Geoffrey Chaucer Reading the “Legend of Custance” to Edward III and his Court, at the Palace of Sheen, on the Anniversary of the Black Prince's Forty-fifth Birthday Ford Madox Brown 1 Geoffrey Chaucer Reading the “Legend of Custance” to Edward III and his Court, at the Palace of Sheen, on the Anniversary of the Black Prince's Forty-fifth Birthday Ford Madox Brown 1845-1851 Royal Academy 1851 (no. 380) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney oil on canvas 146 1/2 x 116 1/2 in; 372 x 296 cm <artist/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The original study for this monumental work, now titled <title level="pic"> <hi rend="i">The Seeds and Fruits of English Poetry</hi> , was a triptych depicting Milton, Spenser and Shakespeare in the left panel, and Byron, Pope and Burns in the right. In the finished work only the center panel remained, focusing on Geoffrey Chaucer reading to the court of Edward III with the Black Prince standing at his left. In his <hi rend="i">Pre-Raphaelitism</hi> , William Holman Hunt illustrates the original tripartite sketch, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

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Hunt, <hi rend="i">Pre-Raphaelitism</hi> , 87. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 48. Kenneth Bendiner, <hi rend="i">The Art of Ford Madox Brown</hi> , 47-49 .