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History

Inspiration

The musical, Canterbury Tales, is drawn from the collection of the same name of over twenty stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, during the time of the Hundred Years' War. The tales, mostly written in verse, although some are in prose, are presented as part of a storytelling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer's stories are widely recognized as some of the most important works in English literature and are regarded as contributing largely to the use of the vernacular – English – in literature over Latin and French.