Jonty Claypole

He's saying, we've got a knight who, etc.

So the main players, certainly at this point, seem to be the knight, who is the highest in social rank.

His son, the squire, there's a prioress, a monk, a friar, a merchant, a clerk,

who's a scholar, essentially, a wife of Bath and a parson.

And various others are briefly mentioned, including lots of job titles that don't exist anymore ever since the Catholic Church was suppressed in England.

There's this whole category...

summoners, pardoners, strange jobs who all just had their fingers in the public purse and were getting money out of people.

It is.

There's a summoner, a partner, and a miller, all of whom are going to tell important stories in the whole cycle of the Canterbury Tales.

At the end of the prologue, the host, Harry Bailey, local MP, owner of the Tabard Inn, explains that the pilgrimage is going to be a storytelling contest.

Britain's got talent.

Pilgrims have to tell two stories out and two stories back.

And the person who tells the best story gets, unfortunately, the prize isn't that great.

It's not that good, really.

They get dinner bought for them by everyone else.

And everyone who doesn't play by the rules has to pay for all the drinks they've had on the trip.

And they draw straws to see who has to go first.

And very conveniently for the narrator, the shortest straw is taken by the knight, which means he can also let the knight, who's highest in rank, also have the first story.

So Chaucer's definitely a winner at the end of the general prologue.

Sophie, it's time for the Chaucer voice.