Image 1 Caption: A mural depicting the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales (1387--1400) by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343--1400).

The Canterbury Tales is a tableau vivant of Medieval England. in which a company of pilgrims---including Chaucer himself---tell the tales on their way to Canterbury.

In the mural, Chaucer is 7th from the left with his back toward the viewer.

The pilgrimage begins:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

---The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343--1400).
See Harvard Geoffrey Chaucer: General Prologue, lines 1--18.

The spelling is semi-phonetic, NOT Chaucer's. We are NOT absolutely certain how Middle English (c.1150--c.1500) was pronounced, but a reasonable reconstruction exists (see Wikipedia: Middle English phonology). For the short guide to pronunciation, see Wikipedia: Middle English: Pronunciation.

Image 2 Caption: Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, April, Musee Conde, Chateau de Chantilly. The Chateau de Dourdan is possibly in the background.