Resources › For Educators The Canterbury Tales Quotes Activity Identifying Quotes - Answers Share Flipboard Email Print Gary Stone/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images For Educators Teaching Teaching Resources An Introduction to Teaching Tips & Strategies Policies & Discipline Community Involvement School Administration Technology in the Classroom Teaching Adult Learners Issues In Education Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Special Education Homeschooling By Melissa Kelly Melissa Kelly Education Expert M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Florida B.A., History, University of Florida Melissa Kelly, M.Ed., is a secondary school teacher, instructional designer, and the author of "The Everything New Teacher Book: A Survival Guide for the First Year and Beyond." Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on March 08, 2017 The following quotes were taking from the "Prologue" of "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer. Identify the person who is speaking or being described. None had ever caught him in arrears.Reeve He was an easy man in penance-givingWhere he coul dhope to make a decent living:Friar He'd sewed a holy relic on his cap;His wallet lay before him on his lap,Brimful of pardons come from Rome all hot.He had the same small voice a goat has got.Pardoner He much disliked extoring tithe or fee,Nay rather he preferred beyond a doubtGiving to the poor parishioners round aboutFrom his own goods and Easter offerings.He found sufficiency in little things.Parson He could make songs and poems and recite.Knew how to joust and dance, to draw and write.He loved so hotly that till dawn grew paleHe slept as little as a nightingale.Squire His nostrils were as black as they were wide.He had a sword and buckler at his side,Miller He liked to play his bagpipes up and downAnd that was how he brought us out of town.Miller She certainly was very entertaining,Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and strainingTo counterfeit a courtly kind of grace,A stately bearing fitting to her place,Nun A medal of St. Christopher he woreYeoman But still to do him justice first and lastIn church he was a noble ecclesiast.Pardoner His house was never short of bake-meat pies,Of fish and flesh, and these in such suppliesIt positively snowed with meat and drinkFranklin Above his ears, and he was docked on topJust like a priest in front; his legs were lean,Like sticks they were, no calf was to be seen.Reeve had hair as yellow as wax,Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax.In driblets fell his locks behind his headPardoner The cause of every malady you'd gotHe knew, and whether dry, cold, moist, or hot;Doctor I saw his sleeves were garnished at the handWith fine grey fur, the finest in the land,And on his hood, to fasten it at his chinHe had a wrought-gold cunningly fashioned pin;Into a lover's knot it seemed to pass.Monk Loving God best with all his heart and mindAnd then his neighbour as himselfPlowman Then he would shout and jabber as if crazy,And wouldn't speak a word except in LatinWhen he was drunk, such tags as he was pat in;Summoner his horse was thinner than a rake,And he was not too fat, I undertake.Oxford Cleric She'd had five husbands, all at the church doorApart from other company in youth;Wife of Bath so had setHis wits to work, none knew he was in debtMerchant Source: "England in Literature" (Medallion Edition) Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Kelly, Melissa. "The Canterbury Tales Quotes Activity." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-canterbury-tales-quotes-7718. Kelly, Melissa. (2020, August 27). The Canterbury Tales Quotes Activity. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-canterbury-tales-quotes-7718 Kelly, Melissa. "The Canterbury Tales Quotes Activity." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-canterbury-tales-quotes-7718 (accessed March 24, 2023). copy citation