.. this deed accurst,
An emblem yields to friends and enemies,
How the bold teacher's doctrine, _sanctified
By truth_, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAUCER (CONTINUED.)--PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, AND OF LANGUAGES.
Social Life. Government. Chaucer's English. His Death. Historical
Facts. John Gower. 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. The _knight_, as the
representative of European chivalry, comes to us in name at least from the
German forests with the irrepressible Teutons.
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