Hood College Chaucerians

Question: Based on the behavior of Arcite and Palamon already displayed in the first two parts, who do you think is more honorable and therefore worthy of Emelye's love?

The quote that I've chosen comes early on in this section of reading. In the "persoun's" section, the line reads on page 21, "That if gold ruste, what sholde iren do?" (500). This line made me pause because I had never heard this saying before and I had to do some thinking to figure it out. The next two lines read "For if a preest be foule, on whom we truste/ No wonder is a lewed man to ruste!" (501-502). This quote was interesting to me simply because it made me think and has a nice ring to it. Now that I understand it, the message is pretty cool, too. me, contemplating this quote *quick edit: I just read something that said this quote may have been from "the gospel" and Chaucer just used it--either way it's super interesting to me!! 

"With scaled browes blake and piled berd;/ Of his visage children were afred." (Canterbury Tales 627-628) https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=768&bih=960&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=ccumWbGCEYGijwTkmoW4Cg&q=many+pimples+scary+cartoon&oq=many+pimples+scary+cartoon&gs_l=mobile-gws-img.3...15823.17885.0.18192.9.9.0.0.0.0.147.1021.0j8.8.0....0...1.1.64.mobile-gws-img..1.1.135...30i10k1.zolE2dMZbz8#imgrc=aL4PNI75u9VTpM:

For saucefleem he was with eyen narwe. As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe, With scaled browes blake and piled berd; Of his visage children were aferd. Ther nas quicksilver, litarge, ne brimstoon, Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon, Ne ointment that wolde clense and bite,  That him mighte helpen of his whelkes white (625-632) Gif Courtesy of: The Fox and The Hound

In felawshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe; Of remedies of love she knew par chaunce, For she koude of that art the olde daunce (474-476) giphy.com

Usually prologues, at least in my opinion, can be dreadful. I always want to jump right in to the story! However, I think skipping this prologue could have done more harm than good. In the General Prologue Chaucer provides background knowledge of each individual character, which will be important to the individual's tale. I was not expecting the way that Chaucer introduces each character to be as interesting as it was. For example, my favorite, the "DOCTOUR OF PHYSIK" was not the "doctor" I was expecting him to be. Again, proving why reading the prologue is important! After reading the first half of the prologue, I feel less intimidated by the rest of The Canterbury Tales. As I get to know all of the characters and their personal attributes, I am excited to read their tales. Chaucer does an incredible job with the characterization, which helps to understand to not only understand the characters, but the structure of society during that time period as well.

Having read parts of the Canterbury Tales before, I knew what to expect when diving into the general prologue. But, of course, middle English still got to me and I trudged along, trying to figure out what these characters were all about. The one person that I have found most entertaining thus far is the Squire. Our narrator describes him as a dashing young lad who is anything but boring! With his perfectly curled hair and his singing capabilities, I might wonder if he was a ladies man...but thanks to Chaucer, I don't have to wonder! We're told about the Squire's evening shenanigans: "So hoote he lovede, that by nightertale / He slepte namoore than dooth a nightingale."  The dashingly handsome Heath Ledger as young SQUIRE William, from Giphy.com Of course, the other appealing person would have to be the Cook, after all, I've heard that he bakes great pies!

My favorite part of reading any book is always the characterization. I love stories that develop almost every character introduced, and the prospect of "nine and twenty in a compaignye" is fairly exciting to me (Chaucer 24.) I hope that all twenty nine characters in the pilgrimage are developed, although based on the prologue it seems some may be more so than others. The stories are also being told by one of the characters in the pilgrimage, so the development of each will be biased. I find this more interesting than third person omniscient, because I also get to know the story-teller in the process, based on what they value about each character they describe. The speaker withholds the names of each character from the reader in the prologue and instead titles them based on their profession or guild. This reminded me of tarot cards in a way because of the capitalization and how he went on to describe their qualities, including their attire and intentions, with some. I think th