Among the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales we find a "Doctour of Physik" (line 413). This doctor is the twenty first character mentioned in the General Prologue. He comes after a pirate and before a woman of dubious conduct, thereby making his good qualities appear considerably more honorable than they would if he, for instance, followed the knight or parson. The narrator speaks highly of the doctor's scientific abilities and learned knowledge while also emphasizing his aptitude at his trade. There are, in addition, references to the doctor's religious competence, or lack thereof. By emphasizing the doctor's strengths and showing where his weaknesses lay, Chaucer uses him as the knight's equal on an opposite pole.

The doctor is placed opposite the knight on the organizational pole by labeling him as physical rather than spiritual. In this case physical doesn't refer strictly to the doctor's appearance or physical...