attaining third place on the list of England's poets.

There are many passages of autobiographical interest in his poems. He
was a student of books as well as of men, as is shown by these lines
from the _Hous of Fame_:--

"For whan thy labour doon al is,
And halt y-maad thy rekeninges,
In stede of rest and newe thinges,
Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon,
And, also domb as any stoon,
Thou sittest at another boke,
Til fully daswed[31] is thy loke,
And livest thus as an hermyte."[32]

Chaucer was pensioned by three kings,--Edward III., Richard II., and
Henry IV. Before the reign of Henry IV., Chaucer's pensions were
either not always regularly paid, or they were insufficient for
certain emergencies, as he complained of poverty in his old age. The
pension of Henry IV. in 1399 must have been ample, however; since in
that year Chaucer leased a house in the garden of a chapel at
Westminster for as many of fifty-three years as he should live. He had
occasion to use this house but ten months, for he died in 1400.

He may be said to have founded the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey,
as he was the first of the many great authors to be buried there.

Chaucer's Earlier Poems.--At the age of forty, Chaucer had probably
written not more than one seventh of a total of about 35,000 lines of
verse which he left at his death. Before he reached his poetic prime,