O Deeth! thou didest not harm singuler In slaghtre of him, but al this land it smerteth! But nathelees, yit hast thou no powèr His name slee; his hy vertu asterteth Unslayn fro thee, which ay us lyfly herteth With bokes of his ornat endyting, That is to al this land enlumining....
My dere maister--God his soule quyte-- and fader, Chaucer, fayn wolde han me taught; But I was dul, and lernede right naught[180].
Allas! my worthy maister honorable, This landes verray tresor and richesse! Deeth, by thy deeth, hath harm irreparable Unto us doon; hir vengeable duresse Despoiled hath this land of the swetnesse Of rethoryk; for unto[181] Tullius Was never man so lyk amonges us.
Also who was heyr[182] in philosophye To Aristotle, in our tonge, but thou? The steppes of Virgyle in poesye Thou folwedest eek, men wot wel y-now. That combre-world, that thee (my maister) slow-- Wolde I slayn werë--Deeth, was to hastyf To renne on thee, and reve thee thy lyf....
She mighte han taried hir vengeance a whyle Til that som man had egal to thee be; Nay, lat be that! she knew wel that this yle May never man forth bringe lyk to thee, And hir offyce nedes do mot she: God bad hir so, I truste as for the beste; O maister, maister, God thy soule reste!
(3) From the same, p. 179, stanzas 712-4:--
The firste finder of our fair langage Hath seyd in caas semblable, and othere mo, So hyly wel, that it is my dotage For to expresse or touche any of tho. Allas! my fader fro the worlde is go, My worthy maister Chaucer, him I mene: Be thou advóket for him, hevenes quene?
As thou wel knowest, O blessèd virgyne, With loving herte and hy devocioun In thyn honour he wroot ful many a lyne. O, now thy help and thy promocioun! To God, thy Sonë, mak a mocioun How he thy servaunt was, mayden Marië, And lat his lovë floure and fructifyë.
Al-thogh his lyf be queynt, the résemblaunce Of him hath in me so fresh lyflinesse That, to putte othere men in rémembraunce Of his persone, I have heer his lyknesse Do makë, to this ende, in sothfastnesse, That they, that have of him lest thought and minde, By this peynturë may ageyn him finde.'
Here is given, in the margin of the MS., the famous portrait of Chaucer which is believed to be the best, and probably the only one that can be accepted as authentic. A copy of it is prefixed to the present volume, and to Furnivall's Trial-Forewords, Chaucer Soc., 1871; and an enlarged copy accompanies the Life-Records of Chaucer, part 2. It is thus described by Sir H. Nicolas:--'The figure, which is half-length, has a back-ground of green tapestry. He is represented with grey hair and beard, which is biforked; he wears a dark-coloured dress and hood; his right hand is extended, and in his left he holds a string of beads. From his vest a black case is suspended, which appears to contain a knife, or possibly a 'penner,' or pen-case[183]. The expression of the countenance is intelligent; but the fire of the eye seems quenched, and evident marks of advanced age appear on the countenance.' Hoccleve did not paint this portrait himself, as is often erroneously said; he 'leet do make it,' i. e. had it made. It thus became the business of the scribe, and the portraits in different copies of Hoccleve's works vary accordingly. There is a full-length portrait in MS. Reg. 17 D. vi, marked as 'Chaucers ymage'; and another in a MS. copy once in the possession of Mr. Tyson, which was engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792, vol. lxii. p. 614; perhaps the latter is the copy which is now MS. Phillipps 1099. A representation of Chaucer on horseback, as one of the pilgrims, occurs in the Ellesmere MS.; an engraving of it appears as a frontispiece to Todd's Illustrations of Chaucer. A small full-length picture of Chaucer occurs in the initial letter of the Canterbury Tales, in MS. Lansdowne 851. Other portraits, such as that in MS. Addit. (or Sloane) 5141, the painting upon wood in the Bodleian Library, and the like, are of much later date, and cannot pretend to any authenticity.