ness are held up to view and spoken of by him in a manner much more direct and open than is customary nowadays, and hence care has to be taken in selecting what of him it is fitting to present to young people; but those who can understand him find very little indeed to be regretted in Chaucer's poetry. He was evidently a man whose heart's delight was in all that is "true, and honest, and lovely, and of good report," and who hated with the full strength of a noble nature whatever is base, and mean, and double-dealing, and oppressive; and the cowardly bully who unworthily uses the circumstances of his position for the purpose of causing unhappiness to others, along with the tools whom he finds mean enough to be willing to play into his hands, have never in all the range of our English literature been subjected to greater castigation, or held up to more deserved opprobrium, than by him.

As is the case with several of our greatest men in by-past times, we know very little of Chaucer's earlier days. He was born in London, but we cannot tell the date of his birth, though it was, in all likelihood, somewhere about the end of the thirties or the beginning of the forties of the fourteenth century. We know that he died in 1400; and his life thus extends over the greater part of the reign

of Edward III., covering the period both of its prosperity and its decline, through the disastrous reign of Richard II., and over some months of the reign of Henry IV. His father and grandfather seem to have been connected with the trade in wine, which, used as all God's gifts ought to be used, "maketh glad the heart of man." We cannot tell at which of the London schools he was educated, nor which of the Universities he attended, though he certainly speaks as if he knew them both. The first authentic record of him that we have is, that in 1357 he was a page in the household of Elisabeth, the wife of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the fourth son of Edward III., where he would be likely to learn the ordinary usages of good society, proper confidence in himself, and the kindly courtesy and consideration for others which characterised him all his days. Later on, he entered the service of the king himself, and was by him employed on various embassies and expeditions to Continental countries in connection with important matters affecting the interests of England. That he performed these duties to the satisfaction of the Court is proved by the fact that gifts and pensions were granted him, and important posts bestowed upon him, with comfortable salaries attached to them. He became Comptroller of the Customs and

Subsidy of Wools, Skins, and Tanned Hides in the Port of London; and later on, in addition, Comptroller of the Petty Customs there. He would thus be a well-known figure in the streets leading from his house in Aldgate Street down past the Tower to the river, and along its busy wharves; and as he had, for a time at least, to perform the duties of these offices in person, he had ample opportunity for noting with his observant eyes the different types of character which congregated there, and which he has presented to us with such clearness and force in his immortal work. No doubt his commonplace duties, though conscientiously performed, would be irksome to him; but we know that it was characteristic of him that he took things as they came, that he heartily enjoyed the good things of this life when he had them, and that he had one great pleasure which never failed him-his delight in books. Alluding to this in his 'House of Fame,' he tells us that the bird of Jove said to him in his dream :—

"For when thy labour all done is,
And hast y-made thy reckonings,
Instead of rest and newé things,
Thou go'st home to thine house anon,
And there, as dumb as any stone,
Thou sittest at another book,

Till fully dazéd is thy look,

And liv'st thus as a herémite,

Although thy abstinence is slight."

But, when he could avail himself of it, there was another pleasure which he never failed to take advantage of, and one in describing which he revels with glad delight all through his poetry. He tells

us

"And as for me, though I have knowledge slight,
In bookés for to read I me delight,

And to them give I faith and full credènce,
And in my heart have them in reverence
So heartily, that there is gamé none
That from my bookés maketh me be gone,
But it be seldom on the holiday,-
Save, certainly, when that the month of May
Is come, and that I hear the fowlés sing,
And see the flowers as they begin to spring,
Farewell my book, and my devotion."

His delight in the beauties of nature was paramount to every other feeling, and in the enjoyment of them his heart was ever full of "revel and solas."

By the year 1367 he was married to a lady named Philippa, who was probably a relation of his own, and one of the queen's maids of honour; and it is supposed that three children were born to him, Thomas, Elisabeth, and Lewis: but of his family life, which is usually regarded as not having been of the happiest, we know very little, except

that for the use of his boy Lewis he wrote out with great care a treatise on an astronomical instrument, called The Astrolabe.' His wife's sister is supposed to have been Lady Catherine Swynford, who ultimately became the spouse of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third son of the king. Be that as it may, Chaucer's fortunes became intimately connected with those of the great duke, who was a liberal patron; and for a considerable time prior to 1386, he was in circumstances of much worldly prosperity, and acted as Knight of the Shire for Kent. About that time, however, John of Gaunt's influence at Court declined; he had to leave England for a time, and Chaucer lost his offices. He had spent his money freely during his prosperous days, and the reverse of fortune must have found him ill prepared to meet it. He received other offices later on, such as Clerk of Works at several of the king's manor houses, and he underwent various ups and downs in life, but seems to have been continually in want of money, until a few months before his death in 1400, when Henry IV., the son of his old patron, to whom he sent his well-known appeal called his 'Complaint to his Purse,' liberally provided for him. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, beside which he lived; and the space sur