THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 59 



After Richard II became King, Chaucer was entrusted 

 with the delicate mission of negociating- a matrimonial alliance 

 between him and Mary, daughter of Charles V, King of France. 

 Charles, called the sage, cared less for the glories of war than 

 for works of peace, and two of his institutions, though dis- 

 similar, the Bastile and National Library, have received world- 

 wide attention. From his predilection for peace, it was thought 

 Charles might favour the object of Chaucer's mission as a 

 means of ending the war ; but the negociations were unsuccess- 

 ful. In 1375, Chaucer became comptroller of customs and 

 subsidy of wools, skins, and tanned hides at the port of Lon- 

 don. By terms of his appointment, the rolls of his office had 

 to be written in his own hand. After some time his office was 

 made more important by placing the petty customs of the port 

 in his charge ; and he was allowed to engage a deput}^ 

 Chaucer may have been, likely was, the first poet of note to 

 collect revenue for the English Government, but he was not 

 the last. Dryden discharged almost the same duties ; Burns 

 was an excise officer ; and Wordsworth received from ^^500 

 upwards a year for some time from the Government Stamp 

 revenue service. 



The wedding of Richard II with Anne of Bohemia, took 

 place in January, 1382; and Chaucer wrote in celebration of 

 the marriage his " Parliament of Fowles," a spirited poem in 

 which Richard, the royal eagle, finds favour in the eyes of 

 Anne, when eagles of less royal mien plead vainly for her 

 affections. In 1386, Chaucer sat in Parliament as Knight of 

 the Shire for Kent. Members of parliament then, and for 

 long after, were paid what was bluntly called wages ; a Knight 

 receiving four shillings, and a burgess two shillings a day. 

 Chaucer took part in discussions of the hour ; but the fates 

 were against his political partv. The Government side was 

 supported by Chaucer's patron John of Gaunt, who, before the 

 house met, went to Spain to prosecute some suppositious claim 

 to the Spanish throne ; and in his absence the opposition con- 

 trolled by the Duke of Gloucester, overthrew the Government 

 party. Chaucer's income from the customs, his pensions from 



