he is about to tell. We are strongly disposed to think that the tale of Constance, like the tale of Griselda, was written some years before its enlistment among the 'Canterbury Tales,' and therefore written before the 'Confessio Amantis.' There can be no doubt either that censure is aimed at Gower in the 'Man of Lawes Prologe,' or that Gower omits his complimentary lines on Chaucer in his second edition in 1393.
In 1380 we come to what seems a dark spot in Chaucer's life. In May of that year one Cecilia Chaumpaigne, daughter of the late William Chaumpaigne and Agnes his wife, remits, releases, and for herself and her heirs for ever 'quit claims' 'Galfrido Chaucer armigero omnimodas acciones tam de raptu meo tam de aliqua alia re vel causa, cujuscumque condicionis fuerint, quas unquam habui habeo seu habere potero a principio mundi usque in diem confeccionis presencium.' The witnesses are Sir William de Beauchamp, the king's chamberlain, Sir John de Clanebow, Sir William de Nevylle, John Phillpott, and Richard Morel (see Chaucer Society's Second Series, No. 10, pp. 131, 130–144). The matter is at present very obscure. It may perhaps be that Chaucer' had something to do with the carrying off of Cecilia from her friends in the interest of some other person. Possibly he had 'carried her off' for himself. It may be a mere coincidence that in 1391 Chaucer's son Lewis seems to have been just ten years of age. Whatever this 'release' may mean, it is certain that it brought no discredit on Chaucer in his day. It was after this that the 'moral Gower' made mention of him, and in May 1382 he was appointed comptroller of the petty customs in the port of London during pleasure, with the usual wages and permission to execute his duties by a competent deputy. In November 1385 he was also allowed to nominate a permanent deputy to discharge his other comptrollership.
Well to do in a pecuniary way — holding two pensions, one from the crown and one from John of Gaunt, besides his emoluments from the customs' comptrollerships, with probably other additions to his income—he was in 1386 elected a knight of the shire for Kent. But at the end of that year he was deprived of both his offices, Adam Yardley superceding him as comptroller of the customs and subsidies, and a few days after Henry Gisors superseding him as comptroller of the petty customs in the port of London. This sudden collapse has been variously accounted for. The old biographers, misled by the 'Testament of Love' erroneously attributed to Chaucer, connect it with some dispute between the court and the citizens of London respecting the election of John of Northampton to the mayoralty in 1382. They go on to state with groundless assurance that in 1384, when Northampton's arrest was ordered, Chaucer, to avoid a like fate, fled to the island of Zealand; that after remaining two years in exile there, he returned to England, and was imprisoned in the Tower; that he lay a prisoner in the Tower till 1389, when, through the mediation of Queen Anne of Bohemia, he was released on the condition that he should impeach his former associates, which at last he did. All this romance is at once dispersed by the fact that during these years he 'regularly received his pension half-yearly at the exchequer with his own hands' (Nicolas). Very probably Chaucer's dismissal is connected with the political intrigues which prevailed from 1386 to 1389. John of Gaunt was abroad in Spain (May 1386 to November 1389), and Richard had been glad of any pretext to remove him out of the kingdom; but another of the king's uncles, the Duke of Gloucester, presently seized supreme power, and there was much tumult. For over two years the king was virtually suppressed. In November 1386 he was compelled to appoint a commission to inquire into abuses. The commissioners began their work by examining the accounts of the officers employed in the collection of the revenue. There seems to have existed special dissatisfaction with the officers of the customs and their conduct, as is shown by the fact pointed out by Sir Harris Nicolas that in 11 Ric. II, 1387–8, the commons petitioned that no comptroller of the customs and subsidies should in future hold his office for any other term than during good behaviour, to which request the royal assent was given (Rot. Parl. iii. 250). In August 1389, after Richard had assumed the government, the council ordered the enactment to be enforced, and that all appointments of custumer should in future be made, and the existing officers confirmed by the treasurer and privy council' (Proceedings of the Privy Council, 1. 9). It was then a time of vigorous reform for Chaucer's department of the civil service, and he found himself at the close of 1386 without an income, except what his pensions brought in.
The chief works composed between 1372 and 1386 are: 'The House of Fame;' 'The Assembly of Foules;' 'Troylus and Cryseyde;' 'Palamon and Arcite,' an earlier version in stanzas of what is known to us as the 'Knightes Tale;' the stories of Saint Cecilia and of Griselda, afterwards respectively utilised as the 'Secounde Nonnes Tale,' and
