Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/163

 that Chaucer died in 1400, and on the tradition that he died an old man. But there can be no doubt that in the middle ages and after a man of about sixty was held to be an old man. The date 1328, moreover, makes Chaucer's artistic life most difficult to understand, if not quite unintelligible. If he was born in 1328, then when he wrote the ‘Boke of the Duchesse’ he was forty-one, which is scarcely credible, the comparative crudity of that work considered. Mr. Walter Rye has lately shown that Chaucer’s father was not fourteen years old in December 1324, and so not eighteen at the close of 1328. This appears from the record of certain legal proceedings taken against one Agnes de Westhale and three persons of the name of Stace for carrying of the said young Chaucer (see Academy, 29 Jan. 1881). Some twenty years ago Mr. E. A. Bond discovered the name of Geotlrey Chaucer on two parchment leaves, which proved to be fragments of the household account of the Lady Elizabeth, wife of Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III (see Fortnightly Review, 15 Aug. 1866). In April 1357 ‘an entire suit of clothes, consisting of a paltock or short cloak, a pair of red and blac breeches, with shoes,' is provided for Geoffrey Chaucer. ‘On the 20th of Mayan article of dress. of which the name is lost by a defect in the leaf, is purchased’ for him. ‘In December of the same year (1357) a man receives money for accompanying Philippa Pan’ from a place named Pullesdon to Hatfield (in Yorkshire); ‘and this item is immediately followed by the entry of a donation of three shillings and sixpence to Geoffrey Chaucer “for necessaries."’ These entries seem to suggest that Chaucer was a page in Prince Lionel's household, and his being a page there in 1357 would agree with the hypothesis that he was then about seventeen years of age.

Evidence on this point is furnished by Chaucer himself in tile deposition he made in 1386 in favour of Richard lord Scrope's claim to certain arms which were also claimed by Sir Robert Grosvenor. He is described there, no doubt on his own authority, as ‘Geffray Chaucerr, Esquier, del age de xl ans et plus, armeez par xxvii ans.' In the case of several of the deponents the age is given inaccurately; but the presumption remains in favour of ‘forty years and upwards.’ Moreover, the second statement as to the length of time he had borne arms must be taken well into account. The fact is known from other sources that Chaucer took part in the famous campaign of 1359. If he was born in 1328, he did not bear arms till he was thirty. If about 1340, he first ‘bore arms’ when he was about nineteen. The latter is the more probable age. Again, in the ‘Man of Lawes Prologe’ we are told that ‘in youthe he made of Ceys and Alcioun.’ This refers to the ‘Boke of the Duchesse.’ We may feel contident that he was not more than twentv-eight or twenty-nine at the very most when he wrote it, and therefore, as the date of that work is known and proved by its subject to be 1369, that he was born in 1340 or shortly afterwards.

Much of the obscurity that once involved Chaucer's parentage has been dispelled by the industry of Sir Harris Nicolas, Dr. Furnivall, land others. He was the son of a London |vintner. This has been 'finally settled by a document, in which he releases his right to his father’s house to one Henry Herbury, and describes himself as son of John Chaucer. citizen and vintner of London’ (City Hastings Roll, 110, 5 Rich. II. membrane 2). The house was in Thames Street, by Walbrook, i.e. at or near the foot of Dowgate Hill. This John Chaucer was son of Robert Chaucer, and John’s mother was a certain Maria, who was married, first, to one Heyroun. by whom she had a son Thomas, mentioned in several documents of Chaucerian interest; then to Robert Chaucer of Ipswich and London, by whom she became the mother of John; and lastly to Richard Chaucer, who till lately has commonly been regarded as the poet’s grandfather, but was, it now appears, his step-grandfather. Thus, on his father's side, Chaucer's pedigree seems traceable to Ipswich. His father was married at least twice, first probably to Joan de Esthalle, and later to a lady whose christian name was Agnes, and who was a niece of one Hamo de Copton. It was his second wife who gave birth to Geoffrey (see Academy, 13 Oct. 1877). The date of his second marriage is not ascertained; we know only that Joan was living in 1331, and that Agnes was his wife in 1349. The name Chaucer was not uncommon in London in the fourteenth century (see, Memorials of London and London Life in XIII-XV. Centuries, pp. xxxiii-v). We may fairly suspect that the two Chaucers whom the poet's grandmother married were kinsmcn of one degree or another, and that Henry Chaucer, vintner in 1371 and thereabouts, also belonged to the family—was perhaps the poet’s first cousin.

The one fact of importance respecting John Chaucer is that he was in attendance the king and queen in their expedition to Flanders and Cologne in 1338 (, Fœdera, vol. ii. pt. iv. p. 23). ‘He may,’ says Nicolas, ‘have been the John Chaucer, deputy to the king's butler, in the part of Southampton in February and November, 22 Edward III,