General Prologue

The General Prologue is the first part of

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
It introduces the frame story, in which a
group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of
Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to
take part in a storytelling competition, and
describes the pilgrims themselves.
The first lines from the General Prologue at
the opening folio of the Hengwrt
manuscript

Illustration of the knight from the General

Prologue. Three lines of text are also
shown.

The Tabard Inn, Southwark, around

1850
Synopsis
The frame story of the poem, as set out in
the 858 lines of Middle English which make
up the General Prologue, is of a religious
pilgrimage. The narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer,
is in The Tabard Inn in Southwark, where he
meets a group of 'sundry folk' who are all
on the way to Canterbury, the site of the
shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, a martyr
reputed to have the power of healing the
sinful.

The setting is April, and the prologue starts

by singing the praises of that month whose
rains and warm western wind restore life
and fertility to the earth and its
inhabitants.[1] This abundance of life, the
narrator says, prompts people to go on
pilgrimages; in England, the goal of such
pilgrimages is the shrine of Thomas
Becket. The narrator falls in with a group
of pilgrims, and the largest part of the
prologue is taken up by a description of
them; Chaucer seeks to describe their
'condition', their 'array', and their social
'degree'. The narrator expresses
admiration and praise towards the
pilgrims' abilities.[2]

The pilgrims include a knight; his son, a

squire; the knight's yeoman; a prioress,
accompanied by a nun and the nun's priest;
a monk; a friar; a merchant; a clerk; a
sergeant of law; a franklin; a haberdasher;
a carpenter; a weaver; a dyer; a tapestry
weaver; a cook; a shipman; a doctor of
physic; a wife of Bath; a parson and his
brother, a plowman; a miller; a manciple; a
reeve; a summoner; a pardoner; the Host
(a man called Harry Bailey); and Chaucer
himself. At the end of this section, the
Host proposes that the group ride together
and entertain one another with stories. He
lays out his plan: each pilgrim will tell two
stories on the way to Canterbury and two
on the way back. Whoever has told the
most meaningful and comforting stories,
with "the best sentence and moost solaas"
(line 798) will receive a free meal paid for
by the rest of the pilgrims upon their return.
The company agrees and makes the Host
its governor, judge, and record keeper.
They set off the next morning and draw
lots to determine who will tell the first tale.
The Knight wins and prepares to tell his
tale.[3]

Structure
The General Prologue establishes the
frame for the Tales as a whole (or of the
intended whole) and introduces the
characters/storytellers. These are
introduced in the order of their rank in
accordance with the three medieval social
estates (clergy, nobility, and commoners
and peasantry). These characters are also
representative of their estates and models
with which the others in the same estate
can be compared and contrasted.

The structure of the General Prologue is

also intimately linked with the narrative
style of the tales. As the narrative voice
has been under critical scrutiny for some
time, so too has the identity of the narrator
himself. Though fierce debate has taken
place on both sides, (mostly contesting
that the narrator either is, or is not,
Geoffrey Chaucer), most contemporary
scholars believe that the narrator is meant
to be Chaucer himself to some degree.
Some scholars, like William W. Lawrence,
claim that the narrator is Geoffrey Chaucer
in person.[4] Others, like Marchette Chute
for instance, contest that the narrator is
instead a literary creation like the other
pilgrims in the tales.[5]

Chaucer makes use of his extensive

literary and linguistic knowledge in the
General Prologue by interplaying Latin,
French, and English words against each
other. French was considered a hierarchal,
courtly, and aristocratic language during
the Middle Ages, whereas Latin was the
language of learning. The opening lines of
The Canterbury Tales show a diversity of
phrasing by including words of French
origin like "droghte," "veyne," and "licour"
alongside English terms for nature: "roote,"
"holt and heeth," and "croppes."[6]

Sources
John Matthews Manly attempted to
identify pilgrims with real fourteenth-
century people. In some instances, such as
the Summoner and the Friar, he attempts
localization to a small geographic area.
The Man of Law is identified as Thomas
Pynchbek (also Pynchbeck), who was
chief baron of the exchequer. Sir John
Bussy, an associate of Pynchbek, is
identified as the Franklin. The Pembroke
estates near Baldeswelle supplied the
portrait for the unnamed Reeve.[7]

Sebastian Sobecki argues that the General

Prologue is a pastiche of the historical
Harry Bailey's surviving 1381 poll-tax
account of Southwark's inhabitants.[8]

Translation
The following are the first 18 lines of the
General Prologue. The text was written in a
dialect associated with London and
spellings associated with the then-
emergent Chancery Standard.
 First 18 lines of the General Prologue

Sense-for-sense translation
Word-for-word translation into Modern English
Original in Middle English:
into Modern English[9] with a new rhyme scheme (by
Nevill Coghill)[10]

Whan t hat Aprill, wit h his When [t hat ] April wit h his When in April t he sweet
shoures soot e showers sweet showers fall

The droght e of March hat h The drought of March has And pierce t he drought of
perced t o t he root e pierced t o t he root March t o t he root , and all

And bat hed every veyne in And bat hed every vein in such The veins are bat hed in liquor of
swich licour, liquor, such power

Of which vert u engendred is Of whose virt ue engendered As brings about t he

t he flour; is t he flower; engendering of t he flower,

Whan Zephirus eek wit h his When Zephyrus eke wit h his When also Zephyrus wit h his
sweet e breet h sweet breat h sweet breat h

Inspired hat h in every holt and Has inspired in every holt and Exhales an air in every grove and
heet h heat h, heat h

The t endre croppes, and t he The t ender crops; and t he Upon t he t ender shoot s, and
yonge sonne young sun t he young sun

Hat h in t he Ram his halfe cours Has in t he Ram his half-course His half course in t he sign of
yronne, run, t he Ram has run

And smale foweles maken And t he small fowl are making

And small fowls make melody,
melodye, melody

That slepen al t he nyght wit h That sleep all t he night wit h That sleep away t he night wit h
open eye open eye open eye,

(So priket h hem Nat ure in hir (So Nat ure pricks t hem in t heir (So nat ure pricks t hem and t heir
corages); courages); heart engages)

Thanne longen folk t o goon on Then folks long t o go on Then folk long t o go on
pilgrimages pilgrimages pilgrimages,

And palmeres for t o seken And palmers [for] t o seek And palmers long t o seek t he
st raunge st rondes st range st rands st ranger st rands
To ferne halwes, kowt he in To far-off hallows, cout h in Of far off saint s, hallowed in
sondry londes; sundry lands; sundry lands,

And specially from every shires And, specially, from every And specially from every shires'
ende shire's end end

Of Engelond, t o Caunt erbury Of England, t o Cant erbury Of England, down t o Cant erbury
t hey wende, t hey wend, t hey wend

The hooly blisful mart ir for t o The holy blissful mart yr [for]
The holy blissful mart yr, quick
seke t o seek

That hem hat h holpen, whan That has helped t hem when To give his help t o t hem when
t hat t hey were seeke. [t hat ] t hey were sick. t hey were sick.

In modern prose:

When April with its sweet showers has

pierced March's drought to the root,
bathing every vein in such liquid by whose
virtue the flower is engendered, and when
Zephyrus with his sweet breath has also
enlivened the tender plants in every wood
and field, and the young sun is halfway
through Aries, and small birds that sleep
all night with an open eye make melodies
(their hearts so goaded by Nature), then
people long to go on pilgrimages, and
palmers seek faraway shores and distant
saints known in sundry lands, and
especially they wend their way to
Canterbury from every shire of England to
seek the holy blessed martyr, who helped
them when they were ill.[11]
Gallery of the pilgrims

The The The The

Knight Squire Prioress Second
Nun
The Nun's The The Friar The
Priest Monk Merchant

The Clerk The The The Cook

of Oxford Sergeant Franklin
of Law
The The The Wife The
Shipman Physician of Bath Parson

The The The The

Miller Manciple Reeve Summon
er
The Chaucer The
Pardoner Canon's
Yeoman
{not part
of the
original
prologue
but
added at
the end
of the
Tales}
References
1. Christ, Carol, et al. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature: Volume 1, W.W. Norton &
Company, 2012. pp. 241-243.
2. "The narrator, in fact, seems to be
expressing chiefly admiration and praise at
the superlative skills and accomplishments
of this particular group, even such dubious
ones as the Friar's begging techniques or
the Manciple's success in cheating the
learned lawyers who employ him". Christ,
Carol, et al. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature: Volume 1, W.W. Norton &
Company, 2012. pp. 243.
3. Koff, Leonard Michael (1988). Chaucer and
the Art of Storytelling (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=I0w56KWBIw0C&pg=PA7
8) . U of California P. p. 78.
ISBN 9780520059993. Retrieved 9 October
2012.
4. Lawrence, William W. (1950). Chaucer and
the Canterbury Tales (https://archive.org/d
etails/chaucercanterbur0000unse/page/2
8/mode/2up) . New York: Columbia
University Press. p. 28. "On the pilgrimage
to Canterbury he not only introduces
himself in person—one of the commonest
devices of the medieval storyteller—but
gives himself an important part in the
action and makes himself constantly felt,
not as a narrator, but as Geoffrey Chaucer
in person."
5. Kimpel, Ben (1953). "The Narrator of the
Canterbury Tales". ELH. 20 (2): 77–86.
doi:10.2307/2872071 (https://doi.org/10.2
307%2F2872071) . JSTOR 2872071 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/2872071) .
6. Wetherbee, Winthrop (2004). Geoffrey
Chaucer: the Canterbury tales (2nd ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-511-16413-2.
OCLC 191935335 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/191935335) .
7. John Matthews Manly (1926). Some New
Light on Chaucer (New York (https://www.q
uestia.com/read/815997/some-new-light-o
n-chaucer) . Henry Holt. pp. 131–57.
8. Sobecki, Sebastian (2017). "A Southwark
Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales" (https://pu
re.rug.nl/ws/files/44079043/692620.pdf)
(PDF). Speculum. 92 (3): 630–660.
doi:10.1086/692620 (https://doi.org/10.10
86%2F692620) . S2CID 159994357 (http
s://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:1599
94357) .
9. This Wikipedia translation closely mirrors
the translation found here: Canterbury Tales
(selected) (https://archive.org/details/cant
erburytaless0000chau) . Translated by
Vincent Foster Hopper (revised ed.).
Barron's Educational Series. 1970. p. 2 (http
s://archive.org/details/canterburytaless000
0chau/page/2) . ISBN 9780812000399.
"when april, with his."
10. Gleason, Paul (2002). "Don DeLillo, T.S.
Eliot, and the Redemption of America's
Atomic Waste Land" (https://books.google.
com/books?id=i5BlLrcWUe0C&dq=%22+++
+When+in+April+the+sweet+showers+fall+
++++And+pierce+the+drought+of+March+t
o+the+root,+and+all%22&pg=PA131) .
Underwords. Joseph Dewey, Steven G.
Kellman and Irving Malin. Rosemont
Publishing & Printing Corp. p. 131.
ISBN 9780874137859.
11. Sweet, Henry (d. 1912) (2005). First Middle
English Primer. Evolution Publishing:
Bristol, Pennsylvania. ISBN 1-889758-70-1.
External links
"General Prologue", Wikisource
has
middle-english
original
hypertext with glossary text
related to
and side-by-side
this
middle english and article:
General
modern english (http://
Prologue
www.librarius.com/can (Chaucer)
ttran/gptrfs.htm)
Side by side Translation into Modern
Verse - Illustrated (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20170908210600/http://www.br
emesoftware.com/Chaucer/index.htm)
at the Wayback Machine (archived
September 8, 2017)
Modern Translation of the General
Prologue and Other Resources at
eChaucer (https://medievalit.com/hom
e/echaucer/modern-translations/genera
l-prologue-translation/) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/201910221102
47/https://medievalit.com/home/echau
cer/modern-translations/general-prolog
ue-translation/) 2019-10-22 at the
Wayback Machine
"Prologue to The Canterbury Tales" – a
plain-English retelling for non-scholars.
(http://eleusinianm.co.uk/redShalfleet/rs
1prologue.html)
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=General_Prologue&oldid=1168279434"

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