History Literature / TheCanterburyTales

* WhatMightHaveBeen: Chaucer was planning for the tales to be between 100 and 120 chapters long. He only finished the first twenty-one, plus three fragments, before he died. We'll never know how much richer our language would be today if the man who contributed to our lexicon such phrases as ''arse'' and ''knobbe'' had survived to tell the remaining three fourths of his epic.

** "The Merchant's Tale": Old Januarie is deceived by his young wife May and her lover Damyan after Januarie suddenly goes blind. Januarie is over sixty and May not yet twenty. Both names are very symbolic: Januarie is as bare and unfruitful as the winter month, and May is youthful and fresh and associated with spring. Januarie marries May largely out of lust. It is not known why May accepts his offer; however, he is a rich man and above her social class. Damyan, a squire of Janiarie's court, falls in love with May and she reciprocates. Januarie loses his sight, and his blindness increases his possessiveness and jealousy toward his young wife May. The lovers manage to sneak up to the branches of a pear tree in May's garden and begin to make love right above her husband's head. An enraged god Pluto restores Januarie's sight, but goddess Proserpina allows May to outwit him by explaining that she was merely struggling with Damyan in the tree because she had been told that it would magically restore Januarie's sight. The fooled Januarie and May continue to live together, and quite happily. May tells Januarie that he may be mistaken on more occasions, indicating her infidelity will go on.
* MayDecemberRomance: TropeNamer, per ''[[http://www.bartleby.com/81/11190.html Brewer's]]'': The story of beautiful young may May and old man January in "The Merchant's Tale" (the expression having altered over time). [[note]]Until the 18th century, the English calendar began the year in ''March'', so January was quite late in the year instead of being the first month.[[/note]] However, the story itself averts this trope as May is actually January's TrophyWife and their marriage is a disaster.

* MistakenForApocalypse: In the "Miller's Tale", Fry Nicholas convinces the carpenter to take special precautions in order to escape the coming flood that will drown the world. Of course, there is no such flood, it's just a ploy to get more time with the carpenter's wife.

* NoNameGiven: The majority of the characters in the framing device are not named. The Prioress is named "Madam Eglantine" and for some reason Chaucer tells us that the Friar's name is Huberd. In the prologue to the Miller's Tale, the Miller and the Reeve are called "Robyn" and "Oswald". The Cook is called "Roger". The Host is identified as "Herry (Harry) Bailey", and of course Chaucer is "Geoffrey Chaucer". Other than that, the characters are referred to only by their profession.
* NoodleImplements: In the Miller's Tale, when Absolom borrows the red-hot poker from the blacksmith, he is deliberately vague about what he intends to use it for.

** Absalom in "The Miller's Tale" is so pretty as to be downright effeminate. In the frame story, the Squire is another example (vaguely feminine prettiness being in fashion for courtly types). Subverted with the Pardoner, who's rather androgynous, but this is meant to make him creepy rather than attractive. That and it's subtly implied that he's [[GroinAttack a eunuch]].

* ReallyGetsAround: The Wife of Bath talks about how she liked to bonk all over town, especially with her first three husbands, while intimidating them into silence by falsely accusing them of infidelity.

* RumpRoast: Absalom burns Nicolas's bottom with a hot poker.

* TakeAThirdOption: At the end of "The Wife of Bath's Tale", when his bride offers him a choice that she can be either beautiful but unfaithful or ugly and faithful, the knight takes a third option by letting ''her'' decide. Her decision, too, was none of the above: to be both beautiful and faithful.

%%** The carpenter and Alison in "The Miller's Tale." As is most often the case in medieval literature, this ends with infidelity (as well as an unsuccessful suitor).

* WhatMightHaveBeen: Chaucer was planning for the tales to be between 100 and 120 chapters long. He only finished the first twenty-four before he died. We'll never know how much richer our language would be today if the man who contributed to our lexicon such phrases as ''arse'' and ''knobbe'' had survived to tell the remaining three fourths of his epic.

** "The Squire's Tale" is left unfinished, apparently deliberately so, as the Franklin interrupts the Squire's narrative to tell his tale.

* LousyLoversAreLosers: In "The Miller's Tale", KindheartedSimpleton John is too boring and stupid to keep his young, pretty, and lustful wife Alisoun satisfied, which leads to the shenanigans of the story where Nicholas and Absolom both trick him in order to have their way with Alisoun. John is just portrayed as a ButtMonkey for his failure to keep himself from being an EmasculatedCuckold and is the source of mocked for it even InUniverse, with the overall implication being that he shouldn't have even gotten into a MalMariee relationship in the first place.

* CutShort: An InUniverse one: The Squire's Tale is set up to be sprawling epic that weaves through the lives of a Middle Eastern royal family, culminating in an epic battle. After roughly 700 lines, the Squire has [[BaitAndSwitch only managed to tell the story of the princess rescued a wounded bird]], at which point the Franklin butts in and starts his tale.

** After praying to Mars for victory in his fight with Palamon, and then winning that fight, Arcite made the mistake of gloating about it, as if he had won without any help from a god of war. The gods, of course, did not take kindly to that...

** An indirect example: the miller himself basically tells everyone "Okay, I'm stinking drunk, so if anyone gets offended by what I say, blame it on the Southwerk ale."

* AssShove: With a [[RumpRoast hot poker]] in the Miller's Tale.

* AwfulWeddedLife: The Merchant moans in his prologue about what a horrible shrew his wife is and how no man should ever get married. The gag is that he's only been married for two months. The theme of his Tale - a young wife cuckolding her older husband and hoodwinking him into believing her to be true - is probably meaningful.

* FatalFlaw: In the Knight's Tale, Arcite's flaw was {{Pride}}; in the Pardoner's Tale, the three rioters' flaw was greed.

* GoldFever: The ultimate downfall of the protagonists of "The Pardoner's Tale".
* GoodBadGirl: According to her at least, the Wife of Bath. May be the UrExample.

* GoshDangItToHeck: the Prioress:
-->"Her greatest oath was but "By Saint Loy!"

* HandsomeLech: Nicholas in "The Miller's Tale"

* TheJoyOfX: It's the origin of "The X's Tale" formula. The problem is that most references miss the "told by an X" of the original and take it to mean, "about an X." For example, the film ''Film/AKnightsTale'', is set in Medieval Europe.

* LoveDodecahedron: In the "Miller's Tale"
* LoveTriangle: In the "Knight's Tale", the "Merchant's Tale" and the "Franklin's Tale".
* MaliciousSlander

* NobleDemon: In "The Friar's Tale".

* SatanIsGood: In "The Friar's Tale".

* SmallNameBigEgo: Chanticleer in "The Tale of the Nun's Priest".

* TenderTears: The Prioress, for her little dogs.

* TooImportantToWalk: Chaucer [[PlayingWithATrope plays with this trope]] through the SmallNameBigEgo version of Chanticleer the rooster from "The Tale of the Nun's Priest":

* TheTourney: One is central to the Knight's tale.
* TrophyWife: What Januarie, the 60-year-old knight, wants in the Merchant's tale. As usual with this trope, it goes horribly wrong. The narration spells out what Januarie is going for:
--> To take a wyf it is a glorious thyng\\

Thanne sholde he take a yong wyf and a feir...[[note]]"feir"=fair, that is, a pretty wife[[/note]]
* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside: in the Wife of Bath's tale, the [[DesignatedHero knight hero]] finds himself wedded to a smart woman with a great personality -- who's also a terribly ugly crone. She catches on to his distress and delivers this Aesop to him, and then offers him a choice: she could make herself young and beautiful, but [[MyGirlIsNotASlut then he'd always have to risk her sleeping around with his friends]] -- or she could remain old and ugly, but be the best wife he could possibly ask for. His choice. He [[TakeAThirdOption humbly says that the choice is up to her]], and she, delighted that he's learned how to respect her, announces that she will be both beautiful ''and'' faithful. And they all live HappilyEverAfter. BrokenAesop? No, because the aesop is that women want some measure of autonomy.
* UglyGuyHotWife: The carpenter and Alison in "The Miller's Tale." As is most often the case in medieval literature, this ends with infidelity (as well as an unsuccessful suitor).
** Gender-flipped in "The Wife of Bath's Tale."
* UnreliableNarrator: Everyone, including (especially!) ''Chaucer''
* UnwantedHarem: There's an interesting subtext to the "Nun's Priest's Tale". His story is a beast fable whose protagonist is a rooster with a number of wives. There is an implied parallel to the Nun's Priest himself who is a confessor for a group of nuns (possibly NaughtyNuns). He asserts that he is chaste though, and might be telling the truth.
** An alternate interpretation is that the Nun is the rooster, with the "wives" being the priests who work for her. Note the rooster's vanity and stupidity.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: Chaucer was planning for the tales to be between 100 and 120 chapters long. He only finished the first 24 before he died. We'll never know how much richer our language would be today if the man who contributed to our lexicon such phrases as ''arse'' and ''knobbe'' had survived to tell the remaining three fourths of his epic.
** Read more: [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18539_7-lost-bodies-work-that-would-have-changed-everything_p2.html#ixzz0yX8yCFMK 7 Lost Bodies of Work that Would Have Changed Everything]], from Cracked.

* [[AndYourRewardIsClothes And Your Reward is Dinner]]: The Host and the pilgrims come into agreement that the one who tells the best tale will get treated to dinner with everyone else footing the bill.

* CainAndAbel: Arcite and Palamon in the Knight's Tale.
* CampStraight: Absalon in the Miller's Tale

* CockADoodleDawn

* FlyingDutchman: The old man in "The Pardoner's Tale".

''The Canterbury Tales'' is a collection of twenty-four short stories, written in Late [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfEnglish Middle English]] by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer in [[TheLateMiddleAges the late 14th century]] and ostensibly told by a group of travelers on a pilgrimage from London to [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Canterbury]] Cathedral and the tomb of St. UsefulNotes/ThomasBecket.[[note]]Same guy who was murdered in Creator/TSEliot's ''Murder in the Cathedral'', and also the target of [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]]'s possibly apocryphal cry, "Will no one rid me of this [[TurbulentPriest meddlesome [or turbulent] priest]]?"[[/note]] To help pass the time during what was then a journey of several days, the pilgrims decide to hold a storytelling contest, in which each pilgrim will share two tales on the journey to Canterbury and two more on the return trip. Chaucer originally planned to write [[DoorStopper 124 tales]], but was [[DiedDuringProduction only able to finish 22 plus 2 unfinished ones before his death in 1400]].

* BlackComedyRape: The seduction of the miller's wife and daughter in "The Reeve's Tale". There’s likely to be some ValuesDissonance there, though, as the women aren’t shown as objecting too much to the trickery.

* AwfulWeddedLife: The Merchant moans in his prologue about what a horrible shrew his wife is and how no man should ever get married. The gag is that he's only been married for two months.

''The Canterbury Tales'' is a collection of twenty-four short stories, written in Late [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfEnglish Middle English]] by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer in [[TheLateMiddleAges the late 14th century]] and ostensibly told by a group of travelers on a pilgrimage from London to [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Canterbury]] Cathedral and the tomb of St. UsefulNotes/ThomasBecket.[[note]]Same guy who was murdered in Creator/TSEliot's ''Murder in the Cathedral'', and also the target of [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]]'s possibly apocryphal cry, "Will no one rid me of this [[TurbulentPriest meddlesome [or turbulent] priest]]?"[[/note]] To help pass the time during what was then a journey of several days, the pilgrims decide to hold a storytelling contest, in which each pilgrim will share two tales on the journey to Canterbury and two more on the return trip. Chaucer originally planned to write [[DoorStopper 124 tales]], but was [[DiedDuringProduction only able to finish 24 before his death in 1400]].