The Knight's Tale
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"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
The "Knight's Tale" is about two knights and cousins, Arcite and Palamon, who are imprisoned by Theseus, duke of Athens. In prison they see the beautiful sister of Hippolyta, Emily (Emelye), and both instantly fall in love with her. The sense of competition brought about by this love causes them to hate each other. They eventually are released from prison and each tries to win Emily over by any means necessary, almost killing each other while doing so. Finally they battle in a tournament over Emily (arranged by Theseus). Palamon prays to make Emily his wife, Emily prays to marry the one that really loves her, and Arcite prays for victory. Arcite wins the battle, but dies before he can claim Emily as his prize, and so Palamon marries her. The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas. The story is in the form of poetry.
Teseida delle nozze di Emilia by Giovanni Boccaccio is the source of the tale. "The Knight's Tale", though, is a very loose translation, shortening Boccaccio's 9000 line epic to a little over 2000 lines and changes the genre to romance. Although some of the plot is lost, an undercurrent of philosophy is added by Chaucer, mainly inspired by the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius which Chaucer had also translated.
[edit] Derivations
John Dryden translated this story to a more modern language in the style of his time. Dryden's book is entitled "Palamon and Arcite" and is longer than the original text due to Dryden's own poetic touches.
The Knight and his tale supposedly embody the ideas of chivalry, but Chaucer's Knight, a book by Terry Jones, portrays the knight as a mercenary and far from a gallant, ethical, gentle character (though this theory has been widely disputed by the academic community). The following tale, by the Miller, 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.
The Two Noble Kinsmen, a play co-written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, is based on the tale.
The E.E. Cummings poem, "All in green went my love riding," is loosely based on this tale
The 2001 movie A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger, takes its name from this story, and a fictionalized version of Chaucer appears as a character. At the end of the film, a small joke is made about this poem wherein the fictionalized Chaucer claims that he will put this particular tale into writing, referencing "The Knight's Tale" written by the real Chaucer.
[edit] External links
- Read "The Knight's Tale" with interlinear translation
- Modern Translation of the Knight's Tale and Other Resources at eChaucer
| Preceded by General Prologue |
The Canterbury Tales | Succeeded by The Miller's Prologue and Tale |
