The Knight's Tale

"The Knight's Tale" (Middle English: The Knightes Tale) is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The story introduces various typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas. The story is written in iambic pentameter end-rhymed couplets.

The epic poem Teseida (full title Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia, or "The Theseid, Concerning the Nuptials of Emily") by Giovanni Boccaccio is the source of the tale, although Chaucer makes many significant diversions from that poem. The Teseida has 9,896 lines in twelve books, while "The Knight's Tale" has only 2,250 lines—though it is still one of the longer poems in the Tales. Most of the epic characteristics of the Teseida are removed, and instead the poem conforms primarily to the genre of romance; there are no epic invocations; the fighting and mythological references are severely reduced; Theseus' conquests, the assault on Thebes, and the epic catalogue of heroes fighting for Palamon and Arcite are all severely compressed.

The tale is considered a chivalric romance, yet it is markedly different from either the English or French traditions of such tales. For instance, there is the inclusion of philosophical themes—mainly of the kind contained in the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius—astrological references and an epic context.

The following tale by the Miller also involves the conflict between two men over a woman. It is a direct antithesis to the Knight's, with none of the nobility or heritage of classical mythology, but is instead rollicking, bawdy, comedic, and designed to annoy the Knight.

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