【坎特伯里】The Canterbury Tales @ il Giardino Romantico

The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories written in Middle English by the Geoffery Chaucer. Twenty-nine pilgrims gather in an inn during their pilgrimage to Canterbury. The innkeeper embarks a story telling contest, and thus the tales begin.

坎特伯雷故事集是由喬叟以撰寫的古英文作品。故事中有二十九名朝聖者正前往著坎特伯里。旅館主人提議朝聖旅途中舉辦說故事比賽，因而有了這個故事集。

The tales I have very vague memories of myself is that of the Nun's Priest's Tale, and the Wife of Bath.
Here's the synopsis of the Nun's Priest's Tale:
This is the story of a rooster, Chanticleer, who dreams of a fox who would doom him. His wife, Pertelote assures him everything is alright, but his dreams turns out to be prognostic. Chanticleer meets the fox the next day, and is being tricked into crowing so the fox could snatch him away. During their escape, Chanticleer uses the same trick, advising the fox to scare his enemies away. Once the fox opened his jaws, Chanticleer escapes.

Wife of Bath:
This is a tale about a knight who rapes a woman, and upon being judged, the Queen intervenes and gives him a chance to redeem. The knight is then sent out for a quest to find 'what a woman wants more than anything'. He searches for the answer, but to no avail, until he comes across a hag who agrees to help him. The knight returns to the Queen and tells her that women wants sovereignty over their husband the most. The Queen, happy with this answer, frees him, but he has to marry the hag in return for her help. The knight becomes really unhappy and tells his wife it is because she is ugly. The wife gives him a choice between ugly but faithful and beautiful but unfaithful. The knight gives the choice to his wife, and the hag becomes fair and faithful.

其中我最記得的兩個故事是「僧侶」以及「巴斯婦人」的故事。
僧侶的故事：
故事描述一隻叫Chanticleer的公雞。有晚夢見他被他的狐狸敵人抓走。他老婆Pertelote安撫他說一切都沒事，只不過是場夢。沒想到這夢的預言成真！隔天狐狸來，且狡猾的騙Chanticleer開口唱歌，他好趁機把他抓走。一路上狐狸的敵人也在追它們。Chanticleer則使用同樣的詭計騙狐狸開口嚇跑敵人。狐狸一開口，Chanticleer當然就成功掙脫囉！

巴斯婦人的故事：
一個武士他強姦了一個平民女孩，因此遭到判決。皇后此時介入，並跟他說若是他能夠找到女人最想要的東西是什麼，就可以免於一死。武士找了又找就是找不到答案。但有天他遇見了願意告訴他答案的老太婆。武士返回皇后面前並告訴她，女人最想要的就是夫妻之間能夠有最高的權威。皇后聽了很高興，並且免他一死。不過老太婆卻要求武士要娶她。後來武士很不開心，因為老太婆實在太醜了。老太婆就問他：你要醜但忠心，還是漂亮但不忠？武士無可奈何地說：你自己選吧！於是老太婆竟化身成又漂亮又忠心的女子。

Now that you know a bit about the Canterbury Tales, let's see what's inside the museum!

看完了故事，現在來瞧瞧博物館裡面到底有什麼吧！

The Canterbury City Council is very nice to its citizens. There is either a discounted price for locals, or entrance is altogether free!

這邊的市政府真是貼心。只要是當地居民，不是享有可觀的折扣，就是根本不用錢！