7                                                                                        
 

It is by no means farfetched…to link this early progress with possible encouragement from the crown. In the late 1360s there are a number of signs of a more aggressively nationalistic ethos at the court of Edward III. In the case of the next major breakthrough, that of the mid-1380s, the grounds for attributing a role to the court are even stronger. The condemnation of Wycliffism in 1382 had created a less favorable climate for English works, and even in 1386 John Trevisa was conscious of the need to justify his translations of Latin words for his patron, Lord Berkeley. Yet at this very time Chaucer was addressing his first masterpiece, Troilus and Criseyde, to a courtly audience. At this time, too, John Gower, who had previously written only in French and Latin, was encouraged to undertake his most ambitious project in English by Richard II himself.
 

9
 

Thomas Walsingham dismissed his courtiers as more knights of Venus than of Bellona, more of the bedchamber than of the battlefield. Ladies certainly figured prominently in court circles, and it is significant that his improvements at Eltham and Clarendon included dancing rooms.
 

…signs of higher cultivation. By the mid-1390s Richard’s “court of love” had evolved into a court promoting universal peace.
 

…interests, ranging from hunting and haute cuisine to geomancy and astrology. His piety was thoughtful rather than reflexive: he enjoyed sermons, was assiduous in the observance of favored saints’ days, actively promoted new cults, and took an informed interest in ecclesiological and theological issues.
 

10
 

…took over a court establishment that included Geoffrey Chaucer…especially close to a number of younger courtiers with known literary interests… Sir John Montagu, earl of Salisbury, and Sir John Clanvowe.
 

His uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock, certainly showed a commitment to the English Bible. According to an early tradition, John of Gaunt led the lords and gentry in Parliament in blocking an attempt by the bishops to ban English translations of he scriptures, while Thomas of Woodstock owned a Lollard Bible.
 

11
 

Sir John Clanvowe, a knight of the king’s chamber…writing English poetry around this time. …Book of Cupid…associated with court festivities on St. Valentine’s day. …Gower’s Confessio Amantis. …decision to write his most ambitious work in English… traveling on the Thames in the royal barge when the king asked for a poem on the theme of love.
 

12
 

John Gower rapidly repented of his association with the court, and perhaps from the early 1390s was looking to Henry of Bolingbroke as England’s savior. Chaucer doubtless shared many of his old friend’s reservations about Richard’s style of kingship.
 

…king’s uneasy relations with London …1386-87 he “gyrated” round the north and west Midlands…attempt to use these royalist forces to take back the reins of power… “Merciless Parliament”…friends and counselors …condemned to death. From 1389, however, the king began quietly to reconstruct a royalist party in the country.
 

13
 

The king certainly enjoyed listening to the preaching of friars. He attended the mystery plays at York in 1396 and might well have been similarly entertained at Coventry or Chester in 1398.
 

…historical concerns of the more “formal” alliterative works, so different form the Chaucerian tradition, would certainly have appealed to him…
 

…with works like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl, it is necessary to envisage a poet and a primary audience who knew Cheshire and its dialect but who were interested in the subtle analysis of courtly values and behavior.
 

… "court” in the northwest… when Richard II spent time there in 1387 and 1398-99.
 

14
 

…Gawain…seems inconceivable that it was not given an airing at some level in the king’s household as it moved around the west and northwest Midlands.
 

16
 

The Lancastrian kings should perhaps be seen as maintaining, in a less eclectic and generous spirit a tradition of royal patronage first properly established in the reign of Richard II.