case the eighteenth, and his burial in Chaucer's grave, near the entrance
to St. Benedict's Chapel, was a mark of special honour. To reach his
beautiful bust, a copy by Scheemakers of an earlier one, we must pass
over the gravestones of two well-known modern poets, Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, and Robert Browning. On a pillar close by is Woolner's bust of
Tennyson, which represents the laureate in middle life. The name of
Abraham Cowley on a stone beside them conveys little to us now, but his
contemporary reputation was very great, and Dryden owed much to Cowley,
his immediate predecessor in the circle of poets. Before we move on
there are two busts {53} which are artistically very inferior to
Dryden's. I refer first to that of Longfellow, whose name is a household
word on either side of the Atlantic, and of whom Americans are justly
proud. On the other column is that of the Scotch Archbishop of
Canterbury, Archibald Tait, placed here with intent, because in the
vicinity lies another Primate also of Scotch birth, Spottiswoode,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, a favourite with King James I., and by his
command historian of the Scottish Church.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: Chaucer's Tomb]
* * * *
CHAUCER'S TOMB
Before us is the monument, put up one hundred and fifty years after his
death, to Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and we see upon
the pavement wreaths which mark the graves of our two most distinguished
modern poets, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Robert Browning, and were placed
there no doubt by some visitor to the Abbey, who desired thus to show
honour to their memory. This spot is the very centre of the famous
Poets' Corner, and close by is the vault where lie the bones of Spenser,
and the pens and funeral odes of the poets who attended his funeral.
* * * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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