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British Poetry

Notes At the end of The Squire’s Tale, the Franklin effusively praises the Squire’s scholarship and affected
language. He is revealed to be an imitator of the nobility so it is no wonder that he introduces his tale
by apologizing for not having had the education of a noble. His lack of tranining requires him to
speak in plain language. Actually, the Franklin displays extensive learning in this introduction, citing
numerous classical references and attempting a clumbsy rhetorical pun. The Franklin tells a tale which
he hopes might have been told by a noble, as romances were supposed to be confined in circulation to
the nobility. His romance centers on ideal love, the virtuous woman, and the capacity of Man to be
supremely generous and to behave according to the knightly ideal. Further confirming his tale as a
romance, the Frankline includes noble characters, a classical setting, and elements of magic which
give a hint of the mysterious and otherworldly.
The rash promise made without reflection and possibly, without intent to fulfill, are further features
of the romance. Just as the Franklin relates, one of Chaucer’s sources for this story is the Breton lais.
He has also borrowed from the writings of St. Jerome; from Boccaccio’s Decameron; and from the
French Le Roman de la Rose. Like most of the tales, the Franklin’s Tale concentrates on the relationship
between husbands, wives, and lovers, exposing the vices and virtues of men and women. All of the
characters in this particular story are virtuous, unlike those presented in the fabliaux. There is nothing
crass about Aurelius and Dorigen, for although both of them err, all are shown in the end to be
capable of great honor, loyalty, and generousity. The sanctity of marriage is upheld and respected in
The Franklin’s Tale.

14.1 The Squire’s Tale

14.1.1 Introduction to the Squire’s Tale
The Host asks the Squire to draw near and tell the next tale.

14.1.2 The Squire’s Tale Text

(I) The Squire tells the tale of Cambyuskan, the king of Sarai in Tartary. With his wife Elpheta he
had two sons, Algarsyf and Cambalo, and a daughter Canacee. In the twentieth year of his reign, on
the Ides of March, his subjects celebrated his nativity. During the great feast with the king and his
knights, a strange knight came into the hall on a brass horse, carrying a broad mirror of glass,
wearing a gold ring on his thumb and carrying a naked sword by his side.
This knight saluted the king and queen, and all the lords, in order, so reverently and nobly that
even Gawain could not have bettered him. The narrator apologizes for not being able to reproduce
the nobility of his elocution, punning that he could not climb “over so heigh a style”, and resolving
only to reproduce the meaning, not the expression, of what the knight said.
This knight had been sent from the king of Arabia and India, to bring Cambyuskan a steed of brass
that could, within twenty-four hours, transport a person safely anywhere on the globe. He also
presented to Canacee a mirror that foresaw impending mischance and could determine the character
of friends and foes, and a ring that enabled the wearer to understand the language of any bird, and
the healing properties of all herbs. His final gift was the sword, whose edge would bite through any
armor but whose flat would cure any wounds inflicted by the edge.
Having told his tale, the knight rode out of the hall, leaving his steed standing in the court, and was
led to his chamber. The presents were carried into the tower, and the ring given to Canacee, but the
brass steed would not move until the knight taught people how to move it. The horse was a source
of wonder for the people, compared alternately to the Pegasus and the Trojan horse. All one had to
do to move the brass horse was to twirl a peg in its ear, according to the knight.

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