6. See note 1 to The Man of Law’s Tale.
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. “Written,” says Mr Wright, “in the sixteenth year of the reignof Richard II. (1392-1393);” a powerful confirmation of theopinion that this poem was really produced in Chaucer’s matureage. See the introductory notes to it and to the Legend of GoodWomen. 8. The old biographers of Chaucer, founding on what they tookto be autobiographic allusions in “The Testament of Love,”assign to him between 1354 and 1389 a very different historyfrom that here given on the strength of authentic recordsexplored and quoted by Sir H. Nicolas. Chaucer is made toespouse the cause of John of Northampton, the Wycliffite LordMayor of London, whose re-election in 1384 was sovehemently opposed by the clergy, and who was imprisoned inthe sequel of the grave disorders that arose. The poet, it is said,fled to the Continent, taking with him a large sum of money,which he spent in supporting companions in exile; then,returning by stealth to England in quest of funds, he wasdetected and sent to the Tower, where he languished for threeyears, being released only on the humiliating condition ofinforming against his associates in the plot. The public recordsshow, however, that, all the time of his alleged exile andcaptivity, he was quietly living in London, regularly drawing hispensions in person, sitting in Parliament, and discharging hisduties in the Customs until his dismissal in 1386. It need not besaid, further, that although Chaucer freely handled the errors,the ignorance, and vices of the clergy, he did so rather as a manof sense and of conscience, than as a Wycliffite — and there isno evidence that he espoused the opinions of the zealousReformer, far less played the part of an extreme and self-regardless partisan of his old friend and college-companion. 9. “The Commissioners appear to have commenced theirlabours with examining the accounts of the officers employed inthe collection of the revenue; and the sequel affords a strongpresumption that the royal administration [under Lancaster andhis friends] had been foully calumniated. We hear not of anyfrauds discovered, or of defaulters punished, or of grievancesredressed.” Such is the testimony of Lingard (chap. iv., 1386),all the more valuable for his aversion from the Wycliffiteleanings of John of Gaunt. Chaucer’s department in the LondonCustoms was in those days one of the most important andlucrative in the kingdom; and if mercenary abuse of his postcould have been proved, we may be sure that his and hispatron’s enemies would not have been content with simpledismissal, but would have heavily amerced or imprisoned him. 10. The salary was L36, 10s. per annum; the salary of the ChiefJudges was L40, of the Puisne Judges about L27. Probably theJudges — certainly the Clerk of the Works — had fees orperquisites besides the stated payment. 11. Chaucer’s patron had died earlier in 1399, during the exileof his son (then Duke of Hereford) in France. The DuchessConstance had died in 1394; and the Duke had made reparationto Katherine Swynford — who had already borne him fourchildren — by marrying her in 1396, with the approval ofRichard II., who legitimated the children, and made the eldestson of the poet’s sister-in-law Earl of Somerset. From this long-illicit union sprang the house of Beaufort — that being thesurname of the Duke’s children by Katherine, after the name ofthe castle in Anjou (Belfort, or Beaufort) where they were born. 12. Of Chaucer’s two sons by Philippa Roet, his only wife, theyounger, Lewis, for whom he wrote the Treatise on theAstrolabe, died young. The elder, Thomas, married Maud, thesecond daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Burghersh, brotherof the Bishop of Lincoln, the Chancellor and Treasurer ofEngland. By this marriage Thomas Chaucer acquired greatestates in Oxfordshire and elsewhere; and he figuredprominently in the second rank of courtiers for many years. Hewas Chief Butler to Richard II.; under Henry IV. he wasConstable of Wallingford Castle, Steward of the Honours ofWallingford and St Valery, and of the Chiltern Hundreds; andthe queen of Henry IV. granted him the farm of several of hermanors, a grant subsequently confirmed to him for life by theKing, after the Queen’s death. He sat in Parliament repeatedlyfor Oxfordshire, was Speaker in 1414, and in the same yearwent to France as commissioner to negotiate the marriage ofHenry V. with the Princess Katherine. He held, before he diedin 1434, various other posts of trust and distinction; but he leftno heirs-male. His only child, Alice Chaucer, married twice;first Sir John Philip; and afterwards the Duke of Suffolk —attainted and beheaded in 1450. She had three children by theDuke; and her eldest son married the Princess Elizabeth, sisterof Edward IV. The eldest son of this marriage, created Earl ofLincoln, was declared by Richard III heir-apparent to thethrone, in case the Prince of Wales should die without issue; butthe death of Lincoln himself, at the battle of Stoke in 1487,destroyed all prospect that the poet’s descendants mightsucceed to the crown of England; and his family is now believedto be extinct. 13. “Geoffrey Chaucer, bard, and famous mother of poetry, isburied in this sacred ground.”
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