Ebook The Last Months of Chaucer's Earliest Patron

In my paper, The Historical Background of Chaucer/s Knight (trans. Conn. Acad. Of Arts and Sciences 20. 161 I touched upo-n Chaucer's relations with Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and incidentally discussed (pp. 182-6) the statement reported by Speght to the effect that Chaucer had been present at the mar 'riage of Lionel and Violante, daughter of Galeazzo II of Milan. It has seemed to me that a more detailed account than has hitherto appeared in print of Lionel's journey to Italy in 1368, of the circumstances attending his marriage, and of his brief life thereafter, might especially help, whatever its value to the biographer 'of Lionel, or to the student of England's relations with Italy in the 14th century, to determine the probability of Chaucer's visit to Italy on the occasion in question. The men and manners that he would have observed on the journey, even as a humble attendant of Prince Lionel, appeal so powerfully to the imagination, and would have contributed so significantly to his poetic education, that the student of Chaucer's life can hardly remain satisfied until the teasing question has been answered, or the impossibility of answering it has been in a measure demonstrated. It is with primary reference to Chaucer, then, that this study has been undertaken. The poet is never, it is true, in the foreground of the picture. At best he is a somewhat shadowy figure in the background. How far he can be said to emerge, it is left for the reader to determine. Mean while, certain other characters — knights, squires, men-at-arms, fair ladies, poets, statesmen, and even-kings — will at least troop across the page, to some extent in their habits as they lived.