CHAUCER. 2il 



texts of importance, for there can hardly be any one of 

 them that may not help us to a valuable hint. The works of 

 M. Sandras and Herr Hertzberg show that this is a matter 

 of interest not merely or even primarily to English scholars. 

 The introduction to the latter is one of the best essays on 

 Chaucer yet written, while the former, which is an investi 

 gation of the French and Italian sources of the poet, sup 

 plies us with much that is new and worth having as 

 respects the training of the poet, and the obstacles of 

 fashion and taste through which he had to force his way 

 before he could find free play for his native genius or even 

 so much as arrive at a consciousness thereof. M. Sandras 

 is in every way a worthy pupil of the accomplished M. 

 Victor Leclerc, and, though he lays perhaps a little too 

 much stress on the indebtedness of Chaucer in particulars, 

 shows a singularly intelligent and clear-sighted eye for 

 the general grounds of his claim to greatness and origin 

 ality. It is these grounds w r hich I propose chiefly to 

 examine here. 



The first question we put to any poet, nay, to any so-called 

 national literature, is that which Farinata addressed to 

 Dante Chi fur li maggior tui ? Here is no question of 

 plagiarism, for poems are not made of words, and thoughts, 

 and images, but of that something in the poet himself which 

 can compel them to obey him and move to the rhythm of 

 his nature. Thus it is that the new poet, however late 

 he come, can never be forestalled, and the shipbuilder who 

 built the pinnace of Columbus has as much claim to the 

 discovery of America as he who suggests a thought by 

 which some other man opens new worlds to us has to a 

 share in that achievement by him unconceived and incon 

 ceivable. Chaucer undoubtedly began as an imitator, 

 perhaps as mere translator, serving the needful apprentice 

 ship in the use of his tools. Children learn to speak by 

 watching the lips and catching the words of those who 

 know how already, and poets learn in the same way from 

 their elders. They import their raw material from any and 

 everywhere, and the question at last comes down to this 



