Canon Yeomans Tale (Canterbury Tales) essays

Canon Yeoman's Tale (Canterbury Tales) essays In Chaucers Canterbury Tales, a Canon and his Yeoman have joined a man they see leave an inn. In this story, the Yeoman starts by telling the host of their occupation and attempts at alchemy. The story the Yeoman is about to tell focuses mainly on one occasion when a Canon had dealings with a priest. After explaining to their host the debt he is now in, the Yeoman tells of the various objects and equipment that they use in the practice of their craft, and against the wishes of his master, he begins his story. In part one of the Yeomans tale, he begins by telling the host a bit of his lifes past with the Canon. The Yeoman tells his host: For seven years I have lived with this Canon, and for all his wisdom Im no better off; I have lost all I owned, as a result, and, God knows, so have many others. (315) With these statements, the Yeoman is setting the opinion of his Canon before the story begins. As he continues in part one, the Yeoman explains that simply using words that sound strange and scholarly, the people instantly give them credit. With that, he names off many of the materials they use and how they use them, telling that each time it is tried they fail, and that some step in the experiment is always to blame. In the second part of the tale, the Yeoman speaks of a religious man, a canon, that would poison a whole town. For when he does business with anyone, he so winds himself up in cunning terms and speaks his words in such a sly manner, that unless the person is as much a devil as he, the canon soon makes a fool of him. (320) He then explains that not all canons are this way, but that his story is to show that those extremely sly and devilish ones should be rooted out. With this out of the way, he begins his story of a priest in London that was approached by a canon and asked to borrow some gold. With the promise of repayment on the thi ...