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CHAUCER'S OFFICIAL LIFE
BY
JAMES ROOT HULBERT
NOTE
In making reference to books and manuscripts, I have attempted to use
abbreviations which seem, reasonably clear. Perhaps the least
intelligible are C. R. which stands for Close Rolls, and L. R. which
stands for Life Records of Chaucer (Chaucer Soc.) Wherever possible, I
have referred to prints rather than to original manuscripts because the
printed calendars are much more accessible. In a work which has involved
the copying of innumerable references, many of which are to documents in
the Public Record Office not available to me as I revise my copy, it is
too much to expect that there should be no inaccuracies. Therefore, if
the reader discovers erroneous references, I must ask his leniency.
For their courtesy and assistance in making books and documents
accessible to me, I wish most heartily to thank J. A. Herbert, Esq., of
the Manuscript Department, the British Museum, and Edward Salisbury,
Esq., and Hubert Hall, Esq., of the Public Record Office. To my friend
and colleague, Dr. Thomas A. Knott, of the University of Chicago, I am
deeply indebted for his kindness in reading over parts of my manuscript
and trying to make their style clearer and more readable. My greatest
obligation, however, is to Professor John M. Manly, not only for
encouragement and specific suggestions as to the handling of this
subject, but for a training which has made possible whatever in my
results may be considered of value.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: Statement of the problem
THE ESQUIRES OF THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD:
Their Families
Appointment
Classification
Services
Rewards
Marriage
Careers of the Esquires of 1368
THE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE
THE CUSTOMS
SIR JOHN DE BURLEY
SIR EDWARD DE BERKELEY
SIR THOMAS DE PERCY
SIR WILLIAM DE BEAUCHAMP
RICHARD FORESTER
HENRY SCOGAN
OTO DE GRAUNSON
BUKTON
CHAUCER'S CAREER AND HIS RELATION TO JOHN OF GAUNT
CHAUCER'S RELATION TO RICHARD II
SOME GENERAL POINTS
INTRODUCTION
The researches of Sir Harris Nicolas, Dr. Furnivall, Mr. Selby and
others have provided us with a considerable mass of detailed information
regarding the life and career of Geoffrey Chaucer. Since the publication
of Nicolas's biography of the poet prefixed to the Aldine edition of
Chaucer's works in 1845, the old traditional biography of conjecture and
inference, based often on mere probability or the contents of works
erroneously ascribed to Chaucer, has disappeared and in its place has
been developed an accurate biography based on facts. In the sixty-five
years since Nicolas's time, however, a second tradition--connected in
some way with fact, to be sure--has slowly grown up. Writers on
Chaucer's life have not been content merely to state the facts revealed
in the records, but, in their eagerness to get closer to Chaucer, have
drawn many questionable inferences from those facts. Uncertain as to the
exact significance of the various appointments which Chaucer held, his
engagement in diplomatic missions and his annuities, biographers have
thought it necessary to find an explanation for what they suppose to be
remarkable favors, and have assumed--cautiously in the case of careful
scholars but boldly in that of popular writers--that Chaucer owed every
enhancement of his fortune to his "great patron" John of Gaunt. In
greater or less degree this conception appears in every biography since
Nicolas. Professor Minto in his Encyclopedia Britannica article
[Footnote: Ed. Scribners 1878, vol. 5, p. 450.] says with regard to the
year 1386: "that was an unfortunate year for him; his patron, John of
Gaunt, lost his ascendancy at court, and a commission which sat to
inquire into the abuses of the preceding administration superseded
Chaucer in his two comptrollerships. The return of Lancaster to power in
1389 again brightened his prospects; he was appointed clerk of the
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