Chaucer Characters by Quotes

Parson

"...he was rich in hold thought and work. He also was a learned man, a clerk, who truly knew Christ's gospel and would preach it devoutly to parishioners, and teach it." "...if gold rust, what then will iron do?"

Merchant

"...so had set his wits to work, none knew he was in debt, he was so stately in administration, in loans and in bargains and negotiation."

Host

"A very striking man our Host withal and fit to be a marshal in a hall" "There is no finer burgess in Cheapside. Bold in his speech, yet wise and full of tact, there was no manly attribute he lacked..."

Miller

"A wrangler and buffoon, he had a store of tavern stories, filthy in the main. His was a master-hand at stealing grain."

Sergant at the Law (Man of Law)

"Discreet he was, a man to reverence, or so he seemed, his sayings were so wise"

Cook

"He could distinguish London ale by flavor, and he could roast and seethe and boil and fry, make a good thick soup and bake a tasty pie" "ulcer on his knee"

Oxford Cleric (Clerk)

"He had found no preferment in the church and he was too unworldly to make search for secular unemployment" "His only care was study, and indeed he never spoke a word more than was need, formal at that respectful in the extreme"

Franklin

"He lived for pleasure and had always done, for he was Epicurus' very son, in whose opinion sensual delight was the one true felicity in sight" "He was a model among landed gentry"

Plowman

"He was an honest worker, good and true; living in peace and perfect charity" "...he would help the poor for the love of Christ and never take a penny if he could help it..."

Summoner

"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 want to find one."

Friar (Hubert)

"He was every prompt to arbitrate disputes on settling days (for a small fee) in many helpful ways, not then appearing as your cloistered scholar with threadbare habit hardly worth a dollar, but much more like a Doctor or a Pope"

Doctor

"No one alive could talk as well as he did on points of medicine and surgery, for, being grounded in astronomy..." "All his apothecaries in a tribe were ready with the drugs he would prescribe and each made money from the other's guile..." "...had a special love of gold"

Reeve

"No one had ever caught him in arrears... Feared like the plague he was, by those beneath." "He had grown rich and had a store of treasure well tucked away, yet out it came to pleasure his lord..." "He was a carpenter of first-rate skill."

Nun

"She certainly was very entertaining, pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining to counterfeit a courtly kind of grace... she was so charitably solicitous" "a set of beads... whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen... first was a graven a crowned A, and lower, 'love conquers all things'"

Woman/Wife of Bath (Allison)

"She'd had five husbands, all at the church door, apart from other company in youth..." "She had gap-teeth, set widely, truth to say. Easily on an ambling hose she sat..." "In company she liked to laugh and chat and knew the remedies for love's mischances, an art in which she knew the oldest dances"

Monk

"The Rule of good St. Benet or St. Maur as old and strict he tended to ignore" "He spared for no expense"

Skipper

"The nicer rules of conscience he ignored" "If, when he fought, the enemy vessel sank, he sent his prisoners home; they walked the plank" "Hardy he was, prudent in undertaking; his beard in many a tempest had its shaking, and he knew all the havens as they were..."

Squire

"a lover and cadet" "He could make songs and poems and recite, Knew how to joust and dance, to draw and write. He loved so hotly..."

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..." "he was a true, a perfect gentle-knight."

Manciple

"an illiterate fellow can outpace the wisdom of a heap of learned men..." "...could wipe their (the lawyers) eye."

Guildsman

"one impressive guild-fraternity" "Each seemed a worthy burgess, fit to grace A guild-hall with a seat upon the dais"

Pardoner

"there was no pardoner of equal grace" "...he drew more money than the parson in a month or two, and by his flatteries and prevarication made monkeys of the priest and congregation... in church he was a noble ecclesiast"

Yeoman

"wore a coat and hood of green, and peacock-feathered arrows, bright and keen..." "he was a proper forester, I guess."