her was probably due in the first instance the
intellectual intercourse between her native and her adopted country.
There seems every reason to believe that it was the approach of this
marriage which Chaucer celebrated in one of the brightest and most
jocund marriage-poems ever composed by a laureate's hand; and if this
was so, he cannot but have augmented the favour with which he was
regarded at Court. When, therefore, by May, 1382, his foreign journeys
had come to an end, we do not wonder to find that, without being called
upon to relinquish his former office, he was appointed in addition to
the Comptrollership of the Petty Customs in the Port of London, of
which post he was allowed to execute the duties by deputy. In
November, 1384, he received permission to absent himself from his old
comptrollership for a month, and in February, 1385, was allowed to
appoint a (permanent) deputy for this office also. During the month of
October, 1386, he sat in Parliament at Westminster as one of the
Knights of the Shire for Kent, where we may consequently assume him to
have possessed landed property. His fortunes, therefore, at this
period had clearly risen to their height; and naturally enough his
commentators are anxious to assign to these years the sunniest, as well
as some of the most elaborate, of his literary productions. It is
altogether probable that the amount of leisure now at Chaucer's command
enabled him to carry into execution some of the works for which he had
gathered materials abroad and at home, and to prepare others. Inasmuch
as it contains the passage cited above, referring to Chaucer's official
employment, his poem called the "House of Fame" must have been written
between 1374 and 1386 (when Chaucer quitted office), and probably is to
be dated near the latter year. Inasmuch as both this poem and "Troilus
and Cressid" are mentioned in the Prologue to the "Legend of Good
Women," they must have been written earlier than it; and the dedication
of "Troilus" to Gower and Strode very well agrees with the relations
known to have existed about this time between Chaucer and his
brother-poet. Very probably all these three works may have been put
forth, in more or less rapid succession, during this fortunate season
of Chaucer's life.

A fortunate season--for in it the prince who, from whatever cause, was
indisputably the patron of Chaucer and his wife, had, notwithstanding
his unpopularity among the lower orders, an