This new edition of one of Chaucer's most popular Canterbury Tales will enable the modern reader to participate fully in the imaginative experience it has to offer. Lexical notes are provided at the foot of each page of text to help those approaching Chaucer for the first time to read his poetry as it is intended to be read. The Introduction sets that poetry in its historical context, and suggests the kind of imaginative adjustment that today's reader of medieval literature needs to make in any critical response to it. Laying the emphasis on medieval rather than modern conceptions of unity, character and style, the editor suggests that the organising principles of the tale are to be found in the pattern of moral and philosophical ideas that are contained within it. The general issues considered in the Introduction are developed in greater detail in the Commentary that follows the text. A Select Bibliography concludes the book.