1366 (at latest). The Romaunt of the Rose. 1369. The Book of the Duchesse. 1372. (end of the period). SECOND PERIOD. 1373. The Lyf of Seint Cecile. The Assembly of Foules. Palamon and Arcite. Translation of Boethius. Troilus and Creseide. 1384. The House of Fame. THIRD PERIOD. 1385. Legend of Good Women. Canterbury Tales. 1391. Treatise on the Astrolabe. It is unnecessary for our present purpose to insert the conjectured dates of the Minor Poems not here mentioned. According to Ten Brink, the poems of the First Period were composed before Chaucer set out on his Italian travels, i.e. before December, 1372, and contain no allusions to writings by Italian authors. In them, the influence of French authors is very strongly marked. The poems of the Second Period (he tells us) were composed after that date. The Life of Seint Cecile already marks the author's acquaintance with Dante's Divina Commedia; lines 36-51 are, in fact, a free translation from the Paradiso, canto xxxiii. ll. 1-21. See my note to this passage, and the remarks on the 'Second Nun's Tale' in vol. v. The Parlement of Foules contains references to Dante and a long passage translated from Boccaccio's Teseide; see my notes to that poem in vol. i. The original Palamon and Arcite was also taken from the Teseide; for even the revised version of it (now known as the Knightes Tale, and containing, doubtless, much more of Chaucer's own work) is founded upon that poem, and occasionally presents verbal imitations of it. Troilus is similarly dependent upon Boccaccio's Filostrato. The close connexion between Troilus and the translation of Boethius is seen from several considerations, of which it may suffice here to mention two. The former is the association of these two works in Chaucer's lines to Adam-- 'Adam scriveyn, if ever it thee befalle _Boece_ or _Troilus_ to wryten newe.' Minor Poems; see vol. i. p. 379. And the latter is, the fact that Chaucer inserts in Troilus (book iv. stanzas 140-154) a long passage on predestination and free-will, taken from Boethius, book v. proses 2, 3; which he would appear to have still fresh in his mind. It is probable that his Boethius preceded Troilus almost immediately; indeed, it is conceivable that, for a short season, both may have been in hand at the same time.