"Yes, I am interesting and have secrets, so listen..."

When reading The Knight's Tale of the Canterbury Tales, over and over again it seemed as if the knight wanted to be viewed the way he spoke of the characters in his story. He starts of with chivalry, but goes on most piteously to describe the sad encounter of two cousins and a lady.

When he got to the part where...

"1198 So wel they lovede, as olde bookes sayn,

1199 That whan that oon was deed, soothly to telle,

1200 His felawe wente and soughte hym doun in helle --

1201 But of that storie list me nat to write..."

It was as if he was waving a story right under the listeners' noses, and then pulling it back, to make himself seem more interesting.

This type of character caught my attention and held it, because it reminded me of another character named Mr. Elliot in the book Persuasion by Jane Austen. Near the end of the book, after Anne (the main character) finds out the real traits of Mr. Elliot, she is "decidedly cool to him".

In response, he tried harder, wanting "to animate her curiosity again as to how and where..." this captures the exact purpose of the Knight's words, when he said "of that storie list me nat to write."

He was acting in the same way as Mr. Elliot, wanting to grasp the attention of his audience, and pull it towards himself, making him seem interesting and mysterious. However, Anne was not fooled by this lowly character, and distanced herself from him. Will the audience of the Knight do the same?

From what I've read about them, most likely not. The more possible outcome is that they will attempt at the same scheme.