This Norton Critical Edition includes the most admired of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Each is presented in the original language, with normalized spelling and substantial annotations for modern readers. Among the new added to the Second Edition are the much-requested "Merchant’s Tale" and the "Tale of Sir Thopas."

Preface

Chaucer’s Language

Selections from The Canterbury Tales

　The General Prologue

　The Knight’s Tale

　The Miller’s Prologue and Tale

　The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale

　The Cook’s Prologue and Tale

　The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

　The Friar’s Prologue and Tale

　The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale

　The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale

　The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

　The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale

　The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale

　The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale

　The Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas

　From The Prologue and Tale of Melibee

　The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue and Tale

　The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale

　From The Parson’s Prologue and Tale

　Chaucer’s Retraction—elevated from "Sources and Backgrounds"

Sources and Backgrounds

　THE GENERAL PROLOGUE

　　Giovanni Boccaccio, From the Decameron, First Day, Introduction

　　Giovanni Boccaccio, From the Decameron, Tenth Day, Conclusion

　　St. Augustine, [Human Life as a Pilgrimage]

　　Sir William Thorpe, [On Pilgrimage]

　　Thomas Wimbledon, [On the Estates]

　　William Langland, [On Monks]

　　John Gower, [On Monks]

　　Wycliffite Estates Criticism

　THE MILLER’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　The Three Guests of Heile of Bersele

　THE REEVE’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　The Miller and the Two Clerics

　THE WIFE OF BATH’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Jean de Meun, From The Romance of the Rose

　　Theophrastus, From The Golden Book on Marriage

　　St. Jerome, From Against Jovinian

　　Walter Map, From The Letter of Valerius to Ruffinus, against Marriage

　　From the Gospel According to St. John

　　From St. Paul to the Corinthians 1

　　From St. Paul to the Ephesians

　　From St. Paul to Timothy 1

　　From St. Paul to Timothy 2

　　John Gower, The Tale of Florent

　THE FRIAR’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Robert Rypon, A Greedy Bailiff

　THE CLERK’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Giovanni Boccaccio, From the Decameron, Tenth Day, Tenth Tale

　　Francis Petrarch, The Story of Griselda

　　Francis Petrarch, [Two Letters to Boccaccio]

　　From Le Ménagierde Paris

　THE MERCHANT’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　The Woman and the Pear-Tree

　THE FRANKLIN’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Giovanni Boccaccio, From the Decameron, Tenth Day, Fifth Tale

　　Bartholomaeus Anglicus, [On Love and Marriage]

　THE PARDONER’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Jean de Meun, From The Romance of the Rose

　　The Hermit, Death, and the Robbers

　　Thomas of Cantimpré, From Liber de Apibus

　THE PRIORESS’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　The Story of the Alma Redeptoris Mater

　　A Miracle of Our Lady

　　Alma Redemptoris Mater

　　Pope Gregory X, [On Christian Mistreatment of Jews]

　THE PROLOGUE AND TALE OF SIR THOPAS

　　From Guy of Warwick

　THE NUN’S PRIEST’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　William Caxton, From Aesop’s Fables

　　Marie de France, The Cock and the Fox

　　From the Roman de Renart, Branch 2

　　Macrobius, [On Dreams]

　　Geoffrey of Vinsauf, [Lament on the Death of Richard I]

　　Bartholomaeus Anglicus, [On the Cock]

　THE MANCIPLE’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

　　Ovid, [The Story of Phoebus and Coronis]

　　John Gower, The Tale of Phoebus and Cornide

Criticism

　F.R.H. Du Boulay, The Historical Chaucer

　Arthur W. Hoffman, Chaucer’s Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices

　E. Talbot Donaldson, Chaucer the Pilgrim

　Barbara Nolan, "A Poet Ther Was": Chaucer’s Voices in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

　George Lyman Kittredge, [The Dramatic Principle of the Canterbury Tales]

　George Lyman Kittredge, [The Marriage Group]

　Lee Patterson, From The Parson’s Tale and the Quitting of the Canterbury Tales]

　Paul Strohm, From Social Chaucer: A Mixed Commonwealth of Style

　Carolyn Dinshaw, Eunuch Hermeneutics

Geoffrey Chaucer: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography