compliment to the Father of English Poetry, to say that by such
treatment the bouquet and individuality of his works must be
lost. If his masterpiece is valuable for one thing more than any
other, it is the vivid distinctness with which English men and
women of the fourteenth century are there painted, for the study
of all the centuries to follow. But we wantonly balk the artist's
own purpose, and discredit his labour, when we keep before his
picture the screen of dust and cobwebs which, for the English
people in these days, the crude forms of the infant language
have practically become. Shakespeare has not suffered by
similar changes; Spencer has not suffered; it would be surprising
if Chaucer should suffer, when the loss of popular
comprehension and favour in his case are necessarily all the
greater for his remoteness from our day. In a much smaller
degree -- since previous labours in the same direction had left
far less to do -- the same work has been performed for the
spelling of Spenser; and the whole endeavour in this department
of the Editor's task has been, to present a text plain and easily
intelligible to the modern reader, without any injustice to the old
poet. It would be presumptuous to believe that in every case
both ends have been achieved together; but the laudatores
temporis acti - the students who may differ most from the plan
pursued in this volume -- will best appreciate the difficulty of
the enterprise, and most leniently regard any failure in the
details of its accomplishment.

With all the works of Chaucer, outside The Canterbury Tales, it
would have been absolutely impossible to deal within the scope
of this volume. But nearly one hundred pages, have been
devoted to his minor poems; and, by dint of careful selection