the forty-first year of Edward's reign, he received a pension of forty marks out of the Exchequer, which in the course of four years was encreased to sixty marks. At the same period he was nominated, by patent, a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber, and after the lapse of about twelve months, made Shield-bearer to his Majesty, a post now extinct, but then of particular distinction. This, too, was the year in which he was commissioned, with some others, to negociate some state business with the republic of Genoa; a duty of which the nature and objects are unknown, but of which the execution must have been satisfactory, as upon his return to England, letters patent, dated at Windsor Castle, on the 23d of April, in the 48th year of Edward's reign, were issued, by which the Butler of England was commanded to serve Chaucer with a pitcher of wine daily out of the Port of London.

These were high and valuable rewards for literary excellence, but the ease and competence which they produced begot no relaxation of those exercises by which they were originally obtained. Notwithstanding the constancy of his attendance at court, Chaucer continued to study and write with the natural enthusiasm of genius, and thus his fortune and reputation still encreased in parallel degrees. He was soon after appointed Comptroller of the Customs in the Port of London for wool, wool-fells, and hides—an office alike reputable and lucrative, of which he discharged the duties in person, and kept the accounts with his own hand. Upon his merit in these functions he plumed himself not a little, and apparently with some cause; for the Customs, towards the close of Edward the III.'s reign, were the subject of several prosecutions for heavy frauds, and gross embezzlements, connected with no one of which is the name of Chaucer to be found. He had not been a year in this situation, before the King made him a grant of the lands and body of Sir Edward Staplegate, of Kent, for which he received 1047. and some greater pecuniary advantage, which, with his other receipts, enabled him to provide an income of a thousand pounds a year, and thus live, according to his own words, with dignity in office, and with goodwill among his neighbours.

This was the summit of Chaucer's earthly grandeur; and with this elevation the plenitude of his poetical fame was also concur

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rent. It may be as well, therefore, to make some mention, in this place, of those productions by which a condition so happy was established. The Complaint of the Black Knight;' the 'Complaint of Mary Magdalen,' taken from Origen, and Chaucer's A B C, which was written for the Duchess Blanche; are conjectured to have been the first of the compositions he finished about the period of his introduction to court. The House of Fame,' the Assembly of Fowls,' and the Cuckow and Nightingale,' of which the scene is perceptibly laid in Woodstock Park, are supposed to have followed next in order. After a variety of elegies, ballads, &c. addressed to Margaret, Countess of Pembroke, and other ladies attached to the court, Troilus and Cresseide,' a poem in five books, and the longest of his works, has by some authors been ascribed to this time of his life, though different critics are not wanting who affirm that it was composed at an earlier period. According to an old representation, it was a digested translation from Lollius, historiographer to the city of Urbino, in Italy; but Sir Francis Kynaston, who turned the poem. into Latin verse, asserts that it was not taken from any particular, writer, but was an original project, glancing at some characters about the court of Edward the III. This latter opinion does not, however, appear very probable—it is supported by no facts; and as to the former, whatever may have been borrowed from Lollius, a great deal was also adopted from other poets, of whom the chief was Boccacio, who also supplied his Palemon and Arcite. It is observable that in some editions a sixth book is added to Troilus and Cresseide—it is the performance of Henderson.

By this time Wickliffe had effectively broached those doctrines of religious reformation, which have made his name memorable, and Chaucer aided the labour by successfully satirising all lazy monks, ignorant priests, and insolent churchmen. To this part he must have been strongly inclined by the liberality and experience of a cultivated mind; but perhaps he found a more direct, instigation in the countenance which his patron, John of Gaunt, thought proper to bestow upon the cause. It must not, however, be inferred from this partisanship, that the poet was indifferent to the sanctity of religion, or discontented with the peculiar tenets of the Catholic Church. For both he always professed a strong attachment and sincere reverence; his faith in it is indicated as well by his writings as his actions, and his

aversion was not levelled against the Church itself, but against that worst array of enemies to it, who, although endowed with a privileged character for the advantage of religion, yet struck the most fatal blows against the interests of their vocation, by a monstrous abuse of those immunities. The principal of Chaucer's performances in this way, was the 'Romaunt of the Rose,' the much prized poem already mentioned, which was mainly translated from the French of William de Lorris and John de Meune, who is conjectured to have died about the year 1365. As now preserved, there is more than one hiatus in this version: it does not appear to have ever been concluded, and is chiefly remarkable for the violent invectives it contains against religious orders. Most critics have affirmed, and a few denied, that Chaucer was also the author of the Ploughman's Tale,' and the satire of 'Jack Upland,' pieces which bear very hard upon the vices of the Clergy, and in abstract opinions concur with the avowed sentiments of the poet, and are therefore usually inserted in his works.

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In London the cause of Wickliffe was supported by the gentry, and the defence of the clergy maintained by the populace, who after much dissension broke into tumultuous riot, and demolished the Palace of John of Gaunt, in the Savoy. After this outrage the quarrel was awhile composed by the interference of the King, and Chaucer was then twice joined with other commissioners in an embassy to France; first, for the purpose of expostulating against the infringement of a truce, and secondly, to negociate a marriage between Richard, Prince of Wales, and Mary, daughter of the French King. This was the last state employment which he is known to have held, although it has been observed, that a gold chain which hangs round his neck in some old portraits, seems to warrant a belief that he filled a higher dignity than any existing records describe.

The death of Edward the III. on the 21st of June, 1377, was the downfall of Chaucer's fortune. Every circumstance attending this event seemed to promise not only a continuance, but an increase of prosperity, for John of Gaunt usurped the active administration of the kingdom, on account of the minority of his nephew, Richard the II. Things, however, took directly a contrary turn, nor has there been any information preserved which can explain the cause and manner of his subsequent vicissitude.

It appears that the late King's grant of twenty marks a year was confirmed by letters patent, dated March 3d, 1378; that the daily pitcher of wine was also given under similar authority on the 18th day of April following; but there is neither paper nor presumption to show that he was continued in his office for the customs. In a very short time after, his affairs became so embarrassed that he was obliged to resort to his Majesty's prerogative for protection against his creditors--an extreme of adversity for which many biographers have attempted to assign reasons, but which at this distance of time it is impossible to explain.

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The loss of wealth, however, produced no change in his political principles, for he was extremely active in abetting the tensions of Alderman Comberton, citizen and draper, familiarly called John of Northampton, who undertook to reform the city of London, at the instigation of Wickliffe. This design was vehemently resisted by the clergy, and great disturbances took place, when, upon the conclusion of the Alderman's mayoralty, it was attempted to invest him with the chief power for a second year. Upon this occasion proceedings assumed so formidable a character, that the King sent an armed force into the city, which committed great severities; and after putting several to death, imprisoned Comberton, and the leaders of his party. Chaucer was particularly denounced to the commanding officer, and great exertions were made to discover him; but he eluded pursuit, and reached Hainault in safety. Thence he passed into France, was pursued, and finally penetrated into Zealand. In this exile his conduct was highly generous, for as long as he had money left, he supported some other refugees from the vengeance of the Court. Utter distress, however, soon fell upon him; his remittances from England were stopped, and after many sufferings, he was at last obliged to venture home, in order to avoid starvation abroad. Being immediately detected and seized, he was thrown into prison, and treated with great rigor, until he disclosed all the intentions of his party upon a promise of indemnity. By this act of delinquency he regained his liberty, but forfeited the countenance of the Duke of Lancaster, and was persecuted with a heavy load of popular obloquy and abuse.

At this unhappy conjuncture, his wants were most urgent, and his spirit wholly broken; he sold his grants under the crown, and

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withdrew to Woodstock, which had been the scene of his brightest days. There he consoled his afflictions by revising the productions of his former studies, and writing a work in prose, entitled, the Testament of Love,' which is taken from the celebrated treatise by Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ.' There, too, he composed (probably in 1391) a Treatise on the Astralobe,' for his son Louis, who was a student at Cambridge, though only ten years old,—a performance by which the versatility of his talents, and the depth of his reading, have been signally enhanced.

Suddenly as the tide of wealth and favour ebbed away from Chaucer, it flowed back again as unexpectedly in the decline of his life. In the course of about four years more, John of Gaunt took for a third wife his old mistress Catherine Swynford, and the poet speedily participated in the prosperity of his sister-in-law. He obtained a fresh annuity of twenty marks, an immunity from his creditors, and a pipe of wine a year, which was to be delivered by his eldest son, who was advanced to the place of Chief Butler. But the happiness of these acquisitions was depressed by other events: through the death of John of Gaunt he lost an old friend, a gracious patron, and a kind brother; and by the usurpation of his nephew, Henry the IV., he was awhile distressed for the receipts of his pension. But the new monarch soon proved as propitious to his welfare as his predecessors had been; for, within the first year of his reign, he renewed the letters patent by which he had already been indulged, and settled his pension at forty marks a year during life.

After the demise of John of Gaunt, Chaucer changed his residence to Dunnington Castle, near Newbury, and there spent two years with the gravity of decent retirement. At the expiration of that term, he was obliged to come up to the Metropolis, in consequence of that law which made void all the acts passed by Richard during the twenty-first year of his reign. From this journey he never returned: a mortal illness siezed upon his debilitated frame, and he expired in London on the 25th of October, 1400. He bore his final malady with sound senses and an unimpaired mind, composing on his death-bed an admirable ode, of which a manuscript is preserved in the Cotton Library Otho, AXVII., and is entitled A Ballade, made by Giffrey Chaucyer, upon