The Host

- Introduces the man who runs the tabard inn
- Jolly and kind
- No ulterior motives
- Wise
- Strong businessman
- Refers to all pilgrims as master
    - Humble
- Gives away places at his inn for free
    - Generous
- Stark contrast to most/all other pilgrims
- Guide for Canterbury pilgrimage

The Summoner

- Brings people to church court
   - Moral offences
   - Adultery
   - Not paying taxes
- Red cheeked
   - Sign of heavy drinking
- Ugly, or horrible to look at
   - Children feared him
- Tried to use ointment to heal his face
   - Didn't work
- Educated (possibly in the church)
   - Only spoke latin when he was drunk
- Blackmails people
   - Could be bribed easily
- Made money through dubious means
- Like monk and friar
   - Bad example for member of the clergy
- Similar social status to the knight
   - Superior to majority of the country
- Other members of the clergy on this pilgrimage care about how they look
   - e.g. The prioress
- Controversial sexuality
   - Homosexual with the pardoner?
- Homosexuality was frowned upon during Chaucerian times (penalty of death)
- Hideousness linked with homosexuality

The Pardoner

- Ecclesiastical
- Devious job
- Sexually ambiguous 
    - Homosexual?
    - Hermaphrodite (sleeps with eyes open) 
    - Sings love song with the Summoner 
- Wary or cautious
- Cares little for his appearance
    - Long blonde ragged hair
- Carries many religious relics with him
    - Fake
- Earns more in a day, than the parson does in a year
    - Makes money through dubious means
    - Con artist
- Appeared gentle and polite to fool people
- Like the Doctor of Phisik and the Miller
    - Cons the nation to make more money
- Carries a vernicle
    - Shows been on a pilgrimage before
    - Why is he coming on a pilgrimage again?

The Reeve

- Careful with his money
- Timid/Shy
- Manages peoples estates
- Owned a good horse ('this Reeve sat upon a ful good stot')
- Was mainly trained as a carpenter
- Detail would suggest existed in real life
- Rode at the back of the Pilgrimage
    - To avoid the miller
    - Suspicious 
- Meticulous with his money and accounts
- Why is he on the pilgrimage?
    - Strongly believes in afterlife 
    - Secure a place in heaven 
- Many people were afraid of him
    - Feared him as much as death
- Knows all the tricks of the trade, like the manciple
- Thin
    - Elusive
    - Can hide away easily
- Physicality's mirror his personality

The Manciple

Character Overview

A manciple is someone who's in charge of purchasing food and supplies for an institution like a school, monastery or law court. This particular manciple works for an inn of court (the "temple"), which is a place where lawyers might live or gather. Although Chaucer the pilgrim suggests the Manciple is one who can serve as a great example for other purchasers, we quickly begin to question his ethics and trade when we learn that, whether he purchases with cash or on credit, he always ends up ahead in his accounts.

The manciple’s prologue talks little about what he looks like, his attire and his horse. This would suggest that either this meant little to the manciple, like the clerk, or that his trade is what defined his character, not the way he looked. It also could suggest that Chaucer knew a character like this, and if he described his look too much, then he could have possibly revealed who this character in real life may have been.

Links to other characters

The manciple is similar to the merchant as he earns his keep through by a less than legal means it is suggested. He is also like the next character we will meet which is the reeve as he manages to trick is a superior. He is also like the Clerk and the Doctor of Phisik as he has had an education and is one of the more highly intelligent characters on the pilgrimage. He is also dishonest like the miller.

Important lines

The last line of the manciple’s prologue would suggest that he tricks his superiors and changes his income somehow as it says ‘and yet this Manciple sette hir aller cappe.’

The use of rhyme in the line ‘Algate he wayted so in his achaat
, That he was ay biforn and in good staat’ highlights the irony that the manciple earns his keep by a questionable means.

The use of rhyme in the line ‘now is nat that of God a ful fair grace That swich a lewed mannes wit shal pace’ emphasizes the fact that the trade the manciple was taking part in was unholy, as it has some dramatic irony to it.

Conclusion

The manciple was a manipulative character that could fool anyone, even his highly educated superiors into believing him. The Manciple like the miller is an embezzler. 

The Miller

- Called Robin
- Presented in a repulsive manner
- Physicality's mirror his personality
- Breaks down doors with his head
- Cheats his clients out of money
- Loudmouth ('loudmouth and a buffoon or clown')
- Hero? 
- Like the Doctor of Phisik, sells his customers a fake product
- Like the cook, very good at his trade, also both have a wart
- Stereotypical of the lower class
- Looks like the devil, read hair and muscular

The Plowman

- Owns a humble working horse (mare)

- Doesn't have many desires

- The Plowman is the Parsons brother

     - Religious family

- Lowest ranking pilgrim

    - Little or no skills

- Hard worker = 'a trewe swinger and a good was he'

- Worked (loved thy neighbour)to secure his place in heaven

- Lowly

The Parson

- Parish priest

   - Unlike prioress and monk, he lives by holy word

- Not a high position in society

- He is a shepherd and his parish is his sheep (dedication)

- Represents the sins of a priest

- Meant to be uneducated, however he is incredibly intelligent

- Doesn't care about his appearance

- Holds a staph, similar to a shepherd

    - Shepherd symbolism (his parish = his flock)

    - Alike Jesus, or moses

- Does not own a horse (walks on foot)

   - Abstaining from wealth (horse a symbol of money)

- Like the knight as he is an idealised figure

- Wouldn't neglect those less fortunate (unlike the friar)

- Chaucer the pilgrim speaks highly of him

- Pias, courteous, and gentle

- 'A shiten shepherde' = doesn't wash often