Geoffrey Chaucer's foundational work of English poetry follows a diverse group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral around 1400, each telling tales that reveal medieval society's complexity and human nature. Through bawdy humor, moral instruction, and social satire, these interconnected stories offer an unvarnished portrait of life across all social classes. This translation by D. Laing Purves makes Chaucer's Middle English accessible to modern readers.
WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot*, The drought of March hath pierced to the root, And bathed every vein in such licour, Of which virtue engender'd is the flower; When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath Inspired hath in every holt* and heath The tender croppes* and the younge sun Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-run, And smalle fowles make melody, That sleepen all the night with open eye, (So pricketh them nature in their corages*); Then longe folk to go on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeke strange strands, To *ferne hallows couth* in sundry lands; And specially, from every shire's end Of Engleland, to Canterbury they wend, The holy blissful Martyr for to seek, That them hath holpen*, when that they were sick. Befell that, in that season on a day, In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay, Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage To Canterbury with devout corage, At night was come i…Continue reading →
This is the D. Laing Purves (ed.) translation, a public-domain English text. Marginalia presents it unabridged, with chapter navigation, your reading position saved, and optional AI commentary on any passage.
A 14th-century English poet and civil servant, this literary giant transformed English literature by writing in the vernacular rather than Latin or French. His masterwork, "The Canterbury Tales," vividly captures medieval society through unforgettable characters and their stories. His innovative storytelling and psychological insight earned him recognition as the father of English poetry. All works by Geoffrey Chaucer →
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