Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Rating:
Summary: An Inexpensive Aid to Mastering Chaucer's Middle English
Review: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, published by Barron's Educational Series, uses an interlinear translation format in which each line of Middle English is followed by a modern translation (in a literal form to make the comparison easier). I like this approach.

Sometimes Middle English is recognizable. This line describing the knight - Ful worthy was he in his lord's werre - is readily understood if you recognize that werre is war.

Contrastingly, this sentence about the prioress is less clear: And sikerly she was of greet disport. Or in modern usage: And indeed she was very diverting.

I initially used a 1948, yellowed first edition with 448 pages, but more recently I found a copy of the "new enlarged edition" with 530 pages. This 1970 edition is no longer new, but copies can still be found with little trouble. It has been reprinted many times; my copy is the fourteenth printing.

Both editions include The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Prioress's Prologue, The Prioress's Invocation, The Prioress's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Prologue, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Epilogue, The Pardoner's Prologue, The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Franklin's Prologue, and The Franklin's Tale.

The new enlarged edition includes four more sections: The Miller's Prologue, The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Prologue, and The Reeve's Tale.

Both editions offer a short introduction and a short section of notes. The translator is Vincent F. Hopper.