| A | B |
|---|
| solicitous | showing care or concern |
| garnished | decorated; trimmed |
| absolution | act or freeing someone of a sin or criminal charge |
| commission | authorization; act of giving authority to an individual |
| sanguine | confident; cheerful |
| prevarication | evasion of truth |
| direct characterization | tells the audience what a character is like; states attributes in a straightforward manner. |
| indirect characterization | a type of literary device that reveals details without stating them in a straightforward way using actions, speech, thoughts, appearance, etc. |
| social commentary | writing that offers insight into society, its values, and its customs |
| pilgrimage | a journey to a sacred historical or religious site |
| pilgrim(s) | a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons |
| Medieval society | consisted of the nobility, learned professionals, lower orders, church officials |
| Popular genres in Chaucers's day | romances, fabliaux, stories of saint's lives, sermons, and allegories |
| heroic couplet | a pair of rhyming lines with five stressed syllables each |
| Romances | tales of chivalry |
| chivalry | the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak |
| Fabliaux | short, bawdy, humorous stories |
| sermons | a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible. |
| allegories | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one |
| frame story/narrative/tale | a story that surrounds and binds together one or more different narratives in a single work |
