Chaucer's Knight's Tale - the compact version
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
February 24, 2018 9:06am CST
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were the first great work of English Literature, but some of them do go on a bit.
However, each Tale can be told in exactly 100 words. Here is my compressed version of the Knight's Tale, which is extremely long in the original:
"Palamon and Arcite are two knights imprisoned in a tower in Athens by Theseus. Both see Lady Emily from the tower and claim “dibs”. Arcite is released and exiled but returns to Athens and gets a job in Emily’s house. Palamon later escapes, meets Arcite and they agree to duel over their claim to Emily. Theseus finds out and the duel becomes a staged pitched battle. Emily prays that the winner will be the one who loves her most.The gods Venus and Saturn get involved, such that Palamon loses but Arcite dies from a fall. Palamon therefore marries Emily."
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2 responses
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
24 Feb 18
Not really. This was a story about "courtly love" from a time when marriages were arranged between aristocratic families. In the story in question Emily does not even know that she is the object of affection by the two knights - a situation that goes on for several years!
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