The Canterbury SMACKDOWN, Round II

[angevin2]

Well, after a vigorous round of voting, the field of pilgrims has been narrowed. Most of the contests were no contest at all, except in the field of Steadfast Women tale-tellers, in which the Second Nun hangs on by the skin of her teeth to beat the Man of Law (who complains that he'd have had a much better story if that good-for-nothing story-hog

Comments

[kindkit]

I am sad that you pitted the Knight's Tale against the Second Nun's Tale. They're both special favorites of mine, as tales that are often considered boring but that I think are great.

In the end I had to go for the Knight's Tale, though. I love it, even though no one thinks to ask Emelye what she wants. The Second Nun's tale is waaaaay more feminist. It just doesn't have lovesickness and tournaments and ironic!prayers.

[angevin2]

True that. I suppose we all go for the shiny in the end.

Also, Shakespeare/Fletcher's take on things in The Two Noble Kinsmen is...well, on crack, mostly. And of course in that version there's the scene where Hippolyta's like "Why don't you want to get married, Emilia?" and Emilia is all "BECAUSE I'M GAY." Which is awesome.

[rymenhild]

Well, Palamon and Arcite are gay for each other, anyhow, so I don't really think Emilia would have to worry about sex that much.

-Rym, still rooting for Sir Thopas

[angevin2]

It's true. Everyone in the whole play is gay, except for the Jailer's Daughter.

[hodsthorn]

The Miller against the Reeve? That's just cruel. Poor Oswald is going to get beat silly--"funny northern dialect" humor is no match for Absolon's god-awful attempts at wooing and the hot-coulter colonoscopy.

[gillo]

That is really hard. In the end, though, a ploughshare up the bum has to beat randy undergraduates. And, sadly, the Wife rocks, always. And the Pardoner is hard to reject too.

The next round is going to be just impossible.

[vitabeata]

Logistical point of clarification: do the prologues count as part of the tales? Because, for example, WoB's Prologue >>> WoB's Tale.

[angevin2]

They do if you want them to. :)

[reconditarmonia]

D: D: Wife of Bath vs. Merchant? It's so hard to choose!