XIX. 1358. he corresponded with princes and sovereign CHAP. states, and on all great occasions without hesitation wrote them his advice; and he was offered the laurel at the same instant from Paris and Rome, the two greatest cities of the western world. character of Ed ward III, We might easily conclude, even if we had Literary not materials enough of direct evidence to confirm the fact, that Edward III, who was smitten with a deep passion for every thing which was construed by his contemporaries as glorious and honourable, did not fail to catch the tone of the neighbouring princes and states, in their forwardness to patronise men of literary genius. He had received a learned education, and numbers two of the greatest scholars of his time among his tutors. These were Richard Bury and Walter Bur- Richard ley. Richard Bury was an assiduous col d Bury. d Godwin, De Præsulibus Angliæ: Episcopi Dunelmenses, cap. xxii. e Wharton, Appendix to Cave, Hist. Lit. art. Burlæus. Barnes, Book I, Chap. iii, §. 5. Plot, History of Oxfordshire. CHAP. lector of books, and a valued friend of Pe XIX. 1358. Walter Burley. Popularity of Chaucer trarca; they being the most distinguished and active persons of their age, in recovering and restoring the almost lost works of many of the Latin classics, He was successively keeper of the privy seal, lord treasurer, lord chancellor of the realm, and bishop of Durham; and died in the year 1345. Walter Burley was one of the most considerable schoolmen of the age": and we may form some conjecture respecting his abilities, as well as the importance attached to his perfrom the circumstance of his three nephews appearing among the most distinguished and accomplished courtiers of Richard II. son, If we have sufficient reason to believe that previously Chaucer was in some degree obscure by his 1358. birth and original situation, we have argu to the year ments not less strong to persuade us that his fame as a poet was already established, pre f Wharton, Barnes, and Plot, ubi supra. s Godwin, ubi supra. De Sade, Tom. I, p. 168. XIX. 1358. viously to the time at which he entered the CHAF family of his sovereign. Gower was so well known as a poet, that, as we have seen, Richard II. considered it as a stroke of policy to affect to patronise and encourage him. But Gower never equalled, in the sentiment of his contemporaries or succeeding ages, the eminence of Chaucer. Chaucer had already written his Troilus and Creseide; a poem immeasurably superior to any thing then existing in the English language, which (in an age that, wherever letters were loved, loved them so ardently) could not, and we know in fact did not, pass without rapturous admiration; in fine, a poem, according to the remark of Lydgate, Whiche for to reden lovers them del ite, a remark in the most pointed manner expressive of its great and general popularity. Another obvious argument may be added Court poems of Fall of Princes, Prologue, stanza 42. Chaucer. XIX. 1358. CHAP to prove that it was to his poetical talent that Chaucer owed his rise at court. A man naturally prosecutes that species of employment, to which he has already been indebted for the most substantial advantage. Now Chaucer continued through life to cultivate the art of poetry. It may be said indeed that men have sometimes received from nature so strong a vocation to a particular pursuit, that no consideration can root the passion for it out of their minds. Was this the case with Chaucer? Did he indulge his vein secretly? No: he wrote upon the courtship of John of Gaunt, upon the marriage of that nobleman, upon the death of the duchess of Lancaster, subjects which show that he did not design that his productions should be concealed from his protectors, but which on the contrary may convince any reasonable enquirer, that he had already profited by his poetical vein, and expected still further to gratify his superiors by giving scope to it. Placed by Edward Chaucer was during the greater part of his near the life devoted to the service of John of Gaunt ; person of his minor and, from this circumstance, many persons son. XIX. have been inclined to take the merit of first CHAP. patronising him from the king, and give it to this celebrated prince. But, before we assent to this supposition, it may be worth our while to yield a little attention to a comparison of dates. The remotest of Chaucer's compositions written in the service of the court, the date of which can be traced, seems to have been the fruit of the early part of 1358, the year preceding the marriage of John of Gaunt with the heiress of Lancaster. Nor does it appear to be the production of an inexperienced courtier, but rather of one who had been for some time familiarised with the scenes of royalty. Now John of Gaunt was born in the year 1340, and was therefore at the period of this composition only eighteen years of age. What probability is there that, previously to, or even at that period, this young prince possessed the dis cernment, the fortitude and the dignity, to have formed the plan of raising his character by literary patronage, and to have looked through the kingdom with such accuracy as to have discovered the man in it most entitled 1358. |
