in his character of a holy man, and have enlarged on that fubject with fome pleafure, referving to myself the right, if I fhall think fit hereafter, to defcribe another fort of priests, fuch as are more easily to be found than the good parfon; fuch as have given the last blow to Christianity in this age, by a practice fo contrary to their doctrine. But this will keep cold till another time. In the mean while, I take up Chaucer where I left him. He must have been a man of a moft wonderful comprehenfive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a fingle character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are feverally diftinguished from each other; and not only in their inclinations, but in their very phyfiognomies and perfons. Baptifta Porta could not have defcribed their natures better, than by the marks which the poet gives them. The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are fo fuited to their different educations, humours and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth. Even the grave and ferious characters are diftinguished by their feveral forts of gravity: their difcourfes are fuch as belong to their age, their calling, and their breeding; fuch as are becoming of them, and of them only. Some of his persons are vicious, and fome virtuous; fome are unlearned, or (as Chaucer calls them) lewd, and fome are learned. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook, are feveral men, and distinguished from each other, as much as the mincing lady priorefs, and the broad-speaking gap-toothed wife of Bath. But enough of this: there is fuch a variety of game fpringing up before me, that I am diftracted in my choice, and know not which to follow. 'Tis

fufficient to fay, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our fore-fathers and great grand-dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer's days; their general characters are ftill remaining in mankind, and even in England, tho they are called by other names than thofe of Monks and Friars, and Chanons, and lady Abbeffes, and Nuns:- for mankind is ever the fame, and nothing lost out of nature, tho every thing is altered. May I have leave to do myself the justice, (fince my enemies will do me none, and are fo far from granting me to be a good poet, that they will not allow me fo much as to be a Christian, or a moral man) may I have leave, I fay, to inform my reader, that I have confined my choice to fuch tales of Chaucer as favour nothing of immodefty. If I had defired more to please than to inftruct, the Reeve, the Miller, the Shipman, the Merchants, the Sumner, and, above all, the Wife of Bath, in the prologue to her tale, would have procured me as many friends and readers, as there are beaux and laces of pleasure in the town. But I will no more offend against good manners: I am fenfible, as I ought to be, of the fcandal I have given by my loose writings; and make what reparation i am able, by this public acknowledgment. If any thing of this nature, or of profaneness, be crept into these poems, I am so far from defending it, that I difown it. Totum hoc indictum volo. Chaucer makes

another manner of apology for his broad-speaking, and Boccace makes the like; but I will follow neither of them. Our countryman, in the end of his characters, before the Canterbury tales, thus 'excufes the ribaldry, which is very grofs in many of his novels.

But first, I pray you of your courtesy,
That ye ne arrettee it nought my villany,
Though that I plainly speak in this mattere
To tellen you her words, and eke her chere:

· Ne though I speak her words properly,
For this ye knowen as well as I,
Who shall tellen a tale after a man,

He mote rehearse as nye, as ever he can :
Everich word of it been in his charge,
All fpeke he, never fo rudely, ne large.
Or else he mote tellen his tale untrue,
Or feine things, or find words new:
He may not spare, altho he were his brother,
He mote as well fay o word as another.
Chrift fpake himself full broad in holy writ,
And well I wote no villany is it,

Eke Plato faith, who fo can him rede,
The words mote been coufin to the dede.

Yet if a man fhould have inquired of Boccace or of Chaucer, what need they had of introducing fuch characters, where obfcene words were proper in their mouths, but very indecent to be heard; I know not what anfwer they could have made: for that reafon, fuch tale fhall be left untold by me. You have here a fpecimen of Chaucer's language, which is fo obfolete, that his fenfe is fcarce to be understood; and you have likewife more than one example of his unequal numbers, which were mentioned before. Yet many of his verses confift of ten fyllables, and the words not much behind our prefent English: as for example, these two lines, in the defcription of the carpenter's young wife :

Wincing she was, as is a jolly colt,

Long as a maft, and upright as a bolt.

I have almost done with Chaucer, when I have answered fome objections relating to my prefent work. 1 find fome people are offended that I have turned these tales into modern English; because they think them

unworthy

unworthy of my pains, and look on Chaucer as a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving. I have often heard the late earl of Leicefter fay, that Mr. Cowley himself was of that opinion; who having read him over at my lord's requeft, declared he had no taste of him. I dare not advance my opinion against the judgment of fo great an author: but I think it fair, however, to leave the decifion to the public: Mr. Cowley was too modeft to fet up for a dictator; and being fhocked perhaps with his old ftile, never examined into the depth of his good fenfe. Chaucer, I confefs, is a rough diamond, and must first be polifhed, ere he fhines. I deny not likewife, that, living in our early days of poetry, he writes not always of a piece but fometimes mingles trivial things with those of greater moment. Sometimes alfo, though not often, he runs riot, like Ovid, and knows not when he has faid enough. But there are more great wits befides Chaucer, whofe fault is their excefs of conceits, and thofe ill forted. An author is not to write all he can, but only all he ought. Having obferved this redundancy in Chaucer, (as it is an easy matter for a man of ordinary parts to find a fault in one of greater) I have not tied myself to a literal tranflation; but have often omitted what I judged unneceffary, or not of dignity enough to appear in the company of better thoughts. I have prefumed farther, in fome places, and added somewhat of my own where I thought my author was deficient, and had not given his thoughts their true luftre, for want of words in the beginning of our language. And to this I was the more emboldened, because (if I may be permitted to fay it of myself) I found I had a foul congenial to his, and that I had been converfant in the fame ftudies. Another poet, in another age, may take the fame liberty with my writings; if at least they live long enough to deferve correction. It was also neceffary fometimes to Vol. III.

D

restore the sense of Chaucer, which was loft or mangled in the errors of the prefs: let this example fuffice at prefent; in the ftory of Palamon and Arcite, where the temple of Diana is defcribed, you find these verses, in all the editions of our author:

There faw I Danè turned into a tree,
I mean not the goddess Diane,

But Venus daughter, which that hight Danè:

Which after a little confideration I knew was to be reformed into this fenfe, that Daphne the daughter of Peneus was turned into a tree. I durft not make thus bold with Ovid, left fome future Milbourn should arife, and fay, I varied from my author, because I understood him not.

But there are other judges who think I ought not to have tranflated Chaucer into English, out of a quite contrary notion: they fuppofe there is a certain veneration due to his old language; and that it is a little lefs than profanation and facrilege to alter it. They are farther of opinion, that fomewhat of his good fense will fuffer in this transfufion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will infallibly be loft, which appear with more grace in their old habit. Of this opinion was that excellent perfon, whom I mentioned, the late earl of Leicester, who valued Chaucer as much as Mr. Cowley defpifed him. My lord diffuaded me from this attempt, (for I was thinking of it fome years before his death) and his authority prevailed fo far with me, as to defer my undertaking while he lived, in deference to him: yet my reason was not convinced with what he urged against it. If the first end of a writer be to be understood, then as his language grows obfolete, his thoughts must grow obfcure: multa renafcentur quæ nunc cecidere; cadentque, que nunc funt in honore vocabula, fi volet ufus, quem