[1] Now will were hearse what writers of our Eng|lish nation liued in the daies of this king. That re|nowmed poet Geffrie Chaucer is woorthilie named as principall, a man so exquisitlie learned in all scien|ces, that his match was not lightlie found any where in those daies; and for reducing our English toong to a perfect conformitie, he hath excelled therein all o|ther; he departed this life about the yeare of our Lord 1402, as Bale gathereth: but by other it appeareth, Iohn Stow. that he deceassed the fiue and twentith of October in the yeare 1400, and lieth buried at Westminster, in the south part of the great church there, as by a mo|nument erected by Nicholas Brigham it doth ap|peare. Iohn Gower descended of that woorthie fami|lie of the Gowers of Stitenham in Yorkeshire (as Leland noteth) studied not onelie the common lawes of this realme, but also other kinds of literature, and great knowledge in the same, namelie in poeticall inuentions, applieng his indeuor with Chaucer, to garnish the English toong, in bringing it from a rude vnperfectnesse, vnto a more apt elegancie: for where|as before those daies, the learned vsed to write onelie in Latine or French, and not in English, our toong remained verie barren, rude, and vnperfect; but now [page 542] by the diligent industrie of Chaucer and Gower, it was within a while greatlie amended, so as it grew not onelie verie rich and plentifull in words, but also so proper and apt to expresse that which the mind con|ceiued, as anie other vsuall language. Gower depar|ted this life shortlie after the deceasse of his déere and louing freend Chaucer; to wit, in the yeare 1402, being then come to great age, and blind for a cer|teine time before his death. He was buried in the church of saint Marie Oueries in Southwarke.