The Canterbury Tales

by Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, frame story by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in Middle English in 1387–1400.

The framing device for the collection of stories is a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas
Becket in Canterbury, Kent. The 30 pilgrims who undertake the journey gather at the Tabard Inn
in Southwark, across the Thames from London. They agree to engage in a storytelling contest as they
travel, and Harry Bailly, host of the Tabard, serves as master of ceremonies for the contest. Most of
the pilgrims are introduced by vivid brief sketches in the “General Prologue.” Interspersed between
the 24 tales are short dramatic scenes (called links) presenting lively exchanges, usually involving the
host and one or more of the pilgrims. Chaucer did not complete the full plan for his book: the return
journey from Canterbury is not included, and some of the pilgrims do not tell stories.

The use of a pilgrimage as the framing device enabled Chaucer to bring together people from many
walks of life: knight, prioress, monk; merchant, man of law, franklin, scholarly clerk; miller, reeve,
pardoner; wife of Bath and many others. The multiplicity of social types, as well as the device of the
storytelling contest itself, allowed presentation of a highly varied collection of literary genres:
religious legend, courtly romance, racy fabliau, saint’s life, allegorical tale, beast
fable, medieval sermon, alchemical account, and, at times, mixtures of these genres. The stories and
links together offer complex depictions of the pilgrims, while, at the same time, the tales present
remarkable examples of short narratives in verse, plus two expositions in prose. The pilgrimage,
which in medieval practice combined a fundamentally religious purpose with the secular benefit of a
spring vacation, made possible extended consideration of the relationship between the pleasures and
vices of this world and the spiritual aspirations for the next.

The Canterbury Tales consists of the General Prologue, The Knight’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale, The
Reeve’s Tale, The Cook’s Tale, The Man of Law’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Friar’s Tale, The
Summoner’s Tale, The Clerk’s Tale, The Merchant’s Tale, The Squire’s Tale, The Franklin’s Tale, The
Second Nun’s Tale, The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, The Physician’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Tale, The
Shipman’s Tale, The Prioress’s Tale, The Tale of Sir Thopas, The Tale of Melibeus (in prose), The
Monk’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Manciple’s Tale, and The Parson’s Tale (in prose), and ends
with “Chaucer’s Retraction.” Not all the tales are complete; several contain their own prologues or
epilogues.

Probably influenced by French syllable-counting in versification, Chaucer developed for The

Canterbury Tales a line of 10 syllables with alternating accent and regular end rhyme—an ancestor of
the heroic couplet.

The Knight’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This
chivalric romance was based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s Teseida, and though it was not originally
written as part of the Canterbury collection, Chaucer adapted it to fit the character of the Knight. In
the tale the cousins Palamon and Arcite both fall in love with Emelye, sister of Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons, who is married to their captor Theseus. A tournament is held in which the
two rivals compete for Emelye’s hand. Although Arcite wins, he is thrown from his horse and dies.
After a period of mourning, Palamon and Emelye marry.

The Miller’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This bawdy
story of lust and revenge is told by a drunken, churlish Miller. Alison, the young wife of a carpenter,
takes their boarder Nicholas as her lover. When Nicholas convinces the carpenter that Noah’s flood is
about to recur, the unwitting husband suspends three tubs from the rafters to serve as lifeboats and
uses one for his bed. Alison and Nicholas steal off to her bedroom only to be interrupted the next
morning by her admirer Absolon, who stands under the window and begs her for a kiss. Alison offers
her backside. Enraged upon discovering the deception, Absolon returns and pleads once more; this
time Nicholas assumes the same pose and is rewarded with a scorching branding iron. His cries for
water awaken the carpenter, who assumes that the flood is near; he cuts the rope holding his tub and
comes crashing through the attic.

The Reeve’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale is
one of the first English works to use dialect for comic effect. In outline it is similar to one of the stories
in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron.
The old Reeve (bailiff), a woodworker, tells this bawdy tale in response to “The Miller’s Tale” of a
cuckolded carpenter. The story tells how two student clerks, speaking broad Northern dialect, avenge
themselves on a dishonest miller.

The Cook’s Tale, an incomplete story in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, published in
1387–1400. This 58-line fragment of a tale of “harlotrie,” as the poet described it, tells of a
womanizing, gambling apprentice cook who is dismissed from his job. He moves in with a fellow
reveler and his wife, a shopkeeper by day and prostitute by night. Scholars are uncertain how Chaucer
intended the story to end, and some manuscript versions of The Canterbury Tales omit this fragment
altogether.

The Man of Law’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is
an adaptation of a popular medieval story.The story describes the sufferings of Constance, daughter of
a Christian emperor. When she marries a Syrian sultan who has converted to Christianity, his evil
mother conspires to kill all the Christians in the court, including the sultan. Constance alone survives
and is cast adrift. Landing in Northumberland, she converts her host’s wife (then is falsely accused of
killing her convert), is saved by divine intervention, marries the king, is set adrift by yet another nasty
mother-in-law, and, after further misfortunes, reaches Rome, where she is reunited with her husband
and her father.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Before
the Wife of Bath tells her tale, she offers in a long prologue a condemnation of celibacy and a lusty
account of her five marriages. It is for this prologue that her tale is perhaps best known.The tale
concerns a knight accused of rape, whose life shall be spared if in one year he discovers what women
most desire. He eventually turns to an ugly old witch who promises him the answer that will save his
life if he will do the first thing she asks of him. The answer—that it is “maistrie,” or sovereignty over
men, that women desire—is accepted in court, and the witch then demands that the knight marry her.
In bed she asks him if he would wish her ugly yet faithful or beautiful and faithless. He insists the
choice must be hers. This concession of her mastery restores her youth and beauty, and they live
happily ever after.

The Friar’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.The Friar
relates the comeuppance of a corrupt summoner—an ecclesiastical court officer—in a story based on
a medieval French fabliau. The summoner befriends a bailiff, who is the devil in disguise, and the two
agree to share the proceeds of their extortions. In one of several humorous scenes, the summoner
hears a frustrated man mutter, “The devil take all, cart, horse, and hay in one!” and urges the devil to
take up the offer, but the devil declines, explaining to his overeager friend that it was not meant as a
literal request. When the summoner tries to extract a bribe from a poor widow, and she too asks for
the devil to carry him away, the devil asks her if she really means it. When she agrees, he whisks the
summoner off to hell.

The Summoner’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.Told in
retaliation for the Friar’s unflattering portrait of a summoner, this earthy tale describes a hypocritical
friar’s attempt to wheedle a gift from an ailing benefactor. The angry man offers the friar a gift on the
condition that he divide it equally among his fellows. The friar agrees and is instructed to reach under
his patron’s buttocks, whereupon he is rewarded with a fart. The friar is aghast—and perplexed as to
how best to divide the gift among his 12 colleagues. A squire wins a coat from him by suggesting that
the friars assemble around a wheel, with the benefactor at the hub, so that all could share equally in
the flatulent offering.

The Clerk’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, published
1387–1400. Chaucer borrowed the story of Patient Griselda from Petrarch’s Latin translation
of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. A marquis marries beautiful low-born Griselde (Griselda) after
she agrees to obey his every whim; he then subjects her to a series of cruelties to test her love. He
abducts their children, telling Griselde they must die. Years later, he asks her to leave, and later calls
her back to decorate his chambers, supposedly for his new wife. Griselde amiably agrees, as she has
patiently endured all her previous indignities. At last the marquis relents, proclaiming his love for
Griselde; instead of a new wife, the young woman who arrives is Griselde’s grown daughter, and both
she and her brother are restored to their mother as a reward for her constancy.
The Merchant’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.The story
draws on a folktale of familiar theme, that of an old man whose young wife is unfaithful. Old Januarie
is deceived by his young wife, May, and her lover, Damyan, after Januarie suddenly goes blind. The
lovers sneak up to the branches of a pear tree above Januarie’s head and begin to make love. An
enraged Pluto instantly restores the old man’s sight, but Proserpina allows May to outwit him by
explaining that she was fighting with Damyan in the tree because she had been told that doing so
would cause Januarie’s sight to be restored.

The Squire’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The Squire relates an incomplete tale of the Tartar king Cambyuskan (Cambuscan), who receives four
magical gifts: a brass horse that can fly anywhere safely but at astonishing speed, a sword that can
penetrate armour and heal wounds, a mirror that tells of future dangers, and a ring that enables its
wearer to understand the speech of birds and to know the medicinal properties of every plant.

The Franklin’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.The tale
told by the Franklin centres upon the narrative motif of the “rash promise.” While her husband,
Arveragus, is away, Dorigen is assiduously courted by a squire, Aurelius. She spurns him but promises
to return his love if he can accomplish the task of removing every rock from the coast of Brittany so
that her husband may have a safe return from sea. With a magician’s help, Aurelius creates
the illusion that the rocks have disappeared. Dorigen’s husband insists that she fulfill her promise.
But Aurelius, moved by her love for her husband, releases her from her obligation with a noble
farewell.

The Second Nun’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.This
religious tale exemplifies Chaucer’s mercurial shifts in tone and poetic style. Taken from the 13th-
century compilation of lives of the saints, the Legenda aurea (Golden Legend) of Jacobus de
Voragine, “The Second Nun’s Tale” relates the story of St. Cecilia, who on her wedding night tells her
husband, Valerian, that an angel has instructed her to remain celibate. Valerian converts
to Christianity and has a vision of the angel; awestruck, he persuades his brother to convert. The three
perform miracles and convert others until they are tried and executed by Roman authorities.

The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey
Chaucer, published 1387–1400. A humorous description of a roguish canon and alchemist,
as told by his assistant, the tale pokes fun at both alchemy and the clergy. After describing
failed alchemical processes in detail, the canon’s yeoman tells his tale of a canon who
swindled a priest by selling him powders to transmute mercury into silver, then escaped
before his scheme was discovered.

The Physician’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.The tale is
a version of a story related both by the Roman historian Livy and in the 13th-century Roman de la
Rose. It concerns the lust of the evil judge Appius for the beautiful, chaste Virginia. Plotting a strategy
by which he can possess her, the judge instructs his servant to swear in court that Virginia is a slave
whom her father abducted. Her father, seeing through the plot, kills her to save her honour and
delivers her head to Appius. Although Appius gives an order for the father’s execution, the
townspeople rise against the judge and throw him in prison, where he kills himself.

The Pardoner’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The cynical Pardoner explains in a witty prologue that he sells indulgences—ecclesiastical pardons of
sins—and admits that he preaches against avarice although he practices it himself. His tale relates
how three drunken revelers set out to destroy Death after one of their friends had died. An old man
tells them that Death can be found under a particular oak tree in a grove, but when they arrive at the
tree, they discover only a pile of gold florins. Two of the men plot to kill the third so as to have more of
the treasure for themselves. However, after they kill their friend, they drink some wine that he had
poisoned earlier, and they too die. The Pardoner concludes his tale by speaking in
florid rhetoric against the vices of gluttony, gambling, and blasphemy—adding at the end that he will
be more than happy to secure divine forgiveness for his listeners, for a price.
The Shipman’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is based
on an old French fabliau and resembles a story found in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. In the tale
told by Chaucer’s Shipman, the wife of a rich merchant convinces a young monk that her husband
refuses to pay for her clothes and asks him to lend her 100 francs. Smitten, he agrees. The monk then
asks the husband to lend him 100 francs to buy cattle, and the monk gives the sum to the wife, who
thanks him by taking him to bed. When the merchant later returns from a journey, the monk says that
he has repaid the debt by returning the money to the wife. The wife admits that this is so but says that
she thought it was a gift and that she used it to outfit herself as becomes the wife of a successful
merchant. She then offers to repay her husband with her “jolly body.” Chaucer indulges in a bawdy
pun about repayment by “taille” (meaning either tally or tail).

The Prioress’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale is
based on an anti-Semitic legend of unknown origin that was popular among medieval Christians. The
Prioress describes how a widow’s devout young son is abducted by Jews, who are supposedly
prompted by Satan to murder the child to stop him from singing the hymn “O Alma redemptoris” to
the Virgin Mary. One of the Jews slits the boy’s throat and casts his body into an open sewer.
Miraculously, the boy is still able to sing and does so until his mother and a group of Christians find
him. A provost condemns the guilty Jews to be executed, and before he dies the boy explains how the
Virgin enabled him to continue singing after his throat was slit.

The Tale of Sir Thopas, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Chaucer himself narrates this tale, a witty parody of the worst poetic romances. In insipid language,
obvious rhyme, and plodding rhythm, the poet tells of Sir Thopas’s search for the Elf Queen and of his
encounter with the giant Sir Olifaunt. Before Chaucer can finish the story, however, the host of the
Tabard Inn interrupts, begging him to stop the wretched doggerel.

The Tale of Melibeus, Melibeus also called Melibee, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury
Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Reproved by the host of the inn for his tedious narrative of “The Tale of Sir
Thopas,” Chaucer in his own persona offers this prose allegory, a close translation of a
French adaptation of a 13th-century Italian story. Long (over a thousand lines) and—despite the host’s
earlier entreaties for something lively—dull, it is essentially a moral debate between Prudence and her
husband Melibeus, with occasional comments by his friends, on the subject of vengeance. Prudence
urges her husband to forgive the enemies who have assaulted and wounded their daughter. Her advice
is couched largely in proverbs, and both sides quote liberally from such various moral authorities as
the biblical figure Job, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Ovid, Seneca, and Cicero. Melibeus eventually agrees to
make peace with his enemies, but only after he has rebuked them.

The Monk’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, published
1387–1400. The brawny Monk relates a series of 17 tragedies based on the fall from glory of various
biblical, classical, and contemporary figures, including Lucifer and Adam; Nero and Julius
Caesar; Zenobia, a 3rd-century queen of Palmyra; and several 14th-century kings. After 775 lines of
lugubrious recital, the Knight and the Host interrupt, bored by the list of disasters.

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, “The
Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is based on the medieval tale of Reynard the Fox, common to French, Flemish,
and German literature. The protagonist of this mock-heroic story is Chanticleer, a rooster with seven
wives, foremost among them the hen Pertelote. Pertelote dismisses Chanticleer’s dream of being
attacked and tells him to go about his business. A fox soon approaches and flatters him, recalling
the exquisite song of Chanticleer’s father. The vain rooster is thus tricked into closing his eyes and
crowing, only to be seized by the fox and carried off. As Chanticleer’s owners and the animals of the
barnyard run after them, Chanticleer suggests that his captor yell to tell them to turn back. When the
fox opens his mouth, the rooster escapes. The tale ends with a warning against flattery.

The Manciple’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The
Manciple, or steward, tells a story about the origin of the crow, based on the myth of Apollo and
Coronis as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Phebus (Phoebus) kept a snow-white crow that could
mimic any human voice. The bird witnesses Phebus’s wife with her lover and informs his keeper.
Phebus kills his wife in a jealous rage. Later, feeling remorseful, he blames the crow for his madness,
plucks out its feathers, turns the bird black, and commends it to the devil.
The Parson’s Tale, the final of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey
Chaucer. The tale is a lengthy prose sermon on the seven deadly sins. Chaucer may have
intended this tale, with its plethora of pious quotations, as a fitting close to the stories of
the religious pilgrims. After reviewing the sins of Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice,
Gluttony, and Lechery and their remedies, the Parson urges confession and satisfaction
(that is, atonement through such acts as almsgiving, penance, and fasting).