Medieval Personality Types

In the general prologue to the Canterbury Tales, when he is introducing all the characters Chaucer says of the Franklin that "Of his complexioun he was sangwyn." He also describes the Reeve as "a sclendre colerik man". Chaucer is using what was in the middle ages the commonly accepted "four humors" theory of temperaments.

This theory, which was popularised by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, was the dominant paradigm concerning the human personality until the Enlightenment. It held that practically all issues of a man's health, including his temperament, were chiefly determined by the for fluids or "humors" in his body: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, & blood. A perfect balance of the four humors was supposed to keep a man in perfect health, both in body and mind. Any imbalance was thought to cause disease as well as the various idiosyncrasies of the human temper.

An over abundance of blood was supposed to be the cause of the Sanguine temperament. A sanguine person would be cheerful, jolly, silly, & frivolous. Yellow bile was associated with the choleric temerament, proud, angry, & quick tempered. An over abundance of Black bile was signified by the melancholic temperament, obviously sad, & introverted. Phlegm caused the phlegmatic temperament: content, but somewhat given to complacency & sloth.

So when Chaucer uses these words he is trying to give us an immediate insight into these characters' personalities. From the one word "sanguine" we can picture what a jovial, fun-loving person the Franklin is, while "choleric" warns us that the Reeve is a short-tempered man, given to anger and not likely to stand any nonsense.

For more information on the Four Temperaments:
http://www.fisheaters.com/fourtemperaments.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

In order to find out your dominant humor take this simple personality test:
http://www.fisheaters.com/quiz1.html