The Canterbury Tales · Chapter
Preces de Chauceres explained
Chaucer addresses his readers directly, asking them to thank Christ for any good in his writings and to attribute any faults to his own ignorance.
What happens
Chaucer addresses his readers directly, asking them to thank Christ for any good in his writings and to attribute any faults to his own ignorance. He then offers a retraction of his worldly and sinful works, including the Canterbury Tales and other secular writings, while thanking God for his translations and devotional works. He prays for grace to repent and be saved.
Themes in this chapter
Sin and Redemption
Chaucer explicitly revokes his sinful writings and prays for God's mercy, repentance, and salvation.
Corruption and Hypocrisy in the Church
Though not directly about church corruption, Chaucer's retraction acknowledges the sinfulness of his secular tales, many of which critique ecclesiastical hypocrisy.
Characters to notice
- Chaucer
The author speaks in first person, retracting his worldly writings and praying for salvation.
Key passages
“Now pray I to you all that hear this little treatise or read it, that if there be anything in it that likes them, that thereof they thank our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom proceedeth all wit and all goodness; and if there be anything that displeaseth them, I pray them also that they arette it to the default of mine unconning, and not to my will, that would fain have said better if I had had conning;”
I ask all who read or hear this work to thank Jesus Christ for anything they like, and to blame my lack of skill for anything they dislike, not my intention, since I would have written better if I could.
Chaucer humbly attributes any merit to God and any fault to his own ignorance.
“Wherefore I beseech you meekly for the mercy of God that ye pray for me, that God have mercy on me and forgive me my guilts, and namely my translations and of inditing in worldly vanities, which I revoke in my Retractions, as is the Book of Troilus, the Book also of Fame, the Book of Twenty-five Ladies, the Book of the Duchess, the Book of Saint Valentine’s Day and of the Parliament of Birds, the Tales of Canterbury, all those that sounen unto sin, the Book of the Lion, and many other books, if they were in my mind or remembrance, and many a song and many a lecherous lay, of the which Christ for his great mercy forgive me the sins.”
I humbly ask you to pray for God's mercy on me, to forgive my sins, especially my translations and writings about worldly vanities, which I now retract, including Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, The Book of the Duchess, The Parliament of Fowls, the Canterbury Tales (those that tend toward sin), The Book of the Lion, and many other sinful songs and poems.
Chaucer lists his major secular works and formally retracts them as sinful.
“But of the translation of Boece De Consolatione , and other books of consolation and of legend of lives of saints, and homilies, and moralities, and devotion, that thank I our Lord Jesus Christ, and his mother, and all the saints in heaven, beseeching them that they from henceforth unto my life’s end send me grace to bewail my guilts, and to study to the salvation of my soul, and grant me grace and space of very repentance, penitence, confession, and satisfaction, to do in this present life, through the benign grace of Him that is King of kings and Priest of all priests, that bought us with his precious blood of his heart, so that I may be one of them at the day of doom that shall be saved.”
But for my translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and other devotional works, I thank Jesus Christ, Mary, and all the saints, and pray that they grant me grace to repent and save my soul, so that I may be among the saved on Judgment Day.
Chaucer thanks God for his religious translations and prays for final salvation.