Lesson video

Hi, welcome to today's English lesson.

This is lesson eight in the series of Canterbury Tales, Knight's Tale lessons.

Today, we're going to be looking at fighting for love and we're looking particularly at the issues that we find between our men protagonists, Palamon and Arcite, while fighting over Emily, the woman that they both love.

Before we start with the main body of our lesson, I'd like you to take a second to make sure you have a pen and paper handy or something else to write with and something to write on.

Also take a second to check that you don't have any notifications running or apps in the background that might distract you during the lesson.

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

Okay everybody let's time to make a start.

But before we find out what happens with our plot at this point, let's just take a recap of what's happened so far.

The Knight's Tale is one of the 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'd like to learn more about those terms, chivalry and courtly love, and indeed about the Canterbury Tales as a whole, feel free to go back in our earlier lessons within the series to find out and review your learning.

So, on with our story.

Duke Theseus, during a battling Thebes, finds two injured knights, Palamon and Arcite as a chivalrous knight decides to save their lives and take them back to Athens.

However, as they are his enemies he confines them to a tower imprisoned for the rest of their lives with no hope of ransom.

However, while in the tower both Palamon and then later Arcite see the lady Emily.

Emily is Duke Theseus' wife, Hippolytus sister.

On seeing Emily, they're both fall madly and deeply in love.

They both experienced courtly love, a physical pen to the heart because they feel such strong emotions.

However, the issue here is that both men have an oath of loyalty to each other.

An oath that says that they will both support each other in matters of love.

As a result, both Palamon and Arcite see each of those traitors and decide that they are in conflict from that point forward.

Although he has absolutely no intention of freeing either Palamon or Arcite, when his friend Perethus, his good friend from childhood comes to visit, he explains to Theseus that he Perethus has always been good friends with Arcite.

And Theseus decides to allow Arcite to go free.

However, he decides that if an Arcite was to ever set foot on lands belonging to Theseus again, then he would forfeit his life.

At the same time, Palamon is stuck in prison in the tower still forever more.

This leads to a dichotomy between Palamon and Arcite.

While Arcite feels that Palamon is in the better position.

Now, am I doomed eternally to dwell no more in purgatory but in hell.

He feels himself to have been banished from Athens where he will never see Emily again, is no longer in purgatory where there was a chance of salvation although he was suffering in prison.

But instead is in hell, is in a position where his life is where worse.

He cannot survive without seeing Emily.

Meanwhile, Palamon who's in prison of course says, "God knows you've won the wine", in reference to Arcite.

He feels that Arcite has the opportunity now to raise an army, return to Athens and take Emily, or win Emily's love.

He feels that Arcite is the one with the better chance of getting Emily.

It's a strange predicament to the two.

Let's pause for a moment now to recap our learning and see what we've learned so far.

In a moment I'm going to ask you to copy out these three sentences, filling in the blanks to make sure the sentence makes sense.

Pause your video now and complete these three sentences.

Okay, let's see how you've done there.

Sentence one, if Arcite returns to Athens, he will have his head cut off with a sword.

That is what Duke Theseus has said.

If Arcite returns to any land belonging to him, then he will be executed.

Sentence two, Arcite thinks that Palamon is lucky because he can still see Emily every day.

The words there are Emily and day and it is exactly the situation that we're in Arcite, banished from Athens forever, feels that Palamon here, even though he's in prison is the lucky one.

Because every single day he gets to see Emily whereas Arcite doesn't get to see her at all.

Sentence three, Palamon thinks that Arcite is lucky because he can raise an army and come to win Emily.

Indeed, Palamon stuck in prison with no hope of ever winning Emily as far as he's concerned, sees Arcite as being the lucky one here.

Arcite could return to Thebes, raise an army using his bombs and people that he knows in Thebes, and then return with the army to win the heart of Emily.

It's a strange situation the two knights find themselves in.

Now let's just remind ourselves for a second about that idea of courtly love.

We've mentioned courtly love an awful lot during our previous lessons in this series.

However, one thing that we do need to remember is that courtly love is a love in literature which includes suffering and drama.

When love is not fulfilled it can be so painful that the lover is physically transformed.

Their physical appearance and even their voice actually changes.

So let's be clear here.

At this point we're establishing that sometimes the suffering that a courtly lover can feel can be so strong that it will physically change their facial features, their appearance and even their voice.

That's a strange situation.

Let's continue with our story and see how this bears with what happens to Arcite.

So Arcite has been banished from Athens.

Now when Arcite unto Thebes was come, he lay and languished all day in his home, bereft he was asleep and meat and drink.

That lean he grew and dry as shaft, I think.

So we can see here that Arcite is so sad at the loss of being able to see Emily that when he returns to Thebes, he just lays around in his house all day feeling sorry for himself.

He is so upset, bereft.

He has no sleep, on meat and drink.

He starves himself.

He doesn't drink and he doesn't sleep.

And as a result, he grows lean.

He loses fat that he may have had previously and he becomes dry and miserable.

He gets in this position where his physical appearance is actually changing.

So feeble were his spirits and so low.

And so changed was he that no man could know him by his words or voice whoever heard.

So Arcite is so upset.

He's so low and miserable and depressed in the situation that he's in.

Not being able to see Emily that his voice itself actually changes.

No man would know him by his voice.

We use these terms here.

So changed was he that no man could know him by his words or voice.

Make that point that no man at all could know him.

Now, does that include Theseus? Does it include Palamon? Well we'll need to move on to find out.

The physical change that comes across Arcite makes him to the point where actually nobody would recognise him.

Even if they were to have known him previously, he changes physically.

Okay, chance to check your learning.

Now in a second I'm going to ask you to pause the video and answer the question.

What happens to Arcite as a result of his banishment? The answer is going to be one of these four options.

And I want you to decide which one it is.

Is it option one? Arcite grows fats from sitting around in grief.

Is it option two? Arcite raises an army to march on Thebes to win Emily.

Is it option three? Arcite can't eat, sleep or drink and his appearance completely changes.

Or is it option four? Arcite starts a new life and finds someone else to love.

Pause the video.

Now make your selection.

Okay, congratulations.

I hope you found that not too difficult.

Let's see which one is the correct answer.

What happens to Arcite as a result of his banishment? It is of course option three.

Arcite cannot eat, he cannot sleep and he cannot drink so much so that his voice and his physical appearance changed completely so much so that no man would recognise him.

So here we find Arcite languishing in Thebes, feeling sorry for himself, physically changed, his voice changed and his general personality and demeanour changed too.

When he has a dream, he dreamed of how the winged God Mercury before him stood and bade him happier be.

And thus he spoke, "To Athens shall you wend, for all your woe is destined there to end" So in this dream Arcite sees the winged God Mercury, the messenger God, who comes to him and tells him, "You need to be happier, you will become happier.

And to do this, you have to go to Athens, to Athens shall you wend where there your wall is destined to end.

Your sadness is destined to change." And Arcite sees this as a message.

He puts such stock in what the gods have to say as do most people in the time period that he decides that this is what he is going to do.

Said he, "To Athens right now, will I fare, nor for the dread of death will I now spare.

To see my lady whom I love and serve, I will not reck of death with her nor swerve." Arcite makes the decision here that because the gods have suggested he should be happier if he returns to Athens, then that is what you will do.

Regardless of the threat of death from Duke Theseus, he must see Emily.

Opportunity to check your learning.

Now then, ladies and gentlemen here are four statements.

Each of them is true or false.

I want to go to read them out to you and then you need to decide whether they are indeed true or false.

Statement A, in Thebes Arcite is so sad at the loss of Emily that his appearance changes completely.

Is it true or is it false? Statement B, Arcite dreams of the Goddess Venus.

Statement C, Arcite decides to forget about Emily and start a new life under a different name.

Or option D, Arcite decides to return to Athens regardless of the threat of death from Theseus.

Pause the video in a second and make a decision about which of these is true and which of these is false.

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

Pause the video now.

Okay, excellent effort there.

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

So statement A in Thebes Arcite is so sad at the loss of Emily that is appearance changes completely is true.

As we've just discovered in our story, in Thebes Arcite languishes and he's so sad, depressed, and distraught at not being able to see Emily.

He suffers so much from courtly love that both his appearance, his voice and his demeanour change completely.

Statement B, Arcite dreams of the Goddess Venus.

This isn't true, is it? Arcite dreams of the God Mercury, the messenger God.

And it is he who brings him the statement to go back to Athens.

Sentence C, Arcite decides to forget about Emily and start a new life under a different name.

Well, this is certainly false.

Arcite can't forget about Emily and it is in fact that longing for Emily, that desperation for Emily's love that forces him to physically change and change his very personality.

And statement D, Arcite decides to return to Athens regardless of the threats of death from Theseus.

Well, this is what we've just learned to be true.

Arcite decides having been told this by the gods that he needs to be happier, return to Athens regardless of the threat of death and make sure that he sees his lady, the one he loves, Emily.

On with our story then, and it's at this point that Arcite hatches a plan.

And with that word he caught a great mirror and saw how changed was all his old colour.

And saw his visage altered from its kind.

What we have here is the idea that Arcite for the first time, now he's a man of action.

He's deciding to return to Athens.

Finally catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

He sees that he has changed the skin colour, his hair colour, his personality, everything about him has changed.

That he is physically different to the person that he was before.

He sees that his visage, the way he looks is so altered from what he was previously that he could perhaps pass for someone else.

He might, if he should bear him low in town, live there in Athens ever more unknown.

Seeing his lady well-nigh every day.

And right anon he altered his array like a poor labourer in mean attire and all alone save only for a squire.

So Arcite comes up with a cunning plan.

Physically he has changed so that he looks like someone else.

So he decides why not be someone else? He decides that he will not try and bear himself as a knight or a lord, instead he'll bear himself low as a labouring man.

And he will go and live in Athens forever more.

He feels that if he can do that, then he can see Emily every day if not have anything to do with her.

So he changes his clothes.

He changes everything about himself and like a poor labourer in mean attire, in cheap clothing like a man who labours for living and all alone apart from a squire who knows his secrets, he returns to Athens.

So returning to Athens, Arcite seeks new employment where he can see Emily every day.

And to be brief herein and to be plain, he found employment with a chamberlain.

Page of the chamber of Emily, the bright.

He said Philostrate would name him right.

So here Arcite stumbles upon a piece of luck.

He finds a job working for a chamberlain, somebody who is a page in the chamber of not just any lady, but Emily the lady that he loves.

He changes his name as well as his outlook, his clothes and the way that he looks and calls himself Philostrate.

So here is Arcite back in Athens, working for Emily, seeing her everyday in close contact, but he cannot tell her that he is in fact Arcite, one of the knights who loves her.

So instead, he pretends that his name is Philostrate and he serves her as well as he can.

So Arcite or Philostrate as he's now known, seems to have found himself in a rather good position.

But what about poor old Palamon? Were it by chance or were it destiny since when a thing is destined it must be.

That shortly after midnight, Palamon by helping of a friend broke from prison.

So it's been seven years since Arcite left Athens for Thebes.

It's been seven years that Palamon has been stuck in the tower.

And it so happens because it seems as though it was destined fate has taken a hand that on the very time when Arcite returns to Athens under the guise of Philostrate and starts working for Emily, that Palamon escapes from prison.

And thus he flees as fast as ever he may.

The night was short and it was nearly day wherefore he needs must find a place to hide and to a grove that grew hard by, with stride.

Of furtive foot, went fearful Palamon.

So Palamon escaping from prison realises that he has to get out of Athens as quickly as possible.

But it is nearing day.

He escapes at night time.

So he finds his way to a grove, a small forest, a small wood if you like.

And there he decides he's going to hide.

He hides himself in a thicket within that grove in a bush.

And here he decides to sleep where the daylight hours hidden away until night falls and he can make goodies escape from Athens.

Let's take a moment.

Now let's check our learning at this stage.

In a second I'm going to ask you to pause the video and answer the question.

What happened to Palamon after seven years in prison? One of the four options is the correct answer and I want you to decide which one it is.

Is it option one? Theseus finally agreed to let Palamon be ransomed after seven years.

Option two, Theseus had Palamon executed.

Is it option three? Palamon escaped prison and disguised himself as a chamberlain? Or is it option four, Palamon escaped prison and hid in a grove until dark.

Pause the video now and make your selection.

Great work there, let's see how you've done.

What happened to Palamon after seven years in prison? It is of course option four, Palamon escaped prison and hid in a grove until dark when he could make his escape from Athens properly.

Let's continue with our story now and find out what happens to Arcite during this time.

Now I'll return to Arcite again, who little knew how near to him was care till fortune caught him in her tangling snare.

So here we have Arcite living happily or as happily as he can be in Athens.

He's under a different name and that makes him sad, but he can see Emily every day and that makes him happy.

However, what he doesn't realise is that fortune has an idea for him.

The stamen here till fortune caught him in her tangling snare, not only personifies the idea of fortune by capitalising the word fortune, but it also gives us an interesting metaphor.

Don't forget that word metaphor, a word or a phrase used to describe something as actually being something else.

And here the metaphor is 'till fortunately caught him in her tangling snare." The idea here is that fortune or fate is often presented as a woman.

A snare is a trap used to catch unwary animals.

So here combined, we see that Arcite is unaware what problem fate is about to hand him.

He's about to becoming tangled by fate other ideas.

Here we have Arcite who decides that he's going to ride out and pay homage to the 1st of May.

This was something that a lot of people did in spring.

And if you remember seven years ago it is exactly the reason why Emily was in the garden beneath the tower when Palamon first saw her.

So Arcite travels out on horseback to a grove nearby to Athens.

It may or may not just happen to be the same grove where Palamon is hiding.

Here Arcite states to the world in general, "and even more does Juno give me shame, for I dare not acknowledge my own name.

But whereas I was Arcite by right, now I'm Philostrate, not worth a mite." So Arcite upset about the idea that he has to hide his own real name and he doesn't feel that that's an honourable thing to do.

He feels alone out in this grove.

He can yell it to the gods.

He can complain that he has to live this life.

Little does he know the nearby, hidden in a thicket is Palamon.

And Palamon overhears all of this.

Upset by what he's heard, Palamon leaps out and confronts Philostrate or Arcite.

Time to just check where we are at the moment then.

So I'm going to give you a sentence in a second.

How does Palamon find out that Philostrate is in fact Arcite.

I want you to pause the video and make a decision about which of these options answers that question.

Is it option one, that the goddess Juno tells him? Is it option two, Arcite cries out to the gods how he sad he is to have to wear a disguise? Is it option three, Arcite is still wearing the same clothes? Or is it option four, Palamon would know Arcite's singing voice anywhere? Pause the video, now make your selection.

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

How does Palamon find out that Philostrate is in fact Arcite? Well, it's option two.

Arcite cries out to the gods how sad he is to have to wear a disguise.

Arcite is upset at having to dishonour himself by pretending to be someone else in order to stay alive and be able to see Emily.

However, it is Palamon who overhears him from a nearby thickets.

This Palamon who thought that through his heart.

He felt a cold and sudden sword blade glide.

For rage, he shook no longer would he hide, but after he had heard Arcite's tale, as he were mad with face gone, deathly pale.

At this stage Palamon has overheard Arcite stating who he is.

He is so upset by the idea that Arcite has dishonoured himself, has dishonoured Palamon to a certain extent because he believed that Arcite would raise an army and come back to claim Emily.

That's certainly what he felt he would have done.

And here it is almost as though Arcite has betrayed him for a second time.

He says a sudden sword blade glide.

That metaphor, the idea that Palamon is feeling Arcite's sword glide slowly into his heart.

Here we have that metaphor again "through his heart he felt a cold and sudden sword blade glide".

The heart symbolises love but also death.

The word glide suggests an undefended blow, something that is simple and easy and not defended against.

So here Palamon feels as though he's been stabbed through the heart by Arcite.

Arcite has betrayed him for a second time.

Palamon leaps up.

He started up and sprang out of the thicket crying, "Arcite, oh you wicked traitor." I'm sure we can all imagine at this point just how angry Palamon is at having to realise that Arcite has betrayed him for a second time.

He yells, "And have befooled the great Duke Theseus and falsely changed your name and station.

Thus, either I shall be dead or you shall die.

You shall not love my lady Emily." You can imagine Palamon at this stage.

He's not only disgusted by Arcite's behaviour, the fact that he has dishonoured himself and failed to raise an army and take his opportunity that Palamon would have done.

But at the same time he is here with an opportunity winning Emily.

And Palamon will not take this, even though he's weak and tired from having just a script prison that very night, he still will fight Arcite to the death.

Arcite however, realising that Palamon's overheard him replies, "This Arcite with scornful angry heart.

When he knew him and all the tale had heard, fierce as a lion, out he pulled his sword.

Again here we see another piece of figurative language being used "fierce as a lion." Arcite in this particular case, he has a simile being used that he is fierce as a lion, he is compared to a lion.

Here we see a simile.

A reminder of what that means, a word or a phrase used to describe something as being like or similar to something else.

Fierce as a lion is the simile used.

Lions are notoriously dangerous.

A lion is also a wild animal.

So here Arcite is so angry with Palamon that he is presented as dangerous and as uncontrollable as a wild animal.

This comparison to wild animals will come back later when we explore their battle in more detail.

Arcite states, "But in as much as you're a worthy knight and willing to defend love in mail, here now this word, tomorrow I'll not fail." Here chivalry comes back.

Arcite who is strong, well fed and armoured with sword and shield refuses to fight Palamon there and then.

Realising that Palamon is weak and tired, unarmed and unarmored.

Arcite makes a decision, "To come here armed and harnessed as a knight, and to bring arms for you too as you'll see.

And choose the better and leave the worse for me." Arcite here makes a decision.

He still wants to fight Palamon.

He wants the two of them to finally have it out over Emily and for the winner to have the chance to win Emily's heart.

So he decides as a chivalric knight, that it is only fair for him to bring armour and arms to Palamon as well.

His goals are going to bring bedding and food so that Palamon is well rested, armoured, and ready to fight the next day when Arcite returns to battle.

It is at this point that we see that chivalry, the honour of glory wins out Arcite despite the fact that he here has an advantage, wants to do the honourable thing and win with glory by allowing Palamon to have all of the opportunities that he does and to make this a fair fight.

And choose the better and leave the worst for me is the statement that Arcite makes here.

He wants to not only make this a fair fight, but to give Palamon the better of the opportunity, the better equipment, because he is the one that has been in prison for all this time.

Okay, you've worked fantastically well during this lesson and we've reached our main activity.

In a second, I'm going to ask you to pause the video on the next slide and complete the two sentence expansion activities that you'll see that.

In a moment, pause the video and write out and expand the two sentences below.

Sentence one, Palamon calls Arcite a traitor because.

I want you to think of all your learning throughout the video and explain why Palamon thinks that Arcite is a traitor.

You might want to think about the things he's done in the past and the things he's done most recently when giving your answer.

Sentence two, Arcite shows his chivalry when.

I'd like you to think about the most recent learning and consider how Arcite shows that he can be a chivalrous character with chivalrous acts.

Explain what he does and his motivations for doing so.

Pause the video now and complete those two sentence expansions.

Okay, you've worked as a hard there.

Let's see how well you've done.

So sentence one, Palamon calls Arcite traitor, because while we could have said Arcite has changed his name and lied to Theseus, these are two very true cases.

Arcite does change his name to Philostrate, and he does lie to Theseus.

He becomes one of Theseus chamberlains.

He initially works for Emily and later works for Theseus.

This lie is dishonourable and it implies that he is a traitor.

Of course, we could have improved this answer further with Palamon calls Arcite traitor, because Arcite has returned to Athens in secret rather than with honour and bravery as Palamon would have done.

And this brings out the idea that Palamon is most upset by the fact that Arcite has wasted an opportunity.

He is not only being dishonourable by changing his name lying to Theseus and sneaking back into the city to see Emily, but he's wasting an opportunity that Palamon would have taken.

And that is why Palamon is so upset.

Let's look at sentence two.

Arcite shows his chivalry when you could have said, when he says he will bring weapons and armour for Palamon, that's very much the case.

He decides he will bring weapons and armour to make this a fair fight.

We could have developed it further though.

And added those extra elements.

Arcite shows you chivalry when he tells Palamon, he will bring armour and weapons and allow Palamon to choose the best, making the fight more fair.

Here, we develop that idea further about the weapons in the armour, by adding in the fact that Arcite allows Palamon to choose the best of the weapons and armour.

The strongest, the newest, if you like.

This will make the fight more fair because it is Arcite.

That is the fresher and stronger while Palamon has barely slept and has just having managed to escape from seven years in prison.

Now don't worry too much.

If you haven't got exactly the correct answers that we've got down on those pages, they are of course written in different ways.

As long as you've got similar wording and similar ideas, and you understand the plot, then that will be perfectly okay.

If you're struggling with the plot and you're not quite sure where we are at this point, then feel free to go back in our video and recap your learning.

Time for a challenge now, opportunity here to really test yourself.

I want you to try and answer following question as part of your review work on this lesson.

You can either pause the video and have a go at this question in a moment or wait until after the video has ended and have a go at this as part of your review and revision.

Do you think that Arcite is presented as a sympathetic character? Sympathetic means that we feel sorry for him.

So do you think that Arcite through his actions and the things that he's done makes us feel sorry for him as a character? Think about the following things, how he is affected by courtly love, he's returned to Athens and how he manages to do that and his behaviour when he meets Palamon.

So think about those three things.

When answering this question, you can pause the video now, or you can have a go at this later once the video has ended.

Okay, you've worked ever so hard today and you've done a fantastic amount of work, really pleased with the effort that you're putting in.

We've come to the end of our lesson eight of the Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale series, all about fighting for love.

And after this video has ended, it's time to review your learning.

What I'd like you to do is to take your notes and to pick a new piece of vocabulary, go back through your learning from today and find something that you've learned that's new or something that you've looked at that you already knew the meaning of, but you've actually managed to review that.

And you feel that you have a stronger grasp on it.

The second thing I'd like you to do is review all the plot from today's lesson.

Lots has happened.

Arcite's returns to Athens he's changed into a totally new character in Philostrate.

And here we also have Palamon having a sketch from prison.

There's a lot to review, and it's a good idea to go back down.

Maybe you've dropped the five key points.

Perhaps you could draw some pictures that might explain exactly what's happening, but all of this is allowing you to review and remember what happens in the plot.

And lastly, don't forget to complete the exercises.

If you've gone through and missed out any of the worksheet or downloadable opportunities and not completed those, then make sure you go back and do them, especially that challenge activity, which will give you an opportunity to really think about your learning.

Okay, so that's the end of the lesson for now.

Then so see you next time for lesson nine in the Canterbury Tales series.

Bye for now.