The Squire Shows His Rank

It is clear from the General Prologue that the Squire is a young man, twenty years of age, and that he is the son of the Knight. Not all squires became knights in the 14th century but one could assume that Chaucer's squire not only represents his rank as a group of men in the 2nd estate but further represents the inchoate knight because he as a young squire (some men only became squires later in life after proving the worth of their service) has as his aim to mimic the courtly solidarity and narrative panache of his father and other famous knights.

It might be expected - because of his familial tie to knighthood - that his tale would imitate the style of the The Knight's Tale and it does: there is a knight who comes to a foreign court presenting enchanted objects of war and plunder i.e. the exclusively obedient, machine-like brass horse, the omniscient mirror, the undefeated sword, etc. We also get the impression that he's heard many knight's tell their tales as in many spots the squire refers to them, "Eek in that lond, as tellen knyghtes olde," as his predecessors, "That Gawayn, with his olde curteisye" as his influences, "Who koude telle yow the forme of daunces...No man but Launcelot, and he is deed," as his ideal.

We also see his limitations as a courtly story-teller but the extent and reasons for which the squire seems at least partly aware as when he describes the characteristics of the brass horse's powers: "The hors vanysshed, I noot in what manere,/Out of hir sighte; ye gete namoore of me, " shows his inexperience as a knight (or his lack of authority as a squire) and, "The knotte why that every tale is toold,/ If it be taried til that lust be coolde...I sholde to the knotte condescende,/And maken of hir walkyng soone an ende" for his inexperience as a courtly narrator.

The most glaring imitation is the reuse of the line, "That pitee renneth soone in gentil herte" spoken by the enchanted, injured she-falcon in Canacee's lap but there is an elaboration which seems to depart from the usage in The Knight's Tale. It is firstly interesting that the Squire would put these words into the mouth of an enchanted creature, perhaps because he had heard it used so often before that it had become garnished with a sprig of idealism and history beyond his years so somewhat immortal rather than political as its connotation seems to be in The Knight's Tale; but the she-falcon extends the ideal of what constitutes a "gentil herte" as "Is preved alday, as men may it see,/As wel by werk as by auctoritee;". This seems significant in that it extends the characteristic to being "preved alday" (by giving it a broader scope of time, it lends the ideal to a broader scope of people?) by "men" and through "werk" (not just noble authority). This has the flavor of a proletariat - or a young, more modern and future knight - ingeniously voiced via an enchanted animal so not to disrupt the human hierarchy or disturb his father's sensibility.

The structure of the tale further indicates the "inchoateness" of the Squire's narrative art. There are two stories here; one, about a valiant knight with a dusting of enchantment (there's a rather fascinating, long-winded tale); and one about Canacee, the beginning of which is all that is managed. They are two concentric circles in orbit but barely overlapping instead of engulfing one, another. He is saved from his disorganization by the Franklin who, at the moment of the third onslaught of loquacity, his knightly ambitions are relaxed, "In feith, Squier, thow hast thee wel yquit/ And gentilly. I preise wel thy wit,". The host steps in as to say, "Franklin, don't interrupt, he's not finished!" but we get the sense that this is just a deferral to the young Squire's pride and the Franklin takes over the narration.