Three Bits in the Canterbury Tales that Will Always Make Me Laugh

Phallus in Purse: London, 1375-1424

by KARL STEEL

1. "and forth he gooth -- no lenger wolde he lette -- / unto the west gate of the toun, and fond / a dong carte, as it were to donge lond" (VII.3034-36, Nun's Priest's Tale)
2. "and whan he hadde pouped in this horn" (IX.90, Manciple's Prologue)
3. "whereas the Poo out of a welle smal" (IV.48, Clerk's Prologue)

(object 14902 from the Kunera Database of Medieval Badges)