Chaucer's own writings, however, afford the strongest evidence against the opinion entertained by Sir Harris Nicolas, and such evidence as cannot be controverted.
Chaucer loves to refer to Dante, and often translates passages from the _Divine Comedy_. The following lines are very closely rendered from the _Paradiso_, xiv. 28.:--
"Thou one, two, and thre, eterne on live, That raignest aie in thre, two, and one, Uncircumscript, and all maist circumscrive." Last stanza of _Troilus and Creseide_.
"_Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive,_ _E regna sempre in tre e due ed uno_, _Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive._" Dante, _Il Paradiso_, xiv. 28.
"Wel can _the wise poet of Florence_, That highte _Dant_, speken of this sentence: Lo, in swiche maner rime is _Dantes_ tale. _Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale_ _Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse_ _Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse._" _Wif of Bathes Tale_, 6707.
"_Rade volte risurge per li rami_ _L' umana probità: e questo vuole_ _Quei che la dà, perchè da lui si chiami._" _Purgatorio_, vii. 121.
After relating the dread story of the Conte Ugolino, Chaucer refers to Dante, from whom perhaps he derived it. (Conf. _Inferno_, xxxiii.)
"Who so wol here it in a longer wise, Redeth the grete poete of Itaille, That highte _Dante_, for he can it devise Fro point to point, not o word wol he faille." _The Monkes Tale_, 14,769.
"Bet than Vergile, while he was on live, Or _Dant_ also."--_The Freres Tale_, 7101.
The following lines refer to the _Inferno_, xiii. 64.:
"Envie is lavender of the court alway, For she ne parteth neither night ne day, Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith _Dant_." Prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_, 359.
"_Dant_ that it tellen can" is mentioned in the _House of Fame_, book i.; and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = _un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro_; and the following line:
"O thought, that wrote all that I met." _House of Fame_, ii. 18.
"_O mente, che scrivesti ciò ch' io vidi._" _Inferno_, ii. 8.
The _Knightes Tale_ exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions verbally translated from the _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, upon which it is founded; such as _Idio armipotente_ = Mars armipotent; _Eterno admante_ = Athamant eterne; _Paura palida_ = pale drede; _Le ire rosse come focho_ = the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars hath his sovereine mansion" as--