Canterbury Tales Summoner Quotes

A Summoner was ther with us in that place,
That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynnes face,
For saucefleem he was, with eyen narwe.
As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe,
With scalled browes blake and piled berd.
Of his visage children were aferd.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Summoner is so hideous looking that children fear him. He is pimpled, discolored, swollen eyelids, scabby eyebrows, and as if that isn’t enough he is also a lecher. This corrupt character’s grossness on the outside also reflects his ugliness on the inside.

He wolde techen him to have noon awe
In swich caas of the ercedekenes curs,
But if a mannes soule were in his purs;
For in his purs he sholde ypunysshed be.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Summoner has created a nice little earner for himself when dealing with people accused of violating Church law before the ecclestiastical court. A person faced with excommunication for some infraction can simply have the threat removed if he offers the Summoner a bribe. What does the Bible say about the wages of sin?

With hym ther rood a gentil Pardoner
Of Rouncivale, his freend and his compeer,
That streight was comen fro the court of Rome.
Ful loude he soong "Com hider, love, to me!"
This Somonour bar to hym a stif burdoun;
Was nevere trompe of half so greet a soun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. When we are first introduced to the Pardoner, the Church representative has come straight from the court of Rome and is singing a bawdy song about lustful love, "Come hither, love, to me." His friend and companion the corrupt Summoner is harmonizing with him in a strong bass. There was no trumpet half as loud, we are told. This passage gives a hint at the shameless immorality of the Pardoner, which we will learn about later on.

"Lordynges," quod he, "but o thyng I desire;
I yow biseke that, of youre curteisye,
Syn ye han herd this false Frere lye,
As suffreth me I may my tale telle.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Prologue. The Summoner is enraged at the Friar’s tale and its mocking portrayal of summoners. He begs the pilgrims that since they have heard this false Friar lie, they should suffer him to tell his tale. This foreshadows that he is going to get back at the Friar with a story that portrays friars in an unfavorable light.

"Now, sire," quod he, "han freres swich a grace
That noon of hem shal come to this place?"
"Yis," quod this angel, "many a millioun!"
And unto Sathanas he ladde hym doun.
"And now hath Sathanas," seith he, "a tayl
Brodder than of a carryk is the sayl.
Hold up thy tayl, thou Sathanas!" quod he.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Prologue. The Summoner mentions the story of a friar being led down to hell in a vision by an angel to show the pains and torments there. The friar queries if friars are in such a state of grace that none of them go to hell. The angel replies that there are millions there. He leads the friar down to Satan, who has a tail broader than the sail of a galleon, and the angel asks Satan to hold up his tail.

"Shewe forth thyn ers, and lat the frere se
Where is the nest of freres in this place!"
And er that half a furlong wey of space,
Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve,
Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve
Twenty thousand freres on a route.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Prologue. In hell the angel asks Satan to lift up his tail and show the friar where the nest of friars is, the Summoner says. Suddenly twenty thousand friars swarm out of Satan’s backside like bees out of a hive, he adds, using a vivid simile. Far from the image of holiness and devotion to God usually associated with friars, here they are savagely satirized and portrayed as mortal sinners destined for hell.

I have to day been at youre chirche at messe,
And seyd a sermon after my symple wit –
Nat al after the text of hooly writ,
For it is hard to yow, as I suppose,
And therfore wol I teche yow al the glose.
Glosynge is a glorious thyng, certeyn,
For lettre sleeth, so as we clerkes seyn.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. When Friar John goes to the house of the sick, bedridden Thomas and his wife, he speaks admiringly of his sermon he gave earlier that day in church. He doesn’t entirely follow holy writ, as it is hard for people to understand, but preaches his own interpretation of it.

Have I nat of a capon but the lyvere,
And of youre softe breed nat but a shyvere,
And after that a rosted pigges heed –
But that I nolde no beest for me were deed –
Thanne hadde I with yow hoomly suffisaunce.
I am a man of litel sustenaunce;
My spirit hath his fostryng in the Bible.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. After Thomas’s wife asks him what he would like to eat, Friar John orders a substantial meal, which includes a roasted pig’s head, capon liver and soft white bread. He then lies that he is a man of little sustenance. He adds that his spirit has its nourishment in the Bible – although he has already admitted that he only glosses it and doesn’t strictly stick to holy writ. He is quite the greedy gut and hypocrite.

The frere ariseth up ful curteisly,
And hire embraceth in his armes narwe,
And kiste hire sweete, and chirketh as a sparwe
With his lyppes: "Dame," quod he, "right weel,
As he that is youre servant every deel,
Thanked be God, that yow yaf soule and lyf!
Yet saugh I nat this day so fair a wyf
In al the chirche, God so save me!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. The Friar embraces Thomas’s wife tightly in his arms, kisses her sweetly and flirts with her. Using a simile, we are told how the Friar chirps like a sparrow to her that he how he had not seen so fair a wife in all the church that day. There is a hint here of the Friar’s sexual interest in Thomas’s wife, forbidden and sinful territory to a churchman who had taken a vow of celibacy.

And up I roos, and al oure covent eke,
With many a teere trillyng on my cheke,
Withouten noyse or claterynge of belles;
Te Deum was oure song, and nothyng elles,
Save that to Crist I seyde an orison,
Thankynge hym of his revelacion.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. After Thomas’s wife tells the Friar that her child died, the Friar claims that he had a vision half hour after his death, in which he saw him carried up to heaven. He and all the convent then sang the Te Deum, prayed for her child, and thanked God for his revelation, the Friar tells the couple. But we all know that he did no such thing and is just merely to extract money from Thomas.

Nere thou oure brother, sholdestou nat thryve.
In our chapitre praye we day and nyght
To Crist, that he thee sende heele and myght
Thy body for to weelden hastily.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. Warning Thomas that were he not brother to the friars, he would not thrive, the Friar is suggesting that Thomas’s illness will persist if he gives little money to the friars. He claims that they pray day and night for Christ to send Thomas health and strength, hoping that will encourage a healthier donation from him.

"Now thanne, put in thyn hand doun by my bak,"
Seyde this man, "and grope wel bihynde.
Bynethe my buttok there shaltow fynde
A thyng that I have hyd in pryvetee."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. Annoyed at the Friar’s hypocrisy and demand for gold at the end of a long sermon against excessive wealth, an exasperated Thomas offers a gift with a sting in the tail. He agrees to give him the gift which he is sitting on, if the Friar promises to divide it equally among the other friars. You can almost sense the money-obsessed Friar’s mouth water, as he follows Thomas’s instructions to reach down beneath his buttocks to find what’s hidden there. When the Friar gropes Thomas he is rewarded with an enormous fart as loud as a horse would let off. Thomas gets his revenge.

"My lord," quod he, "be ye nat yvele apayd,
I koude telle, for a gowne-clooth,
To yow, sire frere, so ye be nat wrooth,
How that this fart sholde evene deled be
Among youre covent, if it lyked me."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Summoner’s Tale. After his humiliation by Thomas when he farted on him, the Friar goes to lord off the village, annoyed and wondering how he is supposed to divide a fart among the twelve friars. The lord’s squire mockingly proposes an imaginative solution in return for a "gowne-clooth" (cloth for a gown). He says the Friar should sit in the centre of a cartwheel and send the fart down the spokes of the wheel to each of the other friars.
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