CHAU'CER, GEOFFREY (about 1340-1400).
On a fresh April morning in the merry England of centuries ago, a goodly company of men and women are gathered in the old Tabard Inn at Southwark, a suburb of London. They are the Canterbury Pilgrims of whom Chaucer tells us r in his delightful Can terbury Tales'—a group of wayfarers bound for the shrine of the martyr Thomas Becket. Most of them are in holiday dress, and the spirit of adventure and merriment is in the air ; for such a pilgrimage was a favorite devotion and diversion of the time.
Above the talk and laughter of the guests we hear the voice of the jolly host of the Tabard: My masters, certainly Ye be to me right welcome, heartily: For by my troth, and flattering none, say I, I have not seen so large a company At once inside my inn this year, as now. I'd gladly make you mirth if I knew how.
And of a pleasant game I'm just be thought To cheer the journey—it shall cost you nought.
And he goes on to propose that, instead of riding "dumb as a stone," each shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two more on the way home; and he who tells the best story shall have a supper at the expense of the rest when they return.
"Ay, ay!" goes up a cry of assent. The next morn ing the pilgrims make ready to depart. What a mixed company it is! Foremost of all rides the Knight—" a very perfect, gentle Knight"—who has just come from battle against the heathen and whose coat is stained by the armor he has but now laid aside. There is no pomp in his attire or in his bear ing, for he is " as meek as is a maid"; his glory is in his good deeds and in his loyalty to the principles of chivalry. By his side is his son, the gay young Squire, who plays the flute or sings the whole day long; and a Yeoman, clad in coat of green, carrying a sheaf of peacock arrows and a mighty bow.
Then there is the Prioress, who speaks French (with an Eng lish accent), and is so tender-hearted that she would weep at a mouse caught in a trap; the Monk, who loves hunting more than study; the Friar, "wanton and merry"; the poor Parson, "rich in holy thought and work": and the Clerk (or clergyman) of Oxford, with his threadbare cloak and his horse as "lean as a rake," who would rather have
. . . . at his bed's head A score of books, all clad in black or red Of Aristotle and his philosophy, Than rich attire, fiddle, or psaltery.
Almost every profession and occu pation is represented, from the Mer chant, so important in his bearing that no one would guess that he is in debt, to the hard-working Plowman, who reverences God and loves his neighbor as himself. We must not forget the jolly Wife of Bath, bold and fair and red of face, with her scarlet hose and her hat as broad as a shield.
She has already had five husbands and is ready for another, and though she is somewhat deaf and has lost her teeth, her gay talk enlivens the company.
And now we listen to the tales told by this motley gathering : the Knight's Tale of Palamon and Arcite and their love for the fair Emily; the Clerk's story of Patient Griselda, the model of wifely steadfastness; and the Prioress' story of the child-martyr, who even when his throat was cut still raised his voice to the Virgin Mary. The Nun's Priest tells the fanciful animal story of Chauntecler and Pertelote, or the Cock and the Hen. The drunken Miller's story is as coarse as himself. Chaucer has a laugh at his own expense by picturing himself as beginning the dull rhymed tale of Sir Thopas, which so wearies the host that he will not allow him to finish.
There are 24 stories in all. Chaucer planned to have 128, but he died before the great work was finished. Incomplete as it is, the Canterbury Tales' remains one of the supreme masterpieces of English literature, brim ming over with the joy of living and abounding in humor.
That Chaucer was a busy man of affairs as well as a poet, we know from his writings, as well as from the few facts about his life that have come down to us. He began life as page in the household of one of the royal family. A little lat er he was with the army of King Edward III in France, and when he was taken prisoner in one of the battles of the great Hundred Years' War, the king himself helped to pay his ransom. Chaucer held several public offices and was sent several times to the continent on diplomatic missions.