Chaucer And His England

PREFACE. NO book of this size can pretend to treat exhaustively of all that concerns Chaucer and his England but the Authors main aim has been to supply an informal historical commentary on the poets works. He has not hesitated, in a book intended for the general public, to modernize Chaucers spelling, or even on rare occasions to change a word. His best acknowledgments are due to those who have laboured so fruitfully during the last fifty years in publishing Chaucerian and other original documents of the later Middle Ages more especially to Dr. F. J. Furnivall, the indefatigable founder of the Chaucer Society and the Early English Text Society to Professor W. W. Skeat, whose ungrudging generosity in private help is necessarily known only to a small percentage of those who have been aided by his printed works to Dr. R R, Sharpe, archivist of the London Guildha11 to Prebendary F. C, Hingeston-Randolph and other editors of Episcopal Registers to Messrs. W. Hudson and Walter Rye for their contributions to Norfolk history and to Mr. V. B, Redstones researches in Chaucerian genealogy. His proofs have enjoyed the great advantage of revision by Dr. Furnivall, who has made many valuabIe suggestions and corrections, but who is in no way responsible for other possible errors or omissions. The many debts to other writers are, it is hoped, duly acknowledged in their places but the Author must here confess himself specially be holden to the writings of M. Jusserand, whose rare vi CHAUCER AND HIS ENGLAND sympathy and insight are combined with an equal charm of exposition. He has also to thank Dr. F. J. Furnivall, Messrs. E. Kelsey and H. R. Browne of Eastbourne, and the Librarian of Uppingham School, for kind permission to reproduce seven of the illustrations also the Editor of the Home and Counties Magazine for similar courtesy with regard to the plan of Chaucers Aldgate included in a 16th-century survey published for the first time in that magazine vol. i. p. 50. CONTENTS PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . PREFACE V CHAPTER I . . . ENGLAND IN EMBRYO . . . . . . . . . I CHAPTER I1 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH . . . . . . . . . I 2 CHAPTER I11 THE KINGS SQUIRE . . . . . . . . . . 25 CHAPTER IV THE AMBASSADOR . . . . . . . . . . 36 CHAPTER V . . . . . . . . . THEMANOFBUSINESS 51 CHAPTER V1 . . . . . . . . . . . . LAST DAYS. 64 CHAPTER V11 . . . . . . . . . LONDON CUSTOM-HOUSE 76 CHAPTER V111 ALDGATE TOWER . . . 93 viii CHAUCER AND HIS ENGLAND CHAPTER IX PACE CHAPTER X . . . . . . . . . THE LAWS OF LONDON I 19 CHAPTER XI . CANTERBURY TALES-THE DRAMATIS PERSON, . . 137 CHAPTER XI1 CANTERBURY TALES-FIRST AND SECOND DAYS . . . 15 I CHAPTER XI11 CANTERBURY TALES-THIRD AND FOURTH DAYS . . . 16 0 CHAPTER XIV KING AND QUEEN . . . . . . . . . . 173 CHAPTER XV 1--. KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES . . . . . . . . 1 8 8 CHAPTER XVI HUSBANDSATTHECHURCHDOOR. . . 202 CHAPTER XVII THEGAYSCIENCE m . ...