^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE FRANKLIN
The wealthy landowner, the Franklin is one of Chaucer’s most colorful characters, literally. His beard is white as a daisy, a symbol of earthly or heavenly love. Here, it’s earthly all right. Earthy, too, as the Franklin delights in food and pleasure as “felicitee parfyt” (perfect happiness). But this portrait isn’t sarcastic, as are the Monk’s and Friar’s, since the Franklin’s station in life is to be a generous good neighbor. Elected a knight of the shire many times (Chaucer was one himself), the Franklin is “Seint Julien,” patron saint of hospitality, in his neck of the woods. He’s held other public offices as well, and he is almost the social equal of the Sergeant of the Law. A “sangwen” complexion (sanguine disposition) was one of the four “humors” believed to govern the body, in this case, outgoing and hearty. He carries out his part in life, “Epicurus [who personified pleasure] owene son.” Even as he introduces his tale about “trouthe” in marriage, he notes that the only “colors” he knows are not descriptive, just the ones he sees in the meadow–such as daisies!
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE FIVE TRADESMEN
The Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, and Tapestry Maker are doing well. Their wives wish they were aldermen; they would love to be called “madame” and be honored by entering the church first. This is a vivid picture of rather petty men, although the guilds to which they belonged were important union-type groups that supported restoration work on churches and other significant social functions. Guilds had enough political power so that their members could easily have had enough land to be elected aldermen.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE COOK
The Cook is an excellent chef, but less excellent a human being. He “knowe a draughte of Londoun ale” perhaps too well, and the real giveaway is the “mormal” (open sore) on his shin, which is unappetizing and might be syphilitic. His evident bad habits are reinforced by the Tale he tells, unfinished, about an unsavory young cook who corrupts others with his bad habits.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SHIPMAN
The Shipman knows his seafaring business and tides and routes, inside and out. Chaucer admires his skills because England’s strength as a medieval super-power depended on its navy. But “of nice conscience took he no keep,” and he’s not above watering down the wine he brings from Bordeaux for men like the Merchant and the Tradesmen. He’s not averse to killing either, sending his prisoners “hoom to every lond” by water, i.e., overboard. His tale is of a monk who is as much of a pirate as he is himself, abusing the hospitality of a kindly merchant.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIK
He is a “verray, parfit” practitioner of his art, but is he “true and perfect” in the same way that the Knight is? Certainly he is very learned, familiar with all the ancient and modern physicians (including some who, according to his time and place, he shouldn’t have even heard of!). He knows astrology, which was considered a respectable science in Chaucer’s day, although some conservatives were against it as anti-Christian. He knew every patient’s “humor” and can help align the patient with favorable astrological signs.
NOTE: The four humors–“hot” (choleric), “cold” (melancholy), “moiste” (sanguine, like the Franklin), and watery (phlegmatic)–were believed to rule the body, and an excess of one created illness.
The Doctor by medieval standards is no quack, but he is suspicious. He has arrangements with “apothecaries” (druggists) who help him make a profit. Some doctors and pharmacists, then as now, were accused of overcharging patients on prescriptions and then splitting the difference. The Doctor also knows “but litel on the Bible,” a sure sign that his knowledge, even though it encompasses the stars, is restricted to the lower “physical” things in life, since it doesn’t contain God.
Finally, Chaucer says sweetly, he’s saved all the money he’s made from the plagues that were common in the Middle Ages, “For gold in phisyk is a cordial [medicine]. Therefor he lovede gold in special” (lines 445-446). Is this the only reason he loves gold, because it’s a good medicine? Look at the way he’s dressed, in taffeta and “sendal” (silk); that should give you a clue. His tale, which he tells us deals with the price of sin, is of an unjust judge who has to get the woman he wants. The woman, Virginia, is so honorable, however, that she dies rather than submit to him. In keeping with the Doctor’s profession, he gives a long hymn to nature for forming that perfect machine, the body.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE WIFE OF BATH
She is one of Chaucer’s most lively inventions. She thinks very highly of herself and her skill as a weaver (better even than the renowned Belgians). She lets us know she’s entitled to make the first offering at church services, an honor carrying great social prestige. (But watch out if you cut in front of her, then she won’t give a penny.) She shows off her Sunday clothes with evident pride, including “ten pounds” of “coverchiefs,” finely textured veils arranged over her head. Her clothing tells us she is no shy, retiring wallflower.
But we’re more interested in her famous love life than in her fashions. She’s had five husbands–later, in her Prologue to the tale she tells, she gives the histories of all five–not to mention “other company in youth.” (But, says Chaucer, we don’t have to mention that. Is he perhaps embarrassed?) She’s an old hand at pilgrimages, and, it’s implied, the loose morals that sometimes go along; she knows, probably in both senses, “muche of wandring by the weye.” She’s gap-toothed, a medieval sign that some believe had to do with sexual accomplishment, or with a bold, faithless nature, or with traveling. The Wife of Bath, we find out, has plenty of all three.
Her tale deals not surprisingly with the upper hand a woman must maintain in marriage. She is “somdel [somewhat] deaf,” but that doesn’t stop her from amorous adventures; she also later gives more detail about her “other company” that Chaucer passes lightly over by saying,
Of remedies of love she knew per chaunce,
For she koude [knew] of that art the olde daunce.
(lines 475-476)
The “remedies of love” implies she knows of Ovid’s ancient work of the same name, which deals with all the rules of the love game. The idea of knowing the rules of the game, especially of a sexual nature, shows up often in reference to the Wife.
Is she meant to be purely ironic? It wouldn’t be strange to Chaucer’s audience to hear of five husbands, since no woman, especially one with property and one as willing as the Wife, would stay a widow for long. She uses all her “reson” for defending the delights of the lower regions of the body. But can you find anything in her portrait that cuts, for example, like the knife Chaucer uses against the Doctor? The Wife is teased, but is she judged? More than any other character, Chaucer lets her speak for herself.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE PARSON
The poor Parson, like the Knight, is the ideal of what someone of his class ought to be. He is “lerned,” “in adversitee ful [very] pacient,” and is a “noble ensaumple” (example) to his parishioners. Given what we’ve already seen of learned men and their abuses, it’s unusual that this one should possess such virtue–he is even “loath” to collect his “tithes” (income tax on which he lives). He practices what he preaches, knowing that he must set the example for the common people, “For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste, No wonder is a lewed [ignorant] man to ruste” (lines 503-504) like “iren.” He doesn’t, like some priests, run to London and rent out his parish to someone else. His ideal qualities make him ideal to tell the last tale of the trip, a sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins, which reminds us there is a serious spiritual purpose to the pilgrimage and to the Tales.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE PLOWMAN
The Parson’s brother, in spirit as well as in blood, is the Plowman, who is also the perfect ideal, “living in pees and parfit charite.” This portrait may well have amazed Chaucer’s audience, just as we’d be surprised to hear of such a chivalrous workman. This Plowman would work for a poor person without pay; he pays all his church taxes on time; he loves his neighbor as himself. He rides a mare, a humble horse. This portrait is especially interesting because peasants in Chaucer’s day rose up frequently against Chaucer’s own middle class. Some think Chaucer may have presented an ideal plowman because he had such a low opinion of the real ones. But do you think Chaucer would have linked him with the Parson if he meant the picture to be ironic? Even if he is not as rowdy and fully human as some of the others, he is genuine.