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Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is episode 127, the Road to Canterbury.

In this episode we're going to begin our look at the most well-known piece of middle-English literature.

The Canterbury Tales by Jeffrey Chaucer.

It's taken a long time to get here, but we're finally at a point where we can discuss an English text that a lot of people have actually heard of.

And since this book is sometimes assigned to school students, some of you may have actually read part of this book, probably via a modern English translation.

In this episode we're going to explore the background of the poem, and the circumstances that led Jeffrey Chaucer to compose it in the late 1300s.

We'll also explore the opening passages of the general prologue of the poem.

This prologue is probably the most well-known part of the book, and it provides a fascinating insight into the nature of the English language in the 14th century.

So this time we'll take the road to Canterbury, and we'll begin our look at the Canterbury Tales.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com, and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com slash historyofenglish.

To fair the hoax, hoot and sundry landers, and especially from every shear is end of Angolan to counterbury they went the holy blissful martyr for to say that him had hope and one that they were say.

The clip I just played for you is part of a reading from the general prologue of the Canterbury Tales, read in the original Middle English.

Now you might assume that it was from some university lecture on medieval English, or perhaps it was from a poetry reading at some local bookstore, but it wasn't.

It's actually a clip from the Martin Scorsese Concert film called The Last Waltz.

In 1976, Scorsese filmed the final concert of the classic rock group known as the band.

Well, it was the final performance of the original lineup of the band.

It was a huge event, and it included some of the biggest bands and performers of the day, like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Johnny Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and many others.

But there's also this interesting performance right in the middle of the film.

A poet and writer named Michael McClure appeared on stage, and he read the opening lines of the Canterbury Tales in Chaucer's original Middle English.

And I mentioned this somewhat out of place performance because it points to the enduring legacy of the Canterbury Tales.

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