Sophie Gee

She comes straight out of the gate slandering her husband, showing off about her sexual prowess, showing off about the ways in which she's had the better of the men to whom she's been married.

faking her own learning and her own knowledge, trying to make herself look like she's kind of a big cheese in terms of scholarship.

And she's not particularly likable, actually, in the story, but she's an unbelievably larger-than-life character who is just completely owning herself and her life.

her appetites, her sexual appetites, her greed for money, and above all else, her sort of survivalism that enables her to keep flourishing in this, frankly, quite misogynistic and brutal medieval world.

So she's an extraordinary character, and her tale is this amazing bravura piece of sort of feminist polemic and setting the stage for generations of women who kind of speak out against the patriarchy.

I was just thinking that.

It's crucial.

And I love that.

Yeah.

It's a day outing.

So given everything we've been saying about Chaucer, I just want listeners to reflect on the sheer comic and human genius of the conceit of the Canterbury Tales.

I mean, we're speaking about one of the most, if not the most sophisticated man in Europe, in medieval Europe.

This is a man who has travelled continuously, who speaks multiple languages, who has engaged in diplomatic negotiations and arrangements with the major heads of state across Europe.

He's directly connected with several kings of England.

He's read all the important literature of the period, again, in multiple languages.

He has written a scientific treatise.

He is incredibly well educated in theology and philosophy.

You know, this man...

is immensely sophisticated on sort of a level that we don't even really understand anymore.

And at the same time, he has had this stellar political, diplomatic kind of international career as a sort of absolutely top ranking member of the King's cabinet or the King's household.