value for succeeding ages resides, not in his vocabulary, nor in his
inflections, nor in his indebtedness to foreign originals, nor in the
metrical uniformities or anomalies that may be discovered in his poems;
but in his _poetry_. Other things are accidental; his poetry is
essential. Other interests--historical, philological, antiquarian--must
be recognized; but the poetical, or (let us say) the spiritual, interest
stands first and far ahead of all others. By virtue of it Chaucer, now
as always, makes his chief and his convincing appeal to that which is
spiritual in men. He appeals by the poetical quality of such lines as
these, from Emilia's prayer to Diana:

"Chaste goddesse, wel wostow that I
Desire to been a mayden al my lyf,
Ne never wol I be no love ne wyf.

I am, thou woost, yet of thy companye,
A mayde, and love hunting and venerye,
And for to walken in the wodes wilde,
And noght to been a wyf, and be with childe..."

Or of these two from the Prioresses' Prologue:

"O moder mayde! O mayde moder free!
O bush unbrent, brenninge in Moyses sighte..."

Or of these from the general Prologue--also thoroughly poetical,
though the quality differs:

"Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse,
That of hir smyling was ful simple and coy;