ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way in which Geoffrey, not to be confused with Chaucer but perhaps chosen from the French original because of the similar names. Within the added tale in particular, game is thematically deployed both in the literal games that Beryn plays and loses, and the language and performed identity games that the figure Geoffrey plays and wins. Out of all the canonical and non-canonical parts of the Canterbury Tales, none is more infused with various literal games than the apocryphal Merchant's Tale of Beryn. Richard Firth Green argues that the Tale of Beryn's satirization of either common law or civil law is more complex than it may at first appear because there are elements of civil law, elements of common law. Geoffrey has appropriated the narratives through his successful interaction, the system of the island collapses, and Beryn becomes the ruler; as such a title suggests, he gets to set the rales from now on.
