ories in one season, his comedies or lighter tales in another, and so
forth. Chaucer no more admits of such treatment than Shakspere, nor
because there happens to be in his case little actual evidence by which
to control or contradict it, are we justified in subjecting him to it.
All we know is that he left his great work a fragment, and that we have
no mention in any of his other poems of more than three of the
"Tales"--two, as already noticed, being mentioned in the Prologue to
the Legend of Good Women, written at a time when they had perhaps not
yet assumed the form in which they are preserved, while to the third
(the "Wife of Bath") reference is made in the "Envoi to Bukton," the
date of which is quite uncertain. At the same time, the labour which
was expended upon the "Canterbury Tales" by their author manifestly
obliges us to conclude that their composition occupied several years,
with inevitable interruptions; while the gaiety and brightness of many
of the stories, and the exuberant humour and exquisite pathos of
others, as well as the masterly effectiveness of the "Prologue," make
it almost certain that these parts of the work were written when
Chaucer was not only capable of doing his best, but also in a situation
which admitted of his doing it. The supposition is therefore a very
probable one, that the main period of their composition may have
extended over the last eleven or twelve years of his life, and have
begun about the time when he was again placed above want by his
appointment to the Clerkship of the Royal Works.

Again, it is virtually certain that the poem of the "Canterbury Tales"
was left in an unfinished and partially unconnected condition, and it
is altogether uncertain whether Chaucer had finally determined upon
maintaining or modifying the scheme originally indicated by him in the
"Prologue." There can accordingly be no necessity for working out a
scheme into which everything that he has left belonging to the
"Canterbury Tales" may most easily and appropriately fit. Yet the
labour is by no means lost of such inquiries as those which have with
singular zeal been prosecuted concerning the several problems that have
to be solved before such a scheme can be completed. Without a review
of the evidence it would however be preposterous to pronounce on the
proper answer to be given to the questions: what were the number of
tales and that of tellers ultimately designed by Chaucer; what was the
ord