The function of a pardoner in Chaucer's time was to collect moneys for charitable purposes and to be the Pope's special agent in dispensing or rewarding contributors with certain pardons as a remission for sins. However, one of the two, the Pardoner, possesses enough self-knowledge to know what he is the other, the Physician, being self-satisfied and affected, does not. The ironic relationship between The Physician's Tale and The Pardoner's Tale - and therefore the Physician and Pardoner - is that both men are self-loving dissemblers.
The Pardoner will have his revenge on all the complacent, self-righteous critics, and he resolves to think his revenge out carefully. The Pardoner is further insulted when some members of the company cry with one voice, "No, don't let him tell dirty jokes!" ("Nay, lat hym telle us of no ribaudye"). The Pardoner agrees by mockingly echoing the same oath the Host has just used - "By Saint Ronyon." The echo of the Host indicates, if anything at all, the Pardoner's irritation at hearing the Physician praised as being "like a Prelate" ("lyk a prelat"). Then, after praising the Physician, the Host turns to the Pardoner and asks for a merry tale or jokes ("som myrthe or japes"), even though preaching is the Pardoner's profession. Thus, all three indeed find Death.įrom the Pardoner's perspective, the Physician told a cheaply pious story and the Host, a sanctimonious fool, reacts to the tale with what seems high praise.
When the youngest reveler approaches the tree, the two others stab him and then sit down to drink the wine before they dispose of his body. The youngest, however, wanting the treasure to himself, buys poison, which he adds to two of the bottles of wine he purchases. When he leaves, the two others decide to kill him and divide his money. The youngest of the three draws the shortest straw. They decide to wait for night to move the gold and draw straws to see which one will go into town to get food and wine. The revelers rush to the tree and find eight bushels of gold coins, which they decide to keep. Hearing him speak of Death, the revelers ask where they can find Death, and the old man directs them to a tree at the end of the lane. He says that not even Death will take his life. On the way, the three men meet an old man who explains that he must wander the earth until he can find someone willing to exchange youth for old age. The young revelers, thinking that Death might still be in the next town, decide to seek him out and slay him. A servant tells them that the dead man was a friend who was stabbed in the back the night before by a thief called Death. The revelers mark the passing of a coffin and ask who has died. In Flanders, at the height of a black plague, three young men sit in an inn, eating and drinking far beyond their power and swearing oaths that are worthy of damnation. And even if he is not a moral man, he can tell a good moral tale, which follows. The Pardoner admits that he likes money, rich food, and fine living. And even though he is guilty of the same sins he preaches against, he can still make other people repent. He repeats that his theme is always "Money is the root of all evil" because, with this text, he can denounce the very vice that he practices: greed. Then he stands in the pulpit and preaches very rapidly about the sin of avarice so as to intimidate the members into donating money. Always employing an array of documents and objects, he constantly announces that he can do nothing for the really bad sinners and invites the good people forward to buy his relics and, thus, absolve themselves from sins. His text is always "Radix malorum est cupidatis" ("Love of money is the root of all evil"). The Pardoner then explains to the pilgrims the methods he uses in preaching. The more genteel members of the company, fearing that the Pardoner will tell a vulgar story, ask the Pardoner for a tale with a moral. Thinking that the pilgrims need a merry tale to follow, the Host turns to the Pardoner. However, he rejects the Physician's moral to the tale and substitutes one of his own: Thus the gifts of fortune and nature are not always good ("The gifts of Fortune and Nature have been the cause of the death of many a person"). The Sovereignty of Marriage versus the Wife's ObedienceĪpparently deeply affected by the Physician's sad and gruesome tale of Virginia, the Host praises the Physician by using as many medical terms as he can muster.