The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims (1810) by William Blake. Engraving.
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories; it is a snapshot, a picture frozen
in time, of life in the Middle Ages. To include the complete range of medieval
society in the same picture, Chaucer places his characters on a pilgrimage, a
religious journey made to a shrine or holy place. These pilgrims, like a
collection of people on tour today, are from many stations and stages of life.
Together they travel from London to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas à
Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, about fifty-five miles to the southeast.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Meet the Writer
• The father of English poetry
• Born to a middle class family in London
• Became a well known government
official
• Served in the Hundred Years’ War
• Married with two children
• Often provided services to the Crown
• Began writing The Canterbury Tales in
1387
• Never completed all the stories
• Considered one of the greatest
works in the English language
• The Prologue alone places Chaucer
in the company of Shakespeare and
Milton
• Chaucer’s use of language seems to
have been the key to its success
Geoffrey Chaucer
1343-1400
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Meet the Writer
Geoffrey Chaucer had two
careers: He was not only a
writer but also an important
government official. Chaucer
was so important, in fact,
that when he was captured
in France while serving as a
soldier during the Hundred
Years’ War, the king himself
contributed to the ransom.
More About the Writer
The Canterbury Tales: Prologue
Summary
• The narrator describes a group of pilgrims assembled at an
inn near London prior to their journey to Canterbury.
• The inn’s host proposes that each pilgrim will tell two tales
on the journey to and from Canterbury to entertain the
others.
• Whoever tells the best tale will win a dinner paid for by the
group.
• The Host joins the pilgrims and becomes their judge.
• The travelers draw lots to decide the order of the tales, and
the cut falls to the knight.
Summary (cont’d)
• The narrator describes the pilgrims, revealing
their personalities through direct and indirect
characterization, sharp images, and figurative
comparisons.
• Chaucer’s description of dress and appearance are
particularly revealing of psychological traits.
• The pilgrims generally fall into three major
divisions of medieval society:
• The feudal order
• The Knight and his Squire
• The church
• The Monk and the Nun
• The merchant or professional
class
• The Miller and the Doctor
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Literary Focus: Frame Story
When Chaucer chooses to have each of his
pilgrims tell a story on the way to Canterbury, he
is using the “frame story.”
A frame story is a literary device that binds
together several different narratives. It is a story
(or stories) within a story.
• In The Canterbury Tales,
the pilgrims’ journey is
the outer story.
• The tales the pilgrims tell
are stories within a story.
• The tales themselves also
have thematic unity.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer’s English was not the same English that we use today.
He wrote in what is now known as Middle English, the
language that resulted when Old English was infused with the
Old French of the Norman invaders. The version of The
Canterbury Tales that you will read is a modern English
translation.
Click to hear a sample in Middle English.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Key Details
Chaucer had twenty-nine characters to
introduce, so he couldn’t develop any one character
at great length. Instead, he provided a few wellchosen details that would make each character
stand out vividly.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Twenty-nine pilgrims are on their way to the shrine
of Saint Thomas à Becket in Canterbury.
The time is April, and the
place is the Tabard Inn in
Southwark, just outside
London.
London
Canterbury
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Literary Focus: Characterization
Chaucer uses indirect characterization when he
tells how each character
• looks and dresses
This yeoman wore a coat and hood of green,
And peacock-feathered arrows, bright and keen
• speaks and acts
Her greatest oath was only “By St. Loy!”
• thinks and feels
And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Literary Focus: Characterization
Chaucer also uses direct
characterization, when he comes
right out and tells us what a
character’s nature is—virtuous,
vain, clever, and so on.
There was a Friar, a wanton one
and merry,
A Limiter, a very festive fellow.
In all Four Orders there was none
so mellow,
So glib with gallant phrase and
well-turned speech.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Connecting to the Poem
Have you ever wondered
about fellow travelers on a
trip and imagined what
their lives are like?
As you read The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales,
think about to what extent you can judge a
person’s character from his or her profession,
appearance, and manners.
Turn to page 94.