The Lives & Times of the Canterbury Tales Pilgrims
The pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are extremely well-known figures in literature,
nearly as much so as the often studied and quoted characters of Shakespeare's plays. This
is due, in part, to the historical importance of Squire Geoffrey's most famous work, but
even more so to the fact that in his writings Chaucer tells us so much about these fictional
travelers. The perfect, genteel Knight, the stout Miller, the white-bearded Franklin, and all
the other pilgrims are introduced with such clarity and vivid descriptions that the reader is
quick to feel that these people are alive and real. We know how they looked, how they
dressed, what they did for a living, what made them happy or sad, how they wore their
hair, and even what kind of horses they rode. We can easily picture the Prioress feeding her
dogs in the convent, or the Wife of Bath having a good time brow-beating one of her
husbands. In the pilgrims are traits that all of us recognize in ourselves or someone else, at
one time or another. But, though he gives us details of the pilgrims themselves, there is
much Chaucer does not tell us about. If the characters of Canterbury Tales had actually
existed, what would their lives and this pilgrimage have been like?
Part One
The Canterbury Tales Pilgrims
Chaucer began writing Canterbury Tales between 1385 and 1389, during one of the darkest
periods of his life. His wife and several close friends and patrons were dead, he was
suffering financial troubles, King Richard's court was in turmoil, and Chaucer was living
in Kent, missing his former home in London. At first the writing was simply an escape
from outward and inward pressures, but then he found amusement in it. In Canterbury
Tales he could think about and laugh at the society that seemed to be falling in pieces
around him. By the time his life did get better, the book was a reality. The audience for
Canterbury Tales was therefore not intended to be the members of the courts and upper
classes that his past poems were for, but instead he had a new audience in mind, a national
one that would understand the social framework of his pilgrims and would notice that it
did not include royals and upper nobility, nor serfs, nor (except for the Ploughman, who is
an idealized character) common agricultural workers. The pilgrims of the highest rank are
the Knight (a member of the lesser nobility, or gentry), his son the Squire, and the Monk
and the Prioress, who hold monastic offices and came from upper-class families. Those of
the lowest rank are the Manciple, the Cook, the Reeve, the Miller, and the Ploughman. The
pilgrims that best reflect Chaucer's actual audience were those that have been called "the
new men," those who came from emerging sectors of society, who had literary skills and
interests and whose tales drew upon the the new European literary cultures. It was for this
new and quickly growing population of gentry, freemen, merchants, and people from the
new "middle" classes that Canterbury Tales were written for, and are about.
The Prioress and the Squire
When Chaucer introduces the pilgrims, he arranges them so that we can better see their
social relationships. The Knight rides with his son and a retainer, the Prioress with another
nun and three priests, the London Guildsmen with their wives and hired cook, and the
crooked Pardoner with his cohort the Summoner. The Sergeant of Law and the Franklin,
both purchasers of land, ride together. Others are mentioned as if they rode together: the
Miller and the Merchant, and the Shipman, the Physician, and the Wife of Bath. Chaucer
also arranges the groups of pilgrims in a similar manner. First came the Knight and his
small retinue, the Prioress and hers, and the Monk and the Friar; then followed the
Merchant, the other members of the merchants class, and those pilgrims of "middle" rank;
and in last came the commoners, the "churls," those freemen of the lowest rank, the same
category in which Chaucer wryly includes himself.
The Knight
As the leader of this group's social structure, the Knight was the highest of rank and was
probably the wealthiest of the pilgrims. He would've earned in battle about 2 shillings a
day, the same price as a pair of good leather boots, or 1 pound in ten days. There is little
doubt that he was also a landowner, for he tells us, "I have, God woot, a large feeld to ere,"
and he would've received at least 4 pounds per annum rent for every twenty acres that he
owned.
Compare this to the poorest of the pilgrims, the Ploughman, who probably only earned
about 2 or 3 pounds per year, 1 pound of which was spent on bread for his family. As
wages, he would have earned sixpence for an acre of land that he had ploughed three times,
a penny an acre for hoeing, and fivepence an acre for reaping.
The rest of the pilgrims had incomes that fell somewhere between the two, and they were
all probably fairly well off. The regular clergy, which was the Prioress and her company,
the Monk, and the Friar, all would have received a generous stipend from the church; the
Wife of Bath owned a clothmaking establishment; the Merchant, Shipman, and Guildsmen
all owned businesses; the Franklin was a country land-owner; and the Man of Law was a
high-ranking legal officer.
Part Two
An old map of Canterbury
England's new class of people, which included artisans, guildsmen, landowners, lesser
nobility, merchants, and freemen, was a force that had been growing in power ever since
the Black Death had killed off most of the working population earlier in the century. Serfs
and feudal-bound workers abandoned their old lives for paying jobs in the cities and free
towns, and for the first time in the history of England a man not born into power or money
could live as fine as royalty - better, in some cases.
One of the favorite pastimes for this new group of people was to take a pilgrimage, which
served the same function for Medieval man as does a vacation to the beach or Disneyland
serves modern man. Although there were many popular spots - the pilgrimage center of
Glastonbury being one example - the favorite of all was the cathedral in Canterbury that
housed the remains of the beloved St. Thomas á Becket. The second centenary of the death
of St. Thomas occurred in Chaucer's lifetime, and for the jubilee thousands of people took
to the road, and there was even free food and drink for the traveler all the way from
London along the south road to Canterbury.
Beside the body of St. Thomas, Canterbury had a lot to offer, enough to satisfy any
pilgrim: the whole arms of eleven saints, the bed of the Blessed Virgin, some wool of Her
own weaving, a fragment of the rock at Calvary, a piece of rock from the Holy Sepulchre,
Aaron's Rod, a piece of the clay from which Adam was made, and other incredible exhibits.
It is ironic to note that a Bishop Simon Sudbury of London once overtook a band of merrymakers on their way to Canterbury and berated them by saying:
"Plenary indulgences for your sins by repairing to Canterbury? Better hope might ye have of
Salvation had ye stayed at home and brought forth fruits meet for repentance!"
A young Squire from Kent, Thomas of Aldon, angrily spoke back:
"My Lord Bishop, for that you have thus spoken evil of St. Thomas and are minded to stir up
the minds of the people against him, I will give up mine own salvation if you do not die a most
shameful death!"
Eleven years later, Bishop Sudbury, then archbishop of Canterbury, was slain by the
rebellious peasants led under Wat Tyler, for his involvement in an unpopular poll tax.
The murder of Thomas á Becket
Part Three
The Pilgrims at The Tabard
haucer has his pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a disreputable area across
the Thames from London. There actually was a Tabard Inn in Chaucer's day, and its
innkeeper was Harry Baily, who is named in Canterbury Tales. And just as there was a real
Harry Baily, so too was the character of the cook, Hodge of Ware, an actual person. A
London cook named Roger Ware (Hodge is a nickname of Roger) was known at that time,
and Chaucer obviously intended for some of his London readers to recognize Baily, Ware,
and perhaps even others.
Southwark was the normal starting point for all pilgrimages, and although it is uncertain
how individuals and small groups were organized into suitable companies, it seems certain
that the Church also played the role of travel agency. A Canterbury pilgrimage was so
popular and common that the route held few curiosities for Englishmen, and a written
account of such a journey did not need descriptions of places or sights. Chaucer only
mentions his pilgrims and their discussions; along the trip he barely names the towns they
passed or where they stopped.
After leaving the Tabard he throws in an occasional poetic signpost, enough to maintain
the illusion of a journey. He has the pilgrims stop at a site called the Watering of St.
Thomas (an unidentifiable location), but other spots are barely mentioned, and when they
are, merely in passing: "Lo Greenwich, there many a shrewe is inne." Chaucer does not
even write of Blackheath, or Dartford, the place where most pilgrims spent their first night
out. In the Monk's prologue the town of Rochester (about 30 miles from London) is
mentioned, Sittingbourne is cited in the Wife of Bath's prologue, and the Blean Forest is
where the Canon's Yeoman joins the group.
At Boughton-under-Blee there were two approaches to Canterbury, and Chaucer has his
company stop to decide which path to take. It is here, no more than a mile from their
destination, that Chaucer ends his poem, and the pilgrims end their fictional journey, the
arrival in the city eternally postponed. In the final reference to their progress, Chaucer
does not even clarify which route the pilgrims would have taken:
"Woot ye nat where ther stant a litel toun
Which that ycleped is Bobbe-up-and-doun,
Under the Blee, in Caunterbury weye?"
Hodge of Ware
Part Four
Even though Chaucer does not tell us how the pilgrims traveled, it is easy to trace the way
they must have gone. The street leading from Southwark is an old Roman road and today
is known as Old Kent Road, and eventually becomes New Kent Road. In Chaucer's day it
was called Watling Street, and it can still be followed to Canterbury or to Dover.
(Interestingly, Chaucer writes of Watling Street in his poetry, but only in its usage as a
common Medieval nickname for the Milky Way.) Leaving Southwark, the travelers would
have passed through Deptford, Greenwich, and ended their first day in the town of
Dartford. From Dartford they would have traveled to Rochester, crossed the river
Medway, then gone on to Sittingbourne, Ospring, and Boughton-under-Blee. From here
they would have either continued on Watling Street straight to Canterbury, or would have
taken a southerly shortcut through Bob-up-and-down, depending on which road was in the
best condition. Once they had reached Canterbury, the pilgrimage was over, for to
Medieval man the pilgrimage was a symbolic journey that represented the course of human
life, from one's home on earth to one's true home in the universal order. A pilgrimage was
therefore declared over at its destination, and the return home was not part of the ritual
act.
The Pilgrim's Path from Southwark to Canterbury
It would've taken at least four days to complete a trip such as this, but Chaucer has his
pilgrims seemingly do it in one day. They leave Southwark in the morning, pass through
certain towns during the day, then arrive in sight of Canterbury as the sun is setting.
Nothing is said of stops for meals or overnight, and the trip seems to pass in a strange way
from morning to night - much is made of the sun's position, the length of the shadows, and
such.
Critics argue that Chaucer meant the story to be more realistic than it is, that he just didn't
have time to do it right, but this way of interpreting Canterbury Tales means that it must be
read for what is missing and not for what is there. That is not the case. Canterbury Tales is
not a work of realism, and the ending comes exactly where it does. Even those tales that
remain unfinished do so for a purpose, such as the Squire's. The Squire is fresh and young,
not yet through with life, and his incomplete story represents that.
We are all pilgrims, Chaucer says, and all of us have many tales to tell, some finished and
others still in the making. And what was true in Chaucer's time is still true today, six
hundred years later. We are, all of us, pilgrims on the journey through life.
"This world nis but a thoroughfare full of woe,
And we been pilgrims passing to and fro."
Bibliography
Hart, Roger. English Life in Chaucer's Day. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973.
Howard, Donald R. Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987.
Hussey, Maurice. Chaucer's World: A Pictorial Companion. London: Cambridge University
Press, 1967.