The Canterbury Tales

Paraphrase the proposal the Host made to the assembled Pilgrims to keep everyone occupied on the trip to Canterbury [lines 785-804].

Paraphrase the proposal the Host made to the assembled Pilgrims to keep everyone occupied on the trip to Canterbury [lines 785-804].

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The Host is a large man with bright, large eyes - and an extremely fair man. The Host welcomes everyone to the inn, and announces the pilgrimage to Canterbury, and decides that, on the way there, the company shall 'talen and pleye' (to tell stories and amuse themselves). Everyone consents to the Host's plan for the game, and he then goes on to set it out.

What the Host describes is a tale-telling game, in which each pilgrim shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two more on the way home; whoever tells the tale 'of best sentence and moost solas' shall have supper at the cost of all of the other pilgrims, back at the Inn, once the pilgrimage returns from Canterbury. The pilgrims agree to the Host's suggestion, and agree to accord to the Host's judgment as master of the tale-telling game.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-canterbury-tales/study-guide/summary-general-prologue