inquire into the abuses of the preceding administration superseded
Chaucer in his two comptrollerships. The return of Lancaster to power in
1389 again brightened his prospects; he was appointed clerk of the
King's works," etc.

Similarly, Dr. Ward in his life of Chaucer, after mentioning that
Chaucer and John of Gaunt were of approximately the same age,
writes: [Footnote: English Men of Letters. Harpers. 1879, p. 66.]
"Nothing could, accordingly, be more natural than that a more or less
intimate relationship should have formed itself between them. This
relation, there is reason to believe, afterwards ripened on Chaucer's
part into one of distinct political partisanship." With regard to the
loss of the controllerships Dr. Ward writes: [Footnote: p. 104.] "The new
administration (i.e. that of Gloucester and his allies) had as usual
demanded its victims--and among their number was Chaucer.... The
explanation usually given is that he fell as an adherent of John of
Gaunt; perhaps a safer way of putting the matter would be to say that
John of Gaunt was no longer in England to protect him." A little further
on occurs the suggestion that Chaucer may have been removed because of
"his previous official connection with Sir Nicholas Brembre, who,
besides being hated in the city, had been accused of seeking to compass
the deaths of the Duke and of some of his adherents." [Footnote: It is
curious that Dr. Waul did not realize that Chaucer could not possibly
have belonged to the parties of John of Gaunt and of Brembre.] Later, in
connection with a discussion of Chaucer's probable attitude toward
Wiclif, Dr. Ward writes: [Footnote: p. 134.] "Moreover, as has been seen,
his long connexion with John of Gaunt is a well-established fact; and it
has thence been concluded that Chaucer fully shared the opinions and
tendencies represented by his patron."