Follow a dramatization of the “Pardoner's Prologue” from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
Follow a dramatization of the “Pardoner's Prologue” from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
A dramatization in Modern English of the “Pardoner's Prologue” from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.A dramatization in Modern English of the “Pardoner's Prologue” from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)William Shakespeare's Othello is discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production of the play.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Writing by women in English during the 16th and 17th centuries is more common than once thought—and women scholars today are leading efforts to rediscover these authors.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.From 2019 to 2022, Joy Harjo held the role of U.S. poet laureate.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.If for a day joy masters me / Think not my wounds are healed.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Harjo calls this her “kitchen table poem.”
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A brief discussion of the King James Bible's influence on English literature.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Three lines. Five, seven, five.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.A dramatization of the opening lines of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, first heard in Chaucer's language, Middle English, and then in a modern translation.
News •
Taiwanese academic translates ‘The Canterbury Tales’
• Dec. 22, 2025, 4:45 AM ET (Taipei Times)
Transcript
NARRATOR: The Pardoner is one of Chaucer's finest characterizations. Pardoners were familiar figures in medieval England, going about the country selling pardon for sins. But Chaucer's Pardoner--though "in church a noble ecclesiast"--is without doubt one of English literature's strangest creations:
THE HOST: The tale that we have heard has made me sick.
Good Pardoner, tell us a merry one, and be quick--
THE NUN: But nothing coarse or ribald!
THE KNIGHT: Let him tell some moral story
And we'll listen well.
PARDONER: I will, and gladly. But while I try to think of something edifying, I'll take a drink.
NARRATOR: The tale which the Pardoner finally tells has been called one of the great short stories of the English language. But in telling it, the Pardoner frankly reveals himself to his fellow Pilgrims as a hypocrite.
PARDONER: In churches, when my moment comes to preach,
I use, milords, a loftly style of speech
And ring it out as roundly as a bell,
Knowing by rote all that I have to tell.
Allow me, in a few words, to explain my method.
I never preach, except for gain.
For that my text is always, and ever was,
"Radix malorum est cupiditas."
SCHOLAR: "Radix malorum est cupiditas"--
"The root of all evil is avarice."
NUN: What, preach against the same vice he indulges?
MILLER: That's why his purse is so fat that it bulges!
PARDONER: But don't forget, though I myself may burn with greed,
I can make other people turn from avarice
And teach them to repent.
Still, that is not my principal intent.
What! Do you think while I have power to preach
And take in silver and gold for what I teach
I shall ever live in willful poverty?
No, no, that was never my thought, certainly.
THE HOST: The tale that we have heard has made me sick.
Good Pardoner, tell us a merry one, and be quick--
THE NUN: But nothing coarse or ribald!
THE KNIGHT: Let him tell some moral story
And we'll listen well.
PARDONER: I will, and gladly. But while I try to think of something edifying, I'll take a drink.
NARRATOR: The tale which the Pardoner finally tells has been called one of the great short stories of the English language. But in telling it, the Pardoner frankly reveals himself to his fellow Pilgrims as a hypocrite.
PARDONER: In churches, when my moment comes to preach,
I use, milords, a loftly style of speech
And ring it out as roundly as a bell,
Knowing by rote all that I have to tell.
Allow me, in a few words, to explain my method.
I never preach, except for gain.
For that my text is always, and ever was,
"Radix malorum est cupiditas."
SCHOLAR: "Radix malorum est cupiditas"--
"The root of all evil is avarice."
NUN: What, preach against the same vice he indulges?
MILLER: That's why his purse is so fat that it bulges!
PARDONER: But don't forget, though I myself may burn with greed,
I can make other people turn from avarice
And teach them to repent.
Still, that is not my principal intent.
What! Do you think while I have power to preach
And take in silver and gold for what I teach
I shall ever live in willful poverty?
No, no, that was never my thought, certainly.
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