him, I am much inclined to fuppofe that he was the first introducer of it into our language. It had long been practifed in France, in the northern as well as the fouthern provinces; and in Italy, within the last fifty years before Chaucer wrote, it had been cultivated with the greatest affidaity and fuccefs, in preference to every other metre, by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccace. When we reflect that two of Chaucer's juvenile productions, the Palamon and Arcite and the Troilus, were in a manner tranflated from the Thefeida and the Filoftrato of Beccace (62), both written in the common majority of them, as they are printed, end in e feminine, and confequently, according to my hypothefis, have an elevently fyllable. I obferve too that several more ought to have been printed as ending with an e feminine, but whether the omilion of it thould be imputed to the defectiveness of the mff. or to the negligence of the collator I cannot be certain. See the concluding note of the Fay, &c. p. 170. (62) It is fo little a while fince the world has been informed that the Palamon and Arcite of Chaucer was taken from the Thefeida of Boccace, that it would not have been furprising if another century had elapsed without our knowing that our countryman had also borrowed his 'Troilus from the Filoftrato of the fame author, as the Filoftrato is more fcarce, and much lefs famous, even in Italy than the Thefeida. The first fufpi cion which Ientertained of this theft was from reading the title of the Filoftrato at large in Saxii Hift. Lit. Typog. Mediolan. ad an. 1498; and I afterwards found in Montfaucon's Bibl. mỹ. t. ii. p. 793, among the King of France's mff. one with this title, Philoftrato, dell'amorcfe fatiche di Troilo per Gio. Boccaccio, [See alfo Quad.t. vi. p. 473.3 I had juft employed a person to procure me fome account of this mf. from Paris when I had the good fortune to meet with a printed copy in the very curious collection of the Rev. Mr. Crofts. The title is Il Fylufirato, che traЯa delo innamoramento de Troylo e Gryfeida ; et de molte al are infulte battaglie. Impresso nella inclita cita de Milano per Italian hendecafyllable verfe, it cannot but appear extremely probable that his metre alfo was copied magiftro Uldericho Scinzenzeler nell anno m, cccc, lxxxxviii, a di xxvii di mefe de Septembre, in 40. By the favour of the learned owner (who is as free in the communication as he has been zealous in the collection of his literary treasures) I had foon an opportunity of fatisfying myself that Chaucer was to the full as much obliged to Boccace in his Troilus as in his Knighte's Tale.-The doubts which Quadrio mentions [t. vi. p. 474,] whether the Filoftrato was really a work of Boccace, are fufficiently answered (as he obferves) by the concurring teflimony of feveral ancient mff, which exprefsly name him as the author: and it may be remarked that Boccace himself, in his Decameron, has made the fame honourable mention of this poem as of the Thefeida, though without acknowledging either for his own. In the introduction to the fixth day he fays that" Dioneo infieme con Lauretta di Troilo et di Crefcida "cominciarono cantare," just as afterwards, in the conclufion of the feventh day, we are told that the fame "Dioneo et "la Fiammetta gran pezza cantarono infieme d'Arcita et di "Palemone."- -It may be not improper here to obferve further that a third poem, which is mentioned in the Deca meron in the fame manner with the Thefeida and the Filoflrato, was also probably one of Boccace's own compofitions. In the conclufion of the third day it is faid, that " Dioneo et "la Fiammetta cominciarono a contare di Mejer Guiglielino "et della dama del vergiu." There is an old French romance upon this fubject, as I apprehend, in mf. Bodl. 2386; it is entitled Le Romant de la Chafielaine du Vergy, and begins thus; Une maniere de gens font Qui d'eft re lovaulx femblant font- Et de la dame du Vergy. The ftory is the fame in the main with that of the 70th novel in the Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre, from which I fuppofe the more modern Hiftoire de la Comteffe du Vergi, Par. from the fame original; and yet I cannot find that the form of his stanza in the Troilus (confifting of feven verfes) was ever used by Boccace, though it is to be met with among the poems of the King of Navarre and of the Provencal rhymers (63). Whichever 4722, is taken.I cannot find that any Italian poem upon this fubject is now extant; but the unaccountable neglect with which the poetry of Boccace has been long treated by thofe very countrymen of his who idolize his profe makes the fuppofition, I think, not improbable that a small piece of this fort may have been fuffered to perith, or even to lurk at this day, unpublished and unnoticed in some Italian library. (63) See Poefies du Roi de Navarre, Chanf. xvi, xviii, xxviij xxxiii, lviii. The only difference' is that the two last verses, which in Chaucer's ftanza form a distinct couplet, are made by Thibaut to rhyme with the firft and third. In a mf. of Proven eal poetry (in the collection of the Rev. Mr. Crofts) I find one piece by Folket de Marfeilles (who died about 1213) in which the ftanza is formed exactly agreeable to Chaucer's.This Hanza of feven verfes being firft introduced, I apprehend, by Chaucer, was long the favourite measure of the poets who fucceeded him: in the time of Gafcoigne it had acquired the name of Rithme royall; and furely," fays he, "it is a royall "kinde of verte, ferving beft for grave discourses.” [Infruction concerning the making of Verse, signature U 1 b.] Rowley, who wrote in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV. with an uncommon harmony of numbers, has made the laft verfe of this stanza an alexandrine, and fo has Milton in some of his juvenile compofitions. As the Thefeida and the Filoftrato of Boccace are both written in the octave flanza, of which he is often though improperly called the inventor, [fee Pafquier, Recherches, 1. vii. c. 3.] it feems extraordinary that Chaucer fhould never have adopted that ftanza; even when he uses a Aanza of eight verfes (as in The Monke's Tale) it is conflituted very differently from the Italian octave. Lobferve, by the way, that Chaucer's Ranza of eight verfes, with the addition of an alexandrine, is the ftanza in which Spenfer has compofed his Faery Queen. he shall be supposed to have followed, whether the French or Italians, it is certain that he could not want in either language a number of models of correct and harmonious Verfification, and the only queftion wil! be, whether he had ability and industry enough to imitate that part of their excellency? $10. In difcuffing this question we fhould always have in mind that the correctnefs and harmony of an English verfe depends entirely upon its being com potd of a certain number of fyllables, and its having the accents of thofe fyllables properly placed. In or der therefore to form any judgment of the Verfifica→ tion of Chaucer, it is neceflary that we fhould know the fyllabical value (if I may ufe the expreffion) of his words, and the accentual value of his fyllables, as they were commonly pronounced (64) in his time; for without that knowledge it is not more probable that we should determine juftly upon the exactnefs of his metres, than that we fhould be able to caft up rightly an account ftated in coins of a former age of whofe current rates and denominations we are totally ignorant. SII. Let us confider a moment how a fenfible eritick in the Auguftan age would have proceeded if (64) Monf. L'Eveque de la Ravaliere, in his difcourfe de l'ancienneté des Chanfons Francoifes, prefixed to the Poëfies du Roi de Navarre, has the fame obfervation with respect to the old French poets, "Leur Poëfie," fays he, p. 227, 66 imarque "combien ils respectoint cette règle [of exact rhyming,] mais "pour en juger aujourdhui, ainfi que de la mesure de leurs "Vers, il faut prononcer les mots comme eux.” He is vindicating the ancient French bards from an unjust and igmorane cenfure of Boileau in his Art. Poet. Chant. i.; so that it fhould feem a great poet is not of course a judicious antiquary. See above, n. 4, a cenfure of Chaucer's verfe by our Dryden, who was certainly a great poet. called upon to examine a work of Ennius (65.). When he found that a great proportion of the verses were ftrictly conformable to the ordinary rules of metre, he would probably not fcruple to conclude that fuch a conformity must have been produced by art and defign, and not by mere chance. On the other hand, when he found that in fome verfes the number of feet, to appearance, was either deficient or redundant, that in others the feet were feemingly compofed of too few or too many fyllables, of fhort fyllables in the place of long, or of long in the place of fhort, he would not, I think, immediately condemn the old bard as having all at once forgotten the fundamental principles of his art, or as having wilfully or negligently deviated from them; he would first, I prefume, inquire whether all thefe irregularities were in the genuine text of his author, or only the miftakes of copyifts; he would inquire further, by comparing the genuine text with other contemporary writings and monuments, whether many things which appeared irregular were not in truth fufficiently regular, either juftified by the conftant practice or ex (65) Though Ennius died rot an hundred and fifty years before what may be called the age of Auguítus, his language and verfification are fo different from thofe of Ovid (for infance) that I much quetion whether his poems were better relished, or even understood, by the vulgar Romans in that age than the Works of Chaucer are now by the generality of readers. However a great many of his verfes are as fimoothly turned as thofe of Ovid himfelt, and it is well known that Virgil has not fcrupled to incorporate feveral of them into his divine Æneid. At the fame time whoever cafts an eye over the Fragments of his Annals, as collected by Columna, Heffelius, and others, will find frequent examples of all the feeming irregularities alluded to in the text. |