2C9 



CHAUCER, GEOFFREY. 



OHAUDET, ANTOINE DENIS. 



210 



London to his mother and sister are full of enthusiasm. " I am 

 settled," says he, " and in such a settlement as I can desire. What a 

 glorious prospect ! " Party-writing seems to have been one of his 

 favourite employments, and it would appear that he did not confine 

 himself to one side. This kind of writing was agreeable to his satirical 

 turn, and by raking him into immediate notice gratified his pride, 

 which was unbounded. When recommended by a relation to get into 

 some office, he stormed like a madman, and asserted that "he hoped, 

 with the blessing of God, very soon to be sent prisoner to the Tower, 

 which would make his fortune." His writings during his residence in 

 London were numerous and of varied character, from sermons to 

 burlettas for Vauxhall ; but they failed to procure him a comfortable 

 income, and he was plunged from the highest pinnacle of hope to the 

 depths of despair. In tho month of July 1770 he removed from 

 Shoreditch, where he had lodged, to an apartment in Brook-street, 

 Holborn, where, on the 24th of August following, being literally in a 

 state of starvation, he terminated his existence by poison. He was 

 buried on the following day in the burying-ground of Shoe-lane work- 

 house. 



Chatterton was only seventeen years and nine months old when he 

 died. The person of Chatterton was, like his genius, precocious. One 

 of his companions says he looked "like a spirit." His eyes were 

 uncommonly piercing, and one more so than the other. His habits 

 were domestic, and his affection for his relatives unbounded. The 

 controversy as to the Rowleian poems engaged numerous writers of 

 the day ; but few people now believe the Rowley poems to be anything 

 else than the production of Chatterton himself. Of his genius there 

 can be little doubt. His poetry has immaturity of thought stampt 

 upon every stanza, but as the poetry of a boy it is often wonderfully 

 fine. Had he had a better training and lived under happier circum- 

 stances, he might, unless the taint of insanity had been ineradicable, 

 have come to be one of the first poets of his time. 



CHAUCER, GEOFFREY, a very distinguished name in the long 

 catalogue of eminent Englishmen, and one who, in the words of 

 Hallam, " with Dante and Petrarch filled up the triumvirate of great 

 poets in the middle ages." Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in 

 1328, and was educated at Cambridge and Oxford. He studied the 

 law in the Inner Temple. He lived much in the court of Edward III., 

 and in familiar intercourse with several members of his family. He 

 was also employed in the public affairs of the realm. But it is as a 

 writer, and especially as a poet, that he claims the notice of posterity. 

 Chaucer wrote in the vernacular language of his own age and country ; 

 lie refined it indeed, but neither his labours, nor those of his contem- 

 poraries, Langland, Gower, and Wicliffe, were able to fix the language. 

 The English of Chaucer is so unlike the English of our time, that few 

 persons can read it with ease, and none without the assistance of a 

 dictionary. Yet a little pains would enable any one to master his 

 language and versification, and the pains would be amply rewarded, 

 for his writings ore valuable not only as illustrating the manners and 

 habits of the time, but as the productions of a mind eminently poetical. 

 His chief work is a collection of stories, entitled by him ' Canterbury 

 Tales,' being a series of tales told by the individuals of a party of 

 pilgrims going from Southwark to Canterbury, who had agreed thus 

 to beguile the tediousness of the way. 



While at the university Chaucer produced two of his larger works, 

 the ' Court of Love ' and ' the book of Troilus and Cresseide ;' but he 

 soon entered on public life. He married Philippa, an attendant on 

 Queen Philippa : his older biographers state that she was the daughter 

 of Sir Payne Roet of Hainault, and sister of Katherine Swinford, who 

 wag subsequently married to John of Gaunt. This has indeed been 

 doubted, but as appears to us without sufficient reason. 



In 1358 John of Gaunt married Blanch of Lancaster. It was on 

 occasion of this suit or courtship that Chaucer wrote his ' Parliament 

 of Birds.' In the next year Chaucer appears as a soldier. One of the 

 most authentic and interesting memorials we possess of him is a 

 deposition given by him in the suit between Scrope and Grosvenor, on 

 the question of right to a particular figure in their coat-armour. The 

 depositions are preserved on the rolls at the Tower. Chaucer deposes 

 among other things that he was in the expedition of 1359, when 

 Edward III. invaded France, and was then made prisoner by the 

 French near the town of Retters. How long he remained in captivity 

 is not known, and it is not till 1367 that we meet with him again in 

 the national records. In that year he had an annual pension of 20 

 marks granted to him, a sum which his biographer, Mr. Godwin, 

 estimates as equivalent to 2401. : the grant is entered on the patent 

 rolls; there is proof of the payment of it in the issue roll of the 

 Exchequer of the 44th year of Edward III., and also of the payment 

 of 10 marks a year, granted to Philippa Chaucer, his wife. 



In 1369 he wrote ' the Book of the Duchess,' a funeral poem, on the 

 death of Blanch, duchess of Lancaster. From the national records we 

 find that in 1370 Chaucer had letters of protection, being about to 

 depart beyond sea. In 1373 he was in an embassy to Genoa, to treat 

 on some public affairs. On this visit to Italy it seems probable that 

 he saw and conversed with Petrarch, of whom he speaks in the 

 induction to one of his tales. On his return he had a royal grant of 

 a pitcher of wine, to be taken daily at the port of London, and was 

 soon after made comptroller of the customs in that port. He is found 

 also on the rolls as having a grant of a wardship in 1375, and another 



of a portion of contraband wool in 1376. About this time it is sup- 

 posed that he wrote the poem which Pope afterwards modernised, called 

 by him the ' House of Fame.' 



In both 1376 and 1377 he was employed in embassies of a secret 

 character, the object of neither of which is known. On the accession 

 of Richard II. he was sent to negociate a marriage between Richard, 

 prince of Wales, and Mary of France, daughter of the French king. 

 In the following May he was sent to Lombardy to negociate with the 

 Duke of Milan, and it is noteworthy that Gower the poet was one of 

 the two persons whom Chaucer left to act as his representatives in, 

 England during his absence. 



King Edward III. died in May 1377. To the early years of his 

 successor are referred Chaucer's poems entitled ' The Black Knight," 

 ' The Legend of Good Women,' and ' The Flower and the Leaf.' Mr. 

 Godwin and others have laboured to prove that Chaucer was in dis- 

 grace and misery during much of the period from 1384 to 1389. He 

 is represented as having been implicated in the affairs of John de 

 Northampton, in his struggle for the mayoralty of London, and to 

 have been in consequence driven into exile, flying to Hainault, and 

 afterwards to Zealand, aud on hia return to England being imprisoned 

 in the Tower, whence he was not released but at the expense of some 

 disclosures, which are said not to have been creditable to him. But 

 Sir Harris Nicholas has shown that from 13SO to 1388 Chaucer regu- 

 larly received his pension with his own hands, which of course dis- 

 poses at a blow of the hypothesis of his exile. It is to be remarked 

 further, that in 1386 he was returned a knight of the shire for Kent. 

 But there is no doubt that about this time he fell into adversity. His 

 offices were taken from him, probably on account of his being regarded 

 as one of the followers of John of Gaunt, who was then in disgrace ; 

 and as aWicliffite he perhaps met with some persecution. In 1388 he 

 was constrained to sell his two pensions : his wife had died in 1387, 

 and her pension had of course ceased with her life. In 1389 he 

 appears to have regained at least a measure of court favour, as he was 

 then appointed clerk of the works at the king's palaces, and the 

 repairs at Windsor were executed under his direction. This office he 

 however held for only two years. After this from 1394 to 1398 

 he appears to have been suffering from great pecuniary distress; but 

 Bolingbroke, immediately on his accession to the crown (1399), con- 

 ferred on Chaucer a pension double that he had formerly enjoyed, so 

 that we may hope his last days were spent in comfort. 



In the last ten years of his life he seems to have lived retired from 

 public affairs, though receiving from time to time marks of royal 

 favour. A house at Woodstock, which had been assigned to him by 

 the king, and the castle at Donnington, near Newbury, are believed to 

 have been at this period his usual places of abode. In this part of his 

 life it was that he wrote the * Canterbury Tales,' and the tradition, 

 both at Woodstock and at Donnington, is, that portions of the work 

 were written at those places. Chaucer died in London, October 25, 

 1400, and was buried in the Abbey Church of Westminster. The 

 monument there erected to his memory was a tribute paid to him a 

 century and a half after his decease by Nicholas Brigham. 



Chaucer had two sons, Sir Thomas aud Lewis. Sir Thomas was 

 speaker of the House of Commons, and, marrying an heiress of the 

 house of Burghersh, obtained with her Ewelme in Oxfordshire, and 

 other possessions. He had an only daughter, Alice Chaucer, who 

 married De la Pole, duke of Suffolk. 



The ' Canterbury Tales ' were printed by Caxton, but it was not til 

 1542 that any general collection of his writings was made and com 

 mitted to the press : they have been often reprinted. Mr. Tyrwhitt's 

 edition of the ' Canterbury Tales ' is justly celebrated for the purity 

 of the text, which was far superior to that of any previous edition 

 and for the valuable illustrations which he has annexed. 



We have noticed in this article Chaucer's principal works, withou t 

 professing to enumerate all. Chaucer was the first great English poet, 

 and he remained the greatest English poet till that place was taken by 

 Shakspere. In sublimity and grandeur of thought he has been ex- 

 celled, but in liveliness of imagination, vigour of description, vivacity, 

 and ease, he has few rivals ; and, we may add with Hallam, that " as the 

 first original English poet, if we except Langland as the inventor of 

 our most approved measure as an improver, though with too much 

 innovation, of our language and as a faithful witness to the manners 

 of his age, Chaucer would deserve our reverence, if he had not also 

 intrinsic claims for excellences, which do not depend upon any 

 collateral considerations." 



CHAUDET, ANTOINE DENIS, a celebrated French sculptor, born 

 at Paris, in 1763. He was the pupil of Stouf, and in 1784 he obtained 

 the grand prize of the Academy for sculpture, by a bas-relief of 

 ' Joseph sold by his Brethren." He studied some time in Rome, and 

 returned to Paris in 1789, when he was elected an Agr^e of the 

 Academy of Painting and Sculpture, of which he became later a 

 member and professor of sculpture. He was made a member of the 

 Institute hi 1805, and took part in the preparation of the ' Dictionary 

 of the French Academy;' he edited the ' Dictionuaire de la Langue 

 des Beaux Arts.' He died in 1810. 



There are several excellent works by Chaudet in public buildings of 

 Paris, but one of his chief performances, the colossal bronze statue 

 of Napoleon in the heroic or Roman costume, which stood on the 

 column of the Place Vend6me, was melted down in 1814 by the 



