Matthew Arnold is an admirer of Chaucer’s poetry. He remarks that Chaucer’s power of
fascination is enduring. “He will be
read far more generally than he is read now.”
The only problem that we come across is the difficulty of following his
language. Chaucer’s superiority lies in
the fact that “we suddenly feel ourselves to be in another world”. His superiority is both in the substance of
his poetry and in the style of his poetry.
“His view of life is large, free, simple, clear and kindly. He has shown the power to survey the world
from a central, a human point of view.” The
best example is his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Matthew Arnold quotes here
the words of Dryden who remarked about it; “Here is God’s plenty”. Arnold continues to remark that Chaucer is a perpetual fountain of good sense. Chaucer’s poetry has truth of substance; “Chaucer
is the father of our splendid English poetry.”
By the lovely charm of his diction, the lovely charm of his movement, he
makes an epoch and founds a tradition. We
follow this tradition in Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton and Keats. “In these poets we feel the virtue.” And the virtue is irresistible.
In spite of all these merits, Arnold says that Chaucer
is not one of greatest classics. He has
not their accent. To strengthen his
argument Arnold compares Chaucer with the Italian classic Dante. Arnold says that Chaucer lacks not only the
accent of Dante but also the high seriousness.
“Homer’s criticism of life has it, Shakespeare has it, Dante has it, and
Shakespeare has it.” Thus in his
critical essay “The Study of Poetry” Matthew Arnold comments not only on the merits of Chaucer’s poetry, but also on the short
comings. He glorifies Chaucer with the
remark, “With him is born our real poetry.”
