The Merchant’s Tale by Chaucer

Next to the Oxford scholar, the Merchant proceeds to tell his tale. It's known from his prologue that the marriage has become so painful to him.  It is just two years since he married but he has experienced a lot from his ill-tempered wife whose ‘exceeding cruelty' is in contrast with the 'wondrous patience' of Griselda in Oxford scholar's tale.   He has no words to describe the cruelty of his bitter half and swears that she can outmatch any devil at once.  Now he begins his tale.

The Merchant’s Tale
A sixty years old knight named January, living in Lombardy is tired of his bachelor's life and wishes to be wedded now.  He analyses the advantages and disadvantages of a married life.  A single man may rejoice at freedom like a bird or beast but it is marriage that leads to a blissful life. Marriage is but a paradise, God’s gift that helps to find a wife, makes the couples face life in one heart both in joys and misery.  God made eve out of Adam for his help, pleasures, companionship and consolation. Above all the knight needs a son to inherit his estates.   He wants to marry a girl who should be the fairest of all, and her age not more than twenty, for he, being 'old fish,' wants young flesh every day.  He doesn't prefer even a woman of thirty who may lack taste and delicacy.  He, however, seeks the counsel of his friends in this regard.  All offer him good score including his wise friend Placebo but Justinius warns him that he cannot satisfy his wife and since he is old, soon he would become a cuckold. Destiny overrules.  He weds May, in whose rarest beauty, he finds himself completely lost.  Though he labors a lot till daylight in his bed, May estimates his 'dalliance not worth the bean.'

It's likely in the case of any young woman like May to cuckold her sexually feeble husband.  It so happens that Damian, one of the most faithful squires of January loves May at first sight on the very day of wedding celebrations. He becomes lovesick more and more and is bedridden. He writes a letter expressing his love and keeps it in a silk purse.  When the knight is reported of his illness, he sends May to visit him and comfort him to recover him from illness.  Damian gives her the purse that she secretly keeps in her bosom, reads it in the rest room and destroys it there lest others should know about that.  Pity creeps into her gentle spirit and she too writes a letter to him reciprocating his love.  Now and then, they exchange smiles, signals and sighs of love by means of non-verbal communication. 

The knight has a beautiful private garden that even gods would envy of.  Whenever it pleases him, he used to take his May there and rejoice. The garden is fortified with a fencing of wall and none but the knight has the key to enter there.  One day, suddenly the knight loses his eyesight completely and weeps and laments a lot on this.  In course of time, he becomes all right but then always takes his wife hand in hand wherever he goes.  The paramours Damian and May are left with no chance for their romance.  However May manages to take the wax impression of the garden key and pass it over to Damian.  As per her direction, he comes in advance to the garden before the couples arrive and hides himself behind a bush.

The knight and May enters the private garden and the latter gives a signal to Damian to climb up the pear tree.  On the other side of the garden, Pluto and his wife Proserpine take note of all these events.  Pluto condemns all women for their infidelity, taking May as a typical example.  He declares to bring back the eye sight of the knight at the right time to expose his wife's villainy.  Proserpine on the other hand reveals his displeasure against all men who are as unfaithful as Damian who betrays his own master.  She proposes to empower May with such a spoken skill to escape the wrath of her husband. 

May now pretends to have a burning for the pear fruit without which she will die.  The knight is stone blind and he has no servants to climb up the tree.  But she asks the knight to bend down, puts her foot on his back, climbs up the tree and permits Damian have his hunger fulfilled.  At this right time, as already declared, Pluto gives January his eye sight back who gets mad to see his wife and Damian rejoicing at each other. He cries out , “Out, help! Rape! Alas!”.  Now, influenced by Proserpine, May says that she is 'struggling' with a man in tree sincerely to cure his blindness out of such a shock.  Just as a man recently awakened from sleep could not see anything clearly, the knight, just now recovering from blindness, could not eye clearly what is happening in the tree.  This is her explanation and pretext. Then the knight beseeches her to forgive him for mistaking her with a vision as if enjoyed by Damian.  May comes down from the tree and the knight goes with her to live happily  thereafter. Thus ends the tale of January told by the Merchant.
In the epilogue, the host says that his wife is also an ill-tempered one but she has never been an unfaithful one.  He doesn't want to complaint more about her vices since someone in the company may leak out everything top her and then he will be in trouble.
Criticism:

This tale has given birth to the popular phrase “January-May wedding" that refers to the marriage between an old one and the younger one.  The names used here are symbolic – January, the knight with hair ad old as the snow, May, his wife as young as May flowers, Justinius the righteous man, etc.  Again folly of old age is a common theme extending up to Shakespeare's King Lear whose dotage leads to his eternal agony.  "Pear-tree episode" that Chaucer has employed here successfully is yet another popular theme in those days.  Bacon's exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of marriage and single life seems to have emerged from this tale wherein the knight elaborately discusses the same while choosing to marry a young maiden, calling a wife, as Bacon does, a nurse a good friend throughout the life.

The Clerk of Oxford's Tale by Chaucer

The Prologue to the Clerk of Oxford's Tale:
Next to the summoner, the host turns to the Oxford scholar who is as coy and silent as a newly wedded wife and asks him to narrate his tale that should be a merry tale, not the one that is moralistic and kindles them to weep for their past sins.  Now the clerk begins the tale of Greselda from Francis Petrarch who had illuminated the whole Italy with his poetry.  The main source of this story is the last chapter in Boccaccio's “Decameron”.

The Clerk of Oxford’s Tale
PART ONE
Saluzzo in Italy is  beautiful and fertile city and a landscape of delight ruled by Walter the Marquis. The King is a lover of freedom and pleasure and wisely avoids marriage that may entangle him into new responsibilities and bangle his joys.  To think of no heir is a great fear to the people and Lords of his country who unfold their woe and beseech the king to wive.  They awaken him on the uncertainty of life and the necessity of legal heir to the throne:
“ And though your green youth flowers bright,
In creeps age always, quite as a stone.
That through your death your line should forsake
Our land, and a strange successor take
Your Heritage, O, woe to us alive!”

The way in which they request impresses him who then consents to wed.  His folk however seek assurance and certainty in his statement and meekly request him to fix a deadline.  The King chooses a day and, commanded by the king, a grand feast is arranged on the specified date.

PART TWO
People could not decipher whom the king is going to wed. Not far from the palace there was a village wherein lived a poor man with his daughter Griselda. No woman was so fair, virtuous and benign as Griselda under the sun.  She was, with no leaf left, in all the pages of King's love book.  With all his retinue, in full array, the king reached her home.  Both Griselda and her father Janicula were in seventh heaven to hear the king's decision.  However, the king, an epitome of male chauvinism lay down a condition that she should swear that she would never speak or do anything against his will:

“I say, you must be ready with good heart
To do my pleasure, and that I freely may…
And never must you grudge it, night or day,
And also when I say “yes,” never say “nay.”
Neither in words, nor in frowning countenance,
“Swear this and I wear to this alliance.”

What kind of horrible and inhuman condition it is! Is woman a human being or a mere robot to be programmed by her husband? Griselda says with full modesty and humility, but without individuality and self-esteem,

“And here I swear that always till I die,
Will I willingly in work or thought obey,
On pains of death…”

With this marriage treaty, the king espoused her and took her to the palace.  Griselda who was brought up in ox's stall now started living in Emperor's hall. Time passed on. She gave birth to a baby girl and people came to see this beautiful baby, hoped that she would at least bear a baby boy to the throne in near future.

PART THREE
King Marquis wants to test his wife, her constancy.  He tells her that it is he who has brought her to 'a state of nobleness from her poor array.'  He reminds her of her vow to do whatever pleases him.  He tells her that his noblemen do not like him to live with a poor woman of a village, and especially they detest her issue of a baby girl.  He has to do certain things for their will, though it will be painful to him.  She humbly says,

“My child and I, with true obedience,
Are all yours, and you may save or kill.
Your own things: work then as you will.”

Marquis leaves her chamber and sends to her room his confidant who is a sergeant.  What kind of cruel test it is to take away a new-born baby from her own mother!  From the very words and look of this sergeant, she understands that her child is going to be slain.  She kisses her child, hands it over to the sergeant.  The King is much pleased to know her patience and steadfast from the sergeant.  He however commands him to safely entrust the child to the care of his (King's) sister, a countess.  He insists that under no circumstances the identity of the child should be revealed to anyone. He then comes to Griselda's chamber to find her  present status but she complaints of nothing, speaks no words of woe and does her service as usual without any trace of her loss.

PART FOUR
After four years, Griselda begets a baby boy.  When she weans her child at the age of two, the king is carried away by another whim to test his wife's fidelity.  What happened to the first child befalls to the second as well.  She kisses her child and hands it over to the sergeant who in turn, commanded by the king, without the knowledge of others, takes the child to the care of King's sister.  Even now, Griselda makes no complaint and patiently unfolds her heart,

“For as I left at home all my clothing
When I first came to you,
I left my will and all my liberty…”

The King realises that none can surpass his wife in endurance of adversity. Still he thinks of other means testing– what else remains? When his daughter grows into twelve, he demands and gets a forged Papal Bull, an authentic order and permission from Pope of Rome to legally disown Griselda and marry another girl. He is going to pretend to marry a twelve years girl who is none other than the one being brought up by his sister.  None but the king alone knows, the girl is his own daughter and his plan is just to stage a drama to test his wife. The King now bids his sister to bring back his children, without revealing their royal blood to anyone.

PART FIVE
The king declares before Griselda and all his lords in open court of his second marriage.  He orders his wife to go back to her father's house leaving all his things in the palace, and stay there till the end of her life.  She cannot return to her village as naked as a lamb or worm and requests the king to permit her go dressed in her smock. The King permits.  It is so pathetic and lamenting to all people, in weeping and in tears, to see her dressed in undergarments.  They follow her to her village from where they had brought her as a queen. Her old father comes running to cover her with a cloak and starts weeping to see her helpless state. She lives in agony with her father for a  while and on the day of his supposed second marriage, the king again calls her to serve him and to do arrangements for the feast.  She patiently consents and takes up all the assigned works with gratitude.  Now, pointing out the young maiden whom he is going to marry, the king asks her opinion.  She says that she is the fairest of all and  God may bless him to live in all pleasures and prosperity till his end.  Now the king is so astonished to see her steadfast patience, humility, obedience and love for him. Since she had passed all her tests, the king unfolds all secrets now.  She swoons at once to hear this and after recovery kisses her children with tears of joy. His son becomes the successor to the throne and both children hear their marriage bell in the ripe time. At the end of his tale, the Oxford scholar sings a song in praise of Griselda and her virtues. However Chaucer makes a warning that no husband should test his wife in this way since it is very difficult to find Griseldas nowadays.  He also advises women not to follow Griselda:

“ o noble wives, full of lofty prudence,
Allow not humility, your tongue to nail.
Do not be cowed in your innocence.
But take on you the mastery without fail.”
The story is told for the reason, as Chaucer says, to learn humility in adversity in the trials of God.

Is the king a sadist? His repeated test resulting in inexplicable torments of his wife questions the very love he has four her.  Though he makes excuses that his motive is not to torture Griselda but to testify her constancy, no husband would dare to test his wife by sending her back half-nakedly to her father's house or getting a court order to marry a girl who is but his own daughter.  Griselda is an antithesis to Wife of Bath.  The former succumbs to the male chauvinism whereas the latter adheres to sovereignty over husband.  Griselda, on the other hand, manifests steadfast Christian love for Jesus Christ and surpasses even Christ who is put to several tests by Satan in the wilderness.  She, constantly tested by her husband can be compared with Job in the bible who is assayed by Satan repeatedly by several means.  Chaucer's admiration for the Italian poet Petrarch, who translated Boccaccio's work on Griselda in 1374 is also apparent in his description of his poetic skill in the beginning by the Oxford scholar.

The Summoner's Tale by Chaucer

This is the Ninth story in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  It has a prologue  In which the summoner hits the ceiling to take revenge on the Friar for his insulting story of a summoner.

The Prologue to the Summoner's Tale
The summoner jumps to his feet to counter-attack and asks other pilgrims to recall the well known story of a friar who was once taken by an angel to Hell where no friar was found.  The Friar was so proud and told the angel that hell was not the place meant for gracious friars. But the angel asked the Satan to lift up its big tail. Now there swarmed out twenty thousand friars from the anus of Saturn just like the bees from the hive.  After making a grand show, they again went back to their resting place. The Friar was so tormented in the hell and however God showed grace and restored the spirit of the Friar to his body.  God awakened the friar who was but still shivering in fear obsessed with devil’s arse.  By describing the nature of all friars like this, now the summoner ends his prologue and begins his tale.

The Summoner's Tale
A money minded friar, after collecting money from his parishioners in the church by songs and prayers, moves from house to house to beg for peer, whisky, wheat, corn, cheese and blanket from people.  He takes with him his comrade with a writing table and pen to write the name of the sinners and a boy to carry a sack to store the collected things.

Now the Friar enters the house of Thomas who is rich but old and sick.  The Friar says that Thomas has to contribute more to the convent to find recovery from his illness.  The Friar also kisses and embraces Thomas's wife who comes there and she suggests the Friar to advise her short-tempered husband.  The Friar condemns Thomas for being angry with his fair and meek wife and gives some examples how wrath has brought misery to the great men of the past.

In his first example, a story from Seneca, the Friar talks about a watchful ruler.  Once two knights  drove out in night but the next day only one returned. Then the judge, in suspicion, ordered death sentence to him for killing the other knight. The accused is taken by another knight to the place where he has to die.  To their great surprise, the lost knight appears there and so both knights are brought to the judge now.  The judge grows angry and  sentences all the three to be executed - the first knight as already ordered, the second knight who became the reason for the death of the first one, and the third knight for not executing the previous order. 

The Friar's second example is about the wrathful king Cambyses who was a drunkard as well.  Once one of his lords counselled him not to drink that it would make his eyesight and limbs powerless.  The enraged king brought the Lord’s son, took his bow and arrow, shot him to death and asked whether his eyesight and limbs were strong enough or not.  Thus friar illustrates that fury leads to homicide.

Now the Friar begs for gold from Thomas to build the convent but the latter is unwilling since the prayer of the friars of church has failed to cure his sickness.  Much annoyed by the Friar's repeated begging, Thomas decides to make the Friar a laughing stock and says that whatever he gives should be shared by him equally with other friars. The Friar swears.  Now Thomas asks the Friar to search behind his back at the bottom to find the hidden things.  The Friar puts his hand and starts groping around the rich man’s buttocks. What he gets now is nothing but prolonged fart with piercing sound.  The Friar, much infuriated, flees from the place with his men.   On his way, he visits another rich lord of the village and unfolds his grief to him.  Both the Lord and his wife take this matter very seriously and asks the Friar whether he is very clear now how to equally share the fart with his other twelve friars in the convent.  The Lord’s servant Jankin who is cutting the meat hears this riddle and offers a better solution that the sick man should be brought and laid at the centre of a cartwheel with twelve spokes and each friar should lie his nose at the end of the spoke to receive the equal share of the flatus. The Lord, his wife and all except the Friar John appreciate the wisdom of the servant who is rewarded with a new gown as well.  Thus ends the tale of the Summoner ridiculing The helpless friar.

The world is whole only when put together with the positive and the negative elements, the beautiful and the ugly, the wise and the foolish, the serious and the funny. Chaucer who can write the knight’s tale in lofty style for his scholars and royal audience, can also write this comic tale of summoner for his laymen and the common readers. He represents the vices of the society he lived in and in his time the friars were but the objects of ridicule like the one exemplified here. The repeated use of fart as a comic device elsewhere in Canterbury Tales may lead to disgust of his readers who , however, can’t help laughing at 'equal share' here. Story-within-a story, like the dream technique is another device frequently applied by Chaucer.  For instance, Chaucer tells Canterbury Tales in which the summoner narrates the tale of a friar who in turn proceeds to recite the tale of a king from Seneca to the sick Thomas. Adding prologue to even a comic tale like this may take the readers to question the necessity of its employment but indeed, without them, the coherence and sequence of stories and the guidance of the host with essential interruption may not be possible for Chaucer.

The Friar's Tale by Chaucer

This is the eighth story in Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.  It has a prologue as well as the tale by the Friar, one of the pilgrims.

The Prologue to the Friar's Tale
Unlike the Wife of Bath's lengthy prologue, the Friar's prologue is very simple and brief and he first appreciates the Wife of Bath for having told a touching tale about the true authority, though the pilgrims are there just to speak, make fun and play the game. He proposes to tell a tale of the corrupt summoner who is thrashed everyday at street’s end for his vices.  The host interrupts and asks him to have mercy on the summoner but the summoner challenges the Friar to say anything about the summoner that will be repaid by l him with the list of crimes of the Friar later. Now the Friar begins his tale.

The Friar's Tale
The Friar begins his tale introducing the Archdeacon, a man of high degree  In the ecclesiastical court who deals with many cases such as adultery, church robbery, defamation, usury, bawdry and witchcraft.  The summoner works under the archdeacon in all his illegal dealings.  He is a sly, a thief and a man of no conscience.  He is as money minded as Judas and for money he would pretend to lechers more than how a hunting dog would talk to the hurt deer.

Once the summoner is riding to an old widow's house to extort money with false charges.  On his way he finds a yeoman with a bow and arrows. Since both of them have their offices in the ecclesiastical court, they vow to be brothers to their "dying day". While asked upon his name and way of dealings, the yeoman says that he is actually a demon living in Hell and if anyone curses, he will take away the things mentioned.  Though he doesn't have a shape of his own, he can take any shape such as man, ape or angel.  He takes the soul only and not the body but sometimes both.  The summoner perhaps thinks that the yeoman is playing with words for fun and doesn't take the devil’s words seriously.

On their way they happen to see a cartman struggling to release his cart stuck in the mud.  In frustration, he cries, the devil may take his cart, horse, hay and everything.  The summoner points out this situation and asks him to do as he said.  But the devil in the disguise of a yeoman refuses and says that the curse doesn't come seriously from the man's heart.  At one stage, the cartman managed to pull off his cart from the mud and thanked God.  Thus by curse earlier, the cart man had said one thing and really meant another.

Now both the yeoman and the summoner reach the widow’s house.  The latter threatens her to pay twelve pence, or else he would bring her to court the next day and get excommunicated.  But the lady is old, poor and sick and begs for mercy.  The summoner talks of her old debt to him and plans to take of the new frying pan.  Out of grief, the lady cries, the devil may take both the summoner and the frying pan.  The summoner wants to know whether the curse is really from her heart and she confirms it so.  Then the devil takes the summoner and the pan to the hell.  The Friar ends his tale with a warning against temptation:
“Dispose your hearts always to withstand,
The fiend who would grip you in his hand.
He may not tempt you beyond your might,
For Christ will be your champion and night.”

Chaucer's main focus here is to satirize the corruptions of the church during his time.  He ridicules at the workings of religious system in the name of sins and pardons by sending the summoner to the extend of taking away the frying pan. Is it not a sin to sin against the sinners in the name of sin.  This tale also reveals Chaucer's deep insight into Hell and the formation of evil spirits.  “I would ride now into the world’s end following my prey” is what is said by the devil and unfolds the truth that the evil will persist and visit us till the end and our duty is to hold faith in God and resist.

The Wife of Bath's Tale by Chaucer

The Soul of English lurks behind literature. Can you find it?

TRB /NET / SLET Study Guide
Subject: English, Date: 21st, March 2018

This sixth tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales has a prologue (that's longer than the tale itself) as well as the Tale by Wife of Bath. 

The Wife of Bath's Prologue
The Wife reserves her long prologue to argue and justify that three is nothing wrong in having five husbands as in her case. She asks, what about the wise king Solomon? Did he not have more wives than the number of my husbands? What about Abraham and Jacob? Didn't they have more than two? According to her, just as diverse schools make a scholar perfect and diverse practice makes the workman perfect, she is made perfect by her diverse experience with five husbands. It's said in the bible
“That a man will pay his wife her debt.” She asks,
“Now wherewith should he make his payment,
If he did not use his blessed instrument?”
Didn’t St.Paul say that it is better to marry than to burn.  She challenges all to show where God commanded virginity in the bible.

Now she proceeds to talk about her five husbands of whom three were good and rich but old and two were bad.  She had no need to please or show reverence to them since they had given her all their lands.  She had full sovereignty over them.  She makes an advice to all wives that they should ever keep their husband in fault or out of hand, ask for decent clothes that the neighbour’s wife has. If he goes to neighbour’s house or talk to maid at home, wife should control him in the beginning itself by questioning him. How long men have held women under their control! She condemns male chauvinism and says that if  a woman is poor, man worries about the expense; if she is rich, man talks of her pride; if she is fair, man suspects her with all lechers. Men desire women for riches, for shapeliness and fairness, for songs and dance, for gentleness and dalliance, and for no more reasons.

Unlike traditional women who patiently undergo all tortures of their husband, the Wife of Bath is a revolutionary spirit.  Her fourth husband Mettelius kept a lover.  He was a niggard and a reveller.   He often boiled with anger and jealousy. She retaliated in her own way and found many a new way to torture him. She proudly says, “I was his purgatory.”  He had died when she returned from Jerusalem.  Her fifth husband was Jankin, once an Oxford scholar.  She came in contact with him through her friend Alison with whom he had stayed.  She proposed him and soon bracketed him with her skill.  After one month of her fourth husband’s death, she wedded Jankin.  He loved him a lot and gave him all her lands and property.

Jankin was but a bookworm and a misogynist that she understood after her marriage.   He had a big volume of bad wives and used to recite a tale from that every day and night.  He irritated her by saying how Eve brought wretchedness to whole mankind through her wickedness; how Samson lost his hair cut and betrayed by her lover; how Xantippe, the wife of Socrates poured piss over his head and yet he said, “Ere the thunder stops, comes the rain.” Thus he gave hundreds of examples of bad women and it so happened one day that she grabbed the book from him one night, tore some leaves from it and gave him a punch.  He rose and deafened her ears with a fist.  She fell flat and pretended as if dead and thus the drama continued. At last he made apology, and promised her to follow wherever she said.  Thus she gained sovereignty over him and lived happily thereafter.  Here ends the Wife of Bath's long prologue and she starts narrating her tale after a little quarrel between the Friar and the summoner.

The Wife of Bath's Tale:
There was a lustful knight in king Arthur's house who stole the virginity of a woman by force. To answer this injustice, King Arthur brought him to trial and sentenced him to death.  But Arthur's fairy wife interceded him to pass the case to her own judgement. She then promised the knight to save his life if he answers her question at once or within a year and a day.  Her question was, “what does a woman love the most?” He,smitten by whirlpool of confusions, could not answer her anon and  requested time. He went everywhere, asked every woman but no two women gave him the same answer.

“ Some said women had most love of riches:
Some said honour, some said happiness;
Some rich array, some said lust abed,
And oft times to be widowed and wed.
Some said that our heart is most eased
When we are flattered most and eased.”

Thus the answers he gained multiplied and included woman's desire for freedom to do and speaking truth.  It was also said that no woman could keep secrets in her heart though it would bring shame to her husband as in the case of King Midas who had ass's ears under his long hair and asked his wife not to reveal that to anyone but his wife could not keep her promise and revealed it to water.

Much distressed and despaired by diverse answers, the knight however was returning to the court on the stipulated time. On his way, he happened to see the dance of twenty four ladies in a forest who suddenly disappeared and there appeared an old and ugly woman who promised him to give the right answer and save his life if he agreed her demand unconditionally.  He swore and she whispered the answer to him.  He told the same in the court –

“Women desire the self-same sovereignty
Over a husband as they do a lover,
And to hold mastery, he not above her.”

The knight was set free from the death sentence but he came into the hold of the old lady who now demanded him to marry her.  The knight cried out of his damnation and fell at eternal woe. However, as vowed, he wedded her whom, at first night, he dared not to touch.  She asked the reason and he told that she was very old, ugly and poor.  She philosophised a lot about honour and the greatness of poverty and said,

“Now then you say that I am foul and old,
Well then you need not fear to be cuckold,
For poverty and old age, you must agree,
Are great guardians of chastity.”

Finally she offered him two choices – either he could marry her and she would remain humble and true though old and ugly, or she would become young and fair, but faithfulness and chastity would be at risk. He asked her to choose herself  that which would please her and bring happiness to both. Now she got sovereignty over her husband. She promised him to be faithful, became young and fair and both had a happy martial life thenceforth. The Wife of Bath thus ends her tale with a prayer to Jesus Christ to bless women with mild, young and fresh husbands and be graceful to outlive such husbands.

Both the prologue and the tale, in one way or other, condemn the male chauvinism and anti-feminism of the medieval society, especially of the authorities of the churches.  The Wife of Bath, the mouthpiece of Chaucer speaks a lot in favor of woman's sovereignty over man, by showing herself as an example and having compete control over all her five husbands.  Thus the story she narrates best suits her and also reveals Chaucer's great insight into women's nature especially when the analysis goes of what a woman desires most. Though the long preamble tests the patience of the readers, soon the tale keeps it at rest and proves itself the best.

The Man of Law's Tale by Chaucer

NET/SLET/TRB Study Guide
Subject: English, Date: 17th March, 2018

This is the fifth tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and is based on John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in "Confessio Amantis."

The host now invites the Man of Law to requite the tales of others with his own.  Now the story telling contest takes a U-turn from the paltry tale of Miller and Reeve to a noble and lofty legend. In the prologue to Man of Law's Tale, the man of Law pretends that he is not as skilled as Chaucer to write in metre, especially as in the Legend of Good Women.  He purposes to tell his tale in prose, but the whole story is only in rhyme royal.

Part One
The story is centred on Dame Constance, the daughter of Roman emperor. As Chaucer describes,
“In her there is high beauty without pride, Youth, without frivolity or folly;
In all her work, virtue is her guide;
She is the mirror of all courtesy.”
Sultan of Syria is so overwhelmed and enthralled to hear the version of Constance from Syrian merchants and grows mad in love for her. He even stoops down to get converted into Christianity with all his men of Islam, just for the sake of his love.  After the grand marriage, she parts with her father and goes with her husband Sultan to Syria. 

Meanwhile, Sultan's mother, lamented by her son’s decision of conversion, boils with anger.  She perceives Constance as a serpent in hell masked in femininity, Satan, the nest of all vice. She calls her council, seeks their support and vows to slay all Christians on the day of feast that she is going to arrange for.

Part Two
After revelling in the feast, all go to rest.  As contrived by Sultan's mother, all converted Christians including Sultan are slain and there is bloodshed everywhere.  But Constance is put in a ship with all provisions and pushed to the sea. She sails lone in weariness and woe three years or more and after a shipwreck reaches Northumberland, a pagan land where no Christian can survive.

Hiding her identity as a Christian she lives under the care of a constable and his wife  Dame Hermengild whom she soon converts into Christianity with a miracle of giving eyesight to a blind man as Jesus did. However a knight sent by Satan woos her in woe and plots to trap her to be accused of a felony – he slits the throat of Hermengild and leaves the knife at Constance's bed.  The King Alla who is so overwhelmed by her innocence and virtues reported by others asks the knight to swear on the holy book and the knight falls lifeless like a stone when he falsely does so. Hearing a divine voice testifying her innocence, King Alla and all in the court are converted into Christianity. The King marries her, mothers her and goes in warfare leaving her to the care of constable. 

Doneguild, King's mother who doesn't like his son's course the least manipulates the letter sent to the king from Constance that the new-born son to the king is deformed and devil-like. The King is so compassionate and accepts the Will of God as it is, in his reply that is also modified by Doneguild to be read that the King orders the constable to send Constance and her son in a ship away from the land not to be seen again.  Constance patiently kneels on the sand and says, “Lord, welcome is Thy command!” and in tears but with no fear, she goes near the victualled ship with her dear child and leaves off not knowing where the path of Destiny leads her.

Part III
The King on his return laments on what had befallen to his better half and with intense enquiry he find the source of all evils, his mother Doneguild whom he slays at once and pays for her evil deeds. Soon he falls in repentance and undertakes a pilgrimage to Rome.  Meanwhile Emperor of Rome learns all injustice done to her daughter Constance and sends his Senator to Syria to take vengeance.  After executing the command of the king, the senator returns from Syria and finds Constance and her boy Maurice on the way in an adrift ship, not recognising them who they are. Constance has also lost her memory now and both are taken home to the senator's care.  The senator meets Alla and dines with him for courtesy. Alla chances to see the resemblance of Constance with the boy and the much distressed couples at last find them in each other with tears of joy.  Maurice is crowned as the emperor of Rome and the couples return to England where Alla dies after one year.  Constance comes back to Rome – a true home coming in her case. With this, the Man of Law finishes his long tale.

Constance is embodiment of Christian Faith and love.  The trials and adversities she face resemble those of Jesus in wilderness tempted by Saturn.  She gives eyesight back, patiently surrenders to  God in miseries, performs miracles and converts many into Christianity. 

This tale also reveals Chaucer's strong faith in Astrology, for he says before the death of sultan,
“In stars many a winter long before
was written the death of Hector, Achilles,
Of Pompey, Caesar  ‘ere they were born;” 

How did Constance alone escape from  Syria when even her husband Sultan was slain?  How did ,being a woman, she manage to survive on the ship alone even after three years?  Chaucer raises these questions in course of the tale and convinces us by telling that God who saved Daniel when all his men were eaten by lions in the cave saved Constance.  It  is Jesus who fed five thousand folk with just five loaves of bread and two fish, also saved Constance. “God sent his plenty in hour of need.”  The wheel of fortune ever rotates and like Constance, Chaucer expects us to keep our unshakeable Faith in God, both in joys and sorrows. Thus the Man of Law's Tale surpasses all in merits.

The Cook's Tale by Chaucer

NET / SLET / TRB Study Guide
Subject: English, Date: 16th March, 2018

The cook's tale, the fourth one in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales abruptly stops after 58 lines. It has a prologue too and in which the cook rejoices at Reeve's Tale and shares his realisation that as in the case of Miller, it is very dangerous to allow men to stay at your home by night.  The host asks the cook Roger to tell a very good tale to compensate the bad food he has given the company so far. Keeping the story of a hosteller in reserve to be told on return,  the London cook begins his present tale:

An apprentice cook named Perkin Fun-Lover always gets indulged in drinking, singing, dancing, and gathering men of his sort, especially at working hours. He is a fine young man and just as the hive is full of honey, he is full of love and amour.  He is as brown as a berry in appearance, with black locks of hair elegantly combed.  But in what way will it help the master in business? The cash box is always empty and the spendthrift cook even manipulates the accounts and leads the workmates go astray.  The patient master, at one stage, bethinks the proverb – “ Best toss a rotten apple from the hoard, before it rot all the fruits that's present.” He bids 'good riddance' to this young dissolute and debacherous  fellow who is now still more free to drown in merriment.

Just as birds of same feather flock together, he finds a companion who is as devil-may-care and happy-go-lucky as he is. Perkin soon moves his bed and all possessions to his friend’s place.  His friend's wife keeps an inn that is just to make a false impression for hiding her immoral activities.  She is thus a shopkeeper by day but a prostitute by night.  With this, the well-planned and well-begun story is left incomplete.  Some of the manuscripts of Canterbury Tales totally omit this unwhole story, though it's surely from the pen of Chaucer and has its own flavor.

The Reeve's Tale by Chaucer

"Study literature to study man to study life."

NET/SLET/TRB Study Guide
Subject: English, Date: 15.03.2018

This is the third tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and is based on  The sixth tale of the ninth day in Boccaccio's Decameron.  The Reeve Oswald gets affronted by the Miller's Tale that insults the carpenter’s profession because he himself was a carpenter once.  He hurries to repay the Miller by starting his own tale.  A dishonest Miller named Symkyn living near Cambridge used to steal a great deal of wheat and meal from his customers. When the same happens to the sick steward of Cambridge, two Cambridge students, John and Alan vow to beat the Miller at his own game.  They bring a sack of corn and watch the process of grinding pretending as if they don't know anything about grinding.  The miller feels so happy, unites the horses of the students, makes them run behind the horses till night and robs them outrageously.

John and Alan return and request for a stay-and-pay since the night has fallen.  Miller’s is but a single room house and yet he arranges three beds – the first for the Miller with a nearby cradle for his six month old baby boy, the second one for John and Alan and the third for Miller's twenty years old daughter Malyne.  Alan thinks of avenging the Miller and moves over to Malyne's bed and takes advantage of the situation based on the logic “whoever is grieved at one point, is relieved at another.”  The drunken wife goes to relieve herself and John moves the cradle to his bed.  As he planned, Miller's wife returns to John’s bed mistaking it to be the miller's especially seeing the cradle.  He also thus has a happy night. In the early morning, Alan, with emotional words of love,  parts with Malyne who shows him where the stolen flour is.  He comes to Miller's bed taking it to be John’s and tells him how he has repaid the Miller grinding his daughter thrice.  The raged miller rushes to beat the scholars but he’s beaten to the root by his own arrogant wife who mistakes him to one of the scholars.  Meanwhile the scholars flee from the place taking their horse and their stolen flour.  

In Miller’s tale, only his wife is seduced by an Oxford 'scholar' but in Reeve's Tale, both the Miller’s wife and daughter are deflowered by the Cambridge 'scholars.'  Again, the Miller's Tale is a parody of 'the courtly love'  of knight’s tale and here Reeve requites him with the 'cradle-trick tale' that is common during the medieval England and the word grinding is also a common slang for seduction in those days. Bed trick is however not the right way of paying back for miller’s dishonesty and to think of such outrageous stories from the pilgrims to Canterbury raises the question –“ Is the pilgrimage for purification of sins?”

The Miller's Tale by Chaucer

Read Literature, Enjoy and Improve your English

NET / SLET /TRB Study Guide
Subject: English, Date : 14th March, 2018

This is the second tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  As per the order of the social rank, the host invites the Monk to requite the knight’s tale. But the Miller interrupts, insists on proceeding with his tale. He calls his tale as a legend but actually it is a funny tale, a parody of knight's noble story of Palamon and Arcite.  A carpenter named John lives with his 18 years old beautiful wife Alisoun and rents out his house to two Oxford students, Nicholas and Absolon. Being an astrologer and an expert in arts of love, Nicholas quickly brackets Alisoun but Absolon could not attract her in spite of offering gifts and money.  Nicholas plans to outsmart the carpenter and spend a whole night with Alisoun.  He convinces John that he had a vision from God who forewarned him that he would send a flood on Monday with water twice as great as Noah's flood and exterminate all life except the three who could escape by fastening large tubs to the ceiling of the barn with all provisions and axe. When the water rises up, they can cut the rope and float until the flood subsides.

Accordingly John gets everything ready and all the three climb up to their tubs.  Nicholas instructs that as per God’s command, they should only pray, and speak no word. The carpenter soon starts snoring and Nicholas and Alisoun descend to carpenter’s bed to enjoy the whole night.  In the early morning, Absolon comes to the window and asks for a kiss from Alisoun who allows but only on her naked arse. To take revenge on her, he fetches a hot red rod but this time Nicholas is lying near the window with his rear out. Absolon brands his buttocks with the poker though the former farts on his face thunderously.  Burned a lot, Nicholas cries “Help, water… water!”  John wakes up and takes this cry to mean that  God has sent the flood.  He cuts the rope only to crash to the floor and break his arm.  All people rush to his house and consider the carpenter mad to hear his version of God’s flood.  The story ends with John’s prayer to God to save his company, without understanding the least how he had been befooled by Nicholas.

Before Miller begins to narrate, Reeve objects that such a tale would offend carpenters and Chaucer also makes an excuse for the Bawdiness of the story and suggests the reader to skip to the next tale if they are hurt.  What else can come from Miller of such a social rank?  The knight must have been offended by Miller's Tale because the miller ridicules him by presenting two silly students against the honoured and heroic Knights Palamon and Arcite who duel for the hand of Emeley.

The Knight’s Tale by Chaucer

NET / SLET / TRB STUDY GUIDE
Subject: English, Date : 12th March, 2018

This is the first tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The primary source is Boccaccio's epic poem “Teseida” written in XII books in 9896 lines but Chaucer reduced it into IV parts and 2250 lines, though it is the longest tale of all Canterbury Tales. Shakespeare adopted the same story in his “” The Two Noble Kinsmen” in coloration with Fletcher and Dryden's longest poem “Palomon and Arcite” is also based on the same story.

Part I begins with the description of how Theseus, King of Athens after his war with Amazons marries Hypolypta and returns to Athens with Emeley, sister of Hypolypta.  On the way he kills the tyrant Ceron to help people of Thebes and finds two wounded Knights Palamon and Arcite whom he imprisons in his palace cell. Both the knights fall in love with Emeley  and their friendship turns into enmity for a beautiful lady.  After several years Arcite is released from the jail with the help of his friend who  is also a friend to Theseus but with a condition that he should never return to Athens.  Both the knights feel luckier because Palamon can love Emeley better without a rival and Arcite thinks of raising an army and winning Emeley.

In Part II, Lamenting alone in vain and ordered by Mercury, the messenger of gods,  Arcite  returns to Athens but in the disguise of Philostrate as a page to Emeley in order to get close to her and soon earns high position in King's palace.  Palamon on the other hand drugs the jailer and escapes from jail to a  grove where he happens to see Arcite singing of his love.  Both knights engage in a duel but is prevented by king Theseus who arrives there and decides to execute both knights since they have violated the laws.  However intervened by Emeley, he orders both knights to raise an army of hundred men and return in a year for a judicial tournament, a legal and formal combat to win Emeley.

In Part III, both knights return after one year with their own men and get ready for the duel. On the previous day of the tournament, Palamon visits the temple of Venus and prays for his marriage with Emeley, Arcite visits the shrine of Mars, the goddess of war and prays for his victory in the combat. Emeley too goes to the temple of Diana, the goddess of chastity and prays to remain unmarried or marry the one who truly loves her.  All the prayers are answered and it leads to confusion in heaven where Saturn, the God of Destiny declares that all promises of gods will be kept.

Part IV describes the judicial tournament in which Arcite wins the battle by wounding Palamon severely who is taken away from the arena as per tournament rules.  But, Saturn sends a furry from Pluto to arouse the horse of Arcite which overthrows him and drags him to death.  In deathbed, Arcite prays to Emeley to marry Palamon who faithfully and sincerely loves her. Then comes “the first mover", the long speech running into about 100 lines by Theseus who consoles Palamon and Emeley mourning for the death of Arcite. This speech, though reveals the impermanence of all things on earth, is a parody of Boethius's “the Consolation of Philosophy”, the greatest last classical work of the west for medieval England.  The knight’s tale ends with the marriage of Palamon and Emeley bringing out chivalry, romance, war and honour chiefly attributed to Knights.

Chaucer's Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

NET/SLET/TRB Study Guide
Subject: English, Date: 10th March 2018

The Canterbury Tales, in fact, Chaucer's magnum opus is written mostly in verse in late middle English between 1387 and 1400.  A group of 30 pilgrims including Chaucer walking from London to shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury decides to tell two stories onwards and two on return with a compliment of free supper for the best story teller at Tabard Inn in the Southwark.  Thus, it seems, Chaucer planned for 120 tales but the work is incomplete -only 23 pilgrims tell 24 tales in total running into 17000 lines.  Character’s work is modelled on Boccaccio's “Decameron” written in 1358 consisting of 100 tales by seven young women and the young men staying outside Florence to escape the black death.  This most celebrated work by Chaucer is rich with unparalleled realistic character sketches and satirical presentation of contemporary society covering all most all walks of life, popularizing the vernacular language rather than Latin and French which were common in his time.

General Prologue to Canterbury Tales:
The prologue, extending to 858 lines aims at introducing the pilgrims one by one and throwing a good deal of light on their character, array, rank, virtues and vices, interests, with irony, satire and sense of humour.

Character's beginning of the prologue, praising April as the pleasant month is identical with the first part of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" titled 'the burial of the dead' in which Eliot condemns April as the cruelest one:
"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,"  -(Chaucer)

"April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."  -(T.S.Eliot)

  Chaucer begins his description with Knight(1) who loved chivalry, truth, honour, freedom and courtesy.  He was wearing a closely fitting sleeveless jacket over his colourless armour. His male horses were  good but he was not joyful in look. He has been placed and honored above among other knights and had won fifteen battles. He was dignified and wise and yet looked as mild as a maid.

Next comes the son of Knight, a youthful squire (2) who was twenty years old, a bachelor, with average height and well cut curled locks of hair, wearing a short gown with long sleeves, adjusted dress, ornamented with white and red flowers. He took part in many a horse fights just to win the heart of his lady. He was as fresh as the month of May, so romantic and active, being interested in singing, dancing and drawing.

This squire had an yeoman(3), generally a servant ranked between a squire and page. He was looking like a forester, with shortly cut head and green hood, a mighty bow in one hand and sheaf of peacock arrows under his belt, with a sword and shield on the one side and a dagger on the other side, with a silver horn on the chest and a brace in arm. 

Chaucer launches his attack on clergy people starting with a prioress(4) known as Madam Eglantine.   What kind of description it is! Unlike a nun, She was so modest and shy. She had a fair forehead, blue eyes, fine nose and red lips. This is the impression she makes when looked at, being far away from the appearance of the nun, being simple, divine kind and spiritual.  She is not at all concerned with courtly life but has fine table manners – gently taking the food, not dipping her fingers in sauce, wiping her lips with cloth, etc. She is not kind and caring for the sick and poor but for mouse and dogs. She pities for trapped mouse and sick or dead dogs. A golden brooch hanging from a string of beads that she carries has the message “Love conquers all.” Which love it implies is apparent in her expression.  She is also accompanied by three priests(5,6,7) and a Chaplain(8) of whom Chaucer describes nothing.

The prologue is known for Chaucer’s sarcasm on ecclesiastical characters.  The days of Augustine and Benedict Arroyo are gone. Who said that a monk should always be in the monastery? Here is a Monk(9) who is always found outside the monastery, busy with hunting the hare and horse riding.  He never cares the text that says"hunters are unholy men" and a monk outside monastery is like a fish out of water.  With shining bald head and face as of rubbed with oil, with bulging rolling eyes, he was a plump. The gold pin used to fasten his hood, with expensive cloak and the rare squirrel fur used in sleeves made him a revolutionary monk.

Chaucer's attack on the next character the Friar(10), named Hubert is so explicit and apparent.  The Friar is so money minded : people beg for pardon from him for their sins and he begs for such licence from authorities to grant pardon to  pardon sinners because the gifts he receives are more than his regular income.  He also demands for every ballad he sings.  Is the Friar a womanizer? He knows well the women of the town and the innkeeper and maids in the bar much better than the sick, the poor and lepers.  He arranges for the marriage of young women at his own cost, raising doubts whether he had seduced them earlier, as critics have perceived.  A good friar generally values the repentance, weeping and prayer to be essential for purification of sins but this friar replaces them with gifts for the Friar. He lived by pickings and ,with his neck, as white as Lilly (only neck, not heart),  looked like a champion, not a friar.

Next comes a short, simple and direct description of a merchant(11) who had a forked beard and a beaver furred hat.  He appeared elegantly and talked solemnly, all concerning the profits. He knows how to deal with foreign currencies and his business affairs of buying and selling.

Another good character to come out of Chaucer's pen is the CLERK, an Oxford scholar(12), done with study of logic.  He was a bookworm and a great philosopher and yet he had a strongbox with little gold. This extremely lean scholar in torn coat looked as if he was in diet and spent all his money and time on books.  He would like to have twenty  books of Aristotle at his bed rather than rich clothes and fiddle like others. He was moralistic but brief and direct in his speech and never said a word more.

Among with these people was the SERGEANT OF LAW (13), known as a high ranking attorney. He was busy but so judicious and dignified. He maintained a Year Book consisting of all cases and decisions ever since king Williams and he had all laws at his finger tips.  He was also a wise buyer of land. He was found riding in his justice coat tied with belt of silk with stripes.

The next interesting character portrayed by Chaucer is FRANKLIN (14), the landlord who was also a member of parliament, a sheriff and an auditor of taxes.  He was Epicurus' son, dominated by the humor “blood" and for him life meant “eat, drink and be happy.”  He loved to dip a loaf of bread in wine and nowhere we can find a man than he who stocked in abundance food, wine, partridges and fish at home.  His table should always be ready for dining in dainties, with food hot and spicy with sharp aroma, otherwise his cooks will be in woe.  His beard was as white as daisy and he had a dagger and a silk purse in his belt. In his own village, he was however known as Saint Julian, a patron of hospitality.

Then Chaucer proceeds to describe a group of crafts men – HABERDASHER (15) -a dealer in sewing goods, CARPENTER(16), WEAVER(17), DYER(18) and TAPESTRY-MAKER(19). They all uniformly were in one uniform and had their equipment, tools, silver knives, belts and purses neatly and well, making solid citizens.   They had the knowledge and skill required for their profession and had sustainable income, otherwise their wives might blame and wish for calling “madame”, attending holiday feasts in an evening and their gown with a train to be borne royally.

These pilgrims had with them a COOK(20), especially to cook chickens with flavor of spices.  None but he alone can rightly judge the London beer. He knows how to boil, broil, roast and fry. Nobody can surpass him in making sausage or pie.

There was also a SHIPMAN (21) from Dartmouth dressed in a woollen gown to his knee and having dagger hanging on a cord. He had stolen a great deal of wine from the merchant during his sleep. As for his skill, he knew to read  well all tides, perils of the ocean, and the position of moon and the harbours.  No shipman can be better than him because as Chaucer says, “With many a tempest hadde his berd been shake.” and his ship was called Maudelayne.

In those days, doctors were astronomers too and the best example is Chaucer's DOCTOR OF MEDICINE(22) who treated his patients in their astronomically favourable hours.  By reading their horoscope, he was able to know the cause and sources of their disease. Chaucer's DOCTOR, just like today's doctor,  had a close tie up with medicine sellers and both were profited by each other. He had studied well the books of great physicians of the past such as Hippocrates and Constantine. He still preserved gold that he had earned at the time of plague.

Next comes the beautiful and ironical description of WOMAN OF BATH (23), a typical housewife of medieval Europe.  She is so angry if anybody comes before her to the church but it is a million dollar question whether she follows morality and charity taught in the bible.  She is out of charity for her neighbours. She has married as many as five husbands and the companions of her youth are also more. She knows old dance of tricks and remedies for love though she had undertaken many pilgrimages including three times visit to Jerusalem. Being fair and bold (for what?) and with broad hat on head, new shoes on foot and overskirt worn around her large hips, she made the impression of a distinct gorgeous housewife.

Quite contrary to the bad examples of unholy Friar and Prioress, Chaucer now presents a good example of PARSON(24) who was poor in finance but rich in holy thought and service.  He did not excommunicate his parishioners for non-payment but spent his own money for them.  Being a good shepherd, he first practised before teaching the gospels of Christ and his twelve apostles, because, as Chaucer says, “That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?”  He was so devoted, diligent, impartial and gracious that he visited his folk whether they are of high rank or low, farther or near, in rain or thunder and in sickness or in trouble.

The person had a brother with him, a PLOWMAN(25), dressed in sleeveless jacket, riding upon a female horse  who surpassed others in his sincere love towards God and neighbours, and in his sincerity in work.  He was sincere in dragging the cartload of dung, in threshing and in digging ditches.  The housewife woman of Bath who had no love for neighbours is contrasted here with plowman, a good example, who never failed in his love for neighbours. 

Next comes the MILLER(26) and Chaucer's description his appearance and character is impressive and unique.  The miller is very stout and largely built. Being a man of strong muscles and bones, he always won the first prize in wrestling. His beard was as broad as a spade and as red as a female pig or Fox.  His mouth was as large as a furnace. He wore a white coat and blue hood and had a sword and a shield by his side.  In talk, he was a loudmouth and in behaviour, he was a buffoon, sinner and a cheat. Why should he heave off every door from its hinges or break it with his head unnecessarily wherever he goes? Is he not a thief when he steals corn from his customer coming to his mill? The only positive aspect with him is that he was an unbeatable wrestler and a good player of bag-pipe.

Next common man described by Chaucer is the MANCIPLE(27), a man in charge of buying food and grains in a court of law.  Chaucer talks nothing of his appearance but briefly sketches his character. The manciple was skilled in buying food stuff and proved a good example for others. As for his wit and wisdom, it was more than three times of ten matters in the court of law and he could even fool a sheriff.  Another significant aspect in his character is that he lived economically with what he earned -in honour and without debt.

Another unfaithful and disloyal servant portrayed by Chaucer is the REEVE(28), a local staff in charge of granary, livestock and poultry. As for appearance, this reeve has closely shaved beard and front head, with hair cropping by his ear side. He wore a dark blue coat and had a rusty sword by his side.  He is very lean -his legs are as thin as a stick with no calf to be seen. What draws our attention more is his trickery and treachery equipped with his skill. Nobody but he knows the yield of his stock by drought or rain.  What he gives of his stock is the record and even his master cannot find the truth hidden.  He sometimes pleases his lord by giving or lending the provisions of his own lord and gets a coat and hood as a reward. All were afraid of his subtle trickery as they were afraid of plague. He was but a good craftsman and a carpenter too.

The next distinct character is SUMMONER(29).  With pimpled face, knobs on his cheeks, with swollen eyelids and incurable pustules, beard with fallen out hair, he made an ugly and horrifying appearance that children were afraid of seeing him.  Not only his face but also his soul was ugly and corrupt. He was so hot and lecherous. He was an addict to wine that just for a quarter of wine he would even allow any fellow to have his concubine for twelve months. If the sinners have a big purse, they need not be afraid of excommunication and this summoner can arrange for pardon but, as he says, only the client’s purse takes him to archdeacon's hell, not he. It's so funny to see that with little knowledge of two or three legal terms, he managed to strike the people with a cry – “the question is, what point of the law applies?”

The last pilgrim described by Chaucer is the PARDONER(30) who rode on a horse stylistically being bare-headed except his cap with Veronica (the image of Jesus Christ), with hair as yellow as wax spread over the shoulder and with glaring eyes of the hare and closely shaved face. He is money-minded that  he used to sing his favourite song “Come hither, love, to me" and the Christian anthem offertory to win silver from his audience.  He was basically a eunuch or homosexual. He was a man of flattery and tricks that he carried a knapsack with full of order of pardons for the sinners and convicted criminals; his pouch had a pillowcase that he called “Our Lady’s veil”, a piece of sail that he called St.Peter’s, a cross with stones and a glass container with pig’s bones.  He can sell these relics to any poor parson in any village and make money in a day what the parson would earn in two months. Thus he strongly resembles the summoner in cheating the religious people.

The last part of the prologue gives a short description of the host and details how all pilgrims came to tabard inn at the previous night of their journey, had the delicious dinner and agreed to the story telling contest suggested by the host. The host was wise, bold, impressive and well mannered. He agreed to accompany the pilgrims being a guide and judge of their tales.  But he made a condition that whoever disagreed with his judgement should pay all that is spent during the journey. All consented unanimously.  The next day early morning, the host Harry Bailey awakened them like the rooster and they started their pilgrimage to Canterbury. As already planned, through “ draw the straw” method, they selected the first person to start his story, that was the Knight.

It's so certain that his characters are so diverse, distinct and universal -every Chaucer's reader will find himself at least in any one of the characters.  The world is whole, just with all positive and negative, both good and evils and Chaucer's characters are so, both positive and negative, a mixture of Good and evil, for example, with merciful Parson on the one side and money minded Friar on the other side. His characters are not unreal and exaggerated but typical human beings alive filled with their own whims and fancies, dignity and grandeur on one side and  follies and frailties on the other side. No novelist in English Literature can portray a character better than Chaucer. Though the prologue presents full cross-section of fourteen century English middle class ranging from the Knight to Plowman, the main focus is on ecclesiastical characters, revealing both virtues and vices in true colours.  We are to agree with Dryden when he says "Here is God's plenty.
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