Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales, written about 1387 hardly needs introduction, but it is perhaps less well known that Chaucer's career in the royal administration under King Edward III, John of Gaunt, and Richard II involved not only diplomacy, business of state, but also a short tenure as Clerk of the King's Works from 1389–91, a position that obliged him to survey and administer numerous building projects. He also gives us an indispensable portrait of late 14th century English society or, to put it another way, the real people who sponsored and inhabited buildings like those described in this section of the course, from the king's hall down to the poor widow in her sooty little timber-framed house.

What is of interest here as a primary source is the description of the lavish uniforms (livery) worn by the members of a trade guild and the fact that Chaucer places them on the dais in their guildhall. While Chaucer's date of birth is uncertain, it can be placed around 1344; he died in October of 1400, the year after the deposition of Richard II and the completion of Westminster Hall.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales in The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer edited by F .N. Robinson. Second edition; Cambridge, MA, 1957. The italicised translations in brackets are mine but based on Robinson's glossary.

General Prologue, lines 361–372

An Habersasshere and a Carpenter,
A Webbe,[weaver] a Dyere, and a Tapycer [weaver of tapestry]—
And they were clothed alle in o [the same] lyveree [livery]
Of a solempne and greet fraternitee [confraternity, guild].
Ful fressh and newe hir [their] geere [apparel] apiked [adorned] was;
Hir knyves were chaped [mounted] noght with bras
But al with silver; wrought ful clene and weel
Hire girdles and hir pouches everydeel. [altogether; every piece]
Wel semed ech [each] of hem a fair burgeys [burgess] .
To sitten in a yeldenhalle [guildhall] on a deys [dais].
Everich [each of them], for the wisdom that he kan [displayed]
Was shapely [likely] for to been an alderman.