Samuel Murphy

COL Miller

ENG 205 WX

1/20/18

In the prologue of the Canterbury Tales, the Knight is described as a reputable man with courtesy, fame, and liberality He is also a man of sage, bearing and trustworthiness. He campaigned all over the world, including Alexandria, Lithuania, Russia, Grenada, etc. There was time he was taken hostage and he fought all his fifteen captors, which he came out victorious. Consequently, the Knight’s appearance and intellect are atrocious; his tunic is course and thick and his chainmail armor is rusty. (He came back from an expedition)

My question about the Knight is how come his intelligence is so low?  Chaucer tells the audience that the Knight fought through Europe to parts of Africa and has survived/won tons of battles. In my opinion, that takes some form of intelligence to make it through those campaigns. Could the Knight just be a man that thrives on the art of war and nothing else or was his book smart skills to low and Chaucer is mentioning his “stupidity”?

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales (Translation). England: Oxford, 1387. Print.