THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

Being Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Retold for Children

By M. Sturt, BA and E.C. Oaken, MA







INTRODUCTION

Geoffrey Chaucer lived mere than five hundred years ago, when Edward
II. waged war in France, and the peasants rebelled in England
against his son, Richard II, Yet for all this, England was then
"Merrie England." Her trade prospered, men laughed and sang and
delighted in tales, in art, end in out-door life.

Chaucer was not a poet who lived apart from his fellows, but one who
dealt constantly with men and affairs, and loved his fellow-men. He
was an important person in his time. He began life as a page boy at
Court, where he saw great ladies and gallant courtiers, and heard
music and took part in pageants and processions. He fought for the
king in France and was taken prisoner by the enemy; but the king
sixteen pounds for his ransom and he returned to England. He went to
France again and to as ambassador on the king's business. Thus he met
famous men in foreign lands and saw the beautiful land of Italy,
where in his day lived two Italian poets whose names are as famous