342 CHAUCER CHAUDES-AIGUES confirmed by Henry IV., who, being the son of the duke of Lancaster, stood somewhat in the light of nephew to the poet. Toward the close of 1399 we find Chaucer taking a lease of a residence in the garden of the priory of West- minster. The foregoing facts rest upon official documents appended to the life of Chaucer by Godwin. Other events, less authentic, are gleaned from passages in his works. As an adherent of the duke of Lancaster, he em- braced the opinions of Wycliffe, and formed a close connection with that divine. Persecu- tion and reverses followed in consequence of this. Godwin refers his personal misfortunes to his support of a Wycliffian candidate for the mayoralty of London, John of Northampton, who was arrested and imprisoned. Chaucer escaped to the continent, where, during some years in France and Denmark, he wrote many of his books. He suffered much privation meanwhile from the faithlessness of agents who appropriated his income, and was at length induced to return secretly in hopes of recovering his dues. He was discovered and arrested, but at length obtained pardon and liberty by disclosing the designs of the men with whom he had been associated. This drew upon him a flood of obloquy, which he ap- pears to have attempted to parry by offering an appeal to arms. He was certainly thereafter received again into royal favor; and expres- sions of remorse are discoverable in his subse- quent writings, although somewhat vaguely. Soon after these events he removed from the turmoil and intrigues of public life into litera- ry retirement His first retreat was at Wood- stock, and finally, upon the death of the duke of Lancaster, at Donnington castle, where an aged and favorite oak tree, under whose branches the poet often meditated, long after- ward bore his name. It was here that he wrote his most remarkable and latest work, the " Canterbury Tales." Their general plan is of a company of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury assembling at an inn, and agree- ing each to tell a tale in going and returning ; he who should tell the best tale to be treated by the others with a supper at the inn. In this work Chaucer is considered to have im- proved upon his model, the " Decameron " of Boccaccio, especially in variety of character and delicacy of discrimination ; but the intro- duction or introductory machinery is contrived with less felicity. This work, in verse, begun in declining years, was left incomplete. Chau- cer's command over the language of his day, and his exhibition of existing character and passing incident, constitute his attraction. His early works bear the stamp of the corrupt tastes of his age, but are everywhere remark- able for delineation of character. The "Ro- maunt of the Rose " is professedly a transla- tion of the French Roman de la rote. " Troi- lus and Cresseide," his second poetical essay, taken chiefly from Boccaccio, contains pas- sages of much pathos and beauty. The story of "Queen Annelida and False Arcite" was acknowledged by the author to have been ta- ken from titace and Corinne. The opening is from Statius, but Corinne has not, we believe, been identified. The opening of the " Assem- bly of Foules " is founded upon the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero. The " House of Fame " has been supposed to have been originally a lay of Provence ; but this idea has been com- bated by Tyrwhitt, whose studies of Chaucer were profound. This commentator suggests a doubt of the "Flower and the Leaf" being from the pen of Chaucer, which Dryden mod- ernized without expressing a suspicion of its authenticity. It was printed for the first time in Speght's edition of Chaucer in 1598. The prose works are a translation of Boethius, the "Treatise on the Astrolabe," and the "Testa- ment of Love." The translation of Boethius, and occasional quotations from Juvenal and Seneca, prove that he retained an acquaintance with the Roman classics. It is impossible to ascertain the exact chronology of his works. He left by his wife two sons, Thomas and Lewis, the first of whom was speaker of the house of commons in the reign of Henry IV., and was ambassador to France and Burgundy ; and a daughter, Alice, who married the duke of Suf- folk. He was buried in Westminster abbey, being the first poet there interred. A century and a half after his death a monument was erected there to his memory by Nicholas Brig- ham. The principal biographers and editors of Chaucer are Speght, Leland, Tyrwhitt (5 vols. 8vo, London, 1798), and Godwin (2 vols. 4to, London, 1803). Some of his poems have been modernized by Dryden, Pope, Words- worth, Leigh Hunt, R. H. Home, and Eliza- beth Barrett Browning. In C. C. Clarke's "Riches of Chaucer" (2 vols., 1835) the best pieces are given with only the spelling modern- ized. The Chaucer society published in 1868 an edition of the "Canterbury Tales," giving the six principal texts. CHAl'CI, one of the most powerful tribes of ancient Germany. They dwelt between the rivers Ems and Elbe, being divided by the Weser into Majorca on the west and Minorca on the east. According to Tacitus, their coun- try was extensive and thickly peopled. They were distinguished for their love of justice and of peace, being powerful but unambitious, never provoking war, but always ready to re- pel aggression. They were allies of the Ro- mans in the war of Germanicus against the Cherusci, but subsequently their enemies in the reigns of Claudius and Nero. They are last mentioned in the 8d century as devastating Gaul. They were finally merged in the gene- ral name of Saxons. HIM IHWH.I KS (Lat. Aqua Calentes), a watering place of Auvergne, France, in the department of Cantal, 26 m. E. by S. of Au- rillac ; pop. in 1866, 1,948. It is situated in a narrow and picturesque gorge, and derives its name from some hot springs in its vicinity,
