Cabinet Pictures of English Life Author:John Saunders Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION I. A VISIT TO THE TABAHD. " The two names which perhaps do the greatest honour to the annals of English literature are those of Chaucer and Shakspe... more »re. After the dramas of Shakspere, there is no production of man that dis- plays more various and vigorous talent than the ' Canterbury Tales.' Splendour of narrative, rich- ness of fancy, pathetic simplicity of incident and feeling, a powerful style in delineating character and manners, and an animated vein of comic hu- mour, each takes its turn in this wonderful per- formance, and each in turn appears to be that in which the author was most qualified to succeed." Thus writes Godwin, in the preface to his Life of the poet, reviewing generally the characteristics of the great father of English poetry ; but elsewhere, noticing that particular quality which more than any other stamps Chaucer's productions, he calls him emphatically " the poet of character and man- ners :" it is in that light we here propose to view him. The ' Canterbury Tales ' are preceded by a pro- logue, in which the plot and characters are shown, and which thus begins ; the poet in his own person being the narrator: — " Whenne that April with his show'res sote, The drought of March hath pierced to the root, And bathed every vein in such liquor Of which virtue engendered is the flow'r ; Sweet. When Zephirus—eke with his sote breath- Inspired hath in every holt and heath The tender croppes, and the younge sun Hath in the Ram his half'e course yrun, And smalle fowles maken melody, That sleepen alle night with open eye, Sopricketh them Nature in their courages; Then longeth folk to go on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeken strange strands To serve hallows % couth § in sundry lands ; And, 'specially, from every shire's end Of Engle-land to Ca...« less