Gopwin’s Li#S Of “CHAU CcER. 
463 
the delineation of England inthe foutteenth:y years old. and upwardyhe was in reality 
century can be found,, than the, Exghshman..: 
who gives name to these volumes, 4) yp 
«© [ can pretend only to’ haye, wyitten a. 
Superficial work. 
of mine deserves so serious a hame, have 
chiefly been engaged upon other subjects ; 
and [ came in a manner a novice to the’pre- 
sent undertaking, Had the circumstances 
under which [ have written been different;: I 
should have been anxious to investigate to 
the bottom, the various topics of which. 1 
haye.treated. , 
_ € Perhaps, however, I have not wholly 
failed in the execution of my design. I was 
desirous of convincing my countrymen, 
that there existed mines of instruction and 
delieht,. with which they had hitherto little 
acqitaintance. » I have led my readers, with 
however, unconfirmed a speech and inade- 
uate powers, to,the different sources of. in-, - 
ormation ;and, if. Lhayebeen unable to pre- 
sent what should satisfy a vigorous and ear- 
nest curiosity, I have wished to say enough 
to awaken thet 
to‘them some iniage of men and'times, which 
have long since been no more. 
Ke Tt was my purpose to:produce a work of 
a new species: Antiquities havetoo generally 
been regarded as: the province of men of cold 
tempers and sterile. imaginations, writers 
who by their phlegmatic and desultory in- 
dustry have brought discredit upon a science, 
which is perhaps beyond all others fraught 
with wisdom, moralimstruction, and intellec- 
tual improvement, Their books may.indeed 
be considerably useful to the patient enquirer, 
wlio would ddideatothe picture of past times 
for himself; but they can scarcely incite en- 
quiry ; and. their contents.are-put together, 
with ‘such narrow views, so-total.an absence 
of discritnination, and, such an unsuspecting 
* ignorance of the materiuls.ef which man is 
made, that the perusal of them-tends, for the 
most part to stupify the seuse, and to imbue 
the soul with moping and. lifeless dejection. 
' © It was my wishy-had my powes held 
equal pace with my strong inclination, to 
earry the workings of fancy and the spirit of 
hilosophy.into the investigation of ages past. 
f was anxious to rescue for, a moment the 
illustrious, dead from the jaws of the grave, 
to make thém pass in review. before me, to 
question their spirits and record . their, an- 
sewers, 1 wanted iao make myself their mas- 
ter of the ceremonit¢s, to introduce my xeader 
to their familiar speech, and to enable, him to, 
el, for the instant as if he had lived with, 
Chaucer.” } . 
pad tl bh ; 
 A’Gissertation upon the period (as Mr. 
Godwin chuses to call it) of the birth of 
Chaucer, precedes the work. | It is'satis- 
f y and curious, proving, or at least 
seeming to prove, that when the poet de- 
clared himself upon a trial to be forty 
My studies, if any thing: 
r eaquiries, and communicate _ 
fifty-eight. 
‘Chaucer was born in London, 1328, 
and it«may, says his. biographer, with 
some plausibility. be inferred, that his 
father, was.a merchant. Now, he hav« 
ing been born in London, it is proper to 
examine what sort.of.a city London was 
at that time;,therefore, the first chapter 
of Mr. Godwin’s Life-of Chaucer, is a 
history and-description of the city of 
London! 
The second chapter is upon the state 
of learning in England, under the Nor- 
man and Plantagenet princes, with re- 
ference;'to Chaucer’s education. The 
third professes to treat of the school-boy 
amusements of Chaucer, the whole infor- - 
mation upon which important topic is 
comprised in this.sentence, ‘ there were. 
other authors who it can scarcely’ be 
questioned, furnished some of the favou- 
rite recreations of his boyish years; these 
were the writers of romances”. theres» 
‘fore, Chaucer having. read. romances, 
and romances being connected with chi- 
valry, and chivalry having. grown. out. 
of the feudal system, Mr. Godwin. tells}. 
us all he. knows concerning the feudal 
system, chivalry, and romance, in all 
which the reader, who has read the com, a 
monest modern books upon these sub- * 
jects, will find nothing that he did not 
know before. BN OE 
«< After, the consideration of the, ¢cene-in, |: 
which a mian-has spent his boyish years,.and /. 
. é ae wit o 5~ be 
the stndies and modes of imagination to which; 
his early attention, has been directed, there 
is nothing which can be of itvore Thiportance © 
in moulding the youthfulumind, than she re- 
lizgious, sentiments Awhich. ia oury. tender age 
have been communicated to. us«oiAs weave: 
no direct information as to, this particular. ia 
the education of Chaucer, itis fait.to-fix our > 
ideas respecting him at the middle. poini,. 
and to believe that he was brought up in all 
that institution which, relative to. the times 
when he was born, was regatded as seemly, 
deeent, and venerable, neither deviating -into 
the excesses of libertinism.en the one hand, 
nor.of a minute and slavish spirit of devotion - 
on-the other,” ys : 
the holy. “-apostolical' Roman Catholic 
faith ;” "for as there existed in’ England: 
nothing but Jews and Catholics, and as 
we know he was not a Jéw, it may per.’ 
haps. be affirmed that hé was, or, to, use 
the_historian’s faygurite tense of jinduc- 
las anna probable that Chaucer was, 
sbroight up in what his biographer*cabls 
‘ 
. 
