Summary and Analysis of The Friar's Tale

Summary and Analysis of The Friar's Tale (The Canterbury Tales)

Prologue to the Friar's Tale:

The Friar commends the Wife of Bath for her tale, and then says that he will tell a tale about a summoner. He does not wish to offend the Summoner who travels with them, but insists that summoners are known for lewd behavior. The Summoner does not take offense, but does indicate that he will repay the Friar in turn. The job of the Summoner to which the Friar objects is to issue summons from the church against sinners who, under penalty of excommunication, pay indulgences for their sins to the church, a sum which the summoner often pockets.

Analysis

The Friar's Tale will continue the pattern of reciprocity that had earlier been established before the interruption of the Wife of Bath's Tale. The Friar will tell his tale about a summoner, while the summoner will in turn repay the friar with a tale about a man of his profession. However, compared to the earlier pattern of tales repaying one another for insults, the interaction between the Friar and the Summoner is more muted and less personal. The Friar insists that he does not wish to insult the Summoner personally, while the Summoner's reaction to the Friar is rational and relatively muted.

The Friar's Tale:

The Friar's Tale tells of an archdeacon who boldly executed the Church's laws against fornication, witchcraft and lechery. Lechers received the greatest punishment, forced to pay significant tithes to the church. The archdeacon had a summoner who was quite adept at discovering lechers, even though he himself was immoral.

The Summoner interrupts the Friar's Tale with an objection, but the Host allowed the Friar to continue his tale. The Friar tells that the summon...

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...at separates him from his profession. The main character of the Friar's Tale is an impersonal representation of all summoners and the fate they deserve.

The comic twist to the Friar's Tale is that, when he meets the devil, the summoner is neither shocked nor overcome with fear. Rather, the summoner regards the devil as a curious colleague. In fact, the narrator seems to hold a higher opinion of the devil than of the summoner. When the devil leaves the summoner, the devil tells him that they shall hold company together until he forsakes him. This may be a chance for redemption that the devil offers the summoner when he visits the old crone, but he does not take it.

The end of the tale is pious and overblown. In the end, the Friar returns to his diatribe against summoners, leaving the specific tale that he has told for a more broad attack on their profession.