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A total of 83 medieval manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales are known to exist, more than any other vernacular medieval literary work except The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the tales' popularity during the 15th century.[2] Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have once been complete, while 28 are so fragmentary that it is difficult to tell whether they were copied individually or were part of a larger set.[3] The Tales vary in both minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript; many of the minor variations are obviously due to copyists' errors. However, other variations suggest that Chaucer himself was continually adding to and revising his work as it was copied and distributed. No official, complete version of the Tales exists and it is impossible with the information available to determine the order Chaucer intended them to be placed in or even, in some cases, whether he even had any intended order in mind.[4][5]
Textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular methods of ordering the tales. Scholars usually divide the tales into ten fragments. The tales that comprise a fragment are closely related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. Between fragments, however, there is less of a connection. Consequently there are several plausible permutations of the fragments. The most popular ordering[4] of the fragments is as follows:
| Fragment | Tales |
|---|---|
| Fragment I(A) | General Prologue, Knight, Miller, Reeve, Cook |
| Fragment II(B1) | Man of Law |
| Fragment III(D) | Wife, Friar, Summoner |
| Fragment IV(E) | Clerk, Merchant |
| Fragment V(F) | Squire, Franklin |
| Fragment VI(C) | Physician, Pardoner |
| Fragment VII(B2) | Shipman, Prioress, Sir Thopas, Melibee, Monk, Nun's Priest |
| Fragment VIII(G) | Second Nun, Canon's Yeoman |
| Fragment IX(H) | Manciple |
| Fragment X(I) | Parson |
An alternative ordering places Fragment VIII(G) before VI(C). However, the order indicated above follows that set by early manuscripts. Fragments I and II almost always follow each other, as do VI and VII, IX and X in the oldest manuscripts. Fragments IV and V, by contrast are located in varying locations from manuscript to manuscript. Victorians would frequently move Fragment VII(B2) to follow Fragment II(B1), but this trend is no longer followed and has no justification.[4] Even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucer's originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D (called "Hengwrt"), compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucer's death. The scribe uses the order shown above, though he does not seem to have had a full collection of Chaucer's tales, so part are missing. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the tales is the Ellesmere manuscript, and many editors have followed the order of the Ellesmere over the centuries, even down to the present day.[6][7] The latest of the manuscripts is William Caxton's 1478 print edition, the first version of the tales to be published in print. Since this version was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts.[2]
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