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The Pardoner's Tale
"The Pardoner's Tale" is one of '' The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the order of the Tales, it comes after The Physician's Tale and before The Shipman's Tale; it is prompted by the Host's desire to hear something positive after the physician's depressing tale. The Pardoner initiates his Prologue—briefly accounting his methods of swindling people—and then proceeds to tell a moral tale. The tale itself is an extended exemplum. Setting out to kill Death, three young men encounter an Old Man who says they will find him under a nearby tree. When they arrive they discover a hoard of treasure and decide to stay with it until nightfall and carry it away under the cover of night. Out of greed, they murder one another. The tale and prologue are primarily concerned with what the Pardoner says is his "theme": ''Radix malorum est cupiditas'' ("Greed is the root of llevils"). Frame In the order of '' The Canterbury Tales'', the Pardoner's Prologue and Tale are pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pardoner - Ellesmere Chaucer
''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulpit
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accessed by steps, with sides coming to about waist height. From the late Middle Ages, late medieval period onwards, pulpits have often had a canopy known as the sounding board, ''tester'' or ''abat-voix'' above and sometimes also behind the speaker, normally in wood. Though sometimes highly decorated, this is not purely decorative, but can have a useful acoustic effect in projecting the preacher's voice to the Church (congregation), congregation below, especially prior to the invention of modern audio equipment. Most pulpits have one or more book-stands for the preacher to rest his bible, notes or texts upon. The pulpit is generally reserved for clergy. This is mandated in the regulations of the Catholic Church, and several others (though not a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personifications Of Death
Personifications of death are found in many religions and mythologies. In more modern stories, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other beliefs hold that the spectre of death is only a psychopomp, a benevolent figure who serves to gently sever the last ties between the soul and the body, and to guide the deceased to the afterlife, without having any control over when or how the victim dies. Death is most often personified in male form, although in certain cultures death is perceived as female (for instance, Marzanna in Slavic mythology, or Santa Muerte in Mexico). Death is also portrayed as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Most claims of its appearance occur in states of Near-death experience, near-death. By region Americas Latin America As is the case in many Romance languages (including French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian), the Spanish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Thousand And One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition (), which rendered the title as ''The Arabian Nights' Entertainments''. The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and North Africa. Some tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature. Most tales, however, were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work (, ), which in turn may be translations of older Indian texts. Common to all the editions of the ''Nights'' is the framing device of the story of the ruler Shahryar being narrated the tales by his wife Scheherazade, with one tale told ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Literature
African literature is literature from Africa, either Oral literature, oral ("orature") or written in African languages, African and Afro-Asiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of Precolonialism, pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the ''Kebra Negast'', or "Book of Kings", from the 14th century AD. Another well-known book is the Garima Gospels, one of the oldest known surviving bibles in the world, written in Geʽez, Ge'ez around 500 AD. A common theme during the colonial period is the slave narrative, often written in English or French for western audiences. Among the first pieces of African literature to receive significant worldwide critical acclaim was ''Things Fall Apart'', by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958. African literature in the late colonial period increasingly feature themes of liberty, liberation and independence. Post-colonial literature has become increasingly diverse, with some write ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persian Literature
Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan), South Asia and the Balkans where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For example, Rumi, one of the best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh (in modern-day Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (in modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya (in modern-day Turkey), at that time the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Texts
Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and Schools of Buddhism, its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli Canon of the Theravada, Theravāda tradition, the Chinese Buddhist canon, Chinese Buddhist Canon used in East Asian Buddhism, East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist canon, Tibetan Buddhist Canon used in Tibetan Buddhism, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Pakistan and written in Gāndhārī language, Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The Early Buddhist texts, first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman De La Rose
''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegory">allegorical romantic love is disclosed. Its two authors conceived it as a psychological allegory; throughout the Lover's quest, the word ''Rose'' is used both as the name of the titular lady and as an abstract symbol of female sexuality. The names of the other characters function both as personal names and as metonyms illustrating the different factors that lead to and constitute a affair">love affair. Its long-lasting influence is evident in the number of surviving manuscripts of the work, in the many translations and imitations it inspired, and in the praise and controversy it inspired. Authorship ''The Romance of the Rose'' was written in two stages by two authors. In the first stage of composition, circa 1230, Guillaume de Lorris wrote 4,058 verses describing a courtier's attempts at wooing his beloved woman. The first part of the poem's story is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrate
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Some forms of castration cause sterilization (permanently preventing the castrated person or animal from reproducing); it also greatly reduces the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering. Castration of animals is intended to favor a desired development of the animal or of its habits, as an anaphrodisiac or to prevent overpopulation. The parallel of castration for female animals is spaying. Castration may also refer medically to oophorectomy in female humans and animals. The term ''castration'' may also be sometimes used to refer to emasculation where both the testicles ''and'' the penis are removed together. In some cultures, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arsenic Trioxide
Arsenic trioxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . As an industrial chemical, its major uses include the manufacture of wood preservatives, pesticides, and glass. It is sold under the brand name Trisenox among others when used as a medication to treat a type of cancer known as acute promyelocytic leukemia. For this use it is given by injection into a vein. Common side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, swelling, shortness of breath, and headaches. Severe side effects may include APL differentiation syndrome and heart problems. Use during pregnancy or breastfeeding may harm the baby. Its mechanism in treating cancer is not entirely clear. Arsenic trioxide was approved for medical use in the United States in 2000. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Approximately 50,000 tonnes are produced a year. Due to its toxicity, a number of countries have regulations around its manufacture and sale. Uses Medical Arsenic trioxide is indicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florins
The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purchasing power difficult to estimate (and variable) but ranging according to social grouping and perspective from approximately 140 to 1,000 modern US dollars. The name of the coin comes from the ''Giglio bottonato'' ( it), the floral emblem of the city, which is represented at the head of the coin. History The ''fiorino d'oro'' (gold florin) was minted in the Republic of Florence after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade disrupted the minting of fine gold coins in the Byzantine Empire. It came to be accepted across Europe like the Byzantine Solidus had been. The territorial usage of the ''lira'' and the florin often overlapped; where the lira was used for smaller transactions (wages, food purchases), the florin was for larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gluttony
Gluttony (, derived from the Latin ''gluttire'' meaning "to gulp down or swallow") means over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a lack of control over one's relation with food or harms the body.Okholm, Dennis"Rx for Gluttony" ''Christianity Today'', Vol. 44, No. 10, September 11, 2000, p.62 Some Christian Christian denomination, denominations consider gluttony one of the seven deadly sins. Etymology In Deut 21:20 and Proverbs 23:21, it is זלל. The Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius Entry (lower left word) has indications of "squandering" and "profligacy" (waste). In Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34, it is φαγος ("" transliterated character for character), The A Greek–English Lexicon, LSJ Entry is tiny, and only refers to one external source, Zenobius Paroemiographus 1.73. The word could mean merely "an eater", since φαγω means "eat". In religion Judaism Rambam, f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
