登陆注册
14725700000004

第4章 CHAUCER'S TIMES.(3)

The England of this period was but a little land, if numbers be the test of greatness--but in Edward III's time as in that of Henry V, who inherited so much of Edward's policy and revived so much of his glory, there stirred in this little body a mighty heart. It is only of a small population that the author of the "Vision concerning Piers Plowman" could have gathered the representatives into a single field, or that Chaucer himself could have composed a family picture fairly comprehending, though not altogether exhausting, the chief national character-types. In the year of King Richard II's accession (1377), according to a trustworthy calculation based upon the result of that year's poll-tax, the total number of the inhabitants of England seems to have been two millions and a half. A quarter of a century earlier--in the days of Chaucer's boyhood--their numbers had been perhaps twice as large. For not less than four great pestilences (in 1348-9, 1361-2, 1369, and 1375-6) had swept over the land, and at least one-half of its population, including two-thirds of the inhabitants of the capital, had been carried off by the ravages of the obstinate epidemic--"the foul death of England," as it was called in a formula of execration in use among the people. In this year 1377, London, where Chaucer was doubtless born as well as bred, where the greater part of his life was spent, and where the memory of his name is one of those associations which seem familiarly to haunt the banks of the historic river from Thames Street to Westminster, apparently numbered not more than 35,000 souls. But if, from the nature of the case, no place was more exposed than London to the inroads of the Black Death, neither was any other so likely elastically to recover from them. For the reign of Edward III had witnessed a momentous advance in the prosperity of the capital,--an advance reflecting itself in the outward changes introduced during the same period into the architecture of the city. Its wealth had grown larger as its houses had grown higher; and mediaeval London, such as we are apt to picture it to ourselves, seems to have derived those leading features which it so long retained, from the days when Chaucer, with downcast but very observant eyes, passed along its streets between Billingsgate and Aldgate. Still, here as elsewhere in England the remembrance of the most awful physical visitations which have ever befallen the country must have long lingered; and, after all has been said, it is wonderful that the traces of them should be so exceedingly scanty in Chaucer's pages. Twice only in his poems does he refer to the Plague:--once in an allegorical fiction which is of Italian if not of French origin, and where, therefore, no special reference to the ravages of the disease IN ENGLAND may be intended when Death is said to have "a thousand slain this pestilence,"--he hath slain this year Hence over a mile, within a great village Both men and women, child and hind and page.

The other allusion is a more than half humorous one. It occurs in the description of the "Doctor of Physic," the grave graduate in purple surcoat and blue white-furred hood; nor, by the way, may this portrait itself be altogether without its use as throwing some light on the helplessness of fourteenth-century medical science. For though in all the world there was none like this doctor to SPEAK of physic and of surgery;--though he was a very perfect practitioner, and never at a loss for telling the cause of any malady and for supplying the patient with the appropriate drug, sent in by the doctor's old and faithful friends the apothecaries;--though he was well versed in all the authorities from Aesculapius to the writer of the "Rosa Anglica" (who cures inflammation homeopathically by the use of red draperies);--though like a truly wise physician he began at home by caring anxiously for his own digestion and for his peace of mind ("his study was but little in the Bible"):--yet the basis of his scientific knowledge was "astronomy," i.e. astrology, "the better part of medicine," as Roger Bacon calls it; together with that "natural magic" by which, as Chaucer elsewhere tells us, the famous among the learned have known how to make men whole or sick. And there was one specific which, from a double point of view, Chaucer's Doctor of Physic esteemed very highly, and was loth to part with on frivolous pretexts. He was but easy (i.e. slack) of "dispence":--He kepte that he won in pestilence.

For gold in physic is a cordial;

Therefore he loved gold in special.

Meanwhile the ruling classes seem to have been left untouched in heart by these successive ill-met and ill-guarded trials, which had first smitten the lower orders chiefly, then the higher with the lower (if the Plague of 1349 had swept off an archbishop, that of 1361 struck down among others Henry Duke of Lancaster, the father of Chaucer's Duchess Blanche).

同类推荐
  • 兰台妙选

    兰台妙选

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 温室经义记

    温室经义记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 本朝茶法

    本朝茶法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 摩诃止观辅行助览

    摩诃止观辅行助览

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 太上老君大存思图注诀

    太上老君大存思图注诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 性格左右一生

    性格左右一生

    性格的确是一个复杂的东西,它并不是单一的,而是一个多面的复合体。性格是一个人在现实的稳定态度和习惯化了的行为方式中所表现出来的个性心理特征。有什么样的性格,就会有什么样的人生。人类几千年的文明史告诉我们,积极的性格能帮助我们获取健康、幸福和财富。在当今竞争空前激烈的时代,一个人想要生存立足,求得最佳发展,性格的完整与健全,至关重要。本书从如何认识和了解性格、如何塑造性格、性格测试以及性格与社交、性格与职业、性格与财富及对各类性格的分析,帮你揭开性格的神秘面纱,教你洞悉人性的弱点,取其优而匡其劣,调解自我,悦纳他人,跳出左右你一生的性格误区,追上幸福,从而成就辉煌的一生!
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 命运帝尊

    命运帝尊

    协红颜,踏着鬼才的头顶一步步登天,什么妖女,魔女,都爱着我欲罢不能,管他天还是地,逆我者皆亡!!
  • 灵断天下

    灵断天下

    一位天才少年,跨越宇宙,来到异世大陆,他凭着异常的天赋在异世崛起,掩盖了所有人的辉煌。萧吹四海,响彻九霄;剑舞长空,屠尽奸恶。手持剑之萧,以灵断天下
  • 神偷萌主:绝萌小萝莉

    神偷萌主:绝萌小萝莉

    在二十一世纪的一个晚上,一位神偷正在把胜利的战利品往家里运。这个神偷名叫久洪,他是一位美男神偷,被他偷过东西的女生们都觉得自己很幸福,因为久洪偷东西时从不带面罩,就这样把他那俊美绝伦的脸露在外面。
  • 猫:九十九条命

    猫:九十九条命

    在这本书里,你会看到九十九只来自不同地域、生活于不同历史时期的猫,它们充分展现了驯养猫身上的形形色色的本能和个性。宠猫者也许无法立即辨出自家爱猫的身影,但他们会在阅读中不断产生共鸣,因为许多细节都是他们早已熟悉的。书中述及的猫,有天使与魔鬼,小淘气与好吃鬼,街头野猫与皇家猫咪——既有历史上真实存在过的猫,也有传说和文艺作品中虚构的猫。它们的主人都声名显赫,历史名人、政坛要人、艺术大师或科学伟人,不过在这里,猫才是主角。
  • 以武为尊:废材女王爷的逆袭

    以武为尊:废材女王爷的逆袭

    我,就是悲催到跌倒都能穿越的最强超能力特工兼智商2000的天才兼情商为-20000的爱情白痴兼狂吃不胖的十足大吃货。前世异性缘为0,今世异性缘爆满。先是其他王爷先后上门提亲,再是皇上几次请进宫,然后附身的神霸气强吻......
  • 异性互换

    异性互换

    一次意外,然而在次醒來却是为别人而活,四年后的相遇,“妳~妳是誰?为什么在我身体里?”我不是死后重生了吗?怎么我的肉体,难道是我們的灵魂互换?“妳不記得妳的样子了么?我就是妳,妳就是我,我們是一体的”小样!我可一直都在关注妳,果然没让我失望,本想在放松自己(可冥冥之中有种东西在呼唤!)
  • 鹧鸪夫人

    鹧鸪夫人

    女大学生林依珨一夕莫名闯入魔兽世界,并成为一只鸬鹚。在异世,她经历各番惊险,好不容易修回人形回到人界,却发现这里远比异界更为凶险。
  • 啸海

    啸海

    这是一个动荡的时代,名为啸海。他是一名少年,亦是一名杀手,为了一个复仇的心愿,他破浪而来。只有那些在狂风暴雨中不断经历颠簸的人,才能体会晴朗天空的真正意义。起风了,大海再次变得暴躁起来……