that he was not a young man at the time and must therefore have been
born earlier than 1340.... these appointments are proofs that can hardly
be gainsaid of the value put upon his abilities and services. Then, as
now, there must have been plenty of persons of ample leisure and lofty
connections who [Footnote: I Vol. 10, p. 157.] [Footnote: 8 Vol. 1, p.
61.] [Footnote: idem, p. 65.] [Footnote: idem, p. 63.] [Footnote: idem,
p. 66.] [Footnote: idem, p. 7 0.] were both ready and anxious to be
pressed into the service of the state. That these should have been
passed by, and a man chosen instead not furnished with high birth and
already furnished with other duties, is a fact which indicates, if it
does not show convincingly, the confidence reposed in his capacity and
judgment." With regard to the controllership, Professor Lounsbury
writes: [Footnote: Studies in Chaucer, p. 72.] "The oath which Chaucer
took at his appointment was the usual oath. ... He was made controller
of the port because he had earned the appointment by his services in
various fields, of activity, and because he was recognized as a man of
business, fully qualified to discharge its duties." [Footnote: idem,
p.74.] "In 1385 he was granted a much greater favor" (than the right to
have a deputy for the petty customs). "On the 17th of February of that
year he obtained the privilege of nominating a permanent deputy. ... It
is possible that in the end it wrought him injury, so far as the
retention of the post was concerned".

A merely casual reading of such statements as those I have given above
must make it clear that they attempt to interpret the facts which we
have about Chaucer, without taking into consideration their setting and
connections--conditions in the courts of Edward III and Richard II, and
the history of the period. [Footnote: Note for example the statement on
page 3 above that "the Duke of Gloucester was ill disposed towards his
brother John."] Surely it is time for an attempt to gain a basis of fact