Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, 1-18 – Reading & Analysis

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue, lines 1-18. Reading and analysis; satire.

The opening lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are among the most famous in English literature — but how did they actually sound, and what are they really saying?
This video offers ...a reading of the General Prologue lines 1-18 in Middle English, set in the context of the emerging London dialect of the late fourteenth century. It also examines the satirical dimension of these lines — are they simply a celebration of an English spring, or is Chaucer already making a subtle joke at the pilgrims' expense?
There's also a surprising connection to modern Cockney pronunciation: Londoners today pronounce certain words much as Chaucer did 700 years ago.

0:00 Introduction
0:10 A new dialect
0:25 Chancery Standard
0:40 The Canterbury Tales
0:56 A reading
1:59 Approaches to Chaucer
2:27 Chaucer as a satirist
2:45 A joke
3:40 The Tales are incomplete
4:08 Satire and modern scholarship
4:35 Chaucer's language
5:05 Middle English and Cockney
5:48 Find out more
6:16 Join this channelShow More