toms, the different ways of thinking and of living, the favorite paffions, perfuits, and pleasures of men, appear in no writings fo ftrongly marked, as in the works of the poets in their respective ages; fo that in these compofitions, the hiftorian, the moralift, the politician, and the philofopher, may, each of them, meet with abundant matter for reflection and obfervation.

POETRY made it's first appearance in Britain, as perhaps in most other countries, in the form of chronicles, intended to perpetuate the deeds both of civil and military heroes, but mostly the latter. Of this fpecies is the chronicle of Robert of Glocefter; and of this fpecies alfo was the song, or ode, which William the Conqueror, and his followers, fung at their landing in this kingdom from Normandy. The mention of which event, will naturally remind us of the check it gave to the native strains of the old British poetry, by an introduction of foreign manners, cuftoms, images, and

language.

language. These ancient strains were, however, fufficiently harsh, dry, and uncouth. And it was to the Italians we owed any thing that could be called poetry: from whom Chaucer copied largely, as they are faid to have done from the bards of Provence; and to which Italians he is perpetually owning his obligations, particularly to Boccace and Petrarch. But Petrarch had great advantages, which Chaucer wanted, not only in the friendship and advice of Boccace, but still more in having found fuch a predeceffor as Dante. In the year 1359, Boccace fent to Petrarch a copy of Dante, whom he called his father, written with his own hand, And it is remarkable, that he accompanied his prefent with an apology for fending this poem to Petrarch, who, it feems, was jealous of Dante, and in the answer speaks coldly of his merits. This circumstance, unobferved by the generality of writers, and even by Fontanini, Crefcembini, and Muratori, is brought forward and related at large, in the third volume, page 507, of the very entertaining

years

Memoirs of the life of Petrarch. In the year 1363, Boccace, driven from Florence by the plague, vifited Petrarch at Venice, and carried with him Leontius Pilatus, of Theffalonica, a man of genius, but of haughty, - rough, and brutal manners; from this fingular man, who perished in a voyage from Conftantinople to Venice, 1365, Petrarch received a Latin tranflation of the Iliad and Odyffey. Muratori, in his 1. book, Della Perfetta Poefia, p. 18, relates, that a very few after the death of Dante, 1321, a moft curious work on the Italiaa poetry, was written by a M. A. di Tempo, of which he had feen a manuscript in the great library at Milan, of the year 1332, and of which this is the title: Incipit Summa Artis Ritmici vulgaris dictaminis. Ritmorum vulgarium feptem funt genera. 1. Eft Sonetus. 2. Ballata. 3. Cantio extenfa. 4. Rotundellus. 5. Mandrialis. 6. Serventefius. 7. Motus confectus. But whatever Chaucer might copy from the Italians, yet the artful and entertaining plan of his Canterbury Tales,

This

was purely original and his own. admirable piece, even exclufive of it's poetry, is highly valuable, as it preferves to us the liveliest and exacteft picture of the manners, cuftoms, characters, and habits of our forefathers, whom he has brought before our eyes acting as on a stage, suitably to their dif ferent orders and employments. With these portraits the drieft antiquary must be delighted; by this plan, he has more judiciously connected these stories which the guests relate, than Boccace has done his novels: whom he has imitated, if not excelled, in the variety of the fubjects of his tales. It is a common miftake, that Chaucer's excellence lay in this manner of treating light and ridiculous fubjects; but whoever will attentively confider the noble poem of Palamon and Arcite, will be convinced that he equally excels in the pathetic and the fublime. It would be matter of curiofity to know with certainty, who was the first author of this interesting tale. It is plain, by a paffage in Boccace, that it was in being before his time. It

has

has been by fome afcribed to a writer almost unknown, called Alanus de Infulis. I have lately met with an elegy in Joannes Secundus occafioned by this Story; it is in his third book, and is thus intitled: *" In Hiftoriam de rebus a Thefeo geftis duorumque rivalium certamine, Gallicis numeris ab illustri quadam Matrona fuaviffime conscriptam." Perhaps this compliment was addreffed to Madam de Scudery, who is faid to have tranflated Chaucer into modern French. Among other instances of vanity, the French are perpetually boasting, that they have been our masters in many of the polite arts, and made earlier improvements in literature. But it may be asked, what cotemporary poet can they name to stand in competition with Chaucer? In carefully examining the curious work of the prefident Fauchet, on the characters of the ancient French poets, I can find none of this age, but barren chroniclers, and harsh romancers in rhime, without the elegance, elevation, invention, or harmony of Chaucer.