The Summoner's Tale

This volume provides a history of aesthetic and critical response to "The Summoner's Tale". It records and analyses the poem's textual history, collating the ten earliest manuscripts and also the 20 printed editions that made the poem available from 1476 to the 20th century.

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Part SevenOnce reviled as an example of Chaucer at his most tasteless and omitted from some editions of The Canterbury Tales, this scatological anecdote has over time been accorded genuine admiration, first grudging and finally unabashed.

As in The Miller's Tale, Chaucer has elaborated a simple fart joke into pungent satire against human foibles. Here too, through subtle references to religious lore, Chaucer transforms mere vulgarity into a truly clever jest and, in the opinion of some critics, a serious commentary on important issues. The particular target of the tale's satire is a friar who is so blinded by greed, hypocrisy, and anger that he cannot see how others perceive him.