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We are tempted to suspect that the sheriff was not particularly diligent in his search after the debtor. That Chaucer was well aware of the awkwardness of his position, is shewn by the fact that on May 4, , just at the very time when the suit was brought, he applied for, and obtained, letters of protection from the king against his enemies, forbidding any one to sue or arrest him on any plea, except it were connected with land, for the term of two years [].

This furnishes an additional reason why the sheriff did not 'find' him. When the two years terminated, in May, , he had not half a year to live. On June 3, , Chaucer was again unable to receive his pension himself, but it was conveyed to him by William Waxcombe [].

At the close of the next month, he was reduced to such pitiable straits that we find him applying personally to the exchequer, for such a trifling advance as 6 s. On Aug. In his distress, he determined to send in a petition to the king. A copy of this, in French, is still preserved.

On Oct. It is satisfactory to find that his request met with a prompt response; for only two days afterwards, on Oct.

Nicolas computes the value of this grant at about 5 l. Moreover, the grant was made to date as from Dec. He also received from the exchequer, with his own hands, the sum of 10 l. In , the great change in political affairs practically brought his distress to an end; and it is pleasant to think that, as far as money matters were concerned, he ended his [xlv] days in comparative ease. Henry of Lancaster was declared king on Sept.

This he did by sending in a copy of his 'Compleint to his Empty Purse,' a poem which seems to have been originally written on some other occasion. He added to it, however, an Envoy of five lines, which, like a postscript to some letters, contained the pith of the matter:—. The king was prompt to reply; it must have given him real satisfaction to be able to assist the old poet, with whom he must have been on familiar terms.

He was to receive 40 marks yearly 26 l. Even then, he met with a slight misfortune, in losing his letters patent; but, having made oath in Chancery, that the letters patent of Feb. These grants were finally confirmed by the king on Oct.

On Christmas eve, , he covenanted for a lease of 53 years a long term for one at his age to contemplate of a house situate in the garden of the Chapel of St. Mary, Westminster, near Westminster Abbey, at the annual rent of 2 l. The house stood on or near the spot now occupied by Henry the Seventh's Chapel []. We find, however, that he had only a life-interest in the lease, as the premises were to revert to the Custos Capellae if the tenant died within the term. In , payments to him are recorded on Feb.

We should notice that this Henry Somere was, at the time, the Clerk of the Receipt of the Exchequer; he was afterwards Under Treasurer, at which time Hoccleve addressed to him a Balade, printed in Furnivall's edition of Hoccleve's Works, at p. Chaucer died on Oct. The date of his death is only known from an inscription on the tomb of gray marble erected near his grave, in , by Nicholas Brigham, a man of letters, and an admirer of the poet's writings; but it is probably correct, and may have rested on tradition [].

We have no note of him after June 5, and no record of a payment of the pension in October. According to Stowe, Chaucer's grave is in the cloister, where also lies the body of 'Henrie Scogan, a learned poet,' i. Chaucer's Arms and Tomb. Nicolas, 'are three panelled divisions of starred quarterfoils sic , containing shields with the Arms of Chaucer, viz.

Per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchanged; and the same Arms also occur in an oblong compartment at the back of the recess, where the following inscription was placed, but which is now almost obliterated, from the partial decomposition and crumbling state of the marble.

A small whole-length portrait of Chaucer was delineated in plano on the north side of the inscription, but [xlvii] not a vestige of it is left; and the whole of the recess and canopy has recently been coloured black. We learn from an interesting note at the end of Caxton's edition of Boethius, that the good printer was not satisfied with printing some of Chaucer's works, but further endeavoured to perpetuate the poet's memory by raising a pillar near his tomb, to support a tablet containing an epitaph consisting of 34 Latin verses.

This epitaph was composed by Stephanus Surigonus of Milan, licentiate in decrees, and is reprinted in Stowe's edition of Chaucer's Works , at fol. The last four lines refer to Caxton's pious care:—. Some of the subjects in the window are taken from the poem entitled 'The Flower and the Leaf,' which he did not write.

It will be observed that Sir H. Nicolas speaks, just above, of 'the arms of Chaucer,' which he describes. But it should be remembered that this is, practically, an assumption, which at once launches us into an uncertain and debateable position. These arms certainly belonged to Thomas Chaucer, for they occur on a [xlviii] seal of his of which a drawing is given in MS.

Julius C 7, fol. It is therefore quite possible that the same arms were assigned to the poet in , only because it was then assumed that Thomas was Geoffrey's son; the fact being that the relationship of Thomas to Geoffrey is open to doubt, and the case requires to be stated with great care. Thomas Chaucer. Few things are more remarkable than the utter absence of unequivocal early evidence as to the above-mentioned point. That Geoffrey Chaucer was a famous man, even in his own day, cannot be doubted; and it is equally certain that Thomas Chaucer was a man of great wealth and of some consequence.

Nicolas has collected the principal facts relating to him, the most important being the following. Valery and of the Chiltern Hundreds for life, receiving therefrom 40 l. He was also Chief Butler to Henry V. He represented Oxfordshire in Parliament in , , , , , , , and ; and was Speaker of the House of Commons in [] , and in other years.

Nicolas adds, that he 'never attained a higher rank than that of esquire. His wealth, at his death in , was unusually great, as shewn by the long list of his landed possessions in the Inquisitiones post Mortem.

This wealth he doubtless acquired by his marriage [xlix] with an heiress, viz. Matilda, second daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Burghersh, who died Sept. Unfortunately, the date of this marriage is uncertain, though Sir H. Nicolas shews that it was probably earlier than The exact date would be very useful; for if it took place before , it becomes difficult to understand why the poet was left so poor, whilst his son had vast possessions.

It should be noticed that there is but little to connect even Thomas Chaucer still less Geoffrey with Woodstock, until ; when the Queen Joan of Navarre granted Thomas the farm of the manors of Woodstock, Hanburgh, Wotton, and Stonfield, which, by the king's assignment, he enjoyed for life []. That the poet visited Woodstock in , when in the service of Prince Lionel, is almost certain; but beyond this, we have no sure information on the matter.

It is true that 'Wodestok' is mentioned in the last line of the Cuckow and the Nightingale, but this supposed connecting link is at once broken, when we find that the said poem was certainly not of his writing []. The suggested reference to Woodstock in the Parliament of Foules, l. The only child of Thomas and Matilda Chaucer was Alice, whose third husband was no less a person than William de la Pole, then Earl and afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beheaded in Their eldest son bore the same name, and was not only created Earl of Lincoln, but was actually declared heir-apparent to the throne by Richard III; so that there was, at one time, a probability that Thomas Chaucer's great-grandson would succeed to the throne.

But the battle of Bosworth, in , set this arrangement aside; and the Earl of Lincoln was himself killed two years later, in the battle of Stoke. The relationship of Thomas to Geoffrey Chaucer. Considering the great eminence of these two men, the almost [l] total silence of early evidence, establishing a connexion between them, is in a high degree remarkable.

The earliest connecting link is the fact that a deed by Thomas Chaucer still exists, written in English at Ewelme, and dated May 20, , to which a seal is appended. This seal exhibits the arms which were certainly borne by Thomas Chaucer viz. The spelling 'Ghofrai' is hardly satisfactory; but if Geoffrey be really meant, we gain a piece of evidence of high importance.

It proves that Geoffrey bore the same arms as Thomas, and not the same arms as his father John; whose seal displays a shield ermine, on a chief, three birds' heads issuant The Academy, Oct. Moreover, the use of Geoffrey's seal by Thomas goes far to establish that the latter was the son of the former.

The next link is that Geoffrey Chaucer was succeeded by Thomas Chaucer in the office of forester of North Petherton in Somersetshire; but even here there is a gap in the succession, as Thomas was not appointed till , the fourth year of Henry V.

It is not till the reign of Henry VI. He tells us that Chaucer, in his last hours, frequently lamented the wickedness of his writings, though it is transparent that he here merely repeats, in a varied form, the general tenour of the well-known final paragraph of the Persones Tale.

But he adds this important sentence: 'Fuit idem Chawserus pater Thomae Chawserus, armigeri, qui Thomas sepelitur in Nuhelm iuxta Oxoniam []. He was Chancellor of Oxford, and Thomas Chaucer held the manor of Ewelme, at no great distance, at the same date.

As he mentions Thomas's sepulture, he wrote later than , yet before Even in the case of this decisive statement, it were to be wished that he had shewn greater accuracy in the context; surely he gives a quite unfair turn to the poet's own words. On the whole, I can only admit at present, that there is a high probability that Thomas was really Geoffrey's son.

Perhaps we shall some day know the certainty of the matter. Thomas's Mother. The chief reason why it is so desirable to know the exact truth as to the relationship of Thomas to Geoffrey, is that a good deal depends upon it.

If such was the case, it follows that Philippa Chaucer was Thomas's mother; in which case, we may feel tolerably confident that her maiden name was Roet or Rouet.

This has been inferred from the fact that the arms apparently of Roet 'occur repeatedly on Thomas Chaucer's tomb, as his paternal coat, instead of the arms usually attributed to him and to the poet. Her father is supposed to have been Sir Payne Roet, of Hainault, upon the evidence of his epitaph, which in Weever's Funeral Monuments, p.

Further arguments, whether in favour of or against this connexion, need hardly be repeated here. Helen's, London, after the coronation, in favour of Elizabeth Chausier. But these are mere matters for conjecture. The preceding sections include all the most material facts that have been ascertained with respect to Geoffrey Chaucer, and it is fortunate that, owing to his connexion with public business, they are so numerous and so authentic.

At the same time, it will doubtless be considered that such dry details, however useful, tell us very little about the man himself; though they clearly shew the versatility of his talents, and exhibit him as a page, a soldier, a valet and esquire of the royal household, an envoy, a comptroller of customs, a clerk of works, and a member of Parliament. In the truest sense, his own works best exhibit his thoughts and character; though we must not always accept all his expressions as if they were all his own.

We have to deal with a writer in whom the dramatic faculty was highly developed, and I prefer to leave the reader to draw his own inferences, even from those passages which are most relied upon to support the theory that his domestic life may have been unhappy, and others of the like kind. We can hardly doubt, for example, that he refers to his wife as 'oon that I coude nevene,' i. But when we notice that the something said was the word 'awake,' in order that he should 'the bet abrayde,' i.

Personal allusions in Chaucer's Works. Instead of drawing my own inferences, which may easily be wrong, from various passages in Chaucer's Works, I prefer the humbler task of giving the more important references, from which the reader may perform the task for himself, to his greater satisfaction.

I will only say that when a poet complains of hopeless love, or expresses his despair, or tells us on the other hand that he has no idea as to what love means, we are surely free to believe, in each case, just as little or as much as we please.

It is a very sandy foundation on which to build up a serious autobiographical structure. The only remark which I feel justified in making is, that I believe his wife's death to have been a serious loss to him in one respect at least.

Most of his early works are reasonably free from coarseness; whereas such Tales as those of the Miller, the Reeve, the Shipman, the Merchant, and the Prologue to the Wife's Tale, can hardly be defended. All these may confidently be dated after the year I have also to add one caution. We must not draw inferences as to Chaucer's life from poems or works with which he had nothing to do. Even Sir H. Nicolas, with all his carefulness, has not avoided this. He quotes the 'Cuckoo and Nightingale' as mentioning Woodstock; and he only distrusts the 'Testament of Love' because it is 'an allegorical composition [].

I here use the following abbreviations. Treatise on the Astrolabe ; B. Book of the Duchesse ; C. Canterbury Tales ; H. Hous of Fame ; L. Legend of Good Women ; T. Troilus and Criseyde. Personal Allusions. The poet's name is Geffrey, H. He describes himself, C. His poverty, H. Refers to the sale of wine his father being a vintner , C. Is despondent in love, Compl. His Complaints, viz. Has long served Cupid and Venus; H. Is no longer a lover, P.

Is love's clerk, T. Is love's foe, L. His misery, H. His religious feeling, A. Refers to his work when Comptroller of the Customs, H. Is unambitious of fame, H. Is sometimes a mere compiler, Ast. Addresses his little son Lowis, Ast. Expresses his gratitude to the queen, L. His old age, L. He will not marry a second time, Envoy to Bukton, 8. He exhibits his knowledge of the Northern dialect in the Reeve's Tale.

The whole of the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women deserves particular attention. Chaucer mentions several friends, viz. Gower the poet, T. He also addresses Envoys to Henry Scogan and to Bukton. He is fond of books and of reading, P. I may just notice here the lists in C.

His love of nature appears in several excellent descriptions; we may particularly notice his lines upon the sunrise, C. He frequently mentions the fair month of May, L.

A , ; and St. Valentine's day, Compl. He was our first great metrist, and has frequent references to his poetical art. He never slept on Parnassus, C. He cannot write alliterative verse, C. He admits that his rime is 'light and lewed,' and that some lines fail in a syllable, H. Yet he hopes that none will 'mismetre' him, T. He writes books, songs, and ditties in rime or 'cadence,' H. Specimens of his graphic and dramatic power, of his skill in story and metre, of his tenderness and his humour, need not be here specified.

He is fond of astronomy, as shewn by his Treatise on the Astrolabe; and, though he has but little faith in astrology Ast. Mars, 29, 54, 69, 79, 86, , , , , ; P. Even his alchemy has some reference to astrology; C. He refers to optics, C. Historical Allusions. The references to contemporary history are but few. The death of the Lady Blaunche is commemorated in the Book of the Duchesse.

He refers to good queen Anne, L. Perhaps the Complaints of Mars and Venus refer to real personages; see the Notes to those poems. He mentions Dante, H. B , D ; Petrarch, C. There are several allusions to recent events in the Prologue, A , 86, , ; and perhaps in C. His literary allusions are too numerous to be here recited. The reader can consult the Index in vol. Allusions to Chaucer. One of the earliest allusions to Chaucer as a poet occurs in the works of Eustache Deschamps, a contemporary poet of France.

It is remarkable that he chiefly praises him as being 'a great translator. The poem tells us that Deschamps had sent Chaucer a copy of some of his poems by a friend named Clifford, and he hopes to receive something of Chaucer's in return. Gower alludes to Chaucer in the first edition of the Confessio Amantis; see the passage discussed in vol. Henry Scogan wrote 'a moral balade' in twenty-one 8-line stanzas, in which he not only refers to Chaucer's poetical skill, but quotes the whole of his Balade on Gentilesse; see vol.

Hoccleve frequently refers to Chaucer as his 'maister,' i. The passages relating to Chaucer are as follows []. Wright, p. Here is given, in the margin of the MS. It is thus described by Sir H. Nicolas:—'The figure, which is half-length, has a back-ground of green [lx] tapestry. He is represented with grey hair and beard, which is biforked; he wears a dark-coloured dress and hood; his right hand is extended, and in his left he holds a string of beads.

From his vest a black case is suspended, which appears to contain a knife, or possibly a 'penner,' or pen-case []. The expression of the countenance is intelligent; but the fire of the eye seems quenched, and evident marks of advanced age appear on the countenance. It thus became the business of the scribe, and the portraits in different copies of Hoccleve's works vary accordingly.

There is a full-length portrait in MS. Tyson, which was engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine for , vol. Phillipps A representation of Chaucer on horseback, as one of the pilgrims, occurs in the Ellesmere MS. Lansdowne Other portraits, such as that in MS.

Lydgate has frequent references to his 'maister Chaucer. The 'fall of princes' refers to the Monkes Tale, as explained in vol. He next refers to 'Troilus' as being a translation of a book 'which called is Trophe' see vol.

Similar passages occur in some of his other works, and shew that he regarded Chaucer with affectionate reverence. Allusions in later authors have only a literary value, and need not be cited in a Life of Chaucer. I subjoin on p. Of his poetical excellence it is superfluous to speak; Lowell's essay on 'Chaucer' in My Study Windows gives a just estimate of his powers.

The following list is arranged, conjecturally , in chronological order. It will be understood that much of the arrangement and some of the dates are due to guesswork; on a few points scholars are agreed.

See further in pp. Of the Poems marked a , there seem to have been two editions, a being the earlier. The letters and numbers appended at the end denote the metres , according to the following scheme. The following sixteen metres are original i. The following occasional triple roundel and balades may have been composed between and —.

For 'Antilegius,' a better form would be 'Antilogus,' a French form of Antilochus. For desteny and ful better forms are destinee and fulle. I have since seen reason to modify this opinion as regards a comparatively short portion of it at the beginning here printed in large type , but the arguments then put forward remain as valid as ever as regards the main part of it here printed in smaller type, and in double columns.

Some of these arguments had been previously put forward by me in a letter to the Academy, Aug. I ought to add that the chief of them are not original, but borrowed from Mr.

Henry Bradshaw, whose profound knowledge of all matters relating to Chaucer has been acknowledged by all students. That Chaucer translated the French poem called Le Roman de la Rose, or at least some part of it [] , no one doubts; for he tells us so himself in the Prologue of his Legend of Good Women A , B , and the very frequent references to it, in many of his poems, shew that many parts of it were familiarly known to him.

Nevertheless, it does not follow that the particular version of it which happens to be preserved, is the very one which he made; for it was a poem familiar to many others besides him, and it is [2] extremely probable that Middle English versions of it were numerous.

In fact, it will presently appear that the English version printed in this volume actually consists of three separate fragments, all by different hands. The English version, which I shall here, for brevity, call 'the translation,' has far less claim to be considered as Chaucer's than unthinking people imagine. Modern readers find it included in many editions of his Works, and fancy that such a fact is conclusive; but it is the merest prudence to enquire how it came there.

The answer is, that it first appeared in Thynne's edition of , a collection of Chaucer's supposed works made more than a hundred and thirty years after his death.

Such an attribution is obviously valueless; we must examine the matter for ourselves, and on independent grounds. A critical examination of the internal evidence at once shews that by far the larger part of 'the translation' cannot possibly be Chaucer's; for the language of it contradicts most of his habits, and presents peculiarities such as we never find in his genuine poems. I shewed this in my 'Essay' by the use of several unfailing tests, the nature of which I shall explain presently.

The only weak point in my argument was, that I then considered 'the translation' as being the production of one author, and thought it sufficient to draw my examples as I unconsciously, for the most part, did from the central portion of the whole. The next step in this investigation was made by Dr. In a painstaking article printed in Englische Studien , xi.

That there are two fragments, at least , is easily discerned; for after l. Still more recently, Dr. Max Kaluza has pointed out that there is another distinct break in the poem near l. The style of translation, not to speak of its accuracy, is much better in the first lines than in the subsequent portions. We may notice, in particular, that the French word boutons is translated by knoppes in ll. A closer study of the passage extending from l. Here the French text has ed. It will be observed that the sentence in the two former lines is incomplete; dide is a mere auxiliary verb, and the real verb of the sentence is lost; whilst the two latter lines lead off with a new sentence altogether.

It is still more interesting to observe that, at this very point, we come upon a false rime. But the vowel o in swote was then pronounced like the German o in G.

It is clear that there has been a join here, and a rather clumsy one. The supply of 'copy' of the first translation ran short, perhaps because the rest of it had been torn away and lost, and the missing matter was supplied from some other source. We thus obtain, as the result to be tested, the following arrangement:—. It should be noted, further, that l. It merely corresponds to l. In fact, the three fragments, conjointly, only represent lines of the original, leaving lines more than double that number wholly untranslated.

Test I. Thus, in A and C, the translation runs nearly line for line; but in B, the translator employs, on an average, 11 lines and three-quarters for every 10 of the original. Test II. That this is due to the author, and not merely to the scribe, is obvious from the employment of Northern forms in rimes, where any change would destroy the rime altogether.

This may be called the Dialect-test. Examples abound, and I only mention some of the most striking. Use of the Northern pres. Even fand is a Northern form. Chaucer uses fond , riming with hond Cant. These are well-known Northern forms, as in Barbour's Bruce. This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Conditions and Exceptions apply. The purpose of the work, … Expand.

The Ovidian … Expand. Abstract E. It successfully adapted Arthur O. The figure of Cupid flits through Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream hereafter abbreviated as Dream , a mythological agent of desire whose varied portraiture contributes to the staging … Expand.

This study demonstrates how The Lais of Marie de France 12 c. Despite the encyclopedic nature of Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose, there are two topics that have been accorded a central place in the quagmire of debates, discussions, and digressions that make up … Expand. When considering pleasure and chance as aspects of human experience, Thomas More sometimes gendered them female; that is to say, at times he represented them by drawing from the mythographies of … Expand.

The reader is first introduced to the narrative and to characteristic sites of illustration within it. The introduction goes on to identify existing published sources of reproductions, and then to argue the crucial role that a grasp of the practical circumstances of production should play in interpreting medieval miniatures.

A final complementary chapter formally describes all seven Aberystwyth Rose manuscripts. In , Christine de Pizan —? The debate that ensued, over not only the merits of the treatise but also of the place of women in society, started Europe on the long path to gender parity.

The resulting volume affords a rare look at the way people read and thought about literature in the period immediately preceding the era of print.