General Prologue

The first lines from the General Prologue at the opening folio of the Hengwrt manuscript
Illustration of the knight from the General Prologue. Three lines of text are also shown.
The Tabard Inn, Southwark, around 1850

The General Prologue is the first part of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It introduces the frame story, in which a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to take part in a storytelling competition, and describes the pilgrims themselves. The Prologue is arguably the most familiar section of The Canterbury Tales, depicting traffic between places, languages and cultures, as well as introducing and describing the pilgrims who will narrate the tales.[1]

  1. ^ Scala, Elizabeth (2017). "The General Prologue: Cultural Crossings, Collaborations, and Conflicts". The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. Archived from the original on 2023-12-16. Retrieved 2024-02-07.