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Unit 12: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Non-detailed Study): Discussion and Analysis-IV

The Summoner comments immediately on the close relationship between avarice and the devil by Notes
telling a wicked joke. His tale, which follows continues the insult in the form of a fabliau. It turns on
trickery, deception, and the ease with which the evil man, in this case the Friar of the story, is outwitted.
Unlike the other fabliaux in the Tales, however, The Summoner’s Tale is truly base and obscene,
revealing him to be of a purient nature. There appear to be no models for this story; it is presented
rather as a parody of sincere religious stories which preachers used in those days to teach their listeners
moral lessons. By the end of this particular story, friendly professional rivalry between the Summoner
and the Friar has degenerated into open quarrelling through stories in which each man has damned
his opponent to hell.

12.1 The Friar’s Tale Text

12.1.1 Prologue to the Friar’s Tale

The Friar commends the Wife of Bath for her tale, and then says, in line with his promise between the
Wife’s Prologue and Tale, that he will tell a tale about a summoner. He does not wish to offend the
Summoner who travels with them, but insists that summoners are known for fornication and lewd
behavior. The Summoner, on the surface at least, does not take offense, but does indicate that he will
“quit” the Friar in turn. The job of a summoner, to which the Friar objects, is to issue summons from
the church against sinners who, under penalty of excommunication, pay indulgences for their sins to
the church, a sum which illicit summoners often pocket. The Host quiets the argument down, and the
Friar’s Tale begins.

12.1.2 The Friar’s Tale Text

The Friar’s Tale tells of an archdeacon who boldly carried out the Church’s laws against fornication,
witchcraft and lechery. Lechers received the greatest punishment, forced to pay significant tithes to
the church. The archdeacon had a summoner who was quite adept at discovering lechers, even though
he himself was immoral. Friars, the Friar says, are out of the jurisdiction of summoners, and at this
point, the Summoner interrupts the Friar’s Tale, disagreeing.

The Host allows the Friar to continue his tale, and he immediately continues to attack
summoners.

The summoner of the Friar’s Tale would only summon those who had enough money to pay the
church, and would take half the charge himself: he was a thief, and a bawd, enlisting the help of
prostitutes who would reveal their customers to the summoner in exchange for their own safety
(and offer of sexual services).
One day, the summoner was traveling to issue a summons to an old widow, when he met a yeoman
on the way, dressed in a green jacket. The summoner claimed to be a bailiff, knowing that his actual
profession was so detested. The yeoman offered hospitality to the summoner. The two travelled
together, and the summoner asked where the yeoman lived, intending to later rob him of the gold
and silver he claimed to possess. The summoner asks the yeoman how he makes money at his job,
and the yeoman admits that he lives by extortion and theft; and the summoner admits that he does
the same.
The two reveal to each other their villainy, until the yeoman finally declares that he is a fiend whose
dwelling is in hell. The summoner asks the yeoman (the devil) why he has a human shape, and he

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