Then longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.”
ACT II
Time: April 19th. The afternoon.
Scene: Garden of the One Nine-pin inn at the little hamlet of Bob-up-and-down, en route to Canterbury.
Right, the inn, with door opening into garden. Back, a wall about chin-high in which is a wicket gate. The wall is newly greened over with honeysuckle and rose-vines, which are just beginning to blossom. Left, an arbour of the same. Right front, a rough table and chair. Behind the garden wall runs the highway, beyond which stretches a quiet rolling landscape, dotted with English elms and hedgerows.
When the curtain rises, the scene is empty. There is no sound except the singing of birds, and the hum of a loom inside the inn. Then, away to the left, is heard a bagpipe playing. It draws nearer. Behind the wall, then, against the green background of Spring, pass, in pageant, the Canterbury Pilgrims on horseback. Among the last, astride her ambler, rides the Wife of Bath, telling her tale, in the group with Chaucer and the Prioress. Behind her follow the Swains, the Miller playing the bagpipe. Last rides the Reeve.
Behind the scene, they are heard to stop at the inn and call for hostlers. The bustle of arrival, horses led across a stone court, laughter and abuse,—these sounds are sufficiently remote to add to the reigning sense of pleasant quietness in the garden. Through the door of the inn enters Chaucer, alone; in his hand, some parchments. He enters with an abandon of glad-heartedness, half reading from his parchments.
CHAUCER
“When that April with his sunny showers
Hath from the drought of March the dreamy powers