That of my dremé the substaunce
Might turnen once to cognisaunce.

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 cir

cumstances.

And the fest holden was in tentes,
In a rome in a largé plaine,
Under a wode, in a champaine,

Betwixt a river and a well,
Where never had abbey ne sell

* Yben, ne kirke, house ne village ;
In time of any mané's age;

And dured three monthes the fest.

СНАР.

XXII.

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,

CHAP.
XXIL

1359.

Tournament.

Which tent as church parochiall,
Ordaint was in especiall

Both for the feste, and for the sacre,

Where archbishop and archdiacre
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

b sacrament, office of marriage.
Walsingham, ad ann.

XXII.

1359.

mayor, the sheriffs, and the court of alder- CHAP. men, and they undertook to defend the field for three days against all comers. Accordingly at the time appointed twenty-four combatants appeared, clad in complete armour, and bearing on their shields and surcoats the arms of the city of London. A variety of opponents presented themselves; but the city-combatants came off from every one of their contentions with the highest degree of credit and honour. The kings of France and Scotland, and many of the French nobility who had been taken prisoners at the battle of Poitiers, were among the witnesses of the spectacle. The citizens, says the historian, contemplated with the highest satisfaction this scene of their triumph; but were ravished with joy, when they discovered that Edward III, under the character of the mayor, and his four eldest sons, together with nineteen great barons of England, personating the sheriffs and aldermen, had done them the honour to fight under their cognisance".

Hollinshed, ad ann. Barnes, Book III, Chap. v, §. 12.

XXII.

СНАР. We will conclude this chapter with a description of the nuptial felicity of John of Harmony of Gaunt and his consort, as it is put into the

1359.

John of

his consort

in the nup

tial state.

Gaunt and mouth of the royal mourner by Chaucer, in the poem in which he laments her untimely fate, commonly called the Book of the Duchess. He affirms his domestic condition to have been

Of all happés the alderbest,

The gladdest, and the most at rest :
For trewély that sweté wight,

When I had wrong and she the right,
She wolden alwaie so godelie
Foryeve me so debonairlie;
In al my yothe, in allé chaunce,
She toke me in her governaunce;
Therwith she was alwaie so trewe,
Our joye was ever iliche newe;
Our hertés werne so even a paire,
That never n'as that one contraire
Unto that other.

And thus we liv'd ful many a yere
So well, I cannot tellen how.

CHAP. XXIII.

GRAND INVASION OF FRANCE.-CHAUCER APPEARS
IN THE INVADING ARMY.-PEACE OF BRETIĠNÍ.
EARL OF RICHMOND CREATED DUKE OF LAN-
OCASTER. DEATH OF JOHN, KING OF FRANCE.

XXIII.

IN the midst of these festivals and splendid CHAP. exhibitions, Edward III. was engaged in the most serious discussions respecting peace and

The truce, which had been concluded between England and France in the year after the battle of Poitiers, was to expire at the midsummer of the present year; and this consideration had urged forward the negociations between Edward and his royal prisoner. At length the conditions of a treaty of peace were mutually agreed upon, and signed by both parties on the twenty-fourth

1359.