652 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
CHAUCER’S BURGESSES 
ERNEST P. KUHL 
With the nine and twenty pilgrim's who leave the Tabard 
on that April morning are five burgesses: the Haberdasher, 
Carpenter, Dyer, Weaver, and Tapicer. That Chaucer de¬ 
liberately selected from the various guilds these five repre¬ 
sentatives no one, I believe, has hitherto suspected. It is 
one purpose of this paper to show the strong probabilities 
that this selection was carefully made. 
A cursory glance at once reveals the fact that Chaucer 
did not choose representatives from the prominent compan¬ 
ies of his day. If he had, he would of necessity have 
chosen from the victualling classes as well as from some of 
the prominent non-victualling classes. That there were at 
this time two factions is well known,—the victuallers and 
non-victuallers, or protectionists and free traders. First 
one faction was in power, then the other,—now up, now 
down, like the proverbial bucket in the well. Let us take 
a hasty glance at the civic history of London during these 
years. From 1377 to 1381 the victualling class (favored by 
the King) was in power. From 1381 to 1383 the non¬ 
victuallers (under the protection of John of Gaunt) had a 
representative as Mayor. In 1383 the former class again 
resumed power which it held for five years. After a year’s 
administration under a goldsmith (1388-9) came a year 
under a grocer; then another year under a goldsmith, at 
which time the ardor of the strife began to subside. 1 
1 Introduction to Letter-Book , H, edited by R. R. Sharpe. The victual¬ 
ling class was in power, therefore, during the years when the General Prologue 
was probably written. The best brief account of the London Guilds is by 
George Unwin, The Gilds and Companies of London. London 1908(?). 
There is no large work on the subject that is reliable. Herbert’s History 
of the Twelve Great Livery Companies (2 Vols. London, 1836-7), and 
