Table of Contents
Introduction
The General Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale
The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue and Tale
Chaucer’s Retraction
Appendices: Background Documents
1. William Thorpe’s Testimony
Pilgrimage
2. Benedict of Canterbury, The Miracles of St. Thomas Becket
Selections
3. The Lollard Twelve Conclusions
4. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
5. Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose
The Old Woman
Fair Seeming
6. Jerome, Against Jovinian
7. William Langland, Piers Plowman
The Fair Field of Folk
The Friar
8. Guillaume de Machaut, The Judgment of the King of Navarre
The Black Plague
9. Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
The Black Death
The Tale of Patient Griselda
10. Jean Froissart’s Chronicles
The Black Death, Flagellants, and Jews
The Campaign of 1359
The Peasant’s Revolt in England
The Election of Henry IV
11. The Anonimalle Chronicle
The Peasant’s Revolt in England
12. A Model Indulgence
13. Rudolph of Schlettstadt, The Host and Libels against the Jews
Selections
14. The Remedy Against the Troubles of Temptation
An Exemplum about Despair
15. The Tale of Beryn
The Pilgrims Arrive at Canterbury and Visit the Shrine