of English poetry,”—think what a title that is to wear for four centuries and a half!—was born in London in 1328—nearly two hundred and forty years before Shakespeare, and over one hundred and fifty years before Columbus discovered this Continent. It is so long ago that all things about him are uncertain, except that he was a great poet. That will stand, I hope, while the English language lasts. Like Shakespeare, he is said to have studied law, and been a soldier, but the first we really know of him he is a courtier in the palace of King Edward III.
He was in great favor there, and a daily pitcher of wine used to be sent him from the king’s own table,—a gift which was afterwards changed into a pension. So from this mark of the king’s favor he has sometimes been called the first poet-laureate of England.
Several times Edward sent him to the Continent on political errands, and there he had many new opportunities to learn and observe things.
During Edward’s reign he became attached to John of Gaunt,—whom Shakespeare calls “Time-honored Lancaster,”—and, by his advice, the poet married a lady of Hainault, a province in Belgium. After Chaucer’s marriage, John of Gaunt himself married an older sister of the same family. So the poet and his patron were brothers-in-law.
