little Baxter Hall in the Public Libra
ry Building was wellIflled last evening by
an audience of ladies and gentlemen, repre-
senting the wealth and culture of Portland,
to listen to lecture by Rev. DR.. Dalton of
st. Stephens Church, entitled "A Canter-
bury Tale"
DR.. Dalton prefaced his lecture by the re-
mark that he intended this lecture to be in
troductory to the course ON Shakspeare's
historical plays, which relate to the reigns
of leading English kings. These plays can
not be appreciated or really enjoyed without
further knowledge of the times TO which
they belong, and also of the earlier ages.
The chief events of those ages centre in
Canterbury True the event which directed
all eyes and the feet of so many pilgrims to
1t was the violent death of Beckett, the arch
bishop. But unusual as was the interest,
and violent the.passions which sprang from
that tradgedy, It was not the sole or chief
cause Of the celebrity of that city then or
now.
Canterbury was the first English city TO
receive historical and organized Christianity
as II has come down to us. The "Tale Of
Canterbury" then included not only that of
the death of Beckett, land the thousands of bill
grlms who resorted to 1t, but it stands for
all those events In the early history of Eng
land which contributed to the growth and
nnal greatness of the real.
:, Canterbury was the capital Of the South of
England, and to this point Of Britain came
first Cesar and the Romans. who remained
nearly 500 years. Then Hengist with the
Angles and Saxons, who were followed by
the Danes, and finally by the Normans. All
these arrivals make so many epochs in the
history of England, but the greatest OF all
was the advent of Augustine with his mis-
sionary band From these several causes
acting together sprang the England which
we shall find in the historical plays of
Shakespeare.
The lecturer proceeded to describe and an
alyze these events severally considered, with
9 view OF showidg what was the part per-
formed by each of the great actors in the
successive and ever changing scenes of Eng
lish society. The relations of princes and
priests OF the clergy and the laity, in word
of church and state, were brought out with
much particularly.
DIR. Dalton described the enthusiasm of
the pilgrims and how, greatly Chaucer's
mesterly poem had contributed to perpetuate
the memory of those times and of the char
tiers most prominent in them. What Homer
was to early Greece, Virgil to the beginnings
Of Rome, Dante to the middle ages and
Shakespeare to the middle period Of English
history, that Chaucer was to the history of
Old England and the earlier English, their
customs, manners and habits.
The lecture closed with an account of the
pilgrimage made by the lecturer to this re-
nowned city of churches and churcnmen, de-
scribing what he saw there. especially in the
great church, the Abbey of st. Augustine,
and in st. Martins, a church older than
either of the others, In fact the oldest parish
church in England. The interest of such
pilgrimage today is in viewing these histor-
ical monuments and calling up the great
events of which they were the centre and
seat
A parallel was drawn between the begin
nings or origins, the Genesis of our country
and that of England, showing striking like
ness, and leading up to the inquiry how in
comparison we shall work out our destiny
which has proportions to that of England,
similar to the proportions Of the United
Kingdom to any one of the smaller direc
tions from which Great Britain has
sprung. -