These Larry D. Benson's (1991-795) words have not been refuted yet. We paraphrase them establishing the possibility of taking it backwards, that is, from the text to historical circumstances. A record can lead to a comparative literary analysis and a literary analysis can lead to the research of a record. A deep analysis of Chaucer's The House of Fame reveals that this autobiographical work has its historical basis on a visit to Montserrat.

The aim of this paper is to present a research, in progress, based upon the hypothesis of Chaucer's visit to Montserrat, having The House of Fame as the main source to support this hypothesis. We propose to show, by mean of a textual analysis the crossed references existing in Chaucer's text. The finding of some important historical data from Montserrat which can not only be the connexion but the support of some literary references in Chaucer's text, justifies our search.

This important poem has not all the characteristics to be considered a dream vision as Brian Stone (1983: 11) states them:

When the dream begins the poet is often led on by a guide, perhaps into a paradisal park or Garden of Love, where an action or debate about love, most often with allegorical characters and interpretation, takes place. The end comes with the poet-dreamer waking, and bringing from his dream a truth about love as about a sacred mystery.

The poem "begins in an orthodox style", according to the dream vision prescription, but from the end of the Book I the author's concern with love and other new elements breaks the concept of dream vision.

We agree with Davenport (1988: 74) who suggests the author insists on contrasting human knowledge, achieved through self-experience. Chaucer self-experience is the real source of inspiration:

That in myn hed ymarked ys- (1101-1103).

We shall attempt to contribute to resolve the difficulty of interpretation of this poem, as Paul G. Ruggiers (1959: 295) confirms:

The views of many writers who have dealt with the poem have tended to leave its meaning unresolved, and the steady accumulation of theories, while not obscuring the intention of the work, has unfortunately not clarified into an unified whole a poem in which Chaucer's rapidily develping powers are revealed at every turn.

As we have already said, this is not a poem conforming enterely to the prescription of dream vision. If it is a dream, remember Pertelote's words: "Nothyng, God woot, but vanitee in swenen is" (VII, 2922). Chauntecleer's dream had a phantasy realted reality on which a literary text supposed to be a dream vision, is supported.

We are going to follow the structure of a journey in our analysis. If Professor Boitani (1988: 52) states that it is a explendid journey through tradition, mithology, literature and poetry, we are going to add Chaucer self-experience, that is, it is our hypothesis to describe Chaucer's possible journey to Montserrat.

Edwards (1989: 111-2) refers to the "hous and site" as an imaginative space of the abstract language and poetry. For us it is a real and historical place.

The House of Fame is a book of unkown factors. And it is quite difficult to find texts where the readers can know more things about the contents than the author-narrator himself. We give two examples: the first, when the narrator says "Ne where I am, ne in waht contree (475), and there is not an explicit answer to this question. There is a description of the place which can let us deduce the answer. The second example is the identification of the "man of gret auctorite" (2158) at the end of this unfinished poem. No good evidence has been found ant it remains undiscovered. Dieter Mehl (1968: 63) says about it:

And just as illusionary, it seems to me, is the conviction of some critics that the `man of gret auctorite' who appears in the closing lines of the poem would have settled the matter satisfactoryly by providing some few words of wisdom.

We hope to clear up most of these enigmas, giving a cohesive support to our hypothesis.

1.- A Journey to Montserrat

Chaucer's division in three books corresponds with the parts of the journey: Book I is the departure, Book II is the journey, and Book III is the arrival and stay in The House of Fame. We defend the existence of Chaucer's stay in Montserrat sustaining this hypothesis on the different details offered by Chaucer's work which fit to two aspects: first, the historical events related to the English intervention in Spain between 1365-1366; second, the description of the House of Fame which matches not only Montserrat physical elementents but many of its charateristics, such as the scholany, the inn...

A.- BOOK I

"Of December the tenthe day", (111), a date repeated twice (63), is the date of the dream; that is, the date of the departure. We focus our interest on the historical background concerning the Great White Companies, as Baugh (1968: 59) defines them:

These were large organized bands of fighting men, whose leaders entered into agreements with any one who needed their services and was willing to pay their price. Their ranks included Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Bretons, and others, with a high percentage of Gascons and English.

This is a key definiton for our work as we will give some important references to these Free Companies. In 1365 everybody (the French king, Enrique de Trastamara, the kingdom of Aragon and the Church) was interested in getting rid of them in France.

Spain and England had concluded a political and military alliance on 22, 1362 and king Peter sent his adviser Martin Lspez de Csrdoba by November of 1365 to ask for help under this agreement, protesting the participation of the English and the Gascon knights in the Great White Companies. Baugh includes in his article how

On December 6 Edward despatched under the Great Seal a letter to these soldiers of fortune.

He reproduces a part of this letter, showing the proposal of Edward III to forbide the English knights and soldiers to attack Castile.

Baugh (1968: 67) gives more information about the letter:

By the time this letter would have arrived, the Companies were already ar Perpignan and some of them in Aragon. Calveley, one of those to whom the letter is addressed, had arrived at Barcelona by November 4.

We are trying to cover a gap, the period of time called "the empty years" (1360-1366) in the biography of Chaucer. Reading the Chaucer Life-Records we see that most of Chaucer's missions abroad were diplomatic misssions. Chaucer, at that time, may have been in the Black Prince's service in Aquitania.

Chaucer's mission probably was to deliver Edward III's letter or, perhaps, as Garbaty titles his article concerning Chaucer's stay in Spain in 1366 with the safe-conduct by Carlos II, he was an agent of the Crown. The secrecy of the mission can be understood better reading Baugh's words (1968: 61) when refering to the pay of large sums of money to the Great White Companies comments:

The discussions had to be carried on with great secrecy, at least in the earlier stages, in order not to give Pedro the Cruel warning of his impeding danger. HOw secret they were can be judged by the fact that when Pedro IV laid the plan for a joint invasion of Castile before the courts or Catalan parliament at Barcelona in the middle of 1365, the members were first sworn not to reveal anything that was said. Perhaps it was also the interest of secrecy that the real purpose of the invasion was concealed under the cloak of crusade against the Moors in the south, although this may have been, as has been suggested, only a pretext to secure the collaboration of the pope and the financial support of the Church.

Within this context it may be significant that Honori-Duvergi suggested that Chaucer may have joined the forces of Trastamara. And it is also significant that Chaucer's view of Spain was that of a country to go on "a crusade against Moors" if we take the Spanish geographical references in The Canterbury Tales : "Jubaltare and Septe" (945), "Strayte of Marrok" (464-65), "Gernade" (404), "Algezir, Belmarye" (405) to give support to this idea. Goodman (1992: 137) comments about Gaunt's view of Spain the following:

Was Gaunt aware that his great-great-grandfather, Fernando III was a saint and a hero of the Reconquiesta? The memory of Castile as the great crusading power had long persisted in English noble circles: The House of Lancaster associated itself with the revival of his reputation by Alfonso XI in the 1340s.

Chaucer was close to these "English circles".

We think that Chaucer could have visited Barcelona with the Great White Companies in 1365 and, perhaps, agreeing with Honori-Duvergi he may have joined the forces of Trastamara under "the cloak of a crusade against the Moors", or he may have been at that side as a spy of the English Crown. This last hypothesis has a support in Chaucer's The House of Fame, when the narrator, that is, Chaucer, manifests the reason of his stay:

"But what doost thou here than?" quod he.

Quod y, "that wye y tellen the,

The cause why y stonde here:

Somme newe tydynges for to lere

Somme new thinges, y not what

Tydynges, other this or that,

Of Love or suche thynges glade.

For certeynly, he that me made

To comen hyder, seyde me,

Y shoulde bothe here and se

In this place wonder thynges. (1883-1893)

We consider this is the key of the answer:

For certeynly, he that me made/ to come hyder

He was obliged to be there. So, he was sent there, what for?

These two factors supported by the quotation above and the term "spy" which appears several times ( 704, 706, 944, 1128, 1320, 1475, 1689) lead us to think he may have been an agent of the Crown.

We have two hyphotesis to explain Chaucer's mission to Spain between 1365-1366; to deliver a letter (it is significant that the eagle is Jove's messanger in the text), and to spy the Great Companies. We may never know the exact nature of his mission, but we believe that Chaucer's departure "the tenthe day of Decembre" of 1365 was not a dream but an autobiographical detail. His destination was Barcelona where, as Baugh (1968: 63) says: "On January 1, 1366 Pedro IV feasted all the leaders of the Companies." An ironical reference to a pilgrimage is just few lines after this date:

As he that wery was forgo

On pilgrimage myles two

The corseynt Leonard. (115-117)

It is important to notice that for the reference to the taking of Troy in the Book I, the narrator has his source for some words in a "table of bras" (142), but, basically, the main source is a painting on the wall (line 211). We can find the following quotation from Albareda's Historia de Montserrat : "Entre las telas era notable la que figuraba la toma de Troya, con figuras pequqmsimas". It is also significant how is called the "hous and site" where the dreamer is in Book I: "temple ymad of gals" (120) and "chirche" (473). And the narrators says about this church:

But not wot I whoo did hem wirche,

Ne where I am, ne in what contree,

But now wol I goo out and see,

Ryght at the wiket, yf y kan

See where any styring man

That may me telle where I am. (474-79)

It is clear he was in an unknown country, and the only clue is that,

For al the feld nas but of sond

As smal as man may seyet ly

In the desert of Lybye. (486-88)

Anselm M. Albareda (1974: 142) includes the words of a preacher of the XIV century:

Vuestros ojos- decma un predicador del siglo XIV- pueden ver y contemplar csmo esta devota camara de Nuestra Seqora Marma esta situada y puesta en un lugar muy desierto y alto.

At the end of the Book I he sees the eagle which carries him, later, to The House of Fame. The flight takes the whole Book II. The eagle, the vehicle for the narrator to Montserrat, with "wordes to comforte" (572) him, says twice: "Seynte Marye" (573). Albareda (1974: 31) includes the extract of a document of 1285, where it is said: "aquel lugar es llmado Santa Marma de Montserrat". Inmediately after these comfortable words, the eagle shows him and us the aim of the travel:

And ther caas that betyd the is,

Is for thy lore and for thy prow (578-79)

This answer, with the verb "to learn" will be given by the narrator when somebody asks him for the reason of his stay there (lines 1884-1894). And on the aim of learning the eagle give him and us new information:

And noght oonly fro fer contree

That ther no tydynge cometh to thee,

But of thy verray neyghebores,

That duellen almost at thy dores,

Thou herist neyther that ne this (647-651)

Certainly, Aquitania was in the neighbourhood of Catalonia. And there is an anticipation of the place:

And therfore Joves, thorgh hys grace,

Wol that I bere the to a place

Which that hight the Hous of Fame (662-663)

The idea of hight related to the House of Fame is redundant. It is applied many times to the House of Fame and to the eagle. Nevertheless, the eagle, although he can fly very high, will not land at the House of Fame. The narrator will have to climb the high mountain. This is a very interesting and important idea to support our hypothesis as we will explain further on.

It is necessary to point out the importance of this redundant idea. The narrator emphasize the idea of the hight of the House of Fame not only with the redundance of the word "high", but with other literary resorces:

Hir paleys stant, as I shal seye,

Ryght even in myddes of the weye

Betwixen hevene and erthe and see. (713-715)

Montserrat is in that middle way, between the earth, the sky and the sea. Any visitor knows the possibility of a beautiful sight, from the top of the mountain, not only of part od Aragon and Valence, but of Balearic Islands.

And this allusion will be brilliantly developed at the end of Book II, when the narrator "adoun gan loken thoo" (896) and describes what he watches. So realistic is the narration that when they are arriving at the place, the eagle says to Geoffrey Chaucer:

Now up the hed, for al ys wel;

Seynt Julyan, loo, boon hostel!

Se here the Hous of Fame, lo! (1021-1023)

And here we find another crossed reference: it is well kown that "Seynt Julyan" is the patron of hospitality. THe pilgrimages to Montserrat were very famous from the XII century. The wish of the eagle ("bob hostel!") is perfectly justified. Albareda (1974: 146) supports this justification:

Hasta nuestros predicadores del siglo XIV exhortaban a los fieles a la paciencia y a no preocuparse demasiado por la falta de habitaciones, naturalmente insuficientes para el nzmero de peregrinos que pernoctaban en Montserrat.

And Montserrat is very near, so that they can hear the rumour of the pilgrims:

"What?", quod I, "the grete soun,"

Quod he, "that rumbleth up and doun

In fames HOus, full of tydynges,

Bothe of fier speche and chydynges,

And of fals and soth compouned (1025-29)

They come near the House of Fame:

That thou shalt fynde in Fames plae? (1046-1053)

This is a very important quotation. Why did not the eagle set him in the HOuse of Fame, instead of "in a strete", from where he had to go "on his fete", if the eagle could fly so high? We have found a reasonable answer to this aparent paradox, following the argumentation of our hypothesis. We consider that Chaucer did as Perdo IV did on arriving at Montserrat the 29 of April of 1344. Here are the own king's words, included in Albareda's book (1974: 290-91):

partimos de aqum cabalgando, fuimos al trote hasta el pie de la cuesta de Montserrat donde descabalgamos y ordenamos que las bestias fueses por el llano de Monistrol y alli nos esperasen. Y nos, con nuestros compaqeros subimos dicha cuesta a pie.

Chaucer arrived at Montserrat carried by an eagle following his literary text, but we think that he, really arrived on a horse and then he had to go on on foot to go up the "cuesta". After being set "in a strete" he could see the Hous of Fame ("I wol yow al the shap devyse", 1113), but it was very high and far:

In al that hous that yonder ys (1064)

Loo, to the HOus of Fame yonder (1070)

The horses waited for Pedro IV and the eagle, following the parallel, for Chaucer too:

And here I wol abyden the (1086), the eagle said.

At the en of Book II is "in a strete" (1049), walking up to Montserrat, and at the beginning of Book III the narrator takes up the plot again relating how he approches to Montserrat and how difficult climbing the mountain was:

And though to clymbe it greved me. (1113-1119)

He was right there isn't such a high place with "hous and site" in Spain. Chaucer is quite explicit referring to the location of the place: "so high a roche,/ hier stant ther non in Spayne" and "it greved me".

A preacher's words of the XIV century, included in Albareda's (1974: 142) Historia de Montserrat, confirms Chaucer's difficult to climb up :

esta devota Camara de Nuestra Seqora Santa Marma esta situada y puesta en un lugar desierto y alto y tiene sus entradas muy asperas y peligrosas, de donde los peregrinos que aqum vienen pasan afanes, peligros, trabajos y grandes aflicciones."

The impressive appearence of this "high a roche" lead the narrator to wonder about the rocks composition: "For hyt lyk alum de glass" (1124). We can read in "The Textual Notes of The Riverside Chaucer (n. 1124, p. 1141): "potash alum in its crystalline form". It is well known that the stones in Montserrat show this same silver or greyish appearence. The crystalline form was perceived because if the ice. It was winter. At first sight it seemed to bee steel:

But at laste aspied,

And found that hit was every del

A roche of yse, and not of stel (1128-30)

When he sees the house:

Al was of ston of beryle,

Bothe the castel and the tour (1184-85)

The beryl is a mineral of differnt colors: yellow, greem white, blue. We find an exact parallel in the Encyclopaedia Espasa y Calpe (?: 778) describing the mountain:

Por su aspecto petrografico y caracter paleontolsgico, el macizo del Montserrat puede dividirse en tres zonas bien distintas: inferior, media y superior.

The first one includes "calizas verdosas y margas amarillentas [...], arcillasy margas verdosas, rojizas"; the second one "arenisca gris azulada [...], una banda de arcilla rojiza, alternando con otra de caliza amarillenta arenosa"; the third one "cpas arcillosas y areniscas arcillosas rojizas". The same enciclopaedia (792) gives us the following important information: "Todo el edificio esta construido con sillares de piedra de la misma montaqa".

Although Napoleon's invasion destroyed many important works of art we know that the importance of the Romanic church and the cloisters are pointed out by Albareda (1974: 94) among the most important elementos of the history of Montserrat. The main front and the facade is full of "babewynes, pynacles, ymageries, tabernacles, compasses, kervynges, corbetz " following the lines 1187-1200 and 1301-1304. You can see in the hand out of the old monastery of Santa Marma, the origen of the Moanastery of Monstserrat.

Chaucer was at the entrance, still outside of the church, when he hears and watches a real military parade, with musicians and dancers:

Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe, (1201)

Is Baugh's (1968: 63) information full of sense here?: "On January 1, 1366 Pedro IV feasted all the leaders of the Companies". The words "doucet" and "festes" underline the evident answer for our question. Among these people "Pipes of the Duche tonge" (1234) reveal us the presence of the Dutch in the Great White Companies. And among the dances "Reyes" (1236), which is a Spanish word and not a word translated from Dutch as it is suggested in the "Explanatory Notes" of The Riverside Chaucer (n. 1235-26, p. 986), gives us another support for our hypothesis: we consider that "Reyes" is , certainly, a round dance, the Catalonian "sardana", which is danced in a round group of dancers with the hads up and joined, forming the shape of a crown of a king.

On the other hand, there is a direct allusion to Catalonia:

To lerne, saugh I trumpe there. (1247-250)

We think the verb "to lerne" shows an implicit reference to the old and famous escholany of Montserrat. Chaucer continues describing the feast showing that there were wizards, sleight-of-hand artists, witches, enchantresses, etc.

When Chaucer says:

I gan romen til I fond

The castel-yate on my ryght hond

Which that sowel carven was

That never such another nas (1293-96),

we think he refers to Jaime de Viver's work, following the information given by Albareda (1974: 54):

Frente a la que despuis fue camara abacial, levants un esplendido portal, conocido con el nombre de la Reja.

Then he enters ("But in I wente", 1307) and

Ther mette I crynge many oon,

"A larges, larges, hold up wel!

God save the lady of thys pel (1308-1310)

The pilgrims saying the famous "Salve" and wearing their tipical clothes are describing when they are coming out of Viver's hall:

With corounes wroght ful of losenges (1314-1317)

But these pilgrims, the kings of arms, are not onle the soldiers prepared to invade Castile:

That pursevantes and heraudes

That crien ryche folkes laudes (1321-22)

These "ryche folkes laudes" were famous in Montserrat. And few lines below we find another reference to the Great White Companies:

Of famous folk that han ybeen

In Auffrike, Europe, and Asye, (1338-39)

Most of the leaders were famous by their military campaign in these places.

When Chaucer continue describing the hall we find new parallels again:

the names, and therfore I pace. (1342-1355)

Albareda (1974: 151) tell as that,

De los siglos XII y XIII, no tenemos referencia alguna del tesoro montserratino. En el siglo XIV, en cambio, son frecuentes las alusiones a las joyas de Montserrat. Se decma a los peregrinos: "Si queriis mirar el altar y la sacristma y las paredes de esta devota capilla de Nuestra Seqora Santa Marma, allm veriis el testimonio y recuerdo de todas estas cosas. Allm hay muchos relicarios de oro y de plata, muchos calices y palios y muy ricas vestiduras y otros riqumsimos ornamentos; muchas lamparas de plata y otros objetos ricos y devotos.

Following Albareda's words we find that "las joyas de mqas valor eran guardadas en el monasterio, y no se mostraban a todos los visitantes". Chaucer, who may have been one of these "visitantes" expresses the same idea:

But in this lusty and ryche place

That Fames halle called was,

Ful moche prees of folk ther nas,

Ne crodyng for to mochil prees. (1356-59)

When he sees and describes the godness Fame, the parallelism with Santa Marma de Montserrat is close and strong. The most attractive aspect for him is the place where she is:

A femynyne creature. (1360-65)

All these details, the high dais, the chair, and the "perpetually ystalled femynyne creature" can be applied to Santa Manrma de Montserrat.

And at first sight ("For alther-first, 1368), he sees a little statue, because is "al on hye" and he says :

Me thoughte that she was so lyte

That the leghte of a cubite

Was lengere than she seemed be (1369-71)

Following Espasa y Calpe (?: 791) we can get that "El conjunto mide 95 cm. de alto por 35 de ancho." "She was so lyte"...

Although the divine image has suffered many changes, and we cannot find "hir fet she erthe reighte" (1374), but on her right hand, nor "weren on the bestes foure/ that Goddis trone gunne honoure/ As Hohn writ in th'Apocalips" (1383-85), we can deduce from the main front of the old Church of Santa Marma (see hand out) the beast representing the four evangelists.

We can identified the "burned gold hyt shoon to see" (1387) nowadays.

Apart from "the perry and the richesse" he says:

And lord, the herenyssh melodye

Of songes ful or armonye

I herde aboute her trone y songe. (1395-97)

Albareda (1974: 163) is our source once again to support our hypothesis to demonstrate how this was an important and particular characteristic of Montserrat:

La presencia constante de un coro de voces blancas, de un grupo de jsvenes instruidos en el arte musical, permitis a Montserrat incorporar, sin restricciones, los adelantos de todas las ipocas a las solemnidades del culto.

When Chaucer says he saw "Fro the dees, many a peler" (1421), we think that he refers to the elaborated and rich candles. A stained glass window of Josephus, who is cited "upon a piler stonde on high" (1430) can be seen by actual visitors.

When Chaucer was going to leave the church, he saw group of pilgrims "that ther come entryng into the halle" (1527) from "sondry regiouns" (1529), and of "alleskynnes condiciouns" (1530). They were pilgrims. These nine groups of pilgrims entered orderly as the groups of pilgrims used to enter. Albareda (1974: 141) supports this idea: "Cerca del monasterio se ordenaban procesionalmente".

So great was the number of pilgrims that

Been al the dores opened wide,

And be nyght echon unshette (1952-53)

This same idea is included in Albareda's work (1974: 30):

La afluencia de peregrinos era inintermitente; las puertas de la iglesia no se cerraban de noche ni de dma."

Finally, following the development of our hypothesis we tkink "a man of gret auctorite" (2158) was Pedro IV, who had gone up to Montserrat because of the same reason Albareda (1974: 290) tell us:

en 1343, antes de emprender la campaqa contra Jaime III de Mallorca, subis a la Montaqa Santa y, al besar la mano de la Virgen, se puso en el dedo uno de los anillos que llevaba a la imagen, como prende de proteccisn."

At that time, 1366, the campaign was against Pedro, el Cruel.