e advantages of his wit and learning, he possessed those
of person in a very considerable degree. He was then about the age of
thirty, of a fair beautiful complexion, his lips red and full, his
size of a just medium, and his air polished and graceful, so that he
united whatever could claim the approbation of the Great, and charm
the eyes of the Fair. He had abilities to record the valour of the
one, and celebrate the beauty of the other, and being qualified by his
genteel behaviour to entertain both, he became a finished courtier.
The first dignity to which we find him preferred, was that of page
to the king, a place of so much honour and esteem at that time, that
Richard II. leaves particular legacies to his pages, when few others
of his servants are taken notice of. In the forty-first year of Edward
III. he received as a reward of his services, an annuity of twenty
marks per ann. payable out of the Exchequer, which in those days was
no inconsiderable pension; in a year after he was advanced to be of
his Majesty's privy chamber, and a very few months to be his shield
bearer, a title, at that time, (tho' now extinct) of very great
honour, being always next the king's person, and generally upon signal
victories rewarded with military honours. Our poet being thus eminent
by his places, contracted friendships, and procured the esteem of
persons of the first quality. Queen Philippa, the Duke of Lancaster,
and his Duchess Blanch, shewed particular honour to him, and lady
Margaret the king's daughter, and the countess of Pembroke gave him
their warmest patronage as a poet. In his poems called the Romaunt,
and the Rose, and Troilus and Creseide, he gave offence to some court
ladies by the looseness of his description, which the lady Margaret
resented, and obliged him to atone for it, by his Legend of good
Women, a piece as chaste as the others were luxuriously amorous, and,
under the name of the Daisy, he veils lady Margaret, whom of all his
patrons he most esteemed.

Thus loved and honoured, his younger years were dedicated to pleasure
and the court. By the recommendation of the Dutchess Blanch, he
married one Philippa Rouet, sister to the guardianess of her grace's
children, who was a native of Hainault: He was then about thirty years
of age, and being fixed by marriage, the king began to employ him in
more public and advantageous posts. In the forty-sixth year of his
majesty's reign, Chaucer was sent to Venice in commission