No Fear Literature: The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue General Prologue Page 18

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Now have I told you shortly, in a clause, Thestat, tharray, the nombre, and eek the cause Why that assembled was this companye In Southwerk, at this gentil hostelrye, That highte the Tabard, faste by the Belle. But now is tyme to yow for to telle How that we baren us that ilke night, Whan we were in that hostelrye alight. And after wol I telle of our viage, And al the remenaunt of our pilgrimage. But first I pray yow, of your curteisye, That ye narette it nat my vileinye, Thogh that I pleynly speke in this matere, To telle yow hir wordes and hir chere; Ne thogh I speke hir wordes properly. For this ye knowen al-so wel as I, Who-so shal telle a tale after a man, He moot reherce, as ny as ever he can, Everich a word, if it be in his charge, Al speke he never so rudeliche and large; Or elles he moot telle his tale untrewe, Or feyne thing, or finde wordes newe. He may nat spare, al-thogh he were his brother; He moot as wel seye o word as another. Crist spak him-self ful brode in holy writ, And wel ye woot, no vileinye is it. Eek Plato seith, who-so that can him rede, The wordes mote be cosin to the dede. Also I prey yow to foryeve it me, Al have I nat set folk in hir degree Here in this tale, as that they sholde stonde; My wit is short, ye may wel understonde.

So now I’ve told you as best I can everything about the people in our little group—who they were, what they looked like, what they wore, and why we were all together in the Tabard Inn in the city of Southwark, England. Next, I’m going to tell you about what we all did that night after we’d checked into the hotel, and after that I’ll tell you about the rest of our pilgrimage to Canterbury. But first, I have to ask for your forgiveness and not think me vulgar when I tell you what these people said and did. I’ve got to tell you these things exactly how they happened and repeat these stories word for word as best I can so that you get the facts straight without any of my interpretation. Jesus Christ told it like it is in the scriptures, and that wasn’t considered to be vulgar. And Plato says (to the people who can read Greek anyway) that words must match the actions as closely as possible. I also beg your forgiveness if my storytelling changes your perception of the kinds of people these travelers were: I’m really not that clever, you see.

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