Chaucer and the Merchant

April 7, 2015

“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote…Thanne longen folk to goon pilgrimages.”  So begins Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal Canterbury Tales (c.1387-1400).  One of those on Chaucer’s famous journey was an unnamed merchant, “with a forking beard, And motley [a patterned fabric] dress,” wearing a Flemish beaver hat …