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April, from the Trés Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, c1406-9.
Audio Reading by Anniina Jokinen, ©2006.
Anniina studied Chaucer at UCLA under V. A. Kolve.
For the direct .MP3 file, click here.
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Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote°
The droghte° of Marche hath perced to the rote,°
And bathed every veyne° in swich licour,°
Of which vertu° engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus° eek with his swete breeth
Inspired° hath in every holt° and heeth°
The tendre croppes,° and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne;1
And smale fowles° maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open yë°—
So priketh hem Nature in hir corages2—
Than longen° folk to goon° on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,3
To ferne halwes,° couthe° in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir4 for to seke,°
That hem hath holpen,° whan that they were seke.°
Bifel° that, in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard° as I lay°
Redy to wenden° on my pilgrimage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,°
At night was come into that hostelrye°
Wel nyne and twenty in a companye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure° y-falle°
In felaweshipe, and pilgrims were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden° ryde.
The chambres° and the stables weren wyde,°
And wel we weren esed° atte beste.°
And shortly, whan the sonne was to° reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon°
That I was of hir felawshipe anon,
And made forward° erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey, ther as I yow devyse.°
But natheles,° whyl I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,°
Me thinketh it acordaunt to resoun5
To telle yow al the condicioun6
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,°
And whiche° they weren, and of what degree,°
And eek in what array° that they were inne;
And at a knight than wol° I first biginne.
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sweet showers
dryness / root
vein / such moisture
By power of which
the west wind
Breathed into / wood / heath
sprouts
.
birds
eye(s)
.
Then long / go
.
far-off shires /known
.
seek
helped / sick
It befell
(an inn) / lodged
depart
heart
inn
.
chance / fallen
.
wished to
bedrooms / spacious
made comfortable / in the best (ways)
at
each and every one
agreement
(will) tell
nevertheless
pass on
seemed to me
what / status
clothing
will
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- Has run his half-course in the Ram; i.e., has passed through half the zodiacal sign of Aries (the Ram), a course completed on April 11. A rhetorically decorative way of indicating the time of year.
- Nature so spurs them in their hearts.
- And pilgrims to seek foreign shores.
- Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in 1170 and canonized shortly thereafter. The place of his martyrdom was the greatest shrine in England and much visited by pilgrims.
- It seems to me reasonable (proper).
- Character, estate, condition.
Text source:
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The General Prologue." The Canterbury Tales.
V. A. Kolve, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1989. 3-4.
Page citation:
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The General Prologue." The Canterbury Tales.
Audio Reading. Anniina Jokinen, narrator. Luminarium.
28 Nov 2006. [Date you accessed this article].
<http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gp.htm>
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Created by Anniina Jokinen on November 28, 2006. Last updated on February 3, 2023.
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