How we cite our quotes: (Line number)
Quote #10
O dronke man, disfigured is thy face!
Sour is thy breeth, foul artow to embrace
. . .
Thou fallest, as it were a styked swyn;
Thy tonge is lost, and al thyn honeste cure;
For dronkennesse is verray sepulture
of mannes wit and his discrecioun. (265 – 266, 270 – 273)
Partiers, listen up. Your breath stinks. The Pardoner wants to emphasize the effects of drink on the body: the way it disfigures the face, breath, and, most importantly, looses inhibitions, so that a drunk man can't keep a secret and talks crazy. His comparison of the drunk man to a "stiked swyn," or stuck pig, insinuates that a drunk man is no more sensible than an animal. And let's not even get started on hangovers…
Quote #11
"Lo, how I vannyshe, flessh and blood and skyn!
Allas, whan shul my bones been at reste?
Mooder, with yow wolde I chaungem y cheste,
That in my chambre longe tyme hat be,
Ye, for an heyre-clowt to wrappe me.
But yet to me she wol nat do that grace,
For which ful pale and welked is my face." (446 – 452)
The Old Man that the Three Rioters meet on the way longs for death because without it, his body is wasting away. He's aware of how the fragility of the body makes death a welcome thing. The revelers, who've been making very good use of their bodies, find this old guy disgusting. The Old Man represents the spiritual self, as opposed to the corporeal self.
Quote #12
"Lat be," quod he, "it shal nat be, so theech,
Thou woldest make me kisse thyn olde breech,
And swere it were a relyk of a seint,
Though it were with thy fundement depeint." (661 – 664)
Oh, snap! The Host's angry response to the Pardoner suggests that the art of the physical insult predates reality TV. He suggests that the Pardoner would ask him to kiss his ass as a saintly relic even if it were stained by his "fundement," or anus. Some people, remembering the pilgrim Chaucer's description of a "geldyng or a mare" in the General Prologue, read this as the host's dig at the Pardoner's sexual inadequacy.