THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC THE CANTERBURY TALES GEOFFREY CHAUCER

The doctor of Physic In general Prologue How he worked Summarize Video Sources

The doctor of physic Title: Doctor Station: Middle Class Lines: Traits: Knows authorities – Muslim writers who transferred Greek doctors like Galen Astrology to diagnose Racket with pharmacist – gets a cut Fancy clothes Didn’t study Bible Flakes of gold in cordial – joke at end Tale: Father decapitates his daughter to save her virginity.

THE PROLOGUE The medical Doctor is the best in his profession. His practice sounds to us more like astrology and magic than medicine, but it was typical of the period With us there was A Doctor of Physic; In all this world was there none him like, To speak of physic and of surgery, For he was grounded in astronomy. He kept his patient a full great deal In hours, by his magic natural. Well could he fortune the ascendant Of his images for his patient. He knew the cause of every malady, Were it of hot, or cold, or moist, or dry, And where they engendered, and of what humor. He was a very perfect practitioner: The cause he knew, and of his harm the root, Anon he gave the sick man his boot. Full ready had he his apothecaries To send him drugs and electuaries, For each of them made other for to win – His friendship was not new to begin. Well knew he the old Aesculapius, And Dioscorides and too Rufus, Old Hippocrates, Hali, and Galen, Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicen, Averroes, Damascene, and Constantine, Bernard, and Gatisden, and Gilbertus. Of his diet measurable was he, For it was of no superfluity, But of great nourishing and digestable. His study was but little on the Bible. In sanguine and in perse he clad was all, Lined with taffeta and with sendal. And yet he was but easy of dispense; He kept that he won in pestilence. For gold in physic is a cordial, Therefore he loved gold in special.

How he worked In his day every part of the human body was supposed to be under the domination of one of the twelve Signs or Constellations (see Chaucer's Astrology), Aries governing the head, Taurus the neck, etc. Knowledge of these relations was thought so essential that a picture illustrating them was placed in all the early printed Books of Hours or prayer books for lay use, and a physician was supposed to choose the part of the body at which to bleed a patient according to the sign then in the ascendant. Complications were introduced by the sign under which the patient was born, which was thought to rule his destiny through life; by the sign in the ascendant when his illness began… The skill of the astrologer-physician would be exercised in calculating the hours when the balance of contending influences would be most favorable to his patient, and choosing these for the application of his remedies. These remedies were directed, in the case of disease, to restoring the balance of the four qualities of hot, cold, dry, and moist. Chaucer's physician to attain the degree of Doctor of Physic must have mastered all this lore, besides what was known of anatomy and other medical studies, properly so called. He must have been a rich man to take the degree of Doctor, which involved great expenses in fees, presents, and feasting. He was skilful in choosing for making talismans for his patients the times when the influence of the planets would make the talismans most efficacious.

PilgrimTransportation Major Physical Traits/ and Distinguishing Features Follies/Vices/ Negative Qualities Positive Traits /Virtues/Attribute s The Doctor (of physic) HorseBright, deep red clothes (the color of blood: irony) Very expensive clothes He and the apothecaries benefit from each others’ trade and they seem to be in cahoots together. Loves gold-has a lot of money but spends little, does not read Bible. Miserly A skilled doctor, very well educated in everything related to medicine, but not well versed in the Bible. Summarize

SOURCES pilgrim-characteristics-study-guide- 1am0awh.pdf cer/chaucer_gen_prol_outline.pdf