Connecting the Beginning and the End of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale"

To go along with my previous post, I found an article by William Komowski discussing the connection between alchemy and religion, as well as providing some connection between the beginning and the end of the entire tale.

"To a large extent, the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale is a sequence of scenes in which clergymen attempt to change one substance into another. But their failures to do so, along with their deliberate feigning of the transformation, suggest that they do not entirely believe in the very miracle they seek to perform. In other words, their situation comically parallels the graver predicament of some priests" (Komowski, 17).

Early on in the tale, the Yeoman discusses the failures of his master and of the alchemist in their works. Also there is a the mention of God and how even though God has given the alchemists hope, they continue to fail in their tasks. At the end of the Tale, the Yeoman advises to end the pursuit of the philosopher's stone.

"How that a man shal come unto this stoon,
I rede, as for the beste, lete it goon.
For whoso maketh God his adversarie,
As for to werken any thyng in contrarie
Of his wil, certes, never shal he thryve," (1474-1478).

Therefore, there is a connection between the hunt for the philosopher's stone and the quest of the alchemist.

"Thus, the Yeoman’s tale ends with a comment on the alchemical miracle that parallels comments emerging elsewhere in the Canterbury Tales concerning spiritually related miracles: they do not happen anymore; the contemporary clergy are incapable of working any such miracles for either material or spiritual ends" (Komowski, 18).



Komowski, William. (2002). Chaucer and Wyclif: God's miracles against the clergy's magic. The Chaucer Review, 37(1), 5-25.