Canterbury Tales (Barron's Book Notes)

by Canterbury Tales (Barron's Book Notes) [lit]

  3. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

  This ties in with destiny, as all the themes interweave in this tale. Man is responsible to a divine plan and, on a romantic level, responsible to love and honor. Chanticleer feels he must answer to his wives as well as take care of his own business of crowing and sovereignty over the barnyard.

  4. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

  This is what separates humans from animals since, in this sense, Chanticleer and Pertelote and the fox are as human as they come. The wisdom that the rooster and fox learn from experience goes beyond the natural order of things into the higher realm of God's good, where they, like we, learn a "moral." As the end of the tale states, all that is written is written for our "doctrine" (learning, and also church doctrine).

  5. KINDS OF LOVE

  The language of courtly love emphasizes the sensual animal love that Chanticleer has for Pertelote. According to courtly tradition, this is the love through which a knight perfects himself and wins grace from his lady. But at the same time we get scattered references to woman as man's destruction and responsible for Adam's fall. Even where the narrator thinks better of his attack on women (after all, he's speaking in front of his "boss," the Prioress, the other nuns, and the imposing Wife of Bath), the words are there for us to consider. The kinds of love can't be resolved, but they're both there.

  6. DECEPTION AND PRIDE

  Chanticleer allows himself to be deceived by the fox because he is flattered and proud of his singing ability, which he believes even makes the sun rise (line 38). He also deceives Pertelote, in mistranslating the Latin saying about women, to impress her and boost his estimation in her eyes (at least, this has been argued). Because of pride he falls and learns his lessons the hard way.

  7. ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN

  Are women the cause of the Fall, as Chanticleer and the narrator hint, however jokingly, or are they indeed "man's bliss"? We are given indications of both attitudes, since Chanticleer does "fall" by following the urgings of his practical wife, but he also attributes all the joy in his life to her love. He is called a servant of Venus, because he follows love with such devotion, but he also follows God, believing that his dream is sent from heaven. Each belief would indicate a different attitude toward women.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE REEVE'S TALE

  Oswald the Reeve, who is a carpenter, takes offense at the Miller's tale about a cuckolded carpenter, and says he'll pay him back in "force"--in the same coarse language and even in the same form (the French bawdy fabliau). The Reeve also gripes because the Miller's carpenter, like the Reeve, is an old man who can only talk about the things he can't do anymore. (Like his enemy, the Reeve is concerned with sexual matters.)

  The rowdy tale concerns a Miller who steals grain, especially from a Cambridge college that takes its corn to him to be ground. Once, when the miller has stolen more than usual because no one's there to watch him, two students, Alan and John, decide to oversee the grinding. The miller decides he can outwit the students despite their highclass education. He unties their horse, and while Alan and John chase after it, the miller steals half their grain. By the time the horse is caught, it's dark and the students are forced to ask the miller to put them up. He does, although there's only one room. The miller and his wife are in one bed, the students are in another, and the miller's twenty-year-old daughter is in a third. To get even with the miller for playing a trick on them, one of the students sleeps with the daughter, and the other with the wife, who thinks she is sleeping with the miller! When the miller finds out, he starts beating up Alan. The wife, thinking the two students are fighting, slams the miller on the head with a stick. The beating and cuckolding, says the Reeve, is what the miller deserves for being such a liar and cheat.

  As in the Miller's Tale, justice is done to those who deserve it, more or less. While the actions in the Reeve's Tale are just as farfetched as in the Miller's Tale, it is not as rollicking and funny, just as the Reeve is not as loud and boisterous as the Miller.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE COOK'S TALE

  Roger, the Cook, enjoys the Reeve's Tale so much he promises to top it with an even dirtier one that he swears is true. The Host warns kiddingly it had better be good to repay the pilgrims for the reheated pies the Cook has sold them. (As you see, payment is an important theme in this opening series of tales, which ends with this one.)

  The Cook's Tale can barely be called one, since it only consists of the opening lines. (Maybe Chaucer decided two dirty stories in a row was enough.) The Cook starts to tell of an apprentice cook, Perkin Reveler (Partyer) who'd rather dance, drink, and fool around than tend shop. His boss, worrying that this rotten apple could spoil the whole barrel (it was an old saying even then!), fires Perkin, who moves in with a friend who has the same wild habits. This friend has a wife who runs a shop as a front for her sexual goings-on. This is where the tales ends. (You might wish for it to continue!)

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE MAN OF LAW'S TALE

  Seeing that the day is almost a quarter over, the Host urges the Man of Law to tell a story, but the lawyer claims Chaucer already has covered all the best subjects in his poems (is Chaucer self-advertising here?). Nonetheless, the Man of Law prefaces his tale with a tirade against poverty, praising rich merchants who make and hoard their money.

  The tale, taken from an earlier fourteenth-century historian named Nicholas Trivet, is about Constance, the almost unbelievably long-suffering daughter of the Roman Emperor. She becomes engaged to the Sultan of Syria, a Muslim who vows to convert himself and his subjects to Christianity in order to marry Constance. It is an arranged marriage (the custom among royal families almost to this day), and Constance accepts it with great patience. The Sultan's mother, angry at her son's rejection of Islam, plans to have all the Christians murdered, including the Sultan, at the wedding feast. Constance is sent adrift on the sea.

  She lands in Northumberland in England, and she is taken in by a constable and his wife, both pagans. Constance converts them to Christianity but a knight sent by Satan kills the wife and plants the murder on Constance. He is mysteriously struck dead when he testifies against her, and the pagan king, Alla, is converted by the miracle and marries Constance. Again an evil royal mother intervenes to have their child killed, so Constance and her son return to the sea. They end up in Rome, eventually reunited with King Alla. Constance is also reunited with her father the Emperor.

  The tale is punctuated with commentary by the Man of Law, which helps us see the tale is partly intended as an allegory. Constance personifies the virtues of patience, loyalty ("constance") and acceptance of God's will despite incredible suffering. The allegory form, extremely popular in Chaucer's day, exaggerates Constance's virtues and her misfortunes to make a moral point about aspiring toward Christian perfection.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE FRIAR'S TALE

  The Friar offers a tale about a summoner, his professional enemy since summoners were members of the secular clergy and he, a friar, was a member of the regular clergy, outside the secular clergy's jurisdiction. The Host asks the Friar not to insult the Summoner but the Summoner promises to repay him.

  The tale is a medieval version of spies, double agents and blackmail, just as popular with Chaucer's audience as thrillers are with us today. A corrupt young summoner, whose job is to bring people into church court for religious offenses, has a network of stoolpigeons and prostitutes to spy on people and lure them into sin. He then extorts bribes from his victims to keep their slates clean. On his way to take money from an old woman, he meets a man as sleazy as himself, with whom he joins in partnership. The stranger--who has exactly the same characteristics as the summoner and even looks like him--admits he's a devil. The summoner, suddenly and ironically honorable, sticks to their pact. We learn that the devil can't damn anyone unless the curse is truly meant, so when the old woman cries, "the Devil take you," the fiend asks if she means it. She does, unless the summoner repents, which he won't, so he is instantl
y whisked off to hell. The point, says the Friar, is that summoners should become honest men.

  The tale is similar to the Pardoner's Tale in being a lesson of sorts. The character of the sex-and-tavern loving Friar, whom Chaucer pretends to admire in the Prologue, is matched by the hypocritical character in his story, who, like the Friar, can't see that certain low-life characteristics apply to him. The joke is as much on the Friar as it is on the Summoner.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SUMMONER'S TALE

  The Summoner is so furious he shakes like a leaf, and retaliates first by mentioning a friar whose vision of hell includes seeing millions of friars swarming around the Devil's rear end.

  The tale, grosser than the tale he's trying to pay back, is of a friar who is hypocrisy personified. Visiting a rich but sick man named Thomas, the friar gives a long sermon against anger, getting angrier as he goes on; against gluttony, having just asked Thomas's wife for an enormous meal; and in praise of poverty, while urging Thomas to give the friars all his money. He also pretends to have offered prayers he never delivered. Thomas, furious at being duped, tells the friar to reach for something hidden down his (Thomas') pants, then farts on him. The friar, like a spoiled child, runs to the lord and tells on Thomas, but the general consensus is that Thomas should share his "wealth" with the other friars as well!

  This pay-back scheme compares to the Miller and Reeve contest in one-upsmanship vulgarity. But the humor here also lies in the Summoner's use of scholarly religious discourse as a gross subject.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE CLERK'S TALE

  The Host tells the thoughtful Clerk to cheer up and tell a lively story. The Clerk agrees, saying his tale comes from the Italian poet Petrarch (who lived at the same time as Chaucer).

  Griselda is a beautiful, virtuous peasant woman whom the king, Walter, decides to marry. She is obedient to his every wish, but Walter develops an over-riding need to test her patience and loyalty. First he takes their first child, a baby girl, and later their son. He lets Griselda believe the children have been killed, though in fact he has sent them to another town. Finally he says she's too low-class, so he sends her back to her poor father--then brings her back to the palace to help in preparations for his marriage to a new, nobly-born wife! In fact, he has sent for the children's return, and Griselda doesn't know the new "bride" is really her daughter. Walter reveals the children's identities, and restores Griselda to the throne, convinced at last of her patience and fortitude. Through the whole thing Griselda doesn't complain once.

  This tale, like the Man of Law's, is a long ode (based on Petrarch's distillation of a Boccaccio story) to a single virtue, in this case patience. Like Constance, Griselda is almost saintlike in her embodiment of virtue. But though you might be tempted to dismiss Griselda as a doormat, notice that this tale is an answer to the Wife of Bath's argument that women should control a marriage. Griselda and Walter both exhibit single-mindedness, Walter in his determination to test his wife, Griselda in her steadfast patience. Perhaps they're better suited to each other than we thought at first!

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE MERCHANT'S TALE

  The Merchant admits his wife is hardly like Griselda; in fact, his two months of marriage have been hell. His tale, therefore, ties in with his character because it tells of the pitfalls of expecting too much of a marriage.

  January, a rich knight, turns sixty and suddenly decides to marry. He lists examples of "good" women, all of whom ironically were responsible for a man's downfall. He gets pro and con advice from two friends, Justinus ("just one") and Placebo ("flatterer"), the "just" man arguing against and the other for. January settles on young May (the winter/spring distinction) as his bride, and enjoys his wedding night although Chaucer makes him look rather foolish. May falls for Damian, a young squire who is sick with love for her; January suddenly goes blind and won't let May leave his side. In January's walled garden, May arranges for Damian to climb a certain pear tree. Telling January she's climbing the tree to get him a pear, she scampers up. Meanwhile, the gods--Pluto and his wife Proserpina--take male and female sides in the argument. Pluto has January's sight return just as May and Damian embrace in the tree; Proserpina provides May with a fast-talking excuse, that January's eyes are deceiving him since he is still unused to the light.

  The tale echoes the Miller's in the plot of old man/young wife and her plans for infidelity. Chaucer combines standard medieval set-ups (the age difference; the view of arguing gods, as in the Knight's Tale; the walled garden; and the pear tree, symbolizing sex) for a tale that is almost allegorical but carries a bitter tone because of the Merchant's own situation.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SQUIRE'S TALE

  The Squire refuses to tell a love story but says he'll tell something as best he can.

  The tale, unfinished, is a mystical one about a magical horse, mirror, ring, and sword that Gawain, an unknown knight, presents to the king of Tartary at a feast. The brass horse can fly anywhere; the mirror can show past, future, or any lover's unfaithfulness; the ring gives the wearer knowledge of the birds' language; the sword cuts through anything. The ring is given to Canacee, the king's daughter, who wears it into the garden and uses it to hear a sad female hawk who has been jilted by her lover. Canacee nurses the hawk back to health. The Squire then promises to tell of the other magic gifts, of battles and the king and his sons, but the Franklin interrupts.

  The Squire's personality is reflected in this rambling tale because he has travelled to the Far East, where the tale takes place, and is a devoted follower of courtly love. Like his father the Knight, he packs his tale with description and detail of wonderful occult events from Eastern folk tales, with a smattering of Arthurian legend.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE FRANKLIN'S TALE

  The Franklin compliments the Squire's qualities and wishes his son were more like him. His tale, though, won't be as colorful or as well-spoken as the Squire's, since he is a plain speaker.

  He tells of the faithful Dorigen who is grief-stricken when her husband, Arveragus, goes away to battle. While he's gone, she paces the rockstrewn Brittany cliffs. She doesn't know that Aurelius, a squire living nearby, is madly in love with her, which he finally tells her. She rejects him, but he's so upset that she kiddingly says she'll love him when he makes all the rocks on the coast disappear. Knowing that's impossible, Aurelius falls ill from unrequited love and stays in bed for two years, while Arveragus returns to his happy wife. But Aurelius' brother, worried, knows a magician to whom Aurelius promises 1000 pounds if he can make the rocks disappear. The magician creates the illusion that they're gone, and Dorigen is horrified when she learns she must keep her promise. She tells her husband what has happened. Faithful to his knightly sense of honor, Arveragus insists she keep her promise. But when Dorigen sadly goes to Aurelius, he is so impressed with Arveragus' nobility that he sends her home. Meanwhile, Aurelius can't afford to pay the rest of the money he owes the magician. The magician, in turn, is moved by the story and tells Aurelius to forget the money. The Franklin ends by asking, Which of these is the most noble gentleman?

  The tale is rich in symbols and wordplay. Dorigen's marriage is based on "trouthe" (truth, loyalty), the first virtue of the Knight whom Chaucer idealizes in the Prologue. Marriage here is a sensible middle ground between the Wife of Bath's idea of domination and the Clerk's notion of total submission. The loosely-adapted breton lai (Brittany tale) is based on Boccaccio and brings up questions of promises and inner nobility.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE PHYSICIAN'S TALE

  Virginius, a rich, noble knight, has a beautiful daughter, Virginia, whom Nature has blessed with a nearly perfect body. She is the picture of virtue (the Physician here inserts a lecture about bringing up children). An evil judge, Appius, sees Virginia and wants to have her, but knows he must resort to underhandedness to get her. He gets a local scoundrel, Claudius, to say in court that Virginia was actually his servant girl whom Virginius had stolen from h
is house years before. Before Virginius can protest, Appius announces he will take Virginia as a ward of the court. Rather than submit, Virginius tells his daughter she must die, which she accepts. When Virginius brings his daughter's head to Appius, the judge orders that he be hanged. But a crowd, furious at the judge's treachery, throws him into jail where he hangs himself. Claudius' life is spared only because Virginius pleads for him; instead, he's exiled.

  The tale, about "the wages of sin," comes from Livy, the Roman historian. But Chaucer gets it through the French Romance of the Rose, which he translated. The tale is somewhat appropriate to the Physician, who spends a great deal of time describing the way Nature has created Virginia's perfect anatomy, perhaps out of professional interest. (The passage takes the form of a classical statement by the Goddess Nature, who helps God in creation.)

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SHIPMAN'S TALE