Chaucer’s great work is his _Canterbury Tales_, a series of tales supposed to be told by a company of pilgrims to beguile their journey to the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury. The company represented men and women of almost every class in England; and their manners and character are painted with wonderful truth and beauty. The following is a passage from the _Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_; and the French words are in italics. It is from the character of the _Knight_: And evermore he had a _sovereyn prys_,[16] And, though that he was worthy, he was wys, And of his _port_[17] as meke as is a mayde. He nevere yit no _vileinye_[18] ne sayde In al his lyf, unto no _maner_[19] wight. He was a _verray perfight gentil_[20] knight. But, for to tellen you of his _array_,[21] His hors was good, but he ne was nought _gay_.[22] 12. =ALLITERATION OR HEAD-RHYME.=--Alliteration is the correspondence of the first letter of several words in the same line. It is like the well-known: ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pepper off a pewter plate.’ Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran. In Old English or Anglo-Saxon poetry it was the only kind of rhyme used. The rhyme which is called end-rhyme was not known to the Saxons, and was imported into England by the Normans. In the ordinary Old English verse, the lines are written in pairs, and in each pair there are usually three alliterations, two in the first line and one in the second. Even as late as the fourteenth century we find such verses as the following, written by Langland: I shop me into a schroud, A scheep as I werë. Shakspeare is fond of making fun of it. But it has unconsciously survived in the language; and there is not a single great English poet, from Shakspeare to Tennyson, who does not make a large use of it. Thus Shakspeare himself has In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Full fathom five thy father lies. and many other similar lines. Milton gives us such lines as: Him the Almighty power Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky. Shelley has the line: Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought. Tennyson is very fond of alliteration. Thus, in the _Day-Dream_: And o’er them many a sliding star And many a merry wind was borne; And, streamed through many a golden bar, The twilight melted into morn. 13. =JOHN GOWER.=--A contemporary of Chaucer was John Gower, a gentleman of Kent. The date of his birth is not known; but he survived Chaucer eight years, dying in 1408. He wrote the _Lover’s Confession_ in English verse; the _Mirror of the Meditative Man_ in French verse (lost); the _Voice of one crying_, in Latin. His style was heavy and prosaic. Chaucer called him the ‘moral Gower.’