Prologue to The Canterbury Tales - "General Introduction"

 The Prologue to “The Canterbury Tales”

The 858 lines that form the Prologue is the frame story of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. We are introduced to the setting and the characters. The author presents the plan, whereby the characters are to present stories on the way to and from the shrine.

Framework Story

“The Canterbury Tales” is an example of Framework Story or Frame Narration. This is a popular form of literary technique employed in storytelling and narration. The main plot evolves in a way other stories are brought in as a natural sequence. The pilgrimage and matters associated with this – the meeting of the pilgrims, the decision to tell stories, and the narrator’s intention to describe it all -  form the main frame for the various stories narrated.

Function of Frame Story  (source )

This literary technique uses embedded narratives, which provide readers with a context about the main narrative. Frame story leads the readers from the first story to the other one. This is a sort of guidance, which establishes the context for an embedded narrative, helping the writer to create a context for interpreting a narrative. It also offers multiple perspectives to the readers within a story, as well as about the story. These multiple perspectives give the readers more information about the characters regarding their feelings, thoughts, and motivations.

Examples of Framework Narration:

The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights): the frame consists of the story of Scheherazade, who avoids death by telling her king-husband a story every night and leaving it incomplete.

Jataka stories: a collection of some 550 widely popular and often illustrated stories of former lives of the Buddha. It is cast within a framework of Buddhist ethical teaching.

Giovanni Boccaccio’s “Decameron” (meaning ‘ten days’) presents a frame story centred on 10 people fleeing the Black Death who gather in the countryside and as an amusement narrate 10 stories each, for ten days.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”: the pilgrimage frame brings together varied tellers of tales, who emerge as vivid personalities and develop dramatic relationships among themselves and with their tales.

Structure of “The Prologue”

Mention of the season (April, with its pleasant rains): a time for pilgrimage

The inclination of people in England to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury

The narrator at the inn, where he meets the pilgrims and decides to be in their company

The narrator’s inclination to describe the pilgrims, starting with the Knight.

The Host brings in the proposal to have stories on the way; using a system of lots, it falls upon the Knight to be the first to narrate a story.

General Introduction - lines 1 – 42

"When April comes with his sweet, fragrant showers, which pierce the dry ground of March, and bathe every root of every plant in sweet liquid, then people desire to go on pilgrimages." Thus begins the famous opening to The Canterbury Tales. The narrator (a constructed version of Chaucer himself) is first discovered staying at the Tabard Inn in Southwark (in London), when a company of twenty-nine people descend on the inn, preparing to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. After talking to them, he agrees to join them on their pilgrimage.

Yet before the narrator goes any further in the tale, he describes the circumstances and the social rank of each pilgrim. He describes each one in turn, starting with individuals of the highest status.

(listen to an audio of the General Introduction) 

Introduction

1.     Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

2.     The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

3.     And bathed every veyne in swich licour

4.     Of which vertu engendred is the flour,

5.     Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

6.     Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

7.     The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

8.     Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,

9.     And smale foweles maken melodye,

10.  That slepen al the nyght with open ye

11.  (so priketh hem Nature in hir corages),

12.  Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

13.  And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

14.  To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

15.  And specially from every shires ende

16.  Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,

17.  The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

18.  That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

19.  Bifil that in that seson on a day,

20.  In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay

21.  Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage

22.  To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

23.  At nyght was come into that hostelrye

24.  Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,

25.  Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle

26.  In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,

27.  That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.

28.  The chambres and the stables weren wyde,

29.  And wel we weren esed atte beste.

30.  And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,

31.  So hadde I spoken with hem everichon

32.  That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,

33.  And made forward erly for to ryse,

34.  To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.

35.  But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,

36.  Er that I ferther in this tale pace,

37.  Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun

38.  To telle yow al the condicioun

39.  Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,

40.  And whiche they weren, and of what degree,

41.  And eek in what array that they were inne;

42.  And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.

 

Introduction (In Modern Day English)

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun

Into the Ram one half his course has run,

 And many little birds make melody

That sleep through all the night with open eye

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,

And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,

To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.

And specially from every shire's end

Of England they to Canterbury went,

The holy blessed martyr there to seek

Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak.

Befell that, in that season, on a day

In Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay

Ready to start upon my pilgrimage

To Canterbury, full of devout homage,

There came at nightfall to that hostelry

Some nine and twenty in a company

Of sundry persons who had chanced to fall

In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all

That toward Canterbury town would ride.

The rooms and stables were spacious and wide,

And well we there were eased, and of the best.

And briefly, when the sun had gone to rest,

So had I spoken with them, every one,

That I was of their fellowship anon,

And made agreement that we'd early rise

To take the road, as you I will apprise.

But none the less, whilst I have time and space,

Before yet farther in this tale I pace,

It seems to me accordant with reason

To inform you of the state of every one

Of all of these, as it appeared to me,

And who they were, and what was their degree,

And even how arrayed there at the inn;

And with a knight thus will I first begin

 

Summary

The narrator opens the General Prologue with a description of the return of spring. He describes the April rains, the burgeoning flowers and leaves, and the chirping birds. Around this time of year, the narrator says, people begin to feel the desire to go on a pilgrimage. Many devout English pilgrims set off to visit shrines in distant holy lands, but even more choose to travel to Canterbury to visit the relics of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, where they thank the martyr for having helped them when they were in need. The narrator tells us that as he prepared to go on such a pilgrimage, staying at a tavern in Southwark called the Tabard Inn, a great company of twenty-nine travelers entered.

The number can be disputed. How many were there in the group that sets off from Tabard Inn? Does the number 29 include the host? And, there was the yeoman who joined them in between. Chaucer just gives an approximation, which will be rounded to 30 when he is counted in. Chaucer gives a description of 29 pilgrims (including the host and the yeoman, and mentions the other two – the Second Nun and the Nun’s Priest).

The travelers were a diverse group who, like the narrator, were on their way to Canterbury. They happily agreed to let him join them. That night, the group slept at the Tabard, and woke up early the next morning to set off on their journey. Before continuing the tale, the narrator declares his intent to list and describe each of the members of the group, starting with the Knight.

Analysis

The invocation of spring with which the Prologue begins is lengthy and formal compared to the language of the rest of the poem. A general reference to the season, without directly mentioning the time or space, gives the opening lines a dreamy, timeless, unfocused quality.

The theme of the work is a pilgrimage, which has the air of solemnity. References to the sweet showers and the song of the birds silently warn the reader that the pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales should not be thought of as an entirely solemn occasion, because it also offered the pilgrims an opportunity to abandon work and take a vacation.

In line 20, the narrator abandons his unfocused view, identifying himself as an actual person for the first time by inserting the first person—“I”—as he relates how he met the group of pilgrims while staying at the Tabard Inn. He emphasizes that this group, which he encountered by accident, was itself formed quite by chance (25–26). He then shifts into the first-person plural, referring to the pilgrims as “we” beginning in line 29, asserting his status as a member of the group. This indicates the spirit of the people of those times – to join together crossing barriers of society and economy. The assorted crowd that we see in the Prologue, and the mixed basket of tales that we read in The Canterbury Tales stand to prove this.

The narrator ends the introductory portion of his prologue by noting that he has “tyme and space” to tell his narrative. His comments underscore the fact that he is writing some time after the events of his story, and that he is describing the characters from memory. He has spoken and met with these people, but he has waited a certain length of time before sitting down and describing them. His intention to describe each pilgrim as he or she seemed to him is also important, for it emphasizes that his descriptions are not only subject to his memory but are also shaped by his individual perceptions and opinions regarding each of the characters. He positions himself as a mediator between two groups: the group of pilgrims, of which he was a member, and us, the audience, whom the narrator explicitly addresses as “you” in lines 34 and 38.

On the other hand, the narrator’s declaration that he will tell us about the “condicioun,” “degree,” and “array” (dress) of each of the pilgrims suggests that his portraits will be based on objective facts as well as his own opinions.

Prepared by Jacob Eapen Kunnath