Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/175

 written in that year. More likely only the 'envoy' was written then. The words 'out of this towne helpe me by your might' seem to point to some special occasion, and 'I am shave as nere as any frere' is in his old manner. Other pieces belonging to this period are the 'Envoy to Scogan — certainly written in the days of distress, and possibly enough in 1393, as the references to excessive rains suggest—the 'Envoy to Bukton,' and a 'Balade de Vilage sanz Peinture.' Credibly enough, the last few years of his life of Chaucer, for one reason or another, wrote little, and his magnum opus was scarcely touched. In the third period we see him mature. Fully as other influences have acted upon him, what strikes us is his extraordinary originality. For what is best in his best work he is debtor to no man. He is the first great figure of modern English literature, the first great humorist of modern Europe, and the first great writerm whom the dramatic spirit, so long vanished and seemingly extinct, reappears. Except Dante, there is no poet of the middle ages of superior faculty and distinction.

As to the manuscripts of Chaucer, see Furnvall's 'Six Text Edition of the Canterbury Tales, &c.,' an invaluable help to Chaucerian study. As to printed editions, we may mention that the 'Chanterbury Tales' were printed by Caxton in 1475, and again from a better manuscript a few years later; by Wynken de Worde in 1495, and again in 1498; by Richard Pynson in 1498, and again in 1526. The first printed collection of the poet's works was made by W. Thynne, and brought out in 1532, and again with the addition of the 'Plowman's Tale' in 1542, and again about 1559, rearranged. Next in 1561 came Stowe's edition; then in 1598 Speght's, which was reissued and revised in 1602, and again in 1687. Later editors are Urry (1721), Singer (1822), Nicolas (1845), Morris (1866), &c. (see, Astrolabe, p. xxvi). Tyrwhitt's elaborate edition of the 'Canterbury Tales' (1775-8) deserves special mention. All these collections contain several works that are certainly not by Chaucer. On this matter see Aldine ed. vol. i. appendix B. Professor Skeat has edited separate portions of the 'Canterbury Tales.'

 CHAUCER, THOMAS (1367?–1434), speaker of the House of Commons, in all likelihood elder son of Geoffrey Chaucer [q. v.], by his wife Philippa, daughter of Sir Payne Roet and sister of Catherine Swnyford, mistress and afterwards wife of John, duke of Lancaster, was probably born in 1367. Early in life he married Matilda, second daughter and coheiress of Sir John Burghersh, nephew of Henry Burghersh [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, treasurer and chancellor of the Kingdom. His marriage brought him large estates, and among them the manor of Ewelme, Oxfordshire. It is evident that his connection with the Duke of Lancaster was profitable to him. He was appointed chief butler to Richard II, and on 20 March 1399 received a uension of twenty marks a year in exchange for certain, offices granted him by the duke, paying at the same time five marks for the confirmation of two annuities of 10l. charged on the duchy of Lancaster and also granted by the duke. These annuities were confirmed to him by Henry IV, who appointed him constable of Wallingford Castle, and steward of the honours of Wallingford and St. Valery and of the Chiltem Hundreds, with 40l. a year as stipend and 10l. for a deputy. About the same time he succeeded Geoffrey Chaucer as forester of North Petherton Park, Somersetshire (, Somersetshire, iii. 62 ; Athenæum, 20 Nov. 1886). On 5 Nov. 1402 he received a grant of the chief butlership for life. On 23 Feb. 1411 the queen gave him the manor of Woodstock and other estates during her life, and on 16 March the king assigned them to him after her death. Chaucer sat for Oxfordshire in the parliaments of 1400-1, 1402, 1405-6, 1407, 1409-10, 1411, 1413, 1414, 1421, 1422, 1425-6, 1427, 1429, 1430-1. He was chosen speaker in the parliament that met at Gloucester in 1407, and on 9 Nov. reminded the king that the accounts of the expenditure of the last subsidy had not been rendered. The chancellor interrupted him, declaring that they were not ready, and that for the future the lords would not promise them. He was chosen again in 1410 and in 1411, when, on making his 'protestation' and claiming the usual permission of free speech, he was answered by the king that he might speak as other speakers had