CHAP. critics who appear to doubt only for the XXIX. pleasure of taking from us all the materials

1369.

Connection of this

of historical knowledge, he has introduced an unequivocal allusion to the name of his heroine.

And FAIRE WHITE was she 'hete,
That was my ladies namé right;
And she was therto faire and bright,
She ne had not her name wronge.,

ver. 948.

Now it fortunately happens that these piece with three poems constitute a complete series;

the Parlia

Birds, and

ment of and, the application of one of them being with the established, that of the rest follows to the titled entire satisfaction of every reasonable mind,

poem en

Chaucer's

dream.

proved from

the history of the

courtship of John of Gaunt.

from the striking coincidence of two independent details; the first relative to the courtship of John of Gaunt, and the second belonging to the private history of the poet. In the Parliament of Birds the female eagle is made to defer her decision upon the pretensions of her three admirers for a year:

Almighty quene, unto this yere be done,

I ask respite, for to avisen me:

CHAP.
XXIX.

ver. 647.

1369.

on which Nature addresses herself to the

lovers,

*Bethe of gode herte, and serveth allé thrẻ;
A yere
is not so longe for to endure;
And eche of you "paine him in his degre
For to do wel.-

ver. 660.

Precisely the same circumstance occurs in the direct and acknowledged history of the courtship of John of Gaunt and the heiress of Lancaster, which is given in the Book of the Duchess. Gaunt is himself the relater.

CHAP.
XXIX.

1369.

from the

particulars

I can not now wel countrefete

Her wordés, but this was the grete

Of her answere:-she saiéd, Nay,
Al utterly.-

So it befell, an other yere

b

ver. 1236.

I thought onés, I woulden fonde
To doe her knowe and understonde
My wo; and she well understode

C

That I ne wilned thyng but gode
And worship, and to kepe her name
Over all thynges, and drede her shame.

So when my ladie knewe all this,
My ladie yave me all whollie

The noble yefte of her mercie.

yer. 1258.

The coincidence of the three poems, so far

related in as relates to the personal history of the au

them of the

history of thor, is still more striking. In the Parlia

Chaucer.

ment of Birds Chaucer informs us, as he

had already repeatedly done in the Troilus

and Creseide, that he was yet a stranger to CHAP.

the passion of love.

For all be that I knowe not love indede,
Ne wot how that he quiteth folke her hire,
Yet happeth me ful ofte in bokés rede
Of his miracles.

ver. 8.

XXIX.

1369.

In the poem entitled Chaucer's Dream (which I suppose to have been written twelve months later, when John of Gaunt had completed his year of probation, and was now united to his duchess), the poet is in love in all the forms. His nights are sleepless, and he wets his pillow with his tears: and, in the conclusion of the poem, we find him dreaming that his lady is prevailed upon by the impor tunity of the knight and princess, and consents to his suit. He awakes however, and regrets that it is but a delusion.

Lo, here my blisse! lo, here my paine !
Which to my ladie I complaine,

And grace and mercy her requere,

СНАР.
XXIX.

That of my dremé the substaunce

1369.

Might turnen once to cognisaunce.

ver. 2183.

In the Book of the Duchess Chaucer is still a lover, and his love is still unrequited. This appears from the uncommonly beautiful verses which constitute the exordium of the poem.

I have grete wonder by this light
Howe that I lyve, for daye ne night

I

maye not slepen ' welny nought,
I have so many an ydle thought,
Purely for the defaute of slepe,
That by my trouth I take no kepe
Of nothing, howe it com'th or gothe,
Ne me n'ys nothing lefe nor lothe;
Al is 'iliché gode to me,
Joye or sorowe, where so it be,
For I have felinge in nothing,
But as it were a * mased thing,

f well nigh. glad or sorrowful.

notice, observation.
i alike.

↳ Nor am I either

* bewildered.