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Devise himself which was the best.
And she, that would his heart rest,
Prayeth that he would chuse algate:
Till at the last, long and late
He said, "O ye, my life's hele,
"Say what ye list in my quarrél,2
"I n'ot what answer I shall give,
"But ever, while that I may live,
"I will, that ye be my mistress,
"For I cannot my self guess

"Which is the best unto my choice.

"Thus grant I you mine whole voice:

"Chuse for us both, I you pray !

"And, what as ever that ye say, "Right as ye will, so will I.”

"My lord," she said, "grand-merci! 3 "For of this word that ye now sayn, "That ye have made me sovereign, "My destiny is over passed;

"That never hereafter shall be lassed 4

"My beauty, which that I now have,
"Till I betake into my grave.
"Both night and day, as I am now,

"I shall be alway such to you.

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"The kinges daughter of Sicile
"I am, and fell but sith a while,
"As I was with my father late,
"That my step-mother, for a hate
"Which toward me she hath begun,

2

"For-shope me, till I had won
"The love, and the sovereignty,
"Of what knight that in his degree
"All other passeth of good name:
"And, as men sayn, ye be the same,
"The deed proveth it is so.

"Thus am I yours for evermo."

Tho was pleasance and joy enough; Each one with other play'd and lough ; 3 They lived long, and well they fared, And clerkés, that this chance heard, They written it in evidence,

To teach, how that obedience

May well fortune a man to love,

And set him in his lust above.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Reign of Edward III. continued.-Geoffrey

Chaucer.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER has had many biographers; but the authentic documents respecting his life are so few, that his last editor, Mr. Tyrwhitt, to whom this great poet will be principally indebted for the rational admiration of posterity, has contented himself with a bare recital of the following genuine anecdotes, instead of attempting to work them into a connected narrative, in which much must have been supplied by mere conjecture, or by a forced interpretation of the allusions, scattered through the works of the poet,

The original inscription on his tombstone is said to have proved that he died in 1400, aged 72, so that he was born in 1328; and he has himself told us that his birth-place was London. Of his family we know absolutely nothing. From a passage in his Court of Love, where he calls himself" Philo

genet of Cambridge, clerk," it may be inferred, that he was educated in that university; and it is presumed that he was afterwards entered at the

Inner Temple, because the records of that court are said to state, that he was fined two shillings for beating a Franciscan friar in Fleet-street.

By what means, or at what period, he first recommended himself to his patron, John of Gaunt, whose persevering kindness seems to have accompanied him through life, is not known; but the mysterious descriptions in his "Dream," are con sidered as evidence that he enjoyed the confidence and familiarity of that prince during his courtship of Blanche, the heiress of the house of Lancaster, whom he married in 1359; and it was probably to their recommendation, that our poet owed his introduction into the royal household, in which we find him established in the year 1367.

In this year (the 41st of Edward III.) a patent occurs by which the king grants to Chaucer an annuity of twenty marks, by the title of Valettus noster; an office which, by whatever name we translate it, might be held even by persons of the highest rank, because the only science then in request among the nobility, was that of etiquette, the knowledge of which was acquired, together with the habits of chivalry, by passing in gradation through the several menial offices about the court. Chaucer was at this time thirty-nine years of age, and did not acquire the rank of scutifer, or esquire, till five years

afterwards. By this new title he was appointed, with two others, King's envoy to Genoa, and it was perhaps on this occasion that he made acquaintance with Petrarch, whom he professes to have seen at Padua.

The object of this mission is not mentioned, but it may be supposed to have related to some pecuniary or commercial negotiation; and it may be farther presumed, that Chaucer acquitted himself much to the king's satisfaction, because, from this time, we find him distinguished by repeated marks of royal favour. In 1374, he obtained a grant for life, of a pitcher of wine daily; and was appointed to the office of comptroller of the customs of wool, &c. in the port of London. In the next year the king granted him the wardship of Sir Edmond. Staplegate's heir, for which he received £104.; and the year following, some forfeited wool to the value of £71. 4s. 6d: and in the last year of this reign he was sent to France, with Sir Guichard D'Angle, and Richard Stan or Sturry, to treat of a marriage between Richard, then prince of Wales, and a daughter of the French king.

Chaucer frequently alludes to a period of his life, at which he was possessed of considerable opulence, and it will appear, by a review of the several grants just mentioned, that he had great reason to be

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