Tofore Nature profered the batayle

Eche for his partye, if he wolde avayle.

Spenser, in a stanza we will venture to quote, for everybody will like to be reminded of it, speaks of the Foules Parley:

So hard it is for any living wight

All her array & vestiments to tell

That old Dan Geffrey (in whose gentle spright
The pure well head of Poesie did dwell)
In his Foules parley durst not with it mell,
But it transferd to Alane who he thought
Had in his Plaint of kinde describ'd it well;
Which who will read set forth so as it ought,

Go seek he out that Alane where he may be sought.

In the MSS. it is commonly called either the Parliament of Fowls, or the Parliament of Birds.

Of course the term Parliament may be used here in its old general sense of a conference-a 'colloquium,' expressed in medieval Latin by Parliamentum as well as by concilium and consilium. But likely enough Chaucer may have had in his mind, as he went on with his story, the then comparatively new idea of Parliament as a representative assembly. This thought may have suggested to him the appointment of delegates to offer their opinion and advice on the delicate question to whom the formel's hand is to be given ; and so we have four M.P.'s or spokes-birds to represent respectively the fowl of raven or birds of prey, the water-fowl, the wormfowl, and the seed-fowl.

Though Alan speaks of a 'Concilium Animalium,' what he goes on to describe is a Concilium Avium, a Bird Parliament. It is interesting to compare his list with Chaucer's. On the whole, there is more difference than likeness; but Chaucer has probably taken one or two hints from the

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earlier writer. At all events, Chaucer may be illustrated from him.

Chaucer speaks of 'the Coward Kite.' Alan's words are curious, 'Illic milvus, venatoris induens personam, venatione furtiva larvam gerebat ancipitris.'

And compare the following pairs of quotations :—

'There was the tiraunt with his fethres donne

And greye, I mene the goshauk that doth pyne

To bryddis for his outrageous ravyne.'

'Illic ancipiter, civitatis praefectus aeriae, violenta tyrannide a subditis redditus exposcebat.'

'The jalous swan ayens his deth that singeth.'

'Illic olor, sui funeris praeco, citherizationis organo vitae prophetabat apocopam.'

'The oule eek that of dethe the bode bringeth.'

Illic bubo, propheta miseriae, psalmodias funereae lamentationis praecinebat.'

'The crane, the geaunt, with his trompes soun.' ‘Grus . . . giganteae quantitatis evadebat excessum.'

'The thef the chogh.'

'Illic monedula, latrocinio laudabili reculas thesaurizans, innatae avaritiae argumenta monstrabat.'

'The jangling pye.'

'Illic pica, dubio picturata colore, curam logices perennabat insomnem.'

'The cok that orloge is of thorpes lyte.'

'Illic gallus, tanquam vulgaris astrologus, suæ vocis horologio horarum loquebatur discrimina.'

'The wedded turtel with her herte trewe.'

'Illic turtur, suo viduata consorte, amorem epilogare dedignans, in altero bigamiae refutabat solatia.'

'The pecok with his aungels fethers bright.'

'Illic in pavone tantum pulcritudinis compluit Natura thesaurum ut eam postea crederes mendicasse.'

'The raven wys.'

'Illic corvus, zelotypiae abhorrens dedecus, suos foetus non sua esse pignora fatebatur, usque dum comperto nigri argumento coloris, hoc

quasi secum disputans comprobat.' [This is an excellent illustration of Chaucer's epithet, though the proof that contents the observant and reflecting bird would scarcely satisfy a judicial mind, unless ravens are communistic in respect of their mates.]

'The crow with voice of care.'

'Illic cornix ventura prognosticans, nugatorio concitabatur garritu.'

A careful comparison of. these two catalogues raisonnés— the lists are by no means identical any more than the descriptions-certainly casts light on Chaucer's genius. One can scarcely doubt that his taste appreciated duly the affected and far-fetched style of the older writer. And certainly one may see how he was not content to behold Nature merely through the spectacles of books, but loved to gaze on her face to face. Dear as his old books were to him-'totorn' with faithful use (see 1. 110 of the P. of F.)—dearer yet was Nature. Sweet were the old songs on the daisy; but the daisy itself was still sweeter. Entertaining and learned were the accounts to be found in literature of his fellowcreatures the birds; but better than hearing of them he enjoyed hearing them and watching their humours-for they, too, have their humours-with an eye at once merry and kindly. Birds, no less than men, he observed keenly, portrayed wittily, and with all the gentleness of a most gentle heart.

(8.) THE DATE OF THE CANTERBURY TALES

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(From The Athenæum for April 8th, 1893)

S a really satisfactory study of Chaucer's art and mind cannot be made till the chronological order of his works is to some considerable extent discovered and estab

lished, it is a matter of congratulation that in the last few years so much has been done in this latter direction, and that as to the date of many poems, though by no means of all, there is now a fairly general agreement amongst really competent scholars. Of course the most interesting and important of all such questions is the date of the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales: It has been, and is by some still placed as late as 1393. But the evidence for placing it so late is extremely slight, if, indeed, there is any at all that bears investigation; whereas assuredly many things point to the year 1387 or thereabouts, as the year of the pilgrimage and of Chaucer's immortal description of it. I do not now propose to discuss this matter at large, but only to call attention to an argument in favour of the earlier date which has, I think, not yet been noticed, and which, if it has not a decisive, has certainly a corroborative value.

We are told of the merchant that

He wolde the sea were kept for anything
Bitwixe Middelburgh and Orewelle,

that he thought it of prime moment that the passage from Harwich to Middelburgh should be swept clear of pirates. Why Middelburgh? The answer to this query gives a curious confirmation of the date 1387 or thereabouts; it proves that the Prologue must have been written not before 1384 and not later than 1388. In the year 1384 the woolstaple was removed from Calais and established at Middelburgh; in 1388 it was fixed once more at Calais (see Craik's History of British Commerce, 1. 123.) The said woolstaple led a somewhat nomad life in the fourteenth century; it was at different times established at Bruges, and Antwerp, not to mention various towns in England. But its only sojourn at Middelburgh was that in the years 1384-8; and so only

just at that time could the merchant's words have their full significance-have a special pointedness.

A careful examination of the case makes it highly improbable that the Prologue was written early in those four or five years. We know it was not till February 1385 that Chaucer was released from the drudgery of daily personal attendance at the Custom House, where he held two appointments, being (since 1374) the Comptroller of the Wool Customs, and also (since 1382) the Comptroller of the Petty Customs —appointments, by the way, that must have made him very familiar with the merchants of the day. There is good reason for believing that the first literary product of his days of comparative leisure was the 'Legend of Good Women.' That work, doomed never to be finished, was still in hand (and probably becoming somewhat burdensome to him through the monotony of the subject matter) when the larger and happier and more congenial idea of the Canterbury pilgrimage occurred to him. Thus it was probably after 1386-probably immediately after-that he composed the Prologue.

One convenience of his new and admirable design, was that it permitted him to use up much old material—to slightly revise and to bring into a series, sundry tales he had composed many years before-as those of Griselda, of Constance, of St Cecily, and of the Christian Boy, whom the Jews were said to have murdered, and possibly other pieces. But except, perhaps, 'The Tale of Melibeus,' and the 'Parson's Tale,' all the new tales--the tales that were written in the first instance for a place in the Canterbury sequence -were probably produced very shortly after the Prologue, i.e., in the latter part of 1387, and in the four or five following years. Certainly in 1393, if that date is accepted for the Compleynt of Venus, and it is probable enough