In his distress, he determined to send in a petition to the king. A copy of
this, in French, is still preserved. On Oct. 13, 1398, he prayed to be
allowed a hogshead of wine (tonel de vin), to be given him by the king's
butler[153]; he even asked this favour 'for God's sake and as a work of
charity' (pur Dieu et en oeure de charitee). It is satisfactory to find
that his request met with a prompt response; for only two days afterwards,
on Oct. 15, the king made him a grant of a tun of wine annually for life,
from the king's butler or his deputy; Sir H. Nicolas computes the value of
this grant at about 5l. a year. Moreover, the grant was made to date as
from Dec. 1, 1397; so that he necessarily received from it some immediate
benefit[154]. He also received from the exchequer, with his own hands, the
sum of 10l. on Oct. 28[155].
§ 38. 1399. In 1399, the great change in political affairs practically
brought his distress to an end; and it is pleasant to think that, as far as
money matters were concerned, he ended his days in comparative ease. Henry
of Lancaster was declared king on Sept. 30; and Chaucer lost no time in
laying his case before him. This he did by sending in a copy of his
'Compleint to his Empty Purse,' a poem which seems to have been originally
written on some other occasion. He added to it, however, an Envoy of five
lines, which, like a postscript to some letters, contained the pith of the
matter:--
'O conquerour of Brutes Albioun,
Which that by lyne and free eleccioun
Ben verray king, this song to you I sende;
And ye, that mowen al our harm amende,
Have mind upon my supplicacioun!'
The king was prompt to reply; it must have given him real satisfaction to
be able to assist the old poet, with whom he must have been on familiar
terms. On Oct. 3, only the fourth day after the king's accession, the
answer came. He was to receive 40 marks yearly (26l. 13s. 4d.), in addition
to the annuity of 20l. which king Richard had granted him; so that his
income was more than doubled. Even then, he met with a slight misfortune,
in losing his letters patent; but, having made oath in Chancery, that the
letters patent of Feb. 28, 1394 (referring to king Richard's grant of
20l.), and the new letters patent of Oct. 3, 1399, had been accidentally
lost, he procured, on Oct. 13, exemplifications of these records[156].
These grants were finally confirmed by the king on Oct. 21[157].
On Christmas eve, 1399, he covenanted for a lease of 53 years (a long term
for one at his age to contemplate) of a house situate in the garden of the
Chapel of St. Mary, Westminster, near Westminster Abbey, at the annual rent
of 2l. 13s. 4d. This lease, from the Custos Capellae Beatae Mariae to
Geoffrey Chaucer, dated Dec. 24, 1399, is in the Muniment Room of
Westminster Abbey. The house stood on or near the spot now occupied by
Henry the Seventh's Chapel[158]. We find, however, that he had only a
life-interest in the lease, as the premises were to revert to the Custos
Capellae if the tenant died within the term.
§ 39. 1400. In 1400, payments to him are recorded on Feb. 21, of the
pension of 20l. granted by king Richard[159], in respect of the half-year
ending at Michaelmas, 1399; and on June 5, the sum of 5l., being part of a
sum of 8l. 13s. 5d. due for a portion of the next half-year, calculated as
commencing on Oct. 21, 1399, and terminating on the last day of March,
1400, was sent him by the hands of Henry Somere[160].
We should notice that this Henry Somere was, at the time, the Clerk of the
Receipt of the Exchequer; he was afterwards Under Treasurer, at which time
Hoccleve addressed to him a Balade, printed in Furnivall's edition of
Hoccleve's Works, at p. 59, followed by a Roundel containing a pun upon his
name; as well as a second Balade, addressed to him after he had been made a
Baron, and promoted to be Chancellor (see the same, p. 64). Perhaps he was
related to John Somere, the Frere, mentioned in the Treatise on the
Astrolabe (Prol. 62).
Chaucer died on Oct. 25, 1400, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The
date of his death is only known from an inscription on the tomb of gray
marble erected near his grave, in 1556, by Nicholas Brigham, a man of
letters, and an admirer of the poet's writings; but it is probably correct,
and may have rested on tradition[161]. We have no note of him after June 5,
and no record of a payment of the pension in October. According to Stowe,
Chaucer's grave is in the cloister, where also lies the body of 'Henrie
Scogan, a learned poet,' i. e. the Scogan who was Chaucer's friend.
§ 40. CHAUCER'S ARMS AND TOMB. 'In front of the tomb,' says Sir. H.
Nicolas, 'are three panelled divisions of starred quarterfoils (_sic_),
containing shields with the Arms of Chaucer, viz. Per pale argent and
gules, a bend counterchanged; and the same Arms also occur in an oblong
compartment at the back of the recess, where the following inscription was
placed, but which is now almost obliterated, from the partial decomposition
and crumbling state of the marble. A small whole-length portrait of Chaucer
was delineated _in plano_ on the north side of the inscription, but not a
vestige of it is left; and the whole of the recess and canopy has recently
been coloured black.
M.S.
Qui fuit Anglorum Vates ter maximus olim,
Galfridus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo:
Annum si quaeras domini, si tempora vitae,
Ecce notae subsunt, quae tibi cuncta notant.
25 Octobris 1400.
Ærumnarum requies mors.
N. Brigham hos fecit musarum nomine sumptus
1556.