the general awakening in Europe, learning was held in greater esteem and prosecuted with more vigor. It was no longer confined to the representatives of the church. Ecclesiastical and secular schools were greatly multiplied for the instruction of the young. Universities and colleges were founded in considerable numbers, some of the most illustrious colleges at Oxford and Cambridge being established at this time. Along with scholasticism, which rigidly applied the logic of Aristotle to the development of theology, the ancient classics of Greece and Rome were beginning to receive attention. The nobility began to take interest in letters. In Italy brilliant writers. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio-made permanent contributions to the literature of the world. Thus a great store of material was accumulated in the fourteenth century material that awaited the master-workman soon to appear.

pleted, and the great Englis
had its beginning — a natio
is second to none in the his
But many evils still exis
ury and extravagance, while
and want. The public ta
of morals low. Highwa
Through gross abuses of it
ruption of its representat
measure lost its hold up
enues, five times greater t
into the coffers at Rome.
in the hands of the clerg
was notorious, and prov
resistance. Yet there w
who, like Chaucer's poor
and followed it themsel
were built to stand as
ing ages.

The substantial elem This was not lacking in agencies contributed to The Crusades had open ideas into vogue. Th narrative poems of the of the troubadour - in improved models of sty about the names of ( Arthur, appealed stro The monasteries had writings of the ancie:

erent bein

cher, was a

ondon wine-dealer. Nothing definite is known in regard to is education. The opinion formerly held that he studied at ambridge or Oxford is without any satisfactory foundation. ʼn the year 1357 an authentic record shows him attached to he household of Lady Elizabeth, wife of Prince Lionel, in the apacity of a page. In 1359 he accompanied Edward III. in n invasion of France; and having been captured by the rench, he was ransomed by the English king for sixteen. The time and circumstances of his marriage are nvolved in obscurity, though it is tolerably certain that his omestic life was not happy. He subsequently served on mbassies to Genoa, Flanders, and France, and acquitted himelf to the satisfaction of the Crown. He filled the office of comptroller of customs in the port of London; and like many >thers of strong literary bent, he appears to have felt the rksomeness of his routine duties:

". . . When thy labor done all is,
And hast y-made reckonings,

Instead of rest and newe things

Thou go'st home to thine house anon,
And there as dumb as any stone

Thou sittest at another book."

In 1386 Chaucer was elected a member of Parliament, where he did not distinguish himself. In 1387, as well as can be determined, he lost his wife. After some vicissitudes of fortune, in which he found it necessary at one time to address a "Complaint to his Purse," he died in circumstances of comfort and peace, Oct. 25, 1400. His body lies in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb is an object of tender interest in the famous Poets' Corner.

Chaucer was small and slender in stature, looked upon the ground as he walked, and seemed absent or distracted in manner. This much is brought out in the few graphic touches with which the host of the Tabard and leader of the Canterbury pilgrims draws the poet's portrait. After a most pathetic

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

ABOVE all his contemporaries of the fourteenth century stands the figure of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is called by Tennyson

The first warbler, whose sweet breath
Preluded those melodious bursts that fill
The spacious times of great Elizabeth
With sounds that echo still."

First of all, he

He owes his pre-eminence to several facts. was gifted by nature with extraordinary poetic genius, which embodied itself in a number of imperishable works. He is justly called by Dryden "the father of English poetry." Besides, he was peculiarly favored in the circumstances of his life. In the field, at the court, in his business relations, he acquired a wide range of knowledge, which lent support to his great natural abilities. His culture exhibited, for the age in which he lived, almost a cosmopolitan completeness. And lastly, beyond any other man of his time, he fixed the fluctuating language of the age in a permanent form, and laid a firm basis for the English of the present day. Like Homer in Greece, Chaucer stands pre-eminent in the early literature of England; and among the great English poets of subsequent ages, not more than three or four- Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, and Tennyson— deserve to be placed in the same rank.

As with some other great authors, comparatively little is known of Chaucer's life. The most painstaking investigations have been comparatively fruitless. The time of his birth is a matter of dispute the two dates given for that event being 1328 and 1340. His father, as well as his grandfather, was a

London wine-dealer. Nothing definite is known in regard to his education. The opinion formerly held that he studied at Cambridge or Oxford is without any satisfactory foundation. In the year 1357 an authentic record shows him attached to the household of Lady Elizabeth, wife of Prince Lionel, in the capacity of a page. 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. The time and circumstances of his marriage are involved in obscurity, though it is tolerably certain that his domestic life was not happy. He subsequently served on embassies to Genoa, Flanders, and France, and acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the Crown. He filled the office of comptroller of customs in the port of London; and like many others of strong literary bent, he appears to have felt the irksomeness of his routine duties:

:

When thy labor done all is,

And hast y-made reckonings,

Instead of rest and newe things

Thou go'st home to thine house anon,
And there as dumb as any stone

Thou sittest at another book."

In 1386 Chaucer was elected a member of Parliament, where he did not distinguish himself. In 1387, as well as can be determined, he lost his wife. After some vicissitudes of fortune, in which he found it necessary at one time to address a Complaint to his Purse," he died in circumstances of comfort and peace, Oct. 25, 1400. His body lies in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb is an object of tender interest in the famous Poets' Corner.

66

Chaucer was small and slender in stature, looked upon the ground as he walked, and seemed absent or distracted in manner. This much is brought out in the few graphic touches with which the host of the Tabard and leader of the Canterbury pilgrims draws the poet's portrait. After a most pathetic