While the company is dining at the inn, the Pardoner, disgusted with how the meal is served according to social hierarchy, leaves the fellowship to instead speak with the barmaid, Kit (13–22).
After giving the barmaid his staff, Kit shows the Pardoner where she sleeps, “al naked,” complaining that she has no lover because hers has died (23–39).
Feigning flirtation, Kit attempts to make the Pardoner break his fast from alcoholic beverages (a customary practice for pilgrims before reaching a shrine).
Later, the company visits the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, where a monk of Canterbury sprinkles their heads with holy water.
The Summoner asks for half of what they have stolen, but the Miller is worried that the Friar will find out what they are doing and plots the ways in which he will "quyte" (repay) him on the return journey (175–190).
The company then breaks their fast by indulging in drink while the Host congratulates them on a successful first half of the tale-telling competition.
The Host suggests that they spend the day in pleasure, but to rise early the next morning for the return journey to Southwark (191–230).
Following the Host's suggestion, the fellowship breaks into smaller groups: the Knight, the love-sick Squire and the Yeoman survey the town's defences; the Clerk advises the Summoner not to be offended by the tale the Friar has already told; the Monk, the Parson, and the Friar have drinks with an old friend of the Monk's; the Wife of Bath and the Prioress drink wine and talk in a garden; the Merchant, the Manciple, the Miller, the Reeve, and the Clerk go into the town (231–297).
After the meal, the Miller and the Cook continue drinking, and at the suggestion of the Pardoner, sing loudly, inciting reprimand from The Summoner, the Yeoman, the Manciple and the Reeve.
The Pardoner, armed with pan and ladle, hits the paramour on the nose, (which, as the narrator tells us, causes the man to experience chronic nasal problems for a week after the encounter).
Due to Geoffrey's clever lies, the court rules in Beryn's favour and his gambled possessions are returned.
The Seven Sages of Rome is adapted from the Indian work, the Book of Sindibad, composed in Sanskrit as early as 500 BC.
[4] Stephen Harper, in an article entitled “’Pleying with a ȝerd’: Folly and Madness in the Prologue and Tale of Beryn,” suggesting that folly is a central theme within the work of the unknown “Beryn-writer.” Harper's work considers various representations of fools in both tale and Prologue, not only examining the literary value of fool imagery, but using that imagery to evidence the artistic prowess of the Beryn poet.
In addition to examining the fool imagery present in both the Prologue and tale, Harper also briefly discusses madness as a mechanism for moral reversal.
Jonassen begins by positing that the Pardoner's encounter with Kitt is a fabliau which closely models the Miller's Tale.
Jonassen argument finds the greatest strength of the Beryn author stemming from his Chaucerian-like juxtaposition of 'solaas' and 'sentence' throughout the tales, as well as his emphasis on the dichotomy between the high and the low.
Jonassen argues that the main difference in the Beryn author's "Interlude" and Chaucer's tales rests in its harmless presentation of the Pardoner.