The Pardoner Sin Quotes

Goode men and wommen, o thyng warne I yow:
If any wight be in this chirche now
That hath doon synne horrible, that he
Dar nat, for shame, of it yshryven be,
Or any womman, be she yong or old,
That hath ymaked hir housbonde cokewold,
Swich folk shal have no power ne no grace
To offren to my relikes in this place.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. This neat sales pitch has to win Salesman and Marketer of the Year Award for the Pardoner! He uses it when trying to sell his fake "relics" to church congregations. He tells them that anyone who is guilty of a serious sin will have no power to purchase his relics. He specifically mentions wives who have committed adultery – are women his best customers? Boy, you can see them queuing up after that, purses out, to prove that they are without sin!

And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,
He wol come up and offre a Goddes name,
And I assoille him by the auctoritee
Which that by bulle ygraunted was to me.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. After telling the church congegration that no one guilty of serious sin can buy his fake relics, the Pardoner cleverly offers them an alternative. Buy one of his papal pardons, he suggests, and he will absolve them by the authority that has been granted to him by papal bull! The Pardoner is one shrewd salesman who doesn’t miss a trick.

By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer,
An hundred mark sith I was pardoner.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner boasts that he makes a good living from his different con tricks, including selling fake relics, sheep bones with miraculous powers and magic mittens. Chaucer pains a very satirical and cynical portrait of the licensed seller of indulgences – ecclesiastical pardons of sins – who himself repeatedly commits the cardinal sin of greed.

I stonde lyk a clerk in my pulpet,
And whan the lewed peple is doun yset,
I preche so as ye han herd bifoore
And telle an hundred false japes moore.
Thanne peyne I me to strecche forth the nekke,
And est and west upon the peple I bekke,
As dooth a dowve sittynge on a berne.
Myne handes and my tonge goon so yerne
That it is joye to se my bisynesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The cynical Pardoner prides himself on his theatrical air that he employs to preach his false stories to the uneducated people. Using a simile, he likens himself to a dove sitting atop a barn, stretching forth his neck to peer down at the people, hands and tongue working so quickly that it’s a joy to see him in action. You nearly admire how skilled this conman is at suckering money out of the faithful – in the name of religion! As well as greed, he is guilty of another of the Seven Deadly Sins here – pride!

Of avarice and of swich cursednesse
Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free
To yeven hir pens, and namely unto me.
For myn entente is nat but for to wynne,
And nothyng for correccioun of synne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner confesses that he is in the indulgences business not for the correction of sin, but to make profit for himself. He preaches against avarice so that people will be generous and give money offerings, which he unashamedly pockets to support his lifestyle. This Church representative has found the perfect con – and cover! At least he is honest enough to admit his hypocrisy.

Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice
Which that I use, and that is avarice.
But though myself be gilty in that synne,
Yet kan I maken oother folk to twynne
From avarice and soore to repente.
But that is nat my principal entente;
I preche nothyng but for coveitise.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. As avarice is a sin practised by the Pardoner himself, he believes that he is in the ideal position to preach against it to others. Though himself guilty of that sin, he is convinced that he can make other folk turn away from it and repent. Sounds like the perverted logic of a clever hypocrite. However in the final two lines of the passage, the Pardoner reveals the true intention of his preaching – I preach nothing but for greed, he admits. At least he knows he’s a hypocrite.

What, trowe ye, that whiles I may preche,
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wol lyve in poverte wilfully?
Nay, nay, I thoghte it nevere, trewely!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The canny Church representative knows that he has a gift for preaching and winning gold and silver from his audiences by teaching. So he asks the pilgrims: why would you think that I would volunteer to live in poverty? And he answers his own question: I never thought it, truly, he says.

For I wol preche and begge in sondry landes;
I wol nat do no labour with myne handes,
Ne make baskettes and lyve therby,
By cause I wol nat beggen ydelly.
I wol noon of the apostles countrefete.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. In the Pardoner’s lengthy confession of sin, he admits that he will preach for money in various lands. But will not labor with his hands, make baskets for a living or imitate the apostles, he says. Clearly a mugs game to him and nowhere near as profitable as cashing in on his preaching talent! Mind you, there’s no confusing the hypocritical Pardoner with the saintly apostles.

I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete,
Al were it yeven of the povereste page,
Or of the povereste wydwe in a village,
Al sholde hir children sterve for famyne.
Nay, I wol drynke licour of the vyne
And have a joly wenche in every toun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Dismissing the life of poverty of the apostles, the Pardoner says he will have money, wool, cheese and wheat. And he doesn’t care if it comes from the poorest servant boy or the poorest widow in a village, even though her children would die of hunger. He will feed his lifestyle of wine drinking and lechery with a jolly wench in every town! The corrupt Pardoner’s greed – one of the Seven Deadly Sins – knows no bounds.

But herkneth, lordynges, in conclusioun:
Youre likyng is that I shal telle a tale.
Now have I dronke a draughte of corny ale,
By God, I hope I shal yow telle a thyng
That shal by reson been at youre likyng.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Confessing to another of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony, the Pardoner says he has drank a draft of strong ale as he is about to launch into his story. The fact that his tale will warn against the evil of drunkenness only enhances his reputation as the most hypocritical character in The Canterbury Tales. The irony won’t escape his listeners.

For though myself be a ful vicious man,
A moral tale yet I yow telle kan,
Which I am wont to preche for to wynne.
Now hoold youre pees! My tale I wol bigynne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. There is a great irony in a Pardoner who admits that he is a very wicked and sinful man offering to tell the pilgrims a moral tale – in this case against greed. And without charge, for he is accustomed to preaching such tales for profit, he says, unashamedly admitting that he earns money from the proceeds of sin.
The Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales

They daunce and pleyen at dees bothe day and nyght,
And eten also and drynken over hir myght,
Thurgh which they doon the devel sacrifise
Withinne that develes temple in cursed wise
By superfluytee abhomynable.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The young roisterers dance and play at dice day and night, and also indulge in gluttony – one of the Seven Deadly Sins – by eating and drinking beyond their capacity. So they turn the temple of the body into the Devil’s temple with their abominable excesses. A biblical allusion to 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own."

Hir othes been so grete and so dampnable
That it is grisly for to heere hem swere.
Oure blissed Lordes body they totere –
Hem thoughte that Jewes rente hym noght ynough –
And ech of hem at otheres synne lough.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. Along with their drinking, whoring and gambling, the young revelers are swearing oaths so bad as to to earn them damnation. The Pardoner likens it to tearing Jesus’s body to pieces, thinking that the Jews did not tear him enough, he adds in an anti-Semetic commemnt. And to make matters worse, they are laughing at the other’s sin.

And right anon thanne comen tombesteres
Fetys and smale, and yonge frutesteres,
Syngeres with harpes, baudes, wafereres,
Whiche been the verray develes officeres
To kyndle and blowe the fyr of lecherye,
That is annexed unto glotonye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. After enjoying eating, drinking and gambling to excess, we don’t have to wait too long for the girls to make an entrance to spice things up for the young debauchees. But why is it that girls who dance, sell fruit and wafers, and perform music, get the rap for stoking the (metaphorical) fire of lechery in the young men, to join onto their gluttony? OK, they’re graceful and slim, but that’s no justification for the Pardoner to portray them as the Devil’s officers and temptresses.

O glotonye, ful of cursednesse!
O cause first of oure confusioun!
O original of oure dampnacioun,
Til Crist hadde boght us with his blood agayn!
Lo, how deere, shortly for to sayn,
Aboght was thilke cursed vileynye!
Corrupt was al this world for glotonye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. It is hypocritical and ironic for the Pardoner to strongly condemn gluttony, being under the influence of strong ale himself during the telling of his tale. The Pardoner views this sin as the first cause of mankind’s ruin and damnation, when Eve succumbed to her hunger for the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden in the Christian Bible story. Jesus as a result had to redeem mankind through his death and blood.

Allas, the shorte throte, the tendre mouth,
Maketh that est and west and north and south,
In erthe, in eir, in water, men to swynke
To gete a glotoun deyntee mete and drynke!
Of this matiere, O Paul, wel kanstow trete:
"Mete unto wombe, and wombe eek unto mete,
Shal God destroyen bothe," as Paulus seith.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. In the Pardoner’s homily against the sin of gluttony and excessive drinking, he quotes St. Paul to support his teaching about the dangers of these. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians in the Bible says: "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them." The Pardoner uses terms like "short throat" and "tender mouth" to describe the glutton. But let’s not forget the hypocritical Pardoner is partial to alcohol and food himself, needing to drink and eat of a cake before he began his tale:
"But first," quod he, "heere at this alestake
I wol bothe drynke and eten of a cake."

Allas, a foul thyng is it, by my feith,
To seye this word, and fouler is the dede,
Whan man so drynketh of the white and rede
That of his throte he maketh his pryvee
Thurgh thilke cursed superfluitee.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner, who admits to regular drinking and downed a draft of strong ale before starting his tale, has the audacity to lecture other heavy drinkers on making a toilet of their throat. If he finds alcohol so disgusting, why does he regularly imbibe?

The apostel wepyng seith ful pitously,
"Ther walken manye of whiche yow toold have I –
I seye it now wepyng, with pitous voys –
They been enemys of Cristes croys,
Of whiche the ende is deeth; wombe is hir god!"
O wombe! O bely! O stynkyng cod,
Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!
At either ende of thee foul is the soun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner again reaches for Pauline teaching to back up his tirade against the sin of gluttony. He quotes the Apostle Paul saying this in Philippians 3:18-19: "Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach." The Pardoner then refers to the stomach as a stinking bag filled with dung and corruption, which spews out foul sounds at either end – mouth and backside. Wouldn’t you think he would have had the cop-on not to be tanked up on ale while telling his tale – in case people might think he was a hypocrite?
he that haunteth swiche delices - The Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales

But, certes, he that haunteth swiche delices
Is deed, whil that he lyveth in tho vices.
A lecherous thyng is wyn, and dronkenesse
Is ful of stryvyng and of wrecchednesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. He who lives in the vices of overindulging the body’s desires, like the glutton, is dead, says the Pardoner. Here he is echoing the Christian belief that sin leads to eternal damnation, as stated in the biblical verse Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death." The Pardoner goes on to say that wine is a lecherous thing and drunkenness is full of wretchedness. He should know, for he himself is fond of the ale and wine and a confessed womanizer.

O dronke man, disfigured is thy face,
Sour is thy breeth, foul artow to embrace…
Thou fallest as it were a styked swyn;
Thy tonge is lost, and al thyn honeste cure,
For dronkenesse is verray sepulture
Of mannes wit and his discrecioun.
In whom that drynke hath dominacioun
He kan no conseil kepe; it is no drede.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. When the Seven Deadly Sins are represented as animals, gluttony is symbolized as a pig. The Pardoner uses the simile here of the slaughtered pig, staggering and falling after havings its throat cut, to depict the drunken man. And it’s not a pretty picture: face disfigured, breath that stinks, reason gone, no care for honor or discretion, and can keep no secret. Could the Pardoner, with his taste for regular wine and ale himself, be speaking from personal knowledge here?

And now that I have spoken of glotonye,
Now wol I yow deffenden hasardrye.
Hasard is verray mooder of lesynges,
And of deceite, and cursed forswerynges,
Blaspheme of Crist, manslaughtre, and wast also
Of catel and of tyme; and forthermo,
It is repreeve and contrarie of honour
For to ben holde a commune hasardour.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. After his stern lecture to the party animals for their gluttony, the Pardoner moves on to the sin of gambling and doesn’t hold back here either. He describes gambling as the true mother of lies and deceit, a blasphemy of Christ, and a waste of possessions and time.

Now wol I speke of othes false and grete
A word or two, as olde bookes trete.
Gret sweryng is a thyng abhominable,
And fals sweryng is yet moore reprevable.
The heighe God forbad sweryng at al,
Witnesse on Mathew; but in special
Of sweryng seith the hooly Jeremye,
"Thou shalt swere sooth thyne othes, and nat lye,
And swere in doom and eek in rightwisnesse";
But ydel sweryng is a cursednesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner’s sermonizing continues with an explanation of the evils of swearing, using the names of God or Jesus Christ. He condemns as abominable great swearing, oaths referring to Christ’s body and crucifixion. Even more worthy of reproof is false swearing, swearing an oath to do something and not keeping your word. And idle swearing the Pardoner brands as a wickedness. Jeremiah "Thou shalt not swear in vain, to be a liar, But swear in judgment and in righteousness."

Bihoold and se that in the firste table
Of heighe Goddes heestes honurable,
Hou that the seconde heeste of hym is this:
"Take nat my name in ydel or amys."
Lo, rather he forbedeth swich sweryng
Than homycide or many a cursed thyng.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner says that idle swearing is particularly offensive to God, and is forbidden by the second of his Ten Commandments. The Pardoner claims that God ranks it as worse than homicide. Exodus 20:7 in the Bible states: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

Herkneth, felawes, we thre been al ones;
Lat ech of us holde up his hand til oother,
And ech of us bicomen otheres brother,
And we wol sleen this false traytour Deeth.
He shal be slayn, he that so manye sleeth,
By Goddes dignitee, er it be nyght!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The three young drunkards swear an oath – "by God’s dignity" – to become the others’ brother and to slay this false traitor Death. They are so out of the minds with alcohol that they think Death is a real person, their servant boy having spoken metaphorically about him slaying so many during the Plague, including their friend. Their oath turns out to be a false one, a grave sin condemned by the Pardoner in his sermon.
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