Upon a book in cloistre alway to pore,

Or swinken with his hondes, and laboure

As Austin bit ? how shal the world be served ?
Let Austin have his swink to him reserved.
Therefore he was a prickasour" a right;
Greihoundes he hadde as swift as foul of flight:
Of pricking and of hunting for the hare

Was all his lust, for no cost wolde he spare."

Instead of being clothed in coarse hair-cloth, and showing signs of his vigorous mortification of a sinful body, the poet says:—

"I saw his sleves purfiled at the hond

With gris,' and that the finest of the lond.
And for to fasten his hood under his chinne
He hadde of gold ywrought a curious pinne:
A love-knotte in the greater end ther was.
His hed was bald and shone as any glass,
And eke his face, as it had been anoint.
He was a lord full fat and in good point.
His eyen stepe and rolling in his hed,
That stemed as a forneis of a led,
His boutes souple, his hors in gret estat,
Now certainly he was a fayre prelat.
He was not pale as a forpined' gost

A fat swan he loved best of any rost."

The most disgusting characters in Chaucer's picture of his times, are this ungodly and greasy monk, and his compeers the FRERE and the PARDONERE. In position they sink far below the vulgar Miller; who, though licentious and quarrelsome, was yet

1 Bid.

3 Edged with fur or minever.

A hard rider.

4 Wasted.

a

stout carle for the nones," and relieved his ruffianly ferocity by manliness and blunt wit. Hiding his lasciviousness under the appearance of a "ful solempne man," the Frere ravaged the country as a confessor to stupid men and simple women; fleecing the pockets of the one and debasing the honor of the other.

"In all the ordres four is non that can

So moche of daliance and fayre langage.
Ful swetely herde he confession

And plesant was his absolution.

He was an esy man to give penance
There as he wiste to han a good pitance.

His tippet was ay farsed' ful of knives
And pinnes for to given fayre wives.
And certainly he hadde a merry note,
Wel coude he singe and plaien on a rote.
And in his harping, whan that he hadde songe,
His eyen twinkled in his hed aright,

As don the sterres in a frosty night.

Thereto he strong was as a champioun,

And knew wel the tavernes in every toune,
And every hosteler and gay tapstere,
Better than a lazar or a beggere,

For unto swiche a worthy man as he
Accordeth naught, as by his faculte
To haven with sike lazars acquaintance.

It is not honest, it may not avance."

Equally caustic and humorous is his ridicule of the PARDONERE. His hair is yellow and smooth as flax; and it overspreads his shoulders with curls. As he rode thus, with his hood off and "trussed up in his wallet," being also "bret-ful of pardon, come from Rome all hote."

1 Stuffed.

"Ful loude he sang, Come hither, love, to me.
A vois he hadde, as small as hath a gote,

No berd hadde he, ne never non shulde have,
As smoothe it was as it were newe shave;

I trow he were a gelding or a mare."

After thus artfully making us aware of his lecherous disposition and his effeminate appearance, the poet displays the wares in which this sleek sinner dealt, and with which it was his custom (and perhaps his boast), to make the "parson and the people his apes."

"In his mail he hadde a pilwebere,'

Which, as he saide, was our ladies veil :
He saide, he hadde a gobbet of the seyl
Thatte Seint Peter had, whan that he went
Upon the see, till Jesu Crist him hent,'
He had a crois of laton* ful of stones,

And in a glas he hadde pigges bones.

But with these relikes, whanne that he fond
A poure persone dwelling up on land

Upon a day he gat him more monie

Than that the parsone gat in monethes tweie."

Of such as these were the religious orders composed, when Chaucer, and Wickliffe, and Longland, in a spirit of honest patriotism, determined to expose their vile courses. To England, they were like the plague of lice, which of old covered all the borders of Egypt. Swarming over the land in countless numbers, "as thick as motes in the sonne-beme," hostile to each other it is true, but leagued together in fastening their superstitions and deceptions

Covering of a pillow, or pillow-case. • Saved.

2 Morsel or bit.

A cross of brass metal.

upon the people-it might truly be said of these reptiles, that they came up into the houses, and into the bed-chambers, and upon the beds, and into the houses of the servants, and upon the people." Or, they were like the lean kine in Pharaoh's dream, that destroyed those that were "well favored and fat-fleshed." For, these foreign mendicants were first introduced, in order to correct the licentiousness, dissipation and negligence of the regular monastics whom, indeed, they soon eradicated, after having adopted their vices; which were also engrafted upon ambition the most unbounded, arrogance the most intolerable, and the most degraded superstitions. They also became an intolerable burthen to the state-in affairs of which they presumed to meddle and direct— since they were endowed by the Pope, among other immunities, with the privilege of travelling every where without liability to charge, and were absolved from all municipal taxes, had access to all ranks, and were the accredited confessors, the commissioned instructors of the youth and the women of the land. Even the garb of religion was thrown off unblushingly; that respect to appearances which policy has usually required to be observed, was disregarded. The most palpable frauds and artifices were used in order to enrich and enlarge the various convents; and the most licentious desires, the most damnable crimes were hidden under the flimsy coverings of the grey, white, or black friars.' As was perfectly natural, these mendicants were the creatures of the Pope, and stubbornly maintained his supremacy in opposition to the authority of the prelates of the Anglican Church. Hence they become equally obnoxious to the patriot and the Christian.

We should not apply the corrupt practices of these infamous

1 A century and three quarters before Chaucer's time, the mendicant orders had begun to be scandalized by the intolerable licentiousness of individuals of their class. And a curious specimen of poetical raillery, addressed against them, in the twelfth century, is yet extant, and is quoted in the appendix.

beings to the native rural clergy; who, several centuries earlier, having been despoiled of the licentiousness which prevailed among them, at the same time with their wealth and luxury, had in the time of Chaucer become generally a pure and simpleminded class, probably delineated from the life in the character of the "POURE PERSONNE." This noble character, contrasting brightly against the lurid pictures of vice we have been considering, affords a model for imitation to this day. It was appropriated by Dryden-who also amended and enlarged without improving it-to the celebrated Bishop Ken.

1 Give.

"He was a poure Personne of a town:

But rich he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,

That Criste's gospel trewely wolde preche.
Benigne he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitie full patient:

Ful loth were him to cursen for his tithes,
But rather wolde he yeven' out of doute,
Unto his poure parishens' about,

Of his offering, and eke of his substance.
Wide was his parish, and houses far asonder,
But he ne left nought for no rain ne thonder,
In sikenesse and in mischief to visite,
The ferrest in his parish, moche and lite,"
Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf.
This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf,
That first he wrought, and afterward he taught.
Out of the gospel he the wordes caught,

And this figure he added yet thereto,
That if gold ruste, what shuld iron do?

2 Parishioners.

8 Great and small