New-York tribune., 1891-12-16

Sf5 Harper 4 Brothers
This monumental work, unless Che human nature
=. tho students and the lovers of Chaucer is per
IS, =, beyond the ordinary measure Of man. should
.narl an epoch in the literary and learned tradi-
.;on respecting the father Of English poetry.
tI;storv in general is only tradition rendered with
.anroyimatc accuracy, the approach TO truth being
;mnaded at every step by the prejudices and
iioeyncrases of the writer and of the age to which
he belongs When tradition working uncon-
sciously in the mind of the public and consciously
:; the deliberate reflection of historians and critics
s,eadily turns away from the facts for centuries,
che toll of retracing the maze of error back 10 the
s,srtng point wherc things may be seen as they
ore can only he imagined by those who have
undertaken task of the kind. In the
case OF Chauoer, the work of the literary
historian is almost exclusively confined 10
correcting the errors Of tradition What is 20
be said positively respecting him and his works
amounts TO little in comparison with the negative
results Of sitting the legends and coniectures of
intervening centuries. Professor Lounsbury 5
volumes are proof that this scientific process of
experiment. analysis, collation., contrast COM
usrison. inference. deduction, inclusion and ex-
illusion can be endued with the highest interest.
No nan who has in him a spark Of the spirit
perusa Of them, will be content to lay them aside
until he has read them through. He follows
eagerly the fortunes of an immortal through all
The yicSSitudes Of ignorance, neglect, adverse
criticism indiscriminate adulation fanaticlsm, the
dull patronage of inferior minds, and all the foeS
Of Interpretation improvement, translation, para
phrase and imitation; through evil report and
good report, from the time when genius first
clcv to I'm rba, :,
70 shine undimmed by the waste of time unspotted
hy any defects except those which were inherent
in it from the first. 1t takes centuries TO round
out a career of this sort but what reason is
there, aside from diseased and deformed con-
ventionalism that should make less interesting
the record of such career than the laborious
task of following through novel the career of a
feigned parsonage whose very existence in reality
would be an Indictment of lunacy against the
Creator?
There is sometimes a refreshing acidity Of eX-
preston in these books, sometimes an almost
acrd bitterness against errors due to wilful, per-
verse ignorance; but there manifestly no such
quality in the studies of which they are the
result. The Judge has q right to speak forcibly
70 the jury, if at the same time he weighs i'm
partially the arguments on both sides of the con-
roversy. In this particular case. that of Chaucer
against certain biographers. critics, commentators.
interpreters and others, the affair is complicated
from the very beginning by circumstances such as
not infrequently surround the man OF genius. If
Chaucer had been person of royal or noble or
even Of gentle birth, there would have been means
OF tracing events in his life and the order of his
writings which do not now exist. But he was
The son of vintner, and though he was 10
become one of the few greatest men Of the world
10 miracles marked his advent; not even the
traditional bee sought honey from his lips. Ths
year of his birth is unknown. Some would
place it as early as 1929 Others as late as 1910.
while Professor Lounsbury after reviewing the
arguments on all sides is inclined TO place it
near 1880 Moreover, the world was no more
telated in discovering his true merit than he seems
to have been to discover it for himself. He
was poet in spite OF himself
training his muse through
long years of obscurity apparently in no
hope of fame, but because he could not do other
wise. OF such men the world takes no heed until
i is obliged to- burst of what would now be
called sensationalism might have lifted Chaucer
INTO sudden notOriety, but there no such thing
In his nature. If we may judge from the little
that is known of his career he combined with
nigh poetic powers an unusual capacity for official
routine. For years and years lie almost con-
.inuously in the public service. One would hardly
select the superintendency Of a port of entry as
more agreeable than other occupations to the
tastes of poet, especially if the clerical force
we're limited and the chief had TO drive his own
pen in dull bookkeeping, day after day, for years
As a preparation for duties Of that sort whatever
repute Chaucer had as a poet would have been
IN injury rather than help But he had some
H.
,ny familiar with the dialects of the still un-
settled English speech and Latin, the necessary
anguage Of learning, but he knew French also-the
French of Paris, not the French of StratfOrd atte
Bowe and what has always been comparatively
rare among Englishmen, he was so well acquainted
With Italian that he proved on more than one
occasion useful diplomat in the land of Petrarch,
Dante and Boccacco. Viewed from the vantage
point Of a later time those faculties and acquisi-
tons which made the poet more or less successful
rs a man of affairs seem matter almost Of In
difference To his official contemporaries they
we're the index of all there was in him of value.
This is the way Of the world. As far as human
nature pure and simple, is concerned exactly the
,ame thing may happen to-day. The advantage is
that the social machine has been considerably
improved, and the appliances by which genius.
or that which takes itself for genius. can make
Itself known to the world have been greatly in
,reased in number. From all the evidence that
oan be gathered there stands forth little or nothing
10 show that the poetry Of Chaucer added sin
gle penny TO his emoluments as an official servant
of the nation, or even gained him that sort OF
which might have hghtcned his
abOrs When his laboTs were lghtened it was
apt 10 he a premoniton that they were about TO
be dispensed with altogether. His capacity IN
The public service restored him more than once
after some eXigency of politics had cast him out
But, while his poetry might have passed with
but official recognition into that oblivion which
Tawns for us all and swallows most Of us, the
'tservation of the people was more alert BY
The time Chaucer had reached the dignity
Ind the WEAKNESS Of gray hairs the songs which
be had written were TO be heard all over England.