is that of Count Hugo of Pisa, which is drawn direct from Canto XXXIII of the _Inferno_, and it is impossible not to feel that the intense reverence for things holy which underlay all Chaucer's shrewdness and humour, may have been due--at least in part--to the influence of one of the greatest of all religious poets. Of Petrarch he speaks with admiration in the preface to the tale which he borrows from him, but except for a translation of the eighty-eighth sonnet which is inserted in Book I of _Troilus and Criseyde_, under the heading _Cantus Troili_, there is little evidence of any direct influence. From Boccaccio he borrowed freely, with a royal bettering in the borrowing. _Troilus and Criseyde_ is taken bodily from the _Filostrato_, though with numerous additions, omissions, alterations, and adaptations: the _Knightes Tale_ is condensed from the twelve books of the _Teseide_: the idea of the _Canterbury Tales_ is taken from that of the _Decamerone_, though with the very significant difference that whereas Boccaccio's story-tellers are all drawn from one class and are shut off from intercourse with the outer world, Chaucer's range from knight to miller, from aristocratic prioress to bourgeois wife of Bath, and the fact of their being on a pilgrimage affords opportunity for incident on the way and for the introduction of fresh characters, thus giving scope for far greater variety and keeping far more closely in touch with actual life. Between 1377 and 1382 he translated Boëthius's _De Consolatione Philosophiæ_, a work which evidently produced a deep impression upon him. In 1382 Chaucer produced another topical poem. So far he had addressed himself to John of Gaunt--for whom not only the _Book of the Duchesse_, but the scandalous _Compleint of Mars_ is said to have been written; now he addresses King Richard, and after the fashion of the day clothes in allegorical compliment the story of his wooing of Anne of Bohemia, who had twice before been engaged to other suitors. The wedding festivities lasted over February 14, when St. Valentine marries every year, The lyric lark, and the grave whispering dove, The sparrow that neglects his life for love, The household bird with the red stomacher;