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Why Is The Pilgrim Called The Manciple?

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Just because you do something questionable does it make you a bad person? That is the question that we should pose to the general prologue profile of the pilgrim called the Manciple. The narrator never says outright that the Manciple has done anything wrong, but through vague references leaves the door open to interpretation. At first reading the Manciple seems to be a fine working class guy who is doing right by his clients. He seems to be a hard working member of society that just wants to make sure his client's get what they need. A manciple would be the equivalent of a modern-day caterer who in this case was responsible for acquiring food for a group of 30 "learned men" (18). The learned men are lawyer's who live and work in the Inner …show more content…

One line into his portion of the general prologue we see that the narrator is expounding on the manciple's virtues in his profession by stating that he is an “example” to all other caterers when buying food (18). By saying “he was never rash” (18) it seems that the narrator is saying he wasn't quick to get the first thing he could find. He would take his time to make a decision on what he was going to purchase for his clients whether it was his money or not (18). At first glance this shows that he was being a good steward of his client's money which could be an allusion to the tale in the Bible about the talents. It also seemingly shows that he treated their money as if it were his own money applying the same frugal processes that used in his own personal finances. To further illustrate this point, the narrator indicates that the manciple would watch the market and get “in first, and so he did quite nicely” (18). This paints a picture of the Manciple looking for the best deal possible for his clients. I can only imagine that he would set out to get the most exotic items maybe to make the “learned men” happy. He played to their tastes and higher class wants by keeping abreast of what was coming next at the

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