Summary Of The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories set within a
framing story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of Saint
Thomas à Becket. The poet joins a band of pilgrims, vividly described in
the General Prologue, who assemble at the Tabard Inn outside London for the
journey to Canterbury. Ranging in status from a Knight to a humble Plowman,
they are a microcosm of 14th- century English society.
The Host proposes a storytelling contest to pass the time; each of
the 30 or so pilgrims (the exact number is unclear) is to tell four tales
on the round trip. Chaucer completed less than a quarter of this plan. The
work contains 22 verse tales (two unfinished) and two ...
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about noble love, the Miller interrupts
with a deliciously bawdy story of seduction aimed at the Reeve (an
officer or steward of a manor); the Reeve takes revenge with a tale about
the seduction of a miller's wife and daughter. Thus, the tales develop the
personalities, quarrels, and diverse opinions of their tellers.
After the Knight's tale, the Miller, who was so drunk that he could
barely sit on his horse, began screaming," I know a tale that can cap the
Knight's tale off!" "But first, said the Miller, "I admit that I am drunk;
I know it by the my voice. And therefore if I speak as I shouldn't, blame
it on the beer, I beg you; for I will tell a life and legend of a
Carpenter and his wife, and how a clerk manipulated them."
Here the Tale Begins
In Oxford there was a rich peasant, who was a Carpenter, who took
guests aboard. There was a poor scholar, who had studied liberal arts,
but all his delight was turned to astrology. He knew how to work ...
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on Christ's own works. At the church there was a clerk
named Absalom. He had curly hair, rosy cheeks, and his eyes were gray.
Absalom, who was so pretty and fine, went on this holy day with a censor,
trying to get the goodwives of the city. He then noticed the carpenter's
wife and he thought she was so neat and sweet. That night the moon was
shining and Absalom went to the carpenter's house and sang in the window.
The carpenter woke up and asked the wife if she heard him singing and she
told him yes. From day to day Absalom wooed her till he couldn't anymore.
She loved Nicholas though and all the wooing Absalom gave was wasted. She
used Absalom.
Then it fell that the carpenter ...
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