privately to hear Wickliffe preach, and his heart may have been
drawn toward the new doctrines. But most assuredly he showed his
feelings and opinions in a very mild, cautious way, and the only sign
of the king's displeasure was a temporary stoppage of the pension
which Chaucer had for some years received.

This must have made Chaucer and his Philippa, in the decline of life,
know what straitened means were like; but doubtless cheery wit and
merry smiles made home music and home light around the scantily spread
table. Afterward, however, the pension was restored.

Of the "Canterbury Tales," that vast storehouse of humor, of pathos,
of fancy, and of strong, manly common sense, we have no place to speak
here. They were the work of his ripened powers in middle age, and
probably the old man was still busy with them when he heard the
whisper which called him to his rest.

TORQUATO TASSO

(1544-1595)

[Illustration: Torquato Tasso.]

Torquato Tasso, born at Sorrento, March 11, 1544, was the son of
Bernardo Tasso by Portia de Rossi, a lady of a noble Neapolitan
family. His father was a man of some note, both as a political and as
a literary character; and his poem "Amadigi," founded on the
well-known romance of Amadis de Gaul, has been preferred by one
partial critic even to the "Orlando Furioso." Ferrante Sanseverino,
Prince of Salerno, chose him for his secretary, and with him and for
him Bernardo shared all the vicissitudes of fortune. That prince
having been deprived of his estates, and expelled from the kingdom of
Naples by the Court of Spain, Bernardo was involved in his
proscription, and retired with him to Rome. Torquato, then five years
old, remained with his mother, who went to reside with her family in
Naples.

Bernardo Tasso having lost all hopes of ever returning to that
capital, advised his wife to retire with his daughter into a nunnery,
and to send Torquato to Rome. Our young poet suffered much in parting
from his mother and sister; but, fulfilling the command of his
parents, he joined his father in October, 1554. On this occasion he
composed a canzone, in which he compared himself to Ascanius escaping
from Troy with his father Aeneas.

The fluctuating fortunes of the elder Tasso caused Torquato to visit
successively Bergamo, the abode of his paternal relatives, and Pesaro,
where his manners and intelligence made so favorable an impression,
that the Duke of Pesaro chose him for companion to h