Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/94

82 begun his Canterbury Tales, on which he was occupied at intervals for the rest of his life. In 1386 C. was elected Knight of the Shire for Kent, a county with which he appears to have had some connection, and where he may have had property. His fortunes now suffered some eclipse. His patron, John of Gaunt, was abroad, and the government was presided over by his brother Gloucester, who was at feud with him. Owing probably to this cause, C. was in December, 1386, dismissed from his employments, leaving him with no income beyond his pensions, on which he was obliged to raise money. His wife also died at the same time. In 1389, however, Richard took the government into his own hands, and prosperity returned to C., whose friends were now in power, and he was appointed Clerk of the King's works. This office, however, he held for two years only, and again fell into poverty, from which he was rescued in 1394 by a pension from the King of £20. On the accession of Henry IV. (1399) an additional pension of 40 marks was given him. In the same year he took a lease of a house at Westminster, where he probably d., October 25, 1400. He is buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, where a monument to him was erected by Nicholas Brigham, a minor poet of the 16th century. According to some authorities he left two sons, Thomas, who became a man of wealth and importance, and Lewis, who died young, the little ten-year-old boy to whom he addressed the treatise on the Astrolabe. Others see no evidence that Thomas was any relation of the poet. An Elizabeth C., placed in the Abbey of Barking by John of Gaunt, was probably his dau. In person C. was inclined to corpulence, "no poppet to embrace," of fair complexion with "a beard the colour of ripe wheat," an "elvish" expression, and an eye downcast and meditative.

Of the works ascribed to C. several are, for various reasons, of greater or less strength, considered doubtful. These include The Romaunt of the Rose, Chaucer's Dream, and The Flower and the Leaf. After his return from Italy about 1380 he entered upon his period of greatest productiveness: Troilus and Criseyde (1382?), The Parlement of Foules (1382?), The House of Fame (1384?), and The Legende of Goode Women (1385), belong to this time. The first of them still remains one of the finest poems of its kind in the language. But the glory of C. is, of course, the Canterbury Tales, a work which places him in the front rank of the narrative poets of the world. It contains about 18,000 lines of verse, besides some passages in prose, and was left incomplete. In it his power of story-telling, his humour, sometimes broad, sometimes sly, his vivid picture-drawing, his tenderness, and lightness of touch, reach their highest development. He is our first artist in poetry, and with him begins modern English literature. His character genial, sympathetic, and pleasure-loving, yet honest, diligent, and studious is reflected in his writings.

.—B. 1340, fought in France 1359, by his marriage in 1366 became connected with John of Gaunt, employed on diplomatic missions 1369-79, Controller of Customs, etc., c. 1374, began Canterbury Tales 1373, elected to Parliament 1386, loses his appointments' 1386, Clerk of King's Works 1389-91, pensioned by Richard II. and Henry IV., d. c. 1400.