The Canterbury Tales written in Middle English is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.
Chaucer’s humor is not tinged with bitter satire. Chaucer looked on and smiled on the follies of the people. He was a master of irony and sympathetic humor. Chaucer's humor is almost innocent fun.
Satire is found in the world of Chaucer, but it is rarely coarse, seldom severe, and never savage. His humor is not tinged with fierce and biting satire. He did not lash the strongholds of corruption mercilessly; he simply laughed at them and made us laugh. Bitter satire, in fact, did not penetrate the sympathetic and genial outlook of Chaucer. His interest lay in the portraiture rather than in an exposure. His object was to paint life as he saw it, to hold up mirror to nature.
The narrator switched from irony to sarcasm in the Canterbury tales in the lines 169-560 to:
Present the general idea of marriage in his personal style, humoristic, satirical, ironical, sarcastic, some might say cynical, yet funny.
Here we have some evidence from the Canterbury Tales:
“The Wife responds to the Pardoner's request by saying that she will gladly speak of what he asks, <u>but asks the company not to be offended if she speaks as she likes. Her intent is only to play.</u>” (Chaucer)
