Poete hault, loenge destruye,
En ton jardin ne seroye qu'ortie:
Consideré ce que j'ay dit premier
Ton noble plant, ta douce mélodie,
Mais pour sçavoir, de rescripre te prie,
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.'
Gower alludes to Chaucer in the first edition of the Confessio Amantis; see
the passage discussed in vol. iii. p. 414.
Henry Scogan wrote 'a moral balade' in twenty-one 8-line stanzas, in which
he not only refers to Chaucer's poetical skill, but quotes the whole of his
Balade on Gentilesse; see vol. i. p. 83.
Hoccleve frequently refers to Chaucer as his 'maister,' i. e. his teacher,
with great affection; and, if he learnt but little more, he certainly
learnt the true method of scansion of his master's lines, and imitates his
metres and rimes with great exactness. The passages relating to Chaucer are
as follows[179].
(1) From the Governail of Princes, or De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, p.
67, st. 267):--
'Thou were acqueynted with Chaucer, pardee--
God save his soule--best of any wight.'
(2) From the same, p. 75, stanzas 280, 281-283, 297-299, 301:--
'But weylawey! so is myn herte wo
That the honour of English tonge is deed,
Of which I wont was han conseil and reed.
O maister dere and fader reverent,
My maister Chaucer, flour of eloquence,
Mirour of fructuous entendement,
O universel fader in science,
Allas! that thou thyn excellent prudence
In thy bed mortel mightest not bequethe!
What eyled Deeth? Allas! why wolde he slee thee?
O Deeth! thou didest not harm singuler
In slaghtre of him, but al this land it smerteth!
But nathelees, yit hast thou no powèr
His name slee; his hy vertu asterteth
Unslayn fro thee, which ay us lyfly herteth
With bokes of his ornat endyting,
That is to al this land enlumining....
My dere maister--God his soule quyte--
and fader, Chaucer, fayn wolde han me taught;
But I was dul, and lernede right naught[180].
Allas! my worthy maister honorable,
This landes verray tresor and richesse!
Deeth, by thy deeth, hath harm irreparable
Unto us doon; hir vengeable duresse
Despoiled hath this land of the swetnesse
Of rethoryk; for unto[181] Tullius
Was never man so lyk amonges us.
Also who was heyr[182] in philosophye
To Aristotle, in our tonge, but thou?
The steppes of Virgyle in poesye
Thou folwedest eek, men wot wel y-now.
That combre-world, that thee (my maister) slow--
Wolde I slayn werë--Deeth, was to hastyf
To renne on thee, and reve thee thy lyf....
She mighte han taried hir vengeance a whyle
Til that som man had egal to thee be;
Nay, lat be that! she knew wel that this yle
May never man forth bringe lyk to thee,
And hir offyce nedes do mot she:
God bad hir so, I truste as for the beste;
O maister, maister, God thy soule reste!
(3) From the same, p. 179, stanzas 712-4:--
The firste finder of our fair langage
Hath seyd in caas semblable, and othere mo,
So hyly wel, that it is my dotage
For to expresse or touche any of tho.
Allas! my fader fro the worlde is go,
My worthy maister Chaucer, him I mene:
Be thou advóket for him, hevenes quene?
As thou wel knowest, O blessèd virgyne,
With loving herte and hy devocioun
In thyn honour he wroot ful many a lyne.
O, now thy help and thy promocioun!
To God, thy Sonë, mak a mocioun
How he thy servaunt was, mayden Marië,
And lat his lovë floure and fructifyë.
Al-thogh his lyf be queynt, the résemblaunce
Of him hath in me so fresh lyflinesse
That, to putte othere men in rémembraunce
Of his persone, I have heer his lyknesse
Do makë, to this ende, in sothfastnesse,
That they, that have of him lest thought and minde,
By this peynturë may ageyn him finde.'
Here is given, in the margin of the MS., the famous portrait of Chaucer
which is believed to be the best, and probably the only one that can be
accepted as authentic. A copy of it is prefixed to the present volume, and
to Furnivall's Trial-Forewords, Chaucer Soc., 1871; and an enlarged copy
accompanies the Life-Records of Chaucer, part 2. It is thus described by
Sir H. Nicolas:--'The figure, which is half-length, has a back-ground of
green tapestry. He is represented with grey hair and beard, which is
biforked; he wears a dark-coloured dress and hood; his right hand is
extended, and in his left he holds a string of beads. From his vest a black
case is suspended, which appears to contain a knife, or possibly a
'penner,' or pen-case[183]. The expression of the countenance is
intelligent; but the fire of the eye seems quenched, and evident marks of
advanced age appear on the countenance.' Hoccleve did not paint this
portrait himself, as is often erroneously said; he 'leet do make it,' i. e.
had it made. It thus became the business of the scribe, and the portraits
in different copies of Hoccleve's works vary accordingly. There is a
full-length portrait in MS. Reg. 17 D. vi, marked as 'Chaucers ymage'; and
another in a MS. copy once in the possession of Mr. Tyson, which was
engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792, vol. lxii. p. 614; perhaps
the latter is the copy which is now MS. Phillipps 1099. A representation of
Chaucer on horseback, as one of the pilgrims, occurs in the Ellesmere MS.;
an engraving of it appears as a frontispiece to Todd's Illustrations of
Chaucer. A small full-length picture of Chaucer occurs in the initial
letter of the Canterbury Tales, in MS. Lansdowne 851. Other portraits, such
as that in MS. Addit. (or Sloane) 5141, the painting upon wood in the
Bodleian Library, and the like, are of much later date, and cannot pretend
to any authenticity.
Lydgate has frequent references to his 'maister Chaucer.' The most
important is that in the Prologue to his Fall of Princes, which begins
thus:--
'My maister Chaucer, with his fresh comédies,
Is deed, allas! cheef poete of Bretayne,
That somtym made ful pitous tragédies;
The "fall of princes" he dide also compleyne,
As he that was of making soverayne,
Whom al this land of right[e] ought preferre,
Sith of our langage he was the loodsterre.'
The 'fall of princes' refers to the Monkes Tale, as explained in vol. iii.
p. 431. He next refers to 'Troilus' as being a translation of a book 'which
called is Trophe' (see vol. ii. p. liv.); and to the Translation of
Boethius and the Treatise of the Astrolabe. He then mentions many of the
Minor Poems (in the stanzas quoted below, p. 23), the Legend of Good Women
(see vol. iii. p. xx.), and the Canterbury Tales; and concludes thus:--
'This sayd poete, my maister, in his dayes
Made and composed ful many a fresh ditee,
Complaintes, balades, roundels, virelayes,
Ful delectable to heren and to see;
For which men shulde, of right and equitee,
Sith he of English in making was the beste,
Praye unto God to yeve his soule reste.'