ABSTRACT
Geoffrey Chaucer himself uses the London English of the king’s court that would become the basis for standard English, and for that reason his language is largely familiar, but in the fourteenth century it had not yet become the dominant form. The narrative rattles along unremittingly until the Host feels compelled to interrupt ‘Chaucer’ with a disparaging verdict on his poetry as ‘drasty’ and urges him to tell another tale. The rime royal form can also be exploited and certain lines foregrounded when Chaucer chooses not to follow the expected rhyme pattern. The vast majority of Chaucer’s works are in rhymed verse of various kinds. There were two different poetic traditions in England in the fourteenth century. The older form, known as the alliterative tradition, tended not to rhyme, but had three or more words in any given line that alliterated.
