The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer

 The Canterbury Tales

1. 1. The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.
   2. Structurally, the collection resembles Boccaccio’s Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.
   3. Besides Boccaccio’s Decameron, another source from which Chaucer seems to have got the inspiration is Petrus Alphonsus’s (A Spanish Jew) “Discipline Clericalis.
   4. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
   5. In the general prologue, some 30 pilgrims are introduced, he planned 4 stories for each, total 120.But completed only 24.
   6. The first version of the Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxton’s 1476 edition.
   7. Although no manuscript exists in Chaucer’s own hand, 2 were copied around the time of his death by Adam Piakhurst.

1. 1. the General Prologue,
   2. The Knight’s Tale, 
   3. The Miller’s Tale, 
   4. The Reeve’s Tale, 
   5. The Cook’s Tale, 
   6. The Man of Law’s Tale, 
   7. The Wife of Bath’s Tale, 
   8. The Friar’s Tale, 
   9. The Summoner’s Tale, 
   10. The Clerk’s Tale – Peasants revolt
   11. The Merchant’s Tale, 
   12. The Squire’s Tale, 
   13. The Franklin’s Tale, 
   14. The Second Nun’s Tale, 
   15. The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, 
   16. The Physician’s Tale, 
   17. The Pardoner’s Tale, 
   18. The Shipman’s Tale, 
   19. The Prioress’s Tale, 
   20. The Tale of Sir Thopas, 
   21. The Tale of Melibeus (in prose), 
   22. The Monk’s Tale, 
   23. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale – Peasants revolt
   24. The Manciple’s Tale, and 
   25. The Parson’s Tale (in prose), 
   26. and ends with “Chaucer’s Retraction.” Not all the tales are complete; several contain their own prologues or epilogues.