who was buried in the Poets’ Corner of the Abbey. We see from his life-- and it was fortunate for his poetry-- that Chaucer had the most varied experience as student, courtier, soldier, ambassador, official, and member of Parliament; and was able to mix freely and on equal terms with all sorts and conditions of men, from the king to the poorest hind in the fields. He was a stout man, with a small bright face, soft eyes, dazed by long and hard reading, and with the English passion for flowers, green fields, and all the sights and sounds of nature. 8. +Chaucer’s Works.+-- Chaucer’s greatest work is the +Canterbury Tales+. It is a collection of stories written in heroic metre-- that is, in the rhymed couplet of five iambic feet. The finest part of the Canterbury Tales is the +Prologue+; the noblest story is probably the +Knightes Tale+. It is worthy of note that, in 1362, when Chaucer was a very young man, the session of the House of Commons was first opened with a speech in English; and in the same year an Act of Parliament was passed, substituting the use of English for French in courts of law, in schools, and in public offices. English had thus triumphed over French in all parts of the country, while it had at the same time become saturated with French words. In the year 1383 the Bible was translated into English by Wyclif. Thus Chaucer, whose writings were called by Spenser “the well of English undefiled,” wrote at a time when our English was freshest and newest. The grammar of his works shows English with a large number of inflexions still remaining. The Canterbury Tales are a series of stories supposed to be told by a number of pilgrims who are on their way to the shrine of St Thomas (Becket) at Canterbury. The pilgrims, thirty-two in number, are fully described-- their dress, look, manners, and character in the Prologue. It had been agreed, when they met at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, that each pilgrim should tell four stories-- two going and two returning-- as they rode along the grassy lanes, then the only roads, to the old cathedral city. But only four-and-twenty stories exist.