Such was the plan of the work. It was laid out on an extensive scale,
perhaps on too extensive a scale ever to have been completed. Certain it
is that it was very far from ever reaching even remotely that result.
According to the scheme set forth in the prologue, the work when
finished should have included over one hundred and twenty tales. It
actually comprises but twenty-four. Even of these, two are incomplete:
the Cook's Tale, which is little more than begun, and the romantic
Eastern tale of the Squire, which, in Milton's words, is "left half
told." To those that are finished, the connecting links have not been
supplied in many cases. Accordingly the work exists not as a perfect
whole, but in eight or nine fragmentary parts, each complete in itself,
but lacking a close connection with the others, though all are bound
together by the unity of a common central interest. The value of what
has been done makes doubly keen the regret that so much has been left
undone. Politics, religion, literature, manners, are all touched upon in
this wide-embracing view, which still never misses what is really
essential; and added to this is a skill of portrayal by which the
actors, whether narrating the tales themselves, or themselves forming
the heroes of the narration, fairly live and breathe before our eyes.
Had the work been completed on the scale upon which it was begun, we
should have had a picture of life and opinion in the fourteenth century
more vivid and exact than has been drawn of any century before or since.
The selections given are partly of extracts and partly of complete
pieces. To the former class belong the lines taken from the opening of
the 'Canterbury Tales,' with the description of a few of the characters;
the description of the temples of Mars, of Venus, and of Diana in the
Knight's Tale; and the account of the disappearance of the fairies at
the opening of the Wife of Bath's Tale. The complete pieces are the
tales of the Pardoner, and of the Nun's Priest. From the first, however,
has been dropped the discourse on drunkenness, profanity, and gambling,
which, though in keeping with the character of the narrator, has no
connection with the development of the story. The second, the tale of
the Nun's Priest, was modernized by Dryden under the title of the 'Cock
and the Fox.' All of these are in heroic verse. The final selection is
the ballade now usually entitled 'Truth.' In it the peculiar ballade
construction can be studied--that is, the formation in three stanzas,
either with or without an envoy; the same rhymes running through the
three stanzas; and the final line of each stanza precisely the same. One
of Chaucer's religious poems--the so-called 'A B C'--can be found under
Deguileville, from whose 'Pelerinage la de Vie Humaine' it is
translated.
Chaucer's style, like that of all great early writers, is marked by
perfect simplicity, and his language is therefore comparatively easy to
understand. In the extracts here given the spelling has been modernized,
save occasionally at the end of the line, when the rhyme has required
the retention of an earlier form. The words themselves and grammatical
forms have of course undergone no change. There are two marks used to
indicate the pronunciation: first, the acute accent to indicate that a
heavier stress than ordinary is to be placed on the syllable over which
it stands; and secondly, the grave accent to indicate that the letter or
syllable over which it appears, though silent in modern pronunciation,
was then sounded. Thus _landes_, _groves_, _friendes_, _knaves_, would
have the final syllable sounded; and in a similar way _time_, _Rome_,
and others ending in _e_, when the next word begins with a vowel or _h_
mute. The acute accent can be exemplified in words like _courage_,
_reason_, _honour_, _translated_, where the accent would show that the
final syllable would either receive the main stress or a heavier stress
than is now given it. Again, a word like _cre-a-ture_ consists, in the
pronunciation here given, of three syllables and not of two, and is
accordingly represented by a grave accent over the _a_ to signify that
this vowel forms a separate syllable, and by the acute accent over the
_ture_ to indicate that this final syllable should receive more weight
of pronunciation than usual. It accordingly appears as _creature_. In a
similar way _con-dit-i-on_ would be a word of four syllables, and its
pronunciation would be indicated by this method _condition_. It is never
to be forgotten that Chaucer had no superior in the English tongue as a
master of melody; and if a verse of his sounds inharmonious, it is
either because the line is corrupt or because the reader has not
succeeded in pronouncing it correctly.
The explanation of obsolete words or meanings is given in the
foot-notes. In addition to these the following variations from modern
English that occur constantly, and are therefore not defined, should be
noted. _Hir_ and _hem_ stand for 'their' and 'them.' The affix _y-_ is
frequently prefixed to the past participle, which itself sometimes omits
the final _en_ or _-n_, as 'ydrawe,' 'yshake.' The imperative plural
ends in _-th,_ as 'dreadeth.' The general negative _ne_ is sometimes to
be defined by 'not,' sometimes by 'nor'; and connected with forms of the
verb 'be' gives us _nis_, 'is not'; _nas_, 'was not.' _As_ is often an
expletive, and cannot be rendered at all; _that_ before 'one' and
'other' is usually the definite article; _there_ is frequently to be
rendered by 'where'; _mo_ always means 'more'; _thilke_ means 'that' or
'that same'; _del_ is 'deal' in the sense of 'bit,' 'whit'; and the
comparatives of 'long' and 'strong' are _lenger_ and _strenger_. Finally
it should be borne in mind that the double negative invariably
strengthens the negation.
[Signature: Thomas R. Lounsbury]