THE CANTERBURY TALES (MIDDLE ENGLISH)

The Canterbury Tales depicts a storytelling competition between pilgrims drawn from all ranks of society. The tales are as various a s the pilgrims themselves, encompassing comedy, pathos, tragedy, and cynicism. The Miller and the Reeve express their mutual antagon ism in a pair of comic stories combining sex and trickery/ in The Shipmans Tale, a wife sells her favors to a monk. Others draw o n courtly romance and fantasy: the Knight tells of rivals competing for the love of the same woman, and the Squire describes a princ ess who can...[Read more]