Canterbury Tales, Prologue
Geoffrey Chaucer
Befelle, that, in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury with devoute corage,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Wel nine and twenty in a compagnie
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felawship, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Canterbury wolden ride.
The chambres and the stables weren wide,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
And shortly, whan the sonne was gon to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everich on,
That I was of hir felawship anon,
And made forword erly for to rise,
To take cure way ther as I you devise.
This is an extract from the Prologue to Chaucer's masterpiece, the Canterbury Tales. The Tabard was the inn at which all the pilgrims meet before wending their way south to Canterbury.
The inn opened in the early 14th century on Borough High Street. The Inn burned down in 1669.
