Canterbury Tales, “The General Prologue”

Pilgrim Appearance Actions Background/Commentary

Chaucer’s Attitude

(Positive or Negative)

The Knight NOT gaily dressed

Wore a fustian tunic, stained & dark

Had smudges where his armor had left mark

Fought nobly in his sovereign’s war and always killed his man in 15 battles

Never said a boorish thing

Distinguished man honored for noble graces

Epitomized chivalry

Perfect gentle knight

Modest as a maid and wise

HIGHLY POSITIVE

Squire Slept as lightly as a nightingale

Embroidered like a meadow bright and full of freshest flowers, red and white

Curly hair

Knew how to joust and dance, to draw and write, make songs, poems, and recite

Cared to serve his father at the table

Sang or fluted all day

Son of the knight

Cadet

Passionate, courteous, lowly & serviceable

Serves the yeoman

Positive

Yeoman Wore a green coat & hood

Had a bright and keen peacock-feathered arrow, neatly sheathed, hung at his belt the while, never drooping

Bore a might bow in his hand

Head like a nut, brown face

Brace on his arm, and a shield and sword hung at one side, and at the other slipped a jaunty dirk, spear-sharp and well-equipped

Wore a shining silver medal of St. Christopher

Had a well-slung, hunting horn burnished clean that dangled from a baldrick of bright green

N/AKnew the woodcraft up and down

Proper foresterPositive

Nun Coy smile

Veil gathered in a seemly way

Elegant nose

Glass-grey eyes, almost a span across the brows

Small, soft, red mouth

Cloak had a graceful charm

Forehead fair of spread

Wore a coral trinket on her arm and a set of beads, whose gaudies tricked in green, hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen

Manners were well taught

No morsel fell from her lips

Reached sedately for the meat

Greatest oath was “By St. Loy!”

Sang a service with a fine intoning through her nose

Spoke daintily in French

Wiped her upper lip so clean that not a trace of grease could be seen

Pleasant and friendly

Tried hard to counterfeit a courtly kind of grace and to seem dignified in all her dealings

Known as Madam Eglantyne

Certainly very entertaining

Charitably solicitous

All sentiment and tender heart

Negative

Monk Manly man

Bridle jingled in a whistling wind when he rode, loud as the chapel bell

Sleeves garnished at the hand with fine grey fur, the finest in the land

Fastened his hood to his chin with a wrought-gold cunningly

Rode the country

Hunting was his sport (in contradiction to custom that a monk could not hunt)

Ignored the rule of good St. Benet & St. Maur

Let go the things of yesterday and took the modern world’s more spacious way

Monk of the finest sort

Abbot able

Had many dainty horses in his stable

Liked a roasted fat swan

Negative

fashioned pin

Bald head and face that shone like looking-glass

Fat and personable priestProminent eyeballs never settled, glittering like the flames beneath a kettle

Boots and horse in fine condition

Prelate fit for exhibition, not pale like a tormented soul

Palfrey as brown as a berry

Friar Named Hubert

Very festive

Glib with gallant phrase and well-spoken speech

Neck whiter than a lily-flower, but strong enough to butt a bruiser down

Romped like a puppy

Semi-cope double-worsted on his shoulders

Swelling fold like a bell about its mold when it is casting rounded out his dress

Lisped a little out of wantonness

Eyes twinkled in his head as bright as any star upon a frosty night

Fixed up many marriages, giving each of his young women what he could afford her

Kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls and pocket-knives to give to pretty girls

At sing-songs he was champion of the hour

Sang well and played the hurdy-gurdy

Too good to deal with a scum of wretched lepers and slum-and-gutter dwellers, but only with the rich and victual-sellers

Finest beggar of his batch, and for this begging-district, paid a rent

Pleasant was his holy how-d’ye-do

Prompt on arbitrating disputes for a small fee

Played the harp

Noble pillar to his Order

Highly beloved and intimate

Wonton and merry

Qualified to hear confessions

Had a special license from the Pope

Easy man in penance-giving

Knew the taverns, innkeepers, and barmaids well in every town

Voice was gay and sturdy

Negative

Merchant Forking beard

Motley dress

Sat high on his horse

Flemish beaver hat on his head

Daintily bucked boots

Told of his opinions and pursuits

Harped on his increase of capital in solemn tonesExpert at dabbling in exchanges

Set his wits to workStately in administration in loans and bargain and negotiation

“Excellent fellow”In debt Mostly

positive

Clerk Not too fatHad a hollow look, a sober stare

Thread upon his overcoat was bare

Found no preferment in the church and he was too unworldly to make search for secular employment

Whatever money he borrowed from friends, he bought books and prayed for them, returning thanks to them for paying for his learning

Never spoke a word more than was needed

Spoke in a tone of moral virtue

Gladly learned and gladly taught

Student at Oxford Cleric

Formal and respectful in the extremeShort to the point and lofty in his theme

Only care was study

Positive

Sergeant-at-Law

Discreet

Busy

Wore a homely parti-colored coat girt with a silken belt of pin-stripe stuff

Paid his calls

Sayings were so wise

Fame and learning and his high position had won him many a robe and many a fee

No such conveyance as he

Less busy than he seemed to be

Wary and wise

Man to reverence

Knew of every judgement, case and crime ever recorded since King William’s time

Dictate defense or draft deeds

Knew every statue off by rote

Mostly positive

Franklin Beard white as a daisy-petal

High-colored and benign, sanguine

Dagger and a little purse of silk hung at his girdle, white as morning milk

Lived for pleasure

Made his household free to all the County

Nobody had a better stock of wine

House was never short of bake-meat pies

Kept fat partridges in coops

Had many bream and pike in his pond

Checked very entry and audit

Model among landed gentry

Wealthy farmerPositive

Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry Maker

Trim and fresh

Knives were wrought with purest silver which avouches a like display on girdles and on pouches

Went to church to show off Each seemed a worthy burgess, wise enough to justify making each one an alderman

Had the capital and revenue

Guildsmen/artist

Mostly positive

Cook Ulcer on his knee Made one of the best blancmanges

Distinguished London ale by flavor

Boiled chicken with a marrow-bone

Roasted & seethed & fried

Made good thick soup & baked a tasty pie

N/A Mostly positive

Shipman Wore a woolen gown that reached his knee

Wore a dagger on a lanyard falling free hung from his neck under his arm and down

Tan

Beard in many a tempest had its shaking

Rode a farmer’s horse as best he could

Ignored the nicer rules of conscience

When he fought, the enemy vessel sank

Sent his prisoners home

Skilled in reckoning his tides

Knew all the havens as they were

Stole wine from the trader when he snored

Hailed from far west – Dartmouth

Certainly an excellent fellow

Had dispatch

Prudent in undertaking

Owned a barge

Mostly positive

Doctor of Medicine

Blood-red garments, slashed with bluish grey & lined with taffeta

Watched his patient closely for the hours

Knew the powers of favorable planets by his horoscope

Well-versed in Aesculapius

Observed some measure in his own diet – there were no superfluities for pleasure, only digestives, nutritives and such

Did not read the Bible

Kept the gold he won in pestilences

In cahoots with the apothecary to make money

No one alive could talk as well as he did on points of medicine and of surgery

Grounded in astronomy

Knew the cause of every malady

Perfect practicing physician

Loved money

Negative

Wife of Bath

Finely woven ground kerchiefs that weighed 10 lbs.

Finest scarlet red and gartered tight hose

Shoes were soft and new

Bold face, handsome and red in hue

Made good cloth

Thrice been to Jerusalem

Skilled in wandering – been to Rome, Boulogne, St. James of Compostella and Cologne

Knew the remedies for love’s mischances

Somewhat deaf

Worthy woman all her life

Had five husbands, all at the church door

Like to laugh and chat with company

Mostly positiv

Gap-toothed

Wore a hat as broad as is a buckler or a shield

Had a flowing mantle that concealed large hips

Heels spurred sharply

e

Parson Upon his feet, and in his hand a stave

Preached and taught the gospel devoutly to parishioners

Shepherd to the members of his parish

Hated cursing to extort a feePreferred beyond a doubt giving to poor parishioners round about both from church offerings and his property

Never failed to pay a call on the remotest, whether great or small, in sickness of in grief

Business was to show a fair behavior and draw men thus to Heaven and their Savior

Put a sharp rebuke to obstinate menFollowed the lore of Christ and His Twelve Apostles

Rich in holy thought and work

Learned man, a clerk, who truly knew Christ’s gospel and

Benign and wonderfully diligent

Patient when adversity was sent

Wide was his parish, with houses far asunder

Holy and virtuous

Never contemptuous of sinful men

Never disdainful, never too proud or fine

Discreet in teaching and benign

There never was a better priest in his dealings

Sought no pomp or glory

Positive

Plowman Wore a tabard smock and rode a mare

Carted many a load of dung through the morning dew

Promptly paid his tithes in full when they were due on what he owned, and on his earnings too

Willingly helped the poor for love of Christ, never taking a penny if he could help it

Repined at no misfortune, slacked for no content

Loved his neighbor as himself

Went steadily about his work

Helped the poor for love of Christ

Lived in peace and perfect charity

Loved God best with all his heart and mind

Honest worker, good and true Positiv

e

Miller Great stout fellow big in brawn and bone

Broad, knotty and short-shouldered

Beard like any sow of fox, was red and broad as well, as though it were a spade

Nostrils as black as they were wide

Mouth was like a furnace door

Had a sword & buckler at his side

Mighty mouth like a furnace door

Boasted that he could heave any door off hinge and post or take a run and break it with his head

Master-hand at stealing grain

Took three time his due of grain

Chap of sixteen stone

Could win the ram at any wrestling show

Wrangler and buffoon, he had a store of tavern stories, filthy in the main

Negative

Manciple

N/ANever rash whether he bought on credit or paid cash

Watched the market most precisely and got in first, and so he did quite nicely

Had more than 30 masters all versed in the abstrusest legal knowledge

Could have produced a dozen from their College fit to be stewards in land and rents and game to any peer in England you could name and show him how to live on what he had debt-free or be as frugal as he might desire, and make them fit to help about the Shire

from the Inns of Court

All caterers might follow his example in buying victuals

Illiterate

Positive

Reeve Old, choleric & thin

Beard shaven closely to the skin

Shorn hair came abruptly to a stop above his ears, and he was docked on top just like a priest in front

Legs were lean like sticks, no calf could be seen

Very trim bins & garners

Dpple gray

Named Scot

Wore a long overcoat of bluish shade

Had a rusty blade slung at his side

Coat splayed & tucked under his belt

Governed his master’s sheep, animals, hens, pigs, horses, dairies, stores & cattle-pens

Knew the every dodge & trick of the bailiffs, serfs, & herdsmen

A better hand at bargains than his lord

Rode the stallion-cob at a slow trot

Rode the hindmost of the cavalcade

Could judge by watching drought and rain the yield he might expect from seed and grain

Suck up

Estate manager

No auditor could gain a point on him

Feared by those beneath him

Had a lovely dwelling on a heath shadowed in green by trees above the sward

Grew rich and had a store of treasure well tucked away

Negative

Summoner Face on fire like a cherubin

Had carbuncles

Narrow eyes

Hot and lecherous as a sparrow

Black scabby brows

Thin beard

Whelks of knobby white

Pimples on cheeks

Kind, noble varlet

Wore a garland on his head as large as a holly-bush upon a stake

Wouldn’t speak in anything other than Latin when he was drunk on strong red wine

Allowed any good lad to keep a concubine a twelvemonth and dispense him altogether just for a quart of wine

Lied

Could bring duress on any young fellow in the diocese as he pleased

Knew their secrets, and they did what he said

Children were afraid when he appeared

Loved garlic and onions and leeks

Negative

Pardoner Gentle

No hood on his bare head

Hair yellow as wax hung down smoothly like a hank of flax; locks fell behind his head in driblets down to his shoulder which they overspread; thinly they fell, like rat-tails

Bulging eye-balls like a hare

No beard

Sang loudly

Sewed a holy relic on his cap

Had a pillow-case in his trunk which he asserted was Our Lady’s veil

Said he had a gobbet of the sail Saint Peter had the time when he made bold to walk the waves, till Jesus Christ took hold

Had a cross of metal set with stones and in glass a rubble of pigs’ bones

Flattered and prevaricated to

Voice like a goat

A gelding or a mare

No pardoner of equal grace

Negative

make monkeys of the priest and congregation

Noble ecclesiast in church

Read lessons & stories well

Preached and tuned his toney-tongue as well as he could to win silver from the crowd

Used relics to astound poor up-country people to make more money than the parson in a month or two

Host Very striking man

Bright eyes

Wide girth

Lacked no manly attribute

Served the finest victuals you could think

Bold in speech

Jokingly began to talk of sport after the meal

Wanted the lords to each tell four stories on during the round-trip to Canterbury

Fit to be a marshal in a hall

No finer burgess in Cheapside

Wise and full of tact

Merry-hearted man

Positive