English literature, for convenience, may be divided into ten eras well defined: 1. From 670 to 1066-Age of Beginning. 2. From the Conquest to Chaucer-Transition Period. 3. From Chaucer to Shakespeare-Age of Chaucer. 4. From Shakespeare to Milton-Elizabethan Age. 5. From Milton to Addison-Puritan Age. 6. From Addison to Johnson-Augustan Age. 7. From Johnson to Scott-Age of Johnson and Burns. 8. From Scott to Tennyson-Age of Scott and Byron. 9. From Tennyson to Swinburne-Victorian Age. 10. From Swinburne to Present Day-Nineteenth Century Period, HISTORY REVIEW. 1. When was the Norman Conquest? 2. What circumstances led to it? 3. What effect did it have upon the language? 4. Who united the Saxon and Norman lines? 5. Who first gave a decided impulse to Anglo-Saxon 6. literature? What is considered the first national epic in 7. Who was Caedmon? 8. 9. 10. Who called him the "The Milton of our forefathers?" Who was Osburgha? Which of the Saxon kings did most for England? "If character may be divined from works, he was a good man, genial, sincere, hearty, temperate of mind, more wise, perhaps, for this world than the next, but thoroughly humane, and friendly with God and man."-Lowell. Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious strains that fill The spacious time of great Elizabeth With sounds that echo still. -Tennyson. The exact date of Chaucer's birth, as well as his parentage, is unknown, nor is there any certainty as to where he was educated. This much is known, however, that he studied both at Cambridge and Oxford, and acquired an excellent knowledge of French, Latin, and Italian. He became a page in the royal household, and early attracted the attention of Edward III., then the reigning sovereign. It was here he met Phillipa Pyknard, maid of honor to Queen Phillipa, and a younger sister of the wife of John of Gaunt. He fell in love with her and afterwards married her, wondering that "Heaven had fashioned such a being, And in so little space, Made such a body and such a face And so great beauty and such features More than be in other creatures." By his marriage he gained the support of the Lancas trians, and his fortune fluctuated with theirs. So courtly was he in accomplishments that he was commissioned by the king to go to Genoa and Florence on matters of importance to the State, and while there met Petrarch and Boccaccio, whose works greatly enriched his mind with stores of learning. On his return, he was made comptroller of the customs of wine and wool. For this he received a fine salary, which, with his pension, gave him a liberal support. He was then sent to France to negotiate a marriage with Mary, the daughter of John, king of France, and Richard II. During Richard II.'s reign, in a contest about church and state privileges, he sided with the Lancastrians, and was thrown into prison. He remained in the tower only a short time, having been released as soon as John of Gaunt returned from Spain. Chaucer's personal appearance was striking. He was of middle stature, inclined to corpulency, had a round face, very fair complexion without color, dusky yellow hair, and was short and thin, with round, trimmed beard. His nose was sharp, his forehead broad, and his eyes small with a perceptible droop to the lids. His ordinary dress was a loose frock of camlet reaching to the knee, with wide sleeves fastened at the waist. To his frock was fastened a hood which indoors hung down his back, and out of doors was twisted around his head. He wore bright red stockings and black shoes. He did not begin writing his greatest work, Canterbury Tales, until late in life, after he was sixty. He took the idea from Boccaccio's Decameron where ten young ladies go out from Florence during the plague to spend ten days. To beguile the time they agreed that each should tell a tale a day. This made one hundred tales. It was the custom in Chaucer's day to go on pilgrimages, and the most popular one was to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas à Becket, who was murdered during the reign of Henry II. So he seizes upon this custom as a frame in which to set his pictures of life, The Canterbury Tales. He supposes thirty-nine. pilgrims on their way to the tomb of the saint. He joins them at the Tabard Inn, and proposes, in order to while away the time going and returning, that each should tell a story, and that whoever told the best should have a supper at the expense of the others. The landlord was to be the judge. All classes of English society are represented in this troop. There is the knight, the lawyer, the doctor, the Oxford student, the miller, the prioress, the monk, the carpenter, and the clerk. Chaucer died before these Tales were completed. One of the most striking of them is the Clerk's Tale, Patient Griselde. She, by patient submission and unconquerable affection, softens the tyranny of her husband. Smitten on the one cheek she turns the other to him. In the true spirit of charity she learns "to suffer all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things." "The story is said not for that wives should For that were impossible, though they would, As was Griselde, therefore Petrarch writeth Unto a mortal man, well more we ought To receive all in kindness that God has sent. Let us then live in virtuous sufferance.' Only two of the Canterbury Tales are in prose. The other works of Chaucer are Troilus and Cresseide, Romaunt of the Rose, The House of Fame, and The Flower and the Lefe, although there is some doubt concerning the last. Chaucer had two sons, Thomas and Lewis. Thomas became Speaker of the House of Commons. At the age of seventy-two the poet died and was buried in the now famous Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, having the honor of being the first poet ever laid to rest there. He is known as the "Father of English Poetry." "He is the poet of the dawn who wrote The Canterbury Tales, and his old age, HISTORY REVIEW. 1. Name the Norman sovereigns. 2. How were the Norman and Saxon lines united? 3. Name the Plantagenets. 4. Give Henry II.'s claim to the throne. 5. What relation was Richard II. to Henry IV.? 6. Whom did Kichard II. marry? 7. What relation was Henry IV. to Edward IV.? 8. What led to the War of the Roses? 9. How many battles? 10. What side wore the red rose? 11. Which the white? 12. How did the contest end? |