THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTER AND GUARDIAN. MAY, 1854. CHAUCER. (With a Portrait.) GEOFFREY CHAUCER was born in London-not in Oxfordshire, as some have supposed-in the year 1328. Of his parentage and family there is no trace, nor have we any certain account of his education. It is reported, indeed, that he was at one time a pupil of Wycliffe, when that great man was Warden of Canterbury-Hall, Oxford; but this is not certain. Neither can we affirm that he was a student in the Temple, since the conjecture that he was rests on the very slight foundation of two remote facts,-the one that his friend Gower studied there, and the other that he once beat a Franciscan Friar in Fleet-street. As for the Friar, he might or might not have merited castigation; and how far Chaucer might have been justified in bestowing it, we cannot possibly judge, for want of information. The only authenticated memorial of that very grave transaction is, that he underwent a penalty of two shillings for laying violent hands on the religious person. His education we may believe to have been good; and Leland is pleased to say that he was 46 an acute dialectician, a sweet rhetorician, an elegant poet, a grave philosopher, an ingenious mathematician, and a holy theoloVOL. XVIII. Second Series. K gian." Bating some excess, especially in the last epithet, we may accept the eulogy as well merited for the age wherein the object of it lived. He travelled, after leaving the University, into France, and the Netherlands. In the Court of Edward III. he had an annual pension of twenty marks, calculated to be equivalent with £200, allotted to him in the year 1367, and was honoured by that Sovereign with the title of vallettus noster, "our yeoman ;" and when only eighteen years of age he had become known as author of a poem called, "The Court of Love." Being attached to the service of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he resided at Woodstock, and there married Philippa, sister of Catherine Rouet, mistress, but afterwards wife, of the Duke. When Catherine was married, Chaucer could call the Duke his brother-in-law; and so long as that nobleman was in power, the poet enjoyed his effectual patronage. Edward III. honoured him-perhaps in consequence of this connexion-with an embassy to Genoa, on some business not now known, under the title of scutifer, or shield-bearer to the King. The annuity of twenty marks, with a pitcher of wine daily, and some other sources of income, made his affairs easy, and he was again honoured, in 1377, with a commission at the Court of the King of France, to negotiate a marriage between Richard, Prince of Wales, and the daughter of that Sovereign. A second annuity of twenty marks gave substantial evidence of his Monarch's approbation. Perhaps he suffered from the poetical infirmity of extravagance, although his income rose so high that he was thought very rich. In the second and third years of the reign of Richard II., he was obliged to solicit the privilege of royal protection from the importunity of his creditors; a privilege for improvidence or dishonesty, which, happily, is unknown to Englishmen in these better times. But the Geoffrey Chaucer who committed sacrilege on the person of the Franciscan in Fleet-street, and who levelled the shafts of satire against the whole family of Monks and Nuns, whom he called the "brood of Anti christ," was not likely to pass all his days in peace; and when the Duke, for a long time the staunch friend of Wyckliffe, declined in power, the satirist could be made the subject of retaliation with impunity, and the more so, as an occasion was given in the proposed re-election of John Comberton, or John of Northampton, to the mayoralty of London in 1384. This gentleman was a Lollard, and Chaucer supported him with his utmost influence. But the Clergy got up a riot to oust the obnoxious Mayor, the King had to put it down by force, lives were lost, the Mayor himself was imprisoned, and Chaucer was obliged to flee. He found refuge in Hainault, in France, and in Zealand. So perilous was electioneering in those times! In Zealand he devoted his money to the hospitable entertainment of several countrymen whom intolerance had compelled to flee from England; but when his resources were exhausted, and his former friends at home left him to suffer indigence without any expression of their sympathy, he resolved to brave the peril and return. He ventured to show himself in England, was soon arrested, and thrown into the Tower of London. There he wrote a piece of prose under the title of "Testament of Love," and pathetically describes his condition in such sentences as these: "Witlesse, thoughtfull, sightlesse lokynge, enduring penaunce in this derk prisonne, caitiffned† fro frendshippe and acquaintaunce, and forsaken of al that any worde dare speke." "I had richesse suffisauntly to weive‡ nede; I had dignitie to be reverenced in worship. Power me thought that I had to kepe fro min enemies; and me semed to shine in glory of renome.-Every of tho§ joyes is turned into his contrary: for richesse, now have I povertie; for dignitie, now am I enprisoned; in stede of power, wretchednesse I suffre; and, for glory of renome, I am now despised and fouliche hated." • "Witlesse," without intelligence of what takes place in the world. + "Caitiffned," treated like a villain. 1 "Weive," to keep off. i "Renome," renown. § "Tho," those. |