Canterbury Tales The Knight
Canterbury Tales - The KnightGeoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,
written in approximately
1385, is a collection of twenty-four stories
ostensibly told by
various people who are going on a religious
pilgrimage to Canterbury
Cathedral from London, England. Prior to the
actual tales, however,
Chaucer offers the reader a glimpse of
fourteenth century life by way
of what he refers to as a General Prologue. In
this prologue, Chaucer
introduces all of the characters who are
involved in this imaginary
journey and who will tell the tales. Among the
characters included in
this introductory section is a knight. Chaucer
initially refers to the
knight as “a most distinguished man” (l. 43)
and, indeed, his sketch
of the knight is highly complimentary.
The knight, Chaucer tells us,
“possessed/Fine horses, but he was
not gaily dressed” (ll. 69-70). Indeed, the
knight is dressed in
a common shirt which is stained “where his
armor had left mark” (l.
72). That is, the knight is “just home from
service” (l. 73) and is in
such a hurry to go on his pilgrimage that he
has not even paused
before beginning it to change his clothes.
The knight has had a very busy life as his
fighting career has
taken him to a great many places. He has
seen military service in
Egypt, Lithuania, Prussia, Russia, Spain,
North Africa, and Asia Minor
where he “was of [great] value in all eyes (l.
63). Even though he has
had a very successful and busy career, he is
extremely humble: Chaucer
maintains that he is “modest as a maid” (l.
65). Moreover, he has
never said a rude thing to anyone in his entire
life (cf., ll. 66-7).
Clearly, the knight possesses an
outstanding character. Chaucer
gives to the knight one of the more flattering
descriptions in the
General Prologue. The knight can do no
wrong: he is an outstanding
warrior who has fought for the true
faith–according to Chaucer–on
three continents. In the midst of all this
contenton, however, the
knight remains modest and polite. The knight
is the embodiment of the
chivalric code: he is devout and courteous off
the battlefield and is
bold and fearless on it.
In twentieth century America, we would like
to think that we have
many people in our society who are like
Chaucer’s knight. During this
nation’s altercation with Iraq in 1991, the
concept of the modest but
effective soldier captured the imagination of
the country. Indeed, the
nation’s journalists in many ways attempted to
make General H. Norman
Schwarzkof a latter day knight. The general
was made to appear as a
fearless leader who really was a regular guy
under the uniform.
It would be nice to think that a person such
as the knight could
exist in the twentieth century. The fact of the
matter is that it is
unlikely that people such as the knight existed
even in the fourteenth
century. As he does with all of his characters,
Chaucer is producing a
stereotype in creating the knight. As noted
above, Chaucer, in
describing the knight, is describing a chivalric
ideal. The history of
the Middle Ages demonstrates that this ideal
rarely was manifested in
actual conduct. Nevertheless, in his
description of the knight,
Chaucer shows the reader the possibility of
the chivalric way of life.