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.”