1 24 May — Chaucer, 



Of all early risers that ever witnessed the beautiful 

 Aurora, surely old Chaucer was the happiest, and the 

 most keenly conscious of his happiness. What seemed 

 to him sweetest and purest of pleasant hours was that 

 cool, calm hour of the early morning, at the beginning 

 of the dawn, when having put on his 'gear and his 

 array' he walked forth into the fields and woods with 

 the serenest cheerfulness in all his well-tuned feelings. 

 If it is true that Nature with all her beauty is mere 

 desolation until reflected in the eyes and soul of man, 

 then there must be gradations in the beauty of the 

 image according to the brightness or imperfection of 

 the living mirror ; and if so, how fortunate were those 

 dawns, and those dewy fields and flowers, that were in 

 the deep, clear, happy, poet-soul of Chaucer ! If it were 

 possible to go back into the past, and enjoy the com- 

 panionship of the illustrious dead, I should like two 

 things most of all — a drinking-bout with Socrates (not 

 for the wine's sake) and a very early walk in the morn- 

 ing with Dan Chaucer, yet not perhaps on the morning 

 immediately following the before-mentioned Athenian 

 symposium : — 



1 Wherefore I mervaile greatly of my selfe 

 That I so long withouten sleepe lay, 

 And up I rose three houres after twelfe, 

 About the springen of the day ; 

 And on I put my gear and mine array, 

 And to a pleasant grove I gan passe 

 Long er the bright Sonne up risen was.' 



Such was Chaucer's way in the pleasant spring-time, 



