Chaucer and Henry's Relatives 175 



2. CHAUCER AND HENRY'S RELATIVES 



Thus accoutred, and thus accompanied, Earl Henry, on Satur- 

 day, the 5th of July, 1393, rode past Greenwich, where Chaucer 

 had probably .resided since 1385,^ with practically no public 

 employment since 1391." Here, as Legouis says^ : 'He had 

 had many opportunities of watching those motley cavalcades 

 [of Canterbury pilgrims] go by. . . . He had only to describe 

 these pilgrims, each with the appurtenances of his rank and his 

 individual traits.' 



That Chaucer was delighted to see Henry in his state, both 

 because of the poet's relations to various members of Derby's 

 family, and because of his attitude toward the earl himself, 

 there can be little doubt. Taking first the older members of the 

 latter's family, we may consider his grandfathers : 



(i) Edzvard III. Chaucer was attached to the king's army 

 for the invasion of France in 1359, and the king contributed 



him on the galley which brought him to Venice (229. 3), and a mat 

 bought for him at Treviso (240. 15). He consumed six sheep in about 

 a month (231. 10, 13, 19; 232. 9; cf. 229. 3, 29; 230. 18; also 233. 18; 

 235. 8); but also required oil (245. 25), oil and spices (258. i), spices, 

 $50 worth (229, 5), and spices and unguents (246. 23) — even, on one 

 occasion, but where we do not know, wax candles (163. 8), the Latin 

 entry being: 'Clerico speciarie per manus custodis leopardi pro candelis 

 cereis emptis pro leopardo, iiij d. ob.' [4 1/2 d.]. Just when it was 

 necessary to obtain a parcel from the apothecary for him (Wyhe 4. 170) 

 is not known (1393 or 1394), but Wylie assigns it to 1394 (4. 108, note). 



Henry's interest in leopards is indicated in many ways. When king, 

 he had a keeper of his lions and leopards (Wylie i. 61). In 1393 or 

 1394, after his return from the Holy Land, his harness-maker seems to 

 have made him a seat for the leopard's saddle (sege p. sell' leopardi, 

 Wylie 4. 164). As early as 1381-2, he has a satin cloak charged 

 (embroidered?) with gold leopards; in 1401 he has a silver boat, 

 called an almsdish, with a leopard standing on the stem; and in 1406 

 a similar one embossed with seven leopards. It may be added that 

 Henry V's herald, named from his master's coat, was Leopard Herald 

 (Encyc. Brit., nth ed., 13. 325). 



^Tatlock, pp. 138 ff. ; Skeat i. xxxv-xlii (§§26, 30, 32), and one-volume 

 ed., p. xiii; Kirk, p. xxxiii; Legouis, pp. 15, 142-3; Chaucer, Envoy to 

 Scogan 45. 



^His duties as joint forester of North Petherton Park (Skeat i. xl) 

 can scarcely have occupied much of his time. 



'Legouis, p. 143; cf. Skeat i. xlii, and one-volume ed., p. xiii; 

 Tatlock, p. 141. 



