Authors, and that is, by the
Excellencies of his Descriptions to possess his Readers with a stronger
imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read, than
any other that ever writ in any Tongue. But above all, his Book of
_Canterbury-Tales_, is most recommended to Posterity, which he maketh
to be spoken by certain Pilgrims who lay at the _Tabard_-Inn in
_Southwark_ as he declareth in the beginning of his said Book.

It befell in that season, on a day,
In Southwark, at the Tabert as I lay,
Ready to wend on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury, with full devout courage;
That night was comen into the Hosterie,
Well nine and twenty in a companie,
Of sundry folke, by adventure yfall
In fellowship, and Pilgrims were they all,
That toward Canterbury woulden ride;
The Stables and Chambers weren wide,
And well wee were eased at the best, &c.

By his Travel also in _France_ and _Flanders_, where he spent much time
in his young years, but more in the latter end of the Reign of King
_Richard_ the Second; he attained to a great perfection in all kind of
Learning, as _Bale_ and _Leland_ report of him: _Circa postremos_
Richardi _Secundi annos_, Galliis _floruit, magnamque illic ex assidua
in Literis exercitatione gloriam sibi comparavit. Domum reversus Forum_
Londinense; _& Collegia_ Leguleiorum, _qui ibidem Patria Jura
interpretantur frequentavit_, &c. About the latter end of King
_Richard_ the Second's Days, he flourished in _France_, and got himself
into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in Learning: After his
return home, he frequented the Court at _London_, and the Colledges of
the _Lawyers_, which there interpreted the Laws of the Land. Amongst
whom was _John Gower_, his great familiar Friend, whose Life we wrote
before. This _Gower_, in his Book entituled _Confessio Amantis_,
termeth _Chaucer_ a worthy Poet, and maketh him as it were the Judge of
his Works.

This our _Chaucer_ had always an earnest desire to enrich and beautifie
our _English_ Tongue, which in those days was very rude and barren; and
this he did, following the example of _Dantes_ and _Petrarch_. who had
done the same for the _Italian_ Tongue, _Alanus_ for the _French_, and
_Johannes Mea_ for the _Spanish_: Neither was _Chaucer_ inferior to any
of them in the performance hereof; and _England_ in this respect is
much beholding to him; as _Leland_ well noteth:

_Anglia_ Chaucerum _veneratur nostra Poetam_;
_Cui