We must next note that Chaucer’s life was not that of a poetic dreamer, but of a stirring business man.  For more than twelve years he was controller of customs for London.  This office necessitated assessing duties on wools, skins, wines, and candles.  Only a part of this work could be performed by deputy.  He was later overseeing clerk of the king’s works.  The repeated selection of Chaucer for foreign and diplomatic business shows that he was considered sagacious as well as trustworthy.  Had he not kept in close touch with life, he could never have become so great a poet.  In this connection we may remark that England’s second greatest writer, Milton, spent his prime in attending to affairs of state.  Chaucer’s busy life did not keep him from attaining third place on the list of England’s poets.

There are many passages of autobiographical interest in his poems.  He was a student of books as well as of men, as is shown by these lines from the Hous of Fame:—­

  “For whan thy labour doon al is,
  And halt y-maad thy rekeninges,
  In stede of rest and newe thinges,
  Thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon,
  And, also domb as any stoon,
  Thou sittest at another boke,
  Til fully daswed[31] is thy loke,
  And livest thus as an hermyte."[32]

Chaucer was pensioned by three kings,—­Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV.  Before the reign of Henry IV., Chaucer’s pensions were either not always regularly paid, or they were insufficient for certain emergencies, as he complained of poverty in his old age.  The pension of Henry IV. in 1399 must have been ample, however; since in that year Chaucer leased a house in the garden of a chapel at Westminster for as many of fifty-three years as he should live.  He had occasion to use this house but ten months, for he died in 1400.

He may be said to have founded the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, as he was the first of the many great authors to be buried there.

Chaucer’s Earlier Poems.—­At the age of forty, Chaucer had probably written not more than one seventh of a total of about 35,000 lines of verse which he left at his death.  Before he reached his poetic prime, he showed two periods of influence,—­French and Italian.

During his first period, he studied French models.  He learned much from his partial translation of the popular French Romaunt of the Rose.  The best poem of his French period is Dethe of Blanche the Duchesse, a tribute to the wife of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III.

Chaucer’s journey to Italy next turned his attention to Italian models.  A study of these was of especial service in helping him to acquire that skill which enabled him to produce the masterpieces of his third or English period.  This study came at a specially opportune time and resulted in communicating to him something of the spirit of the early Renaissance.