The prologue

In the prologue thirty men and women from all ranks of society pass before our eyes. Chaucer draws a rapid portrait of each traveller, thus showing his character. There was a brave knight who loves truth, honour and generosity. He had been in armed expeditions in the Mediterranean, had travelled in the North and had even been to Russia. His son was a young squire with curled hair. His clothes were “ as gay as a meadow with white and red flowers” and he had long white sleeves. He had been on cavalry raids in France and had fought well “in hope to win his Lady’s grace”. Their servant was a yeoman dressed in the clothes of a forester.

They were followed by two nuns and three priests. One of the nuns was a prioress, the head of the nunnery. She had a long face and a small mouth and wept easily: “A mouth in a trap would made her cry”. She could sing all that was sung in churches and spoke in French as it was spoken in England, for “French in the Paris style she did not know”. She had very good manners at table. She never let a crumb fall from her lips and never dipped her fingers deep in the sauce. “And she was dressed with graceful charm.”

There was a fat monk who loved hunting and a good dinner better than prayers. His hood and his sleeves were decorated with fine fur and his greyhounds and horse were of the best. Another monk, though not so rich, also like to have a good time: “He knew the taverns well in every town and every innkeeper and barmaid too”.

A student of Oxford in a shabby cloak rode a lean horse. He was thin and pale: “Whatever money from his friends he took, he spent on learning and another book”.

There was another woman in the company, the wife of a burgess (merchant). She was merry and strong, though no longer young, and a little hard of hearing. She had a red cheeks and red stockings on her fat legs, and her hat was broad as a shield. She came from the town of Bath and was mounted on a good horse. She liked to talk of her youth and her five husbands.

Then we see other townsfolk: and a merchant with a forked beard “always talking about his profits but telling nobody of his debts”; a man of law “who was less busy than he seemed to be”.

Then came a poor priest and his brother, a ploughman, riding a mare. The ploughman was a hard worker with a true heart, and the priest was one of those who never talked much and who did all he could to help the poor. He was “the doer of the world before he taught it”.

A very stout fellow with red hair and a broad red beard trotted besides them. “His mighty mouth was like a furnace door”. This disagreeable man was a miller. His language was very rude. Dishonest in his work, “he was a master-hand at stealing grain”.

Not far behind them rode some other servants of the Church. One of them had greedy eyes and yellow hair “that thinly fell like rat-tails one by one”. He sold relics: pigbones in small glass cases, which he said were the bones of saints. He also sold “pardons”, “hot from the Court of Rome”(that is to say, he sold papers signed in advance by the Pope, and those who bought them had they sins pardoned). “He got more money in a day than a peasant in two months”.

Several other professional men and some tradesman of the time were there too: a tax-collector, a physician, a carpenter and a shipman, even a provisioner and a cook.

Finally we see Chaucer himself and a certain Harry Bailly, the host (owner) of a London inn, from which they all started on the journey.

Harry Bailly wished to accompany them. One the night before, he had proposed the following plan: each pilgrim was to tell two stories on the way to the shrine and two on the way back, and he, the host, would be their guide and would judge their stories. He who told the best story was to have a fine supper at the expense of the others.

Before each new story begins, there is a short prologue in which the host speaks to the story- teller. He wants the stories to be interesting. He also takes care that the friendship which had grown up among the pilgrims should not change to hostility. Chaucer keeps all his characters alive in these conversations with the host.

The spirit of the day is felt best in the only story based on events typical of Chaucer time. This is the tale of the canon’s yeoman. It deals with the secret of the philosopher’s stone and shows what science was like at that time.