Chaucer and Henry's Dependents 191 



he was a member of an embassy from Henry to Jacques I of 

 Cyprus in February, 1393. About that time his estates were 

 confiscated, and on Nov. 18 of that year he received an annuity 

 of $9500 from Richard 11. He was killed in a duel, Aug. 7, 

 1397.^ Between May 14, 1391, and May 14, 1392, he had pre- 

 sented a courser to Henry IV at Dartford, for which the servant 

 whom he sent received a gratuity of $50.^ This was the Granson 

 to whom Chaucer, in his Complaint of Venus (1393),^ imitated 

 from the former's three balades,* refers in his last line as 

 'Graunson, flour [flower] of hem that make in France.' We 

 thus find Chaucer, probably after the return of Henry, taking 

 pains^ to compliment a knight whom Henry had specially dis- 

 tinguished on his second voyage, and whom John of Gaunt had 

 attached to his person long before. 



Peter Bucton (or de Bukton), knight, and steward of Henry's 

 household, was with him on both expeditions, that of 1390-91 

 and that of 1392-3. His ordinary salary was $3.75 a day, but 

 on the reyse (Aug. 9-Oct. 31, 1390), and again from Nov. 24, 

 1 392- June 30, 1393, it rose to $7.50.^ He had an esquire, 

 Robert Burton,'^ with two archers attending him from May 9 

 to June 3, 1390,^ and a yeoman on the reyse.^ He did not leave 

 Henry until after the latter's return to London in 1393.^° Chaucer, 

 writing probably at the end of 1396^^ his Lenvoy de Chaucer a 

 Bukton, calls him 'my maister Bukton.' He was mayor of 

 Bordeaux as late as 14 12, having perhaps been born about 1350.^^ 

 Wylie calls him Henry's most attached and intimate friend.^^ 



^See the excellent note, D. A., pp. 309-310, and Romania 19 (1890). 

 237-259, 403-448 (Piaget). 



* Wylie 4. 163; D. A., p. 309, note. 

 "Skeat I. 86. 



* Skeat I. 400-404. 



"Legouis (p. 54) says that Chaucer, in these closing lines, shows 'excess 

 of deference/ 

 •jD. a, 128. 7; 265. 15. 

 ''D. A., pp. 300, 303. 

 ■/ft. 126. 12. 

 */6. 128. 7. 

 "/&. 265. 17. 

 ^ Hammond, p. 367. 

 "D. A., p. 300. 

 "4. 142. 



