This edition offers a selection of ten of the most widely read of the Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English, along with the General Prologue and Chaucer's Retraction, where he apologizes for the unworthy parts of the poem. Drawing from the same text as the full Broadview edition of the Tales, which is based on the famous Ellesmere Manuscript, this edition also features a critical introduction, marginal translations in modern English of difficult words, and explanatory footnotes. The appendices from the complete edition are also included in their entirety, along with a sampling of illustrations from the Ellesmere manuscript.

Special Combined Price: Please note that a special discount price is available when this book is ordered shrinkwrapped together with A Companion to Chaucer and his Contemporaries.

Robert Boenig is Professor of English at Texas A&M University.

Andrew Taylor is Associate Professor of English at the University of Ottawa.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

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