176 Chaucer and Henry, Earl of Derby 



$1200 toward his ransom, which was effected on March i, 1360.^ 

 Chaucer's wife, Philippa Chaucer, was 'doubtless named'- after 

 Edward's queen. By 'themperour Octovien' {Bk. Duch. 368^; 

 cf. 1 3 14) Chaucer is understood to mean Edward. 



In 1367 Chaucer was appointed valet, and in 1372 esquire, of 

 the king's household; in 1372 he was a commissioner to treat 

 with Genoa; in 1374 the king- made him a grant of a pitcher 

 of wine^ daily, '^ and appointed him comptroller of the customs 

 and subsidy of wools, etc.; from 1375-7 he was 'pampered by 

 Edward III.'° Add that his father, John Chaucer, was in 

 attendance on the king in an expedition to Flanders in 1338,' 

 and was deputy to the king's butler in the port of Southampton 

 in 1349.'' Besides, Chaucer may possibly have alluded to the 

 battle of Sluys (1340), one of the most memorable in the naval 

 history of England, in the lines (Prol. 399-400) : 



If that he f aught, and hadde the hyer hond, 

 By water he sente hem hoom to every lond, 



for, in his account of this battle, so glorious for Edward, Minot 

 (ed. Hall 5. 44-46) says of the English: 



Few of the Normandes left thai olive, 

 Fone left thai olive, but did tham to lepe ; 

 Men may find by the fiode a C on hepe.''* 



(2) Henry, Duke of Lancaster ( ?I299-I36i). In the year 

 before Henry's death, Chaucer had served in the French cam- 



' Skeat I. xix; Emerson 3. 328, 355; Legouis, p. 6. 



^ Skeat I. XX. 



^ Cf. Skeat's note, and see Emerson, p. 330, note 34. 



* 2y> quarts. 



^The average price from Oct. 27, 1376, to June 21, I377. was 7-2173 

 pence = $2.25; thereafter, at 20 marks the year, 8.767 pence = $2.75. 



° Legouis, p. 13. 



^ Skeat I. XV. 



*Kirk 4. xi, 145; Coulton, p. 13. 



"Cf. Minot 5. 55-7, and Hall's note on 5. 45-6; Chaucer, L. G. W. 

 644. For the battle of Espagnols-sur-Mer (1350), see Nicolas, Hist. 

 Royal Navy, 1847, 2. 108, where we are told of a Spanish vessel which 

 had engaged that of the Prince of Wales, that as soon as the former 

 surrendered, through the help of the Earl of Lancaster, whose men 

 shouted, 'Derby to the rescue!' 'the whole of her crew, according to 

 the barbarous custom of the age, were thrown overboard, "not one being 

 taken to mercy." ' 



