The legacy which Chaucer left to our literature was to fructify in the
hands of a long succession of heirs; and it may be said, with little
fear of contradiction, that at no time has his fame been fresher and
his influence upon our poets--and upon our painters as well as our
poets--more perceptible than at the present day. When Gower first put
forth his "Confessio Amantis," we may assume that Chaucer's poetical
labours, of the fame of which his brother-poet declared the land to be
full, had not yet been crowned by his last and greatest work. As a
poet, therefore, Gower in one sense owes less to Chaucer than did many
of their successors; though, on the other hand it may be said with
truth that to Chaucer is due the fact, that Gower (whose earlier
productions were in French and in Latin) ever became a poet at all.
The "Confessio Amantis" is no book for all times like the "Canterbury
Tales"; but the conjoined names of Chaucer and Gower added strength to
one another in the eyes of the generations ensuing, little anxious as
these generations were to distinguish which of the pair was really the
first to it "garnish our English rude" with the flowers of a new poetic
diction and art of verse.
The Lancaster period of our history had its days of national glory as
well as of national humiliation, and indisputably, as a whole, advanced
the growth of the nation towards political manhood. But it brought
with it no golden summer to fulfil the promises of the spring-tide of
our modern poetical literature. The two poets whose names stand forth
from the barren after-season of the earlier half of the fifteenth
century, were, both of them, according to their own profession,
disciples of Chaucer. In truth, however, Occleve, the only name-worthy
poetical writer of the reign of Henry IV, seems to have been less akin
as an author to Chaucer than to Gower, while his principal poem
manifestly was, in an even greater degree than the "Confessio Amantis,"
a severely learned or, as its author terms it, unbuxom book. Lydgate,
on the other hand, the famous monk of Bury, has in him something of the
spirit as well as of the manner of Chaucer, under whose advice he is
said to have composed one of his principal poems. Though a monk, he was
no stay-at-home or do-nothing; like him of the "Canterbury Tales," we
may suppose Lydgate to have scorned the maxim that a monk out of his
cloister is like a fish out of water; and doubtless many days which he
could spare from the instruction of youth at St. Edmund's Bury were
spent about the London streets, of the sights and sounds of which he
has left us so vivacious a record--a kind of farcical supplement to the
"Prologue" of the "Canterbury Tales." His literary career, part of
which certainly belongs to the reign of Henry V, has some resemblance
to Chaucer's, though it is less regular and less consistent with
itself; and several of his poems bear more or less distinct traces of
Chaucer's influence. The "Troy-book" is not founded on "Troilus and
Cressid," though it is derived from the sources which had fed the
original of Chaucer's poem; but the "Temple of Glass" seems to have
been an imitation of the "House of Fame"; and the "Story of Thebes" is
actually introduced by its author as an additional "Canterbury Tale,"
and challenges comparison with the rest of the series into which it
asks admittance. Both Occleve and Lydgate enjoyed the patronage of a
prince of genius descended from the House, with whose founder Chaucer
was so closely connected--Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Meanwhile, the
sovereign of a neighbouring kingdom was in all probability himself the
agent who established the influence of Chaucer as predominant in the
literature of his native land. The long though honourable captivity in
England of King James I of Scotland--the best poet among kings and the
best king among poets, as he has been antithetically called--was
consoled by the study of the "hymns" of his "dear masters, Chaucer and
Gower," for the happiness of whose souls he prays at the close of his
poem, "The King's Quair." That most charming of love-allegories, in
which the Scottish king sings the story of his captivity and of his
deliverance by the sweet messenger of love, not only closely imitates
Chaucer in detail, more especially at its opening, but is pervaded by
his spirit. Many subsequent Scottish poets imitated Chaucer, and some
of them loyally acknowledged their debts to him. Gawin Douglas in his
"Palace of Honour," and Henryson in his "Testament of Cressid" and
elsewhere, are followers of the southern master. The wise and brave
Sir David Lyndsay was familiar with his writings; and he was not only
occasionally imitated, but praised with enthusiastic eloquence by
William Dunbar, that "darling of the Scottish Muses," whose poetical
merits Sir Walter Scott, from some points of view, can hardly be said
to have exaggerated, when declaring him to have been "justly raised to
a level with Chaucer by every judge of poetry, to whom his obsolete
language has not rendered him unintelligble." Dunbar knew that this
Scottish language was but a form of that which, as he declared, Chaucer
had made to "surmount every terrestrial tongue, as far as midnight is
surmounted by a May morning."
Meanwhile, in England, the influence of Chaucer continued to live even
during the dreary interval which separates from one another two
important epochs of our literary history. Now, as in the days of the
Norman kings, ballads orally transmitted were the people's poetry; and
one of these popular ballads carried the story of "Patient Grissel"
into regions where Chaucer's name was probably unknown. When, after
the close of the troubled season of the Roses, our Poetic literature
showed the first signs of a revival, they consisted in a return to the
old masters of the fourteenth century. The poetry of Hawes, the
learned author of the crabbed "Pastime of Pleasure," exhibits an
undeniable continuity with that of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, to
which triad he devotes a chapter of panegyric. Hawes, however, presses
into the service of his allegory not only all the Virtues and all the
Vices, whom from habit we can tolerate in such productions, but also
Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic, and the rest of the seven Daughters of
Doctrine, whom we CANNOT; and is altogether inferior to the least of
his models. It is at the same time to his credit that he seems
painfully aware of his inability to cope with either Chaucer or Lydgate
as to vigour of invention. There is in truth, more of the dramatic
spirit of Chaucer in Barklay's "Ship of Fools," which, though
essentially a translation, achieved in England the popularity of an
original work. For this poem, like the "Canterbury Tales," introduces
into its admirable framework a variety of lifelike sketches of
character and manners; it has in it that dramatic element which is so
Chaucerian a characteristic. But the aim of its author was didactic,
which Chaucer's had never been.
When with the poems of Surrey and Wyatt, and with the first attempts in
the direction of the regular drama, the opening of the second great age
in our literature approached, and when, about half a century
afterwards, that age actually opened with an unequalled burst of varied
productivity, it would seem as if Chaucer's influence might naturally
enough have passed away, or at least become obscured. Such was not,
however, the case, and Chaucer survived into the age of the English
Renascence as an established English classic, in which capacity Caxton
had honoured him by twice issuing an edition of his works from the
Westminster printing-press. Henry VIII's favourite, the reckless but
pithy satirist, Skelton, was alive to the merits of his great
predecessor, and Skelton's patron, William Thynne, a royal official,
busied himself with editing Chaucer's works. The loyal servant of
Queen Mary, the wise and witty John Heywood, from whose "Interludes"
the step is so short to the first regular English comedy, in one of
these pieces freely plagiarised a passage in the "Canterbury Tales."
Tottel, the printer of the favourite poetic "Miscellany" published
shortly before Queen Elizabeth's accession, included in his collection
the beautiful lines, cited above, called "Good Counsel of Chaucer."
And when, at last, the Elizabethan era properly so-called began, the
proof was speedily given that geniuses worthy of holding fellowship
with Chaucer had assimilated into their own literary growth what was
congruous to it in his, just as he had assimilated to himself--not
always improving, but hardly ever merely borrowing or taking over--much
that he had found in the French trouveres, and in Italian poetry and
prose. The first work which can be included in the great period of
Elizabethan literature is the "Shepherd's Calendar," where Spenser is
still in a partly imitative stage; and it is Chaucer whom he imitates
and extols in his poem, and whom his alter ego, the mysterious "E.K.,"
extols in preface and notes. The longest of the passages in which
reference is made by Spenser to Chaucer, under the pseudonym of
Tityrus, is more especially noteworthy, both as showing the veneration
of the younger for the older poet, and as testifying to the growing
popularity of Chaucer at the time when Spenser wrote.
The same great poet's debt to his revered predecessor in the
"Daphnaida" has been already mentioned. The "Fairy Queen" is the
masterpiece of an original mind, and its supreme poetic quality is a
lofty magnificence upon the whole foreign to Chaucer's genius; but
Spenser owed something more than his archaic forms to "Tityrus," with
whose style he had erst disclaimed all ambition to match his pastoral
pipe. In a well-known passage of his great epos he declares that it is
through sweet infusion of the older poet's own spirit that he, the
younger, follows the footing of his feet, in order so the rather to
meet with his meaning. It was this, the romantic spirit proper, which
Spenser sought to catch from Chaucer, but which, like all those who
consciously seek after it, he transmuted into a new quality and a new
power. With Spenser the change was into something mightier and
loftier. He would, we cannot doubt, readily have echoed the judgment
of his friend and brother-poet concerning Chaucer. "I know not,"
writes Sir Philip Sidney, "whether to marvel more, either that he in
that misty time could see so clearly, or that we, in this clear age,
walk so stumblingly after him. Yet had he," adds Sidney with the
generosity of a true critic, who is not lost in wonder at his own
cleverness in discovering defects, "great wants, fit to be forgiven in
so reverent an antiquity." And yet a third Elizabethan, Michael
Drayton, pure of tone and high of purpose, joins his voice to those of
Spenser and Sidney, hailing in the "noble Chaucer"
--the first of those that ever brake
Into the Muses' treasure and first spake
In weighty numbers,
and placing Gower, with a degree of judgment not reached by his and
Chaucer's immediate successors, in his proper relation of poetic rank
to his younger but greater contemporary.
To these names should be added that of George Puttenham--if he was
indeed the author of the grave and elaborate treatise, dedicated to
Lord Burghley, on "The Art of English Poesy." In this work mention is
repeatedly made of Chaucer, "father of our English poets;" and his
learning, and "the natural of his pleasant wit," are alike judiciously
commanded. One of Puttenham's best qualities as a critic is that he
never speaks without his book; and he comes very near to discovering
Chaucer's greatest gift when noticing his excellence in
"prosopographia," a term which to Chaucer would perhaps have seemed to
require translation. At the obsoleteness of Chaucer's own diction this
critic, who writes entirely "for the better brought-up sort," is
obliged to shake his learned head.
Enough has been said in the preceding pages to support the opinion that
among the wants which fell to the lot of Chaucer as a poet, perhaps the
greatest (though Sidney would never have allowed this), was the want of
poetic form most in harmony with his most characteristic gifts. The
influence of Chaucer upon the dramatists of the Elizabethan age was
probably rather indirect and general than direct and personal; but
indications or illustrations of it may be traced in a considerable
number of these writers, including perhaps among the earliest Richard
Edwards as the author of a non-extant tragedy, "Palamon and Arcite,"
and among the latest the author--or authors--of "The Two Noble
Kinsmen." Besides Fletcher and Shakspere, Greene, Nash and Middleton,
and more especially Jonson (as both poet and grammarian), were
acquainted with Chaucer's writings; so that it is perhaps rather a
proof of the widespread popularity of the "Canterbury Tales" than the
reverse, that they were not largely resorted to for materials by the
Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists. Under Charles I "Troilus and
Cressid" found a translator in Sir Francis Kynaston, whom Cartwright
congratulated on having made it possible "that we read Chaucer now
without a dictionary." A personage however, in Cartwright's best known
play, the Antiquary Moth, prefers to talk on his own account "genuine"
Chaucerian English.
To pursue the further traces of the influence of Chaucer through such a
literary aftergrowth as the younger Fletchers, into the early poems of
Milton, would be beyond the purpose of the present essay. In the
treasure-house of that great poet's mind were gathered memories and
associations innumerable, though the sublimest flights of his genius
soared aloft into regions whither the imagination of none of our
earlier poets had preceded them. On the other hand, the days have
passed for attention to be spared for the treatment experienced by
Chaucer in the Augustan Age, to which he was a barbarian only to be
tolerated if put into the court-dress of the final period of
civilisation. Still, even thus, he was not left altogether unread; nor
was he in all cases adapted without a certain measure of success. The
irrepressible vigour, and the frequent felicity, of Dryden's "Fables"
contrast advantageously with the tame evenness of the "Temple of Fame,"
an early effort by Pope, who had wit enough to imitate in a juvenile
parody some of the grossest peculiarities of Chaucer's manner, but who
would have been quite ashamed to reproduce him in a serious literary
performance, without the inevitable polish and cadence of his own style
of verse. Later modernisations--even of those which a band of poets in
some instances singularly qualified for the task put forth in a
collection published in the year 1841, and which, on the part of some
of them at least, was the result of conscientious endeavour--it is
needless to characterise here. Slight incidental use has been made of
some of these in this essay, the author of which would gladly have
abstained from printing a single modernised phrase or word--most of all
any which he has himself been guilty of re-casting. The time cannot be
far distant when even the least unsuccessful of such attempts will no
longer be accepted, because no such attempts whatever will be any
longer required. No Englishman or Englishwoman need go through a very
long or very laborious apprenticeship in order to become able to read,
understand, and enjoy what Chaucer himself wrote. But if this
apprenticeship be too hard, then some sort of makeshift must be
accepted, or antiquity must remain the "canker-worm" even of a great
national poet, as Spenser said it had already in his day proved to be
of Chaucer.
Meanwhile, since our poetic literature has long thrown off the shackles
which forced it to adhere to one particular group of models, he is not
a true English poet who should remain uninfluenced by any of the really
great among his predecessors. If Chaucer has again, in a special
sense, become the "master dear and father reverent" of some of our
living poets, in a wider sense he must hold this relation to them all
and to all their successors, so long as he continues to be known and
understood. As it is, there are few worthies of our literature whose
names seem to awaken throughout the English-speaking world a readier
sentiment of familiar regard; and in New England, where the earliest
great poet of Old England is cherished not less warmly than among
ourselves, a kindly cunning had thus limned his likeness:--
An old man in a lodge within a park;
The chamber walls depicted all around
With portraiture of huntsman, hawk and hound,
And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,
Whose song comes with the sunshine through the dark
Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound;
He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound,
Then writeth in a book like any clerk.
He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote
The Canterbury Tales, and his old age
Made beautiful with song; and as I read
I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note
Of lark and linnet, and from every page
Rise odours of ploughed field or flowery mead.
GLOSSARY.
Bencite = benedicite.
Clepe, call.
Deem, judge.
Despitous, angry to excess.
Digne, fit;--disdainful.
Frere, friar.
Gentle, well-born.
Keep, care.
Languor, grief.
Meinie, following, household.
Meet, mate (?), measure (?).
Overthwart, across.
Parage, rank, degree.
Press, crowd.
Rede, advise, counsel.
Reeve, steward, bailiff.
Ruth, pity.
Scall, scab.
Shapely, fit.
Sithe, time.
Spiced, nice, scrupulous.
Targe, target, shield.
Y prefix of past participle as in, y-bee = bee(n).
While, time; to quite his while, to reward his pains.
Wieldy, active.
Wone, custom, habit.
INDEX.
"A.B.C." ("La Priere de Notre Dame").
"Adam" (Chaucer's Scrivener).
"African."
Albert of Brescia.
"Alcestis."
"Alchemist" (Ben Jonson).
Aldgate.
Alfred, King.
Anne, Queen.
"Antiquary Moth" (Cartwright).
"Ariadne."
Aristophanes.
"Art of English Poesy" (Puttenham).
"Arviragus."
"Assembly of Fowls or Parliament of Birds."
Astrology.
Bailly, Master Harry. See "Host."
"Ballad of Sir Thopas."
"Ballad sent to King Richard."
Balle, John.
Balzac.
Barklay.
Benedictines.
Berkeley, Sir Edward.
Berners, Lady Juliana.
Bible, Chaucer's knowledge of.
Black Friars.
Black Prince.
Blake, William.
Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster.
Boccaccio.
Boethius.
Bohemia.
"Book of Consolation and Counsel" (Albert of Brescia).
"Book of the Duchess."
"Book of the Leo."
Brembre, Sir Nicholas.
Bretigny, Peace of.
Brigham, Nicholas.
"Bukton."
Burley, Sir John.
Burns, Robert.
Byron.
Cambridge.
"Canace."
"Canon Yeoman's Tale."
The "Canon's Yeoman."
"The Canon."
Canterbury.
Canterbury Pilgrims.
"Canterbury Tales," Chaucer's greatest work.
conjecture as to the composition of.
references to in Prologue to "Legend of Good Women."
characters in.
framework of.
what is Chaucer's obligation to Boccaccio.
popular style of.
language of.
sources of.
Chaucer's method of dealing with his originals.
the two prose tales.
reference to the condition of the poor.
woman in the.
supposed reference to Gower.
Lydgate's Supplements to.
vogue of the, with Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists.
"Carpenter."
Cartwright.
Caxton.
"Ceyx and Alcyone," the tale of.
Charles IV, Emperor.
Charles V, King of France.
Chaucer, Agnes (Chaucer's mother).
"Chaucer's Dream."
Chaucer, Geoffrey, difficulties as to his biography.
the date of his birth.
his name.
his ancestry.
conjecture as to his early years.
enters Prince Lionel's household.
accompanies the prince to France and is taken prisoner.
becomes valet of the chamber of King Edward.
his marriage.
translation of "Roman de la Rose."
promoted to the post of royal squire.
"Book of the Duchess."
missions abroad.
receives grant from the Crown of daily pitcher of wine.
appointed Comptroller of the Customs in the port of London.
permitted to execute the duties by deputy.
granted pension of ten pounds for life.
visits to the Continent.
appointed to the Comptrollership of the Petty Customs in London.
sits in Parliament.
"House of Fame" written.
"Troilus and Cressid."
"Assembly of Fowls."
translation of the "Consolation of Philosophy."
"Legend of Good Women."
loses his Comptrollerships.
appointed Clerk of King Richard's Works.
money difficulties.
death of his wife.
"On the Astrolabe."
his son.
robbed by highwaymen.
granted pension of twenty pounds by King Richard.
"Ballade sent to King Richard."
"Envoy to Scogan."
"Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse."
his pension doubled.
death.
the "Canterbury Tales" left unfinished.
Chaucer, characteristics of.
his personal appearance.
his modesty.
self-containedness.
contained faith.
his attitude to women.
his ideal of the true gentleman.
his opinion about drunkenness.
his reading.
French influences.
Italian influences.
language.
his love of nature.
his literary development.
his mediaevalism.
Chaucer's England, its population.
the Black Death.
London.
national spirit.
trade.
decline of the feudal system.
condition of the people.
the language.
chivalry.
extravagance in dress.
the "Church."
the clergy.
learning.
the life of the nation.
Chaucer's literary heirs.
Chaucer's poetry, its power to please.
music of his verse.
as a love poet.
his joyousness.
his humour.
as an interpreter of character.
his dramatic qualities.
his receptiveness.
Chaucer's times.
his feeling towards the lower classes.
his attitude to the Church.
as an interpreter of his age.
Chaucer, John (Chaucer's father).
Chaucer, Lewis (Chaucer's son).
Chaucer, Philippa (Chaucer's wife).
Chaucer, Richard le.
Chaucer, Thomas (Chaucer's supposed son).
Chettle.
Chivalry.
Clarence, Lionel Duke of.
Cleopatra.
"Clerk's Tale."
the "Clerk."
Colonna, Guido de.
"Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse."
"Complaint of Mars."
"Complaint of the Death of Pity."
"Complaint of the Ploughman."
"Complaint of Venus."
"Confessio Amantis" (Gower).
Congreve.
"Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius).
Constance, Duchess of Lancaster.
"Constance," the story of.
"Cook's Tale."
the "Cook."
Court of Love.
"Cressid."
"Cuckoo and the Nightingale."
Dante.
"Daphnaida" (Spenser).
Dartmouth.
"Decamerone" (Boccaccio).
Deschamps, Eustace.
Dickens.
Dido.
"Divine Comedy."
"Doctor of Physic."
Dominicans.
Don Quixote.
"Dorigen."
Doglas, Gawin.
Drama in the fourteenth century.
Drayton, Michael.
Dryden.
Dunbar.
"Dunciad."
"Dyer."
"E.K."
"Earthly Paradise" (William Morris).
Edward III.
Edwards, Richard.
Elizabethan drama.
English novel.
"Envoy to Bukton."
"Envoy to Scogan."
"Fables" (Dryden).
"Fairy Queen" (Spenser).
Filostrato (Boccaccio).
Flanders.
Fletcher.
Florence.
"Flower and the Leaf."
France and England.
Francis of Assisi.
Franciscans.
"Franklin's Tale."
the "Franklin."
French literary influences.
"Friar's Tale."
the "Friar."
Froissart.
Genoa.
German criticism.
Gerson.
Gisors, Henry.
Gloucester, Humphrey Duke of.
Gloucester, Thomas Duke of.
Goethe.
Goldsmith.
"Good Counsel of Chaucer."
Gower.
Great Schism.
Greene.
Grey Friars.
Grisseldis, The tale of.
Hallam.
Hatcham, Surrey.
Hawes.
Hawkwood, Sir John.
Henry III.
Henry IV.
Henry V.
Henryson.
Heptameron.
"Hero and Leander" (Marlowe).
Herrick.
Heyroom, Thomas.
Heywood, John.
Homer.
Horne, Mr. R.
"Host," the (Master Harry Bailly).
"House of Fame."
Hugh of Lincoln, legend of.
"Imitation of Christ."
Inner Temple.
Inquisition.
"Interludes" (Heywood).
Italian literary influence.
James I, King of Scotland.
Jason.
John, King of England.
John, King of Bohemia.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
John of Trevisa.
Jonson, Ben.
Katharine, Duchess of Lancaster.
Kent, county of.
"King's Quair, The."
"Knight's Tale."
the "Knight."
Kynaston, Sir Francis.
Lamb, Charles.
"Lamech."
Lancaster, House of.
Lancaster, Henry, Duke of.
Langland.
"Legend of Ariadne."
"Legend of Good Women."
"Legend of the Saints of Cupid."
Leland.
"Lieutenant Bardolph."
"Life of Saint Cecelia."
"Limitour."
Lollardry.
London.
Longfellow.
Lorris, Guillaume de.
"Love of Palamon and Arcite."
Lydgate.
Lyndsay, Sir David.
Machault.
Madame Eglantine. See "Prioress."
"Man of Law's Tale."
the "Man of Law."
"Manciple's Tale."
the "Manciple."
Marlowe.
Marot, Clement.
Mary Magdalene, homily on.
Medea.
Mendicant Orders.
"Merchant's Tale."
the "Merchant."
"Merry Wives of Windsor."
Metrical Romances of thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Meung, Jean de.
Middleton.
"Midsummer Night's Dream."
Milan.
"Miller's Tale."
the "Miller."
Milton.
Minorities.
Minot, Lawrence.
Miracle Plays.
Monastic Orders.
"Monk's Tale."
the "Monk."
"Mort d'Arthure."
Nash.
Nicholas, Sir Harris.
Norwich, Bishop of.
"Nun's Priest's Tale."
Occleve.
"On Perpetual Virginity" (St. Jerome).
"On the Astrolabe."
"Oratio Gallfridi Chaucer."
Ovid.
Oxford.
Padua.
"Palace of Honour" (Gawin Douglas).
"Palamon and Arcite."
tragedy by R. Edwards.
"Pandarus."
"Pardoner's Tale."
the "Pardoner."
Paris.
University of.
Parliament.
"Parson's Tale."
the "Parson."
"Pastime of Pleasure" (Hawes).
Patient Grissel.
"Patient Grissel" (play).
Peasant Insurrection.
Pedro, Don.
"Pentamerone."
"Perkyn Revellour."
Pestilences in fourteenth century.
Petrarch.
"Phantasus."
Philippa, Queen.
"Phillis."
Philpot, John.
"Ploughman."
Pole, William de la.
Pope.
"Praise of Women."
Prayer of Chaucer."
"Prioress" (Madame Eglantine).
"Prologue to the Canterbury Tales."
Puttenham, George.
"Queen Anelida and the false Arcite."
"Reeve's Tale."
the "Reeve."
Reformation, The.
Renascence.
"Rhyme of Sir Thopas."
Richard II.
Richardson.
Roet, Sir Paon de.
"Roman de la Rose."
"Romaunt of the Rose" (translation by Chaucer of "Roman de la Rose").
Rome, Church of.
Ronsard.
"Rosa Anglia."
Sainte-Maur, Benoit.
St. Jerome.
Salisbury, Countess of.
"Scipio."
Scogan, Henry.
Scottish heirs of Chaucer.
"Second Nun's Tale."
Seneca.
"Seven Wise Masters."
Shakspere.
"Shepherd's Calendar."
Sheridan.
"Ship of Fools."
"Shipman."
Sidney, Sir Philip.
"Sir Thomas Norray" (Dunbar).
Skelton.
Southern Road.
Speght.
Spenser.
"Squire's Tale."
the "Squire."
Statute of Provisors.
"Story of Thebes."
Strode, Ralph.
Sudbury, Archbishop.
Suffolk, Michael de la Pole, Earl of.
"Summoner."
Surrey.
Swynford, Sir Hugh.
Tabard Inn.
"Tale of Meliboeus."
"Tarquin."
"Temple of Fame" (Pope).
"Temple of Glass" (Lydgate).
"Teseide" (Boccaccio).
"Testament of Cressid" (Henryson).
"Thisbe."
Thynne, William.
Tieck, Ludwig.
"Tityrus."
Tombstone, Chaucer's.
"Tottel's Miscellany."
"Troilus and Cressid."
"Troy-book" (Lydgate).
"Tullius."
"Two Noble Kinsmen."
Tyrwhitt.
Ugolino, Story of.
Ulster, Elizabeth Countess of.
Universities.
Virgil.
Visconti, Bernardo.
"Vision concerning Piers Plowman."
"Vows of the Heron."
"Vox Clamantis" (Gower).
"Webbe."
Westminster.
"Wife of Bath's Tale."
the "Wife of Bath."
William of Wykeham.
"Words unto his own Scrivener."
Wordsworth.
Wyatt.
Wyclif.
Wycliffism: was Chaucer a Wycliffite?
Yerdely, Adam.