ABSTRACT
How often will Chaucer be read and taught in the future and in what form? Although Geoffrey Chaucer is acknowledged to be one of the three or four greatest poets in our language, there is real danger that his works are falling out of the general literary curriculum. We are turning out English BAs, MAs, and PhDs who have not read a single work in Old or Middle English. For many educated people, English literature now begins no earlier than Shakespeare-and then often skips directly to Jane Austen. This is too bad because there are many who would love Chaucer’s poetry, if only that had the opportunity to get to know it. Although the fi ctional pilgrimage of the Canterbury Tales is supposed to have taken place more than 600 years ago, its tales still have the capacity to excite, amuse, challenge, and delight fi rsttime readers.
