The other pilgrims tell stories in keeping with their professions and
characters. Perhaps the next best tale is the merry story of
_Chanticleer and the Fox_. This is related by the Nun's Priest. The
Clerk of Oxford tells the pathetic tale of _Patient Griselda_, and the
Nun relates a touching story of a little martyr.

Chief Qualities of Chaucer.--I. Chaucer's descriptions are unusually
clear-cut and vivid. They are the work of a poet who did not shut
himself in his study, but who mingled among his fellow-men and noticed
them acutely. He says of the Friar:--

"His eyes twinkled in his heed aright,
As doon the sterres in the frosty night."

Our eyes and ears distinctly perceive the jolly Monk, as he canters
along:--

"And, whan he rood, men might his brydel here
Ginglen in a whistling wind as clere,
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel-belle."

II. Chaucer's pervasive, sympathetic humor is especially
characteristic. We can see him looking with twinkling eyes at the
Miller, "tolling thrice"; at the Monk, "full fat and in good point,"
hunting with his greyhounds, "swift as fowl in flight," or smiling
before a fat roast swan; at the Squire, keeping the nightingale
company; at the Doctor, prescribing the rules of astrology. The Nun
feels a touch of his humor:--