And he adds a description of Court morals which may well suggest further reflections on Chaucer’s married life.[43]
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A TRAVELLING CARRIAGE
(FROM THE LOUTERELL PSALTER)
But the Court was all that the poet could desire as a school of worldly manners, of human passion and character, and of gorgeous pageantry. The King travelled much with his household; a grievous burden indeed to the poor country folk on whom his purveyors preyed, but to the world in general a glorious sight. He took with him a multitude of officers already suppressed as superfluous in the days of Edward IV., “as well Sergeants of Arms and Messagers many, with the twenty-four Archers before the King, shooting when he rode by the country, called Gard Corpes le Roy. And therefore the King journied not passing ten or twelve miles a day.” Ruskin traces much of his store of observation to the leisurely journeys round England with his father in Mr. Telford’s chaise; and the young Chaucer must have gathered from these Royal progresses a rich harvest of impressions for future use.
CHAPTER IV
THE AMBASSADOR
| “Adieu, mol lit, adieu, piteux regards; Adieu, pain frais que l’on soulait trouver; Il me convient porter honneur aux lards; Il convient ail et biscuit avaler, Et chevaucher un périlleux cheval.” Eustache Deschamps |