d therefore to the fiend I thee resign,
Let him at length tell of thy treachery.
Fye, mannish, fye!--Oh nay, by God, I lie;
Fye fiendish spirit, for I dare well tell,
Though thou here walk, thy spirit is in hell.

At the opening of the "Legend of Ariadne" he bids Minos redden with
shame; and towards its close, when narrating how Theseus sailed away,
leaving his true-love behind, he expresses a hope that the wind may
drive the traitor "a twenty devil way." Nor does this vivacity find a
less amusing expression in so trifling a touch as that in the "Clerk's
Tale," where the domestic sent to deprive Griseldis of her boy becomes,
eo ipso as it were, "this ugly sergeant."

Closely allied to Chaucer's liveliness and gaiety of disposition, and
in part springing from them, are his keen sense of the ridiculous and
the power of satire which he has at his command. His humour has many
varieties, ranging from the refined and half-melancholy irony of the
"House of Fame" to the ready wit of the sagacious uncle of Cressid, the
burlesque fun of the inimitable "Nun's Priest's Tale," and the very
gross salt of the "Reeve," the "Miller," and one or two others. The
springs of humour often capriciously refuse to allow themselves to be
discovered; nor is the satire of which the direct intention is
transparent invariably the most effective species of satire.
Concerning, however, Chaucer's use of the power which he in so large a
measure possessed, viz. that of covering with ridicule the palpable
vices or weaknesses of the classes or kinds of men represented by some
of his character-types, one assertion may be made with tolerable
safety. Whatever may have been the first stimulus and the ultimate
scope of the wit and humour which he here expended, they are NOT to be
explained as moral indignation in disguise. And in truth Chaucer's
merriment flows spontaneously from a source very near the surface; he
is so extremely diverting, because he is so extremely diverted himself.

Herein, too, lies the harmlessness of Chaucer's fun. Its harmlessness,
to wit, for those who are able to read him in something like the spirit
in which he wrote--never a very easy achievement with regard to any
author, and one which the beginner and the young had better be advised
to abstain from attempting with Chaucer in the overflow of his more or
less unrestrained moods. At all events, the excuse of gaiety of
heart--the plea of that vieil esprit Gaulois whic