the Nineteen Ladies) was written to oblige the queen, at the request
of the countess of Pembroke.

The treatise of the Conclusion of the Astrolabie was written in the
year 1391.

Of the Cuckow and Nightingale, this seems by the description to have
been written at Woodstock.

The Ballade beginning In Feverre, &c. was a compliment to the countess
of Pembroke.

Several other ballads are ascribed to him, some of which are justly
suspected not to have been his. The comedies imputed to him are no
other than his Canterbury Tales, and the tragedies were those the
monks tell in his Tales.

The Testament of Love was written in his trouble the latter part of
his life.

The Song beginning Fly fro the Prese, &c. was written in his
death-bed.

Leland says, that by the content of the learned in his time, the
Plowman's Tale was attributed to Chaucer, but was suppressed in the
edition then extant, because the vices of the clergy were exposed in
it. Mr. Speight in his life of Chaucer, printed in 1602, mentions a
tale in William Thynne's first printed book of Chaucer's works more
odious to the clergy than the Plowman's Tale. One thing must not be
omitted concerning the works of Chaucer. In the year 1526 the bishop