Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Canterbury Tales

Fragment I

The General Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Miller’s Prologue
The Miller’s Tale
The Reeve’s Prologue
The Reeve’s Tale
The Cook’s Prologue
The Cook’s Tale

Fragment II

Introduction to the Man of Law’s Tale
The Man of Law’s Tale

Fragment III

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
The Friar’s Prologue
The Friar’s Tale
The Summoner’s Prologue
The Summoner’s Tale

Fragment IV

The Clerk’s Prologue
The Clerk’s Tale
The Merchant’s Prologue
The Merchant’s Tale

Fragment V

The Squire’s Prologue
The Squire’s Tale
The Franklin’s Prologue
The Franklin’s Tale

Fragment VI

The Physician’s Tale
The Pardoner’s Prologue
The Pardoner’s Tale

Fragment VII

The Shipman’s Tale
The Prioress’s Prologue
The Prioress’s Tale
The Prologue to Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Thopas
Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Thopas
The Prologue to Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee
Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee
The Monk’s Prologue
The Monk’s Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

Fragment VIII

The Second Nun’s Prologue
The Second Nun’s Tale
The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue
The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

Fragment IX

The Manciple’s Prologue
The Manciple’s Tale

Fragment X

The Parson’s Prologue
The Parson’s Tale
Chaucer’s Retraction

Appendix: Background Documents

1. Saint Jerome, Against Jovinian (400)

2. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (524)

3. William Thorpe’s Testimony on Pilgrimages (1407)

4. Benedict of Canterbury, The Miracles of St. Thomas Becket (1170s)

5. The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards (1395)

6. Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose (c. 1275)

a. False Seeming
b. The Old Woman

7. William Langland, Piers Plowman (1360s-80s)

a. The Fair Field of Folk
b. The Friar

8. Guillaume de Machaut, The Judgment of the King of Navarre (1351)

The Plague

9. Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (1353)

a. The Black Death
b. Patient Griselda

10. Jean Froissart, Chronicles (1400)

a. The Black Death, Flagellants, and Jews (1349)
b. The Campaign of 1359
c. The Peasants’ Revolt in England (1381)
d. The Election of Henry IV

11. The Anonimalle Chronicle (1396-99)

The Rising is Suppressed

12. A Model Indulgence (1300)

13. Rudolph of Schlettstadt, The Host and Libels against the Jews (1303)

14. The Remedy Against the Troubles of Temptation (late fourteenth century)

An Exemplum about Despair

15. The Tale of Beryn (1410-20)

The Pilgrims Arrive at Canterbury and Visit the Shrine

Bibliography

Textual Source List