Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this English unit, "Telling Tales," by Patience Agbabi.

I'm Miss Sewell, and today, we will be looking at "The Friar's Tale" from "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer.

"The Friar's Tale" is one of my favourite tales from the collection, as it has the most strangest ending.

Hopefully you'll find it as strange as I do.

But before we get started, we need to make sure that we're prepared for the lesson.

Ensure that you have something to write with.

You have something to write on.

And make sure that you've cleared away any distractions for the lesson today.

Ensure you've turned off the notifications on this device that you're viewing the video on.

I'm going to disappear so we can enjoy the lesson in full screen.

You might want to pause the video to make sure you're ready for the lesson today.

Brilliant, let's get started.

In this lesson, we will learn about "The Friar's Tale." And find out more about the character of the friar.

But first, we're going to have a quick catch-up to make sure we have all the knowledge ready for the lesson today.

Now, "The Canterbury Tales" is the text that we're studying.

And "The Canterbury Tales" is an epic poem written by Chaucer about pilgrims sharing stories on their journey towards Canterbury.

Within "The Canterbury Tales," we meet the character of the Knight.

Now, the Knight is our first pilgrim we hear from, and he tells the first tale.

He has a high social standing within the group of pilgrims. They all look up to him as a result.

He appreciates truth, honour, freedom, and courtesy, and he holds them close to his heart like a good knight should.

Then we have our key word pilgrim.

A pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

Now, we have our group of pilgrims who are journeying towards Canterbury Cathedral for religious reasons.

We also have our key term of prologue.

A prologue is an introduction to a poem, book, film.

And it provides context such as setting or character.

And it prepares the reader for what is going to happen within a text.

It might even tell the reader the ending of the text, but it doesn't tell us how we get there.

For this lesson, we're going to look at "The Friar's Tale." So we need to ensure that we know what a friar is.

A friar is a religious figure.

And a friar dedicates their life to God and the church.

A friar has sworn to live a life of poverty.

A friar would travel from town to town collecting charitable donations for the poor.

Friars are humble and modest.

Friars believe that they have a very low self-importance, meaning that they think of others before themselves.

They're very modest in the fact that they dress very plainly in order to not impress anyone in particular.

Then we need to know the word summoner.

Now, the summoner is the main character of the tale that is told by the friar.

A summoner is an official who brings people accused of violating the church laws to court.

However, the friar that is presented to us by Geoffrey Chaucer in "The Canterbury Tales" is very different from the definition of a friar that we had just moments ago.

The Friar that we are presented with is not very modest at all.

He's very jolly.

He's very outgoing.

He enjoys being the centre of attention.

He boasts about how good he is at singing.

He befriends barmaids.

He enjoys talking to the innkeepers and the bartenders.

So he's very much a sociable person.

And he wants a comfortable life.

In order to achieve that comfortable life, he uses his position of trust within the community.

This position of trust is through the use of confession.

Now, within the community, the friar would be the person you could go to in order to confess your sins.

So the townspeople would visit the friar, confess their sins, and then be forgiven for the sins that they have committed by God.

However, many friars, like the friar in our tale, use this position of trust in order to make a profit.

For example, the friar would prevent, the friar would befriend rich men.

Rich men would go to confession.

The rich men would go to confess to the friar for their sins.

The friar would only give them forgiveness at a price, whether that be money or an item.

Therefore, the friar would benefit from befriending these rich men, make a profit, and better himself as a result.

So he uses his position of trust in order to gain from that position.

And we're told by the narrator of "The Canterbury Tales," possibly Chaucer the himself, that the friar is wearing an expensive cloak, meaning that he doesn't dress modestly.

He has not taken his oath of living a life of poverty very seriously.

This suggests that he does not follow the rules of the church very precisely.

We're now going to look at new word for this lesson.

The new word is corrupt.

Now, someone is corrupt if they use their power in a dishonest way in order to better themselves.

I hope that you're already thinking of someone who uses that power in a dishonest way in order to better themselves from the text that we're studying.

Let's look at some examples of being corrupt.

"A judge who takes bribes to make favourable decisions." There, the judge is using their power in order to better themselves through money.

"A referee who supports the losing team "makes decisions in their favour." So the referee who supports the losing team is using their power of making decisions to better the result for their favourite team.

"A teacher who accepts chocolate to change grades." There, the teacher is using their position of power to change grades to better themselves by getting chocolate.

I hope that you've already been thinking about the friar being corrupt.

"The friar has a position of trust within the community, "but he's abusing this power "in order to better his lifestyle.

"The summoner of our tale is employed "in a position of trust by the archdeacon, "but is abusing his power in order to better his lifestyle." We're just going to check the knowledge you have learned so far.

On your sheet of paper, I'd like you to write the number of the question, followed by the letter to the answer you believe to be correct.

Number one, "Who or what does a friar dedicate their life to?" Number two, "What does a summoner do?" Number three, "Who does the friar befriend?" Number four, "What does corrupt mean?" Take a moment to pause the video now and write down your answers to those questions.

You can pause the video in three, two, one.

Perfect, by now you should have paused the video and answered those questions on your sheet of paper.

Let's go through the answers.

Number one, "Who or what does a friar "dedicate their life to?" Well, that's B, "God and the Church." A corrupt friar would dedicate their life to rich people.

Number two, "What does a summoner do?" The answer is A, "A summoner brings people to court "who violate church laws." And we're going to look at why that's important in just the second.

Question three, "Who does the friar befriend?" The friar in the tale befriends rich men in order to better his lifestyle.

Number four, "What does corrupt mean?" And that's B.

Corrupt means, "Someone uses their power "to better themselves." Just like the friar who uses his power in order to better his lifestyle.

Well done if you managed to answer those questions correctly.

Let's move on.

During the Middle Ages, most people lived their lives fully believing in heaven and hell.

At this time, most people of the British Isles were Roman Catholic.

And the majority of people strongly believed in religion and its values.

In the Middle Ages, the church provided for the religious aspects of people's lives.

Baptism, marriages, confession, reading the last rites for dying, and burying the dead.

But the church did much more than this.

Monasteries and nunneries looked after the old and sick, and provided somewhere for travellers to stay.

They gave to the poor.

And sometimes looked after people's money for them.

Monks could often read and write when many other people could not.

So they copied out books and documents, and taught children.

Church festivals and saints' days were holy days when people didn't have to work.

The church would put on precessions and miracle plays.

However, there were some drawbacks to the church itself.

Now, within the Middle Ages, the church was an establishment.

The church ran similar to how a school would.

So a school is an establishment.

Now, the church created its own laws.

And then the laws would spread around the surrounding areas and it would be expected that all people living within the local area would follow those laws.

If you didn't follow the laws, you would be summoned by a summoner, and you would be brought to court in order to be judged.

Upon your judgement , you may have to pay a fine, be in prison.

The punishments grew more terrible depending on how terrible, how bad your crime was.

As a result of issuing fines, the church became more wealthy.

All churches across the British Isles would have their money as a collective.

All churches would have a combined fund.

And the massive amounts of money that they collect during Mediaeval England meant that in some cases, the church actually had more money than a monarch, so someone who ruled the country, which means they must have had a fair bit of money between them.

So the church really is more than just a building.

By creating their own income, the church was able to survive.

So really, the church was able to sustain itself.

However, some people working for the church abused the power that they had given to them by the church.

And we're going to see that abuse of power when we look at "The Friar's Tale." Now we're going to look at "The Friar's Tale." We've heard how the friar is presented to us within the prologue.

The friar is a very jolly character.

He's very outgoing, very outspoken.

He befriends rich people.

And he wears an expensive cloak.

The friar says that he won't tell a religious biblical story.

Instead, he would tell an amusing story about a summoner, as he believed no good can ever be said about a summoner.

Remember, a summoner is a person who brings those who have violated church laws to court.

Now, the host tries to keep the peace.

In his proposal of this tale, the friar angers the summoner, who is also part of the pilgrim circle.

So the friar wants to tell a tale about a summoner.

And a summoner is present within the pilgrim cycle.

The host tries to keep the peace and encourages the friar to leave the summoner alone.

The summoner agrees to let the tale be told, but promises to tell a tale equal to that of the friar's in return.

And he wants to explain the crimes that a friar commits.

Now let's hear about the tale that the friar tells.

An archdeacon, so a church official who presides over the church courts, uses a crew of spies to seek out information about the people living in the town.

With the information he gets, the archdeacon calls upon the sinners and squeezes high value tribute from them, so that their names do not appear among those doing evil.

Employed by the archdeacon is a summoner.

So a person who goes to collect those who have broken church laws.

The summoner makes his rounds, blackmailing the rich and poor alike.

He would say, "What can you give the church "in order to avoid going to hell?" Now, the friar pauses his story and he says how everyone hates summoners.

But the friars are exempt from the orders summoners give.

And this angers the summoner from the group of pilgrims who says even prostitutes from whorehouses are exempt.

So the friar is nothing special.

The host steps in and calms the pair down.

And the Friar continues his story.

Out one day collecting tributes, the summoner meets a stylish, confident man along the road.

Discovering that they are both bailiffs, now, the summoner says he's a bailiff because he doesn't want to admit that he's a summoner, so discovering that they are both bailiffs, the two men swear to be brothers till their dying day.

They each reveal the dishonest ways that they get money from victims and agree to enter into a partnership.

After exchanging further information, the summoner asked the man's name.

The man reveals that he's a fiend, "and my dwelling is in hell." A fiend is an evil spirit or demon.

The summoner says that he made a deal to join forces with the man, even if the man is really a fiend.

So he doesn't necessarily believe him.

And the summoner will still honour his word.

The two seal the deal.

The summoner and the demon meet a farmer on the road whose cart is stuck in the mud.

In anger, the farmer shouts for the devil to take all, the cart, horse, hay, everything.

The summoner urges the demon to do as the farmer has asked, but the fiend, the demon explains, because the request was not uttered from the heart and in sincerity, he has no power to do so.

He has no power to take those things.

Later, they go to the home of a rich widow.

A widow is a married woman whose husband has died.

The widow refuses to pay the Summoner's bribes.

Again, the summoner demands his money.

And again, the woman refuses.

When the summoner threatens to take her new frying pan for a previous debt he paid for her, which he lies about, she cries and curses him for lying about the previous debt.

She says, "The devil take you and the frying pan." By telling this lie to the widow, the summoner is now abusing his position of power in order to better himself.

He tells the lie to encourage her to pay.

In doing so, it's likely that he would benefit from this.

The summoner is now angry.

He uses his strength, his power, not just mentally, but also physically, in order to get what he wants.

This is a clear example of the summoner's corruption.

The fiend, or devil, asked whether she means these words.

And she says she does, unless the summoner apologises for his wrongdoing.

The summoner refuses and the fiend drags the summoner off to hell where all summoners have very special places.

The friar ends the tale by hoping that summoners can someday repent and become good men.

We're just going to take a moment to answer this question.

"Who does the fiend, so demon, take to hell?" Is it option one? "The widow and her frying pan." Option two, "The widow and the summoner." Option three, "The summoner and the frying pan." Or option four, "No one." Take a moment to pause the video and make your selection.

You can post the video in three, two, one.

Perfect, by now, you should have made your selection.

The correct answer is option three, "The summoner and the frying pan." Now you can see why this is my favourite tale from "The Canterbury Tales." This is the most strangest ending that I could have never have guessed would have happened.

Especially taking the frying pan with them.

Within this tale, Chaucer uses satire.

Satire is the "use of humour or exaggeration "to expose people's vices." Let's pick out the humour from this tale.

So "the friar is trying to show "how corrupt the summoner is." Now, this is very ironic because by the friar highlighting how corrupt the summoner is, we in fact become more aware of the friar's vice, and the friar's own corruption within the church.

Here, Chaucer is using satire in order to poke fun at the friar.

The friar's own corruption is then highlighted further.

And this is amusing because Chaucer is poking fun at the corruption within the friar.

This is a use of satire because Chaucer is using humour to expose the vice of the friar himself.

He's using irony in order to do that.

Now we've come to the main task of this lesson.

In a moment, I'd like you to pause the video, and answer the questions that are on the screen.

Question one, "Who does the summoner meet on his journey?" Question two, "What does it mean to be corrupt?" Question three, "How is the summoner corrupt?" Question four, "How does the Summoner's corruption "highlight the friar's corruption?" Take a moment to pause the video in three, two, one.

Brilliant, you should have taken the time to pause the video and answer those questions.

We're going to go through the answers.

Do not worry if your answers are not written exactly the same as mine.

You can use the answers I provided to compare your own answers to.

Question one, "Who does the summoner meet on his journey?" "On the summoner's journey, "he meets a fiend, so a demon, "who he swears to share his profits with." You might have added the extra detail that the summoner and the fiend meet the farmer on the side of the road.

That would be perfect to add that extra detail.

Question two, "What does it mean to be corrupt? "Someone is corrupt when they use their power "in a dishonest way in order to better themselves." Well done if you remembered what it meant to be corrupt.

Question three, "How is the summoner corrupt? "The summoner is corrupt because he uses the power "that the archdeacon gives him, "to better his own lifestyle." So he uses his power when going out to collect tribute to better his own lifestyle by taking some of that tribute for himself.

"How does the summoner's corruption "highlight the friar's corruption? "The Summoner's corruption highlights "the corruption of the friar.

"The friar who tells the tale uses his position "in the community to better himself." Well done if you managed to answer that question correctly.

Excellent work if you also managed to include the word satire there to explain what Geoffrey Chaucer was trying to do.

Highlighting the flaws, highlighting the vices within the friar by using exaggeration of the summoner.

Excellent work.

That concludes the lesson for today.

Well done on working so hard in this lesson, and thank you for working so hard.

Next lesson, we'll be looking at "The Friar's Tale" with a 21st century twist from poet Patience Agbabi.

I hope you can join us then.