The Shipman’s Tale

The Shipman’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is based on an old French fabliau and resembles a story found in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. In the tale told by Chaucer’s Shipman, the wife of a rich merchant convinces a young monk that her husband refuses to pay for her clothes and asks him to lend her 100 francs. Smitten, he agrees. The monk then asks the husband...