Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. 1: With Poems Formerly Printed With His or Attributed to Him
The only object of sifting such points as these is to exhaust the speculations that present themselves in the course of the inquiry, and to reduce a question of some literary interest to its exact limits. The result is clear and simple. There are no proofs that Chaucer and Petrarch met at Padua; nor is there, on the other hand, any constructive or collateral evi dence, as to time, place, or circumstances, to show that such a meeting was impossible, or even unlikely. The fact rests altogether on Chaucer's own testimony, given in the person of the Clerk of Oxenford, and the precision of that testimony should not be overlooked in weighing the amount of credit to which it is entitled. The Clerk does'not say in general terms that he obtained the story from Petrarch, but that he learned it from him at Padua. A statement so particular carries at all events the appearance of being intended to apply to an actual occurrence, and not to a fictitious incident.
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