Medulla_, so may _Chaucer_ be rightly called the Pith and Sinews of
Eloquence, and the very Life it self of all Mirth and pleasant Writing.
Besides, one Gift he had above other Authors, and that is, by the
Excellencies of his Descriptions to possess his Readers with a stronger
imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read, than
any other that ever writ in any Tongue. But above all, his Book of
_Canterbury-Tales_, is most recommended to Posterity, which he maketh
to be spoken by certain Pilgrims who lay at the _Tabard_-Inn in
_Southwark_ as he declareth in the beginning of his said Book.

It befell in that season, on a day,
In Southwark, at the Tabert as I lay,
Ready to wend on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury, with full devout courage;
That night was comen into the Hosterie,
Well nine and twenty in a companie,
Of sundry folke, by adventure yfall
In fellowship, and Pilgrims were they all,
That toward Canterbury woulden ride;
The Stables and Chambers weren wide,
And well wee were eased at the best, &c.

By his Travel also in _France_ and _Flanders_, where he spent much time
in his young years, but more in the latter end of the Reign of King
_Richard_ the Second; he attained to a great perfection in all kind of
Learning, as _Bale_ and _Leland_ report of him: _Circa postremos_
Richardi _Secundi annos_, Galliis _floruit, magnamque illic ex assidua
in Literis exercitatione gloriam sibi comparavit. Domum reversus Forum_
Londinense; _& Collegia_ Leguleiorum, _qui ibidem Patria Jura
interpretantur frequentavit_, &c. About the latter end of King