elcomed, according to the Friar who has commemorated the event in
Latin verse, by the trades in an array resembling an angelic host; and
among the crafts enumerated we recognise several of those represented
in Chaucer's company of pilgrims--by the "Carpenter," the "Webbe"
(Weaver), and the "Dyer," all clothed

in one livery
Of a solemn and great fraternity.

The middle class, in short, was learning to hold up its head,
collectively and individually. The historical original of Chaucer's
"Host"--the actual Master Harry Bailly, vintner and landlord of the
Tabard Inn in Southwark, was likewise a member of Parliament, and very
probably felt as sure of himself in real life as the mimic personage
bearing his name does in its fictitious reproduction. And he and his
fellows, the "poor and simple Commons"--for so humble was the style
they were wont to assume in their addresses to the sovereign,--began to
look upon themselves, and to be looked upon, as a power in the State.
The London traders and handicraftsmen knew what it was to be well-to-do
citizens, and if they had failed to understand it, home monition would
have helped to make it clear to them:--

Well seemed each of them a fair burgess,
For sitting in a guildhall on a dais.
And each one for the wisdom that he can
Was shapely for to be an alderman.
They had enough of chattels and of rent,
And very gladly would their wives assent;
And, truly, else they had been much to blame.
It is full fair to be yclept madame,
And fair to go to vigils all before,
And have a mantle royally y-bore.

The English State had ceased to be the feudal monarchy--the
ramification of contributory courts and camps--of the crude days of
William the Conqueror and his successors. The Norman lords and their
English dependants no longer formed two separate elements in the body
politic. In the great French wars of Edward III, the English armies
had no longer mainly consisted of the baronial levies. The nobles had
indeed, as of old, ridden into battle at the head of their vassals and
retainers; but the body of the force had been made up of Englishmen
serving for pay, and armed with their national implement, the bow--such
as Chaucer's "Yeoman" carried with him on the ride to Canterbury:--

A sheaf of peacock arrows bright and keen
Under his belt he bare full thriftily.
Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly:
His arrows drooped not with feathers low,
And in h