DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6887#0124
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 91
" Honourable Henry Pelham, minister of state to King George II." But neither
his age nor the time of his death is noticed.
(86). Geoffrey Chaucer.-This tomb stands at the north end of a mag-
nificent recess, formed by four obtuse foliaged arches, and is a plain altar, with
three quatrefoils, and the same number of shields.
Chaucer was born in London, in 1328. He received the first part of his
education at Cambridge, and completed it at Merton College, in Oxford. He
then proceeded to study the law in the Middle Temple. He enjoyed several
honourable offices at court, and was in favour with Edward III. and Henry IV. in
the second year of whose reign he died, at London, aged seventy-two years. He
was buried before the chapel of St. Bennet, where his gravestone of grey marble
was taken up, according to Dart, when Mr. Dryden's monument was erected,
and sawed in pieces to mend the pavement*. On the corner pillar of St. Ben-
net's chapel, hung anciently a leaden plate, with his epitaph written by Surigoni .
a poet of Milan, which appears in the frontispiece of his works. This was the
only sepulchral memorial of the poet, till about the year 1555, Mr. Nicholas
Brigham erected this monument as near his grave as a convenient spot for it
could be found, on which his picture was formerly painted, in a blank on the
north side of the epitaph, but has long since disappeared. It was exactly like the
painting of Ocklefe, printed before the old edition of his works, and was remaining
in the time of Mr. Ashmole. It is also to be seen in subsequent editions of them.
The following verses were formerly legible on the verge of the tomb :
Si rogitas.quis eram forsan te fama docebit,
Quod si fama neget mundi quia gloria transit,
Haec monumenta lege.
On the inside of the recess were his arms, now no longer visible; but they
* History of St. Peter's, Westminster, Vol. I. p. 83.
. N 2
" Honourable Henry Pelham, minister of state to King George II." But neither
his age nor the time of his death is noticed.
(86). Geoffrey Chaucer.-This tomb stands at the north end of a mag-
nificent recess, formed by four obtuse foliaged arches, and is a plain altar, with
three quatrefoils, and the same number of shields.
Chaucer was born in London, in 1328. He received the first part of his
education at Cambridge, and completed it at Merton College, in Oxford. He
then proceeded to study the law in the Middle Temple. He enjoyed several
honourable offices at court, and was in favour with Edward III. and Henry IV. in
the second year of whose reign he died, at London, aged seventy-two years. He
was buried before the chapel of St. Bennet, where his gravestone of grey marble
was taken up, according to Dart, when Mr. Dryden's monument was erected,
and sawed in pieces to mend the pavement*. On the corner pillar of St. Ben-
net's chapel, hung anciently a leaden plate, with his epitaph written by Surigoni .
a poet of Milan, which appears in the frontispiece of his works. This was the
only sepulchral memorial of the poet, till about the year 1555, Mr. Nicholas
Brigham erected this monument as near his grave as a convenient spot for it
could be found, on which his picture was formerly painted, in a blank on the
north side of the epitaph, but has long since disappeared. It was exactly like the
painting of Ocklefe, printed before the old edition of his works, and was remaining
in the time of Mr. Ashmole. It is also to be seen in subsequent editions of them.
The following verses were formerly legible on the verge of the tomb :
Si rogitas.quis eram forsan te fama docebit,
Quod si fama neget mundi quia gloria transit,
Haec monumenta lege.
On the inside of the recess were his arms, now no longer visible; but they
* History of St. Peter's, Westminster, Vol. I. p. 83.
. N 2