A rich bride was found for him in Blanche, the heiress of Lancaster.
She was a gentle lady, who yielded up readily to her princely husband
the revenues and the other privileges which were hers as a countess in
her own right; and who, after a few years of quiet married life, spent
chiefly at her northern castle, passed away softly from the earth,
without dreaming that her son was to be the future king of England,
and that her family title was in after-days to become the watch-word
on many a bloody field of civil strife.
In honor of Prince John's marriage, Chaucer wrote "The Parliament of
Fowls," and in memory of Blanche's death "The Book of the Duchess."
Chaucer seems to have had a true reverence and affection for the sweet
household virtues and the wifely truth of this lady. The remembrance
of her may perhaps have first suggested to him the image of Griselda.
These two poems, connected as they were with the royal family,
confirmed Chaucer's reputation as a writer of verse; and men and women
began to point him out to each other and talk about him. In those
days, however, it was quite impossible for any man to make literature
his profession, and all his life, therefore, he could only take poetry
as the business of his leisure hours. Then, no doubt, he really worked
at it more than at the employment by which he lived; and no doubt,
also, as he went about through the world, he was always learning
something for his art. If this had not been the case, the name of
Chaucer would not be what it now is in English literature.
At about this period Edward the Third set off for one of his many
warlike expeditions into France. Young Chaucer, who was ready for
everything, and who perhaps thought he should like to see a little of
a soldier's life, entered the army and followed the king.
But the young soldier's experiences were not to be all of nights spent
beneath clear starlit skies, and cheery communing with his comrades,
and the eager glow of battle. Through an unlucky chance of war Chaucer
was taken prisoner.
His prepossessing manners, and his knowledge of the French language
and customs, gained during his stay in Paris probably, made his
captivity a very easy one. But he had to sit still with folded hands
while his countrymen were fighting, and in this season of forced
inactivity he had time to repent past follies and to make good
resolves for the future. At length, through an exchange of prisoners,
the poet was set free. After that he never tried a soldier's life
again, having most likely had quite enough of it.
Soon after his return to England, he got an appointment about the
Court which brought him a settled income. He now began to think of
making himself a home. Among those who followed in the train of
Edward's queen, Philippa, when she came to England, were a certain
knight of Hainault, called Roet, and his two little daughters. These
children were now grown up into very comely young women. One,
Catherine, had married an English gentleman, named Swynford. The
other, Philippa, was maid of honor to the queen. According to Fanny
Burney, a maid of honor has quite enough to do in the labors of
dressing her mistress and herself; yet this industrious damsel,
Philippa Roet, found spare time sufficient (between the business of
clasping on jewels and arranging gracefully royal mantles, and
contriving how to make an old dress look like new) to fall in love
with Geoffrey Chaucer, and, what was more, to make the poet
desperately in love with herself.
There being no impediment in the way, and the king and queen
forwarding the matter, Chaucer and his Philippa were soon made man and
wife. Not long after their marriage they had the misfortune to lose
their generous mistress, the queen. Edward the Third, however, still
treated Chaucer with favor. He made him one of the valets of his
bed-chamber, and also gave him a high office in the customs. The two
halves of his life must now have been strangely different. One was
spent among velvet doublets, and waving plumes, and gilded armor, and
all the many splendid vanities of a court; the other among heavy
ledgers, and hard-handed sea captains, and casks of coarse spirit, and
the most vulgar realities of a commonplace life. No wonder that a man
whose time was passed among such contrasts should write by turns of a
noble knight and a miller.
Several times King Edward sent Chaucer abroad on political missions.
This is a great proof of the high esteem in which his master held him.
In one of these journeys he went into Italy and saw the Mediterranean
wash the marble quays of Genoa, and the stately towers of fair
Florence raise themselves toward the blue sky. On this occasion, some
of his biographers think, he visited Petrarch. This notion is,
however, only founded on a passage in the "Canterbury Tales;" it is
therefore our opinion that Chaucer, anxious as he must have been to
despatch quickly the king's business, would hardly have spared time to
go to Arqua, where Petrarch then lived, and that those who draw from
the passage in question the inference that the two great poets must
have met, are, as blundering critics often do, confounding the author
with his characters. One of Chaucer's personages says that he heard a
story he is about to tell from Petrarch; but that is no reason for
concluding that Chaucer so heard it himself.
Rich must have been the dramatic anecdote and lively description which
Chaucer brought home from these journeys. In those days of little
travelling, an account of foreign countries must have had freshness
and interest, even when it came from a commonplace man. What, then,
must it have been on the lips of Chaucer?
[Illustration: Chaucer and the Canterbury Pilgrims.]
In one of his absences, Chaucer's brother-poet, Gower, filled for him
his post at Court. This is a delightful proof of the friendship which
must have existed between the two. Many a ramble must they have taken
together through the green fields in summer time, and many a flask of
canary must have passed between them on winter evenings. Could the
diary of Philippa Chaucer have been published after her death, as most
certainly it would have been in this century, it would doubtless have
contained conversations as interesting as those in the pages of
Boswell.
Chaucer constantly received proofs of King Edward's favor. At one time
a pitcher of wine was sent daily to the poet by his sovereign, and
when this was discontinued, he was given an equivalent in money. Late
in life a close connection was formed between the families of Chaucer
and of his old friend, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Philippa
Chaucer's sister, Catherine Swynford, who became early a widow,
entered the Duke of Lancaster's household as a governess to the
children of his first duchess.
The poet's own domestic life seems to have been very happy. Philippa
appears to have been to him a bold and faithful helpmate in his
journey through this world; and we believe that, could we trace
closely her household influence, we should find that she first began
to work the golden thread of religion into his life; for,
notwithstanding that great coarseness which unluckily makes the
"Canterbury Tales" unavailable as a book for family reading, but which
we must chiefly impute to the customs of the age, Chaucer was, in the
main, a religious man, and his poems are, in the main, religious
poems. Chaucer was certainly a good father, and attended as far as he
could to the education of his boys. His "Astrolabe," a work on
astronomy, was written for his little Lewis, who was probably his
father's pet.
On Richard II. coming to the throne, Chaucer got somewhat into
trouble, through his leaning toward the side of the people in the
civil broils which disturbed the early part of that king's reign. Some
of the poet's biographers say he was so violent in his partisanship
that he was obliged to fly from the wrath of government to Holland;
but this is most decidedly a myth. Chaucer's nature was not of that
stuff of which martyrs are made. He certainly, it is true, inclined to
the popular cause. His friend and patron, the Duke of Lancaster, was
the chief leader of the liberal party. No doubt the poet disliked
tyranny in any form, and no doubt he wished to see the Church of Rome
purged from her worst abuses. Very likely, also, he may have sometimes
gone privately to hear Wickliffe preach, and his heart may have been
drawn toward the new doctrines. But most assuredly he showed his
feelings and opinions in a very mild, cautious way, and the only sign
of the king's displeasure was a temporary stoppage of the pension
which Chaucer had for some years received.
This must have made Chaucer and his Philippa, in the decline of life,
know what straitened means were like; but doubtless cheery wit and
merry smiles made home music and home light around the scantily spread
table. Afterward, however, the pension was restored.
Of the "Canterbury Tales," that vast storehouse of humor, of pathos,
of fancy, and of strong, manly common sense, we have no place to speak
here. They were the work of his ripened powers in middle age, and
probably the old man was still busy with them when he heard the
whisper which called him to his rest.
TORQUATO TASSO
(1544-1595)
[Illustration: Torquato Tasso.]
Torquato Tasso, born at Sorrento, March 11, 1544, was the son of
Bernardo Tasso by Portia de Rossi, a lady of a noble Neapolitan
family. His father was a man of some note, both as a political and as
a literary character; and his poem "Amadigi," founded on the
well-known romance of Amadis de Gaul, has been preferred by one
partial critic even to the "Orlando Furioso." Ferrante Sanseverino,
Prince of Salerno, chose him for his secretary, and with him and for
him Bernardo shared all the vicissitudes of fortune. That prince
having been deprived of his estates, and expelled from the kingdom of
Naples by the Court of Spain, Bernardo was involved in his
proscription, and retired with him to Rome. Torquato, then five years
old, remained with his mother, who went to reside with her family in
Naples.
Bernardo Tasso having lost all hopes of ever returning to that
capital, advised his wife to retire with his daughter into a nunnery,
and to send Torquato to Rome. Our young poet suffered much in parting
from his mother and sister; but, fulfilling the command of his
parents, he joined his father in October, 1554. On this occasion he
composed a canzone, in which he compared himself to Ascanius escaping
from Troy with his father Aeneas.
The fluctuating fortunes of the elder Tasso caused Torquato to visit
successively Bergamo, the abode of his paternal relatives, and Pesaro,
where his manners and intelligence made so favorable an impression,
that the Duke of Pesaro chose him for companion to his son, then
studying under the celebrated Corrado, of Mantua. In 1559, he
accompanied his father to Venice, and there perused the best Italian
authors, especially Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The next year he
went to the University of Padua, where, under Sperone Speroni and
Sigonio, he studied Aristotle and the critics; and by Piccolomini and
Pandasio he was taught the moral and philosophical doctrines of
Socrates and Plato. However, notwithstanding his severer studies,
Torquato never lost sight of his favorite art; and at the age of
seventeen, in ten months, he composed his "Rinaldo," a poem in twelve
cantos, founded on the then popular romances of Charlemagne and his
paladins. This work, which was published in 1562, excited great
admiration, and gave rise to expectations which were justified by the
"Jerusalem Delivered." The plan of that immortal poem was conceived,
according to Serassi's conjecture in 1563, at Bologna, where Tasso
was then prosecuting his studies. The first sketch of it is still
preserved in a manuscript, dated 1563, in the Vatican Library, and
printed at Venice in 1722. Unfortunately, while thus engaged, he was
brought into collision with the civil authorities, in consequence of
some satirical attacks on the University, which were falsely
attributed to him. The charge was refuted, but not until his papers
had been seized and himself imprisoned. This disgusted him with
Bologna, and he returned to Padua in 1564. There he applied all his
faculties to the accomplishment of his epic poem; collected immense
materials from the chronicles of the Crusades; and wrote, to exercise
his critical powers, the "Discorsi" and the "Trattato sulla Poesia."
While thus engaged, the Cardinal Luigi d'Este appointed him a
gentleman of his court. Speroni endeavored to dissuade the young poet
from accepting that office, by relating the many disappointments which
he had himself experienced while engaged in a similar career. These
remonstrances were vain; Tasso joined the cardinal at Ferrara at the
end of October, 1564, and soon attracted the favorable notice of the
Duke Alfonso, brother of the cardinal, and of their sisters; one of
whom, the celebrated Eleanora, is commonly supposed to have exercised
a lasting and unhappy influence over the poet's life. Ferrara
continued to be his chief place of abode till 1571, when he was
summoned to accompany his patron the cardinal to France. The gayeties
of Ferrara, celebrated in that age for its splendor, did not prevent
his prosecuting his poetic studies with zeal; for it appears from his
will, quoted by Mr. Stebbing, that, at his departure for France he had
written a considerable portion of the "Jerusalem," besides a variety
of minor pieces. His reputation was already high at the court of
France, where he was received by Charles IX. with distinguished
attention. But he perceived, or fancied that he saw, a change in the
cardinal's demeanor toward him, and, impatient of neglect, begged
leave to return to Italy. In 1572 he was at Rome with the Cardinal
Ippolito d'Este. In the same year he entered the service of the Duke
of Ferrara, and resumed with zeal the completion and correction of the
"Jerusalem."
In 1573, Tasso wrote his beautiful pastoral drama "Aminta." This new
production added greatly to his reputation. He chose simple Nature for
his model; and succeeded admirably in the imitation of her. The
"Jerusalem Delivered" was completed in 1575. Tasso submitted it to the
criticism of the most learned men of that age. The great confusion
which prevailed in the remarks of his critics caused him extraordinary
uneasiness. To answer their objections, he wrote the "Lettere
Poetiche," the best key to the true interpretation of his poem.
[Illustration: Tasso and the Two Eleanors.]
During 1575, Tasso visited Pavia, Padua, Bologna, and Rome, and in
1576 returned to Ferrara. His abode there never was a happy one; for
his talents, celebrity, and the favor in which he was held, raised up
enemies, who showed their spleen in petty underminings and annoyances,
to which the poet's susceptible temper lent a sting. He was attracted,
however, by the kindness of the duke and the society of the beautiful
and accomplished Eleanora, the duke's sister, for whom the poet
ventured, it is said, to declare an affection which, according to some
historians, did not remain unrequited. The portrait of Olinda, in the
beautiful episode which relates her history, is generally understood
to have been designed after this living model; while some have
imagined that Tasso himself is not less clearly pictured in the
description of her lover, Sofronio. There was also another Eleanor, a
lady of the court with whom the poet for a while imagined himself in
love. But about this time, whether from mental uneasiness, or from
constitutional causes, his conduct began to be marked by a morbid
irritability allied to madness. The "Jerusalem" was surreptitiously
printed without having received the author's last corrections; and he
entreated the duke, and all his powerful friends, to prevent such an
abuse. Alfonso and the pope himself endeavored to satisfy Tasso's
demands, but with little success. This circumstance, and other partly
real, partly imaginary troubles, augmented so much his natural
melancholy and apprehension, that he began to think that his enemies
not only persecuted and calumniated him, but accused him of great
crimes; he even imagined that they had the intention of denouncing his
works to the Holy Inquisition. Under this impression he presented
himself to the inquisitor of Bologna; and having made a general
confession, submitted his works to the examination of that holy
father, and begged and obtained his absolution. His malady, for such
we may surely call it, was continually exasperated by the arts of his
rivals; and on one occasion, in the apartments of the Duchess of
Urbino, he drew his sword on one of her attendants. He was immediately
arrested, and subsequently sent to one of the Duke's villas, where he
was kindly treated and supplied with medical advice. But his fancied
injuries (for in this case they do not seem to have been real) still
pursued him; and he fled, destitute of everything, from Ferrara, and
hastened to his sister Cornelia, then living at Sorrento. Her care and
tenderness very much soothed his mind and improved his health; but,
unfortunately, he soon repented of his hasty flight, and returned to
Ferrara, where his former malady soon regained its power. Dissatisfied
with all about him, he again left that town; but, after having
wandered for more than a year, he returned to Alfonso, by whom he was
received with indifference and contempt. By nature sensitive, and much
excited by his misfortunes, Tasso began to pour forth bitter
invectives against the duke and his court. Alfonso exercised a cruel
revenge; for, instead of soothing the unhappy poet, he shut him up as
a lunatic in the hospital of St. Anne. Yet, strange to say,
notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for more than seven
years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers remained
unbroken, his genius unimpaired; and even there he composed some
pieces, both in prose and verse, which were triumphantly appealed to
by his friends in proof of his sanity. To this period we may probably
refer the "Veglie," or "Watches" of Tasso, the manuscript of which was
discovered in the Ambrosian Library, at Milan, toward the end of the
last century. They are written in prose, and express the author's
melancholy thoughts in elegant and poetic language. The "Jerusalem"
had now been published and republished both in Italy and France, and
Europe rang with its praises; yet the author lay almost perishing
in close confinement, sick, forlorn, and destitute of every comfort.
In 1548, Camillo Pellegrini, a Capuan nobleman, and a great admirer of
Tasso's genius, published a "Dialogue on Epic Poetry," in which he
placed the "Jerusalem" far above the "Orlando Furioso." This testimony
from a man of literary distinction caused a great sensation among the
friends and admirers of Ariosto. Two academicians of the Crusca,
Salviati and De Rossi, attacked the "Jerusalem" in the name of the
academy, and assailed Tasso and his father in a gross strain of abuse.
From the mad-house Tasso answered with great moderation; defended his
father, his poem, and himself from these groundless invectives; and
thus gave to the world the best proof of his soundness of mind, and of
his manly, philosophical spirit.
At length, after being long importuned by the noblest minds of Italy,
Alfonso released him in 1586, at the earnest entreaty of Don Vincenzo
Gonzaga, son of the Duke of Mantua, at whose court the poet for a time
took up his abode. There, through the kindness and attentions of his
patron and friends, he improved so much in health and spirits that he
resumed his literary labors, and completed his father's poem,
"Floridante," and his own tragedy, "Torrismondo."
But, with advancing age, Tasso became still more restless and
impatient of dependence, and he conceived a desire to visit Naples, in
the hope of obtaining some part of the confiscated property of his
parents. Accordingly, having received permission from the duke, he
left Mantua, and arrived in Naples at the end of March, 1588. About
this time he made several alterations in his "Jerusalem," corrected
numerous faults, and took away all the praises he had bestowed on the
House of Este. Alfieri used to say that this amended "Jerusalem" was
the only one which he could read with pleasure to himself or with
admiration for the author. But as there appeared no hope that his
claims would be soon adjusted, he returned to Rome in November, 1588.
Ever harassed by a restless mind, he quitted, one after another, the
hospitable roofs which gave him shelter; and at last, destitute of all
resources and afflicted with illness, took refuge in the hospital of
the Bergamaschi, with whose founder he claimed relation by the
father's side; a singular fate for one with whose praises Italy even
then was ringing. But it should be remembered, ere we break into
invectives against the sordidness of the age which suffered this
degradation, that the waywardness of Tasso's temper rendered it hard
to satisfy him as an inmate, or to befriend him as a patron.
Restored to health, at the grand duke's invitation he went to
Florence, where both prince and people received him with every mark of
admiration. Those who saw him as he passed along the streets, would
exclaim, "See! there is Tasso! That is the wonderful and unfortunate
poet!"
It is useless minutely to trace his wanderings from Florence to Rome,
from Rome to Mantua, and back again to Rome and Naples. At the latter
place he dwelt in the palace of the Prince of Conca, where he composed
a great part of the "Jerusalem Conquered." But having apprehended, not
without reason, that the prince wished to possess himself of his
manuscripts, Torquato left the palace to reside with his friend Manso.
His health and spirits improved in his new abode; and besides
proceeding with the "Jerusalem Conquered," he commenced, at the
request of Manso's mother, "Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato," a
sacred poem in blank verse, founded on the Book of Genesis, which he
completed in Rome a few days before his death.
He visited Rome in 1593. A report that Marco di Sciarra, a notorious
bandit, infested the road, induced him to halt at Gaeta, where his
presence was celebrated by the citizens with great rejoicing. Sciarra
having heard that the great poet was detained by fear of him, sent a
message purporting that, instead of injury, Tasso should receive every
protection at his hands. This offer was declined; yet Sciarra, in
testimony of respect, sent word that for the poet's sake he would
withdraw all his band from that neighborhood; and he did so.
This time, on his arrival at Rome, Tasso was received by the Cardinals
Cinzio and Pietro Aldobrandini, nephews of the pope, not as a
courtier, but as a friend. At their palace he completed the "Jerusalem
Conquered," and published it with a dedication to Cardinal Cinzio.
This work was preferred by its author to the "Jerusalem Delivered." It
is remarkable that Milton made a similar error in estimating his
"Paradise Regained."
In March, 1594, Tasso returned to Naples in hope of benefiting his
rapidly declining health. The experiment appeared to answer; but
scarcely had he passed four months in his native country, when
Cardinal Cinzio requested him to hasten to Rome, having obtained for
him from the pope the honor of a solemn coronation in the Capitol. In
the following November the poet arrived at Rome, and was received with
general applause. The pope himself overwhelmed him with praises, and
one day said, "Torquato, I give you the laurel, that it may receive as
much honor from you as it has conferred upon them who have worn it
before you." To give to this solemnity greater splendor, it was
delayed till April 25, 1595; but during the winter Tasso's health
became worse. Feeling that his end was nigh, he begged to be removed
to the convent of St. Onofrio, where he was carried off by fever on
the very day appointed for his coronation. His corpse was interred the
same evening in the church of the monastery, according to his will;
and his tomb was covered with a plain stone, on which, ten years
after, Manso, his friend and admirer, caused this simple epitaph to be
engraved
--Hic Jacet Torquatus Tasso.
CERVANTES
By JOSEPH FORSTER
(1547-1616)
[Illustration: Cervantes.]