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would be pleased to see some parts of his book arranged as notes upon Chaucer's poems. We find it impossible to "pick them in a pile of noisome and musty chaff;" but when they are brought forward in a work arranged upon a better plan, our approbation shall be conferred much more willingly than our present censure. A natural consequence of the hurry with which Mr. Godwin has compiled his work, is the inaccuracy which has occasionally crept in, although less frequently than we could have thought possible. Vere, for example, the favourite of Richard II, is likened to " Carr, the minion of James I, with these advantages in faveur of the former, that he was of an ancient family, and Carr an upstart," p. 366. This is a mistake. Carr, or Ker, Earl of Somerset, was the third son of Sir Thomas Ker of Fairnyhirst, the chief of a very ancient and powerful family, now represented by the Marquis of Lothian. As he had unfortunately little personal merit, it is hard to deprive him of the advantage of birth, which he really possessed. The universal predominance of the French language in the reign of Edward III, is expressed with rather too much latitude, vol. i, p. 18. Previous to the birth of Chaucer, a remarkable change had begun to take place in this particular. Histories, and long poems of devotion and chivalry, were already translated out of the Romance or French language into English, and these in such numbers as sufficiently to demonstrate that they were not required for the use of the lower and middle classes alone. We should have been pleased to have seen the authority upon which the romances of Robert sans peur and Robert le Diable are ascribed to Wace, having esteemed these tales of later date than the Roman de Rou. The story of Anlaf the Dane, who is said to have penetrated into King Athelstane's tent, disguised as a minstrel, is rather apocryphal, especially with the miraculous decorations of William of Malmesbury. Mr. Godwin seems to entertain some doubt of John of Gaunt's flight into Scotland, and residence at Holyrood-house. But no fact can be better attested. Andrew of Winton, a contemporary historian, has dedicated a chapter to show

"Qhwen of Longcastele the Duke

Refute intil Scotland tuk."-Book ix. c. 4.

He mentions particularly his progress, in which he was attended by Earl William of Douglass, from Berwick to Haddington, and thence to Edinburgh

"And intil Haly-rwde-hows that Abbay
Thai made hym for to take herbry."

This circumstance, and the more recent asylum afforded in Scotland to Henry VI, are probably alluded to by Molinet, when he terms that country

"De tous siècles, le mendre
Et le plus tollerant."

The style of Mr. Godwin's life of Chaucer is, in our apprehension, uncommonly depraved, exhibiting the opposite defects of meanness and of bombast. This is especially evident in those sentimental flourishes with which he has garnished his narrative, and which appear to us to be executed in a most extraordinary taste. In the following simile, for example, we hardly know whether most to admire the elegance and power of conception, or the happy ease and dignity of expression.

"Its splendid pillars (the author is treating of the later Gothic architecture) may possess various excellencies, but they are certainly not magnificent; and the shafts by which the pillars are frequently surrounded have an insignificant air, suggesting to us an idea of fragility; and almost reminding us of the humble vehicle through which an English or German rustic inhales the fumes of the Indian weed."-Vol. i, p. 145.

In p. 181, we hear of "a tune, in which the luxuriance and multiplicity of musical sounds obscures and tramples with disdain upon the majestic simplicity of words." In other places, we find "the technicalities of justice”—“ the religious nerve of the soul of man"-young knights who looked upon the field of Roncesvalles with "augmented circulation"-"unforshortened figures," an "ancient baron neighboured to a throne," and sundry other extremely new and whimsical expressions. But even these conceited barbarisms offend us less than the execrable taste displayed in the following account of Chaucer's early studies:

"He gave himself up to the impressions of nature, and to the sensations he experienced. He studied the writings of his contemporaries, and of certain of the ancients. He was learned according to the learning of his age. He wrote, because he felt himself impelled to write. He analyzed the models which were before him. He sought to please his friends and fellow scholars in the two Universities. He aspired to an extensive and lasting reputation."-Vol. i, p. 436.

We have no doubt that Mr. Godwin considers these short

sentences as the true model of a nervous and concise style. For our part, we find the sense so poor and trite, when compared with the pithy and sententious mode of delivery, that we feel in our closet the same shame we have sometimes experienced in the theatre, when a fourth-rate actor has exposed himself by mouthing, slapping his pockets, and, according to the stage phrase, making the most of a trifling part. We will not pursue this subject any further, although we could produce from these ponderous tomes some notable instances of the mock heroic, and of the tone of false and affected sentiment. Such passages have tempted us to exclaim with Pandarus (dropping only one letter of his ejaculation,)

"Alas! alas! so noble a creature

As is a man should reden* such ordure!"

Upon the whole, Mr. Godwin's friends have, in one respect, great reason to be satisfied with the progress of his convalescence. We hope and trust, that the favourable symptoms of his case may continue. He is indeed now and then very low; or, in other words, uncommonly dull; but there is no apparent return of that fever of the spirits which alarmed us so much in his orignal publications. The insurrection of Jack Straw (a very dangerous topic) produces only a faint and moderate aspiration breathed towards the "sacred doctrines of equality," which it is admitted are too apt to be "rashly, superficially, and irreverently acted upon, involving their disciples in the most fearful calamity." The disgrace of Alice Pierce, or Perrers, the chere amie of Edward III, or, as Mr. Godwin delicately terms her, "the chosen companion of his hours of retirement and leisure," calls down his resentment against the turbulence and rudeness of the Good Parliament. But less could hardly have been expected from the author of the memoirs of a late memorable female.†

We cannot help remarking that the principles of a mɔdern philosopher continue to alarm the public, after the good man himself has abandoned them, just as the very truest tale will sometimes be distrusted from the habitual false

*For dreden.

[Memoirs of Mary Woolstonecroft, author of "The Rights of Woman." 8vo. 1798.]

hood of the narrator. We fear this may have incommoded Mr. Godwin in his antiquarian researches, more than he seems to be aware of. When he complains that private

collectors declined "to part with their treasures for a short time out of their own hands," did it never occur to Mr. Godwin that the maxims concerning property, contained in his "Political Justice," were not altogether calculated to conciliate confidence in the author?

But, upon the whole, the Life of Chaucer, if an uninteresting, is an innocent performance; and were its prolixities and superfluities unsparingly pruned (which would reduce the work to about one-fourth of its present size), we would consider it as an accession of some value to English litera

ture.

TODD'S EDITION OF SPENSER.*

[Edinburgh Review, 1805.]

A COMPLETE and respectable edition of Spenser's works, has been long a desideratum in English literature. Indeed, to what purpose do our antiquaries purchase at high rates, and peruse, at the cost of still more valuable leisure and labour, the treasures of the black letter, which in themselves, have usually so very little to repay their exertions? Surely, the only natural and proper use of the knowledge thus acquired, is to throw light, as well upon our early literature, as on the manners and language of our ancestors, by re-editing and explaining such of our ancient authors as have suf fered by the change of both. Amongst these, Spenser must ever be reckoned one of the most eminent; for no author, perhaps, ever possessed and combined, in so brilliant a degree, the requisite qualities of a poet. Learned, according to the learning of his times, his erudition never appears to load or encumber his powers of imagination; but even the fictions of the classics, worn out as they are by the use of every pedant, become fresh and captivating themes, when adopted by his fancy, and accommodated to his plan. If that plan has now become to the reader of riper years somewhat tedious and involved, it must be allowed, on the other hand, that from Cowley downwards, every youth of imagination has been enchanted with the splendid legends of the Faëry Queen. It was therefore with pleasure that we turned to the examination of a work, which promised to recall the delightful sensations of our earlier

* On the works of EDMUND SPENSER, with the principal Illustrations of various Commentators: To which are added, Notes, some Account of the Life of SPENSER, and a Glossarial and other Indexes. By the Reverend JOHN TODD, M. A., F. A. S. 8 vols. 1805.]

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