278 CHAUCER. 



Law's Tale." When he comes to the sorrow of his story, 

 he seems to croon over his thoughts, to soothe them and 

 dwell upon them with a kind of pleased compassion, as 

 a child treats a wounded bird which he fears to grasp too 

 tightly, and yet cannot make up his heart wholly to let 

 go. It is true also of his humor that it pervades his 

 comic tales like sunshine, and never dazzles the atten- 

 tion by a sudden flash. Sometimes he brings it in par- 

 enthetically, and insinuates a sarcasm so slyly as almost 

 to slip by without our notice, as where he satirizes pro- 

 vincialism by the cock 



" Who knew by nature each ascension 

 Of the equinoctial in his native town." 



Sometimes he turns round upon himself and smiles at a 

 trip he has made into fine writing : — 



" Till that the brighte sun had lost his hue, 

 For th' orisont had reft the sun his light, 

 (This is as much to sayen as ' it was night.') " 



Nay, sometimes it twinkles roguishly through his very 

 tears, as in the 



" ' Why wouldest thou he dead,' these women cry, 

 ' Thou haddest gold enough — and Emily ? '" 



that follows so close upon the profoundly tender despair 



of Arcite's farewell : — 



" What is this world ? What asken men to have ? 

 Now with his love now in the colde grave 

 Alone withouten any company ! " 



The power of diffusion without being diffuse would seem 

 to be the highest merit of narration, giving it that easy 

 flow which is so delightful. Chaucer's descriptive style 

 is remarkable for its lowness of tone, — for that com- 

 bination of energy with simplicity which is among the 

 rarest gifts in literature. Perhaps all is said in saying 

 that he has style at all, for that consists mainly in the 

 absence of undue emphasis and exaggeration, in the clear 



