eur where he had acted so considerable a part with
varied success, and retired to Dunnigton castle[3] near Newbury, to
reflect at leisure upon past transactions in the still retreats of
contemplation. In this retirement did he spend his few remaining
years, universally loved and honoured; he was familiar with all men of
learning in his time, and contracted friendship with persons of the
greatest eminence as well in literature as politics; Gower, Occleve,
Lidgate, Wickliffe were great admirers, and particular friends
of Chaucer; besides he was well acquainted with foreign poets,
particularly Francis Petrarch the famous Italian poet, and refiner of
the language. A Revolution in England soon after this happened,
in which we find Chaucer but little concerned; he made no mean
compliments to Henry IV, but Gower his cotemporary, though then very
old, flattered the reigning prince, and insulted the memory of his
murdered Sovereign. All acts of parliament and grants in the last
reign being annulled, Chaucer again repaired to Court to get fresh
grants, but bending with age and weakness, tho' he was successful in
his request, the fatigue of attendance so overcame him, that death
prevented his enjoying his new possessions. He died the 25th of
October in the year 1400, in the second of Henry IV, in the 72d of
his age, and bore the shock of death with the same fortitude and
resignation with which he had undergone a variety of pressures, and
vicissitudes of fortune.

Dryden says, he was poet laureat to three kings, but Urry is of
opinion that Dryden must be mistaken, as among all his works not one
court poem is to be found, and Selden observes, that he could find no
poet honoured with that title in England before the reign of Edward
IV, to whom one John Kaye dedicated the Siege of Rhodes in prose by
the title of his Humble Poet Laureat.

I cannot better display the character of this great man than in the
following words of Urry. "As to his temper, says he, he had a mixture
of the gay, the modest and the grave. His reading was deep and
extensive, his judgment sound and discerning; he was communicative of
his knowledge, and ready to correct or pass over the faults of his
cotemporary writers. He knew how to judge of and excuse the slips of
weaker capacities, and pitied rather than exposed the ignorance of
that age. In one word, he was a great scholar, a pleasant wit, a
candid critic, a sociable companion, a stedfast friend, a great
ph