The Shipman's Tale by Chaucer

Summary and Review:

The Pardoner's Tale by Chaucer

This fourteenth tale in Canterbury Tales has a “physician-pardoner link" in which the host reviews the physician's tale as the most striking one arousing pity in everyone and says that the very beauty of Virginia has turned the Judge mad and has brought death to her as the gifts of fortune and nature always cause death to many good people. The host invites the Pardoner to tell a merry tale now to ease the pilgrims. But the pilgrims are afraid that the Pardoner may tell a quite obscene tale and so they insist him to tell a moral tale to which he agrees and begins his prologue to his tale. 

The Prologue throws a good deal of light on the character of the Pardoner and his way of preaching. He says that his theme of all preaching is “the love of money is the root of all evil", but he himself confesses that he commits that very sin. He is skilful in selling his relics to his folks. He shows a brass shoulder-bone of a holy jew's dead sheep and convinces people that if it is washed in a well, the well water will get the power to cure the cattle stung by snake. He also has a glove that will empower the user to multiply his grain. He reserves such relics not for sinners or cuckold but for good people, especially the unlettered ones.   Since he is drunk now, he unfolds his heart that he must have money, wool, cheese, wheat, wine and a jolly young woman in every town.  He thus begins his tale:
“For though myself, I’m a sinful man,
Tell you a moral tale? Well, that I can"

There was a wicked city named Flanders with full of gamblers, drunkards, thieves, lechers, gluttons and liars.  There, a company of three young friends sat in a tavern and indulged in drinking.  They could see a coffin carried to the grave and knew from their servant boy that the dead man is none other than one of their old friends and was slain at drunken state last night by a thief called Death who then stole his breath.  Both the boy and the innkeeper revealed that the thief had killed thousands of people in the nearby village of pestilence and his habitation must probably be there.  The three friends swore to join together and kill the thief.  They rushed to the village and found an old man who was ever wandering and looking for someone  who is young and may exchange the youth for his old age.  Asked upon the whereabouts of the thief, the old man directed them to reach the end of the lane nearby and find the thief under a tree there. 

The three profligates found but eight bushels of fine gold coins under the tree.  The most wicked of them suggested to enjoy the time with bread and wine and carry the gold home late at night without the knowledge of others. They drew a lot and sent the youngest one to go to the city for fetching food and wine. The Two friends safeguarding the gold plotted to kill the other one on his return in a pretended game.  But the one who brought wine added poison it to kill the remaining two so as to possess the entire gold. Thus all the three encountered Death.

After telling the story, as he used to do with his folk, now the Pardoner begs for money showing his relics.  He asks the host first to try his relics or bull (pope's order of pardon) to clear of his sins. The raged host bursts,
“I would I had your bollocks in my hand,
Instead of relics or some reliquary!
Have them cut off, them I’ll help you carry,
And they shall be enshrined in a hog's turd.”
The Knight intervenes them and ease the situation by bringing them near and kiss each other friendly.

Criticism:
We can forgive the Pardoner for his greed and hypocrisy but how can we, when he says, he “must have jolly wench in every town!”?  There bursts a hilarious laughter when the Pardoner starts begging from his own fellow pilgrims with his so called relics.  Who can  portray and ridicule at the corrupt Pardoner better than Chaucer? The tale is but a widespread moral story for children often making its presence nowadays in hints development exercise and the theme is ‘sin of avarice' – money is the root of all evil. The story of three brothers in the Harry potter universe and Rudyard Kipling's “the King's Ankus” in the Second Jungle Book are modelled on this Pardoner's tale.

As for pardoner's character, he who preaches against what he practices is an antithesis to Parson who preaches what he practices.  In the beginning of the tale, or even in the prologue, the Pardoner is simply making a mountain out of the molehill and to a greater portion, it is full of morals: to condemn drunkenness, he quotes Seneca and to deplore gluttony, he quotes Paul. Thus a long lecture frequents to elucidate each wickedness. The allegorical significance of the story is another aspect worth mentioning. Death is personified as a thief who steals one's breath and the three so called friends, being hungry for money, are stolen of their breath by the thief under the tree.  Their drunkenness, gluttony and avarice join together and bring their fatal end. Some critics have seen the old man as Death’s messenger as well.

The Physician’s Tale by Chaucer

This is the thirteenth tale in “Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer.

A knight called Virginius has a fourteen years old daughter named Virginia endowed with beauty and all other virtues that the world may envy of.  Nature has, as Chaucer says, created her with such excellence that no one can show a counterfeit. To be fair and virtuous is not a sin but it tempts others to sin.  It so bechances in the case of Appius, the Judge of the town who is smitten by her beauty. Evil runs into his heart and he says:
“This maid shall be mine, before any man!”

With foul appetite, the lustful judge schemes to bring false charges against her father and thereby to own her.  He finds a rogue called Claudius who agrees to his plan being threatened.  He accuses the knight that he had stolen his servant Virginia and whom he pretended to be his daughter.  Though the Judge says,

“……. In the defendant’s absence,
I cannot bring this new case to sentence.
Summon him and I shall gladly hear;
You shall have justice, not injustice here”

he, after fetching the knight to the court, gives no chance to him to defend himself.  He immediately orders the knight to bring forth her daughter and leave her to Claudius for ever.  The knight is struck with horror to know the plot of the Judge and Claudius. 
What can a helpless father like Virginius do? He returns home with his face as dead as ashes and asks her daughter to die in his hand rather than being ashamed of losing her virginity to the evil judge. Virginia compares herself to Jephtha in the bible and tells her father,

“Blessed be God That I shall die a maid!
Grant me death before I come to shame.
Do with your child as you will, in God’s name.”

The father strikes off her head and takes it to the Judge who, in rage, sentences the knight to death.  But people who have come to know of the villainy of the Judge and Claudius rushes to the court to riot on behalf of the father.  The judge is then put into jail where he commits suicide in shame.  Claudius is also sentenced to death but, upon the knight's plea, he is exiled instead.  All others, having a part in this crime, are either exiled or hanged. The physician ends his tale with a moral:
“Forsake sin, before sin may you forsake.”

Criticism:
This moral story is based on the histories of Titus Livius and is retold by Chaucer in his “Romance of the Rose” and John Gower's “Confessio Amantis”.  It also resembles a little the story of Jephthah in the bible who, to keep his vow, kills her own virgin daughter.  Reference to Virginius is also found in Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” in which Lavinia is killed by her father not to outlive the shame of rape.

The theme of the story is “consent and sacrifice" and it is also a moral allegory with characters such as Virginius, Virginia and Appius.  Strangely this tale, unlike others in the Canterbury collection, is brief, simple and direct without a prologue and epilogue.  The end is sudden and unbelievable.  How fast furious people of the town change the course of the story! Claudius having direct connection is not killed but many, being ‘accessories to the wickedness', are hanged.  But Chaucer hasn't told anything of these accessories anywhere in the story.  Above all, is not gross injustice to leave foul Claudius alive and behead virtuous Virginia? The story proclaims the moral of the bible: “the wages of sin is death" but what is the sin committed by Virginia? The judgement to the judge is also sudden and unconvincing.  The continuity between Franklin’s Tale and this Physician's tale is also mysteriously missing and the story straightaway begins leaving no clue whether it follows the Franklin’s.

The Franklin’s Tale by Chaucer

This is the twelfth tale in “The Canterbury Tales" written by Chaucer.

The Squire who started his tale in a grand manner with magical elements is unable to continue his tale. (Perhaps Chaucer had a great plan but suffered from insufficient time).  So Chaucer introduces “The Squire-Franklin link” in which Franklin appreciates Squire for his successful attempt and wise acquittance:
“In Faith, Squire, well you did yourself acquit,
And right nobly too; I applaud your wit.”

From the prologue, we come to know that Franklin has a son who is a good for nothing fellow, always playing dice with his ill-mannered friends.  Franklin is jealous of the noble Squire, the son of Knight and longs to have such a son.  Now, directed by the Host, he begins to narrate his tale.

The Franklin’s Tale:
A noble knight called Arveragus, living in Armorica falls in love with a beautiful maiden named Dorigen who, filled with compassion for his woe, gives green signal.  He swears,
“That never in all his life, day or night,
Would he take upon himself the mastery,
Against her will, not show her jealousy,
But obey her and follow her will in all.”
She also takes a pledge, “ I will be your humble loyal wife.”

They get married and live in bliss a year or two till the knight leaves for England to pursue his honour in military services.  In his absence, she mourns, wails, fasts, cries, languishes and longs for his presence.  Her friends try at their best to change her mood by all means but in vain.  Above all, the numerous devilish rocks on the shore which have sucked 'a hundred thousand souls' by causing shipwreck annoy and threaten her a lot.  Her friends who are now half successful in lifting up her soul takes her to a garden for dance and play where she chances to see the most handsome squire Aurelius who has loved her two years or more but only now dares to unfold his heart to her. She makes no compromise with her fidelity to her husband.  She, however, playfully and teasingly assigns him a Herculean task:
“I say when the coast is rendered so clean,
Of rocks, that never a stone can be seen-
Then I will love you more than any man.”

With tears running down his cheeks, he laments and prays to God Apollo to ask his sister Luna, the goddess of sea to raise a great flood to wash away the highest rocks on the shore in Brittany.  He soon swoons in woe. 

His brother, filled with pity, takes him to France where he knows a friend well-versed in magic who may perhaps help them.  They meet a conjurer who makes an illusion of forests, parks with deer, hounds hunting them, knights jousting on a pain and Dorigen dancing with him.  These visions stand testimony to the skill of the magician who makes an agreement with Aurelius to fulfil his demand for thousand pounds. 

The next day, the philosopher in magic goes to Brittany and with the spell of his magic, makes an illusion of complete disappearance of all rocks on the shore.  Aurelius goes to Dorigen and asks her to verify the clean shore devoid of rocks and reminds her of her promise to love him. She stands astonished to see this miracle and curses herself for the pledge she made.  She decides to die rather than getting defiled of her chastity. She remembers thousands of women of the past who dared to die rather than fall a victim to their foe:  When thirty tyrants slew Phedon and ordered to seize his daughters for dancing nakedly before them, these woeful maidens jumped into a well and drowned themselves;  When Romans seized the city of Carthage, Hasdrubal's fair wife with all her children leaped into fire lest the enemies should ravage her.  She also remembers Homer's Penelope who ended her life after knowing the death of Protesilaus, and the noble Portia who dared not to outlive her husband Brutus.  Thus the list goes endless.

Dorigen is determined to die but her husband Avergarus who has recently returned from England comes to know the reason behind her distress.  He who values keeping one’s word as the noblest thing asks her to keep her promise to Aurelius and, with almost lost soul, sends her to him.  But Aurelius, after knowing the nobility of the knight and the distress of virtuous Dorigen, is reluctant to fulfil his foul appetite. He releases her from her pledge and from her bondage to him.  The knight and Dorigen live together happily thereafter.  Aurelius now realises that he does not have thousand pounds to pay the magician.  He makes an appeal that he may be permitted to pay 500 pounds now and the remaining on instalment basis in a year or two lest he should sell all his estates to pay his debit at once.  The noble-hearted magician, after knowing the change of Aurelius' mind in Dorigen's case, relieves him from the agreement completely. Franklin ends his tale by raising a question to his fellow pilgrims – “who among the four is the noblest and the most generous?”

Criticism:
The story presents four noble hearts – the knight Avergarus to whom observing one's promise is more important than keeping fidelity to the life partner; his wife Dorigen who would rather die than being unfaithful to her husband; the squire Aurelius who sacrifices his love for the betterment of the lady he loves; the noble magician who refuses to get his payment of 1000 pounds on moral ground. Dorigen is, in fact,  the other extreme of January in the Merchant's Tale who cuckolds her husband by maintaining an illegal affair with the squire Damian. Further, Chaucer's deep insight into love, marriage, the life of Knight, the pains of separation and black magic can be traced out here. This is a significant story in which each character falls victim to their own desire – the knight finds his interest in war and is about to lose his wife, Dorigen desires the rocks to be washed away and makes her own trap out of her love for her husband; Aurelius risks all his property to win the knight’s wife without whom he is no more. However two mysteries are still remaining unanswered: first, the squire-Franklin link which fails to answer why the squire left his tale unfinished; secondly, nothing happens to Dorigen who but cites examples of more than 17 faithful women, from Greek and Roman literature, to justify her death.  It is rather surplus and makes the readers grow impatient.

The Squire's Tale by Chaucer

When the Merchant finishes his tale, the host invites the squire, the son of the Knight to tell an interesting tale of romance.  The Squire, obeying his order, narrates a story as follows:

PART ONE
Once a king called Cambiuskan ruled Sarai with his wife Elpheta.  He had two sons Algarsife and Cambalo and a beautiful daughter named Canace.  While the king was celebrating his twentieth anniversary of his successful sovereignty in a grand manner, there came a knight in the middle of the celebration with some magical gifts – a brass horse, a magical ring, a sword and a mirror. He said that these were the gifts from the King of Araby to Cambiuskan and each one had its own unique unbelievable magical power.

The house of brass, so high and majestic, could fly in the sky and the king, by using the pins in its ears can go anywhere in the world within twenty four hours and could make it disappear from others' sight if he wished.  The second gift, the magical mirror can be used to see anything that is hidden, whether it is a treason against the king or the illegal love affair of a knight to deceive Canace.  The third gift, the magical sword can pierce through any armour and its flat surface,  if pressed on , can close the wounds and make the person alive.  The fourth one, the magical ring enables the wearer to hear the voice of birds and animals and the person can even communicate with them.  The King, lords and all people of the country get amazed at magical qualities of the gifts. The feast and celebration continues till the day.

PART TWO
The king's daughter Canace, awakened by her old governess, goes for a walk through a park, accompanied by her attendants.  With the help of the magic ring, She is capable of understanding everything that the birds speak.  She chances to see a female falcon grieving, stabbing itself with her beaks and shrieking loudly and deeply expressing her sorrow.  Canace understands that the falcon was once proposed by a hawk who was but a hypocrite, a serpent lurking under flowers.  Her lover appeared fair in manners but his villainy in heart existed just as a tomb looks fair above but has a corpse beneath.  The falcon reciprocated its love and both lived happily for sometime.  But one day the hawk took leave of the falcon with a promise to come back.  The falcon believed his words but he did not return.  It was so painful to the falcon to see her lover one day with another kite, the new lady-love.  With broken heart, the falcon lamented and wept alone, shrieking and wounding itself.  With great bleeding, it now fell from the tree but Canace spread her skirt wide and caught the wounded falcon.  She took it home and dressed its wounds to the cure. 

The Squire proposes to tell later how the falcon claimed her life again helped by the king's daughter.  He now proceeds to tell the war adventures of the king Cambiuskan, how his son Algarsife won the love of Theodora with the help of the house of brass and how Cambalo fought for Canace in a critical situation.

PART THREE
With just two lines as given below, the squire leaves the tale unfinished.
“Apollo whirled his chariot up so high,
Into the God’s house, Mercury the sly,”

Criticism:
Unlike the wife of Bath, the Squire is very brief in his prologue but bombastic and too elaborate in his narration that is incomplete like the Cook's Tale.  His description of celebration and the greatness of horse of brass repeats itself at regular intervals and tests the readers' patience a lot.  Of all the pilgrims, this squire is the first one to express his belief in magical elements.  The chief source of his well begun story has been identified as "The Romance of the Rose" by Guillame de Lorris. Though the tale is unfinished, It reveals Chaucer's experience as a squire himself in his life and it is also sublime with poetic splendour at certain places, especially when Canace expresses her pity for the wounded falcon:
“You slay me with your sorrow, verily.”