“His eyes twinkled in his heed aright,
  As doon the sterres in the frosty night.”

Our eyes and ears distinctly perceive the jolly Monk, as he canters along:—­

  “And, whan he rood, men might his brydel here
  Ginglen in a whistling wind as clere,
  And eek as loude as dooth the chapel-belle.”

II.  Chaucer’s pervasive, sympathetic humor is especially characteristic.  We can see him looking with twinkling eyes at the Miller, “tolling thrice”; at the Monk, “full fat and in good point,” hunting with his greyhounds, “swift as fowl in flight,” or smiling before a fat roast swan; at the Squire, keeping the nightingale company; at the Doctor, prescribing the rules of astrology.  The Nun feels a touch of his humor:—­

  “Ful wel she song the service divyne,
  Entuned in hir nose ful semely.”

Of the lawyer, he says:—­

  “No-wher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
  And yet he semed bisier than he was.”

Sometimes Chaucer’s humor is so delicate as to be lost on those who are not quick-witted.  Lowell instances the case of the Friar, who, “before setting himself softly down, drives away the cat,” and adds what is true only of those who have acute understanding:  “We know, without need of more words, that he has chosen the snuggest corner.”

His humor is often a graceful cloak for his serious philosophy of existence.  The humor in the Prologue does not impair its worth to the student of fourteenth-century life.

III.  Although Chaucer’s humor and excellence in lighter vein are such marked characteristics, we must not forget his serious qualities; for he has the Saxon seriousness as well as the Norman airiness.  As he looks over the struggling world, he says with a sympathetic heart:—­

  “Infinite been the sorwes and the teres
  Of olde folk, and folk of tendre yeres."[35]

In like vein, we have:—­

  “This world nis but a thurghfare ful of wo,
  And we ben pilgrimes, passinge to and fro;
  Deeth is an ende of every worldly sore."[36]

  “Her nis non hoom, her nis but wildernesse. 
  Forthe, pylgrime, forthe! forthe, beste out of thi stal! 
  Knowe thi contree, look up, thank God of al!"[37]

The finest character in the company is that of the Parish Priest, who attends to his flock like a good Samaritan:—­

  “But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
  He taughte, and first he folwed it him-selve.”

IV.  The largeness of his view of human nature is remarkable.  Some poets, either intentionally or unintentionally, paint one type of men accurately and distort all the rest.  Chaucer impartially portrays the highest as well as the lowest, and the honest man as well as the hypocrite.  The pictures of the roguish Friar and the self-denying Parish Priest, the Oxford Scholar and the Miller, the Physician and the Shipman, are painted with equal fidelity to life.  In the breadth and kindliness of his view of life, Chaucer is a worthy predecessor of Shakespeare.  Dryden’s verdict on Chaucer’s poetry is:  “Here is God’s plenty.”