The Squire's Tale

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred W. Pollard (Editor)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Medieval, Fiction

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1372

About the author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries.

Reviews

[Margaret Carpenter]

i love the squire's tale because chaucer uses up all the things europeans knew about genghis khan practically in the first sentence, and then he just makes stuff up. favorite.

[Esmée Odijk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second part gave me flashbacks to Parliament of Fowls.

- "But, for they han yknowen it so fern,
Therfore casseth hir janglyng and hir wonder.
As soore wondren somme on cause of thonder,
On ebbe, on flood, on gossomer, and on myst,
And alle thyng, til that the cause is wyst."
- "That pitee renneth soone in gentil herte,
Feelynge his similitude in peynes smerte,
Is preved alday, as men may it see,
As wel by werk as by auctoritee;
For gentil herte kitheth gentillesse."
- "Men loven of propre kynde newefangelnesse,
As briddes doon that men in cages fede.
For though thou nyght and day take of hem hede,
And strawe hir cage faire and softe as silk,
And yeve hem sugre, hony, breed and milk,
Yet right anon as that his dore is uppe
He with his feet wol spurne adoun his cuppe,
And to the wode he wole and wormes ete;
So newefangel been they of hire mete,
And loven novelries of propre kynde,
No gentillesse of blood ne may hem bynde."

[Aili · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favourites of the Canterbury Tales so far. Left unfinished possibly intentionally, it's often dismissed as Chaucer's way of caricaturing the squire as an immature, overly romantic storyteller. Nevertheless, I found that it had many fascinating themes, especially in its representation of magic.

[sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hope the lady falcon had a happy ending

[Daisy (bookishflower)]

Reading Middle English is much like trying to read my spelling when I was younger.

[Davis Ritenour]

i had to read this for a class and the version i was reading just ended abruptly so idk if i read it all but im counting it nevertheless

[Vaishali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. J. Weatherford, author of a compelling biography on Genghis Khan, wrote that the Canterbury Tales 's longest story celebrates the conqueror. Spoiler alert: The Squire's Tale is neither the largest, nor historically accurate. The Genghis admirer in me did not like this:)

Did Chaucer fabricate the tale to illustrate the squire's inferiority to Superdad Knight? Or was medieval England's data on Khan so anecdotal that Chaucer could get away with this?

Will have to re-read this sometime. For the franklin at least.

Link to Harvard University's excellent online interlinear translation :
http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer...



.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less about a squire and more about a chick that can talk birds through their relationship problems. Like a bird relationship counselor.

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m in two minds: part of me thinks it’s quite the great story the squire starts telling and would like the tale to be complete. The other part is happy this tale isn’t longer, as it is told in that blablabla fashion which is painful to read.

«Blablabla» isn’t a very precise term. I know. I just don’t know how to put it. It’s partly a «show me, don’t tell me» problem, and partly a patience matter (when the characters use a lot of words and names of gods and heroes to explain their feelings, when a third or maybe a tenth would be enough), and maybe something more as well, which I haven’t identified. «Blablabla» does cover it, though.

The story’s pitch is quite cool. Worthy of a work like 1001 Nights. But the narrative style is on the bad side of these tales.

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing tale, and with simpler language than most of the Canterbury Tales. In two parts, the first tells of some fantastical gifts that are bestowed upon a king from the emissary of the great Khan. They include a ring that allows the wearer to understand the language of birds, a horse with the power of teleportation, and a magic mirror and sword. Then we are told a brief story about a princess using the ring to become a marriage counselor to a hawk. The squire would go on, presumably to tell a story for each of the magic objects, but the Franklin has had enough and shuts him up. Here, it is obvious that this story is at least as much about the humble place of the callow squire, and the lack of patience of the Franklin. That said, I'm kind of glad it's left as it is.

[Enigma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canterbury Tales are fun to read and middle english is growing on me, the frame story eastern arab and Persian traditions and Chaucerian storytelling like the connections and the parallels, going to read 1001 nights after this

this is kinda hilarious but Knight's tale still my fave

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the falcon carried

[Claudiafoxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

bro couldn’t even be bothered to finish the tale

[TopBob · Rating 3 out of 5]

My opinion may change, but this is -- probably intentionally -- verbose and slow. Of course, the host asks him to get to the point, and I roared with laughter when the Squire acquiesces only for the tale to abruptly end.

Unlike the Chef's Tale, I'm open to the notion that this was intentional.

Overall, the tale's brevity before its hysterical resolution earns it a favorable rating.