THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. THE argument of this piece, as given by the editors of Chaucer, runs thus:: "A gentlewoman, out of an arbour, in a grove, seeth a great company of knights and ladies in a dance, upon the green grass. The which being ended, they all kneel down, and do honour to the daisy, some to the flower, and some to the leaf. Afterwards this gentlewoman learneth, by one of these ladies, the meaning hereof, which is this: They which honour the flower, a thing fading with every blast, are such as look after beauty and worldly pleasure; but they that honour the leaf, which abideth with the root, notwithstanding the frosts and winter storms, are they which follow virtue and during qualities, without regard of worldly respects. Some farther allegory was perhaps implied in this poem. Froissart, and other French poets, had established a sort of romantic devotion to the marguerite, or daisy, probably because the homage was capable of being allegorically transferred to any distinguished lady bearing that name. Chaucer might obliquely insinuate the superior valour of the warriors, and virtue of the ladies of Albion, by proposing to them the worship of the laurel, as a more worthy object of devotion than the flower. Nor is this interpretation absolutely disproved by the homage which Chaucer himself pays to the daisy in the Legend of Alcestis.* A poet is no more obliged to be consistent in his mythological creed, than constant in his devotion to one beauty, and may shift from the Grecian to the Gothic creed, or from the worship of Venus to that of Bellona. If every separate poem is consistent with itself, it would be hard to require any further uniformity. Mr Godwin has elegantly and justly characterized the present version:-"The poem of the Floure and the Lefe' is a production of Chaucer, with which Dryden was so particularly pleas * Godwin's Life of Chaucer, Vol. I. p. 346. ed, both for the invention and the moral,' as to induce him to transfuse it into modern English. He has somewhat obscured the purpose of the tale, which in the original is defective in perspicuity; but he has greatly heightened the enchantment of its character. He has made its personages fairies, who annually hold a jubilee, such as is here described, on the first of May; Chaucer had left the species of the beings he employs vague and unexplained. In a word, the poem of Dryden, regarded merely as the exhibition of a soothing and delicious luxuriance of fancy, may be classed with the most successful productions of human genius." Life of Chaucer, Vol I, p. 344. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF; OR, THE LADY IN THE ARBOUR. A VISION. Now turning from the wintry signs, the sun Till gentle heat, and soft repeated rains, Make the green blood to dance within their veins : Broader and broader yet, their blooms display, Salute the welcome sun, and entertain the day. Then from their breathing souls the sweets repair To scent the skies, and purge the unwholesome air: Joy spreads the heart, and, with a general song, Spring issues out, and leads the jolly months along. In that sweet season, as in bed I lay, * And sought in sleep to pass the night away, Their branching arms in air with equal space * Derrick, wearied. On Philomel I fixed my whole desire, Attending long in vain, I took the way,. This place unmarked, though oft I walked the green, And seized at once with wonder and delight, And all around the shades defended it from day; |