A Review of The Canterbury Tales: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

 

                                                                          Part One: 

After the prologue to the tale, the first part of the tale begins. The yeoman describes his poor condition through several lines of poetic verse. He speaks of a cleric (possibly the canon?) that had told him how joyful it is for the poor to see their friends suffer. In other words, the cleric wishes to justify his own condition by making one that is poor look like that is an admirable position to be in. 

Later, after the yeoman has described a number of materials, he says:

A! nay! lat be; the philosophres stonon, ....

The Philosopher's Stone? It made me wonder if J. K. Rowling was inspired by the yeoman's words for her book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Of course, this would be no surprise. Even today, The Canterbury Tales continues to influence many works of literature. Likewise, the philosopher's stone was a famous mythical substance from Medieval Times. 

                                                                             Part Two:

The yeoman begins by describing a deceitful canon. This canon, we are told, lied so much that it cannot be written down. At the same time, the yeoman makes clear that are bad people in all professions. Additionally, the yeoman recommends to all to remove any Judas figure out of their lives. 

The yeoman tells us that a priest lent some money to a canon. The canon of course, seems to have had no intentions of paying back what he was owed. Chaucer goes so far as to even compare the canon to the devil. The canon essentially tricks the priest as to the values of the coals that the canon takes from him. The priest became totally deceived by the canon and the canon took all opportunity to use the priest to help himself cheat in gaining riches. The canon deceives by his wand which he uses on the coal. 

The canon continued to keep his villainy secret. He has the priest not tell others about his own taking of others money. Eventually though, the priest began to be suspicious of the canon. Unfortunately, it was too late. The canon fled. The story essentially ends after the canon flees and we are left with Chaucer quoting famous tales about the philosopher's stone. 

                                                                     Final Thoughts

Personally, this is one of my lesser favorites of The Canterbury Tales. While the references to the philosopher stone is interesting, I though this tales was much less colorful than some of the other ones. Nevertheless, the theme of being deceived by those we foolishly trust is always a reminder to be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves (Matthew 10: 16). Furthermore, The Canon's Yeoman's Tale is a reminder that even those working with the church can be deceptive. 

Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. -Luke 10: 3 (KJV).