Friar’s Tale Lies and Deceit Quotes

He hadde eek wenches at his retenue,
That, wheither that sir Robert or sir Huwe,
Or Jakke, or Rauf, or whoso that it were
That lay by hem, they tolde it in his ere.
Thus was the wenche and he of oon assent,
And he wolde fecche a feyned mandement,
And somne hem to chapitre bothe two,
And pile the man, and lete the wenche go.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Tale. The dishonest Summoner employs prostitutes to reveal the names of the customers they have sex with, so that the Summoner can rob the men using a fake order to the archdeacon’s court forged by him.

"Brother," quod he, "heere woneth an old rebekke
"Brother," said he, "here dwells an old crone
That hadde almoost as lief to lese hire nekke
As for to yeve a peny of hir good.
I wole han twelf pens, though that she be wood,
Or I wol sompne hire unto oure office;
And yet, God woot, of hire knowe I no vice.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Tale. The greedy Summoner hatches a plot with the Devil to blackmail an old widow woman with a threat to summons her on trumped up charges before the ecclesiastical court, unless she pays him twelve pence. He admits that she is not guilty of any vice that he knows of.

"Pay me," quod he, "or by the sweete Seinte Anne,
As I wol bere awey thy newe panne
For dette which thou owest me of old.
Whan that thou madest thyn housbonde cokewold,
I payde at hoom for thy correccioun."
"Thou lixt!" quod she, "by my savacioun,
Ne was I nevere er now, wydwe ne wyf,
Somoned unto youre court in al my lyf;
Ne nevere I nas but of my body trewe!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Tale. The Summoner attempts to extort money from the old widow using lies and deceit. He tells her she has already been fined by the church court for being unfaithful to her husband and that he paid the fine. He threatens to take her new pan as payment, if she doesn’t give him a twelve pence bribe. But the woman dismisses the greedy Summoner’s claims as a pack of lies, saying she was always true to her body, and refuses to pay.
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