Chaucer is a great humorist; he reveals the scope of humanity by revealing each character by his humour, by the personality that emerges as Nature's elements act on bodily liquids. For instance, vapours from the air affect the blood and gives rise to the sanguine personality--forgetful, needy, and naive; those from fire act on yellow bile (urine), producing the choleric type; impatient, domineering, intolerant; water affects phlegm, giving the phlegmatic: lazy, indecisive, and selfish; vapours of the earth influence black bile (#2), for the melancholic: depressed, antagonistic, paranoid. But each humour also has positive traits: the sanguine inspires, loves, and forgives; the choleric decides, leads, and motivates; the phlegmatic listens, sympathizes, and calms; and the melancholic sacrifices, solves, and commits. As Chaucer unites these individual unbalanced personalities into a work of art, he show the overall beauty and balance of all humanity from a higher POV. Chaucer's art reveals a perfected order mankind cannot see, humanity made in the image of God. Thus, Chaucer reveals himself the great humorist--by each character's humor, he ties each to Nature, to the creative force that opens the poem, and thus to Creation itself--in doing so, perfects man imperfections with the Divine--and no less significantly, with the artistic expression of the Divine--the poem.
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