Geoffrey Chaucer the Canterbury Tales the Knight\'s Tale

¶ … Knight's Tale" from "Canterbury Tales," by Geoffrey Chaucer.

THE KNIGHT'S TALE

The Knight's Tale" is one of the most memorable in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales. It tells the story of two young knights, Palamon and Arcite, who are imprisoned together in a tower, and both fall in love with the same girl, Emelye. Chaucer wrote it in Middle English, which, unlike Old English, is fairly easy to read and understand by modern readers.

For example, at the end of the story, Chaucer has the lines, "The Firste Moevere of the cause above, / Whan he first made the faire cheyne of love, / Greet was th'effect, and heigh was his entente./... For with that faire cheyne of love he bond / The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond / In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee" (The Knight's Tale, 2987-2993). They show Emelye why she must marry Palamon, and they are extremely poetic in their talk of "air, water, and land, and the fair chain of love." The meaning is not lost, even though the words may look unusual.

The story is a classic romance about courtly love, where one knight dies (Arcite), and the other loses in a tournament, but wins the girl in the end when Arcite dies. Many critics believe Chaucer based it on a similar story by Boccaccio, the Italian writer. "The Knight's Tale" is the first story in "Canterbury Tales," coming right after the Prologue.

Paull Baum takes a very literary and critical approach to his analysis of this tale, and compares it to a similar story written by Boccaccio, which he believes that Chaucer read before he wrote his own version.

Baum especially enjoyed the way Chaucer handled the plot, building on it as a pyramid builds on the base. "The symmetry of the Knight's Tale is always and justly praised. It inheres in the plot, which may be diagrammed as a double isosceles triangle, with Palamon and Arcite at the common base and Theseus at one peak and Emelye at the other. There are two equal lovers, blood cousins and sworn brothers, discovered by and by when they first appear" (Baum 96).

He also approves of the way Chaucer brings the reader into the story, and while the reader always understands that the knight is telling a story, and it is unreal, there is sill a drawing in, and feeling that the story could, for just a moment, be real. "In truth, throughout the Knight's Tale there is implicit understanding between poet and reader that this is a story and therefore somewhat unreal. This is not because the scene is legendary Athens, a place which exists only in books, for there is plenty of minute realism of a sort in the details, and the never-never land of romance is close enough to the chivalric ideas which Chaucer knew directly" (Baum 98).

Lambdin looks at the story from the chivalry point-of-view, and points out how important knights and knighthood were during Chaucer's time. That he began his story with the tale of this knight gives some weight to what an important role they played in society. Regarding the book, critics often say, "The Knight is often called one of the 'ideal' pilgrims along with the Parson and sometimes the Clerk because unlike the other portraits, Chaucer offers no attack or satire against them" (Lambdin 2).

Calabrese explains knighthood, and its various meanings, and concludes that "Chaucer's Knight is at once a great military man and also kindly, noble, and Christian, for his religious identity cannot be separated from his social and military positions" (Lambdin 7).

Lambdin too, says Chaucer based the story the knight tells on Boccaccio. "We should be careful about pressing these connections too far, however, because the "Knight's Tale" was an independent story of Chaucer's, based on Boccaccio "Teseida," long before Chaucer wrote the "Canterbury Tales" or gave this tale to the Knight. So the tale does not necessarily reflect his character" (Lambdin 12).

In other words, the knight in this story may simply be a vehicle for Chaucer to relate the tale he wanted to tell. He needed a character that was strong enough to relate the tale, and that was the knight. The real purpose of "The Knight's Tale," is to retell the story of Boccaccio, and reinforce the importance of chivalry, courtly love, and carrying on with the religious fever of the Crusades.