Canterbury Tales Summary
General Prologue
At the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark, near London, the
narrator joins a corporation of twenty-nine pilgrims. The pilgrims, just like
the narrator, are traveling to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in
Canterbury. The narrator gives a descriptive account of twenty-seven of those pilgrims,
including a Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Prioress, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk, Man
of Law, Franklin, Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry-Weaver, Cook,
Shipman, Physician, Wife, Parson, Plowman, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner,
Pardoner, and Host. (He doesn't describe the Second Nun or the Nun’s Priest,
although both characters appear later within the book.) The Host, whose name,
we discover call at the Prologue to the Cook’s Tale, is Harry Bailey, suggests
that the group ride together and entertain each other with stories. He decides
that every pilgrim will tell two stories on the thanks to Canterbury and two on
the way back.
Whomever he judges to be the simplest storyteller will
receive a meal at Bailey’s tavern, courtesy of the opposite pilgrims. The
pilgrims draw lots and determine that the Knight will tell the primary tale.
The Knight’s Tale
Theseus, duke of Athens, imprisons Arcite and Palamon, two
knights from Thebes (another city in ancient Greece). From their prison, the
knights see and fall crazy with Theseus’s sister-in-law, Emelye. Through the
intervention of a lover , Arcite is freed, but he's banished from Athens.
He returns in disguise and becomes a page in Emelye’s
chamber. Palamon escapes from prison, and therefore the two meet and fight over
Emelye. Theseus apprehends them and arranges a tournament between the 2 knights
and their allies, with Emelye because the prize. Arcite wins, but he's
accidentally thrown from his horse and dies. Palamon then marries Emelye.
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
The Host asks the Monk to inform subsequent tale, but the
drunken Miller interrupts and insists that his tale should be subsequent . He
tells the story of an impoverished student named Nicholas, who persuades his
landlord’s sexy young wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him. He convinces
his landlord, a carpenter named John, that the second flood is coming, and
tricks him into spending the night during a tub hanging from the ceiling of his
barn. Absolon, a young parish clerk who is additionally crazy with Alisoun,
appears outside the window of the space where Nicholas and Alisoun lie
together. When Absolon begs Alisoun for a kiss, she sticks her buttocks out the
window within the dark and lets him kiss it.
Absolon runs and gets a Kniphofia praecox , returns to the
window, and asks for an additional kiss; when Nicholas sticks his bottom out
the window and farts, Absolon brands him on the buttocks. Nicholas’s cries for
water make the carpenter think that the flood has come, therefore the carpenter
cuts the rope connecting his tub to the ceiling, falls down, and breaks his
arm.
The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale
Because he also does carpentry, the Reeve takes offense at
the Miller’s tale of a stupid carpenter, and counters together with his own
tale of a dishonest miller. The Reeve tells the story of two students, John and
Alayn, who attend the mill to observe the miller grind their corn, in order
that he won’t have an opportunity to steal any. But the miller unties their
horse, and while they chase it, he steals a number of the flour he has just
ground for them. By the time the scholars catch the horse, it's dark, in order
that they spend the night within the miller’s house.
That night, Alayn seduces the miller’s daughter, and John
seduces his wife. When the miller wakes up and finds out what went on , he
tries to beat the scholars . His wife, thinking that her husband is really one
among the scholars , hits the miller over the top with a staff. the scholars
take back their stolen goods and leave.
The Cook’s Prologue and Tale
The Cook particularly enjoys the Reeve’s Tale, and offers to
inform another funny tale. the story concerns an apprentice named Perkyn who
drinks and dances such a lot that he's called “Perkyn Reveler.” Finally,
Perkyn’s master decides that he would rather his apprentice leave to revel than
stay home and corrupt the opposite servants. Perkyn arranges to remain with a
lover who loves drinking and gambling, and who features a wife who may be a
prostitute. the story breaks off, unfinished, after fifty-eight lines.
The Man of Law’s Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and
Epilogue
The Host reminds his fellow pilgrims to waste no time,
because lost time can't be regained. He asks the person of Law to inform
subsequent tale. the person of Law agrees, apologizing that he cannot tell any
suitable tale that Chaucer has not already told—Chaucer could also be unskilled
as a poet, says the person of Law, but he has told more stories of lovers than
Ovid, and he doesn’t print tales of incest as John Gower does (Gower was a up
to date of Chaucer). within the Prologue to his tale, the person of Law laments
the miseries of poverty. He then remarks how fortunate merchants are, and says
that his tale is one told to him by a merchant.
One night, Satan makes a young knight sneak into Hermengyld’s
chamber and murder Hermengyld. He places the bloody knife next to Custance, who
sleeps within the same chamber. When the constable returns home, amid Alla, the
king of Northumberland, he finds his slain wife. He tells Alla the story of how
Custance was found, and Alla begins to pity the girl. He decides to seem more deeply
into the murder. even as the knight who murdered Hermengyld is swearing that
Custance is that the true murderer, he's struck down and his eyes burst out of
his face, proving his guilt to Alla and therefore the crowd. The knight is
executed, Alla and lots of others convert to Christianity, and Custance and
Alla marry.
While Alla is away in Scotland, Custance gives birth to a boy
named Mauricius. Alla’s mother, Donegild, intercepts a letter from Custance to
Alla and substitutes a counterfeit one that claims that the kid is disfigured
and bewitched. She then intercepts Alla’s reply, which claims that the kid
should be kept and loved regardless of how malformed. Donegild substitutes a
letter saying that Custance and her son are banished and will be sent away on
an equivalent ship on which Custance arrived. Alla returns home, finds out what
went on , and kills Donegild.
After many adventures stumped , including an attempted rape,
Custance finishes up back in Rome, where she reunites with Alla, who has made a
pilgrimage there to catch up on killing his mother. She also reunites together
with her father, the emperor. Alla and Custance return to England, but Alla
dies after a year, so Custance returns, once more, to Rome. Mauricius becomes
subsequent Roman Emperor .
Following the person of Law’s Tale, the Host asks the Parson
to inform subsequent tale, but the Parson reproaches him for swearing, and that
they fall to bickering.
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
The Wife of Bath gives a lengthy account of her feelings
about marriage. Quoting from the Bible, the Wife argues against those that
believe it's wrong to marry quite once, and she or he explains how she
dominated and controlled each of her five husbands. She married her fifth
husband, Jankyn, for love rather than money. After the Wife has rambled on for
a short time , the Friar butts in to complain that she is taking too long, and
therefore the Summoner retorts that friars are like flies, always meddling. The
Friar promises to inform a tale a few summoner, and therefore the Summoner
promises to inform a tale a few friar. The Host cries for everybody to calm
down and permit the Wife to commence her tale.
In her tale, a young knight of King Arthur’s court rapes a
maiden; to catch up on his crime, Arthur’s queen sends him on a search to get
what women want most. an unsightly old woman promises the knight that she is
going to tell him the key if he promises to try to to whatever she wants for
saving his life. He agrees, and she or he tells him women want control of their
husbands and their own lives. they are going together to Arthur’s queen, and
therefore the old woman’s answer seems to be correct. The old woman then tells
the knight that he must marry her. When the knight confesses later that he's
repulsed by her appearance, she gives him a choice: she will either be ugly and
faithful, or beautiful and unfaithful. The knight tells her to form the
selection herself, and she or he rewards him for giving her control of the
wedding by rendering herself both beautiful and faithful.
The Friar’s Prologue and Tale
The Friar speaks approvingly of the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and
offers to lighten things up for the corporate by telling a joke a few lecherous
summoner. The Summoner doesn't object, but he promises to pay the Friar back in
his own tale. The Friar tells of an archdeacon who carries out the law without
mercy, especially to lechers. The archdeacon features a summoner who features a
network of spies working for him, to let him know who has been lecherous. The
summoner extorts money from those he’s sent to summon, charging them extra
money than he should for penance. He tries to serve a summons on a yeoman who
is really a devil in disguise. After comparing notes on their treachery and
extortion, the devil vanishes, but when the summoner tries to prosecute an old
wealthy widow unfairly, the widow cries out that the summoner should be taken
to hell. The devil follows the woman’s instructions and drags the summoner off
to hell.
The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue
After seventeen noble “falls” narrated by the Monk, the
Knight interrupts, and therefore the Host calls upon the Nun’s Priest to
deliver something more lively. The Nun’s Priest tells of Chanticleer the
Rooster, who is carried off by a flattering fox who tricks him into closing his
eyes and displaying his crowing abilities. Chanticleer turns the tables on the
fox by persuading him to open his mouth and brag to the barnyard about his
feat, upon which Chanticleer falls out of the fox’s mouth and escapes. The Host
praises the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, adding that if the Nun’s Priest weren't in
holy orders, he would be as sexually potent as Chanticleer.
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