Page 133 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Analysis

After the Physician’s Tale has finished, in the prologue to the Pardoner’s Tale, the Host claims that he
has almost “caught a cardynacle” – almost had a heart attack, and it is not difficult to see why. This is
a tale which takes no prisoners: with no prologue to ease us in, this brutal, harsh, violent and
uncompromising tale refuses to be read as a fable (“this is no fable”) or allegory, but insists that we
view its cruel and unpleasant events as things which happen in the real world. One rather wonders
why the Physician thinks it will win him the prize at the end of the tale-telling.
Moreover, the tale rushes towards its unpleasant conclusion, even at the expense of plausibility.
Why doesn’t Virginius try to argue with the judge, or call upon the mob of thousand people who,
only a little later, burst through the doors to deliver justice? Why doesn’t Virginius hide his daughter,
or jump on his knightly steed and escape to another land? Again, as in the Knight’s Tale and the
Franklin’s Tale, there seems to be some interrogation of ideas of chivalry: this is a man who, without
any need for reflection, would rather preserve his daughter’s nobility and honor than keep her
alive. Chaucer again casts a negative light across the codes of honor to which men adhere.

Self Assessment

Short Answer Type Questions:

9. How does Virginia, though pagan, fit into the medieval christian concept of virtuous
womanhood?
10. What is the theme of the Physician’s tale?
Critics have not devoted much attention to the tale, except to say that it provides, perhaps, the first
significant “death’s head” in the Canterbury Tales: what hitherto has been a fun, “game”-some
party, a well-meaning competition, despite its squabbles, is suddenly presented with a tale entirely
without good-naturedness or comedy. It is the beginning of a turn toward darkness which entirely
changes the tone and tenor of the Tales as a whole, and–although in its criticism of hypocrisy,
defense of religion and beauty, and painful, final justice, it has much in common thematically with
some of the other tales–it is a tale which seems decidedly set apart from its predecessors.

14.4 Summary

• 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.
• 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 old Bretons, in their time, made songs, and the Franklin’s Tale, the narrator says, is to be
one of those songs.
• The Franklin’s Tale begins with the courtship of the Breton knight Arviragus and Dorigen,
who came to be married happily.
• Arvigarus was out of town, and Dorigen was overcome with grief, realizing that she must
forfeit either her body or her reputation.

14.5 Keywords

Anguish : Severe mental or physical pain.
Colossal : Extremely large.

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