The Canterbury Tales Study Guide

1. What is the first Canterbury Tale?

• The Cook's Tale
• The Reeve's Tale
• The Knight's Tale
• The Miller's Tale

2. Which tale in the first fragment seems to be unfinished?

• The Cook's Tale
• The Reeve's Tale
• The Miller's Tale
• The Knight's Tale

3. Which tale tells the story of Symkyn the miller?

• The Wife of Bath's Tale
• The Shipman's Tale
• The Reeve's Tale
• The Miller's Tale

4. Which characters are in love with Alison in the Miller's Tale?

• Gervase and Nicholas
• Absolon and Nicholas
• John, Absolon and Nicholas
• Absolon and Gervase

5. What is the name of the carpenter in the Miller's Tale?

• Fred
• John
• Absolon
• Nicholas

6. Who farts in Absolon's face?

• Alison
• John
• Gervase
• Nicholas

7. Who cries out "Water" because their arse has been branded with a hot iron?

• Alison
• John
• Absolon
• Nicholas

8. What is the genre of tales to which the Miller's Tale might belong?

• prose poem
• romance
• modernist narrative
• fabliaux

9. Which two characters are thought to be indistinguishable from each other in the Knight's Tale?

• Arcite and Palamon
• Arcite and Theseus
• Theseus and Hippolyta
• Theseus and Palamon

10. Who dies at the end of the Knight's Tale?

• Arcite
• Hippolyta
• Palamon
• Theseus