Life of Geoffrey Chaucer ... including memoirs of ... John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; with sketches of the manners, opinions, arts and literature of England in the fourteenth century

Front matter

LIFE OF CHAUCER. Vol 1 . JP, Condel SaJpjil. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. )/'/i>//t (/// ( rr 177/7,7/ Ss/c/t ////<? / // //is _'//r'/tt if //f/f/fiy a/ r./'/rii/ '. J'lMulud 'ÆA'uZtJtt< FhiUyis.V'p. S'/auh OmrA Tard.LoiiJcn. LIFE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER, THE EARLY ENGLISH POET: INCLUDING MEMOIRS OF HIS WEAR FRIEND AND KINSMAN, JOHN OF GAUNT, DUKE OF LANCASTER WITH SKETCHES OF THE MANNERS, OPINION'S, ARTS AND LITERATURE OF ENGLAND I N THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. BY WILLIAM GODWIN. Come like shadows ; so depart ! SHAKESPEAR. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : PRINTED BV T. DAVISON, WIIITE-FRIAR S ; FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, N". 71, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 1804.

Preface

. §1. 1 HE two names which perhaps do the greatest honour to the annals of English literature, are those of Chaucer and of Shakespear. Shakespear we have long and justly been accustomed to regard as the first in the catalogue of poetical and cre ative minds ; and after the dramas of Shakespear, there is no production of man that displays more various and vi gorous talent than the Canterbury Tales. Splendour of narrative, richness of fancy, pathetic simplicity of incident and feel- VOL. i. b

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. ing, a powerful style in delineating character and manners, and an animated vein of comic humour, each takes its turn in this wonderful performance, and each in turn appears to be that in which the author was most qualified to excel. There is one respect at least in which the works of Chaucer are better fitted to excite our astonishment than those of Shakespear. Ordinary readers are inclined to regard the times of Shakespear as bar barous, because they are remote. But in reality the age of queen Elizabeth was a period of uncommon refinement. We have since that time enlarged our theatres : we have made some improvements in the mechanism of dramatical exhibition ; and we have studied, with advantage or other wise, the laws of the Grecian stage. But we have never produced any thing that will enter into comparison with the plays

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. III of Shakespear, or even of some of his contemporaries. What age can be less barbarous than that which, beside the dramatic productions of Shakespear *, Fletcher, Massinger and Jonson, is illu strated with the names of Raleigh, of Hooker, of Bacon, and of Spenser ? But the times of Chaucer were in a much more obvious and unquestionable sense, so far as poetry is concerned, times of barbarism. The history of the revival of literature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries will be treated in these volumes. The sole efforts in the art of verse which had been made in Western Europe pre- * A frivolous dispute has been raised respecting the proper way of spelling the name of our great dramatic poet. His own orthography in this point seems to have been unsettled. Perhaps, when the etymology of a proper name is obvious, it becomes right in us to supersede the fancy of the individual, and to follow a less capricious and more infallible guide. b2

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. IV viously to Chaucer, were romances of pro digious and supernatural adventure, prolix volumes of unvaried allegory, and the rhapsodies of the vagrant minstrel. These productions, though not unrelieved by admirable flights of imagination, were for the most part rugged in versification, prosaic in language, and diffusive and rambling in their story and conduct. What had been achieved in English, was little better than a jejune table of events with the addition of rhyme. Chaucer fixed and naturalised the genuine art of poetry in our island. But what is most memorable in his eulogy, is that he is the father of our language, the idiom of which was by the Norman conquest banished from courts and civilised life, and which Chaucer was the first to restore to literature, and the muses. No one man in the history of human intellect ever did

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. V more, than was effected by the single mind of Chaucer. These are abundant reasons why Eng lishmen should regard Chaucer Avith peculiar veneration, should cherish his memory, and eagerly desire to be ac quainted with whatever may illustrate his character, or explain the wonders he per formed. 7'hc first and direct object of this work, is to erect a monument to his name, and, as far as the writer was capable of doing it, to produce an interesting and amusing book in modern English, enabling the reader, who might shrink from the labour of mastering the phraseology of Chaucer, to do justice to his illustrious countr}*man. It seemed probable also that, if the author were successful in making a popular work, many might by its means be induced to study the language of our ancestors, and the elements

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. VI and history of our vernacular speech ; a study at least as improving as that of the language of Greece and Rome. A further idea, which was continually present to the mind of the author while writing, obviously contributed to give animation to his labours, and importance to his undertaking. The full and complete life of a poet would include an extensive survey of the manners, the opinions, the arts and the literature, of the age in which the poet lived. This is the only way in which we can become truly acquainted with the history of his mind, and the causes which made him what he was. We must observe what Chaucer felt and saAv, how he was educated, what species of learning he pursued, and what Avere the objects, the events and the persons, successively presented to his vieAv, before we can strictly and philosophically under-

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. VII stand his biography. To delineate the state of England, such as Chaucer saAV it, in every point of vieAV in which it can be delineated, is the subject of this book. But, Avhile engaged in this study, the reader may expect to gain an additional advantage, beside that of understanding the poet. If the knoAvledge of con temporary objects is the biography of Chaucer, the converse of the proposition Avill also be true, and the biography of Chaucer Avill be the picture of a certain portion of the literary, political and do mestic history of our country. The person of Chaucer may in this view be considered as the central figure in a miscellaneous painting, giving unity and individual application to the otherwise disjointed par ticulars with Avhich the canvas is diver sified. No man of moral sentiment or of taste will affirm, that a more becoming

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. VIII central figure to the delineation of Eng land in the fourteenth century can be found, than the Englishman Avho gives name to these volumes. Sii. I can pretend only to have Avritten a superficial Avork. My studies, if any thins of mine deserves so serious a name, have chiefly been engaged upon other subjects ; and I came in a manner a novice to the present undertaking. Had the cir cumstances under Avhicii I haA^e Avritten been different, I should have been anxious to investigate to the bottom the various .topics of which I have treated. Perhaps hoAvever I have not Avholly failed in the execution of my design. I was desirous of convincing my country men that there existed mines of instruction

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. IX and delight, with which they had hitherto little acquaintance. I have led my readers, Avith however unconfirmed a speech and inadequate powers, to the different sources of information ; and, if I have been unable to present Avhat should satisfy a vigorous and earnest curiosity, I have Avished to say enough to aAvaken their enquiries, and communicate to them some image of men and times which haAre long since been no more. It Avas my purpose to produce a Avork of a neAV species. Antiquities haA*e too generally been regarded as the province of men of cold tempers and sterile imaginations, Avriters Avho, by their phleg matic and desultory industry, have brought discredit upon a science, which is perhaps beyond all others fraught Avith Avisdom, moral instruction and intellectual improA*e ment. Their books may indeed be cona

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. siderably useful to the patient enquirer Avho Avould delineate the picture of past times for himself; but they can scarcely incite enquiry - and their contents are put together Avith such narroAv vieAvs, so total an absence of discrimination, and such an unsuspecting ignorance of the materials of which man is made, that the perusal of them tends for the most part to stupify the sense, and to imbue the soul Avith moping and lifeless dejection. It' Avas my Avish, had my poAver held equal pace Avith my strong inclination, to carry the workings of fancy and the spirit of philosophy into the investigation of ages past. I Avas anxious to rescue for a moment the illustrious dead from the jaAvs of the grave, to make them pass in review before me, to question their spirits and record their ansAvers. I Avished to make myself their master of the ceremonies, to

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. XI introduce my reader to their familiar speech, and to enable him to feel for the instant as if he had lived Avith Chaucer. §. III. I have acknoAA-ledged the slightness of the present A\*ork, in comparison of the magnitude of its subject. It has been my good fortune however, in the course of my undertaking, to encounter many disco veries. Mr. Tyrwhit, to Avhom Ave are indebted for the latest and best edition of the Canterbury Tales, informs us, that he " had once the intention of Avriting a formal life of Chaucer ; but that, after a reasonable waste of time and pains in searching for materials, he found that he could do nothing better, than add to his Preface a short Abstract of the Historical

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. XII Passages of that Life b ;" Avhich, together with the comments of its compiler, fills only about eight quarto pages. A late antiquarian has given his approbation to Avhat Mr. Tynvhit has done in this respect c. The fact is however, that this editor made no exertions as to the history of the poet, but contented himself with exr amining Avhat other biographers had re lated, and adding a feAV memorandums taken from Rymer's manuscript collec tions, iioav in the British Museum. He has not in a single instance resorted to the national repositories in which our records are preserved. In this sort of labour h Edition of the Canterbury Tales, Preface. c Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets, Vol. I, Chap. Xtil

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. I had been indefatigable ; and I have many obligations to acknoAvledge to the politeness and liberality of the persons to Avhose custody these monuments are con fided. I encountered indeed no obstacle, wherever I had occasion to direct my enquiries among the different offices of government. After all my diligence Iioav ever, I am by no means confident that I may not have left some particulars to be gleaned by the compilers aaLio shall come after me. The attentive reader will perceive that I have been less copious upon the last fifteen, than upon the preceding years of the life of Chaucer. I had advanced as far as the middle of the second volume, Avhen I saAV* my materials growing under my hand, and became sensible that, if they Avere fully treated, the work would extend beyond the dimensions originally pre-

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. XIV scribed to it. But, if I, enamoured of my subject, might have thought no num ber of pages or of volumes too much for its developement, it Avas by no means impossible that purchasers and readers would think otherwise. My bookseller, Avho is professionally conversant Avith matters of this sort, assured me, that two volumes in quarto were as much as the public Avould alloAv the title of my book to authorise. It would be in vain to produce a Avork, Avhatever information it might comprise, which no one "will pur chase or will read * and I have therefore submitted to his decision. In fact, less is perhaps lost by this compression, than at first I Avas apt to imagine. It had been my object to collect generally those par ticulars of contemporary manners, literature and story, Avhich contributed to make Chaucer Avhat he Avas : But the

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. ample survey of what occurred before he Avas fifty-seven years of age, may seem sufficient for this purpose ; nor is it likely that his mind undenvent any essential revolution after that period. I found John of Gaunt intimately connected Avith the history of Chaucer, and I Avas desirous of showing what sort of man Chaucer had for his patron and his friend : But, if I have not adequately rescued this prince from the misrepresentations of the croAvd of historians in Avhat the reader will find in these volumes, I am afraid it Avould be to little purpose to have laboured upon the concluding period of his life. I have been constrained to omit the analysis of Chaucer's last productions, his Canterbury Tales, and the endeavour to trace the descent of these tales through preceding and contemporary authors : But this part of his works has already been most studied

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. XVI and illustrated; and the edition of Mr., Tynvhit, though the production of such an antiquary as has above been described, has enough of judgment and knoAvledge to form some excuse for the Avriter Avho declines to recomment on the same Avork. The Appendix to these volumes prin cipally consists of extracts from the records preserved in the ToAver of London and in other public repositories. In a Avork so copious as the present, it seemed proper to give these documents at length. One reader, in perusing, Avill often find hints and topics for conjecture and reflection, Avhich may escape the observation of an other. They are here given immediately from the originals ; and, if errors shall be found in them, I have no excuse to plead, unless the hurry and distraction incident to a transcript to be made in a public office.

The only document here giA*en, PREFACE, XVII of which, for reasons not necessary to be mentioned, I Avas unable to obtain a sight, is the Testimony of Chaucer in the cause of Scrope and Grosvenor, printed at the end of the first volume, and Which forms the subject of a Dissertation prefixed to that volume.— It is perhaps Avorthy of notice that, though the secretary of the Society of Antiquaries obligingly favoured me Avith a copy of Chaucer's Lease (Appendix, No. XXVIII) from a plate, engraved by Dr. Richard RaAvlinson, and deposited in the Library of the Society., he at the same time informed me that I could not be permitted to see the engraving. The copy however was so far of use, as it led me to the original in the archives of the dean and chapter of Westminster, Avhence (a small number of errors excepted, AA*hich are here corrected) Dr. RaAvlinson s plate was taken; c. VOL. I. m

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. . Throughout this publication, care has been taken to make no reference to any book, Avhich has not been actually con sulted, and the reference verified by in spection. One circumstance has resulted from this, which it seems candid to explain. In the early part of the Avork, for about one hundred pages, the books referred to are feAV, and many references are given at second-hand from publications compara tively accessible or modern ; afterward this defect no longer occurs. The cause of this is as folloAVS. It Avas impossible for me to purchase all the books I had oc casion to consult ; and, reasoning upon general principles, I bdieved it could not be difficult in such a metropolis as Lon don to obtain the loan of them. I accordingly made many efforts for that pur pose ; but my efforts Avere for the most part unsuccessful. Few of our public -t.*

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. Hibfariea suffer their books to be reiflove'd beyond the Avails Of tlicir institution. Arid-, for private collectors, I generally fdiind that they did hot m, in the illtistfatlohS of English history and English literature here proposed to be madPa stlffle-ieM motive to part -vt'illi their treasures for a short time out of their OArn hands. Aster some interval therefore of fruitless expe riments, it became necessary to form a peremptory resolution, and to yield to an assiduous and almost daily attendance at the British Museum. This has been productive cf great loss of time and many disadvantages. No studious man can col late authorities and draAv his inferences satisfactorily, except in his OAA*n chamber. No man can adequately judge Avhat it is that may be necessary to his purpose, till after repeated essays and comparisons. Add to which, he who studies at home c

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. XX chooses his seasons of study, while he who resorts to a public library has them measured out to him by others. But, when animated Avith the hope of adding some thing to the stock of general information or improvement, it is right that such ob stacles should be regarded by us as un- Avorthy of notice. October, 1803. DISSERTATION VPOI! LB PERIOD OF THE BIRTH OF CHAUCER. JL H E dates assigned to the birth and death of Chaucer are among those points which, from the time perhaps of the erecting his tomb in 1550 to the present, have never been questioned or disturbed. It is un doubtedly pleasing, in a subject which in many particulars is involved in obscurity, to be able to seize some points which are free from the shadow of a doubt. It has however fallen to the lot of the writer of these volumes to discover a document, which is calculated in its consequences to bring the former of these dates into question. xxu DISSERTATION UPON THE PERIOD OF The path which led to this document was as follows.

In the Life of Chaucer prefixed to Urry's edition of his works, is this remark. " It may not be improper to observe, that during Chaucer's troubles, in the tenth year of Rich. II. there was a dispute in a case of chivalry depending between sir Richard Grosvenour and sir Richard le Scrope, concerning their arms ; which the king directed John Staple and Walter Leycester heralds, to examine. They accordingly met" at the Preaching Fryers in London, on Mqtta day the last day of May, where appeared as witnesses most of the chief nobility in England, and otherpersons of distinction ; among whom was our Chaucer, who gave in evidence, " that he saw Scrope armed at Rottes in France, azure with a bend d'or, and that coat was by public voice and fame taken for Scrope's coat." The author of the Life refers, as his authority for this statement, to a '-' roil in a cause of chivalry between Scrope and Grosvenour, 1 o R. 2. communicated to Mr. Uxr-y by John Anstis Esq ; Garter Principal King at Arms."

THE EIRTH OF CHAUCER. XXIII • I felt extremely desirous to see the original, or an authenticated copy, of Chaucer's de position here referred to. Beside the ob vious wish, which must exist in every in quisitive mind, to inspect for himself the documents upon which his narrative is to be founded, I was not without hope that, in, the deposition at large, would be mentioned the date of the fact related to have happened at Rottes, and perhaps other circumstances and particulars connected with the trans action. In France there are several places dispersed, of this or a similar name ; and, if the geography were exactly ascertained in the deposition, it might lead to a conjecture as to the campaign in which Chaucer was engaged, and the actions in Avhich he figured : nor would it be easy to decide beforehand, how many parts of his biography this in formation might serve to elucidate.

The person to whom I first stated my desire to examine this document, was Francis Townsend esquire, Windsor Herald in his Majesty's College of Arms; and, though I was an entire stranger, he with great liber- XXIT DISSERTATION UPON THE PERIOD OF ality undertook to procure, and soon after transmitted to me, a copy. I did not find, in the deposition of Chaucer, the particulars I looked for, but I found some thing that I did not look for ; and this was a new hypothesis respecting the period of Chaucer's birth. In the commencement of the deposition (which is given entire in the appendix to this volume), Chaucer is stated to be " of the age of forty years and upward, and to have borne arms twenty-seven years." This was not a little surprising. The usual date as signed to the birth of Chaucer is 1328.

The deposition is dated 12 October 1386; at which time, if the received chronology of his life is right, he ought to have been, not forty, but fifty-eight, years of age. Proceeding upon the authority of Chaucer's deposition, we might suppose that he was born about the year 134 4. And, having fixed this date, there are other circumstances which offer tliemselves, tending to confirm this idea. There is a sufficient correspondence be- THE BIRTH OF CHAUCER. XXV tween the period assigned in the deposition, for Chaucer's having first borne arms, and the period of his birth. Construing forty years old and upward, to mean forty-two, for example, this will bring the period of his first bearing arms to the fifteenth or sixteenth year of his age. , But, beside the internal concordance of the parts of the deposition, there are certain independent particulars, which may appear favourable to the inference it seems to au thorise.

The first appearance of the name of Chaucer in our official records, is in the year 130/. In this document3 Chaucer is styled dikctus valettus noster ; the purpose of the grant being to secure to him a pension of twenty marks per annum, " in consideration of the good service which he had rendered, and should render, to his sovereign." The term valettus is defined by Du- * Appendix, No. V. cange b to mean " magnatis jxlius, qui necdum militare cingulum erat consecutus ; the son of a person of rank, who had not yet put on the arms of a soldier." This appellation therefore may be thought better to accord with the age of twenty-three, at which Chaucer would have arrived on the present supposition, than with that of thirtynine, which was his age at this period according to the received chronology.

Mr. Townsend likewise, through whose kindness I received the copy of this depo sition, and who is eminently distinguished for the sagacity and accuracy of his researches, pointed out a gradation of appellations in the successive grants to Chaucer, three different ones in succession, which he conceived to agree best with the later date for the period of his birth. In the year 136", he is called in the official records valettus; in the year * Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, in voc. Valeti. THE BIRTH OF CHAUCER. XXVII 13"*2, scutifer" ; and in the year 13/4 d, and all subsequent examples, armiger. Notwithstanding the direct evidence of Chaucer's deposition, and the corroborating circumstances here specified, I am inclined to adhere to the old chronology as exhibiting the true date of Chaucer's birth.

The argument derived from the use of the terms valettus and scutifer, is entitled to no great weight in the present case. In the first place, it implies on the face of it a contradiction. Valettus, the appellation applied to Chaucer in 130", in the strict sense of the term implies a person " who had not yet put on the arms of a soldier." But Chaucer informs us in this very depo sition, that, in 1 380, he had already borne arms twenty-seven years, that is, ever since the year 1359. As to the gradation of appellations applied to Chaucer in different years of his life, it " Ditto, No. VII. • Appendix, No. VI. may be worth our while to be a little more particular. St. Palaye, in his Memoirs on Ancient Chivalry % states three degrees through which a young person, intended for the military profession ordinarily passed.

He was first a page, secondly, an esquire, and lastly, a knight. Into the first of these conditions he ordinarily entered at the age of seven, and into the second at the age of fourteen. It is to the first of these that the term valettus strictly applies. If therefore we were to take the patent of 130/ in the utmost severity of construction, we should infer that Chaucer was at that period between the seventh and the fourteenth years of his age. Perhaps there was a time in the history of chivalry, when the term valettus was con stantly employed in all this strictness of con struction. But, as the rigour of the system of chivalry declined, this and the correspond- •> Tom. I, Partiel. xxit THE BIRTH OF CHAUCER. ing terms were employed in a looser and less definite sense. The idea of causing a young person to pass through the three stages of page, esquire and knight, upon the last of which he en tered as soon as he had arrived at the age of maturity, was probably never applied to any but persons of noble birth.

As soon as the doctrine of nobility became in some degree relaxed, the terms of page and esquire, or their Latin synonimes valettus and armiger, were no longer confined to persons of rank ; and it was deemed sufficient that the appel lation of knight was received as the symbol of nobility in him Avho bore it. It is in this relaxed sense that Chaucer, and even his son Thomas, speaker of the house of commons, bore no higher style than that of armiger to the latest period of their lives. This perhaps sufficiently proves, in addition to a thousand arguments to the same purpose, that Chaucer was not, as Leland supposed him to be f, nobiii loco natus, " a person of elevated " Scriptores Britannici, cap. dv. birth." The style armiger as applied to perj sons of subordinate rank, no longer con veyed mere than an imperfect image of its original signification, and implied that the person who bore it Avas considered as of no less distinction than a young scyon of nobiiity between the ages of fourteen and twenty-cne years.

It is therefore reasonable to believe that the term valettus was used with the same laxness of construction, and was understood to signify that the person to whom it Avas applied was considered as of no less distinction than a young scyon of nobility betAveen the ages of seven and four teen years/ In the primitive sense the afj-» pellation could by no means apply to Chaucer at the age of twenty-three ; in the new and degenerate sense it might apply to him, sot aught that appears to the contrary, at the a.g<& of thirtynine. In the relaxed sense of the word armiger 't it was applicable, as we have seen in the case of the Chaucer*,, father and son, and ai is the present practice throughout the British empire, to a certain description of persons during the whole of their lives ; and could THE BIRTH OF CHAUCER.

XXXI no otherwise be exchanged in them for a higher style, than by the symbols of enno blement communicated to them from the sovereign, the fountain of honour. In the same period of time it is extremely probable that the Avord valettus was in like manner the designation of a particular rank, inferior to that of armiger. Ducange s observes that the term vassalus is to be taken as the equivalent of miles or knight, and that valettus is to be construed quasi vassalettus, as the diminutive of vassalus, a little, or half, knight. It may perhaps therefore be regarded as answering to the more modern term gentleman, which in formal and accurate writing, appears to express a rank between that of yeoman and of esquire. The additions of esquire and gentleman were not brought into ordinary use, but in consequence of the act, 1 Hen. 5, requiring that in indictments and other pro cesses the party should be described with his regular addition. * ubi supra.

Taking for granted the truth of this ex* planation, it seems not improbable that it was Chaucer's employment of envoy to the duke of Genoa, that raised him by its operation from the rank of valettus, in which he might otherwise have remained for the whole course of his life. The terms scutifer and armiger have, I believe, always been understood as strictly synonimous ; and answering to the English term esquire. In their exact sense they imply the favourite and principal attendant on a knight, whose office was to follow him, bearing occasionally his shield and other pieces of his arms. But, though any argument to be derived from the additions by which Chaucer is designated in the records may be exceedingly fallacious, it seems difficult to set aside his OAvn authority in the deposition, where he expressly states his age to be little more than forty years.

I confess that I am not able satisfactorily to exXplain this circumstance. It occurred to me that the age to be men tioned in a deposition of this sort did not XXXllt THE BIRTH OF CHAUCERi demand any particular accuracy, and that all that was requisite was that the deponent should be of an age sufficient to make film a credible Avitness to the fact he reported. Chaucer spoke in this instance of a fact which had happened twenty-seA*en years be fore, and therefore it Avas necessary that, at the time he reported it, he should be forty years old and upward. I conceived it probable that, in an affair of this sort, though the deposition bore the form of being delivered, orally or in writing, by the deponent, the Avords were supplied to him by his lawyer, or by some officer of the court, before which his evidence was deli vered : questions were proposed to him, his ansAvers taken down, and the Avhole afterward digested into the form of a regular narrative.