The ironic thing in the words used by the narrator to describe the summoner in "the prologue" to The Canterbury Tales is:
<u>The Summoner was corrupt and was ready to forgive a transgression for a cup of wine</u>
According to the complete text, we can see that the Summoner is trying to convince a transgressor that he would allow him to keep a concubine if only he gave him a quart of wine.
As a result of this, we can see that the ironic thing is that the Summoner is supposed to be a church excommunicator who is sent by the Archdeacon to expunge people who committed offences against the doctrines of the church but he was willing to accept a bribe so that he would not do his job.
