there is no foundation for these statements. Chaucer must have been in London from 1380 to 1388, since it can be proved that he regularly received his pension halfyearly at the Exchequer, with his own hands, during that period; and at the very time when he is said to have been sent to the Tower, he was elected a representative in Parliament for the county of Kent.

It appears, however, that towards the close of 1386, Chaucer did lose his office in the customs. This was probably owing to the fact that about this time his patron, John of Gaunt, was superseded in the government by his brother the Duke of Gloster. In 1389, however, the young king assumed the reins of power himself; Gloster was seized and afterwards secretly murdered, and the Duke of Lancaster, who had retired to Guienne, was recalled. Chaucer found friends in the new administration. He was appointed clerk of the king's works, and was allowed to perform the work by deputy. This important post, however, he only held about two years; what was the reason for his dismissal we do not know. During the next three or four years the poet seems to have experienced the miseries of poverty; and in 1398, he was so harassed by his creditors that he was obliged to seek the protection of the crown, A considerable improvement in his fortunes took place on the accession of Henry IV., the son of his old patron; but he did not long enjoy it. He died, Oct. 25th 1400, about the age of seventy-two, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

In his prosperous days he is supposed to have resided for some time in a house granted by the king, near the royal manor at Woodstock, and the "poet's walk" is still pointed out in the park. He is also said to have lived for some time at Doddington Castle, near Newbury. It was at this period of his life, probably, that he wrote the Canterbury Tales, and the tradition both at Woodstock and Doddington is, that portions of the work were written at these places.

Chaucer, as a poet, ranks next to Shakespeare and Milton. Like the former he is rich in humour, an

element of which Milton is almost destitute. His works bear evidence of his busy active life. He is distinguished by his intense love of the natural world, his intimate knowledge of human nature, and his wide acquaintance with every phase of society. He has not Milton's sublimity and grandeur of thought; but in liveliness of imagination and vigour of description he has few rivals.

The work upon which the fame of Chaucer rests is the Canterbury Tales. In the prologue the poet states that twenty-nine persons had met together at the Tabard Inn, Southwark, all bent on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket, at Canterbury. They all sup together in the large room of the hostelrie, and the landlord proposes that they shall all travel together, and that to lighten the journey each shall tell a tale, both in going and returning, and that whoever succeeds best should receive a supper at the expense of the rest. The suggestion is at once adopted, and we are allowed to accompany the pilgrims on a part of their journey, and to hear twenty-five of the stories. The poem is unfinished; but though only a fragment, it is almost twice the length of Paradise Lost. The tales are all in poetry, except two; and they exhibit an endless variety, both in subject and mode of treatment. The knight's tale is a noble specimen of the chivalrous romance; the clerk's story of Griselda is full of the tenderest pathos: in some there is the broadest humour; in others the deepest religious feeling. Each is characteristic of the person who narrates it.

The prologue, which relates the occasion of the assemblage, and contains a description of the various travellers, is a poem of considerable length and of great merit. It contains almost a complete picture of English society in the fourteenth century. We have a knight, a mirror of chivalry, who had fought against the infidels in Palestine; and his son the young squire. They are attended by a yeoman in the costume of a forester, with green tunic and mighty bow. Next come in order, a franklin, or country gentleman; a ploughman, a miller, and a reeve, or bailiff. The church is represented by a

prioress, who is attended by a nun and, three priests; a Benedictine monk, a begging friar, a pardoner, or seller of indulgencies; and a sompnour, or officer of the church courts. We have also a poor priest from a country village, and a quiet, thoughtful student from Oxford. There are also in the company a serjeant of law, a doctor of physic, a merchant, carpenter, weaver, dyer, haberdasher, and several others, including the shrewd and witty "wife of Bath." Altogether, apart from the merits of the prologue as a poem, the description of these various personages is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the different ranks of society at an interesting period of English history. The ancient character of the English in which Chaucer's works are written, and the difficulties connected with the old spelling, cause these poems to be less generally read than those of more modern poets; but these difficulties may be overcome without much labour, and the student is amply repaid for his trouble.

Among Chaucer's minor poems are the Romaunt of the Rose, a condensed translation from a popular French poem; Troilus and Cresseide, also partly translated; the Legende of Good Women; the House of Fame, afterwards paraphrased by Pope; and the Flower and the Leaf. The subject of the Flower and the Leaf has thus been described by the poet himself: "A gentlewoman, out of an arbour in a grove, seeth a great company of knightes and ladies in a dance upon the green grass: the which being ended, they all kneel down, and do honour to the Daisy, some to the Flower, and some to the Leaf, Afterwards this gentlewoman learneth by one of these ladies the meaning of the vision, which is this: they which honour the Flower, a thing fading with every blast, are such as look after beauty and wordly pleasure. But they that honour the Leaf, which abideth with the root, notwithstanding the frosts and winter storms, are they which follow virtue and enduring qualities without regard of worldly respects."

JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.-1394-1437.

CHAUCER has been compared to a genial day in an English spring, which is often followed by a long period of cold and wintry frosts. For nearly two centuries after his death, we meet with no English poet that can be fitly compared to him. There were, however, one or two writers of great merit, and among these James I. of Scotland.

James was the son of Robert III., and was born in 1394. Robert was a weak though amiable prince, and quite unfit to rule over the turbulent kingdom which he was called to govern. The real power therefore fell into the hands of his brother, the Duke of Albany. Robert's eldest son, the Duke of Rothesay, was a prince of considerable spirit, and for a short time was able to keep Albany in check; but at length he was seized by his uncle's orders near St. Andrews, and immediately lodged in the castle there. He was soon afterwards transferred to a dungeon in the royal palace of Falkland, and there, it is believed, starved to death. King Robert now determined to send his son James to France for protection from his uncle's intrigues. But the vessel in which the young prince had embarked was captured by an English cruiser, and James and his attendants were carried to London and committed to the Tower (1405). This new misfortune broke the old king's heart, and he died about a year afterwards.

Immediately after Robert's death, a parliament met at Perth, and after declaring James their lawful king, continued Albany in the regency. The duke made not the slightest effort to obtain the release of his nephew, and James was detained a prisoner in England for eighteen years. Henry IV., however, made some amends for his cruel injustice, by taking care that the young king should be instructed in all the learning of the period, as well as in all knightly accomplishments and martial exercises. James carefully studied the writings of Chaucer, and his

chief work, The King's Quhair, or Book, was written during his captivity, and modelled upon the style of the English poet. The King's Quhair has been pronounced to be not inferior in fancy, elegance of diction, and delicacy of feeling, to any similar production of Chaucer's. It describes the circumstances of an attachment which James formed with a young lady whom, while a prisoner in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle, he saw walking in the adjacent garden. This lady, a daughter of the Duke of Somerset, was afterwards married to the young king, and she accompanied him to Scotland (1424).

The Regent Albany died in 1419, and his son Murdoch succeeded to power. No effort was made to release James, and at length, through the misgovernment of Murdoch, the country was reduced to a state of anarchy. There was now an earnest and universal desire on the part of the people of Scotland for the return of the king, and the English Court agreed to set him at liberty on being promised a payment of £40,000 to defray the expenses of his maintenance and education during his captivity. He arrived in Scotland in April 1424, having married Lady Beaufort two months previously; and on the 21st May he and his consort were solemnly crowned in the Abbey Church at Scone.

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James found his kingdom a scene of anarchy and rapine, through the lawless conduct of the rude and turbulent barons. "Let God but grant me life," he is said to have indignantly exclaimed when made fully acquainted with the state of the country; "Let God but grant me life, and throughout my dominions I shall make the key keep the castle and the furze-bush the cow, though I should lead the life of a dog to accomplish it.' He immediately set himself with resolution and courage to undertake the difficult and dangerous task. He resolved to govern the country through the medium of Parliament, and summoned the assembly in every year of his reign. He made stringent laws for the equal administration of justice, for the protection of agriculture, and the encouragement of commerce. He put to death