The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
The Pardoner's Tale is one of
The Canterbury Tales. In the Introduction, the host invites the Pardoner to tell the next tale. The Pardoner's
Prologue is a sermon against
greed,
gluttony and
gambling, linking into the main tale. After the tale, the Pardoner invites the other
pilgrims to pay him for
pardons and sell them
relics.
The tale is based on a
folk-tale of
Oriental origin, although many variations exist. Three revelers set out to kill
Death. An old man directs them towards a tree, underneath which they find gold coins; they forget about their quest to kill Death, and one of them leaves to fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. They secretly plot to kill the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town poisons some of the wine. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine.
The relationship between teller and tale is particularly significant in the Pardoner's Tale. The Pardoner is an
enigmatic character, portrayed as grotesque in the General Prologue and apparently aware of his own
sin—it is not clear why he tells the pilgrims about his own sin in the prologue prior to his tale—and yet his preaching is correct and the result of his methods, despite their corruption, are good. Mention by him of a "draughte of corny [strong] ale" may suggest that he is being so open because he is drunk but this is not certain. This confession is similar to the details the
Wife of Bath gives away about herself in her prologue. Like that prologue the Pardoner's is heavily influenced by the
Romance of the Rose particularly the
Fals Semblaunt episode.
The Pardoner is also described as a good speaker in his portrait in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. The quality of the narrative reflects this. The critic
A. C. Spearing has written that "much of the individual colouring of the actual tale ... is drawn from its teller." This is true of many of the tales and their tellers but the Pardoner and his motives are woven even more tightly into his tale than most. The morality of the characters in the tales is often at best dubious but the Pardoner, who freely admits to his venal behaviour, is at least free of the
hypocrisy which many of the pilgrims display.
Many features of the narrative contribute to the mystery and interest of the tale, such as the description (e.g. we are told that the tree is up a "crooked way"), the central
irony that the revellers set out to find Death and die, and the fact that the names of all characters except for Death are not specified. These attributes make the tale seem 'dreamlike', possibly demonstrating the drunken state of the
protagonists, the three revellers. The old man in particular is an
ambiguous character, who could represent good, evil, God's mercy or the Pardoner himself. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the tale is told with great intensity and pace.
Though the Pardoner preaches heavily against greed, the ultimate irony of the character that Chaucer creates is based in the Pardoner's hypocritical actions. As an agent of the
Roman Catholic Church, he admits extortion of the poor for money, pocketing of
indulgences, and failure to abide by teachings against jealousy and greed.
The Pardoner is also deceptive in how he carries out his job. Instead of selling genuine relics, the bones he carries along belong to pigs, not departed
saints. The cross he carries appears to be studded with precious stones, but those are just bits of
metal.
This irony underlies Chaucer's seeming dislike for religious profit. Because it was written on the eve of the
Reformation and
Renaissance, it is generally believed that while it was still dangerous to denounce Church practices, Chaucer was able to use literary techniques to make his message more subtle.
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Read "The Pardoner's Tale" with interlinear translation
