Study Guide for The Canterbury Tales and Middle English TEST—CP 2011
The Prologue
* What is the main objective of “The Prologue?”
* Why are the pilgrims traveling to Canterbury (what’s their goal)?
* Why do the pilgrims tell their tales during the journey? What is the contest?
* How does Chaucer help us to know the characters?
* What is Chaucer doing when he describes them?
* Who is the Wife of Bath?
* In what ways does Chaucer reveal his characters?
* Based on Chaucer’s characterization of the Prioress, the Monk, and others connected with the church,
what would you say are his views on organized Catholicism, or religion?
* Which member of the clergy (in the Prologue) is given the most flattering description?
* Be able to match the pilgrims with lines describing them or with their descriptions.
The Pardoner’s Tale
* Describe the Pardoner—are we intended to admire him?
* What are the various ways he earns his money?
* Why do the rioters go in search of Death?
* Why is Death capitalized—what does that mean? How is Death portrayed in the story?
* How does the tale end?
* What does the Pardoner’s choice of tales reveal about him?
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
* What is the knight’s quest?
* What, according to this tale, do women want?
* According to the Wife of Bath, what does she tell her tale to do (more than one thing)?
* In what action does the Knight reveal his understanding of what women want?
General Questions:
* Define exemplum and frame story.
Use your character questions to figure these out. Some may be used more than once.
___________1. He had the same small voice a goat has got; I judge he was a gelding or a mare.
___________2. He was a manly-man who hunted and who breaks his vows.
___________3. A young man with curly hair who wore fancy clothes and was a hot lover
___________4. She knew the remedies for love’s mischances; Her hose were of the finest scarlet red.
___________5. Distinguished and respectable, a true gentleman following the code of chivalry
___________6. son of the knight
___________7.Black, scabby brows he had, and a thin beard. / Children were afraid
when he appeared.
___________8. She had little dogs she would be feeding / With roasted flesh, or milk, or
fine white bread.
___________9. Man who flirted and slept with pretty girls and who arranged marriages, even though he
was supposed to be a holy man.
___________10. She had five husbands, all at the church door.
___________11. A Godly man, kind and charitable to his neighbor, though just a poor farmer
___________12. Sells phony “relics” to unsuspecting country folks to get a buck and to make fools out
of believers.
___________13. A true minister who follows the Gospel and who gives a good example for his “sheep”
to follow
Read closely and carefully the following excerpt from the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales to
infer the character of the Merchant.
There was a Merchant with a forking beard
And motley1 dress; high on his horse he sat,
Upon his head a Flemish beaver hat
And on his feet daintily2 buckled boots.
He told of his opinions and pursuits
In solemn tones, he harped on his increase
Of capital; there should be sea-police
(He thought) upon the Harwich-Holland ranges;
He was expert at dabbling in exchanges.
This estimable Merchant so had set
His wits to work, none knew he was in debt,
He was so stately in administration,
In loans and bargains and negotiation.
He was an excellent fellow all the same;
To tell the truth I do not know his name.
1
motley: multicolored
2
daintily: delicately
1. How is the Merchant is dressed? _______________________________________
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2. What can you infer (tell) from the use of the word daintily?
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3. In “solemn tones,” what did the merchant “harp on”?
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4. How does the Merchant appear to the other travelers?
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5. What secret does the Merchant conceal?
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6. What is the Merchant’s identifying characteristic; what would make him easily
identifiable?
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