_Chaucer's Prophetic View of the Crystal Palace_ (Vol. iii., p. 362.).--
"Chaucer it seems drew continually, through Lydgate and Caxton,
from Guido di Colonna, whose Latin _Romance of the Trojan War_
was, in turn, a compilation from Dares, Phrygius, Ovid, and
Statius. Then Petrarch, Boccacio, and the Provençal poets, are
his benefactors; the _Romaunt of the Rose_ is only judicious
{357} translation from William of Lorris and John of Meun;
_Troilus and Creseide_, from Lollius of Urbino; _The Cock and
the Fox_, from the Lais of Marie; _The House of Fame, from the
French or Italian_: and poor Gower he uses as if he were only a
brick-kiln or stone quarry, out of which to build his
house."--_Representative Men; Shakspeare or the Poet_, by R. W.
Emerson.
From what sources in the French or Italian is "The House of Fame" taken?
And ought not an attack on Chaucer's claim to be the original author of
that beautiful poetical vision to be grounded, especially by an
American, on some better evidence than bare assertion?