And as for men of later time, not onely that learned gentleman M. William Thynne, in his Epistle Dedicatorie to the Kings Maiestie, but also two of the purest and best writers of our daies: the one for Prose, the other for Verse, M. Ascham and M. Spenser, haue deliuered most worthy testimonies of their approouing of him. Master Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer, and makes no doubt to say, that hee valueth his authoritie of as high estimation, as euer he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greeke. And in another place, where he declareth his opinion of English versifying, he vseth these wordes: Chaucer and Petrarke, those two worthy wittes, deserue iust praise. And last of all, in his discourse of Germanie, hee putteth him nothing behind either Thucidides or Homer for his liuely descriptions of site of places, and nature of persons both in outward shape of bodie, and inward disposition of minde; adding this withall, That not the proudest, that hath written in any tongue whatsoeuer, in these pointes can carrie away the praise from him.

Master Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepheardes Kalender, calleth him Titirus, the god of Shepheards, comparing him to the worthinesse of the Romane Titirus Virgil. In his Faerie Queene in his discourse of friendship, as thinking himselfe most worthy to be Chaucers friend, for his like naturall disposition that Chaucer had, hee sheweth that none that liued with him, nor none that came after him, durst presume to reuiue Chaucers lost labours in that vnperfite tale of the Squire, but only himselfe: which he had not done, had he not felt (as he saith) the infusion of Chaucers owne sweete spirite, suruiuing within him. And a little before he termeth him, Most renowmed and Heroicall Poet: and his Writings, The workes of heauenly wit: concluding his commendation in this

manner:

Dan Chaucer, Well of English vndefiled,

On Fames eternal beadrole worthy to be filed.

I follow here the footing of thy feet,

That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet.

And once againe I must remember M. Camdens authority, who as it were reaching one hand to Maister Ascham, and the other to Maister Spenser, and so drawing them togither vttereth of him these words. De Homero nostro Anglico illud verè asseram, quod de Homero eruditus ille Italus dixit:

... Hic ille est, cuius de gurgite sacro

Combibit arcanos vatum omnis turba furores.

And that wee may conclude his praises with the testimony of the most worthiest Gentleman that the Court hath afforded of many yeares: Sir Philip Sidney in his Apologie for Poetry saith thus of him. Chaucer vndoubtedly did excellently in his Troylus and Creseid; of whom truly I know not, whether to meruaile more,

either that he in that mistie time, could see so clearely, or that we in this cleare age walke so stumblingly after him. Seeing therefore that both old and new writers haue carried this reuerend conceit of our Poet, and openly delared the same by writing, let vs conclude with Horace in the eight Ode of his fourth booke:

Dignum laude virum musa vetat morì.

FINIS

In the 1602 revision of the Speght Chaucer, some minor changes are made in the life of the poet, viz.: The italicized paragraph under the diagrammatic shield of Chaucer's arms is altered, thus, "But this is but a simple coniecture. For honorable houses & of great antiquitie, haue borne as meane Armes as Chaucer: and yet his armes are not so meane, ether for Colour, Charge, or Partition as some would make them." Note that this change from the "geometrical" interpretation of the 1598 ed. was suggested by Thynne, see the Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p. 15. John and Elias Chaucer are mentioned; it is said that the name Chaucer is "one of Office or Occupation", and that "the Role of Battle Abbey affirmeth Chaucer to haue come in with the Conqueror."

Various slight alterations are made in the section on Chaucer's Children; that on Rewards is expanded; and under Friends, after the mention of the Lady Margaret, it is said that Chaucer "did specially honour her, as it may appeare in divers Treatises by him written: As in the Prologue of the Legend of good women vnder the name of the Daysie, and likewise in a Ballad, beginning, In the season of Feuerier."

Under Bookes, after the six Latin titles, "Others I haue seene without any Authours name, in the hands of M. Stow that painefull Antiquarie, which for the inuention" etc. And "M William Thynn in his first printed booke of Chaucers works with one Columbe on a side, had a Tale called the Pilgrims tale, which was more odious to the Clergie, than the speach of the Plowman. The tale began thus: In Lincolneshire fast by a fenne: Standeth a religious house who doth it kenne. The argument of which tale, as also the occasion thereof, and the cause why it was left out of Chaucers works, shall hereafter be shewed, if God permit, in M. Fran. Thyns coment vpon Chaucer: & the Tale it selfe published if possibly it can be found." In the section on Chaucer's death, after Brigham's epitaph is quoted, there is added: "About the ledge of whiche tombe were these verses, now cleane worne out.

Si rogites quis eram, forsan te fama docebit.

Quod si fama negat, mundi quia gloria transit,
Haec monumenta lege."

When the seven-line stanza is cited, between the two extracts from Lydgate, the "called Little Iohn" is cut out. A citation from Gawain Douglas is added to the commendatory extracts, before Surigon's epitaph. In the mention of the men of later time who have praised Chaucer, the allusion to Thynne is expanded, "whose iudgement we are the rather to approue, for that he had further insight into him than many others."

Winstanley. Englands Worthies. The Liues of the Most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to Oliuer Cromwell Late Protector, (etc.) London 1660. By William Winstanley, Gent. -47 Lives in all, almost entirely those of kings or of men of political import. Chaucer's is the 12th Life, pp. 91-98. Merely a condensed reproduction of Speght.

Phillips. Theatrum Poetarum, or a Compleat Collection of the Poets, especially the most Eminent, of all Ages, etc. By Edward Phillips. London 1674.

With a preface on poetry. The Ancient Poets fill pp. 1-192; the Modern Poets 1-196. A supplement extends from 197 to 234, Ancient Poetesses from 235 to 252, Modern Poetesses 253-261. Chaucer is found pp. 50-51. Phillips says: "Sir Geoffry Chaucer, the Prince and Coryphaeus, generally so reputed, till this Age, of our English Poets, and as much as we triumph over his old fashion'd phrase, and obsolete words, one of the first refiners of the English Language, of how great Esteem he was in the Age wherein he flourish'd, namely the Reigns of Henry the 4th, Henry the 5th, and part of Henry the 6th, appears, besides his being Knight and Poet Laureat, by the Honour he had to be allyed by Marriage to the great Earl of Lancaster John of Gaunt: How great a part we have lost of his Works above what we have Extant of him is manifest from an Author of good Credit, who reckons up many considerable Poems, which are not in his publisht Works; besides the Squires Tale, which is said to be compleat in Arundelhouse Library."

Winstanley. The Lives of the most Famous English Poets, or the Honour of Parnassus . . . . from the Time of K. William the Conqueror to the Reign of his Present Majesty King James II. (etc. etc.) By William Winstanley. London 1687.

Chaucer, pp. 23-32; slightly enlarged from the previous Life by the same author. A paragraph on editions is added, and Phillips' remark about the Squire's Tale is repeated. To the statement that Brigham erected the tomb of Chaucer is added the fact that he buried his four-year old daughter near the grave on June 21, 1557,-which fact Winstanley probably took from Camden's Reges. Under the discussion of Lydgate Winstanley says that Chaucer wrote the Story of Thebes in Latin, and that Lydgate translated it into English verse; this he gets from Pits.

Blount. De Re Poetica: or, Remarks upon Poetry, with Characters and Censures of the most considerable Poets, whether Ancient or Modern. Extracted out of the Best and Choicest Criticks. By Sir Thomas Pope Blount. London 1694.

The first few paragraphs of the life of Chaucer are a compound of Winstanley and Phillips, except that Blount drops out the "evidence" as to Chaucer's London birth, and says that the conclusion of the Squire's Tale is not to be found. He then gives the "opinions" of Pits, Winstanley, Ascham, Sidney, Denham, citing a few lines of verse by Denham beginning "Old Chaucer, like the Morning Star", Savil (Preface to Bradwardine against Eligius), Sir Robert Baker, Camden, Sprat and Verstegan; the epitaph is then printed, p. 44.

Urry, in the Edition of Chaucer's Works, 1721. The Life of Chaucer for this edition was originally written by John Dart, but was revised and altered by William Thomas, whose brother Timothy had undertaken the completion of the work begun by Urry. See Tyrwhitt, Appendix to the Preface, note n; although the British Museum Catalogue credits "J. Thomas" with the life. See Dart's Westmonasterium for expression of his indignation at the alterations in his work. The groundwork of the biography is taken from preceding lives of Chaucer, and develops the stories of his college education, his complicity in John of Northampton's plot, etc.; but in spite of this large admixture of fiction, the Life contains much that is noteworthy and sensible. The Scrope-Grosvenor controversy, and Chaucer's testimony there, are first mentioned in this biography; a few of the non-Chaucerian poems of the black-letter editions are repudiated, and the tone of the whole is both sober and appreciative. Its statement, that the works of Chaucer were excepted from the 1546 Act of Parliament For the Advancement of True Religion, is endorsed by Furnivall, Ch. Soc. ed. of Thynne's Animadversions p. xiv footnote. The books specifically excluded from censure by this Act were

"Cronycles, Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's bokes, Gower's bokes and Stories of mennes lives." Although this Life is not so clearly an advance, in method and in thoughtfulness, over preceding work, as is the Preface by Timothy Thomas which appears in the same volume, it should be carefully sifted by students of the history of Chaucer-criticism.

Biographia Britannica: or, the Lives of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest Ages down to the present Times: Collected from the best Authorities, both printed and manuscript, and digested in the manner of Mr. Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary. Six vols., folio, London 1747-1763. Licensed 1744.

The life of Chaucer is in vol. ii, pp. 1293-1308, in English. Very extensive notes. Marginal references to Leland, Bale, Pits, Speght, Hearne, Urry, Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, Camden's Britannia, etc.

Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, (etc.) by Tanner, with Wilkins' preface, London, 1748, gives on pp. 166-170 the life of Chaucer in Latin, with extensive footnotes, one of which prints the table of contents of the 1602 Chaucer. Tanner says: "Quae de vita Chauceri notavi excerpta sunt ex Vita ejus per Thomam Speght operum edit. Lond. MDCII fol. praefixa.”

Bibliographia Poetica. A Catalogue of Engleish Poets of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centurys, with a Short Account of their Works. Joseph Ritson. London 1802.

The account of Chaucer, pp. 19-23, is mainly a list of works.

Godwin. Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Early English Poet: including Memoirs of his Near Friend and Kinsman, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster: with Sketches of the Manners, Opinions, Arts and Literature of England in the Fourteenth Century. By William Godwin, London, 1803, 2 vols., 4to. Second edition 4 vols., octavo, London, 1804. Translated into German by Breyer, 1812.

Reviewed at length, with liberal extracts, Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, II: 1141, 1229; at the close it is said that Godwin "has cleared up some points in Chaucer's history, but his partiality has been well supported by his imagination." The excessive introduction of contemporary history is commented upon, and Godwin's description of the Chaucer-Gower quarrel is termed "a copious flourish of matter, without an iota of