DEAR Raffaele
Haydon,—Did the maid tell you I came to see your picture, not on
Sunday but the day before? I think the face and bearing of the Bucephalus-tamer very noble, his flesh
| 1827 | A SUBJECT FOE HAYDON | 725 |
I think I have hit on a subject for you, but can’t swear it was never executed,—I never heard of its being,—“Chaucer beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street.” Think of the old dresses, houses, &c. “It seemeth that both these learned men (Gower and Chaucer) were of the Inner Temple; for not many years since Master Buckley did see a record in the same house where Geoffry Chaucer was fined two shillings for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street.” Chaucer’s Life by T. Speght, prefixed to the black letter folio of Chaucer, 1598.
