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And yet it may well be: for it is in record that twice or thrice he was emploied in foraine countries: which if it be true, wel might the man be at such charges and expences as he might stand in need of king Richard the seconds protection (as after shall appeare) till he had better recouered himselfe. But for his seruice he was not vnrewarded.

[Note on the above:] This Sir Richard Dangle, a knight of Poictu, came ouer with the Duke of Lancaster, who for his valiancie and tried truth to the King of England, was made knight of the Garter.

His Rewards.

Edward the third hauing seised the lands of Edmond Staplegate, and also the said Edmond in his Minority at the death of his father for the manor of Bilsington in Kent, committed the said body to Geffrey Chaucer: to whom he paid 104 pounds for the same: as appeareth in the Book of Fees and Sergiancies in the Exchequer.

Anno. 8. Richardi 2. Galfridus Chaucer Contrarotulator Customariorum & Subsidiorum in portu ciuitatis nostrae London.

Anno. 17. Richardi 2. Viginti librae datae Galfrido Chaucero per annum durante vita.

Vigessimo secundo anno Richardi secundi concessum Galfrido Chaucero vnum dolium vini per annum durante vita, in portu ciuitatis London per manus capitalis Pincernae nostri.

Anno primo Henrici Quarti Galfrido Chaucero Armigero literae patentes confirmatae pro viginti libris nummorum per annum durante vita & vno dolio vini.

Eodem etiam anno concessae adhuc & datae eidem Galfrido Chaucero Quadraginta marcae per annum durante vita.

[Beside these Latin notes, in margin:] Out of the Records in the Tour of London.

His Friends.

Friends he had in the Court of the best sort: for besides that he alwaies held in with the Princes, in whose daies he liued, hee had of the best of the Nobility both lords & ladies, which fauoured him greatly. But chiefly Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, at whose commandement he made the Treatise Of the alliance betwixt Mars and Venus: and also the booke of the Duchesse. Likewise the lady Isabel daughter to king Edward the third, and wife to Ingeram De Guynes, Lord De Coucy: also the lady Margaret daughter to the same King, maried to Iohn Hastings Earle of Penbrooke, did greatly loue and fauour Geffrey Chaucer, and hee againe did as much honour them, but specially the Lady Margaret, as it may appeare in diuers Treatises by him written. Others there were of great account, wherof some for some causes tooke liking of him, and other for his rare giftes and learning did admire him. And thus hee liued in honour many yeares both at home and abroad.

Yet it seemeth that he was in some trouble in the daies of King Richard the second, as it may appeare in the Testament of Loue: where hee doth greatly complaine of his owne rashnesse in following the multitude, and of their hatred against him for bewraying their purpose. And in that complaint which he maketh to his empty purse, I do find a written copy, which I had of Iohn Stow (whose library hath helped many writers) wherein ten times more is adioined, then is in print. Where he maketh great lamentation for his wrongfull imprisonment, wishing death to end his daies: which in my iudgement doth greatly accord with that in the Testament of Loue. Moreouer we find it thus in record.

In the second yeare of Richard the second, The King tooke Geffrey Chaucer and his lands into his protection. The occasion wherof no doubt was some daunger and trouble whereinto he was fallen by fauouring some rash attempt of the common people. For liuing in such troublesome times, wherein few knew what parts to take, no maruell if he came into some danger, nay great maruell that hee fell not into greater danger. But as hee was learned, so was he wise, and kept himselfe much out of the way in Holland, Zeland, and France, where he wrote most of his bookes.

[Beside this last paragraph the marginal note is:] Out of the Records in the Toure. [(1) is annotated as follows:] Some say hee did but translate it: and that it was made by sir Otes de Grantsome Knight, in French: of my lady of Yorke daughter to the King of Spain representing Venus: & my lord of Huntingdon sometime Duke of Excester. This lady was younger sister to Constance Iohn of Gaunts second wife. This lord of Huntingdon was called Iohn Holland, halfe brother to Richard the second: he married Elizabeth the daughter of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster. [Observe that Speght or Stow derives this note, as to Chaucer's having but translated the Mars, from Shirley's heading, preserved in MSS R 3, 20 and Ashmole 59; see reprint of headings in Chaucer Society Parallel Texts of the Minor Poems, p. 121, P. 412. Cp. Skeat, Oxford Chaucer, I : 65, 560.]

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His Bookes.

Chaucer had alwaies an earnest desire to enrich & beautifie our English tongue, which in those daies was verie rude and barren: and this he did following the example of Dantes and Petrarch, who had done the same for the Italian tongue; Alanus for the French; and Iohannes Mena for the Spanish: neither was Chaucer inferior to any of them in the performance hereof. And England in this respect is much beholden to him, as Leland well noteth:

Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra poetam,
Cui veneres debet patria lingua suas.

Our England honoureth Chaucer poet, as principall
To whome her country tongue doth owe her beauties all.

Besides those bookes of his which we heretofore haue had in print, he wrote diuers others: as,

The Flower and the Leafe, neuer till now printed.

In obitum Blanchiae Ducissae, neuer before published: which seemeth rather to be his Dreame: and that other called his Dreame, The complaint for Blanch: as after the perusing of them both, any meane Reader will iudge:

De Vulcani veru.

De Leone & eius dignitate.
Comoedias & Tragoedias.
Facetias & Iocos.

Dantem Italum transtulit.

Petrarchae quaedam transtulit.

Others I haue seene without any Authours name, which for the inuention I would verily iudge to be Chaucers, were it not that wordes and phrases carry not euery where Chaucers antiquitie.

Now, concerning those bookes which we haue in print: the Canterburie Tales for the most part were of his owne inuention, yet some of them translated, and penned in King Richards daies the second, and after the insurrection of Iacke Strawe, which was in the 4. yeere of the same king: for in the Tale of the Nunnes priest, he maketh mention thereof.

The Romant of the Rose was translated out of French.

Troilus and Creseid called Throphe in the Lumbard tongue, translated: not verbatim, but the Argument thence taken and most cunningly amplified by Chaucer.

Mary Magdalen translated out of S. Origen.

The balad, Fly from the prease: made by Chaucer on his death bed.

The Letter of Cupid is none of Chaucers doing, but was compiled by Thomas Occleue1 of the office of the priuie Seale, sometime Chaucers scholler. The which Occleue for the loue he bare to his Master, caused his picture to be truly drawen in his booke De Regimine Principis, dedicated to Henry the fift: the which I haue seene, and according to the which this in the beginning of this book was done by Iohn Spede, who hath annexed thereto all such cotes of Armes, as any way concern the Chaucers, as he found them (trauailing for that purpose) at Ewhelme and at Wickham.

[In the margin:] Jacke Vpland is supposed to be his. But the A. B. C. called Priere de nostre Dame, is certainely Chaucers doing.

1 Thomas Occleue, vel Ockelefe, vir tam bonis literis, quam generis prosapia clarus exquisita quadam Anglici sermonis eloquentia post Chaucerum, cuius fuerat discipulus, patriam ornauit linguam. Iohannis Wicleui, & ipsius Berengarij in religione doctrinam sequebatur. Tractatus hos fecit: Planctum proprium.. Dialogum ad amicum. De quadam Imperatrice. De arte moriendi. De coelesti Hjerusalem. De quodam Ionatha. De regimine principis.

Occleue in that booke where hee setteth downe Chaucers picture, addeth these verses:

Although his life be queint, the resemblaunce

Of him hath in me so fresh lifelines

That to put other men in remembraunce

Of his person, I haue here the likenes

Doe make, to the end in sothfastnes

That they, that of him haue lost thought & mind

By this peinture may againe him find.

His Death.

Geffrey Chaucer departed out of this world the 25. day of October, in the yeere of our lord 1400, after he had liued about 72. yeeres. Thus writeth Bale out of Leland: Chaucerus ad canos deuenit, sensitque senectutem morbum esse: & dum causas suas, Londoni curaret, &c. Chaucer liued til he was an old man, and found old age to be grieuous: and whilst he followed his causes at London, he died, and was buried at Westminster.

The old verses which were written on his graue at the first, were these:

Galfridus Chaucer vates & fama poesis

Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo.

But since M. Nicholas Brigham did at his owne cost and charges erect a monument for him, with these verses:

Qui fuit Anglorum vates ter maximus olim
Gaufredus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo:
Annum si quaeras domini, si tempora vitae
Ecce notae subsunt, quae tibi cuncta notant.
Anno Domini 1400. die mensis Octob. 25.

Now it shall not be amisse to these Epitaphes, to adde the iudgements and reports of some learned men, of this worthy and famous Poet. And first of all Thomas Occleue, who liued in his daies, writeth thus of him in his booke De Regimine Principis.

But welaway so is mine hart woe

That the honour of English tongue is deed,

Of which I wont was counsaile haue and reed.

O master dere and fadre reuerent,

My maister Chaucer floure of Eloquence,
Mirror of fructuous entendement,

O vniuersall fadre of Science :

Allas that thou thine excellent prudence

In thy bed mortall mightest not bequeath.

What eyld death: Alas why would she thee sle.

O death thou didest not harme singler in slaughter of

him

But all the land it smerteth.

But nathelesse yet hast thou no power his name sle
His hie vertue asterteth:

Unslaine fro thee, which ay vs lifely herteth
With bookes of his ornat enditing

That is to all this land enlumining.

The same Author againe in the same booke:

My deare maister, God his soule quite,
And fader Chaucer faine would haue me taught,
But I was young, and leered lite or nought
Alas my worthy maister honorable.
This lands very treasure and richesse
Death by thy death hath harme irreparable,
Vnto vs done: her vengeable duresse
Dispoiled hath this lond of the sweetnesse
Of Rhetorige: for vnto Tullius
Was neuer man so like amongs vs
Also who was heire in philosophy

To Aristotle in our tongue but thou

The steppes of Uirgill in Poese

Thou suedest eken men know well inough.

That combre world that thee my maister slough
Would I slaine were: Death was too hastife
To renne on thee, and reue thee thy life
She might haue tarried her vengeance a while,
To that some man had egall to thee be
Nay lat be that: she knew wele that this Ile
May neuer man forth bring like vnto thee:
And her office needs do must she,
God bad her so, I trust all for the best,

O maister, maister, God thy soule rest.

Dan Iohn Lidgate1 likewise in his prologue of Bocchas of the fall Princes, by him translated, saith thus in his commendation :

My maister Chaucer with his fresh comedies

Is dead alas chiefe Poet of Britaine,
That whilome made full pitous Tragedies,
The faule also of Princes he did complaine,
As he that was of making Soueraine,
Whom all this land should of right preferre

Sith of our language he was the Loadsterre.

[Note:] 1Iohn Lidgate Monke of Burie an excellent poet: he traueiled Fraunce and Italy to learn the languages and sciences.

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