says Hallam, "in rendering the language less rude, and exciting a taste for verse; if he never rises, he never sinks low; he is always sensible, polished, perspicuous." In the original prologue, Gower tells us that the poem was written at the request of Richard II., who met him while rowing on the Thames :

"And so befell as I came nigh
Out of my bote, whan he me sigh,
He bad me come into his barge.
And whan I was with him at large,
Amonges other thinges said,
He hath this charge upon me laid
And bad me do my besinesse,
That to his highe worthynesse
Some newe thing I shoulde boke,
That he himself it mighte loke
After the forme of my writing."

36. Sources of Modern English. The language of Wycliffe's version of the Bible and of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" is in the Mercian dialect, or in the language spoken in central England. Chaucer wrote in the same dialect. It was largely through the influence of these three great writers, together with the influence of Oxford and Cambridge, that the language of central England gained the ascendency over the dialect of northern and southern England, and became the mother of Modern English.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

37. His Pre-eminence.- Above all his contemporaries of the fourteenth century stands the figure of Geoffrey Chaucer. Among all the writers that we have considered, he is the first to show the spirit and freedom of the modern world. Two recent poets have accorded him generous recognition and praise. In his "Dream of Fair Women," Tennyson calls him "the morning star of song,"—

"Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath

Preluded those melodious bursts that fill

The spacious times of great Elizabeth
With sounds that echo still."

In a sonnet on Chaucer, Longfellow says:

"He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote
The Canterbury Tales, and his old age
Made beautiful with song; and as I read,
I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note
Of lark and linnet, and from every page

Rise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead."

Like Homer in Greece, Chaucer stands preeminent in ine early literature of England; and among the great English poets of subsequent ages, not more than three or four Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Tennyson- deserve to be placed in the same rank.

38. Early Life. As with some other great writers, comparatively little is known of Chaucer's life. The most painstaking investigations have been comparatively fruitless in details. He was born in London about 1340. His father was a vintner, and it is not improbable that Geoffrey sometimes lent him assistance. In the "Pardoner's Tale" there is an interesting passage which shows Chaucer's acquaintance with the different French and Spanish wines, and which contains a warning against the dangers of drunkenness :

"A lecherous thing is wyne, and dronkenesse
Is full of stryving and of wretchednesse."

Nothing definite is known in regard to his education. The opinion formerly held that he studied at Cambridge or Oz ford is without satisfactory foundation. Yet his works show that he was a man of learning. Besides his knowledge of French and Italian, he was acquainted with the classics, and with every other branch of scholastic learning current in his day.

39. Various Offices. In 1359 he accompanied Edward III. in an invasion of France; and having been captured by the French, he was ransomed by the English king for sixteen

pounds. He was long attached to the court; he filled various public offices, and served on no fewer than seven diplomatic embassies to the Continent. Among other positions, he filled the office of comptroller of customs in the port of London; but, like many others of strong literary bent, he appears to have felt the irksomeness of his routine duties. In an autobiographic touch in the "Hous of Fame," we read:

"For whan thy labour doon al is,
And hast-y-maad thy rekeninges,
In stede of reste and newe thinges,
Thou gost hoom to thy house anoon;
And, also domb as any stoon,
Thou sittest at another boke,

Til fully daswed is thy loke,
And livest thus as an hermyte,

Although thyn abstinence is lyte."

40. In Misfortune. But his political career was not one of uninterrupted prosperity. In 1386 he was elected a member of Parliament for the shire of Kent; but the same year, through a change in the government, he lost his office of comptroller of customs. This incident is supposed to have inspired the ballad on "Truth":

"Flee fro the prees,1 and dwelle with sothfastnesse,2

In 1399, when he was again in financial straits, he sent to King Henry IV. a complaint about his poverty. It is entitled, "A Compleynt to his Purs" :

"To you my purse, and to non other wight
Complayne I, for you be my lady dere!

I am so sorry, now that ye be light;
For certes, but ye make me hevy chere,