The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories running over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1386 Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and, three years later, Clerk of the King’s work in 1389. It was during these years Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury in order to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn in Southwark on their return.

     After a long list of works written earlier in his career, including Troilus and Criseyde, House of Fame, and Parliament of Fowls, The Canterbury Tales is near-unanimously seen as Chaucer’s magnum opus. He uses the tales and the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Chaucer’s use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they still offer a variety of insights into the customs and practices of the time. Such insight led to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the Fourteenth Century. For example, although various social classes are represented in these stories and all of the pilgrims are on a spiritual quest, it is apparent they are more concerned with worldly things than spiritual. Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.

     It is sometimes argued the greatest contribution The Canterbury Tales made to English literature was in popularizing the literary use of vernacular English, rather than French, Italian, or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer’s time, and several of Chaucer’s contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, the Pearl Poet, and Julian of Norwich—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was responsible for starting a trend as opposed to simply being part of it.

     While Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility.

     The Canterbury Tales was far from complete at the end of Chaucer’s life. In the "General Prologue" some thirty pilgrims are introduced. According to the "General Prologue," Chaucer’s intention was to write two stories from the perspective of each pilgrim on the way to and from their ultimate destination, Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine. Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature. Not only do readers from any time period find it entertaining, but it is also a work open to a range of interpretations.