Canterbury Tales (Wordsworth Poetry Library)

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (born c.1340) was a multifaceted individual during his lifetime, serving as a courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator, overseer of building projects, landowner, and knight of the shire. He held various roles, including that of servant, retainer, husband, friend, and father. However, he is now primarily recognized as a poet and "the father of English literature," a position he was elevated to by other writers in the generation after his death.

In the 1390s, it was Boccaccio's Decameron that inspired Chaucer to begin work on The Canterbury Tales, a literary work that remained unfinished at the time of his death in October 1400. The story follows a group of 30 pilgrims who gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames opposite the city of London, and travel together to visit the renowned shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral. The tavern host who accompanies them suggests that they entertain one another along the way by telling stories, with the best storyteller awarded a meal in the tavern (paid for by all the others) upon their return.

The tales told by the pilgrims encompass a wide range of genres, from bawdy comedies to saints' lives and moral tracts to courtly romances. Chaucer skillfully weaves his own sly wit and ironic humor into the narratives. While basing his characters on the stereotypes of "estates satire," Chaucer succeeds in his aim of producing an overview of his times and their culture, for posterity, in the manner of Italian, proto-Renaissance, writers.

This transcription and edition is derived from British Library MS Harley 7334, which was produced within ten years of Chaucer's death. The on-page notes and glosses aim to enable readers with little or no previous experience of medieval literature to engage with and understand the text more effectively.

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