Enjoy Chaucer Today                          September 20, 2016

The Canterbury Tales

1.     The name of inn where all pilgrimage stayed?

Answer : Tabard

"Befell that, in that season, on a day In Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay Ready to start upon my pilgrimage" This is where it all began...

2.     Which is the first character described? (Hint: he is also one of the most favourably looked upon)

Answer : Knight

"A knight there was, and he a worthy man, Who, from the moment that he first began To ride about the world, loved chivalry, Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy." The picture of respectability.

3.     The Knight is travelling with his son, an  amourous  youth. What is he called by the narrator?

Answer :      Squire

"With him there was his son, a youthful squire, A lover and a lusty bachelor, With locks well curled, as if they'd laid in press." Seems quite different from his father.

4.     Which pilgrim "was known as Madam Eglantine"?

Answer :       Prioress

"There was also a nun, a prioress, Who, in her smiling, modest was and coy; Her greatest oath was but "By Saint Eloy!" And she was known as Madam Eglantine." Interestingly enough, the Prioress is not known as 'the nun,' even though she is one. There is a separate nun.

5.     Which traveller engaged in activities unbefitting of the ecclesiastical class, such as hunting and riding?

Answer :   The Monk

"Therefore he was a rider day and night; Greyhounds he had, as swift as bird in flight. Since riding and the hunting of the hare Were all his love, for no cost would he spare." Who needs a vow of poverty?

6.      This pilgrim was named Hubert.

Answer : Friar

And in his harping, after he had sung, His two eyes twinkled in his head as bright As do the stars within the frosty night. This worthy limiter was named Hubert." It's pretty randomly stuck in there, not rhyming with anything.

7.     Who among those on the pilgrimmage was an impoverished student?

Answer : The oxford cleric

"But all that he might borrow from a friend On books and learning he would swiftly spend, And then he'd pray right busily for the souls Of those who gave him wherewithal for schools." Sounds like modern students.

8.     Which Pilgrim had been married five times?

Answer : Wife of Bath

"She'd been respectable throughout her life, With five churched husbands bringing joy and strife, Not counting other company in youth; But thereof there's no need to speak, in truth." I ain't saying she's a gold digger...

9.     Who told the dirtiest stories?

Answer : The Miller

"His mouth was like a furnace door for size. He was a jester and could poetize, But mostly all of sin and ribaldries." I recommend the Miller's Tale for mature audiences. Who knew they could get away with that in the 1300's?

10.                        Who was arguably the ugliest pilgrim?

Answer : The summoner

"Who had a fiery-red, cherubic face, For eczema he had; his eyes were narrow As hot he was, and lecherous, as a sparrow; With black and scabby brows and scanty beard; He had a face that little children feared. There was no mercury, sulphur, or litharge, No borax, ceruse, tartar, could discharge, Nor ointment that could cleanse enough, or bite, To free him of his boils and pimples white, Nor of the bosses resting on his cheeks." You know you're ugly when you scare small children.

    (Source : The different online quizzes available)

FULL TITLE  ·  The Canterbury Tales

AUTHOR  · Geoffrey Chaucer

TYPE OF WORK  · Poetry (two tales are in prose: the Tale of Melibee and the Parson’s Tale)

GENRES  · Narrative collection of poems; character portraits; parody; estates satire; romance; fabliau

LANGUAGE  · Middle English

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN  · Around 1386–1395, England

DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION  · Sometime in the early fifteenth century

PUBLISHER  · Originally circulated in hand-copied manuscripts

NARRATOR  · The primary narrator is an anonymous, naïve member of the pilgrimage, who is not described. The other pilgrims narrate most of the tales.

POINT OF VIEW  · In the General Prologue, the narrator speaks in the first person, describing each of the pilgrims as they appeared to him. Though narrated by different pilgrims, each of the tales is told from an omniscient third-person point of view, providing the reader with the thoughts as well as actions of the characters.

TONE  ·  The Canterbury Tales incorporates an impressive range of attitudes toward life and literature. The tales are by turns satirical, elevated, pious, earthy, bawdy, and comical. The reader should not accept the naïve narrator’s point of view as Chaucer’s.

TENSE  · Past

SETTING (TIME)  · The late fourteenth century, after 1381

SETTING (PLACE)  · The Tabard Inn; the road to Canterbury

PROTAGONISTS  · Each individual tale has protagonists, but Chaucer’s plan is to make none of his storytellers superior to others; it is an equal company. In the Knight’s Tale, the protagonists are Palamon and Arcite; in the Miller’s Tale, Nicholas and Alisoun; in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, the errant knight and the loathsome hag; in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, the rooster Chanticleer.

MAJOR CONFLICT  · The struggles between characters, manifested in the links between tales, mostly involve clashes between social classes, differing tastes, and competing professions. There are also clashes between the sexes, and there is resistance to the Host’s somewhat tyrannical leadership.

RISING ACTION  · As he sets off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, the narrator encounters a group of other pilgrims and joins them. That night, the Host of the tavern where the pilgrims are staying presents them with a storytelling challenge and appoints himself judge of the competition and leader of the company.

CLIMAX · Not applicable (collection of tales)

FALLING ACTION  · After twenty-three tales have been told, the Parson delivers a long sermon. Chaucer then makes a retraction, asking to be forgiven for his sins, including having written The Canterbury Tales.

THEMES  · The pervasiveness of courtly love, the importance of company, the corruption of the church

MOTIFS  · Romance, fabliaux

SYMBOLS  · Springtime, clothing, physiognomy

(Sources : Spark Notes)

Why are the pilgrims going to Canterbury?

(A) To meet King Henry III

(B) To see a medieval mystery play

(C) To worship the relics of Saint Thomas Becket

(D) Because they are tourists

2. What does the Squire wear?

(A) A velvet doublet and hose

(B) Cloth embroidered with flowers

(C) Green and peacock-blue hunting gear

(D) A beaver hat

3. Who marries Emelye in the Knight’s Tale?

(A) Theseus

(B) Arcite

(C) Saturn

(D) Palamon

4. According to the Wife of Bath, what do women most desire?

(A) Sovereignty over their husbands

(B) True love

(C) Perfect beauty

(D) Great wealth

5. What does Chanticleer dream?

(A) That he will be killed by a wolf

(B) That Pertelote will desert him

(C) That he will be taken away by an orange, houndlike creature

(D) That his friend will be murdered

6. Who are the three men searching for in the Pardoner’s Tale?

(A) The Wandering Jew

(B) Greed

(C) Jesus Christ

(D) Death

7. Who is branded by a red-hot poker in the Miller’s Tale?

(A) Absolon

(B) Alisoun

(C) Nicholas

(D) John

8. Which of the following tales is a fabliau?

(A) The Knight’s Tale

(B) The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

(C) The Wife of Bath’s Tale

(D) The Miller’s Tale

9. Which pilgrim has a forked beard?

(A) The Summoner

(B) The Merchant

(C) The Reeve

(D) The Physician

10. What is the moral of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale?

(A) Slow and easy wins the race.

(B) Greed is the root of all evil.

(C) Beauty lies within.

(D) Never trust a flatterer.

11. What is the Wife of Bath’s Prologue about?

(A) Her life with her five different husbands

(B) Ovid’s Metamorphoses

(C) How women deserve to hold high public offices just like men

(D) A philosophical treatise on the astrolabe

12. When does The Canterbury Tales take place?

(A) In the Renaissance

(B) In pre-Christian Britain

(C) During the Norman invasion

(D) In the late fourteenth century

13. For which social classes did Chaucer write?

(A) The nobility

(B) All levels of society

(C) Illiterate peasants

(D) Merchants

14. What was Chaucer’s profession?

(A) Poet

(B) Noble

(C) Merchant

(D) Civil servant

15. How many Canterbury Tales are there?

(A) 80

(B) 24

(C) 16

(D) 50

16. What is a romance?

(A) An erotic tale of love and passion

(B) A story about Romans

(C) A story of knights, ladies, quests, and love

(D) A cheap book you buy from a drugstore

17. Which tale qualifies as part of a medieval sermon?

(A) The Wife of Bath’s Tale

(B) The Tale of Melibee

(C) The Physician’s Tale

(D) The Pardoner’s Tale

18. Which pilgrims are most richly attired?

(A) Miller, Yeoman, Summoner, Chaucer

(B) Wife of Bath, Squire, Monk, Physician, Franklin

(C) Knight, Nun’s Priest, Parson, Pardoner

(D) Friar, Reeve, Manciple, Man of Law

19. Which tales take place in the Orient?

(A) The Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Nun’s Priest’s Tale

(B) The Prioress’s Tale and the Knight’s Tale

(C) The Man of Law’s Tale and the Squire’s Tale

(D) The Miller’s Tale and the Clerk’s Tale

20. Which pilgrim carries a brooch inscribed with Latin words meaning “Love Conquers All”?

(A) The Prioress

(B) The Wife of Bath

(C) The Monk

(D) The Squire

21. At what time of year does the pilgrimage take place?

(A) In the dead of winter

(B) In the height of spring

(C) “That time of year when yellow leaves . . . hang upon these boughs”

(D) On a midsummer night

22. Which characters are connected to the Church?

(A) The Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner, and the Pardoner

(B) The Miller, the Ploughman, and the Reeve

(C) The Knight, the Manciple, and the Host

(D) The Canon’s Yeoman, the Physician, the Clerk, and the Man of Law

23. Which tale is about a talking falcon?

(A) The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

(B) The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

(C) The Franklin’s Tale

(D) The Squire’s Tale

24. Which tales are about the patient suffering of women?

(A) The Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale

(B) The Knight’s Tale, the Cook’s Tale, and the Nun’s Priest’s Tale

(C) The Man of Law’s Tale, the Clerk’s Tale, and the Physician’s Tale

(D) The Tale of Melibee, the Parson’s Tale, and the Friar’s Tale

25. Why does the Pardoner upset the Host?

(A) The Pardoner is homosexual.

(B) The Pardoner tries to sell indulgences to the pilgrims, after he has already told them that he cheats people.

(C) The Pardoner has physically attacked the Host with his heavy bag of relics.

(D) The Pardoner refuses to give the Host an indulgence.