The Canterbury Tales/Source
This edition is a combination of two sources:
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Transcriber's Notes:
Credits: This e-text was scanned, re-formatted and edited with extra
notes by Donal O' Danachair (kodak_seaside@hotmail.com).
I would like to acknowledge the help of Edwin Duncan, Juris Lidaka and
Aniina Jokinnen in identifying some of the poems no longer attributed
to Chaucer.
This e-text, with its notes, is hereby placed in the public domain.
Preface: The preface is for a combined volume of poems by Chaucer and
Edmund Spenser. The Spenser poems will shortly be available as a
separate E-text.
Spelling and punctuation: These are the same as in the book as far as
possible. Accents have been removed. Diereses (umlauts) have been
removed from English words and replaced by "e" in German ones. The AE
and OE digraphs have been transcribed as two letters. The British pound
(currency) sign has been replaced by a capital L. Greek words have been
transliterated.
Footnotes: The original book has an average of 30 footnotes per page.
These were of three types:
(A) Glosses or explanations of obsolete words and phrases. These have
been treated as follows:
1. In the poems, they have been moved up into the right-hand margin.
Some of them have been shortened or paraphrased in order to fit.
Explanations of single words have a single asterisk at the end of the
word and at the beginning of the explanation*. *like this
If two words in the same line have explanations:
the first* has one and the second**, two. *like this **and this
Explanations of phrases have an asterisk at the start and end
*of the phrase* and of the explanation. *like this*
Sometimes these glosses wrap onto the next line, still in the right
margin. If you read this e-text using a monospaced font (like Courier
in a word processor such as MS Word, or the default font in most text
editors) then the marginal notes are right-justified.[1]
2. In the prose tales, they have been imbedded into the text in square
brackets after the word or phrase they refer to [like this].
(B) Etymological explanations of these words. These are indicated by a
number in angle brackets in the marginal gloss.* The note will be found
at the end of the poem or section. *like this <1>[2]
(C) Longer notes commenting on or explaining the text. These are
indicated in the text by numbers in angle brackets thus: <1>. The note
will be found at the end of the poem or section.[3]
Latin: Despite his declared aim of editing the tales "for popular
perusal", Purves has left nearly all Latin quotations
untranslated. I have translated them as well as I could -- any
errors are my fault, not his.
THE CANTERBURY TALES
And other Poems
of
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Edited for Popular Perusal
by
D. Laing Purves
CONTENTS
PREFACE
LIFE OF CHAUCER
THE CANTERBURY TALES
The General Prologue
The Knight's Tale
The Miller's tale
The Reeve's Tale
The Cook's Tale
The Man of Law's Tale
The Wife of Bath's Tale
The Friar's Tale
The Sompnour's Tale
The Clerk's Tale
The Merchant's Tale
The Squire's Tale
The Franklin's Tale
The Doctor's Tale
The Pardoner's Tale
The Shipman's Tale
The Prioress's Tale
Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas
Chaucer's Tale of Meliboeus
The Monk's Tale
The Nun's Priest's Tale
The Second Nun's Tale
The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
The Manciple's Tale
The Parson's Tale
Preces de Chauceres
THE COURT OF LOVE[4]
THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE[4]
THE ASSEMBLY OF FOWLS
THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF[4]
THE HOUSE OF FAME
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
CHAUCER'S DREAM[4]
THE PROLOGUE TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN
CHAUCER'S A.B.C.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS