Rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet-skinned old Chaucer was an Easter-Beurré; the buds of a new summer were swelling when he ripened.

At this time Chaucer was a handsome, witty, modest, dignified man of letters, in easy circumstances, moving in the higher ranks of society, and already known for his "Troilus and Cresseide," which was then doubtless the best poem in the language.

Our first knowledge of Geoffrey Chaucer is obtained from the household accounts of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter-in-law of Edward III., in whose family Chaucer was a page.

Chaucer was a Cockney; he had his house close to the Abbey.

Chaucer was a combined poet and man of affairs, with the latter predominating.

" Living at the center of English social and political life, and resorting to the court of Edward III., then the most brilliant in Europe, Chaucer was an eye-witness of those feudal pomps which fill the high-colored pages of his contemporary, the French chronicler, Froissart.

" Living at the center of English social and political life, and resorting to the court of Edward III., then the most brilliant in Europe, Chaucer was an eye-witness of those feudal pomps which fill the high-colored pages of his contemporary, the French chronicler, Froissart.

In the breadth and kindliness of his view of life, Chaucer is a worthy predecessor of Shakespeare.

Chaucer is the bright consummate flower of the English Middle Age.

Mr. Speight is of opinion that one Richard Chaucer was his father, and that one Elizabeth Chaucer, a nun of St. Helen's, in the second year of Richard II. might have been his sister, or of his kindred.

But Chaucer was likewise an astrologer, as were Virgil, Horace, Persius, and Manilius.

Fine poet as I think Boiardo, I hold Chaucer to be a far finer; and spirited, and in some respects admirable, as are Dryden's versions of Chaucer, they do not equal that of Boiardo by the Tuscan.

" Later, Chaucer became a squire.

But Chaucer is a huge borrower.

Chaucer is the first English writer to bring the atmosphere of romantic interest about the men and women and the daily work of one's own world,which is the aim of nearly all modern literature.

Though Chaucer was his beloved master, his ambition was not to rival the Canterbury Tales, but rather to express the dream of English chivalry, much as Ariosto had done for Italy in Orlando Furioso.

Chaucer, I confess, is a rough diamond, and must first be polished ere he shines.

Chaucer was the contemporary of Wyclif, with whom the Middle Ages may appropriately be said to close, or modern history to begin.

Chaucer himself, after his travels on the continent, became a student of the Inner Temple.

Chaucer is another prime favourite of his, and he has been at the pains to modernise some of the Canterbury Tales.

Mr. Speight is of opinion that one Richard Chaucer was his father, and that one Elizabeth Chaucer, a nun of St. Helen's, in the second year of Richard II. might have been his sister, or of his kindred.