With Anglo-French Chaucer may well have been familiar from an early age, so that the adaptation of the Man of Lawes Tale from the Chronicle by Nicholas Trivet could not have caused him much trouble. But he was also perfectly familiar with the French of the continent, and was under great obligations to Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and to Guillaume de Machault. He made translations of poems by Guillaume de Deguileville and Oto de Graunson. He was doubtless well acquainted with the writings of Froissart and of Eustace Deschamps. He also quotes from Jean de Vignay, and refers (once only) to the Alexandreid of Philippe Gautier de Chatillon. There is some reason to think that he consulted the Miracles de Notre Dame by Gautier de Coincy; see vol. v. 491. The Nun's Priest's Tale was derived, most likely, from the Roman de Renard, and not from Marie de France, who gives the tale in a briefer form. The Parson's Tale is from a French treatise by Frère Lorens. We may also well suppose that Chaucer had seen several of the old romances in a French form; such as the romances relating to Alexander, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Octovien; Sir Bevis, Sir Guy, Libeaus Desconus, Sir Tristram and Sir Percival; though he makes remarkably little use of such material. What was the extent of his knowledge of the Roman de Troie as written by Benoist de Sainte-More, it is not very easy to say; but he probably had read it. Several of the Canterbury Tales seem to have been derived from French Fabliaux or from Latin stories of a similar character. The Squieres Tale reminds us of the romance of Cleomades and of the Travels of Marco Polo.
But it is to Latin authors that Chaucer was, on the whole, most indebted for his quotations and illustrations; and especially to the authors of medieval times. Of the great poets of antiquity, he was not acquainted with many; but he read such as he could attain to with great diligence. His chief book was Ovid; and it is almost certain, from the freedom with which he quotes him, that he had a MS. copy of his own among his 'sixty bokes olde and newe' (Leg. G.W.; A. 273). He quotes from the Ars Amatoria, Amores, Epistolae ex Ponto, Fasti, Heroides, Metamorphoses, Remedia Amoris, and Tristia; so that he had read this author rather extensively. His next prime favourites were
Vergil and Statius; and he knew something of Lucan and Claudian. We may be sure that his quotations from Horace and Juvenal were taken at second-hand; and that he had never read those authors himself. He glanced at the Prologue to the Satires of Persius, and he was acquainted with the first Elegy of Maximian. He seems to have seen a copy of Valerius Flaccus.
Of the older prose writers, he was best acquainted with the famous treatise by Boethius, and with the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero as preserved and commented on by Macrobius. He also quotes from other works by Cicero; from the work De Factis Memorabilibus by Valerius Maximus; and from some of the letters and treatises of Seneca[[81]]. There is evidence of his acquaintance with Suetonius and Florus; and, possibly, with the Fables of Hyginus. I find no sure trace of his acquaintance with Orosius, or with the works of the elder Pliny. It is almost certain that he was unacquainted with Livy; the story of Lucretia is really from St. Augustine[[82]] and Ovid; and that of Virginia, from Le Roman de la Rose.
As to the Latin fathers, we have the most ample evidence that Chaucer had very carefully studied the treatise of St. Jerome against Jovinian, which happens to include all that is known of the Liber Aureolus de Nuptiis by Theophrastus. How far he was really acquainted with the writings of St. Augustine and St. Bernard, we cannot very well discover. The quotations from St. Gregory, St. Basil, and others, in the Parson's Tale, are all given at second-hand.
The authors of later times whom Chaucer quotes or mentions are rather numerous; although, in many instances, he only quotes them at second-hand; as is (usually) pointed out in the Index. It may suffice to mention here some of the more important examples.
The life of St. Cecilia is from Jacobus de Voragine and Simeon Metaphrastes. The treatise by pope Innocent III. entitled De Contemptu Mundi, or otherwise, De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, was translated by our author into English verse; but only portions
of it are preserved, viz. in the Man of Lawes Tale, and (adapted to the heroic measure) in the Pardoner's Tale. Alanus de Insulis wrote pieces entitled De Planctu Naturae, Anticlaudianus, and Liber Parabolarum; all of these are occasionally quoted or referred to, and the first of them clearly suggested the Parliament of Foules.
The Historia Troiae of Guido delle Colonne is made use of in Troilus and in the Legend of Good Women; and it is likely that Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis were only known to Chaucer through the medium of Guido and of Benoist de Sainte-More. The Liber Consolationis et Consilii of Albertano of Brescia was most useful in supplying material for the Tale of Melibeus; which, however, was more immediately derived from the French version by Jean de Meun. Chaucer also knew something of the Liber de Amore Dei by the same author; and probably had read a third treatise of his, entitled De Arte Tacendi et Loquendi. Other books which drew his attention were the famous Gesta Romanorum; the Polycraticus of John of Salisbury; the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum by Walter Map; the Liber Distichorum of Dionysius Cato, with the supplement entitled Facetus; and Albricus De Imaginibus Deorum. We also find casual allusions to the Aurora of Petrus de Riga; a poem by Martianus Capella; the Bestiary entitled Physiologus; the Burnellus of Nigellus Wireker; the Liber de Amore of Pamphilus Maurilianus; the Megacosmos of Bernardus Silvestris; the Nova Poetria of Geoffrey de Vinsauf; and the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of Beauvais. We need not include in the list authors such as Cassiodorus and Isidore of Seville, who are certainly quoted at second-hand. On the other hand, we must not forget the writers whom Chaucer consulted for special purposes, in connection with astrology and alchemy; such as, in the former case, Messahala, Ptolemy, Alchabitius, Almansor, Zael, and the aphorisms attributed to Hermes Trismegistus; and, in the latter case, the same Hermes, Jean de Meun, Arnoldus de Villa Nova, Senior Zadith, and others whose names do not expressly appear. Several authors are mentioned by name, with whose writings he was probably unacquainted; such as Alhazen, Averroes, Avicenna, Constantinus Afer, Dioscorides, Galen, Gatisden, Hippocrates, Rhasis,
Rufus, and Vitellio; and we can see that some of these names were simply borrowed from Le Roman de la Rose. There is small reason to suppose that he knew more than the name of the huge work De Causa Dei by Thomas Bradwardine. As to Agathon, Corinnus, Lollius, and Zanzis, the suggestions already made in the notes upon the passages where these names occur contain, to the best of my belief, all that has hitherto been ascertained.