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therto above the reach of imitation, I mean his Canterbury Tales*.

"after him, thought it mufical, and it continues fo even in our "judgment if compared with the numbers of Lydgate and "Gower his contemporaries. There is the rude sweetness of a "Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleafing though not 'perfect. It is true I cannot go fo far as he who published "the laft edition of him, for he would make us believe the "fault is in our cars, and that there are really ten fyllables in a "verfe where we find but nine; but this opinion is not worth "confuting; it is so grofs and obvious an errour that common fenfe (which is a rule in every thing but matters of faith and "revelation) must convince the reader that equality of num"bers in every verfe which we call heroick was either not "known or not always practised in Chaucer's age: it were an "eafy matter to produce fome thousands of his verfes which "are lame for want of half a foot, and fometimes a whole one, "and which no pronunciation can make otherwife. We can "only fay that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that "nothing is brought to perfection at the firft. We muft be "children before we grow men. There was an Ennius, and in "process of time a Lucilius and a Lucretius, before Virgil and "Horace; even after Chaucer there was a Spenfer, a Harring"ton, a Fairfax, beforeWaller and Denham were in being; and " our numbers were in their nonage till thefe laft appeared."

* I mean bis Canterbury Tales.] The fcheme of this work is in every refpe& very extraordinary, and of fo vaft an extent that at first fight one would be apt to pronounce it abfolutely impracticable, from a perfuation that it muft iurpass the powers of any single mind to paint the different lineaments, and call out to view the various faculties, of every mind. The truth as well as the meaning of this fentiment will beft appear from a fhort representation of the Author's defign, which is this: Chaucer pretends, that intending to pay his devotions to the thrine of Thomas à Becket, he fet up his horfe at the Tabardinn in Southwark, that he found in the inn a number of pilgrims who feverally propofed the fame journey, and that they

We have already, in the courfe of his memoirs, fpoken of most of his patrons, who were the greatest

all agreed to fup together, and to set out the next morning our the fame party. The fupper being finished the landlord, a ferlow of fenfe and drollery, conformable to his character and calling, makes them no disagreeable propofal, that to divert them on their journey each of them thould be obliged to tell twoftories, one going, the other coming back, and that whoever in the judgment of the company fhould fucceed beftin this art of tale-telling, by way of recompenfe, at their return to his inn, thould be entitied to a good fupper at the common cost, which propofal aflented to be promifes to be their governorand guide: At the cutrance of the poem the characters of all the pilgrims are distinctly drawn, and a plan of the comedy, in which they ftand for the Dramatis Perfonæ. Befides this every Tale has its Prologue, and a kind of Epilogue too, which ferves by way of tranfition to the next; and to the honour of our Author be it fpoken, fo far as his plan is executed every part of it is performed with equal juftice and spirit, and above all the character of the Hoft, who acts as a kind of Chorus in the ancient drama; is most admirably kept up, and the fame wit, fpirit, and humour, is preferved through the whole journey that strikes and aftonishes the reader fo much at the very beginning, where the original character of this incomparable perton is drawn at full length. A ftronger argument in fupport of this character of The Canterbury Tales cannot well be brought than arifes from the authority of three great poets who have judged them worthy of imitation and revival, I mean Spenter, Dryden, and Pope, to whom we may add Mr. Betterton, who tranflated many of the characters of Chaucer, and must have been allowed to have been as fit a judge of them as any of the foregoing. But the reas der will receive the fulleft fatisfaction on this head from the critical remarks of Mr. Dryden, who as he perfectly understood fo he has very freely given us his fentiments on this masterpiece of our Author's. "He muft," fays he, have been a man of a ❝ moitwonderful comprehenfive nature, because, as it has been truly obferved of him, he has taken into the compass of his

as well as ableft men of those times. The circle of his. friends was also very large, and his communicative

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"Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours, as we now call them, of the whole English nation in his age: not a fingle character has escaped him. Althis pilgrims are feverally "diftinguithed from eachother, and not only in their inclina❝tions but in their very phyfiognomies and perfons. Baptiíla "Porta could not have defcribed their natures better than by "the marks which the poet gives them. The matter and man"ner of their Tales, and of their telling, are fo fuited to their "different educations,humeurs, and callings, that each of them "would be improper in any other mouth. Even the grave and "ferious characters are diftinguithed by their feveral forts of "gravity; their difcourfes are fuch as belong to their age, their "calling, and their breeding; fuch as are becoming of them, "and of them only. Some of his perfons are vicious, and fome "virtuous; some are unlearned, (or, as Ch. calls them) lewd, "and fome are learned. Even the ribaldry of the low charac *ters is different; the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook, are fe❝veral men, and diftinguished from each other as much as the "nincing Lady Priorefs and the broad-fpeaking gap-toothed "Wife of Bath. But enough of this; there is much a variety of "game fpringing up before me that I am distracted in my "choice, and know not which to follow. It is fufficient to fay, "according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We "have our forefathers and great-grandams all before us as "they were in Chaucer's days; their general characters are "ftill remaining in mankind, and even in England, tho' they "are called by other names than those of Monks and Friars, of "Chanons, and Lady-Abbeffes, and Nuns; for mankind is ever "the fame, and nothing loft out of nature, though every thing "is altered.-Boccace lived in the fame age with Chaucer, *had the fame genius, and followed the fame fludies; both * writ novels, and each of them cultivated his mother tongue. **In the serious part of poetry the advantage is wholly on "Chaucer's fide, for tho' the Englishman has borrowed many #tales from the Italian, yet it appears that thefe of Boccace

difpofition made him as much beloved by his contemporaries as he was admired both by them and by pofterity. He appears to have been useful to them in every manner that was in his power, and it was this difpofition, in all probability, that kept them fo firm to his intereft while he was living, and taught them to have fo high a respect for his memory after his deceafe. It is no difficult thing to compile a lift of them from his writings, in which he has mentioned them with all the marks of kindness and efteem poffible, a circumstance favourable to himself and to them, for in this poets have the advantage even of princes; the latter, how great foever, can confer only temporary benefits, but the former can bestow immortality; and therefore princes themfelves have courted, not perhaps without political reafons, the goodwill of thefe favourites of the Mufes ; but we are apt to fufpect their praifes when applied to their patrons of high rank more than their commendations of private friends; the former is commonly dictated by the head, whereas the latter flows from the heart, and this confidera

"were not generally of his own making, but taken from au"thors of former ages, and by him only modelled, so that what "was of invention in either of them may be judged equai. But "Chaucer has refined on Boccace, and has mended the ftories

which he has borrowed in his way of telling, though profe "allows more liberty of thought, and the expreffion is more 'eafy when unconfined by numbers. Our countryman car"rics weight, and yet wins the race at difadvantage."

tion alone makes it reasonable that we fhould infift more particularly on those whom our Author has thus configned to fame: but in order to spare the reader's time we shall mention only a very few of Chaucer's intimate friends and contemporaries at the bottom of the page.

*At the bottom of the page.] Amongst the earliest of Chaus cer's friends, and alfo directors of his fludies, were Nicholas of Lynne and John Some, both Carmelite monks, and extremely well verfed in mathematical fciences, the former more cipecially, who left behind him feveral learned books, and is commended by Leland as having excelled inattronomy all that went before him. We have before mentioned Ralph Strode, who was both a celebrated/poet and philofopher of Merton-college in Oxford, where it fems our Author was intimately acquainte ed with him, and had a great veneration for his abilities. It is a ftrange errour which the author of the life of Chaucer prefixed to Mr. Urry'selition has fallen into with regard to strode, who, he fays, was a great follower of Wicklife, which is fo far from being true that he was one of the warmest writers against him, for which he is heavily cenfured by Eale, and as highly commended by Pitts. It is very probable that Wickliffe and Chaucer were very good friends, as they both owed the emi nence of their respective ftations to the tame patron, John D. of Lancaster, Sir John Gower, an eminent lawyer, poet, and philofopher, was alfo Chaucer's intimate companion, as ap• pears from both their writings; the former was blind before the latter died, and furvived him only two years. But Thomas Occleve, or Hocklife, a very ingenious man and a celebrated writer, was a great favourite of our Author's, and imitated him in his manner of writing. We are indebted to him for preferving Chaucer's picture,which he caufed to be drawn, in his book De Regimine Principis, and which he dedicated to King Henry V. and it is very evident from the verids which refer to that picture that Chaucer had been a long tine dead before he compofed that work. Another fcholar of his was the