A collection of ten critical essays on the Prologue to Chaucer's well-known work, arranged in chronological order of their original publication.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Harold Bloom -- Chaucer : motive and mask in the General prologue / Ruth Nevo -- Medieval estates satire and the General prologue / Jill Mann -- Memory and form / Donald R. Howard -- History and form in the General prologue to the Canterbury tales / Loy D. Martin -- Creation in Genesis and nature in Chaucer's prologue 1-18 / Jane Chance -- Gold and iron : semantic change and social change in Chaucer's prologue / Geoffrey Hughes -- The art of impersonation : a general prologue to the Canterbury tales / H. Marshall Leicester, Jr. -- The Canterbury tales as framed narratives / Morton W. Bloomfield -- Commercial language and the commercial outlook in the General prologue / Patricia J. Eberle -- "A poet ther was" : Chaucer's voices in the General prologue to the Canterbury tales / Barbara Nolan.