There has been much controversy over these words. We must all wish to believe that Chaucer met Petrarch at Padua and was friendly with him; but although it is highly probable that he did so we have no actual evidence other than this passage. Some say that Chaucer is not speaking here in his own name but in that of a fictitious character, and therefore the statement goes for nothing. Another objection is that here Chaucer’s indebtedness to Boccaccio is overlooked and all the credit is given to Petrarch. It is highly probable however that Chaucer was interested in the story from Petrarch’s talk, and that when he decided to make it one of his Canterbury Tales he adapted it from Petrarch’s translation of Boccaccio, which is referred to farther on in the Prologue:— “I say that he first with heigh stole enditeth (Er he the body of his tale writith) A proheme, in the which descrivith he Piemounde, and of Saluces the contre, And spekith of Appenyne the hulles hye, That ben the boundes of al west Lombardye.” That this is the true origin of the Clerk’s tale is confirmed by the fact that Petrarch varied somewhat from Boccaccio’s original, and in these variations Chaucer follows Petrarch. An impossible tale such as this requires all the art of the true poet to make it delightful to us, and this of course we have in Chaucer. It is far different when we come to read the common-place prose of the chap-book or the equally common-place verse of the ballad-monger.