the design nor the disposition of
it; because the design was not their own; and in the disposing of it
they were equal. It remains that I say something of Chaucer in
particular.

"In the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, so I hold
him in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or
the Romans Virgil. He is a perpetual fountain of good sense; learned
in all sciences, and therefore speaks properly on all subjects. As he
knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off, a continence
which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the
ancients excepting Virgil and Horace. One of our late great poets is
sunk in his reputation because he could never forgive any conceit
which came in his way, but swept like a drag-net great and small.
There was plenty enough, but the dishes were ill sorted; whole
pyramids of sweetmeats for boys and women, but little of solid meat
for men. All this proceeded, not from any want of knowledge, but of
judgment. Neither did he want that in discerning the beauties and
faults of other poets, but only indulged himself in the luxury of
writing; and perhaps knew it was a fault, but hoped the reader would
not find it. For this reason, though he must always be thought a
great poet, he is no longer esteemed a good writer; and for ten
impressions which his works have had in so many successive years, yet
at present a hundred books are scarcely purchased once a twelvemonth;
for as my last Lord Rochester said, though somewhat profanely, 'Not
being of God, he could not stand.'

"Chaucer followed nature every where, but was never so bold to go
beyond her; and there is a great difference of being _poeta_ and
_nimis poeta_, if we may believe Catullus, as much as betwixt a
modest behaviour and affectation. * * *

"He must have been a man of most wonderful comprehensive nature,
because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the
compass of his _Canterbury Tales_ the various manners and humours (as
we may now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a
single character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are severally
distinguished from each other; and not only in their inclinations,
but in their very physiognomies and persons. Baptista Porta could not
have descri