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His lippes reed as rose;
His rode is lik scarlet en grayn
And I you telle, in good certayn
He had a semly nose.

After about two hundred lines of this the Host will
stand it no longer, and bursts out almost with curses.
No mor of this, for Goddes dignité !
Myn eeres aken for thy drasty' speche.
Now such a rym the devel I byteche"!
Thou dost nought elles but despendist tyme.
Sir, at o word, thou schalt no lenger ryme.

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Chaucer then says that he can give no better in verse, and he gives a long story in prose, the Tale of Melibeus.' Other tales follow, and the Parson closes with a long prose story, or rather sermon.

CONTEMPORARIES AND FOLLOWERS OF CHAUCER. CHAUCER stands alone and unapproached among the poets of his age, but there are three of his friends and admirers who are worthy of some mention.

John Gower was probably of about an equal age with Chaucer, but he died eight years later, in 1408. He was of good family, had lands in Kent and Essex, was a generous benefactor to the Priory of St. Mary Overie in Southwark, and in the new church which he helped to rebuild he lies buried, the volumes of his three chief works being carved upon his tomb.

These works are: Speculum Meditantis,' a French poem, of which no copy now remains; Vox Clamantis,' a

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Latin poem, which describes the rising of the Commons in Richard II.'s time; and Confessio Amantis,' an English poem, which he tells us was written at the command of the young king. The latter poem is very long, is in eight books, and consists of a dialogue between a lover and his confessor. Every evil affection which would mar the perfection of love is minutely examined, and its evil effects are illustrated with short tales drawn from many sources. Chemistry, the Philosophers' Stone, Aristotle's Philosophy, and such like subjects, are discussed, for Gower was one of the most learned men of the age. Many of the stories which he weaves into his poem are well told, but he lacks the grace and the fire of Chaucer. One of the stories is of a princess who set love at defiance, and who was warned by a vision.

Whan come was the moneth of Maie

She wolde walke upon a daie;

And forth she went prively

Unto a parke was faste by,

All softe walkenede on the gras.

There she rested and saw the birds singing and pairing, while bucks and does, harts and hinds darted by. Then she saw riding past a company of fair ladies.

The sadels were of such a pride,
So riche sighe she never none;
With perles and golde so wel begone,
In kirtels and in copes riche

Thei were clothed all aliche.

Her bodies weren longe and small,
The beautee of hir fayre face
There mai none erthly thing deface;
Corownes on their heades thei bare,
As eche of hem a quene were.

After these fair ladies came one dressed in a tattered garment and riding on a wretched horse, while round her waist were more than a hundred halters. From her the princess learns that the hundred ladies when living were faithful votaries of love, but she was a rebel and now was forced to do annual penance.

For I whilom no love had;

My horse is now feble and badde,
And al to torn is myn araie;

And everie year this freshe Maie
These lustie ladies ride aboute,

And I must nedes sew her route

In this manner as ye nowe see,

And trusse her hallters forth with mee,
And am but her horse knave.

We have several pleasing indications of the friendship which existed between Gower and Chaucer. In Gower's poem the lover in describing his perfect devotion to his lady's will says:

Whan I maie her hand beclip

With such gladness I daunce and skip
Methinketh I touch not the floure;
The roe which renneth on the moore

Is than nought so light as I -
And whan it falleth other gate,"
So that hir liketh not to daunce,

But on the dyes to cast a chaunce,
Or aske of love some demaunde;

Or els that her list commaunde

To rede and here of Troilus.

It is thought that the Troilus is almost certainly Chaucer's poem of Troilus and Cressida.'

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Again at the end of the poem, Venus is described as

I follow.

their.

3 way.

speaking to Gower, and giving him a message for Chaucer.

And grete well Chaucer when ye mete

As my disciple and my Poete;

For in the floures of his youthe,
In sondry wyse, as he well couthe,
Of dytees and of songes glade,

The whiche he for my sake made,

The land fulfylled is over all.

On the other hand, Chaucer, at the end of his Troilus,

says:

O moral Gower this Boke I direct

To the, and to the philosophical Strode,'

and two of his 'Canterbury Tales' are taken from materials supplied by his friend's poem.

Thomas Occleve and John Lydgate were young men of about thirty when Chaucer died, and each of them mourned for him as their friend and master. Occleve wrote a number of poems of little merit, but to the longest of them he prefixed a prologue, in which there is an affecting tribute to Chaucer.

O maister dere and fader reverent,

My maister Chaucer, floure of eloquence,
Mirrour of fructuous entendement,'

O universal fader in science!

Allas that thou thyne excellent prudence

In thy bedde mortalle myghtest not bequethe!

What eyled Dethe? allas! why wold he sle the ?

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On one of the manuscripts of this poem Occleve painted from memory the portrait of Chaucer with which we are all familiar. The downcast eyes, half sly, half meditative, the sensuous mouth, the broad brow drooping with weight of thought, and yet with an inexpugnable youth 1 intelligence.

shining out of it as from the morning forehead of a boy, are all noticeable, and not less so their harmony of placid tenderness.' 1

Lydgate was a writer of much sprightlier genius. He was a monk of Bury St. Edmunds, but he had travelled into France and Italy, and was familiar with the literature of these countries. His poems were very numerous and of many kinds, and he enjoyed a great measure of popularity. If a disguising was intended by the Company of Goldsmiths, a mask before His Majesty at Eltham, a may-game for the sheriffs and aldermen of London, a mumming before the lord mayor, a procession of pageants from the Creation for the festival of Corpus Christi, or a carol for the coronation, Lydgate was consulted, and gave the poetry.' 2

Lydgate's chief works were the Fall of Princes,' the 'Troy Boke,' and the Storie of Thebes.' The first of these is a translation of a Latin work of Boccaccio's, and it is a series of pictures or tragedies of all such princes as fell from theyr estates through the mutability of fortune since the creacion of Adam.' The work was executed for Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who was a munificent patron of learning in those days. In the prologue Lydgate refers thus to Chaucer.

My maister Chaucer with his fresh commedies
Is deed, alas! chefe poete of Bretayne,
That somtyme made full piteous tragedies,
The fall of princes, he did also complayne
As he that was of makyng soverayne,
Whom all this lande of right ought preferre,
Sithe of our langage he was the lode-sterre.

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