Physician Tale

The Physician’s Tale
Jennifer DeVaughn
Period 3
The General Prologue
The physician is described as having a broad knowledge of medicines, potions and drugs, and is also an astrologer. He seems to know more about medical journals than the Bible. He is quite wealthy, and advises that he made his money in the form of gold during the great plague.
The narrator’s remarks about the Doctor’s love of gold suggest that he is out to make money rather than to help others.
The Tale
The physician's tale starts off with a knight surnamed Virginius. He was an honorable knight who was also a caring father. He had one 14 year old daughter, Virginia. She was a virgin and had the perfect traits a man would want in a girl. She was prudent, bountiful, and staid. Her beauty and her kindliness would attract men.
One day she went into town towards the temple. At the town, there was a judge named Apius, in charge of the city. The judge laid his eyes on this girl and wanted her badly as he thought, "I'll have that girl whether I sink or swim!” So therefore he planned out a nasty strategy to have this girl.
Apius hired a very deceitful blackguard who was living in the town. The blackguard was not allowed to tell anyone about this trick otherwise he and the judge would be severely punished. The day had come where the judge was going to execute his plan. The judge ordered Claudius, the blackguard, to come to court against the knight. This way the judge was going to accept anything Claudius said.
Claudius says that the girl was a slave stolen from his house at night. The knight therefore replies that this girl was his daughter. The judge however agrees with Claudius that the girl is in custody of him. The knight was shocked and knew that the judge wanted his daughter. The knight had to turn over his daughter to the judge the next day.

The Tale Continued…
So the knight went home to his daughter and told her that he was going to slay her head. He said that this would end both their pain for he did not want her virtue to be to be disgraced. He explains that this was for his tremendous love for her. His daughter agreed and filled up with emotion before her slaying.
When the knight did slay her head, he brought it over to the judge. The judge was astonished and ordered for the knight to be hanged for he has committed murder. However the crowd disagreed and the judge was thrown into jail along with Claudius where the judge slew himself. Claudius was to be hanged until Virginius pardoned him of his ill doings into exile. The Physician finishes his tale with the moral that “the wages of sin is death” and all should confess their sins.
Historical Context
Although difficult to date like most of Chaucer's tales, the Physician’s tale is usually regarded as an early work of Chaucer probably written before much of the rest of the Canterbury Tales was begun.
The long, and rather distracting, digression on advice to governesses and parents about their children's upbringing, possibly alludes to a historical event and may serve to date it. In 1386 Elizabeth, the daughter of John of Gaunt, eloped to France with John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. The governess of Elizabeth was Katherine Swynford who was also Gaunt's mistress and later wife.
The key elements of the doctor's sermon concern the appropriateness of governesses who either never have fallen into sin or who know it so well that they make good "keepers.” The latter proposition is specifically said not to apply to Virginia because she's so perfect.
Interpretation
The Physician's Tale is not among the most notable of the Canterbury Tales, significant primarily for the way in which it continues to develop themes more fully realized in other tales. Chaucer has taken this tale from Titus Livius, a Roman historian, and is retold in The Romance of the Rose, John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, which Chaucer drew on for inspiration along with the biblical story Jeptha. Most of the other versions of the story focused on the cruel and arbitrary officials but Chaucer was far more concerned with the daughter as the central figure.
The physician states an ecclesiastic criticism towards the ends of the tale. He states that God knows all and that he will smite the sinner, “Forsake your sins before your sins forsake you." This criticism refers to the judge, as he deceived the knight into turning over his daughter. He has committed a mortal sin as he planned out a trick to have the knight's daughter. Therefore, the knight kills his daughter. The judge gets thrown in jail for his wrongdoing and later slays himself. The judge committed two murders through his deceitfulness, the daughter and his own. The judge has obviously sinned and God doesn't let him get the girl.
Although the tale serves the appropriate punishment to the villains and the physician attempts to have a concluding great moral, the ending shifts the story from Virginia's sacrifice to the villain's mistake. The Tale becomes an exceedingly simple warning for moral behavior instead of a meditation on sacrifice.
Interpretation continued…
The physician makes many value judgments through this tale. He states that God can be cruel in his actions. In this case, the precious daughter of the knight is taken away from him for no apparent reason. Only because of the judge's sly and deceitful tricks did the knight lose his daughter. The physician states that anything precious can be taken away at any time without any reason. Therefore every moment should be a blessing as this tale ends in a tragedy.
A character that can really relate to the physician is the judge. The judge is obsessed with the daughter of the knight. Once he laid eyes on that girl, he wanted her badly. He thought that the girl would give him the most happiness. On the other hand the physician wants gold badly. He even thinks it will cure any disease. He lusts for gold as the judge lusts for the girl. Moreover, the physician seems to be in control of his patients because he has the power whether or not if his patients will get cured. On the other hand, the judge acts the same way. He decides whether or not if the accused is innocent or guilty. He can make them live or die. Going on, the physician is represented by the judge through this tale as they have similar traits.
A last interpretation…
For many years the majority view of the critics has been that the tale is poorly written and motivated. Even E.T. Donaldson, one of Chaucer's foremost defenders as a canonical genius, admits to feeling let down. Efforts to claim the tale as rhetorical or dramatic beauty have not convinced many. This suggests that, unless Chaucer seriously misjudged his material, the tale's deficiencies are its teller's, rather than Chaucer's.
The Physician's use of a Roman historical event is an attempt to claim status due to high learning. The English took seriously the notion that the Romans were in some sense their ancestors, though the full extent of their imperial ambition did not flower until Elizabeth's time.