How we cite our quotes: (Line number)
Quote #4
I preche so, as ye han heerd bifoore,
And telle an hundred false japes moore.
Thanne peyne I me to strecche forth the nekke,
And est and west upon the peple I bekke,
As dooth a dowve sittynge on a berne.
myne handes and my tonge go so yerne
That it is joye to se my bisynesse. (107 – 113)
The Pardoner's description of himself stretching out his neck to peer down on the lowly audience, moving his hands and tongue frantically, emphasizes the way he uses his body in his preaching, of which it becomes an integral part. The Pardoner knows how to use body language to get his points across.
Quote #5
They duance and pleyen at dees, bothe day and nyght,
And eten also and drynken over hir myght,
Thurgh which they doon the devel sacrifise
Withinne that develes temple in cursed wise,
By superfluytee abhomynable. (182 – 185)
This passage might be alluding to the Christian idea that the body is the Lord's temple. In this case, because the gluttons abuse this body by stuffing themselves, they make it into the devil's temple and everything they eat and drink in "superfluitee," or excess, becomes devil-worship.
Quote #6
Hir othes been so grete and so dampnable
That it is grisly for to heere hem swere.
Our blissed lordes body they totere –
Hem thoughte that Jewes rente hym noght ynough –
And ech of hem at otheres synne lough. (186 – 189)
For some reason, medieval Christianity had developed the idea that oath swearing was equivalent to tearing Jesus's body to pieces, torturing it like it was tortured at its crucifixion. BTW, this isn't the only time in the Canterbury Tales where Jews are the epitome of evil. Check out the Prioress' Tale, where Jews actually tear apart the body of a Christian child. Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and weren't allowed back in until 1657, so it's unlikely that anyone in the Pardoner's audiences had ever met one.