CHAUCER.* 



WILL it do to say anything more about Chaucer 1 

 Can any one hope to say anything, not new, but 

 even fresh, on a topic so well worn 1 It may well be 

 doubted ; and yet one is always the better for a walk in 

 the morning air, a medicine which may be taken over 

 and over again without any sense of sameness, or any 

 failure of its invigorating quality. There is a pervading 

 wholesomeness in the writings of this man, a vernal 

 property that soothes and refreshes in a way of which no 

 other has ever found the secret. I repeat to myself a 

 thousand times, 



" Whan that Aprile with his showres sote 

 The droughte of March hath perced to the rote, 

 And bathed every veine in swich licour 

 Of which vertue engendered is the flour, " 

 When Zephyrus eek with his swete breth 

 Enspired hath in every holt and heth 

 The tender croppes, and the yonge sonne 

 Hath in the ram his halfe cors yronne, 

 And smale foules maken melodie," 



and still at the thousandth time a breath of uncontami- 



* Publications of the Chaucer Society. London. 1869-70. 



Etude sur G. Chaucer considere comme imitateur des Trouveres. Par 

 E. G. SANDRAS, Agrege" de 1'Universite. Paris: Auguste Dusand. 

 1859. 8vo. pp. 298. 



Geoffrey Chaucer'' s Canterbury- Geschichten, uebersetzt in den Vers- 

 massen der Urschrift, und durch Einleitung und Anmerlcungen erldutert. 

 Von WILHELM HERTZBEKG. Hildburghausen. 1866. 12rno. pp. 674. 



Chaucer in Seinen Beziehungen zur iialienischen Literatur. Inaugu- 

 ral-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doclorwiirde. Von ALFONS Kiss- 

 NER. Bonn. 1867. 8vo pp. 81. 



