- 01Contents of the volume
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer · 1400 · 44 chapters · 24/7 tutor
Medieval society, genre, voice, and pilgrimage.
44Chapters
231Lessons
630Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Summarize the historical and literary context of Chaucer's work
- Identify major pilgrims and their social roles in the Prologue
- Analyze how genre and voice shape the Canterbury Tales
- Explain key plot events and themes in the Knight's Tale, Miller's Tale, and Reeve's Tale
- Recognize Chaucer's use of irony, satire, and social commentary
- Interpret explanatory notes and allusions that support close reading
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 44
- Lessons
- 231
- Topics
- 630
- 01Poems no longer attributed to Chaucer
- 02Transcriber’s notes and editorial conventions
- 01Purpose of the volume and selection of Chaucer and Spenser
- 02Textual abridgement and prose outlines
- 03Modernized spelling and editorial method
- 04Minor poems, notes, and editorial acknowledgments
- 01Chaucer as England's first poet
- 02Birth, London origins, and family standing
- 03Edward III's courtly age and Chaucer's education
- 01Chaucer’s learning and courtly qualities
- 02Military service, captivity, and marriage
- 01Chaucer’s marriage and court connections
- 02Royal pension and literary patronage
- 01Chaucer's Italian embassy to Genoa and Florence
- 02Possible meeting with Petrarch at Padua
- 03Clerk's Tale and evidence for Petrarch's influence
- 01Customs Controller and court favour
- 02Foreign missions to Flanders and Milan
- 01John Gower and Chaucer’s customs service
- 02Election as knight of the shire for Kent
- 03Parliament of 1386 and dismissal from office
- 01Loss of offices and family pension
- 02Restoration under Richard II and later appointments
- 03Declining finances, protection, and final years
- 01Chaucer’s burial and Brigham’s tomb inscription
- 02Chaucer’s appearance and temperament
- 01Chaucer's major poems and editorial treatment
- 02The Canterbury Tales: pilgrimage frame and unfinished design
- 01Chaucer’s prose works and editorial scope
- 02Reading Chaucer’s metre and terminal e
- 03Notes to Life of Geoffrey Chaucer
- 01Chaucer's literary chronology and sources
- 02Chaucer's political reputation and customs office
- 03Cross-references to Chaucer's works
- 04Family, descendants, and burial epitaph
- 01The Canterbury Tales
- 01Pilgrimage to Canterbury and the Tabard Inn
- 02The Knight
- 03The Squire and the Yeoman
- 01The Prioress's manners, piety, and appearance
- 02The Monk's hunting life and worldly habits
- 01The Friar's appearance, manners, and confessions
- 02The Merchant's appearance and profit-minded speech
- 01The Clerk of Oxford
- 02The Sergeant of the Law
- 03The Franklin's wealth and hospitality
- 01The guildsmen and their cook
- 02The shipman from Dartmouth
- 01The Doctor of Physic
- 02The Wife of Bath
- 01The Parson’s piety and pastoral duty
- 01The Parson and the Ploughman
- 02The Miller
- 03The Manciple and the Reeve
- 04The Summoner and the Pardoner
- 05Chaucer’s framing of the pilgrimage
- 06The Knight wins the cut and begins his tale
- 01Theseus’s conquest of the Amazons and Thebes
- 02Palamon and Arcite in prison
- 01Palamon and Arcite’s dispute over Emelye
- 02Perithous secures Arcite’s release
- 01Arcite’s despair after exile
- 02Palamon’s prison lament and jealousy
- 03Arcite’s wasting grief in Thebes
- 01Mercury's dream and Arcite's journey to Athens
- 02Arcite as Philostrate in Emily's service
- 01Palamon’s escape from prison
- 02Arcite’s May morning ride into the grove
- 03The lovers’ recognition and challenge
- 01Arcite and Palamon's appointed duel
- 01Theseus’s hunting party in the grove
- 02Theseus interrupts Arcite and Palamon’s duel
- 01Theseus condemns the lovers
- 02Theseus’s mercy and pardon
- 01Theseus grants mercy and sets the tournament terms
- 02The construction and design of the lists
- 01Temple of Venus and its allegories
- 02Temple of Mars and its war imagery
- 03Temple of Diana and scenes of chastity
- 04Theseus prepares the tournament and the knights assemble
- 01Palamon's prayer to Venus
- 02Emily's prayer to Diana
- 03Arcite's prayer to Mars
- 01Saturn settles Venus and Mars's dispute
- 01Theban knights and the duke’s ordinance
- 02Procession to the lists and the two battle lines
- 01The mêlée and the knights’ combat
- 02Theseus awards Emily to Arcite
- 03Venus’s grief and Saturn’s promise
- 04Arcite rides to show his face
- 01Arcite’s accident and removal to Athens
- 02Theseus’s settlement after the tournament
- 03Arcite’s worsening illness and farewell to Emily
- 04Arcite’s death and the mourning in Athens
- 01Theseus plans Arcite’s funeral pyre
- 02The funeral procession through Athens
- 03The pyre, cremation, and wake
- 01Theseus’s argument for necessity and mortality
- 01Palamon and Emily's marriage
- 01Glossary and explanatory notes
- 01Classical and historical allusions in the Prologue notes
- 01Funeral rites and mourning customs
- 02Textual notes on Arcite's death and sources
- 01The Miller interrupts the storytelling contest
- 02The Reeve objects to the Miller’s ribald tale
- 03Chaucer’s apology for the Miller’s tale
- 01Nicholas the Oxford scholar
- 02Alison’s beauty and Nicholas’s seduction
- 03Absolon’s courtship of Alison
- 04Nicholas’s plot against John
- 05Nicholas's flood deception
- 06The carpenters prepare the tubs
- 07Absolon's nighttime courtship
- 01Absolon’s humiliation and vow of revenge
- 02Absolon borrows the smith’s hot coulter
- 03Absolon returns to the carpenter’s window
- 01Absolon's kiss and Nicholas's prank
- 01The town’s laughter at the carpenter
- 01The Reeve’s complaint about age and old men’s vices
- 02The Host interrupts and the Reeve vows revenge
- 01The Miller of Trompington
- 02The scholars’ trip to the mill
- 03The stolen horse and lost flour
- 04The miller’s household at night
- 05The clerks’ night with the miller’s family
- 06The miller’s discovery and the brawl
- 07The clerks’ escape and the tale’s moral
- 01Cook of London’s complaint and tale offer
- 02Host’s teasing reply to Roger
- 01The apprentice Perkin Revellour
- 02The tale breaks off unfinished
- 01Host's calculation of the time and call for a tale
- 02The Man of Law's assent and praise of Chaucer's love stories
- 03Refusal of scandalous tales and transition to the narrative
- 01Poverty and the merchant's tale
- 02The Soudan's love for Constance and the marriage accord
- 03Constance's departure from Rome
- 04The Soudaness plots against Christianity
- 05Constance cast adrift after the massacre
- 06Constance preserved at sea by divine providence
- 07Constance’s arrival in Northumberland and conversion of Hermegild and the Constable
- 08Hermegild’s murder and Constance falsely accused
- 01Constance’s prayer for divine help
- 02The false knight’s punishment and Constance’s vindication
- 03Alla’s marriage to Constance and Donegild’s anger
- 01Mauricius’s birth and Donegild’s first forged letter
- 02Donegild’s second forgery and Constance’s banishment
- 03Constance’s departure by sea and Alla’s return
- 01Constance rescued at sea and the steward's assault
- 02Constance's deliverance and the voyage toward Rome
- 03The Roman emperor's revenge on Syria and Constance's arrival in Rome
- 01Alla’s repentance and pilgrimage to Rome
- 02Recognition of Constance and reconciliation
- 03Constance’s reunion with her father and return to England
- 01Constance’s return to Rome
- 01Marriage, Scripture, and Virginity
- 02The purpose of sex and marital rights
- 03The Pardoner’s interruption and the Wife’s terms
- 04The Wife’s complaints against husbands
- 05The Wife’s rebuttal to anti-woman authorities
- 06Her account of controlling husbands through deceit and quarrels
- 01The fifth husband and the power struggle in marriage
- 02The knight’s submission and the wife’s mastery
- 03The Friar and Sompnour interrupt the tale
- 01Prologue notes on the Wife of Bath’s authorities
- 02The knight’s crime and the queen’s bargain
- 03Women’s desires and the tale of Midas
- 01The knight’s search for what women desire
- 02The old wife’s bargain and marriage demand
- 01Gentility comes from virtue, not ancestry
- 02Poverty and virtuous living
- 01Povert’ as spiritual richness
- 02Elde and the choice of wifehood
- 01The knight yields governance to his wife
- 02The wife claims mastery and grants peace
- 03The knight discovers her beauty and they live in joy
- 01Friar’s complaint about the Summoner
- 01The archdeacon and his summoner
- 02The summoner meets the yeoman
- 03The fiend explains his work
- 04The cart, the widow, and the bribe
- 05The summoner’s final seizure and damnation
- 06Friar’s moral warning against hell and temptation
- 01The Friar’s falsehood and the Sompnour’s complaint
- 02The vision of friars in hell
- 03Satan’s tail and the swarm of friars
- 01The friar’s preaching for trentals and gifts
- 02The friar’s visit to Thomas and his wife
- 03The friar’s defense of mendicant poverty and fasting
- 04Thomas’s complaints and the friar’s rebuke of anger
- 05Examples of wrath and drunkenness in rulers
- 06The friar’s demand for alms and the fart
- 07The friar’s complaint to the lord
- 08The lord’s reasoning and Jankin’s demonstration
- 01Glossary of Chaucerian and Latin terms
- 01The Host’s request for a merry tale
- 02Petrarch and the clerk’s source
- 03Petrarch’s proem and the geography of Piedmont
- 01Walter’s rule in Saluces
- 02The people’s plea for marriage
- 03Walter’s consent and conditions
- 01Walter’s marriage conditions and the feast preparations
- 02Griselda’s humble life and Walter’s choice
- 03The wedding day and Walter’s proposal to Janicola
- 04Griselda’s vows and transformation into marchioness
- 05Griselda’s reputation and peacemaking wisdom
- 01Griselda’s daughter and the marquis’s resolve
- 02The marquis tests Griselda’s patience
- 03The sergeant takes the child
- 01Walter’s renewed testing of Griselda
- 02The children are taken away
- 03Walter’s slander and forged papal bulls
- 01Griseldis’s children sent home in secret
- 02The marquis announces a new wife
- 03Griseldis returns to her father in patience
- 01Griselda prepares Walter’s new bride
- 02The banquet and Walter’s first test of Griselda
- 03Walter reveals the children and restores Griselda
- 04Moral reflection on patience and adversity
- 01Chaucer’s envoy to wives
- 02Notes to the Clerk’s Tale
- 01Merchant’s complaint about marriage
- 01January’s praise of marriage
- 02Placebo’s approval of the match
- 03Justinus’s warning against hasty marriage
- 04January’s choice of May and the marriage arrangements
- 05Wedding feast and January’s bridal joy
- 06January’s wedding-night conduct and Damian’s secret love
- 01January’s letter to May and Damian’s recovery
- 02January’s enclosed garden and private pleasures
- 03The key’s counterfeit and the garden tryst
- 01Pluto's accusation against women
- 02Proserpina's defense of women
- 01January and May at the pear-tree
- 02January’s restored sight and accusation
- 03The tale’s ending
- 04Explanatory notes
- 01Host’s remarks on wives and secrecy
- 02The Squire invited to tell a tale of love
- 01Cambuscan and his royal family
- 02The brass horse, mirror, ring, and sword
- 03Court speculation and marveling
- 04The feast, dancing, and the horse's governance
- 01The king receives the magic bridle and the feast ends
- 02Canace rises early and hears the falcon's cry
- 03Canace comforts the falcon and hears its tale of betrayal
- 04The falcon's healing and the painted mew
- 01Squire’s Tale continuation and planned adventures
- 02Explanatory notes on the Squire’s Tale
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01How many chapters are in the Canterbury Tales course?
The Canterbury Tales course has 44 chapters, each with its own lessons and topics.
02How many lessons are in the Canterbury Tales course?
There are 231 lessons across the course, and you can ask your 24/7 tutor about any of them.
03Can I see what the Canterbury Tales course covers before I start?
Yes. The full curriculum is listed on this page, beginning with "PREFACE LIFE OF CHAUCER".
04Do I get a certificate for the Canterbury Tales course?
Yes. Finishing the course earns a personal Cavua certificate of completion.
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