Then followed a Sailor, brown and roughened and hardened by the many tempests he had encountered, and who knew every creek and haven from Gotland to Finisterre; a Doctor of Physic, the like of whom there was none on earth, and who knew the "cause of every maladie," and "loved gold in special," although "his study was but litel on the Bible;" a good Wife of Bath, "some deal deaf,” who in her time had had five husbands, and had made a pilgrimage to Palestine.

Upon an ambler esily she sat,

Ywimpled wel, and on hire head an hat,
As brode as is a bokeler, or a targe.
A fote-mantel about hire hippes large,
And on hire fete a pair of sporres sharpe.

Next, a good country Parson, a learned man, but poor, who taught Christ but first followed Him himself; his brother, a Plowman, who loved God first, and his neighbor as himself; a Miller, a red-bearded, swaggering, lying bully; a gentle Manciple, or contractor, meek but cunning; a loose, long-legged Reeve, who cheated his lord out of his rents, and who "ever rode the hinderest of the route;" a Sompnour, with a fire-red face covered with blotches, who delighted in onions and garlic and strong liquor, and who, when drunk, would speak no word but Latin; his companion, "a gentil Pardonere," who carried a wallet packed with indulgences from Rome, and with stones and "pigge's bones," which he sold as relics. These, with the Host of the Tabard and Chaucer himself, make up the company of pilgrims, the description of whom composes the Prologue to the Tales.

To while away the tediousness of the pilgrimage and the return, the host proposes that each of the party

In this viage, shall tellen tales tway,

To Canterbury ward, I mene it so,

And homeward he shall tellen other two,

Of aventures that whilom han befalle.

And which of you that bereth him best of alle,

That is to sayn, that telleth in this cas
Tales of best sentence and most solas,

Shal have a souper at youre aller cost,
Here in this place, sitting by this post,

Whan that ye comen agen from Canterbury.

This, then, in brief, is the framework or setting in which these famous Tales are inserted. Had the original conception of the plan ever been carried to completion, there would have been in the collection one hundred and twentyeight stories, since there were thirty-two pilgrims, and each pilgrim had agreed to tell four stories. Chaucer doubtless intended to describe in the connecting thread upon which these stories were to be hung, not only the adventures on the outward journey, but the arrival at Canterbury, the scenes and the religious ceremonies at the shrine of the saint, the return homeward, and the farewell supper at the Tabard. But his plan was never completed. Of the one hundred and twenty-eight stories, we have but twenty-five, and it is not probable that any more were ever written. The pilgrims never reached Canterbury, and there is every reason to believe that not only was the tale left incomplete by its author, but that those parts which he had finished were left in an unarranged condition. Of the twenty-five stories which we have, the Knight, the Miller, the Reeve, the Man of Law, the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Sompnour, the Clerk, the Merchant, the Franklin, the second Nun, the Pardoner, the Shipman, the Nun or Prioress, the Monk, the Nun's Priest, the Contractor or Manciple, and the Parson, each relate one; to the Cook* and to Chaucer himself two stories each are assigned; the Squire's tale is incomplete; and the company is joined on the road by a

* Of the two tales ascribed to the Cook, the first is incomplete, and the second is thought by some to be, not the work of Chaucer, but an older poem inserted among the Tales at a later date. It is said to have suggested to Shakspeare the plan of As You Like It.

Canon and his yeoman, the latter of whom relates one story. The stories, with the exception of the Parson's tale and Chaucer's second narrative, are all in verse, and exhibit almost every variety of metrical form.

The longest of the stories, and in many respects the finest, is The Knightes Tale. It is an abridged translation of Boccaccio's Tesseide, with many changes of plan and some additions in the descriptive passages. It is a story of Greece in the time of Theseus. But the author has transferred to that remote period the chivalric feelings and sentiments peculiar to the Middle Ages. Palamon and Arcite, two noble kinsmen, are taken prisoners in battle by King Theseus, who confines them in a tower at Athens overlooking the palace garden. One morning the Princess Emelie walks in the garden, gathering

Bright was the sun and clear that morwening,
And Palamon, this woful prisoner,

As was his wone, by leve of his gayler,

Was risen, and romed in a chambre on high,
In which he all the noble citee sigh,

And eke the gardin ful of branches grene,
Ther as this fresh Emelia the shene
Was in hire walk, and romed up and doun.
This sorweful prisoner, this Palamon
Goth in his chambre roming to and fro,
And to himself complaining of his wo.
And so befel by aventure or cas,

That thurgh a window thikke of many a barre
Of yren gret, and square as any sparre,
He cast his eyen upon Emelia,

And therewithal he blent and cried, a!

As though he stongen were unto the herte.*

* The Knightes Tale, 1. 193–221.

Arcite, hearing Palamon's exclamation, hurries to the window, and both are smitten alike with the charms of the beautiful Emelie. From this time a jealous hatred exists between the two kinsmen, and the minds of both are constantly filled with thoughts of the fair princess. But at length Arcite, through the efforts of a friend, is liberated on condition that he shall retire to Thebes and never again return to Athens.

The sommer passeth, and the nightes long
Encresen double wise the peines strong
Both of the lover and the prisoner.
I n'ot which had the wofuller mistere.
For, shortly for to say, this Palamon
Perpetuelly is damned to prison,
In chaines and in fetters to ben ded;
And Arcite is exiled on his hed
For evermore as out of that contree,

Ne never more he shal his lady see.*

Finally, Arcite, unable to endure his banishment longer, returns disguised to Athens and becomes a page of the Princess Emelie; and Palamon, after an imprisonment of seven years, escapes. He conceals himself for safety in a grove not far from Athens.

And Arcite that is in the court real
With Theseus the squier principal,
Is risen, and loketh on the mery day.
And to the grove of which that I you told,
By aventure his way he gan to hold,
To maken him a gerlond of the greves,
Were it of woodbind or of hauthorn leves,
And loud he sang agen the sonne shene.

"O Maye, with all thy floures and thy grene,
Right welcome be thou faire freshe May,
I hope that I some grene here getten may.".
And in a path he romed up and down,

* Ibid., 1. 479-488.

Ther as by aventure this Palamon

Was in a bush, that no man might him se,
For sore afered of his deth was he.*

The two kinsmen thus unexpectedly brought together recall their former jealousy, exchange angry words, and finally engage in a duel in order to determine which is best entitled to fair Emelie's hand. While they are thus desperately fighting, Theseus, who is out on a hunting excursion with his queen and "Emelie yclothed all in grene," comes unexpectedly into the grove.

Under the sonne he loked, and anon,
He was ware of Arcite and Palamon,
That foughten breme, as it were bolles two.
The brighte swerdes wenten to and fro
So hidously, that with the leste stroke

It semed that it wolde felle an oke.

But what they weren, nothing he ne wote.
This duk his courser with his sporres smote,
And at a stert he was betwix hem two,
And pulled out a swerd and cried, "Ho!
No more, up peine of lesing of your hed.
By mighty Mars, he shal anon be ded,
That smiteth any stroke, that I may sen!"t

The two angry combatants cease fighting, and each states his woeful case to the king, who finally makes the following decision:

My will is this for plat conclusion

Withouten any replication,

If that you liketh, take it for the beste,

That everich of you shal gon wher him leste

Freely withouten raunson or dangere;

And this day fifty wekes, ferre ne nere,

Everich of you shal bring an hundred knightes,
Armed for listes up at alle rightes

Alle redy to darrein hire by bataille.

* Ibid., 1. 647-660.

† Ibid., 1. 839-852.