Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ... VI THE CANTERBURY TALES --II MIRACLES of the Blessed Virgin were a favorite form of legend in the middle ages, and no wonder! Every student will recall, at the mere word, a score of these stories, delicately beautiful and of a pathos almost beyond belief. The Prioress, involuntarily expressive of her inmost nature, had chosen to repeat the loveliest and most touching of them all. Its effect upon the Pilgrims is described by Chaucer in two lines of utter simplicity, which touch, so I think, the skirts of Shakspere's garment: -- "Whan seyd was this miracle, every man" -- think what that means: the jangling Miller, the trumpetvoiced Sumner, the cynical and accursed Pardoner, the irrepressible Wife of Bath, the merry Friar, the Merchant, angry to the death under his mask of sedate respectability -- "Whan seyd was this miracle, every man As sobre was that wonder was to see. Nobody can command his thoughts or trust his voice. The whole troop is silent, till at last the Host, to relieve the tension, falls a-jesting, for it must be either laughter or tears; and the butt of his humor is Geoffrey Chaucer, who is somewhere in the background, riding along in apparent abstraction with downcast eyes. Whan seyd was this miracle, every man As sobre was that wonder was to see, Til that oure Hoste iapen tho bigan, And than at erste he looked upon me, And seyde thus: "What man artow?" quod he; "Thou lookest as thou woldest fynde an hare; For ever upon the ground I se thee stare. "Approche neer, and looke up merily! Now war yow, sires, and lat this man have place; He in the waast is shape as wel as I; This were a popet in an arm tenbrace For any womman, smal and fair of face. He semeth elvissh by his contenaunce, For unto no wight doth he daliaunce. "Sey...
