CHAUCER, chaiser, Geoffrey, English poet, °the father of English poetryli: b. London about 1340, probably rather after than before; d. 1400. The traditional date for his birth, 1328, is disproved by known facts in his life. His father, John Chaucer, a wine-merchant, was known to the court, and therefore was able to obtain for his son a position as page in the household of the Countess of Ulster, daughter in-law of Edward III; here we first learn of Geoffrey, in 1357, and here he may have ac quired much of his rather extensive though not very methodical education, besides accom plishments and experience. In 1359 he served in the war in France; he was taken prisoner, but was ransomed in 1360 for a sum which indicates powerful and appreciative friends. Throughout his life he frequently received pensions and gifts from the Crown and from John of Gaunt. During the next decade, while he was in the twenties, we know little of him, except that during part of the time at least he was at court as Yeoman of the king's cham ber, an office which doubtless required more dignified social as well as humble domestic duties. In or before 1366, probably, he mar ried; his wife, Philippa, was a damsel of the queen's chamber, and was almost certainly a sister of Katherine de Swyn ford, who lived in various capacities, finally as wife, in the house hold of John of Gaunt. This marriage doubt less strengthened the tie which we know ex isted between the poet and the Prince, though there are indications that Chaucer's wedded life was not altogether comfortable. During this time Chauccr must have written more or less poet on French models; little of it has sur however. Chaucer was not a precocious poet. From 1370 to 1380 he went on numerous Diplomatic missions to the Continent, which he seems to have discharged with tact and judg ment. Of these journeys those to Italy are of particular interest. On the first he was absent for six months in 137Z and 1373, with three or four months in Genoa and Florence and perhaps elsewhere; his main business was to arrange for an English port to receive Genoese trade. The numerous attempts which have been made to prove that he may have met Petrarch in Padua are opposed by a great weight of prob ability and evidence. He certainly learned the Italian language, and must home Italian manuscripts. In 1378 he was in Lom bardy for a month or two conducting negotia tions with the noted condotticre Sir John Hawkwood and with the Lord of Milan. In
1374, between the two journeys, he received the office of comptroller of the custom and sub sidy of wools, hides and wool-fells in the port of London, which kept him closely applied to its duties for nearly 11 years, except when he was away, so much so that at this time he rented a house built on the city-wall over Ald gate, 10 minutes' walk from the custom-house. In 1382 he received an additional customs office and in 1385 permission to discharge his duties through a deputy. It was probably in conse quence of this that he moved into the quiet country, down the river at Greenwich whence he would come up to town, when occasion re quired it,
with the tide or on horseback. By nature vivid in energy and interest, he lost no time in devoting part of his new leisure to public duties. In 1385 he became justice of the peace for Kent and in 1386 was elected to represent the county in Parliament. Chaucer's intimate attachment to the court party is illus trated by the fact that during the years 1386-89, when Richard II was deprived of absolute power, Chaucer was in misfortune; in 1386 he lost his custom-house positions, and for a time was clearly in straitened circumstances. In 1387 his wife seems to have died. With the return of the royal party to power in 1389 Chaucer's fortunes revived, and he received the office of clerk of the king's works at Westminster and elsewhere. This he held only two years, and from then till his death little is known of his occupations. At times, in spite of pensions and the like, he seems to have been again in hard circumstances, was several times sued for debt, and wrote more than one poetic appeal for aid. In 1399 he rented a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey for a term (oddly) of 53 years or until his death. On 5 June 1400, the records of the payment of his pensions cease, and there is no reason to doubt that he died late in that year, as has always been understood. It was his burial in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, followed two centuries later by that of Spenser, which has made that the °Poets'
To judge from a more or less au thentic portrait of him produced under the direction of his disciple Hoccleve, and from his description of himself in the