The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland | Page 7

of Alain Chartier, secretary to Lewis XI, king of France.
The Complaint of Mars and Venus was translated from the French of Sir Otes de Grantson, a French poet.
The Complaint of Annilida to false Arcite.
The Legend of Gode Women (called the Assembly of Ladies, and by some the Nineteen Ladies) was written to oblige the queen, at the request of the countess of Pembroke.
The treatise of the Conclusion of the Astrolabie was written in the year 1391.
Of the Cuckow and Nightingale, this seems by the description to have been written at Woodstock.
The Ballade beginning In Feverre, &c. was a compliment to the countess of Pembroke.
Several other ballads are ascribed to him, some of which are justly suspected not to have been his. The comedies imputed to him are no other than his Canterbury Tales, and the tragedies were those the monks tell in his Tales.
The Testament of Love was written in his trouble the latter part of his life.
The Song beginning Fly fro the Prese, &c. was written in his death-bed.
Leland says, that by the content of the learned in his time, the Plowman's Tale was attributed to Chaucer, but was suppressed in the edition then extant, because the vices of the clergy were exposed in it. Mr. Speight in his life of Chaucer, printed in 1602, mentions a tale in William Thynne's first printed book of Chaucer's works more odious to the clergy than the Plowman's Tale. One thing must not be omitted concerning the works of Chaucer. In the year 1526 the bishop of London prohibited a great number of books which he thought had a tendency to destroy religion and virtue, as did also the king in 1529, but in so great esteem were his works then, and so highly valued by the people of taste, that they were excepted out of the prohibition of that act.
The PARDONERS PROLOGUE.
Lordings! quoth he, in chirch when I preche,?I paine mee to have an have an hauteine speche;?And ring it out, as round as doth a bell;?For I can all by rote that I tell.?My teme is always one, and ever was,?(Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas)?First, I pronounce fro whence I come,?And then my bills, I shew all and some:?Our liege--lords seal on my patent!?That shew I first, my body to warrent;?That no man be so bold, priest ne clerk,?Me to disturb of Christ's holy werke;?And after that I tell forth my tales,?Of bulls, of popes, and of cardinales,?Of patriarkes, and of bishops I shew;?And in Latin I speake wordes a few,
To faver with my predication,?And for to stere men to devotion,?Then shew I forth my long, christall stones,?Ycrammed full of clouts and of bones;?Relickes they been, as were they, echone!?Then have I, in Latin a shoder-bone,?Which that was of an holy Jewes shepe.?Good men, fay, take of my words kepe!?If this bone be washen in any well,?If cow, or calfe, shepe, or oxe swell?That any worm hath eaten, or hem strong,?Take water of this well, and wash his tong.?And it is hole a-non: And furthermore,?Of pockes, and scabs, and every sore?Shall shepe be hole, that of this well?Drinketh a draught: Take keep of that I tell!?If that the good man, that beasts oweth,?Woll every day, ere the cocke croweth,?Fasting drink of this well, a draught,?(As thilk holy Jew our elders taught)?His beasts and his store shall multiplie:?And sirs, also it healeth jealousie,?For, though a man be fall in jealous rage,?Let make with this Water his potage,?And never shall he more his wife mistrist,?Thughe, in sooth, the defaut by her wist:?All had she taken priests two or three!?Here is a mittaine eke, that ye may see.?He that has his hand well put in this mittaine;?He shall have multiplying of his graine,?When he hath sowen, be it wheat or otes;?So that he offer good pens or grotes!
Those who would prefer the thoughts of this father of English poetry, in a modern dress, are referred to the elegant versions of him, by Dryden, Pope, and others, who have done ample justice to their illustrious predecessor.
[Footnote 1: Life of Chaucer prefixed to Ogle's edition of that author modernized.]
[Footnote 2: Some biographers of Chaucer say, that pope Gregory IX. gave orders to the archbishop of Canterbury to summon him, and that when a synod was convened at St. Paul's, a quarrel happened between the bishop of London and the duke of Lancaster, concerning Wickliff's sitting down in their presence.]
[Footnote 3: Mr. Camden gives a particular description of this castle.]

LANGLAND.
It has been disputed amongst the critics whether this poet preceded or followed Chaucer. Mrs. Cooper, author of the Muses Library, is of opinion that he preceded Chaucer, and observes that in more places than one that great poet seems to copy Langland; but I am rather inclined to believe that he was cotemporary with him, which