tellers, sometimes startlingly so, often building upon
descriptions begun in the General Prologue. Some
contain references to other Tales, while others contain
explicit debates between Pilgrims. Unlike many other
frame narratives, then, Chaucer’s individual Tales can-
not be fully appreciated outside the context of the
entire work, although they can certainly be enjoyed
individually.
The Canterbury Tales features a variety of genres:
FABLIAU, BEAST FABLE, ROMANCE, HAGIOGRAPHY, Breton lai
(LAY), sermon, FABLE, confession, autobiography, Vir-
gin miracle, and SATIRE among others. For his sources
and inspiration, Chaucer turned to a variety of texts,
from Classical to contemporary. Major analogues for
the Tales as a whole include: OVID’s Metamorphoses,
BOCCACCIO’s Decameron, BOETHIUS’s The CONSOLATION
OF PHILOSOPHY, John Bromyard’s Summa praedicantium,
Dante’s Divine Comedy, The Distichs of Cato, JOHN GOW-
ER’s CONFESSIO AMANTIS, St. Jerome’s Adversus Jovinia-
num, and the Roman de la Rose, as well as the Bible.
Scholars continue to debate whether or not Chaucer
had these in front of him as he wrote or recalled hear-
ing or reading parts of these texts. As well, many Tales
have unique sources, and some appear to be Chaucer’s
own invention.
Structurally, The Canterbury Tales is an interlocking
linear frame narrative. The General Prologue provides
the setup: It introduces the Pilgrims and suggests an
order for the Tales. The Miller quickly violates this
outline by interrupting the proceedings and telling his
Tale after the Knight’s, disregarding social rank. How-
ever, as this interruption is clearly by Chaucer’s design,
it does not disrupt the linear progression. The accepted
order of tales also refl ects a series of loose themes,
although some general themes can be found through-
out the collection. These general themes include a con-
cern with the immediate historical context of the
late-14th century: human desire (in multiple senses),
the nature of love and friendship, and the role of FOR-
TUNE. Perhaps the most famous subdivision of tales is
the so-called Marriage Group, a topic suggested by the
Wife of Bath. It includes “The WIFE OF BATH’S TALE,”
“The MAN OF LAW’S TALE,” “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The
Merchant’s Tale,” and “The FRANKLIN’S TALE,” and it
cuts across several of the accepted fragments.
The fi rst fragment consists of “The Knight’s Tale,”
“The MILLER’S PROLOGUE AND TALE,” “The REEVE’S PRO-
LOGUE AND TALE,” and the fragment of “The Cook’s Pro-
logue and Tale.” “The Knight’s Tale,” a chivalric
romance concerned with COURTLY LOVE and war, mat-
ters of the aristocracy, and Boethian philosophy, begins
The Canterbury Tales. The rest of the fragment is a
series of fabliaux, bawdy tales that offset the Knight’s
elevated style. By deliberately disrupting the social
order and allowing the coarse middle-class Tales to
overcome the stately aristocratic one, Chaucer displays
a concern with the changing social and economic
structures of the late 14th century. That the Tales get
increasingly more vulgar, however, demonstrates that
too much social freedom can result in amoral chaos.
The second fragment consists solely of the Man of
Law’s Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue. The
complicated astronomical calculations at the beginning
indicate this tale is told on April 18 at 10:00 A.M. It is
based on an ANGLO-NORMAN story by Nicholas Trivet
and John Gower’s version of that, found in the Confes-
sio Amantis. Alternately termed a secular hagiography
or a romance, this Tale is lengthy and complicated,
and it features numerous reversals of Fortune. The epi-
logue features the typical interruption found in other
prologues and epilogues, but the manuscripts vary as
to which Pilgrim interrupts—the Squire, the Sum-
moner, or the Shipman. Internal evidence points to the
reassignment of both “The Man of Law’s Tale” and the
following Tale.
The third fragment includes “The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “The Friar’s
Prologue and Tale,” and “The Summoner’s Tale.” There
is no explicit link between Fragments 2 and 3; how-
ever, the subject matter implicitly suggests a “quiting”
(an offset)—the Man of Law’s ideal woman being offset
by voracious women (the Wife and her characters).
“The Friar’s Tale,” however, does not concern relations
between the sexes; rather, it is an EXEMPLUM about the
corruption of the ecclesiastical courts. The Summoner,
at whom the Friar’s tale was directed, retaliates with a
tale about a long-winded hypocritical Friar that is part
fabliau and part satire.
The fourth fragment consists of “The Clerk’s Pro-
logue,” “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The Merchant’s Prologue,”100 CANTERBURY TALES, THE