As part of the online course Hillsdale offers in the Great Books, I read The Canterbury Tales. I may have read a bit of this in high school. I don't remember. But I do remember that some were definitely bypassed for being "baudy." Yeah. That's true. Although Chaucer tries to claim that he is just one of the pilgrims who happens to record the stories told, and he even asks forgiveness at the end if he's offended, obviously they are all of his construction. His narrative device to coalesce all the disparate stories is the tale of a journey of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. They represent many stations of life from high and holy, to low and mean. To pass the time, each is to tell two tales and the best will win a steak dinner. It appears Chaucer didn't really finish the Tales because no one tells two stories, there are editing errors and it's based on fragments, and we do not find out a winner. But we do get Chaucer's apology to wind the book up.
So here I compile a short summary of each tale.
After drawing straws, the Knight goes first. He tells of two cousins, Arcite and Palamon, captured in battle. They are sentenced to spend life in prison. Although grateful to have each other, one day they spy the beautiful sister-in-law of the Duke Theseus walking through the garden outside their prison walls. This lead to an overwhelming infatuation on the part of each cousin and a vow to win her while defeating his rival. Eventually, Arcite is eventually freed, but it sentenced to complete exile on pain of death. This, he regards as worse than imprisonment because he can no longer gaze upon his beloved Emily. But Palamon fears he is in worse shape thinking Arcite free to woo and marry his true love. Arcite wastes away in exile, but after two years returns in disguise. Eventually, Palamon himself is helped to escape and as he is running, he encounters Palamon. Both challenge other to a duel over fair Emily, but their fighting brings them to the attention of the Duke. Rather than kill them both, he arranges a fantastic duel to be fought in a specially constructed arena. The gods notice and begin to take the sides of whoever is imploring them. Finally the day arrives. Arcite bests his cousin, and is awarded the beauty. But on the way to collect his prize, his horse stumbles and he dies. On his deathbed, he reconciles to his cousin and passes on his betrothed to Palamon. So all's well that ends well. Except for poor Emily who didn't want to marry either one. Oh well.
The next tale is told by the Miller. Chaucer warns us that we may want to skip this one. I should have listened. He tells the tale of a beautiful young woman and her husband. She falls in love with a guest of theirs and they carry on an affair. Meanwhile a carpenter in the town is in love with her as well. The woman and her lover conspire to trick the carpenter in a disgusting way, and I wish the image was not in my head.
A reeve, who happens to be a carpenter, next tells a tale designed to disparage a miller. He tells the story of two clerks who come to lodge with a miller and his wife and daughter. While all sleeping together in one one room, the clerks climb in bed with the women, having sex all night. The miller awakes to find both his wife and daughter with other men. Take that miller.
The cook begins a tale, but barely into it, it abruptly finishes. I assume this is evidence of the unfinished nature of The Canterbury Tales.
In the next group of fragments which were ultimately complied into the Tales is the man of law's tale. He tells of poor and beautiful Constance of Rome, betrothed to the Sultan of Syria. Yet in order to marry her, he must convert from Islam to Christianity. While seeming to go along, his mother conspires with other to kill the woman before the marriage can take place. For pity's sake, she is set adrift on a boat. After years, she lands in Northumberland. Here she conceals her identity and story, but becomes embroiled in a scandal in which she is falsely accused of murder. This eventually leads her to an acquaintance with the king and later to marriage. When he goes off to fight the Crusades, she has a son. The message of the birth is intercepted by his mother who deviously counterfeits his reply and Constance is once again exiled, and set adrift on a boat with her son. Years later, she lands in Rome. Again she hides her identity, but is recognized and returned to her home. Finally, she is reunited with her husband and all ends well.
The shipman tells a silly tale of a wife and her husband and their great friend, his cousin. The wife wants money for clothes, and having exhausted her allowance, asks the cousin for a loan. He doesn't have the money and so he borrows it from the husband. To pay him back, she sleeps with him. When the husband asks his cousin to repay the loan, he replies that he already repaid when he gave the money to the wife. When the husband asks the wife about the money, she says she spent it on clothes. He gets a good laugh and she promises to repay the money in bed. This story was definitely goofy.
After the spate of stories without a serious moral, The Prioress tells what is to be a lovely and moving tale. She tells of a seven-year-old little boy who wants to learn "O Alma Redeptoris" and sing it to his beloved mother. While walking through a Jewish neighborhood, he is savagely beaten and killed. When his body is returned to his mother, all can hear the corpse singing "O Alma." It is said to be done through the power of Mary who knows how hard the lad worked and how much he wanted to bless his mother. Once he is buried, the song stops. I definitely could do without the obvious anti-Semitic overtones and the syrupiness of the story, but it was sweet after a rash of stories of brutality and infidelity.
Chaucer inserts himself into the Tales when he is asked to give his own story. He humbly begins describing a highly desirable knight, unable to find his true love. He wanders into an enchanted forest one day, and falls in love with the fairy queen. But before the nuptials can take place, he is challenged in battle by a giant. As he begins to prepare for the fight, the host cuts off Chaucer abruptly, with harsh words about the stupidity of the story. Chaucer doesn't continue his tale. He switches to his Tale of Melibee which is told in prose rather than the usual rhyme. Translator Coghill, summarizes the story rather than retell it in prose. The story is a morality tale dealing with the question of whether we should avenge violence with violence.
The Monk continues the morality tale theme with this introduction:
"In Tragic Manner I will now lament
The griefs of those who stood in high degree
And fell at last with no expedient
To bring them out of their adversity.
For sure it is, if Fortune wills to flee,
No man may stay her course or keep his hold;
Let no one trust a blind prosperity.
Be warned by these examples, true and old." (p. 189)
He then goes on to offer the tales of Lucifer, Adam, Samson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia, King Peter of Cyprus, Bernabo Visconti of Lombardy, Count Ugolino of Pisa, Nero, Holofernes, King Antiochus the Illustrious, Alexander, Julius Caesar, and Croesus. Each had a rise and fall either through fate or his own bad choices. Each is morality story.
After the moral heaviness of the monk's tale, a priest is asked to liven it up with a happy story. He tells of a talking rooster, a Chanticleer, and its wives. The rooster has a frightening dream of being carted off by a beast. His wife dismisses the power of dreams as the musings of fools, but Chanticleer, drawing upon a rich history of dream interpretation, is not convinced. Nevertheless, when a fox sneaks in, Chanticleer forgets the vision and succumbs to the flattery of the fox. He is promptly scooped up and carried off. While being frantically chased, he tricks the fox into opening his mouth and escapes. Once again, we have a moral of the story. This one is to be wary of flattery.
The next fragment begins with the Physician's tale. He describes a corrupt judge who covets a beautiful young girl. He conspires with a town hooligan to bring a case before him and in the process claims the girl for himself. Rather than hand her over to lascivious judge, the father and daughter agree that she must be sacrificed. When the town hears of it, they revolt and turn against him and his conspirator. He ends up killing himself. The moral is that sin will lead to your death.
The next up is the Pardoner, who is himself corrupt, but knows it. Yet he is self-aware enough to comprehend his transgressions. He tells the tale of three fools given to drink and swearing. After hearing the of the death of one of their friends, they vow to wreak vengeance on Death. Off they go to where their friend died to seek out the fiend. They are met by an old man, whom they harass. He seems incapable of death himself, claiming that even Death doesn't want him. But he tells them that if they are looking for Death, he was recently spotted under a nearby tree. The foolhardy trio run off in that direction, but rather than Death, they find a pot of gold. They send one of their compatriots off to get containers. Meanwhile each one plots to kill the others in order to satisfy their own greed. Eventually they kill each other and no one gets the gold. It makes me wonder if the old man was not Death, himself. Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.
Then we move on to the famous Wife of Bath's tale. This slightly baudy story is probably the most famous and certainly one of the longest. Her prelude, in which she gives her own autobiography and the story of her many husbands is longer than most of the stories. Her tale begins with a vicious rape by a knight. After being sentenced to death, the queen intervenes and promises pardon if he can answer one question: What is it that women want? He has a year and a day to discover the answer. After a fruitless search, he heads back to the palace for his sentence, but on the way, he stumbles across a haggard old lady. Reflexively, he asks her is she knows what women want. She promises him the answer if he will fulfill a future wish. She whispers the answer. When he tells the queen that what women really want is to rule over their men, the applause from the ladies signals his victory. Then the old woman shows up demanding her favor. She asks that he marry her. Disgusted and chagrined, he nevertheless keeps his promise, although he cannot love her. One day she goes in depth with the reasons that a poor, ugly, old woman should entice him. Overwhelmed with her argument, he says to her that he will love her if that is her deepest wish. Instantly she becomes a beautiful maiden... and they live happily ever after.
A clerk follows her with a particularly horrifying tale. He tells of a woman, plucked from obscurity to marry the duke. While she loves him very much and is the perfect loyal and obedient wife, he is never satisfied of her love. He tests her by "killing" her children (actually secreting them away to be raised by relatives) and after 12 years, "divorcing" her to marry a much younger girl (in actuality, his daughter). All the while, he looks for the slightest hint of dismay or diminishment of love. After passing his cruel tests, he presents her with her children and re-commits to her. And they live happily ever after as well. But yuck. What a jerk! The moral: be loyal like Griselda. No thanks! Even Chaucer offers a caution not to test your wives like this, for they will certainly fail.
The merchant follows with a tale of an old playboy, finally come to his senses. He wishes to marry the fairest young virgin in the land. He sends his friends out on the hunt for the perfect girl. After finding her, they quickly marry and settle into wedded bliss. But a young servant on the premises catches her fancy. They carry on their affair until the old man goes unexpectedly blind. He demands her constant attention and she is unable to rendezvous with her lover. One day they hatch a plot that he is to go into the garden the next time the couple ventures out there. She signals him to climb a tree and tells her husband she must climb into the tree as well in order to fetch a pear. But the gods have conspired to have her discovered and the instant the lovers begin to make love, the old man is given his sight. Finding them in the act, he cries out. But she has a clever answer for him. She states it was only done as a means of miraculously restoring his sight. She has sacrificed for him. He foolishly believes her and... well you know.
The squire then begins an epic tale about a Khan and his family. A mysterious visitor shows up to court offering gifts: A horse that can travel anywhere, a mirror that can show who is a friend and who is a foe, and a ring that allows its wearer to understand the speech of animals. Just as the princess tries out the new ring and is hearing the story of a forlorn bird, the franklin interrupts, who seems to flatter the squire on the wonderful beginning of his tale, but just ends up interrupting with his own tale.
The franklin's tragic love story is of a knight and his wife. They are desperately in love as he goes off to war. She walks the shore day after day awaiting his return and cursing the rocks that doom many a ship just as it approaches home. After two years, a lovesick squire approaches her and begs for a chance at her love. She replies that the day he makes the murderous rocks disappear, she will be his. He proceeds to wallow in dismay at this impossible feat. But his cousin, remembering a particularly talented magician, urges him to contact the sorcerer and see if he can perform the illusion. Heartened by this possibility, the squire promises the impossible for a sum of 1,000 pounds. While the magician works his magic, the knight returns home and all is bliss. However, on the day the magician appears to make the rocks disappear, the knight approaches his beloved and reminds her of her promise. She becomes sick with grief at the thought of honoring her vow. Just as she is determining to kill herself rather than submit, she tells her husband of her foolish vow. Not wanting to lose her to death, he tells her she must honor it. When she tells the knight of her husband's response, he is so touched by the true love exhibited, he declares her free. But he still owes the 1,000 pounds which he cannot pay. After telling the tragic tale to the magician, in an act of grace and mercy, he forgives the debt. We, then, are left to decide which was the most honorable gentleman.
At this point, the second nun steps in with a tale of her own. True to form, she tells the story of Saint Cecelia and her efforts to proselytize her husband and brother-in-law to Christianity. Once successful, all are subsequently martyred for their faith. The moral of the story is... I suppose it's that we should be willing to die for our faith.
The cannon's yeoman then tells the story of a con-artist cannon who convinced all that he had mastered the art of alchemy. He fools a naive priest and makes off with his riches in exchange for the elaborate hoaxes "recipe." Clearly we are not to be so easily misled in our greed.
The manciple weighs in with a simple story of a talking crow. He witnesses the infidelity of his master's wife and reports it. Since no good deed goes unpunished, the crow is punished for being a chatterbox and revealing secrets.
Chaucer wraps up the Tales with a prose story by a parson about how to avoid the seven deadly sins. This seems an appropriately religious topic for an ostensibly religious, although at times profane, group.
Chaucer ends with a plea for forgiveness if he has given offense. In addressing his readers, he says, "If there be anything that displeases them, I beg them also to impute it to the fault of my want of ability, and not to my will, who would very gladly have said better if I had had the power. He ends with a plea for mercy and prayers for his soul. Odd.
I enjoyed the book and I am glad I read it. Some stories I should have skipped. But others were very interesting. On to the next Great Book!
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