comment of ours superfluous. We have merely to add, that the 'Nuga" are printed with uncommon elegance, and that nothing has been omitted which could render them worthy of public patronage. The words throughout the volumes are restored to their old orthography; and the pieces which compose them arranged in chronological order. The "State of the Church," which is curious for its biographical and historical notices, has been amplified and revised, from collation with an original M. S. copy in the British Museum, apparently presented by its author to Prince Henry, in 1607, which has enabled the present editor to supply many defects, and correct many hallucinations, in Mr. Harington's reprint of Dr. Chetwind's faulty text. The sketch of Sir John's life, (which, with necessary curtailments, we have already presented to our readers) has received considerable additions. Notes of personal and political illustration are interspersed throughout; and the additional pieces, collected, with indefatigable industry, from a variety of authentic sources, are by no means to be considered as the least curious or important. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, the early English Poet, including Memoirs of his near Friend and Kinsman, John Duke of Lancaster. With Sketches of the Manners, Opinions, Arts, and Literature of England in the fourteenth Century. By William Godwin. 2 Vols. 4to. 3l.. 13s. 6d. Phillips.

This work, which has been so long promised to the public, has at length made its appearance. A combination of circumstances attended its announcement, which strongly operated to excite general curiosity, and to attract, in an especial manner, the attention of the literary world.

The subject itself, the life and age of Chaucer, necessarily comprises so much that is interesting and important to letters, philosophy, and morals; and it branches into so many channels of curious and instructive enquiry, that the labours of the poorest plodder in literature, thus employed, with only common industry and fidelity, would have been acceptable to the public. But when, to the interest which such materials awakened, was added that which resulted from the literary fame and peculiar character of the artist by whose masterly hands they were to be moulded into form, it is scarcely possible to over-rate the fervor of expectation, which awaited the publication of these volumes.

Under these circumstances, we have felt it to be our indispensible duty, to devote a considerable portion of our critical department to a candid and impartial analysis of this work (which circumstances of a peculiar nature have prevented appearing earlier) that

those of our readers, whom remoteness from the capital, or other causes, have prevented from perusing the volumes themselves, may be in possession of an abstract of their interesting contents.

In his preface, Mr. Godwin brings forward the pre-eminent character of Chaucer, and states his paramount claim to distinguished notice, by contrasting him with Shakspere. When it is considered that the latter lived in an enlightened age, and among contemporaries of brilliant genius, and that the times of the former were those of comparative barbarism, when our language itself was unformed, and uncultivated, it is decided rather, as we think, prematurely, by the biographer of Chaucer, that if there be any superiority in the powers of either, it must be on the side of the elder bard.

A dissertation on the period of Chaucer's birth follows the preface, which displays uncommon ingenuity, and indefatigable industry in the author, who determines the question, by fixing the birth of the poet in the year 1328, upon reasons which we deem incontrovertible.

As the birth place of Chaucer was London, the work opens with a description of that ancient city at that period, a particular rather unusual in biographical narration, but which is, at least in the present instance, judicious and interesting. We are hereby the better enabled to judge of the subject, by being brought not only into the company of an illustrious man, but also into the exact place of his abode; we are transported from present times, manners, and buildings, to those in which he lived, moved, and with which he was conversant. The education of Chaucer, naturally introduces a minute and entertaining view of the learning of the age, and of the times immediately preceding. The subject of school-education is followed by that of school-boy's amusements, and an account of chivalry and romance, which, as arising from the feudal system, gives occasion to a historical account of the rise and progress of that system. The romances of those ages are described, and the principal of such as we may suppose Chaucer to have read, are distinguished. This subject is followed by a curious but faithful view of the church of England, in Chaucer's time, which is necessary to ilInstrate many of his productions, particularly his great work, the "Canterbury Tales." Nor is a perspicuous description of the di versions of our ancestors less useful to the same purpose: this follows the last subject, and is pursued to a lengthened but very amusing extent. The accomplishments and various professions of the minstrel tribe, are very accurately described. We also meet, under this head, with the origin of the English stage-Profane dramas-Miracle plays-Pageants-Mysteries-and masks-all of

which are here proved to have been derived from these minstrels, and consequently raise these men to a higher degree of importance than any to which they have been hitherto thought entitled.

The other amusements of Chaucer's age, some of them peculiar to it, and others continuing to more modern days, are delineated with minuteness, and will be read with interest, as affording a lively portraiture of the English character in different times.

A review of the state of the fine arts, beginning with architecture, occupies the next place in this history of the fourteenth century, for such the work undoubtedly may be called. The description of religious and military edifices is especially necessary to illustrate the memoirs of a man, who figured eminently in those remote days, and whose writings cannot be understood without such a description. The Gothic and Grecian styles are compared with judgment and with taste; and, for religious purposes, the advantage is clearly made to appear on the side of the former. The state of the other arts is represented with much precision, and a particular account is here given of the ancient paintings in fresco, discovered in 1800, on the walls of St. Stephen's chapel. This enquiry is closed with an historical account of the state of profane and sacred music in that period.

The introduction of Chaucer to Cambridge, leads the author to describe the method of education, previously to the establishment of universities, which is succeeded by an account of the rise of Cambridge and Oxford, and of their decline,

As monachism is closely connected with this subject, we have here a detailed statement of the mendicant and monastic orders. The obligations of learning to the schoolmen are enumerated with force and candour, and the particulars of academical education, in the fourteenth century, described with impartial accuracy. The whole of this discussion is thus closed, and judiciously applied to the great subject of these volumes.

"It was the good fortune of Chaucer that he led the early years of his life in scenes of concourse and variety, that he was condemned to no premature and compulsory solitude, and that his mind was not suffered to vegetate in that in, dolence and vacancy which, when they occupy an extensive portion of human life, are so destructive and deadly to the intellectual powers. He was born in London. In the midst of this famous and flourishing metropolis he was, as he expresses it," forth growen." His father was probably a merchant; and Chaucer was furnished, from his earliest hours of observation, with an opportunity of remarking upon the insensible growth of that new rank of men, the burgesses, which about this time gave a new face to the political constitutions of Europe. Private and domestic education had scarcely any where been heard of; and

Chaucer, in all probability, frequented some of these populous and tumultuary schools, so circumstantially described by William Fitzstephen. Here his mind was excited by example, and stimulated by rivalship; he passed much of his time in the society of his equals, observed their passions, and acted and was acted upon in turn by their sentiments and pursuits. When he had finished his classes here, he was removed to Cambridge, where six thousand fellow-students waited to receive him. He had no difficulty in finding solitude when his inclination prompted him to seek it, and we may be certain that a mind which relished so exquisitely the beauties of nature sought it often; but he was never palled with it. The effect of both these circumstances is conspicuous in his writings. He is fond of allegories and reveries, for oft the poet

'Brush'd with hasty steps the dews away, To meet the sun ;'

and he is the poet of manners, because he- frequented the haunts of men, and was acquainted with his species in all their varieties of modification."

Vol. i. p. 203.

The first work of Chaucer, appears to have been his Court of Love, and carries the internal evidence of its having been produced by him while a student at Cambridge. This piece is fairly examined, and the biographer naturally enters into a view of the state of poetry at that period, and gives an interesting account of William de Lorris, Dante, and Petrarca. The question of priority between Chaucer and Gower is also determined, and made to preponderate on the side of the former.

In drawing the character of Chaucer, as a poet, his biographer enters upon a comparison of the ancient and modern English poetry, which is managed with candour, though his predilection is manifestly in favour of our elder poets. Much pains is taken to vindicate Chaucer's language from the charge of being obsolete, and his numbers from that of being inharmonious. This disquisition will be perused with interest by every reader of taste, and ought to be closely attended to by such as would form a right judgment of Chaucer's merits.

After a brief account of a plague which raged in London in 1349, we are introduced with Chaucer to the university of Oxford, for it has been questioned, by eminent writers and antiquaries, whether he ever studied there, though Leland has positively declared that he did our author decides in the affirmative. The poem of Troilus and Creseide, he conjectures, was written by him at that place? Of this production, a minute, but entertaining, account is here given; and, as it is supposed by some to have been translated from Boccaccio, a sort of biography is given of that ingenious Ita

lian*, though our author combats with strength the above opinion of Tyrwhit and Warton. We here meet with some proofs that Shakspere was under considerable obligations to this poem, particularly in his tragedy on the same subject.

As this poem is inscribed to the "moral Gower," and the "philosophical Strode," a chapter is devoted to a memorial of those confidential friends of Chaucer.

The question of Chaucer's studying at Paris is particularly examined, as is also that of his studying the law; and though nothing decisive appears in either of these discussions, it affords the author an opportunity to enter into "a history of law in the fourteenth century," which will be found not uninteresting.

We next meet with critical and historical elucidations of some others of Chaucer's works; as his Palemon and Arcite, and his Translation of Boethius.

From the literary character of Chaucer, the author turns to view him as a courtier, and, to illustrate this part of his subject more forcibly, he exhibits a character of the English court in the year 1358, in which the portrait of Edward III appears with distinguished lustre.

The life of John of Gaunt, a very important article in these interesting volumes, is detailed with considerable precision, and, among other particulars in this illustrious character, it is made to appear that he was a poet, and that Chaucer was his poetical preceptor. Interwoven with this subject, the author gives an outline of Chaucer's poem of "The Parliament of Birds," written on the suit or courtship of John of Gaunt.

Next follows an outline of the poem intituled Chaucer's Dream, and here we are introduced to our bard's mistress, and afterwards his wife, the daughter and co-heiress of Payne de Rouet, a native of Hainault, and King at Arms for the province of Guienne.

The part borne by the poet in the grand expedition against France, leads us into a history of the military transactions in which he was engaged. An account of the peace of Bretigni, and of the Death of John King of France, in the palace of John of Gaunt, concludes the first volume.

Here we must pause: we cannot, however, close this article with out pronouncing our unequivocal approbation of the plan and con

A

* A new edition of the Tales of Boccaccio, in two volumes, octavo, hath recently issued from the press, edited by the admirably witty author of "Old Nick," 66 Piece of Family Biography," &c. &c. to which is prefixed a masterly and erudite Life, the materials for which are evidently drawn from the purest sources of informa tion, and interspersed with a variety of anecdote, very little known,

K K-VOL. XVII.