Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales

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Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England www.penguin.com This translation first published 1951
Revised 1958 Copyright 1951 by Nevill Coghill
Copyright Nevill Coghill, 1958, 1960, 1975, 1977 The dramatic rights in Nevill Coghills translation are held by Martin Starkie and handled by Classic Presentations Ltd. c/o A G Mead, Adam House, 1 Fitzroy Square, London, WIT 5HE. Dates and places of contemplated performances must be precisely stated in all applications. Cover: Detail from illustration of the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales from The Siege of Thebes (c. 1455/62) by John Lydgate, English Illumination (photo: AKG London/ British Library) All rights reserved ISBN: 978-0-718-19374-4 PENGUIN CLASSICS Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, the son of a vintner, in about 1342.

He is known to have been a page to the Countess of Ulster in 1357, and Edward III valued him highly enough to pay a part of his ransom in 1360, after he had been captured fighting in France. It was probably in France that Chaucers interest in poetry was first aroused. Certainly he soon began to translate the long allegorical poem of courtly love, the Roman de la Rose. His literary experience was further increased by visits to the Italy of Boccaccio on the Kings business, and he was well-read in several languages and on many topics, such as astronomy, medicine, physics and alchemy. Chaucer rose in royal employment, and became a knight of the shire for Kent (13856) and a Justice of the Peace. A lapse of favour during the temporary absence of his steady patron, John of Gaunt (to whom he was connected by his marriage), gave him time to begin organizing his unfinished Canterbury Tales.

Later his fortunes revived, and at his death in 1400 he was buried in Westminster Abbey. The order of his works is uncertain, but they include The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde and a translation of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae. Professor Nevill Coghill held many appointments at Oxford University, where he was Merton Professor of English Literature from 1957 to 1966, and later became Emeritus Fellow of Exeter and Merton Colleges. He was born in 1899 and educated at Haileybury and Exeter College, Oxford, and served in the Great War after 1917. He wrote several books on English Literature, and had a keen interest in drama, particularly Shakespearean. For many years he was a strong supporter of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, and produced plays in London and Oxford.

The book of the musical play, Canterbury Tales, which ran at the Phoenix Theatre, London, from 1968 to 1973 was co-written by Nevill Coghill in collaboration with Martin Starkie who first conceived the idea and presented the original production. His translation of Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde into modern English is also published in the Penguin Classics. Professor Coghill, who died in November 1980, will perhaps be best remembered for this translation which has become an enduring bestseller. FOR Richard Freeman Brian Ball Glynne Wickham Peter Whillans Graham Binns I have translated some parts of his works, only that I might perpetuate his memory, or at least refresh it, amongst my countrymen. If I have altered him anywhere for the better, I must at the same time acknowledge, that I could have done nothing without him . J OHN DRYDEN on translating Chaucer
Preface to the Fables
1700 And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be. ALEXANDER POPE
Essay on Criticism
1711