exclaims he elsewhere. "Go, my book," he says to his "Troilus and
Criseyde,"

And kis the steppes, wher-as thou seest pace
Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, Stace.[493]

Withal strange discrepancies occur: none can escape entirely the
influence of his own time. With Chaucer the goddess of love is also a
saint, "Seint Venus"; her temple is likewise a church: "This noble
temple ... this chirche." Before penetrating into its precincts, the
poet appeals to Christ:

"O Crist," thought I, "that art in blisse,
Fro fantom and illusioun
Me save!" and with devocioun
Myn yen to the heven I caste.[494]

This medley was inevitable; to do better would have been to excel the
Italians, and Dante himself, who places the Erinnyes within the circles
of his Christian hell, or Giotto, who made Apelles paint a triptych.

As for the Italians, Chaucer borrows from them, sometimes a line, an
idea, a comparison, sometimes long passages very closely translated, or
again the plot or the general inspiration of his tales. In the "Lyf of
Seinte Cecile" a passage (lines 36-51) is borrowed from Dante's
"Paradiso." The same poet is quoted in the "Parlement of Foules," where
we find a paraphrase of the famous "Per me si va"[495]; another passage
is imitated from the "Teseide" of Boccaccio; "Anelida and Arcite"
contains several stanzas taken from the same original; "Troilus and
Criseyde" is an adaptation of Boccaccio's "Filostrato"; Chaucer
introduces into it a sonnet of Petrarch[496]; the idea of the "Legend of
Good Women" is borrowed from the "De claris Mulieribus" of Boccaccio.
Dante's journeys to the spirit-world served as models for the "Hous of
Fame," where the English poet is borne off by an eagle of golden hue.
In it Dante is mentioned together with the classic authors of antiquity.
Read:

On Virgil, or on Claudian,
Or Daunte.[497]

The eagle is not an invention of Chaucer's; it had already appeared in
the "Purgatorio."[498]

Notwithstanding the quantity of reminiscences of ancient or Italian
authors that recur at every page; notwithstanding the story of AEneas
related wholly from Virgil, the first lines being translated word for
word[499]; notwithstanding incessant allusions and quotations, the "Hous
of Fame"[500] is one of the first poems in which Chaucer shows forth
clearly his own personality. Already we see manifested that gift for
familiar dialogue which is carried so far in "Troilus and Criseyde," and