"The Pardoner's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the order of the Tales, it comes after The Physician's Tale and before The Shipman's Tale; it is incited by the Host's desire to hear something positive after that depressing tale. The Pardoner initiates his Prologue—briefly telling his methods of conning people—and then proceeds to tell a moral tale.
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 stained with bitter satire. Chaucer looked on and smiled on the foolishness 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 hit 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 depiction rather than in an exposure. His object was to paint life as he saw it, to hold up mirror to nature as he sensed it, with a humorous touch.
The line from the pardoner's tale which best explains the reason the pardoner preaches to the masses is:
Out come the pence, and specially for myself
In other words, Money, the pardoner wanted nothing else but money.
