CHAUCER. 261 



Chaucer is the first great poet who has treated To-day as 

 if it were as good as Yesterday, the first who held up a 

 mirror to contemporary life in its infinite variety of high 

 and low, of humour and pathos. But he reflected life in its 

 large sense as the life of men, from the knight to the plough 

 man the life of every day as it is made up of that curious 

 compound of human nature with manners. The very form 

 of the &quot; Canterbury Tales &quot; was imaginative. The garden 

 of Boccaccio, the supper-party of Grazzini, and the voyage 

 of Giraldi make a good enough thread for their stories, but 

 exclude all save equals and friends, exclude consequently 

 human nature in its wider meaning. But by choosing a 

 pilgrimage, Chaucer puts us on a plane where all men are 

 equal, with souls to be saved, and with another world in 

 view that abolishes all distinctions. By this choice, and by 

 making the Host 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 

 &quot;most sacred, happy spirit.&quot; 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 &quot; House of Fame,&quot; after 

 naming the great poets, he throws in a pleasant word for 

 the oaten pipes 



11 Of the little herd-grooms 

 That keepen beasts among the brooms.&quot; 



