Talk:The Canterbury Tales

Unreliable Narrator

The claim in the introduction that "Chaucer created literature's first known unreliable narrator" is neither true nor supported by citation. Indeed just following the link to the wiki page Unreliable narrator shows claims of earlier texts (including Arabian Nights) featuring unreliable narrators, with citations to back them up.

Clearly this article should be at least semi-protected

It contains a ton of 'coded language', has a long history of vandalism, and I'm pretty sure the country of Niger (capitalise that next time, please!) doesn't possess 'buttcheeks'.

Have any of the regular contributors considered changing the main image for this article?

I'm pretty sure someone was making a pun but maybe the Ellesmere manuscript cover would be a better fit for the main image?

Meter?

The #Style section describes the meter as using "a decasyllable line". However, if we look at the beginning of The Milleres Tale, as we have here at Wikisource, the lines parse out more clearly as having eleven syllables:

3109         Whan that the Knyght had thus his tale ytoold,
                    When the Knight had thus told his tale,
3110         In al the route nas ther yong ne oold
                    In all the company there was no one young nor old
3111         That he ne seyde it was a noble storie
                    Who did not say it was a noble story
3112         And worthy for to drawen to memorie,
                    And worthy to draw into memory,
3113         And namely the gentils everichon.
                    And especially the gentlefolk every one.
3114         Oure Hooste lough and swoor, "So moot I gon,
                    Our Host laughed and swore, "As I may move about (I swear),
3115         This gooth aright; unbokeled is the male.
                    This goes well; the bag is opened.
3116         Lat se now who shal telle another tale;
                    Let's see now who shall tell another tale;
3117         For trewely the game is wel bigonne.
                    For truly the game is well begun.
3118         Now telleth ye, sir Monk, if that ye konne,
                    Now tell you, sir Monk, if you can,
3119         Somwhat to quite with the Knyghtes tale."
                    Something to equal the Knight's tale."

Some of these lines are harder to parse for meter, but many seem work out to more than ten syllables -- it seems like eleven is more where things usually land, with an unstressed start and unstressed end. Here's my take at this, with (my understanding of the) stress indicated with bold:

That he ne seyde it was a noble storie

— omitting the unstressed "e" on the end of seyde, or subsuming that into the following "i"

And worthy for to drawen to memorie,

And namely the gentils everichon.

— crushing the "veri" in everichon

— with no unstressed ending syllable, this line and the next seem to be ten syllables each

Oure Hooste lough and swoor, "So moot I gon,

— crushing the unstressed "e" on the end of oure

This gooth aright; unbokeled is the male.

— crushing the unstressed "e"s on the end of unbokeled

Lat se now who shal telle another tale;

— omitting the unstressed "e" on the end of telle, or subsuming that into the following "a"

For trewely the game is wel bigonne.

— omitting the unstressed "e" on the end of game, or subsuming that into the following "i"

Now telleth ye, sir Monk, if that ye konne,

I am not sure how knyght is supposed to be parsed: is this meant to be two syllables, like /k.ˈniːçt/, or one syllable like /ˈkniːçt/? The latter seems more likely, but I am unsure, and this would change the scansion of a couple of the lines.

At any rate, I struggle to see how the above conforms consistently with the "decasyllable line" description in the #Style section. Could someone please explain? ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 22:38, 3 June 2022 (UTC)

Good point. Norman Davies, 'Language and Versification', in The Riverside Chaucer, ed. by Larry D. Benson, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. xxv-xli (pp. xxxix-xl) characterises Chaucer's dominant metre in the Canterbury Tales instead as being five-stress lines, with stressed usually alternating with what Davies calls 'light' syllables. In Davies's account, this results in lines usually of ten or eleven, but occasionally of nine, syllables. I'll edit accordingly. Alarichall (talk) 13:50, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

@Alarichall, thank you! The updated description makes more sense and is more informative. Much appreciated! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 17:39, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

Translations

I was intrigued to learn from the New Yorker that besides Pope, Dryden made a modernization. The section Later adaptations and homages doesn't even nod to this gap in the bibliography. Sparafucil (talk) 00:37, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

Harvard has some info on it: [1]. It's not an adaptation or even a full translation, so I can see why no one would add it. -- asilvering (talk) 01:43, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

Commons link

It leads me to Category:Tales of Caunterbury. Can someone fix it? 2804:14D:5C32:4673:DE4:9D03:BA86:C972 (talk) 16:11, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

fixed! Artem.G (talk) 17:16, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Contradictory information

The article says "The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is a finished work has not been answered to date." But the info box says it is unfinished. Which is it?BenW (talk)

From the lede: According to the Prologue, Chaucer's intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two each on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Becket's shrine (making for a total of about 120 stories). By this standard, it is unfinished. -- asilvering (talk) 00:44, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 June 2024

In this phrase:

turned to lollardy, while others

Please capitalise "Lollardy". Also, please delink it, since it's linked just two paragraphs earlier. 123.51.107.94 (talk) 02:55, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

 Done '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 03:06, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Suggested addition

The last paragraph of the Introduction contains this passage:

"The Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucer's life. In the General Prologue, some 30 pilgrims are introduced. According to the Prologue, Chaucer's intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two each on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Becket's shrine (making for a total of about 120 stories)."

This would be an obvious place to mention how the total number of stories compares with 120.

(Like: What is the total number?)

I suspect that most readers will be wondering about this bit of omitted information.

It does not matter if this is also mentioned somewhere else in the article.

I hope someone familiar with this information will include this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:204:f181:9410:9804:ccab:cd65:1214 (talk • contribs) 00:54, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

I know what you mean but the first line includes "is a collection of twenty-four stories" which should be enough. Johnuniq (talk) 01:08, 13 January 2025 (UTC)