XXII. 1359. CHAP. for the province of Guienne P. The station she occupied was that of domicella, or maid of honour, to the queen of Edward III; and she had an elder sister named Catherine, who was attached to the person of Blanche consort to John of Gaunt, and who afterward became the governess to her daughters', Philippa queen of Portugal and Elizabeth duchess of Exeter. The wealth of the father of these ladies was probably not very considerable, but his station was that of a knight, and a man of honour. His daughters must be supposed to have been highly accomplished, and the fortune of the elder P Stemma Chauceri, apud Speght; communicated by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald in the reign of Elizabeth. We shall have occasion to state the degree of weight belonging to the authority of Glover, in settling the question whether Thomas Chaucer, speaker of the house of commons in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V, were the son of the poet. 4 See Appendix, No. r Stow, A. D. 1396. • Black Book of the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster, apud Sandford Book IV, Chap. i. t This appears from a fragment of the inscription upon his tomb, preserved in Weever, Funeral Monuments. XXII. 1359, was extraordinary. She succeeded finally to CHAP. the bed and the hand of John of Gaunt, and by him was great-grandmother of Margaret countess of Richmond mother to king Henry VII, and ancestress to all the sovereigns who have since filled the throne of England. Mr. Mr. Speght Nothing can be more delicate or ingeni- Mistake of ously imagined than the conclusion of the corrected. poem of Chaucer's Dream, so far as relates to the lady whom he afterward married. Speght says, "Here also is shewed Chaucers match with a certain gentlewoman, who was so well liked and loved of the Lady Blanch, and her Lord, as Chaucer himselfe also was, that gladly they concluded a marriage betweene them ". But in this respect," the supposed plan of this poem, prefixed to it by Mr. Speght, is a mere fancy." The lady who is sent for in the most pressing manner to grace the nuptials of the queen and her knight, u 99 Arguments to the Works of Chaucer: Chaucer's Dream. * Tyrwhit, ubi supra. СНАР. 1359. And prayed for all loves to hast, Withouten joy or lustinesse, ver. 2005, is indeed, according to the suggestion of Chaucer's fancy, intreated to accept his addresses, complies, and they are united. But they were united, as Chaucer tells us, only in a dream And when I wake, and knew the trouth, I trow ye would have wept a weke, And was y for fault that sword ne knife I find ne might my life t' abridge. Lo, here my blisse! lo, here my paine ! at fault, distressed. That of my dremé the substaunce ver. 2173. The marriage of the earl of Richmond was celebrated at Reading in Berkshire'; and Chaucer seems to intend to give a very exact account of its geography and attendant circumstances. СНАР. 1359. Marriage of of Rich, the earl mond. ver. 2059. And further on, Unto a tent prince and princes Me thought brought me and my maistres, СНАР. XXII. 1359. Touma iment. Which tent as church parochiall, Ordaint was in especiall Both for the feste, and for the sacre, Ysongen ful out the servise. ver. 2125. With respect to the duration of the festival however on the spot where the marriage was celebrated, it is apparent that Chaucer, probably with a view to do the greater honour to his patron, has been guilty of exaggeration. A feast of three months, particularly ́when dispatched, as it is here, in a single line, costs the poet no more than a feast of three days. The earl of Richmond was married at Reading on Sunday, May the nineteenth, being the Sunday before Rogation Sunday; and in the Rogation week a solemn tournament was held in London, the particulars of which are strikingly characteristic of the age of Edward III. The challengers were the |
