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.