1856.] on Chaucer, his Age and Works, 253 



the cause. In the first place the area of book-language was very 

 limited : while the dialectic varieties of speech were very numerous. 

 English was then imperfectly understood in the Celtic districts 

 of the island : north of the Ilumber, and in East Anglia, it was 

 encountered by a Danish patois. It was further circumscribed 

 by the general employment of French by the nobles, and of Latin 

 by ecclesiastics. Political motives, indeed, induced Edward to 

 encourage the use of the English tongue in the courts of justice, 

 and among his courtiers and attendants ; but there is no evidence 

 of his having been, as his grandson Richard really was, a patron 

 of literature. 



Chaucer and Langland are the two principal witnesses for the 

 silent revolution which our language was undergoing in the 13th 

 and 14th centuries. It is curious, that at the time when the author 

 of the " Vision of Piers, the Ploughman," was labouring to re- 

 invigorate our speech with Saxon forms, the author of the " House 

 of Fame," was entering upon his task of enriching it with a foreign 

 vocabulary, and moulding it to a spirit and forms of expression 

 different from either of its original components. Doubtless a 

 similar feeling of dissatisfaction with the existing state of the 

 English language led William Langland to his Saxon archaisms, 

 and Geoffery Chaucer to his French and Provencal innovations. 

 The mightier genius proved himself to be the wiser workman of 

 the two. Langland's poem is studied by philologers alone ; 

 Chaucer's writings began a new era in English literature, and his 

 influence has been felt and acknowledged by every successive 

 generation of English poets. 



It is still an unsettled question whether Chaucer were acquainted 

 with the literature and learned men of Italy. Sir Harris Nicolas 

 doubts it without sufficient reason, and in despite of Chaucer's own 

 assertions. With the writings of Dante, he was evidently well 

 acquainted, and distinctly quotes from him more than once. The 

 sentence cited by him in the " Wyf of Bathe's Tale," is almost a 

 literal translation from the Italian : — 



" Wei can the wyse poet of Florence 

 That hatte Daunt speke of this sentence ; 

 Lo, in such maner of rym is Dauntes tale : 

 Fui seeld uprisith by his braunchis smale 

 Prowes of man, for God of his prowesse 

 Wot that we claime of him our gentilesse."* 



It is not so certain that Chaucer visited Petrarch at Padua, since 

 the statements of Speght and Urry rest wholly on surmises ; and it 



• Compare "Purgatorio," vii., 121 :-- 



" Kade volte risurge per li rami 

 L' humana probitate; et questo vuole 

 Quei che la da, perche da se si chiami." 



