France in the fourteenth century was the Roman de la Rose-an allegorical, satirical, didactic work. This poem' Chaucer translated into English. He was therefore intimately acquainted with the French taste of his time, and there can be little doubt was greatly influenced by it, especially in his earlier manhood. In his later years, he was still more profoundly influenced by the literature of Italy-the first great literature of modern Europe. Dante's supreme work was written, or begun to be written, probably some two score years before Chaucer was born; Petrarch and Boccaccio were respectively some thirty-five years and twenty-five years Chaucer's seniors. It is most probable that our poet was personally acquainted with the former at least. He was dispatched to Italy on a diplomatic mission, and, even if there were no evidence on the matter, we might be fairly sure he would seek to see his great fellow-genius. But whether there was any personal friendship or not between him and Petrarch, it is certain, from testimony furnished by his works, that he had acquired an intimate knowledge of the great new-born Italian literature. He refers several times to Dante, and imitates him; he refers to, and quotes from, Petrarch; he translates, after his own fashion, whole works of Boccaccio. In Italy the traditions of the old classical period had never wholly expired; the light of the Augustan age had never utterly died out; the memory of Vergil had never been totally obliterated. During the centuries when chivalrous Romances flourished, as we have seen, in France and in England, when they flourished vigorously in Suabia, even so late as their flourishing in Spain, they found little encouragement in Italy. The long-lived pervading influence of Rome had checked the growth and It is doubted, with good reason, whether the extant version is all of it Chaucer's work. blossoming of the legends which the barbarians who crossed the Alps carried with them, no less than those who had passed over the Pyrenees, the Rhine, the Northern Sea. Moreover, Italy for certain reasons was less affected by the Crusades than any other country of Western Europe, except perhaps Spain, which had a crusade to carry on at home. The influence of the Troubadours upon Northern Italy was no doubt considerable; by them, beyond controversy, all its three great writers of the fourteenth century were deeply impressed; but, at least in the times of which we now speak, the works of the Trouvères had gained but feeble hold upon Italy. The land of Vergil cared very little for what Chaucer makes the host call their 'doggerel rimes.' It aspired after poetical forms less slight and flimsy. Eventually it adopted for its material legends of the Carlovingian Cycle; but to the end it rejected the form in which they circulated in their native country. With Italy's fine scorn for the light measures of the Romancers, Chaucer was penetrated. The striking contrast between his earlier and later works may be accounted for by considering the impressions of this Italian influence upon him. In fact, he heard in Italy the first sounds of that Revival of Ancient Learning and Literature, which no long time after his death changed the face of Europe. And we have dwelt so long on this Italian influence, and its power over Chaucer, because it was in reality but the prelude of an influence which eventually proved fatal to the popularity of the Romances of Chivalry. Already then, towards the close of the fourteenth century, the breath of ridicule had been breathed on the simple nursery epics, which the Early Middle Ages had produced. And yet they were not to be utterly laughed down for many a long day. They were to undergo many metamorphoses, but in some sort they were to live on for many a century. The spirit of chivalry died hard; not less easily passed away the works embodying that spirit. We ought, perhaps, just to mention here two species of the Chivalrous Romance which appeared in the fourteenth century. These are what are called by Warton, in his History of English Poetry, the Historical and the Heraldic Romance. In the one, historical events of the day, or of a day only just set, are treated in the Romance style. Perhaps the poem written by the North British Poet Barbour, in honour of Bruce, is the greatest work of this kind. How easy the transition from History to Romance, anyone may see who reads Froissart's Chronicles. At an earlier period such a work would have provided material for a host of Romance-writers. The Black Prince is just such an one as the soul of the old Romancer would have loved. The other species of Romance named above, the Heraldic, pays special attention to the description of coats of armour, costume, precedence, and other such matters as the fashion of its day conceived to be of interest. One more remark must be made before we quit the fourteenth century—the culminating century of the Middle Ages. We must point out how, side by side with the Chivalrous Romances, there was growing up a sort of rude Popular Romance. Knighthood was the grand subject of the former, Yeomanry of the latter. The yeomen, too, would have their ideal hero, and their cycle of songs about him. Their hero -the common people's Arthur-was ROBIN HOOD, the famous archer. The poetic form in which his cycle is composed, is yet slighter and more careless than that in which his courtly prototype is celebrated. There is another people's hero whom it is right to mention here. This is PIERS THE PLOUGHMAN, the hero of the more serious and earnest among the common people. One of the most powerful poems the Middle Ages have bequeathed to us is devoted to his celebration. His name was well known amongst the leaders of the great popular movement which broke out in the reign of Richard the Second. When the lower classes of this country were learning to work out for themselves their political salvation, when they were awaking to the necessity of self-reliance, and daring to make conditions with their masters, the picture of Piers the Ploughman presented to them in Langland's poem of the Ploughman able to guide into the way of truth, when all the professional guides proved miserably at fault, must have been eminently suggestive. The number of early MS. copies of that poem is very great; and it is noticed of them for the most part that they are executed on inferior material, as if for the use of no wealthy readers. Other poems appeared subsequently, with this same Ploughman as their centre and hero. And now we come to that century in whose process the Middle Ages ended and modern times began. It was a century, not of great literary production, but rather of preparation, both here and in the kingdoms of the Continent. For the Chivalrous Romances, they were still generally popular throughout it, though less so at the end than at the beginning. The popular rival of the Romance-the ballad -was gradually encroaching on their monopoly. However, Romances were still written, still adapted from the French. But the times were rapidly changing; earthquake was following earthquake; pictures of life which had once some truth in them were now becoming false false in fact, false in sentiment. The society of which the romances of chivalry were once to some extent the reflections, was breaking up. The old order was giving place to a new; the literature peculiar to it was losing all its force and meaning. Chivalry B was decaying, with all its glories, with all its vanities, with all its fantasies. Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go? Caxton exclaimed, when he saw the customs of chivalry falling into desuetude and oblivion : Oh, ye knights of England, where is the custom and usage of noble chivalry that was used in those days? What do ye now but go to the baynes and play at dice? And some, not well advised, use not honest and good rule, against all order of knighthood. Leave this, leave it ! and read the noble volumes of St Graal, of Lancelot, of Galaad, of Trystram, of Perse Forest, of Percyval, of Gawayn, and many more; there shall ye see manhood, courtesy and gentleness. And look in latter days of the noble acts sith the Conquest, as in King Richard days Cœur de Lion, Edward I. and III., and his noble sons, Sir Robert Knolles, Sir John Hawkwode, Sir John Chandos, and Sir Gueltiare Marny. Read Froissart; and also behold that victorious and noble King Harry V. and the captains under him, his noble brethren the Earls of Salisbury, Montagu, and many other whose names shine gloriously by their virtuous noblesse and acts that they did in the order of chivalry. Alas, what do ye but sleep and take ease, and are all disordered from chivalry? But these, and such clamours to recall a departing era, profited nothing. There is no staying the wheels of time. And he who uttered these laments and adjurations was himself, however unconsciously, more than any other |