In the following essay, Mann explains how understanding "The Franklin's Tale" and its theme of patience can lead to a greater understanding of the Canterbury Tales as a whole.

The "Franklin's Tale" is not only one of the most popular of Chaucer's tales, it is also one whose emotional and moral concerns lie at the centre of Chaucer's thinking and imaginative activity. It is usually thought of as a tale about 'trouthe'— or perhaps about 'gentillesse'—but it is equally concerned with the ideal of patience and the problems of time and change, which are subjects of fundamental importance not in this tale alone but in the Canterbury Tales as a whole. What follows is intended to be not only a close discussion of the "Franklin's Tale," but also an attempt to indicate how a proper reading of it can help with a proper reading of the...