The Canterbury Tales: The Tale of Melibee Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. One day, three burglars with ladders climbed upstairs in Melibee's home and harmed his wife and their daughter, Sophia. The burglars were caught, which brought out the ire of Melibee and a desire to get even with them. However, his wife wanted to be cautious, and think about it some more. What was her name?

Answer: Prudence

All of the names listed have some reference to the word "cautious". Even though the name of the tale more or less references Melibee, it is Prudence that gives him the best advice, and that advice is to listen to her. Her role in this story and in life is to have her husband to take his time and listen by getting all the facts, rather than making choices that aren't thought out very wisely.

2. The burglars beat the daughter Sophia up pretty badly, bruising and bloodying up her body. They injure five specific areas. Of the listed answers, which one is *not* correct?

Answer: her eyes

Sophia suffered injuries to her mouth, nose, ears, hands, and feet. The areas were damaged so much that the tale calls the combination of them all as "mortal". The complex meaning of the story shows us how these mortal injuries (sin), can be destructive to our use of wisdom, if time is not allowed for proper thought to take place. In Greek the name Sophia means "wisdom".

3. When Melibee came home he saw what happened to his wife and daughter and he panicked. He gets incredibly angry and sobs almost to where he can't control himself. Prudence tries to help and quotes a sentence from Ovid. What is the passage called?

Answer: Remedy of Love

It is said that "Remedy of Love" was written to those who are too absorbed in the stress of sorrow due to "lovesickness". Prudence mentions to Melibee that it is normal to have a certain amount of stress and sorrow, but too much is not good for the heart and soul of the saddened.

The burglars left Sophia for dead. Melibee sees her injuries and gets furious, tearing off his shirt while uncontrollably crying. Dame Prudence remembers a quote of Ovid which said, "He is a fool that stops the mother from weeping on the death of her child until she has wept her fill as for a certain time, and then shall one do his best efforts with amiable words to comfort her, and pray her of her weeping to stint."

4. Prudence studies passages from many sources in order to help them both make their decision on the fate of the burglars. She tells him this quote: "The wise man shall not take too great discomfort for the death of his children, but, certainly, he should suffer it in patience as well as he abides the death of his own self." What philosopher wrote this?

Answer: Seneca the Younger

This reference comes from Seneca's "Consolation to Helvia". It is a treatise not saying that someone shouldn't cry or have sorrow, but that there should be a reasonable amount of sadness. Too much sorrow, and too much strife, is bad for the physical and mental part of a person. Being able to use reason in events as natural as aging and natural death should be a normal process. Melibee is learning a lot from his wife who is telling him of these matters. Seneca uses a stoic approach to the way someone should use control in situations concerning grief.

It is about the concept that happiness comes from reason (logos) and understanding the world is what it is.

5. "The Tale of Melibee" is said to be one of the longest and some would say most boring of all the tales. That said, host Harry Bailly is pleased with it to the level that he had hoped his wife could learn something spoken from Dame Prudence. But who tells us "The Tale of Melibee"?

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

"The Tale of Melibee" is the second tale told by Chaucer himself. The first was the "Tale of Sir Thopas", a horrible parody of bad poetry, and is thankfully and finally interrupted by Harry the Host because of its poorly written manner. This tale is so long that the "The Tale of Melibee" is frequently omitted from some modern texts.

6. "The Tale of Melibee" from Chaucer is an originally written narrative as part of "The Canterbury Tales". Unlike some stories of the tales it is NOT a translation from some other artist other than Chaucer.

Answer: False

As was frequently done during this time, many tales and stories were compilations from other writers. This tale is translated from the "Livre de Melib�e et de Dame Prudence" by Renaud de Louens. On top of that, Renaud's work is an even more loose translation of "Liber consolationis et consilii" by Albertanus of Brescia.

It is said that Chaucer purposefully wrote this in a poor manner, as a means to bring some humor to the classic.

7. Dame Prudence is the epitome of wisdom, communication, and power. She mentions the way, in some religious passage, a specific virtuous woman could facilitate peace and rescue a city by using these finer properties, instead of anger and revenge. Which woman?

Answer: Judith

Prudence strengthens her argument that Melibee should choose forgiveness over revenge. Melibee is all over the place with his thinking. Melibee strangely wants to fine them initally for almost killing his wife and daughter. He then wants to talk sternly to them and tell them of their faults and then let them go. None of this advice meets any of Prudence's requirements, which we don't really quite know yet. Prudence quotes the story of Judith to show how she delivered the city of Bethulia from the Assyrian general Holofernes. One night Judith is in the camp of the Assyrians.

She meets the king, gets him so intoxicated he passes out, and then cuts his head off with his own sword. Oh, the sweet Judith!

8. Prudence talks to Melibee again about the use of too much sorrow. "A joyous and glad heart makes a man flourish in his age; but truly a sorrowful heart drieth the bones." In other words, we need to be patient and not live in sadness for too long even for the death of our children. Who is this quote usually attributed to in Proverbs 17:22?

Answer: Solomon

There are many variations of this quote. It comes from Proverbs 17:22, with Solomon being the one believed to have said this. The most common translation is this, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." The drying of the bones, is a play of words implying that continued talk of sorrow can be most debilitating to the human body, soul, and spirit. Having contentment is as important as having happiness...maybe even more! Solomon is quoted in many of the "Canterbury Tales". Solomon gives us two quotes from "Proverbs" and "Ecclesiastes" in "The Tale of Melibee".

9. Melibee is getting pressure from the masses and ill-tempered "friends" to bring severe methods to the burglars. Prudence says a quote, "If you have power to do any thing which you must later regret, it is better to say nay than yea." Who says this quote in his "Disciplina Clericalis"?

Answer: Petrus Alphonsus

Petrus Alfonsi (1062-1110) wrote "Disciplina Clericalis", which was a popular collection of moral Arabian tales and proverbs. The "Disciplina Clericalis" is said to be the oldest collection of European novellas. It was written in Latin at the start of the 12th century. There are 33 stories associated with this collection. It was initially supposed to be used by members of the clergy.

10. We're at the end of the tale where the judgement of the three burglars takes place. Melibee, along with his wife, Prudence, have taken a great deal of time and thought in delivering their verdict. What was the punishment?

Answer: nothing, but forgiveness

At first the poweful Melibee wants to make haste of the matter and do something without much thought. He listens to the masses who want a rapid and painful judgement. He even talks of banishment, or maybe even a fine. But Prudence comes to the rescue and talks sense into him, and the biggest lesson was to learn what to do by taking time in their decision process.

Her name (Prudence) is used by Chaucer for obvious reasons. By taking their time, they can take the anger and hate out of the situation, and replace it with happiness instead.

Source: Author BullsGold

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

This story addresses the moral aspects of anger and how getting and following the wrong advice can lead us into making decisions based on haste. One main premise is that every man needs a woman of wisdom in their lives to get us to think before we act.

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