y much
probability in the conjecture which ascribes to this season of peril
and pressure the composition of the following justly famous stanzas
entitled "Good Counsel of Chaucer":-

Flee from the press, and dwell with soothfastness;
Suffice thee thy good, though it be small;
For hoard hath hate, and climbing tickleness:
Press hath envy, and wealth is blinded all.
Savour no more than thee behove shall;
Do well thyself that other folk canst rede;
And truth thee shall deliver, it is no dread.

Pain thee not each crooked to redress
In trust of her (Fortune) that turneth as a ball.
Greate rest stands in little business.
Beware also to spurn against a nail.
Strive not as doth a pitcher with a wall.
Deeme thyself that deemest others' deed;
And truth thee shall deliver, it is no dread.

That thee is sent receive in buxomness;
The wrestling of this world asketh a fall.
Here is no home, here is but wilderness.
Forth, pilgram! forth, beast, out of thy stall!
Look up on high, and thank God of all.
Waive thy lust, and let thy ghost thee lead,
And truth shall thee deliver, it is no dread.

Misfortunes, it is said, never come alone; and whatever view may be
taken as to the nature of the relations between Chaucer and his wife,
her death cannot have left him untouched. From the absence of any
record as to the payment of her pension after June, 1387, this event is
presumed to have taken place in the latter half of that year. More
than this cannot safely be conjectured; but it remains POSSIBLE that
the "Legend of Good Women" and its "Prologue" formed a peace-offering
to one whom Chaucer may have loved again after he had lost her, though
without thinking of her as of his "late departed saint." Philippa
Chaucer had left behind her a son of the name of Lewis; and it is
pleasing to find the widower in the year 1391 (the year in which he
lost his Clerkship of the Works) attending to the boy's education, and
supplying him with the intellectual "bread and milk" suitable for his
tender age in the shape of a popular treatise on a subject which has at
all times excited the intelligent curiosity of the young. The treatise
"On the Astrolabe," after describing the instrument itself, and showing
how to work it, proceeded, or was intended to proceed, to fulfil the
purposes of a general astronomical manual; but, like other and more
important works of its author, it has come down to us in an
uncompl