The modern reader may spend an hour or two very pleasantly in this old wonderland.  On its literary side the book is remarkable, though a translation, as being the first prose work in modern English having a distinctly literary style and flavor.  Otherwise it is a most interesting commentary on the general culture and credulity of the fourteenth century.

SUMMARY OF THE AGE OF CHAUCER.  The fourteenth century is remarkable historically for the decline of feudalism (organized by the Normans), for the growth of the English national spirit during the wars with France, for the prominence of the House of Commons, and for the growing power of the laboring classes, who had heretofore been in a condition hardly above that of slavery.

The age produced five writers of note, one of whom, Geoffrey Chaucer, is one of the greatest of English writers.  His poetry is remarkable for its variety, its story interest, and its wonderful melody.  Chaucer’s work and Wyclif’s translation of the Bible developed the Midland dialect into the national language of England.

In our study we have noted:  (1) Chaucer, his life and work; his early or French period, in which he translated “The Romance of the Rose” and wrote many minor poems; his middle or Italian period, of which the chief poems are “Troilus and Cressida” and “The Legend of Good Women”; his late or English period, in which he worked at his masterpiece, the famous Canterbury Tales. (2) Langland, the poet and prophet of social reforms.  His chief work is Piers Plowman. (3) Wyclif, the religious reformer, who first translated the gospels into English, and by his translation fixed a common standard of English speech. (4) Mandeville, the alleged traveler, who represents the new English interest in distant lands following the development of foreign trade.  He is famous for Mandeville’s Travels, a book which romances about the wonders to be seen abroad.  The fifth writer of the age is Gower, who wrote in three languages, French, Latin, and English.  His chief English work is the Confessio Amantis, a long poem containing one hundred and twelve tales.  Of these only the “Knight Florent” and two or three others are interesting to a modern reader.

SELECTIONS FOR READING.  Chaucer’s Prologue, the Knight’s Tale, Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Prioress’ Tale, Clerk’s Tale.  These are found, more or less complete, in Standard English Classics, King’s Classics, Riverside Literature Series, etc.  Skeat’s school edition of the Prologue, Knight’s Tale, etc., is especially good, and includes a study of fourteenth-century English.  Miscellaneous poems of Chaucer in Manly’s English Poetry or Ward’s English Poets.  Piers Plowman, in King’s Classics.  Mandeville’s Travels, modernized, in English Classics, and in Cassell’s National Library.

For the advanced student, and as a study of language, compare selections from Wyclif, Chaucer’s prose work, Mandeville, etc., in Manly’s English Prose, or Morris and Skeat’s Specimens of Early English, or Craik’s English Prose Selections.  Selections from Wyclif’s Bible in English Classics Series.