Characters from The Canterbury Tales

Lawyer

By letters patent, as in full commission, his fame and learning and his high position had won him many a robe and fee; there was no such conveyancer as he

Summoner

He had carbuncles (on his face), his eyes were narrow, he was as hot and lecherous as a sparrow; he was a noble varlet and a kind one, you'd meet none better if you were to find one.

Plowman

He must have carted through the morning dew, he was an honest worker, good and true, he paid his titles in full when they were due

Monk

He was a fat and personable priest; His prominent eyeballs never seemed to settle; they glittered like the flames beneath a kettle; Supple his boots, his horse in fine condition, he was a prelate fit for exhibition

Prioress

Her way of smiling was simple and coy; she spoke daintily in French; her cloak had a graceful charm. She wore a coral trinket on her arm

Yeoman

His arrows never drooped their feathers low--and in his hand he bore a mighty bow; his hand was like a nut, his face was brown; he knew the whole of woodcraft up and down

Pardoner

His wallet lay before him on his lap, brimful of pardons come from Rome, all hot; he had the same small voice a goat has got

Skipper

If, when he fought the enemy vessel sank, he sent his prisoners home; they walked the plank; as for his skill in reckoning his tides, current, and many other risk besides

Manciple

In buying victual, he was never rash whether he bought on credit or paid cash, he used to watch the market most precisely and got in first, and so did quite nicely

Reeve

No bailiff, serf, or herdsman dared to kick, He knew their dodges, knew their every trick; feared like the plague he was, by those beneath, he had a lovely dwelling on a heath

Oxford Cleric

still a student though, had taken logic long ago, by his bed he preferred having twenty books in red and black, of Aristotle's philosophy, than costly clothes, fiddle, or psaltery

Doctor

the cause of every malady you'd got he knew their seat, their humor, their condition, he was a perfect practicing physician

Friar

A Limiter, a very festive fellow, in all Four Orders there was none so mellow, so glib with gallant phrase and well-turned speech, he'd fixed up many a marriage, giving each of his young women what he could afford her, he was a noble pillar to his Order

Franklin

A sanguine man, high-colored and benign, he loved a morning sop of cake in wine; he lived for pleasure and had always done, for he was Epicurus very son

Wife of Bath

A worthy woman was with us, somewhat deaf, in making cloth she showed so great a bent, what's more, she'd had five husbands at the church door

Merchant

In solemn tones, he harped on his increase of capital; there should be sea police (he thought) upon the Harwich-Holland ranges; He was expert a dabbling in exchanges.

Miller

a chap of sixteen stone, a great stout fellow big in brawn and bone, his beard, like any sow or fox, was red and broad as well, as though it was a spade, and at its tip his nose displayed, a wart

Squire

a lover and cadet, a lad of fire, with locks as curly as if they had been pressed. He was some twenty years of age, I guessed

Knight

a most distinguished man, who from the day on which he first began to ride abroad had followed chivalry, truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy, he had done nobly in his sovereign's war

Parson

he was rich in holy thought and work, he was also a learned man, a clerk who truly knew Christ's gospel and would preach it devoutly to parishioners, and teach it