"Ful wel she song the service divyne,
Entuned in hir nose ful semely."

Of the lawyer, he says:--

"No-wher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he semed bisier than he was."

Sometimes Chaucer's humor is so delicate as to be lost on those who
are not quick-witted. Lowell instances the case of the Friar, who,
"before setting himself softly down, drives away the cat," and adds
what is true only of those who have acute understanding: "We know,
without need of more words, that he has chosen the snuggest corner."

His humor is often a graceful cloak for his serious philosophy of
existence. The humor in the _Prologue_ does not impair its worth to
the student of fourteenth-century life.

III. Although Chaucer's humor and excellence in lighter vein are such
marked characteristics, we must not forget his serious qualities; for
he has the Saxon seriousness as well as the Norman airiness. As he
looks over the struggling world, he says with a sympathetic heart:--

"Infinite been the sorwes and the teres
Of olde folk, and folk of tendre yeres."[35]

In like vein, we have:--

"This world nis but a thurghfare ful of wo,
And we ben pilgrimes, passinge to and fro;