teenth century will be the most ready to exercise a forbearing criticism upon its execution. The Poets of the earlier part of the present century have been cited as fully as space would permit ; but no endeavour has been made to accomplish a full list of the names of authors now living, or of those who have lived within the memory of this generation. The reasons for this are obvious. First, because copyright interposes obstacles, which in some. cases become absolute prohibitions; next, because modern works are within reach of every one who loves Poetry, and desires to read it; and lastly, because, were I fortified with the consent of authors, or publishers holding copyrights, to make use of their property, the number of living Poets, or lately deceased, is so extensive, that quotations from their works would fill a volume. Consequently I have been compelled to restrict myself to those names which in the present century have been commonly regarded with the greatest public favour; and from one or other of the above-stated causes to omit many authors of modern date, whose names I originally hoped would have appeared in these pages. Not being able to do justice in this respect, and having confined myself to English Poets, there is no necessity to explain the omission of American authors. My special thanks are due to Lord Lytton, Mr. Tennyson, Mr. Browning, Mr. Swain, Mr. Procter, the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, for leave to introduce the passages selected from their poems, and those of Hartley Coleridge; and also to Messrs. Longman and Co. and Messrs. Blackwood and Co. for the quotations from Lord Macaulay's and Professor Aytoun's works. Care has been taken to introduce Poets of an early and middle period as fully as possible: Lydgate, Henrysone, Haines, Skelton, Roye, Sir Thomas More, Barklay, are names too little known in works of "selection." The primary intent of this volume must be borne in mind. It is for the young Student; and two objects have been carefully adhered to in its production: the one, to keep it within such a compass that it might be a Manual; the other, to make it such a work as might give a fair representation of our most important Poets, while excluding everything that might prevent a tutor placing it with confidence in the hands of his pupil. At the same time, it is not intended for the use of children. On the contrary, while the Biographies and Selections have been written and compiled to engage the attention of adults, the endeavour has been to produce a book that would likewise prove acceptable to persons of mature years, and be companionable at any period of life. Feeling that it was safer to speak in my own person, and to state distinctly what the purpose is with which this book is published, I now leave it to the judgment of others to decide how far it meets that educational want, which its compilation has been designed to supply. J. C. M. BELLEW. HOLLAND ROAD, KENSINGTON. POETS' CORNER; A MANUAL FOR STUDENTS IN ENGLISH POETRY. CHAUCER. Born 1328. Died, October 25, 1400. GEOFFREY CHAUCER was born in London. King Edward III., and John o' Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, were his patrons. Chaucer's poem entitled "The Dreme" is supposed to be an Epithalamium upon the marriage of the Duke with Blanche, heiress of Lancaster. Chaucer married Philippa Pykard, maid of honour to Philippa, consort of Edward III., and sister of Catharine Swinford, relict of Sir John Swinford, and daughter of Payne de Rouet, King-at-Arms, in the province of Guienne. Chaucer was in great favour with the Lancastrian family. He resided for some time near the royal abode at Woodstock. He took military service under the King, in France, in 1359; and received a pension of twenty marks per annum, in 1367. When thirty-nine years of age he went as joint-envoy, with Sir James Pronan, to Genoa; and it is conjectured that he visited Petrarch at Padua. In 1374 he received a grant from Edward III. of a pitcher of wine per diem; and was made Comptroller of the small Customs of wool and wine. He was also sent as envoy to France, by King Edward, to treat of the marriage of Richard, Prince of Wales. In the reign of Richard II. he fell into trouble, through his political connexion with John o' Gaunt and John of Northampton. He fled to Hainault, to France, and to Zealand. On returning to England, he was cast into prison. In 1389, when the Duke of Lancaster returned from Spain, he was once more restored to royal favour, and appointed Clerk of the Works at Westminster and at Windsor. At the age of sixty-four he retired to Woodstock, where, it is supposed, he wrote the "Canterbury Tales." Richard II. granted him a yearly tun of wine. When Bolingbroke, the son of John o' Gaunt, mounted the throne, as Henry IV., he extended his favour to Chaucer, confirming the former royal gifts, and adding a pension of forty marks a year. Chaucer did not long enjoy B his good fortune. He died in London, October 25, 1400, aged seventytwo, and was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer is regarded as the founder of English Poetry. He was the first to give us pictures of the manners and the life of his period. He also introduced the ten-syllable, or heroic measure. His poem "Troilus and Cresside" was the delight of Sir Philip Sidney. The "Canterbury Tales," down to the time of Queen Elizabeth, were the most popular poems in the English language. The design of this work was taken from Boccaccio's "Decameron." "While the action of the poem is an event too simple to divert the attention altogether from the pilgrim's stories, the pilgrimage itself is an occasion sufficiently important to draw together almost all the varieties of existing society, from the knight to the artisan, who, agreeaply to the old, simple manners, assemble in the same room of the hostellerie. Chaucer's forte is description. His men and women are not mere ladies and gentlemen. They rise before us minutely traced, profusely varied, and strongly discriminated. What an intimate scene of English life in the fourteenth century do we enjoy in these tales! . . . Our ancestors are restored to us, not as phantoms from the field of battle or the scaffold, but in the full enjoyment of their social existence." [It has been usual in quoting Chaucer, to give unconnected extracts from his poems. It seems to me far more satisfactory to put the Prologue before the reader in a compressed form, which shall familiarize him with all the Pilgrims assembled at the Tabard, and also acquaint him with the Foet's purpose in his poem. Wherever omissions have been made, they are always marked with asterisks.--ED.] CANTERBURY TALES. THE PROLOGUE. WHANNE that April with his shouries sote1 And palmeres for to seken strange strondes, (4) Aries," meaning thereby the middle of April. (3) Grove. (5) Birds. |