... speaks louder: who are we, to play The generous pardoner at her expense, Magnanimously waive advantages, And, if he conquer us, applaud ... — Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke
... activity; as a manufacturing country she had no equal, and in trade the rival she chiefly feared was still the German Hansa. Chaucer's "Merchant" characteristically wears a "Flandrish beaver hat;" and it is no accident that the scene of the "Pardoner's Tale," which begins with a description of "superfluity abominable," is laid in Flanders. In England, indeed the towns never came to domineer as they did in the Netherlands. Yet, since no trading country will long submit to be ruled by the landed interest only, so in proportion ... — Chaucer • Adolphus William Ward
...
