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Introduction

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the remaining twenty-two in verse). The tales are contained inside a frame tale and told by a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.^[1] The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle English. The tales are considered to be his magnum opus, influenced by the structure of The Decameron, which Chaucer is said to have read on an earlier visit to Italy, but Chaucer peopled his tales with 'sondry folk' rather than Boccaccio's fleeing nobles.