Excerpt from Chaucer The biography of Geoffrey Chaucer is no longer a mixture of unsifted facts, and of more or less hazardous con jectures. Many and wide as are the gaps in our knowledge concerning the course of his outer life, and doubtful as many important passages of it remain - ih vexatious contrast with the certainty of other relatively insignificant data we have at least become aware Of the foundations on which alone a trustworthy account of it can be built. These foundations consist partly of a meagre though gradually increasing array Of external evidence, chiefly to be found in public documents, - in the Royal Wardrobe Book, the Issue Rolls Of the Exchequer, the Customs Rolls, and suchlike records - partly Of the conclusions which may be drawn with confidence from the internal evidence of the poet's own indisputably genuine works, together with a few references to him in the writings of his contemporaries or immediate successors. Which of his works are to be accepted as genuine, necessarily forms the subject of an antecedent enquiry, such as cannot with b[cha P. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.