THE CANTEBURY TALES

General Prologue
The frame story of the poem, as set out in the 858 lines of Middle English which make up the
general prologue, is of a religious pilgrimage. Chaucer is in the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, where
he meets a motley crew of middle-class folk from various parts of England. Coincidentally, they
are all on the way to Canterbury, the site of the Shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. In the Prologue,
Chaucer seeks to describe their 'condition', their 'array', and their social 'degree':
To telle yow al the condicioun,
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne,
And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.
The pilgrims include a knight, his son a squire, the knight's yeoman (who maintains numerous
resemblances to Robin Hood), a prioress accompanied by a second nun and the nun's priest, a
monk, a friar, a merchant, a clerk, a sergeant of law, a franklin, a haberdasher, a carpenter, a
weaver, a dyer, a tapestry weaver, a cook, a shipman, a doctor of physic, a wife of Bath, a
parson, his brother a plowman, a miller, a manciple, a reeve, a summoner, a pardoner, the host (a
man called Harry Bailly), and a portrait of Chaucer himself. The order the pilgrims are
introduced places them in a social order, describing the nobility in front, the craftsmen in the
middle, and the peasants at the end. A canon and his yeoman later join the pilgrimage and tell
one of the tales.

The Knight's Tale-courtly romance

Arcite and Palamon, who are nephews of King Creon of Thebes, have a close brotherly bond.
But they are captured and imprisoned by Theseus, duke of Athens following his intervention
against Creon. Their cell is in the tower of Theseus's castle which overlooks his palace garden. In
prison Palamon wakes early one morning in May, to see Emily (Emelye) in the courtyard; his
moan is heard by Arcite, who then too wakes to see Emily, and falls in love with her as well.
The sense of competition brought about by this love causes them to hate each other. Arcite is
released from prison through the good offices of Theseus's friend Pirithoos, and then returns to
Athens in disguise and enters service in Emily's household. Palamon eventually escapes by
drugging the gaoler and then encounters Arcite while on the run.
They attempt to fight a duel but are thwarted by the arrival of Theseus, who sentences them to
enroll their friends and fight a mass judicial tournament, the winner of which is to marry Emily.
The forces assemble; Palamon prays to make Emily his wife; Emily prays to stay unmarried and

that if that should prove impossible that she marry the one who really loves her; and Arcite prays
for victory. Arcite wins the battle, but is killed by his horse falling on him before he can claim
Emily as his prize, and so Palamon marries her.

The Miller's Tale-Fabliau

The general prologue to The Canterbury Tales describes the Miller, Robyn, as a stout and
pugnacious churl fond of wrestling.[1] In the Miller's Prologue, the pilgrims have just heard and
enjoyed "The Knight's Tale", a classical story of courtly love, and the host Harry Bailey asks the
Monk to "quite" ("follow" or "repay") with a tale of his own. However, the Miller insists on
going next. He claims that his tale is "noble", but reminds the other pilgrims that he is quite
drunk and cannot be held accountable for what he says. He explains that his story is about a
carpenter and his wife, and how a clerk "hath set the wrightes cappe" (that is, fooled the
carpenter). Osewold the Reeve, who had originally been a carpenter himself, protests that the tale
will insult carpenters and wives, but the Miller carries on anyway.[2]
"The Miller's Tale" begins the trend in which succeeding tellers "quite" the previous one with
their story. In a way the Miller requites the "Knight's Tale", and is himself directly requited with
"The Reeve's Tale", in which the Reeve follows Robyn's insulting story about a carpenter with
his own tale disparaging a miller.[3]

Synopsis
It is a vulgar, ribald, and satirical fabliau in stark contrast to the courtly love of "The Knight's
Tale."
"The Miller's Tale" is of an amorous student (Nicholas) who persuades his jealous landlord's
much younger wife (Alison) to have sex with him. They plan a way to have sex by duping John,
the landlord and a carpenter, through an elaborate scheme in which Nicholas convinces him that
a flood of Biblical proportions is imminent. Their safety depends, says Nicholas, on waiting
overnight in separate tubs suspended from the rafters, and to cut their tubs from the roof when
the water has risen. He adds that if the landlord tells anyone else people will think he is mad
(although he says this to make sure that no man tells the landlord to see sense in the matter). This
comic prank allows Nicholas and Alison the opportunity to sneak down, after the landlord falls
asleep, and have sex.
While Nicholas and Alison lie together, the foppish and fastidious parish clerk, Absalon, who is
also deeply attracted to Alison and believes her husband to be away, appears kneeling at the
bedchamber's low "shot-wyndowe" (privy vent) and asks Alison for a kiss. In the darkness, she
presents her "hole" (bottom) at the window and he "kissed her naked arse full savorly". He
realizes the prank and goes away enraged. He borrows a red hot coulter (a blade-like plough
part) from the early-rising blacksmith. Returning, he asks for another kiss, intending to burn
Alison. This time Nicholas, who had risen from bed to go to the privy, sticks his own backside
out the window and breaks wind in Absalon's face. The enraged suitor thrusts the coulter
"amidde the ers" (between the cheeks) burning Nicholas' "toute" (anus) and the skin "a hands-

breadth round about". In agony, Nicholas cries for water, awakening John. Hearing someone
screaming about water, he thinks that the Second Flood has come, panics, and cuts his tub loose,
falling to the floor and breaking his arm. The rest of the town awakens to find him lying in the
tub and in accordance with Nicholas' prophecy, he is considered a madman, and a cuckold too.

The Reeve's Tale-Fabliau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Reeve's Tale" is the third story told in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The
reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits
for his master and himself. He is described in the Tales as skinny and bad-tempered. The Reeve
had once been a carpenter, a profession mocked in the previous Miller's Tale. Oswald responds
with a tale that mocks the Miller's profession.
The tale is based on a popular fabliau (also the source of the Sixth Story of the Ninth Day of The
Decameron) of the period with many different versions, the "cradle-trick." Chaucer improves on
his sources with his detailed characterization and sly humour linking the act of grinding corn
with sex. The northeastern accent of the two clerks is also the earliest surviving attempt in
English to record a dialect from an area other than that of the main writer. Chaucer's works are
written with traces of the southern English or London accent of himself and his scribes, but he
extracts comedy from imitating accents, a comedic device that is still popular today.

[edit] Summary
Simpkin is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge and who steals wheat and meal
brought to him for grinding. Simpkin is also a bully and expert with knives (q.v. the coulter in
the Miller's Tale). His wife is the portly daughter of the town clergyman (and therefore
illegitimate, as Catholic priests do not marry). They have a twenty-year-old daughter Malyne and
a six-month-old son.
When Simpkin overcharged for his latest work grinding corn for Soler Hall, a Cambridge
University college also known as King's Hall (which later became part of Trinity College), the
college steward was too ill to face him. Two students there, John and Alan, originally from
Strother in North East England, are very outraged at this latest theft and vow to beat the miller at
his own game. John and Alan pack an even larger amount of wheat than usual and say they will
watch Simpkin while he grinds it into flour, pretending that they are interested in the process
because they have limited knowledge about milling. Simpkin sees through the clerks' story and
vows to take even more of their grain than he had planned, to prove that scholars are not always
the wisest or cleverest of people. He unties their horse, and the two students are unable to catch it
until nightfall. Meanwhile, the miller steals the clerks' flour and gives it to his wife to bake a loaf
of bread.

Returning to the Miller's house, John and Alan offer to pay him for a night's sleeping there. He
challenges them to make his single bedroom into a grand house. After much rearranging,
Simpkin and his wife sleep in one bed, John and Alan in another, and Malyne in the third. The
baby boy's cradle sits at the foot of the miller's bed.
After a long night of drinking wine, Symkyn and his family fall fast asleep while John and Alan
lie awake, plotting revenge. First Alan gets up and quietly approaches Malyne in her bed so as
not to startle her and make her cry out, and the two have sex. When the miller's wife leaves her
bed to relieve herself of the wine she's drunk, John moves the baby's cradle to the foot of his own
bed. Upon returning, the miller's wife feels for the cradle in order to identify her bed, and
mistakenly assumes that John's bed is her own. When she enters his bed, John leaps upon her and
begins having sex with her.
Dawn comes, and Alan says goodbye to Malyne, whom he'd enjoyed three times during the
night. She tells Alan to look behind the main door to find the bread she had helped make with the
flour her father had stolen. Seeing the cradle in front of what he assumes is John's bed (but is in
fact Symkyn's), he goes to the bed, shakes the miller whom he thought was Johnawake and
recounts that he'd just slept with Malyne. Symkyn rises from his bed in a rage, waking his wife
in John's bed, who takes a club and hits her raging husband by mistake, thinking him one of the
students. John and Alan flee without paying for their food and lodgings, taking with them the
bread and horse. The Reeve goes on to say that the Miller was well beaten not having been paid
for the lodging, food or his services. The Reeve is believed to have trained at Trumpington
College, Cambridge, a specialist college for such professions.

The Man of Law's Tale-pathos

The Man of Law tells a Romance tale of a Christian princess named Custance (the modern form
would be Constance) who is betrothed to the Syrian Sultan on condition that he convert to
Christianity. The Sultan's mother connives to prevent this and has Constance set adrift on the sea.
Her adventures and trials continue after she is shipwrecked on the Northumberland coast.
Northumberland is a pagan country where the King, Alla (based on Chaucer's understanding of
the historical lla of Northumbria) eventually converted to Christianity. Alla's evil mother
intercepts and falsifies a letter between the couple, which results in Constance's being banished.
Constance is forced to go to sea again and is found by a Senator of Rome. The Senator takes
Constance (and her child) back to Italy to serve as a household servant. King Alla, still
heartbroken over the loss of Constance, goes to Rome on a pilgrimage, and fortunately finds
Constance. In the end the couple return to Northumberland. Alla dies a year later, and the baby
boy becomes the King.

The Wife of Bath's Tale-romance

The Wife of Bath: Prologue belongs to Fragment III (Group D) of Chaucers The Canterbury
Tales and is essentially about marriage. The Wife of Bath, or Alisoun, establishes herself as an
authority on marriage in the first three lines of her prologue. She tells the other pilgrims that she
has been married five times and offers a history and justification of her numerous marriages.
Alyson begins by observing that Abraham and Jacob each had more than one wife, noting that
Solomon had "wyves mo than oon" (in fact he had seven hundred). She acknowledges that Christ
is perfect, but she is not; some women may be fine white bread, but she represents herself as a
humble barley loaf. Alisoun then recounts the men that she married and her relationships with
each of them. She describes her first three husbands as old and rich, and prides herself in
describing the control she had over them. Alyson then speaks of her fourth husband, whom she
fondly remembers torturing because she felt he robbed her of her youth and beauty. Her fifth
husband, Jankyn, is described in the greatest detail; she says she loved him the most out of the
five, despite their tumultuous relationship. She notes how she first met him at her friends home
while still married to her fourth husband and then ended up marrying him a month after her
previous husbands death. Alyson notes how their relationship was characterized by his desire to
control her and her unwillingness to submit. It is only after a physical confrontation, the cause of
which is Alysons desecration of Jankyns book of "wikked wyves, that he gives up his quest to
control Alyson. This is symbolized by his returning of her control over all her property. They
live in harmony until Jankyns death.

[edit] Synopsis
A knight in King Arthur's court rapes a woman in a wheat field. By law, his crime is punishable
by death, but the queen and the knight's lovers intercede on his behalf, and the king turns the
knight over to her for judgment. The queen punishes the knight by sending him out on a quest to
find out what women really want "more than anything else," giving him a year and a day to
discover it and having his word that he will return. If he fails to satisfy the queen with his
answer, he forfeits his life. He searches, but every woman he finds says something different,
from riches to flattery. A year later, on his way back to the queen after failing to find the truth, he
comes upon an old hag whom he asks for help. She says she'll tell him the answer that will save
him if he promises to grant her request at a time she chooses. He agrees and they go back to the
court where the queen pardons him after he explains that what women want most is sovereignty
over their husbands, and the Queen accepts this as the correct answer. As her reward, the old
woman demands that the knight marry her. He protests, but to no avail, and the marriage takes
place the next day. That night in their marriage bed, the knight confesses that he is unhappy
because she is ugly and low-born. She tells the knight that he can choose between her being ugly
and faithful or beautiful and unfaithful. He gives the choice to her; pleased with the mastery of
her husband, she becomes fair and faithful and lives with him happily until the end of their days.
The tale is an example of the "loathly lady" motif, the oldest examples of which are the medieval
Irish sovereignty myths such as Niall of the Nine Hostages. In the medieval poem The Wedding
of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Arthur's nephew Gawain goes on a nearly identical quest to
discover what women truly want after he errs in a land dispute. Some have theorized that the
Wife's tale may have been written to ease Chaucer's guilty conscience. It is recorded that in 1380
associates of Chaucer stood surety for an amount equal to half his yearly salary for a charge

brought by Cecily Champaign for "de rapto," rape or abduction; the same view has been taken of
his Legend of Good Women, which Chaucer himself describes as a penance

The Friar's Tale-exemplum

A summoner who meets a yeoman one day who asks him what he does, but rather than admit he
is a summoner, an odious profession, he says he is a bailiff. The yeoman says he is also a bailiff
and when the summoner asks how he makes money the yeoman admits in any underhand way he
can. The summoner agrees this is also how he works and then, in the spirit of confession, the
yeoman says that he is actually a daemon from hell. This does not seem to overtly concern the
summoner and he simply asks how he is able to take human form. They come upon a carter
damning his stubborn horses to hell; when they do move he praises God. The summoner
criticizes the daemon for not capitalizing on this situation and taking the horses, but the daemon
explains that since the man was not sincere in cursing the horses he couldn't take them. The
summoner then says that he will show the daemon how it is done, by extorting money from an
old widow woman even though he admits there is nothing legitimate to summon her for. They go
to her house and the summoner demands a bribe from her or he will summon her to court on a
spurious charge. He also demands she give him her new pan in payment for an old debt, falsely
claiming he paid a fine to get her off a charge of adultery. The old woman is so incensed she
damns the summoner unless the summoner repents his false charges; the summoner refuses to
repent and the daemon, obligingly, takes his body and soulalong with the old woman's frying
panto hell.

The Summoner's Tale-dirty joke

The main tale of the Summoner is about a Mendicant friar who travels about preaching and
gaining his living by begging. It tells at first how the friar begs for alms and that he records the
names of the people who give him charity so he can pray for them later. It then says that he
erases the names as soon as he has left the house. This prompts the Friar from the pilgrimage,
listening to the tale, to interrupt angrily just as the Summoner had interrupted his tale earlier.
After the host calls for peace, the Summoner continues his tale.
The friar in the tale then goes to a sick man's house. He does not beg for some meager fare to
sustain him, but instead demands a roasted pig's head. The friar asks the sick man for money to
help his order build its cloister. He tells him how important it is to share wealth and he
emphasizes how important friars are to society saying:
And if yow lakke oure predicacioun, (preaching)
Thanne goth the world al to destruccioun.
The sick man says angrily that he has given much to many friars over the years and he is still
sick. The friar reprimands him for such sentiments and tells him three parables warning of the
dangers of ire. The sick man then says he has one gift he can give which must be equally shared

among the friars and that he is sitting on it to keep it safe. The friar puts his hand in the cleft of
the man's buttocks and the sick man lets out an enormous fart.
Leaving in rage and disgust the friar goes straight to the house of the local lord and tells him and
his wife what has happened. The lord does not seem very sympathetic to the friar and instead
muses on how the gift could be divided among all thirteen friars of the order. When the lord's
squire suggests having the monks stand around a cartwheel on a still day and letting someone fart
in the centre, the lord is so impressed that he gives the squire a new coat.

The Clerk's Tale-pathos

The Clerk's tale is about a marquis of Saluzzo named Walter. Lord Walter of Saluzzo is a
bachelor who is asked by his subjects to marry in order to provide an heir. He assents and
decides he will marry a peasant, named Griselda. Griselda is a poor girl, used to a life of pain and
labor.

Griselda's child is kidnapped

After Griselda has borne him a daughter, Walter decides to test her loyalty. He sends an officer
to take the baby, pretending to kill her, and convey it secretly to Bologna. Griselda makes no
protest at this. When she bears a son several years later, Walter again has him taken from her.
Finally, Walter determines one last test. He has a Papal bull of annulment forged which enables
him to leave Griselda, and informs her that he intends to remarry. He requires her to prepare the
wedding for his new bride. Secretly, he has the children returned from Bologna, and he presents

his daughter as his intended wife. Eventually he informs Griselda of the deceit, and they live
happily ever after.

[edit] Prologue
One of the characters created by Chaucer is the Oxford clerk, who is a student of philosophy. He
is introduced as a diligent person who is portrayed as an example of a well learned scholar.[1] The
narrator claims that as a student in Italy he met Francis Petrarch at Padua from whom he heard
the tale.[2]

The Merchant's Tale-comedy

Januarie decides that he wants to marry, predominately for the purpose of lawful recreational sex
and to produce an heir, and he consults his two brothers, Placebo (meaning - 'I shall please'), who
while encouraging him offers no personal opinion, and Justinus (meaning - 'the just one'),[3] who
opposes marriage from his own experience. Januarie, a vain man, hears only the flattery of his
sycophantic friend Placebo.
Januarie marries May, a young woman not yet 20 years old, largely out of lust and under the
guise of religious acceptability. He chooses her seemingly spontaneously after telling all his
friends to go and look for a wife for him. It is unknown why May accepts Januarie; however, it is
safe to assume that she did it for social betterment and possibly some kind of inheritance,
Januarie being a rich man.
A squire in Januarie's court, called Damyan, falls in love with May and writes a letter to her
confessing his desires, the goddess Venus 'hurt him with hire brond' at the wedding party meaning she set his heart on fire with love. This could simply be a personification of Damyan
falling in love, but since Pluto and Proserpina do physically intervene later, Damyan's love could
be seen as entirely induced by Venus. May reciprocates his attraction and plots to have sex with
him. Januarie creates a beautiful walled garden, reminisent of the Garden of Eden as well as
courtly love poetry, where he and May do 'things that were not done in bed'. Immediately after
this Januarie is struck blind, although it is not explained why, though Chaucer's suggestion is that
his vanity, lust and general immorality have rendered him both in terms of moral judgement, and
literally blind. This disability, however, spiritually serves Januarie well. His language and
character, formerly lewd and repulsive, becomes beautiful and gentle love poetry, and his love
for May could be seen to evolve to more than just lust and desire. On June 8, Januarie and May
enter a garden that he has built for her. Meanwhile, Damyan has sneaked into the garden using a
key he has made from a mold May has given him and waits for May in a pear tree, symbolising,
it has been said, the forbidden fruit from Genesis.
May, implying that she is pregnant and has a craving for a pear, requests one from the tree and
Januarie, old and blind, and therefore unable to reach, is persuaded to stoop and allow May to
climb onto his back herself. Here Chaucer evokes enormous pathos for the 'hoor and oolde'
Januarie, soon to be cuckolded by a manipulative female figure, a clear reversal from the horrific
and repulsive figure painted by the narrator in the opening presentation of the man. In the tree,

May is promptly greeted by her young lover Damyan, and they begin to have sex, described by
the Merchant in a particularly lewd and bold fashion: 'And sodeynly anon this Damyan / Gan
pullen up the smok, and in he throng.' Indeed, the narrator does apologise for this explicit
description, addressing the pilgrims saying: 'Ladyes, I prey yow that ye be nat wrooth; I kan nat
glose, I am a rude man --'
Two Gods are, at this moment, watching the adultery: husband and wife Pluto and Proserpina.
They begin a passionate argument about the scene, in which Pluto condemns women's morality.
He decides that he will grant Januarie his sight back, but Proserpina will grant May the ability to
talk her way out of the situation, saying, "I swere / That I shal yeven hire suffisant answere / And
all wommen after, for hir sake; / That, though they shulle hemself excuse, / And bere hem doun
that wolden hem excuse, / For lak of answere noon of hem shall dien."Indeed, Proserpina's
promise that 'alle wommen after' should be able to excuse themselves easily from their treachery,
can be seen as a distinctly anti-feminist comment from the narrator, or perhaps even from
Chaucer himself. These presentations of these two characters and their quarrel crystallises many
elements of the tale, namely the argument between man and woman and the religious confusion
in the tale which calls of both the classical gods and the Christian one. Indeed the presence of
particular gods has individual relevance when related to this tale: as the classical myth tells,
Proserpina, a young and much loved Goddess, was stolen and held captive by Pluto, the King of
the Underworld, who forced her to marry him.
Januarie regains his sight - via Pluto's intervention - just in time to see his wife and Damyan
engaged in intercourse, but May successfully convinces him that his eyesight is deceiving him
because it has only just been restored and that she is only 'struggling with a man' because she
was told this would get Januarie's sight back.
The tale ends rather unexpectedly: the fooled Januarie and May continue to live happily.
However, Chaucer does not end the tale entirely happily: a darker suggestion is there, as May
tells Januarie that he may be mistaken on many more occasions ('Ther may ful many a sighte
yow bigile'), indicating that, perhaps, her infidelity will not stop there. Conforming with the
wider symbolism in the tale of spring triumphing over winter (May over January), the conclusion
supports the unimportance of Damyan (whose name has no seasonal context): he only has two
lines of direct speech in the tale, and at the end is utterly forgotten, even by the Merchant.

The Squire's Tale-elaborate romance

A king of Tartary named Cambiuskan rules with two sons, Algarsyf and Cambalo, and a
daughter, Canace. At the twentieth anniversary of Cambiuskan's reign, he holds a feast, and a
strange knight approaches him bearing gifts (a motif common in Arthurian legends). These are a
brass steed with the power of teleportation, a mirror which can reveal the minds of the king's
friends and enemies, a ring which confers understanding of the language of birds (as some
legends say King Solomon owned), and a sword which deals deadly wounds that only its touch
can heal again (both the spear of Achilles and the Holy Lance have these powers). After much
learned discussion of the gifts, digressing into astrology, the first part of the tale ends.

A subplot of the tale deals with Canace and her ring. Eagerly rising the next morning, she goes
on a walk and discovers a grieving falcon. The falcon tells Canace that she has been abandoned
by her false lover, a tercelet (male hawk), who left her for a kite. (In Medieval falconry, kites
were birds of low status.) Canace heals the bird and builds a mew for it, painted blue for true
faith within and green for falsity, with pictures of deceitful birds, outside. (This image is based
on the Romance of the Rose.)
The second part ends with a promise of more to come involving Cambiuskan's sons and the quest
of Cambalo to win Canace as his wife. (The prologue hints that Canace and her brothers commit
incest, as in John Gower's version of the story.) However, it is extremely unlikely that Chaucer
ever intended to finish the tale. Instead the Franklin breaks into the very beginning of the third
section with elaborate praise of the Squire's gentilitythe Franklin being somewhat of a social
climberand proceeds to his own tale.

The Franklin's Tale-Breton lai

A franklin was a medieval landowner, and this pilgrim's words when interrupting the Squire are
often seen as displaying his social status of diminutio. Other such devices are employed
throughout the tale.
The story opens by recounting how two lovers decide that their marriage should be one of equal
status, although they agree that, in public, Arveragus should make decisions so as not to draw
suspicion. The idea of women having equality with men was unheard of at the time, and would
have been socially unacceptable; this is why they choose to conceal it. Arveragus then travels to
Britain to seek honour and fame, a common thing for knights to do at that time. He leaves
Dorigen alone in France near the coastal town of Pedmark (today Penmarc'h) the province of
Armorik (or Brittany as it is now known). She misses her husband terribly while he is gone, and
is particularly concerned that his ship will crash while returning home on the black rocks of
Brittany.[1]

les Tas de Pais off the Pointe de Penhir in Camaret Brittany.

Rocy coast-Brittany
While Arveragus is absent, Dorigen is courted against her will by another suitor, a squire named
Aurelius. Finally, to get rid of him and in a lighthearted mood, she tells Aurelius that he might
have her love providing he can dispose of all the rocks on the coast of Brittany. Aurelius finally
manages to secure the services of a magician-scholar of the arcane arts, who, taking pity on the
young man, for the princely sum of a thousand pounds agrees "thurgh his magik" to make all the
rocks "aweye" "for a wyke or tweye" (possibly by association with an exceptionally high tide).[2]
When the "rokkes" vanish, Aurelius confronts Dorigen and demands that she fulfill her bargain.
She and her husband agonize over her predicament; for by this time Arveragus has returned
safely. During this period Dorigen lists numerous examples of legendary women who killed

themselves to maintain their honor. Dorigen explains her moral predicament to her husband who
calmly says that in good conscience she must go and keep her promise to Aurelius.
However, Aurelius himself defers to nobility when he recognizes that the couple's love is true,
and Arveragus noble; he releases Dorigen from her oath. The magician-scholar is so moved by
Aurelius' story that he cancels the enormous debt that Aurelius owes him.

The Physician's Tale-pathos

The Physician's Tale is one of the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th
century.
This is a domestic drama about the relationship between a daughter and her father and it is one of
the earliest extant poems in English about such subjects and relationships. The tale comes from
the Histories of Titus Livius and is retold in The Romance of the Rose, John Gower's Confessio
Amantis which Chaucer drew on for inspiration along with the biblical story of Jephtha. Most of
the other versions of the story focused on the cruel and arbitrary officials but Chaucer was far
more concerned with the daughter as the central figure.
Virginius, a nobleman of Rome, has a beautiful, fourteen year old daughter Virginia. She is
spotted one day by a judge, Appius, who decides he must have her and forms a plan. His
accomplice, a "churl" by the name of Claudius, claims in court that Virginia is his run-away
slave and Appius decrees that her real father must relinquish her to the court. Virginius goes
home and tells his daughter he must kill her to protect her honour and when she seemingly
resigns herself to her fate and swoons, he cuts her head off. He takes her head to the court and
when Appius demands his execution for murder the populace rises up and instead deposes the
corrupt official. Appius kills himself in jail, but Virginius spares Claudius' life and condemns
him into exile instead.
Although difficult to date like most of Chaucer's tales, the Physicians tale is usually regarded as
an early work of Chaucer probably written before much of the rest of the Canterbury Tales was
begun. The long, and rather distracting, digression on governesses possibly alludes to a historical
event and may serve to date it. In 1386 Elizabeth, the daughter of John of Gaunt, eloped to
France with John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. The governess of Elizabeth was Katherine
Swynford who was also Gaunt's mistress and later wife. Chaucer's very careful, mollifying words
on the difficult job and the virtues of governesses seem to be a very canny political move.
The story is considered one of the moral tales, along with the Parson's tale and the Knight's tale.
However, the fate of Virginius renders questionable the moral assertion at the story's end. The
Host enjoys the tale and feels for the daughter but asks the Pardoner for a more merry tale. The
Pardoner obliges and his tale has a similar but contrasting moral message.

The Pardoner's Tale-exemplum

The tale is based on a folk-tale of Oriental origin, although many variations exist. Three drunken
and debauched men set out from a pub to find and kill Death, whom they blame for the passing
of their friend, and all other people that previously have died, which they were told by the
Landlord. An old man they brusquely query tells them that he has asked Death to take him but
has failed. He then says they can find death at the foot of an oak tree. When the men arrive at the
tree, they find a large amount of gold coins and forget about their quest to kill Death. They
decide that they would sleep at the oak tree over night, so they can take the coins in the morning.
The three men draw straws to see who among them should fetch wine and food while the other
two wait under the tree. The youngest of the three men drew the shortest straw. The two plot to
overpower and stab the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town plots to
lace the wine with rat poison. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him
and drink the poisoned wine, dying slow and painful deaths. All three have found death.

The Shipman's Tale-a fabliaux

The Shipman's Tale (also called The Sailor's Tale) is one of The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer.
It is in the form of a fabliau and tells the story of a miserly merchant, his avaricious wife and her
lover, a wily monk. Although similar stories can be found in Boccaccio's Decameron, a frequent
source for Chaucer's tales, the story is a retelling of a common folk tale; "the lover's gift
regained".
The tale tells of a merchant whose wife enjoys revelry and socialising, on which she spends
much. A young monk, who is very close friends with the merchant, comes to stay with them.
After confessing that she does not love her husband, the wife asks the monk for one hundred
franks to pay her debts. The monk without her knowledge borrows the money from the merchant
to give to the wife and she agrees with the monk:
That for thise hundred frankes he sholde al nyght
Have hire in his armes bolt upright;
When the merchant asks for his money back from the monk, the monk says that he has returned
the loan back to the wife; and then promptly leaves town. When the merchant asks his wife about
the money she says it is spent and blames the monk saying that she thought the money was in
payment for him being such a long house guest. Instead of giving her husband the money back
she says she will repay the debt in bed.
Apart from a criticism of the clergy, a common theme of Chaucer's, the tale also skillfully
connects money, business and sex. Also the similar tales often end with both the wife and

husband being conned but the addition of the wife, in turn, conning her husband seems to be
Chaucer's own embellishment. As the wife is tallying her debt in bed the story ends on a bawdy
pun that we should all, God willing, continue to "tally" the rest of our lives.
The use of the pronouns "us" and "we" when talking from a woman's perspective, along with the
sympathetic portrayal of the wife in the tale, have led scholars to suggest that the tale was
originally written for the Wife of Bath but as that character developed she was given a more
fitting story and the Shipman took on this tale. In the line "he moot us clothe, and he moot us
array," and others, "us" and "we" are used, in a way that a married woman might speak at that
time. The Shipman may simply be imitating a female voice but the epilogue of the Man of Law's
Tale in some manuscripts suggest it should be followed by the Shipman's tale rather than the
Wife of Bath whose tale usually follows. The changes give some insight into Chaucer's
development of the tales and the connections between them.
In the BBC1 adaptation of the Shipman's Tale (renamed the Sea Captain's tale), the setting is an
Indian family in modern England. The monk's role is played by the merchant's business partner
who has come from India to set up a shop in England. The wife, beset by money problems,
sleeps with this man, who learns of her previous affairs through the merchant. The business
partner breaks up with the wife, and she, feeling jilted, smashes his shop. The merchant
subsequently sends the other man back to India with a warning, and at the end he reaches across
the bed to touch his wife's hand, a hint of possible reconciliation.

The Prioress's Tale-pathos

The story begins with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, then sets the scene in Asia, where a
community of Jews live in a Christian city. A seven-year-old school-boy, son of a widow, is
brought up to revere Mary. He teaches himself the first verse of the popular Medieval hymn
'Alma Redemptoris Mater' ("Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer"); though he does not
understand the words, an older classmate tells him it is about Mary. He begins to sing it every
day as he walks to school through the Jews' street.
Satan, 'That hath in Jewes' heart his waspe's nest', incites the Jews to murder the child and throw
his body on a dungheap. His mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which
begins miraculously to sing the 'Alma Redemptoris'. The Christians call in the provost of the
city, who has the Jews drawn by wild horses and then hanged. The boy continues to sing
throughout his burial service until the holy abbot of the community asks him why he is able to
sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a vision in which Mary laid a grain on
his tongue and he will keep singing until it is removed. The abbot removes the grain and he dies.
The story ends with a mention of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, another child martyr supposedly
slain by Jews.
The story is an example of a class of stories, popular at the time, known as the miracles of the
Virgin such as those by Gautier de Coincy. It also blends elements of common story of a pious

child killed by the enemies of the faith; the first example of which in English was written about
William of Norwich. Matthew Arnold cited a stanza from the tale as the best of Chaucer's poetry.

Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas-pointed

burlesque
Sir Thopas is a story in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales published in 1387.
In Canterbury Tales, there is a character named Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer's portrait of himself
is unflattering and humble. He presents himself as a reticent, maladroit figure who can barely
summon a tale to mind.[1] In comparison to the other travelers in the group, Chaucer the character
is reluctant to speak, but when he does tell a tale, it is a rather frivolous burlesque very different
from what went before.
Sir Thopas is the story of a child knight who goes on a quest to find his elf-queen but is waylaid
by the giant Sir Oliphant (elephant). He runs back to his merry men for a feast of sweets and to
ready for a battle with his giant foe. The tale is interrupted by the Host, though, for its tail rhyme
format and is never finished. The tale is a parody of Romances, with their knights and fairies and
absurdities, and Chaucer the author satirizes not only the grandiose, Gallic romances, but also the
readership of such tales; timid men and women of learning.
The tale is a hodgepodge of many of the popular stories of the time which even apes their simple
rhymes, a style Chaucer uses nowhere else. Elements of deliberate anticlimax abound in as much
as the poem as Chaucer is allowed to present. The knight's name is in fact topaz, one of the more
common gemstones; in Chaucer's day, "topaz" included any yellowish quartz. The knight hails
from Flanders, which was well known in that day for prosaic merchants rather than knighterrantry. In Chaucer's description of the handsome mien of the hero, we learn that "he hadde a
semely nose." In the only scene of derring-do that Chaucer tells in the two and a half chapters he
gets in, Sir Topas flees the battle, pelted by stones. The poem thus contains many suggestions
that it was intended in a mock-heroic sense.
Thopas is the first of what is usually called the surprise group of tales, as each is quite different
from the preceding and they are seemly written to confound expectations. The host, Harry
Bailey, does not seem to appreciate this new style of tale and he interrupts Chaucer, telling him
that "thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord".
The character Chaucer then tells the laborious and dull debate of the Tale of Melibeus. Again,
this is in keeping with the character Chaucer: a man of too much learning and too little
experience. The tale is full of moral sentiment and philosophy, but it is fairly slow for modern
readers.
The reception of Sir Thopas is perhaps the most interesting thing about it. When Chaucer began
to be treated as a treasure of English letters after his death, his satiric intent was lost. Into the
18th century, readers regarded Harry Bailey's interruption as a sign of poor breeding, and they

treated the tale of Sir Thopas itself as a great work. It was Thomas Warton who first suggested
(at least in print) that Chaucer was not serious, that the whole tale is a parody and that the
character of Geoffrey Chaucer must not be confused with Geoffrey Chaucer the author.

The Tale of Melibee-exemplum

The Tale of Melibee (also called The Tale of Melibeus) is one of The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer.
This is the second tale told by Chaucer himself as a character within the tales. It has long been
regarded as a joke on the part of Chaucer that, after being interrupted by the host Harry Bailly,
Chaucer launches into one of the longest and some would say most boring of all the tales.
The idea that Melibee is simply told by Chaucer to bore the listeners in revenge for having his
first story, The Tale of Sir Topas, interrupted and compared to a turd ignores Harry's reaction to
the tale. Harry seems to have enjoyed the story and says that he wishes his wife had heard it as
she might learn something from Dame Prudence, one of its characters. It is Harry who originally
complains about Sir Thopas for its lewedness meaning boorish or uneducated rather than rude.
He then asks for a tale in prose, something with some doctryne, which is exactly what he
received.
The tale is a translation of the Livre de Melibe et de Dame Prudence by Renaud de Louens and
this may account for the slightly stilted language when compared to the other tales of Chaucer's
own creation. Renaud's work is in turn a very loose translation of Liber consolationis et consilii
by Albertanus of Brescia and this suggests the story was popular at this time. One final fact
which argues against the tale being just a long-winded joke, is that the joke must wear thin very
quickly and does not need to be dragged on for over a thousand lines. Many modern English
editions of the Tales (such as the Penguin Classics edition translated by Nevill Coghill) omit it
entirely, providing a brief plot summary and discussing the religious and philosophical intentions
of the story briefly.
The story concerns Melibee who is away one day when three enemies break into his house, beat
his wife Dame Prudence, and attack his daughter, leaving her for dead. The tale then proceeds as
a long debate mainly between Melibee and his wife on what actions to take and how to seek
redress from his enemies. His wife, as her name suggests, counsels prudence and chides him for
his rash opinions. The discussion uses many proverbs and quotes from learned authorities and
the Bible as each make their points. Dame Prudence is a woman discussing the role of the wife
within marriage in a similar way to the Wife of Bath and the wife in The Shipman's Tale.

The Monk's Tale-pathos

The Monk's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Monk's tale to the other pilgrims is a collection of seventeen short stories, exempla, on the
theme of tragedy. The tragic endings of the following historical figures are recounted: Lucifer,
Adam, Samson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia, Pedro of Castile, Peter I of
Cyprus, Bernab Visconti, Ugolino of Pisa, Nero, Holofernes, Antiochus, Alexander the Great,
Julius Caesar and Croesus.
Literary critics believe that a large portion of the tale may have been written before the rest of the
Canterbury Tales and the four most contemporaries added later. A likely dating for this firstedition of the text is the 1370s, shortly after Chaucer returned from a trip to Italy where he was
exposed to Giovanni Boccaccio's Concerning the Falls of Illustrious Men as well as other works
like the Decameron. The tragedy of Bernab Visconti must have been written after 1385, when
he died. The basic structure for the tale is modeled after the aforementioned Concerning the
Falls of Illustrious Men and the tale of Ugolino of Pisa is retold from Dante's Inferno.
The Monk, in his prologue, claims to have a hundred of these stories in his cell but the Knight
stops him after only seventeen saying that they have had enough sadness. The order of the stories
within the tale is different in several early manuscripts and if the more contemporary stories were
at the end of his tale it may be that the Knight has another motivation for interrupting than sheer
boredom. In Line 51 of the General Prologue, it is said of the Knight that: At Alisaundre he was,
whan it was wonne. If the Knight was at the capture of Alexandria then he was probably part of
the crusade organised by Peter I of Cyprus and hearing of the tragedy of his former military
commander may have been what prompted him to interrupt.[citation needed]

The Nun's Priest's Tale-beast fable

The prologue to the tale clearly links it with the previous Monk's Tale, a series of short accounts
of toppled despots, criminals and fallen heroes which prompts an interruption from the knight.
The host upholds the knight's complaint and orders the monk to change his story. The monk
refuses, saying he has no lust to pleye, and so the Host calls on the Nun's Priest to give the next
tale. There is no substantial depiction of this character in Chaucer's General Prologue, but in the
tale's epilogue the Host is moved to give a highly approving portrait which highlights his great
physical strength and presence. "The Nun's Priest's Tale" offers a lively and skillfully told story
from a previously almost invisible character.

A Victorian stained glass window by Clement James Heaton

The fable concerns a world of talking animals who reflect both human perception and fallacy. Its
protagonist is Chauntecleer, a proud rooster who dreams of his approaching doom in the form of
a fox. Frightened, he awakens Pertelote, the chief favourite among his seven wives. She assures
him that he only suffers from indigestion and chides him for paying heed to a simple dream.
Chauntecleer recounts stories of prophets who foresaw their deaths, dreams that came true, and
dreams that were more profound (for instance, Cicero's account of the Dream of Scipio).
Chauntecleer is comforted and proceeds to greet a new day. Unfortunately for Chauntecleer, his

own dream was also correct. A col-fox, ful of sly iniquitee (line 3215), who has previously tricked
Chauntecleer's father and mother to their downfall, lies in wait for him in a bed of wortes.
When Chauntecleer spots this daun Russell (Line 3334)[1], the fox plays to his prey's inflated ego
and overcomes the cock's instinct to escape by insisting he would love to hear Chauntecleer crow
just as his amazing father did, standing on tiptoe with neck outstretched and eyes closed. When
the cock does so, he is promptly snatched from the yard in the foxs jaws and slung over his
back. As the fox flees through the forest, with the entire barnyard giving chase, the captured
Chauntecleer suggests that he should pause to tell his pursuers to give up. The predator's own
pride is now his undoing: as the fox opens his mouth to taunt his pursuers, Chauntecleer escapes
from his jaws and flies into the nearest tree. The fox tries in vain to convince the wary rooster of
his repentance; it now prefers the safety of the tree and refuses to fall for the same trick a second
time.
The Nun's Priest elaborates his slender tale with epic parallels drawn from ancient history and
chivalry and spins it out with many an excursus, giving a display of learning which, in the
context of the story and its characters, can only be comic and ironic. It concludes by
admonishing the audience to be careful of reckless decisions and of truste on flaterye.

The Second Nun's Tale-pathos

Having lived a life filled with extreme piety and a strong desire for eternal chastity, Cecilia's
marriage to Valerian causes problems from the outset. Aside from her prayers for chastity,
Valerian is unbaptized and heathen. According to Cecilia's confession to Valerian, the angel that
acts as both her lover and protector is ready to end her husband's life if he loves her uncleanly or
vulgarly. In an effort to prove his love and to gain the ability to see the angel, Valerian embarks
on a voyage to see Urban, who would become Pope Urban I. After convincing Urban of his pure
intentions, Valerian converts to Christianity and is baptized. His conversion leads to the
conversion of his brother Tiburce. Once he is baptized, Valerian is able to see Cecelia's guardian
angel and love her in a fitting manner.
A Roman prefect, Almachius, learns that Valerian and Tiburce are practicing Christianity, and
has them summoned, telling them that they must make sacrifices to an idol of Jupiter or be put to
death. They refuse, and are killed, but not before they convert Almachius's officer, Maximus, and
several executioners. Upon learning of Maximus's conversion, Almachius has him beaten to
death with a lead-tipped whip.
Almachius then calls for Cecilia to be summoned to him. At first, his ministers refuse, having
been converted to Christianity. However, he is ultimately successful in bringing her before him.
He demands that she make sacrifices to the idol of Jupiter, and she refuses, calling him foolish.
Angry, Almachius sentences her to be boiled alive, but miraculously, the cauldron of boiling
water does her no harm, and she sits quite comfortably in it for an entire day. At the end of the

day, Almachius orders her executed by other means, and an executioner tries to behead her, but
is not able to cut completely through her neck in three strokes, and is bound by law not to
attempt a fourth. Miraculously, despite having her throat cut, Cecilia continues to live, preaching
Christianity, for three more days.

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The Canon and his Yeoman are not mentioned in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales,
where most of the other pilgrims are described, but they arrive later after riding fast to catch up
with the group. The tale the Canon's Yeoman tells is in two parts. The first part is an expos of
the shady business of his master the Canon as an alchemist. The second part is about another
canon who is also an alchemist who is even more devious than the first.
It is not known if the introduction of these characters was an afterthought by Chaucer or if they
were part of the design of the Tales from the start. It is believed it was one of the last tales to be
written and it seems to many scholars such a lively attack on alchemists that Chaucer must have
had a real person in mind. In 1374 a chaplain called William de Brumley confessed to making
counterfeit gold coins after being taught by William Shuchirch. Shuchirch was a canon at King's
Chapel, Windsor and in 1390 Chaucer supervised repairs of the chapel so he may have known
Shuchirch.
There is no source for the tale although it has similarities to one by Ramon Llull. Chaucer
probably got much of the technical detail from Speculum Naturale (Mirror of Nature) by Vincent
of Beauvais and Arnold of Villanova is mentioned within the tale itself although he may have
read many other alchemical texts. Chaucer's grasp of alchemy seems very accurate and in the
17th century the tale was cited by Elias Ashmole as proof that Chaucer was master of the
science. Chaucer did have a great interest in science and technology, writing a Treatise on the
Astrolabe.
The Yeoman seems much the more talkative of the two arrivals. When Harry Bailly, the host,
asks the Canon for a tale, his yeoman chips in to announce how clever his master is, saying:
That al this ground on which we been ridyng,
Til that we come to Caunterbury toun,
He koude al clene turne it up-so-doun,
And pave it al of silver and of gold.
The host then asks why the Canon is dressed so poorly if he is so clever and the Yeoman admits
that he may have wit but he misuses it. He then explains his master is an alchemist:
And borwe gold, be it a pound or two,
Or ten, or twelve, or manye sommes mo,
And make hem wenen, [think] at the leeste weye,

That of a pound we koude make tweye. [double]

The Canon tries unsuccessfully to silence his Yeoman but ends up fleeing in shame; after which
the Yeoman feels free to tell the history of the Canon. He describes how the Canon works to
discover the philosopher's stone and many of the processes he goes through but how in the end
the pot breaks and they lose most of the metal they had. He then continues with a story of a
second canon who sells to a priest an alchemical 'crap' for producing silver after tricking him into
believing that he can produce the metal spontaneously.
After each of the tales the Yeoman adds a moral such as:
But al thyng which that shineth as the gold
Nis nat gold, as that I have herd it told;
He also explains that we should not try to discover things God keeps secret as it will not succeed
and be like picking a fight with God.
He wills that it not discovered be,
Save where it's pleasing to His deity...
...Since God in Heaven
Wills that Philosophers shall not say even
How any man may come upon that stone,
I say, as for the best let it alone.
Ben Jonson's play The Alchemist bears many similarities to Chaucer's tale.

The Manciple's Tale-exemplum

The Manciple's Tale is part of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It appears in its own
manuscript fragment, Group H, but the prologue to the Parson's Tale makes it clear it was
intended as the penultimate story in the collection. The Manciple, a purchasing agent for a law
court, tells a fable about Phoebus Apollo and his pet crow, which is both an etiological myth
explaining the crow's black feathers, and a moralistic injunction against Gossip.
In the tale's prologue, the Host tries to rouse the drunken Cook to tell a tale, but he is too
intoxicated. The Manciple insults the Cook, who falls semi-conscious from his horse, but they
are reconciled by the Host and the Manciple offers the Cook another drink to make up.
In the main plot of the tale, Phoebus has a crow, which is all white and can speak. Phoebus also
has a wife, whom he treasures but keeps shut up in his house. The Manciple digresses to say that
one cannot tame a creature to remove its essential nature; no matter how well-fed a tame cat may
be, it will still attack mice instinctively. Similarly, Phoebus's wife takes a lover of low estate; the
crow reveals her secret, and Phoebus in rage kills his wife. In his grief afterwards, he regrets his
act and blames the crow, cursing it with black feathers and an unmelodious voice. The Manciple
ends by saying it is best to hold one's tongue, and not to say anything malicious even if it is true.

The ultimate source for the tale is Ovid's Metamorphoses; adaptations were popular in Chaucer's
time, such as one in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.

The Parson's Tale

The subject of the parson's "tale" (or rather, treatise) is penitence. It may thus be taken as
containing inferential criticism of the behavior and character of humanity detectible in all the
other pilgrims, knight included.[2] Chaucer himself claims to be swayed by the plea for penitence,
since he follows the Parson's Tale with a Retraction (the conceit which appears to have been the
intended close to the entire cycle) in which he personally asks forgiveness for any offenses he
may have caused and (perhaps) for ever having deigned to write works of worldly vanitee at all
(line 1085).
The parson divides penitence into three parts; contrition of the heart, confession of the mouth,
and satisfaction. The second part about confession is illustrated by referring to the Seven Deadly
Sins and offering remedies against them. The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth,
greed, gluttony, and lust; they are "healed" by the virtues of humility, contentment, patience,
fortitude, mercy, moderation, and chastity.
Chaucer's text seems for the most part to be a combination, in English translation, of the texts of
two Latin works on penitence popular at the time; the Summa casuum poenitentiae of Raymond
of Peafort, and the Summa vitiorum of William Perault. This is mingled with fragments from
other texts.[3] It is not known whether Chaucer was the first to combine these particular sources,
or whether he translated an existing combined edition, possibly from French. If the latter is case,
any direct source has been lost.