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CHAUCER FOR CHILDREN




KEY TO THE COVER.


The 1st Arch contains a glimpse of Palamon and Arcite fighting
desperately, yet wounded oftener and sharplier by Love's arrows than by
each deadly stroke. The ruthless boy aloft showers gaily upon them his
poisoned shafts.

The 2nd contains Aurelius and Dorigen--that loving wife left on Breton
shores, who was so nearly caught in the trap she set for herself. Aurelius
offers her his heart aflame. It is true his attitude is humble, but she is
utterly in his power--she cannot get away whilst he is kneeling on her
dress.

The 3rd represents the Summoner led away, but this time neither to profit
nor to pleasure, by his horned companion. The wicked spirit holds the
reins of both horses in his hand, and the Summoner already quakes in
anticipation of what is in store for him.

The 4th contains the three rioters. The emblem of that Death they sought
so wantonly hangs over their heads; the reward of sin is not far off.

The 5th Arch is too much concealed by the lock to do more than suggest one
of Griselda's babes.

The KEY, from which the book takes its name, we trust may unlock the too
little known treasures of the first of English poets. The _Daisy_, symbol
for all time both of Chaucer and of children, and thus curiously fitted to
be the connecting link between them, may point the way to lessons fairer
than flowers in stories as simple as daisies.




_CHAUCER FOR CHILDREN_




Demy 8vo, cloth limp, 2_s._ 6_d._

CHAUCER FOR SCHOOLS.

By MRS. HAWEIS, Author of 'CHAUCER FOR CHILDREN.'

    _This is a copious and judicious selection from Chaucer's Tales, with
    full notes on the history, manners, customs, and language of the
    fourteenth century, with marginal glossary and a literal poetical
    version in modern English in parallel columns with the original
    poetry. Six of the Canterbury Tales are thus presented, in sections of
    from 10 to 200 lines, mingled with prose narrative. 'Chaucer for
    Schools' is issued to meet a widely-expressed want, and is especially
    adapted for class instruction. It may be profitably studied in
    connection with the maps and illustrations of 'Chaucer for Children.'_

'We hail with pleasure the appearance of Mrs. Haweis's "Chaucer for
Schools." Her account of "Chaucer the Tale-teller" is certainly the
pleasantest, chattiest, and at the same time one of the soundest
descriptions of the old master, his life and works and general
surroundings, that have ever been written. The chapter cannot be too
highly praised.'--ACADEMY.

'The authoress is in such felicitous harmony with her task, that the young
student, who in this way first makes acquaintance with Chaucer, may well
through life ever after associate Mrs. Haweis with the rare productions of
the father of English poetry.'--SCHOOL-BOARD CHRONICLE.

'Unmistakably presents the best means yet provided of introducing young
pupils to the study of our first great poet.'--SCOTSMAN.

'In her "Chaucer for Schools" Mrs. Haweis has prepared a great assistance
for boys and girls who have to make the acquaintance of the poet. Even
grown people, who like their reading made easy for them, will find the
book a pleasant companion.'--GUARDIAN.

'The subject has been dealt with in such a full and comprehensive way,
that the book must be commended to everyone whose study of early English
poetry has been neglected.'--DAILY CHRONICLE.

'We venture to think that this happy idea will attract to the study of
Chaucer not a few children of a larger growth, who have found Chaucer to
be very hard reading, even with the help of a glossary and copious notes.
Mrs. Haweis's book displays throughout most excellent and patient
workmanship, and it cannot fail to induce many to make themselves more
fully acquainted with the writings of the father of English
literature.'--ECHO.

'The book is a mine of poetic beauty and most scholarly explanation, which
deserves a place on the shelves of every school library.'--SCHOOL
NEWSPAPER.

'For those who have yet to make the acquaintance of the sweet and quaint
singer, there could not well be a better book than this. Mrs. Haweis is,
of course, an enthusiast, and her enthusiasm is contagious. Her volume
ought to be included in all lists of school books--at least, in schools
where boys and girls are supposed to be laying the foundations of a
liberal education.'--LITERARY WORLD.

'Mrs. Haweis has, by her "Chaucer for Schools," rendered invaluable
assistance to those who are anxious to promote the study of English
literature in our higher and middle-grade schools.... Although this
edition of Chaucer has been expressly prepared for school use, it will be
of great service to many adult readers.'--SCHOOL GUARDIAN.


CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W.




[Illustration: MINE HOST ASSEMBLING THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS.

KNIGHT. SQUIRE. BOY. WIFE OF BATH. PRIORESS. CHAUCER (A CLERK). FRIAR.
MINE HOST. MONK. SUMMONER. PARDONER. SECOND NUN. FRANKLIN.]




  CHAUCER FOR CHILDREN

  A Golden Key


  BY MRS. H. R. HAWEIS


  _ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT  PICTURES AND NUMEROUS WOODCUTS
  BY THE AUTHOR_


  [Illustration: 'Doth now your devoir, yonge knightes proude!']


  A New Edition, Revised.


  London
  CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
  1882




[Illustration]

CHIEFLY FOR THE USE AND PLEASURE OF MY LITTLE LIONEL, FOR WHOM I FELT THE
NEED OF SOME BOOK OF THE KIND, I HAVE ARRANGED AND ILLUSTRATED THIS
CHAUCER STORY-BOOK.




CONTENTS


  FOREWORDS TO THE SECOND EDITION                     ix

  FOREWORDS                                           xi

  CHAUCER THE TALE-TELLER                              1

  CANTERBURY TALES:--
    CHAUCER'S PILGRIMS                                17
    CHAUCER'S PROLOGUE                                18
    THE KNIGHT'S TALE                                 34
    THE FRIAR'S TALE                                  57
    THE CLERK'S TALE                                  65
    THE FRANKLIN'S TALE                               84
    THE PARDONER'S TALE                               92

  MINOR POEMS:--
    COMPLAINT OF CHAUCER TO HIS PURSE                100
    TWO RONDEAUX                                     101
    VIRELAI                                          102
    GOOD COUNSEL OF CHAUCER                          104

  NOTES ON THE PICTURES                              107




List of Illustrations.


 PICTURES.

                                                    PAGE

     I. PILGRIMS STARTING                 _Frontispiece_

    II. DINNER IN THE OLDEN TIME          _To face_    2

   III. LADY CROSSING THE STREET              "        6

    IV. FAIR EMELYE                           "       37

     V. GRISELDA'S MARRIAGE                   "       69

    VI. GRISELDA'S BEREAVEMENT                "       72

   VII. DORIGEN AND AURELIUS                  "       86

  VIII. THE RIOTER                            "       97

        CHAUCER'S PORTRAIT                    "        3


WOODCUTS.

                                                    PAGE

       I. TOURNAMENT                        _Title-page_

      II. TABLE                                        2

     III. HEAD-DRESSES                                 2

      IV. MAPS OF OLD AND MODERN LONDON     _To face_  4

       V. LADIES' HEAD-DRESSES                         5

      VI. SHOE                                         6

     VII. JOHN OF GAUNT                                7

    VIII. SHIP                                         8

      IX. STYLUS                                      10

       X. THE KNIGHT                                  19

      XI. THE SQUIRE                                  20

     XII. THE YEOMAN                                  21

    XIII. THE PRIORESS                                22

     XIV. THE MONK                                    24

      XV. THE FRIAR                                   25

     XVI. THE MERCHANT                                26

    XVII. THE CLERK                                   27

   XVIII. THE SERJEANT-OF-LAW                         28

     XIX. THE FRANKLIN                                28

      XX. TABLE DORMANT                               28

     XXI. THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC                        29

    XXII. THE WIFE OF BATH                            29

   XXIII. THE PARSON                                  30

    XXIV. THE PLOUGHMAN                               31

     XXV. THE SUMMONER                                31

    XXVI. THE PARDONER                                31

   XXVII. MINE HOST                                   32

  XXVIII., XXIX. KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR                    48




FOREWORDS TO THE SECOND EDITION.


In revising _Chaucer for Children_ for a New Edition, I have fully availed
myself of the help and counsel of my numerous reviewers and
correspondents, without weighting the book, which is really designed for
children, with a number of new facts, and theories springing from the new
facts, such as I have incorporated in my Book for older readers, _Chaucer
for Schools_.

Curious discoveries are still being made, and will continue to be, thanks
to the labours of men like Mr. F. J. Furnivall, and many other able and
industrious scholars, encouraged by the steadily increasing public
interest in Chaucer.

I must express my sincere thanks and gratification for the reception this
book has met with from the press generally, and from many eminent critics
in particular; and last, not least, from those to whom I devoted my
pleasant toil, the children of England.

M. E. HAWEIS.




FOREWORDS.


To the Mother.

A Chaucer for Children may seem to some an impossible story-book, but it
is one which I have been encouraged to put together by noticing how
quickly my own little boy learned and understood fragments of early
English poetry. I believe that if they had the chance, many other children
would do the same.

I think that much of the construction and pronunciation of old English
which seems stiff and obscure to grown up people, appears easy to
children, whose crude language is in many ways its counterpart.

The narrative in early English poetry is almost always very simply and
clearly expressed, with the same kind of repetition of facts and names
which, as every mother knows, is what children most require in
story-telling. The emphasis[1] which the final E gives to many words is
another thing which helps to impress the sentences on the memory, the
sense being often shorter than the sound.

It seems but natural that every English child should know something of one
who left so deep an impression on his age, and on the English tongue, that
he has been called by Occleve "the finder of our fair language." For in
his day there was actually no _national_ language, no _national_
literature, English consisting of so many dialects, each having its own
literature intelligible to comparatively few; and the Court and educated
classes still adhering greatly to Norman-French for both speaking and
writing. Chaucer, who wrote for the people, chose the best form of
English, which was that spoken at Court, at a time when English was
regaining supremacy over French; and the form he adopted laid the
foundation of our present National Tongue.

Chaucer is, moreover, a thoroughly religious poet, all his merriest
stories having a fair moral; even those which are too coarse for modern
taste are rather _naive_ than injurious; and his pages breathe a genuine
faith in God, and a passionate sense of the beauty and harmony of the
divine work. The selections I have made are some of the most beautiful
portions of Chaucer's most beautiful tales.

I believe that some knowledge of, or at least interest in, the domestic
life and manners of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, would materially
help young children in their reading of English history. The political
life would often be interpreted by the domestic life, and much of that
time which to a child's mind forms the _dryest_ portion of history,
because so unknown, would then stand out as it really was, glorious and
fascinating in its vigour and vivacity, its enthusiasm, and love of beauty
and bravery. There is no clearer or safer exponent of the life of the 14th
century, as far as he describes it, than Geoffrey Chaucer.

As to the difficulties of understanding Chaucer, they have been greatly
overstated. An occasional reference to a glossary is all that is
requisite; and, with a little attention to a very simple general rule,
anybody with moderate intelligence and an ear for musical rhythm can enjoy
the lines.

In the first place, it must be borne in mind that the _E_ at the end of
the old English words was usually a syllable, and must be sounded, as
_Aprille_, _swoote_, &c.

Note, then, that Chaucer is always _rhythmical_. Hardly ever is his rhythm
a shade wrong, and therefore, roughly speaking, _if you pronounce the
words so as to preserve the rhythm_ all will be well. When the final _e_
must be sounded in order to make the rhythm right, sound it, but where it
is not needed leave it mute.[2]

Thus:--in the opening lines--

  Whan that | _April_ | _le_ with | his _schowr_ | _es_ swoote     when,
                                                                   showers,
                                                                     sweet
  The drought | of Marche | hath per | ced to | the roote          pierced,
                                                                     root
  And bath | ud eve | ry veyne | in swich | licour                 such,
                                                                     liquor
  Of whiche | vertue | engen | dred is | the flour. (_Prologue._)  flower

You see that in those words which I have put in italics the final E must
be sounded slightly, for the rhythm's sake.

  And _sma_ | _le fow_ | _les_ ma | ken me | lodie                 small
                                                                     birds
                                                                     make
  That sle | pen al | the night | with o | pen yhe. (_Prologue._)  sleep,
                                                                     all

Again, to quote at random--

  The bu | sy _lark_ | _e_ mess | ager | of day,           lark, messenger
  Salu  | eth in | hire song | the _mor_ | _we_ gray.      saluteth, her,
                                                             morning

    (_Knight's Tale._)

  Ful _long_ | _e_ wern | his leg | gus, and | ful lene;        legs, lean
  Al like | a staff | ther was | no calf | y-sene. (_Prologue--'Reve.'_)

or in Chaucer's exquisite greeting of the daisy--

  Knelyng | alwey | til it | unclo | sed was                   always
  Upon | the _sma_ | _le_, _sof_ | _te_, _swo_ | _te_ gras.    small, soft,
                                                                 sweet

    (_Legend of Good Women._)

How much of the beauty and natural swing of Chaucer's poetry is lost by
translation into modern English, is but too clear when that beauty is once
perceived; but I thought some modernization of the old lines would help
the child to catch the sense of the original more readily: for my own
rendering, I can only make the apology that when I commenced my work I did
not know it would be impossible to procure suitable modernized versions by
eminent poets. Finding that unattainable, I merely endeavoured to render
the old version in modern English as closely as was compatible with sense,
and the simplicity needful for a child's mind; and I do not in any degree
pretend to have rendered it in poetry.

The beauty of such passages as the death of Arcite is too delicate and
evanescent to bear rough handling. But I may here quote some of the lines
as an example of the importance of the final _e_ in emphasizing certain
words with an almost solemn music.

  And with | that word | his _spech_ | _e fail_ | _e_ gan;   speech, fail
  For fro | his feete | up to | his brest | was come
  The cold | of deth | that hadde | him o | ver nome;        overtaken
  And yet | moreo | ver in | his _ar_ | _mes_ twoo           now, arms
  The vi | tal strength | is lost, | and al | agoo.          gone
  Only | the in | tellect, | withou | ten more,              without
  That dwel | led in | his _her_ | _te_ sik | and sore,      heart, sick
  Gan _fayl_ | _e_ when | the _her_ | _te felt_ | _e_ deth.  began to fail,
                                                               felt death

    (_Knight's Tale._)

There is hardly anything finer than Chaucer's version of the story of
these passionate young men, up to the touching close of Arcite's accident
and the beautiful patience of death. In life nothing would have reconciled
the almost animal fury of the rivals, but at the last such a resignation
comes to Arcite that he gives up Emelye to Palamon with a sublime effort
of self-sacrifice. Throughout the whole of the Knight's Tale sounds as of
rich organ music seem to peal from the page; throughout the Clerk's Tale
one seems to hear strains of infinite sadness echoing the strange outrages
imposed on patient Grizel. But without attention to the rhythm half the
grace and music is lost, and therefore it is all-important that the child
be properly taught to preserve it.

I have adhered generally to Morris's text (1866), being both good and
popular,[3] only checking it by his Clarendon Press edition, and by
Tyrwhitt, Skeat, Bell, &c., when I conceive force is gained, and I have
added a running glossary of such words as are not immediately clear, on a
level with the line, to disperse any lingering difficulty.

In the pictures I have been careful to preserve the right costumes,
colours, and surroundings, for which I have resorted to the MSS. of the
time, knowing that a child's mind, unaided by the eye, fails to realize
half of what comes through the ear. Children may be encouraged to verify
these costumes in the figures upon many tombs and stalls, &c., in old
churches, and in old pictures.

In conclusion I must offer my sincere and hearty thanks to many friends
for their advice, assistance, and encouragement during my work; amongst
them, Mr. A. J. Ellis, Mr. F. J. Furnivall, and Mr. Calderon.

Whatever may be the shortcomings of the book, I cannot but hope that many
little ones, while listening to Chaucer's Tales, will soon begin to be
interested in the picturesque life of the middle ages, and may thus be led
to study and appreciate 'The English Homer'[4] by the pages I have written
for my own little boy.


ACCENT OF CH