Trivia / The Canterbury Tales

• The Danza: Chaucer himself.
• Died During Production: Chaucer didn't even finish writing even one tale for each named pilgrim.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Handmaid's Tale is named in the fashion of the stories from The Canterbury Tales. In case you didn't figure this out, it's explicitly spelled out in the epilogue.
  • All of the Dame Frevisse novels have their titles fashioned like the fragments of The Canterbury Tales—the formula is the + occupation/title's + tale. Four of the novels receive their titles directly from the fragments: The Prioress' Tale, The Reeve's Tale, The Squire's Tale, and The Clerk's Tale. Maybe even the first book, The Novice's Tale, seeing as The Canterbury Tales has two fragments told by nuns.
• What Could Have Been: To say nothing of the fact that the characters never even reach the holy shrine, Chaucer actually just started the Cook's Tale... only to leave it as a short, unfinished fragment. Judging from the tone it would have resembled the crass anecdotes told by the Miller and the Reeve. (Coghill's translation advertises this tale on the back of the book for some reason.) There were also the remaining hundred tales that were lost to the ages.

---