Certainly no one who has ever read the Prologue to the Tales will question Chaucer’s right to be considered a great original poet, no matter how much he may have owed to foreign teachers.

The Tales.—­Harry Baily, the keeper of the Tabard Inn, who accompanied the pilgrims, proposed that each member of the party should tell four tales,—­two going and two returning.  The one who told the best story was to have a supper at the expense of the rest.  The plan thus outlined was not fully executed by Chaucer, for the collection contains but twenty-four tales, all but two of which are in verse.

[Illustration:  THE KNIGHT.]

[Illustration:  THE PRIORESS.]

[Illustration:  THE SQUIRE.]

The Knightes Tale, which is the first, is also the best.  It is a very interesting story of love and chivalry.  Two young Theban nobleman, Palamon and Arcite, sworn friends, are prisoners of war at Athens.  Looking through the windows of their dungeon, they see walking in the garden the beautiful sister of the queen.  Each one swears that he will have the princess.  Arcite is finally pardoned on condition that he will leave Athens and never return, on penalty of death; but his love for Emily lures him back to the forbidden land.  Reduced almost to a skeleton, he disguises himself, goes to Athens, and becomes a servant in the house of King Theseus.  Finally, Palamon escapes from prison, and by chance encounters Arcite.  The two men promptly fight, but are interrupted by Theseus, who at first condemns them to death, but later relents and directs them to depart and to return at the end of a year, each with a hundred brave knights.  The king prescribes that each lover shall then lead his forces in mortal battle and that the victor shall wed the princess.

[Illustration:  THE CLERK OF OXFORD.]

On the morning of the contest, Palamon goes before dawn to the temple of Venus to beseech her aid in winning Emily, while Arcite at the same time steals to the temple of Mars to pray for victory in war.  Each deity not only promises but actually grants the suppliants precisely what they ask; for Arcite, though fatally wounded, is victorious in the battle, and Palamon in the end weds Emily.  Although Boccaccio’s Teseide furnished the general plot for this Knightes Tale, Chaucer’s story is, as Skeat says, “to all intents, a truly original poem.”

The other pilgrims tell stories in keeping with their professions and characters.  Perhaps the next best tale is the merry story of Chanticleer and the Fox.  This is related by the Nun’s Priest.  The Clerk of Oxford tells the pathetic tale of Patient Griselda, and the Nun relates a touching story of a little martyr.

Chief Qualities of Chaucer.—­I.  Chaucer’s descriptions are unusually clear-cut and vivid.  They are the work of a poet who did not shut himself in his study, but who mingled among his fellow-men and noticed them acutely.  He says of the Friar:—­