"When that April with his showers sweet,
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,"

when the soft wind "with his sweet breath inspired hath in every
holt and heath the tender crops"; when the little birds make new
songs, then "longen folk to go on pilgrimages, and palmers for to
seeken strange lands, and especially from every shire's end of
England, to Canterbury they wend."

So one day in April a company of pilgrims gathered at the Tabard
Inn on the south side of the Thames, not far from London Bridge.
A tabard, or coat without sleeves, was the sign of the inn; hence
its name. In those days such a coat would often be worn by
workmen for ease in working, but it has come down to us only as
the gayly colored coat worn by heralds.

At the Tabard Inn twenty-nine "of sundry folk," besides Chaucer
himself, were gathered. They were all strangers to each other,
but they were all bound on the same errand. Every one was
willing to be friendly with his neighbor, and Chaucer in his
cheery way had soon made friends with them all.

"And shortly when the sun was to rest,
So had I spoke with them every one."

And having made their acquaintance, Chaucer begins to describe
them all so that we may know them too. He describes them so well
that he makes them all living to us. Some we grow to love; some
we smile upon and have a kindly feeling for, for although they
are not fine folk, they are so very human we cannot help but like