merchants' loan to the king. The importance and self-consciousness of the
smaller tradesmen and handicraftsmen increased with that of the great
merchants. When in 1393 King Richard II marked the termination of his
quarrel with the City of London by a stately procession through "new
Troy," he was welcomed, according to the Friar who has commemorated the
event in Latin verse, by the trades in an array resembling an angelic
host; and among the crafts enumerated we recognise several of those
represented in Chaucer's company of pilgrims--by the "Carpenter," the
"Webbe" (Weaver), and the "Dyer," all clothed

in one livery
Of a solemn and great fraternity.

The middle class, in short, was learning to hold up its head, collectively
and individually. The historical original of Chaucer's "Host"--the actual
Master Harry Bailly, vintner and landlord of the Tabard Inn in Southwark,
was likewise a member of Parliament, and very probably felt as sure of
himself in real life as the mimic personage bearing his name does in its
fictitious reproduction. And he and his fellows, the "poor and simple
Commons"--for so humble was the style they were wont to assume in their
addresses to the sovereign,--began to look upon themselves, and to be
looked upon, as a power in the State. The London traders and
handicraftsmen knew what it was to be well-to-do citizens, and if they had
failed to understand it, home monition would have helped to make it clear
to them:--

Well seemed each of them a fair burgess,
For sitting in a guildhall on a dais.
And each one for the wisdom that he can
Was shapely for to be an alderman.