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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Some of the most boring stories--and told at the expense of their pilgrim tellers--are the high ones. And The Miller's Tale with all its ribald humour was quite popular, as is The Wife of Bath's prologue and tale. And the most scurrilous pilgrim tells the most pious tale. I don't think a medieval audience would have looked askance at Sam. There's much there with his pans and his conies that would have fit right in with medieval life--not the Arthurian kind maybe, but Arthur's Round Table is not necessarily the most representative of the art of the time.
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I think they would have loved Sam as comic relief, but not accepted him as a 'hero'. Chaucer satirises the ordinary folk as much, if not more than he 'celebrates' them. I don't think his original hearers/listeners would have found the 'high' tales 'boring' - or if they did they would not have admitted it. I'm not sure the Canterbury Tales would ever have been considered 'high' or 'serious' literature in the way Malory, Chretian or The High History of the Holy Grail was.