The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Most Important Brief
Q.1. What is the masterpiece of Chaucer?
Ans. The Canterbury Tales is the masterpiece of Chaucer.
Q.2. What is The Canterbury Tales?
Ans. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories strung around the central idea of a pilgrimage from London to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury.
Q.3. How many pilgrims are described in the General Prologue?
Ans. Twenty-nine pilgrims are described in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer himself was the 30th Pilgrim.
Q. 4. What was the proposal of Harry Bailey?
Ans. Harry Bailey proposed a story telling contest: each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back and whoever tells the best story will be given a free meal.
Q.5. How did the narrator describe the Knight?
Ans. The narrator describes the Knight as a worthy man of high status. He fought in the Crusades in numerous countries and he had been always honoured for his worthiness and courtesy.
Q.6. How is the Knight dressed?
Ans. The Knight is dressed in a fustian tunic which is stained by the rust from his coat of chain mail.
Q.7. How many battles did the Knight fight?
Ans. The Knight fought fifteen mortal battles.
Q.8. How old was the Squire?
Ans. The Squire was about twenty years old.
Q.9. What is the function of a yeoman?
Ans. A yeoman was an attendant in a noble household. In military context yeoman was the rant of the third order of fighting men below knights and squires.
Q.10. Who accompanied the Prioress?
Ans. The Prioress was accompanied by a nun who was her chaplain and three priests.
Q.11. What was inscribed on the brooch of the prioress?
Ans. The words “amor vincit omnia was inscribed on the brooch of the prioress.
Q12. What type of person the Merchant was?
Ans. The Merchant had a habit to express his views pompously. He was clever in business transactions. He was dignified in his dealings, in his bargains and money lending.
Q.13. How did the Clerk of Oxford look?
Ans. The Clerk of Oxford looked lean and serious.
Q.14. What was the Sergeant of Law?
Ans. The Sergeant of Law was a judge at the session of the law courts.
Q.15. What type of person was the Plowman?
Ans. The Plowman was a good and faithful worker. He lived a life of peace and charity. He always remained devoted to God
Q.16. What type of man the Host was?
Ans. The Host was bold of speech, sensible, and well-educated. He had a jovial temper. According to Chaucer, the Host did not lack any quality of real manhood.
Q.17. Why did people travel to Canterbury?
Ans. They are going to the Shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury to receive special blessings.
Q.18.What is the job of a Reeve?
Ans. A Reeve was a manager and accountant of a lord.
Q.19. Who is the owner of the Tabard Inn?
Ans. The owner of the Tabard Inn is the Host, Harry Bailey.
Q.20. Name some of the great personalities referred to in “Prologue to the Canterbury Tales”.
Ans. The Knight, the Squire, the Prioress, the Monk, the Sergeant of Law etc.
Q.21. What does the Host of Tabard Inn propose to pass the time?
Ans. Each pilgrim would tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the trip home.
Q.22. Where did the pilgrims assemble?
Ans. The pilgrims assembled at Tabard Inn which is situated in Southwark.
More Brief:
Q.1. What is a pilgrimage?
Ans. A pilgrimage is a religious journey undertaken for penance and grace.
Q.2. What was the Friar’s name?
Ans. The name was Hubert.
Q.3. How were the teeth of the wife of Bath?
Ans. The wife of Bath was gap-toothed.
Q.4. What is the function of a Summoner?
Ans. A summoner was a person who offenders before the judge.
Q.5. Who was the Wife of Bath?
Ans. She was a woman from Bath.
Q.6. How many times did the Wife of Bath marry?
Ans. The Wife of Bath married five times.
Q.7. What was the occupation of the Wife of Bath?
Ans. The Wife of Bath was an expert in weaving cloth.
Q.8. What is the name of the Prioress?
Ans. The Prioress was known as Madam Eglantine.
Q.9. What is the name of the Host?
Ans. The name of the Host is Harry Bailey.
Q.10. Why did the Doctor of Physic love gold?
Ans. Chaucer ironically commented that as gold is an ingredient in preparing certain medicines, the Doctor of Medicine loved gold specially.
Q.11. What is Canterbury?
Ans. Canterbury, a cathedral city in southeast England, was a pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Q.1. What is the Nun’s Priest’s Tale?
Ans. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is a story in verse included in The Canterbury Tales which was written by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Q.2. Who told the Nun’s Priest to tell a story?
Ans. The Host whose name was Harry Bailey asked the Nun’s Priest to tell a story. He called the priest Sir John.
Q.3. Where did the widow live?
Ans. The widow lived in a narrow cottage by the side of a grove of trees which stood in a valley.
Q.4. Name the cock kept by the widow.
Ans. The widow kept a cock named Chaunticleer.
Q.5. How was Chaunticleer’s bill?
Ans. Chaunticleer’s bill was black and it shone like jet.
Q.6. Who was Madame Pertelote?
Ans. Madame Pertelote was the name of a hen. Chaunticleer loved her intensely.
Q.7. Who is Doctor Augustine?
Ans. Doctor Augustine refers to Saint Augustine (334-430 AD) who is one of the four original doctors of the Church.
Q.8. When did Sir Russell seize Chaunticleer?
Ans. As soon as Chaunticleer closed his eyes and began to crow, Sir Russell leaped up and seized him by the throat.
Q.9. What moral lesson does Chaunticleer utter?
Ans. Chaunticleer utters the following moral lesson: “Anyone who wilfully shuts his eyes when he ought to keep them wide open will be forsaken by God”.
Q.10. What is a mock-heroic poem?
Ans. A mock-heroic poem is a form of satire which is written in the style of an epic but deals with a trivial subject.
Q.11. What did Pretelote advise Chantecleer to take?
Ans. Pertelote advises him to eat some earth-worms to remove his choler and to eat some herbal lore such as laurel, centaury, fumitory, hellebore, catapouse, berries etc.
Q.12. Which incident is “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” based on?
Ans. “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is based on an incident in the Reynard cycle.
Q.13. What is the extraordinary talent of Chunticleer?
Ans. Chauntecleer has no peer in crowing.
Q.14. Who is the Nun’s Priest?
Ans. From The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, we come to know that three priests accompanied the Prioress. The Nun’s Priest is one of these priests.
Q.15. What is the job of a Pardoner?
Ans. A pardoner is a trafficker in papal pardon or indulgences.
Q.16. What was the name of the Colfox?
Ans. The name of the colfox was Sir Russell.
Q.17. What did Chaunticleer dream?
Ans. Chaunticleer dreamt that an animal, looking like dog, was trying to seize him and put him to death.
Q.18. What is the moral of the poem ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale?
Ans. The moral of the story is never to trust a flatterer.
Q.19. What is a beast fable?
Ans. A beast fable is a moralistic prose or verse in which animals speak and act like human beings.
More Brief
Q.1. What type of life did the widow lead?
Ans. The widow led a very simple and patient life because her property and her income was meagre
Q.2. How many pet animals did the widow have?
Ans. The widow had three large female pigs, three cows and one sheep.
Q.3. Why did Chaunticleer love Pertelote most?
Ans. Chaunticleer loved Pertelote most because she was the most charming and attractive.
Q.4. What remedy does Pertelote offer to “purge’ Chaunticleer of his nightmare?
Ans. Pertelote advised Chaunticleer to take a laxative that could purge himself of choler and melancholy.
Q.5. Who was Andromache?
Ans. Andromache was the wife of the Trojan hero, Hector, At one night, she dreamt that her husband would be killed if he went into battle on the following day.
Q.6. Who was Priam?
Ans. Priam was the King of Troy. When Troy was captured, he was slain by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.
Q.7. Who was Sinon?
Ans. Sinon was a Greek who tricked the Trojans into admitting the wooden horse into their city.
Q.8. Who was Cato?
Ans. Cato was a Roman statesman and historian. His full name was Marcus Porcius Cato.
Q.9. What, according to Chaunticleer, Andromache dreamt?
Ans. According to Chaunticleer, Andromache dreamt that her husband would lose his life if he went to the battlefield that day.
Q.10. How was the cock’s colour?
Ans. The cock’s colour was like burnished gold.
Q.11. What is a tale?
Ans. A tale is a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.
Troilus and Criseyde
Q.1. Who is Criseyde?
Ans. Criseyde, the heroine of the poem, Troilus and Criseyde, is the daughter of Calchas, a great divine, who left her in Troy when he secretly left the beleaguered city.
Q.2. What is meant by ‘the double sorrow’ of Troilus?
Ans. Troilus suffered twice for the love of Criseyde first, to win her love and secondly after her departure from Troy when she forsook him.
Q.3. What was Troy?
Ans. Troy, a city state of the ancient age, stood on the shore of the Aegean sea in the north-west of modern Turkey.
Q.4. Who was Calchas?
Ans. Calchas was a divine of Apollo and father of Criseyde. He left Troy secretly knowing from Apollo that Troy would be burnt leaving Criseyde adrift.
Q.5. What is Palladium?
Ans. It is a festival observed in the honour of Pallas Athena in her temple.
Q.6. What did Criseyde dream in her dream at night?
Ans. Criseyde dreamt at night that an eagle with his long claws took away her heart from her breast and put Troilus’ heart in the gap but she did not feel any pain nor was hurt at all in this heart transplantation.
Q.7. Who is Venus?
Ans. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, is Aphrodite in Greek mythology.
Q.8: Who is Antenor?
Ans. Antenor was one of the elders of Troy during the siege of the Greeks and in favour of restoring Helen to the Greeks.
Q.9. What oath does Criseyde take about her return to Troy?
Ans. Criseyde takes the oath that if she does not return, or marry any other, let Juno Cause her to dwell eternally in Styx.
Q.10. Who are the three Percae?
Ans. The Percae are the three sisters Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who control the fate of man just at birth.
Q.11. What does Diomede tell Criseyde about the future of Troy?
Ans. Diomede tells Criseyde that Troy will be demolished and no Trojan will be kept alive.
Q.12. Who is Penelope?
Ans. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and a Veteran of the Trojan war, is most remarkable for her allegiance to her husband because she remained faithful to him for long twenty years facing serious troubles.
Q.13. What is ‘Pagan’?
Ans. Pagan means the worshippers of the gods and goddesses of the mythological past.
Q.14. Who is the father of Criseyde?
Ans. Calchas is the father of Criseyde.
Q.15. How does the Book III of “Troilus and Criseyde” open?
Ans. Book III opens with a prayer to Venus.
Q.16. Who was Diomede?
Ans. Diomede, the son of Tydeus and King of Argos, is a hero in the Trojan war and he seeks Criseyde’s love and ultimately wins it.
Q.17. How will Troilus avenge his sorrow?
Ans. As Troilus is gentle and tender-hearted that he will avenge his sorrow, not with anything else but death.
Q.18. Who was Pandarus?
Ans. Pandarus was the uncle of Criseyde and a friend of Troilus.
Q.19. What is the subject matter of Troilus’ song?
Ans. The subject matter of the song lyric sung by Troilus is the different aspects of love.
Q.20. What is courtly love?
Ans. The code of love that prevailed in Europe in the late medieval period in European aristocratic society, especially in the court of kings is known as courtly love.
More Brief:
Q.1. To which century does Chaucer belong?
Ans. Chaucer belongs to the fourteenth century.
Q.2. When did the Hundred Years’ War take place?
Ans. The Hundred Years’ War started in 1338 and continued even after the century.
Q.3. Who is Tisiphone?
Ans. Tisiphone is a cruel fury who torments the human heart.
Q.4. What is the setting of “Troilus and Criseyde”?
Ans. Troilus and Criseyde is a historical romance of the ancient world, set in Troy at the time of the war with Greece.
Q.5. What does “the black sea” symbolize?
Ans. The tumultuous despair which Troilus experienced in his love for Criseyde symbolizes the black sea.
Q.6. Who is Troilus?
Ans. Troilus is the youngest son of King Priam, and wooer of Criseyde
Q.7. How did Criseyde welcome Diomede?
Ans. Criseyde welcomed him and sat him down beside her and entertained him with spices and wine and had a friendly talk with him.
Q.8. Who was Deiphebus?
Ans. Deiphebus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. He was famous for his natural love of honour and generosity.
Q.9. Who was Horastes?
Ans. Horastes was a young man with whom Criseyde was falsely reported to be in love.
Q.10. Whom did Troilus mark out as his enemy?
Ans. Troilus found that none but fortune was his enemy.
Q.11. What is the specialty of fortune?
Ans. The wheel of fortune must always be turning bringing either joy or sorrow, if at any time, the wheels of fortune cease to move, it ceases to be a fortune.
Q.12. Why is the month of May called the mother of the happy months?
Ans. May is so called because in this month nature renews her beauty with the budding of flowers killed in winter.
Q.13. Who is Mars?
Ans. Mars the son of Jove is the god of war in Greek and Roman mythology.
Q.14. How did Troilus win the love of Criseyde?
Ans. By degrees and good service, Troilus gradually won her love.
Q.15. How does the poet describe Criseyde’s beauty?
Ans. The poet describes her as a matchless woman of angelic beauty and calls her a perfect heavenly being sent down to earth in scorn of Nature.
Q.16. Who is Hector?
Ans. Hector is the eldest son of Priam and commander-in-chief of the Trojan army. He is famous for his nobleness and bravery.
Q.17. What gifts Criseyde gives to Diomede as love tokens?
Ans. Criseyde gives a bay steed and a brooch as tokens of love to Diomede.
Q.18. What does Troilus dream at night about Criseyde?
Ans. While he was wandering in a forest, Troilus saw a boar that enfolded Criseyde tightly in his arms, and was frequently her.
