Chaucer and Gower.

Gower's Language.

Other Writers.
SOCIAL LIFE.
A few words must suffice to suggest to the student what may be learned, as to the condition of society in England, from the Canterbury Tales.
All the portraits are representatives of classes.

But an inquiry into the social life of the period will be more systematic, if we look first at the nature and condition of chivalry, as it still existed, although on the eve of departure, in England.

This is found in the portraits of certain of Chaucer's pilgrims--the knight, the squire, and the yeoman; and in the special prologues to the various tales.