The Squire's Tale: Franklin

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the Franklin mentions how he is impressed
with his "gentilly" (674) or "gentillesse" (694). If we are to believe
what the Franklin is saying, that he admires his gentillesse and that he
wishes his son "myghte lerne gentillesse aright" (694), we should also
assume the Franklin would try and also show gentillesse. In fact, from the
General Prologue we know that the Franklin was a member of Parliament and a
feudal landholder (Clark 161). Both were positions in higher society in
which he would be familiar with gentility and also be expected to follow it.
However, interrupting someone in the middle of his speech would be
something a person with gentillesse would be hesitant to do. The arguments
that the Franklin's actions were rescuing the Squire from an "awkward
predicament" (Specht 154) in which his tale was threatening to go on far
too long point out that in such a scenario the Franklin's actions would be
a "masterpiece of tact" (Spearing, 7). I would argue with this theory ...

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earlier, and therefore the
Franklin would not be fooling anyone in trying to act as if the Squire was
finished. In addition to that, the Host would also have to catch on to
what the Franklin was doing and go along with pretending the Squire was
done. If we look at some of the other comments made by the Host in the
Canterbury Tales we see that he is not the quickest to catch onto what the
moral of some of the tales are, and I think it would be safe to say that
assuming he would catch on to what the Franklin was trying to do would be
stretching things.
If we look at where the Franklin's words to the Squire begin we see
that it is two lines into the third section. A more logical ...

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