words. The cat traps mice in its “net” or paws; the
scholar “nets” abstruse argument—another zeugma.
The catching of mice counterbalances the monk’s
scholarship as he attempts to illuminate complex prob-
lems with his clear, though feeble, eyes. The poet does
not take himself too seriously; his academic endeavors
are little more than a mouse hunt. This sophisticated
humor and subtle turns of phrasing result in “Pangur
Bán” being an often-anthologized poem.
FURTHER READING
MacCana, Proinsias, ed. and trans. “Pangur Bán.” In Field
Day Anthology of Irish Writing, edited by Seamus Deane,
44–45. Derry: Field Day Publications, 1991.
McCormick, Malachi, ed. and trans. Pangur Bawn. Staten
Island, N.Y.: Stone Street, 1992.
Mark DiCicco
“PARDONER’S TALE, THE” GEOFFREY
CHAUCER (ca. 1390) “The Pardoner’s Tale” on the
consequences of greed and deviousness is one of the
best stories in The CANTERBURY TALES collection,
although the storyteller is, as he acknowledges to the
pilgrims, “a ful vicious man.” It is one of two tales in
GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s work that resembles a sermon, the
other being the Parson’s treatise on penance and the
SEVEN DEADLY SINS. Chaucer seems to have composed
the Pardoner’s allegorical story, which has widespread
folktale origins, specifi cally for The Canterbury Tales; it
dates from about 1390 to 1400. A late date may be
inferred from the close matching of the Pardoner’s
“voice” and his story’s content. It is uncertain where
Chaucer might ultimately have intended to place “The
Pardoner’s Tale” in the scheme of the Canterbury col-
lection, but it usually appears midway through the
Tales in both manuscript compilations and in modern
editions.
Before his sermon-like tale, the Pardoner displays
and explains his preaching techniques. The Pardoner,
the spiritual and ethical antithesis of the ideal Parson,
details his rhetorical skillfulness in relating his ser-
mons, which, he says, are always organized around the
theme of “Greed is the root of evil” (Radix malorum est
cupiditas). He has perfected this sermon not only from
frequent repetition but also because, as he acknowl-
edges, he is himself the epitome of avarice, so he
understands the sin from within, so to speak. “The
Pardoner’s Tale” incorporates features of the typical
late medieval sermon, including a sermon theme, three
subtopics (gluttony, gambling, and oaths or swearing),
and an exemplary story (EXEMPLUM) that illustrates the
sermon theme and weaves in the three subtopics. The
Pardoner relates the story in a highly rhetorical man-
ner, framing his denunciations of sin in ANAPHORA (the
repetition of the same word at the beginning of adja-
cent lines) and exclamatio (an exclamation or APOSTRO-
PHE, often beginning with “O!”). His message is simple
yet chilling: The wages of sin are death.
The Pardoner’s story features three young Flemish
men who frequent the tavern, eat and drink to excess,
engage in gambling and whoring, and swear violently,
tearing apart the body of Christ, which constitutes the
worst kind of cursing, since those who swear in this
way take God’s name in vain and participate in Christ’s
death. They embody the typical medieval “tavern sins.”
The Pardoner himself engages in this conduct, swear-
ing “by Seint Ronyon” (l. 320) and pausing, before his
story, to indulge in a “draughte of corny ale” (l. 456).
The three tavern-goers, whose names we never come
to know but who are consistently characterized as riot-
ours (profl igates), learn that “Deeth” has claimed a
friend of theirs, a man who was “fordronke” (exceed-
ingly drunk) while he was sitting on a tavern bench,
and “he hath a thousand slayn this pestilence along
with a thousand others” (ll. 672–679). The taverner
confi rms this, adding that “Deeth” has carried off many
in the nearby village. “Deeth” has the allegorical value
of the fate that awaits all mortals, but here it has a spe-
cifi c meaning as well: the bubonic plague, or BLACK
DEATH, the pandemic that ravaged Flanders and Eng-
land in 1349 and western Europe in general from 1347
until 1351. The riotours decide to seek out “Deeth”
and kill him. They even form a fellowship, pledging
their “trouthes”—their sacred words—“To lyve and
dyen ech of hem for oother, / As though he were his
owene ybore brother” (ll. 702–704).
The bond between and among the three riotours
may inspire refl ection on the fellowship of the Canter-
bury pilgrims; but whereas the goal of the pilgrims is
pilgrimage and atonement for sins, the goal of the riot-
ours is sinful revenge. They set out on their murderous“PARDONER’S TALE, THE” 305