Choosing To Follow The Structure Used In Bocaccio's The Decameron

The Knight

Choosing to follow the structure used in Bocaccio’s The Decameron, Geoffrey Chaucer writes his world-renowned The Canterbury Tales as a frame narrative, a story within a story. The outer frame sets the scene of thirty pilgrims, which includes the pilgrim Chaucer, traveling to Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury. Excluding royals and serfs, these pilgrims hail from every fourteenth century English social class. The pilgrimage begins at Harry Bailly’s Tabard Inn in Southwark, outside London. Bailly joins the others on the pilgrimage and proposes and judges a tale-telling contest to pass the time and prevent boredom. The contest’s tales comprise the inner frame of the poem. To win the contest, the tale needs to be the most entertaining and the most moral. Each pilgrim tells two tales in either direction to and from Canterbury, offering one hundred twenty tales; however, Chaucer had the time to write only twenty-four, two of which he left uncompleted at his death. At the end of the pilgrimage, the “losers” buy the winner dinner at the Tabard Inn. Chaucer’s satire finds itself in nearly every character and every story and reveals information about life and people

On the last line of his Tale, the Knight speaks to the audience, “All God save all this happy company! / Amen,” (Chaucer 86). With this comment, the audience becomes a noble group, responding with calling the Tale noble and suggests that the Tale is one worth remembering. The response from the audience further continues with the Words exchanged between the Host and the Miller (Rudd 112). Again, a statement is made that the Tale, “. . . especially pleasing thee gentlefolk . . .” (Chaucer, Words between the Host and the Miller 86). is one that should be remembered for its glory and for its lesson for the people. Harry Bailly then laughs, swears, and jokes as he tells someone to continue the