The General Prologue
The most popular part of the Canterbury Tales is the General Prologue, which has long been admired for the lively, individualized portraits it offers. More recent criticism has reacted against this approach, claiming that the portraits are indicative of social types, part of a tradition of social satire, "estates satire", and insisting that they should not be read as individualized character portraits like tho in a novel. Yet it is sure that Chaucer's capacity of human sympathy, like Shakespeare's, enabled him to go beyond the conventions of his time and create images of individualized human subjects that have been found not merely credible but endearing in every period from his own until now.
It is the General Prologue that rves to establish firmly the framework for the entire story-collection:the pilgrimage that risks being turned into a tale-telling competition. The title "General Prologue" is a modern invention, although a few manuscripts call it prologus 序言. There are very few major textual differences between the various manuscripts. The structure of the General Prologue is a simple one. After an elaborate introduction in lines 1 - 34, the narrator begins the ries of portraits (lines 35 - 719). The are followed by a report of the Host's suggestion of a tale-telling contest and its acceptance (lines 720 - 821). On the following morning the pilgrims asmble and it is decided that the Knight shall tell the first tale (lines 822 - 858).
Nothing indicates when Chaucer began to compo the General Prologue and there are no variations between manuscripts that might suggest that he revid it after making an initial version. It is sometimes felt that the last two portraits, of Pardoner and Summoner, may have been added later but there is no evidence to support this. The portraits do not follow any particular order after the first few pilgrims have been introduced; the Knight who comes first is socially the highest person prent (the Host calls him 'my mayster and my lord' in line 837).
The Knight is the picture of a professional soldier, come straight from foreign wars with clothes all stained褪色的 from his armour. His travels are remarkably vast; he has fought in Prussia[5prQFE]
whitehor>意思的英文
[史]普鲁士(位于北欧,1701年起成为王国,1871年建立了统一的德意志帝国), Lithuania[7liWju(:)5einjE]立陶宛, Russia, Spain, North Africa, and Turkey against pagans, Moors 摩尔人(非洲西北部伊斯兰教民族), and Saracens[5sArEs(E)n]萨拉森人（古希腊后期和罗马帝国时期的一支阿拉伯游牧民）, killing many. The variety of lords for whom he has fought suggests that he is some kind of mercenary图利的, but it ems that Chaucer may have known people at the English court with similar records. The narrator insists: "He was a verray, parfit[perfect], gentil knight," but some modern readers, ill at ea with idealized warriors, and doubtful about the value of the narrator's enthusiasms, have questioned this evaluation.
His son, the Squire, is by contrast an elegant young man
about court, with fashionable clothes and romantic skills of singing and dancing.
Their Yeoman is a skilled rvant in charge of the knight's land, his dress is described in detail, but not his character.
The Prioress女修道院院长is one of the most fully described pilgrims, and it is with her that we first notice the narrator's refusal to judge the value of what he es. Her portrait is more concerned with how she eats than how she prays. She is rather too kind to animals, while there is no mention of her kindness to people. Finally, she has a costly t of beads around her arm, which should be ud for prayer, but end in a brooch[bru:tF]胸针, 领针inscribed）题写；铭刻ambiguously Amor vincit omnia (Virgil's "Love conquers all"). She has a Nun with her, and "three" priests. This is a problem in counting the total number of pilgrims as twenty-nine: the word 'three' must have been added later on account of the rhyme, while only one Nun's Priest is in fact given a Tale and he is not the subject of a portrait here.
The Monk continues the ries of incongruous不调和的, 不适宜的church- people; in this description the narratorial voice often ems to be echoing the monk's comments in indirect quotation. He has m
any hors at home; he does not respect his monastic修道院的；僧侣的 rule, but goes hunting instead of praying. The narrator express surprisingly strong support for the Monk's chon style of living.瘦弱的意思>cure
The Friar：男修道士 follows, and by now it ems clear that Chaucer has a special interest in church-people who so confidently live in contradiction with what is expected of them; the narrator, though, gives no sign of feeling any problem, as when he reports that the "worthy" Friar avoided the company of lepers麻疯病患者 and beggars. By this point the alert reader is alert to the narrator's too-ready u of 'worthy' but critics are still unsure of what Chaucer's intended strategy was here.venture
downloadingThe Merchant is briefly described, and is followed by the Clerk of Oxenford (Oxford) who is as sincere a student as could be wished: poor, skinny like his hor, and book-loving.
The Sergeant[5sB:dVEnt][英]【史】高级律师 at Law is an expert lawyer, and with him is the Franklin小地主, a gentleman from the country who main interest is food: "It snowed in his hou of meat and drink." Then Chaucer adds a brief list of five tradesmen belonging to the same fraternity, dresd in its uniform: a Haberdasher男子服饰经销商, a Carpenter, a Weaver织工, a Dyer and a Tapestry 挂毯-maker. None of the is described here or given a Tale to tell later. They have brought
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their Cook with them, he is an expert, his skills are listed, as well as some unexpected personal details. The Shipman who is described next is expert at sailing and at stealing the wine his pasngers bring with them; he is also a dangerous character, perhaps a pirate.
The Doctor of Physic is praid by the narrator, "He was a verray parfit praktisour," and there follows a list of the fifteen main masters of medieval medicine; the fact that he, like most doctors in satire, "loved gold in special" is added at the end.
The Wife of Bath is the only woman, beside the Prioress and her companion Nun, on this pilgrimage. Again the narrator is positive: "She was a worthy womman al hir live" and he glides quickly over the five husbands that later figure in such detail in her Prologue, where also we may read how she became deaf. She is a business woman of strong lf-importance, and her elaborate dress is a sign of her character as well as her wealth.
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From her, we pass to the most clearly idealized portrait in the Prologue, the Parson. While the previous churchmen were all interested in things of this world more than in true Christianity, the Parson reprents the opposite pole.
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He is accompanied by his equally idealized brother, the Plowman, "a true swinker" (hard-working ma
n) "Living in peace and perfect charity." If the Parson is the model churchman, the Plowman is the model lay christian, as in Piers Plowman, one who is always ready to help the poor. It is sometimes suggested that the choice of a Plowman shows that Chaucer had read a version of Piers Plowman.
The ries then ends with a mixed group of people of whom most are quite terrible: the Miller磨坊主 is a kind of
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