Extensive notes on The Canterbury Tales – Page 2

Born: London, United Kingdom

Died: October 25, 1400, London, United Kingdom

Page to the Countess of Ulster, Duchess of Clarence, wife of Lionel, 3rd son of Edward III. Well educated, avid reader, read Latin French, Anglo-Norman (dialect of French used in England), and Italian. Studied astronomy extensively.

Translated from French Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) medieval French, written in 1230 (4,058 lines by Guillaume de Lorris) and 1275 (17,724 lines written by Jean de Meun). Allegorical dream vision. To entertain and to teach romantic love.

Troilus and Criseyde – 1380-1385, tragic love story during the siege of Troy. Principal source probably Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato.

The Canterbury Tales

References:

Collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English between 1387 and 1400. Nine groups, A through I.
Order of the Canterbury Tales (Wikipedia)

Unfinished so no official order. Some groupings can be inferred since the beginning of some tales references the previous. There is also the order that characters are introduced in the General Prologue.

Scholarly arrangements:

Tyrwhitt’s Fragments – editor of the first edition, 10 fragments
Chaucer Society’s Groups – modified Tyr based on clues in the text of each story, 9 groups, A through I

80 manuscripts exist with varying orders

Intended 30 pilgrims 2 tales on the way from Southwark to Canterbury and 2 tales when they return. 16 to 20 April. Google maps says it’s an 18 hour walk.

The stories come from all over Europe though the Canon’s Yeoman is probably his invention, which is rare.

Characters:

B.4, B.5 Chaucer
A.2 (knight) Knight
G.2 Yeoman – knight’s servant, bow and arrow
B.3 (prioress) Nun (prioress) – dainty, tender
B.7 (nun’s priest) Another nun, three priests
B.6 (monk) Monk – hunting, on a horse, Sir Peter?
D.2 (friar) Friar – beggar, “limiter” permitted by the pope to beg in one area
E.2 (merchant) Merchant – well-dressed
E.1 (clerk) Oxford cleric (clerk?) – scholarly
B.1 (man of law) Serjeant at the law – well-versed in the law
F.2 (franklin) A Franklin – landowner, free but not noble
Haberdasher, dyer, carpenter, weaver, carpet-maker
A.5 (cook) Cook
B.2 (shipman) Skipper – from the west
C.1 (physician) Doctor – experienced, good vocabulary
D.1 (wife of Bath) Woman from Bath – many husbands
H.1 Manciple – purchases food for a monastery
A.4 (reeve) Reeve – intermediary between lord and serf
D.3 (summoner) Summoner – summon sinners to trial, pockmarked face
C.2 (pardoner) Pardoner – sells papal pardons for forgiveness of sins, holy relics
A.3 (miller)
F.1 (squire)
G.1 (second nun)

Terms:

Cellarer – the person in a monastery who is responsible for the provisioning of food and drink.
Canon – cleric living in a clergy house, two types: cloistered and secular
Chantry – chapel on private land dedicated to the donor’s saint
Limiter – (above), friar, permitted by the pope to beg in one area
Manciple – purchases food for a monastery
Pardoner – sells papal pardons for forgiveness of sins, holy relics
Prelate – high ranking clergyman
Reeve – intermediary between lord and serf
Sexton – a person who looks after a church and churchyard, sometimes acting as bell-ringer and formerly as a gravedigger.
Summoner – summon sinners to trial, pockmarked face
Trentals – 30 hymns sung to get a soul out of purgatory

Ottava rima: ABABABCC

Terza rima: ABA BCB CDC DED E/EE

Rhyme royal: ABABBCC (removes 5th line from ottava rima)

Ballade: ABABBCBC

Iambic pentameter introduced by Chaucer to English literature, taken from Italian poetry

Opening:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

[Group A]

The Prologue

Describes the members of the group. The Host promises a great meal at The end for everyone who tells a story along the way.

The Knight’s Tale

Part I

(Narrator often halts a scene by declaring that there’s nothing more to say, and continues to the next scene. This is done regularly throughout the tales. Many long sections of description.)

Duke Theseus conquers the Amazon’s and marries Hippolyte and takes her and her sister Emily back home to Athens.

Encounters royal cousins Arcite and Palamon of Thebes on the battlefield and takes the prisoner for years without ransom. From his prison cell, Palamon falls in love with Emily and soon after Arcita does also.

Part II

Arcite is freed and travels until he comes back disguised to eventually work for Theseus. After 7 years Palamon escapes. They meet by chance and have an extended bloody fight. Theseus comes up in them and sends them away to return each with an army to fight the other and win Emily.

Part III

Theseus has a noble theater with temples for three gods. Palamon prays to Venus (he was the first to fall in love), Emily to Diana to remain a virgin and hunter, Arcite to Mars.

Part IV

Battle. Theseus declares that none can kill another. Palamon is injured and so Arcite wins, but while celebrating falls from his horse and is mortally wounded. Hero’s funeral. Palamon leaves, is summoned back, and marries Emily.

The Miller’s Tale

An older carpenter John with a young wife Alison rents a room to a young, attractive student named Nicholas the Gallant.

Parish clerk names Absalon also interested. Sang and danced and went to bars and leered at women. Alison thinks he’s a fool.

Nicholas tells the carpenter there is going to be a flood and the three of them should each take refuge in tubs so they can float safely away.

Nicholas and Alison sneak away and have sex. Absalon comes by to woo her and she sticks her butt out the window in the dark. He kisses it, wonder at her “beard” and runs away in anger. Get a red hot poker from the blacksmith and returns. This time Nicholas sticks his butt out and is burned by the poker. He falls out of the window screaming, breaks his arm, and is the fool of the town.

The Reeve’s Tale

A miller, Simon Simpkin, who is a bully and his wife who is churlish and vain. Overcharged everyone including a manciple. Is scolded by the local warden but ignores him. Alan and John, troublemakers that harass the warden visit the miller on behalf of the manciple.

They go to the miller to have him mill corn, he suspects trouble and so lets their horse loose which takes them until evening to catch so they have to sleep at his house. Alan has sex with Molly, the daughter. John moves the cradle from next to the wife to next to his bed. She wakes up and when she returns, ends up at his bed. Alan returns and ends up in the miller’s bed, bragging about having sex with the daughter.

A fight breaks out. The wife mistakenly hits her husband, and the two escape with their corn and cake, helped by the grateful daughter.

The Cook’s Tale

Apprentice who parties and gambles and misses work. Gets fired and meets a prostitute.

Unfinished.

[Group B]

The Man of Law’s Tale

Introduction to the Man of Law’s Tale

References Chaucer, 4th wall

The Man of Law’s Prologue

Part I

Merchants from Syria travel to Rome to trade and discover the emperor’s daughter, Constance, is the most beautiful woman in the world. They return and tell the lonely Sultan. He decides to convert his kingdom to Christianity in order to marry her. His evil mother plots to fake her conversion and sabotage the wedding.

Part II

At the wedding, all but Constance were slaughtered. She was then out on a boat with provisions and set to sea. She ends up at Northumberland and is taken in by the Constable and his wife Hermengild. Though they were pagans, love of Constance converted the wife. A knight fell in love with her but she did not reciprocate, so he snuck in, killed Hermengild, and blamed it on her. During her trial, the Lord killed the knight and many converted to Christianity.

King Alla fell in love with her and on the night of their marriage she got pregnant. His mother Donegild was not happy with the marriage. Alla had to go to Scotland to do battle, so he sent Constance to the Constable. There, she had a boy. Donegild intercepted messages between her and the king. He was told that the child was deformed, she that he banished her in the boat she arrived in.

Part III

A senator from Rome is returning home from fighting against Syria for its treachery and encounters her boat. He brings her home and, unknown to any of them, his wife is her aunt. They visit the emperor and all eventually realize their relationship. Happy reunion and life.

The Shipman’s Tale

A merchant, his wife, and Sir John the Monk, a friend of the merchant who considers him a cousin. The merchant must travel to Bruges, his wife complains to the monk in secret that her husband is mean to her.

She asks to borrow money from the monk. Who first secretly goes to the merchant and borrows the same amount. The monk gives the wife the money and they have sex all night while the merchant is away.

When the merchant returns, the monk says he paid the money back to the wife. She is confronted with double entendres about getting her finances “tallied” secretly by the monk. She then says she spent it all on clothes and that he payment back to him is looking nice.

The Prioress’s Tale

Rhyme royal: ABABBCC

Young boy wants to learn a hymn even though he can’t understand Latin. Has a friend teach him as they travel back and forth through the Jewish ghetto. Several Jews are angry that he’s singing a Christian hymn and slit his throat then throw him into a ditch. His mother finds him dead, but still singing the hymn. A monk pulls a grain of seed from the boy’s tongue and he ascends to heaven.

The Tale of Sir Topaz

The host request a merry tale from Chaucer who describes himself as elf-like and a dunce. Simple rhyme scheme (virelai “ancien”?): AABAAB, syllables 4/4/3/4/4/3

First Fit (?)

Silly, a knight hunts for the elf queen to marry, went to kill a three-headed giant, lots of description of luxurious clothing and the beautiful landscapes.

Second Fit

Shorter, details how much better he was than the other knights.

Host stops him because it’s illiterate and silly.

Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee

(Summary of a text not included, apparently long and boring)

The Tale of Melibee (Wikipedia)

The Monk’s Tale

Host opens exclaiming how he wished he had Melibee’s wife because his nags him to defend her honor against petty slights. Made friendly taunts to the monk that he looked healthy enough that he should get married and procreate.

Ballade: ABABBCBC

Individuals who fell from power or prosperity. Some arrogant, some just bad fortune:

Satan
Adam – the tree of knowledge to him down
Samson “Men should keep council and not tell their wives secrets.”/
Hercules – his lover, Deianira, gave him a shirt that burned his flesh and he died
Nebuchadnezzar – created an idol of go!d and forced people to worship it, Daniel and two others would not, Nebuchadnezzar becomes poor and redeems himself at the end of his life
Balthazzar – son, vain but without redemption
Zenobia – queen of Persia, fierce hunter and warrior and her husband Odenathus. Sons Hermanno and Thymalaö. Odenathus dies, she and her sons are defeated and publicly shamed by Emperor Aurelian of Rome.
King Peter of Spain
King Peter of Cyprus
(both by treachery)
Bernardo Visconti of Lombardy
Count Ugolino of Pisa – jailed with his children and starved to death, cruel fate
Nero – extremely cruel, eventually revolted against and fled, killed himself in front of two peasants
Holofernes – captain of Nebuchadnezzar, beheaded by Judith
King Antiochus the Illustrious – arrogant, fell off of his chariot in battle, painful wounds that rotted and smelled, died in great pain
Alexander – noble, but poisoned by his own men
Julius Caesar – powerful and wise, died by Brutus’ treachery
Croesus – King of Lydia, rained when he was set on fire, felt invincible, had a dream with Jupiter and Phoebus, daughter interpreted that he will be hung

Host complains that the stories were too depressing and demands something light.

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

Sir John

Chaucer tells the story of a nun telling the story of a widow with a rooster who tells the story that a writer told of friends on a crusade. Man-layered frame story:

Chaucer -> nun -> widow -> rooster -> author -> friends

Rooster had a dream of a horrible beast. A hen mocks him so he gives many examples of instance in history and the bible where dreams come true. Sir Russel Fox!

The host then jokes that he is so handsome that he should be secular because he would be so popular with women. He had joked like this with the monk’s tale.

“You would have trodden a pretty fowl, no doubt.”

[Group C]

The Physician’s Tale

(Narrator often goes off in a tangent and then declares that he will now continue his story. This happens throughout many of the tales.)

Knight has a beautiful and virtuous daughter who catches the eye of a lecherous judge. The judge pays a man to accuse the knight of having stole his female slave and passed her off as his daughter. The knight finds out and kills his daughter so that she doesn’t lose her honor. Fellow knights hear of the treachery and storm the city, killing anyone who had a part in the deceit.

The host curses the judge but also blames the girl for being so attractive (!).

The Pardoner’s Tale

Rhymed couplets

The Pardoner’s Prologue

Described the many ways he come the faithful with fake relics. Takes their money. If attacked, he turns the congregation against his attacker. Womanizer.

The Pardoner’s Tale

Various evils and those who practice them. Youngsters going around town drinking and swearing. Gluttony. Adam and Eve were cast out after eating. Cooks are temptation. Gambling. Throwing dice shows weak character. Swearing and lying.

“O thou belly! stinking pod
Of dung and foul corruption, that canst send
Thy filthy music forth at either end,”
“Drunkenness is the very sepulchre
Of human judgement and articulation.”
“Vengeance on him and all his house shall fall
That swears outrageously, or swears at all.”

Three drunken “rioters” hear of their friend’s death and decide to kill Death. They threaten an old man and disrespectfully demand he tell them where Death has gone. They find a tree with gold underneath it. One goes into town to bring back drinks to satisfy them until the evening but puts poison in his friends’ bottles. The two at the tree plan to stab him when he gets back. He is stabbed, they drink to toast and all three are dead.

After warning all about the result of doing evil, he tries to sell them papal pardons. When he tries to sell to the host, the host mocks him.

[Group D]

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue

She justifies having had 5 husbands but also defends virginity if wanted. Genitals were made for urine and sex. Three of her husbands were rich old men (that left her money) and whom she satisfied very well.

Men will always find a reason to be dissatisfied with their wives. Poor wives are expensive, wealthy ones arrogant, beautiful ones may cheat, ugly ones can be lured away by flattery.

“A knowing wife if she is worth her salt
Can always prove her husband is at fault,”

She talks about her five husbands. Her first three were much older. Her fourth cheated on her regular!y, who she cheated on him. Her fifth mistreated her but they had a great sex life. He was 20 years younger. She got fed up with him reading parables against women she ripped pages out of the book. He knocked her out and they made up, living happily until his death.

Words between the Summoner and the Friar

They argue with each other and the Summoner threatens to tell an insulting tale about a Friar.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

A knight rapes a maiden and is sentenced to death. The queen decides instead to give him a year and one day to find the answer to what women want the most. On the final day he finds an elderly lady who gives home the answer: wives want to be treated as mistresses, that is, as untouched objects of respect and desire.

His life is saved but the op elderly lady ask to marry him as a reward. After he balks, she convinces him how faithful and loving she will be. He repeats and she turns into a beautiful woman.

The Friar’s Tale

The Friar’s Prologue

The Friar days the wife of Bath should let the clergy discuss matters of faith, then insults the Summoner who snaps back (the same happens above). The host tells them to be polite and stick to storytelling.

The Friar’s Tale

A summoner would use prostitutes to frame people and the shake them down for payment to absolve themselves.

“He knew so much of bribery and blackmail
I should be two years telling you the tale.
There is no sporting dog that’s more expert
At knowing a wounded deer from one unhurt
Than was this summoner who could spot for sure
Lecher, adulterer or paramour.
Indeed on that his whole attention went
Because it was the source of all his rent.”

On the road, met a yeoman who presented himself as another summoner. They share stories of how the get money from people. The yeoman then says he is the devil. The summoner then targets an elderly lady with no money. She argues with him, says the devil should take him, and the devil does.

The Summoner’s Tale

The Summoner’s Prologue

Tells how all friars are in hell, suffering the Satan’s anus.

The Summoner’s Tale

Friars are begging for money (a limiter). Visits a sick man he knows, and his wife, and tries to convince him to donate. Preaches against the evils of anger/ire and begs for money. The man tricks him, farts in his hand, and tells him he can split it with the other friars. Angry, the Friar goes to the Lord of the house, who tells him to split the cart via a wagon wheel to share with the others.

[Group E]

The Clerk’s Tale

The Clerk’s Prologue

Rhyme royal: ABABBCC, matches Griselda’s tale from The Decameron (Lord takes a wife and tests her cruelly)

Part I

In the region of Saluzzo. Servant requests that the Marquis, Walter, get married so that a new, less kind Lord does not take over when he died. The marquis worries about his freedom and that children don’t necessarily match their parents’ disposition, but agrees.

Part II

In a nearby peasant town, Janicula and daughter Griselda.

“But in virtuous beauty of her heart
She was among the loveliest man could ask,
For being poorly bred, no sensual part
Had learned to use her beauty as a mask.
More often from the well than from the cask
She drank, and loving virtue, sought to please
By honest labour, not by idle ease.”

Happy marriage and the people loved her. She ruled virtuously even when the Marquis was gone.

Part III

She has a child. And the Marquis wants to test her love of him. [The narrator looks poorly on this, unlike in The Decameron’s version.]

Marquis tells her the noblemen resent taking orders from her and treat he must “dispose” their daughter. He sends a “secret agent” to her to take the child and kill it. She gives it up without resistance. The child is sent to be raised by the Marquis’ sister in Bologna, the Countess of Panaro. The Marquis watches her for any bitterness but she has none.

Part IV

She has a son and he pretends to have it killed also. The people of the town who moved loved him now hate him as a murderer [this judgement is very different from the Boccaccio version]. He then forged a papal bull to have his marriage annulled, then sent for his children so he could pretend to marry his daughter.

Part V

He asks Griseld to leave and take nothing but agrees to let here wear a smock in trade for her virginity. The people weep as she walks home humbly.

Part VI

The daughter and son arrive in town and the citizens forget their anger at the msrqis and agree that she is much livelier and more fitting a bride than Griselda. The marquis has Griselda work at the castle in preparation for his wedding. During a feast, he praises his bride in front of Griselda and she agrees. Finally, he talks her the truth and she faints from joy.

The narrator say that Petrarch intended the story to be a metaphor that people should bare God’s test with humility.

[Man of Law’s, Clerk’s (written before Canterbury?), and 2nd Nun’s (first story he wrote ever?) tales, in order, are his most skillful. Envoy written as playful irony. Very skillful rhyme royal.]

Chaucer’s Envoy [envoi, a short stanza concluding a ballade] to the Clerk’s Tale

Tells wives to not act like Griselda and to return any trouble their husbands may give them.

The Merchant’s Tale

The Merchant’s Prologue

The merchant tells what a difficult wife he has and that she’s nothing like Griselda. The host asks home to impart his wisdom.

The Merchant’s Tale

A 60 year old knight (named January?) in Lavia Lombardy who’s a bachelor and decides to finally find a young woman to marry. After several examples of wives in history and scripture, he decides to ask his friends for advice.

Holofernes – invading general killed by Nebuchadnezzar
Theophrastus – taught with Aristotle

Young: “Old beef is not so good as tender veal.” “when they’re young a man can still control them with his tongue.”

His friends, Placebo and Justinus, offer advice.

Amphion of Thebes – built Thebes
Joab trumpets (?) – nephew of David
Theodomas of Thebes (?)
Constantine – monk, physician from late 1000s, wrote De Coitu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_African

Marries May and we find out that his squire secretly loves her also. Humorous wedding scenes where he is anxious for the guest to leave so they can consummate the marriage.

any of various medieval European coins, in particular an English silver coin worth four old pence, issued between 1351 and 1662.

“I do not care a groat”

billet-doux – love letter (Fr. “sweet note”)

[more of the narrator’s abrupt scene changes “but enough of this…”]

“True as a gift that has lost her mate.”

“Least said is soonest mended.”

Pyramus and Thisbe (Wikipedia) – fated lovers, communicate through a wall connecting their homes, Romeo and Juliet-like death/suicide
pelf – money acquired dishonorably

The squire stays love sick in his room and the knight sends May to cheer him up. There, he hands her a love letter and she eventually reciprocates his love. The knight loses his sight and grows jealous, so May cannot get alone with the squire. One day, he sneaks into the garden and climbs a pear tree before they get there. May climbs the tree and they start having sex. The king of the fairies is watching the tyre of them and decides to give the knight his sight back in order to save his honor. He is horrified at what he sees, but she convinces him that is eyesight is not yet fully back and he imagined her with the squire.

Epilogue to the Merchant’s Tale

The host rails against May and once again says his wife is a shrew.

[Group F]

The Squire’s Tale

The Squire’s Prologue

The Squire’s Tale

Part I

King Cambuskan (Genghis Kahn or grandson Kublai Kahn?) ruled Tartaran in the city of Tzarev. Benevolent. Wife Elpheta, sons Algarsyf and Cambalo, and daughter Canace.

During a feast, a knight rises in on a “steed of brass”, holding a mirror, wearing a golden ring, and with a sword at his side. The steed will transport the rider anywhere within a day, the mirror shows the viewer any dangers they may encounter, the ring allows the wearer to understand what birds are saying, and the sword can heal any sound that it has cut. Guest gossip about how these marvels work.

Part II

The guests and host sleeps after the long feast. Canace wakes late and goes for a walk in the woods where she finds a falcon who was dying from self-inflicted wounds. Using the ring, Canace hears the falcon’s story of her mate of three years leaving and falling in love with a kite (?!). Canace takes her home and tends to her wounds.

Lamech – sixth-generation descendent of Cain, first polygamist mentioned in the Bible

“long should be your spoon when supping with the devil”

“Therfore bihoueth hire a ful long spoon That shal ete with a feend.”

Ends with promises of elaborate tales with each of the brothers and the father, and their adventures with the steed and mirror.

Part III

Words of the Franklin to the Squire and of the Host to the Franklin

The Squire is interrupted after two lines (promising s lengthy, bombastic tale) by the Franklin who talks of his unintelligent son. The Host demands he tell a story or he isn’t get the meal at the end, and he obliges.

The Franklin’s Tale

The Franklin’s Prologue

He will tell a story he heard from “the noble Bretons” (from Brittany)

The Franklin’s Tale

Brittany was once called Armorica [northwest France]

A knight, Arveragus of Caer-rhud, falls in love with Dorigan and they wed and traveled back to his native land to live in his castle “by Penmarch Point, not far from Finisterre [peninsula in northwest France].” After years of marriage, he decides to travel to Britain “to seek high deeds of arms and reputation in honor.”

She suffered greatly during his absence and her friends attempt to console her:

“Slow is the process, it is widely known,
By which a charger carves his thoughts in stone,
Yet cuts at last the figure he intended”

She goes out with friends and a squire named Aurelius falls in love with her. He finally tells her but she does not reciprocate and puts him off with a challenge: if he can clear the rocks at the shore (which she fears will kill her husband when he sails home) she will be with him.

He begs the gods to raise the sea level and hide the rocks, by it does not happen. His brother wants to help him and remembers of books in Orleans [city in north-central France] that teach magic and may provide a solution. They travel and meet a scholar who can perform the feat using astrology. Aurelius offers to lay $1000 pounds.

Mansions of the moon – 27 or 28 segments in the sky that the moon passes through in a lunar month, the position within each segment varies by month of the year.

Lunar mansion (Wikipedia)

Apostrophe, digressio with exempla

The rocks are removed. Aurelius confronts Dorigan and she weeps for days. She then tells her husband of her plight. Three acts of nobility follow:

The husband tells her not to break her word, but that he will still love her
Aurelius releases her promise
The scholar releases Aurelius’ promise

[Group G]

The Second Nun’s Tale

The Second Nun’s Prologue

The Second Nun’s Tale

Rhyme royal: ABABBCC

Chaste Cecilia marries Valerian but does not want to go to bed on their wedding night. She tells him that a guardian angel will kill him if they are together and to see the angel he must first be baptised by the Pope. He does and when he returns he sees the angel and they receive a white and a red garland.

Valerian wants his brother Tiburce to know what has happened and to benefit from the angel.

The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue

A Canon and his Yeoman ride up to the group, having raced from Canterbury to join them. The yeoman tells them that he saw them leave in the morning, told his master who then thought it would be an enjoyable trip.

The Yeoman tells them that his master is intelligent and makes unbelievable brags even though they live like paupers. The Canon finds out what he’s been saying and leaves in a huff. The Yeoman then proceeds:

Philosopher’s Stone

“Sharp was the hope, and hard the supposition.”

One of the earliest versions of “all that glitters is not gold”

Part I

Long descriptions of how his master practiced and failed at alchemy. Endnote says the descriptions are correct for the time.

Part II

The story of an honest chantry priest who lodged at a lady’s home rent-free and with a stipend. A deceitful canon comes to town, borrows money and pays it back, and so gains the priest’s trust. The canon then promises to teach the priest how to turn mercury into silver. Sleight of hand and then payment, at a bargain!, of 40 pounds. The canon skips town and the priest can never replicate the alchemy.

[Group H]

The Manciple’s Tale

The Manciple’s Prologue

The host and manciple mock the cook for being excessively drunk on his horse and falling off. Reference to “drunk on monkey-wine” with lengthly new analysis in endnote.

The Manciple’s Tale

Retells myth of Phoebus and his white raven who learned to speak. Although Phoebus was the most beautiful man in the world, his wife cheated on him. She did so in front of the raven who then relayed the information to Phoebus. Phoebus then killed his wife, destroyed all of his belongings, then angry at the raven for ruining his life, turned his white feathers black and took from him his ability to speak.

“Never in all your life to utter word,
Vengeance shall fall upon you, traitor-bird.
You and your issue ever shall be black,
Their sweetest music, like your own, shall crack
And you shall croak, fortelling storm and rain
In token that through you my wife was slain.”

Ending with eloquent admonishing to be cautious in what you tell others.

[Group I]

The Parson’s Tale

The Parson’s Prologue

The host demands a story since the day is coming to and end and they will soon arrive at their destination. The parson insists that rhyming is not virtuous so he will give his tale in prose.

The Parson’s Tale

Only provided as a prose summary. Penitence.

Chaucer’s Retractions

The Maker of the Book here takes his Leave

Apologies if anything is offensive or if the facts are wrong. Lists and apologizes for his other books. Amen.

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