The Guild’s men : see (15)

The Guild’s men : see (15)

The Guild’s men : see (15)

The Cook : The Guild’s men has a Cook who was an expert in boiling chicken with marrow bones and preparing special chicken. The Cook was fond of drinking London ale. Unfortunately, he had an ulcer on his chin.

The Shipman : The Shipman is the owner of a vessel called ‘Madlaine’. He represents an occupation gaining importance in Chaucer’s time. The Shipman is depicted as a rough character, who had very often encounters with international pirates in the sea. But he did not know how to ride a horse in the proper manner. He carried a dagger, by means of a cord, hung around his neck. Chaucer’s remark that ‘Shipman is a good fellow’ is certainly ironical as he is immediately described as being indulged in stealing wine from the ship. Whenever he won a battle in the sea, his conscience did not prick him from throwing the prisoners into the sea. He was a matchless sailor in steering the ship without the least fear of danger.

T he Doctor of Physic : The Doctor of Physic (medicines) is portrayed as an efficient person in his profession. He has secret understanding with the drug maker for mutual benefits. The Doctor has amassed enormous wealth at the time of the London Plague, but yet he is miserly. He is through with all the medical books, but has little knowledge in Bible. Chaucer ironically concludes that the doctor loves gold, not because of his greed, but because it is an ingredient in preparing medicines.

Wife of Bath : Alison, the Wife of Bath is one of the memorable characters of Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. She is very proficient in cloth making. She is presented as gat-toothed, a feature heralding her sexual passion. She has legally married five husbands besides having had innumerable lovers in her youth. She knows the art of love-making perfectly well and also the methods of gratifying love. By the usage of ‘Remedies of love’, modern critics are of the view that Wife of Bath might have read Ovid’s Remedies of Love. Chaucer describes her as partly deaf in the Prologue, but in the Canterbury Tales, we are told that the deafness is due to a fatal blow on her ear received from her fifth husband who was half her age. She had visited Jerusalem thrice on pilgrimage. She is now on the lookout for the sixth husband. Her Sunday kerchief weighed ten pounds.