The Canterbury Tales
Identifying Quotes Worksheet
| The following quotes were taking from the "Prologue" of "The Canterbury Tales." Identify the person who is speaking or being described. | |
| 1. None had ever caught him in arrears |
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2. He was an easy man in penance-giving |
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3. He'd sewed a holy relic on his cap; |
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| 4. He much disliked extorting tithe or fee, Nay rather he preferred beyond a doubt Giving to the poor parishioners round about From his own goods and Easter offerings. He found sufficiency in little things. |
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5. He could make songs and poems and recite. |
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| 6. His nostrils were as black as they were wide. He had a sword and buckler at his side, |
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| 7. He liked to play his bagpipes up and down And that was how he brought us out of town. |
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| 8. She certainly was very entertaining, Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace, A stately bearing fitting to her place, |
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| 9. A medal of St. Christopher he wore | ___________________ |
| 10. But still to do him justice first and last In church he was a noble ecclesiast. |
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| 11. His house was never short of bake-meat pies, Of fish and flesh, and these in such supplies It positively snowed with meat and drink |
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| 12. Above his ears, and he was docked on top Just like a priest in front; his legs were lean, Like sticks they were, no calf was to be seen. |
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| 13. had hair as yellow as wax, Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax. In driblets fell his locks behind his head |
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| 14. The cause of every malady you'd got He knew, and whether dry, cold, moist, or hot; |
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| 15. I saw his sleeves were garnished at the hand With fine grey fur, the finest in the land, And on his hood, to fasten it at his chin He had a wrought-gold cunningly fashioned pin; Into a lover's knot it seemed to pass. |
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| 16. Loving God best with all his heart and mind And then his neighbour as himself |
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| 17. Then he would shout and jabber as if crazy, And wouldn't speak a word except in Latin When he was drunk, such tags as he was pat in; |
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| 18. his horse was thinner than a rake, And he was not too fat, I undertake. |
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| 19. She'd had five husbands, all at the church door Apart from other company in youth; |
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| 20. so had set His wits to work, none knew he was in debt |
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Source: "England in Literature" (Medallion Edition)
