Editing General Prologue (section)

==Translation==

The following are the first 18 lines of the General Prologue. The text was written in a dialect associated with London and spellings associated with the then-emergent Chancery Standard.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
! colspan="3" | '''First 18 lines of the General Prologue'''
|-
| style="text-align:center"|'''Original in [[Middle English]]:'''
| style="text-align:center"| '''[[Word-for-word translation]] <br/>into [[Modern English]]'''<ref name=":0">This Wikipedia translation closely mirrors the translation found here: {{cite book
|translator=Vincent Foster Hopper
|title=Canterbury Tales (selected)
|publisher=Barron's Educational Series
|year=1970
|edition=revised
|page=[https://archive.org/details/canterburytaless0000chau/page/2 2]
|url=https://archive.org/details/canterburytaless0000chau|url-access=registration
|quote=when april, with his.
|isbn=9780812000399
}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center"| '''[[Sense-for-sense translation]] into Modern English <br/>with a new rhyme scheme (by Nevill Coghill)'''<ref name="underwords">{{cite book
|last=Gleason
|first=Paul
|others=Joseph Dewey, Steven G. Kellman and Irving Malin
|title=Underwords
|publisher=Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp.
|year=2002
|page=131
|chapter=Don DeLillo, T.S. Eliot, and the Redemption of America's Atomic Waste Land|isbn=9780874137859
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5BlLrcWUe0C&dq=%22++++When+in+April+the+sweet+showers+fall+++++And+pierce+the+drought+of+March+to+the+root,+and+all%22&pg=PA131}}</ref>
|-
|-
| Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
| When [that] April with his showers sweet
| When in April the sweet showers fall
|-
| The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
| The drought of March has pierced to the root
| And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
|-
| And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
| And bathed every vein in such liquor,
| The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
|-
| Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
| Of whose virtue engendered is the flower;
| As brings about the engendering of the flower,
|-
|Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
|When [[Zephyrus]] eke with his sweet breath
|When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
|-
|Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
|Has [[wikt:inspire|inspired]] in every holt and heath,
|Exhales an air in every grove and heath
|-
|The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
|The tender crops; and the young sun
|Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
|-
|Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
|Has in [[Aries (astrology)|the Ram]] his half-course run,
|His half course in the sign of the Ram has run
|-
|And smale foweles maken melodye,
|And small fowls make melody,
|And the small fowl are making melody
|-
|That slepen al the nyght with open eye
|That sleep all the night with open eye
|That sleep away the night with open eye,
|-
|(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
|(So Nature pricks them in their courages);
|(So nature pricks them and their heart engages)
|-
|Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
|Then folks long to go on pilgrimages
|Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
|-
|And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
|And [[palmer (pilgrim)|palmers]] [for] to seek strange strands
|And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
|-
|To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
|To far-off [[Saint|hallows]], couth in sundry lands;
|Of far off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
|-
|And specially from every shires ende
|And, specially, from every shire's end
|And specially from every shires' end
|-
|Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
|Of England, to Canterbury they wend,
|Of England, down to Canterbury they wend
|-
|The hooly blisful martir for to seke
|The [[Thomas Becket|holy blissful martyr]] [for] to seek
|The holy blissful martyr, quick
|-
|That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
|That has helped them when [that] they were sick.
|To give his help to them when they were sick.
|}

'''In modern prose:'''

When April with its sweet showers has pierced March's drought to the root, bathing every vein in such liquid by whose virtue the flower is engendered, and when [[Zephyrus]] with his sweet breath has also enlivened the tender plants in every wood and field, and the young sun is halfway through [[Aries (astrology)|Aries]], and small birds that sleep all night with an open eye make melodies (their hearts so goaded by Nature), then people long to go on pilgrimages, and [[Palmer (pilgrim)|palmers]] seek faraway shores and distant saints known in sundry lands, and especially they wend their way to Canterbury from every shire of England to seek the [[Thomas Becket|holy blessed martyr]], who helped them when they were ill.<ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Henry Sweet |last1=Sweet |first1=Henry |title=First Middle English Primer |publisher=Evolution Publishing: [[Bristol, Pennsylvania]] |year=2005 |isbn=1-889758-70-1}}</ref>