Ther was ahlsoa a nŏŏn, a preeoressa, That of her smeeling was fŏŏl sim-pland cooy; Heer graitest ohth nas bŏŏt bee Sī-ent Looy, And shay was cleppèd Màdam Eglanteena. Fŏŏl well shay sang the _servicĕ divinä_, Entúned in heer nohsa fŏŏl saimaly; And French shai spahk fŏŏl fēr and faitisly, Ahfter the scohl of Strahtford ahtta Bow-a, For French of Pahrees was toh her ŏŏn-know-a. Observe _simpland_ for _simple and_: simple being pronounced like a word of one syllable. With the common English pronunciation the lines would not scan. ‘Vernicle,’ ‘Christofre,’ ‘wimple,’ ‘chilindre,’ ‘companable,’ &c., are further instances of this mute _e_, and may be read as French words. CHAUCER THE TALE-TELLER. I. Do you like hearing stories? I am going to tell you of some one who lived a very long time ago, and who was a very wise and good man, and who told more wonderful stories than I shall be able to tell _you_ in this little book. But you shall hear some of them, if you will try and understand them, though they are written in a sort of English different from what you are accustomed to speak. But, in order that you really may understand the stories, I must first tell you something about the man who made them; and also why his language was not the same as yours, although it was English. His name was Chaucer--Geoffrey Chaucer. You must remember his name, for he was so great a man that he has been called the ‘Father of English Poetry’--that is, the beginner or inventor of all the poetry that belongs to our England; and when you are grown up, you will often hear of Chaucer and his works. II. Chaucer lived in England 500 years ago--a longer time than such a little boy as you can even think of. It is now the year 1876, you know. Well, Chaucer was born about 1340, in the reign of King Edward III. We should quite have forgotten all Chaucer’s stories in such a great space of time if he had not written them down in a book. But, happily, he did write them down; and so we can read them just as if he had only told them yesterday. If you could suddenly spring back into the time when Chaucer lived, what a funny world you would find! Everybody was dressed differently then from what people are now, and lived in quite a different way; and you might think they were very uncomfortable, but they were very happy, because they were accustomed to it all. People had no carpets in those days in their rooms. Very few people were rich enough to have glass windows. There was no paper on the walls, and very seldom any pictures; and as for spring sofas and arm-chairs, they were unknown. The seats were only benches placed against the wall: sometimes a chair was brought on grand occasions to do honour to a visitor; but it was a rare luxury.