But though the conventional pilgrim is always represented with robe, and hat, and staff, and scrip, the actual pilgrim seems sometimes to have dispensed with some, if not with all, of these insignia. For example, Chaucer minutely describes the costume of the principal personages in his company of Canterbury Pilgrims, and he not only does not describe what would have been so marked and picturesque features in their appearance, but his description seems to preclude the pilgrim’s robe and hat. His knight is described in the ordinary jupon,
“Of fustian he wered a jupon.”
And the squire—
“Short was his gowne with sleves long and wide.”
And the yeoman—
“Was clad in cote and hood of green.”
And the serjeant of the law—
“Rode but homely in a medlee cote,
Girt with a seint[187] of silk with barres small.”
The merchant was in motley—
“And on his hed a Flaundrish bever hat.”