repair. About four weeks later, on the 8th of June, he was appointed Comptroller of the Customs and Subsidy of Wools, Skins, and Leather, in the Port of London m, and on the 13th of the same month he received a pension of 10l. for life from the Duke of Lancaster for the good service rendered by him and his wife Philippa to the said Duke, to his Consort, and to his mother the Queen. This is the first mention of Philippa Chaucer as Geoffrey's wife, though a Philippa Chaucer is named as one of the Ladies of the Chamber to Queen Philippa on Sept. 12, 1366, and subsequently. It is possible that Philippa Chaucer was a relative or namesake of Geoffrey, and that he married her in the spring or early summer of 1374; if not, he must have married her before Sept. 12, 1366.

Chaucer's Italian journey, and his study of Italian literature in consequence of it, exercised a marked influence on his writings, and opened the second period of his development, in which his Lyf of Seynt Cecile, Parlement of Foules, Compleynt of Mars, Anelida and Arcite, Boece, Former Age, Troilus, and House of Fame, were probably composed.

In 1375 Chaucer's income was augmented by receiving from the crown (Nov. 8) the custody of the lands and person of Edmond Staplegate of Kent, which he retained for three years, during which time he received as wardship and marriage fee the sum of 104/.; and (on Dec. 28) the custody of five 'solidates' of rent in Soles in Kent. Toward the end of 1376 Sir John Burley and Chaucer were employed in some secret service, the nature of which is not known. On the 23rd of the same month the poet received 67. 135. 4d., and Burley twice that sum, for the work upon which they had been employed.

In February 1377, the last year of Edward's reign, the poet was associated with Sir Thomas Percy (afterward Earl of Worcester)

m In July 1376, Chaucer, as Comptroller of Wool Customs, received from the king the sum of 717. 4s. 6d., being the fine paid by John Kent of London for shipping wool to Dordrecht without having paid the duty thereon. A solidate of land was as much land (probably an acre) as was worth a shilling.

in a secret mission to Flanders, and was shortly afterwards (April) probably joined with Sir Guichard d'Angle (afterwards Earl of Huntingdon) and Sir Richard Sturry to treat of peace with Charles V, King of France P. In 1377 Richard II succeeded to the throne, and Chaucer appears to have been reappointed one of the king's esquires. In January, 1378, he was probably sent with the Earl of Huntingdon to France to treat for a marriage of Richard with the daughter of the king of France. On his return he was employed in a new mission to Lombardy, along with Sir Edward Berkeley, to treat with Bernard Visconti, Lord of Milan (whose death Chaucer afterwards brought into his Monk's Tale) and Sir John Hawkwood, 'on certain affairs touching the expediting the king's war 9.' When Chaucer set out on this embassy he appointed Gower as one of his trustees to appear for him in the courts in case of any legal proceedings being instituted against him during his absence". By deed of May 1, 1380, Cecilia Chaumpayne released Chaucer from his raptus of her. On the 8th of May, 1382, he was made Comptroller of the Petty Customs, retaining at the same time his office of Comptroller of the Wool Customs. These emoluments he continued to hold till Dec. 1, 1386, and in Feb. 1385 was allowed the privilege of nominating a deputy, so that he had perhaps now, or perhaps soon after the loss of his office, leisure to devote himself to his great work, the Canterbury Tales, which, though never completed, was written at different times of his life, from 1373 to

• Chaucer received for this service 10l. on Feb. 17, and 207. on April 11. P Chaucer received 267. 13s. 4d. on April 30, as part payment for this service, and in 1381 (March) he was paid an additional sum of 227.

¶ Chaucer was absent on this service from May 28 to Sept. 19, but was not paid till 1380, when he received 567. 13s. 4d.

This circumstance proves the existence of an intimate friendship between the two poets. Chaucer dedicated his Troilus and Criseyde to Gower; and the latter poet, in the Confessio Amantis (Book viii.), makes Venus speak of Chaucer as follows:

:

'And grete wel Chaucer, whan ye mete,

As my disciple and my poete,
For in the floures of his youthe,

In sondry wyse, as he wel couthe,

1400, and prefaced by a Prologue, written on or about a journey in 1388. To this, the third period of his poetical life, also belong The Legende of Good Women (written about 1385), and Truth. (The 'Moder of God' formerly attributed to him is Hoccleve's.)

In 1386 Chaucer was elected a knight of the shire for Kent, in the Parliament held at Westminster. John of Gaunt was abroad at this time; and the Duke of Gloucester, at the head of the government, was most likely not well disposed towards the protégé of his brother, with whom he was now on ill terms. On the 1st of December, Chaucer was dismissed from his offices of Comptroller of Wool, Woolfells, and Leather, and of Comptroller of Petty Customs, and others were appointed in his place". The loss of his emoluments reduced the poet from affluence to poverty-his beautiful' balade of Truth' ('Flee fro the prees') probably speaks his own feelings in this time of his distress-and we find him raising money upon his two pensions of 20 marks, which on the 1st of May, 1388, were cancelled and assigned to John Scalby. To add to his trouble, his wife died in 1387: yet in 1388 he made his merry Canterbury pilgrimage. Richard, in 1389, dismissed his council, and took the reins of government into his own hands; the Lancastrian party were restored to power, and Chaucer was appointed Clerk of the King's Works at Westminster, at a salary of 2s. a-day, about 17. of our money. The Of dytees and of songes glade,

The whiche he for my sake made,

The land fulfilled is over al;

Whereof to him in special

Above alle other, I am most holde (beholden).

Forthy now in his dayes olde

Thou shalt him telle this message,

That he upon his latter age,
To sette an end of al his werke,
As he, whiche is myn owne clerke,
Do make his Testament of Love,
As thou hast doon thy shrift above,
So that my court it may recorde.'

• The Parliament of 1386 compelled Richard to appoint a commission to enquire into the state of the subsidies and customs. The commissioners began their duties in November, and the removal of certain officers may be attributed to their investigations.

next year (1390) he was also appointed Clerk of the Works at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and made one of a Commission to repair the Thames Banks between Woolwich and Greenwich, but was superseded in 1391. In 14 Rich. II (June, 1390-1), he was appointed joint Forester, with Rd. Brittle, of North Petherton Park in Somerset, by the Earl of March. He had besides, 10%. yearly from the Duke of Lancaster, and 40s. as the king's esquire. In a writ, dated July 1, 1390, Chaucer is allowed the costs of putting up scaffolds in Smithfield for the King and Queen to see the jousts which took place in May, 1390. Compare this with Kn. Tale, 1023-1034. In Sept., 1390, he was robbed, at Westminster, of 10l. of the King's money, and of 9l. 3s. 8d. near the 'foule ok' (foul oak) at Hatcham, Surrey; but the repayment of it was forgiven him. In 1391 Chaucer translated and compiled his Treatise on the Astrolabe, for his 'little son' Lewis. This was probably followed by his Fortune, Gentilesse, Lak of Stedfastnesse, his Envoys to Skogan and Bukton, the Compleynt of Venus, and his Compleynt to his Purse (in Sept. 1399).

On the 28th of Feb., 1394, Chaucer obtained a grant from the king of 20l. a-year for life, payable half-yearly at Easter and Michaelmas; but at this time the poet appears to have been in very distressed circumstances, for we find him making application for advances from the Exchequer on account of his annuity, and as these were not always made to him personally during the next few years, he was probably ill. In 21 Rich. II (June, 1397-8), Alianor, Countess of March, made him sole Forester of North Petherton in Somerset.

In Easter Term, 1398, Isabella Buckholt sued Chaucer for 14. IS. 11d. The sheriff twice returned the poet as non inventus, though in 1398 (May 4) letters of protection were issued to Chaucer forbidding any one, for the term of two years, to sue or arrest him on any plea except it were connected with land. Five months later (Oct. 15) the king made him a grant of a tun of wine a-year for life. Next year Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, supplanted his cousin Richard, and within four days after he came to the throne Chaucer's pension of 20 marks was

doubled-in addition to the annuity of 207. which had been given him by Richard II-doubtless in answer to the poet's Compleynt of his poverty, which was addressed to Henry IV, and hailed him as 'verray King by lyne and free eleccioun.'

On Christmas Eve, 1399, the poet covenanted for the lease for fifty-three years (a long agreement for a man in his fiftyninth year to make), of a house in the garden of the Chapel of St. Mary, Westminster, where it is probable that he ended his days. The date (Oct. 25, 1400) assigned to his death by Nicholas Brigham is corroborated by the entries in the Issue Rolls, no note of payment being found after March 1st, 1400.

Thus on the bank of the noble river by which he was born and bred, on which for years his daily life was spent, our great early poet passed away. As he was at least sixty when he died, he was justly entitled to the epithets old and reverent, applied to him by his contemporaries Gower and Hoccleve".

Chaucer had one son, Lewis, who probably died young, to

To yow, my Purse, and to non other wight,
Compleyne I, for ye be my lady dere;
I am so sory now that ye be light,
For, certes, but ye make me hevy chere,
Me were as leef be leyd upon my bere.
For whiche unto your mercy thus I crye,
Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye!

Now voucheth sauf this day, or hit be night,
That I of yow the blisful soun may here,
Or see your colour lyk the sonne bright,
That [as] of yelownesse hadde never pere;
Ye be my lyf, ye be myn hertes stere,
Quene of comfort and of good companye;
Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye.

Now Purs, that art to me my lyves light,
And saveour, as doun in this worlde here,
Out of this toune help me thurgh your might,
Sin that ye wole nat ben my tresorere;
For I am shave as nye as any frere.
But yit I pray unto your curtesye,

Beth hevy ageyn, or elles mot I dye.'

(Chaucer's Minor Poems, ed. Skeat, p. 210.)

"Leland says that Chaucer 'lived to the period of grey hairs, and at length found old age his greatest disease.' In Hoccleve's portrait of the poet he is represented with grey hair and beard.