The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland | Page 6

Dryden says, he 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 observes, 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 prose by the
title of his Humble Poet Laureat.
I cannot better display the character of this great man than in the
following words of Urry. "As to his temper, says he, he had a mixture
of the gay, the modest and the grave. His reading was deep and
extensive, his judgment sound and discerning; he was communicative
of his knowledge, and ready to correct or pass over the faults of his
cotemporary writers. He knew how to judge of and excuse the slips of
weaker capacities, and pitied rather than exposed the ignorance of that
age. In one word, he was a great scholar, a pleasant wit, a candid critic,
a sociable companion, a stedfast friend, a great philosopher, a
temperate oeconomist, and a pious christian." As to his genius as a poet,
Dryden (than whom a higher authority cannot be produced) speaking of
Homer and Virgil, positively asserts, that our author exceeded the latter,
and stands in competition with the former.
His language, how unintelligible soever it may seem, is almost as
modern as any of his cotemporaries, or of those who followed him at
the distance of 50 or 60 years, as Harding, Skelton and others, and in
some places it is so smooth and beautiful, that Dryden would not
attempt to alter it; I shall now give some account of his works in the
order in which they were written, so far as can be collected from them,
and subjoin a specimen of his poetry, of which profession as he may

justly be called the Morning Star, so as we descend into later times; we
may see the progress of poetry in England from its great original,
Chaucer, to its full blaze, and perfect consummation in Dryden.
Mr. Philips supposes a greater part of his works to be lost, than what
we have extant of him; of that number may be many a song, and many
a lecherous lay, which perhaps might have been written by him while
he was a student at Cambridge.
The Court of Love, as has been before observed, was written while he
resided at Cambridge in the 18th year of his age.
The Craft 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 Consolatione
Philosophiæ was translated by him about the same time.
The Romaunt of the Rose, is a translation from the French: this poem
was begun by William de Lerris, and continued by John de Meun, both
famous French poets; it seems to have been translated about the time of
the rise of Wickliffe's Opinions, it consisting of violent invectives
against religious orders.
The Complaint of the Black Knight, during John of Gaunt's courtship
with Blanch is supposed to be written on account of the duke of
Lancaster's marriage.
The poem of Troilus and Creseide was written in the early part of his
life, translated (as he says) from Lollius an historiographer in Urbane in
Italy; he has added several things of his own, and borrowed from others
what he thought proper for the embellishment of this work, and in this
respect was much indebted to his friend Petrarch the Italian poet.
The House of Fame; from this poem Mr. Pope acknowledges he took
the hint of his Temple of Fame.

The book of Blaunch the Duchess, commonly called the Dreme of
Chaucer, was written upon the death of that lady.
The Assembly 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 seems to have been first a single poem,
afterwards made one of his Canterbury Tales which is told by the
second Nonne: and so perhaps was that of the Wife of Bath, which he
advises John of Gaunt to read, and was afterwards inserted 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 Insurrection 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 nostre Damê, was written for the
use of the duchess Blaunch.