Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet who lived in the fourteenth century. For nearly five hundred years he has ministered to the mirth and gladness of the English-speaking world. In the Canterbury Tales the fourteenth century rises from the grave, so to speak; and Chaucer's pilgrims - a motley band - are almost the only men of his time who live and breathe immortalized by the genius of the poet. Never again, we fear, will Merrie England see the friendly social gathering of knight and squire, of stately dame and low-born cook, of merchant, miller, and friar, spending the evening together in listening to such tales as these.