Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer

Modern English translations in notes window	Chaucer's original Middle English
D.L. Purvis translation	In NOTES frame
Litrix web site translation	In DEFINTIONS frame
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1. WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot,
2. The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
3. And bathed every vein in such licour,
4. Of which virtue engender'd is the flower;
5. When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath
6. Inspired hath in every holt and heath
7. The tender croppes and the younge sun
8. Hath in the Ram^[1] his halfe course y-run,
9. And smalle fowles make melody,
10. That sleepen all the night with open eye,
11. (So pricketh them nature in their corages);
12. Then longe folk to go on pilgrimages,
13. And palmers^[2] for to seeke strange strands,
14. To ferne hallows couth^[3] in sundry lands;
15. And specially, from every shire's end
16. Of Engleland, to Canterbury they wend,
17. The holy blissful Martyr for to seek,
18. That them hath holpen, when that they were sick.
19. Befell that, in that season on a day,
20. In Southwark at the Tabard^[4] as I lay,
21. Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage
22. To Canterbury with devout corage,
23. At night was come into that hostelry
24. Well nine and twenty in a company
25. Of sundry folk, by aventure y-fall
26. In fellowship,^[5] and pilgrims were they all,
27. That toward Canterbury woulde ride.
28. The chamber, and the stables were wide,
29. And well we weren eased at the best.
30. And shortly, when the sunne was to rest,
31. So had I spoken with them every one,
32. That I was of their fellowship anon,
33. And made forword early for to rise,
34. To take our way there as I you devise.
35. But natheless, while I have time and space,
36. Ere that I farther in this tale pace,
37. Me thinketh it accordant to reason,
38. To tell you alle the condition
39. Of each of them, so as it seemed me,
40. And which they weren, and of what degree;
41. And eke in what array that they were in:
42. And at a Knight then will I first begin.

Purve's translations:

Line #	Middle English	Modern English
1	swoot	sweet
6	holt	grove, forest
7	croppes	twigs, boughs
11	corages	hearts, inclinations
14	ferne hallows couth	distant saints known<3>
18	holpen	helped
25	by aventure y-fall in fellowship	who had by chance fallen into company. <5>
29	well we weren eased at the best.	we were well provided with the best
33	forword	promise
34	devise	describe, relate

Purve's notes:

Note #	Line #	Note
1	8	Tyrwhitt points out that "the Bull" should be read here, not "the Ram," which would place the time of the pilgrimage in the end of March; whereas, in the Prologue to the Man of Law's Tale, the date is given as the "eight and twenty day of April, that is messenger to May."
2	13	Dante, in the Vita Nuova, distinguishes three classes of pilgrims: palmieri - palmers who go beyond sea to the East, and often bring back staves of palm-wood; peregrini, who go the shrine of St Jago in Galicia; Romei, who go to Rome. Sir Walter Scott, however, says that palmers were in the habit of passing from shrine to shrine, living on charity -- pilgrims on the other hand, made the journey to any shrine only once, immediately returning to their ordinary avocations. Chaucer uses "palmer" of all pilgrims.
3	14	"Hallows" survives, in the meaning here given, in All Hallows -- All-Saints -- day. "Couth," past participle of "conne" to know, exists in "uncouth."
4	20	The Tabard -- the sign of the inn -- was a sleeveless coat, worn by heralds. The name of the inn was, some three centuries after Chaucer, changed to the Talbot.
5	26	In y-fall, "y" is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon "ge" prefixed to participles of verbs. It is used by Chaucer merely to help the metre In German, "y-fall," or "y-falle," would be "gefallen", "y-run," or "y-ronne", would be "geronnen."

Exploring The Waste Land - [Home] [E-mail] File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002