Geoffrey ChaucerTHE CANTERBURY TALESVolume II The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer’s lifeand hence towards the close of the fourteenth century, is perhaps the greatestEnglish literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almostundimmed clarity and relevance. Chaucer imagines a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who meet inthe Tabard Inn in Southwark, intent on making the traditional journeyto the martyr’s shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Harry Bailly,landlord of the Tabard, proposes that the company should entertain themselveson the road with a story-telling competition. The teller of the best talewill be rewarded with a supper at the others’ expense when the travellersreturn to London. Chaucer never completed this elaborate scheme – each pilgrim wassupposed to tell four tales, but in fact we only have twenty-four altogether –yet, with the pieces of linking narrative and the prologues to each tale, thework as a whole constitutes a marvellously varied evocation of the medievalworld which also goes beyond its period to penetrate (humorously, gravely,tolerantly) human nature itself. Chaucer, as a member of this company of pilgrims, presentshimself with mock innocence as the admiring observer of his fellows, depictedin the General Prologue. Many of these are clearly rogues – the coarse,cheating Miller, the repulsive yet compelling Pardoner – yet in each of themChaucer finds something human, often a sheer vitality or love of life which isirresistible: the Monk may prefer hunting to prayer, but he is after all ‘amanly man, to be an abbot able’. Perhaps only the unassuming, devoted Parsonand his humbly labouring brother the Ploughman rise entirely above Chaucer’steasing irony; certainly his fellow clergy and religious officers belong to achurch riddled with gross corruption. Everyone, it seems, is on the make, in aworld still recovering from the ravages of the Black Death. The first tale is told, quite properly, by the mostimportant pilgrim, the Knight, and his story is devoted to the high ideals ofchivalry and romantic love. Then the Miller drunkenly interrupts the Host,Harry Bailly, to impose on the company his splendidly bawdy tale about acuckolded carpenter. As the Reeve listens, he (a trained carpenter himself)becomes enraged by what he sees as a slight on his original profession. So theReeve’s Tale which follows is a vigorous attempt at revenge on the Miller. TwoCambridge students plan to outwit the fictional miller, Simkin, who grindstheir college’s corn and regularly takes a dishonest cut; at first, Simkin getsthe better of the under-graduates, but the tale reaches a brilliantly farcicalconclusion in which the two young men seduce both the miller’s wife and hisyoung daughter and give Simkin a sound beating. The comic world of the tale isunsentimen-tally concrete and morally ruthless, suggesting that life is littlemore than a physical and intellectual contest. The Wife of Bath’s Tale is the first of the three told bywomen in the collection. Her story is commonly regarded as initiating theso-called ‘marriage debate’ in The Canterbury Tales: marriage is a subject uponwhich she is clearly an expert, at least if the long life-story she tells inher brilliantly vivid and pungently argued Prologue is anything to go by. She hashad no fewer than five husbands – perhaps the Canterbury pilgrimage may yield thesixth. Her tale is a relatively brisk and aggressively feminist affair, set inArthurian England: a knight is compelled to seek an answer to the question,‘what do women most desire?’ After suitable humiliation, he discovers thecorrect response. The Clerk’s Tale, which Chaucer knew from versions byBoccaccio and Petrarch, amongst others, appears to continue the marriagedebate. The Clerk is, according to the General Prologue, an unworldly Oxfordscholar, but the tale he tells is curiously ruthless. With little explicitawareness of its less attractive aspects, the Clerk relates how thehumbly-born, ‘patient’ Griselda has to endure a succession of appallinghumiliations before her ‘noble’ husband finally accepts her unconditionally. Itseems, therefore, to be a riposte to the Wife of Bath. The last tale in this collection is that of the Nun’sPriest. Chaucer here draws on the French fable tradition, telling a story whichwonderfully mocks boastful pride as the clever fox eventually loses out to thesupposedly vain and gullible cock. Packed with ironically-deployed rhetoricaldevices, the tale may be said to celebrate the ingenuity, variety and folly ofhuman behaviour, allegorised in the form of the animal fable. George Orwell wasto do something similar, if infinitely more sinister, with Animal Farm in 1945. Chaucer derives almost all his tales from known sources,often Italian or French – as may be seen above – but he is brilliantlysuccessful in giving them a tone and feeling which are very English (concrete,ironic) and very much his own. Most of the Canterbury Tales are written inheroic couplets – a form of rhyming verse which Chaucer effectively introducedto English literature.Geoffrey Chaucer, son of a vintner, was born in London in1340, or thereabouts. He enjoyed a successful and varied career as courtier anddiplomat, travelling extensively in France and Italy, where he may have metBoccaccio and Petrarch. In 1374 he was made Controller of Customs in the portof London; in 1386 he represented Kent as knight of the shire, and may havelived there until his death in 1400. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer wrote prolifically and in a variety of styles: otherworks include the great Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and ATreatise on the Astrolabe. He also translated The Romance of the Rose.His range of subject matter, width of reading and sophistication areremarkable; his most notable qualities are perhaps his deeply sympathetic viewof human aspiration and weakness, and (when required) his capacity for close,ironic observation. Notes by Perry Keenlyside Modernised version of the Tales by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935. Cast List Host: Philip Madoc Wifeof Bath: Frances Jeater TheClerk: CharlesSimpson TheReeve: John Rowe TheNun’s Priest: JohnMoffat Philip Madoc’s extensive theatre work includes the roles ofOthello and Iago, Faust and Macbeth and recently, with the RSC, The Duke inMeasure for Measure and Professor Raat in The Blue Angel. TV roles includeLloyd George, Magua in The Last of the Mohicans, Brookside and A Mind to Kill.He reads The Death of Arthur, Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights, The Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, The Old Testament and Romeo and Juliet for NaxosAudioBooks. Frances Jeater’s theatre work has included Gertrude inHamlet; an American tour of Much Ado About Nothing; Middle and Far-East toursof Harvey; and Prisoner of Second Avenue, Haymarket Theatre, London. FavouriteTV: Gift of the Nile, filmed in Egypt. Frances has always enjoyed working forBBC Radio Drama and recording audiobooks. She reads Chaucer’s The Wife of Bathand reads the part of Mrs Eynsford Hill in Pygmalion for Naxos AudioBooks. John Moffatt’s distinguished theatre career encompasses twohundred roles across the UK, forty-two major London productions and twoBroadway appearances. He played Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Open AirTheatre, Regents Park, appeared in Ingmar Bergman’s production of Hedda Gablerand in Married Love, directed by Joan Plowright. Film credits include Prick UpYour Ears, and he has been seen on UK TV in productions as varied as Love in aCold Climate and Maigret. He also reads Sterne’s Tristram Shandy for NaxosAudioBooks and appears as Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Charles Simpson won the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award in 1989and the Best New Actor in Radio – Radio Times Comedy and Drama Awards in 1992.His TV credits include The Bill, Kavanagh QC and Soldier Soldier. His theatrework includes Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest for the English ShakespeareCompany and The Blue Angel at the Gielgud Theatre. He also reads the part ofFreddie Eynsford Hill in Pygmalion for Naxos AudioBooks. John Rowe trained at Birmingham School of Speech Trainingand Dramatic Art. His most recent theatre work has included Our Town(Shaftesbury Theatre) and Jenkin’s Ear (Royal Court). His extensive TV creditsinclude Peak Practice, Dangerfield, Brother Cadfael, Chalkface, Bergerac,Coriolanus and Macbeth. His film credits include The English Wife, The FourthProtocol, Sakharov and Nikolai. John Tydeman played a key role in BBC radio drama for nearlyfour decades, as producer, Assistant Head and then Head of Radio Drama. Duringthat time he directed most of the major plays in the classical repertory, fromGreek drama to Shakespeare, Chekhov and Shaw. He was also active incontemporary theatre, directing works by Osborne, Stoppard, Albee, Pinter andmany others. Directing for television and the stage has been a regular featurethroughout his busy career. He has worked with Paul Scofield on many occasions,including radio productions of Macbeth and Othello. For Naxos AudioBooks he hasdirected King Lear, Just So Stories and Pygmalion.