Book Review Chaucer The Canterbury Tales The Pardoners Tale

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In direct reprisal for The Friar’s Tale about a corrupt Summoner being cast into Hell, The Summoner tells a story about a foolish Friar (monk). It I the rudest, most vulgar tale in the collection. In a Yorkshire village in a marsh, a Friar is given charge of Trentals, which were purchased hymns to be sung by a hired choir to pray for the release of souls from Purgatory. Thirty such hymns sung in succession will release one soul from Purgatory, so people were expected to pay for the hire of Trental singers. Trentals were a real religious practice in the early church and medieval era. The Friar central to the story is one of an order of corrupt monks who bribe people into offering food and money in return for a promise to have Trentals sung for them when they die. Visiting the home of a sick, dying, bed-ridden old man, the Friar abuses his hospitality enormously. He molests the man’s wife. The man offers a little food, but the Friar insists on having the finest pork, and wine. He then begs for financial donations to his Friary’s work, but the man has no spare money to offer. The Friar becomes insistent, and the infirm man becomes increasingly wise to his insincerity. The dying man, who is called Thomas, now offers the Friar a bargain. He has a hidden treasure, which the Friar is going to have to share evenly with the whole order of Friars to which he belongs. The Friar agrees to this, and asks what the gift will be. Thomas invites the Friar to inspect his backside for a concealed gift. The Friar looks, and the dying man blast an enormous smelly fart in his face, declaring that to be his gift. Shocked and furious, the Friar goes to the Lord Of The Manor to Complain. The Lord is wise and finds the Friar repulsive. He merely insists that a way must be found for the gift to be distributed to the other friars in the order. He wonders how a fart can this be evenly shared fairly among twelve men. A servant comes up with a solution. A cartwheel is found which has twelve hollow spokes. This is taken to the Friary where the friars are ordered to place their noses to the end of a spoke each, while the Friar farted at by Thomas, is obliged to fart into the middle of the wheel, so that the odour and sound of the fart he releases spreads evenly through the order. Thomas offer is therefore honoured. We are not told how the Friar hearing his story from the Summoner reacts though he is less than likely to be happy about it all, unlike secular readers today. Juvenile and hilarious amidst many much more serious tales. Arthur Chappell