the stream of prosperity had continued to flow, on which the bark of
Chaucer's fortunes had for some years been borne along, he might not have
found leisure and impulse sufficient for completing his masterpiece, or at
all events for advancing it near to completion? That his powers declined
with his years is a conjecture which it would be difficult to support by
satisfactory evidence; though it seems natural enough to assume that he
wrote the best of his "Canterbury Tales" in his best days. Troubled times
we know to have been in store for him. The reverse in his fortunes may
perhaps fail to call forth in us the sympathy which we feel for Milton in
his old age doing battle against a Philistine reaction, or for Spenser
overwhelmed with calamities at the end of a life full of bitter
disappointment. But at least we may look upon it with the respectful pity
which we entertain for Ben Jonson groaning in the midst of his literary
honours under that dura rerum necessitas, which is rarely more a matter of
indifference to poets than it is to other men.

In 1386, as already noted, Chaucer, while continuing to hold both his
offices at the Customs, had taken his seat in Parliament as one of the
knights of the shire of Kent. He had attained to this honour during the
absence in Spain of his patron the Duke of Lancaster, though probably he
had been elected in the interest of that prince. But John of Gaunt's
influence was inevitably reduced to nothing during his absence, and no
doubt King Richard now hoped to be a free agent. But he very speedily
found that the hand of his younger uncle, Thomas Duke of Gloucester, was
heavier upon him than that of the elder. The Parliament of which Chaucer
was a member was the assembly which boldly confronted the autocratical
tendencies of Richard II, and after overthrowing the Chancellor, Michael
de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, forced upon the king a Council controlling
the administration of affairs. Concerning the acts of this Council, of
which Gloucester was the leading member, little or nothing is known,