A white horse is not too far different in color than a dapple-grey horse, a sorrel horse is just a redder horse than the brown "bay" horse, and iron-gray horses are just lighter black than a "black" horse. Gulliver's point here is that although the Houyhnhnm society would point to these specific colors as representative of their potential or merit in character, it is silly to assume that one "horse" is better or worse than another if their color is hardly different than the ones they use as scapegoats.

He makes a point here about how race is often used as a means to discriminate and ignore someone's potential even though the only real difference between people is appearance.

Gulliver makes a point that wars are often fought over frivolous differences, either difference in culture and dress, or difference in religion and perspective. This point emphasizes how pride and stigma influence wars, and how absurd it is that death should be the result of "difference in opinion"

Equiano touches on the many atrocities he had faced but implies that he was lucky among his people in that he managed to escape it. He claims to be a "favorite of heaven" as he believes he was spared by god from the harsher fates his neighbors would be trapped in.

Equiano is modestly trying to play down his literary skill as an attempt to play into the emotions and biases of the intended audience of white aristocrats. He wants to portray himself as humble and polite in order to appear nonthreatening and empathizing so that the audience will be more open minded when reading his work.

A bit of foreshadowing of Desdemona's death, but this is also symbolic. The sheets she wants to be shrouded in are their wedding sheets. If she and Othello had already consummated their marriage, their sheets would be theoretically stained, which would mean that Othello's obsessing over her virginity and her purity would be absolutely pointless if he had already taken it. If they had not consummated it yet, then the sheets would be clean and unstained, and would serve as a symbol for her purity and innocence, and act as a reminder to Othello that he had been jealous and wrongly possessive and abusive towards his wife for nothing.

Iago is playing devil's advocate and is trying to pretend to side with Desdemona's perceived infidelity of "giving away" her handkerchief (which we all know was Iago's fault) in order to play up Othello's fears. By pretending to downplay Othello's suspicions, he is removing any possible suspicions of his own connections with the missing handkerchief, and is trying to push Othello further into his own delusions.

Jealousy is often for no real reason nor is it ever based on proven facts, but rather for the sake of being jealous. Emilia is suggesting that Desdemona should be cautious if it is jealousy that is ailing Othello and not political matters, because jealousy may not be reasoned with.

Brabantio is willing to wake up the entire city and ask them about his daughter and Othello. This implies that he is absolutely willing to shame and embarrass himself in front of the entire town because he thinks his daughter is sleeping around due to Iago and Roderigo's lies. So, he's about to go around town basically announcing to everyone that his daughter is a whore.

Brabantio is already willing to believe the men due to his pre-existing biases. Although Brabantio may respect Othello, all it takes is a little poking at his hidden biases to awaken his suspicions even if they are based completely on fear and lies.

Brabantio is offended at Iago and Roderigo's claims and says they are being rude and profane.

This, along with the comparison to a black ram, serves to portray Othello as animalistic and base. Iago describes him as a barbary horse and implies that their future children will also be animals, suggesting he'll have "coursers for cousins" and that his nephews will "neigh" to him like a horse. The men are trying hard to dehumanize Othello as much as possible so that he is no longer someone they can empathize with but rather someone who needs to be herded and controlled.

Here the men are insinuating that Othello is having inappropriate intercourse with Desdemona, his daughter. Iago compares Othello to a "black ram" because of his ethnicity, while referring to Desdemona as a "white ewe" invoking the idea that she is pure and innocent, similar to the "lamb of god"

Iago and Roderigo scheme to shake up Brabantio's relationship with his new son-in-law by making up lies about his behavior with Desdemona, suggesting he was being inappropriate.

derogatory term referring to Othello, who is a Muslim.

Iago is salty that Othello chose Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of him, and says he isn't qualified for the job because he was a mathematician and knows nothing of battle, suggesting he "never set a squadron in the field." This is setting up the reasoning for Iago's dislike for Othello which establishes the cause for his actions throughout the rest of the play.

Early on there are many implied references to Othello without ever explicitly naming him. Here Roderigo tells Iago that he was under the impression that he hated Othello, but he doesn't actually name Othello and it's up the audience to infer who he is talking about.

This is a very sad truth that the author is highlighting here. Because infant mortality rates were high back in the Middle Ages, many children never survived adolescence, and the author uses this truth to imply that it must be so, otherwise the world would be overpopulated.

The author is taking a very heavy subject and tries to make light of it by suggesting that it is by god's will to allow potential grieving parents to find some comfort in the harshness of child-loss. By stating it as god's actions that is killing off children with disease, it emphasizes the hopelessness of trying to prevent or grieve on it by stripping the power from the parent and giving it all back to god. Since child death was so common, it was viewed as very much a reality and a part of life just as inevitable and expected as a blind man living without the use of his eyes, or a bird taking to the skies.

I am assuming in this context "money" is precious gems or minerals like gold or garnets, as the context of "breeding, growing stronger" implies that the "money" or more likely "ore" grows and renews underground.

From Merriam-Webster's dictionary: "a raised ornamentation (as on a belt or shield) : STUD"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boss

With the context of "the fixed shelter for fingers" I am assuming in this text it is meant as a grip, strap or handle for the shield-bearer to actually be able to hold it safely.

This is referring to falconry- an ancient hunting technique of training birds of prey to hunt and retrieve kills for the hunter. Because of their powerful grip and menacing talons, hunters wear special handling gloves that allow them to host the birds on their arms without getting injured.

Another quick reminder that greed is unbecoming of a pious man.

Here the author is making a statement on the nature of man and their eagerness for war and battle- that if one must be warring and battle-keen, they must be wise and honorable in their plights.

However, for the lowly and miserably-spirited man, he will only find valueless and worthless treasures and bounties, and won't be worthy of extravagance and pleasures.

Weak and tired men do not "go against the flow" or challenge the norm

It's best to have companionship and not live alone. It is preferable to have a blood-related "brother" from the same father than to be a single child or to be without friends and company.

I found this to be amusing that no requirement is mentioned for having a sister, or that both children be of the same mother- so it sounds as if it is ok for a man to sleep around with multiple women but not so for women to sleep around with multiple men. So it's not better to have just any sibling- a sister just won't do. A good man should have a brother and with the same father, but who cares if they have different mothers.

I mean, it's pretty obvious that a "man who does not care for god" would be faithless, so that goes without saying. But here the author also claims that without faith to guide them, a man will be "malicious" and aimless. Perhaps back in these early days when religion was the driving force behind keeping societies alive and fearing divine consequences kept people from wanting to do dumb and dangerous things that would lead to the fall of their societies, it would make more sense to consider someone who ignored those societal norms and expectations as dangerous and a risk to others. But realistically, especially in today's perspective when religion is more a choice than a requirement and education has taught us better than to do the dumb and dangerous things we would have done before, a "faithless man" is just as dangerous or safe as any religious man. This line serves as a reminder to the audience of that time period to be obedient and god-fearing if they want to avoid damnation.

Material possessions never belong to someone for eternity. "Treasure becomes others-" means that goods are passed on and repossessed. Here the author claims that men must be charitable as wealth can come and go at any time by the will of god, meaning that it's ill-advised to get caught up in greed because you could easily lose it just as quick as it is obtained, so it's better to be generous and giving with it than to fixate on it and risk losing it all anyways.

A man should be generous and charitable to company and friends and should do his best to keep his friends around, as without friends or company one can look for companionship in the wrong places, and end up with "wolves" for friends.

In this line, we see the author compare the blind man's eyes to "head-gems" through metaphor. Like a gem inlaid in a crown, the eyes are inlaid in the skull and are thought to be the "mirrors of the soul"

river or stream that surrounds a dwelling, like a castle or in this case a house.

It seems that fidelity is a common fear among men regardless of where you are in the world. It's sad that a woman is instantly cast aside as "spoiled" for having the guts to own her sexuality.

Although slavery was practiced in his village, it seems it was more a punishment for a crime than the transaction-based slavery of Europe and America.

He mentions that because his homeland did not have connection with the outside world, he had no knowledge of the sea or Europeans, and that as a result of the seclusion his village had a rather simple way of living.

The horse-courser may have misheard Faustus's name, or is portrayed here as ignorant in his comical mispronunciation of his name.

At this point Faustus is already immensely powerful, having Lucifer's handyman as his own. It's ironic that after boasting about wanting to be ruler of all the lands, that Faustus finds himself answering to this random emperor.

a "familiar" in this case being Mephisto; a spirit or animal demon that one can command or summon

Faustus asks to be turned invisible so he can explore Rome undetected.

possibly referring to Virgil's tomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil#Virgil's_tomb

He blames Mephisto for damning his soul, when it is actually Faustus's own fault for ignoring the many warnings and arrogantly summoning Mephisto in the first place.

When Faustus asks if we exist in a heliocentric or geocentric system, Mephisto incorrectly answers geocentric: "axletree" meaning axis in this case, whom is centered on "the world's...pole"

There were a lot of folks who believed in a Geocentric system- that is, that all things revolve around the Earth, and the Earth is the center of the universe. Faustus is asking Mephisto if the stars revolve around the Earth. Around the late 16th century we started seeing astronomers accepting the heliocentric model (revolves around the sun) instead, which was quite controversial in the eyes of the church.

Astronomy is fascinating, and it's history even more so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model

bahahahaha. If only they knew what we know now.

Although I realize this to be a work of fiction, if Faustus were truly wanting to seek profound knowledge on the mysteries of the universe, surely he could find a better expert than a demon. Apparently nobody told Mephisto or Lucifer that there are many planets beyond our own solar system, or that there are more than 7 planets within our own solar system, which means that already Faustus' desires for infinite knowledge are made in vain as he receives false information.

It's ironic that the answers Mephisto provides, in today's context, are incorrect, when Faustus' whole reasoning for signing over his soul were to find answers on these questions.

To put it into context, Uranus was not even discovered until 1781 by William Herschel, and I find it amusing that Mephisto gives an incorrect answer; likely based on Marlowe's own misunderstanding of Astronomy.

I found this interesting journal that discusses how Marlowe understands astronomy- an important read that provides a lot more context to these lines that would be easy to miss if not versed in the subject.

Johnson, Francis R. “Marlowe's Astronomy and Renaissance Skepticism.” ELH, vol. 13, no. 4, 1946, pp. 241–254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2871447. Accessed 15 May 2020.

Recommend reading "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan for info on the discovery of Uranus. Page 65 in chapter 8 "The First New Planet" talks about the discovery by William Herschel and the public's reaction to the discovery.

https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/literature/general/Sagan_Carl/Sagan,%20Carl%20-%20Pale%20Blue%20Dot.pdf

heavenly spheres; planets.

poisoned blades

Maybe it's just me not being a fan of marriage, but I personally agree with this. I personally do not see marriage as a necessity to express love and commitment to someone.

The fact that Mephisto shows up with a demon in women's clothes complete with a show of fireworks is absolutely hilarious to me. The fireworks seem as though Mephisto were mocking Faustus for being so dull to seek marriage after signing his soul over to Lucifer. It also would not make much sense, as Faustus at this point could have anything in the world he so desired, so why should he waste his time and energy on a wife?

Faustus is first starting to realize this may have been a huge mistake.

Mephisto states under his breath that he would do anything to claim Faustus's soul, knowing that Faustus is gullible in accepting the bargain.

Another instance of forewarning- his own blood, which is a supposed creation by god, is not wanting to bleed for the sake of devilish intent. It's almost an act of divine intervention as a last attempt to save him from damnation.

After a bout of uncertainty, he decides that he shall side with Lucifer and that he would erect churches in his name and sacrifice babies at an alter in his dedication.

Faustus is metal A.F.

Here Faustus is confronted with pangs of doubt, and instead of backing down he doubles down and convinces himself that what he is doing is what is best for his own selfish desires.

Man I love this guy.

He thinks Wagner is bluffing and gloats that he could easily take on these demons, kinda like how a child might make threats at someone but come time to put up or shut up, he flees in a panic.

The clown may be poor, but he's not desperate. He sees through Wagner's offer and knows that accepting the money would be a death sentence and is fearful of the demons that Wagner claims to command, wanting absolutely nothing to do with them regardless of how much money he is offered.

The jester is making fun of Wagner and sees past his threats, saying that it would be a waste of Wagner's time to command lice to devour him because he's already inflicted.

A rogue or scoundrel; I can't tell if the jester is fooling around and cracking jokes at Wagner via play-on-words, or if he just misheard Wagner, thinking Wagner has made some offensive jab at him due to his class.

constellations; Castor and Pollux for example, are "characters" of the constellation or "sign" of Gemini; "erring stars" could be the constellations based on some chance of fate, like how Orion and Scorpius are permanently fixed on opposite ends of the sky, locked in an eternal chase.

The second scholar says he would simply grieve for Faustus as if he were already dead if he were just a stranger to him. But, because they know him well, the scholar feels obligated to do something to stop him.

Having a hunch for what Faustus is up to, the two scholars are eager to try and save him from the dangerous path he has started to follow.

In order to be versed in magic, one must be wise in astrology, languages, and geology.

Wow this guy is pretty full of himself for thinking he's better than philosophy, law, and physics, all of which are pretty intelligent subjects to explore. Considering the wisest of humanity tended to study these subjects, he's arrogant to suggest that these are lowly subjects and are beneath his capability.

The Americas are discovered by this time and is commonly referred to as the "new world"

Having been confronted by the good and evil angels, he is pondering having them grant him his wish to be knowledgeable and powerful. He wants to be "resolved of ambiguity", or rather he wants to be able to make sense of everything and leave nothing unlearned or unclear to him.

Knowledge is power!

Assuming this means north and south poles. So basically, he says everything will be at his command and will obey him if he were to have infinite knowledge.

Here Faustus bids farewell to divinity and relishes in the wonders of knowledge and magic, which he claims are what he truly desires.

This serves as a bit of forewarning as Faustus will come to regret not taking this seriously.

me

This is a very curious look at how we reach maturity over time. The soft and dreamy way he describes his love for the youth is lively and seemingly innocent, but as time passes and the two "grow" apart, the poet matures and shifts his tone to a more lustful and sinful love for the mistress who is described in an opposite manner as that of the youth. She is seemingly ungraceful and pretty average all around, and yet the two share a mature relationship for the sake of needing company and not wanting to be alone in their older age.

The poet contradicts himself here; he knows the mistress lies, but he's still willfully ignorant and wants to believe her regardless.

who has grown while withering; getting wise as they get older

This is in reference to the use of sextants to navigate on a ship while at sea; sailors would use the stars to track their positions.

The onlookers can only behold your (the youth's) beauty but lack the linguistic skill to express it appropriately, and the ability to fully and effectively capture it.

I really enjoy the rhythm of this line. It's very blunt and to the point in how short and choppy the line is as it expresses something the poet really wants the intended reader to understand, "my poems about you and for you are all the same, and all express immense love and respect"

He doesn't want to be remembered as simply idolizing the youth; he wants it to be known it was a much deeper love than that

Having worked in a floral shop, this is absolutely true.

The flower is envied by the summer but the flower only lives and dies alone. But if the flower were corrupted, even weeds would be more dignified.

Innocence can be corrupted by sin.

Consent is important, y'all.

The poet is signifying that his lover is too precious to be kept for himself, and realizes that he needs to let go. He's releasing his lover and relinquishing the "bonds"

unspoken thoughts

This sounds as though the poet were hearing the rival poet's songs about the youth, but he can't help but nod in agreement to the praises it sings of his wanted lover. And while the words seem sweet and lovely and is agreeable to the audience, our poet finds that it doesn't share the same passion as what he can only say in his unspoken thoughts.

Here, the poet comes to terms that he and the youth will not be together.

He has a pretty strong recurring theme of ending these stanzas with some iteration of "remembering the youth's memory in writing"

As a space nerd, this phrase stuck out to me quite a bit. An eclipse is when one object obstructs the view of another object behind it relative to the viewer, so an eclipse in this sense is some external force that is obstructing the light, and it being crooked gives it a much darker and sinister tone.

The way I read this:

After Jesus was born from light (as in, holiness) and grew up to be crucified, he fought back the evil that tried to darken his light. After all that time, his "gift" is still being shared.

Time allows youth to prosper and grow, enhances the wrinkles on the face, and physically weathers away at history. Anything in it's way is destined to be cut down.

Despite all this, the youth's loving memory will live on in the poem, despite Time's inevitable plan to reclaim him or the sour fate it can bring.

This appears to be some biblical reference to Jesus's birth and describes him being born in love and light, crawling his way to an adult where he's "crowned," which could either be referring to a crown of thorns or the perception of him as a heavenly king.

This is a pretty endearing stanza. He's saying that the youth's beauty and memory will live forever in this poem until his final judgment, and will be remembered for his love.

Shakespeare's new mixtape is fire

He's describing the reflection of sunlight/starlight off the water and paints a lovely natural setting; the sun is "kissing" the meadows green and breathing life into them, and it watches over the mountains like a king.

When allowed to let his mind wander, the poet reminisces on the past and ponders all the things he wishes he had. With all these thoughts on his mind, he's freshly saddened by it all again and begins to weep, i.e. "drowning" his eyes that are not used to crying.

Since Nature physically equipped the youth for women's sexual pleasure, it is the poet's pleasure to love the youth as is.

Nature made the youth physically equipped "for a woman" in a reproductive standpoint; and in addition also had the effect of "defeating" the poet. The rhyming of the long vowel "e" in this phrase brings the attention back from the subject of Nature to the subject of the poet.

This line kinda feels like a jab at women's intelligence, but I hope I'm wrong. It sounds like he's claiming this youth to be smarter than women with the use of "bright," despite his perceived close resemblance to one.

The youth here is described as having a feminine face and a "woman's gentle heart" but not with the same "shifting" emotions. The poet views him as a "false woman" in an endearing and romanticizing way.using language that portrays a natural image; the youth's face was "hand painted" by nature itself.

Even if time does spoil the beauty of the youth, he will forever be remembered as young and beautiful because he is permanently recorded this way in the poem.

Here the poet begs Time not to age the youth; he compares wrinkles on a face to being lines drawn with Time's pen.

Time will wear down the claws of a lion and cause the earth to reclaim it's dying people.

He's comparing the youth to the summer; the summer is often too hot to endure and other days the shade hides the beauty of the summer day. He suggests that the summer is over too quickly and it's beauty fades with time.

However, the youth is everlasting in his comparison. The youth will always be beautiful and death can't stop that and time can't take that away from him. The poet claims that the youth will always be lovely and lively, even after death. The poem itself serves to immortalize the youth.

I would disagree here. The night is beautiful, especially back then when there was no light pollution to see the full beauty of the night sky!

As far as what he is saying here, he compares the passage of time throughout the day and night cycle and throughout the seasons to the growth of people. We all go through the same stages of life and live old to see new life take our place. When we grow old and prepare to pass away, it is our children that will carry on our youth and beauty.

It would be foolish and selfish to ignore his duties to procreate

Look in your reflection and tell yourself "now is the time to change"

I am assuming it is the fear of judgement and execution that is causing it, but she is quick to jump to the side of those who are holding her for a crime. She mentions here that she would join them in punishing anyone who has actually committed a crime- almost as if she were redirecting the fingers pointed at her towards someone else.

This line stands out to me as being out of desperation- Jane is suffering and is seemingly begging for god to take her. She is pleading with god to show her mercy and to help her in some way, either through death or intervention in her bodily suffering.

This is really sad to me. Here we have Jane, a woman tortured by her family and their own selfish pursuits, who is lamenting to her father about how she welcomes death and believes it to be a better place than her current life. I know religion has placed a very influential lens over how she perceives life, but I find it tragic that this same concept that tries to offer so many people peace and comfort especially during challenging times is used to also encourage harsh living conditions and cause people to surrender in unfortunate circumstances and avoid trying to advocate for a better life.

With that said, we all know that during this time the afterlife was really all they had to look forward to and religion was placed above all else, so in this context I can understand why Jane would feel this way, but it's a shame that someone so young and so brilliant was put down so early and tragically.

biblical term for tax collector

Lady Jane Grey is so miserable in the presence of her family and their constant ridicule and punishments that the only break from suffering she gets is when she is learning. Because this appears to be the only positive experience she is allowed, she has fully embraced learning and tries to make the best of it when she is permitted. Her education is her only pleasure in life and her only escape from her pain.

Here she makes a promise to her subjects that if a proposed marriage does not benefit her kingdom or its people, she will abstain from it. In other words, if he's not good enough for the people, he's not good enough for her.

"You will surely treat me with the same honor and respect as you gave my father, and I trust you won't allow a traitor to take over our kingdom and pose as your ruler."

it's about to get real y'all

It is amusing to me that there were men who were knighted exclusively to carry meat on coronation day and who, apparently, had no real power beyond holding meat as they were "inferior to the other order." Seems like a waste of resources, but hey. That must be some real fancy meat to have a special handling crew assigned to it.

I found it very curious that even though she is addressing her father, Mary still addresses him by his titles of nobility and is still forced to refer to him in this highly professional and respectful manner. You would think that family would get some sort of leniency with expectations of being proper towards noble family, but clearly that is not the case here.

On a side note, if you ever need to ask your own parents for something, take a lesson from Mary here on how to properly sweet talk and suck up to your parents!

Although this is the king she is speaking to, it sounds as though she is repenting to him as if he were a priest or god himself.

Man this woman realllly loved jesus and was devastated at his death and his suffering. With there being no mention of the child she bore at the start of this story, it leads me to believe that her child didn't survive. If that be the case, death and immense pain are something she has faced before herself, so she is constantly reminded of the agony any time she thinks about her faith in god.

She felt sympathy for the suffering christ experienced during his lifetime as she was led through the city and told of the horrible things that were said to have happened to him in the different parts of town. She sobbed as if she were actually watching it happen in front of her.

After her battle with depression and her "demons" she was renewed with a faith in christ as she believes he came to her to help her end her fast. She wants to live a more virtuous life since that vision, and her husband is upset to hear that she does not want to have sex as a result. Sadly she can't really win either way- either she sins and carries on with her husband, or she upsets her husband and her marriage. What a life.

She was so conflicted with thoughts of being cursed to hell while also fearing the judgement of the priest she tried to confess to that she "lost her mind." She feels guilty but is also terrified of the shame and doesn't know how to address it.

Medicine was not anywhere near what it is today so childbirth back in these ages was dangerous and so incredibly more painful back then for women. This line portrays that agony she was in and she felt as if she were going to die in labor. She sends off for a priest so she can confess just in case she were to die she could hope to get into heaven. She starts telling herself that she doesn't need to confess and she blames the devil for those thoughts. She concedes to her suspicions and stops her confession abruptly.

Everyman is feeling guilt for not loving god and instead loving wealth and and luxury.

If only Everyman hadn't been greedy and given to the poor, they wouldn't be in this predicament.

Now Everyman is trying to find solace in materialism. That never worked out for anyone...

Man, even family is like nah dude you are on your own. Ouch.

Everyman is now starting to consider the consequences of their actions thus far and is starting to regret living in sin now that god is ticked off and sending Death to command them on this pilgrimage.

Everyman is desperately pleading with Fellowship to accompany them on their journey and is using a last ditch effort to convince him to join.

See and here this contradicts the character "god" who earlier described himself as jesus by referencing his dying for humanity's sin and the crown of thorns he wore and his crucifixion between those other two guys. Last time I checked, jesus wasn't named adonai.

If god wasn't so preoccupied in sounding scary and threatening, he might have an easier time trying to get his people to do what he commands. Everyman has made it clear they want to feel personal connection and companionship and respect, something that god and death failed to provide. Fellowship is not threatening them and is just being a genuine pal; way to go Fellowship.

After a tense conversation with Death Everyman is happy to have a more lighthearted chat with Fellowship, which makes sense after Everyman complained to have no company on his journey and seemed kinda lonely. Which is a bit ironic, considering this is literally every man

Everyman is certainly made out to be quite a stubborn character(s). Death himself is literally telling this entity to go do a thing for god and they are over here making excuses and procrastinating. Like, it's DEATH. Better get moving ASAP- Death isn't anyone to argue with!

What a crappy fate to doom all of humanity just because some dude and his girlfriend ate some fruit and hurt god's feelings.

What is the significance of the number twelve here?

I mean, I wouldn't trust some creepy guy who claims to be a messenger from god to send me off on some unknown journey without having any time to think about it. So naturally Everyman is skeptical of this stranger who is trying to scare him into doing what he says.

Am I missing something or is this actually jesus that is supposed to be speaking? If "god" has always existed how could he have died? Isn't he supposed to be immortal? If jesus is supposed to be the son of god, then wouldn't that make him like, not THE god? Religion confuses me.

It amazes me how vain god is always described to be in literary texts and in common interpretations of the bible. This supposed all powerful being who is all knowing and wise is almost always described as craving the worship and praise of the people he supposedly created. You'd think someone so mighty who transcends our world and universe would have little need to dwell on whether his people like him or not. I guess this is true for many gods but it still baffles me how pitiful and petty it makes him sound.

The beginning of this poem is seen from the point of view of the rooster as he happens upon a gem of jasper while looking for his food. This gem, which is not significant in his eyes, cannot physically feed him and therefore is useless.

The rooster throughout his experience with the gem only cares for what will feed him, so his only priorities are the basic "animalistic" needs. The rooster in this story can be viewed as a symbol of the lower working class who upper echelons of society would see as base and ignorant and unrefined.

Of course the knight would ruin all the fun.

It's ironic and a great hypocrisy that he just finishes explaining in his tale how three idiots kill each other for greed and yet he immediately follows up by commanding the party to buy his junk in the name of god, literally representing the very greed he preaches against.

He's using the attention he got from his tale to try and sell some junk to these poor folks. Man, he has no shame.

The devil is planting evil thoughts into his head and telling him to buy some poison to kill his brothers.

These fools who thought they were going to outsmart death are going to kill each other over this gold. If I had to guess, the undying man they met earlier was actually Death and this was his trap, knowing they'd find it and do his work for him. And he'd not be disappointed.

They plan to kill their brother when he gets back from town by acting as if they were playing, before they stab him to death. Brotherly love.

Keeping in mind what the Pardoner's point was at the beginning- that greed is a serious sin- these lines seem to be foreshadowing the pile of treasure that they have found will instead be their "death" instead of the original Death they were after. These fools are playing directly into Death's trap by allowing themselves to loose focus on their purpose and get caught up in material wealth.

running head on to meet death- sure yeah that seems like a brilliant idea.

I'm glad he recognizes this man is "insolent" because this is a very rude and aggressive way to speak to an elder. Granted they likely aren't used to seeing someone live for so long since the life expectancy would not have been what it is today, but still- this is very blunt and disrespectful, regardless of who he's talking to.

Finally...get to the point.

I don't know much about religion but I feel like murdering someone is a bit more serious than a swear. This guy needs to get his priorities straight.

He states here that drunk folks have no or care shame in the things they say when intoxicated.

I bet this guy is fun at parties. But he does make a point about how unappealing drunk people can be.

Dross is the unwanted mineral deposits that collect in molten metal ore and is regarded as rubbish- it's used also as a synonym for waste/ trash. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dross

He doesn't want to subject himself to the lower class of work (I.e. physical labor) because he knows he can get by just fine by preaching and accepting money to absolve people of their sins.

This guy is quite the con-man.

This is such a powerful statement and is important to understand in today's terms. There is a common issue among women stuck in abusive relationships who find themselves forgiving their abusive partners and staying with them after their partners convince them that they only do it out of love, or if the woman overlooks the abuse to find the few instances of real connection that somehow makes up for everything else.

This wife here claims that though he was abusive, he was a good lover sexually and showed restraint towards her, something that the other men did not show her. When he did show his love towards her after being deprived of it, the pattern would start over again as she falls for his charm only to be abused again.

She does not mince her words here at all and suggests that it would be wasteful to give her abusive husband any luxury in his tomb when he did not otherwise deserve the expense or the effort.

She suggests that it was foolish of Metellius to kill his wife for drinking wine because drunkenness makes women lower their defenses and more open to "love," which she says by alluding to Venus.

She uses her wit to lie to her foolish husband about what she's actually up to late at night, claiming she's searching for his mistresses out of jealousy in response to the jealousy her husband is exhibiting towards her. Little does he know, she's much more clever than he and uses this excuse to cover for her sexual prowess.

Spinning wool or fibers into thread to be woven into cloth.

Here she makes a very important point to argue in her favor: men get the pleasure of "testing" other products before they commit to them, like trying on pants before buying them. But when the idea of "testing" a woman out first before committing to marrying them is suggested, it's considered sinful and shameful. She argues that there's no harm in sex or relations outside marriage because it allows for partners to decide if they will be happy with their choice before they fully commit to marrying or "buying" them.

The wife of bath is calling out her husbands for hypocrisy where she gets scorned for accompanying another man home when he's perfectly content to swoon over the neighbor's wife. Essentially, she suggests that if he wants to complain about her making friends with other men he shouldn't be out making friends with other women.

Here the wife of Bath compares virginity to white bread and non-virginal women to barley bread. By suggesting that "barley bread has refreshed many a man" she offers that non-virginal women are just as able to fulfill a man's needs/ appetite as any virgin.

Looks like the wife of Bath had the rare privilege of choosing her partners

every young adult romance movie comes to mind here- I never realized the "serenade outside some poor tired woman's window in the middle of the night by some brainless male with only one thing on his mind" trope was so ancient and showed up this early in literature.

Bloodletting is an ancient treatment for many illnesses that involved removing some of a patient's blood, and in the middle ages apparently this also involved extracting blood from specific parts of the body based on astronomical alignment and zodiac- the Doctor just so happens to be dressed in blue and red too, and also knows a thing or two about medicine and astronomy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting#Middle_Ages

Consider also, there is a clerk traveling with them to Canterbury. From my perspective it sounds as though the Miller is drunkenly outing the Reeve's wife in her extramarital affairs with the clerk- who also happens to be in the audience of pilgrims.

The Clerk in the group studied philosophy and it is mentioned there that he was incredibly poor and rode on a starved horse- It could be the Scholar in this story is actually the Clerk in the group of pilgrims.

The Miller seems to have some personal relationship with the Reeve to address him so directly and informally, almost as though he knows quite a bit about the ex-carpenter and his wife...

Spoiler alert in the following annotation:

In the Miller's prologue, the Reeve tries to cut off the Miller as he tries to tell a tale about a carpenter's wife being tempted by other men. It makes sense that the Reeve, who used to be a carpenter, would take offense to this story...perhaps he has some other, more personal reasons for wanting to stop the tale from being told?

The original meaning of the word "dumb" is the inability to speak, or to be mute. So the narrator is suggesting that instead of being silent and boring the entire way to Canterbury, why not make it fun by having everyone tell their own stories?

"actions speak louder than words."

These lines serve to describe how the narrator, for the sake of historical and literary accuracy, appreciates a story told exactly as he had heard it even if he doesn't agree with the opinions or values they describe. Considering that many stories before this were all told via word of mouth, it makes sense to want to keep a record of the original telling for future generations to appreciate and interpret.

He'd give up his mistress in exchange for some booze. He sounds like a great guy.

Not only is he made out to be ugly, he also apparently stinks horribly.

This man is probably Scottish based on his ability to play the bagpipe, which is a Scottish instrument.

This worker would do whatever it took to get by and to ensure he was not in debt by either working until he had his taxes paid off entirely or by selling off his belongings to make ends meet.

the greedy and untrustworthy priests were supposed to be guiding the people to a life of purity and righteousness but failed to see that the "flock" he tended to was more pure and virtuous than he, making him a hypocrite. The author is calling out the greedy priests and suggesting they lead by example if they want to preach heavenly virtues.

he excommunicated from the church to share what wealth he had to the parishioners instead of taking money from them- he was a generous and humble individual and was willing to defy the church in the pursuit of what he felt was righteous and virtuous.

This appears to be a bit of hyperbole as it would be very, very expensive for clothing to weigh that much. Considering how expensive fabric actually is- and was- you'd need a lot of fabric to make a dress this heavy, let alone a head-dress. It would be extremely impractical and wasteful to squander money on a single article of clothing for the sake of luxury and status unless you were royalty, so I highly doubt they meant this in a literal sense for some wandering wife. If anything this line serves a comical purpose to entertain the reader and to lighten the mood of the story a bit.

This guy sounds like an early Renaissance Man- he's well educated in both Astronomy and in medical science

stealing wine from sleeping merchants, dropping captives into the sea, wielding a dagger- typical pirate.

to make stock/ soup

I can really relate to this character. He's broke but still wants to get a thorough education and graciously thanks the people that help him pay for school. He doesn't want the status or wealth that comes with the church and is happy to live a simple life while he gets his reading done. Even in the middle ages college was expensive AF apparently. I wonder if he had student debt.

This is only the second character thus far to receive a proper name, and it's curious that he also happens to be clergy.

The fact that this monk was "fat" meant he could afford to be gluttonous, as peasants and manual laborers wouldn't have the abundance or means to gain excess weight. To be heavy meant you had to be wealthy and have time to sit around.

cleanliness is godliness

I find it interesting that so far the nun is the only character we've come across who is outright given a name at this point. The knight, hunter, and squire were only described as their character tropes while the nun is named and has a significantly longer introduction than the others have received.

Where his father, the knight, is described as a proven veteran with blood-stained , simple clothing with a list of successful battles beneath him, the squire is contrarily full of life and youth and optimism. These two characters juxtapose life with death- the father represents the waning of life and is in his own way an embodiment of death- he wears clothes that are stained and bloodied with a cold metal armor and has slain many enemies in the name of war. The squire on the other hand is young and represents the waxing of life- he's compared to a meadow, imagery which associates with flora and nature and new life. And while he's participated in the cavalry in France the author makes a point to not list out all of his battles like he had done so for the knight because that's not what we are meant to take away from this character- he's a lover, not a warrior. The squire was looking to impress a lady and was not out in war for the sake of glory or conquest.

I think the author chose to position these two characters together and to make them related via a father/son relationship was to show the cycle and connection between life and death while also showing the vastly different personalities that are in this group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury in an attempt to find something for any reader to be able to relate to and empathize with.

His clothing was flashy and colorfully embroidered (a fancy type of stitching usually used to adorn fabric with art and complex designs using colored threads) which is comparably different to his father's (the knight) stained, "simple tunic." His fashion was colorful and is compared to a bright meadow which serves to paint this character as a lively and optimistic man. His appreciation and skills in various arts show he is well educated and these skills along with his fashion show he has some courtly relations and wealth at his disposal while still being portrayed as a sort of romantic.

That says something when peasants and tenants were not caring to harvest their crops because so few living people remained to use them that they had more food than people to feed. Imagine waking up one day and almost your entire city is dead, and having all the grocery stores and markets to yourself.

Huh, what an interesting time for this very specific location in England to experience a visible solar eclipse in the middle of their war in a thunderstorm. No wonder they thought their god was against them, the chances of this series of events is pretty miraculous considering how rare a solar eclipse is and how narrow the range of observation is. What a curious coincidence.

oof ouch my authority.

That's close to 21 miles they walked in clunky metal armor with heavy crossbows. Sounds like a good workout but consequently also a great way to exhaust your army before they even get to the fighting part.

these guys are a huge disorganized mess and this whole paragraph stresses me out just reading it.

I'm no expert on militia, but it seems like a stupid idea to disobey direct orders from your marshals. I could understand disobeying for moral reasons, like if you were commanded to execute an innocent civilian, but for something like this where you are a small part of a larger whole that has an important motive known only to those in command, if your marshal says stop moving you should probably just listen or risk getting yourself and everyone else killed.

Moyne suggests to the King of France that even though they know full well that their enemies await them nearby, they should rest their troops for the night to take advantage of the following day to prepare their advancement and attack.

I'm curious how the sudden deflated cost of food impacted their economy back then. The market seemed incredibly destabilized if they are selling a "measure of wheat" at 30 to 40 pence one year to hardly a fraction of the cost the next when there was abundance again. Was this even profitable for them once they had food supply again?

This seems to be blaming the country for their sins as if they are the cause for the floods. While in actuality it would just be a tragic natural disaster, these guys didn't have any other explanation for why such a cruel fate might be forced upon them other than to turn to religion to somehow save them from their starvation.

As if the desperate folks in Northumbria who were eating their pets out of desperation didn't have it bad enough, now they also had Scottish raiders coming in every day stealing and pillaging what little food they had to spare.

A famine is a widespread food scarcity, so the floods killed off all their crops and caused their plants to rot and pick up diseases which consequently poisoned and starved their livestock as well. This means without any crops to harvest or livestock to butcher, these poor folks had absolutely nothing to eat and what was available, was extremely inflated in price so most of the people starved as a result.

To sum this up, they state that according to Isaiah the prophet, they will have a terrible harvest that produces less than they started with, resulting in a net loss of food and crops.

they felt they were doomed :(

a disease or sickness https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malady

A man of the courts/ aristocracy

Brittany is a northwestern region of France

I believe the master-crafters described here to be the ancient Romans and Greeks who had extraordinary craftsmanship and architecture, only to be wasted after the fall of the Roman empire. Especially the descriptions in the following paragraphs that describe the bath halls which were present in Rome. It would also make sense that "one hundred generations of human-trod past" since I believe the empire would have fallen by this time.

weathered

Is this intended to be a sermon or prayer? The line about "foolish is he who dreads not the lord..." intends to bring fear into the audience as a warning of the consequences of heresy, while the following line very clearly encourages those who are faithful. With the dense biblical jargon throughout the text it sounds like something that would be read aloud by clergymen to church-goers.

This sounds like it's describing judgement day-the days being gone in this illustrates the end of perceivable time on earth while the vacant earth describes what is left when all people have faced their final judgement.

These birds are just going about their day and offer an image of life and natural beauty. They are washing themselves clean in the very waters that imprison and taint the mind of the wanderer. This looks like foreshadowing as the wanderer may somehow be spiritually reborn by the waters he rides and may offer some sort of baptism for him to cleanse him of his sorrows, though he's unable to see it now.

this is describing the fate of the people who once lived in these ruins. they are mostly dead and being eaten by scavengers while few others hide in caves. it appears war and ruin destroyed these once prosperous villages and all that remains are the skeletons of the buildings and carcasses of warriors.