Chaucer's Mission to Florence in i^"/- 43 



Now, however, the King and the reahn were in sore straits, 

 and no stone must be left unturned. The Genoese fleet must be 

 paid for; the services of the Doge's brother were sure to come 

 high ; and greater sums might possibly be obtained by an appH- 

 cation in Florence itself than by an approach through the agencies. 

 At all events, it was worth the effort.^' So Edward may have 

 reasoned, and, so reasoning, may have resorted to a skilful 

 negotiator^'* — to whom but the silver-tongued, mild-mannered, 

 capable, dexterous young squire, already perhaps possessing some 

 knowledge of Italian, already perhaps a visitor to Italy in the 

 train of Prince Lionel in 1368?^'^ If so, it is explicable why he 

 was sent on the King's secret business — the matter must make 

 no stir, else the chances of success were imperiled ; explicable, 

 too, why a person of no greater note was sent ; explicable why 

 his ostensible mission, publicly proclaimed, was to Genoa, and 

 that he occupied only the third place in that commission ; 

 explicable, finally, why he dispatched those three messengers to 

 the King in succession during his stay in Italy — the matter was 

 too important to brook delay until he should return, while yet 

 it was imperative that he should stay until every expedient was 

 exhausted. 



All this, so far as it relates to Chaucer, is conjectural, to be 

 sure; but I can not help thinking that it fits in sufficiently with 



'• Some light is thrown upon the relations between Florence and Eng- 

 land about this time by the following {Did. Nat. Biog. 12. 343) : 'About 

 this time [1376] a bull of Gregory XI against the Florentines, with 

 whom the Pope was then at war, was brought into England. Wherever 

 they were, the Florentines were to be pronounced excommunicate, and 

 their efifects were to be forfeited. Courtenay published the bull at Paul's 

 Cross. ... As a constitutional politician, he probably was glad to 

 forward the downfall of the Italian merchants, from whom the King 

 had long derived the money which he wasted in extravagance, and as 

 Bishop of London he was no doubt willing to gratify the citizens, who 

 were jealous of foreign traders. The Londoners pillaged the houses of 

 the Florentines, and made a riot. This caused the interference of the 

 city magistrates, and they sided with the King, who took the foreigners 

 under his protection.' 



On Mar. 9, 1373, lohn Gouche, spicer, a Florentine resident in London 

 from his youth, had the liberties of the city of London conferred upon 

 him {Cat. Pat. Rolls). 



^^ Cf. Legouis, Chaucer, p. 19. 



^^ See Trans. Conn. Acad, of Arts and Sciences 21. 6 fif. 



