It was a mark of personal sophistication everywhere, for noblemen and courtiers, to make and sing songs in continuation of the great troubadour and trouvère traditions of the preceding centuries. In the fourteenth century, however, this normally implied the writing of verse alone, or the traditional performance of a simple melody: the formal composition of music by amateurs rapidly became exceptional, due to the development of complex polyphonic styles in secular song, a major musical development of the time. In the Book of the Duchess, the Black Knight, in his love-sickness, busied himself by making songs as best he could, and often sang them out loud, even though he was unskilled and inexperienced. His first song, Lord hit maketh myne herte light, does indeed resemble the fumbling of an amateur, and the Black Knight is right to ask himself if this was his worst. The Knight’s son in the Canterbury Tales Prologue, a handsome squire, combined his deeds of chivalry with composing songs, and jousting with dancing. Chaucer’s use of the word ‘endyte’ suggests, however, that the songs were in fact lyric texts alone, which the squire recited; nevertheless, he was singing and fluting all day long. That singing and dancing were considered as an important social accomplishment for women also is shown by the account given in the Canterbury Tales by the Wife of Bath, albeit on a lower social plane: some men wed a woman because she can either sing or dance. The Wife of Bath herself, in her youth, could dance to the music of a small harp and sing like a nightingale, particularly when she had drunk some sweet wine.