ave known intimately the cook, the
wife of Bath, and the yeoman.

Whoever Chaucer's father may have been, he certainly gave him a very
liberal education. His writings show that Chaucer was a good scholar,
both in the classics and in divinity, and that, according to the ideas
of the fourteenth century, he was far advanced in astronomy and the
other sciences. Tradition says that he studied at both Cambridge and
Oxford. This is not at all unlikely, for we find that reading young
men of that day did sometimes really go from one university to the
other. When he had finished his education in England, Chaucer went to
Paris. There he may have gained that grace of carriage and manner for
which he is said to have been always so remarkable.

We can picture to ourselves the handsome, free-spirited young fellow,
with his ruddy Saxon face and ready Saxon wit, in the joyous capital
of fair France; now whispering pretty nothings into the dainty ear of
some dark-eyed grisette, now going home through the streets at
daybreak, with a band of merry companions, shouting out in
questionable French a jolly chorus; and now riding gayly forth to see
how in a foreign land they understood the art of woodcraft. No doubt
he sowed at this period a tolerable crop of wild oats, but at the same
time he began to plant his laurels. He wrote very early his first long
poem, "The Court of Love." This, like most of his earlier writings, is
full of allegory and imagery. Though very gorgeous in coloring, and
often literally overflowing with rich fancy, these first poems are
rather wanting in the human interest of the "Canterbury Tales."

On his return to England Chaucer for a little while studied law. To
judge by the only incident related of his legal life, he by no means
entirely buried himself among musty old documents and ponderous
volumes.

One afternoon, as young Chaucer was passing through the Temple with
his temper made a little more irritable than usual, it may be by the
heat of the sun, it may be by an additional cup of sack, it may be by
the thought of an especially stiff piece of reading which was before
him--it may be all three together--he met a friar. The priest came
along with easy step and shining, rosy face, rejoicing at once in the
odor of sanctity and of a good dinner. The sight of this placidly lazy
and provokingly comfortable churchman had upon the man of law the same
effect that the sight of a sleek tabby has upon a terrier. In two
mi