Satiric Devices in Context

Physician "Gold stimulates the heart, or so we're told. He therefore had a special love for gold."

Pardoner "he said he had a gobbet of the sail Saint Peter had the time when he made bold. To walk the waves, till Jesus Christ took hold. He had a cross of metal set with stones. And, in a glass, a rubble of pigs' bones"

Oxford Cleric "...his horse was thinner than a rake and he was not too fat, i undertake."

Friar "he was a noble pillar of his order"

Miller "a wrangler and buffoon, he had a store of tavern stories, filthy in the main. He was a master hand at stealing grain."

Summoner "garlic he loved, and onions too, and leeks. and drinking strong wine till he was hazy. then he would shout and jabber as if crazy, and wouldnt speak a word except in latin when he was drunk"

Friar "he knew the taverns well in every town and every innkeeper and barmaid too better than lepers, beggars and that crew."

Cook "but what a pity-so it seemer to me, that he should have an ulcer on his knee, as for blancmange, he made it with the best."

Prioress "he forehead, certainly, was fair of spread. almost a span across the brow, i own; she was by no means undergrown"

The guildsman "their wisdom would have justified a plan tot make each one an alderman; they had the capital and revenue, besides, their wives declared it was their due"

Summoner "he wore a garland set upon his head large as the holly-bush upon a stake outside an ale-house, and he had a cake, a round one, which it was his joke to wield as if it were intended for a shield..."

Miller "his beard, like any sow or fox, was red and broad as well, although it were a spade; and, at its very tip, his nose displayed a wart on which there stood a tuft of hair red as the bristles in an old sows ear"