e best texts of his writings,[567] and but lately his
"Legend of Good Women" inspired with an exquisite poem the Laureate who
sleeps to-day close to the great ancestor, beneath the stones of the
famous Abbey.

FOOTNOTES:

[448] The date 1328 has long but wrongly been believed to be the true
one. The principal documents concerning Chaucer are to be found in the
Appendix to his biography by Sir H. Nicolas, in "Poetical Works," ed. R.
Morris, Aldine Poets, vol. i. p. 93 ff., in the "Trial Forewords," of
Dr. Furnivall, 1871, and in the "Life Records of Chaucer," 1875 ff.,
Chaucer Society. One of the municipal ordinances meant to check the
frauds of the vintners is signed by several members of the corporation,
and among others by John Chaucer, 1342. See Riley, "Memorials, of
London," p. 211.

[449] See the view of London, painted in the fifteenth century,
obviously from nature, reproduced at the beginning of this vol., from
MS. Royal 16 F ii, in the British Museum, showing the Tower, the Bridge,
the wharfs, Old St. Paul's, etc.

[450] Such is the case with a tower in the churchyard of St. Giles's,
Cripplegate.

[451] "Et qi pork voedra norir, le norise deinz sa measoun." Four
jurymen were to act as public executors: "Quatuor homines electi et
jurati ad interficiendos porcos inventos vagantes infra muros
civitatis." Riley "Munimenta Gildhallae," Rolls, 1859, 4 vols. 8vo;
"Liber Albus," pp. 270 and 590.

[452] April, 1357, an information gathered from a fragment of the
accounts of the household of Elizabeth found in the binding of a book.

[453] In the controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert
Grosvenor, concerning a question of armorial bearings, Chaucer, being
called as witness, declares (1386) that he has seen Sir Richard use the
disputed emblems "en France, devant la ville de Retters ... et issint il
[le] vist armez par tout le dit viage tanque le dit Geffrey estoit
pris." "The Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 1385-90," London, 2 vols.
fol., vol. i. p. 178. "Retters" is Rethel in Champagne (not Retiers in
Brittany, where the expedition did not go). Chaucer took part in another
campaign "in partibus Franciae," in 1369.

[454] On this see Furnivall, "Chaucer as valet and esquire," Chaucer
Society, 1876.

[455] A passage in Chaucer's "Book of the Duchesse" (1369), lines 30
ff., leaves little doubt as to the reality of the unlucky passion he
describes. The poet interrupts the train of his speech to ans