A-Z: "D" is for Doctor, a.k.a. The Physician

Day 4 of A-Z here  "D" is for the doctor or The Physician in the Canterbury Tales.  

The physician is an educated and arrogant doctor, who has built his wealth by diagnosing and prescribing medicines and cures to his patients.  He's cunning and is obsessed with increasing his pockets.  His resume and business success make him appear impressive, but his methods are lacking.  I think what makes him so great is his tale.

The physician's tale is a tragedy plain and simple.  A great knight/nobleman, Virginius, was married and he and his wife were blessed with only child, a daughter, Virginia.  She was a beautiful, kind and generous maiden and at only fourteen her beauty was well known throughout the region. One day a judge spots her and "the devil leapt into his heart."  In that instant, he had to have her and so the judge devised a plan with a local rascal to officially seize Virginia.  The rascal made a formal complaint to the judge stating that Virginius stole his servant girl years ago and the judge ordered Virginius to respond to the accusation.  When he did the judge decreed that he bring his daughter to the Judges home where she would stay.  The father saw through the judge's sadistic plot.  Outraged and terrified for his daughter, he summoned her and gave her the choice.  She could choose to live with the lecher or if he would save her by killing her so the judge could not steal her innocence.  Reading these passages you can't help but feel the father's love and pain for his daughter.  He ended up cutting off her head and then more or less dropped it on the judge's doorstep.  

The most interesting part I found in the story is The Physician or Chaucer giving guidance about parenting and our youth.  This was my favorite passage 93-102:

You fathers too, and mothers, 

you with any Children, be it one or be it many, 

The charge is yours to keep them in surveillance 

While they remain within your governance. 

Beware lest by example, how you live, 

Or by neglect to chasten them, 

to give Them guidance, they may perish. 

I daresay That if they do so, dearly you will pay. 

When there's a shepherd soft and negligent, 

Many a sheep and lamb by wolf are rent.

So what do you think?  Like The Physician's Tale.  It gave me a lump in my throat.

Mina B.