Canterbury Tales Pardoner Quotes

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.

This Pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex,
But smothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex;
By ounces henge his lokkes that he hadde,
And therwith he his shuldres overspradde;
But thynne it lay, by colpons oon and oon.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Pardoner is repugnant in appearance. His hair is long, greasy, limp and "yelow as wax." It hangs like a clump of wax in small strands down to his shoulders. This negative description of him foreshadows the kind of unscrupulous personality that we will come to learn learn this corrupt seller of Church pardons has.

For in his male he hadde a pilwe-beer,
Which that he seyde was Oure Lady veyl:
He seyde he hadde a gobet of the seyl
That Seint Peter hadde, whan that he wente
Upon the see, til Jhesu Crist hym hente.
He hadde a croys of latoun ful of stones,
And in a glas he hadde pigges bones.
But with thise relikes, whan that he fond
A povre person dwellynge upon lond,
Upon a day he gat hym moore moneye
Than that the person gat in monthes tweye;
And thus, with feyned flaterye and japes,
He made the person and the peple his apes.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. Though representing the Church, the Pardoner is quite simply a conman and hypocrite who exploits other people’s fears and faith for his own profit. In this passage he takes from the poor. He has a pillowcase full of fake relics and crosses that he charges people to view. He fools a poor parson and his parishioners with these, managing to earn more money in a day than the parson earns in a month. If ever there was a sinner in need of a Pardoner, it’s the Pardoner!

He was in chirche a noble ecclesiaste.
Wel koude he rede a lessoun or a storie,
But alderbest he song an offertorie;
For wel he wiste, whan that song was songe,
He moste preche and wel affile his tonge
To wynne silver, as he ful wel koude;
Therefore he song the murierly and loude.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. In church the Pardoner uses his pleasant voice to tell stories, sing songs and preach, but not to praise and glorify the Lord. He does it for silver! He knows that the better he sings and preaches the more money he will get, so he makes sure he gives the congregation their money’s worth. The corrupt churchman sets out to make money and profit for himself every opportunity he can get.

His walet, biforn hym in his lappe
Bretful of pardoun comen from Rome al hoot.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Pardoner has a knapsack brimful of Church pardons (indulgences) all fresh from Rome. Selling indulgences was big business then for the Church and brought in a lot of income. Pardoners were meant to offer indulgences to contrite penitants in return for a charitable donation to the Church. But pardoners were known throughout history for keeping the "donations" for themselves.

And whan that I have toold thee forth my tale
Of tribulacion in mariage,
Of which I am expert in al myn age –
This is to seyn, myself have been the whippe –
Than maystow chese wheither thou wolt sippe
Of thilke tonne that I shal abroche.
Be war of it, er thou to ny approche.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. After the Pardoner interrupts Alison, worried because he is about to be married, he is told by her to shut up and have another drink. Using the metaphor of a cask of wine for marriage, the Wife of Bath says that when she, an expert on the tribulation in marriage, has told her tale, then will he be able to make up his own mind on whether sip from that cask or not.

"Lordynges," quod he, "in chirches whan I preche,
I peyne me to han an hauteyn speche,
And rynge it out as round as gooth a belle,
For I kan al by rote that I telle."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. When the Pardoner preaches in church he speaks out in a loud and impressive voice and knows it all by rote, he tells the pilgrims with a touch of arrogance. So he doesn’t preach from the heart, but his preaching is rhetorical, and his focus is on style and delivery over substance and sincerity. He is a performer. A metaphor decribes how the Pardoner rings his sermon out as round as goes a bell.

And thanne my bulles shewe I, alle and some.
Oure lige lordes seel on my patente,
That shewe I first, my body to warente,
That no man be so boold, ne preest ne clerk,
Me to destourbe of Cristes hooly werk.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Before he launches into a sermon the Pardoner goes through a showy flourish of his papal bulls and seals to prove his right to sell pardons. All part of Christ’s holy work, he hypocritically explains. But the greedy Pardoner’s real goal is to collect as much money as possible to line his own pockets.

He that his hand wol putte in this mitayn,
He shal have multipliyng of his grayn,
Whan he hath sowen, be it whete or otes,
So that he offre pens, or elles grotes.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. In another of the Pardoner’s con tricks, he markets a magic mitten to his audiences as a great financial investment. All you do is put you hand in the mitten and your grain crops will multiply and make you rich, he says, appealing to people’s greed. And it only costs a few pennies to buy, urges the Pardoner, the only person who will get rich from his scheme!

If that this boon be wasshe in any welle,
If cow, or calf, or sheep, or oxe swelle
That any worm hath ete, or worm ystonge,
Taak water of that welle and wassh his tonge,
Of pokkes and of scabbe, and every soore
Shal every sheep be hool that of this welle
Drynketh a draughte.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. As part of his con, the Pardoner admits selling people on the miraculous healing powers of a shoulder bone from a holy Jew’s sheep. He spins them a tale that if it is washed in any well, the water from that well will cure any animal sick from parasites, pox, scabs and sores. No doubt the fast-talking, licensed seller of papal pardons won plenty of unsuspecting customers for his "magic" bones.

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 quyte I folk that doon us displesances;
Thus spitte I out my venym under hewe
Of hoolynesse, to semen hooly and trewe.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner is the man to cross or do wrong to. He doesn’t believe in turning the other cheek, as the Church teaches its followers to. No he takes revenge on them from the pupil, by using his sermons as a weapon. As Mr. Nasty so graphically puts it: he spits out his venom under hue of holiness at folk who make trouble for pardoners.

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.
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