Canterbury Tales and Other Poems | Page 7

centuries; when he laid down his pen, there was practically but
one speech -- there was, and ever since has been, but one people.
Geoffrey Chaucer, according to the most trustworthy traditionsfor authentic testimonies
on the subject are wanting -- was born in 1328; and London is generally believed to have
been his
birth-place. It is true that Leland, the biographer of England's first great poet
who lived nearest to his time, not merely speaks of Chaucer as having been born many
years later than the date now assigned, but mentions Berkshire or Oxfordshire as the

scene of his birth. So great uncertainty have some felt on the latter score, that elaborate
parallels have been drawn between Chaucer, and Homer -- for whose birthplace several
cities
contended, and whose descent was traced to the demigods.
Leland may seem to
have had fair opportunities of getting at the truth about Chaucer's birth -- for Henry VIII
had him, at the suppression of the monasteries throughout England, to search for records
of public interest the archives of the religious houses. But it may be questioned whether
he was likely to find many authentic particulars regarding the personal history of the poet
in the quarters which he explored; and Leland's testimony seems to be set aside by
Chaucer's own evidence as to his
birthplace, and by the contemporary references which
make him out an aged man for years preceding the accepted date of his death. In one of
his prose works, "The Testament of Love," the poet speaks of himself in terms that
strongly confirm the claim of London to the honour of giving him birth; for he there

mentions "the city of London, that is to me so dear and sweet, in which I was forth
growen; and more kindly love," says he, "have I to that place than to any other in earth;
as every kindly creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindly engendrure, and to
will rest and peace in that place to abide." This tolerably direct evidence is supported --
so far as it can be at such an interval of time -- by the learned Camden; in his Annals of
Queen Elizabeth, he describes Spencer, who was certainly born in London, as being a
fellow-citizen of Chaucer's -- "Edmundus Spenserus, patria Londinensis, Musis adeo
arridentibus natus, ut omnes Anglicos superioris aevi poetas, ne Chaucero quidem

concive excepto, superaret." <1> The records of the time notice more than one person of
the name of Chaucer, who held
honourable positions about the Court; and though we
cannot
distinctly trace the poet's relationship with any of these
namesakes or
antecessors, we find excellent ground for belief that his family or friends stood well at
Court, in the ease with which Chaucer made his way there, and in his subsequent

career.
Like his great successor, Spencer, it was the fortune of Chaucer to live under a splendid,
chivalrous, and high-spirited reign. 1328 was the second year of Edward III; and, what
with Scotch wars, French expeditions, and the strenuous and costly struggle to hold
England in a worthy place among the States of Europe, there was sufficient bustle, bold
achievement, and high ambition in the period to inspire a poet who was prepared to catch
the spirit of the day. It was an age of elaborate courtesy, of highpaced gallantry, of
courageous venture, of noble disdain for
mean tranquillity; and Chaucer, on the whole a
man of peaceful avocations, was penetrated to the depth of his consciousness with the
lofty and lovely civil side of that brilliant and restless military period. No record of his
youthful years, however,

remains to us; if we believe that at the age of eighteen he was

a student of Cambridge, it is only on the strength of a reference in his "Court of Love",
where the narrator is made to say that his name is Philogenet, "of Cambridge clerk;"
while he had already told us that when he was stirred to seek the Court of Cupid he was
"at eighteen year of age." According to Leland, however, he was educated at Oxford,
proceeding thence to France and
the Netherlands, to finish his studies; but there
remains no certain evidence of his having belonged to either University. At the same time,
it is not doubted that his family was of good condition; and, whether or not we accept the
assertion that his father held the rank of knighthood -- rejecting the hypotheses that make
him a merchant, or a vintner "at the corner of Kirton Lane" -- it is plain, from Chaucer's
whole career, that he had introductions to public life, and recommendations to courtly
favour, wholly independent of his genius. We have the clearest testimony that his mental
training was of wide range and
thorough excellence, altogether rare for a mere courtier
in those days: his poems attest his