And when this boke ys made, yeve it the quene On my behalfe, at Eltham or at Shene." This is the passage showing that the poem could not have been written before Richard the Second's first marriage, with Anne of Bohemia in 1382, when Chaucer's age was about fifty. The poet afterwards speaks with Love of the good Alcestis, of whom Love says that "kalender ys she To any woman that wol lover be, For she taught al the crafte of fyn lovýng, And namély of wyfhode the lyvýng, And alle the boundés that she oughté kepe." And now let him find in his books the legends of those other ladies" sitting here arow," the nineteen who are in his ballad and will be found also in his books: "Have hem in thy Legénde now alle in mynde : I mene of hem that ben in thy knowyng. And trewe of love for ought that may byfalle.' The stories that now remain attached to Chaucer's introduction are, of Cleopatra, based much upon Florus, "For lat see now what man that lover be Wol doon so stronge a peyne for love as she;" Thisbe, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's "Metamorphoses"-"Naso saith thus," writes Chaucer; Dido-"I koudé folwé worde for worde Virgile," says Chaucer here, "But it wolde lasten al to longé while," and he draws also upon Ovid's "Heroides," * "Who so wool al this letter have in mynde Rede Ovyde, and in him he shall hit fynde;" Hypsipyle and Medea, from Ovid's "Metamorphoses," and "Heroides;"† the story of Lucretia, "as saythe Ovyd and Titus Lyvyus," of whom he quotes also Augustine's great compassion. § The stories also of Ariadne and of Philomela from Ovid's "Metamorphoses; "|| and lastly, of Phillis and of Hypermnestra, from Ovid's "Heroides." ¶ They are all, except the tales of Ariadne and of Phillis, in Boccaccio's. "De Claris Mulieribus,' "** but Chaucer in his poems follows the original authorities, and sometimes translates them rather closely. * Ep. VII. + Met. VII. Her. Ep. VI. Ovid, "Fasti," II. 741. Livy, "Hist." I. 57. § Si adultera, cur laudata? Si pudica, cur occisa?" Dei," cap. xix. || Bk. VIII. v. 152, and Bk. VI. 412—676. Ep. II., and Ep. XIV. "De Civ **"De Claris Mulieribus," ed. cit. Cleopatra, cap. 86. Thisbe, Medea, caps. 15, 16. There is a careful study сар. 12. Dido, cap. 40. Hypsipyle and Lucretia, cap. 46. Hypermnestra, cap. 13. of "The Legend of Good Women" by the Oberlehrer M. Bech, of Metz, in the fifth volume of Anglia (1882), pp. 313 to 382. Herr Bech thinks that the first suggestion of "The Legend of Good Women " was taken from Boccaccio's prose work. CHAPTER XI. CHAUCER'S LATER YEARS. CHAUCER was in London, drawing his pension every halfyear with his own hands, from 1380 to 1388, and he was manifestly in enjoyment of court favour when he was allowed to appoint a permanent deputy to an office in which personal service was a strict condition. This happened a few months before the king made two of his uncles Dukes of York and Gloucester, and made the son of John of Gaunt and Duchess Blanche, Henry of Bolingbroke, the Earl of Derby. In 1385 the king was asked to allow a sufficient deputy to work for Chaucer on the Wolkee (wool. quay), for whom Chaucer was to be responsible; and a Richard Baret was appointed.* Chaucer had also a lease from the City of London of one of its gates, Aldgate. † In 1386 Geoffrey Chaucer sat as one of the members for Kent in the Parliament which met on the 1st of October; he and his colleague William Betenham being allowed for their expenses at the rate of eight shillings (4) a day for sixty-one days. The French were then threatening England with invasion, and the great barons, headed by the king's uncle, the * Found by Mr. Walford D. Selby in the Public Record Office. Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888. The lease was dated May 10, 1374. + Liber Albus, edited by H. T. Riley in 1859, for the Rolls Series of Chronicles and Memorials, page 553. Duke of Gloucester, whom Gower honoured as "the Swan," were active for overthrow of the king's corrupt administration. In the Parliament to which the poet was sent as Knight of the Shire for Kent, there arose out of this movement a great trial of the strength of parties, and, after a struggle of three weeks, Richard was compelled to abandon his Chancellor, the Earl of Suffolk, to a prosecution by the Commons, which ended in his being acquitted of four charges, and condemned on others to certain forfeits, and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. In the next place the king was forced also to appoint a permanent council, including Gloucester and the Earl of Arundel-the Swan and the Horse—to inquire into the conduct of officials of all kinds, and into gifts and pardons granted; to hear and decide on all griefs of the people which could not be redressed by common course of law; and to provide for all abuses such remedies as might seem to them good and profitable. Richard assented to the establishment of such a commission of Regency for twelve months.* The Commissioners, reluctantly appointed on the 19th of November, began their labours with examination of the accounts of officers employed in the collection of the revenue. On the 4th of December Chaucer was dismissed from his office of Comptroller of the Customs and Subsidies of Wools, Skins, and Tanned Hides, and his place given to one Adam Yerdeley. Ten days later Chaucer was discharged also from his other office, and a Henry Gisors was made, in his place, Comptroller of the Petty Customs in the Port of London. During all this time Chaucer's patron John of Gaunt was away with an army in Portugal, upon affairs arising out. of his relation to Castile. He remained absent in 1387, for in that year, after an unfortunate campaign, he was * See Gower's account of this, in the “Tripartite Chronicle,” described in "E. W.," iv. 192-197. compelled to quit Portugal and stay in Guienne, while he achieved by policy what he had sought by arms. He procured in 1388 the marriage of Catherine, his only daughter by his wife Constance, and inheritor of her pretensions to the Spanish crown, to Henry, son and heir of the reigning King of Castile; and from this couple, established thus as Prince and Princess of Asturias, descended the line of Spanish Sovereigns for many generations. John of Gaunt was thus absent upon his own affairs until December, 1389. After his dismissal in 1386, in the second year of adversity, Chaucer was obliged to raise money upon his two pensions, which, on the 1st of May, 1388, were cancelled and assigned to a John Scalby. The last entry of payment of the pension to Philippa Chaucer was in June, 1387. It is inferred, therefore, that Chaucer's wife died in the second half of that year. It was in May, 1389, that King Richard II. suddenly asked his uncle Gloucester how old he was, and being told that he was in his twenty-second year, said he must then certainly be of age to manage his own concerns, dismissed his council, took the government into his own hands, and left his uncle Gloucester to retire into the country, while John of Gaunt was desired to return to England. By this court revolution Chaucer profited. On the 12th of July in the same year he was appointed Clerk of the Works at the Palace of Westminster, Tower of London, Castle of Berkhampstead, the king's manors of Kennington, Eltham, Clarendon, Sheen, Byfleet, Childern Langley, and Feckenham; at the Royal Lodge of Hatherberg in the New Forest, at the Lodges in the Parks of Clarendon, Childern Langley, and Feckenham; and at the mews for the king's falcons at Charing Cross.* He might serve by deputy, and his salary was 25. (= about £1) a day. * Mr. Walford D. Selby found also in the Public Record Office (Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888) Chaucer's warrant as clerk of the king's |