The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale Contents
Reaction to the Wife's Tale
In The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale is followed by The Friar's Tale. In his Prologue, the Friar acknowledges that the Wife has spoken well of many things. However, perhaps stung by her sarcasm about friars at the start of her Tale (l.855, 864-80), he warns her to leave the citing of authorities to learned scholars and clergy. The woman ‘preacher' is thus given a firm put down.
The Friar then moves on to introduce his tale about a Summoner, as the interchange in l. 829-49 indicated he would. No good, he claims, can be said about a Summoner. The Summoner replies in kind and the Host, once more, has to restore peace.
A man belonging to a Christian religious group who, instead of living within an enclosed religious house, travelled round teaching the Christian faith, and sustaining himself by begging for charity.
The collective term for priests and ministers of the church (as opposed to the non-ordained laity).
In the Middle Ages an officer of the church court, responsible for summoning offenders to appear.
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