CHAUCER. 231 



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 baseness of broken faith was incredible except to 

 such as in a doubtful story 



" Demen gladly to the badder end." 



Sir Harris Nicholas 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 shoul- 

 ders are finally discharged of that weary load, " The 

 Testament of Love." * The later biographers seem in- 

 clined 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 con- 

 clusive evidence is produced, we shall adhere to the re- 

 ceived dates as on the whole more consonant with the 

 probabilities 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 manifestly unfinished condi- 

 tion of the " Canterbury Tales." That a man of seventy 

 odd could have put such a spirit of youth into those 



* 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 " The Court of Love," 

 the "Dream," the " Praise of Woman," the " Eomaunt 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'* 

 Tale." 



