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Tiffany Tseng

Ms. Matthews

English 12 Honors

7 April 2014

The Canterbury Tales: Host Analysis

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer in five-stress, rhyming couplets, The Canterbury Tales is a

masterpiece that consists of 24 tales told on a spring pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas in

Canterbury. The story itself is “rich, colorful, and concrete,” yet it “is tightly controlled by the

poet for purposes of maximum suggestivity, irony, and insight into events and characters”

(Hanning). This description especially evident through the lines describing the host of the story

in the General Prologue, located in the beginning of the Canterbury Tales. The General Prologue

introduces “the pilgrims, 29 ‘sondry folk’ gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark,” and the host

who sets up the frame story of the Canterbury Tales (Zesmer).

The host of Tabard Inn, also known as the host of the Canterbury Tales, is a man named

Harry Bailly. “Since he does not tell a story, Bailly has received relatively little critical attention,

and is most frequently discussed secondarily in the context of his encounters with other pilgrims

in the links between tales” (Lambdin). Despite the fact that little is known about him, Bailly

plays an important and unique role in the Canterbury Tales. He is the only traveler who journeys

with no intention of going on a pilgrimage and whom no tale is intended (Lambdin). In addition,

he introduces the 24 pilgrim tales by acting as the frame story, saying that “each one of you shall

help to make things slip / By telling two stories on the outward trip” (811-812). As a character of

the story, Bailly serves at the narrator who establishes unity among the tales; as the "governor,"

Bailly controls the transitions from one tale to the next (Lambdin). Although it may seem to be a
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positive characteristic, for Bailly is demonstrating leadership, Chaucer is actually commenting

on the medieval monarchy. He is portrayed as “the obvious tyrant misgoverning a disordered

society,” showing Chaucer’s distaste towards the monarchy of the Middle Ages.

Not only does Bailly hold a unique position in the story due to his actions, but also due to

the personality and descriptions Chaucer assigned to him. The narrator describes Bailly using the

phrases, “striking man,” “fit to be a marshal in a hall,” “eyes were bright,” “girth a little wide,”

“no finer burgess,” “bold in speech, “wise and full of tact,” “no manly attribute he lacked,” and

“merry-hearted man” (771-777). “Attractive, authoritative, large, forthright, wise, well-educated

—Harry Bailly appears to represent a strong and vibrant incarnation of masculinity” (Pugh).

Despite the masculine descriptions of Bailly, the story does not explain how his manliness aids in

his narrative position, suggesting that his masculinity might be ironically connected to his self

destruction. On the other hand, Bailly says, “of good morality and general pleasure / He shall be

given a supper, paid by all” (818-819). His “aesthetic principle of combining morality and

pleasure is typical for the Middle Ages” (Eckhardt). He also talks in a comic, biting and frivolous

way with the pilgrims, hinting at the fact that Chaucer might be mocking men from the Middle

Ages.

Chaucer uses Bailly not only to comment on the medieval monarchy and men from

Middle Ages, but also to add the satirical aspect into the story. He “holds the traditional satiric

position of the stock character deus, who 'gives the appearance of controlling the dialogue’ and

‘is characterized by the intent to give the figures in the central confrontation exactly what they

think they want’” (Eckhardt). Despite being an unimportant character in the Canterbury Tales

based on the fact that he does not tell a story, Harry Bailly is used many times to add to

Chaucer’s social commentary.

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Works Cited

Eckhardt, Caroline D., and Derek Pearsall. "Chaucer's General Prologue to the 'Canterbury

Tales':

An Annotated Bibliography, 1900 to 1982." The Modern Language Review 87 (1992).

Hanning, Robert W. "Canterbury Tales." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 6

Apr. 2014.

Lambdin, Laura C., and Robert T. Lambdin. Chaucer's pilgrims: An historical guide to the

pilgrims in The Canterbury tales. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1999.

Pugh, Tison. "Queering Harry Bailly: Gendered Carnival, Social Ideologies, and Masculinity

Under Duress in the Canterbury Tales." The Chaucer Review 41 (2006).

Zesmer, David M. "Canterbury Tales, The." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online,

2014. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.