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afterwards translated into English by the unfortu nate Anthony Widville first Earl of Rivers.

Chaucer, who knew and loved our poet, has comprised his character in a single epithet, and every reader must concur in the judgment of this great contemporary critic. While he is satisfied with being "the moral Gower," he always appears to advantage: he is wise, impressive, and sometimes almost sublime. The good sense and benevolence of his precepts, the solemnity with which they are enforced, and the variety of learning by which they are illustrated, make us forget that he is preaching in masquerade, and that our excellent instructor is a priest of Venus. But his narrative is often quite petrifying; and when we read in his work the tales with which we had been familiarized in the poems of Ovid, we feel a mixture of surprise and despair, at the perverse industry employed in removing every detail, on which the imagination had been accustomed to fasten. The author of the Metamorphosis was a poet, and at least sufficiently fond of ornament; Gower considers him as a mere annalist; scrupulously preserves his facts; relates them with great perspicuity; and is fully satisfied when he has extracted from them as much morality, as they can be reasonably expected to furnish.

The popularity of this writer is, perhaps, not

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very likely to revive: but although few modern readers will be tempted to peruse a poem of more than thirty thousand verses, written in obsolete English, without being allured by the hopes of more entertainment than can easily be derived from the Confessio Amantis, there are parts of the work which might very probably be reprinted with advantage. Such are, the tale in folio 70, (edit. 1532,) beginning, " Of Armenie I read thus." The tale in folio 85, from which Shakspeare has probably taken his incident of the caskets in the Merchant of Venice. A fable in folio 110, beginning, "To speak of an unkind man." The story of a Faun and Hercules, folio 122, beginning, "The "mightiest of all men." That of Necabanus and Olympias, folio 137: and the beautiful romantic tale. of Apollinus Prince of Tyre, folio 175 to 185. It is also to be observed, that the fourth and seventh books, containing a very good compendium of nearly all the learning of the age, may be worth consulting.

It is usual to couple the names of Gower and Chaucer, as if these contemporary poets had possessed similar talents: the fairest method, therefore, to form an estimate of both, will be to give from one, a subject which has been attempted by the other. Gower's Florent, which he appears to have

taken from the Gesta Romanorum, is generally supposed to be the original of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale: the story has considerable merit; and it is told in Gower's best manner. These reasons, it is hoped, will excuse the insertion of so long a specimen from an author, who was once extremely popular, and whom we have been accustomed to venerate, upon trust, as one of the fathers of English poetry.

There was, whilom, by dayes old,
A worthy knight, as men told;
He was nephew to the emperor,
And of his court a courtier:

Wife-less he was, Florent he hight.

He was a man that mochel1

Of armes he was désirous,

Chevalrous, and amorous,

might:2

And, for the fame of worlde's speech,
Strange adventures would he seche,3
He rode the marches all about.

And fell a time, as he was out,
Fortune (which may every threde
To-break and knit of man's speed)

Much.

. Could do.

Seek.

Shope, as this knight rode in a pass,
That he by strength taken was:

And to a castle they him lad
Where that he few friendes had.
For so it fell, that ilke stound
That he hath, with a deadly wound,
Fighting, (with) his own hand slain
Branchus, which to the capitain

Was son and heir, whereof been wroth
The father and the mother both;
And fain they wouldé do vengeance
Upon Florent, but remembrance
That they took of his worthiness
Of knighthood, and of gentleness,
And how he stood of cousinage

To th' emperor, made them assuage,
And durst not slayen him for fear.
In great disputes on they were
Among them self, that 3 was best.

There was a lady, the sliest
Of all that men knew tho:4
So old, she might unnethes go,
And was grandame to the dead:
And she, with that, began to rede,

Led.

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4 Then.

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And she said she would bring him in,

That she shall him to death win,
All only of his own grant,

Through strength of very covenant;
Without blame of any wight.

Anon she sent for this knight,
And of her son she aleyd1

The death, and thus to him she said.

"Florent, howso thou be to-wyte? "Of Branchus' death, men shall respite "As now 3 to take avengement, "Be so thou stand in judgement,

Upon certain condition:

"That thou, unto a question

"Which I shall aske, shalt answere.

"And, over this, thou shalt eke swear, "That if thou of the sooth fail,

"There shall none other thing avail, "That thou ne shalt thy death receive. "And, (for men shall thee not deceive) "That thou thereof mightest been advised, “Thou shalt have day and time assised; "And leave safely for to wend: "Be so that at thy dayes end

1 Alledged.

a At present.

• Accused.

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