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It also includes inane subplots, fake friars, punster tapsters and a tiresome denouement.

The tapster's "promise" is something we're all familiar with: that slight inclination of��the chin, subtle nod or lift of the eyebrow that says: "You're next".

So also are the adventures of “that loose fish the Pardoner” with the tapster Kit at the Chequer Inn.

On his way he gives most of his money to bury a dishonest tapster, who has been executed and left frozen in a block of ice outside a church for passers-by to spit upon.

Of an earlier date is the tapster of the initial block, from Ludlow, who furnishes a comfortable idea of a congenial, and to judge from his pouch, a profitable occupation.