1172. EBB to Benjamin Robert Haydon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 355–356.
[London]
6. March 1843–
After the battle of Poitiers, my dear Mr Haydon, in the September of 1356, Froissart [1] tells us that the Black Prince spent the whole winter at Bordeaux with his royal captive: & thus, the entrance into London could not have taken place before the spring of 1357. Now, supposing Chaucer to have been born in 1328 (and the highest literary authorities certainly do suppose it) this wd bring him to his 29th year at the period of the entrance. I believe that he was twentynine—but if Sir Samuel Meyrick & you determine it otherwise; you must alter Gower’s received age to suit Chaucer’s—there being a seniority on the part of Gower, of probably some four or five years. [2] Chaucer’s fatherhood in English poetry was not won from his contemporary, by a seniority,—but by writing English poems before his friend did—altho’ Gower’s Confessio Amantis (his only English work) did appear before Chaucer’s chief work, the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in 1400—and his fellow-poet survived him two years– [3]
The more I think of that signature which is said to throw back the age, the greater are my misgivings– If Chaucer was only 19 in 1357, dying in 1400 he cd only be 62—and yet there are testimonies to his dying at an advanced age– [4] Why Gower at the close of his confessio amantis places in the mouth of the Lady Venus a recommendation to Chaucer to “put an ende of al his werke” on account of his age—& after that Chaucer had time to write his voluminous Canterbury tales & die! Could he have died at sixty two only?
Well! I have a great respect for Sir Samuel Meyrick––& a great misgiving about the signature! There is the truth of it–
And the matter of fact is, .. that if you make Chaucer nineteen you must make Gower twentythree or four. But Warton, Godwin, Sir Egerton Brydges, wd not make Chaucer nineteen, but twenty-nine– [5]
My dear friend, you will scarcely know what to think of me for not replying more quickly to your two letters—but the east wind has been slaying me,—& I was too unwell yesterday to finish & send what I began to write– I accept your kindness eagerly about the lions &c—& also in relation to the miniatures.– [6] Able to guess at much beauty from certain sketches, I am interested in having the full vision completed by a sight of the finished likeness of Mrs Haydon– Is it true, by the <***>
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 43–45.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Jean Froissart (ca. 1337–ca. 1410) recorded the exploits of the nobles of France and England between 1325 and 1400 in his Chronicles. His account of the Black Prince’s campaign in Bordeaux is in chapter 164 of the English translation by John Bourchier, published in 1523–25.
2. Chaucer’s date of birth is now accepted as ca. 1340, which would make him about 17 when the Black Prince entered London with his captive in May 1357. Gower is thought to have been born in 1325, so he would have been about 32 in 1357. (See letter 1150 for earlier comments on Chaucer’s age.)
3. Gower did not die until 1408, so he survived Chaucer by eight years.
4. EBB overlooks the fact that, in the 14th century, 60—the age Chaucer is believed to have been at the time of his death—was “an advanced age.”
5. Thomas Warton (1728–90), the author of The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century (1774–81), stated categorically that Chaucer was born in 1328. William Godwin (1756–1836) also accepted that date in The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (1803). Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837), antiquarian, although not an authority on Chaucer, also held to the 1328 date.
6. See letter 1166.
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