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Unit 14: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Non-detailed Study): Discussion and Analysis-VI

(II) After the revelry of the night before, the next morning everybody but Canacee remained asleep Notes
until late. She had dreamt of the mirror and the ring and thus had her first satisfying rest in a very
long time. As she went out walking that morning with her maids, she came across a bleeding
peregrine falcon that cried out in anguish. It had maimed itself. Canacee picked up the falcon and
spoke to it, a power she had gained from the ring the knight had given her. The falcon told her a tale
of a handsome tercelet as treasonous and false as he was beautiful, who fell in love with a kite as
well as with the falcon, and left the falcon to love the kite. Canacee healed the bird with herbs which
she dug out of the ground, and carried it to a box, covered in blue velvets, with a painted meadow
inside it, which she laid by her bedside.
The narrator then leaves Canace, promising to return to the story of her ring and show how the
falcon regained her love, thanks to the mediation of Cambalo, the king’s son. First, the narrator
says, he will tell of Cambyuskan, and how he won his cities, and after that of Algarsyf, and how he
won his wife (for whom he would have been in great peril, were it not for the brass horse) and after
that of Cambalo, who fought with the brothers in order to win Canacee, and then–after all that–the
narrator intends to pick up where he left off.
(III) The narrator has just begun to set the scene, when he is interrupted…
The words of the Franklin to the Squire and the words of the Host to the Franklin
The Franklin tells the Squire that he has served himself well, praising his wit, and asserting that no-
one in the company is as eloquent as the Squire. The Franklin then comments that he would give
twenty pounds worth of land if his own son were a man of such discretion as the Squire–who needs
possessions, if he is virtuous! The Franklin continues that he has often rebuked his own son for not
listening to virtuous people-the Franklin’s son only plays at dice and spends money, and would
rather talk with a page than a nobleman.
At this point, the Host interrupts-“Straw for youre gentillesse!” (“Straw to your nobility!”)–reminding
the Franklin that what he is saying is irrelevant, and that each pilgrim must tell at least a tale or two,
or break his vow. The Franklin reassures the Host that he is aware of this, even if he is taking a
moment to speak to the Squire, and–as instructed by the host–tells his tale, commenting that, if it
pleases the Host, his tale will certainly be a good one.

Analysis

Since the Squire’s Tale exists only in a fragmentary form, it is difficult to determine precisely how we
are supposed to read it. The tale may be a fragment because Chaucer never finished the tale or because
the later section of the tale was lost in the manuscripts from which the Canterbury Tales were taken.
And yet, the Franklin’s interruption comes at a point which suggests that the Squire’s Tale might be
one of Chaucer’s many trick interrupted-endings.
For the moment at which the Franklin interrupts comes only two lines after the Squire has outlined
his plans–extremely lengthy plans–for the rest of his tale, giving as the last plot point to be covered
in his telling Cambalo’s fight for the hand of Canacee. There seems nothing very unusual about
that, until we remember that, at the start of the tale, we are clearly told that Canacee and Cambalo
are brother and sister. And this is where the tale becomes interesting. Canacee, of course, is the
person discussed in the Man of Law’s Prologue-Chaucer, the Man of Law claims, will not tell her
story, and nor will he.

Self Assessment

Short Answer Type Questions:
1. What element is inserted in the Squire’s tale that is not present in any of the others?
2. What is the probable theme of the Squire’s tale?
3. What type of tale is the Falcon’s story intended to imitate?
4. Who has sent the strange knight?

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