GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

1329-1400.

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,

On Fame's eternal bead-roll worthy to be fyled.-SPENSER.

A perpetual fountain of good sense.-DRYDEN.

-That noble Chaucer, in those former times

Who first enriched our English with his rhymes,
And was the first of ours that ever broke

Into the Muses' treasures, and first spoke
In mighty numbers, delving in the mine

Of perfect knowledge.-WORDSWORTH.

-The morning star of song, who made

His music heard below;

Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath

Preluded those melodious bursts that fill

The spacious times of great Elizabeth

With sounds that echo still.-TENNYSON.

One of those rare authors, whom, if we had met him under a porch in a shower, we should have preferred to the rain!--LOWELL.

In the dim twilight of five hundred years ago, the "morning star of song" began to shine. Born about the year 1328, as we infer from an inscription on his tomb, Goeffrey Chaucer, the "father of English poetry," received a thorough education, at either Oxford or Cambridge, or both. It is pretty clear that he understood well the French and Latin tongues. Whether he was versed in Italian, may be doubted, though he spent some time in Italy, and was all his life a student.

In the autumn of 1359 Chaucer served in the army of Edward III. invading France, where he was captured at the siege of Retters. In the year 1367 we find him one of the king's valets de chambre, and receiving a yearly pension of twenty marks. About this time he married Philippa Roet, sister of the lady who afterwards became the wife of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. In 1370 he was abroad in the king's service. In November, 1372, he was sent on a mission to Genoa, to treat of the choice of a port in England where the Genoese might form a commercial establishment. Having remained about a year in Genoa and Florence, we find him again in England in the latter part of 1373. The great Dante had died fifty years before, but Petrarch and Boccaccio, already famous, were still alive. He puts into the mouth of his "Clerk" or student, who is supposed to represent Chaucer himself, the following words in regard to the origin of the story of Patient Griselda:

"I will you tell a tale which that I
Learned at Padowe of a worthy clerk,
As proved by his wordes and his work;
He is now dead and nailed in his chest,

I pray to God to give his soule rest;

Francis Petrarch, the laureate poete,
Highte this clerk, whose rhetoric sweet
Enlumined all Itaille of poetry."

He repeatedly quotes Dante, but it is uncertain whether he was familiar with the writings of Boccaccio.

We find a curious record on the 23d of April, 1374, of a grant of a pitcher of wine daily by the king, soon afterwards commuted for another pension of twenty marks. On the 8th of the following Junc he was appointed controller of the customs and subsidies of wools, skins, and tanned hides, in London. Other tokens of the royal favor followed, and in the last year of Edward's long reign (1327-1377) we find him an ambassador, first to Flanders, and afterwards to France.

Soon after the accession of Richard II. Chaucer was sent to France to negotiate a treaty for a marriage between the boy king and a daughter of the French monarch. Returning soon to England, he was sent in May, 1378, to Lombardy, to treat of military matters. It was on this occasion that he nominated his brother poet, John Gower, whom he afterwards calls "Moral Gower," his attorney and legal representative during his absence. Gower, in his poem entitled Confessio Amantis, makes Venus say,

"And greet well Chaucer when ye meet,

As my disciple and my poete."

In 1386 he was elected knight of the shire, or county representative in parliament, for Kent. The session was very brief, and its proceedings were largely directed against Chaucer's particular friend and patron, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Strongly enlisted on the side of the duke, Chaucer appears to have shared his fortunes, and to have lost the office of controller. Many years before, one Geoffrey Chaucer, probably our poet, had been fined two shillings for whipping a Franciscan friar in Fleet street; and now he became implicated in a London riot, and was obliged to flee to the Continent with his wife and children. After eighteen months he returned to England, to look after his property, but was seized and flung into the Tower. Yet he seems to have continued to receive, or at least to have been entitled to receive, his two pensions, until he sold them in 1388, being in great destitution. In May, 1389, he was again in favor at court, and in July of that year he was appointed “Clerk of the King's Works," with a pension of £36, and afterwards an annual pipe of wine.

Cloud and sunshine alternately filled his sky. In September, 1391, he was dismissed from office, but soon afterward was restored to public favor. Sixty-three years old, weary of public life, but not soured nor despondent, he retired to his house, given him at Woodstock by the noble duke, and sat down to write. There, and at Donington Castle, where an old tree long bore the name of Chaucer's oak, he composed his greatest work, The Canterbury Tales. One of the vellum manuscripts of these tales, in the possession of the Marquis of Stafford, has a striking picture of the poet; a portly figure, in a thoughtful attitude, his head inclining forward, his chin almost resting on his breast; a buttoned bonnet on his head, its folds hanging gracefully behind his shoulders; a loose frock of camlet reaching below the knee, its wide sleeves gathered and fastened at the waist; his shoes horned, and his hose supposed to be red. Silver locks peep out from beneath his bonnet. His beard is of moderate length and neatly trimmed. The expression of his face singularly unites cheerfulness and thoughtfulness. You can fancy a mirthful twinkle in the eye, and almost expect the grave face to relax into an arch smile as some funny thought flashes through his brain. This man has evidently a just sense of the vanity of all things earthly; but he has also a kind heart and a merry wit.

The accession of his patron's son, Henry IV., brought more sunshine; for within four days the new king granted him (Oct. 3, 1399) a yearly pension of forty marks. On