The sun., 1908-12-06


e recent ss today & thSs a tHs German
Empire. Men would sElll 20 before
bishops and magistrates TO purge them.
selves by solemn oath from the injurious
suspicion Of being Scots and thersfur
enemies TO the realm; and couple q Den.
srations earlier suspected Welshmen had
been under O like necessity.
Not only was the English nationality
forming. but in certain other bearing,
Chaucer's lot was cast In an epoch making
age. Then began. for instance. Eng.
lands definite claim TO the lordship OF the
seas: Sluys. her first great maritime
victory, the Trafalgar of the Mid6ie ages,
was won In the same year in which tn,
mat is here said to have besA born. Si1
wears later the English captured Calais,
their first colony. which they were to hold
more than two hundred years. Never
before or since have English armies been
90 uniformly victorious a. they werd
during the first thirty years Of Chaucers
life: seldom also have the commerce and
the liberties Of the English developed
more rapidly. It is true that the dis.
aststs Witnessed by Chauoer were no iest
phenomenal The great pestilence oi
is4s was more terrible than any other re-
corded in English history; the first pitched
battle between labor and capital, 30 far
as England is concerned. occurred in
1881: the first formal depoaition OF an
English King took place in 1897. TO be re-
peated still more solemnly in 1899.
All these events must have affected
the poet almost as deeply as they affected
the State, notwithstanding the persis
tency with which he generally looked
upon the brighter side. In his verse
laugh is almost always present, or at
least an easy, good nstured smile. Where
his friend Cover sees an England hope
lessly given over to the devil; where an
other contemporary. Langiand. sees an
impending religious Armageddon. there
Chaucer with irrepressible optimism sees
chiefly a Merry England to which the
horrors of the Hundred Years War and
the Black Death and Tyler's revolt are
but foils. The man seems to have gone
through life in the tranquil conviction
that this was a pleasant world and his
own land particularly pleasant spot.
Our author well says that Chaucer daily
startles us with the eternal freshness OF
his youth. With him all springtide 10 here.
with its green leaves and singing birds.
Aptly We read him stretched at length
In the summer shade. yet almost more
delightfully."- in winter, with our feet on
the fender; for he smacks Of all familiar
comforts-old friends. old books and old
wine."
In this book. which principally is an
attempt to portray the environment OF
the Canterbury Tales--or. in other words.
the England OF the latter half Of the four
teeuth century-there is no systematio
endeayor to present a literary disserta-
ton on Chaucers poetry. Mr.. CoultoD
does not hesitate to aver. however. what
indeed cannot be disputed. that Chauoer
did moro than any other man to make
that form OF the Meroian dialect which
was spoken in London the literary English
OF the dialect OF Wessex
or the dialect of Northumbria, each Of
which had earlier had its hour OF literary
He was the first real master
of style in our language and retained an
supremacy until the Eliza
bethan age. This supremacy Is here
attributed not only TO his natural genius
but also to the happy chances which gave
him an exceptionally wide acquaintance
with contemporary society. Living in
one of the most brilliant cpochs Of English
history. he was by turn lover. courtier.
soldier, man Of business. student. Am
justice OF tho peace. member
of Parliament, Thames Conservator. and
perhaps even something OF an architect,
il he took his clerkship Of the works
seriously All these varied experiences
were mirrored in eyes as observant and
treasured in a memory as faithful as
have been possessed by any other English
poet except one; and to these natural
gifts Of the born portrait painter and genre
painter he added the browning quality
Of perfect diction. When We note with
the vividness which We feel
in Chaucer's characters acroes five CEN
turies we must always bear in mind that
his exceptional experiences and powers OF
were combined with an equally
mastery of EXPRESSION.