250 Mr. W. B. Donne [April 25, 



The speaker next observed it was not surprising that the bio- 

 graphy of Chaucer was scanty and doubtful. Little is known of 

 Shakspeare and his contemporaries ; although, when they flourished 

 printing was common, and the great writers of the age were either, 

 like Raleigh and Sidney, the most distinguished of public men, or 

 like Heywood, Shakspeare, and Jonson, constantly before the public 

 either as actors or authors. Whereas Chaucer, and his contempora- 

 ries, wrote sixty years before Caxton set up the first printing-press 

 at Westminster, and there was no theatre to diffuse and perpetuate 

 their fame, and few readers to take an interest in their writings. 

 Enough, however, is ascertained of Chaucer's history to warrant us 

 in describing him as a " courtier, soldier, and scholar." 



A courtier. — If Edward III. were not a very zealous patron 

 of literature, he was a favourable and'fostering friend to Chaucer 

 himself. Perhaps he owed his promotion, in some degree, to a 

 fortunate marriage. John of Gaunt and Chaucer espoused two 

 sisters, the daughters of Sir Payne Roet, a native of Hainault, and 

 Guienne King-of-arms. The poet thus came under the immediate 

 notice of Queen Philippa of Hainault, and of the Duke of Lan- 

 caster. The Duke's regard for his wife's sister was manifested by 

 a pension, by occasional presents, and her husband's advancement. 

 In 1367 Chaucer was made one of the valets of the king's chamber, 

 in 1370 he was employed in the king's service abroad, and towards 

 the end of 1372 he was one of a commission to determine upon an 

 English port where a Genoese commercial establishment might be 

 formed. On this occasion he visited Florence and Genoa. In 1374 

 he was appointed Comptroller of the Customs in the port of Lon- 

 don ; and soon afterwards sent, in association with Sir Thomas 

 Percy (afterwards Earl of Worcester), on a special mission to 

 Flanders. In 1386 he sat in Parliament as Knight of the Shire 

 for Kent, and although he latterly met with reverses, and fell with 

 the Lancaster party for a time, yet on the accesion of "high- 

 mounting Bolingbroke " he enjoyed at the last the full sunshine of 

 royal favour. As he does not appear to have been a very zealous 

 soldier, so it is probable that he was not a very active partisan. 

 Though, like the great Florentine, driven by his political enemies 

 into banishment, he expends on them no withering sarcasms, and 

 even his occasional allusions to seasons of adversity are steeped in 

 good humour. 



A soldier. — In Chaucer's age the tonsure of the priest was 

 almost the only mode of exemption from the bearing of arms, and 

 both gentleman and churl would have been deemed recreant had 

 they eluded their term of military suit and service. From Chau- 

 cer's own testimony, it is known that in the autumn of 1359 he 

 accompanied that gallant and well-appointed army with which 

 Edward III. invaded France. This was apparently the first and 

 last of the poet's campaigns. It was ill adapted to stimulate his 

 military ardour, if, indeed, he possessed any, for the expedition was 



