Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/21

 A MEMORIAL OF GEOFFBY CHAUCEB. CONSIDERABLE AGITATION has been excited by the biographers of Chaucer regarding the station that his family held in society. One, Leland, says he was of noble stock ; another, Pitts, that he was the son of a knight ; Speght says that his father was a vintner ; and Hearne, that he was a merchant. The question, therefore, is a doubtful one ; though for the following reasons we may rationally infer that he was of gentle birth. First ; he was bred at both universities ; he had travelled through several of the countries of Europe, and was a student in the Temple. Secondly, (j B