A Portrait of Chaucer in Thomas Hoccleve's The Regiment of Princes (1412).

Hoccleve probably knew Chaucer personally so Hoccleve's intended audience of courtly patrons would have seen Chaucer, which argues for Hoccleve's providing an accurate portrait. Hoccleve's work is a long poem on the duties of a ruler, compiled from medieval works with illustrations from the classics and later history. It is part of the tradition leading to the Elizabethan Mirror for Magistrates which influenced Shakespeare's English history plays (see also Boccaccio in Gallery 12). From London, British Library, Harley 4866, f.88. Courtesy of the York Poject, under GNU Free Document License.