It is evident from his works that he had been liberally educated, for his allusions to the literature of the day evince the familiarity begotten of early intimacy, and in his mature years he wrote a treatise explaining the use of the astrolabe (a crude astrological instrument) for his son Lewis. There is no evidence that he was ever a student at either of the universities. But in 1357 he is mentioned in connection with the household of Prince Lionel, second son of Edward III. Afterward he was attached to the household of John of Gaunt, the third son of the king and founder of the house of Lancaster. In those days of the highest development of chivalry young men were taken as "pages" into the establishments of great nobles, and trained not only in warlike exercises, but in accomplishments deemed fitting for future knights and gentlemen, and in some cases we can believe that literary culture, as well as chivalric courtesy, was imparted to them. When John of Gaunt was twenty-nine, his first wife, Blanche, daughter of the first Duke of Lancaster and mother of Henry of Hereford, afterward Henry IV., died, and in her memory Chaucer wrote the "Book of the Duchesse." Probably through the influence of John of Gaunt, or of the Duke of Clarence, Chaucer received several government appointments and a pension. He was made one of the commissioners to arrange with the city of Genoa a treaty, fixing the privileges of the merchants of both countries, and in carrying out this duty he traveled to Italy. In 1374 he was made one of the Comptrollers of the Customs of Wool. In 1375 he received the custody of the lands of a minor ward of the crown, Edmond Staplegale of Kent. In 1377 he was associated with Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, in a secret mission to Holland. In June of that year Edward III. died

and was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II., son of Edward, the "Black Prince." In 1378 Chaucer was sent on two missions, one to France, in connection with the Earl of Huntingdon, and one to Lombardy with Sir Edward Berkeley. The fact that Chaucer filled these important positions successively shows that he must have been regarded as a man of practical abilities—and not simply as a writer. However, at this time and for several centuries afterward, literary production was rewarded by employment of some sort at the hands of a powerful patron, or even by direct gifts of money.

Among Chaucer's "minor" or shorter poems are: "The A. B. C.," an address to the Virgin in twenty-four eight

Chaucer's

Minor
Poems.

line stanzas, the first letters of which are the

consecutive letters of the alphabet, paraphrased

from a French poem; "The Compleynte unto Pite" in nineteen seven-line stanzas; "The Book of the Duchesse" in octosyllabic couplets (1334 lines); “The Compleynt of Mars," 298 lines in stanzas of seven and nine lines; "The Parlement of Foules," in octosyllabic couplets, unfinished, but extending to 2158 lines; a number of ballades (approximately in the form of the French ballade, three stanzas and an envoi ending with a refrain) and a fragment entitled "Compleynte to his Lady," in "terza rima.” The introduction of new measures from French and Italian models, especially of the ten-syllable couplet or rhymed pentameter, known as the heroic couplet, is one of the services which entitle Chaucer to be regarded as the "first maker of our fair language.

The "major" poems of Chaucer are: "Troilus and Criseyde"; "The Legende of Goode Women"; "The Hous of Fame"; and the famous "Canterbury Tales."

1 "Compleynt" is equivalent to "poetic or sentimental address.” JOHNSON'S LIT. — -4

The following poems, which used to be bound up with Chaucer's works, are considered by those who have made a study of the subject not to be his: "The Court of Love"; "The Compleynt of the Black Knighte"; "The Flower and the Leaf"; "Chaucer's Dream"; "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale."

A translation of the "Romaunt of the Rose," a long allegorical French poem, very popular at the period, is also bound with Chaucer's poems, though the question of authorship is not decided with absolute certainty.

"Troilus

Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde," in five books and 8250 lines, is a modified English version of Boccaccio's "Filostrato." It cannot be called a translation, and as it is nearly twice as long as the original, and Criseyde." the treatment is different. In the Italian version, Pandarus is a young man ; Chaucer makes him an old one. Criseyde is represented by Chaucer as a woman not destitute of depth of feeling, though inconstant, and as yielding to the force of circumstances against which a struggle is hopeless. Chaucer's Criseyde is a far higher type of womanhood than is Shakespeare's Cressida, and every deviation which the English poet makes from the Italian is in the interest of wholesomeness and dramatic truth. The poem is built out of the Italian one, but the foundations are extended far beyond those of the original. It is the most beautiful of the chivalric romances on classical themes.

The limits of this book do not allow any extended description of Chaucer's work. The "Canterbury Tales" is the poem by which he is best known, and illustrates fully the range and variety of his genius. The scheme was possibly suggested by Boccaccio's "Decameron." A company of thirty-one people, in

The "Canter

bury Tales."

cluding Chaucer and the host, are represented as meeting at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, with the intention of making a journey to Canterbury for the purpose of visiting the shrine where are kept the relics of Thomas à Becket, the Martyr. The host, Harry Bailly, agrees to accompany them, and proposes that each shall tell a story to relieve the tedium of travel. This is agreed to, and the host is elected marshal of the company. The prologue, 860 lines, describes the various personages, and, as they comprise representatives from nearly every grade of society, we have a set of pictures of various types. The opportunity afforded for the exercise of Chaucer's admirable powers of observation and description makes the prologue and the "link words," in which the various characters are introduced, the most valuable part of the work. presents a vivid and realistic picture of fourteenth-century England.

It

The party was afterward joined by a Canon and his Yeoman, or attendant. The original plan contemplated two tales on the journey and two on the return from each pilgrim, though had the work been completed, doubtless the scheme would have been modified. As it is, seven of the party tell no tales at all, and none more than one, unless we credit the "Rhyme of Sir Thopas" and the prose "Tale of Melibous" both to Chaucer. "The Parsons Tale" is in prose.

Even in its incomplete state we must regard the work as a reflection of the society of the day. The narrators represent different grades of society, and the stories they relate correspond to their social positions. The Knight rehearses the chivalric romance of "Palamon and Arcite,” the Prioress a miraculous legend, the Nun's Priest a witty fable, the Miller and the Reeve vulgar stories.