20 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, during

the time of the Hundred Years' War. The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest

by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine

of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal

at the Tabard Inn at 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 was 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. Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which

Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.

It is sometimes argued that the greatest contribution that this work made to English literature

was in popularising the literary use of the vernacular, English, rather than French or

Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language for centuries before Chaucer's

life, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, and the Pearl Poet—also

wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was responsible

for starting a trend rather than 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 that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility.

Text The question of whether The Canterbury Tales

is finished has not yet been answered. There are 83 known manuscripts of the work from

the late medieval and early Renaissance period, more than any other vernacular literary text

with the exception of The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the tales' popularity

during the century after Chaucer's death. Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought

to have been complete at one time, while 28 are so fragmentary that it is difficult to

ascertain whether they were copied individually or as part of a set. The Tales vary in both

minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript; many of the minor variations are due to copyists'

errors, while others suggest that Chaucer added to and revised his work as it was being

copied and (possibly) distributed. Even the earliest surviving manuscripts are

not Chaucer's originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D (called "Hengwrt"), compiled

by a scribe shortly after Chaucer's death. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the

tales is the Ellesmere Manuscript, and many editors have followed the order of the Ellesmere

over the centuries, even down to the present day. The first version of The Canterbury Tales

to be published in print was William Caxton's 1478 edition. Since this print edition was

created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts.

Order No authorial, arguably complete version of

the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer

intended the stories to be placed. Textual and manuscript clues have been adduced

to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales. Some scholarly editions

divide the Tales into ten "Fragments". The tales that comprise a Fragment are closely

related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with

one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. However, between

Fragments, the connection is less obvious. Consequently, there are several possible orders;

the one most frequently seen in modern editions follows the numbering of the Fragments (ultimately

based on the Ellesmere order). Victorians frequently used the nine "Groups", which was

the order used by Walter William Skeat whose edition Chaucer: Complete Works was used by

Oxford University Press for most of the twentieth century, but this order is now seldom followed.

An alternative ordering (seen in an early manuscript containing the Canterbury Tales,

the early-fifteenth century Harley MS. 7334) places Fragment VIII before VI. Fragments

I and II almost always follow each other, as do VI and VII, IX and X in the oldest manuscripts.

Fragments IV and V, by contrast are located in varying locations from manuscript to manuscript.

Language Although no manuscript exists in Chaucer's

own hand, two were copied around the time of his death by Adam Pinkhurst, a scribe with

whom he seems to have worked closely before, giving a high degree of confidence that Chaucer

himself wrote the Tales. Chaucer's generation of English-speakers was among the last to

pronounce e at the end of words (so for Chaucer the word "care" was pronounced, not /ˈkɛər/

as in modern English). This meant that later copyists tended to be inconsistent in their

copying of final -e and this for many years gave scholars the impression that Chaucer

himself was inconsistent in using it. It has now been established, however, that -e was

an important part of Chaucer's morphology (having a role in distinguishing, for example,

singular adjectives from plural and subjunctive verbs from indicative). The pronunciation

of Chaucer's writing otherwise differs most prominently from Modern English in that his

language had not undergone the Great Vowel Shift: pronouncing Chaucer's vowels as they

would be pronounced today in European languages like Italian, Spanish or German generally

produces pronunciations more like Chaucer's own than Modern English pronunciation would.

In addition, sounds now written in English but not pronounced were still pronounced by

Chaucer: the word less than knightgreater than for Chaucer was, not. The pronunciation

of Chaucer's poetry can now be reconstructed fairly confidently through detailed philological

research; the following gives an IPA reconstruction of the opening lines of The Merchant's Prologue;

it is likely, moreover, that when a word ending in a vowel was followed by a word beginning

in a vowel, the two vowels were elided into one syllable, as seen here (with care and...):

Sources No other work prior to Chaucer's is known

to have set a collection of tales within the framework of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. It

is obvious, however, that Chaucer borrowed portions, sometimes very large portions, of

his stories from earlier stories, and that his work was influenced by the general state

of the literary world in which he lived. Storytelling was the main entertainment in England at the

time, and storytelling contests had been around for hundreds of years. In 14th-century England

the English Pui was a group with an appointed leader who would judge the songs of the group.

The winner received a crown and, as with the winner of the Canterbury Tales, a free dinner.

It was common for pilgrims on a pilgrimage to have a chosen "master of ceremonies" to

guide them and organise the journey. Harold Bloom suggests that the structure is mostly

original, but inspired by the "pilgrim" figures of Dante and Virgil in The Divine Comedy.

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio contains more parallels to the Canterbury Tales than

any other work. Like the Tales, it features a number of narrators who tell stories along

a journey they have undertaken (to flee from the Black Plague). It ends with an apology

by Boccaccio, much like Chaucer's Retraction to the Tales. A quarter of the tales in Canterbury

Tales parallel a tale in the Decameron, although most of them have closer parallels in other

stories. Some scholars thus find it unlikely that Chaucer had a copy of the work on hand,

surmising instead that he must have merely read the Decameron at some point. Each of

the tales has its own set of sources which have been suggested by scholars, but a few

sources are used frequently over several tales. These include poetry by Ovid, the Bible in

one of the many vulgate versions it was available in at the time (the exact one is difficult

to determine), and the works of Petrarch and Dante. Chaucer was the first author to utilise

the work of these last two, both Italians. Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy appears

in several tales, as do the works of John Gower, a known friend to Chaucer. A full list

is impossible to outline in little space, but Chaucer also, lastly, seems to have borrowed

from numerous religious encyclopaedias and liturgical writings, such as John Bromyard's

Summa praedicantium, a preacher's handbook, and Jerome's Adversus Jovinianum. Many scholars

say there is a good possibility Chaucer met Petrarch or Boccaccio.

Genre and structure Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories

built around a frame narrative or frame tale, a common and already long established genre

of its period. Chaucer's Tales differs from most other story "collections" in this genre

chiefly in its intense variation. Most story collections focused on a theme, usually a

religious one. Even in the Decameron, storytellers are encouraged to stick to the theme decided

on for the day. The idea of a pilgrimage to get such a diverse collection of people together

for literary purposes was also unprecedented, though "the association of pilgrims and storytelling

was a familiar one". Introducing a competition among the tales encourages the reader to compare

the tales in all their variety, and allows Chaucer to showcase the breadth of his skill

in different genres and literary forms. While the structure of the Tales is largely

linear, with one story following another, it is also much more than that. In the General

Prologue, Chaucer describes, not the tales to be told, but the people who will tell them,

making it clear that structure will depend on the characters rather than a general theme

or moral. This idea is reinforced when the Miller interrupts to tell his tale after the

Knight has finished his. Having the Knight go first, gives one the idea that all will

tell their stories by class, with the Knight going first, followed by the Monk, but the

Miller's interruption makes it clear that this structure will be abandoned in favour

of a free and open exchange of stories among all classes present. General themes and points

of view arise as tales are told which are responded to by other characters in their

own tales, sometimes after a long lapse in which the theme has not been addressed.

Lastly, Chaucer does not pay much attention to the progress of the trip, to the time passing

as the pilgrims travel, or specific locations along the way to Canterbury. His writing of

the story seems focused primarily on the stories being told, and not on the pilgrimage itself.

Style The variety of Chaucer's tales shows the breadth

of his skill and his familiarity with countless rhetorical forms and linguistic styles. Medieval

schools of rhetoric at the time encouraged such diversity, dividing literature (as Virgil

suggests) into high, middle, and low styles as measured by the density of rhetorical forms

and vocabulary. Another popular method of division came from St. Augustine, who focused

more on audience response and less on subject matter (a Virgilian concern). Augustine divided

literature into "majestic persuades", "temperate pleases", and "subdued teaches". Writers were

encouraged to write in a way that kept in mind the speaker, subject, audience, purpose,

manner, and occasion. Chaucer moves freely between all of these styles, showing favouritism

to none. He not only considers the readers of his work as an audience, but the other

pilgrims within the story as well, creating a multi-layered rhetorical puzzle of ambiguities.

Chaucer's work thus far surpasses the ability of any single medieval theory to uncover.

With this Chaucer avoids targeting any specific audience or social class of readers, focusing

instead on the characters of the story and writing their tales with a skill proportional

to their social status and learning. However, even the lowest characters, such as the Miller,

show surprising rhetorical ability, although their subject matter is more lowbrow. Vocabulary

also plays an important part, as those of the higher classes refer to a woman as a "lady",

while the lower classes use the word "wenche", with no exceptions. At times the same word

will mean entirely different things between classes. The word "pitee", for example, is

a noble concept to the upper classes, while in the Merchant's Tale it refers to sexual

intercourse. Again, however, tales such as the Nun's Priest's Tale show surprising skill

with words among the lower classes of the group, while the Knight's Tale is at times

extremely simple. Chaucer uses the same meter throughout almost

all of his tales, with the exception of Sir Thopas and his prose tales. It is a decasyllable

line, probably borrowed from French and Italian forms, with riding rhyme and, occasionally,

a caesura in the middle of a line. His meter would later develop into the heroic meter

of the 15th and 16th centuries and is an ancestor of iambic pentameter. He avoids allowing couplets

to become too prominent in the poem, and four of the tales (the Man of Law's, Clerk's, Prioress',

and Second Nun's) use rhyme royal. Historical context and themes

The Canterbury Tales was written during a turbulent time in English history. The Catholic

Church was in the midst of the Western Schism and, though it was still the only Christian

authority in Europe, was the subject of heavy controversy. Lollardy, an early English religious

movement led by John Wycliffe, is mentioned in the Tales, as is a specific incident involving

pardoners (who gathered money in exchange for absolution from sin) who nefariously claimed

to be collecting for St. Mary Rouncesval hospital in England. The Canterbury Tales is among

the first English literary works to mention paper, a relatively new invention which allowed

dissemination of the written word never before seen in England. Political clashes, such as

the 1381 Peasants' Revolt and clashes ending in the deposing of King Richard II, further

reveal the complex turmoil surrounding Chaucer in the time of the Tales' writing. Many of

his close friends were executed and he himself was forced to move to Kent to get away from

events in London. In 2004, Professor Linne Mooney was able to

identify the scrivener who worked for Chaucer as an Adam Pinkhurst. Mooney, then a professor

at the University of Maine and a visiting fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,

was able to match Pinkhurst's signature, on an oath he signed, to his lettering on a copy

of The Canterbury Tales that was transcribed from Chaucer's working copy. While some readers

look to interpret the characters of "The Canterbury Tales" as historical figures, other readers

choose to interpret its significance in less literal terms. After analysis of his diction

and historical context, his work appears to develop a critique against society during

his lifetime. Within a number of his descriptions, his comments can appear complimentary in nature,

but through clever language, the statements are ultimately critical of the pilgrim's actions.

It is unclear whether Chaucer would intend for the reader to link his characters with

actual persons. Instead, it appears that Chaucer creates fictional characters to be general

representations of people in such fields of work. With an understanding of medieval society,

one can detect subtle satire at work. Religion

The Tales reflect diverse views of the Church in Chaucer's England. After the Black Death,

many Europeans began to question the authority of the established Church. Some turned to

lollardy, while others chose less extreme paths, starting new monastic orders or smaller

movements exposing church corruption in the behaviour of the clergy, false church relics

or abuse of indulgences. Several characters in the Tales are religious figures, and the

very setting of the pilgrimage to Canterbury is religious (although the prologue comments

ironically on its merely seasonal attractions), making religion a significant theme of the

work. Two characters, the Pardoner and the Summoner,

whose roles apply the church's secular power, are both portrayed as deeply corrupt, greedy,

and abusive. A pardoner in Chaucer's day was a person from whom one bought Church "indulgences"

for forgiveness of sins, but pardoners were often thought guilty of abusing their office

for their own gain. Chaucer's Pardoner openly admits the corruption of his practice while

hawking his wares. The Summoner is a Church officer who brought sinners to the church

court for possible excommunication and other penalties. Corrupt summoners would write false

citations and frighten people into bribing them to protect their interests. Chaucer's

Summoner is portrayed as guilty of the very kinds of sins he is threatening to bring others

to court for, and is hinted as having a corrupt relationship with the Pardoner. In The Friar's