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STUDY GUIDE FOR MEDIEVAL QUIZ 1-----KEY
I.
II.
Vocabulary Builder Words (97, 122, 136)
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Solicitous: caring about the health or well-being of others
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Absolution: freeing someone from sin or from punishment; forgiveness
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Pallor: lacking color; pale
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Hoary: white or gray with age
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Prating: continual chatting as if by a child
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Tarry: linger, lag behind
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Apothecary: pharmacist
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Implored: begged earnestly
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Bequeath: to give as a gift, as in an inheritance
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Prowess: skill of some sort
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Rebuked: criticize or correct sharply
“The General Prologue” Pilgrim Portraits & Chaucer (96)
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Knight: loves truth and honor; fought in Crusades; clothes still dirty from wars
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Squire: Knight’s son; courtly lover, dresses nicely, has good manners, sleeps little at night
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Prioress: woman of the church, sings through her nose, good table manners, wears jewelry: Amor
vincit Omnia—Love conquers all.
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Monk: supposed to be cloistered, hunter, rich clothes, nice horses
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Friar: lecherous, greedy, doesn’t take care of the poor and sick; his name is Hubert
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Merchant: dresses richly, has forked beard, is in debt but no one else knows
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Wife of Bath: 5 husbands, red hose, old dance, spurs, pilgrimages, lisp
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Parson: good churchman; preaches gospel, cares for his flock, hates tithes
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Miller: huge man, red hair, wart on nose, mouth like a furnace, plays bagpipes
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Pardoner: yellow hair like rat tails; corrupt, great preacher, cheats people out of money by selling
fake pardons and selling fake relicts.
III.
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Host: the judge of the tale-telling contest
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Geoffrey Chaucer: the author; the narrator; “Don’t blame me…..”; Father of English Poetry
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Tale-telling contest: tales with best moral lesson and most entertaining
“The Pardoner’s Tale” (123)
1. Why do the riotous men want to kill Death?
Their friend died, and they seem to think of Death as a person.
2. What is ironic about this wish?
We don’t expect characters to desire killing something that is an idea and not living.
3. Who tells them where Death can be found?
The ancient man wrapped up in rags
4. What lies under the oak tree?
8 bushels of gold coins
5. Why don’t the men just take the gold home right then?
They are afraid the people in town will think they stole the treasure from someone,
6. Why do the two older bad men send the youngest man to town?
To get food and drink while they wait for night to sneak away the gold
7. What do they plan to do while the younger man is gone?
They plan to stab him when he returns and split the gold between the two of them.
8. What does the younger man plan to do while he is away from the older men?
We’re told Satan puts the idea in his head to poison the other two, so that he (rioter) can keep all
the gold for himself.
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9. What excuse does the younger man give the apothecary for needing the chemical for which he
asks?
The young man says that he has a problem with rats and polecats.
10. What happens at the end of the story, AND what moral does the story teach?
At the end of the story, all three rioters are dead, either from stabbing or being poisoned. They
killed each other because they were so greedy to have more of the gold for themselves. The story
teaches the moral that greed is not only evil but dangerous.
IV.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” (137)
1. What reason does the Wife give for there being no more fairies in the land anymore?
The reason there are no more fairies in the country is because the friars are now under every bush
and tree, threatening women’s virtue.
2. What crime does the knight commit at the beginning of the story
The knight rapes a young woman.
3. Who is put in charge of his punishment? Queen Guenivere Why? One reason could be since it was
a woman who was victimized, it should be a woman who judges the crime. Another reason could
be the theme of the story: Women should have control—sovereignty—over their men.
4. What question must he find the answer to?
The knight must find the answer to this question: What is it that all men desire?
5. How long does he have to find this answer?
One year and a day
6. What unattractive trait about women does the story about King Midas describe?
Women can’t keep secrets.
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7. Why is this part of the story ironic?
Because the Wife of Bath is, obviously, a woman, we don’t expect a woman to come up with a
negative judgment about women in general, namely that they can’t keep secrets.
8. What is the answer to the queen’s question?
Women want sovereignty over their men—AKA—be in charge.
9. What does the old woman demand the knight do?
She demands he marry her.
10. When asked why he is so miserable on their wedding night, what three criticisms does the knight
level at his wife? He doesn’t want to marry her because she is old, ugly, and low-born.
11. What two choices does the old woman give her new husband?
She can either be beautiful and faithless or ugly and faithful.
12. What choice does the knight make?
He asks her to make the choice; he gives her his sovereignty.
13. According to the Wife of Bath, what is the lesson of this story? Men should give their wives their
sovereignty.
14. What curse does the Wife wish on men who won’t let their women be in charge?
That God send them a pestilence—sickness.
15. What does the word sovereignty mean?
One’s self-mastery