The Canterbury Tales: The Knight’s Tale Summary & Analysis

Once upon a time, the legendary Theseus, duke of Athens, had conquered the country of the Amazons. He brings home their queen, Hippolyta, as his wife, and he also brings her younger sister, Emelye.

If the story were not so long, says the Knight, I would tell you all about how Theseus defeated the Amazons, and what a great battle it was, and what a glorious wedding––but I have a long road ahead to plow, and so I will begin.

As Theseus is riding into Athens, he sees a group of women in black clothing weeping and wailing by the side of the road. He asks them why they are grieving, and they tell him that they are noblewomen from Thebes who have come to Athens to seek Theseus’s help against the tyrant Creon. After his victory in a recent war, Creon has barred the women from burying the bodies of their vanquished husbands.

Theseus is deeply moved by their sad story and vows, as a true knight, to avenge the noblewomen. He sends Hippolyta and Emelye ahead to Athens and leads his army to Thebes. Theseus quickly slays Creon, conquers the city, and returns the bones of the slain husbands to the grieving women.

After the battle, as scavengers are taking armor and treasures from the slain armies, they find two young knights lying side by side named Arcite and Palamon. Though both are badly wounded, they are not quite dead yet. By their coat of arms, the scavengers can tell that they are of royal Theban blood. Theseus proclaims that the knights should be brought to Athens to be held prisoner perpetually and with no possibility of ransom.

One morning in May, Palamon is looking out the window of the tower where the knights have been imprisoned when he spies Emelye, who has risen early to pay her respects to nature. She is even lovelier than all the fresh flowers. “Ah!” cries Palamon, as if he had been struck through the heart.

The cry awakens Arcite, who asks Palamon what ails him. Arcite thinks that Palamon is bemoaning their imprisonment, but Palamon replies that he has received a wound through his eye straight to the heard: he has seen woman below who is so beautiful that he does not know whether she is a woman or a goddess. He guesses that she is Venus and prays to her to release himself and Arcite from captivity.

Meanwhile, Arcite looks at Emelye and is just as love-struck as Palamon. They quarrel over who has the right to love her. Palamon reminds Arcite that they have sworn to be faithful first to each other and never to let the love of a lady come between them. Because he loved her first, claims Palamon, he has the right to her hand. Arcite replies that Palamon thought she was a goddess, not a woman. Arcite also points out that neither one of them will ever be able to claim Emelye, since they are sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment. Strife builds between the knights.

One day, Duke Perotheus, a close friend of Theseus, visits Athens. Perotheus, as it turns out, had known and loved Arcite at Thebes, and he petitions Theseus to free Arcite. Theseus agrees on the condition that if Arcite is ever found on Theseus’s lands, he will be killed.

As Arcite leaves Athens, he bursts into a complaint, lamenting that he must leave his prison––which now seems a paradise––because he will no longer be able to see Emelye. When Arcite departs, Palamon is thrown into a fit of despair and complains that he will never have the chance to go to Thebes and gather his army so that he might win Emelye’s hand. The Knight poses the rhetorical question of whether Palamon or Arcite is worse off.

When Arcite returns to Thebes, he suffers from “loveris maladye.” He cries “Alas!” constantly, stops eating, grows so gaunt and sickly that he is unrecognizable, and moans to the stars. After spending a year or two in this lovesick condition, Mercury visits him in a dream and tells him to return to Athens, where he will find the end to his woe.

Arcite determines to go to Athens despite the danger of death. He looks in the mirror and realizes he has become so thin that he can disguise himself as a poor laborer and therefore have the chance to see Emelye every day.

In Athens, Arcite takes the name Philostrate and finds a job as a page working for Emelye. He is so courtly and well-mannered that within a few years’ time, he becomes one of Theseus’s favorite squires. Theseus gives him gold, and Arcite has money secretly brought to him from Thebes.

Meanwhile, Palamon has pined away in prison for seven years, living as a martyr in an unimaginable hell. Finally, one night in May, he drugs his jailer and flees the city. Palamon finds a grove to hide in during the day so that at night he can return to Thebes and amass an army to wage war against Theseus and win Emelye’s hand.

By chance, Arcite comes to the very same grove to pay respects to May. Arcite weaves himself a garland, sings praises to the spring, lapses into a melancholy stupor, then laments his tragic fortunes. At first, Palamon, hearing but not seeing Arcite, thinks that the fields have eyes and the woods have ears, but then he realizes that it is his old companion.

Palamon leaps out from his hiding place, calls Arcite a traitor, declares himself to be Arcite’s mortal foe, and challenges him to a duel. Arcite renounces the bond of brotherhood that they had previously pledged to each other and says that he is ready to fight for the hand of the lady. They agree to meet the next morning.

The next morning, Palamon and Arcite return to the woods, Arcite having gone back to Athens to get weapons for both of them. The two knights fight each other so fiercely that they are up to their ankles in blood.

That morning, Theseus, Hippolyta, and Emelye are riding through the woods to go hunting. They happen to ride into the grove where Arcite and Palamon are fighting. Astonished, Theseus cries for the fight to come to a halt and demands to know who these two knights are. Palamon answers, revealing that Arcite has been living in Theseus’s court as Philostrate and admitting that he broke out of prison, but that everything they both did was for love of Emelye. The knights admit that they deserve death.

Hippolyta and Emelye, moved to tears by the knights’ misfortune, beg Theseus to spare their lives. Theseus decides that mercy is the best policy and forgives Palamon and Arcite, declaring that they have been led into their folly by their allegiance to the god of love. Theseus makes Palamon and Arcite swear never to wage war against him.

Theseus orders Palamon and Arcite to return in exactly fifty weeks’ time with a hundred knights each, ready to do battle for the hand of Emelye.

Theseus builds an elaborate, ornate, mile-wide amphitheater for the tournament. The lavish stadium contains three temples to three different gods: a temple to Venus, goddess of love, above the eastern gate; a temple to Mars, god of war, above the western gate; and a temple to Diana, goddess of chastity, to the north.

The walls of the Temple of Venus portray allegorical figures from various love myths. There are also portraits of historical figures who have been victims of seduction. In the Temple of Mars, a terrifying forest is painted on the wall, in front of which stands a statue of omnipotent Mars. The Temple of Diana features pictures from myths about the goddess as well as the image of the goddess as a moon.

Finally, the day of the battle arrives. Palamon and Arcite come to Athens with their armies of a hundred knights. Palamon and Arcite have also each brought a king to lead their armies: Palamon has brought Lygurge, king of Thrace, while Arcite has Emetreus, king of India. All the knights are received by Theseus with great hospitality.

On the Sunday night before the battle, Palamon rises at two o’clock in the morning with the lark and goes to the temple of Venus to pray. He asks the goddess for the possession of Emelye, praying specifically that he might win the lady rather than asking for victory in battle. The statue of Venus shakes, which Palamon interprets as a sign that his prayer has been granted.

The third hour after Palamon rises, Emelye goes to the temple of Diana. Emelye cleanses herself, performs sacred rites, and prays to Diana to keep her maidenhood and to live forever as a virgin. She asks Diana to cure Palamon and Arcite of their love for her and to restore the bonds of friendship between them. If she must marry one of them, however, Emelye asks that she marry the one who desires her the most. One of the sacrificial fires suddenly goes out, and Diana appears in an image to Emelye. Diana tells her that the gods have decreed she must marry one of the knights, but that she cannot say which one.

During the next hour, Arcite goes to the temple of Mars to pray. He reminds Mars of the pain he suffered for the love of Venus and begs for victory in battle. Arcite offers to cut his previously uncut hair and beard as a sacrifice and swears to serve Mars for the rest of his life if the god grants him victory. The statue of Mars shakes and murmurs, “Victorie!”

The scene shifts to the heavens, where Venus and Mars are having a disagreement over the outcome of the battle. Saturn, father of the gods, must step in to settle the dispute. He tells Venus that Palamon will win the hand of the lady, but that Mars will help Arcite keep his honor.

After a magnificent feast, with much jousting and lusting, the knights rise early the next morning and go to the theater for the battle, looking splendid in their finest armor. A herald announces the battle rules to minimize loss of noble life: no weapons other than long swords, maces, and a few spears; no secret short swords; captured knights should be taken to stakes rather than killed; and that when Palamon or Arcite has been captured or killed, the fight is over.

With Theseus, Hippolyta, and Emelye in the stands, Palamon rides in under the gates of Venus, Arcite under the gates of Mars, and the battle begins.

All the knights joust in the great battle. After much brave fighting, twenty opposing knights, led by Arcite’s king Emetreus, wound and capture Palamon, thus ending the fight. Theseus declares Arcite the winner and says that he shall have the hand of Emelye.

Venus whines to Saturn that she has been disgraced, but Saturn tells her to watch and wait. As Arcite prances around the amphitheater in victory, the ground opens and a fury from hell scares his horse, causing Arcite to be thrown to the ground. Arcite is still alive, but terribly injured, and he is taken to a bed in the palace.

None of the other knights have been killed in the tournament. Theseus makes sure that their wounds are tended to, and he declares that Palamon has not lost his honor by being captured at the stake in front of the crowd.

Arcite’s body is paralyzed and beginning to rot, and it is clear that he will shortly die. On his deathbed, Arcite sends for Emelye and Palamon. He tells Emelye that his ghost will continue to serve her after he dies and that he will always love her. He also tells Emelye that if she marries after he dies, she should marry Palamon, as there is no worthier man than he. The last words he breathes are “Mercy, Emelye!”

Emelye, Palamon, and Theseus weep and wail inconsolably as all Athens mourns Arcite’s death. Egeus, Theseus’s father, consoles Theseus by reminding him of the inevitability of death.

Theseus conducts an extremely elaborate funeral ritual for Arcite. Arcite is buried in the same grove where he and Palamon battled, and there is a long funeral procession. While claiming that he not going to describe the whole scene, the Knight launches into a very detailed description of Arcite’s funeral pyre, describing all the types of wood used to build it, depicting what Arcite’s body looked like, and explaining the rites of the ceremony.

Several years later, there is a parliament in Athens to discuss which lands must have obedience to Thebes, and Theseus calls Palamon and Emelye to attend. Theseus delivers his “First Moevere” speech, which describes how the course of life moves in the intent of the great chain of love that the universe’s first mover has set into motion. We should trust in Jupiter’s wisdom, says Theseus. We can honor Arcite, but we must move forward with our lives. Theseus urges Palamon and Emelye to wed, and they all live happily ever after.