From the Pardoner’s perspective, the Physician told a cheaply pious story and the Host, a sanctimonious fool, reacts to the tale with what seems high praise. Then, after praising the Physician, the Host turns to the Pardoner and asks for a merry tale or jokes (“som myrthe or japes”), even though preaching is the Pardoner’s profession.
The Pardoner agrees by mockingly echoing the same oath the Host has just used — “By Saint Ronyon.” The echo of the Host indicates, if anything at all, the Pardoner’s irritation at hearing the Physician praised as being “like a Prelate” (“lyk a prelat”). The Pardoner is further insulted when some members of the company cry with one voice, “No, don’t let him tell dirty jokes!” (“Nay, lat hym telle us of no ribaudye”). The Pardoner will have his revenge on all the complacent, self-righteous critics, and he resolves to think his revenge out carefully.
The ironic relationship between The Physician’s Tale and The Pardoner’s Tale — and therefore the Physician and Pardoner — is that both men are self-loving dissemblers. However, one of the two, the Pardoner, possesses enough self-knowledge to know what he is; the other, the Physician, being self-satisfied and affected, does not.
