252 Mr, W, B, Bonne, [April 25, 



by the fame of particular professors. Bologna was second to no 

 school in its day, yet both Dante and Petrarca visited Paris for 

 the purpose of better instruction than their own country afforded. 

 Under whatever auspices, however, or in whatever place Chaucer 

 prosecuted his studies, the extent of his acquirements is testified by 

 his works and the applause of his contemporaries. Besides the lore 

 most attractive to him, the chivalrous bards of the 13th century, 

 and the Proven9al minstrels, he was well versed in the theology, 

 philosophy, and scholastic learning of his age. Such science as 

 was then known he had acquired ; and it is agreeable to discover 

 that, like Milton, he contributed to the education of the young, 

 since he addressed his " Conclusions of the Astrolabie " to his son 

 " little Lewis." He lived too early, and it was perhaps fortunate 

 that he did so, to be affected by the discovery of ancient manuscripts 

 in the 15th century. 



The speaker then briefly surveyed some of the characteristics of 

 Chaucer's diction : to the effect that — it is the language alone of 

 Chaucer which renders him antique or obscure, and even then but 

 partially so : for there still lingers in much of his diction the same 

 vernal brilliance that irradiates his pictures of life and manners. 



As regards verse absolutely, and prose partially, Chaucer was 

 the workman who forged the tools with which he wrought. He 

 took the English language indeed as it was used in his time, and as 

 every true poet will do in its best estate at that time. But what 

 was the estate of the English language in the 14th century? What 

 was the coin ready-minted to Chaucer's hands ? For the learned 

 and all ecclesiastical purposes the Latin was still a living speech ; 

 French was generally employed at court, in noble households, and 

 epistolary correspondence. It had but recently ceased to be the 

 language of statute law and legal procedure. With the mass of the 

 people the Anglo-Saxon remained in use, mutilated indeed of many 

 of its inflections, and passing rapidly into that tertiary form which 

 is the characteristic of the English language. From all these 

 elements Chaucer welded together an idjom which retains a portion 

 of each of them : its bones and sinews being Anglo-Saxon ; its 

 integuments and complexion, Latin or romantic. 



The difficulty of Chaucer's language arises not from any affecta- 

 tion of antiquity on his part, nor from the corruptions of his manu- 

 scripts, nor from any total revolution in the English tongue, re- 

 moving his poems into the region of Middle English or Anglo- 

 Saxon. He is often hard to be understood, simply because his 

 idiom is nearly as much his own creation as the joyous, pathetic, 

 and passionate images with which his writings abound. There 

 is, perhaps in all literature nothing more remarkable than Chau- 

 cer's language. It is, strictly speaking, neither a living nor a 

 dead language ; it must not be fettered by syntactical rules, nor 

 tried by common usage. Of these peculiarities the condition of 

 the English tongue in Edward III.'s time was in some measure 



