LES CONTES DE CANTERBURY (THE CANTERBURY TALES)

CANTERBURY TALES
Geoffrey Chaucer

• The most notable and most prolific English writer of the Middle English is Geoffrey Chaucer. He is considered as the Father of English Literature.
• His career and work for his country spanned a broad and varied field and, at various time, he was a soldier, courtier, diplomat, civil administrator, and translator of books in English.
• The “Canterbury Tales” is the first serious collection of stories.
• St. Tomas a Becket are enshrined in Canterbury where people flock to every year.
• He was a Norman who had risen to power as archbishop of Canterbury on the appointment of his friend and king, Henry II.
• At that time, there was a conflict between the church and the state. Becket turns out to be an independent-minded archbishop who sometimes took the side of the Pope.
• The King with his four overzealous knights plan and execute the murder of Becket.
• A group of pilgrims approach the Tabard Inn in the town of Southwark across the river from London.
• Traveling on a horseback, the pilgrims face a long and ardous journey to Canterbury.
• They decide to spend the night at Tabard Inn.
• The landlord busied himself preparing for the need of his incoming guests.
• As the band of travelers file in one by one down innyard, stable boys are called to tend their horses and bowls of water are fetched to wash up.
• Food is brought in from the kitchen—and the place smells instantly of good hot soups of fish, chicken and meats cooked in garlic, onions and English spices and condinements, puddings and pastries and wine.
• The landlord presides and proposes thate each relate two stories on the way to Canterbury and two stories on the way back.
• The one who tells the best stories will be feted to free dinner at the expense of others at the end of the journey.
• The landlord accompanies them to judge.

Character List

The Pilgrims

The Host: He is the proprietor of the Tabard Inn where the pilgrims to Canterbury stay and travels with them on their journey. It is the Host who devised the scheme of the tales, proposing that each tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and he frequently mediates arguments between pilgrims and suggests who shall tell the next story
The Knight: A noble fighter who served in the Crusades, he travels with his son, the Squire. The Knight tells the first tale, a romantic tale of a love triangle between two knights and a woman they both love.
The Squire: A 'lusty bachelor' of twenty, the Squire is the son of the Knight. He tells an incomplete tale concerning the gifts that a mysterious knight brings to the court of Tartary.
The Knight's Yeoman: The Yeoman is the second servant who travels with the Knight. He does not tell a tale.
The Prioress: A delicate, sentimental woman, the Prioress weeps over any small tragedy such as the death of a mouse. She attempts to appear refined, but her refinement is superficial. Her tale concerns the murder of a small child at the hands of Jews who loathe the child for singing about the Virgin Mary.
The Second Nun: The secretary to the Prioress, the Second Nun tells as her tale the biography of Saint Cecilia.
The Monk: A robust and masculine man, the Monk travels with the Prioress and Second Nun. He tells the tale of a hen and her 'husband,' a rooster who prophesies misfortune.
The Friar (Hubert): He is an immoral man concerned largely with profit rather than turning men away from sin. His tale is an attack on the wickedness of summoners.
The Merchant: He is an arrogant man obsessed with profit margins. His story is a comic tale concerning an elderly blind man who takes a young wife who proves unfaithful.
The Clerk: The Clerk is a student at Oxford, and his lack of an actual profession leaves him impoverished. Although educated, his intellectual pursuits have left him virtually unemployable. He tells a tale of the humble Griselde, who marries a man of high status who cruelly tests her devotion to him.
The Man of Law: The lawyer tells a religiously inspired tale concerning Constance, a woman who suffers a number of tragedies but is at each turn saved by her devotion to her Christian beliefs.
The Franklin: He travels with the Man of Law. The Franklin is a man who takes delight in all simple pleasures, most prominently culinary ones. His story is that of a woman who promises to have an affair with a man if he can do something she deems impossible that would nevertheless save her husband.
The Weaver: One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell a tale.
The Dyer: One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell a tale.
The Carpenter: One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell a tale.
The Tapestry-Maker: One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell a tale.
The Haberdasher: One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell a tale.
The Cook: A lewd and vulgar man, the Cook often engages in violent and contentious behavior. He tells a tale that appears to be a fabliau. However, this tale does not exist in a completed form.
The Shipman: He tells the tale of a woman who agrees to have an affair with a monk who will pay her so that she can repay a debt to her husband, but this monk borrows this money from the husband himself.
The Physician: The Physician tells a tale about a father who, in order to protect his daughter from scoundrels who contrive to rape her, murders his daughter.
The Wife of Bath: The most ostentatious of the travelers, the Wife of Bath has been married five times and is currently searching for another man to marry. The Wife of Bath is opinionated and boisterous, and her tale, which centers around the question "what do women want?," promotes her view that women wish to have authority over men.
The Parson: The Parson is a man devoted to his congregation, decent and principled. His tale is a long dissertation on the definition of sin and its various forms.
The Miller: A large man with an imposing physique, the Miller is rude and contemptuous of his fellow travelers. His tale is a comic story of a devious student who contrives to have an affair with the wife of a dimwitted carpenter.
The Manciple: Also trained in the law, the Manciple tells a fable that attributes the dark appearance and unpleasant sound of crows to the actions of a white crow who told the god Phoebus of his wife's infidelity.
The Reeve: A slender man with a fiery temper, he tells a tale in response to the Miller's Tale. His tale concerns a villainous Miller who is humiliated by two Oxford students.
The Summoner: The profession of the summoner is to issue summons for people to appear in front of the Church court, and in this the Summoner is quite unfair. He tells a tale in response to the Friar's diatribe against summoners that parodies the Friar's profession.
The Pardoner: An effeminate and shamelessly immoral man, the Pardoner is intensely self-loathing yet devoted to his task of defrauding people of their money by making them believe that they have sinned and need to buy pardons. His tale is an allegory about three rioters who find death through their avarice. The Pardoner uses this tale as an attempt to sell false relics to the travelers.
The Canon: A mysterious and threatening figure, he and his Yeoman are not original travelers with the pilgrims to Canterbury. They seek out the party when they learn about the tales that they have been telling. When the Canon's Yeoman reveals too much about his master's profession, the Canon suddenly disappears.
The Canon's Yeoman: The assistant to the Canon, he speaks openly about his master's tricks as an alchemist, prompting the Canon to leave the pilgrims. The Yeoman then admits that he regrets the deceptions of his master, and tells a tale that details the methods of a canon's fraud..
Knight's Tale

Arcite: Theban knight who is imprisoned in Athens but released on the intervention of his friend Pirithous, he and his friend Palamon both fall in love with Emelye. He prays to Mars for aid in his duel with Palamon for Emelye, and although he wins the battle, he suddenly is killed in an earthquake upon his victory.
Palamon: Theban knight who is imprisoned in Athens. Both he and Arcite fall in love with Emelye. Before the duel for her hand in marriage, Palamon prays to Venus, the goddess of love, to win Emelye as a wife. Although he loses the battle, he wins Emelye as a wife when Arcite dies.
Emelye: The sister of Hippolyta, she is a pawn within the struggle between Arcite and Palamon, both who have fallen in love with her. Although she wishes to remain chaste in honor of the goddess, Diana, she accepts that she must marry one of the two knights.
Theseus: The King of Athens, he wages war upon Thebes in response to the injustice of the Theban king, and imprisons Arcite and Palamon. He sets the rules and regulations of their duel for Emelye.
Hippolyta: The Queen of Scythia, she is the husband of Theseus, King of Athens, and the sister of Emelye.
Pirithous: A prince and childhood friend of Theseus, he intervenes to have Arcite released from prison on the condition that he never return to Athens.
Lycurgus: The king of Thrace, he fights with Palamon during his duel with Arcite.
Emetreus: The king of India, he fights with Arcite during his duel with Palamon.
Miller's Tale

John: An oafish carpenter, he is an older man who marries the much younger Alison. He foolishly believes Nicholas' prediction that a second great flood is coming, and hides in a kneading bucket on his roof in preparation for it.
Alison: The crafty wife of John the carpenter, Alison is much younger than her husband. She has an affair with Nicholas, a boarder who stays with her and her husband.
Nicholas: An Oxford student who boards with John and Alison, Nicholas claims to study astronomy. He has an affair with Alison and conspires to have a day of privacy with her, but proves himself less crafty than he believes when he falls prey to Absolon's prank.
Absolon: A delicate, courtly lover who pursues Alison, he is a skilled musician and an unabashed romantic. He suffers humiliation at the hands of Alison, but gets revenge on Nicholas.
Reeves's Tale

Symkyn: A vulgar, dishonest and foolish miller, Symkyn repeatedly cheats his customers out of grain. He receives his comeuppance when two Cambridge students that he has cheated seduce his wife and daughter then steal their grain back from him.
Aleyn: A Cambridge student who seduces the miller's daughter, Molly, when he and John stay at the miller's house.
John: A Cambridge student who seduces the miller's wife when he and Aleyn stay at the Miller's house.
Molly: The daughter of the Miller, she is a somewhat unattractive young woman, yet Aleyn nevertheless seduces her when the two students stay at the miller's home.
Man of Law's Tale

Constance: The daughter of the Roman emperor, she is given to be married to the Sultan of Syria after he agrees to convert to Christianity, but when his mother opposes this, she narrowly escapes an assassination attempt and ends up in England, where she marries King Alla and, escaping treachery once more, is sent back to Rome. She is a devoted Christian whose faith aids her throughout all of her travails.
The Sultan: The King of Syria, he agrees to convert to Christianity to marry Constance, but his actions infuriate his mother, who has him assassinated.
The Sultana: Villainous mother of the Sultan, she refuses to convert from Islam on the orders of her son and plots his assassination.
Dame Hermengild: The wife of the Warden of the Northumberland region where Constance lands in England, she converts to Christianity through the influence of Constance. A devious knight murders her in an attempt to frame Constance.
The Warden: The husband of Dame Hermengild, he watches over the castle of Northumberland while King Alla is at war. He converts to Christianity along with his wife.
King Alla: The English king of Northumberland, he marries Constance but is separated from her because of the machinations of his mother, Lady Donegild.
Lady Donegild: The treacherous mother of King Alla, she contrives to have Constance and her child banished from England. King Alla murders her for her evil actions.
Mauritius: The son of King Alla and Constance, he becomes the emperor of Rome when Constance's father realizes his royal lineage.

TEXT CHECK

Identify what is being described or referred by the following statements:

________________1. He is the proprietor of the Tabard Inn where the pilgrims to Canterbury stay and
travels with them on their journey.
________________2. He is an immoral man concerned largely with profit rather than turning men away
from sin. His tale is an attack on the wickedness of summoners
________________3. One of the five guildsmen who travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury, he does not tell
a tale.
________________4. It secured Chaucer's literary reputation. It is his great literary accomplishment, a
compendium of stories by pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Thomas a Becket.
________________5.Theban knight who is imprisoned in Athens but released on the intervention of his
friend Pirithous, he and his friend Palamon both fall in love with Emelye.
________________6.Theban knight who is imprisoned in Athens. Both he and Arcite fall in love with
Emelye. Before the duel for her hand in marriage,
________________7. The sister of Hippolyta, she is a pawn within the struggle between Arcite and
Palamon, both who have fallen in love with her. Although she wishes to remain
chaste in honor of the goddess, Diana, she accepts that she must marry one of the two knights.
________________8. An oafish carpenter, he is an older man who marries the much younger Alison. He
foolishly believes Nicholas' prediction that a second great flood is coming, and hides in a kneading bucket on his roof in preparation for it.
________________9. An Oxford student who boards with John and Alison, Nicholas claims to study
astronomy. He has an affair with Alison and conspires to have a day of privacy with her, but proves himself less crafty than he believes when he falls prey to Absolon's prank.
_________________10. A vulgar, dishonest and foolish miller, Symkyn repeatedly cheats his customers out
of grain. He receives his comeuppance when two Cambridge students that he has cheated seduce his wife and daughter then steal their grain back from him.