Chaucer: Geoffrey Chaucer Biography

Many and wide as arethe gaps in our knowledge concerning the course of his outer life, anddoubtful as many important passages of it remain--in vexatious contrastwith the certainty of other relatively insignificant data--we have atleast become aware of the foundations on which alone a trustworthyaccount of it can be built.

These foundations consist partly of ameagre though gradually increasing array of external evidence, chieflyto be found in public documents,--in the Royal Wardrobe Book, the IssueRolls of the Exchequer, the Customs Rolls, and suchlike records--partlyof the conclusions which may be drawn with confidence from the internalevidence of the poet's own indisputably genuine works, together with afew references to him in the writings of his contemporaries orimmediate successors.