longest and most laboured of Chaucer's stories, possesses a degree of
regularity which might satisfy the most severe critic. It is true, that
the honour arising from thence must be assigned to the more ancient
bard, who had himself drawn his subject from an Italian model; but the
high and decided preference which Dryden has given to this story,
although somewhat censured by Trapp, enables us to judge how much the
poet held an accurate combination of parts, and coherence of narrative,
essentials of epic poetry.[10] That a classic scholar like Trapp should
think the plan of the "Knight's Tale" equal to that of the Iliad, is a
degree of candour not to be hoped for; but surely to an unprejudiced
reader, a story which exhausts in its conclusion all the interest which
it has excited in its progress, which, when terminated, leaves no
question to be asked, no personage undisposed of, and no curiosity
unsatisfied, is, abstractedly considered, more gratifying than the
history of a few weeks of a ten years' war, commencing long after the
siege had begun, and ending long before the city was taken. Of the other
tales, it can hardly be said that their texture is more ingenious or
closely woven than that of ordinary novels or fables: but in each of
them Dryden has displayed the superiority of his genius, in selecting
for amplification and ornament those passages most susceptible of
poetical description. The account of the procession of the Fairy
Chivalry in the "Flower and the Leaf;" the splendid description of the
champions who came to assist at the tournament in the "Knight's Tale;"
the account of the battle itself, its alternations and issue,--if they
cannot be called improvements on Chaucer, are nevertheless so spirited a
transfusion of his ideas into modern verse, as almost to claim the merit
of originality. Many passages might be shown in which this praise may be
carried still higher, and the merit of invention added to that of
imitation. Such is the description of the commencement of the tourney,
which is almost entirely original, and most of the ornaments in the
translations from Boccacio, whose prose fictions demanded more additions
from the poet than the exuberant imagery of Chaucer. To select instances
would be endless; but every reader of poetry has by heart the
description of Iphigenia asleep, nor are the lines in "Theodore and
Honoria,"[11] which describe the approach of the apparition, and its
effects upon animated and