The above are all the circumstances of importance connected with the life of Chaucer that are known to be true. Although, in the document in which they are found, he is looked upon only as an actor in the eventful politics of the day, we have other evidence that his poetical talents were highly appreciated by his contemporaries, as well as in the age which followed his death. By the English poets of his time, Gower and Occleve, he is spoken of in the warmest terms of praise; and that his reputation was high on the continent, we have a remarkable proof in a ballad addressed to him by the French poet Eustace Deschamps, which has been printed in Sir Harris Nicolas's Life, and in my Anecdota Literaria. This latter document shews us, also, that Chaucer was on terms of friendship at least with the French poets of his day. Occleve not only paid a tribute of affection to his "maister" in his poetry, but he painted his portrait in the margin of the manuscript, and this portrait, evidently a good one, was copied at different times and in different forms, and was no doubt the original of all the portraits of Chaucer we now have. The best copy appears to be that in the Harleian MS., No. 4866.

THE CANTERBURY TALES.

Chaucer's capital work is doubtless the Canter

bury Tales. The idea of thus joining together a number of stories by means of a connecting narrative, or frame, appears to have originated in the East; but long before the time of Chaucer it had been made popular in Europe by the Disciplina Clericalis of Peter Alfonsi, and its translations, and by the still more widely spread romance of the Seven Sages. It is probable that the latter, of which an edition has been published by the Percy Society, gave Chaucer the hint of his plot, rather than the Decameron, with which I think it doubtful if Chaucer were acquainted. But Chaucer's plan was far superior to that of any of the similar collections which had preceded it, not only for the opportunity it afforded for diversity of style in the stories, but for the variety of character it admitted in the personages to be introduced. The general introduction to the Canterbury Tales is one of the most perfect compositions in the English language.

The Canterbury Tales appear to have been the compilation of Chaucer's latter years; for they contain allusions to events so late as the year 1386, and if (as there appears little room for doubt) there are allusions in the Man of Lawes Tale to the Confessio Amantis of Gower, this part of the work must have been written at a still later period, as that poem is stated by its author to have been written in the sixteenth year of the reign of

Richard II, i. e. 1392-3. I have used the word compilation, because it appears to me not only evident that Chaucer composed the Canterbury Tales not continuously, but in different portions which were afterwards to be joined together; but it is more than probable that he worked up into it tales which had originally been written and perhaps published as separate poems. Chaucer tells us, in the Legend of Good Women, that he had thus published the Knightes Tale,—

al the love of Palamon and Arcite,

Of Thebes, though the storie is knowen lite;"

as well as the life of St. Cecilia, or the Second Nonnes Tale,

"And made the life also of Saint Cecile."

It is quite clear that we possess the Canterbury Tales in an unfinished form. Tyrwhitt makes the following general observations on this subject:

"The general plan of the Canterbury Tales may be learned in a great measure from the prologue, which Chaucer himself has prefixed to them. He supposes there, that a company of pilgrims going to Canterbury assemble at an inn in Southwark, and agree, that, for their common amusement on the road, each of them shall tell at least one tale in going to Canterbury, and another in coming back from thence; and that he who shall tell the

best tales, shall be treated by the rest with a supper upon their return to the same inn. This is shortly the fable. The characters of the pilgrims are as various as, at that time, could be found in the several departments of middle life; that is, in fact, as various as could, with any probability, be brought together, so as to form one company; the highest and the lowest ranks of society being necessarily excluded. It appears further, that the design of Chaucer was not barely to recite the tales told by the pilgrims, but also to describe their journey, And all the remnant of their pilgrimage [ver. 726]; including, probably, their adventures at Canterbury as well as upon the road. If we add, that the tales, besides being nicely adapted to the characters of their respective relators, were intended to be connected together by suitable introductions, and interspersed with diverting episodes; and that the greatest part of them was to have been executed in verse : we shall have a tolerable idea of the extent and difficulty of the whole undertaking: and admiring, as we must, the vigour of that genius, which in an advanced age could begin so vast a work, we shall rather lament than be surprised that it has been left imperfect. In truth, if we compare those parts of the Canterbury Tales, of which we are in possession, with the sketch which has been just given of the intended whole,

it will be found that more than one half is wanting. The prologue we have, perhaps, nearly complete, and the greatest part of the journey to Canterbury; but not a word of the transactions at Canterbury, or of the journey homeward, or of the epilogue, which, we may suppose, was to have concluded the work, with an account of the prizesupper and the separation of the company. Even in that part which we have of the journey to Canterbury, it will be necessary to take notice of certain defects and inconsistencies, which can only be accounted for upon the supposition, that the work was never finished by the author."

After a careful consideration of this question, I am inclined to believe that Chaucer not only left his grand poem in an unfinished state, but that he left it in detached portions only partially arranged, and that it was reduced to its present form after his death. This would explain satisfactorily the great variations of the manuscripts in the order of the tales, and the evident want of the connecting prologue in more than one instance. All the manuscripts agree in the order of the tales of the knight, miller, reve, and cook, and in placing them immediately after the general prologue, and it is therefore probable that they were left in that state by Chaucer. The Cookes Tale was evidently left unfinished by the author, and it was probably the