The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer, R.T. Davies

The General Prologue on CD-ROM presents full materials for detailed study of the text of The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the most read of all parts of the Tales. The CD-ROM contains transcripts, descriptions, images, and collations of all fifty-three fifteenth-century manuscripts and early printed editions of The General Prologue. Specialized software tools allow searching of the text, exploration of the spelling of the 300,000 words in the manuscripts in spelling databases, and reconstruction of the history of the textual tradition.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Fiction, School, Medieval, Read For School, Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1400

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

[mia :•) · Rating 3 out of 5]

yes I am going to log all of these separately so it looks like I've read more sorry Geoffrey

[amy hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love gossiping in middle english

[Majka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ale ekipę żeście zmontowali…

[Jacky Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

And here begynneth my Chaucerian journey, or whatever.

Some reading notes, so I don't forget everything come start of term:

- Jill Mann's idea that the prologue is an estates satire, and that the characters are less individuals and more types (yet James Winny finds them outpourings of creative energy?).

- Marion Turner: opening of prologue depicts life as cycle, things will come as they do (cf. the 'Whan [...] Whan [...] then' structure; especial prominence as writing in the wake of the Black Death?

- Clothing: read Laura F. Hodges' scholarship, but also cf. Turner on how clothing became a hollow symbol of class and social status after the Black Death?

- The vibrantly diverse cast of characters here very much influenced by Chaucer's cosmopolitan existence; again see Turner for details.

- Role of the Host and the Chaucer-figure, relationship to the section's metapoeticity? Host very assertive, rational, able to group the pilgrims together--rational power and frame, according to Winny?

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

** Note: I'm reading each Tale piecemeal to ensure I complete the entire massive work.

What a synopsis! Masterful word weaving and multi-dimensional characters. I can't wait to read the rest of the Tales.

I recommend first listening to Dr. Masullo's video on Middle English etymology: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLKAD...)

I then listened to Prof. Andrew Keating's lovely rendering of Nevill Coghill's translation:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3YP2...)


.

[Sobia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Archaic English was sooo annoying !!!

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waittttt Chaucer kind of slays, he is in everyone’s (pretend) business and I’m here for it

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/

Should one want context.

Below the line is me nagging about my own situation. It’s part of my experience with this book, but hardly relevant to anyone else. So just keeping it out of the TLDR zone.

The prologue is very promising. Much easier to read than feared. I’m dragging myself out of a demotivated state, one tale at the time.

Verdict: Yes! Yeah! I can read this. In modern English translation, it’ll be a challenge, but (Jesse Pinkman voice) YEAH B***H, I think I can do this.

*****************************************************

I have been so afraid to start this book. I always want to read «everything». By that I mean the good books, the important books, the classics and the less known pearls... not every silly book in existence, but still a kind of everything. The good everything.

But, the flesh is oh-so-weak, and I guess the spirit is struggling too. If a book is too difficult (or boring), I tend to give up. But that always feels a bit like losing. And I didn’t want to lose out on this.

Well, I’m lost anyway: Almost everything bores me, and I don’t know why. I have no patience. Don’t wanna, don’t wanna, don’t wanna. It’s not how I’m used to think about myself, which again feeds into the fear of this book: What if that too is too demanding?

So why not give it a try. Things can hardly get any worse. (Or, things can. But my lack of motivation can not.)

A major pro is that it consists of many short stories. Yeah, I’ll try. Why not.

[keiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite long, yet also a very nice introduction into pilgrims' stories. It gives off an idea that each one is going to do everything in their power, no matter how devious it may be, to get the free dinner. I might actually read the stories one day (without them having anything do with my uni work).

[saumya]

more barf

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

It begins.

[ifrahaha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Annotating and getting through this for an exam standpoint was a pain but when I was not overwhelmed, I found myself enjoying it mildly.

[jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

chaucer dzięki za jakiekolwiek queer rep, nawet jeśli ziom jest tutaj abolutnym zwyrolem

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 STARS

[Anastasia Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in England in the Middle Ages, stories of peasants, noblemen, clergy, and demons are interwoven with brief scenes from Geoffrey Chaucer’s home life and experiences implied to be the basis for the Canterbury Tales. In the prologue, Chaucer introduces all his pilgrims in true colors without any reservation and they are individualized with touched humor or irony. The narrator is resting at the Tabard inn in Southwark before his journey on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. He is a devout Christian and there is a sense of fellowship with the pilgrims who have arrived at the Tabard Inn. While the prologue is a little too descriptive, it paints every character with utmost realism and humanism which in turn helps the reader to get to know them fairly well. Although I only read The Miller’s Tale in the past, Chaucer’s writing is exactly how I remember it – lyrical, humorous, scandalous, and thought-provoking.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although studied for A Level English years ago, it is thanks to The Archers that this has been reread, and it has to be said, finally, fully appreciated. Luckily, in the years that have passed since those days as a 16 year old trying to translate this (very badly, it must be said) the familiarity with Middle English has hugely increased so that it is now enjoyable.
Each pilgrim is slyly described in Chaucer's typical witty style and seemed, surprisingly like distant relatives, infrequently seen yet consistently somehow a part of life.

Thank you Lynda Snell!

[TopBob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The General Prologue is really fantastic. It's rich with imagery, and each portrait -- often through juxtaposition: drunk monk, mercenary knight, etc -- creates vividly caricaturistic characters (an unorthodox, albeit welcomly successful achievement).

It's lively, and a great framework for the tale. I often find myself jumping back to it, finding the Wife of Bath's pretentious forehead, or the Clerk's Aristotle books, and the Squire's erotic escapades. It really elevates the Tales' metafictional staging.

[sk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a pretty solid prologue to the Tales.

Particularly, I like how Chaucer sets up the narrator as a simple, normal guy who doesn’t necessarily represent each member of the pilgrimage accurately.

I also like how the Prologue offers us each character by providing an idealized or typical archetype of them as they would have existed in the Middle Ages, and then working to critique or distort that archetype. This socially critical aspect of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is what makes it so great, and so characteristic of its time.

[Maia Matson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that this is only an introduction to Chaucers' book of tales. I also recognize that I read it for school. However, that being said, this intro read like a list of character ideas. This being said, the ending as it implies each character is to tell stories to compete for who's story is the best does intrigue me. I will read the following sections of the Canterbury Tales for school, and I look forward to them.

[Fakiha Mehreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazingly narrated! The fact that no two portraits are painted using the same ink made The General Prologue a delight to read. I wanted to give 4 stars, but I gave 3 for it’s length, which was way too long, and it started to get boring in the end; some of the sketches, in my opinion, were absolutely unnecessary. But then, that was the whole idea of weaving different tales together into a narrative.

[Ryan Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to Canterbury this year and enjoyed the town. I geeked-out on all the history!

The Canterbury Tales, one of the first books to be printed in English, has it all. I enjoyed listening and reading in Middle English. It took me back to my college days when I memorized a small part of the prologue.

[Nick Saba]

I'm not giving this one a rating but needless to say I'm incredibly interested. I read this and the Wife of Bath's Tale for a class and I'm actually very excited to read the entirety of the piece. I really enjoy the rhyming schemes and the allusions. Great fun!

[Alasdair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously 5* for Chaucer, but given the age of this edition the introduction is a little outdated, and I suspect more recent ones may be more interesting now on narrative technique in particular. But it brings out the wit and warmth of the survey of the group nicely.

[Nadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst Middle English can be a bit of a struggle to begin with, I am learning to appreciate Chaucer's gentle satire.

[Cristóbal G. Torrubia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un clásico que te ayuda a comprender un poco mejor la sociedad medieval de por entonces.

[Matthew Duke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very boring. I had to splash water on my face regularly just to get through it

[Adam]

[2nd reading - 12.10.80]

[Athira · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such an enjoyable tale.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nahuel Pucetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Las ganas de hablar con 30 personas