the amount of leisure now at Chaucer's command enabled him to carry into
execution some of the works for which he had gathered materials abroad and
at home, and to prepare others. Inasmuch as it contains the passage cited
above, referring to Chaucer's official employment, his poem called the
"House of Fame" must have been written between 1374 and 1386 (when Chaucer
quitted office), and probably is to be dated near the latter year.
Inasmuch as both this poem and "Troilus and Cressid" are mentioned in the
Prologue to the "Legend of Good Women," they must have been written
earlier than it; and the dedication of "Troilus" to Gower and Strode very
well agrees with the relations known to have existed about this time
between Chaucer and his brother-poet. Very probably all these three works
may have been put forth, in more or less rapid succession, during this
fortunate season of Chaucer's life.

A fortunate season--for in it the prince who, from whatever cause, was
indisputably the patron of Chaucer and his wife, had, notwithstanding his
unpopularity among the lower orders, and the deep suspicion fostered by
hostile whisperings against him in his royal nephew's breast, still
contrived to hold the first place by the throne. Though serious danger
had already existed of a conflict between the King and his uncle, yet John
of Gaunt and his Duchess Constance had been graciously dismissed with a
royal gift of golden crowns, when in July, 1386, he took his departure for
the continent, to busy himself till his return home in November, 1389,
with the affairs of Castile, and with claims arising out of his
disbursements there. The reasons for Chaucer's attachment to this
particular patron are probably not far to seek; on the precise nature of
the relation between them it is useless to speculate. Before Wyclif's
death in 1384, John of Gaunt had openly dissociated himself from the
reformer; and whatever may have been the case in his later years, it was
certainly not as a follower of his old patron that at this date Chaucer