Chaucer's Narration

Characteristic of Chaucer's work, the narrator of the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is quite intriguing. Although we learn "Th'estaat, th'array, the nombre, and eek the cause" (716) of a number of characters in the prologue, we get no description of the narrator himself-- all we know for sure is that he is a pilgrim on his way to Canterbury. The conclusion of the General Prologue, from lines 715 to the end, is perhaps the most illuminating part. From lines 725 to 746, the narrator begs the reader not to judge him for the coarseness of the tales he tells, for he is simply retelling the tales of others as he heard them. He says directly to the reader, "For this ye knowen also wel as I, / Whoso shal telle a tale after a man, / He moot reherce as neigh as evere he kan / Everich a word, if it be in his charge..." (730-4). This request is yet another example of Chaucer's incredible shrewdness, as well as his distancing technique between himself (the author), the pilgrim (the narrator), and the content (the tales). In that one line ("For this ye known also wel as I"), not only does he frame the bawdy tales he is about to tell in the mouths of others, excusing himself from taking any responsibility, but he even implies to that the reader must know that it's only right for him to be excused, because the truth must be spoken. He makes his lack of responsibility for his "vileynye" (726) even more irrefutable by invoking the wisdom of Plato: "Eek Plato seith, whoso kan hym rede, / The wordes moote be cosyn to the dede" (741-2). Clearly, this is Chaucer at his very best (or most sly): not only does he distance the content of his poetry from himself (as he has done in so many of his earlier works), but he even tricks the reader into thinking it is permissible and even necessary for him to tell such raunchy tales.