Chaucer's General Prologue Lecture Notes

Background on The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is one of the landmarks of English literature, perhaps the greatest work
produced in Middle English and certainly among the most ambitious. It is one of the few works of
the English Middle Ages that has had a continuous history of publication. It was the last of
Geoffrey Chaucer's works, written after Troilus and Creseyde during the final years of Chaucer's
life. Chaucer did not complete the entire Canterbury Tales as he designed it. He structured the
tales so that each pilgrim would tell four tales, leading to a total of over one hundred tales.
However, Chaucer only completed twenty-four tales, not even completing one tale for each
pilgrim.

The Canterbury Tales includes a number of tales that Chaucer had written before creating the
grand work itself. The Second Nun's Tale and the Knight's Tale were included as part of
Chaucer's biography in the prologue to The Legend of Good Women, a poem by Chaucer that
predated The Canterbury Tales, but since those stories survive only as part of The Canterbury
Tales and not as independent works, it is impossible to determine whether Chaucer transferred
them entirely to The Canterbury Tales or adapted them from a previous form.

The versions of The Canterbury Tales that remain in the present day come from two different
Middle English manuscripts known as the Ellesmere and the Hengwrt manuscripts. The
Ellesmere is the more famous of the two, containing miniature pictures of each of the pilgrims at
the head of each of their respective tales, but compared to the Hengwrt manuscript the Ellesmere
is heavily edited for grammatical content. The Hengwrt is thus valued as the best and most
accurate manuscript of The Canterbury Tales. There are discrepancies between the two versions
concerning the order and inclusion of the tales. The Hengwrt manuscript lacks the Canon's
Yeoman's Prologue and tale, part of the Parson's Tale, and several of the tales' prologues.

The structure of The Canterbury Tales is indebted to Boccaccio's Decameron, a work by

Chaucer's contemporary in which ten nobles from Florence, to escape the plague, stay in a
country villa and amuse each other by each telling tales. Boccaccio had a significant influence on
Chaucer. The Knight's Tale was an English version of a tale by Boccaccio, while six of Chaucer's
tales have possible sources in the Decameron: the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's, the Clerk's, the
Merchant's, the Franklin's, and the Shipman's. However, Chaucer's pilgrims to Canterbury form a
wider range of society compared to Boccaccio's elite storytellers, allowing for greater differences
in tone and substance.

No single literary genre dominates The Canterbury Tales. The tales include romantic adventures,
fabliaux, saint's biographies, animal fables, religious allegories and even a sermon, and range in
tone from pious, moralistic tales to lewd and vulgar sexual farces. The form that Chaucer most
often employs for his tale is the fabliau. These tales generally concern lower class characters; the
standard form has an older husband whose younger wife has an affair with a man of flexible
social status. This can be seen most accurately in the Miller's Tale, which strictly adheres to
fabliau conventions. Throughout the tales, two major themes emerge: the first is the idea of the
unfaithful wife that is employed not only in fabliau but other literary genres. The other is the idea
of the patient and suffering woman, who is exalted for her steadfast behavior. Chaucer exploits
this division between the female saint and the whore throughout The Canterbury Tales, with few
tales whose plots do not center at least marginally around this distinction.
Background info:

Old English: 597-1100

Middle English: 1100-1500
Modern English: 1500-present

Secular Clergy vs. Mendicant (Monastic) Clergy

Secular Monastic
parish priests (Parson) Friar, Monk, beggars
supervised only by
bishops
Pope
Independent of the natl
Summoner church b/c it's a world-
wide organization
Pardoner

Church had become corrupt, Chaucer part of those seeking Reformation (which didn't happen
until 16th century).

Chaucer's biographical info:

1343-1400
Greatest poet of Middle English
Influenced by Dante (the pilgrim Chaucer, like the pilgrim Dante -- Chaucer's greatest debt to
Dante)
Chronology:
1357 Royal service to Lionel, King's son
1359 English army invading France
1360 captured and ransomed by King Edward III
1366 married Philippa
1367 life pension from King, diplomatic service to France and Italy
1374 controller of customs
1377 King Edward died
1385 moved to Kent
1386 JP and MP
1387 wife died
1389 RII appts him Clerk in charge of public buildings and parks
1391 resigns commission, became forester in Somerset
1394 RII gives him life pension
1395-96 in service to Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt's son
Canterbury Tales info:

Most of CT in heroic couplets (iambic pentameter)

even tho in Eng rather than Latin, Chaucer's audience would be educated, sophisticated one.
Thus, General Prologue as a look down upon everyday life from a level above.
framed narrative (stories within stories)
speakers from all social classes
systematic treatment of 7 deadly sins, each pilgrim representing the sin condemned in his/her tale.
(tho that ultimately breaks down)
Outward appearance reflects inward corruption, but Chaucer also uses beauty to reflect corruption
Tales ordered not by social status or wealth, but by source of income.
Could be approached religiously, economically, socially...

Pilgrimage -- road to Canterbury -- to shrine of Thomas a Becket

Why?
1. miracles performed at shrines of saints -- physical healing
2. intercessory powers surround graves and relics
3. penance -- difficulty of trip atones for sins -- spiritual healing
But... this pilgrimage had become too secular, basically the Carnival Cruise of the 14th
century:
improved roads and inns made it pleasurable
drunkenness
opportunity for clergy to prey on those with money enough to travel

General Prologue info:

Starts at bar, ends at shrine -- the tension of the dichotomy -- reflects same tension in each
character, religious vs secular interests
But also logical -- that's where different social classes are likely to meet.
Chaucer, as narrator, never makes a comment about characters but gives details so readers can
draw their own conclusions.

The Prioress:

usually from upper class, younger daughter (= no dowry)

enjoyed the travel (but supposed to be cloistered)
and Archbishop had mandated not traveling, but she went anyway
she has a taste for the high life (choice cuts of meat, jewelry, mannerisms)
Selected her own name -- that of a romantic figure of the time period
fine clothes and ornaments (worldly vanities)
lap dogs (luxury)
forehead should have been covered
"love conquers all" gold brooch (profane, not sacred)
profane = secular, not devoted to God
The Monk:

expensive table and stable

able to spend $$

The Friar:

Restricted his alms-begging to a certain district

Alms = something given to the poor
Can extract the last dime from a poor widow
able to get $$

The Pardoner:

offers pardons from the Pope, most sold at high prices

speaking to/about the summoner (his competitor), singing love songs to him
slimy physical appearance
Pardoners of the day:
opportunity for dishonesty:
sell indulgences
sell relics
preaching -- good orators
In his tale, he boasts about the falsity of his relics
described as effeminate, probably gay

The Summoner:

summon sinners before the church court

condoned sin for bribe

The Parson:

described as good, does not hire out his benefice, does not add to his income subversively