The descent of Chaucer is as uncertain, and unfixed by the critics, as the place of his birth.  Mr. Speight is of opinion that one Richard Chaucer was his father, and that one Elizabeth Chaucer, a nun of St. Helen’s, in the second year of Richard ii. might have been his sister, or of his kindred.  But this conjecture, says Urry,[1] seems very improbable; for this Richard was a vintner, living at the corner of Kirton-lane, and at his death left his house, tavern, and stock to the church of St. Mary Aldermary, which in all probability he would not have done if he had had any sons to possess his fortune; nor is it very likely he could enjoy the family estates mentioned by Leland in Oxfordshire, and at the same time follow such an occupation.  Pitts asserts, that his father was a knight; but tho’ there is no authority to support this assertion, yet it is reasonable to suppose that he was something superior to a common employ.  We find one John Chaucer attending upon Edward iii. and Queen Philippa, in their expedition to Flanders and Cologn, who had the King’s protection to go over sea in the twelfth year of his reign.  It is highly probable that this gentleman was father to our Geoffry, and the supposition is strengthened by Chaucer’s first application, after leaving the university and inns of law, being to the Court; nor is it unlikely that the service of the father should recommend the son.

It is universally agreed, that he was born in the second year of the reign of King Edward iii.  A.D. 1328.  His first studies were in the university of Cambridge, and when about eighteen years of age he wrote his Court of Love, but of what college he was is uncertain, there being no account of him in the records of the University.  From Cambridge he was removed to Oxford in order to compleat his studies, and after a considerable stay there, and a strict application to the public lectures of the university, he became (says Leland) “a ready logician, a smooth rhetorician, a pleasant poet, a great philosopher, an ingenious mathematician, and a holy divine.  That he was a great master in astronomy, is plain by his discourses of the Astrolabe.  That he was versed in hermetic philosophy (which prevailed much at that time), appears by his Tale of the Chanons Yeoman:  His knowledge in divinity is evident from his Parson’s Tale, and his philosophy from the Testament of Love.”  Thus qualified to make a figure in the world, he left his learned retirement, and travelled into France, Holland, and other countries, where he spent some of his younger days.  Upon his return he entered himself in the Inner Temple, where he studied the municipal laws of the land.  But he had not long prosecuted that dry study, till his superior abilities were taken notice of by some persons of distinction, by whole patronage he then approached the splendor of the court.  The reign of Edward iii. was glorious and successful, he was a discerning as well as a fortunate Monarch; he had a taste as well for