of Wallingford-Caftle and of Knaresborough-Caftle during life. In the 4th year of the fame reign the King directed an order to him, as Chief Butler, to deliver one hundred tons of wine to the Duke of Bur gundy. In the 6th year of the fame prince he was fent Ambaffador into France; and the year following he went beyond the feas, joined in commiffion with the King'sbrother and Geoffrey Chaucer's nephew, Henry Beaufort Bishop of Winchester. In the 9th year of the fame reign, on Tuesday the 25th of October, the Commons prefented him their Speaker, as they did likewife in the 11th year, on Wednesday the 28th of January. In the 12th year of that reign Queen Jane granted to him, for his good service, the manors of Woodstock, Hannebrough, Wotton, and Stantesfield, during life; and in the 13th year, on the 5th of November, he was again prefented Speaker, as he was in the 2d of Henry V. on Wednesday the fecond day of parliament; and in the fame year he was fent by the King, in joint commiffion with Hugh Mortimer, to treat of a marriage with Catharine daughter to the Duke of Burgundy. He was likewife Ambaffador in the 5th and 6th years of the fame reign with Walter Hungerford, Steward of the Household, in the fame affair; and again in the 6th year of the fame reign he was Ambassador for peace with France; and he passed through feveral other publick flations, as appears by records. Herefided chiefly at Ewelm in Oxfordshire,

which came to him by marriage, and there he died on the 28th of April 1434, and was buried in that parish church under a black marble tomb. By his wife Maud, or Matilda, who furvived him two years, he had one daughter named Alice, who was thrice married, first to Sir John Philips Knight, and afterwards to Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury, who dying left her very rich. Her third husband was the famous William de la Pole, Earl and afterwards Duke of Suffolk, wha was firft fecretly married to the Countess of Hainault, by whom he had one daughter, but procuring a divorce from her he married this Alice, by whom he had one fon, John Duke of Suffolk. Duke William lived chiefly at Dunnington and Ewelm, at the first of which Stowe fays he built an hospital; but he seems to mistake it for that founded by Adderbury, as before mentioned, for Dugdale takes no notice of any other, but at Ewelm he founded one called God's Houfe. He was an inftance of the danger of a prince's favour, and the envy that attends it; for influencing the notions and the will of his master Henry VI, too much, and abufing the power he had over that easy pince, he enraged the Commons to that degree that nothing less than his banishment could appease them, which being agreed to the Yorkifts, fearful of his return, feized him on his paffage in Dover-road, and cut off his head upon the fide of a cock-boat, and his body was buried at the Charter-Houfe at Hull. The

Duchefs furvived him several years, and after an ho~ nourable life died at Ewelm in the year 1475. Their fon John had iffue, according to Leland, John Earl of Lincoln, Edmund afterwards Duke of Suffolk, Richard, William, and a fifth fon, who was a scholar in Gonvil-Hall in Cambridge. Edmund de la Pole, the laft of that name Duke of Suffolk, for being in treafon against Henry VII. for which he had been once pardoned, forfeited his life to the crown, and was beheaded in the 7th year of that king's reign, whereby the estates which Chaucer's family was poffeffed of came to the crown, and particularly the hospital of Ewelm, which was by King James I. bestowed on the Phyfick Professor at Oxford, who is always mafter thereof in virtue of his office.

Fiij

(C) An Abfract of the hiftorical paffages of the life of Chaucer, from Tyrwhitt's edit. 1775.

The birth of Chaucer in 1328 has been fettled, I fup-pofe, from fome infcription on his tombstone, signifying that he died in 1400 at the age of feventy-two. Of his birth itfelf we have no memorial, any more. than of his parents (a). He calls himfelf a Londenois, or Londoner, in The Teft. of L. b. i. fol. 325, and. in another paffage, fol. 321, fpeaks of the city of Londou as the place of his engendeure.

We are more in the dark about the place of his education. In his Court of Love, ver. 912, he speaks of himfelf under the name and character of " Philoge"net-of Cambridge, Clerk." This is by no means a decifive proof that he was really educated at Cambridge, but it may be admitted, I think, as a strong

(a) Mr. Speght has referred to feveral records in which the name of Chaucer occurs. There is mention in the Monast. ng. vol. iii. p. 326, of a Johannes le Chaufer, civis Londonien is, an. 1299, who may poffibly have been our poet's grandfather. Though Leland fays that he was nobili loco natus, Mr. Speght informs us that "in the opinion of fome heralds-he defcended not of any great houfe, which they gather by his "armes." I am inclined to believe the heralds rather than Leland.The name of Chaucer is explained [Life of Ch. Urr.] to fignify a fhoemaker, but it rather means un foifeur de chudes ou culottiers. Dict. de Lacombe, v. Chaucier. According to what is faid to be the old fpelling of it, Chaucefir, it might be not improbably derived from Chaufecire, an office which till fubtifs under the title of Chafewax.

argument that he was not educated at Oxford, as Leland has supposed, without the shadow of a proof (b). The biographers however, inflead of weighing one of thefe accounts against the other, have adopted both, and tell us very gravely that he was first at Cambridge, and afterwards removed from thence to complete his ftudies at Oxford.

It were to be wished that Mr. Speght had given us the date of that record in the Inner Temple (which he fays a Mr. Buckley had seen) where "Geffrey Chau

cer was fined two fhillings for beating a Franciscan "friar in Fleetstreet" (c). Leland has alfo told us that our Author “collegia Leguleiorum frequentavit after his

(b) The fingle circuraftance by which Leland has endeavoured to ftrengthen his fuppofition that Chaucer was educated at Oxford is another fuppofition that he was born in Oxfordihire or Berkthire: the latter has been thewn above to be falie.

(c) 'Though this be but a blind story, it rather inclines me to believe that Chaucer was of the Inner Temple in the early part of his life before he went into the fervice of Edward III. the circumftance recorded is plainly a youthful fally. On the contrary, Leland fuppofes his principal refidence in the Inns of Court to have been after he had flourished in France, about the laft years of Richard II. which is totally incredible. Indeed Leland, through his whole account of our Author, feems to have confidered him as living at least twenty years later than he really did. He takes no notice of the beft authenticated cir curaftances of Chaucer's life in the time of Edw. III. and he reprefents him as highly cfteemed by Henry IV. and his fon, qui de Gallis triumphavit. Henry V. was fcarcely twelve years page when Chaucer died.