The Canterbury Tales: The Friar's Tale

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Simon Pratt (Translator)

The Canterbury Tales recounts the stories told by pilgrims to one another as they make their way from London to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. This volume contains the popular Friar’s tale which paints a vivid picture of the corrupt and seedy world of Summoners in the early Middle Ages. The facing page contains Chaucer’s original text as it was written in fourteenth century Middle English. Alongside, there is room in the wider outer margins and line spacing for students to write their own notes on the Friar’s Tale, or perhaps, to define unfamiliar key words. The reverse side contains a new translation into modern English which differs only slightly from those found elsewhere. Here, each line is translated separately, which means no words have been substituted or borrowed from adjacent lines simply to help maintain the original rhyming structure. Accordingly, this translation adheres very closely to Chaucer’s own original meaning; although, in doing so, it may occasionally contain rather more descriptive explanation than is usual in translated works. Nevertheless, this ‘word for word’ approach will greatly assist those who are new to Chaucer’s Middle English.Parents will be pleased to see that the Friar’s Tale contains none of the vulgarity found in some other Canterbury Tales, which makes this edition ideal for Middle and High school students.This volume contains the complete and unabridged text of the prologue and tale (with line numbers), a helpful new translation together with a personal study notebook. This means it offers excellent value for money.The translator was educated at St Chad’s College Durham, Warwick, Exeter and De Montfort universities in England, and was a Hardwicke and a Sir Thomas More scholar of Lincoln’s Inn, London. His publications include works on English law and literature.

Genres: Poetry, Medieval, School

42 pages, Paperback

Published September 16, 2018

About the author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries.

Reviews

[Vaishali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long for the topic (a dishonest summoner gets his due from Satan himself) and not as spicy as some previous tales. Also, the characterization of our friar Hubert is far more interesting than his story. Can't wait for the summoner's retort.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate it when I'm going out to scam people and abuse my church position and I meet this dude on the road and we become bros and then he reveals he's a demon but I'm cool with it and then I try to scam this old widow and she tells me to go to hell and the demon goes fr? And she says yeah fuck that guy and then my demon bro drags me to hell. Happens all the time.

[Jacky Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lol don't really know what to make of this but ok

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one, wish I didn’t have to read a bunch about the Norman forestry system along with it though.

[Linds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story within the Canterbury Tales.

[sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

money money money

[Bronte Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a spicy one !! chaucer really popped off with this work of art <3 plus the friar and the summoner beefing each other is hilarious