Wordsworth Editions Poetry - The Canterbury Tales

Edited with introductions, bibliographies, footnotes and on-page glossaries by Dr Lesley A. Coote, Lecturer in Medieval & Renaissance Studies, University of Hull.

During his life, Geoffrey Chaucer (born c.1340) was a courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator, overseer of building projects, landowner, and knight of the shire. He was also a servant, retainer, husband, friend, and father. While he was doing and ‘being’ all of these things, he was writing.

Not only did he write in English – for princes, friends, family and, presumably, for his own pleasure – but his knowledge of French and Italian enabled him to engage with the works of notable French poets such as Eustache Deschamps, and also with the Italian works of Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio, an understanding which he used to enrich and develop his own language. This transcription and edition is taken from British Library MS Harley 7334, produced within ten years of Chaucer’s death.