commingled of stringed
instruments, of leaves murmuring to the wind, and of singing-birds. Under
a tree, beside a spring, was "Cupide our Lord" forging and filing his
arrows--his daughter (_who is she?_) assisting, and tempering them to
various effects. A host of allegorical persons are in attendance of
course; and there, too, stands a Temple of Venus, described from the
Teseida of Boccaccio. But the principal personage whom Chaucer encounters,
and the most busily engaged, is the great goddess, NATURE. It is St
Valentine's Day, whereon all the birds choose their mates for the coming
year. The particular business to which _this_ anniversary of the genial
Saint is devoted was intelligible, no doubt, to the quick wits of
Chaucer's age, if to the dull ones of ours a little perplexing. Nature
held in her hand "a formell eagle, of shape the gentillest," benign,
goodly, and so full of every virtue, that "Nature herself had blisse to
looke on her, and oft her beeke to kisse." The question is, who shall be
her mate? Three "tercell eagles" offer themselves, and eagerly plead their
claims. The four orders of fowl, those "of ravine," those that feed on
insects, the water-fowl, and those that eat seed, are by nature required
to elect each a delegate that shall opine on the matter. The birds of prey
depute "the tercelet of the faucon." He gives the somewhat startling if
otherwise plausible advice, that the worthiest of knighthood, and that has
the longest used it, and that is of the greatest estate, and of blood the
gentlest, shall be preferred, leaving the decision of those merits to the
lady eagle. The goose, on the behalf of the water-fowl, merely advises
that he who is rejected shall console himself by choosing another love;
which ignominious and anserine suggestion is received by the "gentill
foules" with a general laugh. The "turtle-dove," for the seed-eating
birds, indignantly protests against this outrageous and impracticable
proposal. The cuckoo, for the worm-eaters, provided that he may have his
own "make," is willing that the three wooers shall live each solitary and
sullen. The "sperhawke," the "gentle tercelet," and the "ermelon,"
severally reply in high scorn to the goose, to the duck, who seconds the
goose, and to the cuckoo. Dame Nature ends the plea by referring the
choice to the "formell eagle" herself, who begs a year's respite, which is
granted her. The rest, for the day is now well spent, choose their
mates--an el