was on every courtly tongue. It is evident that at this time young Chaucer was storing his mind and adding to the wealth of his imagination, but in what way he acquired the complete education that his attainments in science and general literature prove him to have had, it is impossible to say, for until recently, nothing whatever has been known of his earlier years. His father's calling did not stand in the way of his progress, - in fact it probably brought him into contact with many phases of life that he was destined afterwards to portray, and besides, we know that Sir Henry Picard, the Lord Mayor of London, was also a vintner, and Chaucer began to appear in court circles too early for us to suppose that he was held back by anything. We are to think of him hearing as a child of the new and dreadful instruments of destructive warfare which at Cressy first vomited fire and shot against a devoted enemy. Ten years later his young blood was thrilled by the stories that reached England from the field of Poitiers, and we are at liberty to suppose that amid such scenes of magnificence and pageantry as that he had witnessed in May, 1358, when the Black Prince rode through London with his

prisoner, King John of France, he was infatuated with a longing to go with his elders to the field of glory, to that France whose laies and romaunts were already familiar to his young imagination.

If there was not another Geoffrey Chaucer then living, it was the future poet who entered the service of Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III.,.apparently as page, in 1357. It is more than probable that he was present at the great Feast of St. George, given by the king to the king of France, the queen of Scotland, the king of Cyprus, and other royal persons who were in England in 1358, as well as at other famous joustings and pageants of the time. It is certain, however, and we have the poet's own word for it, that his military experience began in 1359, when he joined Edward III.'s army late in the year, as it went to invade France. This expedition was inconsequent and was brought to an end by the Great Peace, which famine and fatigue forced the king to effect at Bretigny the next year. During this campaign Chaucer was made prisoner, but he was ransomed March 1, 1360, before the peace, the king himself contributing sixteen pounds towards that end.

At this time France was suffering from the Jacquerie horrors too awful to be detailed, and contending factions were fast dragging the nation to anarchy, but England was enjoying a period of prosperity. What our poet was doing cannot be stated, for no record tells us anything of his movements for seven years after his ransom from captivity. It seems probable that during this period he began his career of authorship, and it is a noteworthy coincidence that it was in the year 1362 that the English language was ordered to be used in English courts, for the reason that French had become "much unknown." French had come into use when the triumphing Normans wrested the throne from its Saxon possessor, and it went out when the French sovereign was a captive in England, and it seemed as if Edward might succeed in enforcing his claim to the throne of France. The hour had arrived for the fusion of the discordant elements of English speech into a flexible, forcible, and elegant medium for the transmission of the creations of genius; and the man who was to do the work was waiting for the moment to arrive when he might show himself to the people and give a reason why he had been saved from

death in "the imminent, deadly breach," and ransomed from languishing in a French dungeon.

In 1367 the name of the poet appears again in the records as that of one of the valets of the king's household, "a position," says Sir Harris Nicolas, "always filled by gentlemen," and, on the 20th of June of that year, he was granted an annual salary of twenty marks for life, or until he should be otherwise provided for. He received this pension at various dates in 1367, 1368, 1369, 1370, 1371, and 1372, when he was assigned more important duties. To this period is referred his marriage to Philippa, one of the ladies in attendance on the queen, and Sir Harris Nicolas, the poet's careful biographer, says that there is scarcely a doubt that she was the eldest daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and sister of Katherine, widow of Sir Hugh Swinford, who subsequently became wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The assertion rests, however, upon proof that we cannot accept as final until it has been proved that the Thomas Chaucer who used the Roet arms was actually a son of the poet. There are reasons also for thinking it improbable that Chaucer was related to John of

Gaunt in this way.1 This is also the date assigned to Chaucer's "hopeless love," a malady attributed to him very lately on account of the following lines in the "Dethe of Blaunche the Duchesse: "

"Trewly, as I gesse,

I hold it be a sickenes

That I have suffred this eight yeere,
And yet my boote is never the nere ;
For there is phisicien but one

That may me heale; but that is done.

Passe we over untill efte;

That will not be, mote nedes be lefte."

It is not, however, always safe to read biography in a poet's verse. We do not know from other sources that Chaucer actually suffered the pains he here describes, and if he did, the distressing anguish caused by one lady was pretty soon removed by the fair Philippa, if her marriage occurred at this time.2

We have now arrived at a new and most interesting period in Chaucer's life, during which he was charged with important public business in foreign parts, which gave him opportunities

1 This subject is discussed at length by Sir Harris Nicolas in his Life of Chaucer. See the Aldine edition of Chaucer (1869), pages

44.50.

2 For an interesting discussion of this point, see the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1877, article, " Fictitious Lives of Chaucer;" and for May, 1878, Letter from Mr. F. J. Furnivall.