British Literature - Week 8 - Canterbury Tales

If you studied Chaucer in school, or have any familiarly with Middle English, you probably have heard or read the first 18 lines of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (modern English translation provided under each line of Middle English):

1   Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

  When April with its sweet-smelling showers

2   The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

 Has pierced the drought of March to the root,

3   And bathed every veyne in swich licou

  And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid

4   Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

 By which power the flower is created;

5   Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

  When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,

6    Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

  In every wood and field has breathed life into

7    The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

   The tender new leaves, and the young sun

8    Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,

 Has run half its course in Aries,

9   And smale foweles maken melodye,

 And small fowls make melody,

10  That slepen al the nyght with open ye

   Those that sleep all the night with open eyes

11   (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),

   (So Nature incites them in their hearts),

12   Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

  Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,

13   And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

 And pilgrims to seek foreign shores,

14   To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

  To distant shrines, known in various lands;

15    And specially from every shires ende

  And specially from every shire's end

16    Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,

   Of England to Canterbury they travel,

17   The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

  To seek the holy blessed martyr,

18   That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

   Who helped them when they were sick. (Chaucer)

What's going on here? Well it's April, the wind is blowing, flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and it's time for a pilgrimage. An assorted group of misfits join together at a pub to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and the site of Thomas a Becket's martyrdom. Chaucer gathers 29 pilgrims from a wide variety of backgrounds--Knight, Parson (pastor), Nun, Miller (sells grain), Plowman (farmer), and many others. Each pilgrim shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back -- the one who tells the best tale will earn a free meal upon return to the pub - the Tabard Inn. Canterbury Tales should have totaled 120 tales, but only 23 are written. Chaucer died before he could complete his magnum opus. Few poems have survived as long or garnered as much study as Canterbury Tales.

The poem defies genre - at times an estates satire, catalog, portraiture, fabliau (French fable). Chaucer draws readers into a bawdy, raucous, hilarious setting, against the backdrop of 14th century England and the Black Death - the plague that had decimated half the population. Possibly some of its immediate and enduring popularity testifies to our need for distraction and entertainment!

What would a modern-day Canterbury Tales look like? Where would such an odd assortment of folks all be going - maybe to a concert, or a political event, a 4th of July celebration, or the beach? What modern-day characters would comprise a 2019 Canterbury Tales - doctor, rap artist, student, priest, homeless mom, banker, nerd, athlete, drug dealer, chef?!?

If you'd like to read it for yourself, click Canterbury Tales General Prologue. 

Next week we'll examine the Wife of Bath - a fascinating, independent woman who embarks on the pilgrimage to find husband number six - the first five died!

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Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Geoffrey Chaucer Page. Ed. General Editor Larry D. Benson. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008. Web. 1 April 2019. .