THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 53 



warp and woof of the biographer's web had no existence in 

 Chaucer's time. They are the growth of a later social day. 

 Experts, who have given to this subject years of study, say 

 with accord : the demonstrable facts of Chaucer's life can be 

 told in few words, and that biographies of the poet written 

 before that by Sir N. H. Nicolas, in 1845, abound with erron- 

 eous misleading conjectures. ] Thus it is, modern criticism com- 

 pels earlier opinions we thought definitive, to be supplemented 

 and amended. It is disconcerting to find the idol we thought 

 golden in part clay, or that of a favourite picture, only the out- 

 line is from nature, the colouring and details being imaginary 

 and unreal. But truth heedless of likes and dislikes often 

 compels a hearing, and may not be silenced. In this case not a 

 little that was deemed fact turns out to be fable, still if much is 

 lopped away, enough is left unscathed to make Chaucer an 

 attractive personality worthy of stud3^ 



Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of John Chaucer, Vintner, 

 of Thames street, London, England. No record of his birth 

 has been found, but it is likely he was born in London about 

 1340. By general acclaim he is honoured as " the poet of the 

 dawn," first in time, and protagonist of English poets. Still 

 he was a man of deeds as well as words. His closing days 

 were passed in quiet, but till near the end of his life he was 

 actively devoted to duties whose variety and importance shew 

 the versatility and trustworthiness of his character. In youth 

 he was page or servitor of some kind, in the train of Elizabeth de 

 Burgh wife of Lionel third son of Edward III. And in man- 

 hood he was in turn : yeoman of the court, soldier, diplomatist, 

 collector of cftstoms for the port of London, member of parlia- 

 ment for Kent, clerk of public works, and withal the poet of 

 his age. 



The family name — in French chancier — maker of shoes 

 or hosen, indicates that some remote ancester was a disciple of 

 St. Crispin, which were no cause for surprise, as poetry and 

 the gentle craft are neither enemies nor strangers. Such a liason 

 as this patronymic suggests had ceased — if it ever existed — 

 before Chaucer's time, as his father and grandfather were both 



