The Canterbury Tales

Texts:

• Professor Duncan's edition of the “General Prologue”, together with hypertext notes and voice readings.
• A side-by-side edition of the General Prologue together with glossary (Middle English adapted version and contemporary translation).
• A traditional edition of the Middle English version.
• A modern edition of The Canterbury Tales.

• Sound recordings from various parts of the text.
• Sound clips from a selection of English texts hosted by the Norton Anthology on-line edition.

• A basic Chaucer glossary.
• Have a look at Caxton's first two editions of The Canterbury Tales.
  

Contexts:

• Chaucer at the Luminarium site.
• An annotated guide to an on-line Chaucer study.
• The Voice of the Shuttle collection of Chaucer links.
• Chaucer materials.
• A Wikipedia article on the Canterbury Tales.
• Canterbury Tales at SparkNotes.
• CT at NovelGuide
  

Terms:

vernacular language, St Thomas Becket, frame story, heroic couplet, iambic pentameter, irony, fabliau, romance, Breton lai, exemplum, beast fable, physiognomy, theory of four humours.

Cuckoo Song

As a way of introduction to the beginning of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, here's a post about a poem somewhat similar in tone to it.

Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu-
Sing cuccu!

Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!

Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!

Read a translation of the text here.

You can sing it, too...

Read a bit about it.

You might also want to compare it with some newer variations on the theme:

• Rudyard Kipling's
• T.S. Eliot's beginning of the Waste Land
• or his buddy's parody of the Cuckoo poem, as more applicable in this season of dark November:

Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,

So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

(Ezra Pound)

The Pearl

Texts:

• original version

• a modern translation along with comments

Contexts:

• a Wikipedia article on the poem
• a Wikipedia article on the medieval usage of allegory
• the symbolical potential of fleur-de-lis