About this site.

The primary purpose of this site is to present the text of Chaucer's General Prologue with as few distractions as possible--on the assumption that Chaucer's works are best enjoyed one on one: just you and Chaucer. At the same time, it aims to provide you with as much help as you need in learning to understand this work, its language, and its times.

A first glance at the text of the electronic General Prologue may suggest that there no aids available for understanding the many difficult words and passages. But there are. If you move your cursor (or pointer) over a difficult word or phrase, you will note that a gloss with a blue background pops up providing the translation. Beginners will use these glosses the most, but even advanced readers will frequently find them useful. When you need the glosses, they are there to use. When you don't, there is nothing on the page to distract the eye--so that you can focus on the text itself.

The translations in the glosses are mine. I have always attempted to be accurate, but when forced to choose between a literal definition and one that would better clarify the meaning of the line, I have generally gone with the latter. When translating words, I have often consulted Albert C. Baugh (Chaucer's Major Poetry. New York: Appleton, 1963), Larry D. Benson (The Riverside Chaucer. Boston: Houghton, 1987), N. F. Blake (The Canterbury Tales. London: Arnold, 1980), E. T. Donaldson (Chaucer's Poetry. New York: Ronald, 1958), and the Oxford English Dictionary.

As is customary in print editions of the General Prologue, the right margin contains a number for every fifth line. Just to the right of the line numbers are occasional o's, or small circles. When you put your pointer on one, a text box with a brief, explanatory note will pop up. These short notes are intended primarily to make the line more understandable. However, some of them contain links to other sites that have more information about the topic of the line. I have limited the use of these notes and tried to keep them brief.

Similarly, links to supporting material (e.g. sounds, images, background), available in the left framebar, are presented as unobtrusively as possible. When providing links to other sites, I have tried to limit my choice to those of recognized quality and accuracy.

I have also provided on separate web pages a modern English translation of the General Prologue, presented side-by-side with the Middle English version of the text. The translation is a public-domain version made available through OnLine Books at Virginia Tech and elsewhere.

With only a few modifications (such as some capitalization), the text used for the Middle English version of the General Prologue is that of F. N. Robinson, ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton, 1957), made available for non-commercial use by the Oxford Text Archive.

Credits

This creation of this site was aided by a grant from CIAT, the Center for Instructional Advancement and Technology at Towson University, and I sincerely thank John Perrelli of CIAT and Jamie Hardin of the College of Liberal Arts for advice in technical matters.

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