Chaucers Official Life | Page 2

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preceding administration superseded Chaucer in his two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 King's works,"
etc.
Similarly, Dr. Ward in his life of Chaucer, after mentioning that
Chaucer and John of Gaunt were of approximately the same age, writes:
[Footnote: English Men of Letters. Harpers. 1879, p. 66.] "Nothing
could, accordingly, be more natural than that a more or less intimate
relationship should have formed itself between them. This relation,
there is reason to believe, afterwards ripened on Chaucer's part into one
of distinct political partisanship." With regard to the loss of the
controllerships Dr. Ward writes: [Footnote: p. 104.] "The new
administration (i.e. that of Gloucester and his allies) had as usual
demanded its victims--and among their number was Chaucer.... The
explanation usually given is that he fell as an adherent of John of Gaunt;
perhaps a safer way of putting the matter would be to say that John of
Gaunt was no longer in England to protect him." A little further on
occurs the suggestion that Chaucer may have been removed because of
"his previous official connection with Sir Nicholas Brembre, who,
besides being hated in the city, had been accused of seeking to compass
the deaths of the Duke and of some of his adherents." [Footnote: It is
curious that Dr. Waul did not realize that Chaucer could not possibly
have belonged to the parties of John of Gaunt and of Brembre.] Later,
in connection with a discussion of Chaucer's probable attitude toward
Wiclif, Dr. Ward writes: [Footnote: p. 134.] "Moreover, as has been
seen, his long connexion with John of Gaunt is a well-established fact;
and it has thence been concluded that Chaucer fully shared the opinions
and tendencies represented by his patron."
Dr. Ward's treatment is cautious and careful compared to that of Prof.
Henry Morley in his "English Writers." For example, the latter writes:
[Footnote: Vol. 5, p. 98.] "Lionel lived till 1368, but we shall find that
in and after 1358 Chaucer's relations are with John of Gaunt, and the
entries in the household of the Countess Elizabeth might imply no more
than that Chaucer, page to John of Gaunt, was detached for service of
the Countess upon her coming to London." A few pages further on
[Footnote: p. 103.]in the same volume occurs a paragraph on the life of
John of Gaunt glossed "Chaucer's Patron." With regard to the grants of

a pitcher of wine daily, and the two controllerships, Professor Morley
writes: [Footnote: p. 107.] "These successive gifts Chaucer owed to
John of Gaunt, who, in this last period of his father's reign, took active
part in the administration." And again, [Footnote: p. 109.] "John of
Gaunt had administered affairs of government. It was he, therefore,
who had so freely used the power of the crown to bestow marks of
favour upon Chaucer." [Footnote: p. 110.] "It was his patron the Duke,
therefore, who, towards the end of 1376, joined Chaucer with Sir John
Burley, in some secret service of which the nature is not known."
[Footnote: Studies in Chaucer, vol. I, pp. 81-82.]
Finally, after mentioning Chaucer's being "discharged" from his
controllerships, Morley writes: [Footnote: p. 243.] "During all this time
Chaucer's patron John of Gaunt was away with an army in Portugal."
Such absolute certainty and boldness of statement as Professor
Morley's is scarcely found again in reputable writers on Chaucer.
Professor Lounsbury in his life of Chaucer implies rather cautiously
that Chaucer lost his places in the Customs because of John of Gaunt's
absence from the country, and as the result of an investigation of the
customs. Mr. Jusserand in his Literary History of England writes:
[Footnote: Eng. trans., 1894, p. 312.] "For having remained faithful to
his protectors, the King and John of Gaunt, Chaucer, was looked upon
with ill favour by the men then in power, of whom Gloucester was the
head, lost his places and fell into want." F. J. Snell in his Age of
Chaucer has similar statements, almost as bold as those of Professor
Morley. [Footnote: p. 131.] "John of Gaunt was the poet's life-long
friend and patron." [Footnote: p. 149.] "Chaucer was now an
established favourite of John of Gaunt, through whose influence
apparently he was accorded this desirable post" (i. e., the first
controllership.) Most remarkable of all: [Footnote: p. 230.] "Outwardly,
much depended on the ascendancy of John of Lancaster. If the Duke of
Lancaster prospered, Chaucer prospered with him. When the Duke of
Gloucester was uppermost, the poet's sky was over cast, and he had
hard work to keep himself afloat."
The last quotations which I shall give