The document discusses the physiological and astrological beliefs about human temperaments in the Middle Ages. People were thought to have four humours - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile - which determined one's complexion and personality. It then examines characters in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales through this lens, such as the choleric Summoner and melancholic Friar. It analyzes how their depicted personalities and vices align with the typical traits of their humour-defined complexions.
6. Complexion or Temperament The predominating humour determines the complexion or temperament of individuals: Phlegm -> Phlegmatic Yellow bile -> Choleric Blood -> Sanguine Black bile -> M elancholic
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. The Summoner Officer who carried summonses from an ecclesiastical court to a person charged to appear to answer for a number of offenses (witchcraft, usury, adultery, robbing churches,…) .
22. John the Evangelist in ‘The Last Supper’ Often portrayed with his head in Christ’s lap (his “ nave” ) ‘ He lay at the breste of his maister Crist and saw there the prevytees of heaven’ ( Speculum Sacerdotale ) Friar John is entitled to the vulgar offering that Thomas hyd in pryvetee (l. 2143)
![Characters in the Canterbury Tales ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)