the title: Incipit Summa Artis Ritmici vulgaris dictaminis. The chapters are thus divided. Ritmorum vulgarium septem sunt genera. 1. Est Sonetus. 2. Ballata. 3. Cantio extensa. 4. Rotundellus. 5. Mandrialis. 6. Serventesius. 7. Motus confectus. But whatever Chaucer might copy from the Italians, yet the artful and entertaining plan of his Canterbury Tales was purely original, and his own. This admirable piece, even exclusive of its poetry, is highly valuable, as it preserves to us the liveliest and exactest picture of the manners, customs, charac ters, and habits, of our forefathers, whom he has brought before our eyes acting as on a stage, suitably to their different orders and employments. With these portraits the driest antiquary must be delighted by this plan he has more judiciously connected these stories which the guests relate, than Boccace has done his novels; whom he has imitated, if not excelled, in the variety of the subjects of his tales. It is a common mistake, that Chaucer's excellence lay in his manner of treating light and ridiculous subjects; for whoever will attentively consider the noble poem of Palamon and Arcite, will be con vinced, vinced, that he equally excels in the pathetic and the sublime. It has been but lately proved, that the Palamon and Arcite of Chaucer, is taken from the Theseida of Boccace; a poem which has been, till within a few years past, strangely neglected and unknown; and of which Mr. Tyrwhitt has given a curious and exact summary, in his Dissertation on the Canterbury Tales, vol. iv. p. 135. I cannot forbear expressing my surprise, that the circumstance of Chaucer's borrowing this tale should have remained so long unobserved, when it is so plainly and po-sitively mentioned in a book so very common as the Memoirs of Niceron; who says, t. 33. p. 44, after giving an abstract of the story of Palamon and Arcite, G. Chaucer, l'Homere de son pays, a mis l'ouvrage de Boccace en vers Anglois. This book was published by Niceron 1736. He also mentions a French translation of the Theseida, published at Paris M,D, CC. 1597, in 12mo. The late Mr. Stanley, who was as accurately skilled in modern as in ancient Greek, for a long time was of opinion, that this poem, in modern political Greek verses, was the original; in which opinion he was confirmed by the Abbé Barthelemy, 2 at at Paris, whose learned correspondence with Mr. Stanley on this subject I have read. At last Mr. Stanley gave up this opinion, and was convinced that Boccace invented the tale. Crescembini and Muratori have mentioned the Theseida more than once. That very laborious and learned antiquary Apostolo Zeno, speaks thus of it, in his Notes to the Bibliotheca of Fontanini, p. 450, t. i. Questa opera pastorale (that is, the ameto) che prende il nome dal pastore ameto, ha data l'origine all egloga Italiana, non senza lode del Boccacio, cui pure la nostra lingua du il ritrova. mento della ottava rima (which was first used in the Theseida) e del poema eroico. Gravina does not mention this poem. Crescembini gives this opinion of it, p. 118, t. 1. Nel medesimo secolo del Petrarca, il Boccacio diede principio all' Epica, colla sua Teseide, e col Filostrato; ma nello stile non eccedé la mediocrità, anzi sovente cadde nell' umile. The fashion that has lately obtained, in all the nations of Europe, of republishing and illustrating their old poets, does honour to the good taste and liberal curiosity of the present age. It is always pleasing, and indeed useful, to look back to the rude beginnings of of any art, brought to a greater degree of elegance and grace. Aurea nunc, olim sylvestribus horrida damis. VIRG. Among other instances of vanity, the French are perpetually boasting, that they have been our masters in many of the polite arts, and made earlier improvements in literature. But it may be asked, what contemporary poet can they name to stand in competition with Chaucer, except William de Loris? In carefully examining the curious work of the president Fauchet, on the characters of the ancient French poets, I can find none of this age, but barren chroniclers, and harsh romancers in rhyme, without the elegance, elevation, invention, or harmony, of Chaucer. Pasquiere informs us, that it was about the time of Charles VI. 1380, that les chants* royaux, balades, rondeaux, and pastorales, began to be in vogue; but VOL. I. Ꮓ Zurita, the Spanish historian, relates, that John the First, King of Arragon, invited the Troubadours to settle in Barcelona in the fourteenth century. The famous Marquis of Villena, who wrote the 'celebrated work, called Gaya Scientia, died 1434. but these compositions are low and feeble, in comparison of the venerable English bard. Froissart, the valuable historian, about the same time wrote very indifferent verses. Charles of Orleans, father of Lewis XII. left a manuscript of his poems. At his death Francis Villon was thirty-three years old; and John Marot, the father of Clement, was then born. According to Boileau, whose testimony as a poet, but not, I fear, as an antiquarian, should be regarded, Villon was the first who gave any form and order to the French poetry. Villon sceut le premier, dans ces siecles grossieurs, But Villon was merely a pert and insipid balladmonger, whose thoughts and diction were as low and illiberal as his life. The HOUSE of FAME, as Chaucer entitled his piece, gave the hint, as we observed, of the poem before us; though the design is, in truth, improved and heightened by the masterly hand of L'Art. Poet. chan. i. |