198 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOE. 



Matter of metre than modern poets have done ; and there are 

 a large number of his lines in which, though a certain rhythm 

 is preserved, the syllables will not bear counting 1 . The main 

 key to Chaucer's versification is to be found in what we 

 have already explained the sounding of the final e. It must 

 also be remembered that many words of French origin, such 

 as courage, menace, Uquour, were not pronounced as we pro- 

 nounce them, with a marked emphasis on the first syllable, 

 courage, menace, Uquour, but as in French, with both syllables 

 equally emphasised, courage, mdndce, Uquour. 



A thorough understanding of Chaucer's system of versification 

 is of so much importance to any one beginning to read his 

 works, that we give here the first twelve lines of the Prologue 

 to the " Canterbury Tales " as they are commonly printed, followed 

 by a metrical arrangement of the same. Both the text and the 

 metrical arrangement of it are taken from Mr. Bell's edition of 

 Chaucer : 



" Whan 1 that Aprille, with his' showres swoote,' 

 The drought of Marche hath perced to the roote, 

 And bathud every veyne in swich licour, 

 Of which vertue engendred is the flour;* 

 Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth 

 Enspirud hath in every holte and heeth 

 The tendre croppes, and the yonge 5 sonne 

 Hath in the Earn his halfe cours iroune, 7 

 And smale fowles 8 makeu* melodie, 

 That slepen alle night with open yhe, 10 

 So priketh hem nature in here corages, 11 

 Thanne longen folk to gon la on pilgrimages." 

 " Whan that I April | 15, with | his schow | r5s swoote, 

 Th6 drought | of Marche | hath per | cSd to | tb.5 roote, 

 And ba | thud gve | ry veyne | In swifch | licour, 

 Of which | vSrtue | gngen | drSd is I thS flour ; 

 Whan Z | phlrus, | e6k with | his swee |'te breeth 

 finspi | rttd hath | In eve | ry holte | and heeth 

 ThS ten | drS crop | pSs, and | thS yon | gS sonne 

 Hath in | thS Ram | his hal | f8 cours | Ironne, 

 And sma | IS fow | 16s ma | kSn me | Ii5die, 

 That sle | pSn al | IS night | with 5 | pCn yhe, 

 S5 pri | kSth hem | nature | In here | corages, 

 Thanne Ion j gSn folk | W gon | on pil | grfmages." 



The most instructive classification of the writings of a great 

 author is almost always that founded upon chronological order, 

 for such an arrangement shows us not only the author's works, 

 but the history of his mind as well. The history of Chaucer's 

 writings is so ill ascertained, that no chronological arrangement 

 of them can be reliable. But they may usefully be grouped 

 into certain classes, according to their general character. In 

 the first place, we find a series of poems, some of them of 

 considerable length, but by no means among the longest of 

 Chaucer's poems, which distinctly belong, in subject, in form, 

 and in treatment, to the school of the French romance- writers, 

 who, as we have seen, had from the first supplied the literary 

 appetite of the Normans in England. They are almost all dreams 

 and allegories of love or kindred subjects. They are full of 

 graceful fancy, ingenuity of invention, keen appreciation of the 

 beauties of nature, and sweetness of versification. Bat they 

 do not show the higher and rarer qualities of Chaucer's genius. 

 To this class belong " The Court of Love," " The Assembly of 

 Fowls," "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," " The Flower and 

 the Leaf," "Chaucer's Dream," and "The Book of the Duchess." 

 Of these, the last-mentioned two refer, the one to the marriage, 

 the other to the death, of Blanche, John of Gaunt' s first wife. 

 To the same class is to be referred the long poem, " The Eo- 

 maunt of the Rose." This is a translation of a very famous 

 French romance, the production in part of Guillaume de Lorris, 



1 When. 



2 His was used for its as well 

 as for his ; its being of much later 

 introduction. 



3 Sweet. 



* In such moisture as to form 

 the power (virtue) by which the 

 flower is produced. 



* Early. 



* In the sign of the Earn. ' 



* Past participle for run. The 

 form has been already observed 

 upon. 



* Small birds. 



9 The third person plural of the 

 present indicative, like slepen in 

 the next line, and longen. The form 

 has been already noticed. 



10 Eyes. 



11 Nature so stimulates them in 

 their passions. He, hem, here, are 

 the usual forms in the English o) 

 Chaucer's day for they, them, their. 



12 It has already been said that 

 the usual form of the infinitive is 

 in en. Hence, by a natural con- 

 traction, the infinitive of go be- 

 comes gon, as in the text. 



in part of Jean de Meun, two poets who lived, one nearly a 

 century and a half, and the other nearly a century before 

 Chaucer. The work is, as usual, an allegory, in which, under 

 the person of Amant or Lover, are detailed the adventures of 

 true love in its pursuit of the rose, the object of its affection. 



' The House of Fame " is a dream and an allegory, like the 

 preceding poems, but an allegory of a very different class. The 

 poet is borne by a golden eagle to the temple of Fame, where 

 the goddess sits enthroned, and awards such measure of fame 

 as she will to those who seek her honours, while the names of 

 the great dead are inscribed in their appropriate places upon 

 the temple. This scheme affords to Chaucer not only ample 

 space for brilliant and impressive description, but for keen 

 discrimination of the characteristics of those to whom he assigns 

 a place in the temple ; while the injustice of the goddess's 

 decrees admits of that satiric treatment of which Chaucer was 

 a master. The general character of this poem is known to 

 most readers through Pope's modernised version of it, under 

 the name of " The Temple of Fame." 



The long poem of " Troilus and Cressida," and the series of 

 tales published under the title of "The Legend of Good Women," 

 are of a wholly different school. In them we find nothing of 

 dream or allegory, nothing of the dreamy unreality of the 

 romance. The subjects, no doubt, are very remote from our 

 own time or from Chaucer's, but the interest of the poems 

 is purely human and natural. " Troilus and Cressida," though 

 many of its principal characters are Homeric, is founded on a 

 story wholly unknown to, and, indeed, quite out of harmony 

 with the notions of classical times. Chaucer, no doubt, derived 

 the story from Boccaccio, just as Shakespeare afterwards bor- 

 rowed it from Chaucer. The "Legend of Good Women" consists 

 of a series of nine stories of women in ancient times famous for 

 their constancy and devotion in love. It is said that this book 

 is one of the very latest of Chaucer's works ; and there is 

 internal evidence to support the view. There is also a tradition 

 that the work was intended as a kind of apology to the fair 

 sex to atone for any harshness with which he might have treated 

 women in his earlier works. 



There are many other shorter poems of Chaucer which our 

 space does not allow us to examine. And he has left us one 

 separate work in prose, " The Testament of Love," a work of 

 no great importance in itself, but which has teen the subject 

 of much discussion, in consequence of an idea, probably without 

 foundation, that the book contains, under an allegorical guise, 

 the story of the author's own life. 



It remains only to consider Chaucer's greatest work, the 

 " Canterbury Tales," which we shall do in the next lesson. 



THE UNIVERSITIES. VII. 



DUBLIN UNIVERSITY. II. 



HAVING passed his final Michaelmas Examination, the student 

 is publicly admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Artiutn 

 Baccalaureus), in the Senate House, by the Chancellor or Vice- 

 Chancellor of the University. 



The proceedings on the occasion of conferring degrees are 

 called " commencements." The fee which has to be paid for the 

 degree of B.A. is 1; and three years after the taking of his 

 B.A. the student, without keeping his name on the college 

 books in the meantime, can proceed to the degree of Master of 

 Arts (Artium Magisier) by payment of the fee of 9 16s. 6d. 



The three older Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin 

 admit the graduates of one university to the same degree (ad 

 eundem gradum) in the other on payment of a fee of 1. 



From the outline which we have given of an undergraduate's 

 course in Dublin University, it will be seen that the entire cost 

 of his course (if he be non-resident) will be entrance, ,15, and 

 eight half-years' fees (eight guineas each) ; making, altogether, 

 ,82 4s. To this, of course, must be added the expense of at 

 least nine journeys to Dublin during the four years, and the 

 expense of stopping there each time about three days. 



In the foregoing we have spoken only of what is the minimum 

 of examinations required for a degree: there are numerous 

 honours and prizes which the more ambitious student may 

 obtain in all the departments of a university education. These 

 we will now explain, first treating of those which are most likely 

 to attract the attention of those whose limited means would 

 render the aid thus offered to them a valuable boon. 



