Excerpt from Charles Franklin Doe Sily conducted, and the efiect of a dramatic climax is spoiled. Mr. Root of Princeton in his recent book, The Poetry of Chaucer, finds serious fault with the long drawn out speeches and the unintermitted pedantry of this poem, and declares that, on the whole, it furnishes but weary reading. Mr. Ward quotes an unnamed writer who makes himself merry over the poem, saying that Chaucer ought to be ashamed of writing such a thing. Professor Ker remarks incidentally that the Book of the Duchess is no worse than some of Chaucer's other works. Richard Garnett in his Illustrated Record merely says that the poem is an elegy and that about 1369 Chaucer was under the influence of French poetry whose meters were octosyl labic. Mr. Snell in his Age of Chaucer finds fault with the disproportionately long preface; but for some unac countable reason he devotes to the matter of this preface two full paragraphs, to the matter of the rest of the poem only one. Other critics, such as Minto and M. J usserand, content themselves with pointing out a few obvious beauties here and there. Mr. Ward's account of the poem in the English Men of Letters, though appreciative, is very mea ger; so also is Professor Morley 's account, apart from the excellent summary he gives. M. Taine does not mention the poem. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.