 ven
though
Chaucer does not tell us how the pilgrims traveled, it is easy to trace
the way they must have gone. The street leading from Southwark is an
old
Roman road and today is known as Old Kent Road, and eventually becomes
New Kent Road. In Chaucer's day it was called Watling Street, and it
can
still be followed to Canterbury or to Dover. (Interestingly, Chaucer
writes
of Watling Street in his poetry, but only in its usage as a common
Medieval
nickname for the Milky Way.) Leaving Southwark, the travelers would
have
passed through Deptford, Greenwich, and ended their first day in the
town
of Dartford. From Dartford they would have traveled to Rochester,
crossed
the river Medway, then gone on to Sittingbourne, Ospring, and
Boughton-under-Blee.
From here they would have either continued on Watling Street straight
to
Canterbury, or would have taken a southerly shortcut through
Bob-up-and-down,
depending on which road was in the best condition. Once they had
reached
Canterbury, the pilgrimage was over, for to Medieval man the pilgrimage
was a symbolic journey that represented the course of human life, from
one's home on earth to one's true home in the universal order. A
pilgrimage
was therefore declared over at its destination, and the return home was
not part of the ritual act.
The Pilgrim's Path from Southwark to Canterbury It would've taken at least
four days to complete a trip such as this,
but Chaucer has his pilgrims seemingly do it in one day. They leave
Southwark
in the morning, pass through certain towns during the day, then arrive
in sight of Canterbury as the sun is setting. Nothing is said of stops
for meals or overnight, and the trip seems to pass in a strange way
from
morning to night - much is made of the sun's position, the length of
the
shadows, and such.
Critics argue that Chaucer
meant the story to be more realistic than
it is, that he just didn't have time to do it right, but this way of
interpreting Canterbury
Tales means that it must be read for what is missing and not for
what
is there. That is not the case. Canterbury Tales is not a work
of
realism, and the ending comes exactly where it does. Even those tales
that
remain unfinished do so for a purpose, such as the Squire's. The Squire
is fresh and young, not yet through with life, and his incomplete story
represents that.
We are all pilgrims, Chaucer
says, and all of us have many tales
to tell, some finished and others still in the making. And what was
true
in Chaucer's time is still true today, six hundred years later. We are,
all of us, pilgrims on the journey through life.
"This world nis but a thoroughfare full of woe, INTRO | PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | BIBLIOGRAPHY |
Pilgrims Passing To and Fro © James L. Matterer
Please visit The Gode Cookery Bookshop
