science

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Canon's Yeoman's Tale rather than just read about it. In short: "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canon and his Yeoman are not mentioned in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, where most of the other pilgrims are described, but they arrive later after riding fast to catch up with the group.

Key takeaways

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Canon's Yeoman's Tale to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Canon's Yeoman's Tale from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Canon and his Yeoman are not mentioned in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, where most of the other pilgrims are described, but they arrive later after riding fast to catch up with the group. The tale the Canon's Yeoman tells is in two parts. The first part is an exposé of the shady business of his master the Canon as an alchemist. The second part is about another canon who is also an alchemist who is even more devious than the first. It is not known if the introduction of these characters was an afterthought by Chaucer or if they were part of the design of the Tales from the start. It is believed it was one of the last tales to be written and it seems to many scholars that Chaucer must have had a real person in mind while writing such a lively attack on alchemists. In 1374 a chaplain called William de Brumley confessed to making counterfeit gold coins after being taught by William Shuchirch. Shuchirch was a canon at King's Chapel, Windsor, and in 1390 Chaucer supervised repairs of the chapel so he may have known Shuchirch. No sources have survived for the tale although similarities can be found to one by Ramon Llull. Chaucer probably got much of the technical detail from Speculum Naturale (Mirror of Nature) by Vincent of Beauvais, and Arnold of Villanova is mentioned within the tale itself although he may have read many other alchemical texts. Chaucer's grasp of alchemy seems very accurate and in the 17th century the tale was cited by Elias Ashmole as proof that Chaucer was master of the science. Chaucer did have a great interest in science and technology, writing A Treatise on the Astrolabe.

Synopsis The Yeoman seems much the more talkative of the two arrivals. When Harry Bailly, the host, asks the Canon for a tale, his yeoman chips in to announce how clever his master is, saying:

That al this ground on which we been ridyng, Til that we come to Caunterbury toun, He koude al clene turnen up-so-doun, And pave it al of silver and of gold. The host then asks why the Canon is dressed so poorly if he is so clever and the Yeoman admits that he may have wit but he misuses it. He then explains his master is an alchemist:

And borwe gold, be it a pound or two, Or ten, or twelve, or manye sommes mo, And make hem wenen, at the leeste weye, That of a pound we koude make tweye. The Canon tries unsuccessfully to silence his Yeoman but ends up fleeing in shame; after which the Yeoman feels free to tell the history of the Canon. He describes how the Canon works to discover the philosopher's stone and many of the processes he goes through but how in the end the pot breaks and they lose most of the metal they had. He then continues with a story of a second canon who sells to a priest an alchemical 'crap' for producing silver after tricking him into believing that he can produce the metal spontaneously. After each of the tales the Yeoman adds a moral such as:

But al thyng which that shineth as the gold Nis nat gold, as that I have herd it told; He also explains that we should not try to discover things kept secret as it will not succeed and be like picking a fight with God.

He wills that it not discovered be, Save where it's pleasing to His deity... ...sith that God of hevene Ne wil nat that the philosophres nevene How that a man shal come unto this stoon, I rede, as for the beste, lete it goon. The Canon's Yeoman tells how he was once a happy man who wore fine clothing, but has now degraded into poverty – he must wear his stocking for a cap; he is so deep in debt that he can never repay loans no matter how long he lives or how "talented" he is; his face is grey and the colour of lead, implying that his pursuit of alchemy has left him suffering from lead poisoning and mortally ill.

Influence Ben Jonson's play The Alchemist bears many similarities to Chaucer's tale. Chaucer has also described him as wearing green at all times.

References

External links

Side by side modern translation of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" Modern Translation of the Canon's Yeoman's Tale and Other Resources Archived 2007-11-23 at the Wayback Machine at eChaucer "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Canon's Yeoman's Tale claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Canon's Yeoman's Tale before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Canon's Yeoman's Tale ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

In research: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Canon's Yeoman's Tale in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fiction about alchemy, The Canterbury Tales, Yeomen, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Canon's Yeoman's Tale outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Canon's Yeoman's Tale in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Canon's Yeoman's Tale means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Canon's Yeoman's Tale out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Canon's Yeoman's Tale in simple terms?

"The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canon and his Yeoman are not mentioned in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, where most of the other pilgrims are described, but they arrive later after riding fast to catch up with the group.

Why does The Canon's Yeoman's Tale matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Canon's Yeoman's Tale?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Canon's Yeoman's Tale.