crossref-it.info - AS/A2 English Literature Study Guides - texts in context.The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale synopses and commentary » The Pardoner's Tale l.373-422: The rioters hear of death
Synopsis of l.373-422: The rioters hear of death
Three young men drinking early in the day hear a funeral bell tolling. A young lad tells them that the victim is an old friend of theirs, killed (while drunk) by Death, who has taken the lives of everyone in a nearby village. Despite warnings by the lad and taverner, the three young men vow to avenge their friend’s death by murdering his killer, the ‘thief’ Death. Drunk and cursing, they set out to catch him.
Commentary on l.373-422: The rioters hear of death
l.374 prime: six a.m. Medieval monks divided their days and nights according to the regular round of services during each twenty-four hours. Prime was one of the morning services. But these terms were used by everyone to denote times of day:
- Clearly the ‘ryotoures’ (hooligans) are already drinking in the tavern very early, but the reference to the bell for the service also brings in a reminder of the right way of living, honouring God.
l.376 belle: another Christian bell, the bell that was tolled as a corpse was borne to the grave
l.378 knave: boy, a serving boy
l.391 this pestilence: Chaucer’s audience would have clear memories of the effect of the plague known as the Black Death, earlier in the century
l.392-6 On the literal level, the boy’s final words are just a practical warning about being prepared to encounter a dangerous thief. Of course, there is a symbolic moral message as well
l.404-19 It is demonstrated at some length that the rioters are stupid. On a realistic level, this is not plausible. However, Chaucer is creating a situation which portrays a moral teaching and human reality, that humans have little idea of what it means to encounter death
l.417-21 Chaucer combines one sin (drunkenness) with another (serious blasphemy).
Investigating l.372-422
- Chaucer seeks to create mystery here and writes obliquely (i.e. not directly or literally)
- Pick out those phrases or elements which demonstrate this
- What do you feel to be the effect of Chaucer having the boy make the speech about death as a thief (382-396)
- What message is Chaucer representing symbolically in l.392-6?
- What useful message is symbolized by the idea of death coming unannounced, like a thief?
- What effects do you think the taverner’s words (l. 397-403) might have on the rioters if they had been more thoughtful?
- Once more one sin is combined with others (l.417-21):
- How do ‘great oaths’ relate to the larger theme of death in the tale?
These riotoures three, of which I tell,
Long erst than prime rang of any bell,
Were set them in a tavern for to drink;
And as they sat, they heard a belle clink
Before a corpse, was carried to the grave.
That one of them gan calle to his knave,
"Go bet," quoth he, "and aske readily
What corpse is this, that passeth here forth by;
And look that thou report his name well."
"Sir," quoth the boy, "it needeth never a deal;
It was me told ere ye came here two hours;
He was, pardie, an old fellow of yours,
And suddenly he was y-slain to-night;
Fordrunk as he sat on his bench upright,
There came a privy thief, men clepe Death,
That in this country all the people slay'th,
And with his spear he smote his heart in two,
And went his way withoute wordes mo'.
He hath a thousand slain this pestilence;
And, master, ere you come in his presence,
Me thinketh that it were full necessary
For to beware of such an adversary;
Be ready for to meet him evermore.
Thus taughte me my dame; I say no more."
"By Sainte Mary," said the tavernere,
"The child saith sooth, for he hath slain this year,
Hence ov'r a mile, within a great village,
Both man and woman, child, and hind, and page;
I trow his habitation be there;
To be advised great wisdom it were,
Ere that he did a man a dishonour."
"Yea, Godde's armes," quoth this riotour,
"Is it such peril with him for to meet?
I shall him seek, by stile and eke by street.
I make a vow, by Godde's digne bones."
Hearken, fellows, we three be alle ones:
Let each of us hold up his hand to other,
And each of us become the other's brother,
And we will slay this false traitor Death;
He shall be slain, he that so many slay'th,
By Godde's dignity, ere it be night."
Together have these three their trothe plight
To live and die each one of them for other
As though he were his owen sworen brother.
And up they start, all drunken, in this rage,
And forth they go towardes that village
Of which the taverner had spoke beforn,
And many a grisly oathe have they sworn,
And Christe's blessed body they to-rent;
"Death shall be dead, if that we may him hent."
Bookmark this page with: