Chaucer had eminently the habits of a literary man and a scholar.
There were never any times so stirring that there were not to be
found some sedentary still. He was surrounded by the din of
arms. The battles of Hallidon Hill and Neville's Cross, and the
still more memorable battles of Cressy and Poictiers, were fought
in his youth; but these did not concern our poet much, Wickliffe
and his reform much more. He regarded himself always as one
privileged to sit and converse with books. He helped to
establish the literary class. His character as one of the
fathers of the English language would alone make his works
important, even those which have little poetical merit. He was
as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous
Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet
attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar
service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy. If
Greek sufficeth for Greek, and Arabic for Arabian, and Hebrew for
Jew, and Latin for Latin, then English shall suffice for him, for
any of these will serve to teach truth "right as divers pathes
leaden divers folke the right waye to Rome.
Pages:
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556