Including notes, excluding Works Cited

Word Count: 3751

Abigail L Morris
ENGL 6116: Chaucer Final
Dr. Nicole Sidhu
December 28th, 2013
Those Who Prey:
The Significance of Appetite in The Summoners Tale
When questioning whether Chaucers view of the medieval mendicant orders holds the
wandering friars in a positive or negative light, it cannot be denied that he portrays them as being
better illuminated by the fires of hell than by any heavenly glow. The critical scholarship of
Geoffrey Chaucers The Summoners Tale has often considered the tale in terms of the biblical
allusions that weigh down the latter half of the tale, as a parody of Pentecost and the twelve
biblical apostles, and as a form of fabliaux. From the early twentieth century until the 1960s, the
focus was more often placed on the sermonizing within the tale1, ignoring many other elements
of interest, but the 1960s through the turn of the century seems to be the age of greatest analytic
variation by critics.
During the forty year span in between, critics tended to examine the tale as a sparring
match between the Friar and Summoner, more often than not proclaiming the Friar victor. Many
argued and presented valid evidence showing that the Friars tale was structurally dominant, also
allowing for the Friars victory2. However, perhaps because of the dissention common in the 60s,
a few critics felt compelled to rail against the preferential argument of their fellows, insisting the

John Finlayson, Mary Hayes, and Thomas Merril.

Paul Zeitlow includes an extensive list of critics who judged the tale based on its structural significance, including
Thomas Merril.
2

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Summoner is the ultimate winner3. The 1970s and 80s saw the parodies of Pentecost argument
revisited, as well as the introduction of etymological associations of the name Thomas and the
idea of divided personalities4. The 80s also saw an increase in social and morality discourse of
the tale and a few explorations of The Summoners Tale as a portrait of trade and craft rather than
an individuals5. In the 1990s cultural historians claimed the lead in Summoners Tale discourse.
As such, the fragment as a whole was recasts in a scientific and occasionally medical6 light. The
critics began considering the tales in a more decidedly historical context that examined the
scientific research undertaken during Chaucers age. In the course of their work, these critics
looked to The Summoners Tale with a fresh perspective that saw the wheel dividing Thomass
fart as definitive proof of Chaucers interest in the science of the time, and his desire to fairly
represent the important scientific and cultural pursuits of his nations people7.
The most modern discourse is based on the subject of domesticity and disruption8, but
overall, the Friar as victor and the religious considerations have been the most common areas of
critical interest during the last century of Chaucers The Summoners Tale scholarship. Missing
from the centurys body of scholarship, however, is any analysis of the Summoners friar as
relevant to Chaucers commentary on the greed and materialism of medieval mendicant orders.
Though the tale itself, and therefore the character creation of Friar John, is attributed to

Zeitlow and others mentioned in his article, "In Defense of the Summoner," refutes the evidence presented by
those who viewed Chaucers The Friars Tale as superior to the Summoners.
4
Roy P. Clark argues this point quite convincingly.
5
John Finlay examines the connection of character to trade. Stephen Harper wrote specifically of Jankyn. More of
these critics are mentioned in the OBrien and Merril articles.
6
Pauline Aiken wrote The Summoners Malady, which examined the teller more than the tale.
7
Harper and OBrien examined the winds and divisibles scientific approach popular in Chaucers age.
8
Susan Crane examines the tales based on the significance of the animals mentioned in it as related to the
domestic sphere.

Morris 3

Chaucers Summoner, by examining Friar Johns obsession with food9 and the significance of
the items he requests I contend that the Summoners friar is rendered a portrait of hypocrisy by
way of his appetites more than his sermonizing words or spiritually reprehensible actions. Such
considerations are important because they offer further verification of Chaucers negative
opinion of the mendicant orders, as the only argument made by Chaucers friar against the
summoners descriptions of friars is against the accusation of spiritual sloth and trickery (Fisher
1761). In this way, Chaucer invites readers to consider more fully the flaws and hypocrisy not of
Christianity, but of the Church, providing readers greater insight into the vast array of japes
seemingly utilized by the entire estate of those who pray, and a willingness to question clergy
intent.
To understand the role played by gluttony as a contributor of greed and materialism, one
must first understand what medieval people believed gluttony was. Thomas Aquinas, a father of
the Church who helped canonize the medieval definitions of the seven deadly sins, also wrote
extensively on ways in which the sin of gluttony could be committed. Gabrielle Taylor, author of
the book Deadly Vices, states that according to Aquinas, the gluttons case can be that he
exceeds in what he eats, or in how much, how, or when, in wanting to much sumptuous food
daintily prepared, and eating too often or eagerly, and could also include an obsessive
anticipation of meals (119). It is gluttony, perhaps, that becomes the most revealing evidence of
greed and materialism in the Summoners Tale, and this variety of materialistic greed can be
witnessed early in the tale.

Detailed inclusion of and preoccupation with food is one of the first things historians look for when examining
regional histories for evidence of famine, starvation, draught, and other calamities. (Kagan, Donald. Western
Civilization. Vol. 1, in reference to German and Russian folktale analysis. Pgs 581-89)

Morris 4

The Summoners Tale opens with Friar John going around the feudal village begging, as
is the mendicant tradition, but the beggars gluttonous preoccupation with food can be noted
before he even requests the first crumb. The words wasted and devoured appear as early in
the tale as line 1720, only twelve lines in. These words are offered as part of the description of
holy houses, in which divine servyce is honoured,/nat ther as it is wasted and devoured (171920). The food metaphors continue into the Friars preaching directed toward the possessioners
that live in wealth and abundance to deliver themselves and others through penance of
surrendering goods to be shared by Friar Johns mendicant order in exchange for prayers. He
then compares any potential noncompliance to having their souls, with flesshook or with
oules/to been yclawed, or to brenne or bake (1730-31). The significance of these lines as it
relates to gluttony is through its relationship to food processing, from meat on hooks to burning
and baking of the flesh, as well as the image of an owl as a bird of prey typically considered
clever and wise. This variety of imagery appears again in the lines, Therefore, right as an hauk
up at a sours / Up springeth into their, right so prayers / of charitable and chaste bisy freres
(1938-40). Appropriately, Friar John takes on the perceived animalistic attributes of a bird of
prey when he calls at Thomass home during his begging rounds.
When the Friar arrives at the home of Thomas and his wife, the reader is informed that
this is a place he was wont to be/refreshed moore than in an hundred placis (1766-67). Upon
entering he even remarks to his host, the ailing Thomas, that heere have I eten many a myrie
meel (1774). This implies how often the friar has visited this dwelling, and the terms under
which he is used to being served. This also shows that Thomas and his wife are not likely to be
of the lowest classes, as they are not only usual donors to the mendicant orders, as revealed by
the friars insistence that Youre [Thomass] inconstance is youre confusion / . . . / Youre

Morris 5

maladye is for we han to lyte (1958, 1962)10, but are also able to share a meal of feast-like
quality with the friar, as well as having servants to shoo the friar away later11. Because of his
familiarity and ease of advance upon ailing Thomas, the reader can assume that Thomas is usual
prey for the friar in the familiar hunting grounds of the village. It also fulfills one of Thomas
Aquinas definitions of gluttony, the eager anticipation of a meal. Chaucer adds to this sin of
excess by providing a lengthy list of foods favoured by the friar.
When Thomas wife asks the friar what he would like to eat, the friar launches into a list
of dainty dishes that are beyond sumptuous fare. The first item he request is nat of a capon but
the lyvere (1839). According to the foot notes in Fisher and Allens The Complete Canterbury
Tales of Geofrey Chaucer, a capon is a chicken. This translation is misleading in its culinary
oversimplification. A capon is actually a rooster that was castrated as a chick and has, therefore,
never developed sufficient testosterone to become aggressive (Redon 88). As one could imagine,
this would have been a rather tedious process12 since sexing chickens at a sufficiently young age
requires a great deal more familiarity with the process than a common person would have, and it
is doubtful that this would have been a common variety of chicken served outside of noble
households. The caponization of a rooster, hence the designation capon, is done for two reasons:
it produces an uncommonly docile bird and prevents the meat from attaining a gamy flavor or
harshness (Woolgar, Ch. 10). The flesh resulting from the rapidly growing caponized rooster is
recorded as being peculiarly white, firm, and succulent, rendering dishes of capon more
savoury, tender, and esteemed amoung the greatest delicacies of the table (Jennings 464). The

10

This comment is made in reference to Thomass spreading his wealth over too many other orders.
Lines 2156-57, His meynee, whiche that herden this affray / Cam lepynge in and chaced out the frere.
12
See pg145-48 of Sheep, Swine, and Poultry: Embracing the History and Varieties of Each
By Robert Jenning for further details on the process of caponization. The book has been out of print for many
years, but a digitized version may be found at http://books.google.co.uk/ under the title indicated.
11

Morris 6

fact that the other half of that particular request from the friar is specifically for the traditionally
highly prized liver increases the sense of dainty sumptuousness still further. According to recipes
in multiple medieval cookbooks, including Maggie Blacks The Medieval Cookbook, the livers
were typically set aside for use as a separate dish, or served as the choicest morsels beginning at
the head of the table, and passed along until it ran out. Considering then how unlikely it would be
for Thomas and his wife to just happen to have this particularly expensive item on hand13, it
becomes obvious that the request is proof of the friars decidedly gluttonous appetites. However,
the list continues.
The next item on the list of sumptuous requests from Friar John is softe breed nat but a
shyvere (1840). Bread, though a staple food of the medieval era, was rarely served softe
outside of a noble table, and was typically baked into a hard loaf that could keep considerably
longer than something of finer quality such as what Friar John seems to be asking for. Though
Thomass household is affluent enough to have servants, it should be remembered that the
children of the poorest and lowest classes of citizens were often sold or given to villeines in an
attempt to improve the childs lot (Mortimer 57). The word Churl used by the friar, and lord
and lady of the village toward the end of the tale also signifies Thomass familys social status14.
This makes it all the more obvious that the gastronomic delicacies of the age would have been
rare items on Thomass table outside of feast days, and the lack of a larger company in the main
room of the house shows that it is not a feast day. However, to more accurately determine what

13

The price of Capons after the Black Death had risen 27 percent due to exceptionally high demand, and capons
had enough value that local taxes to manorial lords were sometimes paid with capons (Woolgar, Ch.10).
14
Cherl, the title by which Thomas is referred to in lines 2182 and 2206 is noted in the Fisher and Allen edition of
the tales as meaning rascal, but A Chaucer Glossary, by Norman Davis et al, list it as meaning commoner, and the A
Concise Dictionary of Middle English lists it as Peasant.

Morris 7

variety of bread would have been readily available to men of Thomass class, the setting of the
tale, Holderneese, is important in providing clues.
Holderneese was an agricultural hub within East Riding, Yorkshire. The climate of
Holderneese during the period in which Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales was cooler and
windier than it would have been during the early part of the century15, and manorial records16 for
the area suggests that periods of draught and resulting famine were frequent. Wheat production
would have been declining, meaning that the finely ground wheat flour necessary for the
production of white breadscalled pained-maigne a.k.a. bread of the lordwould have been
significantly harder to come by (Baker 51)17. It would, therefore, have been far more likely that
Thomass family would have had more traditional lower quality bread as their daily fare, such as
oat cakes and rye loaves. Even during a time of feast, Thomass table may never have seen
better bread than the cream-colored round loaf that would have retained the coarseness of the
wheat germ contained therein. It is also interesting to note that physicians of Chaucers age
graded bread on a nutritional scale with the exceptionally course bran heavy barley breads, being
of a cold and flatulent nature . . . [which] . . . caused wind and cooled and moistened the body,
becoming a common potion prescribed for sick workers (Adamson, Ch. 1, Barley). This
request and the next reveal not only the friars gluttony, but also his greedy disregard for the
welfare of those he is supposed to spiritually serve.

15

See 10th 14th century: The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climate Optimum located at
http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_me.html for more information.
16
Exact manorial records for Holderneese are unavailable in digital format and require up to three months for
delivery of copies to the United States. However, records for Yorkshire, in general, can be obtained via
combinations of pdfs and entries in books about the countys history.
17
North Yorkshire: Studies of Its Botany, Geology, Climate and Physical Geography, also out of print, can be viewed
via Google Books in a digitized format.

Morris 8

The final food request is for an item that a couple like Thomas and his wife would be
least likely to have in ready stock, a rosted pigges heed (1844). Holderneese, as other areas in
Yorkshire that consisted heavily of agricultural manors, would likely have boasted a great
number of swine, but kept to the seasonal rotation of livestock. Pigs, as highly adaptable
omnivores, may have been well suited to marshy regions with an abundance of produce remnants
in fields and a high demand for the manure that helped keep the fields fertile. However, the fact
remains that there are no signs within the text of The Summoners Tale that signifies it being any
variety of holiday or feast day. It does not tell of any lavish spread at the home of the lord and
lady, there are, as previously noted, no other guests standing in abundance at Thomass house,
and Thomass wife asks Friar John what he wants to eat. If it had been a feast or holiday, the
menu would already have been determined well before any visit from the friar. Yet, proving his
greed still farther, the friar requests items that are typical not of everyday dishes, but of festival
fare. The reader knows that the friar has only been gone for about two weeks because the wife
comments, My child is deed withinne thise wykes two / Soone after that ye wente out of this
toun" (1852-53), and Thomas says he hasnt seen the friar in a fortnight (1783). Therefore, the
friars visit certainly doesnt seem to be cause for any special accommodations, and, having been
told that it is March, "How han ye fare sith that March bigan (1782), there seems to also be no
reason for slaughtering a pig out of season.
Pigs naturally begin breeding as the days grow short in November, gestation lasts for 115
days, and litters are birthed in mid-February to early March. Most mature males would have
already been slaughtered before winter, and new ones would not be mature enough for anything
more than a suckling pig recipe until around July. This annual cycle would make a roasted pigs
head either very rare or very expensive. All parts of the pig would have been used, and

Morris 9

separating the ears, snout, head, tongue, and jowls would have meant food for more meals or
possibly greater profit if being sold at market or by street vendors. As such, a roasted pigs head
was far more often served on a platter as a festive dish (Adamson, Ch. 1, Domestic and Wild
Animals: Pig, Suckling Pig). Furthermore, the rules regarding the consumption of meat are set
by the Church and imposed on everyone. Meats, such as pork and capon, were not to be eaten on
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, or during Lent and Advent. For all these reasons, a
request for favorite foodsespecially if it is a meat productcan only rarely be satisfied
(Mortimer 170). Of course, the greedy, gluttonous, materialistic nature of the hypocritical friar
can be verified not only by what he does requests, but also by the things left off his lists.
Fish, vegetables, and eggs, like bread, were staples of the medieval diet. Fish were eaten
not only on days in which the Church had forbidden meat, but on other days as well since it
could be salted and well preserved over the harsh winter months that March would still have felt
the bite from. Fish would also have been more abundant as a food supply in Holderneese thanks
to its proximity to the coast. Vegetables comprised the bulk of a commoners food supply, yet
the greedy friar never asks for any. Pottage, a daily meal for many peasants, was a porridge or
stew made primarily from vegetables and almond milk or eggs, with bread crumbs added as a
thickener (OToole, Medieval Recipes). Yet, the friar does not ask for pottage. Eggs were only a
forbidden food by the Church during Lent and could, therefore, be eaten almost daily. For some,
if not many, peasant families, an egg was all the meat based protein consumed in a day, after all,
chickens and other domestic animals were far more valuable alive than dead (Mortimer 172). It
could be argued that Friar John does not ask for these things because it would be assumed that
vegetables or even pottage would come as a natural part of the meal, however, by rights, bread
too should fall into the same lot. Unless the family was very poor, bread would have been served

Morris 10

with any meal as a part of the food supply itself, or at least as what the food was served on, yet
the friar still includes bread in his request. This fact makes the things he does ask for seem that
much more glaringly greedy and renders him undeniably inconsiderate of his hosts.
Friar John, as a creation of Geofrey Chaucer via his Summonor, was also painted the very
image of a hypocrite in the depth of his greediness through claims he makes on behalf of his
brethren to Thomas. After providing his first gloss, the friar launches into a long aside that excels
as a description of how friars were intended to behave based on the vows taken, including
gluttony. The lines are not without wit, which Chaucers lines are rarely lacking, and put all the
foodstuffs requested in the proper perspective.
Therfore we mendynantz, we sely freres,
Been wedded to poverte and continence,
To charite, humblesse, and abstinence
To persecucioun for rightwisnesse,
To wepynge, misericorde, and clennese.
And therefore may ye se that oure preyeres
I speke of us, we mendynantz, we freres
Been to the hye God moore acceptable
Than yours, with youre feestes at the table.
Fro Paradys first, if I shal nat lye,
Was man out chaced for his glotonye
(1906-16)
In this clever friars case, he is the only one who has ordered a feast to be laid out on the table.
Clearly, Friar John is fully aware of the rewards he will be given after death, chaced out of

Morris 11

Paradys for his own self-serving, gluttonous ways to say the least. He also refers to the food he
intends to eat from Thomass table as hoomly suffisaunce, a determination not well-suited to
the courses he asks the wife for. Thus, these items requested by the gluttonous friar certainly
offer definitive proof of his voracious appetites, greed, and materialism.
It may seem surprising that this past century of criticism did not examine the tale from a
gastronomical position, but much information regarding the dietary habits, food supply, and
climate changes has only recently been compiled by archeologists and anthropologist. The
Summoners Tale, as other tales from other regions, focuses as heavily on food and the language
that surrounds food as it does on the sermonizing friar or the sparring match between Chaucers
summoner and friar. Therefore, when questioning what Chaucer was inviting his readers to think
about, the connection of food to the tale should play just as important a role in analysis as
anything else. Tales, all Chaucers tales, were surely never designed to provoke only one
response, and, while it may be easy for a modern audience to overlook the specificity of the
requests made by Friar John of Thomass wife as well as allusions to other food stuffs via
language and imagery, a reader who had experienced the problems of Chaucerian England would
likely have picked up on the significance without any difficulty. Thus, the claim that the
Summoners friar is rendered a portrait of hypocrisy by way of his appetites more than his
sermonizing words or spiritually reprehensible actions is justified.

Morris 12

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Baker, John G. North Yorkshire: Studies of Its Botany, Geology, Climate and Physical Geography.
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Black, Maggie. The Medieval Cookbook. London: British Museum Press, 1996. Print.
Clark, Roy P. "Doubting Thomas In Chaucer's Summoner's Tale." The Chaucer Review 11.2 (Fall,
1976): 164-78. JSTOR. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
Crane, Susan. "Cat, Capon, and Pig in "The Summoner's Tale"." Studies in the Age of Chaucer 34.1
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Davis, Norman, Douglas Gray, Patricia Ingham, and Anne Wallace-Hadrill. A Chaucer Glossary.
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Finlayson, John. "Chaucer's "Summoner's Tale": Flatulence, Blasphemy, and the Emperor's Clothes."
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