The Bible was no longer merely the property of the priests and a few scholarly men of the time. It was now to be had in the mother tongue of the people; and the dream of the many—to enable every plough boy to read the Bible—was in a fair way of being realised."
It is true that at this period the masses in England were not all literate and we are not asserting that every man and woman in England read Wycliffe's Bible. Before the invention of printing, books were very few and the price was very high. A copy of the Bible costed more than Rs. 500 at that time. The Bible, like all other popular books, was read to the people and "often parties were gathered together to hear some one read it." Chaucer's Tales were likewise read to the ladies and gentlemen assembled in the hall as well as to the people gathered in the public houses. In fact Chaucer intended, as every other popular poet of the time, that his poem should be recited. We now say that a book is "published" when it comes out of the press, and is read by the people. But in Chaucer's time 'publication' was due to 'recitation' rather than perusal. "This is expected in a period when men were illiterate without being ignorant".
Refering to Chaucer's language—"the well of English undefiled" Prof. Lounsbery says in his
