Printed for R. Baldwin Jan, at the Rose in Pater Noster Row 1753.

1753.

The LIFE of CHAUCER.

399

was in great favour with K. Richard II.'
who, among other benefactions, restored
to him his grant of a pitcher of wine
daily, and a pipe annually, to be deli-
vered to him by his fon Thomas, then,
chief butler to the king. But being now
about 70 years of age, he quitted the
ftage of grandeur, and retired to Dunning-
ton-Caftle, near Newbury, in Berkshire,,
to reflect at leifure upon paft tranfactions)
in the ftill retreats of contemplation. In
this retirement he fpent his remaining
days, univerfally loved and honoured:
He was familiar with all men of learning
in his time: Gower, Oceleve, Lidgate,
and Wickliffe our first reformer, were his
B
great admirers and particular friends: He
was alfo well acquainted with foreign
poets, particularly Francis Petrarch, the
famous Italian poet, and refiner of the
language. After a retirement of about
two years Chaucer died, Oct. 25, 1400,
in the 72d year of his age, and in the zd
of the reign of Henry IV. He had two
fons, one of which, viz. Thomas, above-
mentioned, made a great figure in the
ftate, in the reigns of Richard II. and
Henry IV. V. and VI.

fides the advantages of wit and learning,
was remarkable for the comeliness of his
perfon, and his genteel behaviour; fo
that he now became a finished courtier.
He was first made page to the king, a
place then of great honour. In the 41ft
year of Edward III. he received an an-
nuity of 20 marks per ann. which was A
no inconfiderable penfion in those days.
The year after he was advanced to be of
the king's privy chamber, and foon after
his fhield-bearer. He now contracted
friendships, and procured the esteem of
perfons of the first quality: Queen Phi-
lippa, the duke of Lancafter, and his
dutchefs Blanch fhewed particular honour
to him; and lady Margaret the king's
daughter, and the countefs of Pembroke,
gave him their most zealous patronage as
a poet. In his poems called the Romaunt
of the Rofe, and Troilus and Crefeide, he
gave offence to fome court ladies by the
loofenefs of his defcription, which the
Lady Margaret refented, and obliged him
to atone for it by his Legend of good C
Women, a piece as chafte as the others
were luxuriously amorous; and, under
the name of the Daifey, he veils lady
Margaret, whom of all his patrons he
moft efteemed.

By the recommendation of the dutchefs
Blanch, he married Philippa Rouet, fifter
to the guardianefs of her grace's children, D

who was a native of Hainault. In the 46th year of the king's reign, he was fent, in commiffion with others, to treat with the doge and fenate of Genoa ; and for his fuccefsful negotiations there, the king granted to him by letters patent, by the title of Armiger Nofter, one pitcher of wine daily in the port of London, and foon after made him comptroller of the E cuftoms. The duke of Lancaster, whofe favourite paffion was ambition, which required the affiftance of men of ability and learning, engaged warmly in our poet's interest; befides, the duke was remarkably fond of lady Catherine Swynford, Chaucer's wife's fifter, who was then guardianefs to his children, and p

whom he afterwards married: So that he was doubly attached to him, and with the varying fortune of the duke of Lancafter, we find Chaucer rife or fall: He was now neceffarily entangled in the affairs of ftate, which, amidst the various broils and difturbances at court, fometimes proved very prejudicial and even dangerous to him, and occafioned him once to fly his country. On his return, he was for fome time in very low and diftreffed circumftances, till the duke of Lancaster's intereft reviving, Chaucer's good fortune returned with it, and he

G

Dryden fays, our Chaucer was poet
laureat to three kings; but Urry is of
opinion that Dryden must be mistaken, as
among all his works not one court poem
is to be found; and Selden obferves, that
he could find no poet honoured with that
title in England before the reign of Ed-
ward IV. to whom one John Kaye dedi-
cated the Siege of Rhodes in profe, by
the title of his Humble Poet Laureat.

The following words of Urry will very
well difplay the character of this great
man. As to his temper, fays he, he
had a mixture of the gay, the modeft,
and the grave. His reading was deep and
extenfive, his judgment found and dif-
cerning; he was communicative of his
knowledge, and ready to correct or país
over the faults of his cotemporary wri-
ters. He knew how to judge of and ex-
cufe the flips of weaker capacities, and
pitied rather than expofed the ignorance
of that age. In one word, he was a
great fcholar, a pleafant wit, a candid
critick, a fociable companion, a stedfast
friend, a great philofopher, a temperate
economist, and a pious chriftian."
to his genius as a poet, Dryden (than
whom a higher authority cannot be pro-
duced) fpeaking of Homer and Virgil,
pofitively afferts, that our author exceeded
the latter, and ftands in competition with
the former.

As

His language, how unintelligible fo ever it may feem, is almost as modern as any of his cotemporaries, or of those

whe

1

who followed him at the distance of 50 or 60 years.

· An Account of CHAUCER's Works.

A

The Court of Love was written while. he refided at Cambridge, in the 18th year of his age. The Craft Lovers was written in 1348, and the Remedy of Love probably about the fame time. The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen, taken from Origen, was written by him in his early years, and perhaps Boethius de Confola tione Philofophiæ was tranflated by him about the fame time. The Romaunt of the Rofe is a translation from the French: It feems to have been tranflated about the time of the rife of Wickliffe's opinions, it confifting of violent invectives against religious orders. The Complaint, of the Black Knight, is fuppofed to be written on account of the duke of Lancafter's marriage. The poem of Troilus and Crefeide was written in the early part of his life. The House of Fame; from this poem Mr. Pope ac- C knowledges he took the hint of his Temple of Fame. The book of Blaunch the Duchefs, commonly called the Dreme of Chaucer, was written upon the death of that lady. The Affembly of Fowls, or Parlement of Briddis, was written before the death of queen Philippa. The Life of St. Cecilia feems to have been first a fingle D poem, afterwards made one of his Canterbury Tales, which is told by the fecond Nonne And fo perhaps was that of the Wife of Bath, which he advifes John of Gaunt to read, and was afterwards inferted in his Canterbury Tales.. The Canterbury Tales were written about the year 1383. It is certain the Tale of the Nonnes Priest was written after the infurrection E of Jack Straw and Wat Tyler. The Flower and the Leaf was written by him in the Prologue to the Legend of Gode Women. Chaucer's ABC, called la Priere de noftre Damê, was written for the ufe of the duchefs Blanch. La belle Dame fans Mercy, was tranflated from the French of Alain Chartier, fecretary to Lewis XI. F king of France. The Complaint of Mars and Venus was tranflated from the French. The Complaint of Annilida to falfe Arcite. The Legend of Gode Women (called the Affembly of Ladies, and by fome the Nineteen Ladies) was written to oblige the queen, at the request of the countess of Pembroke. The Treatife of the Conclufion of the Aftrolabie was written in G the year 1391. Of the Cuckow and Nightingale; this feems by the defcription to have been written at Woodstock. The Ballade beginning, In Feverre, &c. was a compliment to the countefs of Pembroke. Several other ballads are afcribed to him,

fome of which are justly füfpected not to have been his. The comedies imputed to him are no other than his Canterbury Tales, and the Tragedies were those the monks tell in his Tales. The Teftament of Love was written in his trouble the latter part of his life. The Song beginning, Fly fro the Prefe, &c. was written in his death-bed.

A Specimen of CHAUCER'S Poetry.
The PARDONERS PROLOGUE.
Lordings! quoth he, in chirch when I
preche,
[(peche;

I paine mee to have an have an hauteine
And ring it out, as round as doth a bell;
For I can all by rote that I tell.
My teme is always one, and ever was,
(Radix omnium malorum eft cupiditas)
First, I pronounce fro whence I come,
And then my bills, I fhew all and fame!
Our liege-lords feal on my patent!
That fhew I firft, my body to warrent;
That no man be fo bold, prieft ne clerk,
Me to disturb of Chrift's holy werke ;
And after that I tell forth my tales,
Of bulls, of popes, and of cardinales,
Of patriarkes, and of bishops I fhew;
And in Latin I fpeake wordes a few,
To faver with my predication,
And for to ftere men to devotion.
Then thew I forth my long, chriftall ftones,
Ycrammed full of clouts and of bones;
Relickes they been, as were they, echone!
Then have 1, in Latin a fhoder-bone,
Which that was of an holy Jewes-hepe.
Good men, fay, take of my words kepe!
If this bone we wathen in any well,
If cow, or calfe, thepe, or oxe fwell
That any worm hath eaten, or hem strong,
Take water of this well, and wash his tong,
And it is hole a-non: And furthermore,
Of pockes, and fcabs, and every fore
Shall fhepe be hole, that of this well
Drinketh a draught: Take keep of that
I tell !

If that the good man, that beafts oweth,
Woll every day, ere the cocke croweth,
Fafting drink of this well, a draught,
(As thilk holy Jew our elders taught)
His beafts and his ftores fhall multiplie s
And Sirs, alfo it healeth jealousie,
For, tho' a man be fall in jealous rage,
Let make with this water his potage,
And never fhall he more his wife miftrift,
Thughe, in footh, the defaut by her wift:
All had the taken priests two or three!
Here is a mittaine eke, that ye may fee.
He that has his hand well put in this
mittaine;

He shall have multiplying of his graine,
When he hath fowen, be it wheat or otes;
So that he offer good pens or grotes !

JOUR

1753.

JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES in the POLITICAL CLUB, continued from p. 367.

remark

Although I bave already fent you a long
Debate we had in our Club upon the Jews
Bill, yet as we bad feveral Debates upon
the fame Subject, in which many
able Speeches were made, and as mary
of your Readers may be defirous to fee fome
of them, I have sent you the following, A
which was made by T. Sempronius Grac-
chus, upon what we call the third Reading
of the Bill, and was in Substance thus,

Mr. Prefident,

SIR,

B

fpeaking very intelligently against it for half an hour,) whether be underflood that was the intention of the bill? to which he made anfwer, that be underflood himfelf, and believed every body underficed, that the intention of the bill was to naturaliz: the Jews.-The gentleman takes advantage of this expression, obferves that the bill is not a bill to naturalize the Jews, but a bill to take a way the incapacities which, by the common law of the land, and by the ftatute laws, they now lie under to be naturalized-and from hence argues, that even the petitioners themselves against Y the motion now made for adthe bill are ignorant of the nature of the bill. But is this way of fishing for injourning this debate to a diftant B day, I am at liberty to speak to accurate answers out of the mouth of refpectable merchants, coming humbly both these questions, first, Whether this to lay their apprehenfions upon a point bill ought to pafs at all, and fecondly, of great national concern, in a regular Whether it ought to pafs at this time. The first of these questions depends and parliamentary way, before you, a fair method of proceeding? Is there any wholly upon the merits or demerits of the bill: The latter upon the weight of dignity in this manner of debate ?-The gentleman at the bar fpoke effentially the arguments of the gentleman in the administration, who has just now fpoken. the truth, This is a bill intended to naturalize the Jews, or it is a bill intending nothing, -I fhall beg leave, in the first place, to confider thofe arguments,-and in the -Ninety-nine men in an hundred would have expreffed themfelves in the fame next, to fay fomething to the bill itself. manner upon the fame question, and none, who had not conceived a mean and difrefpectful opinion of this house, would have thought it neceffary to have guarded what he faid against a quibble (pardon the expreffion) of fuch a kind as this.

C

The first reason given by the Hon. gentleman why this bill ought not to be poftponed, but to be paffed at this time, -is, because he finds the nature of the bill wholly misunderstood even by the peti-D tioners themselves who have appeared at the bar, and confequently, that it must and will be greatly misapprehended by the nation, if it fhould end here:--Whereas if the bill fhould pafs, it will become a law, printed, promulged, and fully known to the whole people, who will then see how much they have been imposed upon by fome factious and defign. E ing men, who have stirred against it in the. city of London, and have been dignified by the Hon. gentleman with the title of the Scabby fheep.

Sir, I hope the gentleman will excufe me, for I neither want a proper regard for him, nor bear him any particular ill will; but it is impoffible for me to avoid p faying, that his reafoning in this instance. is neither confiftent with that candour which he profeffes, nor well founded in any respect. Upon what does he found it? Upon a question, which he just before put to one of the petitioners at the bar, (which I own I thought a range one at the time, after that perfon had been E- of E

September, 1753.

The next reafon offered by the Hon.
gentleman, why we should immediately
proceed to pafs this bill, is drawn from
the refpect due to the other house, who
have agreed to it with almoft a general
voice. That the poftponing the confideration
of this bill would be treating them with fome
degree of disrespect. To this I answer, that

it feems to me, and I take it to have
been always understood in this place, that
it was more refpectful to any bill, or the
advocates of any bill, to let it fall gently
by adjourning the confideration of it to
a long day, than to cant it out of the
house upon debate, with that refentment,
which I think the bill does thoroughly
deferve. Unless, therefore, the gentleman
means by this respect to the other house,
that we must país this bill because they
have been pleased to pass it, his arguments
from the refpect due to them makes 10-
thing to his purpo-I have great le-
fpect for the other house, because they are
one of the three conftituent parts of the
legislature, and of equal importance to the

Eee

con

.

L