(From MS. 10 E. IV.)
44. A SHAM MESSENGER.
(From MS. 10 E. IV.)
CHAPTER II MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS
All his life long, kind, loving, merry Chaucer, a good observer, a good listener and good talker, was fond of travels and travellers, of roamers and tale-tellers, of people who came from afar, bringing home with them many stories if little money, stories in which much invention no doubt was mingled with a little truth: but what is the good of raising a protest against harmless invention? Is not sometimes their mixture with “sooth” a pleasant one? Thus, he said:
“Thus saugh I fals and sothe compouned
Togeder fle for oo (one) tydynge.”
Interested in all that was human he studied ordinary types and rare ones; he observed mine Host, and looked also for seekers of adventure, and was never tired of hearing their tales: {224}