and his heart keeps tune to the song of the birds. He has something of Milton's power of giving a general sense of freshness and sweetness, and, again like Milton, his scenery always strikes one as peculiarly English. He tells us that Cambinskan reigns in Syria, but his picture of the birds singing for joy of the lusty weather and the "yonge grene," is that of a Northern rather than an Eastern spring. His best-loved flower, the daisy, springs in every English hedgerow. The description of May in the Prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_ is particularly charming. The poet declares that one thing, and one alone, has power to take him from his books. When May comes, Whan that I here the smale foules singe And that the floures ginne for to springe, Farwel my studie, as lasting that sesoun. Instead of poring over some ponderous tome, he wanders out into the meadows to watch the daisy open to the sun:-- And whan the sonne ginneth for to weste, Than closeth hit, and draweth hit to reste, So sore hit is afered of the night, Til on the morwe, that hit is dayës light. All day long he roams till --closed was the flour and goon to reste, and then he speeds swiftly home:-- And in a litel erber that I have, Y-benched newe with turves fresshe y-grave, I bad men shulde me my couche make; For deyntee of the newe someres sake I bad hem strowe floures on my bed. But here again it is impression rather than actual description. True to the city-bred instinct, Chaucer sees winter rather as the king of intimate delights and fire-side pleasures, than as having an especial beauty of his own. The _Frankeleyns Tale_ contains a picture of December which brings the comfort of ingle-nook and steaming cup vividly before us:-- The bittre frostes, with the sleet and reyn, Destroyed hath the grene in every yerd. Janus sit by the fyr, with double berd, And drinketh of his bugle-horn the wyn. Before him stant braun of the tusked swyn, And "Nowel" cryeth every lusty man. We almost feel the pleasant glow of the fire, and hear the great logs hiss and crackle.