The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales

The Church • The Parson • The Nun • The Monk • The Oxford Cleric • The Summoner • The Pardoner

The Parson • “ A holy-minded man of good renown” (line 487)

The Parson cont’d • “Who truly knew Christ’s gospel and would preach it devoutly to parishioners, and teach it. (line 491)

The Parson cont’d • “Wide was his parish, with houses far asunder, yet he neglected not in rain or thunder.”(line 501)

The Parson cont’d • “His business was to show fair behavior and draw men thus to Heaven and their Savior.” • “I think there never was a better priest.”(line 533)

The Nun • “And well she sang a service, with a fine intoning through her nose was most seemingly, and she spoke daintily in French” (lines 126-128) • “No morsel from her lips did she let fall” (lines 132) • “She was so charitably solicitous, she used to weep if she saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding.” (lines 147-149) • “She was by no means undergrown.” (line 160) • “She wore a coral trinket on her arm, a set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen” (lines 162-164)

The Monk • “Hunting was his sport” (line 170) • “The Rule of good St. Benet or St. Maur as old and strict he tended to ignore” (lines 177-178) • “And took the modern world’s more spacious ways.” (line 180) • “Fish out of water, flapping on the pier, that is to say a monk out of his cloister.” (lines 184-185) • “I saw his sleeves were garnished at the hand with gray fur, the finest in the land, and on his hood, to fasten it at his chin he had a wrought-gold, cunningly fashioned pinned.” (lines 197-200)

Oxford Cleric • “He preferred having twenty books in red and black, of Aristotle’s philosophy, than costly clothes, fiddle, or psaltery.” (lines 304-305) • “Whatever money he from his friends he took he spent on learning or another book.” (lines 309-310) • “His only care was study.” (line 313) • “He never spoke a word more than need, formal at that, respectful in the extreme, short, to the point, and lofty in his theme.” (lines 314-316) • “And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.” (line 318)

The Summoner • “His face on fire, like a cherubim, for he had carbuncles.” (line 642-643)

The Summoner cont’d • “Children were afraid when he appeared” (line 646)

The Summoner cont’d • “Garlic he loved, and onions too, and leeks, and drinking strong red wine till all was hazy. Then he would jabber as if crazy.” (lines 652-654)

The Summoner cont’d • “We should be aware of excommunication. Thus, as he pleased, the man could bring duress, on any young fellow in the diocese.” (lines 680-682)

The Pardoner • “ He was a gelding mare”

The Pardoner cont’d • “In his trunk he had a pillow case, Which he asserted was our lady’s veil”

The Pardoner cont’d • “And with these relics, anytime he found some poor up-country person to astound”

The Pardoner cont’d • “In one short day, in down, he drew more than the parson would in a month or two”

Conclusion

The Canterbury Tales