The Knight's Tale

"The Knight's Tale" (Middle English: The Knightes Tale) is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The Knight is described by Chaucer in the "General Prologue" as the person of highest social standing amongst the pilgrims, though his manners and clothes are unpretentious. We are told that he has taken part in some fifteen crusades in many countries and also fought for one pagan leader against another. Though the list of campaigns is real, his characterization is idealized. Most readers have taken Chaucer's description of him as "a verray, parfit gentil knyght" to be sincere but Terry Jones suggested that this description was ironic, and that Chaucer's readers would have deduced that the Knight was a mercenary. He is accompanied on his pilgrimage by the Squire, his 20-year-old son.

The story introduces themes and arguments typically encountered in the literature of knighthood, including courtly love and ethical dilemmas.

The epic poem Teseida (full title Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia, or "The Theseid, Concerning the Nuptials of Emily") by Giovanni Boccaccio is the source of the tale, although Chaucer makes many significant diversions from that poem. The Teseida has 9,896 lines in twelve books, while "The Knight's Tale" has only 2,250 lines—though it is still one of the longest poems in the Tales. Most of the epic characteristics of the Teseida are removed, and instead the poem conforms primarily to the genre of romance; there are no epic invocations; the fighting and mythological references are severely reduced; and Theseus's conquests, the assault on Thebes, and the epic catalogue of heroes fighting for Palamon and Arcite are all severely compressed. The Knight-narrator repeatedly admits that he must skip past such details so that other pilgrims will get a chance to tell their stories.

The tale is considered a chivalric romance, yet it is markedly different from either the English or French traditions of such tales. For instance, there is the inclusion of philosophical themes—mainly of the kind contained in the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius—astrological references, and an epic context.

The tale is the first to be told in The Canterbury Tales, as it is announced as such in the "Prologue." The tale that follows it is told by the drunken Miller and also involves a conflict between two men over a woman. It is a direct antithesis to the Knight's in register, with none of the nobility or heritage of classical mythology, but is instead a rollicking, bawdy fabliau, and designed to annoy the Knight and amuse the other pilgrims with its crude comedy.

Two cousins and knights, Palamon and Arcite, are captured and imprisoned by Theseus, duke of Athens, after being found unconscious following his battle against Creon. Their cell sits in the tower of Theseus's castle, with a window which overlooks his palace garden. The imprisoned Palamon wakes early one morning in May and catches sight of Emelye, who is Theseus's sister-in-law, below in the courtyard picking flowers for a garland. He instantly falls in love with her, wondering if she is human or a goddess; his moan is heard by Arcite, who then also wakes and sees Emelye. He falls in love with her as well. This angers Palamon, who believes that he claimed her first. Arcite argues that he also loved Emelye before it was even established that she was human, and adds that love obeys no rules anyway.

The friendship between Palamon and Arcite quickly deteriorates over their competition for Emelye. After some years, Arcite is released from prison through the help and advice of Perotheus, a mutual friend of Theseus and Arcite, commuting Arcite's sentence from imprisonment to exile; but Arcite laments that being away from Emelye is worse than imprisonment. He later secretly returns to Athens in disguise and enters service in Emelye's household, to get close to her. Palamon eventually escapes by drugging the jailer, and, while hiding in a grove, overhears Arcite singing about love and fortune.