The Friar’s Tale

    In ” The Friar’s Tale ”  in the ” Canterbury Tales ”

    after hearing ”The Wife of Bath’s story” the friar says

    their story should steer clear of theological topics .

    He says he will tell a story about a summoner .

    The summoner in the group promises to pay him back

    with a story later , about a friar .

    There once was a scheming summoner who used his

    position to extort money from people . He is on his way

    to get some money from an innocent window , when he

    meets a young yeoman .

    He tells the yeoman that he’s a bailiff and the yeoman

    says he’s one as well . Based on their shared occupation,

    they become friends and swear to be brothers to their

    dying day.

   The yeoman says he has to extort money from people

   to make a living .

   The summoner agrees ; he must do the same .

   The yeoman reveals that he is a fiend from hell chosen

   to appear in a human shape .

   The summoner says that even thought that’s scary

   their partnership stands.

   The two come upon a farmer with a cart stuck in the

   mud; frustrated the farmer says that the devil take all .

   The summoner thinks this means that the fiend can

   take all the man’s belongings but the fiend explains to

   the summoner that the farmer didn’t mean those words .

    Later the two traveled to the house of an innocent

    old window.

    The summoner lies to the woman saying that there’s a              charge against her ,but that if she pays him she won’t

have to answer for it .

    She replies that she doesn’t have enough money .

    When he persists in harassing her , she curses him

    saying may the blackest devil out of hell carry him off .

    The fiend asks if she is sincere and she says she is , so

    she takes the summoner off to hell where she says that

    he’ll fit right .