Back to: Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
In this article will discuss The Friar’s Tale Summary in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The Friar’s tale is the attack on the summoners. He tells the story of an archdeacon’ summoner. The archdeacon is the man who implements the law against fornication and witchcraft very seriously.
He has a summoner who, the friar, says, is a thief. He only brings rich people who can pay him half of the money of the punishment. He gets the information of the people from the prostitutes in return of keeping them safe.
One day, when he is going to summon an old widow, he meets a yeoman to whom he hides his identity because his identity is much detested in the society. The summoner and yeoman begin to travel together while the summoner asks him a question regarding his whereabouts so as to rob him.
Finally, they reveal each other their real identity and yeoman came out to be a devil who belongs to hell. The devil tells him that takes the form of humans whenever he is on earth and that he’d someday have a better description of hell that Virgil and Dante.
They continue to move further and find out a carter whose wagon was stuck in the mud. He says something which the summoner takes literally asking the devil to take all of his belonging to which the devil replies saying that what he said he didn’t mean it literally.
The devil encourages the carter to pray to God and when he does that the Horse pulls the wagon out of the mud. The summoner asks the devil to accompany him the old widow’s house.
They reach there and the summoner summons her to appear in the church. She says she cannot travel because she is sick. She asks if she could pay the summoner to represent her before archdeacon.
He agrees and demands twelve pence which she thinks is too much. In the end, bothered by summoner too much, she curses him to give his body to the devil. The devil hears these words takes the summoner to the hell.
