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The Friar’s Tale
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The Friar’s Tale

work by Chaucer
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Article History

The Friar’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Friar relates the comeuppance of a corrupt summoner—an ecclesiastical court officer—in a story based on a medieval French fabliau. The summoner befriends a bailiff, who is the devil in disguise, and the two agree to share the proceeds of their extortions. In one of several humorous scenes, the summoner hears a frustrated man mutter, “The devil take all, cart, horse, and hay in one!” and urges the devil to take up the offer, but the devil declines, explaining to his overeager friend that it was not meant as a literal request. When the summoner tries to extract a bribe from a poor widow, and she too asks for the devil to carry him away, the devil asks her if she really means it. When she agrees, he whisks the summoner off to hell.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.