The Pilgrims Part 1
The Pilgrims
The Host: He is the proprietor of the Tabard Inn where the pilgrims to Canterbury stay and travels with them on their journey. It is the Host who devised the scheme of the tales, proposing that each tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and he frequently mediates arguments between pilgrims and suggests who shall tell the next story
The Knight: A noble fighter who served in the Crusades, he travels with his son, the Squire. The Knight tells the first tale, a romantic tale of a love triangle between two knights and a woman they both love.
The Squire: A ‘lusty bachelor’ of twenty, the Squire is the son of the Knight. He tells an incomplete tale concerning the gifts that a mysterious knight brings to the court of Tartary.
The Knight’s Yeoman: The Yeoman is the second servant who travels with the Knight. He does not tell a tale.
The Prioress: A delicate, sentimental woman, the Prioress weeps over any small tragedy such as the death of a mouse. She attempts to appear refined, but her refinement is superficial. Her tale concerns the murder of a small child at the hands of Jews who loathe the child for singing about the Virgin Mary.
The Second Nun: The secretary to the Prioress, the Second Nun tells as her tale the biography of Saint Cecilia.
The Monk: A robust and masculine man, the Monk travels with the Prioress and Second Nun. He tells the tale of a hen and her ‘husband,’ a rooster who prophesies misfortune.
The Friar (Hubert): He is an immoral man concerned largely with profit rather than turning men away from sin. His tale is an attack on the wickedness of summoners.
The Merchant: He is an arrogant man obsessed with profit margins. His story is a comic tale concerning an elderly blind man who takes a young wife who proves unfaithful.
The Clerk: The Clerk is a student at Oxford, and his lack of an actual profession leaves him impoverished. Although educated, his intellectual pursuits have left him virtually unemployable. He tells a tale of the humble Griselde, who marries a man of high status who cruelly tests her devotion to him.
The Man of Law: The lawyer tells a religiously inspired tale concerning Constance, a woman who suffers a number of tragedies but is at each turn saved by her devotion to her Christian beliefs.
The Franklin: He travels with the Man of Law. The Franklin is a man who takes delight in all simple pleasures, most prominently culinary ones. His story is that of a woman who promises to have an affair with a man if he can do something she deems impossible that would nevertheless save her husband.
to be continued…
