a introduced to the Emperor at
Avignon.]
Once the call of friendship drew him out of his solitude; Carrara, the
Prince of Padua, who had been for many years the poet's friend and
patron, had got into a mess with the Venetian Republic, and sent
for Petrarch to get him out of it. This the poet's skill and eloquence
very soon did, and then he went back to Arqua.
Florence the Fair had a peculiar way of her own of doing tardy justice
to her children. She wept over Dante's grave, and after many years she
begged Petrarch to come and live in the home of his fathers, within
her walls. But the poet did not go. He had grown to think all Italy
his country, rather than one city. Besides, a brighter home was
beginning to open on the old man's view. Eletta and Laura and many
other dear ones waited for him there, and when he had been seventy
years upon earth God called him to join them.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
By ALICE KING
(1328-1400)
[Illustration: Geoffrey Chaucer.]
It is very difficult to get even a correct outline of the figure of
Geoffrey Chaucer. We think we have a perfect view of him; we
congratulate ourselves upon knowing the man just as he moved and spoke
among his contemporaries; when suddenly we discover that we are
looking at a puppet cunningly dressed up by some imaginative
biographer. We believe that we have got him into a good historical
light, when all at once a doubt whether he was or was not an actor in
such and such events throws him again into shadow. We try to conjure
him up, but he comes in so many forms that we grow utterly bewildered.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, we reverence him so deeply and love him
so dearly, that we cannot help striving to gain some idea of what he
was like.
The dates given of Chaucer's birth are very varied, and range from
1328 to 1348. Probably some year midway between these two may be the
right one. The accounts of his parentage are just as uncertain. Some
give him a vintner for a father, some a merchant, and some a knight.
In our opinion the former of these is the most likely origin for
Geoffrey Chaucer. His rich but broad humor seems as if it must have
sprung from the merry, vigorous heart of the common people, and the
variety of characters depicted in the "Canterbury Tales" proves that
he must have mixed with all sorts of men and women, both high and low.
In after-life he was familiar with courts, and knights and ladies; but
we fancy that in his youth he must h
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