Hyper Chaucer: The Orders of The Canterbury Tales

Welcome to Hyper Chaucer, the digital tool that allows you to enter the great debate and re-order Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with a click of the mouse. Simply drag and drop an individual tale to the desired location; the buttons on the right will also allow you to view the full text of any tale. The default order provided below follows the most common editorial practices in modern editions, including Larry D. Benson's edition of The Riverside Chaucer, itself based on the Ellesmere order. 

To see the order of the Tales as it exists in any one of the existing manuscript copies, simply chose the manuscript in the drop-down menu at the top of the page. This menu also includes the infamous "Bradshaw Shift," a proposed order not found in any existing manuscript copy or incunable.

• Fragment I^a (A): The General Prologue
  
  
• Fragment I^b (A): The Knight's Tale
  
  
• Fragment I^c (A): The Miller's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment I^d (A): The Reeve's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment I^e (A): The Cook's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment II (B¹): The Man of Law's Tale
  
  
• Fragment III^a (D): The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment III^b (D): The Friar's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment III^c (D): The Summoner's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment IV^a (E): The Clerk's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment IV^b (E): The Merchant's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment V^a (F): The Squire's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment V^b (F): The Franklin's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VI^a (C): The Physician's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VI^b (C): The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment VII^a (B²): The Shipman's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VII^b (B²): The Prioress's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment VII^c (B²): The Tale of Sir Thopas
  
  
• Fragment VII^d (B²): The Tale of Melibee
  
  
• Fragment VII^e (B²): The Monk's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VII^f (B²): The Nun's Priest's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VIII^a (G): The Second Nun's Tale
  
  
• Fragment VIII^b (G): The Canon Yeoman's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment IX (H): The Manciple's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment X (I): The Parson's Prologue and Tale
  
  
• Fragment X-2 (I): The Retraction
  
  

Tales Not Included

• [The Tale of Beryn]
• [The Tale of Gamelyn]
• [The Plowman's Tale]
• [John Lydgate, The Siege of Thebes]