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Chaucer's Official Life by James Root Hulbert
page 87 of 105 (82%)
a study of his career, is not that he was such a man as would be
interested in the arts.

From all these facts, I do not see how it can be maintained that John of
Gaunt was Chaucer's "great patron." The evidence, so far as I can make
out at present, leads one to the conclusion that Chaucer must have
received his offices and royal annuities from the King rather than from
John of Gaunt, at times when John of Gaunt's influence would have been
harmful rather than beneficial, or when John of Gaunt was not in England
to exercise it.




CHAUCER'S RELATION TO RICHARD II


Certain recent investigations have suggested that Richard II and his
consort Anne may have been patrons of Chaucer. For this theory the most
definite evidence is derived from references to Queen Anne in several of
the poems. The most obvious of these references is that in Prologue to
L. G. W., version F. 11. 496, 7; another is the one implied in Koch's
explanation for the writing of P. F.; and Professor Lowes finds two more
in his interpretations of a line in K. T. (M. L. N. XIX, 240.242) and of
one in the Troilus. (2 p. M. L. A. 32; 285 ff) Since this investigation
has to do wholly with external evidences as to Chaucer's life, it is not
my business to deal with these references. I would merely point out that
they can derive no active support from the facts which we know about
Chaucer's life, for there is no exceptional feature of his career as an
esquire which points toward patronage by anyone. We have no right from
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