f humanity.
He paints his fellows; and, if he is amused with our follies, he prefers
showing the fairer side of our nature. Even the merry, warm-blooded Wife
of Bath, with her five wedded husbands, earns some goodwill of us by her
joyous and invincible spirit. Imagine the daring, the vigour, and the
stirring wit of the west-country cloth-manufacturess, who cannot rest easy
till she has been three times in pilgrimage to Jerusalem!

There is a visible purpose of keeping up the RESPECTABILITY of the
company. If the MILLER, the COKE, the REVE, and the SOMPNOUR, stand on a
somewhat low step of the social stair--the HABERDASHER, the CARPENTER, the
WEBBE (Weaver)--the DYER and the TAPISER--who are lumped in the poet's
description--

"Were al yclothed in ye liveree,
_Of a solempne and gret fraternitee_.

* * * *

_Wel semed ech of hem a fayr burgeis_,
_To sitten in a gild halle_, ON THE DEIS."

They are of wisdom qualifying them to stand for Aldermen of their wards.
Their wives are 'ycleped Madame'--take precedency in going to vigils--and
have

----"A mantel reallich (_i.e._ royally) yborne."

Even our honest friend the Southwark innkeeper, Henry Bailey, has an air
of dignity thrown over him. He was

"A semely man--
For to have ben _a marshal in an halle_.
_A large man_ he was, with eyen stepe,[30]
_A fairer burgeis is ther non in Chepe_.
Bold of his speche, and wise and _wel ytaught_,
And of manhood him lacked righte nought."

Moreover, even that chief of poetical Taverns, the TABARD, is designated
as

"This _gentil_ hostelrie."

No wonder! since

"The _chambres and the stables weren wide_,
And _wel we weren esed_ ATTE BESTE."

The Tales are, in some respect, like an extension of the Prologue. They
carry out the characters, or the spirit of the characters, there drawn.
Thus, if the chivalry of the time is impersonated, in respect of its
valour, honour, and courteous demeanour, in the Knight, in his Tale it
mounts into poetical aspiration, and shines out in regal splendour. The
contrast, due to the different years of the father and the son, is in part
disappointed by the cross destiny which has

----"left half-told
The story of Cambuscan bold."

The youthful fancy, dipped or drenched in romance, of the twenty-year old
Squire, shows itself, indeed, in the two sections which we have of his
chivalrous narrative. The Sword, which, with its edge,