WILLIAM CULLen Bryant-you will find much about birds— bobolinks, bluebirds, mocking-birds--each with its own peculiar call. Who, too, give us such fine pictures and magazines as our American cousins? But, you may answer, whoever heard of American fairy tales? Well, I have, and I advise you to read them-stories of foxes, and bears, and opossums, and the funniest of rabbits; "nigger" stories gathered together from all parts of America, and called, from the name of the old nigger" supposed to tell them, Uncle Remus. English or Scottish or Irish boys and girls, whoever you may be, if Uncle Remus's tale of the tar-baby cannot make you laugh, I am sure that nothing will.

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ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS.

[CHAPTER V.]

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

Born about 1340-Died 1400.

THE POET LOVES BOOKS, BUT LOVES THE
DAISY MORE.1

And as for me, though that I ken but lyte
On bookes for to read I me delight,
And to them give I faith and full credence,
And in mine heart have them in reverence
So heartily, that there is gamë none

[little.

[belief.

That from my bookës maketh me to 'gone,

[go.

But it be seldom on the holy day,

Save, certainly, when that the month of May

Is come, and that I hear the fowles sing

And that the flowers [all] begin to spring.
Farewell my book and my devotion.

10

Now have I then such a condition,

That of all the flowers in the mead,

Then love I most these flowers white and red.

Such as are called daisies in the town

To them have I so great affection,

As I said erst, when come in is the May,
That, in my bed there dawneth me no day,
But I am up and walking in the mead,

[before.

To see this flower against the sun outspread,
When it upriseth early in the morrow;
That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow.
So glad am I, when that I have presence
Of it to do to it all reverence,

As she that is of all the flowers flower,
Fulfilled of all virtue and honour,

1 The passages from Chaucer are partially modernized.

And ever alike fair and fresh of hue.
And I love it, and ever alike new,

And ever shall, until my heart shall die......
And, when that it is eve, I run full blithe,
As soon as e'er the sun goes towards the west,
To see this flower, how it will go to rest,
For fear of night, so hateth she darkness!

THE PRIORESS.

30

There was also a Nun, a Prioress,

That of her smiling was full simple and 'coy :

[modest.

Her greatest oath was only by Saint Loy;

And she was called Madame Eglantine.

[intoned.

[gaiety.

[behaviour.

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Full well the lady sang service divine
Entuned in her nose full seemly;

And French she spoke full fair and fluently......

And certainly she was of great 'disport,
And full pleasant, and amiable of 'port,
And took great pains to imitate court ways
And to be held worthy of reverence.
But now to speak about her conscience,
She was so charitable and so piteous
That she would weep if she did see a mouse
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled.
Some little pet dogs had she that she fed
With roasted flesh, or milk and finest bread.
But sore wept she if one of them were dead,
Or if men smote it with a cruel smart :
And was all conscience and tender heart.

THE WIFE OF BATH.

A good wife was there from the town of Bath,

But she was somewhat deaf, and that was 'skath.... [misfortune.

In all the parish not a wife was there
That to the offering before her dare
To go, or if she did, so wroth was she
That she would be out of all charity.

Her kerchiefs, too, were of the finest ground;

I dare to swear that they weighed full ten pound,
That on a Sunday were upon her head.
Her stockings were of finest scarlet red,

10

Full tightly tied, and shoes full moist and new.
Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hue.
She was a worthy woman all her life,
Husbands at the church door she had had five,
Besides the company she kept in youth;......
And thrice she had been at Jerusalem;
She had also crossed many a foreign stream:
At Rome she had been, also at Boulogne.

In Galice1 at St. James', and at Cologne.
She had known much of wandering by the way.
'Gat-toothed was she, truly for to say.

Upon an ambler easily she sat,

20

With wide space

between the teeth.

• Wimpled full well, and on her head a hat [wearing a neckerchief.

As broad as is a buckler or a 'targe;
A foot-mantle about her waist so large,
And on her feet a pair of spurs full sharp.
In company well could she laugh or 'carp.
Of remedies of love she knew perchance,
For of all art she well knew the old dance.

[shield.

[riding-habit.

[prattle.

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HOW THE FRIARS DROVE OUT THE FAIRIES. (From the "Wife of Bath's Tale.")

In olden days of the King Arthur

Of whom the Britons speak great honour,
This land was all fulfilled with Fairy folk;
The elf-queen with her jolly company
Danced full oft in many a fair green mead.
This was the old belief as I have read;
I speak of days hundreds of years of yore.
But now no man sees fairies any more;
For now the charity and many prayers
Of limiters2 and other holy friars,

1 Galice, Galicia (in the north of Spain).

St. James of Compostella, a great resort of pilgrims in the Middle Ages.

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2 Limiters, friars who were allowed to beg within a certain limit.

That search through every land, by every stream,
As thick as motes are in a sunny beam,
Blessing halls, chambers, kitchens, too, and bowers,
Cities and boroughs, castles high, and towers,
Thorps, barns, sheep-pens even and dairies,

It is through them that there are no fairies.

For there where once was wont to walk an elf,

There walketh now the limiter himself,

Before his meals and in the mornings,

[villages.

19

And saith his 'matine and his holy things (morning prayers.

As he goeth in his limitation.

Women may now go safely up and down;

In every bush or under every tree

There is no other wanderer now but he.

[CHAPTER VI.]

JOHN GOWER.

Born about 1320-Died 1402.

ALEXANDER AND THE ROBBER.

A famous sea-rover who had been taken prisoner was brought before the Emperor Alexander. Instead of praying for pardon, the pirate thus addressed the emperor :

He said, "Sire, if I were of might,

I have a heart like unto thine,

For if thy power all were mine,

My will is most in special

To rifle and to conquer all

The large world's good all round about.
But since I lead a small poor 'rout,
And am, so folks say, 'at mischief,

The name of pillager and thief

I bear; and thou, who bands full great
Might lead, and take rich freight,
And dost the same as I would do,

Yet thou art never called so,
But thou art namëd emperor.

Our deeds yet are of one colour."......

The king his hardy countenance

[band.

[in ill-luck.

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