The General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales

This edition of Chaucer's General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is aimed at both the first time reader of Chaucer's Middle English with marginal glosses of all the unfamiliar words. Substantial explanatory notes on the facing page also supply full background information on each of the social groups and occupations represented in Chaucer's gallery of characters. The Introduction covers Chaucer's life and experience inside and outside the court, the nature of his audience, and the significance of his choice of English as his medium. It also looks at the social upheavals and changing economic conditions of the period which were giving rise to a new social mobility and self assertiveness especially among the middling sections of society that are so amply represented in Chaucer's Prologue.