eption which are practised by
mercenary ecclesiastics for the sake of lucre. His honest nature and
penetrating understanding repudiated the impostures of the Romish
church, and it was the main lesson which he seemed to wish to inculcate
in his poem.

It is stated by Pope in his prefatory advertisement that the House of
Fame had only supplied him with the "hint" for the Temple of Fame, that
"the design was entirely altered," and that "the descriptions, and most
of the particular thoughts, were his own." Bowles says that "Pope seems
unwilling to confess all he owes to Chaucer," and that his language
would "lead us to conclude that the chief merit of the arrangement and
imagination belonged to himself," whereas he is indebted to his
predecessor for "what is most poetical in the whole composition." Pope
cannot be accused of concealing his obligations to the House of Fame,
for he has fairly specified them in his notes, but he extremely
underrated the extent to which he borrowed from it when he fancied that
his general outline was different, and "most of the particular thoughts
entirely new." The fertility of invention ascribed to him by Roscoe, and
which he, in some degree, challenges for himself, is the last praise he
can claim. Every portion of the conception which has a touch of creative
power is found in Chaucer, together with the largest part of what is
good in the filling up. High authorities differ as to the effect of
Pope's additions and variations. Thomas Warton pronounced that "the
character of the poem was marred," and Bowles endorsed the criticism.
Johnson, on the other hand, asserts that "the original vision was never
denied to be much improved," and he had Joseph Warton, Roscoe, and
Campbell on his side. "Much of Chaucer's fantastic matter," says
Campbell, "has been judiciously omitted by Pope, who at the same time
has clothed the best ideas of the old poem in spirited numbers and
expression. Chaucer supposes himself to be snatched up to heaven by a
large eagle, who addresses him in the name of St. James and the Virgin
Mary. In Pope, the philosophy of fame comes with much more propriety
from the poet himself than from the beak of a talkative eagle."[5] The
introduction of the majestic eagle, its tremendous swoop when it pounces
on the lonely wanderer, the terror produced by the first stage of the
flight, and the animated dialogue in the second stage, is the most
striking portion of Chaucer's vision. The philoso