The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23
Anglistica & Americana
A Series of Reprints Selected by Bernhard Fabian, Edgar Mertner, Karl
Schneider and Marvin Spevack
1968
GEORG OLMS VERLAGSBUCHHANDLUNG HILDESHEIM
Theophilus Cibber
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753)
Vol. I
1968
The present facsimile is reproduced from a copy in the possession of
the Library of the University of Gottingen. Shelfmark: H. lit. biogr.
I 8464.
Although the title-page of Volume I announces four volumes, the work
is continued in a fifth volume of the same date. Like Volumes II, III,
and IV, it is by "Mr. CIBBER, and other Hands" and is "Printed for R.
GRIFFITHS".
M.S.
THE
LIVES
OF THE
POETS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND,
To the TIME of
DEAN _SWIFT_.
Compiled from ample Materials scattered in a Variety of Books, and
especially from the MS. Notes of the late ingenious Mr. COXETER and
others, collected for this Design,
By Mr. CIBBER.
In FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
MDCCLIII.
VOLUME I.
Contains the
LIVES
O F
Chaucer
Langland
Gower
Lydgate
Harding
Skelton
Barclay
More
Surry Earl
Wyat
Sackville
Churchyard
Heywood
Ferrars
Sidney
Marloe
Green
Spenser
Heywood
Lilly
Overbury
Marsten
Shakespear
Sylvester
Daniel
Harrington
Decker
Beaumont and Fletcher
Lodge
Davies
Goff
Greville L. Brooke
Day
Raleigh
Donne
Drayton
Corbet
Fairfax
Randolph
Chapman
Johnson
Carew
Wotton
Markham
T. Heywood
Cartwright
Sandys
Falkland
Suckling
Hausted
Drummond
Stirling Earl
Hall
Crashaw
Rowley
Nash
Ford
Middleton
THE LIVES OF THE POETS.
* * * *
GEOFFRY CHAUCER.
It has been observed that men of eminence in all ages, and
distinguished for the same excellence, have generally had something in
their lives similar to each other. The place of Homer's nativity, has
not been more variously conjectured, or his parents more differently
assigned than our author's. Leland, who lived nearest to Chaucer's
time of all those who have wrote his life, was commissioned by king
Henry VIII, to search all the libraries, and religious houses in
England, when those archives were preserved, before their destruction
was produced by the reformation, or Polydore Virgil had consumed such
curious pieces as would have contradicted his framed and fabulous
history. He for some reasons believed Oxford or Berkshire to have
given birth to this great man, but has not informed us what those
reasons were that induced him to believe so, and at present there
appears no other, but that the seats of his family were in those
countries. Pitts positively asserts, without producing any authority
to support it, that Woodstock was the place; which opinion Mr. Camden
seems to hint at, where he mentions that town; but it may be suspected
that Pitts had no other ground for the assertion, than Chaucer's
mentioning Woodstock park in his works, and having a house there. But
after all these different pretensions, he himself, in the Testament of
Love, seems to point out the place of his nativity to be the city of
London, and tho' Mr. Camden mentions the claim of Woodstock, he
does not give much credit to it; for speaking of Spencer (who was
uncontrovertedly born in London) he calls him fellow citizen to
Chaucer.
The descent of Chaucer is as uncertain, and unfixed by the critics,
as the place of his birth. Mr. Speight is of opinion that one Richard
Chaucer was his father, and that one Elizabeth Chaucer, a nun of St.
Helen's, in the second year of Richard II. might have been his sister,
or of his kindred. But this conjecture, says Urry,[1] seems very
improbable; for this Richard was a vintner, living at the corner of
Kirton-lane, and at his death left his house, tavern, and stock to the
church of St. Mary Aldermary, which in all probability he would not
have done if he had had any sons to possess his fortune; nor is it
very likely he could enjoy the family estates mentioned by Leland in
Oxfordshire, and at the same time follow such an occupation. Pitts
asserts, that his father was a knight; but tho' there is no authority
to support this assertion, yet it is reasonable to suppose that he
was something superior to a common employ. We find one John Chaucer
attending upon Edward III. and Queen Philippa, in their expedition to
Flanders and Cologn, who had the King's protection to go over sea
in the twelfth year of his reign. It is highly probable that
this gentleman was father to our Geoffry, and the supposition is
strengthened by Chaucer's first application, after leaving the
university and inns of law, being to the Court; nor is it unlikely
that the service of the father should recommend the son.
It is universally agreed, that he was born in the second year of the
reign of King Edward III. A.D. 1328. His first studies were in the
university of Cambridge, and when about eighteen years of age he wrote
his Court of Love, but of what college he was is uncertain, there
being no account of him in the records of the University. From
Cambridge he was removed to Oxford in order to compleat his studies,
and after a considerable stay there, and a strict application to the
public lectures of the university, he became (says Leland) "a ready
logician, a smooth rhetorician, a pleasant poet, a great philosopher,
an ingenious mathematician, and a holy divine. That he was a great
master in astronomy, is plain by his discourses of the Astrolabe. That
he was versed in hermetic philosophy (which prevailed much at that
time), appears by his Tale of the Chanons Yeoman: His knowledge in
divinity is evident from his Parson's Tale, and his philosophy from
the Testament of Love." Thus qualified to make a figure in the world,
he left his learned retirement, and travelled into France, Holland,
and other countries, where he spent some of his younger days. Upon his
return he entered himself in the Inner Temple, where he studied the
municipal laws of the land. But he had not long prosecuted that dry
study, till his superior abilities were taken notice of by some
persons of distinction, by whole patronage he then approached the
splendor of the court. The reign of Edward III. was glorious and
successful, he was a discerning as well as a fortunate Monarch; he had
a taste as well for erudition as for arms; he was an encourager of men
of wit and parts, and permitted them to approach him, without reserve.
At Edward's court nothing but gallantry and a round of pleasure
prevailed, and how well qualified our poet was to shine in the soft
circles, whoever has read his works, will be at no loss to determine;
but besides the advantages of his wit and learning, he possessed those
of person in a very considerable degree. He was then about the age of
thirty, of a fair beautiful complexion, his lips red and full, his
size of a just medium, and his air polished and graceful, so that he
united whatever could claim the approbation of the Great, and charm
the eyes of the Fair. He had abilities to record the valour of the
one, and celebrate the beauty of the other, and being qualified by his
genteel behaviour to entertain both, he became a finished courtier.
The first dignity to which we find him preferred, was that of page
to the king, a place of so much honour and esteem at that time, that
Richard II. leaves particular legacies to his pages, when few others
of his servants are taken notice of. In the forty-first year of Edward
III. he received as a reward of his services, an annuity of twenty
marks per ann. payable out of the Exchequer, which in those days was
no inconsiderable pension; in a year after he was advanced to be of
his Majesty's privy chamber, and a very few months to be his shield
bearer, a title, at that time, (tho' now extinct) of very great
honour, being always next the king's person, and generally upon signal
victories rewarded with military honours. Our poet being thus eminent
by his places, contracted friendships, and procured the esteem of
persons of the first quality. Queen Philippa, the Duke of Lancaster,
and his Duchess Blanch, shewed particular honour to him, and lady
Margaret the king's daughter, and the countess of Pembroke gave him
their warmest patronage as a poet. In his poems called the Romaunt,
and the Rose, and Troilus and Creseide, he gave offence to some court
ladies by the looseness of his description, which the lady Margaret
resented, and obliged him to atone for it, by his Legend of good
Women, a piece as chaste as the others were luxuriously amorous, and,
under the name of the Daisy, he veils lady Margaret, whom of all his
patrons he most esteemed.
Thus loved and honoured, his younger years were dedicated to pleasure
and the court. By the recommendation of the Dutchess Blanch, he
married one Philippa Rouet, sister to the guardianess of her grace's
children, who was a native of Hainault: He was then about thirty years
of age, and being fixed by marriage, the king began to employ him in
more public and advantageous posts. In the forty-sixth year of his
majesty's reign, Chaucer was sent to Venice in commission with others,
to treat with the Doge and Senate of Genoa, about affairs of great
importance to our state. The duke of Lancaster, whose favourite
passion was ambition, which demanded the assistance of learned
men, engaged warmly in our poet's interest; besides, the duke was
remarkably fond of Lady Catherine Swynford, his wife's sister, who
was then guardianess to his children, and whom he afterwards made his
wife; thus was he doubly attached to Chaucer, and with the varying
fortune of the duke of Lancaster we find him rise or fall. Much about
this time, for his successful negociations at Genoa, the king granted
to him by letters patent, by the title of Armiger Noster, one
pitcher of wine daily in the port of London, and soon after made him
comptroller of the customs, with this particular proviso, that he
should personally execute the office, and write the accounts relating
to it with his own hand. But as he was advanced to higher places
of trust, so he became more entangled in the affairs of state, the
consequence of which proved very prejudicial to him. The duke of
Lancaster having been the chief instrument of raising him to dignity,
expected the fruits of those favours in a ready compliance with him
in all his designs. That prince was certainly one of the proudest and
most ambitious men of his time, nor could he patiently bear the name
of a subject even to his father; nothing but absolute power, and the
title of king could satisfy him; upon the death of his elder brother,
Edward the black prince, he fixed an eye upon the English crown, and
seemed to stretch out an impatient hand to reach it. In this view he
sought, by all means possible, to secure his interest against the
decease of the old king; and being afraid of the opposition of the
clergy, who are always strenuous against an irregular succession, he
embraced the opinions and espoused the interests of Wickliff, who now
appeared at Oxford, and being a man of very great abilities, and much
esteemed at court, drew over to his party great numbers, as well
fashionable as low people. In this confusion, the duke of Lancaster
endeavoured all he could to shake the power of the clergy, and to
procure votaries amongst the leading popular men. Chaucer had no small
hand in promoting these proceedings, both by his public interest and
writings. Towards the close of Edward's reign, he was very active in
the intrigues of the court party, and so recommended himself to the
Prince successor, that upon his ascending the throne, he confirmed to
him by the title of Dilectus Armiger Noster, the grant made by the
late king of twenty marks per annum, and at the same time confirmed
the other grant of the late King for a pitcher of wine to be delivered
him daily in the port of London. In less than two years after this, we
find our poet so reduced in his cirumstances, (but by what means is
unknown) that the King in order to screen him from his creditors, took
him under his protection, and allowed him still to enjoy his former
grants. The duke of Lancaster, whose restless ambition ever excited
him to disturb the state, engaged now with, all the interest of
which he was master to promote himself to the crown; the opinions of
Wickliff gained ground, and so great a commotion now prevailed amongst
the clergy, that the king perceiving the state in danger, and being
willing to support the clerical interest, suffered the archbishop of
Canterbury to summon Wickliff to appear before him, whose interest
after this arraignment very much decayed.[2] The king who was devoted
to his pleasures, resigned himself, to some young courtiers who hated
the duke of Lancaster, and caused a fryar to accuse him of an attempt
to kill the king; but before he had an opportunity of making out the
charge against him, the fryar was murdered in a cruel and barbarous
manner by lord John Holland, to whose care he had been committed. This
lord John Holland, called lord Huntingdon, and duke of Exeter, was
half brother to the King, and had married Elizabeth, daughter of
the duke of Lancaster. He was a great patron of Chaucer, and much
respected by him. With the duke of Lancaster's interest Chaucer's
also sunk. His patron being unable to support him, he could no longer
struggle against opposite parties, or maintain his posts of honour.
The duke passing over sea, his friends felt all the malice of an
enraged court; which induced them to call in a number of the populace
to assist them, of which our poet was a zealous promoter. One John
of Northampton, a late lord mayor of London was at the head of these
disturbances; which did not long continue; for upon beheading one of
the rioters, and Northampton's being taken into custody, the commotion
subsided. Strict search was made after Chaucer, who escaped into
Hainault; afterwards he went to France, and finding the king resolute
to get him into his hands, he fled from thence to Zealand. Several
accomplices in this affair were with him, whom he supported in their
exile, while the chief ringleaders, (except Northampton who was
condemned at Reading upon the evidence of his clerk) had restored
themselves to court favour by acknowledging their crime, and now
forgot the integrity and resolution of Chaucer, who suffered exile to
secure their secrets; and so monstrously ungrateful were they, that
they wished his death, and by keeping supplies of money from him,
endeavoured to effect it;--While he expended his fortune in removing
from place to place, and in supporting his fellow exiles, so far from
receiving any assistance from England, his apartments were let, and
the money received for rent was never acccounted for to him; nor could
he recover any from those who owed it him, they being of opinion
it was impossible for him ever to return to his own country. The
government still pursuing their resentment against him and his
friends, they were obliged to leave Zealand, and Chaucer being unable
to bear longer the calamities of poverty and exile, and finding no
security wherever he fled, chose rather to throw himself upon the laws
of his country, than perish abroad by hunger and oppression. He had
not long returned till he was arrested by order of the king, and
confined in the tower of London. The court sometimes flattered
him with the return of the royal favour if he would impeach his
accomplices, and sometimes threatened him with immediate destruction;
their threats and promises he along while disregarded, but
recollecting the ingratitude of his old friends, and the miseries he
had already suffered, he at last made a confession, and according to
the custom of trials at that time, offered to prove the truth of it by
combat. What the consequence of this discovery was to his accomplices,
is uncertain, it no doubt exposed him to their resentment, and
procured him the name of a traytor; but the king, who regarded him as
one beloved by his grandfather, was pleased to pardon him. Thus fallen
from a heighth of greatness, our poet retired to bemoan the fickleness
of fortune, and then wrote his Testament of Love, in which are many
pathetic exclamations concerning the vicissitude of human things,
which he then bitterly experienced. But as he had formerly been the
favourite of fortune, when dignities were multiplied thick upon him,
so his miseries now succeeded with an equal swiftness; he was not only
discarded by his majesty, unpensioned, and abandoned, but he lost the
favour of the duke of Lancaster, as the influence of his wife's sister
with that prince was now much lessened. The duke being dejected with
the troubles in which he was involved, began to reflect on his
vicious course of life, and particularly his keeping that lady as
his concubine; which produced a resolution of putting her out of his
house, and he made a vow to that purpose. Chaucer, thus reduced, and
weary of the perpetual turmoils at court, retired to Woodstock, to
enjoy a studious quiet; where he wrote his excellent treatise of the
Astrolabe; but notwithstanding the severe treatment of the government,
he still retained his loyalty, and strictly enjoined his son to pray
for the king. As the pious resolutions of some people are often the
consequence of a present evil, so at the return of prosperity they are
soon dissipated. This proved the case with the duke of Lancaster: his
party again gathered strength, his interest began to rise; upon which
he took again his mistress to his bosom, and not content with heaping
favours, honours, and titles upon her, he made her his wife, procured
an act of parliament to legitimate her children, which gave great
offence to the duchess of Gloucester, the countess of Derby, and
Arundel, as she then was entitled to take place of them. With her
interest, Chaucer's also returned, and after a long and bitter storm,
the sun began to shine upon him with an evening ray; for at the
sixty-fifth year of his age, the king granted to him, by the title of
Delectus Armiger Noster, an annuity of twenty marks per annum
during his life, as a compensation for the former pension his needy
circumstances obliged him to part with; but however sufficient that
might be for present support, yet as he was encumbered with debts,
he durst not appear publickly till his majesty again granted him his
royal protection to screen him from the persecution of his creditors;
he also restored to him his grant of a pitcher of wine daily, and a
pipe annually, to be delivered to him by his son Thomas, who that year
possessed the office of chief butler to the king.
Now that I have mentioned his son, it will not be improper, to take
a view of our author's domestical affairs, at least as far as we are
enabled, by materials that have descended to our times.
Thomas his eldest son, was married to one of the greatest fortunes in
England, Maud, daughter and heir of Sir John Burgheershe, knight of
the garter, and Dr. Henry Burghurshe bishop of Lincoln, chancellor
and treasurer of England. Mr. Speight says this lady was given him in
marriage by Edward III. in return of his services performed in his
embassies in France. His second son Lewis was born in 1381, for when
his father wrote the treatise of the Astrolabe, he was ten years
old; he was then a student in Merton college in Oxford, and pupil to
Nicholas Strade, but there is no further account of him. Thomas who
now enjoyed the office of chief butler to his majesty, had the same
place confirmed to him for life, by letters patent to king Henry IV,
and continued by Henry VI. In the 2d year of Henry IV, we find him
Speaker of the House of Commons, Sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire,
and Constable of Wallingford castle and Knaresborough castle during
life. In the 6th year of the same prince, he was sent ambassador to
France. In the 9th of the same reign the Commons presented him their
Speaker; as they did likewise in the 11th year. Soon after this Queen
Jane, granted to him for his good service, the manor of Woodstock,
Hannerborough and Wotten during life; and in the 13th year, he was
again presented Speaker as he was in the 2d of Henry V, and much
about that time he was sent by the king, to treat of a marriage
with Catherine daughter to the duke of Burgundy; he was sent again
ambassador to France, and passed thro' a great many public stations.
Mr. Stebbing says that he was knighted, but we find no such title
given him in any record. He died at Ewelm, the chief place of his
residence, in the year 1434. By his wife Maud he had one daughter
named Alice, who was thrice married, first to Sir John Philips, and
afterwards to Thomas Montacute earl of Salisbury: her third husband
was the famous William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, who lost his head
by the fury of the Yorkists, who dreaded his influence in the opposite
party, tho' he stood proscribed by the parliament of Henry VI. for
misguiding that easy prince. Their son John had three sons, the second
of whom, Edmund, forfeited his life to the crown for treason against
Henry VII, by which means the estates which Chaucer's family possessed
came to the crown. But to return to our poet: By means of the duke
of Lancaster's marriage with his sister in law, he again grew to a
considerable share of wealth; but being now about seventy years of
age, and fatigued with a tedious view of hurried greatness, he quitted
the stage of grandeur where he had acted so considerable a part with
varied success, and retired to Dunnigton castle[3] near Newbury, to
reflect at leisure upon past transactions in the still retreats of
contemplation. In this retirement did he spend his few remaining
years, universally loved and honoured; he was familiar with all men of
learning in his time, and contracted friendship with persons of the
greatest eminence as well in literature as politics; Gower, Occleve,
Lidgate, Wickliffe were great admirers, and particular friends
of Chaucer; besides he was well acquainted with foreign poets,
particularly Francis Petrarch the famous Italian poet, and refiner of
the language. A Revolution in England soon after this happened,
in which we find Chaucer but little concerned; he made no mean
compliments to Henry IV, but Gower his cotemporary, though then very
old, flattered the reigning prince, and insulted the memory of his
murdered Sovereign. All acts of parliament and grants in the last
reign being annulled, Chaucer again repaired to Court to get fresh
grants, but bending with age and weakness, tho' he was successful in
his request, the fatigue of attendance so overcame him, that death
prevented his enjoying his new possessions. He died the 25th of
October in the year 1400, in the second of Henry IV, in the 72d of
his age, and bore the shock of death with the same fortitude and
resignation with which he had undergone a variety of pressures, and
vicissitudes of fortune.
Dryden says, he was poet laureat to three kings, but Urry is of
opinion that Dryden must be mistaken, as among all his works not one
court poem is to be found, and Selden observes, that he could find no
poet honoured with that title in England before the reign of Edward
IV, to whom one John Kaye dedicated the Siege of Rhodes in prose by
the title of his Humble Poet Laureat.
I cannot better display the character of this great man than in the
following words of Urry. "As to his temper, says he, he had a mixture
of the gay, the modest and the grave. His reading was deep and
extensive, his judgment sound and discerning; he was communicative of
his knowledge, and ready to correct or pass over the faults of his
cotemporary writers. He knew how to judge of and excuse the slips of
weaker capacities, and pitied rather than exposed the ignorance of
that age. In one word, he was a great scholar, a pleasant wit, a
candid critic, a sociable companion, a stedfast friend, a great
philosopher, a temperate oeconomist, and a pious christian." As to
his genius as a poet, Dryden (than whom a higher authority cannot be
produced) speaking of Homer and Virgil, positively asserts, that our
author exceeded the latter, and stands in competition with the former.
His language, how unintelligible soever it may seem, is almost as
modern as any of his cotemporaries, or of those who followed him at
the distance of 50 or 60 years, as Harding, Skelton and others, and
in some places it is so smooth and beautiful, that Dryden would not
attempt to alter it; I shall now give some account of his works in
the order in which they were written, so far as can be collected from
them, and subjoin a specimen of his poetry, of which profession as he
may justly be called the Morning Star, so as we descend into later
times; we may see the progress of poetry in England from its great
original, Chaucer, to its full blaze, and perfect consummation in
Dryden.
Mr. Philips supposes a greater part of his works to be lost, than what
we have extant of him; of that number may be many a song, and many a
lecherous lay, which perhaps might have been written by him while he
was a student at Cambridge.
The Court of Love, as has been before observed, was written while he
resided at Cambridge in the 18th year of his age.