Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/171

 the ‘Clerkes Tale;’ robably the story of Constance, afterwards the ‘Man of Lawes Tale ;’ the translation of Boethius’s ‘De Consolatione Philosophiæ;’ and, lastly, ‘The Legende of Good Women,’ called in the ‘Man of Lawes Prologe ’ the ‘ Saints’ Legend of Cupid,’ i.e. the ‘Legend of Cupid’s Saints.’

The special mark of this period is the influence of the Italian literature. Chaucer’s introduction to the Italian masterpieces gave him a new conception of literary art, an the effect is quickly perceptible. Ie presently abandons the octosyllabic couplet—the metre of the ‘Roman de la Rose’—for a metre of more weight and dignitv. He uses it in only one more work, in ‘The House of Fame,’ and in that poem he shows dissatisfaction with it. At the beginning of the third book he seems specially conscious of its inadequacy, as when he speaks of the ‘ryme’ as ‘lyght and lewed.’ He is longing for a better ‘art poetical’—a finer ‘craft.' The result is seen in two new metrical developments-in the stanza of seven ‘heroic’ lines, commonl called ‘rime royal,’ because a king, a humble imitator of Chaucer, used it; and secondly in the heroic couplet which has ever since been one of our most polpular measures. He did not adopt these metres ram the Italians, but Italian example and influence led him to adopt them because it inspired him with a desire for richer metrical forms. He did not servilely copy his masters, for he has left us nothing written in terza rima or ottava (the stanza of the ‘Monkes Tale’ is eight-lined, but the rhymes have an order of their own), or in sonnet shape, but by adopting suitable forms which he found elsewhere. Chaucer’s genius could never have worthily expressed itself in the couplet which he found revagning in England when he began to write. he stanza (‘rime royal’) which he developed was a favourite form with him in his second period. It became a great favourite with English poets down to the Elizabethan age. It did not completely answer Chaucer’s needs. Towards the close of his second period we find him transferring his allegiance to the heroic couplet, which in the third period becomes the dominant form. His first wem in this metre is the ‘Legends of Good Women.’

Of the three great Italians, perhaps the one that moved him most deepl was Dante, as it should be. Several times he mentions him by name, as in the ‘Wyf of Bathes Tale’ (comp. Purg. vii. 123 ; the ‘House of Fame,’ i. 450, ‘ Legende of ood Women,’ Prol., the ‘Freres Tale;’ see also ‘the grete get of Itaile, that highte Daunt,’ in the ‘Monkes Tale.’ In other places he is obviously under Dante's full induence. This is particularly noticeable in the ‘Assembly of Foules’ and in the ‘House of Fame,’ In the former poem he pictures himself conducted into a certain park by Africanus just as the great Florentine pictures himself conducted into the infernal regions by Virgil; and the rallel is carried out in several incidents. In the ‘House of Fame’ Chaucer represents himself as borne off into the air to Fame’s house by an eagle, just as Dante represents himself borne up by an eagle to the gates of purgatory (Purg. ix.) Of course, the classical story of Ganymede was familiar to Chaucer as well as to Dante, but a comparison of the two passages will certainly show Chaucer’s familiarity with the lines in which Dante describes his translation. (For further illustrations of Chaucer’s knowledge of the ‘Divine Comedy’ see Ten Brink’s ‘ Studies.’) With Petrarch’s poetry Chaucer does not show a like sympathetic intimacy. Perhaps the most prominent recognition of it is to be found in ‘Troylus and Cryseyde,’ where the ‘Song of Troilus’ in book i. is simply a translation of the sonnet beginning ‘S’ amor non è, che dunque è quel, ch’i’ sento?’ in the ‘Rime in Vita Laura.’

It is from Boccaccio that Chaucer borrows most. ‘Troylus and Cryseyde ’ is to a great extent a translation of Boccaccio’s ‘Iglostrato,’ as may be admirably seen from Mr. W. M. Rossetti’s comparison of the two works published by the Chaucer Society. It is probable that ‘Palamon and Arcite,’ the earlier form of the ‘Knight-es Tale,’ was a rendering, more or less faithful, of the 'Teseide,’ the ‘Knightes Tale’ being a yet freer treatment of that poem. And it has generally been held, and we think rightly, that in designing the ‘Canterbury Tales’ Chaucer was influenced by the design of Boccaccio’s ‘Decamerone.’ Again, the ‘Reeves Tale,’ the ‘Frankeleynes Tale,’ the ‘Schipmannes Tale’ are all to be found in the ‘Decamerone.' The ‘Monkes Tale’ is formed upon the plan of the same author’s ‘De casibus virorum illustrium.' Chaucer never mentions Bocoaccio, unless it be he whom he denominates ‘Eollius.' But, very strangely, Chaucer specially connects with Lollius that sonnet which is turned into Troilus’s song; so that Lollius, by this connection, ought to be Petrarch. Lollius appears again in the ‘ House of F ame,’ where his statue appears side by side with those of ‘Omer,' Dares, ‘Titus’ (Dictvs), Guido ‘de Columpnis,’ and ‘English Calfride.' No writer of the name of Lollius is known, and no satisfactory explanation of its introduction by Chaucer has been given. Chaucer speaks of ‘olde stories’ as his sources; when he does mention a definite authority, it is not Boccaccio, but ‘Stace of Thebes’—Statius’s ‘Thebais.'