to believe that Geoffrey Chaucer could not at his admittance exceed thirty f.

+Could not at that time exceed thirty.] We have intimated in the text that our Author feems to have owed his admittance into the King's service in quality of Page, which in the Latin of those times was called valettus or valečtus, an honour that young noblemen of the firft rank were glad to accept, to the favour of the King's fon John of Gaunt, afterwards Duke of Lancaster, of which no notice is taken by any of those who have hitherto collected the memoirs of his life. Yet we do not affert this without authority, for it appears by a poem of his called Chaucer's Dream, first printed in the year 1597, that he was very deep in this young prince's amorous fecrets, for that poem is an allegorical hiftory of the loves of John of Gaunt and Blanch of Lancaster, daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster, which from this very poem it appears were managed with the utmoft fecrefy, til! by a long train of intrigues and folicitations all the obftacles in the way of this match were got over, and with the help of the King's confent, and the Pope's difpenfation they were married in May 1359, which as it was the first introduction to John of Gaunt's vaft power and greatness, so it seems to have been the beginning of our Author's fortunes at court; at least it is certain that the knowledge he had of this affair was what made him equally the favourite of the Duke of Lancaster and of the Duchefs Blanch, who as the higheft teftimony of her friendship gave him the fifter of her favourite lady in marriage, which is alfo intimated at the close of this poem. But this is quite a different thing from another under the fame title that in the old manufcripts is and ought to be entitled The Book of the Duchefs, written not upon her marriage but upon her death, and this being wrote in the manner of a vifion, and the other not being discovered, came to be called Chaucer's Dream, because that title appeared in fome old lifts of his Works. As the credit of the Duke of Lancafter increased with his father, Chaucer's alfo rofe in a like proportion, for he continued fteady to his patron to the last hour of that duke's life; and indeed confidering his alliance

At this time the English court was the most gay and fplendid in Europe. Edward II. a prince equally diftinguished by civil and martial virtues, fat then upon the throne, blessed with an illustrious confort, by whom he had a numerous pofterity. His many victories had rendered him famous abroad, and his mo deration and clemency, his reverence for the laws, and his kindness for his people, made him beloved at home, fo that our Chronicles boast of few reigns more glorious, and of none brighter, than his. Among other great qualities with which this famous monarch was endued his love of learning, and learned men was not the leaft confpicuous, and therefore we need not wonder that our Author, who was continually giving fome fpecimen or other of the vivacity of his parts, wrought himself into high favour, infomuch that it appears that he was a conftant attendant on the court, and when it was at Woodstock refided at a square flone houfe near the park-gate, which fill retains his name; and well indeed it may, fince being confecrated in his poems the whole country round about is become, in refpect to Englishmen, a kind of claffick ground.. as well as his obligations we need not at all wonder that he did: but after faying all this it will be very proper to add, that notwithtanding his fidelity to his patron he did not go all lengths with him, but kept exactly within the bounds of loyalty to his prince as well as thofe of duty to his benefactor:

✦ A kind of claffick ground.] in order to justify this we need only obferve that many of the rural defcriptions that occur in his Works are taken from Woodstock-Park, of which he tells

But befides his employment about the perfon of his prince our poet took pains to advance his fortune by

us that it was a park walled with green stone, that being the first park walled in England, and not many years before his time. In moft of his pieces where he defigns an imaginary fcene he certainly copies it from a real landscape; fo in his Cuckoo and Nightingale the morning walk he takes was fuch as at this day may be traced from his house through part of the park, and down by the brook into the vale under Blenheim-Castle, as certainly as we may affert that maples inftead of phyllereas were the ornaments round the bower, whichplace he likewise describes in his Dream as a white caftle ftanding upon a hill, the fcene in that poem being laid in WoodstockPark. When difengaged from publick affairs his time was entirely spent in ftudying and walking: so agreeable to him was this exercife, that he fays he preferred it to all other sports and diverfions. He lived within himself, neither defirous to hear nor busy to concern himself with the affairs of his neighbours. His course of living was temperate and regular; he went to reft with the fun and rofe before it, and by that means enjoyed the pleasures of the better part of the day, bis morning walk and fresh contemplations. This gave him the advantage of defcribing the morning in fo lively a manner as he does every where in his Works; the springing fun glows warm in his lines, and the fragrant air blows cool in his descriptions; we smell the fweets of the bloomy haws, and hear the muck of the feathered choir, whenever we take a foreft walk with him. The hour of the day is not easier to be discovered from the reflection of the fun in Titian's paintings than in Chaucer's morning landscapes. "Tis true thofe defcriptions are fometimes too long, and, as it is before obferved, when he takes thofe early rambles he almost tires his reader with following him, and feldom knows how to get out of a foreft when once entered into it; but how advantageous this beautiful extravagance is most of his fucceffors well know, who have very plentifully lopt off his exuberant beauties, and placed them as the chief ornaments of their own writings.

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attaching himself to the service of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, by whom and by his Duchefs Blanch, a lady equally remarkable for her wit and virtue, he was exceedingly beloved; nor was it long be fore he became part of their family alfo, It happened thus. This Duchefs entertained in her fervice one Catharine Rouct, daughter of Sir Payne or Pagan Rouet, a native of Hainault, and Guien King at Arms for that country, who was afterwards married to Sir Hugh Swynford, a knight of Lincoln. He lived not long after their marriage, and upon his decease this lady returned into the Duke's family, and was appointed governess of his children. She had a fister whofe name was Philippa, a great favourite likewife with the Duke and Duchefs, and by them therefore, as a mark of their great cfteem, recommended to Chaucer for a wife. He married her about the year 1360, when he was in the flower of his age, and, as appears from a picture of him taken about that time, one of the handfomeft perfons about the court, of a complexion fair and beautiful, his lips very red and full, his fize of a just proportion, his air very graceful and majestick. We live at too great a diftance of time to be able to penetrate with certainty into the true motives of our Author's match, but fure there is a great probability that he was not unacquainted with the tenderness which his patron the Duke of Lanca fter had for the Lady Swynferd, by whoni he had fe

vind children, who were afterwards legitimated by at of parliament. Yet this alliance was not the only tie he had upon that prince, one of the mcft ambitioes and artful-men of his time, and always embarked in some state-intrigue or other, and therefore above all things fond of having men of parts and literature about-him, of whom he might make ufe as occafion offered, and in which capacity as there was none more able, se it appears there were none did him greater fervice than Chaucer.

Being thus fupported we need not wonder that his fertunes made a very quick progress at court, and accordingly we find very many marks of his matter King Edward's kindness towards hime as för instance, in the 4 1st year of his reign he granted him an annuity of twenty marks per annum out of the Exchequer. How mean foever fuch a pension may seem now it was then very confiderable, and in Chaucer's cafe was still the more valuable as being an earnest of future favours, for not long after we find him Gettleman of the King's Privy-Chamber, and by that title the King granted to him, by letters patents dated in the 45th year of his reign, the further fur of twenty marks per annum dur ring his life bus; L

In this station he did not long continue, being next year made Shieldbearer to the King, a title at that time, though now extinct, of great honour, fuch perfons being always next the King's perfon and gene