I know of no poet in the history of England who occupied so high a social position as did Chaucer, or who received so many honors.  The poet of the people was the companion of kings and princes.  At one time he had a reverse of fortune, when his friend and patron, the Duke of Lancaster, was in disgrace and in voluntary banishment during the minority of Richard II., against whom he had intrigued, and who afterwards was dethroned by Henry IV., a son of the Duke of Lancaster.  While the Duke of Gloucester was in power, Chaucer was deprived of his offices and revenues for two or three years, and was even imprisoned in the Tower; but when Lancaster returned from the Continent, his offices and revenues were restored.  His latter days were luxurious and honored.  At fifty-one he gave up his public duties as a collector of customs, chiefly on wool, and retired to Woodstock and spent the remainder of his fortunate life in dignified leisure and literary labors.  In addition to his revenues, the Duke of Lancaster, who was virtually the ruler of the land during the reign of Richard II., gave him the castle of Donnington, with its park and gardens; so that he became a man of territorial influence.  At the age of fifty-eight he removed to London, and took a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, where the chapel of Henry VII. now stands.  He died the following year, and was buried in the Abbey church,—­that sepulchre of princes and bishops and abbots.  His body was deposited in the place now known as the Poets’ Corner, and a fitting monument to his genius was erected over his remains, as the first great poet that had appeared in England, probably only surpassed in genius by Shakspeare, until the language assumed its present form.  He was regarded as a moral phenomenon, whom kings and princes delighted to honor.  As Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of Francis I., so Chaucer rested in his grave near the bodies of those sovereigns and princes with whom he lived in intimacy and friendship.  It was the rarity of his gifts, his great attainments, elegant manners, and refined tastes which made him the companion of the great, since at that time only princes and nobles and ecclesiastical dignitaries could appreciate his genius or enjoy his writings.

Although Chaucer had written several poems which were admired in his day, and made translations from the French, among which was the “Roman de la Rose,” the most popular poem of the Middle Ages,—­a poem which represented the difficulties attendant on the passion of love, under the emblem of a rose which had to be plucked amid thorns,—­yet his best works were written in the leisure of declining years.