General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Type of Work: Narrative
- Genres: Short fiction, Poetry, Narrative poetry
The Poem
In the early months of 1387 Philippa Chaucer lay ill; she would die that summer or early fall. Her husband of twenty years, the courtier and author Geoffrey Chaucer, may have resolved to invoke spiritual aid for Philippa by journeying some sixty miles from their home of Kent to the cathedral at Canterbury, with its shrine to Saint Thomas Becket, murdered in 1170 and canonized three years later. By the late fourteenth century it had become one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Europe. As the English winter yielded to spring in mid-April, perhaps Chaucer joined...
[The entire page is 1510 words long]
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