Chaucer's view of medicine and medical practitioners as seen in the Canterbury Tales

In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer displays a good deal of interest in medicine and the medical profession. The Physician, seen as a stock character representing the entire medical profession, comes across--via Chaucer's ironical double vision--as a character inflated in respect to learning and appearance, but deficient in respect to morals and charity. The humour and irony in Chaucer's picture of the medical doctor are conveyed partly in the General Prologue and partly in the Physician's Tale. The irony in the General Prologue is created by exaggeration and play on words, while the Physician's Tale, through a curious set of apparent flaws such as lack of unity, pompous tone, irrelevancies and incongruities, may be seen as dramatic irony. This technique of nescient selfexposure on the part of the story-teller is used in several instances in the Canterbury Tales, as for example, in the Clerk's Tale, the Pardoner's Tale, and the Manciple's Tale. Chaucer's use of medical detail shows a direct awareness of important medical relationships, which have later proven to have affinity with some of the most important principles in the development of modern medicine. The empirical tendency in the poet's "own" approach partly explains, and certainly justifies, his sceptical view of the medieval medical doctor and his professional training.