Now will we rehearse what writers of our English nation liued in the daies of this king. That renowmed poet Geffrie Chaucer is woorthilie named as principall, a man so exquisitlie learned in all sciences, that his match was not lightlie found any where in those daies; and for reducing our English toong to a perfect conformitie, [Sidenote: _Iohn Stow_.] he hath excelled therein all other; he departed this life about the yeare of our Lord 1402, as Bale gathereth: but by other it appeareth, that he deceassed the fiue and twentith of October in the yeare 1400, and lieth buried at Westminster, in the south part of the great church there, as by a monument erected by Nicholas Brigham it doth appeare. Iohn Gower descended of that worthie familie of the Gowers of Stitenham in Yorkeshire (as Leland noteth) studied not onelie the common lawes of this realme, but also other kinds of literature, and great knowledge in the same, namelie in poeticall inuentions, applieng his indeuor with Chaucer, to garnish the English toong, in bringing it from a rude vnperfectnesse, vnto a more apt elegancie: for whereas before those daies, the learned vsed to write onelie in Latine or French, and not in English, our toong remained verie barren, rude, and vnperfect; but now by the diligent industrie of Chaucer and Gower, it was within a while greatlie amended, so as it grew not onelie verie rich and plentifull in words, but also so proper and apt to expresse that which the mind conceiued, as anie other vsuall language. Gower departed this life shortlie after the deceasse of his déere and louing freend Chaucer; to wit, in the yeare 1402, being then come to great age, and blind for a certeine time before his death. He was buried in the church of saint Marie Oueries in Southwarke.