e to insist upon, between Arts and Science, but (notwithstanding an
occasional deprecatory modesty) eagerly sought to familiarise itself
with the achievements of both. In a passage concerning the men of
letters who had found a place in the "House of Fame," he displays not
only an acquaintance with the names of several ancient classics, but
also a keen appreciation, now and then perhaps due to instinct, of
their several characteristics. Elsewhere he shows his interest in
scientific inquiry by references to such matters as the theory of sound
and the Arabic system of numeration; while the Mentor of the poem, the
Eagle, openly boasts his powers of clear scientific demonstration, in
averring that he can speak "lewdly" (i.e. popularly) "to a lewd man."
The poem opens with a very fresh and lively discussion of the question
of dreams in general--a semi-scientific subject which much occupied
Chaucer, and upon which even Pandarus and the wedded couple of the
"Nun's Priest's Tale" expend their philosophy.

Thus, besides giving evidence of considerable information and study,
the "House of Fame" shows Chaucer to have been gifted with much natural
humour. Among its happy touches are the various rewards bestowed by
Fame upon the claimants for her favour, including the ready grant of
evil fame to those who desire it (a bad name, to speak colloquially, is
to be had for the asking; and the wonderful paucity of those who wish
their good works to remain in obscurity and to be their own reward, but
then Chaucer was writing in the Middle Ages. And as pointing in a
direction which the author of the poem was subsequently to follow out,
we may also specially notice the company thronging the House of Rumour:
shipmen and pilgrims, the two most numerous kinds of travellers in
Chaucer's age, fresh from seaport and sepulchre, with scrips brimful of
unauthenticated intelligence. In short, this poem offers in its
details much that is characteristic of its author's genius; while, as a
whole, its abrupt termination notwithstanding, it leaves the impression
of completeness. The allegory, simple and clear in construction,
fulfils the purpose for which it was devised; the conceptions upon
which it is based are neither idle, like many of those in Chaucer's
previous allegories, nor are they so artificial and far-fetched as to
fatigue instead of stimulating the mind. Pope, who reproduced parts of
the "House of Fame" in a loose paraphrase, in attempting to