CHAUCER. 171 



Of Aristotle and his philosophic 

 Than robes rich, or fiddle or psaltrie : 

 But although that he were a philosbpher 

 Yet had he but a little gold in coffer : 

 Of study took he moste care and heed ; 

 Not one word spake he more than was need t 

 All that he spake it was of high prudence, 

 And short and quick, and full of great sentencg ; 

 Sounding in moral virtue was his speech 

 And gladly would he learn and gladly teach. 



That, himself as plump as Horace, he should have described 

 the Clerk as being lean, will be no objection to those who re 

 member how carefully Chaucer effaces his own personality in 

 his great poem. Our chief debt to Sir Harris Nicolas is for 

 having disproved the story that Chaucer, imprisoned for com 

 plicity in the insurrection of John of Northampton, had set him 

 self free by betraying his accomplices. That a poet, one of 

 whose leading qualities is his good sense and moderation, and 

 who should seem to have practised his own rule, to 



Fly from the press and dwell with soothfastness ; 

 Suffice thee thy good though it be small, 



should have been concerned in any such political excesses, was 

 improbable enough; but that he should add to this the base 

 ness of broken faith was incredible except to such as in a doubt 

 ful story 



Demen gladly to the badder end. 



Sir Harris Nicolas has proved by the records that the fabric is 

 baseless, and we may now read the poet s fine verse, 



Truth is the highest thing a man may keep, 



without a pang. We are thankful that Chaucer s shoulders are 

 finally discharged of that weary load, The Testament of Love. * 

 The later biographers seem inclined to make Chaucer a younger 

 man at his death in 1400 than has hitherto been supposed. 

 Herr Hertzberg even puts his birth so late as 1340. But, till 

 more conclusive evidence is produced, we shall adhere to the re 

 ceived dates as on the whole more consonant with the probabi 

 lities of the case. The monument is clearly right as to the year 

 of his death, and the chances are at least even that both this 

 and the date of birth were copied from an older inscription. 

 The only counter-argument that has much force is the mani- 



* Tyrwhitt doubted the authenticity of The Flower and the Leaf and The 

 Cuckoo and the Nightingale. To these Mr. Bradshaw (and there can be no higher 

 authority) would add &quot;The Court of Love, the Dream, the Praise of Woman, 

 the Romaunt of _the Rose, and several of the shorter poems. To these doubtful 

 productions there is strong ground, both moral and aesthetic, for adding the Parson s 



