The Prologue
to The Canterbury Tales
by
Geofery Chaucer
(Introduction)
The age of Chaucer covers the period from 1340
to 1400. Chaucer is the representative of his age. His works have the
political, social, economic and religious tendencies of his time. The middle of
the fourteenth century was the transitional period in which Chaucer was born
and the elements of Renaissance were breeding. The fourteenth century, in
England, covered the period of the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt, the
Hundred Years War with France and the great economic and social changes. During
its years, two kings were deposed and murdered, and dynasties began to rise and
fall. Chaucer has given us a dramatic picture of real mediaeval life, in his
Canterbury Tales. He had learnt the arts of description, narrativization and
characterization. He is known for his technique of versification, humour and
personal talk. In this poem, The Canterbury Tales, he represented the comedy of
life. The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales gives us the background of the
actions and movements of the pilgrims. All these pilgrims represent the whole
of “English society” of the fourteenth century. The pilgrims are persons of all
ranks and classes of society; and in the description of their manners, dresses,
person, horses etc, we behold a vast and minute portrait gallery of the social
state of England in the fourteenth century.
The
pilgrims, in the poem, are – a knight, a squire, a yeoman or military retainer
of the class of the three peasants, who in the quality of the archer was bound
to accompany his feudal lord to war, a prioress, a lady of monk, superior of a
nunnery, a nun and three priests in attendance upon this lady; a Monk, a person
represented as handsomely dressed and equipped and passionately fond of hunting
and good cheer; a friar, or monk, a merchant, a clerk or student of the
University of Oxford; a sergeant of the law; a franklin or rich
country–gentlemen, five wealthy burgesses or tradesmen, a carpenter, a weaver,
a dyer and a tappisser or maker of carpets and hangings, a cook or rather what
in old French is called Rotisseur i.e. the keeper of a cook’s shop; a shipman,
the master of a trading vessel; a doctor of Physic; a wife of Bath, a rich
cloth manufacturer, a Parson, or Secular Parish priest; a ploughman, the
brother of the preceding personage; a miller; a manciple or steward of a
lawyer’s hostel or inn of court; a Reeve, bailiff or interdant of the estates
of some wealthy landowner; a summoner, an officer in the then formidable
ecclesiastical courts, whose duty was to summon or cite before the spiritual
tribunal those who had offended against the cannon laws; a Pardoner, or vendor
of the Indulgences from Rome. To these thirty persons must be added Chaucer
himself and the Host of the Tabard, making in all thirty-two. The Canterbury
Pilgrims are described so realistically, that one gets a great enjoyment in
reading The Prologue.
Chaucer
was regarded as the greatest writer of the fourteenth century. Three qualities
are outstanding in his writings: a humor, an understanding of human beings, and
an acuteness of observation. The general prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a
collection of tales. In it, Chaucer presents his characters, one by one, in a
series of vivid, detailed, and lifelike portraits, and also sets forth his
plan: to have each of his characters tell two tales on the way to Canterbury
and two more on the way back, to while away the time. Chaucer did not live to
complete his ambitious project. The Prologue is a mature and highly finished
work. The language used by Chaucer comes from the Middle English.
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