The Pardoner's Tale

The Pardoner's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the order of the Tales, it comes after The Physician's Tale and before The Shipman's Tale; it is prompted by the Host's desire to hear something positive after that depressing tale. The initiates his Prologue—briefly accounting his methods of conning people—and then proceeds to tell a moral tale.

The tale itself is an extended exemplum. Setting out to kill Death, three young men encounter an Old Man who says that they will find him under a nearby tree. When they arrive they discover a hoard of treasure and decide to stay with it overnight to carry it away the following morning. The tale and prologue are primarily concerned with what the Pardoner says is his "theme": Radix malorum est cupiditas ("Greed is the root of [all] evils").

In the order of The Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner's Prologue and Tale are preceded by The Physician's Tale. The Physician's Tale is a harrowing tale about a judge who plots with a "churl [low fellow]" to abduct a beautiful young woman; rather than allow her to be raped, her father beheads her. The invitation for the Pardoner to tell a tale comes after the Host declares his dissatisfaction with the depressing tale, and declares:

The Host then asks the Pardoner to "telle us som mrythe or japes [joke, jest] right anon". However, the pilgrims—aware of pardoners' notoriety for telling lewd tales and in anticipation of hearing something objectionable—voice their desire for no ribaldry, but instead want a moral tale.

The prologue takes the form of a literary confession in the same manner as The Wife of Bath's Prologue. However, rather than an apology for his vices, the Pardoner boasts of his duping of his victims, for whom he has nothing but contempt. He says that his "theme"—biblical text for a sermon—is Radix malorum est cupiditas ("Greed is the root of [all] evils" 1 Timothy 6.10). He explains that his false credentials consist of official letters from high-ranking church officials and a superficial use of a few Latin words; then he will produce some "relics", and claim that among them is a bone which has miraculous powers when dipped into a well and a for which:

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