The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - Summary

It is now April, springtime, and this makes people want to go on pilgrimages, especially to Canterbury, to seek the remains of the saint that helped them. Before embarking on the pilgrimage the narrator (who speaks in the first person and is a character in the story) goes to the Tabard, an inn, to sleep. At night 29 men come into the Tabard, and they happen to be going to Canterbury as well. The narrator joins them. Before the tale continues however the narrator wants to introduce to us his fellow travelers:

1.       A Knight- described in terms of the values he honors- "trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye". He traveled far and wide, was valiant in many wars and battles and is honored for all of this. He is "as meeke as is a maide", and is described according to the vision of the ideal courtier.

The knight wears a tunic under his mail coat and his horse is fine

2.       A squire- the knight's son. A bachelor and honorable suitor of women, a gentleman. He too has fought tournaments. He rides well.

3.       A yeoman (an independent commoner who acts as the knight's military servant)- has a bow, is dressed colorfully in military attire.

4.       A Prioress (mother superior of her nunnery)- she is sincere and mild, can sing and speak French, has good table manners. She is not described as noble but as taking pains to appear noble, to imitate nobility. She has rosary beads and a gold brooch indicating perhaps well to do familial background. She has with her another nun and three/one priests.

5.       A monk- a manly man, worthy of being a monk. This may be ironic. He is in charge of distant property of his church. Instead of studying or working he liked to hunt and was a good rider. He is bald (prolly not a good thing). He is fat (probably a mark of not working). He is a typical church man (criticism of church!).

6.       A friar

7.       A merchant

8.       A clerk

9.       A sergeant of the law (a lawyer and judge)

10.   A frankenlain (a wealthy gentleman farmer, owner of lands but not nobly born)

11-15. A haberdasher, a carpenter, a weaver, a dyer and a tapestry maker- all clothed in the uniform of their guild

16.   A cook- has an ulcer but ah well he can cook and that's enough for a cook (cooks are dumb)

17.   A shipman (sailor)

18.   A doctor- very knowledgable in medicine, disease, cure and astrology. Likes money

19.   The wife of Bath- knows all about love, having had 5 husbands. She rode, like a man, and had been all over the world

20.   A parson- a true and faithful Christian. This does not seem to be ironic, I'm pretty sure he is truly good

21.   A reeve (superintendent of a large farming estate)

22.   A miller

23.   A somnour (a summoner- one who summons people to appear in court; a public prosecutor)

24.   A Pardoner- (a man who pardons sins in exchange for money contributed to the institution he represented (hospital of Roncesvalles in Spain)) He has lots of religious artifacts and insignia on his clothing. He has pieces of holy things which are expensive and representative of his being very devout. In fact he had pig bones which he passed of as the bones of saints! The rascal. He got money through flattery and tricks.

25.   A manciple (steward of a community of lawyers in London)

26.   The narrator

At the end, after he finishes introducing the characters, the narrator says that he owes it to the reader to be as faithful as possible to the stories, even if they are a bit nasty, and he apologizes to the reader and asks not to think of him as rude (he cites Plato and Jesus as figures who promote truth). This is cheeky because he doesn't have to be disgusting as they are made up characters- this is a mechanism to create realism in the narrative.

The scene returns to the hotel. They all dine and pay, and then the manager of the inn (the Host). He offers to accompany them along the way if they agree to his terms and in exchange he will provide entertainment. They agree and he says they will each tell two tales each way of the journey. The one who tells the best tale will get a free supper that the Host will make at the expense of all the others. He also says if anyone doesn't agree to this they will have to pay all of the expenses of the entire party along the way (how is this fair???). They made him head of their party, settle disputes and judge the tales. They draw lots to see who will go first and it is the Knight.

Geoffrey Chaucer