Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/168

 Maudeleyne,’ and Pope Innocent's treatise ‘De Miseria,’ all three of which we have his own testimony that he executed.

The extant work that best represents his first period is ‘The Boke of the Duchesse.’ There can be no reasonable doubt that it is an elegiac poem written on the death of the Lady Blanche, duchess of Lancaster, the first wife of John of Gaunt. That it is Chaucer’s is proved by abundant evidence, both external and internal. That it refers to the Lady Blanche is shown by the words ‘the Duchesse’ in the title (Chaucer himself mentions it by that title) taken in connection with the allusion to the name Blanche in the poem: And goode faire white she hete, That was my lady name righte.

It is strange indeed that the widower should be carefully described as of twenty-four years of age, whereas John of Gaunt was twenty-nine at the time. Artistically considered, the work, though not without beauty, is juvenile and crude. It is conventional in form, awkward in arrangement, inadequate in expression. There is scarcely anything specially Chaucerian in it. And indeed the great interest of the poem is that it brings Chaucer before us just at this early stage.

1372-86.—By 1372 France had taught Chaucer what it had to teach. It had made him no mean master of versification, for in metrical skill and finish its poets-both of the north and the south, both troubadours and trouveres-were highly distinguished. He was now to be brought into contact with poets—of a higher order. Public business took Chaucer to Italy. It is possible, perhaps probable, that he may have already known the Italian language and studied Italian literature ; but there is no evidence of any such knowledge. His official visit in 1372 and 1373 may be taken to mark the time at which he was first brought under Italian influence. In November 1372, described now as one of the king’s esquires, he ‘was joined in a commission with James Pronam and John de Mari, citizens of Genoa, to treat with the duke, citizens, and merchants of Genoa for the purpose of choosing some port in England where the Genoese might form a commercial establishment’. Some time early in December he left England; by 23 Nov. 1373 he was home again, for on that day he received his pension in person. Of the details of his joumey we know nothing; except that he visited Florence as well as enoa. This appears from the note of the 'payment of the expenses incurred by him from the words ‘proiisciendo [sic apud ] in negociis Regis versus partes Jannue et Florence.’

Dante had been dead some half-century, but Petrarch and Boccacio were still living, and it is possible mer saw them both. With regard to Petrarch, he makes his Clerk of Oxford say in the prologue to his tale in the ‘Canterbury Tales’ that he had learnt the story he was about to tell—the story of Griselda- At Padowe of a worthy clerk As proved by his wordcs and his werk. Ile is now deed and nayled in his chests ; I pray to God so yive his soule rests! Fraunces Petrark, the laureat poets, Highte this clerk whose rethorique swete, &c.

The last years of Petrarch’s life were mainly spent at Arqua, some sixteen miles south of Padua, which is 130 miles from Florence. Ile was certainl there in the first half of 1373, probably till September. There is evidence that just at the time-just at the time when Chaucer might have visited Padua—Petrarch was takin a special interest in the tale of Griselda. He sent a translation of it to Boccaccio, whose version of the sto in the ‘Decamerone’ had specially deligated him, with the date ‘Inter colles Euganeos 6 Idus Junii .’ (De Sade in his Memoirs of Petrarch gives 1374, ‘on the authority of a manuscript in the Royal Library at Paris; ’ but Nicolas seems to have been unable to verify this reference; see Aldine ed. i. 12.) This circumstance and the fact that the Clerk’s version of the tale is most certainly taken from Petrarch’s translation, give extreme robability to the suggestion that Chaucer did) visit Petrarch, and was permitted to read the touching sto in Petrarch’s rendering. We may, we thidll, very justly ask, from whom did Chaucer get a copy of Petrarch's translation if not from Petrarch himself or from Boccaccio ? It was sent in a letter to Boccaccio, So if he did not get it from Petrarch, surely he got it from Boccaccio ? There may of course, have been copies given to specially favoured friends. But the probability is that he got it from either Petrarch or Boccaccio, probably from Petrarch. But who introduced him to Petrarch ? Likely enough Petrarch’s friend. For many years Boccaccio had been living at Florence or on his paternal domain at Certaldo, only some twenty miles from Florence. When Chaucer was there, Florence must have been ringing with his name, for he was just then appointed to the Dante professorship-to a chair for the exposition of the ‘Divina Commedia.’ It is conceivable Chaucer may have been present at his first lecture on 3 Aug. 1373. Certainly Chaucer became profoundly impressed with Dante’s greatness.