What happens in Chapter 13 of The Canterbury Tales?
The Pardoner begins with an unapologetic admission to his fellow pilgrims: he's a fraud. He outlines his preaching methods in a cold, methodical way—showing off fake relics, reciting Latin phrases to impress the uneducated, and using guilt to squeeze money from the poorest parishioners. His recurring theme is Radix malorum est Cupiditas ("Greed is the root of all evil"), a phrase he wields with astonishing hypocrisy since greed is exactly what motivates him. He then tells a story: three rowdy young men in Flanders, drinking in a tavern, hear a funeral bell and find out that Death has been taking people. They drunkenly vow to find and kill Death. An old man points them to a massive oak tree, where they stumble upon eight bushels of gold florins. Greed quickly tears apart their friendship. The two older friends send the youngest to town for food and wine, plotting to kill him when he returns; the youngest, in turn, buys poison to eliminate the other two. When he gets back, he’s stabbed, and the remaining two drink the poisoned wine. All three die under the tree—Death had been waiting for them all along. With jaw-dropping boldness, the Pardoner then attempts to sell his pardons to the very pilgrims he just confessed to misleading.
Analysis
Chaucer crafts the Pardoner's Prologue and Tale as a brilliant showcase of dramatic irony and self-revelation. The Prologue acts as a confession that doubles as a performance: the Pardoner is aware that his audience knows about his corruption, yet he can't help but continue the act of being corrupt. This self-referential aspect—the con artist telling his own con—blurs the line between authenticity and performance, leaving readers questioning if there’s any genuine self behind the façade.
The exemplum itself is a compact, almost mathematical moral story, and Chaucer's skill shines in the contrast between its mechanical precision and the Pardoner's chaotic mindset. The three rioters are not given individual names; instead, they represent a single greed divided into three parts, making their mutual downfall seem more inevitable than tragic. The enigmatic old man who cannot die stands out as one of Chaucer's most impactful characters—interpreted variously as a messenger of Death, a wandering Jew, or death itself—and his polite yet weary dialogue disrupts the tale's flow, intensifying its sense of dread.
The gold hidden under the oak tree embodies the tale's central theme: wealth and Death share the same space. Chaucer's irony operates on both a structural and verbal level. The Pardoner's final pitch—offering pardons after admitting their worthlessness—can be seen as either a remarkable lack of self-awareness or a bold challenge. Harry Bailly's crude and furious rejection reestablishes social order, but the Host’s bravado can’t fully erase the discomfort the Pardoner has instilled. The tale raises the question of whether a tainted source can provide healing and ultimately leaves that question unresolved.
Key quotes from Chapter 13
“Radix malorum est Cupiditas.”
The Pardoner announces the Latin scriptural text he preaches on at every stop, even as he admits his own sermons are driven entirely by personal avarice.
“Thus walke I, lyk a pilgrim, to and fro; / I preche of no thyng but for coveitise.”
Mid-Prologue, the Pardoner strips away any remaining pretence, equating his pilgrimage with his professional deception in a single, damning couplet.
“And on the ground, which is my moodres gate, / She wolde nat do me that grace, / For which ful pale and welked is my face.”
The enigmatic old man explains to the rioters why he cannot die, his words carrying a mournful dignity that contrasts sharply with the rioters' swaggering violence.