Storytelling Week 11: The Most Generous Man

The professor walked into the classroom and set down his things. The high school students, chattering away at their desks, became quiet and pulled out their notebooks for class to begin.

"Goodmorning everyone!" said the professor as he leaned back, barely sitting at the front of his desk. "Now, you all should have read Franklin's Tale last night from the Canterbury Tales. So today, we are going to discuss the question posed at the very end... Which one of the three generous men was the most generous?"
"As an overview, the woman, Dorigen, was head over heels for her husband and mourned nonstop while he was away." The professor rolled his eyes and sighed at the ridiculousness of the subject, and all the students laughed.
"She swore to never leave him, but, when she learned a poor squire was in love with her, she told him that she would only leave her husband for him if they could no longer see the large rocks poking out of the water just off the coast. Of course, she thought this could never be done so she wasn't worried about it. Well that squire, boy, when you talk about doing anything for love, this kid did it all! He went to a magician, and... can anyone tell me the deal between the squire and the magician?"

"The squire would owe him 1000 pounds if the magician could make the rocks disappear for just a little while!" shouted Mary from the back of the room.

"Yep! And so it was, the magician got rid of the rocks, and the squire led the lady to see. Her husband honored her promise by allowing her to leave, but after seeing her mourn (because Lord knows she did it relentlessly) the squire stated that he would rather suffer his whole life without her than break her away from the man she truly loves. What does this mean for the squire then? He still owes the magician. However, when the magician heard of what happened, he released the squire from his debt because the squire was so honorable. Now, which is the most generous?"... "Jayton?"

"I think the magician is, because he did this and worked hard expecting to be paid but he allowed the squire to go without paying," explained Jayton.

"Except the magician said the squire had already housed and fed him, so that was compensation enough! The magician didn't exactly give up anything; he simply didn't make a profit!" said Sally.

"Good point," said the professor, "So what about the squire?"

"I think he was the most generous because he put in so much work and so much effort, and he finally completed his task and won the girl... but then he gave all of it up because she was unhappy," said Doug.
Sally piped up again, "But don't you think it was selfish for him to do that in the first place? It's not like he didn't know that she was head over heels for her husband and would be unhappy with anyone else. He was trying to steal her. That's completely selfish of him."

"Alright, well Sally, do you think Dorigen's husband was the most generous then?" asked the professor.

"No. I don't think any of them are generous. The magician got free food and housing for performing magic, the squire was selfish trying to take away the woman from her husband, and the husband obviously doesn't love her enough, because any rational man would not simply let their wife, who is bawling her eyes out and would almost rather die than live without her true love, just go off with this selfish boy who tricked the rocks into disappearing for a while!"

The whole class stared, and the professor? Speechless. Some of the students began to snicker.

"Well... that was a wonderful argument, Sally. You're going to be a great lawyer some day." The class laughed.
"Well, class, since Sally completely destroyed any points I was about to make about this story, let's move along!"
The class roared with laughter and the professor moved on and taught the rest of the Canterbury Tales.

Dorigen and Aurelius, from Mrs. Haweis's, Chaucer for Children (1877)
Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: I wrote this story based off "The Franklin's Tale" from The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908). When I originally read the story, I thought it was neat how it had the question at the end about who was the most generous man. Then I thought it would be fun to make it a classroom discussion. The professor gives the overview of the story, and how it ends. The rest is obviously all made up. I thought about making the husband the most generous, but then I thought it would catch the reader off guard to argue that none of them were generous. Anyways, I tried to add as much dry humor as I could, but I'm tired so I don't know if I succeeded all that well! Hope you enjoyed it!