Integrity

The Pardoner's TaleMATTHEW 14:1-12 & MARK 6:14-29 record how Herod Antipas, Roman tetrarch of Galilee from 4 B.C. To 39 A.D. and son of Herod the Great, imprisoned and later beheaded John the Baptist. Chaucer’s Pardoner attributes Herod’s actions to his drunkenness, though no such detail is offered by either Matthew or Mark. Both MATTHEW 14:9 & MARK 6:26 explain Herod’s motivation as an attempt to appear as a man of integrity, after having made certain promises in public, though he was widely known to be duplicitous. The Pardoner says, though: “Herodes, whoso wel the stories soghte, / Whan he of wyn was repleet at his feeste, / Right at his owene table he yaf his heeste / To sleen the Baptist Joh, ful gilteless.”

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