Curio

State Library of New South Wales
The workes of Geffray Chaucer: newly printed

The workes of Geffray Chaucer: newly printed

1532
Bound volume
London: T Godfray, 1532
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
SAFE/ Q53/ 3

Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the most important English poets of the Middle Ages. His use of the English Language and his ability to tell stories with humour and realism has been appreciated and his work reproduced for over 600 years.

This 1532 edition contains all of Chaucer's writings except for the Ploughman's Tale, which was first printed in the edition of 1542. While the authorship of some of the material has been questioned, there is no doubt that this was the first comprehensive review of Chaucer’s work.

The volume begins with The Canterbury Tales, illustrated with a number of woodcuts and initials. The woodcuts are reproduced from William Caxton’s second edition of The Canterbury Tales, printed in 1484.

The Wife of Bath

The volume on display is open at the Prologue to the Wife of Bath, one of the most popular of the Canterbury Tales. It provides a particular insight into the role of women in medieval society.

In the Prologue the wife establishes herself as an authority on marriage, due to her extensive experience. Since her first marriage at the tender age of twelve, she has had five husbands:

Experience, though noon auctoritee 
Were in this world, were right ynogh to me 
To speke of wo that is in mariage; 
For, lordynges, sith I twelf yeer was of age, 
Thonked be God, that is eterne on lyve, 
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had five.

Murder most foul

Chaucer based his Canterbury Tales on the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, who had been appointed to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury by his close friend King Henry II. The two however soon fell out. Following an incident in 1170 Henry, famous for his wild temper, is said to have shouted out, ‘Will no-one rid me of this troublesome priest?’ Hearing the remark, several knights rode to Canterbury and murdered the archbishop in his cathedral.


Asking the Pope’s forgiveness, Henry walked barefoot to Canterbury to pray at the spot where Becket was killed and the cathedral quickly became a place of pilgrimage. Believing they would be cured of illness, pilgrims often left valuables at the site. When Henry VIII closed down the churches and monasteries in the mid 1500s, it reportedly took 21 carts to remove the valuables from Becket’s shrine.