Lesson video

Hi, welcome to today's English lesson.

This is Lesson 11 of "The Canterbury Tales: "The Knight's Tale" series.

Today we're going to be looking at a victory and a death as we reach the culmination of "The Knight's Tale." Before we make a start on today's lesson, let's make sure you've got something to write with and something to write on.

So a pen and paper could be handy.

Also make sure you've turned off any apps or notifications that might be running in the background so that you're not distracted during today's lesson.

If you'd like to take a second to do that now, feel free to pause the video.

Fantastic.

All right.

Let's get on with our lesson then.

Before we start off getting back to "The Knight's Tale", let's just take a recap on where we are so far.

"The Knight's Tale is one of a series of tales told during a pilgrimage that happens in Geoffrey Chaucer's mediaeval epic, "The Canterbury Tales." It's a mediaeval romance of chivalry and courtly love.

If you're unfamiliar with any of those terms, feel free to look back in our videos from earlier in the series to refresh your knowledge.

In our story, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, goes to war against Creon of Thebes.

During the battle two injured knights, Palamon and Arcita, are found by the victorious Theseus.

He saves their lives, being a chivalrous knight himself, and takes them back to Athens.

However, as they're his enemies, he locks them in the tower to be imprisoned with no hope of ransom for the remainder of their lives.

While in the tower, the two knights Palamon and Arcita spy Emily from their tower window.

Emily is the sister of Hippolyta who is married to Duke Theseus.

Both knights, Palamon first, then Arcita, spy Emily, and fall madly in love.

They both believe deeply in the concept of courtly love.

And this means that they feel a physical pain in their heart at the sight of Emily, they feel such strong love, such strong emotion.

The issue that we have here are both knights are brothers in arms, they've sworn an oath of loyalty to each other, to ensure that they will help each other in all matters of honour, in all matters of love.

And at this point, they can't help each other because they're both in love with the same woman.

This is quite a predicament.

It means that they have to break their oath, something that, generally speaking, knights would avoid at all costs.

But this is the situation that they were in.

Unfortunately, both knights at the same time as arguing, were left within conflict while trapped in a tower prison.

After some time has passed, both knights, continuing in conflict over the love of Emily, another duke, Pirithous, comes to visit Athens.

There he talks to his good friend, his best friend from childhood, Theseus, and explains that he also knew Arcita from back in Thebes.

He says that Arcita is an honourable knight and a good man and begs for his freedom.

Theseus, as I said, being Pirithous' best friend, allows Arcita to go free on the proviso that he never returns again to Athens.

In the event that he did return, he would lose his life.

So Arcita leaves Athens and heads back to Thebes, meanwhile, leaving poor Palamon still trapped in prison.

While in Thebes, Arcita is so distraught at the concept of not being able to see Emily, that he becomes physically ill.

He suffers so much that his physical appearance and voice change completely.

After a while, he realises that nobody that would have known him previously would recognise him anymore.

And he decides that he's going to return to Athens on the behest of the God Mercury, who comes to visit him in a dream.

He's going to return to Athens in the guise of a labouring man called Philostrate.

When he returns dressed as Philostrate, he luckily finds jobs as a chamberlain in Emily's household.

He works for both Emily and Duke Theseus and does a fantastic job.

They both think he's a great guy.

And he is happy enough, for the time being, that he gets to see Emily every day.

Sadly, at the same time of this initial happiness, he starts to realise that he's dishonouring himself because he's living a lie.

He's living a life pretending to be somebody he isn't.

And he has no chance of ever being able to get Emily to love him back, because he's a labouring man and not a lord.

During this time with Arcita coming and working for Emily, seven years passes.

All this time, Palamon trapped in prison, unaware that Arcita is under a false name working and seeing Emily every day.

Palamon has thought this whole time that Arcita would be raising an army to come back and win Emily, in exactly the same way that he would have done.

Finally unable to hold up in his anger anymore, Palamon escapes from prison with the help of a friend.

And he flees to a nearby grove of trees.

There he hides during the daytime, ready to escape back to Thebes that night.

However, a turn of event, fate lends a hand, and at this very same grove of trees, Arcita now dressed as Philostrate, remember, comes to pay homage and complain about his lot in life.

Palamon, hidden in a thicket nearby, overhears is Philostrate, Arcita, complaining about the fact that he has to hide and disguise who he is.

And he tells the gods that he is really Arcita.

At this, Palamon is incensed, and he leaps up to fight Arcita.

Arcita, upset, equally, and also wanting to fight Palamon for ultimately the love of Emily.

However, at the same time, he's still a chivalric knight.

He refuses to fight Palamon who is weak and hungry and tired, having just escaped prison.

Palamon is also unarmed, and this would not be a fair fight.

As I say, Arcita still sees himself as a chivalric knight, and therefore he decides to allow Palamon to sleep the day, bring him some food, give him some comfort, and the very next day to return to him with arms and weapons so that they may fight properly.

This is exactly what happens.

The next day he brings weapons and armour and allows Palamon to pick the best of these, and the two knights fight, going at each other like tigers, like a wild bulls, more like animals than men.

While they're fighting, along comes Theseus, and Theseus interrupts them as he's out hunting.

He initially wants to know who these two men are, who are attacking each other with such aggression and such violence.

When he realises that they are Palamon and Arcita, Palamon owning up to having escaped from prison and ultimately telling Theseus that Arcita has fooled him, has betrayed him, and he's really now disguised as Philostrate, Theseus immediately wants to put the two men to death.

However, at the same time, the women in the group, Emily, Hippolyta, and the ladies in waiting, beg him not to put the two men to death as they were fighting for the love of Emily.

Theseus, who accepts this as a chivalric knight, and wants to honour women at all costs, decides that he will not put the two men to death.

Instead, he decides that he's going to put on a tournament.

It will be the greatest tournament that anyone has ever seen.

And he makes a decree.

Palamon and Arcita must ride their separate ways out of Athens and collect together 100 knights each, in 50 weeks, and then return to that spot.

In the meantime, Theseus will build the greatest amphitheatre, the greatest tournament ground, that anyone has ever seen.

When the two knights return, they will then do battle for the love of Emily.

The night before the tournament, our two knights, Palamon and Arcita, and also Emily, the prize of the tournament, go and pray to their patron gods and goddesses.

Arcita goes to visit the God Mars, God of war, and begs for victory in the tournament the next day.

Meanwhile, Palamon goes to visit the goddess Venus, the goddess of love, and says that he doesn't care about victory as long as he can have the love of Emily.

Emily, meanwhile goes to visit her patron goddess, Diana, the goddess of chastity, and says that she doesn't want to marry either knight.

Instead, she wants to remain a maiden forever.

However, if the two knights could become friends again, and forget about her, then she will be prepared to eventually marry the one who loved her the most.

The next day, the tournament began and the two knights pitted against each other with their 100 other knights in entourage, fought viciously.

Palamon fought like a hungry lion.

Arcita fought like a vengeful tiger.

Blows rained down upon them, and Theseus, and the thousands of people packed into the amphitheatre, were happy at the spectacle they saw.

However, Theseus had made a specific ruling.

He'd said that neither knight, nor any of the other 200 knights involved in this battle, could try to kill each other.

There could only fight until one was injured or in some way, unable to continue.

At this point, they would withdraw from the battle and go to the central area in the amphitheatre, and they would no longer be able to take part.

If either Palamon or Arcita was that person who could no longer continue, the other would win the tournament and the love of Emily.

An opportunity to check on our learning, now.

Some true or false statements.

In a second, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and decide which of these four statements is true and which is false.

Statement A.

Palamon returned to Athens disguised as Philostrate.

Is it true or is it false? Statement B.

Arcita acts with chivalry when he brings armour and weapons for Palamon.

Statement C.

Theseus tells Palamon and Arcita to raise 100 knights in 50 weeks for a tournament.

And Statement D.

Palamon and Arcita are cowardly in battle.

Pause the video now and make your choice.

Feel free to write a T or a F, depending on which is your answer.

Okay, let's see how you got on there.

So statement A.

Palamon returned to Athens disguised as Philostrate.

This is false.

It was Arcita that had gone back to Thebes and returned to Athens pretending to be Philostrate.

Statement B.

Arcita acts with chivalry when he brings armour and weapons for Palamon.

This is true.

He wanted to be honourable and make the fight as fair as possible, so he brings armour and weapons for Palamon, and allows Palamon to choose the best weapons.

Statement C.

Theseus tells Palamon and Arcita to raise 100 knights in 50 weeks and return for a tournament.

This is also true.

It will be the greatest tournament that anyone has ever seen, a spectacle to behold, and everybody wants to be involved.

And statement D, Palamon and Arcita are cowardly in battle.

This is certainly not true.

One fights like a hungry lion, while the other a vengeful tiger.

Hopefully you did quite well there and got both of those answers correct.

If you're not 100% sure about it, then feel free to go back in the video and recheck your learning.

Now let's move on with our story.

The battle between Palamon and Arcita is fierce and evenly matched.

Both do each other minor injuries, but can continue in their fight.

Neither man will give any advantage to the other.

"Their jealous blows fall on their helmets fair.

"Out leaps the blood and makes their two sides red.

"But sometime comes the end of every deed.

"And ere the sun had sunk to rest in gold, "the mighty King Emetreus did hold." Now here we see that King Emetreus, one of Arcita's group, one of Arcita's loyal followers, who has come here and they're holding Palamon at bay.

"This Palamon, as he fought with Arcita, "and made his sword deep in the flesh to bite.

"And by the force of 20 men, he's made, "unyielded, to withdraw to barricade." So poor Palamon here, as if he hadn't struggled enough, being trapped in prison for all that time, while Arcita was free, he's fighting Arcita.

He's in a position where the two of them are evenly matched.

But then King Emetreus comes from behind, and strikes Palamon.

His sword cuts into his flesh and Palamon is wounded, not mortally, but to the point where he has to yield, he must withdraw.

And at this, he is out of the tournament.

Time to check your learning then.

Who is forced to withdraw from this fight? There are four options to the possible answer to the question here, and I want you to decide which one it is.

Is it option one, Palamon is injured and forced to withdraw? Is it option two, Arcita is injured and forced to withdraw? Is it option three, King Emetreus is injured and forced to withdraw? Or is it option four, both Palamon and Arcita are injured and forced to withdraw? Pause the video and make your decision now.

Okay, that's a nice easy one, hopefully.

We all know that who is forced to withdraw from the fight is option one, Palamon, as we've just read, is injured and forced to withdraw.

And I think we all know what that means.

"And when Duke Theseus had seen this sight, "Unto the warriors fighting, every one, he cried out, "'Hold! No more! For it is done! "'Now will I prove true judge of no party.

"'Theban Arcita shall have Emily.

'" Poor Palamon, injured in the middle of the field, has to stand by and see that Arcita is the one who has won Emily.

He is the one that has won.

Of course, if you remember, it, wasn't just Palamon and Arcita that had a stake in this tournament.

The gods were involved also.

Palamon, of course, had asked the goddess Venus to give him Emily, regardless of victory.

And Arcita had asked the God Mars to give him the win that day, to give him the victory in the tournament.

So it seems that Mars has granted Arcita victory.

But what about Palamon? "Now am I shamed and over-flung", says the goddess Venus, loudly.

She's upset that it seems that Palamon, who prayed to her and asked for Emily, has lost.

He hasn't been able to win Emily's heart because it is Arcita that has won her as his prize.

However, it's at this point that Saturn, the grandfather of the gods, the God who the largest planet is named after, the most powerful of the gods steps forward.

Having promised that both gods, Venus and Mars, would get there where he says, "But Saturn said, 'My daughter, hold your tongue.

"'Mars has his will, his knight has all his boon.

"'And, by my head, you shall be eased, and soon.

'" And we learn a new word there, the word boon.

It is Arcita who has had his boon.

Let's make sure we understand what that means.

A boon is something extremely useful, helpful, or beneficial.

A boon could be a wish or a request or even a prayer, if you will, that has been granted.

Arcita's boon is to win victory in the tournament.

And it is that boon that has been granted by Mars.

Arcita has won the tournament, and the hand of Emily in marriage.

Palamon is physically injured, but the worst blow is to his heart.

Theseus calls Arcita forward on horseback to claim his prize in front of the adoring crowd.

"This fierce Arcita doffs his helmet soon.

"And mounted on a horse to show his face, "he spurs from end to end of that great place, "looking aloft to gaze on Emily.

"And she cast down on him a friendly eye." What we see here is Arcita is showboating.

He's showing off to the crowd.

He's won the prize, Emily, and he is cavorting up and down on his horse, showing off who he is and showing off his face, to show that he is the one who has won the prize here.

Emily looks down on him and seems to be with a friendly eye.

She is not as ill disposed to the idea of marrying Arcita, now he has won her as a prize, it seems. But what about Venus? "But from the ground infernal furies start, "from Pluto sent, at instance of Saturn, "where at his horse, for fear began to turn, "and leap aside, all suddenly falling there." So here on the ground, fire starts, up sent by Pluto, the god of Hell, at Saturn's behest.

Saturn has asked him to do this.

Fires spring up.

The horse is scared, and suddenly, leaping around, Arcita cannot hold on and falls from his horse.

"And Arcita, before he could beware, "was pitched upon the ground, upon his head "and lay there moving not, as he were dead.

"His chest crushed in upon the saddle-bow.

"And black he lay as ever coal, or crow." So poor Arcita here, though he was showing off, though Palamon was the one who we felt sorry for at this point, the fire springs up at the feet of his horse, his horse rears up, and Arcita falls to the ground.

His chest is crushed on the saddle-bow, and his head is bashed from the ground, and he lays there as though he is dead.

True or false opportunity to check your learning here then.

Four statements, some of them are true, some of them are false.

I'm going to read them to you, and you need to decide which is which.

Statement A.

Palamon wins the tournament by defeating Arcita.

Is it true or is it false? Statement B.

Arcita wins the tournament by defeating Palamon? Statements C.

Arcita marries Emily and lives happily ever after? Or statement D, Arcita is thrown from his horse as he accepts victory? Feel free to write a T or a F, depending on whether it's true or false, and have a go at this by pausing the video now.

Okay, let's see how you got on with this one.

So statement A, Palamon wins the tournament by defeating Arcita.

This is false.

It's Arcita who wins the tournament because Palamon is injured by King Emetreus and has to withdraw.

So it is Arcita that wins the tournament.

Statement B.

Arcita wins the tournament by defeating Palamon.

Well, this is true.

He has defeated Palamon, although it was not him that actually struck the blow that took Palamon out of the tournament.

Statement C.

Arcita marries Emily and lives happily ever after.

This is certainly not the case here.

Though he wins Emily in the tournament, he doesn't look like he's going to live happily ever after.

And statement D.

This is because Arcita is thrown from his horse as he accepts victory.

He is thrown from his horse because the horse is frightened by fires, sprung up at the behest of Saturn, and Arcita seems to be gravely injured.

Arcita is severely injured, mortally wounded.

Despite everyone's best efforts, he knows that he is going to die.

As he approaches death, he calls on Emily and Palamon to come to his bedside.

"Alas for death! Alas, my Emily! "Alas, the parting of our company! "Alas, my heart's own queen! "Alas, my wife! My soul's dear lady, ender of my life." Now here we see the repetition of alas.

He is sad, he is unfortunate, and he is depressed at the situation that he's found himself in.

We can see the repeated exclamation marks here, almost as though Arcita is struggling for breath, struggling for realisation as he's saying it.

He mentions Emily as being his heart's own queen.

He talks about the love that he has for her.

And he calls her his wife, though they're not yet married.

However, at the same time, he talks about her as the ender of his life.

He is blaming Emily, to a certain extent, for the fact that he's about to die.

He also calls Palamon to come and speak to him at his bedside, and says, "'As in this world, right now, "'I know of none so worthy to be loved as Palamon, "'who serves you'", Emily, "'and will do so all his life.

"'And if you ever should become a wife, "'forget not Palamon, the noble man.

'" Here Arcita does the noblest thing.

Knowing that he is dying, despite the fact that he has won Emily, he tells her that Palamon, the man who he was honour sworn to be devoted to his entire life, who he had been loyal to up to the point where the pair of them saw Emily, he tells her that he would be the best husband he can possibly imagine, that he is a noble knight.

And if she wants to get married again, as she should, then she should marry Palamon, the noble friend.

Three sentences here, then.

They've got pieces missing.

I'd like you to copy them out and fill in the blanks, please.

Pause the video now and complete all three of those sentences.

Okay, having just followed the story this far, we shouldn't have struggled too much with that one.

So let's see how we got on.

Sentence one then.

"Palamon and Arcita both fight bravely in the tournament, "but Arcita is the victor." Very much the case.

It is Arcita that fights and Arcita that wins, Palamon having to withdraw.

Statement two.

"While celebrating, Saturn sends flames "to frighten Arcita's horse, "and Arcita falls from the saddle." This is true, Saturn gets Pluto, the God of Hell, to send flames to frighten Arcita's horse, and he falls from the saddle and he's mortally wounded.

Statement three.

Arcita is mortally wounded.

As he dies, he asks Emily to consider marrying Palamon, his friend.

It's a lovely moment here, where Arcita and Palamon, their friendship is repaired, they're back together and loyal to each other.

And Arcita, knowing that he could no longer marry Emily, the woman he loved, he thinks that she should marry Palamon, knowing just how much he loves her as well.

"From now has Palamon in all things, "wealth, living in bliss, in riches and in health.

"And Emily loved him so tenderly, "and he served her so well and faithfully." The two of them marry after Arcita's death and are happy and faithful to each other.

"That never word once marred their happiness, "no jealousy, nor other such distress.

"Thus ends now Palamon and Emily.

"And may God save all this fair company." This is how the knight ends his tale, telling us that Palamon and Emily are together, they're married, and they've never been happier.

And he finally says, "God save all this fair company." Again, expounding his own chivalric wants and talking about the idea that he praises religion so highly.

Okay, you've worked ever so hard in this lesson so far.

So we'll move on to our main task now.

We have three sentence expansions for you to complete in a second.

So I'm going to ask you shortly to pause the video and write out the three sentence openings and then expand them to complete the sentence.

Sentence one.

Arcita has his prayers answered when? You're going to explain how Arcita has his prayer answered.

Now we know that Arcita prayed to one of the gods, and I want you to explain how he has his prayer answered.

Sentence two.

Palamon has his prayers answered when? Similarly we know that Palamon prays to one of the gods, and initially it seems as though he doesn't have his prayer answered.

However, we know by the end of our story that he does.

Explain from your learning how it is that Palamon has his prayers answered.

Now, number three is a tricky one here.

Emily has her prayers answered when? When we know that Emily talks to one of the other gods and prays for something in specific.

She requests to have her prayer granted.

Now we know that she doesn't entirely have the entirety of her prayer answered.

However, in some ways she does.

Think about your learning and explain your answer for that one.

If you feel that you need to go back in the video and recap your learning before challenging yourself with this, then feel free to do so.

But if you want to move on with this activity, then let's have a go and pause the video now.

Okay.

Fantastic work.

You've worked ever so hard there.

Let's have a look at how you've done.

Now, don't forget if you haven't got exactly what's written on the slide, then don't worry about that too much, as long as you have the general gist and the key ideas and key language, then that will be perfectly fine.

So statement one, Arcita has his prayers answered when? He wins victory in the tournament.

Now that's a perfectly acceptable answer.

That is very much true.

Arcita prays for victory and Mars gives him victory.

So that would be an okay answer.

But we could have gone deeper, couldn't we? We could have said Arcita has his prayers answered when the God Mars grants him victory over Palamon in the tournament, and he is gifted Emily as a prize.

Because then we get the key point here, that it is the God Mars who is granting him victory.

Also, at the same time, we mention that Emily here is treated, not as a woman, not someone to love, but as a prize to Arcita, though, in fairness, he does also love her deeply.

Sentenced two, then.

Palamon has his prayers answered when? We could have said Palamon has his prayers answered when he marries Emily at the end of the tale, and this would be a perfectly legitimate answer.

Palamon does marry Emily at the end of the tale, and they do live happily ever after, which is what Palamon asked Venus for.

But we could have gone deeper into this answer, and we could have said, Palamon has his prayers answered when his dying friend Arcita asks his prize, Emily, to consider marrying Palamon, as he is a loving a noble knight.

This brings in the fact that Arcita is the one who has won Emily, but at the same time, he, dying, asks her to marry Palamon, and mentions the idea that they have fixed their friendship, and he knows now that Palamon is a loving and a noble knight.

Sentence three.

Emily has her prayers answered when? Palamon and Arcita become friends again.

This was certainly one of the things that she asked, although she wanted to remain a maiden for her whole life, she did ask for them to become friends again, and this would be a perfectly legitimate answer.

But we could have used that extra information and gone deeper here.

We could have said, Emily has her prayers answered when her request for Palamon and Arcita to make amends comes true, although her prayer to remain a maiden is not granted, and she decides to marry Palamon.

Here we make that point that Diana could not grant her request to remain a maiden forever, and she must marry one of the two knights.

She is given initially as a prize to Arcita and later decides, at his request, to marry Palamon.

But what does come true is the fact that Arcita and Palamon, as Palamon is standing at Arcita's deathbed, the two of them make amends in their relationship.

Opportunity for a challenge, now, as we've reached the end of our story.

In a moment I'd like you to pause the video.

You can complete this activity while the video is paused, before we get to the end, or alternatively, and you can do it later as part of your review activity.

Try to answer the following questions as part of your review work on this lesson.

Which character is happiest at the end of our tale? This is down to your opinion, and in your answer, you should consider, what they wanted to accomplish, or what they wanted to gain? What they prayed to the gods to request or ask for? And how their prayers were answered? Think about all three of those things when answering the question.

Either pause the video now, or have a go at completing this after, during your review period.

Lesson, and you'll be pleased to know that we've now reached the end of our key story.

And what an exciting story it was.

Lots and lots has happened along the way here, And we have a fantastically intricate and interesting plot.

Here we've seen a victory of Arcita, but also a death for him also, with both knights receiving what they ultimately wanted.

Now, in a moment, when this video finishes, it's time for you to review your learning.

I'd like you to do a couple of things, please.

I'd like you to go back through your notes from today's lesson and pick a new piece of vocabulary.

There've been one or two that we've mentioned, and some from earlier lessons that we've strengthened and revisited.

Pick one of those that you think you've learned better.

Second thing I'd like you to do is to review the plot.

Now we've reached the end of our story here, and this is the opportunity now to go back and make sure you fully understand exactly what happens throughout "The Knight's Tale." Now, it's completely up to you how you want to do this, whether you want to create a list, a flow chart, or just go through with the storyboard, explaining the plot to this point.

Just make sure that you understand exactly what happens, scene by scene.

The last thing I want you to do is not forget to complete those exercises.

If you want to download our downloadable resource or go back to the worksheets, then make sure you do those, especially that challenge activity at the end there.

I'd really like to see you push yourself to do the best you possibly can.

Okay, so for the time being, it's see you next lesson, as next lesson will be our last one in "The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale" series.

And we'll be summarising everything that's happened, and then going back to look about how we write about love in "The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale".