CHAP. with eagerness by the learned of the fourteenth century. XX. 1358. At length, after long hesitation and in His addresses are ward anxiety, we are informed that the lover resolved to tell his tale. I bethought me that dame Nature So mochel beaute trewély And bountie, withouten mercy. ver. 1195. The manner of his declaration is described rejected. with exquisite beauty and truth of concep tion. In hope of that, my tale I tolde For many a worde I overskipte * evil, ill. In telling my tale, for pure fere Lest that my wordés misseset were. СНАР. 1358. ver. 1199. To this declaration of his affections he en- -trewély he had no nede, ver. 1253. y misseset were, should be unskilful, should fail of persuasion. CHAP. XXI. OUTLINE OF CHAUCER'S POEM OF THE PARLIA CHAP 1358. THE first poem which Chaucer wrote, so far as can now be ascertained, after he entered into the service of the court, is variously styled in different manuscripts, The Assembly of Fowls, and the Parliament of Birds. The subject of this poem is the suit or courtship of John of Gaunt just mentioned, and appears to have been written before the lady had accepted the addresses of her illustrious suitor. The natural construction therefore to be put upon such a performance is, that it implies a considerable degree of familiarity and confidence between the poet and the persons who are the subject of it: and indeed it is not improbable that it was penned at the request of the lover, for the XXI. 1358. purpose of softening the obduracy of his mis- CHAP. tress s resistance. As the lady is represented in the course of the poem as deferring the suit of her admirer for a twelvemonth, a circumstance which occurs again in the Book of the Duchess above quoted, and as the marriage was solemnised in May 1359, the date of the poem obviously falls upon the year 1358. under Chaucer his former This first courtly composition of Chaucer Impressions we may believe was written by the young whither poet with great care, and no ordinary degree had written of anxiety to produce something worthy of works. the masters into whose service he had entered. It was a new field that he was to occupy; and it was with very different feelings that he sat down to write. Hitherto he had been a poet in the purest and most unmingled sense of that word. He 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 day. He wrote, because he felt himself impelled to write. XXI. 1358. CHAP. He analysed 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. He formed the gigantic and arduous plan of giving poetry to a language, which could as yet scarcely be said to have any poetry to boast. his Parliament of Birds. Now he was placed in a different scene. Without bearing the title of the court-poet, he was the court-poet in reality. He had no competitor. His superiority was universally acknowledged. He had been borne along on the tide of his acknowledged reputation to the eminence he at present occupied. He had the character of his country to sustain ; and the literature of a nation rested upon his shoulders. eye To every man a scene presented to the is impressive, much beyond the effect of any abstraction appealing to the understanding. This is still more the case with a poet, than with any other man. Chaucer had hitherto written for such as were lovers and discerners of true poetry, without well knowing, except |