Chaucer for Schools. By Mrs. II. R. Haweis, Author of
Chaucer for Children. (Chatto and Windus.)—In this work, Mrs. Haweis has not only enlarged upon her former one, but has given, besides the text of Chaucer, with a glossary, a good modern rendering of the Canterbury Tales and of the minor poems included in the collection. In the "Forewords," as she calls her " preface," the adapteduess of Chaucer to the young is first dwelt on, and then directions are given for the scanning and pronunciation of the English poetry of that early time. There is also in one of the notes an interesting sugges- tion as to the habit which the mediaeval poets shared with their brother-artists, the painters, that, namely, of turning the characters of their pictures into portraits, recognisable by those living at the time, and some of them discoverable by patient students now. One fragment introduced by Mrs. Haweis is less known than some of the other verses, but we have only space for one of the stanzas, given, we need hardly say, in the modern version :- " To yoa, my nurse. and to no other wight, Complain I, for you are my lady dear; I am so sorry now that you are light, For truly if you make me heavy cheer, I would as hef be laid upon my bier. Therefore, unto your mercy thus I cry,— Be heavy again, or else I needs must the :" At any rate, we of this century can understand mediaeval worries, though this is not the poem which would appeal so mach to the
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