character drawn of the "Parson" in the "Prologue"--a passage
(already cited in part in the opening section of the present essay)
where the poet advocates the cause of the poor in words which, simple
as they are, deserve to be quoted side by side with that immortal
character itself. The concluding lines may therefore be cited here:--

Think also that of the same seed of which churls spring, of the same
seed spring lords; as well may the churl be saved as the lord.
Wherefore I counsel thee, do just so with thy churl as though wouldest
thy lord did with thee, if thou wert in his plight. A very sinful man
is a churl as towards sin. I counsel thee certainly, thou lord, that,
thou work in such wise with thy churls that they rather love thee than
dread thee. I know well, where there is degree above degree, it is
reasonable that men should do their duty where it is due; but of a
certainty, extortions, and despite of our underlings, are damnable.

In sum, the "Parson's Tale" cannot, any more than the character of the
"Parson" in the "Prologue," be interpreted as proving Chaucer to have
been a Wycliffite. But the one as well as the other proves him to have
perceived much of what was noblest in the Wycliffite movement, and much
of what was ignoblest in the reception with which it met at the hands
of worldlings--before, with the aid of the State, the Church finally
succeeded in crushing it, to all appearance, out of existence.

The "Parson's Tale" contains a few vigorous touches, in addition to the
fine passage quoted, which make it difficult to deny that Chaucer's
hand was concerned in it. The inconsistency between the religious
learning ascribed to the "Parson" and a passage in the "Tale," where
the author leaves certain things to be settled by divines, will not be
held of much account. The most probable conjecture seems therefore to
be that the discourse has come down to us in a mutilated form. This
MAY be due to the "Tale" having remained unfinished at the time of
Chaucer's death: in which case it would form last words of no unfitting
kind. As for the actual last words of the "Canterbury Tales"--the
so-called "Prayer of Chaucer"--it would be unbearable to have to accept
them as genuine. For in these the poet, while praying for the
forgiveness of sins, is made specially to entreat the Divine pardon for
his "translations and inditing in worldly vanities," which he "revokes
in his retractions." These include, besides t