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teresting, of the pieces of our author; and, together with the ELEGY to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, is the only instance of the Pathetic POPE has given us. I think one may venture to remark, that the reputation of POPE, as a Poet, among posterity, will be principally owing to his WINDSOR FOREST, his RAPE OF THE LOCK, and his ELOISA TO ABELARD; whilst the facts and characters alluded to and exposed in his later writings, will be forgotten and unknown, and their poignancy and propriety little relished. For WIT and SATIRE are transitory and perishable, but NATURE and PASSION are eternal.

SECTION

SECTION VII.

OF THE TEMPLE OF FAME, FROM CHAUCER.

FEW disquisitions are more amusing, or perhaps more instructive, than those which relate to the rise and gradual increase of literature in any kingdom: And among the various species of literature, the origin and progress of poetry, however shallow reasoners may despise it, is a subject of no small utility. For the manners and customs, the different ways of thinking and of living, the favourite passions, pursuits, and pleasures, of men, appear in no writings so strongly marked, as in the works of the poets in their respective ages; so that in these compositions, the historian, the moralist, the politician, and the philosopher, may each of them meet with abundant matter for reflection and observa

tion.

Poetry

Poetry made its first appearance in Britain, as perhaps in most other countries, in the form of chronicles, intended to perpetuate the deeds both of civil and military heroes, but mostly the latter. Of this species is the chronicle of Robert of Glocester; and of this species also was the song, or ode, of Roland, which William the Conqueror, and his followers, sung at their landing in this kingdom from Normandy. The mention of which event will naturally remind us of the check it gave to the native strains of the old British poetry, by an introduction of foreign manners, customs, images, and language. These ancient strains were, however, sufficiently harsh, dry, and uncouth. And it was to the Italians we owed any thing that could be called poetry: from whom Chaucer, imitated by POPE in this vision, copied largely, as they are said to have done from the Bards of Provence; and to which Italians he is perpetually owning his obligations, particularly to Boccace and Petrarch. But Petrarch had great advantages, which Chaucer wanted, not only in the friendship and advice of Boccace, but still more in having found such a predecessor as Dante. In the year 1359, Boccace

sent

sent to Petrarch a copy of Dante, whom he called his father, written with his own hand. And it is remarkable, that he accompanied his present with an apology for sending this poem to Petrarch, who, it seems, was jealous of Dante, and in the answer speaks coldly of his merits. This circumstance, unobserved by the generality of writers, and even by Fontanini, Crescembini, and Muratori, is brought forward, and related at large, in the third volume, page 507, of the very entertaining Memoirs of the Life of Petrarch. In the year 1363, Boccace, driven from Florence by the plague, visited Petrarch at Venice, and carried with him Leontius Pilatus, of Thessalonica, a man of genius, but of haughty, rough, and brutal manners: from this singular man, who perished in a voyage from Constantinople to Venice, 1365, Petrarch received a Latin translation of the Iliad and Odyssey. Muratori, in his 1. book, Della Perfetta Poesia, p. 18, relates, that a very few years after the death of Dante, 1321, a most curious work on the Italian poetry was written by a M. A. di Tempo, of which he had seen a manuscript in the great library at Milan, of the year 1332, and of which this is

the title: Incipit Summa Artis Ritmici vulgaris dictaminis. The chapters are thus divided. Ritmorum vulgarium septem sunt genera. 1. Est Sonetus. 2. Ballata. 3. Cantio extensa. 4. Rotundellus. 5. Mandrialis. 6. Serventesius. 7. Motus confectus. But whatever Chaucer might copy from the Italians, yet the artful and entertaining plan of his Canterbury Tales was purely original, and his own. This admirable

piece, even exclusive of its poetry, is highly valuable, as it preserves to us the liveliest and exactest picture of the manners, customs, characters, and habits, of our forefathers, whom he has brought before our eyes acting as on a stage, suitably to their different orders and employments. With these portraits the driest antiquary must be delighted: by this plan he has more judiciously connected these stories which the guests relate, than Boccace has done his novels; whom he has imitated, if not excelled, in the variety of the subjects of his tales. It is a common mistake, that Chaucer's excellence lay in his manner of treating light and ridiculous subjects; for whoever will attentively consider the noble poem of Palamon and Arcite, will be con

vinced,

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