CANTERBURY TALES EDITED WITH NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY ALFRED W. POLLARD VOL. I London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK I 894 All rights reserved INTRODUCTION I PROPOSE to devote this brief introduction chiefly to the discussion of one or two aspects of Chaucer's development as a literary artist. In my little Primer of Chaucer, I have endeavoured to summarise the dry facts and dates as to Chaucer's life and the order and sources of his poems; but these beggarly elements of Chaucer-criticism, as they may fairly be called, even by those who best know their value as a foundation on which to build, need not always be kept in the forefront, and it is not necessary to repeat them here. Chaucer was born about 1340, of middle-class parents; was page in the household of Lionel, Duke of Clarence; served a campaign in France; was one of the king's valets, was employed on commercial and diplomatic missions to France and Italy, held posts in the customs, and was clerk of the king's works at Westminster and Windsor ; belonged to the party of John of Gaunt, and shared to some extent his patron's fortunes-there, in seventy words, is the poet's life as far as it helps us to understand his works, and though we know by heart every |