GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

(1340?-1400.)


PORTRAITS FROM THE CANTERBURY TALES.

II. AND III. THE MONK AND THE FRIAR.


The following complete portraits of two of the characters in
Chaucer's matchless picture of the Canterbury Pilgrims are taken
from the Prologue to the _Canterbury Tales_.


II.

A monk ther was, a fayre for the maistríe,[59]
An outrider, that loved venerie;[60]
A manly man, to ben an abbot able.
Ful many a deintè[61] hors hadde he in stable:
And whan he rode, men might his bridel here
Gingeling in a whistling wind as clere,
And eke as loude, as doth the chapell belle,
Ther as this lord was keeper of the celle.
The reule of Seint Maure and of Seint Beneit,
Because that it was olde and somdele streit,