Robert Browning 134 Alfred Tennyson 144 Ralph Waldo Emerson 150 Thomas Carlyle 175 Benjamin Franklin 226 William Cullen Bryant 262 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 290 John Greenleaf Whittier 320 STORIES OF AUTHORS I THE ANCIENT TABARD INN The picture we see here is that of an inn whose fame is as widespread as the love of English poetry, for it is at the Tabard Inn that Chaucer more than five hundred years ago assembled his nine and twenty pilgrims who were preparing to visit the tomb of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. The witchery of the springtime had stirred the blood of these Londoners who, perhaps, were enticed from home more by the soft April showers and the melody of the birds than by their need of spiritual consolation. This, at least, is the impression we receive as in imagination we join these immortal pilgrims at the Tabard. Our guide is Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious bursts that fill The spacious times of great Elizabeth With sounds that echo still,-- and as he moves among his motley group, let us take a glance at the Tabard.