Editing General Prologue (section)

==Sources==

[[John Matthews Manly]] attempted to identify pilgrims with real fourteenth-century people. In some instances, such as the Summoner and the Friar, he attempts localization to a small geographic area. The Man of Law is identified as Thomas Pynchbek (also Pynchbeck), who was [[Chief Baron of the Exchequer|chief baron of the exchequer]]. [[John Bussy|Sir John Bussy]], an associate of Pynchbek, is identified as the Franklin. The Pembroke estates near Baldeswelle supplied the portrait for the unnamed Reeve.<ref>{{ cite book
 | author=John Matthews Manly
 | title=Some New Light on Chaucer (New York 
 | publisher=Henry Holt  | year=1926 |pages=131–57
 | url=https://www.questia.com/read/815997/some-new-light-on-chaucer
 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Sebastian Sobecki argues that the General Prologue is a pastiche of the historical Harry Bailey's surviving 1381 [[Poll tax|poll-tax]] account of Southwark's inhabitants.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sobecki|first1=Sebastian|title=A Southwark Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales''|journal=Speculum|date=2017|volume=92|issue=3|pages=630–660|doi=10.1086/692620|s2cid=159994357|url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/44079043/692620.pdf}}</ref>

Jill Mann argued that the descriptions of pilgrims representing a spectrum of social roles is best understood as standing in the tradition of medieval [[Estate satire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Jill |title=Chaucer and medieval estates satire; the literature of social classes and the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. |date=1973 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=052120058X |location=Cambridge}}</ref> Stephen Rigby observed the General Prologue as commenting on medieval social inequality, noting that Chaucerians are divided in their interpretations of Chaucer's outlook: some see Chaucer as defending the social order; others argue that he meant to criticize it; and others still hold that he intended to leave it open to the reader's interpretation.<ref>{{Citation |last=Rigby |first=Stephen H. |title=Reading Chaucer: Literature, History, and Ideology |date=2014-11-13 |work=Historians on Chaucer: The 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales |pages=11 |editor-last=Minnis |editor-first=Alastair |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/12357/chapter-abstract/161913419?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-02-22 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689545.003.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-968954-5 |editor2-last=Rigby |editor2-first=Stephen H. |url-access=subscription }}</ref> On such interpretations, the pilgrims are less likely to correspond to historical individuals and more likely to be versions of representative 'types': the friar, for example, being a figure out of existing anti-fraternal literature.<ref>{{Citation |last=Geltner |first=Guy |title=The Friar |date=2014-11-13 |work=Historians on Chaucer: The 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales |pages=156–69 |editor-last=Minnis |editor-first=Alastair |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/12357/chapter-abstract/161926682?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-02-22 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689545.003.0009 |isbn=978-0-19-968954-5 |editor2-last=Rigby |editor2-first=Stephen|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=William H. |date=2025-02-18 |title=Plesaunt was his absolucioun? Friars and Light Penances in English History and Literature |url=https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/16931/ |journal=Open Library of Humanities |volume=11 |issue=1 |doi=10.16995/olh.16931 |doi-access=free |issn=2056-6700|url-access=subscription }}</ref>