CHAUCER. 213 



of the Tabard always the central figure, he has happily united 

 the two most familiar emblems of life the short journey and the 

 inn. We find more and more as we study him that he rises 

 quietly from the conventional to the universal, and may fairly 

 take his place with Homer in virtue of the breadth of his 

 humanity. 



In spite of some external stains, which those who have studied 

 the influence of manners will easily account for without imputing 

 them to any moral depravity, we feel that we can join the pure- 

 minded Spenser in calling him most sacred, happy spirit. If 

 character may be divined from works, he was a good man, genial, 

 sincere, hearty, temperate of mind, more wise, perhaps, for this 

 world than the next, but thoroughly humane, and friendly with 

 God and men. I know not how to sum up what we feel about 

 him better than by saying (what would have pleased most one 

 who was indifferent to fame) that we love him more even than 

 we admire. We are sure that here was a true brother-man so 

 kindly that, in his House of Fame, after naming the great poets, 

 he throws in a pleasant word for the oaten-pipes 



Of the little herd-grooms 

 That keepen beasts among the brooms. 



No better inscription can be written on the first page of his works 

 than that which he places over the gate in his * Assembly of 

 Fowls, and which contrasts so sweetly with the stern lines of 

 Dante from which they were imitated : 



Through me men go into the blissful place 

 Of the heart s heal and deadly woundes cur 

 Through me men go unto the well of Grace, 

 Where green and lusty May doth ever endui 

 This is the way to all good a venture; 

 Be glad, thou Reader, and thy sorrow offcast, 

 All open am I, pass in, and speed thee fast ! 



NOTE. The Chaucer Society was founded, in 1868, by Mr. F. J. 

 Furnivall the founder of the Early English Text Society, in 1864 to 

 print in parallel columns all the best manuscripts of Chaucer s genuine 

 works. Six excellent vellum manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales are 

 in course of publication ; and of the Minor Poems, from three to eleven 

 manuscripts, according to the number of each existing, are being 

 printed. Essays on Chaucer s words and works are also given. The sub 

 scription is two guineas a year, payable to the Honorary Secretary, A. 

 G. Snelgrove, esq., London Hospital, London, E.; the Union Bank* 

 Chancery Lane, \v,c. j or Triibner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, E,C, 



