By means of the duke of Lancafter's marriage with his fifter in law, he again acquired a confiderable fhare of wealth; but being now about feventy years of age, and fatigu'd with the troubles he had experienced, he quitted the ftage of grandeur where he had acted fo confiderable a part with varied fuccefs, and retired to Dunnington caftle near Newbury, to reflect at leisure upon paft tranfactions, in the ftill retreats of contemplation. In this his retirement did he fpend his few remaining years, univerfally loved and honoured; he was familiar with all men of learning in his time, and contracted friendships with perfons of the greatest eminence as well in litetature as politics; Gower, Lidgate, Wickliff were great admirers, and particular friends of Chaucer; befides, he was, well acquainted with learned foreigners, particularly Francis Petrarch the famous Italian poet, and refiner of the language. A revolution in England happened foon after. this, in which we find Chaucer but little concerned; he made no mean compliments to Henry IV, but Gower his cotemporary, tho' then very old, flatter'd the reigning prince, and infulted the memory of his murdered fovereign. All acts of parliament and grants in the laft reign being annulled, Chaucer again repaired to court to get fresh grants; but bending with age and weaknefs, tho' he was fuceefsful in his requeft, the fatigue of attendance fo overcame him, that death prevented his enjoying his new poffeffions He died the 25th of October in the year 1400, in the fecond of Henry IV, in the 72d of his age, and bore the fhock of death with the fame fortitude and refignation with which he had undergone a variety of preffures. and vi ciffitudes of fortune. Dryden fays, he was poet laureat to three kings, but Urry is of Opinion that Dryden must be mistaken, 253 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 Edward IV, to whom one John Kaye dedicated the Siege of Rhodes, in profe, by the title of his Humble Poet Laureat. 66 We cannot better difplay the character of this celebrated, bard than in the following words of Urry. "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 difcerning; he was communicative of his knowledge, "and ready to correct or pass over the faults of his 66 cotemporary writers. He knew how to judge of "and excufe the flips of weaker capacities, and pi“tied rather than expofed the ignorance of that age. "In one word, he was a great fcholar, a pleasant wit, a candid critic, a fociable companion, a sted"fast friend, a great philofopher, a temperate oeco"nomift, and a pious chriftian." As to his genius as a poet, Dryden (than whom a higher authority can fcarcely be produced) fpeaking of Homer and Virgil, pofitively afferts, that our author exceeded the latter, and ftands in competition with the former. His language, how unintelligible foever it may feem, is almoft as modern as any of his cotemporaries, or of those who followed him at the diftance of 50 or 60 years, as Harding, Skelton and others; and in fome places it is fo fmooth and beautiful, that Dryden would not attempt to alter it. I fhall now give fome account of his works, in the order in which they were written, fo far as can be collected from them; and fubjoin a fpecimen of his poetry, of which profeffion as he may july be called the Morning Star, fo as we defcend into later times, we may fee the progrefs of poetry in England from its great original, Chaucer, to its full blaze, and perfect confummation in Dryden, Pope, &c. Mr. Mr. Philips fuppofes a greater part of his works to be loft, than what now remains of him; of that number may be many a fong, and many a wanton lay, which perhaps might have been written by him while he was a ftudent at Cambridge. The Court of Love, as before obferved, was written while he refided at Cambridge in the 18th year of his age. The Crafty Lovers was written in the year of Our Lord 1348, and probably the Remedy of Love was written about that time, or not long after. The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen, taken from Origen, was written by him in his early years, and perhaps Boethius de Confolatione Philofophiæ was tranflated by him about the fame time. The Romaunt of the Rofe is a tranflation from the French: this poem was begun by William de Lerris, and continued by John de Meun, both famous French poets; 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, during John of Gaunt's courtship with Blanch is fuppofed to be written on account of the duke of Lancaster's marriage. The poem of Troilus and Crefeide was written in the early part of his life, tranflated (as he fays) from Lollius an hiftoriographer in Italy; he has added feveral things of his own, and borrowed from others what he thought proper for the embellishment of this work, and in this refpect was much indebted to his friend Petrarch. The House of Fame; from this poem Mr. Pope took the hint of his Temple of Fame. The book of Blanch the Duchefs, commonly called the Dreme of Chaucer, was written upon the death of that lady. The The Aflembly of Fowls (or Parlement of Briddis, as he calls it in his Retraction) was written before the death of queen Philippa. The Life of St. Cecilia feems to have been first a fingle 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 advífes 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 of Jack Straw and Wat Tyler. The Flower and the Leaf was written by him in the Prologue to the Legende of Gode Women. Chaucer's ABC, called la Priere de noftre Dame, was written for the use of the duchefs Blanch. 'The book of the Lion is mentioned in his Retraction, and by Lidgate in the prologue to the Fall of Princes, but is now loft. De Vulcani vene, i. e. of the Brocke of Vulcan, which is likewife mentioned by Lidgate. La belle Dame fans Mercy, was tranflated from the French of Alain Chartier, fecretary to Lewis XI. The Complaint of Mars and Venus was tranflated from the French of Sir Otes de Grantfon. The Complaint of Annilida to false 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 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 fufpected not to have been his. The come dies dies 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 the latter part of his life. The Song beginning Fly fro the Prefe, &c. was written on his death-bed. Leland fays, that by the confent of the learned in his time, the Plowman's Tale was attributed to Chaucer, but was fuppreffed in the edition then extant, because the vices of the clergy were expofed in it. Mr. Speight, in his life of Chaucer, printed in 1602, mentions a tale in William Thynne's firft printed book of Chaucer's works, more odious to the clergy than the Plowman's. One thing muft not be omitted concerning the works of Chaucer. In the year 1526 the bishop of London prohibited a great number of books which he thought had a tendency to deftroy religion and virtue, as did alfo the king in 1529; but in fo great efteem were his works then, and fo highly valued by the people of taste, that they were excepted out of the prohibition. The following is given as a Specimen of his Stile and Language. The PARDONERS PROLOGUE. Lordings! quoth he, in chirch when I preche, That |