The Pardoner's Tale

E282136

Canterbury Tale Middle English narrative poem frame tale moral exemplum

"The Pardoner's Tale" is a moral exemplum within Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales that exposes greed and hypocrisy through the story of three rioters seeking to kill Death.

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All labels observed (6)

Label	Occurrences
The Pardoner's Tale canonical	4
The Pardoner's Prologue	3
Pardoner	1
Pardoner’s Tale	1
The Pardoner’s Tale (adaptation)	1
the Pardoner’s Tale	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2600611 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: The Pardoner's Tale
Context triple: [The Canterbury Tales, includesTale, The Pardoner's Tale]

A. The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a landmark Middle English literary work comprising a series of stories told by pilgrims on a journey to Canterbury, celebrated for its vivid characterization and social satire.
B. A Tale from the Decameron
A Tale from the Decameron is a 1916 oil painting by John William Waterhouse that depicts an evocative scene inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s medieval collection of novellas, The Decameron.
C. Donde Plowman
Donde Plowman is an American academic administrator and leadership scholar who serves as the chief executive of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
D. The Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath is a comedic play by English dramatist John Gay, inspired by Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales character and exploring themes of marriage, gender, and social satire.
E. The Decameron
The Decameron is a 14th-century collection of 100 novellas framed by a group of young Florentines fleeing the Black Death, renowned for its vivid portrayal of medieval life, wit, and human behavior.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: The Pardoner's Tale
Target entity description: "The Pardoner's Tale" is a moral exemplum within Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales that exposes greed and hypocrisy through the story of three rioters seeking to kill Death.

A. The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a landmark Middle English literary work comprising a series of stories told by pilgrims on a journey to Canterbury, celebrated for its vivid characterization and social satire.
B. A Tale from the Decameron
A Tale from the Decameron is a 1916 oil painting by John William Waterhouse that depicts an evocative scene inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s medieval collection of novellas, The Decameron.
C. Donde Plowman
Donde Plowman is an American academic administrator and leadership scholar who serves as the chief executive of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
D. The Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath is a comedic play by English dramatist John Gay, inspired by Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales character and exploring themes of marriage, gender, and social satire.
E. The Decameron
The Decameron is a 14th-century collection of 100 novellas framed by a group of young Florentines fleeing the Black Death, renowned for its vivid portrayal of medieval life, wit, and human behavior.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (47)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Canterbury Tale ⓘ Middle English narrative poem ⓘ frame tale ⓘ moral exemplum ⓘ
associatedCharacter	the Host (in the frame narrative) ⓘ the Knight (as fellow pilgrim listener) ⓘ
author	Geoffrey Chaucer ⓘ
collection	The Canterbury Tales ⓘ
countryOfOrigin	England ⓘ
criticizes	ecclesiastical corruption ⓘ selling of indulgences ⓘ
exposes	the Pardoner's own hypocrisy ⓘ
featuresCharacter	Death (personified) ⓘ linked to: Death (personification) an old man ⓘ three rioters ⓘ
form	verse ⓘ
frameNarrativeContext	The Pardoner tells his tale to other pilgrims on the road to Canterbury ⓘ
genre	exemplum ⓘ moral tale ⓘ
illustrates	irony between sermon and teller ⓘ the destructive power of avarice ⓘ
influenced	later discussions of hypocrisy in literature ⓘ
language	Middle English ⓘ
literaryDevice	allegory ⓘ dramatic irony ⓘ personification of Death ⓘ
meter	iambic pentameter (in rhymed couplets) ⓘ
moral	Radix malorum est cupiditas (the love of money is the root of all evil) ⓘ
moralFunction	to expose clerical vice ⓘ to warn against avarice ⓘ
narrator	the Pardoner ⓘ linked to: Pardoner
openingLatinTag	Radix malorum est cupiditas ⓘ
partOf	The Canterbury Tales ⓘ
period	late 14th century ⓘ
plotSummary	Three rioters set out to kill Death and find gold under a tree, leading to their mutual destruction ⓘ
primaryTheme	corruption of the Church ⓘ death ⓘ greed ⓘ hypocrisy ⓘ
setting	a road and a tree where the gold is found ⓘ a tavern and its surroundings ⓘ
sourceType	medieval sermon exemplum tradition ⓘ
studiedIn	medieval English literature courses ⓘ
textualFeature	contains direct addresses to the audience ⓘ includes a sermon-like prologue by the Pardoner ⓘ
workByAuthor	Geoffrey Chaucer ⓘ
workIn	Middle English literature canon ⓘ