For his Parentage, although Bale writes, he termeth himself Galfridus Chaucer nobili loco natus, & fummae spei juvenis; yet in the opinion of some Heralds (otherwise than his Virtues and Learning commended him) he descended not of any great House, which they gather by his Arms:  And indeed both in respect of the Name, which is French, as also by other Conjectures, it may be gathered, that his Progenitors were Strangers; but whether they were Merchants (for that in places where they have dwelled, the Arms of the Merchants of the Staple have been seen in the Glass-windows) or whether they were of other Callings, it is not much necessary to search; but wealthy no doubt they were, and of good account in the Commonwealth, who brought up their Son in such sort, that both he was thought fit for the Court at home, and to be employed for Matters of State in Foreign Countries.

His Education, as Leland writes, was in both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as appeareth by his own words, in his Book Entituled The Court of Love:  And in Oxford by all likelihood, in Canterbury or in Merton Colledge, improving his Time in the University, he became a witty Logician, a sweet Rhetorician, a grave Philosopher, a holy Divine, a skilful Mathematician, and a pleasant Poet; of whom, for the Sweetness of his Poetry, may be said that which is reported of Stesichorus; and as Cethegus was called Suadae Medulla, so may Chaucer be rightly called the Pith and Sinews of Eloquence, and the very Life it self of all Mirth and pleasant Writing.  Besides, one Gift he had above other Authors, and that is, by the Excellencies of his Descriptions to possess his Readers with a stronger imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read, than any other that ever writ in any Tongue.  But above all, his Book of Canterbury-Tales, is most recommended to Posterity, which he maketh to be spoken by certain Pilgrims who lay at the Tabard-Inn in Southwark as he declareth in the beginning of his said Book.

  It befell in that season, on a day,
  In Southwark, at the Tabert as I lay,
  Ready to wend on my pilgrimage
  To Canterbury, with full devout courage;
  That night was comen into the Hosterie,
  Well nine and twenty in a companie,
  Of sundry folke, by adventure yfall
  In fellowship, and Pilgrims were they all,
  That toward Canterbury woulden ride;
  The Stables and Chambers weren wide,
  And well wee were eased at the best, &c.