Retraction:

Chaucer prays that whoever reads these tales and finds something worthy in them should thank Christ. Yet if readers find offense in the tales, Chaucer asks that they impute this not to any ill intention, but rather to Chaucer's own ignorance.

Analysis

The final passage of the story is a minor qualification in which Chaucer attempts to absolve himself of any blame that may be placed on him for the more vulgar and unsuitable material contained within the various tales. He pleads ignorance, a tactic that is not quite convincing considering the intellectual labor that the Canterbury Tales represent. Otherwise, the retraction is a conventional summation that gives praise to Christ as the inspiration for the tales.

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