214 Chaucer and Henry, Earl of Derby 



then. As Wells acutely observes^ : 'This implies composition 

 after 1384, but gives no terminus ad quern.' 



Hales' argument, in the same paper,- from Venus 76-8, that 

 Chaucer's right hand may have been losing its cunning in 1393, 

 is sufficiently refuted by Lounsbury,^ who finds allusions by 

 Chaucer to his old age in House of Fame 992-9 [not later than 

 1384], Legend of Good Women 258-263, 313-6 [ca. 1385], 

 Scogan 29-42 [ca. 1393], as well as in the Venus. Of the latter 

 he asks : 'Can it be seriously maintained that these are the words 

 of a man who was no more than sixty at the utmost?' 



The arguments in favor of the earlier date, then, seem quite 

 insufficient to overthrow the considerations which point to 1393 

 or later. 



We have now seen (pp. 166, 175) that Chaucer may have wit- 

 nessed Henry's progress from Dartford to London on July 5, 

 1393, and that his impressions are probably recorded, with some 

 poetical embellishment, in K. T. 1297-1328; tliat Chaucer's rela- 

 tions with the royal family, including John of Gaunt, were such as 

 to recommend him to Henry (pp. 177-8) ; that Chaucer was on 

 friendly terms with prominent members of Henry's suite ( pp. 190- 

 192) ; that there was every reason why Chaucer should pay 

 court to Henry, and that they would not have lacked topics of 

 conversation (pp. 193-6) ; that Henry, like Chaucer's knight, 

 had 'reysed' in 'Lettowe' (pp. 196 ff.) ; that Henry, beyond any 

 man whom Chaucer is likely to have known, had the amplest 

 opportunity to acquaint himself with the facts concerning the 

 table of honor, and that the brilliant celebration of the feast in 

 1391, at no great distance from the scene of Henry's exploits 

 in the previous year, must have been most impressive to his 

 imagination (pp. 210-1); and that therefore the part of the 

 Prologue relating to the knight is not likely to have been written 

 before the summer of 1393 (p. 212), the same being probably 

 true of K. T. 1297- 1328.* 



^Manual of the Writings in Middle English, p. 691. 



° Pp. 101-2. 



'i. 33-42. 



*If the Knight's Tale is to be dated as late as 1393. then the Clanvowe 

 who was the author of The Cuckoo and the Nightingale was probably Sir 

 Thomas, rather than Sir John, his father, as Kittredge supposes (Mod. 



