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1-1-1975 Unity in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: A Study of Interrelationships in Four Pairs of Tales. Carole K. Brown

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Recommended Citation Brown, Carole K., "Unity in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: A Study of Interrelationships in Four Pairs of Tales." (1975). Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1806.

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by Carole K. Brown

A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Committee ©f Lehigh University in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts in English

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"1 ii Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge my advisor, Peter G. Beidler, who, with the gift of teaching, opened the riches of Chaucer for me. Most helpful as an advisor are Professor Beidler's steady encouragement and cogent but kind criticism.

111 Table of Contents Page Certificate of Approval ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract 1 Chapter One: Introduction: Unity in the Canterbury Tales 4 Chapter Two: Madame Eglantyne's "Quite": The Linking of the Shipmanf s Tale with the Prioress's Tale 31 Chapter Three: Mirrors of Morality: The Linking ©f the Wife of Bath's Tale with the Friar's Tale 45 Chapter Pour: Tales in Tandem: The Linking of the Clerk's Tale with the Merchant's Tale... 7J5 Chapter Five: Alys' "Quite": The Pairing of the Nun's Priest's Tale with the Wife of Bath's Tale 129 Chapter Six: Conclusion 180 Bibliography 184 Vita 206

iv Abstract

Title: "Unity In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales : A Study of Interrelationships In Four Pairs of Tales" Presented By: Carole K. Brown Thesis Director: Peter G. Beidler, Associate Professor of English

Chaucerian scholarship lacks a systematic study of how Chaucer pairs individual stories within the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer seems to have been mindful of five major principles when juxtaposing tales. These principles, which are mutually interdependent but which can be considered as separate facets, are (1) that the moral of one tale may reflect back, commenting on the substance of the previous tale; (2) that themes are woven among and between tales, until at the end the Parson can "knytte up al this feeste" (I 47); (3) that plot lines and characters show significant parallels; (4) that the structural form and literary type are meaningfully similar or contrasting;and (5) that pairing specific tales develops the characterization of the tellers. Three tales in Fragment VII and the Marriage Group, considered in conjunction with tales to which they are 1 linked, show that Chaucer employs these principles in joining linked tales. In the first pair, the moral of the Prioress's Tale casts critical light on the immoral world of the Shipman's Tale in which evil goes unpunished. Her implicit "quite" is furthered by providing the little "clergeon" and his widowed mother as a foil for the "mayde child" who is governed by the immoral merchant's wife in the Shipman's Tale. Secondly, the Wife's story is as meaningfully linked to the Friar's story as the Knight's Tale is to the Miller's Tale. The most striking affinity is an extensive character-plot parallel. Each story centers on the progressive relationship which develops between a mortal and a supernatural moral instructor. With a Boethian treatment of good and evil, Chaucer links these stories which function as mirrors of morality, transcending Alys' and Hubert's personality clash. In the third linked pair, the Merchant and Clerk as narrators are similarly realistic and moderate despite their contrary characterizations in the General Prologue. The Merchant upholds medieval values similar to the Clerk's; the Merchant, however, relates his story of January who is the antithesis a*id this ideal, serving as a foil for the Clerk's Grisilda who is the embodiment of the ideal. Because the morals and six themes function in 2 tandem, these stories form a meaningful diptych, showing the recto and verso of spiritual and physical life and death. The same five principles Chaucer uses to juxtapose the above three pairs of linked tales are followed in the stories paired by the "Bradshaw shift," the Nun1s Priest's Tale and the Wife's performance. The Wife "outclerks" the Nun's Priest by following his orthodox story of the fall with her story of the fall in which a knight is heretically redeemed. In addition to featuring a moral contrary to the Nun's Priest's, Alys personally takes on the hero of the preceding story. The characterization of the tellers is mutually enriched by the juxtaposition of their tales. While Alys "quites" the Nun's Priest, his command to "lat the chaf be stille" (B2 344?) subtly reinterates his moral by telling women to be silent. My study supplies added internal evidence for the "Bradshaw shift" and simultaneously confirms the organic unity of the Canterbury Tales. Chapter One: Introduction: Unity in The Canterbury Tales

Despite the fact that the Canterbury Tales is composed of ten fragments, Chaucerian research increasingly reveals a pervasive unity both within and between fragments. This unity is more comprehensive than the organic tale-teller relationship. Severs has outlined two principles for approaching individual tales which suggest a third principle for this study. He writes that Chaucer put a double demand on every line of his stories in the Canterbury Tales, "that is, artistic appropriateness in the tale itself and to the character telling it." But while we maintain an awareness of this dramatic affinity, we must also recognize that the stories are a series of mutually interrelated tales. If our awareness is expanded to appreciate each individual tale in conjunction with its linked neighbor within its fragment, then with those in its neighboring fragment(s), and finally within the entire Canterbury Tales, we will discover additional confirmations of Chaucer's aesthetic and dramatic unity. The third demand, then, that Chaucer placed on each tale is artistic, appropriateness within the context of its fragment, its neighboring fragment(s), and the entire Canterbury Tales. 4 If we are to consider the Canterbury Tales as a whole, with attention to progressive and dynamic development, there must be some relatively reliable arrangement of the ten fragments. While we discuss this, we must bear in mind that the blueprint for the pilgrims' stories which is set up by Harry Bailley is not brought to completion. Harry's origional plan is given in the General Prologue;

This is the poynt, to speken short and pleyn, That ech of yow, to shorte with oure weye, In this viage shal telle tales tweye To Caunterbury-ward, I mene it so, And homward he shal tellen othere two, Of aventures that whilom han bifalle. (A 795)

But the troupe does not reach Canterbury; moreover, as Robinson notes, "only twenty-three of the thirty pilgrims get their turn." All we have, then, is twenty-three stories which are grouped into ten separate fragments. Pratt has correlated internal evidence as well as synthesizing and evaluating recent scholarship on the tale order of the ten fragments. He concludes that there are sufficient links between fragments, references to earlier happenings on the pilgrimage, and allusions to time and place to recommend the Ellesmere order, modified by the 4 1 "Bradshaw shift." /'Although it is not reasonable to expect absolute proof of any tale order, my own study, I 5 believe, will provide additional internal evidence justifying the "Bradshaw shift," — that is, placing Fragment VII before the Marriage Group (Fragments III, IV, and V). Pratt suggests that by studying the progression of the tales within these four fragments, additional internal evidence will support the "Bradshaw shift": "the NP-Wife sequence, as four critics have independently pointed out, rings true and suggests that Chaucer's sense of dramatic continuity and climax was far richer than editors have so far encouraged us to see. Hence I believe that the proposed 'Chaucerian' order offers positive artistic values and interlocking of themes and ideas, inherent in the order of no MS. or printed text, which reveal the actual intention of the poet." If we are to unearth clues signaling Chaucer's concept of unity, the logical starting point is a consideration of those tales that Chaucer, without any doubt, linked within fragments. The tale pairings between fragments, then, are rightly the next consideration. This approach, moreover, should not only increase appreciation for the artistic suitability within fragments, but also expose the principles by which Chaucer juxtaposed tales. These Chaucerian principles, in turn, should help us to verify or question a fragment order. On the question of unity in the Canterbury Tales, 6 scholarship has opened the subject but not exhausted it. As Muscatine notes, "criticism has detected (or suspected) a whole web of . . . relationships among the tales, in genre, subject, plot, characterization, and so on."' Unity is seen in general terms by Lawrence who notes "the elaboration of the framework itself . . . [and the] close o connection with the individual tales." A more specific pattern of contrast within the graphic pilgrimage sequence appears as the principle of arrangement for Preston: "the design is first a visual one, a pattern of colour on the road to Canterbury, and even, as the early illustrators observed, a pattern of good and bad horses. ii 9 Salter also mentions contrast but calls it a universal artistic principle, for "no artist can dispense with contrast." If the Canterbury Tales were completed, he reasons, "we should have found every part of it subordinated to one large, overwhelming moral purpose." Hussey views Chaucer's use of contrast in the Canterbury Tales as either the alternation of serious and comic tales or the "tension between auctoritee and pref, what the books will tell you and what experience demonstrates to be the case."11 Lawlor sees beyond the superficial interpretation of contrast by suggesting that "above all we should attend to the larger principle of contrast within the collection 7 taken as a whole — the clash of contraries affording an illustration of life as we know it, in which piety and obscenity, knockabout farce and solemn submission to Destiny, exist not so much in mutual opposition as in general and cumulative testimony to man's many-sided nature." 12 Muscatine spells out this principle of contrast by citing Chaucer's "passion for relationships," and by stressing that "the over-all structure of the work, the linear sequence of discrete stories in various styles, meets this passion perfectly." ^ Jordan endorses what he terms Muscatine's "rather sketchy but provocative lead . . . [emphasizing] structural characteristics, particularly the principle of juxtaposition." Other critics cite unifying themes in the Canterbury Tales. For Huppe it is "the vision of God's order [which] illumines and organizes [God's] plenty" while Legouis names love and religion as the dominant factors. Tupper finds love the cohesive theme: "In 'The Canterbury Tales,' still under the auspices of Venus (for is she not the planet of pilgrims?), he so enlarges his plan as to portray from many points of view this ruling passion -- chivalric love, the love of churls, married love in its many phases, religious love with its mastery of the flesh."' Also seeing love as significant, Coghill speaks of the "organizing element" as a large, not overly precise 8 "approach to the whole question of love-making," after more explicitly stating that the basis of unity in the pilgrims' tales "is their almost unfailing power to exemplify and expand what we have already been told of the 18 pilgrims that tell them." In line with this, Robertson mentions that love is individually shown in each teller but comments that Chaucer's "arrangement is a matter of implicit thematic development and is not the result of any outwardly established system. The unity of the collection as a whole is left implicit rather than explicit. I! 19 Both Kittredge and Bronson stress the dramatic coherence of the Canterbury Tales which results from the dynamic interplay of the pilgrims. Kittredge calls the Canterbury Tales a "microcosmography, a little image of the great world." 20 He states, moreover, this intricate interrelationship: "the story of any pilgrim may be affected or determined, — in its contents, or in the manner of telling, or in both, -- not only by his character in general, but also by the circumstances, by the situation, by his momentary relations to the others in the company, or even by something in a tale that has come 21 before." Also stressing the interaction of the pilgrims, Bronson decides that Chaucer "depends on hostility for the dynamics of his 'drama,'" but cites the pervasive "spirit of geniality and good-humor" in the 9 Canterbury Tales as a whole. 22 This is a significant statement for my study, as I believe there are implicit "quites" which further extend the dramatic interplay among the Canterbury pilgrims. The manuscript evidence is evaluated by Hammond who theorizes that Chaucer added the overtly quarreling pilgrims -- Miller, Reeve, Pardoner, Summoner, and Manciple -- at a later stage in his composition of the Canterbury Tales in order to increase its dramatic quality. The stories of these pilgrims are uniformly placed at the end of their respective fragments. 23^ Harry Bailley is credited by Malone as being "the link between the individual tales and the story of the pilgrimage. He makes the wheels go round. Through him a collection of tales becomes a unified work of art." 24 Baugh and Page agree. Baugh puts it: "above all it is Harry Bailley, the capable and forthright proprietor of the Tabard Inn, who keeps everything moving, who regulates the journey, calls on the pilgrims for their tales, comments freely on both tale and teller, and holds the whole series of stories together." Page sees Harry /— Bailley's role as "not only ... a convenient device by which the frame story of the Tales is organized, but also the figure through which the so-called two worlds of the travellers and tales — that is, the dramatic and thematic 10 aspects -- are unified." 26 Shelly concurs in finding the Host the "common denominator" of the pilgrims, knitting them together, but expands his concept of Chaucer's unity in the Canterbury Tales to include not just the Host but also the links and head links with which the tales "are woven together to make a unified and living drama, the tales growing out of the links, and the links out of the tales, and both springing from the characters of the various pilgrims." 27 The above attempts to discern organizing principles are not mutually exclusive; Chaucer is capable of working with many unifying themes simultaneously, artistically varying the degree of intensity. Payne in The Key of Remembrance cogently states the challenge and the limits of finding the "key" to the Canterbury Tales: "although we do not and cannot ever know clearly the 'theme' of the Canterbury Tales, it is virtually impossible to read them without trying to formulate one (or some), and seeing pieces of structure in some clusters of tales which seem to be thematically or stylistically connected." He concludes that "the ruins we have of the Canterbury Tales do belong to a structure. Their form is a 'disposition' in the medieval sense; an arrangment which suggests values or ideas that can be developed by the way in which the basic structure is amplified." He later suggests that 11 Chaucer intended a "multiple, complex, and probably ironically overlaid structure in the finished work." Unity has also been sought by scholars within smaller segments of the Canterbury Tales. Stokoe finds artistic integrity within Fragment I in the different ways the tellers relate stories with similar plot lines in the Knight's Tale and Miller's Tale. He also recognizes that the next two tales naturally grow out of this clash. Additionally, Stokoe suggests thematic ties--youth and 29 age, romance and realism. Also finding coherence in the first fragment, Owen notes that parallelism, paradox and themes unify, 30 while more recently Kean cites the Knight's Tale and the Miller's Tale as "elaborately linked" within Fragment I. Turning to Fragment VII, Robinson sees "no principle of arrangement save that of contrast or variety" while Lawlor calls the fragment "a fully articulated series of six tales."-^ Lumiansky notes the "regular rise and fall in the Host's spirits, with the humorous deflating of the

Host as a steady theme running through" Fragments I, II, 0 and VII to pattern a dramatic unity. Commenting on Fragment VII, he notes that "in many ways [it is] as carefully prepared a fragment of the Canterbury collection as is the first."-5 In this he follows the lead of Kittredge who called Fragment VII "admirably organized" 12 and placed it with Fragments III, TV and V as "two acts ... so completely wrought that we may study their dramatic structure with confidence.' This fragment is called the "Surprise Group" by Baum who discusses more than contrast in Chaucer's tale pairings, stressing the "element of surprise and 36 reversal," beginning and ending in the "best of humor." Gaylord later terms the fragment the "Literature Group" (see conclusion of this introduction). Corsa also suggests meaningful pairings in Fragments I, VII and the Marriage Group, although she sidesteps the question of fragment order.-*' Preston, also hesitant to find a unifying theme (notwithstanding his comment above), makes a deprecating comment about Fragment VII: "there is one sequence with such a miscellany of form and style that tales seem to be contrasted in every way and tellers to reveal themselves, if at all, indirectly: so that the Shipman and the Poet and their company do so very much less or so very much more than express themselves, that ii 33 they remain the least of all. ^ My study will contradict Preston's vague statement by showing Chaucer's artistic hand behind the seeming "miscellany" and the rich characterization issuing from his arrangement of pilgrims and their tales in Fragment VII. Looking only at Fragment V, Berger finds a close

13 tale-teller relationship in the Squire's Tale and the O Franklin's Tale, for in addition to being "dramatically and dialectically connected, the Franklin's Tale [is], in effect, an answer to -- or at least an instructive modification of — the Squire's attitude toward life."^ Dramatic and thematic relationships in Fragments III, 40 IV, and V as discussed by Kittredge in his well-known1-kr 1912 article, "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage, „41 stimulated a spate of articles in reaction. As I shall show more fully in the final chapter concerning the pairing of the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, critics are generally willing to expand the so-called Marriage Group to include several tales in Fragment VII. This fragment is relocated immediately before III, IV and V by the "Bradshaw shift." Among the tales mentioned which qarry out the themes of marriage-- sovereignty vs. free will, what women desire, wo vs. bliss, order vs. disorder, and other related aspects considered in full in the final chapter--are the Shipman's Tale, Melibeus, the Melibeus-Monk Link, aspects of the Monk's Tale, and the Nun's Priest's Tale. 42 Further criticism deals with meaningful pairings between fragments without Chaucerian links. Beidler's article, "The Pairing of the Franklin's Tale and the Physician's Tale" cites internal evidence showing 14 functional pairing and revealing the limiting nature of Klttredge's Marriage Group. The two heroines, Dorlgen and Virginia, in their .respective tales handle a similar situation differently, thereby revealing their characters. Virginia's integrity and firm resolve contrast with Dorigen's shallowness. 43 This similar narrative strand shows that there is not a clefyage between the two fragments, helping to verify placing Fragment VI (in which there are no allusions to time or place) after Group V. Grennen focuses on unity of theme and imagery in Fragment VIII (Second Nun's Tale and Canon's Yeoman's Tale). Grennen's thesis is that "the Second Nun's Tale is an adaptation of the legend of St. Cecilia created by Chaucer to s-tand against the 'confusion' of alchemy brilliantly portrayed in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale." This is based on his assumption that Chaucer viewed alchemy as a perversion of Christianity and as a "profane parody" of creation. More tenuous is Grennen's basing his article on the assumption that St. Cecelia's legend shows similarities with the "chemical wedding," defined by Grennen as "an important branch of alchemical allegory." With more insight, Rosenberg illumines Chaucer's meaningful juxtaposition in this fragment by noting verbal contraries and the contrasting use of themes. ^ (I shall discuss this more fully below). 15 Continuity between the final two fragments, IX and X, is explored by Shumaker, calling them a "natural and consciously intended group . . . full of meaningful implications." In Shumaker's argument the Manciple's Prologue prepares us for the moral against loose, unrestricted speaking by showing his own inability to "maintain the attitude dictated by his moral convictions. it 47' The Parson's Tale, in his view, then stands in organic relationship to the Manciple's Prologue and Tale by speaking of God "in honour and preyere" (H 331), the only form of excessive speaking allowed by the Manciple's standards. Shumaker concludes that the Retraction is to be seen as Chaucer's willingness "to sustain his moral thesis unconditionally, outside the limits of his aesthetic structure." 48 Shumaker does not note another meaningful inherent contrast in the Manciple's and Parson's Tales which concerns their respective assessments of human nature, a broader issue than their individual ability to contradict or live out the morals of their stories. I find it particularly apposite that the final two tales of the Canterbury collection include general statements of human nature which are diametrically opposed. The Manciple's view is pessimistic:

Plessh is so newefangel, with meschaunce, 16 That we ne konne in nothyng han plesaunce That sowneth into vertu any while. (H 195)

His portrait in the General Prologue bears out either his inability or his unwillingness to maintain "vertue":

A gentil MAUNCIPLE was ther of a temple, Of which achatours myghte take exemple For to be wise in byynge of vitaille; For wheither that he payde or took by taille, Algate he wayted so in his achaat That he was ay biforn and in good statt. (A 572)

The Manciple's assessment of human nature cuts a meaningful contrast to the Parson's optimistic stance with which Chaucer concludes the Canterbury Tales: "Agayns the wanhope that he demeth that he sholde nat longe perservere in goodnesse, he shal thynke that the feblesse of the devel may nothyng doon, but if men wol suffren hym;/ and eek he shal han strengthe of the help of God, and of al hooly chirche, and of the proteccioun of aungels, if hym list" (X 1075). The Parson's character, presented in the General Prologue, verifies that "first he wroghte, and afterward he taughte" (A 497). This additional juxtaposition, therefore, of the two general views of human nature, nicely borne out in the pilgrims' respective lives, is another example of Chaucer's implicit moral comment. With a different approach, Baldwin studies the 17 relationship between the General Prologue and Fragment X in an important book, The Unity of the Canterbury Tales. Baldwin maintains that "the G_P and the Knight's Tale on the one hand, and the Parson's Tale and the Retraction on the other, constitute the two undeniable supports of the Canterbury Tales, indissolubly linked by Chaucer's design and structure to the unfinished whole that is a 4Q Pilgrimage." Hoffman concentrates on only the General Prologue, deciding that the unity provided by the framework is intensified by the theme of love (earthly and celestial, destructive and restorative) and "a general complex intermingling of the consideration of nature with the consideration of supernature. 50 Although some of the scholarship concerning unity in the Canterbury Tales is helpful, little of it concentrates on Chaucer's strategic pairing of the tales, a concentration which is necessary for an understanding of the principles by which Chaucer structured the entire Canterbury Tales. Before exploring examples of Chaucer's juxtaposition, it will be helpful to suggest five major principles which he seems to have kept in mind when he put two tales together. Chaucer's five principles, which are mutually interdependent but which can be considered as separate facets, are (1) that the moral of one tale may reflect 18 back, commenting on the substance of the previous tale; (2) that themes are woven back and forth among and between tales, until at the end the Parson can "knytte up al this feeste" (I 47); (3) that plot lines and characters show significant parallels — through similarity or through contrast; (4) that the structural form and literary type of paired tales are similar or contrasting and that their position in the Canterbury Tales may have significance; and (5) that paired tales help further to develop the characters of the tellers. Chaucer's first principle of pairing tales, that the moral of one tale may make comment on the preceding tale, is a natural result of Chaucer's creative pattern. He consistently shapes everything within a story to intensify his chosen point. When the tales are paired, then, the contrasting or reflecting morals are purposefully thrown into relief by each other. I will discuss this principle in the Prioress' story in the next chapter and the Wife of Bath's story in the final chapter. We will also see that the moral of the Merchant's Tale nicely supplements the clerk's moral. Not only does Chaucer wisely fashion and place the morals of the tales, but he also provides themes which help to tighten literary and dramatic relationships in the Canterbury collection. Some prominent themes that we will 19 find binding paired tales are: order vs. disorder, experience vs. authority, genti^Lesse vs. hypocrisy, sight vs. insight (in some contexts called appearance vs. reality), wo y_s. bliss, sovereignty y_s_. free will,and good wifely counsel vs. bad wifely counsel. Rosenberg provides us with an example of the sight y_s_. \sight theme in Fragment VIII. He finds that Chaucer juxtaposes the polarities of physical sight and spiritual insight in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale and the Second Nun's Tale. Reality, "the divine, the real is the God who cannot be seen," is comprehended only with spiritual insight in the Second Nun's story. Mere corporeal sight is equated with blindness. In Fragment VIII, "appearance deceives and the real is often unperceived." This is so in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale in which "the Yeoman, the Canon, and the priest he dupes all suffer from . . . [spiritual] 51 blindness . . . Alchemy perverted distorts all sight." Character and plot parallels also bind the juxtaposed tales dealt with in my study. This principle is also strikingly pervasive in paired tales throughout the Canterbury Tales. The first example is in the first pair of linked tales. Two men compete for one woman in both the Knight's Tale and the Miller's Tale. Rich humor arises from the striking differences between the Knight's courtly, non-verbal Emily, 52 who has only linear 20 characterization, and the fully characterized Alisoun in the Miller's Tale who is described with barnyard imagery: "But of hir song, it was as loude and yerne/ As any swalwe sittynge on a berne" (A 3258). And ringing in our ears is the memorable line, "'Teheel' quod she, and clapte the wyndow to" (A 37^0). Additionally, as we have seen above, the similar circumstances of Dorigen and Virginia in the paired tales of the Franklin and Physician highlight their contrasting moral constitutions. Chaucer's fourth principle of paired tales—that they are juxtaposed with an eye to literary type and structure —heavily relies on contrast. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer includes heterogeneous "literary types that make up the great body of Middle English literature." Often religious tales are paired with secular ones; frequently entertaining stories are followed by didactic ones. The only two instances where Chaucer consecutively repeats literary types are in setting up a dramatic occasion to make the repeat not monotonous but effective. This is true in the paired fabliaux of the Miller, Reeve (Fragment I) and the Friar, Summoner (Fragment III), both pairs of fabliaux following a romance. Structurally Chaucer has meaningfully placed tales within his created frame. I will discuss Chaucer's placing of the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Friar's Tale in the context of the whole 21 Canterbury collection. At other times, Chaucer seems to have been mindful of structural contrast between tales. The structural forms of the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Nun's Priest's Tale, as I will show in Chapter Pour, mirror each other. Finally, Chaucer heightens the tellers' characterization by pairing the stories they relate. This provides the setting for revealing dialogue; we see persons in action who have been merely described in the General Prologue. The first three principles especially contribute toward teller characterization as we must be mindful that each tale is filtered through the teller's individual perception of reality. If the moral of one tale reflects back on the preceding tale, this communicates that teller's values and personality. Likewise, thematic treatment and character-plot parallels reveal the narrator's nature. Virtually everything in the Canterbury Tales contributes to Chaucer's progressively complex characterization of his pilgrims. Some critics oversimplify Chaucer's pairing process by saying that he juxtaposes tales according to contrast. It is true that Chaucer intensifies our delight by positioning opposites—secular and religious tales are often paired; he intersperses the "cherles" with the "gentils" showing a balance of social classes; physically 22 the tellers are often strikingly difference in appearance; also/ (assuming that Pratt is recommending the genuine Chaucerian order), the three female pilgrims' tales are flanked by tales told by male pilgrims. Because the principle of contrast pervades every aspect of the Canterbury Tales, it is not reasonable to consider it in isolation. It is an important, implicit technique in each of the five pairing principles. Three tales, considered in conjunction with tales to which they are paired, show that Chaucer employed the five principles above in joining linked tales; we also see that he employed these five principles in pairing the Nun's Priest's Tale with the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, and so we can conclude that this provides additional evidence for the "Bradshaw shift." One linked pair in Fragment VII will be studied, the Shlpman's Tale and the Prioress's Tale. Two linked pairs are from the Marriage Group, the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Friar's Tale in Fragment III and the Clerk's Tale and the Merchant's Tale in Fragment IV. In my concluding chapter I shall deal with the pairing of the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, citing internal evidence for closing the gap between Fragment VII and the Marriage Group. I have excluded the linking of the tales of the openly belligerent pilgrims—the Miller and the Reeve, the 23 Friar and the Summoner—because their dramatic juxtaposition has been cogently analyzed elsewhere^ and their linkage is obvious. It is the simultaneous awareness of the obvious "skating on the surfaces" and of the rich, implicit undercurrents that provides one of the ample rewards in studying Chaucer. Gaylord has underlined this in considering the cohesiveness of Fragment VII with particular attention given to Harry Bailley's function in the links. In calling this fragment the "Literature Group," he documents the Host's structuring the tales so that they alternate between mirth ("solas") and morality ("sentence"). Gaylord/ is not willing, however, to recognize this as the only key to unity, alerting us to the "Master of Indirection" — Chaucer. Gaylord's conclusion is a fitting challenge and appropriate starting point for this study: "the reader can continue to explore in this fragment the abounding world of themes and characters, held together with 'best sentence and moost solaas,' which the artist, in the fulness of his own responsibility, has provided all those who have eyes to see, ears to hear." 55

24 Notes

All line references and quotations from Chaucer are taken from P. N. Robinson's second edition of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1957)• When I quote more than one line, I will give the number of only the last line. 2J. Burke Severs, "Is the 'Manciple's Tale' a Success?" JEGP, 51 (1952), 16. -%. N. Robinson, P. 2. Robert A. Pratt, "The Order of the Canterbury Tales," PMLA, 66 (1951), 1141-1167. ^For reference throughout my thesis, the chart below lists the two designations for the ten sections of the Canterbury Tales and the tales Included in each section. Hereafter references to sections will be designated only by fragment number. Fragment Group Tales and Links 1 A General Prologue; Knight's Tale; Miller's Prologue and Tale;~Reeve' s' Prologue and Tale; Cook's Prologue and (unfinished) Tale. II B Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale; The Man of LavJH's Prologue, Tale and" Epilogue. Ill D Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale; Friar's FroTogue and Tale; Summoner's Prologue and Tale. IV E Clerk's Prologue and Tale; Merchant'3 Prologue, Tale and Epilogue. V F Squire's Prorogue and Tale; Introduction to the Franklin's Tale; Franklin1s Prologue and Tale". VI C Physician's Tale; Words of the Host; Pardoner's Prologue and Tale.

25 Fragment Group Tales and Links p VII B Shipman's Tale, Introduction to the Prioress's TaTe, Prioress's Prologue and Tale; Prologue to Sir Thopas, Prologue to MeTTbee, Tale of"~Mellbee; Monk's Prologue and Tale; Nun' s~~Prlest *s Prologue and Tale. VIII G Second Nun's Prologue and Tale; Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and" Tale, IX H Manciple's Prologue and Tale. X I Parson's Prologue and Tale; Retractation. 6Pratt, p. 1167. 7 'Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957), P. 222. 8 William Witherle Lawrence, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950;, p. is: 9 Raymond Preston, Chaucer (London and New York: Sheed and Ward, 1952), p. 154. F. M. Salter, "The Tragic Figure of the Wyf of Bath," PTRSE, 3 48, (1954), 5. 11 , S. S. Hussey, Chaucer: An Introduction (London: Methuen, 1971), p. lS5^ 12 John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1968), p. TJT. 15Muscatine, p. 22?. 14 Robert M. Jordan, Chaucer and the Shape of Creation: The Aesthetic Possibilities of Inorganic Structure (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, T9b7), P• 46. 15 Bernard F. Huppe, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (New York: State University of New York", 19o4;, p. 240. 1 fi Emile Legouis, Geoffrey Chaucer, trans. L. Lailavolx (New York: Russell and Russell, 1915, 1961), p. 153* 26 'Frederick Tupper, "Saint Venus and the Canterbury Pilgrims," Nation, 97 (Oct. 16, 1915), 354. 18 Neville Coghill, The Poet Chaucer (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1949)* PP« 166, 127. 19 D. W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), pp. 502, 285. 20 George Lyraan Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1915, 1933), p. 158. 21 Kittredge, p. 156. 22 Bertrand H. Bronson, In Search of Chaucer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, I960), pp. 61, 66. 23 Eleanor Prescott Hammond, Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual (New York: Peter Smith, 190S, 19337, PP« 254-55- 24 Kemp Malone, Chapters on Chaucer (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press"^ 1951), P» 196. 25 Albert C. Baugh, Chaucer's Major Poetry (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963), p. 235. 26 Barbara Page, "Concerning the Host," CR, 4 (1969), 13. ~~ 27 Percy Van Dyke Shelly, The Living Chaucer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 194o), pp. 228, 212. See also p. 205. 23 Robert 0. Payne, The Key of Remembrance: A Study of Chaucer's Poetics (New Haven ancTLondon: Yale University Press, 1963), PP. 149, 152. 29 William C. Stokoe, Jr., .. Structure and Intention in the First Fragment of the Canterbury Tales," UTQ, 21 (1952), 127. 30 Charles A. Owen, Jr., Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: Aesthetic Design in Stories of the First Day," ES,"~35 (1954), 49-56. ~ 31 P.M. Kean, The Art of Narrative: Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry, vol. 2 (London, Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), p. 94. 27 -^Robinson, p. 11. 33 -^Lawlor, p. 172, fn. 15. y R. M. Lumiansky, 'The Nun's Priest In The Canterbury Tales," PMLA, 68 (1953), 897- 55Kittredge, pp. 147, 167. 36 Paull F. Baum, Chaucer: A Critical Appreciation (Durham: Duke University Press, ±95ti), pp. 74, »4. 37 Helen Storm Corsa, Chaucer: Poet of Mirth and Morality (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964)7 p. 74. 38 Preston, pp. 150-51. 39 Harry Berger, Jr., "The F-Fragraent of the Canterbury Tales: Part I,ff CR, 1 (1966), 88. 40 Tatlock confirms that Fragments IV and V have consistently been considered a Chaucerian unit: "the certain form of the Merch-Sq link (E 2419-F 8) proves that E and F are a unit; so far as I know, it has never been doubted that the first part of this link is meant to follow the Merchant's Tale and the last to introduce the Squires' and it is a positive fact that the MSS. are unanimous for it as a unit" ("The Canterbury Tales in 1400," PMLA, 50 [1935], 122). 4l George Lyraan Kittredge, "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," in Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. Edward Wagenknecht [London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp. 188-215. 42 Howard cautions us to see the Marriage Group in light of the Parson's Tale. The Parson makes three points: woman should be subject unto her husband as "felawe unto man" (I 928); if woman has the mastery, she causes "muche desray" (I §26); woman should serve man in honesty (Donald R. Howard, "The Conclusion of the Marriage Group: Chaucer and the Human Condition," MP, 57 [I960], 223-32.) Also viewing the medieval conception of marriage from a helpful view point, Kean calls it a perfecting, unifying social force which, if properly fulfilled, contributes order and stability (Kean, pp. 139-40).

28 43 -'Peter G. Beidler, "The Pairing of the Franklin' a Tale and the Physician's Tale," CR, 3 (1969), 275-27$. 44 Joseph E. Grennen, Saint Cecilia's 'chemical wedding': The Unity of the Canterbury Tales, Fragment VIII," JEGP, 65 (1966), 467; see also 466-481. 45 Bruce A. Rosenberg, "The Contrary Tales of the Second Nun and the Canon's Yeoman," CR, 2 (1968), 278-91- ^6 Wayne Shumaker, Chaucer's Manciple's Tale as Part of a Canterbury Group," UTQ, 22 (1952), 1^7 • 47 Shumaker, p. 151. 48 Shumaker, p. 152. 49 Ralph Baldwin, The Unity of the Canterbury Tales (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1955), P» 1051 Arthur W. Hoffman, "Chaucer's Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices," in Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. Edward Wagenknecht (London, Oxford, New 7ork~i Oxford University Press, 1959), PP. 43, 45. 51 Rosenberg, p. 284. 52 "Only once in the whole story [of the Knight's Tale], and that when the story is more than half done, in her prayer to Diana, do we hear Emily speak" (Robert Kilburn Root, The Poetry of Chaucer [Boston, New York: Houghton, MiffTin, 1906J,~p. 171). 53 Baugh, p. 235. 54 R. M. Lumiansky, 0f_ Sondry Folk (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955), pp. 129-40. ■^Alan T. Gaylord, "'Sentence' and 'Solas' in Fragment VII of the Canterbury Tales: Harry Bailly as Horseback Editor," PMLA, S2 (1967), 235. Two comments from the Chaucer Review also encourage a study of this type. Not limiting the challenge to Fragment VII, Rosenberg mentions frequent recent discoveries that tales are "juxtaposed because they embody social, theological, dramatic, philosophical, and literary values which for the fourteenth century were diametrically opposed" (Rosenberg, p. 290). More recently Allen and Gallacher similarly note that "it is becoming increasingly obvious that Chaucer's 29 juxtaposition of certain characters and the tales he chooses for them is masterfully ironic" (Judson Boyce Allen and Patrick Gallacher, "Alisoun Through the Looking Glass: Or Every Man His Own Midas," CR, 4 [1969], 100).

30 Chapter Two: Madame Eglantyne's "Quite": The Linking of the Shipman's Tale with the Prioress's Tale

The relationship between the Shipman's Tale and the Prioress's Tale, tales which are consistently linked in Fragment VII, has not been thoroughly explored. A close reading of the two tales reveals evidence to suggest that Chaucer has linked these tales so that Madame Eglantyne can "Gladly" (B 451) comment on the values implicit in the merchant of St. Denis' home. Harry Bailley casually selects the Prioress:

But now passe over, and lat us seke aboute, Who shal now telle first of al this route Another tale. (B^ 444)

Although Harry's selection appears to be made at random, Chaucer's is not, for the Prioress provides a dramatic and moral commentary on the previous tale. Critics have dealt with the pairing of these two OM(CI tales (wtfty superficially, notingAtnat the tales contrast^ without discovering Chaucer's reason for contrasting them. Admittedly Chaucer has juxtaposed contrasting literary types, as the racy fabliau told by the Shipman is linked with the sobering miracle of the Virgin told by the Prioress. But Chaucer has done more than merely juxtapose contrasting literary types. 31 Pour critics comment on Fragment VII as an entity. Spiers suggests that the tales composing Fragment VII are "expressly intended to stand together" as well as "compose a number of unmistakably deliberate contrasts"; but he V cites only the general contrast of literary types regarding the Shlpman's Tale and the Prioress's Tale. Robinson finds "no principle of arrangement [in Fragment VII] save that of contrast or variety." More positively, Baum notes "surprise and reversal" as characterizing Fragment VII. The Host, in Baum's opinion, calls on Madame Eglantyne as the "least likely to follow in the same strain" as the Shipman's story; her tale, however, 3 surprises the company because it is not courtly. Also choosing two qualities as characterizing Fragment VII, Gaylord theorizes that the Host chooses tales which alternate between morality and mirth; he terms this fragment the "Literature Group." After the Host's "hilarious approval" of the Shipman's Tale, a tale of mirth, he next calls on the Prioress to "defend her profession appropriately" in a tale of morality. Other critics also take note of the Host's role in Chaucer's linking the Shipman's Tale with the Prioress's Tale. Pollard's view is that Harry Bailley calls on the Prioress to give "due precedence" to the "gentle-folk." According to Segwick, the Host chooses Madame Eglantyne 32 because "something quite different would be acceptable" following the story of the St. Denis merchant's household. More specifically, Huppe' reasons that Harry has resisted the impulse to call on the Monk to defend himself after the Shipman's story, thus calling on the Prioress as the closest representative of the monastic ideal.' Still other critics superficially cite,contrast as Chaucer's pairing principle. Root calls the Prioress's Tale "very different" when compared with the Shipman's o Tale. Lawrence vaguely notes Chaucer's use of opposites, finding that the Prioress's "pathetic little story . . . forms a sharp and no doubt designed contrast to what has gone before."^ Looking at the Prioress's Prologue, Ruggiers suggests that it "serves to preserve and sustain a deliberate distance between the profane and the holy, the impious and the sacred" ; Lawlor has similarly suggested that a balance is maintained with the Prioress's serious story following the "neat sophistication and the naked appetites of the Shipman's Tale." More recently, Kean generalizes that one "method of linking the comic to the serious is by the juxtaposition of the tales themselves, irrespective of the tellers," using the placing of the Shipman's Tale before the Prioress's Tale as his example of pairing by "extreme contrasts." Kean 33 concludes that there is no thematic affinity in Chaucer's placing of the Prioress's Tale, saying the "saints tales of the two Nuns" are "linked into the frame by their appropriateness to their tellers but do not play an appreciable part in any thematic development between a IP group of tales." While these critics have noted a few general contrasts between the two tales, however, none of them has fully explored the extent to which Chaucer has consciously paired them with an end to further characterizing the Prioress by letting her subtly comment upon the Shipman's story. Several critics have seen the Shipman's and Prioress's performances only as individual, isolated segments of the Canterbury collection. Muscatine states that the Prioress's Tale "melts symbolically into the conventional frame without conflict or irony" , Payne states that he finds no pronounced "irony, characterization, and complexity of action" in the 14 Prioress's Tale. With a similar viewpoint, Corsa finds that the narrator is "unaffected by the lusty pilgrims around her" with the exception of the pilgrim Monk. 15 The Shipman's Tale, according to Craik, is independent and has no "dramatic consequences." But a careful reading of these linked tales show that, in what amounts to a "quite" of the previous tale, the Prioress dramatically reveals 34 her attentiveness to what has gone before and her own contrasting values. Chaucer's pairing principle that the moral of one tale may reflect back, commenting on the substance of the previous tale is masterfully developed in these linked tales. The moral of the Prioress's Tale, "Yvele shal have that yvele wol deserve" (B 632), opposes and comments upon the incongruities, the lack of poetic justice, and the resulting ambiguous tone in the Shipman's Tale. The concluding lines of the Shipman's Tale, "Thus endeth now my tale, and God us sende/ Taillynge ynough unto oure lyves ende" (B 4-34), celebrate the deceitful manipulation of the merchant by the wife and monk to gain "taillynge" — sex and money. Both the monk and the wife do evil, yet neither is punished. The monk betrays his "bretherhede" (B 42) with the merchant: "He is na moore cosyn unto me/ Than is this leef that hangeth on the tree!" (B2 150). Similarly, the wife betrays her husband when she gives herself to his best friend. Chaucer intensifies her deceit by omitting the witnesses who forced the wife's exposure in the analogues—Boccaccio's Decameron and Sercambi's Novella. Not only does the wife escape her husband's censure, but she also capitalizes on her exploits. Her husband accuses her of causing a "manere straungenesse" (B2 386) between daun John and him. She 35 immediately assigns a motive to daun John's "gift" and arranges for repayment abed. Aware that these explanations put her psychologically on the offensive, she is able to checkmate him. He accepts the position into which he has been manipulated, seeing "ther was no remedie" (B2 427). The point is that neither the monk nor the wife is held accountable for moral indiscretion; on the contrary, the Shipman lauds them as victors. Madame Eglantyne's tale, on the other hand, is an illustration that evil reaps what it sows. Chaucer places this story after the Shipman1s Tale as the Prioress's moral judgment upon it. No one in the Prioress's Tale escapes the effect of his actions: "0 cursed folk of Herodes al newe,/ What may youre yvel entente you availle?" (B2 575). Those responsible for the child's death receive punishment: "Therefore with wilde hors he dide hem drawe,/ And after that he heng hem by the lawe" (B2 6j54) . Whereas the Shipman' s Tale concluded with an exhuberant request for "taillynge," the Prioress's Tale ends with a prayerful request for mercy on "we synful folk unstable" (B 687). Chaucer's placing this story immediately after the Shipman's Tale allows him to demonstrate subtly yet dramatically Madame Eglantyne's disapproval of that morally ambiguous story. Very much in keeping with the Prioress's moral 56 comment on the Shipman's Tale, two themes unify these stories. It is not surprising that these themes, reason vs. revelation and cupidity vs. charity, which are woven through the Shipman's Tale and the Prioress's Tale, also unite the Second Nun's Tale and Canon's Yeoman's Tale as delineated by Rosenberg. ' In each pair of stories, the nun's story emphasizes revelation and charity as opposed to the secular story that emphasizes reason and cupidity. In the Shipman's Tale, resolution comes through human ingenuity whereas in the Prioress's Tale resolution comes through divine revelation and intervention. Daun John, in the Shipman's story, ingeniously borrows one hundred francs from his merchant friend to give his wife for an evening abed. When the monk tells the merchant that he left the money with his wife, however, the wife "not afered nor affrayed" (B 400) masterfully reasons herself out of "this disjoynt" (B2 4ll). Contrariwise, in the Prologue of the Prioress's Tale, the narrator does not glorify human ingenuity: "My o konnyng is so wayk" (B 48l). Two instances in the tale stress revelation. The clergeon's mother, in the first place, does not take credit for thinking of her lost son's location: "but Jhesu, of his grace,/ Yaf in hir thoght, inwith a litel space" (B 604). The clergeon, secondly, speaks of how he used his mental abilities: "This welle 37 of mercy, Cristes mooder sweete,/ I loved alwey, as after my konnynge" (B 657)• He directly attributes his miraculous singing to a revelation from the Virgin:

And what that I my lyf sholde forlete, To me she cam, and bad me for to synge This anthem verraily in my deyynge. (B2 660)

Both characters in the Shipman's Tale who rely on their mental ingenuity also serve as examples of cupidity. Sexual lust characterizes the monk while material lust characterizes the merchant's wife. In their quid pro quo relationship, each satisfies the other's desire:

This faire wyf acorded with daun John That for thise hundred frankes he sholde al nyght Have hire in his armes bolt upright; And this acord parfourned was in dede. (B 317)

With a definite reversal, the Prioress's Prologue establishes an atmosphere of charity. In the tale, love of God envelops the clergeon:

Now, certes, I wol do my diligence To koone it al er Cristemasse be went. Though that I for my prymer shal be shent, And shal be beten thries in an houre, I wol it konne Oure Lady for to honourel _ (B2 5^3)

In addition to these thematic ties, the Prioress's condemnation of "foule usure and lucre of vileynye,/ Hateful to Crist and to his compaignye" (B2 492), 38 similarly speaks against the Shlpman's Tale. The St. Denis merchant confides to daun John that he "nedes moste" (B 329) borrow money to reap his profit. Madame Eglantyne reflects the church's position against lending money for interest and also cunningly passes judgment on the whole financial substructure of the affluent life style portrayed in the Shipman's Tale. There are also two instances of character parallels in these stories. First, that the Prioress is mindful of the previous story is also evidenced by a remark about monks: "As raonkes been — or elles oghte be — " (B2 643). In the analogues the wife's paramour is usually a soldier. Could one reason for Chaucer's making the lover a monk be the telling contrast provided by the monks in the linked tales? The discrepancy between the behavior of daun John of the Shipman's Tale and the "hooly monk" (B 670) of the Prioress's Tale is striking. By being neither celibate nor fasting, daun John transgresses the code for monks and, as we have observed, escapes chastisement for these offenses. In the Prioress's Tale, however, the monk's behavior is above reproach. This allusion to what monks "oghte be" adds another dimension to the Prioress's "quite"; she criticizes daun John by portraying the appropriate behavior of her respectable monk. ^^j 39 A final argument for Chaucer's meaningful pairing of the two tales, which is the second instance of character parallels, is the implicit contrast between the merchant's wife with "mayde child" (B2 95) In the Shlpman's Tale and the widow with her son in the Prioress's Tale. The "mayde child" who comes into the garden with the merchant's wife is Chaucer's addition and does not appear in the analogues:

A mayde child cam in hire compaignye, Which as hir list she may governe and gye, For yet under the yerde was the mayde. (B 97)

These lines on the education of the "mayde child" prepare for the more developed education of the "litel clergeon" (B 503) by his mother in the next tale:

Thus hath this wydwe hir litel sone ytaught Oure blisful Lady, Cristes mooder deere, To worshipe ay, and he forgat it naught, 2 For sely child wol alday soone leere. (B 512)

Chaucer critics have had '"difficulty explaining the "mayde child" in the Shipman's Tale. Sullivan finds the child "useless cast," citing Chaucer's addition of her as "further indication of the jig-saw assembling of the Tale, which seems to show the insertion of a bit from some other story altogether." For Sullivan, the child "contributes nothing except incredulity. ^ Craik concludes that the 40 child "seems superfluous;' OP) Coghlll calls her "a 21 distracting irrelevance who never reappears." Whittock theorizes that "The Shipman's Tale was intended to stand before The Physician's Tale, for the occasion for his outburst on the upbringing of children seems to be provided by the lines [95-97* quoted above]. The Physician would be offended by the notion of such a scheming woman as this being a guide and model to an innocent child." Considering the consistent linking of the Shipman's Tale with the Prioress's Tale, however, it is probable that Madame Eglantyne, with her "conscience and tendre herte" (A 150), would be deeply offended by the wife of St. Denis's guiding and governing an innocent. The child is useful cast if the Prioress's Tale is commenting on the Shipman's Tale. The two women who are training young children, then, serve as an additional contrast between the two tales and as further grounds for the Prioress's objection to the 23 Shipman's Tale. y These character parallels in addition to thematic ties and the moral of the Prioress's Tale reflecting back on the Shipman's Tale all serve to further characterize Madame Eglantyne. If I am right about the nature of her objection, then we are closer to a proper understanding of the tone of her response to the Host. In the link between the tales, Harry Bailley is curiously 41 polite. He addresses the Prioress "as curtelsly as it had been a mayde" (B 445), and qualifies his request for a tale :

My lady Prioresse, by youre leve, So that I wiste I sholde yow nat greve, I wolde demen that ye tellen sholde A tale next, if so were that ye wolde. „ Now wol ye vouche sauf, my lady deere? (B 450)

It is almost as if he feared annoying the Prioress. Par from being annoyed, however, she seems eager to comment upon the values in the previous tale. Her "Gladly" (B 451) is more than a superficial social response; it reveals an eagerness to tell a story which not only exemplifies her personal bias but also elevates her moral standards above those in the Shipman's Tale. Her response is assuredly polite, but it also reveals an inclination to "quite" the previous teller. The Reeve concluded his tale by saying, "Thus have I quyt the Miliere in my tale" (A 4324). Circumspect Madame Eglantyne would not be consistently characterized if she had concluded her tale so directly, but she has earned the right to cherish a similar feeling of triumph.

42 Notes

John Speirs, Chaucer the Maker (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), p. 17^ p F. N. Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1957), p. 11. -^Paull F. Baura, Chaucer: A Critical Appreciation (Durham, N. C: Duke University Press, 195b;, pp. b2, 84. Alan T. Gaylord, "'Sentence1 and 'Solaas' in Fragment VII of the Canterbury Tales: Harry Bailley as Horseback Editor," PMLA, b2 (19b7), p. 228. •^Alfred W. Pollard, Chaucer (Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1931), p. 107. Henry Dwight Sedgwick, Dan Chaucer (Indianapolis, New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 19^77 p. 2b4. ^Bernard F. Huppe, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (New York: State University of New York", 19b4J, pp. 223- 224. Q Robert Kilburn Root, The Poetry of Chaucer (Boston, New York: Houghton-Mifflin7T"90b), p."190^ * ■^William Witherle Lawrence, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), p. 12b. More recently, Lawrence notes that "Harry restores the balance between lay and religious by calling next on the Prioress." "Chaucer's Shipman's Tale," Speculum, 33 (1958), 63. Paul G. Ruggiers, The Art of the Canterbury Tales (Madison, Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin Press^ 1^65, 1967), P. 178. John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1968), p. TJT. 12P. M. Kean, The Art of Narrative, vol. 2 (London, Boston: Routedge and Kegan Paul, 1972), pp. 94, 75. -^Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles! University of California Press, 1957), P. 223. 43 14 Robert 0. Payne, The Key of Remembrance: A Study of Chaucer's Poetics (New HavenTTJondon: Yale University FFess, 1963), P. 16$. 15 Helen Storm Corsa, Chaucer: Poet of Mirth and Morality (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964), p. 125. 16 T. W. Craik, The Comic Tales of Chaucer (London: Methuen, 1964), p. 3B7 17 Bruce A. Rosenberg, "The Contrary Tales of the Second Nun and the Canon's Yeoman," CR, 2 (1968), 285-289- 18 ^ ~~ Critics have consistently observed that this allusion probably also refers to the monk who is a member of the pilgrimage. 19 Hazel Sullivan, "A Chaucerian Puzzle" in A Chaucerian Puzzle and Other Medieval Essays (Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, 1961), p. 9« 20 Craik, p. 56. 21 Nevill Coghill, Chaucer's Narrative Art in The Canterbury Tales," in Chaucer and Chaucerians, ed., D. S. Brewer (University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1966), p. 126. 22 Trevor Whittock, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (Cambridge: University Press, 195B"), p. 195. 23 To claim that the "mayde child" serves to act as a parallel to the seven-year-old boy in the next tale and as a center of focus for the Prioress's moral outrage is not, of course, to deny claims that the girl serves a certain artistic function in her own tale. Craik, for example, calls her "a sort of innocent chaperone, adding piquancy to a situation which she is too young to understand" (p. 56), and Ruggiers sees the child as a hint of innocence, a natural corollary in the garden setting (p. 143). The "mayde child" is artistically appropriate within the Shipman's Tale as Chaucer implies a standard of purity against which violated matrimonial and ecclesiastical relationships are implicitly contrasted.

44 Chapter Three: Mirrors of Morality: The Linking of the Wife of Bath's Tale with the Priar' s~T~aTe

Chaucer's effectively dramatic interplay among the Wife, the Pardoner, the Priar and the Summoner in Fragment III has rightly earned praise from scholars. This delightful repartee has, however, been a decoy which diverts attention from less obvious but highly meaningful thematic ties as well as parallels in plot and character. We will see Chaucer's pairing pattern in Fragment I repeated in Fragment III. I shall show in this chapter that the Priar's Tale is as meaningfully connected to the Wife of Bath's Tale as earlier the Miller's Tale was connected to the Knight's Tale. In Fragment I not only does the Miller's story function to carry out the "quiting" principle in its positioning before the Reeve's Tale, but it also repeats several main characters and significant plot lines in the preceding Knight's Tale. 2 The Friar's Tale is studied almost exclusively in isolation or in its relationship to the Summoner's Tale. It also deserves a close reading, I propose, for its relationship with the preceding story. We shall discover that these two tales are intriguing opposition pieces with ample similarities and purposeful contrasts which give a more extensive coherence than has been credited Chaucer. 45 Before reviewing the dramatic interplay between Alys and Hubert, we first must consider whether or not Chaucer had reason to group the Wife, the Friar, and the Summoner as a natural unit. Kittredge feels that Hubert and Alys were acquainted before the "compaignye" at the Tabard, and that they understand each other. This must be held only tenatively as the text is inconclusive. I agree that there exists an easy but spirited rapport between the Wife and Friar, but this does not prove a prior acquaintance. Both are, after all, extroverts. Preston generalizes that Hubert doesn't want to "fall out with any wife." Bronson and Huppe more explicitly see the Friar's and Summoner's close physical proximity to Alys as hunter stalking prey. Her "bad conscience" might be their means to her purse. This cluster of pilgrims, for Huppe, reveals disorder in society. In his interpretation, the Wife is "emblematic of the corrupted •7 body of the Church." For Holland, the Friar and Summoner "represent Mother Church" as symbols of experience and o authority, respectively. If this had been part of Chaucer's plan, we would have clues in the text. Neither Huppe's claim that Alys represents the church nor Holland's claim is substantiated by a close reading of the 9 Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's positioning of the Wife next to the Friar 46 sets up the dramatic interaction, helping to further characterize these pilgrims. We shall first review Chaucer's most obvious pairing principle, then consider three other pairing principles which weld the two tales. It will be necessary, however, for me to draw certain conclusions at later points in this chapter which also show Chaucer's enriching the tellers' personalities. The Friar begins the dialogue with Alys in the Wife of Bath's Prologue by addressing her: "'Now dame,• quod he, 'so have I joye or blis,/ This is a long preamble of a talel1" (D 831)• There is no response yet from Alys as the Summoner immediately takes offense. Their "debaat" (D 1288) is terminated by the peace-enforcing Host who directs Alys to tell her tale. She complies conditionally: "'If I have licence of this worthy Frere'" (D 855). The Friar grants permission, ""Yis, dame,' quod he, 'tel forth, and I wol heere1" (D 856^). Alys begins her tale but she has not mentally dismissed the Friar. Her lament of lost "fayerye" (D 859) includes usurping "lymytours and othere hooly freres" (D 866) as the only surviving "incubus" (D 880). This verbal thrust is Alys' "quick ingenious kill." In the Friar's Prologue, again the dialogue between Hubert and Alys comes after Chaucer reports on the Friar-Summoner quarrel. Then the Friar speaks, addressing the Wife: 47 "Dame," quod he, "God yeve yow right good lyfl Ye han heer touched, also moot I thee, In scole-matere greet dlfficultee. Ye han seyd muche thyng right wel, I seye; But, dame, heere as we ryde by the weye, Us nedeth nat to speken but of game, And lete auctoritees, on Goddes name, To prechyng and to scole eek of clergye. But if it lyke to this compaignye, I wol yow of a somonour telle a game." (D 1269)

Craik comments on this lines: "it is obvious that the Friar's remark to the Wife of Bath ... is merely a diplomatic preparation for his earnest enough attack, in which he makes the other pilgrims his accomplices." In his discussion of the marriage theme in Fragments III, IV and V, Kittredge calls the Friar-Summoner hostilities a "comic interlude," 12 yet notes Alys1 part in their quarrel. "Nowhere in the pilgrimage is the dramatic interplay of character more remarkable. For the Wife is the moving cause of the quarrel, though quite involuntarily, Harry Bailley, we note, as been content to drop the reins. The drama guides itself, moving on by virtue of the relations of the dramatis personae, their characters, and the logic of the situation." 13 Corsa and Bronson are also willing to recognize Alys1 share in the altercation. Bronson says that the Friar's and Summoner's "common aim exacerbates the mutual hatred of the Friar and Summoner, 14 jealous of advantage with the wife." Corsa agrees that the Wife probably added to the Friar's irritation with the 48 summoner. ^ Lumiansky's interpretation of this "secondary tiff" between Alys and Hubert is, as usual, particularly illuminating. He goes so far as to declare the Wife the loser. For the most part, however, scholarship has merely viewed and appreciated the spirited interaction (see Pollard, ' Root, Coffman, Lawrence, Malone, - 22 _ 23 .„_ 24 _ 25 . 26 x Roppolo,■ Speirs,A TTWilliams,4 Lawlor,r and Kean/v ). At least four critics have appreciated the artistic integration of fragment III. Lowes approves "the closeness with which Chaucer's fabric, as a complex whole, is knit."27 Baum finds the Friar's Tale "skillfully integrated into the Pilgrimage. Beichner notes that an "important dimension" would be lost if the Friar's Tale were not paired with the Summoner's Tale. 29v Finally, Baugh suggests that the Friar's Tale "is admirably integrated with the behavior of the Friar and the Summoner 30 during the course of [Alys1] self-revelation." None of these critics credit Chaucer, however, with a meaningful pairing that transcends the implications of a personality clash. Additionally, five major thematic strains bind the Wife of Bath's Tale to the Friar's Tale: experience vs. authority, the quest or journey,-^31 appearance vs. reality, 32 order vs. disorder, and free will vs. 49 "maistrye."^ First I shall show the dramatic and thematic implications of the experience vs. authority theme. Next, because the remaining four themes are intimately bound up with what for this chapter is a most significant pairing principle—character and plot parallels—I will here, in a cursory treatment, relate the themes to eacrh other but explicate them in the following section. I have dismissed Holland's belief that the experience vs. authority theme extends from the Wife's performance into the Friar's Tale in the embodiment of experience in the Friar and authority in the Summoner. 34 More helpfully, Beichner,-^ Skeat,-5 and Baughr ' suggest a thematic bridging between the tales. For these critics, Hubert's directive to Alys: "Lete auctoritees, on Goddes name,/ To prechyng and scole eek of clergye" (D 1277) refers back to Alys' statement that "thogh noon auctoritee/ Were in no book" (D 1209)• Moore has a more comprehensive interpretation. He finds "that since the matter of Fragment D is closely integrated, there seems to be good reason for assuming that the Friar had in mind the Wife's 38 entire recital"—both prologue and story. Hubert, no doubt, has been an attentive listener as he promised, "•Tel forth, and I wol heere'" (D 865). Aware of the experience vs. authority issue, the 50 Friar consciously decides to neglect authorities in his "game" (D 1275). If, however/ his tale is compared with Alys', they are similar in two respects. The supernatural moral instructors (yeoman and hag respectively) are the only characters in the stories who allude to authorities. 39 Moreover they allude to about the same number. The hag alludes to five and adds a general reference to "othere clerkes" (D 1184) while the yeoman refers to six. When the tellers speak in their own person, however, the Friar mentions at least three — "Crist, Poul, and John,/ And of oure othere doctours many oon" (D 1647), while saying he will not refer to authorities. Alys alludes only to Midas. All this supports Moore's reading that Hubert has in mind Alys' Prologue not just her tale. It is unnecessary to document that her Prologue is saturated with her great learning. Hubert, with mock humility, says near the conclusion of his story:

Lordynges, I koude han toold yow, quod this Frere, Hadde I had leyser for this Somnour heere, After the text of Crist, Poul, and John, And of oure othere doctours many oon. (D 1648)

Baker points out that the Friar's declining to use authorities "reflects his own reaction to the verbosity of the Wife." Hubert, as Baker interprets, is saying that he could make a pedantic show of his learning but 51 graciously declines to compete with the Wife. This interplay shows Chaucer's consistent characterization of Hubert. He handles himself well in social situations without degenerating to meanness or bitterness; he is congenial, however, only for his own benefit. Although he is likeable on the surface, his duplicity shows. The theme of experience yjs. authority, then, does thematically bind the paired tales and further Chaucer's characterization of the pilgrims. It shows continuity but does not function as organically as the four remaining themes: quest or journey, appearance y_s. reality, order vs. disorder, and free will vs. sovereignty. A knight and summoner, in the Wife of Bath's Tale and Friar1s Tale, respectively, are on a quest or journey. G. K. Chesterton's comment that "the Christian conception of life ... is at once a Quest, a Test and an Adventure" 42 nicely suggests the plan of these paired tales. The men are confronted with distinctions between appearance and reality. The knight undergoes an experiential test to determine his spiritual insight into the good; the summoner undergoes an experiential test to determine his spiritual insight into evil. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, order results from the heretical subjection of man to woman (the queen dominates the king because he permits it; the hag dominates the knight). 52 The knight uses his free will but only within limits imposed by either the "maistrye" of the queen or hag. These themes are given a different emphasis by Chaucer in the Friar's Tale. Boethian order comes without compulsion or "maistrye," neither violating nor restricting the summoner's free will. These four interrelated themes will be developed as the character- plot parallels are discussed. It has not before been noticed in print that Chaucer pairs characters and plot elements in the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Friar's Tale. There are ample similarities in the two major characters who follow similar plot lines in each tale. At points of contrast, they differ purposefully. Similarities begin after the identical narrative line, "And so bifel" (D 882, 1375). With these words Chaucer introduces a mortal man on horseback who, in his journey, misuses defenseless women. The knight who "cam ridynge fro river" (D 884) rapes a maiden: "by verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed" (D 888). The summoner also "rood" (D 1377) with extortion plans, "feynynge a cause, for he wolde brybe" (D 1378). The knight's quest 43 structures the plot for the Wife of Bath's Tale as the Summoner's "viage" (D 1569) structures the plot for the Friar's Tale. The quest 53 functions simultaneously in the tales both as an outward, physical journey and an inward, spiritual progression. While on their respective journeys each mortal meets a supernatural person 44 who appears to be an ordinary mortal. Chaucer uses the identical four word phrase as the setting for this encounter in both tales: "under a 45 forest syde" (D 990, 1J580). Although developed later in the tales, the supernatural persons want the mortals under their "maistrye." Now there is an important diversion in plot line. In the Wife's story, the knight is apparently repulsed by the hag's appearance; it is she who initiates conversation, asking the object of the knight's journey:

Save on the grene he saugh sittynge a wyf— A fouler wight ther may no man devyse. Agayn the knyght this olde wyf gan ryse, And seyde, "Sire knyght, heer forth ne lith no wey. Tel me what that ye seken, by youre fey I" (D 1002)

Contrariwise, in the Friar's Tale the summoner seems to be enticed by the yeoman's appearance, inquiring about the purpose of the yeoman's journey:

A bowe he bar, and arwes brighte and kene; He hadde upon a courtepy of grene, An hat upon his heed with frenges blake. "Sire," quod this somnour, "hayl, and wel stake 1" (D 1384)

The relationship between the passive yeoman and the 54 inquiring summoner is consistent throughout the progression of the plot. The summoner asks the yeoman of his work, ("Artow thanne a bailly?" [D 1392]), of his home, ("Where is now youre dwellyng" [D 1410]), and of his name, ("Tel me thanne thy name" [D 1444]). It is significant that although the yeoman wants the summoner under his control, he play*a passive role which respects the free will of the summoner. "Trouthe" is pledged between the supernatural and mortal men in the tales. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, twenty-three lines after the encounter scene "under a forest syde," the hag receives the knight's "trouthe":

"Plight me thy trouthe heere in myn hand," quod she, "The nexte thyng that I requere thee, Thou shalt it do, if it lye in thy myght, And I wol telle it yow er it be nyght." "Have heer my trouthe," quod the knyght, "I grante." (D 1013)

Twenty-four lines after the encounter scene in the Friar's Tale, Chaucer portrays a scene of oath-taking between the summoner and the yeoman: "Everych in ootheres hand his trouthe leith,/ For to be sworne bretheren til they deye" (D 1405) • Additionally, the mortals request that the supernatural figures function as moral instructors. The knight asks the hag, "koude ye me wisse" (D 1008). Likewise, the summoner asks, "Teche me" (D l4l8). Again, 55 Chaucer's use of contrast is purposeful for the hag is a moral instructor of orthodox goodness while the yeoman is a moral instructor of the nature of evil. The hag's lecture on gentilesse (see D 1109-1218) deals with the essence of goodness while the yeoman's lecture deals with the essence of evil. Showing the importance of the appearance-reality theme in the core of these stories, the hag's lecture could be subtitled, "Foul may be fair" while the yeoman's lecture could be subtitled, "Fair may be foul." The foul-appearing hag in the Wife of Bath's Tale is the mouthpiece for moral beauty and hovae±t becomes

as fair to seene As any lady, emperice, or queene, That is bitwixe the est and eke the west. (D 1247)

The yeoman's lecture shows that fair may actually be foul; the "foule feend" (D 16^9) is first presented as a "gay yeman" (D 1380). Implications of the order y_s_. disorder theme arise from these paired morality lectures. As I suggested above, order in the Wife of Bath's Tale comes from a heretical situation, but within the orthodox gentilesse lecture, the good comes naturally and without disorder. (I discuss this in greater detail in the last chapter.) It follows its natural function as fire follows its 56 nature:

Taak fyr, and ber it in the derkeste nous Bitwix this and the mount of Kaukasous, And lat men shette the dores and go thenne; Yet wole the fyr as faire lye and brenne As twenty thousand men myghte it biholde; His office natureel ay wol it holde, Up peril of my lyf, til that it dye. (D 1145)

The yeoman's lecture in the Friar's Tale also confirms an orthodox, Boethian universe. The yeoman's statements about evil conform to traditional theodicy. Note that the yeoman is aware that the power of evil is limited:

And somtyme, at oure prayere, han we leve Oonly the body and nat the soule greve. (D 1490) And somtyme be we suffred for to seke Upon a man, and doon his soule unreste, And nat his body. (D 1496)

The traditional view that evil is secondary is borne out by the yeoman: "Withouten hym we have no myght, certayn,/ If that hym list to stonden ther-agayn (D 1457-1488). Evil is parasitic, dependent on the good. "The nature of yuel nys no thing" (Boece, Book III, Prosa 12, 179) • Allied with this is the traditional, orthodox aesthetic theme—that in the aesthetic perception of the complex whole, evil contributes or is used to bring about total beauty. 46 Preston refers to this when he says that the Friar's Tale deals with the "complicated interaction .57 <«'■ of evil and good, and of the mystery of good rising out of evil. In the total universal pattern, evil serves the ends of the good. This clearly is the admission of the yeoman:

But, for thou axest why labouren we — For somtyme we been Goddes instrumentz, And meenes to doon his comandementz, Whan that hym list, upon his creatures, In divers art and in diverse figures. (D i486) Whan he withstandeth oure temptacioun, It is a cause of his savacioun, Al be it that it was nat oure entente He sholde be sauf, but that we wolde hym hente. (D 1500)

The yeoman recognizes this in the total pattern and concedes, "al is for the beste" (D 1496). There is no disorder in the Boethian universe. In the context of the Friar's Tale," the yeoman functions to rid the world of an evil parasite. In each story, the supernatural moral instructor explains to the mortal the spiritual reality behind physical appearances. The mortals' responses are diametrically opposed. The knight is progressively more and more committed to good. In the Wife's story, despite the loathy appearance of his moral instructor, the knight makes the choice that is represented as essentially more virtuous. The summoner's moral development is arrested, however, for his questions hinge on form and appearance 58 \

-. i>/*fi;ik /"ill rather than essence. As Robertson notes, the summoner is morally "blind," being concerned only with visibilia. ^ The summoner's fascination, like Marlowe's Dr. Paustus, stops with the fiend's ability to change shape. "'Why,' quod this somonour, 'ryde ye thanne or goon/ In sondry shap, and nat alwey in oon?'" (D 1470). More significantly, immediately following the yeoman's lecture on the essence of evil, the summoner's question concerns the non-essential composition of form,

"Yet tel me," quod the somonour, "feithfully, Make ye yow newe bodies thus alway Of elementz?" (D 1506)

The knight and summoner continue in an opposing pattern within their own plot lines. The knight is liberated from death and unhappiness by obedience. 50 There follows, then, a scene in which the hag's true essence is revealed—"she so fair was" (D 1251), a recognition and acceptance by the knight, and a fulfillment of the pledged "trouthe" between the hag and knight. At the conclusion of the tale, they are pictured in an earthly heaven of "parfit joye" (D 1258). Chaucer makes purposeful the contrast of the summoner's quest in the adjoining tale. As in the orthodox pattern of Mephistopholes and Satan (of Paradise Lost), the summoner loses his free will as he commits 59 himself to evil. The Parson's Tale knits up the sumraoner's fate, "but for youre synne ye been woxen thral, and foul, and membres of the feend" (I 137). This reflects the summoner's experience as the "foule feend hym hente;/ Body and soule he with the devel wente" (D 1640). The feend dominates the summoner who is "thral and bonde" (D 1660). Hennedy, in a cogent analysis of the curses in the Friar's Tale, shows that there is no dilemma for the summoner after choosing self-gratification as his good. 51 Hennedy explains that Mabley's "entente" damns the summoner: "Unto the devel blak and rough of hewe/ Yeve I thy body and my panne also." (D 1623) She then reaffirms this more specifically: "The devel," quod she, "so fecche hym er he deye,/ And panne and al, but he wol hym repente" (D 1629). But the summoner is already damned at this point. As Hennedy points out, he previously promised himself to the devil if innocent Mabley is excused: "Nay thanne," quod he, "the foule feend me fecche/ If I th' excuse, though thou shul be spilt I" (D 1611) This bears out the free will theme. The summoner initiates the relationship, inquires into the yeoman's activities, asks to be instructed, and makes a brash statement rich with dramatic irony:

60 My trouthe wol I holde, as in this cas. For though thou were the devel Sathanas, My trouthe wol I holde to my brother, As I am sworn, and ech of us til oother, For to be trewe brother in this cas. (D 1529)

But the summoner forfeits his free will by choosing evil, He ends up in the possession of the f^end. This transpires in plot lines similar to the Wife of Bath's Tale. The fair-seeming yeoman is revealed as a supernatural feend. There follows a fulfillment of the pledged "trouthe" between the summoner and the yeoman. "Body and soule" (D 1640) the summoner is given to the devil in the "cursed hous of helle" (D 1652) at the conclusion of the tale in striking contrast to the Knight's earthly heaven. Chaucer's changes in the Wife of Bath's Tale—his addition of the gentilesse lecture and his emphasizing the knight's development and "conversion" —are essential to the character-plot parallels in these neighboring tales. One reason why Chaucer shaped the Wife's story in this fashion may have been to make more effective the juxtaposition of this tale with the next one. These plot and character parallels nicely repeat the plot and character parallels of the Knight's Tale and Miller's Tale. (I have outlined this in my introductory chapter.) Admittedly, however, the Friar is not "quiting" Alys' tale as the Miller does the Knight's. The Friar 61 may, though, have duplicated Alys' plot line and character parallels to draw her attention to the "cursed place" of "helle" (D 1655, 1652). This would hopefully, for Hubert, bring her misdeeds to her conscience. Hubert would, we can assume, be standing by to give his "pleasaunt . . . absolucion," being "an esy man to yeve penaunce,/ Ther as he wiste to have a good pitaunce" (A 224). These plot and character parallels, therefore, add to Chaucer's characterization of his tellers. When we consider the pairing of the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Friar's Tale for juxtaposition of literary types, it is interesting that again Fragment III follows the same pattern as Fragment I (dismissing the unfinished Cook's Tale): romance-fabliau-fabliau. This is the only repeated pattern of literary types in the ten fragments. The romance and fabliau, of course, form an interesting contrast as the romance is more refined and courtly compared to the "common life" and sometimes bawdy nature of the fabliau. To see that the particular romance that Alys tells is brilliantly paired with the fabliau of Hubert, it is necessary for us to assume a point of view which sees these two tales in the structure of the entire Canterbury Tales. Tupper helpfully comments on the Wife's performance being the "keystone" of the ten existing 62 fragments of the Canterbury Tales. 53^ Again assuming that the "Bradshaw shift" provides the correct tale order, the Wife marks the midpoint. This is, of course, only the midpoint or keystone of the existing ten fragments. In Chaucer's original plan (as I noted in my Introduction), there were to be well beyond a hundred tales in the Canterbury collection. Chaucer admittedly may not have kept Alys' performance in the center of the Canterbury Tales as he added more stories. The first and last tales, however, seem to have been fashioned for their present position. Baldwin has drawn our attention to the relationship between the two supporting columns at the beginning and conclusion of the Canterbury Tales. 54 Both the Knight and the Parson embody Chaucer's idea of the good. Chaucer the artist is infusing meaning through structure. There is also in the approximate but tenative midpoint of the Tales the supporting structure of Chaucer's ideal of the good. In Alys' ambiguous, physchologically complex narration we find the orthodox gentilesse lecture which reminds us of Chaucer's morality. It is not "padding" as Baum maintains. 55J There is, moreover, a silent dialectic working between the paired morality lectures of the hag and yeoman. Chaucer places these two statements in adjoining tales. They are two of the most specific, direct, and 63 distilled statements of the nature of good and evil in the entire Canterbury Tales. Our attention is drawn to them only indirectly through implicit thematic, character and plot developments. Chaucer's treatment of morality, I maintain, is Boethian. Chaucer handles good and evil in his creation the way Boethius describes God's "governaunce" of the universe. In Chaucer's translation of Boethius there is a description of God's government of the universe which reflects Chaucer's theodicy and literary technique. Although all of Prosa 12 (Book III) is worth reading in this context, Lady Philsoophy speaks" the most important lines:

Thanne ordeigneth [God] alle things by thilke good . . . syn he, which that we han accordid to ben good, governeth alle thinges by hymself; and he is as a keye and a styere, by which that the edifice of this world is kept stable and withouten corrumpynge? ... God governeth alle thinges by the keye of his goodnesse, and alle thise same thinges, as I have taught the, hasten hem by naturel entencioun to come to good, ther ne may no man douten that thei ne ben governed voluntariely, and that they ne converten hem of here owene wil to the wil of here ordeynour, as thei that ben accordynge and enclynynge to here governour and here kyng . . . Thanne is thilke the sovereyn good . . . that alle thinges governeth strongly and ordeyneth hem softly? (Book III, Prosa 12, 70-75; 37-96; 116-18.)

This important section has not been highlighted for its 64 possible influence on Chaucer's artistry. Scholars often comment on the genial nature of Chaucer-' with approval, and observe that he allows his characters to damn themselves rather than personally bludgeoning them. Isn't Chaucer allowing his pilgrims "voluntariely" to expose themselves while Chaucer withholds judgement in an artistic frame which implicitly is structured around the good? Doesn't Chaucer "governeth strongly and ordeyneth softly?" Kittredge rightly calls the Canterbury Tales a "microcosmography"5a; Chaucer includes himself in his little world that he artistically governs. The world of the Canterbury Tales is "stable and withouten corrumpynge," communicating the same feeling of security that Boethius pictures in God's management of the universe. It is more than a passive acceptance of a determined world; Chaucer's "debonayre" (Book III, Prosa 12, 135) management of his creation shows a responsible faith in something outside himself. There is infused in the Canterbury Tales an undergirding confidence that,without denying his characters' free will, everything is heading for the port of the good. Chaucer's convictions are unmistakable with his three supporting columns of moral goodness, which may have been positioned in the final arrangement as the first, middle and last story of the Canterbury Tales. 65 Moreover, doesn't the lecture on parasitic, secondary evil come naturally after the lecture on natural, primary goodness? Chaucer juxtaposes the two morality lectures without fanfare and allows them to reflect upon each other as mirrors of morality. As the yeoman of the Friar's Tale concedes, "al is for the beste" (D 1496). Chaucer has given us more than the "game" (D 1279) Hubert promised us. The linking of the Wife of Bath's Tale with the Friar's Tale transcends the personality clash between Alys and Hubert; his tale at least as meaningfully follows her story as the Miller's Tale follows the Knight's Tale.

66 Notes

Corsa notes that the "quiting" principle activates both fragments but suggests no other similarities in tale juxtaposition between the two fragments. (Helen Storm Corsa, Chaucer: Poet of Mirth and Morality [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964J, p. 183.) 2 It is interesting that the Wife of Bath's Prologue was probably written first; her tale and" the Friar's and Summoner's stories are believed to have been composed at roughly the same time (See P. N. Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed. [Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside" Press, 1957J, p. 698.) Also significant is the fact that both Alys' performance and the Friar's Tale are indebted to St. Jerome's epistle (Robert M. Correale, "St. Jerome and the Conclusion of the Friar's Tale," ELN, 2 [1965], 171-74). 3 George Lyman Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1915* 1933)/ pp. 190-91 and "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," in Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. Edward Wagenknecht (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), P. 195. 4 Raymond Preston, Chaucer (London and New York: Sheed and Ward, 1952), p. 20b. Bertrand H. Bronson, In Search of Chaucer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, I960), p. 6y. 6 Bernard F. Huppe, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (New York: State University of New York, 1964j, p. 190. 7Huppe', p. 194. o Norman N. Holland, "Meaning as Transformation: The Wife of Bath's Tale," CE, 28 (1967), 286. 9 Whittock also suggests a thematic continuum through the Wife of Bath's Tale, Friar's Tale and Summoner's Tale in finding all three a satire on the churcETI Whittock says "the satire may be said to work on two levels. By the juxtaposition with the Wife of Bath's attack on the teachings of Christianity and the way the Church supplanted a joyful worship of life here and now, the two tales 67 illustrate how the people of England suffer under the exploitation of the clergy. Secondly, the satire reveals how the ideals of Christianity are themselves distorted and abused by the self-seeking behaviour of its corrupt members." (Trevor Whittock, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales [Cambridge: University Press, 1961?], p. 131•) Although the content of Whittock's thesis is admittedly true, I find it too general to work with as a thematic tie in Fragment III. It is perhaps sufficient to say that Chaucer's mind-set was against corruption within the church. I shall also not deal with Legouis' simplistic claim that Fragment III is structured around the "two principle themes, love and religion." His statement regarding the linking of the Wife's story and Friar's story is too general; "the fourth group sets forth the matrimonial principles of the Wife of Bath and the dispute between the Limitour Friar and the Somnour." (Emile Legouis,^ Geoffrey Chaucer, trans. L. Lailavoix LNew York: Russell and Russell, 1913, 1961], p. 153.) Theodore Silverstein, "Wife of Bath and the Rhetoric of Enchantment; or, How to Make a Hero See in the Dark," MP, 58 (1961), 156. T?. W. Craik, The Comic Tales of Chaucer (London: Methuen, 1964), pp."5^-100. 12 Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry, p. 172. 13 Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry, p. 192. Kittredge also mentions the Wife-Friar interaction on p. 185 and in "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," see pp. 190-92, 195, 196, 204. Bronson, p. 63* 15Corsa, p. 184. R. M. Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955), TJ4. 'Alfred W. Pollard, Chaucer (Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1931J, p. 108. Robert Kilburn Root, The Poetry of Chaucer (Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 190b;, pp. 244-45.

68 ^George R. Coffman, "Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More — 'The Wife of Bath's Tale,'" Speculum, 20 (1945), 43. 20 William Witherle Lawrence, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), P. 139T- 21 '^ Kemp Malone, Chapters on Chaucer (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1951), p. 217, and "The Wife of Bath's Tale," MLR, 57 (1962), 486. 22 Joseph P. Roppolo, "The Converted Knight in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale," CE, 12 (1951), 265. cTohn Speirs, Chaucer the Maker (London: Paber and Paber, 1951), p. 148T 24 Arnold Williams, "Chaucer and the Friars" in Chaucer Criticism: The Canterbury Tales, vol. 1, eds. Richard J. Schoeck and Jerome Taylor (Notre Dame, London: University of Notre Dame Press, i960), p. 79. 25 John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1968), p. 140ff. 26 P. M. Kean, The Art of Narrative: Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry, vol. 2 (London, Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), p. 156. 27 John Livingston Lowes, Geoffrey Chaucer and the Development of His Genius (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Riverside Press7~T934), p. 224. ?8 Paull P. Baum, Chaucer: A Critical Appreciation (Durham, N. C: Duke University Press, 1950), p. 134. 29 HPaul E. Beichner, "Baiting the Summoner," ML^, 22 (1961), 576. 30 Albert C. Baugh, Chaucer's Major Poetry, (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963), p. 403. "T?he theme of quest or journey, of course, infuses the entire Canterbury Tales as it is built around a specific pilgrimage. 32 Miller mentions the appearance vs. reality theme in the Wife of Bath's Tale but does not note its continuity 69 into the Friar's Tale, (Robert P. Miller, "The Wife of Bath' s Tale and Mediaeval Exempla," ELH, 32 TTSSSTT"7^.) 3\he Nun's Priest's Tale, like the Friar's Tale, gives an orthodox treatment of the order vs. disorder and sovereignty vs. free will themes. Chauntecleer's free will is restored by chosing the good while the summoner's free will is lost, as I will show, because he chooses evil. My point here is that in the treatment of this theme, Chaucer frames the heretical Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (excluding the gentilesse lecture) by two tales which are unerringly orthodox. 34 In Chapter Four I discuss this theme in the Wife of Bath's Tale where it has a more significant, function. -^Beichner, p. 369. ^ Skeat writes that the mention of authorities is "a direct reference to 1. 1208 above. This goes far to show that the Friar's Tale was written immediately after the Wife's Tale. The Friar says, quite truly, that the Wife's Tale contains passages not unlike 'school-matter,' or disquisitions in the schools. Such a passage is that in 11. 1109-1212. Tyrwhitt shews that auctoritas was the usual word applied to a text of scripture; Bell adds, that it was applied, as now, to any authority for a statement. We might very well translate auctoritees by 'quotations.'" (The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed., vol. 5, ed., Walter W. Skeat [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894], 322.) ^Baugh, p. 402, note to 1. 1276. Baugh finds that Alys' allusion may also include the opening sentence of her Prologue. 38 Arthur K. Moore, "The Pardoner's Interruption of the Wife of Bath's Prologue," MLQ, 10 (19^9), 56, fn. 55. 39 Baker mentions that "after the Tale commences, it is interesting that the only exempla and authorities used come from the mouth of the devil, and that none whatever is given to the summoner." (Donald C. Baker, "Exemplary Figures as Characterizing Devices in the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale," UMSE, 3 [1962], 38.] In my final chapter I note that it is only the hag (among the tale characters) who refers to authorities.

70 4o I enumerate the hag's five allusions in my final chapter; the yeoman alludes to Job, St. Sunstan, "Phitonissa" and Samuel (D 1510), Virgil and Dante. Baker, p. 38 • 42 G. K. Chesterton, Chaucer (London: Faber and Faber, 1952), p. 148. 43 Two critics mention the quest theme but neither note its extension through both tales. (Malone, "The Wife of Bath's Tale," p. 487 and Miller, p. 452.) 44 Baker, in a side comment, remarks that "the supernatural theme of the Wife suggested that of the Friar." (Donald C. Baker, "Witchcraft in the Dispute between Chaucer's Friar and Summoner," South-Central Bulletin, 21 [196l] 36.) 45Craik, p. 104, fn. 1. 46 I am indebted to John Hick for one of the few books on theodicy, Evil and the God of Love (London, Melbourne, Toronto: Macmillan, 1966) for clearly delineating the essence of traditional, orthodox theology. See especially pp. 88-91 regarding the aesthetic theme. 47 'Preston, p. 249. 48 Janette Richardson, Blameth Nat Me: A Study of Imagery in Chaucer's Fabliau (The Hague, Paris! MouTon, 1970), p. 80. 49 D. W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19b2), pp. 275, 36b. 50 The medieval, orthodox idea behind this concept is the paradox that one gains by loss or that one has freedom via submission ("For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8:35, RSV). It is interesting (and humorous) that the hag usurps God's role in the context, which would most probably not greatly disturb Alys. 51 Hugh L. Hennedy, "The Friar's Summoner's Dilemma," CR, 5 (1971), 213-17.

71 52Roppolo, pp. 263-69. 53^Frederick Tupper, "Saint Venus and the Canterbury Pilgrims," Nation, 97 (October 16, 1913), 35^-55. 54 Ralph Baldwin, The Unity of the Canterbury Tales (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1955), 11-110~^ Baum, p. 134. 56 In my reading I have recorded more than twenty-five instances of this. 57 There is, I believe, a third level ; of application of this concept when we consider the interpersonal relationships of Chaucer's characters. The same essential characteristics of management with which God governs the world (in Boece) and with which Chaucer governs his Canterbury Tale's, are found in the way Averagus governs his relationship to Dorigen, "Love wol nat been constreyned by maistrye" (P 764). •^ Kittredge, Chaucer and his Poetry, p. 153.

72 Chapter Four: Tales in Tandem: The Linking of the Clerk's Tale with the Merchant's Tale

With Chaucer's pairing of the Clerk1s Tale and the Merchant's Tale, we have a different and possibly somewhat surprising effect. In the first chapter, we concluded that the Prioress' Tale implicitly answers the Shipman's Tale; in the second chapter, we found that the Friar's Tale mirrors with artistic symmetry the morality of Wife of Bath's Tale. In Fragment IV, however, the Merchant's Tale remarkably supplements the Clerk's Tale. Spiers cautions that the Clerk1s Tale should not be read in isolation for Chaucer has intended a sharp contrast. But what is usually overlooked is that this contrast is rooted in similar values which are inherent in the two stories. What we have, in Utley's phrasing, is "an inspired echo of the sacred bonds of the Clerk's Tale" in the "'olde lewed wordes' of January." I will confirm, moreover, that each of Chaucer's five pairing principles actively unites these two tales which are not only placed in tandem in the Canterbury Tales but also function in tandem. There are no manuscript problems which create difficulties for my study, as there are "no solid reasons for . . . believing that the Merchant's Tale originally 75 3 followed a different tale."^ And the fact that there are only two stories in Fragment IV makes it an intriguing subject for a study of linked tales. My study should not, however, obscure our appreciation of Chaucer's Clerk wittily answering the Wyf of Bath, although my focus here is on how the Clerk's story skillfully joins the Merchant's Tale. If we first explore the pairing principle of characterization of tellers, it will lay the groundwork for the other principles. In my study it is important to establish the tale-teller relationship in the Merchant's Tale because it influences the tone and significance of the Merchant's encomium and story. Many critics base their interpretation of the Merchant's Tale on the assumption that the Merchant personally identifies with January. But first we will consider the descriptions of,, the Clerk and Merchant that Chaucer has given us in the General Prologue. Interestingly, here Chaucer also pairs them. The Merchant's description immediately precedes the Clerk's. There is no clue, I believe, in the General Prologue that the pilgrims will be developed to be anything other than contrasting characters. Chaucer contrasts the Clerk and Merchant in three aspects—their conversation, their horses and their apparel. 74 The Clerk's conversation is economical and philosophically meaningful:

Noght o word spak he moore than was neede, And that was seyd in forme and reverence, And short and quyk and ful of hy sentence. (A 306)

His subject matter is "sownynge in moral vertu" (A 307) while the Merchant's subject matter is "sownynge alwey th'encrees of his wynnyng" (A 275)• This nameless merchant does not speak with the Clerk's "reverence" f (A 305) but rather speaks "ful solempneyly" (A 274). The Clerk on his modest horse — "leene ... as is a rake" (A 287) — must provide a portrait contrasting with the Merchant's sitting "hye" (A 271) on his horse. The same general contrast continues in the pilgrims' apparel. The Clerk's garments, "ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy" (A 290) confirm that he prefers books to clothes, while the Merchant in "mottelee" (A 271) sports a "Flaundryssh bever hat" (A 272). His higher priority regarding dress is also betrayed by "his bootes clasped faire and fetisly" (A 273) • Describing Chaucer's positioning of these pilgrims, Donaldson says, "he starts, properly enough, with the out-and-out money-grubber, the Merchant . . . [after turning] aside for that lusus naturae, the non-profit-motivated Clerk." 75 Bronson also stresses that this "contrasting pair" represents the materialsim vs. idealism dichotomy.' But Bronson goes beyond what a close study of the text reveals when he concludes that the opposing world outlooks of the q Clerk and Merchant are "born to be enemies." He cites "personal animosity" as the Merchant's feeling toward the Clerk and finds his story "undertaken to destroy the „ Q Clerk's incorrigible idealism. This critic metaphori- cally describes the way in which he feels the pilgrims' tales show a radical opposition: "the carrion [the Merchant's Tale] . . . lying by the violet in the sun, [the Clerk's Tale] corrupting with virtuous season." I agree that Chaucer has given us in the General Prologue only contrasting information about the Clerk and the Merchant. But I will not concur with Bronson who sees only diametrially opposed tellers when we consider how Chaucer expands their characterizations in Fragment IV. My point is that^despite the obvious and important contrasts both in the General Prologue and in Fragment IV, Chaucer has also developed a strong similarity in these two pilgrims. We will begin with the Clerk because he precedes the Merchant in Fragment IV and because his characterization involves fewer complications. The Clerk's first sentence is particularly revealing:

"Hooste," quod he, "I am under youre yerde; 76 Ye han of us as now the governance, And therfore wol I do yow obeisance, As fer as resoun axeth, hardily." (E 25* italics mine)

Note that^although he will play the game and will submit to the Host, he will only submit to a reasonable extent. No other pilgrim verbalizes this kind of conditional acceptance of Harry Bailley's authority. His qualifica- tion alerts us to his moderate stance which is furthermore borne out in the balance between his story and Envoy. First, the Clerk willingly admits that his story overstates the virtue of wives. Possibly his most direct admission reads:

This storie is seyd, nat for that wyves sholde Polwen Grisilde as in humylitee, For it were inportable, though they wolde. (E 1144)

Root glosses this, rightly I believe, to mean that most women couldn't bear to emulate Griselda who presents "an 11 unattainable ideal." Grennen, however, damns the Clerk's story as simplistic without taking into account the winsome song which follows his story. 12 If the Clerk seriously overstates the virtue of wives in his story, he jokingly overstates the vice of wives in his Envoy. These two overstatements, taken in context and following the Clerk's response to the Host, show a reality-based pilgrim. The Clerk enfleshes the golden mean which we can 77 assume he pursued in "Aristotle and his philosophie" 13 (A 295). As Hussey puts it, "any' kikind of maistrie, if taken to extremes, is unreasonable. „l4 The Clerk's moderation is at least somewhat similar to that shown by the Merchant in Fragment IV. While moving toward this conclusion, we first must/ recognize what Chaucer has accomplished in the link between the tales, the Merchant's Prologue. The Merchant's Prologue clearly fuses the two stories in Fragment IV. The Merchant's description of his own wife hearkens back to the contrasting example in the Clerk's story while also further characterizing the teller for the next tale, as Beidler suggests. ^ Critics go astray in not taking at face value the Merchant's statement that he refuses to speak of his "owene soore" (E 1243) in his tale. Hence, May must not be equated with the Merchant's wife.• „ 16 Even more importantly, the Merchant does not identify with January, as is often suggested, but rather, if he aligns himself with anyone in the story, it is with Justinus. For it is Justinus, "the moral center of the tale," who most closely corresponds to the Merchant both in marital situation and in the ability to perceive. ' Both Justinus and the Merchant are learned and share a realistic view of wives and women. 18 Also, as the Clerk 78 used reason as his touchstone in the Clerk1s Prologue, so Justinus's advice and warning to January also uphold reason as a guide:

In mariage, ne nevere mo shal bee, That yow shal lette of youre savacion, So that ye use, as skile is and reson, The lustes of youre wyf attemprely. (E 1679)

Furthermore, if it is correct to conclude that the Merchant identifies more closely with Justinus than any other character in his tale, does this not place him in a moderate, reasonable position between the extremes of non-committal Placebo and the insensitive, "simple- minded" 19 January? Let us consider the two pilgrims' performances from another point of view. It is interesting that the Clerk's Tale, overstating the virtue of wives, is followed by the Clerk's song, ironically overstating the vices of wives. Doesn't the Merchant's encomium, ironically overstating the virtues of wives at the beginning of the Merchant's Tale, nicely balance his tale which stresses the vices of wives (while emphatically attacking January)? And doesn't this, in each case, communicate a pilgrim who has an at least somewhat balanced and realistic outlook? Whittock finds that a passage of the Merchant's encomium (E 1337-^6) echoes the words of the Clerk's Tale. 20 But later he more forcefully concludes that the 79 Merchant's Tale "mocks positive values . . . [including] 21 the idealisms of the Clerk." This statement, however, must be qualified. There can be no argument that the Merchant' s Tale d»ei uiyfe presents a*,f±attering picture of wives and marriage. But far from "mocking" the standards endorsed by the Clerk's Tale, the Merchant's Tale upholds the same ideals, even if the examples which he gives fall far short. It is not mocked but lamented that relation- ships are out-of-joint; the tone describing Damian's betrayal, for example, is not one of joy but rather of regret:

se how thy Damyan, Thyn owene squier and thy,borne man, Entendeth for to do thee vileynye (E 1791)*

Richardson, in her study of the imagery in the Merchant's Tale, cites the "moral purpose which informs the whole tale." She concludes that January's "inability to distinguish on any level the difference between illusion and reality is not only the characteristic which motivates the entire plot but is also the ultimate flaw which condemns him, both as dupe of the fabliau and as 22 mortal sinner of the covert moral exemplum." In summary, then, both the Clerk and Merchant are further characterized by Chaucer's pairing in Fragment IV. Although they are shown as opposed types in the General 80 Prologue, they are developed in Fragment IV as representing similar moderation, although the Clerk's Tale expands on the ideal while the Merchant, though recognizing the same ideal*presents January who is an obverse example. There is also a close relationship between the morals of the Clerk1s Tale and the Merchant's Tale. The morals, I will show, nicely dovetail. There is little debate in selecting the moral of the Clerk's Tale as the Clerk has plainly underscored it for us:

This storie is seyd . . . that every wight, in his degree, Sholde be constant in adversitee As was Grisilde (E 1147).

Reiman, however, prefers to see the Clerk1s Tale from a more removed point of view, saying that the Clerk's underlying theme is the "need for a perspective larger than the pleasures and glories of this life" but substantially he is not in disagreement with the moral as expressed by the Clerk. The Merchant's moral, I believe, centers on the appearance vs. reality theme. May speaks:

Pul many a man weneth to seen a thyng, And it is al another than it semeth. He that mysconceyveth, he mysdemeth. (E 2410)

These lines subsume all that is significant in this "tale SI of Januarie" (E 2417). Haller names as the "more or less explicit moral" of the Merchant's Tale "the power of appetite to blind a man to the unfaithfulness of his Oil wife." Although Haller is saying essentially the same as May, I prefer May's phrasing and her more general statement. More recently, Richardson decides that the meaning of the story centers on spiritual blindness, but this is again in substantial agreement with May's moral. 25 Now when placed in tandem, the two morals in Fragment IV form a meaningful progression. The rationale behind the Clerk's admonition to be patient in adversity is that, as the Merchant's Tale stresses, reality is not always what it appears to be. More specifically, how does the appearance vs. reality theme function in Fragment IV? Both the Clerk's Tale and the Merchant's Tale exploit the appearance vs. reality distinction from the main character's point of view. In the Clerk's Tale, Walter only appears to be displeased with Griselda and only seems to "spille" his daughter and son. As he explains:

This is thy doghter, which thou has supposed To be my wyf; that oother feithfully Shal be myn heir, as I. have ay disposed; Thou bare hym in thy body trewely. At Boloigne have I kept hem prively; Taak hem agayn, for now maystow nat seye That thou hast lorn noon to thy children tweye. (E 1071)

82 Griselda accepts what seems to be the death of their children. In her own person, moreover, she consistently appears to be what she really is: "But nevere koude he fynde variance./ She was ay oon in herte and in visage" (E 711) • Her patience and steadfastness carry her through apparent tragedies. This reinforces the Clerk's moral to be patient in adversity and to "receyven al in gree that God us sent" (E 1151). In the Merchant's Tale, the appearance vs. reality theme likewise functions both in what the main character presents himself to be and in his perception of what is really happening. Unlike Griselda, January is not what he presents himself to be. January has become a Platonic "true lie" in that he not only misrepresents himself as virtuous, but accepts this image as true. He is as extreme in misrepresentation of self as Griselda is extreme in perfect self-consistency. January has spiritualized his rationalization. As he tells May:

For Goddes sake, thenk how I thee chees, Noght for no coveitise, douteless, But oonly for the-love I had to thee. (E 2167)

Secondly, January does not perceive what happens in his pre-fab paradise between May and Damian. With unknowing Griselda, events i^re distorted in being reported to her but with January, he is responsible for perceiving 83 incorrectly. January dismisses what he has seen and calls to May: "Com doun, my lief, and if I hav myssayd,/ God helpe me so, as I am yvele apayd" (E 2392). To see how integrally the appearance vs. reality theme binds the two tales in Fragment IV, let us consider the parallel progression in the conclusions of the stories. We will see that in the Clerk's Tale Griselda progresses, in three successive situations, toward reality. In the Merchant's Tale January progresses, in three successive situations, away from reality. In both stories, these stages occur while the husband and wife are talking. Griselda looses full consciousness (and hence the ability to perceive) three times; she awakens each time to a clearer perception of and personal affirmation of reality which is presented by her spouse. January's clear, physical perception, in the linked tale, is willingly distorted in three stages by his spouses' verbal manipulation. January accepts as true his spouse's presentation of appearance while Griselda accepts as true her spouse's presentation of reality. In the tales, the main characters are presented with truth; Griselda in her first stage and January in his third stage incorrectly sense what is happening immediately around them. In the first stage, Griselda's sense of hearing does not register her spouse's claim to 84 a restoration of their marital relationship:

"This is ynogh, Grisilde myn," quod he; "Be now namoore agast ne yvele apayed. I have thy feith and thy benyngnytee, As wel as evere womman was, assayed, In greet estaat, and povreliche arrayed. Now knowe I, dere wyf, thy stedfastness," — And hire in armes took and gan hire kesse. And she for wonder took of it no keep; She herde nat what thyng he to hire seyde; She ferde as she had stert out of a sleep, Til she out of hire mazednesse abreyde. (E 1061)

Her senses do not respond; she registers no recognition of what her husband has said. She is shown in the first of her three swoons. How different is January's reaction to his seeing Damian and May's pear tree assignation. 'January vocalizes outrage:

And up he yaf a roryng and a cry, As dooth the mooder whan the child shal dye: "Out I help; alias I harrowl" he gan to crye, "0 stronge lady stoore, what dostow?" (E 2367)

Then his spouse claims credits herself for the physical restoration of his sight. In each story it is demonstrative physical expression which signals the nature of the marital state. In the Clerk's Tale at this first stage, the husband's physical expression to his wife signals that their relationship 85 will be re-established (see E 1056-61, quoted above). In the Merchant's Tale at this first stage, however, it is the inappropriate physical expression by the wife which confirms the complete alienation of the married pair. The second stage is one of transition in each story. After a second swoon of joy, Griselda verbally summons her children to hejr and physically demonstrates her acceptance of the re-established relationships presented by her spouse:

Whan she this herde, aswowne doun she falleth For pitous joye, and after hire swownynge She bothe hire yonge^ children to hire calleth, And in hire armes', pitously wepynge, Embraceth hem, and tendrely kissnyge For lyk a mooder, with hire salte teeres She bathed bothe hire visage and hire heeres. (E 1085)

She also verbally recognizes this new state of affairs

0 tendre, o deere, o yonge children mynel Youre woful mooder wende stedfastly That crueel houndes or some foul vermyne Hadde eten yow; but God, of his mercy, And youre benyngne fader tendrely Hath doon yow kept. (E 1098)

Directly contrasting this, January verbally puts himself on the defensive and backs away from the truth:

"I se," quod he, "as wel as evere I myghte, Thonked be GodI with bothe myne eyen two, And by my trouthe, me thoughte he dide thee so." (E 2386) 86 January accepts May's comment that he is bewildered. The final stage shows Griselda completely embracing reality and January completely embracing appearance. Griselda's third swoon, which Severs notes is Chaucer's addition to his source, 26 shows Griselda owning reality even in unconsciousness:

Al sodeynly she swapte adoun to grounde. And in hire swough so sadly holdeth she Hire children two, whan she gan hem t'embrace, That with greet sleighte and greet difficultee The children from hire arm they goone arace. (E 1105)

She then awakens for the final time: "She riseth up, abaysed, from hire traunce" (E 1108). Notice how January, in full consciousness and restored sight, does not, like Griselda, become more intense in accepting reality, but becomes even more vague. He accepts only appearance, almost apologizing for first recognizing reality:

"Now, dame," quod he, "lat al passe out of mynde, Come doun, my lief, and if I have myssayd, God helpe me so, as I am yvele apayd." (E 2592)

The last scene showing the married pair in each story includes a show of affection. In the Clerk's Tale: "it was deyntee for to seen the cheere/ Bitwixe hem two, now they been met yfeere" (E 1115)• The appearance here is the same as the reality. EaSTi is happy for the same 87 reasons, as there is mutuality and reciprocal joy in the restored relationship. The appearance of the demonstrative husband in the Merchant's Tale, however, is deceiving: "He kisseth hire, and clippeth hire ful ofte,/ And on hire wombe he stroketh hire ful softe." (E 24l4) Both January and May are happy, but in reality they are married singles, pleased for contrary reasons. The marriage relationship is not one of "concord and . . . reste" (E 1129) as with Griselda and Walter, but a fragmented union. Again, the appearance vs. reality theme functions to bring out the meaning of the stories. 27' Considered in tandem, then, the morals of the Clerk's Tale and Merchant's Tale function in unison, fusing the Stories. A third pairing principle, that of character- plot parallels, also reveals a cohesive pattern, in the linked stories of Fragment IV. Although, as I will demonstrate, in Chaucer's tale pairings it is often the main characters of the tales—Griselda and January—who are compared and contrasted, with character-plot parallels, Griselda's counterpart is May while Walter's counterpart is January. I am not the first to suggest that Chaucer has employed plots and characters in the Clerk's Tale and Merchant's Tale which follow strikingly similar outlines. Corsa finds the Merchant's Tale a parody of the Clerk's 88 Tale in that, "like Walter, January assumes that the word of the husband is law, that marriage unites perfectly into 'o flessh' man and wife, "in wele and in 28 distress.'" More recently, Beidler explores these character-plot parallels. He notes the corresponding but contrasting aspects of the Lombard lords in the two tales regarding their age and how they respond to sound advice. He mentions why they are hasty, why they want an heir and how they insist on choosing their own wives for different reasons. " Since the purpose of my study is to determine the affinity of the tales in Fragment IV, it is fitting to explore these character-plot parallels in detail. We will find that when each plot is reviewed with the plot of the paired story, the motivations, the values and the morality of individual characters are meaningfully intensified. In each story we are immediately presented with a wealthy, unmarried Lombard lord. After describing the Italian countryside in one sentence, the Clerk mentions "a markys whilom lord was of that land" (E 64) and a few lines later makes his location and ancestry more specific by saying "therwith he was, to speke as of lynage,/ The gentilleste yborn of Lumbardye" (E 73). That Walter, the Lombard lord, is rich we infer from his position and "paleys" (E 197) and such details as his wedding gift for 89 his bride — "gemmes, set in gold and in asure,/ Brooches and rynges" (E 255)* January is also introduced by the Merchant as a "worthy knight" who is "dwellynge in Lumbardye" (E 1246). We also find proof of his "greet prosperitee" (E 1247) in the luxurious garden he built, his "palays" (E 2415), and his "heritage, toun and tour" (E 2172).30 The Lombard lords are different in age and personality. Walter is "yong of age" (E 73) while January, "passed sixty year" (E 1252) admits his "unlikly elde" (E 2180), for he is on his "pittes brynke" (E 1401). Chaucer stresses his age; he mentions it eight times. 31 Dempster observes that Chaucer has added January's age to his sources. ■50 There is also a contrast between Walter's active personality and January's passive personality. Walter goes to Rome (E 737) and seeks out his bride in her village (E 267ff.)» Severs observes that when Chaucer had a choice between making Walter more passive or more active, he followed "his French source in having Walter go to Griseldis1 chamber; whereas the Latin has it that he called her along into his room.">> Speaking of the Merchant's Tale, McGalliard rightly concludes that "all of the action takes place on [January's] estate."^34 January commands his friends to come to him (E 1611) and commands them to arrange his wedding (E 1631-32) after 90 his passive selection of May in "heigh fantasye and curious bisynesse" (E 1577)• January also defaults on his promise to visit Damian (E 1914-15). Each teller presents a character flaw in his male lead which substantially determines the plot. Walter's character flaw is his compulsion to "tempte" (E 620) Grisilda. The Clerk rues that Walter "ne knowe no mesure" in this fixed idea:

But ther been folk of swich condicion That whan they have a certein purpos take, They kan nat stynte of hire entencion, But, right as they were bounden to a stake, They wol nat of that firste- purpos slake. Right so this markys fulliche hath purposed To tempte his wyf as he was first disposed. (E 707)

January is also presented with a fixed idea. His solidified conception equates paradise with wedlock:

"Noon oother lyf," seyde he, "is worth a bene; For wedlok is so esy and so clene, That in this world it is a paradys." (E 1265)

Now during the course of the stories, Walter relents. He has "routhe" (E 579, 895) to some degree during the tale, but completely and forever relents when he states, "This is ynogh, Grisilde myn" (E 1051)• Contrariwise, January's idea is not modified. His fixed idea is tenaciously maintained to the conclusion of the story in spite of all reason, evidence^and experience. 91 Additionally, both rich Lombard lords are given advice regarding their marriage. With young Walter, it is his subjects who beg him to wed to maintain continuity in their ruling line:

Delivere us out of al this bisy drede, And taak a wyf, for hy Goddes sake I For if it so bifelle, as God forbede, That thurgh youre deeth youre lynage sholde slake, And that a straunge successour sholde take Youre heritage, 0, wo were us alyvel Wherfore we pray you hastily to wyve. (E 140)

Walter assents to his subjects* reasonable pleas and is shown to trust upon their "wit" (E 1^9). Chaucer, according to Severs, 35^ adds to his sources a full description of Walter's kindly agreeing to his subjects' request:

And seyde he dide al this at hir requeste. And they, with humble entente, buxomly, Knelynge upon his knees ful reverently, Hym thonken alle. (E 188)

This addition forms a telling contrast with January's dismissal of his worthy advisor:

Straw for thy Senek, and for thy proverbesl I counte nat a panyer ful of herbes Of scole-termes. Wyser men than thow, As thou hast herd, assenteden right now To my purpos. (E 1571)

In the Clerk's story, aged January initiates his own marriage. He summons his friends not to listen but to 92 "tellen hem th'effect of his entente" (E 1398), then scorns the reasonable advice of Justinus. Chaucer has added the advice scene from a separate source, for it does not appear in his analogues. 36 Besides contributing to January's characterization, the Inclusion of the advice scene makes the parallels with the Clerk* s Tale more complete. January's desire for an heir does not concern preventing "a straunge successour" (E 138) from disrupting the common profit as Walter concedes, but his desire stems from fear that his own private heritage "sholde falle/ In straunge hand" (E 1440). In each case the wedding is to be carried out in haste. For Walter the motivation again centers in respecting his subjects' wish for security (E l4o) while January's hasty plans further reveal his desire for self- gratification. Although both men wish to personally choose their mates, Walter judges by internal qualities whereas January judges by external qualities. Walter values gentilesse -- "vertuous beautee" (E 211). January's values are shown in his criterion for his wife. She should not only be youthful and beautiful but peaceful, pliable^and capable of preventing his adultery (see E 1416-36). At the onset of the stories, the men dominate the women, as Kean r""t?gests.^' That both husbands-to-be want brides who 93 will yield to them I will discuss under the sovereignty vs. free will theme. Walter again provides a nice contrast for January as they select their brides. Walter considers Griselda "nought with wantoun lookyng of folye" (E 236) and "ofte avyse" on her as a person (E 2J8). With a retinue of followers (artistically expanded by Chaucer-^ ), Walter goes to his bride-to-be's village and asks Griselda's father for his blessing on their marriage. January, whose "folye" Justinus despises (E 1655)* makes his selection in isolated "heigh fantasye" (E 1577) after, like Walter, reviewing "maydens whiche that dwelten hym bisyde" (E 1587)* Rather than a personal encounter we learn that January "apoynted hym oon . . . And chees hire of his owene auctoritee" (E 1597). Both Lombard lords mention God's part in their decision to wed. Walter sincerely and immediately commits his choice to God:

I truste in Goddes bountee, and therfore My mariage and myn estaat and reste I hym bitake; he may doon as hym leste. (E l6l)

January's relation to God is perfunctory. He petitions "oure Lord" to be wed (E 1258), announces to his friends that God is pleased with his intention (E 1621), and expresses gratitude that he might completely possess the 94 "mayden" of his choice (E 1623). The chosen brides also set up a strong contrast. Although both are not of noble lineage—Grisilda being of "povre folk" (E 204) and May of "smal degree" (E 1625)— Grisilda consistently remains "pridelees" (E 930) while May flaunts the position into which she wed, "I am a gentil woman and no wenche" (E 2202). We can deduce that Griselda does not marry for material reasons as "no likerous lust was thurgh hire herte yronne" (E 214). With May we are not specifically given her motive, but 39 can assume it is a marriageige of convenience, ^ not judging her above personal greed. 40 To say that Griselda is faithful while May is 4l unfaithful belabors the obvious, but the disparity between the women is more intense when we are mindful of the time scheme of the tales. Griselda, in more than twelve years, increases in her fidelity to her husband:

And ay the forther that she was in age, The moore trewe, if that it were possible, She was to hym in love, and moore penyble. (iS 714)

May, however, gives her allegiance to Damian after only four days of marriage, although at least a year passes before the pear tree episode. 42 May makes this commitment to Damian thinking, "whom that this thyng displese,/ I 95 rekke noght" (E 1983). Severs, in his study of the sources for the Clerk's Tale, generalizes that Chaucer makes Griselda more 4-3 submissive. '' For whatever additional reasons Chaucer may have had in mind, might not one reason be to increase the disparity between her and her female counterpart in the following tale? In the last scene of the Clerk's Tale and the Merchant's Tale which shows the married couple, there is, as I mentioned above, a show of affection. In the Clerk's Tale, the couple's reciprocal joy is celebrated by the community:

Thus hath this pitous day a blisful ende, For every man and womman dooth his myght This day in murthe and revel to dispende Til on the welkne shoon the sterres lyght. (E 1124)

But the Merchant's Tale ends with only January showing affection for May; they are portrayed alone, with no one to share January's selfish and deluded gladness. In addition to these extensive character-plot parallels, supplementing morals and further characteriza- tion of tellers, the stories in Fragment IV are mutually enriched by six themes. The order y_s. disorder theme provides the backdrop for the others—Griselda's gentilesse vs_. May's hypocrisy, a continuation of the 96 experience vs. authority debate, and three themes which in this fragment are aligned with the discussion of marriage—sovereignty vs. free will, wo yjs. bliss, and good wifely counsel yjs. bad wifely counsel. As we discuss thematic ties, we might bear in mind Corsa's statement that as the Merchant's Tale "parodies the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale and The Clerk1s Tale it points up all their themes, underscores all their concerns in ways that strip away all complexity and reduce them to simple statements about the relation between the sexes, and one simple statement about the nature of justice and truth. ..44 We will find intricate thematic affinity in Fragment IV, but the resulting truth that Chaucer states is complex. The order vs. disorder theme in Fragment IV reveals a story in which order is progressively established followed by a story in which disorder is progressively established. But we again must be mindful that both tales posit the same medieval values. Hennlnger has cogently considered the order vs. lie disorder theme ^ in the Clerk's Tale: "the Clerk keeps constantly before the Pilgrims the concept of God's order manifested in a system of interdependent hierarchies, and the desirability (even moral necessity) of preserving this order"; Griselda is the "dutiful supporter of natural order." While the Clerk tells his tale, he maintains 97 an expansive, inclusive perspective which overtly values the solidarity of organic community. Although I cannot improve on Henninger's observations and conclusions, I would like to expand his thesis at three points. First, note how Walter always verbally justifies his actions to Griselda by saying that he is acting for the "common profyt." When Walter displaces their daughter it is because of the displeasure of the "gentils" (see E 480-83); when Walter displaces their son it is because of the "murmur" of their people (E 628); when Walter displaces Griselda it is ostensibly with the Pope's permission in order to quell their subjects' "rancour" (E 802). Walter has, of course, manufactured the people's ill will in each case, but even his rationalizations show a respect for order and the common good. Secondly, in the Clerk's Tale there is a correlation between the marquis' wrong and the real discontent of his subjects. Over a period of time, when Walter as ruler mistreats his wife, there are symtoms of disorder which signify a lack of harmony. At the beginning of the story, when Walter is irresponsibly focusing only on the present, the people complain: "Oonly that point his peple bar so soore/ That folkmeele on a day they to hym wente" (E 86) . Later Walter's subjects signal what they feej. to be an 98 injustice by the disorder of "murmur"—

The sclaundre of Walter ofte and wyde spradde, That of a crueel herte he wikkedly, For he a povre womman wedded hadde, Hath mordred bothe his children prively. Swich murmur was among hem comunly. (E 726)

In the third place, because Grisilda maintains her internal priorities, there is no disorder in her affections. If she had become jealous, complained and resented the new marchioness, she would have born this ill will toward her own first-born child. She is not in internal disarray because of pride or guilt. The Clerk's Tale, obviously, concludes in "concord and in reste" (E 1129); Griselda's inner peace and devotion have proved to be personally and socially repercussive. Before I consider the order vs. disorder theme in the Merchant's Tale, let us review the implicit moral standards in the story. January, although at the moral nadir of the story, gives the ideals espoused by the Canterbury Tales as a whole. He shows a concern for his soul and an awareness of hell (see E 1402, 1435-36); he is clear (at least in one instance) that heaven involves "tribulacion and greet penaunce" (E 1649); he gives the medieval, Christian ideal of marriage (quoted above). He can even warn May that her first priority should be the "love of Crist" (E 2171). 99 But the story shows an increasingly disordered main character; this internal disorder is reflected in his relationships. At first January is portrayed as eager to mend his faults (see E 1258ff., l402ff.), but he stands against ordered, organic community by rejecting reason and sage advice in the best of friends, Justinus. Later he has "privee freendes" (E 1813) dismiss his wedding 47 guests. Damian, his own man whom he has dehumanized, betrays him; as Pluto says, "his owene man shal make hym cokewold" (E 2256). January's jealousy, "so outrageous" (E 2087), is another internal symptom of disorder which contributes, unwittingly for January, to his wife's infidelity. His relationship with May shows a jarring discrepancy between what should be — "for they sholde leccherye eschue" (E 1451) — and what ijs in this 4ft "frighteningly moral story."

The extent of January's internal.disorder is shown by his conscience and his expression of pity. The second time he calls his friends, it is not to assist his conscience to discern between good and evil but to sanction a surfeit of bliss I

"Thanne is," quod he, "no thyng may be displese, Save o thyng priketh in my conscience, The which I wol reherce in youre presence. I have," quod he, "herd seyd, ful yoore ago, Ther may no man han parfite blisses two, — This is to seye, in erthe and eek in hevene." (E 1639) 100 Also, January's pity is not constructive as is Theseus's when he mercifully restores life or as Walter's is when he evaluates his subjects' anxiety for their welfare. January destructively shows "greet pitee" (E 1755) for May before he commits offenses against her. Pittock also suggests the disordered unnaturalness of January's lechery: "he doesn't suffer from a desire he can't help feeling; he wants to feel a desire he wouldn't, at his age, normally have." 49y In January's mind, religion and May are inextricably aligned. In the General Prologue, Chaucer sets his pilgrimage in the springtime and suggests a natural correspondence between the coming of spring and the welling of religious feeling:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendered is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge soone Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (So priketh hem nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To feme halwes, kowthe in sondry londes. (A 14)

Spring, with connotations of hope, rebirth and fertility, stirs religious feelings as a natural function of the 101 orderly alternation of nature. But in old January's mind, May—his "springtime"—is not desired with a "ful devout courage" (A 22) and with respect for her own person, but selfishly to sanction "his appetyt" (E 1250) and to function as his guarantee against hell. The unnatural disorder that January sustains by equating May with religion helps to create an ambiguous tone in the

Merchant's Tale. Richardson f inds? in her study of the imagery in the story^ that the "religious motifs become ironic in their discordant context, and the very act of combining the holy with a situation so sordid, though comic, creates an incongruity which deepens into profound moral criticism." 50 The Merchant' s Tale, then, by being paired with the Clerk's Tale, gives a picture of personal disorder issuing in social disorder following the Clerk's portrayal of personal order issuing in social stability. The gentilesse vs. hypocrisy theme is closely related to both the order vs. disorder theme and the appearance vs. reality theme. For Chaucer hypocrisy is a form of personal disorder as I discussed regarding January. Hypocrisy or "false dissymulacioun" (D 2123), also denotes the discrepancy between what a person tries to appear to be and what he really is. As the Parson says, "Ypocrite is he that hideth to shewe hym swich as he is, and sheweth hym swich as he noght is" (I 39^). The gentilesse vs. 102 hypocrisy antithesis pits qualities that Chaucer condones against those he condemns. Chaucer upholds gentilesse as his ideal of the moral good in such stories as the Wife of Bath's while hypocrisy is consistently condemned, as in the Summoner's story of an immoral friar. There is a clear dichotomy between gentilesse and hypocrisy. The essence of gentilesse is claiming moral virtue only through God's grace; the essence of hypocrisy is claiming moral virtue one wittingly lacks. When Chaucer joins the Clerk's Tale with the Merchant's Tale he specifically sets up this polarity in Griselda and May. Let us use the four qualities from the hag's pillow lecture as touchstones to evaluate whether or not Griselda embodies gentilesse 52 and whether or not May embodies hypocrisy. First, gentilesse is a gift of grace from Christ. "With humble herte . . . with no swollen thoght" (E 950), Griselda does not personally claim virtue for "God hath swich favour sent hire of his grace" (Es-395)» May, however, verbalizes a dependence on God that she does not have. She says: "Up peril of my soule, I shal not lyen" (E 257l)» But as she carries out her premeditated adultery, she delivers an impassioned speech on her own virtue:

"I have," quod she, "a soule for to kepe 105 As wel as ye, and also myn honour, And of my wyfhod thilke tendre flour, Which that I have assured in youre hond, Whan that the preest to yow my body bond; Wherfore I wole answere in this manere, By the leve of yow, my lord so deere: I prey to God that nevere dawe the day That I ne sterve, as foule as womman may> If evere I do unto my kyn that shame, Or elles I empeyre so my name, That I be fals; and if I do that lak, Do strepe me and put me in a sak, And in the nexte ryver do me drenche." (E 2201)

Secondly, gentilesse involves being virtuous and doing "gentil" deeds. Griselda, in the course of the story, repeats her past. Her virtuous, careful tending of Janicula, "hir olde povre fader fostred shee" (E 222), is replayed on a higher key in her virtuous, loving care of Walter and their subjects. Her "heigh bountee" (E 409) is shown in her "gentil" deeds at home and in her community:

Nat oonly this Grisildis thurgh hir wit Koude al the feet of wyfly hoomlinesse, But eek, whan that the cas required it, The commune profit koude she redresse. Ther nas discord, rancour, ne hevynesse In al that land, that she ne koude apese, And wisely brynge hem alle in reste and ese. (E 4?4)

Neither May, though less precisely characterized than Grisilda, nor her deeds are presented as virtuous. Her deeds center on her own plan to rendevous with Damian though "whom that this thyng displese [she will] rekke 104 noght" (E 1985). Again with the third quality of gentilesse — that it is individual, neither annexed or bequeathed to possessions — Griselda and May maintain polar positions. May seizes on her rise from "smal degree" (E 1625) to proclaim, "I am a gentil womraan and no wenche" (E 2202). Walter chooses Griselda because "he saugh that under low degree/ Was ofte vertu hid" (E 425). Walter's insight proves true in his wife as her goodness in the story is not dependent on the whimsical revolutions of Fortune. This is closely related to the fourth attribute of gentilessee—that it is natural and internal, needing no audience. Griselda's virtue is consistent whether in obscurity she is tending her father, whether she is "translated ... in swich richesse" (E 385), or whether among "oother folk" she is humbly awaiting the new marchioness (E 1014). The source of her goodness is within; it verifies that she is "oon in herte and visage" (E 711)• The unnaturalness of May is shown when the Merchant chastises Fortune, in the form of a scorpion. The scorpion, Pace notes, 53^ is a medieval representation for lechery; its description clearly suggests May's attributes:

0 monstre, that so subtilly kanst peynte Thy yiftes under hewe of stidefastnesse, That thou deceyvest bothe moore and lessel (E 2064) 105 May's obedience to January, moreover, does not follow "kynde" being only superficial (see E I96I, 2008). The Parson says, "It is a greet folye, a woman to have a fair array outward and in hirself be foul inward" (I 955)• Unlike Grisilda, May in herself has little to offer as an individual or for the "common profyt." The experience vs_. authority theme provides a nice transition to the marriage themes for, as Lawlor notes, the Wife of Bath had set "in motion a conflict between auctoritee and experience."-3 We will again find that the Merchant's Tale supplements the Clerk's Tale in the manner in which Chaucer fashions the experience vs. authority theme. The tale of Griselda is a story from Petrarch which confirms experience. The Merchant's story is a tale of the experience of January who misuses authorities. I find that both stories in Fragment IV confirm both experience and the proper use of authority. The Clerk's Tale includes few allusions to authorities. The Clerk explicitly alludes once to the Old Testament (Job, E 932) and once to the New Testament (James, E 1154). For a clerk, this is less than we would expect. Reiman's explanation for this is that the Clerk "must avoid the pedantry for which the Wife has already been criticized. By the time the Host calls upon him, the Clerk has made his decision to reply by 106 indirection. He readily consents, therefore, to do the Host's bidding 'as fer as resoun axeth,' since his reason agrees with Harry Bailley's judgment that preaching is not the way to the minds of his fellow pilgrims.' Lawlor also sees the Clerk's story of Griselda's experience as a reply "with professional rivalry" directed toward Alys. 57 For these possible reasons, then, the Clerk has alluded to very few authorities. With the Merchant's Tale, the volume of learned allusions to authorities 58 seems inappropriate for the Merchant who can be classed as an unsophisticated narrator. This may be explained by the possibility that the Merchant's Tale was poiiirtaiby first written by Chaucer for oral reading and only later assigned to the Merchant. 59 For the purpose of my study, however, we will concentrate on how the theme of experience vs. authority is utilized by Chaucer when the Merchant's Tale is juxtaposed with the Clerk's Tale. Let us explore how five characters in the Merchant's Tale treat this theme. According to Baugh, Placebo's reference to Solomon (E 1483) is misquoted; its source is Ecclesiasticus 32:24. Placebo, then, who is not cast in a favorable light, quotes an authority incorrectly. Secondly, Justinus who is cast in the most favorable light upholds "Senek" and wisely recommends a careful 107 consideration of authority:

Senek, amonges othere wordes wyse, Selth that a man oghte hyra right wel avyse To whom he yeveth his lond or his catel. And syn I oghte avyse me right wel To whom I yeve my good awey fro me, Wel muchel moore I oghte avysed be To whom I yeve my body for alwey. (E 1529)

January disclaims both authority and good counsel (E 1567) substituting "his owene auctoritee" (E 1597)* But the most telling example of the experience vs. authority debate is in the interchange between the last two characters, Pluto and Prosperina. Pluto speaks:

"My wyf," quod he, "ther may no wight seye nay; Th'experience so preveth every day The tresons whiche that wommen doon to man. Ten hondred thousand [tales] tellen I kan Notable of your untrouthe and brotilnesse. 0 Salomon, wys, and richest of richesse, Pulfild of sapience and of worldly glorie, Pul worthy been thy wordes to memorie To every wight that wit and reson kan. Thus preiseth he yet the bountee of man: •Amonges a thousand men yet foond I con, But of wommen alle foond I noon.'" (E 2248)

Pluto summons experience and authority to disparage women in general. Prosperina does not question their relative merits but, with a more scholarly gloss, questions what Pluto generalizes from Solomon's words. First she intelligently focuses on the "sentence" Pluto found in Solomon, correcting her husband who read a condemnation 108 of women into Solomon's conclusion

What rekketh me of youre auctoritees? I woot wel that this Jew, this Salomon, Poond of us wommen fooles many oon. But though that he ne foond no good womman, Yet hath ther founde many another man Wommen ful trewe, ful goode, and vertuous. Witnesse on hem that dwelle in Cristes hous; With martirdom they preved hire Constance. The Romayn geestes eek make remembrace Of many a verray, trewe wyf also. But, sire, ne be nat wrooth, al be it so, Though that he seyde he foond no good womman, I prey yow take the sentence of the man; He mente thus, that in sovereyn bontee Nis noon but God, but neither he ne she." (E 2290)

Prosperina secondly attacks Pluto's source—Solomon. She points out:

So made he eek a temple of false goodis. How myghte he do a thyng that moore forbode is? Pardee, as faire as ye his name emplastre, He was a lecchour and an ydolastre, And in his elde he verray God forsook. (E 2299)

Lumiansky says that Justinus is the "only clear-thinking individual" in the Merchant's Tale ; Justinus fits this description no more completely than Prosperina. And, to be sure, Prosperina with her correct interpretation of both experience and authority, comes out best for Pluto apparently yields to her interpretation, "Be no lenger wrooth; I yeve it up" (E 2312). As Wentersdorf says, Prosperina's "skill in exploiting the authorities recalls 109 62 that of the Wife of Bath." The important difference is, however, that Alys wrenches them while Prosperina correctly glosses them. I find, then, no conflict in how the individual tales in Fragment IV deal with the experience vs. authority theme. Whittock concludes in this regard, however, that "The Merchant's Tale [treating the sexual passion in love and marriage] answers The Clerk's Tale [with abstract reasoning].' ^ But a careful reading of the "tale of Januarie" (E 2417) shows that it firmly and repeatedly upholds the correct use of authority in the story of January's experience. And the Clerk's Tale (though sparse in authorities) and Envoy do not in any sense deny experience. The experience y_s. authority theme, then functions in league in Fragment IV to validate experience as well as endorse the proper use of authorites. The primary focus of the sovereignty vs. free will theme in Fragment IV is the wives' response to their husbands' desires. This, of course, helps to classify these tales as part of the Marriage Group. Both Walter and January specify that they want obedient wives who will allow them to be sovereign. Griselda assents to this pre-nuptial demand from Walter:

I seye this, be ye redy with good herte 110 To al my lust, and that I frely may, As me best thynketh, do yow laughe or smerte, And nevere ye to grucche it, myght ne day? And eek whan I sey "ye," ne sey nat "nay," Neither by word ne frownyng contenance? Swere this, and heere I swere oure alliance. (E 357)

One reason that January stipulates a young woman for his bride is that he thinks she would be piable under his control. His language suggests that his wife is an inanimate possession: "But certeynly, a yong thyng may men gye,/ Right as men may warm wex with handes plye" (E 14^0). Only "meke" (E 538, 931) Griselda, of course, is faithful to her "trouthe." She explicitly recognizes that she has submitted her will to her husband; she says, "lefte I my wyl and al my libertee" (E 656). There is complete congruence with her husband's desires because of her submission:

For which it semed thus, that of hem two Ther nas but o wyl; for, as Walter leste, The same lust was hire plesance also. (E 717)

That Griselda's submission is carried to the extreme is shown by her metaphor which suggests that she is but an inanimate possession:

She seyde, "Lord, al lyth in youre plesaunce. My child and I, with hertely obeisaunce, Been youres al, and ye mowe save or spille Youre owene thyng; werketh after youre wille." (E 504) 111 May, on the other hand, w/^lds a perverse sovereignty over January. She is obedient in letter only (see E 1950, 1961, 2008); she manipulates him even when he continually has his hands on her. May arranges matters so that he continues to think of her as a pilable "young thyng" (E 1429)• Huppe reaches an interesting conclusion in this regard: "the Merchant's Tale . . . reveals that the wife's sovereignty results from the surrender of the husband to lust. Only through a husband's abdication of his reason and responsibility may the wife rule. Thus her rule is an illusion, since it is not based upon her dominance so much as on the husband's submission to his own desires.* • ..64 The alignment of Prosperina with May against Pluto and January stresses the hostile female y_s. male polarities. It makes the tale more specifically a marital and sexual conflict, not merely an interpersonal contest for domination. Prosperina says that she will no longer contradict Pluto, but does so only after she has criticized his allusion and rendered ineffective January's sight by promising May an answer to what Pluto permits January to see (E 2J517). A second marriage theme, wo y_s. bliss, most explicitly unifies Fragment IV. The Clerk's final lines in the Envoy are repeated by the Merchant in the 112 Merchant's Prologue* As Jordan suggests, there is a comic and "sudden contrast between the Merchant's and the Clerk's usages of the same Biblical phrasing. The Clerk's jocularly ironic 'And lat hym care, and wepe, and wrynge, and waille' is followed immediately by the Merchant's serious and personal 'Wepyng and waylyng, care and oother sorwe I knowe ynogh . . . ' By abruptly juxtaposing these two very different intonations of the same language Chaucer produces a type of comic situation of which he was very fond: the spectacle of one who unknowingly makes earnest of game." 65 In both stories, there is a warning for the main characters that Fortune does not ordain continual bliss. Walter warns Griselda:

No man may alwey han prosperitee. With evene herte I rede yow t'endure The strook of Fortune or of aventure. (E 812)

In the Merchant's Tale it is the narrator who gives the warning: "But worldly joye may nat alwey dure/ To Januarie, ne to no creature" (E 2056). But the main characters have different views of marriage. Griselda will admit both her wo and bliss while January will only admit his bliss. Although Griselda remembers being "blisful" (E 844) as marchioness, she also calls herself a "woful mooder" (E 1094, see also 651, 753). In spite 113 of Justinus1 warning, January consistently maintains his original belief that the marital life is "so delicat, withouten wo and stryf" (E 1646). Both main characters experience two revolutions of Fortune's wheel. Griselda experiences bliss (her wedding, the birth of her daughter), wo (removal of daughter), bliss (birth of son), wo (removal of son, dismissal as wife, recall as servant), and final return to bliss (reunion and re-established relationships). Likewise, January experiences bliss (his marriage), wo (blindness), bliss (his anticipation to "pleye/ In his gardyn" [E 2136]), wo (seeing Damian with May) and final return to bliss (with May's manipulation, "This January, who is glad but he?" [E 2412]). How the main characters react to these alternations of Fortune is predictably different. Griselda maintains a Boethian stance, for as Huppe says, "from the effect of her willing obedience to appointed authority comes the possibility of peace and the triumph over Fortune." January's patience, however, is not constant.

He paciently took his adversitee, Save, out of doute, he may nat forgoon That he nas jalous everemoore in oon. (E 2086)

As Cherniss says, here Chaucer is ironic and January "is a mere parody of Grisilda-like endurance of Fortune's 114 blows. „67 ' It is January's moral stance that causes a different response to Fortune. Olson suggests that "in selecting May as his earthly good, January fixes himself to Fortune's wheel by convincing himself of the 'permanency' of a delicacy which we know from the beginning must by her nature change. In the garden, he rises to a heaven of wet prosperity; blinded he begins his fall, and, cuckolded, he ignores the spiritual meaning of an adversity which is no less real for being comic." For a significantly larger thing, Cherniss has traced the wo vs. bliss theme via the purgatory metaphor in Fragment IV to conclude that it substantially unifies the two tales. His cogent argument suggests that archwives' being a "purgatory" may spiritually benefit their husbands in providing them with redemptive suffering. Cherniss sees this theme continued in the Merchant's Tale not only in the May-January relationship but also in Justinus' explicit warning to January that a bride may be his purgatory. The theme of good wifely counsel vs. bad wifely counsel is begun in the Canterbury Tales at least as early as the Melibee. In the Clerk's Tale Chaucer has added to his sources Grisilda's speech in which she gives Walter good wifely counsel:

0 thyng biseke I yow, and warne also, 115 That ye ne prikke with no tormentynge This tendre mayden, as ye han doon mo; For she is fostred in hire norissynge Moore tendrely, and, to my supposynge, She koude nat adversitee endure As koude a povre fostred creature. (E 1043)

In the encomium of the Merchant's Tale we are told:

He may nat be deceyved, as I gesse, So that he werke after his wyves reed. Thanne may he boldely beren up his heed, They been so trewe, and therwithal so wyse; For which, if thou wolt werken as the wyse, Do alwey so as wommen wol thee rede. (E 136l)

This is contrary to what transpires in the story, however, for May's advice to January makes him an accomplice to his own cuckolding:

"But wolde ye vouche sauf, for Goddes sake, The Pyrie inwith youre armes for to take, For wel I woot that ye mystruste me. Thanne sholde I clymbe wel ynogh," quod she, "So I my foot myghte sette upon youre bak." (E 23^5)

And following his "wyves reed" (E 1357) leads subsequently to his being "deceyved" (E 1356). Also showing how Chaucer fashions unity in Fragment IV is the last principle — juxtaposition of tales with regard to literary type and structure. The Clerk's Tale, a folk story or religious allegory, is followed by a fabliau. Chaucer sets up a similar contrast in the first two tales of Fragment VII, the Shipman's Tale and the 116 Prioress's Tale, although in this case the fabliau precedes the religious story. One reason, which I only tenatively submit, for Chaucer's placing the Clerk's Tale before the Merchant's Tale is that the last two tales in the preceding Fragment (Friar's Tale and Summoner's Tale) are fabliaux. It is not likely that Chaucer would position three consecutive fabliaux. In any case, the literary type represented in the Clerk's Tale provides a distinctive contrast to the fabliau entitled the Merchant's Tale. The adjoining tales are structured differently. In the Clerk's Tale, the story moves toward spiritual life and communal solidarity via a death-to-self; in the Merchant's Tale the story moves toward spiritual death and alienation via self-indulgence. Again in tandem, the Clerk's Tale and Merchant's Tale present a study of spiritual and physical life and spiritual and physical death. Chaucer frames the Clerk's Tale itself with physical death. In the Prologue the Clerk speaks of the physical deaths of Petrarch and Lynyan, then generalizes:

But deeth, that wol nat suffre us dwellen heer, But as it were a twynklyng of an ye, Hem bothe hath slayn, and alle shul we dye. (E 38)

117 This is just before beginning his tale; immediately after his story, the Clerk announces, "Grisilde is deed" (E 1177) in the first phrase of the Envoy* But the Clerk's Tale centers on the triumph of spiritual life over physical death. Regarding the story itself, I believe it is McCall who most clearly states to what end Chaucer has structured his story—"by the free and total submission of the human will, the will itself becomes sovereign and, analogously, that the final submission, a submission 'to death,' is the means by which death itself is conquered." 70 Whittock says much the same, "love may be the abnegation of personality, the losing one's self in the self of the beloved."'71 In this context it is the traditional, Christian idea that to gain life, paradoxically one must lose it (see Matthew l6:25)» Now let us consider how this self-abnegation applies to Grisilda and how self-indulgence, the opposite, applies to January. Griselda, increasingly views physical death as natural and non-threatening. After she has, in self- denial, willingly forefeited her "wyl" and all her "libertee" (E 656), she vows that she would give her life for Walter: "For wiste I that my deeth wolde do yow ese,/ Right gladly wolde I dyen, yow to plese" (E 665). Following tests which validate her death-to-self, her 118 triumph over physical death is complete:

Now rekke I nevere to been deed right heere; Sith I stonde in youre love and in youre grace, No fors of deeth, ne whan my spirit pace I (E 1092)

The most fascinating aspect of the Clerk's Tale emerges for me when I correlate Severs1 observations of how Chaucer modified the Griselda of his sources with the idea of death-to-self. Chaucer makes his Griselda more submissive than his sources; yet simultaneously he creates her as more of a distinct, real, intelligent, sensitive, courageous person. She has more "strength of character" than her counterparts.' Severs discerns that "there is a vast difference between the complete submission of one who unthinkingly, unfeelingly, docilely merges her will in that of another and the complete submission of one who can yet feel keenly and retain her capacity for individual thought and judgment."'-^ Severs is even more specific when he writes that Chaucer saves Griselda "from utter colorlessness and the complete submersion of her will in that of the lord by portraying her as feeling more poignantly than the heroine of the sources her husband's cruelty and inconstancy; by bestowing upon her the courage to give utterance to her feelings; and by allowing her even to pass judgment upon her husband's actions in a 119 speech which has more than a hint of implied reproach in it — all emphases which are original with Chaucer and 74 not to be found in either Latin or French source.'

What Chaucer has created in Griselda?then, is not an individual who willingly yields to the domination of another and loses her own identity. What happens here is not equatable with the absorption of unique individuality in Oriental religious thought. Chaucer's remarkable portrayal of Griselda's death-to-self simultaneously includes her regaining self by heightening her individuality. Griselda truly does find herself through obedience in Chaucer's story, as shown by the subtle touches Chaucer adds. His brilliant characterization enfleshes birth-of-self via death-to-self. What could be a more direct contrast to Grisilda's acceptance of physical death than old January's selfish wish that young May physically die with him? If he should predecease her, moreover, he wants her to live out the remainder of her life in solitary mourning:

So brente his herte that he wolde fayn That som man bothe hire and hym had slayn. For neither after his deeth, nor in his lyf, Ne wolde he that she were love ne wyf, But evere lyve as wydwe in clothes blake, Soul as the turtle that lost hath hire make. (E 2080)

Anxious about physical death, January addresses his 120 friends:

Freendes, I am hoor and oold, And almoost, God woot, on my pittes brynke: Upon my soule somwhat most I thynke. (E.1402)

That January is self-indulgent scarcely needs discussion; he condemns himself by vocalizing the ideal of marriage, then admits his licence— "But sires, by youre leve, that am nat I" (E 1456). January submits to nothing but his own desires. He unnaturally hopes to regain his youth through May. He is so obsessed with physical death and his own indulgence that he can not comprehend spiritual death. Wentersdorf notes that the Merchant's Tale moves toward death. He sees suggestions of innocence in the reference to The Garden of Eden early in the story; but Pluto, ruler of the underworld, is given a concluding scene, suggesting man's irresponsibility and ensuing death. Guilty of all seven deadly sins, January focuses on physical, earthly paradise as he moves toward physical and spiritual death. In Fragment IV, then, the portrayal of spiritual triumph is followed by the portrayal of spiritual defeat. Again the Clerk's Tale and the Merchant's Tale function in harmony. We see that Chaucer has extensively and clearly linked the Clerk's Tale and the Merchant's Tale by following all five pairing principles. It is not 121 ( surprising, then, to recall thatI" there is no manuscript evidence that either the Clerk's Tale or the Merchant's Tale was formerly juxtaposed with another tale in Fragment IV. I am particularly impressed that Chaucer could simultaneously set up many points of meaningful comparison and contrast between Griselda and January, between Griselda and May and between Walter and January. Even if the Merchant's Tale was completed before Chaucer hit upon the idea of adding it to the Canterbury collection, he deserves no less credit for his organic juxtaposition of the Clerk's Tale and Merchant's Tale. It is also intriguing to see Chaucer's contrasting purpose in juxtaposing the Shipman's Tale with the Prioress's Tale in Fragment VII. In this case there is an undercurrent of dramatic hostility for the fabliau is "quited" by the religious story. The narrator of the Shipman's Tale, moreover, does not overtly assume the same values as the narrator of the Prioress's Tale. How different is Chaucer's purpose in Fragment IV with another religious story and fabliau. Here they move in tandem with the same medieval values while presenting the recto and verso of spiritual and physical life and death.

122 Notes

John Speirs, Chaucer the Maker (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), pp. 151, 155- 2Utley is here referring to E 2141-42. Francis Lee Utley, "Five Genres in the Clerk's Tale," CR, 6 (1972), 226. -Teter G. Beidler, "Chaucer's Merchant's Tale and its Narrator," Diss. Lehigh 1968, p. 37.

Robinson notes that "sownynge" (A 275) in the Merchant's description is "probably not equivalent to 'Sownynge in [to],' 1. 307," which refers to the Clerk. (P. N« Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed. [Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside" Press, 1957J, P» 657*) Bronson also notes this use of "sownynge" in the descriptions of both the Clerk and the Merchant. (Bertrand H. Bronson, In Search of Chaucer [Toronto: University of Toronto Press: T9BU], p. 54.) ^Bronson certainly takes liberties with Chaucer's text when he expands upon the Merchant's hat: "his hat, a Flemish beaver, he had bought at a bargain price, probably when last he had occasion to go over to Middleburgh. 'You know you can buy a fine hat there at a mere fraction of what they cost here.'" (Bronson, In Search of Chaucer, pp. 63-64.) °E. Talbot Donaldson, Speaking of Chaucer (University of London: Althlone, 1970), p. b. 'Bertrand H. Bronson, "Afterthoughts on the Merchant's Tale," SP, 58 (1961), 585-86. More recently Rosenberg also notes this dichotomy. (Bruce A. Rosenberg, "The 'Cherry-Tree Carol1 and the Merchant's Tale," CR, 5 (1971), P. 272. o Bronson, In Search of Chaucer, p. 64. Bronson, In Search of Chaucer, pp. 65, 64. Bronson, "Afterthoughts on the Merchant's Tale," 586. 11Robert Kilburn Root, The Poetry of Chaucer (Boston, 123 New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906), p. 260. 1? Joseph E. Grennen, "Science and Sensibility in Chaucer's Clerk," CR, 6 (1971), 81-93. 13 I am in agreement with Reiman who writes, "only in a Golden mean between these two extremes [hyperhumility of Griselda and sovereignty of archewyves] are reason and the will of God fulfilled/' (Donald H. Reiman, "The Real Clerk's Tale: or, Patient Griselda Exposed,"(TSLL, 5 11963J, 36^75 14 S. S. Hussey, Chaucer: An Introduction (London: Methuen, 1971), p. 17b. Beidler, Diss., pp. 255-56. 16 Beidler, Diss., pp. 255-57. 17 Beidler, Diss., pp. 261-264. -I o Peter G. Beidler, "Chaucer's Merchant and the Tale of January," Costerus, 5 (1972), 18. Beidler, Diss., p. 160. 20 Trevor Whittock, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (Cambridge: University Press, 1967?), p. 155• 21 Whittock, p. 162. 22 Janette Richardson, Blameth Nat Me: A Study of Imagery in Chaucer's Fabliaux (The Hague, Paris: Mouton, T^70j, pp. l4l, 14b. 23 Reiman, p. 371. 24 Robert S. Haller, "The Wife of Bath and the Three Estates," Annuale Mediaevale, 6 (1965)* 58, fn. 11. 25 Richardson, p. 132. 26 J. Burke Severs, The Literary Relationships of Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. New Haven, 1942 (Yale Studies in English, "No. 9bJ, p7~2"42. 27 Additionally, if we consider the Clerk's moral in light of the Merchant's Tale we also find an integral relation. January's haste is almost as prominent in his 124 characterization as Griselda's patience. January will wed "anoon in al the haste I kan" (E 1406); he sends for his friends asking that they come ''hastily" (E 1615); he dismisses his wedding guests as quickly as possible (see E 1765-67). January will act with "leyser" (E 1854) only when he fears his inadequacy (E 1852-55). Moreover, Justinus has explicitly counselled patience (E 1521) at the beginning of his first speech; later he urges that the question of marriage "axeth leyser" (E 1545).

Helenuw -i->—li StormUKUIIU Corsa,uuiaaj Chaucer:wiau^/C j. • Poeti wc o ofui Mirth1'iJ.i i/ii andciiiw. Morality (Notre Dame: University of Notre" Dame Press, Tornn—£.1964), p. 151588. 29 Beidler, Diss., pp. 172-175. 50 Olson theorizes on why the tellers choose Lombard lords and how their selection relates to what he considers the Merchant's challenge to the Clerk: "As the Clerk has told about a Lombard from Saluzzo, he makes his subject a Lombard from nearby Pavia. The important thing here is that the tale is about a Lombard. The Clerk tells us how he came to know his Lombard tale: he has studied with Petrarch in Padua; the Merchant does not let us know how he came by his Italian information. Yet it is not difficult to guess. In one occupation and one alone, Englishmen and Lombards in Chaucer's period met on familiar and competitive ground: that of the combination wool merchant and banker who dominated fourteenth-century English commercial life .... The sexual reputation of Lombards may explain the enormity of January's luxuria. When the Merchant begins his piece, the Clerk has just told a tale idealizing the patience of Italian wives and the ultimate decency of Italian nobleman. The Merchant picks up the glove. He attempts to challenge the Clerk's picture of marriage on the basis of his own experience; then realizing that to talk of his own marriage would be too embarraslng, he attacks the Clerk's whole picture: his picture of Italy and her nobleman as well as his picture of marriage. He does this by foisting marital difficulties like his own on an Italian nobleman who is more commercial knight than chivalric ruler. He marries him to May, and then lets him suffer." (Paul A. Olson, "The Merchant's Lombard Knight," TSLL, 5 [1961], 259, 261-62.) 51Beidler, Diss., p. 148. 52 Germaine Demster, Dramatic Irony in Chaucer (New 125 York: Humanities Press, 1932, 1959), P» 48. -^Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 24l. ^ John C. McGalliard, "Chaucerian Comedy: The Merchant's Tale, Jonson, and Moliere," PQ, 25 (1946), 369. -^Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 238. 56Beidler, Diss., p. 169. •^'P. M. Kean, The Art of Narrative: Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry, Vol. 2 (London, Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), p. 142. ^"58 Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 244. ■^Beidler, Diss., p. 99. 40 Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957), P. 233. 41 Reiman notes the contrast. For him May is as completely unfaithful and shameless as Griselda is patiently loyal" (p. 371). More recently Rosenberg writes that the "incredibly obedient Grisilda ... is followed by the adulterous disobedience of May and Damian. (Bruce A. Rosenberg, "The Contrary Tales of the Second Nun and Canon's Yeoman," CR, 2 [1968], 290.) 42 Beidler, Diss., p. 199 • 43 Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 233. Corsa, p. 165. 45 Also noticing the order theme in the Canterbury Tales are Bartholomew, Huppe' and Kean. (Barbara Bartholomew, Fortuna and Natura: A Reading of Three Chaucer Narratives [London, The Hague, Paris: Mouton, 1966J, p. 57; Bernard F. Huppe, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales [New York: StaFe University of New York, 1964], pp. 144-45; Kean, pp. 124, 159, l4o.) 46 S. K. Henninger, Jr., "The Concept of Order in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale," JEGP, 56 (1957), pp. 386, 388. 7Beidler, Diss., p. 122. 126 48 Michael D. West, "Dramatic Time, Setting, and Motivation in Chaucer," CR, 2 (1968), 184. 49 Malcolm Pittock, "The Merchant's Tale," EIC, 17 (1967), 32. 50 Richardson, p. 130. 51J The Summoner's friar's statement, "Blessed be they that povere in spirit been" (D 1923) is worth noting in this regard. The words he quotes from Matthew 5:3 are a description of gentilesse, for to be poor in spirit is to depend pridelessly on God. These words, however, are spoken by a hypocrite. So the "sentence" of the Summoner's friar's statement shows gentilesse but the source shows hypocrisy. And I can think of no other tale character that Chaucer presents in a more despicable fashion. •^ Root and Baker comment that Griselda is an example of gentilesse. (Root, p. 240 n. 1; Donald C. Baker, "Chaucer's Clerk and the Wife of Bath on the Subject of •Gentilesse'," SP_, 59 [1962], 635.) -^-^George B. Pace, "The Scorpion of Chaucer's Merchant's Tale," MLQ, 26 (1965), 369-7^. 54 John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1968), p. ~WT. Reiman incorrectly states that the Clerk cites no authorities. (p. 358). 56 Reiman, p. 358. 57 Lawlor, p. 142. 58 Lawlor calls the Merchant's Tale a story "from the standpoint of experience"" (Lawlor, p. 142); I do not see, however, how he can fail to mention or neglect to account for the wealth of allusions the Merchant makes, although admittedly the "tale of Januarie" (E 2417) is a tale of experience. ^Beidler, Diss., p. 64. Albert C. Baugh, Chaucer's Major Poetry, (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963), p. 445. 127 R. M. Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955), p. lbl. 62 Karl P. Wentersdorf, "Theme and Structure in the Merchant's Tale: The Function of the Pluto Episode," PMLA, 80 (19,65), 524. 'Whittock, p. 157. Huppe, p. 184. 65 Robert M. Jordan, Chaucer and the Shape of Creation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), P» 135* Huppe, p. 145. Michael D. Cherniss, The Clerk's Tale and Envoy, the Wife of Bath's Purgatory and the Merchant's Tale/' CR, 6 (1972), 251. 68 Paul A. Olson, Chaucer's Merchant and January's •Hevene in Earthe Heere,'" ELH, 28 (I96l), 209-210. 69 Cherniss, pp. 235-54. Earlier Whittock suggests that Justinus' words warning January that his wife may be his purgatory mocks the Clerk's moral (Whittock, P. 156.) 70 John P. McCall, "The Clerk's Tale and the Theme of Obedience," MLQ, 27 (1966), 261. 71Whittock, p. 143. 72 Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 237« 73 Severs, Literary Relationships, p. 237* 74 Severs, "The Clerk's Tale" in Sources and Analogues °f Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, eds., W. F. Bryan, Germain Dempster (New York: Humanities Press, 194l, 1958), p. 290. '5Wentersdorf, pp. 522, 527* 7°Beidler, "Chaucer's Merchant and the Tale of January," p. 3«

128 Chapter Five: Alys' "Quite": The Pairing of the Nun's Priest's Tale with the Wife of Bath's Tale

The final pair I will discuss are those two tales juxtaposed by the "Bradshaw shift" — the Nun's Priest's Tale as the last tale in Fragment VII and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale as the first in Fragment III. A close reading of these two paired tales shows that they follow all five linking principles Chaucer used in the three pairs of linked stories I have explored. Moreover, the dramatic and thematic affinity between the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale confirms Bradshaw's tale order and thus Chaucer's artistic and skillful juxtaposition. Two matters must be investigated, however, before I discuss how Chaucer's five guidelines are employed. First, there is a manuscript problem regarding a questionable six-line link and the final couplet between the two tales. Secondly, there are some scholarly objections to Pratt's tale order and to the abrupt beginning of the Wife's Prologue. Gibbons, with Lumiansky's approval, expands upon Pratt's suggestion that six lines of the Nun's Priest's Endlink are genuine. They are, in Gibbons* mind, the needed link to cement the Nun's Priest's Tale to the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. The lines in question read: 129 Madame and y durst y wold you pray To telle us a tale y furtheryng of our way Then myght ye do unto us gret ease Gladly qd she so that y myght you please You and this wurthy company 2 And began hlr tale ryght thus full sobyrly.

After studying the manuscript evidence, Gibbons concludes that the biggest obstacle barring acceptance of these lines as Chaucerian is that "only four of some eighty-three manuscripts contain the six lines," going on to say that these manuscripts are members or affiliates of group a, which has been noted as exceptionally free of spurious readings and for having readings in the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue which point to a common ancestor close, to Chaucer's latest intentions.1 He further buttresses his case by citing "the feeling that dramatically the Wife ought to follow the Nun's Priest," because of the "closely knit relationship between the Nun's Priest's performance and the Wife's."5 Gibbon's conclusion, however, is questioned by Brosnahan who seriously explores Manly and Rickert's objection that these six lines lack Chaucerian quality. After a line-by-line analysis, Brosnahan concludes that "both the final couplet [And after that he with ful myrie cheere/ Seidevn to [the Wyf] as ye shullen heere ] and the six line continuation give every sign of being rather 130 inept scribal attempts to bring this one pure end-link into line with the seventeen middle-links in the tales."' Since ten of the sixteen half-lines are found by Brosnahan to be atypical of Chaucer, we must resist the temptation to consider this link genuine. Questions are also raised regarding the thematic relationship between the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Schlauch not only excludes the Nun's Priest's Tale from consideration as part of the marriage discussion, but also telescopes the marriage group to Fragments III and IV. Prom her study of the manuscripts, she concludes that the original order was E2 D E1 "which deprives the Wife of Bath of the honor of o precipitating the debate." Also rejecting the Nun's Priest's Tale as part of the Marriage Group, Hussey excludes it on the grounds that it neither concerns sovereignty nor shows the Host's awareness of the running q marriage debate.^ This scholar needs to be questioned, however, on limiting Chaucer's creative ability merely by what Harry Bailley can comprehendI Chaucer consistently capitalizes on the limitations and different perceptions of reality shown by individual pilgrims (and their tale characters) throughout the Canterbury Tales; he taps this as a rich source for humor, characterization, irony and serious comment. 131 Although Corsa, Huppe and Whittock disagree with Pratt's tale order, each notes a relationship between the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. While Corsa will not commit herself to a specific tale order, she admits a thematic relationship between the Nun's Priest's performance and Alys'. Corsa says: "unobtrusive as [the Nun's Priest] seems to have been, it is evident that he had heard the Wife of Bath and has been a silent witness to the contest aroused by her marriage thesis." (This statement obviously puts the Wife's tale before the Nun's Priest's.) Both Huppe and Whittock favor the Fragment II— Fragment III sequence. Huppe finds that the Nun's Priest's Tale "appears to be related to the Marriage Group" ; he notes that the Nun's Priest corrects the Wife of Bath by placing "'desray' in marriage in the 12 perspective of a scriptural view of God's order." Agreeing with Huppe»s sequence, Whittock finds the Nun's Priest's Tale "the world of The Wife of Bath's Prologue with its skirmishing male and female (only made more ridiculous by the reminder that it takes place in the hen-house): but here the husband gets the better of his wife by concealing his contempt behind learning and flattery."15 Again Whittock, along with Pratt and Robertson, 132 develops the view that the Marriage Group (Fragments III, IV and V) overflows its label. Whittock refuses to see the Marriage Group as restricting. He finds the marriage discussion in "the larger human debate of the Canterbury Tales." 14 This echos Pratt•s earlier statement that the extent of the Marriage Group "in the structure of the Canterbury Tales ... in complexity of theme is greater than this label implies." 15 Similarly, Robertson views the marriage theme as starting in the "Knight's Tale, suggesting the proper function of marriage as an ordering principle in the individual and in society, and develops its manifold implications in the subsequent tales." Robertson goes on to say that marriage is thematic rather than dramatic in the Canterbury Tales, which (for him) solves the "false problems raised by the old theory of the 'marriage group.'" What purpose, however, is served by limiting Chaucer only to a thematic treatment of marriage? As my study substantiates, the theme of the relationship between men and women is at once a dramatic and thematic concern in the Canterbury Tales. We now narrow our concern to a smaller question, the beginning of Fragment III. Alys' first words are:

Experience, though noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynogh for me To speke of wo that is in mariage. (D 3)

133 This ha3 been an obstacle for some critics when -considering the sequence of the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Jones finds Alys' opening statement unique in the Canterbury Tales, her "beginning so abrupt that it forces the conclusion that something has been sheared away." 17 With a broader perspective, however, Demptster considers the strong parallel between Alys' opening statement and the Merchant's opening remark, "wepyng and waylyng, care and oother sorwe/ I knowe ynogh, on even and a-morwe" (E 1214). For Dempster, Alys' remark brings "new life into the drama on the Canterbury road by making an excited 18 pilgrim break in uninvited." After a careful consideration of the manuscripts, Dempster concludes that having the Nun's Priest's Tale precede the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale represents a later step in Chaucer's arrangement. ^

For Muscatine?the Wife of Bath's Prologue "begins in a vacuum," without a connecting link. 20 He later acknowledges that the Nun's Priest's Tale "has recently been welcomed into the Marriage Group, but it says little about marriage that it does not unsay. With what marriage, indeed, can it be said to deal? The marriage of Chauntecleer in the varying lights of the poem is courtly and bourgeois, monogamous and polygamous, 1J4 incestuous, and unsolemnized, a relationship of paramours. The tale seems to have an irreducible core of antifeminism but by similar tokens it is feminist too.' 21 Muscatine's statement is overly rigid as Chaucer does deal with aspects of marriage in the more general category of man- woman relationships: woman's good counsel vs_. woman's bad counsel (as he himself notes ) and sovereignty vs. free will. A beast fable naturally demands a realistic setting and mores appropriate to galline society. Again, over schematization is not Chaucerian. Were Chaucer to make the barnyard conform to fourteenth century society, we would not need to use our imaginations and would lose a great deal of delightful, creative comedy. We must see past Chaucer's settings to themes which are woven through the tales. Chaucer, through the Nun's Priest, continually brings us back to reality in his narrative. When he describes Chauntecleer, the hens and their relationships, for example, he interjects the idea (commonplace in the fourteenth century) that in the "Golden Age" animals could converse: "For thilke tyme, as I have understonde,/ p Beestes and briddes coude speke and synge" (B 2881). After a careful look at the tone of the Wife's opening sentence, Hemingway insists that she is "obviously answering someone." He believes that this "someone" had raised the theme of celibacy which runs through the 155 Melibeus-Monk-Nun's Priest's group. ^ Carleton Brown is in agreement with Hemingway that the Wife of Bath's Prologue continues a train of thought that had already- been established. For Brown this is the "wo that is in mariage" mentioned by the Merchant. (Brown believes that Chaucer shifted the tale order of the Marriage Group over a period of time. ) Kenyon affirms the sequence of the Nun's Priest's Tale coming immediately before the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, as well as the appropriateness of the beginning of Alys's Prologue: If we connect her opening words with the Nun's Priest's Tale;' and the Melibeus, the discussion grows up in the most najtural and artistic way. "... her opening words seem continuous with the Nun's Priest's

i Tale. She need not be called on to give her answer to I what has preceded. As ,(Professor Kittredge remarks, the talkative members of the company will thrust themselves forward if the artist's imagination is awake. The Nun's Priest's remarks are a sufficient provocative." -> While there is no authentic link, then, tying the Nun's Priest's Tale to the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, there is some evidence of dramatic affinity. The beginning of the Wife's Prologue is both consistent with her personality and a continuation of themes in the Nun's Priest's Tale. Let us now apply Chaucer's five guidelines 136 derived from tales linked within fragments to these two tales paired between fragments by the "Bradshaw shift." First, the juxtaposition of the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale is masterfully effective in establishing the diametrically opposed morals of the tales. We pass over the Nun's Priest's tongue-in-cheek comment, "I kan noon harm of no womman divyne" (B 3266). We have understood the substance of his tale—that woman's advice has bad effects. Chauntecleer rues the "conseil of o his wyf, with sorwe" (B 3253), for it almost cost him his life. Alys firmly opposes this with her contrary moral—that woman's advice has good effects. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, the hag's good counsel preserves not only the knight's life but gives him "joye" (D 1252). Lending weight to this meaningful pairing through a source study of the Nun's Priest's Tale, Severs finds that Chaucer gives Pertelote partial responsibility for Chauntecleer's near-tragic episode. "Chaucer's new emphasis upon the ill effect of woman's counsel transforms the Nun1s Priest's Tale into a document in the literature of antifeminism, a light and merry document, to be sure, but none the less telling, for all that. Like the tales in Professor Kittredge's Marriage Group, it deals with the problem of the relative dominance of husband and wife and certainly should be linked in the mind to them." 26 137 Severs goes on to conclude that the final episode of Chauntecleer's willingness to "Shrew myself, bothe blood and bones,/ If thou bigyle me ofter than ones" (B 3^28,) serves to "emphasize beyond all doubt that the cock has learned his lesson.'1 ' The Wife of Bath's Tale also follows this Chaucerian pattern of driving home the point at the conclusion of the story. The knight is given the opportunity to follow the principle he had stated in open court,

Womraen desiren to have sovereynetee As wel over hir housbond as hir love, And for to been in maistrie hym above. (D 1040)

He allows the loathy lady to decide whether she will be ugly and faithful or beautiful and unfaithful. His reward is, of course, the best of each option. Chaucer's knight is minimized in Chaucer's sources; the Wife's story is modified by Chaucer because he puts a "new emphasis on the Knight" when compared with the analogues. Chaucer makes "extensive changes, and frequently the change clearly affects the character and pO motivation of the Knight." Beyond a doubt, therefore, the knight—like Chauntecleer—has exercised his free will, showing that he has learned his lesson. In other words, the opposed morals of the two tales are each clearly underlined by the concluding events. 158 Dempster helps to justify this tale order by her consideration of both manuscript and internal evidence centering on the significance of woman's advice. After a caraful consideration of manuscript evidence, she deals with^thematic linkage, tale-teller relationship and pilgrim characterization in light of Chaucer's revisions. She decides: "assuming that Chaucer wanted the Marriage Group theme of woman as good or bad advisor [italics mine] to be picked up in the piece following the story of Chauntecleer, would it be unlike him to perceive that this necessitated a slight distortion, i.e., the singling out, by the speaker of that following piece, of the illustration of married life in the Nun's Priest's Tale as the one point of real interest in it? And, having perceived this, would it be unlike him to realize that such a distortion could most fittingly be assigned to the Wife of Bath and indeed would contribute to the building up of her character?" Dempster later suggests that the "best way of explaining the Nun's Priest's-Wife of Bath sequence as authorial is to explain it as an afterthought, i.e., as of later date than the Nun's Priest's Tale." " Kenyon and Lawrence agree in substance that the Wife of Bath's Tale follows the Nun's Priest's Tale and that the dominant moral regards woman's advice. The central motive of the marriage discussion for Kenyon is 139 30 Chauntecleer's attitude that woman's counsel brings wo. He catches the dramatic implications of the Wife of Bath's Prologue; "the Wife expresses her views on such a sentiment by telling how she compelled her husband to burn the book containing it. 31 Although not explicitly stating the moral of the Wife of Bath's Tale, Lawrence, in speaking of the Nun's Priest's Tale says, that "the whole point of his story is that a husband who follows the advice of his wife will come to grief." 32 Tupper mentions woman's counsel as a theme but subordinates it to Chauntecleer's uxoriousness. (Presumably, then, it will support his theory that the influence of Venus is the dominant motif of the entire Canterbury Tales.->->) There is, therefore, a considerable body of evidence endorsing the tale order resulting from the "Bradshaw shift." This evidence is in both manuscript study and in numerous other studies citing internal linkage. Additionally, the first of Chaucer's linking principles is demonstrated by the rich artistic contrast of opposed morals with the Wife's story coming after the Nun's Priest's. The second principle of thematic linkage is a natural outgrowth of the first. Themes which verify an organic relationship between the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife °^ Bath's Tale are: a cluster of marriage themes, 140 authority vs. experience, and sight vs. insight (in other contexts called appearance vjs. reality). Most predominant in these paired tales is a cluster of themes which in this chapter relate to marriage — sovereignty vs. free will, marriage vs. celibacy, and the corollary themes of what women desire, wo vs. bliss and order vs. disorder. Very~ significantT are the themes dealing with the relationship between husband and wife in the Nun's Priest's and Wife's stories. The sovereignty vs. free will theme is worded slightly differently by scholars but essentially concerns the marriage relationship: "woman's submissiveness or sovereignty" (Dempster ); "wifely relation" (Tupper^-3); "relative dominance of husband and wife" (Severs^ ); "female freedom as against male domination" (Muscatine-^'); and "sovereignty" by Lawrence who succinctly states that the Wife "deals with precisely the same themes as the Nun's Priest, the sovereignty of woman, and in a similar spirit of controversy. The Nun's Priest had satirized it; she defends it."^38 It is not surprising that many themes are woven between the Nun's Priest's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale when we consider that each story retells the fall of man. The Nun's Priest relates a remarkably orthodox account of the fall in his galline barnyard. As Eve's advice had 141 serious repurcussions for Adam, so Pertelote's counsel is nearly fatal for Chauntecleer. The Nun's Priest makes a strong case for male domination. (Below I discuss the fall in the Nun's Priest's Tale more completely under the sight vs. insight theme.) Now the sovereignty vs. free will theme in Alys' story is treated in a different manner. The knight in her story is not portrayed in prelapsarian purity but as clearly guilty of an offense against women:

He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn, Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed, By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed; For which oppressioun was swich clamour And swich pursute unto the kyng Arthour, That dampned was this knyght for to be deed, By cours of lawe. (D 892)

Alys presents an inverse redemption for the knight as he is liberated only by heretically submitting to woman's sovereignty—both Queen Guenevere's and the hag's. Haller's comments on this subject are helpful:

The same wisdom [for which the knight quests] . . . has been the property of women "sin that the world was newe," for it is also the wisdom of Eve, who managed to convince her husband that the fruit was good, despite the commands which had forbidden the eating of it. By recalling the beginning of the world, the old hag also brings to mind the first wife to appear in the world; and by getting her knight to accept her sovereignty, she has accomplished that which Eve did, and has indeed been as true "as ever was wyf syn that the world was newe" — though not precisely in the way which 142 this hyperbolic expression seems to say. She has provided him with the information that women desire sovereignty above all, information which might have been found by reading the opening chapters of Genesis. But there are two uses which may be made of this wisdom. The first is to give women sovereignty and thus recreate" tEe fal'l of man Litalics minej; the second is to put down this desire in women and thereby restore the original state of creation, the unfallen condition of marriage which existed in the Garden of Eden. This knight chooses the first of these alternatives, although under circumstances and with results which make him think he has gotten the benefits of the second. His wife who has given him so much good doctrine and has undergone a renewal of youth seems to promise a life of both virtue and bliss, the life of the Garden of Eden. By gaining sovereignty, she has accomplished the fall without, however, her husband even knowing it. 59

Each narrator, then, tells a story of the fall significantly in keeping with his personal convictions. The sovereignty vs. free will theme is at the heart of their interpretations for the Clerk, as one would expect, upholds male domination while Alys heretically upholds female domination. A second marriage theme, marriage vs. celibacy, is for Hemingway the connecting theme between the Nun1s Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Miller, in focusing only on the Wife's story, however, finds in it a "comic inversion of a clerical problem" because the knight's marriage is forced. ° By virtue of the Nun's Priest's celibate state and his treatment of 143 the marriage themes, there is a minor thematic thread of celibacy running throughout the two stories. Part of Alys' gusto, toward the beginning of her Prologue, justifies the less estemmed state of marriage against celibacy (see D 62-151). She admits:

I graunte it wel, I have noon envie, Thogh maydenhede preferre bigamye. It liketh hem to be clene, body and goost; Of myn estaat I nyl nat make no boost. (D 98)

There are rich possibilities in a dramatic reading of her statement that she is not competing for the "greet perfeccion" (D 105) of virginity: "And lordynges, by youre leve, that am nat I" (D 112). An aspect of these themes—what women want—is nicely incorporated in each tale for Pertelote minutely spells out her version:

For certes, what so any woman seith, We alle desiren, if it myghte bee, To nan housbondes hardy, wise, and free, And secree, and no nygard, ne no fool, Ne hym that is agast of every tool, _ Ne noon avauntour, by that God above I (B 2917)

In the form of a riddle this theme frames the quest for the knight in the following tale: "What thyng is it that womraen moost desiren?" (D 905) • And in the Wife's Prologue, Alys ruminates on this subject as when she says: "We love no man that taketh kep or charge/ Wher that we goon; we wol ben at oure large" (D 322; see also D 29Jff.) 144 The wo vs. bliss theme—here the "wo that is in mariage" (D 3)—mentioned by Alys in the first sentence of her Prologue, was noted above as a bridge between the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Dempster calls it a "rather strong expression" of the troubles between Chauntecleer and Pertelote but feels "it could be taken to refer to some of the comments of the Priest, like B 4453 f., e.g.: 'Rede auctours where they trete of swich matere/ And what they seyn of womraen ye may heere.•" 4l The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale scarcely need to be documented for the wo vs. bliss theme as Alys proudly says, "myself have been the whippe" (D 175) and her fourth husband's "purgatorie" (D 489). The newly wed knight in her tale initially calls his bride "my dampnacioun" (D IO67). His wedding gives him "no joye ne feeste at al;/ Ther nas but hevynesse and muche sorwe" (D 1079)* Dempster is correct in saying that the marital wo in the Nun's Priest's Tale is minor— Chauntecleer's wo coming from Pertelote's belittling and nagging. But it could have led to the major wo of being eaten by daun Russell. When Chaucer portrays Chauntecleer "namoore aferd" (B 3176) and strutting in the barnyard, he prepares us by saying, "for evere the latter ende of joye is wo" (B 3205). Had Chauntecleer not beguiled daun Russell, however, the story would have ended "with 145 sorwe" (B 3253)* a hopeless situation for the hens who "crie and maken wo" (B2 3376). The almost cosmic implications of the male-female relationship are reflected in the order y_s. disorder theme. For Broes this is termed "trouble and disaster" resulting from woman's being out of place in the chain- of-being in the Nun's Priest's Tale. 4? Huppe • draws the theme through both tales, saying that the confusion of God's order is due to Chauntecleer's yielding to "the pleasure principle." He also notes that Alys' tale 43 portrays disorder with social implications. ^ Looking at the text, we see that the Nun's Priest clearly favors the orderly, orthodox husband-wife relationship which Chauntecleer violates in succumbing to Pertelote's fetchingly "scarlet reed" eyes (B 3161). The resulting disorder is more than a local allusion to the Peasant's Revolt:

Of bras they broghten bemes, and of box, Of horn, of boon, in whiche they blewe and powped. And therwithal they shriked and they howped. It semed as that hevene sholde falle. (B 3^-01)

This is more than humorous bedlam (which should first be enjoyed for its own sake) for it represents the disharmony in creation resulting from a relationship between a man and woman which is out^-of-joint. 146 Alys treats the order vs. disorder theme differently. She has in her Prologue wreaked havoc with her ability to "devyne and glosen, up and doun" (D 26), confusing the medieval order of nature. Huppe misinterprets the text when he says that the Wife of Bath's Tale "gives an *k approving picture of violence done to the law of the land by the arbitrary interference of Queen Guenevere in the process of justice." 44 The "up-so-doun" situation represented in the Wife's story is actually initiated by the irresponsibility of a male. Queen Guenevere's appeal to Arthur for the knight's life nicely parallels Hippolyta's begging Theseus for mercy to spare the lives of Palamon and Arcite in the Knight's Tale. Guenevere does not, according to the text, arbitrarily interfere in the laws of the land. The king renigs—"And yaf hym the knight to the queeme, al at hir wille,/ To chese wheither she wolde hym save or spille" (D 898). Guenevere is shown as appropriately grateful: "the queen thanketh the kyng with al hir myght" (D 899). Thus far the story does not seem to have been told by a heresiarch. Where the two stories are different, however, is significant. After Theseus is touched by pity, "Py/ Upon a.lord that wol have no mercy" (A 1774), it is he_ who establishes the law and terms to be fulfilled by Palamon and Arcite. In the Wife's story, it is the 147 queen who sets the quest and terms for the knight because the king delegated the responsibility to her. But the very nature of the question that the queen assigns determines the moral of the story, that is, that women should have sovereignty or that woman's advice has good effects. Chaucer's addition of the knight's rape at the beginning of the Wife of Bath's Tale functions to cast man in the role of irresponsible, "selfish, proud and morally blind" person, who has no respect for order. But Alys in her tale portrays order resulting from feminine leadership, advice and manipulation. Her story moves to a tidy conclusion which endorses her personal bias. The order y_s. disorder theme, then, functions in these paired tales to show the Nun's Priest's orthodox view of the male-female relationship while in the Wife's story there is an inversion; order results from the heretical subjection of man to woman. The experience vs_. authority theme naturally follows the cluster of marriage themes because the content of the books y_s. life debate is the relationship of man to woman. It is particularly significant to establish whether or not this is a connecting theme since Alys sets up what Lawlor calls the "twin courts of appeal" — auctoritee and pref 47' in her opening sentence, 148 Experience, though noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynogh for me To speke of wo that is in mariage. (D 3)

Several critics mention the experience vs_. authority- theme in the individual tales. Commenting on the Nun's Priest's Tale, Lawlor writes, "All the learning displayed in the ambiance of the story serves as focus to the human drama. Muscatine and Payne find Alys giving more

49y weight to experience in opposition to authority while Wagenknecht says she "appeals with equal gusto to authority and to her own experience.""3 Silverstein writes that in her tale "she has managed to marry experience with authority." Coghill describes the Wife as a "battle-ground of Experience and Authority."-3 Lowes considers this theme so significant for Chaucer the artist in general that he structures his entire Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture first around Chaucer's experience, then around his reading. He suggests that in the poet's development, "books and men were fused as in a crucible."-^ But we turn to Pratt, Dempster and Kenyon for comments on the experience vs. authority theme as unifying the Nun's Priest's Tale with the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Pratt mentions that several tales in Fragment VII deal with the marriage themes which in turn "develop 149 easily and naturally from the story of the vainglorious cock . . . whose flourishing of 'auctoritees* is matched by [the Wife's] public airing of her own 'experience.'"^ Dempster concurs, finding "the reference to authorities is certainly appropriate; the Nun's Priest's Tale is full of them."-3-3 Kenyon's statements in 1913 most completely deliniate the thematic affinity between these paired tales established by this theme:

What more apt language could the Wife [referring to D 1-3] possibly have used to refer directly to the Priest's words? He refers to authorities on the subject, and also points out that he is giving not his own but Chauntecleer's experience. But this is not all. The long discussion on dreams between Chauntecleer and Pertelote is begun by her citing Cato as authority on dreams. He replies, "Madam, I thank you for your instruction; but I can cite you on the other side authority backed up by experience." Then follows the long list of authorities and examples in refutation of his wife's advice not to regard dreams.5°

One aspect has not, however, been pointed out. Although this theme is inherent in the Nun's Priest's Tale, (much of the delight in the" story arises from the battle of the books which is immediately put to the pragmatic test), it functions differently when compared to her tale. When Alys says, "Of fyve husbondes scoleiyng am I" (D 44f), she concisely summarizes the close relation between experience and authority in her Prologue. 150 The Wife of Bath's Tale, however, also emphasizes this theme but in a manner much different from that in the Nun's Priest's Tale in which the teller and both male and female characters all quote authorities. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, the knight's quest for wisdom is experiential, not in books. At no time does he refer to authorities or allude to books. While the knight is on his quest for wisdom, authorities are cited by women. First Alys tells the story of Midas, an only seemingly side-tracked diversion which is interestingly modified from Ovid. ' The remainder of the liberal allusions to authorities also come from a female source, the hag, in the pillow lecture—Valerius Maximus who writes of Tullius Hostillius, Seneca, Boethius, "othere clerkes" (D 1184) and Juvenal. The loathy lady at one point specifically says that books presumably could validate experience:

And certes, sire, thogh noon auctoritee Were in no book, ye gentils of honour Seyn that men sholde an oold wight doon favour, And clepe hym fader, for youre gentillesse; And auctours shal I fynden, as I guesse. (D 1212)

The loathy lady, then, continues the experience vs. authority debate of the Alys' Prologue. Considering, then, that Alys maintains the experience vs. authority theme in her tale, it is revealing that only she and the loathy lady are given familiarity with and 151 allusions to authorities. As Kittredge puts it, "the references to Dante, Valerius, Seneca, Boethius and Juvenal — so deliciously absurd on the lips of a fee of King Arthur's time — are perfectly in place when we remember who it is that is reporting the monologue. The Wife was a citer of authorities—she makes the fee cite authorities. .,58J Alys is not necessarily, I believe, showing her preference (as Payne and Muscatlne contend) for experience in giving the knight a pragmatic quest, but is again showing her preference for female sovereignty in allowing the hag to quote and interpret authority for the knight's benefit. TJiis aspect of the experience vs. authority theme underscores Alys' characterization by giving one more instance of her commitment to female domination and gives one more reason for the suitability of Alys as the narrator for this story. Chaucer's theme of sight vs. insight which carries through the Nun's Priest's Tale and Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale has not been recognized as helping to establish the affinity between the two stories. We have seen that Chaucer has used this theme to weld together Fragment VIII (see my Introduction). In the previous chapters, we have concluded that this theme (called appearance vs. reality) significantly binds the Wife of Bath's Tale to the Friar's Tale and the Merchant's Tale 152 to the Clerk's Tale. Turning to those stories juxtaposed by the "Bradshaw shift/' we find that Chaucer employs the sight vs_. insight theme in the Nun's Priest's Tale in a relatively simple fashion. Seeing is equated with understanding and obedience while winking represents misunderstanding and disobedience. There is, however, a religious interpre- tation (apposite for the clerical narrator), because the Nun's Priest's story stresses the bad effects of woman's advice paralleling the story of the Pall. Adam heeds Eve's encouragement to eat the forbidden fruit. Following this pattern, Chauntecleer yields to Pertelote's insistence to be "reccheless/ Of dremes" (B 3108). It should be noted at this point that in the traditional interpretation of the fall, man's amorousness obscures his rationality. This is, of course, closely allied with the two themes woman's good counsel vs. woman's bad counsel and sovereignty vs_. free will. Man /" accepts woman's poor advice thus yielding his sovereignty because he is overcome with amorous feelings. In Paradise Lost, for example, Adam

scrupl'd not to eat Against his better knowledge, not deceiv'd, But fondly overcome with Female charm. (Book IX 999)

Chaucer, three centuries earlier, shows Chauntecleer's 1 153 fall

"For whan I feele a-nyght your softe syde, Al be it that I may nat on yow ryde, For that oure perche is maad so narwe, alias I I am so ful of joye and of solas, That I dlffye bothe sweven and dreem." And with that word he fley doun fro the beem. (B2 5172)

The barnyard setting "enclosed al aboute/ With p stikkes, and a drye dych withoute" (B 2848) is the threatened Garden of Eden while the fox "ful of sly iniquitee" (B 3215) is equated with the serpent. This lends credulence to the mock-heroic treatment as man's fall is an epic, heroic subject. Yet it is conveyed with wit, fulfilling Harry Bailley's demand to make the pilgrims' "hertes glade" (B2 28ll). There is, I believe, special significance in the Nun's Priest's saying of the barnyard melee: "it seemed as if hevene sholde falle" (B 34oi). The counterpart in Milton reads:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe, That all was lost. (Book IX 784)

In the Nun's Priest's Tale Chaucer uses seeing and winking images throughout the tale to represent Chauntecleer's fall. It may be helpful to start with Chauntecleer's statement of his lesson at the conclusion of the story before looking at the story from the 154 beginning. Chauntecleer's last lines are:

"Nay thanne," quod he, "I shrewe us bothe two. And first I shrewe myself, bothe blood and bones, If thou bigyle me ofter than ones. Thou shalt namoore, thurgh thy flaterye, Do me to synge and wynke with myn ye; For he that wynketh, whan he solde see, Al wTTfully,~God lat him nevere theel" (B2 J432; italics mine)

Here Chauce^r uses the theme of winking as equatable with deliberate, willful disobedience, with "falling" from man's right relationship. Similarly, seeing (B 3^31) represents understanding xvhich issues in obedience. This treatment varies from Chaucer's use of the theme in Fragment VIII where physical seeing is not understanding but blindness, and where spiritual insight is not dependent on physical sight (see my Introduction). Chaucer capitalizes on one of the common meanings of the word see—denoting understanding or discernment—in the Nun's Priest's Tale. He gives this reading three times: "Modre wol out, that se we day by day" (B 3052); "Heere may men seen that dremes been to drede" (B 3063);

and ther shul ye see Wher dremes be somtyme—I sey nat alle— Warnynge of thynges that shul after falle. {Bd 3132)

But this correlation between understanding and sight has more intensity when it figures as the imagery to convey 155 the temptation of Chauntecleer. Temptation comes for Chauntecleer in the form of sight:

For whan I se the beautee of youre face, Ye been so scarlet reed aboute youre yen, It maketh al my drede for to dyen. (B2 3l62)

At this point Chauntecleer is apparently willing to be deceived. He then translates what he believes is the truth, "Mulier est hominis confusio" (B2 3164) into a falsehood, "Womman is mannes joye and al his blis" (B 3166). He acts on this mis-translation and follows Pertelote into the yard. As Cupid's arrow traditionally aims for the eye as the most vulnerable spot, Chauntecleer's amorousness causes his reason (his ability to "see") to be obscured; thus, he falls. "AliasI Alias! that evere love was synne" (D 6l4), Alys could comment. And in the midst of this serious interpretation, it is fitting to mention that Chauntecleer's pleasure in seeing Pertelote's face is, for me, one of the most delightful statements in the Canterbury Tales. In the context of relating the story of man's fall, Chaucer engagingly comments on human values when Chauntecleer is smitten with Pertelote's bloodshot eyes (or red circles under her eyes?). Simultaneously, Chaucer instructs with "best sentence," and amuses with "moost solaas" (A 798). 156 Chaucer also characterizes Chauntecleer with the instinct to recognize evil with the sight theme:

For natureelly a beest desireth flee Pro his contrarie, if he may it see, Though he never erst hadde seyn it with his ye. (B2 3231)

This, in effect, strengthens man's responsibility in this context for the themes of Fortune and Boethian free will are also woven through this tale. Sight imagery is also used during Chauntecleer•s temptation in an off-hand comment made by daun Russell which could warn Chauntecleer. The fox says, "So moote I brouke wel myne eyen tweye" (B2 3300), while he beguiles Chauntecleer to imitate his father who would "so peyne hym that with bothe his yen/ He mo.ste wynke" (B 3306). Despite this warning, Chauntecleer falls for the fox's trick. Vanity and amorousness cause him to lose the ability to discern. Again, this is communicated by Chaucer with the sight image.

Chauntecleer his wynges gan to bete, As man that koude his traysoun nat espie, So was he ravysshed with his flaterie. (B2 3324)

Like January, he has allowed himself to be 3*±£-deceived, misusing counsel. And his "fall" is figured because he "heeld his eyen cloos" (B 3332). As Dalberg states, 157 "The fox had no power over him until he closed his eyes." He correctly generalizes that in the Nun's Priest's Tale, "much emphasis is laid on the clolsing of the eyes." 59 Chauntecleer's lesson, then, caps the seeing-winking theme for he concludes that willful winking is inexcusable. In the Nun's Priest's Tale, therefore, seeing is responsible understanding while "wynking" is willful disobedience to what is best. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, Chaucer's particular use of the sight vs. insight theme is closer to his use in Fragment VIII than in the Nun's Priest's Tale. In Alys• story, physical sight is equated with being unable to perceive reality. Chaucer's use of this theme is embodied in the substance of the hag's pillow lecture. Her thesis is unerringly orthodox -- "Crist wole we clayme of hym oure gentilesse" (D 1117; see also D 1162). The loathy lady lectures the knight to bring him to self-knowledge. He thereby gains true understanding by seeing beyond the physical, beyond her appearing "so loothly, and so cold also,/ And therto comen of so lough a kynde" (D 1101). She is asking for inward discernment, for insight into reality. The loathy lady stresses spiritual insight and appreciation, defying appearance which is seen by the corporeal eye. The student-knight correctly comprehends or "sees" 158 her point. His reward for understanding and yielding is to have a bride who appears good (is beautiful, Platonically) and who is good (is faithful). This is underscored with the theme of sight, as the knight's bride says:

"And but I be to-morn as fair to seene As any lady, emperice, or queene, That is bitwixe the est and eke the west, Dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest Cast up the curtyn, looke how that it is." And whan the knyght saugh verraily at this . (D 1250)

Miller's interpretation of this passage is strained: "it is foulness that is illusory; the female figure who appears to the young knight is 'truly fair,' but can be seen in her fair aspect only after the will of the youth has been purified, by-''self-denial, made perfect by Obedience." Miller, continuing, finds Alys' alternative mode of conversion blasphemously opposed to the standards of clerks. Miller does not mention the orthodox nature of the loathy lady's pillow lecture. I find, moreover, no justification in a close study of the story to consider the hag's foulness (to the physical eye) illusory. Roppolo, without any specific references to the sight theme, mentions that after the gentilesse lecture, and the knight's "conversion," he "perform[s] the symbolic act of drawing aside the curtains to let in the light 159 which reveals that the Lady is in truth young and fair." 61 Haller raises the question of whether or not the hag is fair specifically and only to the knight, regardless of how others may view her. This critic seems to favor the reading that the hag is beautiful only to the knight when he says that the knight "becomes, with January, living proof of the proposition that it is in the nature of appetite to make that which it desires seem true and fair no matter what the external facts are." 62 The difference between Chaucer's treatment of the sight vs. insight theme in the Wife's story and in the Nun's Priest's story can be most significantly seen, I believe, by studying the tales in light of their tellers. This might be considered under the fifth principle, viz.. that Chaucer's juxtaposition of tales enriches the teller's characterization. Since it naturally follows from this discussion of the sight theme, however, I shall discuss it here and refer to it under the fifth principle. Let us start with the Wife of Bath. The sight vs. insight theme (which centers in the pillow lecture) raises the question of its appropriateness to the teller. The Wife in her Prologue misinterprets scripture, scrambling nature's order. In the General Prologue she is shown as a woman of pride (see A 449-52, quoted below). Alys makes two statements about herself which justify her using the 160 gentilesse lecture in her tale. (Moreover, we should be mindful that the gentilesse lecture is Chaucer's addition.) In her Prologue Alys says, "I hate hym that my vices telleth me" (D 662) while in the text of her tale she admits, "For, be we never so vicious withinne,/ We wol been holden wise and clene of synne" (D 9^)« In each of these statements, Alys confides her eagerness to have an appearance of goodness regardless of what the underlying reality is. And these words of personal testimony adequately validate how the lecture of gentilesse is appropriate for the Wife. At least one reason why Alys employs the lecture of gentilesse is to bolster her public image. Studies minutely deliniate that the wife herself is not a model of true gentility; these are true and helpful but it must be recognized that Alys enjoys the ambiance created by this orthodox, Christian lecture on true goodness. It makes her appear "wise and clene of synne" (D 9^) • And, characteristically it is a woman whom Alys casts in the role of teacher. This lecture is not only appropriate to the teller but serves a dramatic function in the Canterbury Tales. Alys must be mindful that the previous teller is a clerk. Her anti-clerical attitude is part of her Prologue: "no woraman of no clerk is preysed" (D 706). A clerk, the Nun's Priest, has just belittled woman in the role of 161 Pertelote, yet he has given a superbly entertaining yet orthodox account of the fall. Corsa rightly states the feat of the Nun's Priest's story--"here the relation between the Individual and disaster, between man and Fortune, chaotically described by the Monk, is made philosophically and psychologically meaningful; here all the themes central to the fragment are given comic perspective and clarity of focus. ^ The Nun's Priest's Tale has given a mature, orthodox statement on life, belying his saying, "But I ne kan nat bulte it to the bren" (B 3240.)'— in a most winsome way. What is left for Alys to say? She has a challenge. The Nun's Priest has entertained with orthodox subject matter. How can she "outclerk" him? She does it with her true gentility lecture—for the doctrine is impeccable. No theology that the Nun's Priest covered can compete with the emotional impact and certain assent among the "gentils." It is at this point that the sight vs. insight treatment by the individual tellers gains significance. For the Nun's Priest, this is relatively simple--sight equals obedience and understanding; winking stands for misunderstanding. But for the Wife of Bath, physical seeing is superficial compared to the spiritual insight which pierces beyond appearance and concentrates on 162 spiritual values and understanding. As Tiberce in the Second Nun's Tale can see "the angel of God, with his 65 inner eye" J if he is "clene" (G 269), so Alys teaches that true perception is not physical sight as the Nun's Priest maintains in his story but the spiritual insight of gentilesse. In summary, then, the sight y_s. insight theme functions to underscore Alys' antagonism to clerks. In her tale she includes a non-heretical lecture on true gentility; this features the principle of spiritual insight which outshines in emotional value the Nun's Priest's exemplum. The wife proves herself a "noble prechour" (D 165); she "touched . . . / In scole-matere greet difficultee" (D 1272). Our focus stays on the Wife as we explore Chaucer's third pairing principle of meaningful juxtaposition-- significant character and plot parallels. In my three previous chapters, the character counterparts are between tale characters. With the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale there is a new alignment for Alys, a narrator, is somewhat similar to Chauntecleer, the main character of the preceding tale. This may be explainable in that Alys, in a sense, tells two stories- first her autobiography which is her Prologue, then her Arthurian tale of the knight. The similarities between Alys and Chauntecleer have 163 been noted by at least three scholars--Tupper, Shumaker, and Pratt. Tupper points out the affinity in their marital state, "Chaunticleer, with his many wives, is the proper precursor of that much-married lady." Shumaker alludes to their being spokesmen for the experience vs. authority theme, calling Allys, like Chauntecleer, "a 67 storehouse of medieval learning." Pratt most thoroughly investigates the character parallels in saying that Alys' performance

appears to have been written expressly to counter certain satirical thrusts in the Nuns1 Priest's Tale. The Nuns' Priest satirizes women, wives, and married life, and makes fun of a rooster for taking a woman's advice. In her "sermon" Alice of Bath defends "wyves" and "wyfhod" and marriage. Chauntecleer hadde in his governaunce Sevene hennes for to doon al his plesaunce" (VII 2865-66), and the Nuns' Priest again and again makes fun of the rooster for having "sevene wyves." Alice, in turn, defends her right to have many marriages, to wed as often as her husbands die; she envies Solomon; and she claims power over each husband's "propre body" all her life. The Nuns' Priest makes fun of physical love and asserts that Chauntecleer does the work of Venus "Moore for delit than world to multiplye" (VII 33^5); Alice praises and defends the actes" of marriage and declares (III 28-29): God bad us for to wexe and multiplye; That gentil text kan I wel understonde Chauntecleer is teased for his uxoriousness; Alice points out that the Apostle "bad oure housbondes for to love us weel"; and adds, "Al this sentence me liketh every deel" (161-62). Chauntecleer presents his "auctours" and "ensamples olde"; the Wife is clearly proud of her ability to cite authorities and, looking towards the narrative of her five husbands, 164 promises "ensamples mo^-than ten" (179), outdoing Chauntecleer. "

Pratt could also mention their common ability to distort authorities for personal benefit. Moreover, pride characterises both. In the General Prologue, Alys is portrayed as proud:

In al the parisshe wif ne was ther noon That to the offrynge bifore hire sholde goon; And if ther dide, certeyn so wrooth was she, That she was out of alle charitee. (A 452)

Chakcer■•■' / also explicitly characterizes Chauntecleer as \ proud of his voice--"Bifel that Chauntecleer in al his pryde" (B2 5191). Both Chauntecleer and Alys have been named as devotees of Venus, but if there is a correlation between prideful Chauntecleer's fall occuring when the sun was "in the signe of Taurus" (B2 319*0 and the fact that Alys1 "ascendent was Taur" (D 613), it has not been noted in print. " To claim what Tupper, Shumaker and Pratt have noted as an intended character parallel is not to deny Alys' splendidly intricate characterization against the backdrop of Chauntecleer•s comparatively linear nature. Complete congruence would be less artistic. Alys does not wait until she relates her tale to defend her life style; she launches out immediately in her Prologue. 165 Looking at the literary types that bridge the "Bradshaw shift," we note that there is a typically rich contrast. The beast fable by Nun's Priest is followed with the romance by Alys. From the realistic barnyard o with "corn" and "wormes" (B 3175, 2962), we advance to "fayerye" (D 859) and supernatural transformations. It is almost as if the Nun's Priest sets up the literary type in the next tale (or provides Alys with an idea for her tale?) when he says of his beast fable:

Now every wys man, lat him herkne me; This storie is also trewe, I undertake, As is the book of Launcelot de Lake, That wommen holde in ful greet reverence.0 Now wol I torne agayn to my sentence. (B 3210)

Severs exposits, "this story of the cock and the hen, which is not in praise of women, is just as true as the romances, which are in their praise. The opposition between 'every wys man' (l. 4400) and 'wommen' (l. 4403) seems to point up this contrast."' Not only are the types, therefore, different, but they nicely contrast in content. Structurally, also, the Nun's Priest's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale are remarkable companion pieces. In the Nun's Priest's Tale, the realistic elements frame the imaginative while in the Wife of Bath's Tale, the imaginative frames the realistic. 166 Whittock calls the opening of the Nun's Priest's Tale "a 'realistic' frame in which the fantasies that follow may take their proper place."' The effect of this, according to Craik, is that we are given a "sense of proportion -- on which our enjoyment of his later comic disproportion depends." 72 The widow and her frugal setting, therefore, are not a "false start" with the "misleading picture of the poor widow" as Baum'^ terms Chaucer's artistic juxtaposition. They are essential to the Nun's Priest's statement. In the first twenty-eight lines, before Chauntecleer is introduced, the Nun's Priest paints a sombre, realistic scenario -- Chauntecleer's owner, a thrifty i^idow'74 and two daughters gratefully living off the land. With Chauntecleer's description we are launched into an imaginative beast fable, returning to the^ealistic — "this sely wydwe and eek hir doghtres two" (B 3375) — toward the close of the Nun's Priest's Tale. In itself this is an engaging contrast within the story but Chaucer's artistic pairing with the Wife of Bath's Tale shows an added dimension of creativity. For with the Wife's story Alys begins with an imaginative setting "fulfild of fayerye" (D 859) before introducing her "lusty bacheler" (D 883) and his imposed quest. Besides the appearance of the magical dancing ladies, the imaginative comes into 167 full emphasis at the conclusion with the hag's transformation into a bride fair and "so yong" (D 1251)* This implicit structural reversal is in addition to the antithetical pairing of a beast fable with a romance. Chaucer's pairing, then, is done with attention to interesting type contrast and structural interest. Chaucer's final pairing principle — further characterization of tellers—brings to a head his meaningful contrast of morals, thematic continuation between stories, and character-plot parallels in adjoining stories. This recognition of the dramatic results of tale pairing intensifies both the organic tale-teller relationship and cohesion of the entire Canterbury Tales. We have already established that Alys,', anti-antifeminist' ^ moral makes comment on the Nun's Priest's moral. The themes begun by the Nun's Priest's story are turned to Alys' benefit by her penchant for wrenching truth to conform to her point of view. Her autobiography declares her right to Chauntecleer's life style in an interesting character parallel, which "quites" the Nun's Priest's protagonist. The findings of my study, then, culminate in Chaucer's rich characterization of the pilgrims. Chaucer, moreover, uses contrast in this teller pairing by producing visual and personality foils in the 1 Wife and Nun svPriest. The appearance of the Nun's Priest 168 is described by Harry Bailley:

See, whiche braunes hath this gentil preest, So gret a nekke, and swich a large breestl He loketh as a sperhauk with his yen; Him nedeth nat his colour for to dyen With brasile, ne with greyn of Portyngale. (Bd 3^59)

This is taken literally by Muscatine176 and ironically by Lumiansky. 77 Admitting that the question is moot, I favor Lumiansky's reading in that the tone of the Epilogue seems to encourage ridicule and sport at the Nun's Priest's expense. If he is of slight stature, Chaucer's pairing him with the amply-sized Wife with "hipes large" (A 472) creates a graphic physical foil. However that may be, the Nun's Priest surely lacks the direct aggressiveness and garrulousness of Alys. Her appearance --by medieval standards she is "strikingly overdressed"' —is of interest because the Nun's Priest has put "fine array" into the proper perspective with his implicit commendation of the "povre wydwe" (B 2821). The clerk's "jade" (B2 2312) both "foul and lene" (B2 2813) cuts a striking contrast to the secular Wife's "amblere" (A 469). Alys' dislike for the clergy has clearly emerged. Moore finds that the Wife of Bath's Prologue (D 194 ff.) must be read with the recognition that Alys desires to "satirize the clergy."'-^ Lawrence interprets her remark that clerks can't speak well of wives as "a hit at the 169 Nun's Priest, who has bitterly satirized women, and their claim to rule the affairs of the household. 'Clerk,' of course, means not only 'scholar,' but primarily 'cleric, one admitted to a religious order; ecclesiastic.'1 He also elaborates, "we cannot fail to see a motivation for the Wife of Bath's utterances in the insults of the priest on the bony hag who has flouted truths which she felt to be the ripest issue of her experience," while "at the close of the day's journey, Dame Alisoun could indeed have thought with satisfaction of her revenge on the Nun's Priest and those of his inclining, and say of them, as of her husbands, 'For god it woot, I chidde hem spitouslyl' n"8l Also, in line with the discussion of the second principle, I covered above how Alys employs the sight vs. insight theme with a religious emphasis which "outclerks" vthe Nun's Priest in her orthodox gentilesse statement. Additionally, Alys gives roles to her female characters in her tale which put Pertelote to shame. The Nun's Priest casts Chauntecleer's favorite hen in the role of unworthy advisor while the Wife gives the virtues of generosity, pity and discernment as well as worthy advisor to Queen Guenevere and the loathy lady. Al*e£ proposes in her tale inward values which are beyond appearances. In the Nun's Priest's Tale woman almost causes man's death while in Alys' story woman functions to deliver man 170 from death. Pertelote's love is shallow, conditional ""on the courage of Chauntecleer; with great comedy she scolds:

"Avoyl" quod she, "Fy on yow, hertelessl" "Alias I" quod she, "for, by that God above, Now han ye lost myn herte and al my love. I kan nat love a coward, by my feith." (Bd 2911) How dorst ye seyn, for shame, unto youre love That any thyng myght make yow afe^d? Have ye no mannes herte, and han a berd? Alias! and konne ye been agast of swevenys? (B2 2921)

Chaucer's tale pairing, then, functions to show an alignment of Alys with Chauntecleer. It is not only Alys whose character is enriched by juxtaposition with the Nun's Priest's, for this cleric is highlighted when flanked vocationally by his superior, the Prioress, and in the Canterbury Tales by Alys. He manages unobtrusively to wield his words to place woman where they belong in the medieval worldview--in subjection to man. His penultimate comment deserves a more careful reading than it has received:

But ye that holden this tale a folye, As of a fox, or of a cok and hen, Taketh the moraltie, goode men. For seint Paul seith that al that writen is, To oure doctrine it is ywrite, ywisj Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille. (B2 3443)

My interpretation will not detract from the obvious 171 reading—to pay attention to the core of truth ("fruyt") and not its dispensable aspects ("chaff"). Contrariwise, it will enrich and reinforce this accepted reading by pointing back to the Nun's Priest's moral. Note that the Nun's Priest is specifically addressing those persons who have not discerned the substance of his story--"ye that holden this tale a folye." He then asks for concentration on his "moralitie"--woman's bad advice-- then makes a Biblical allusion 82 to Romans 15:^. ("For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope" [RSV]). The following two verses in Romans stress harmony in interpersonal relations; isn't this what the Nun's Priest's Tale is all about? This context is significant in explicating the next line to "taketh the fruyt and lat the chaf be stille." Baugh lists Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17 as the Scriptural passages to which the Nun's Priest is referring. 83 These are parallel passages, almost identical in wording, of John the Baptist's Messianic description of Christ at the Last Judgment: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12, RSV). In the source of these allusions, 172 then, "fruyt" and "chaff" refer to persons. Now Chaucer's utilizing the farm-related imagery of the threshing floor is not only appropriate to the domain of Chauntecleer, but also opens the possibility that "fruyt" and "chaff" represent persons for the Nun's Priest. There can be little debate as to which represents "fruyt" --for it is Chauntecleer who wittily escapes the threat of daun Russell in spite of his wife's directives. Neither can there be doubt about female counterparts for "chaff," as Pertelote is put back into her rightful place in the Biblical, medieval and Parson's conception of the ordered universe by both experience and authorities in the Nun's Priest's Tale. With this additional level of meaning, we find that the Nun's Priest makes a last dig against usurping women when he pointedly recommends "and lat the chaf be stille." Robinson gives two readings for "stille"—still and silent. 84 This line, then, means not merely to disregard the inessentials of his fable but also to command women, not merely the fictional Pertelote, to be silent. The Nun's Priest, therefore, not only upholds the Bible as a dutiful cleric should, but also makes a most timely comment to the talkative females who upset medieval order. This reading reinforces the moral of the Nun's Priest's Tale—that woman's advice is bad — and shows 175 the organic relationship between the allusion and the entire Nun's Priest's Tale. It gives us one more instance of the incisive, shrewd wit which we already recognize as characteristic of this pilgrim. This cleric cloaks his directive for women to be quiet in the protective garb of a Biblical allusion. So though he singles out those who think his little story but a "folye," we can assume that his anti-feminist critique is unrecognized by his female superior, the Prioress. Additionally, his subtle penultimate comment that women should be "stille" is also a rich joke with regard to the Wife of Bath, for the Nun's Priest's performance is immediately followed by Alys' garrulous Prologue retaliating against clerks and "seint Paul" (B2 3441).

174 Notes

R. M. Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955), p. 117. Robert P. Gibbons, "Does the Nun's Priest's Epilogue Contain A Link?" SP, 51 (195*0, 25- g 3 Gibbons, p. 32. 4 Gibbons, p. 35; see p. 28 for extensive specifics. Gibbons, p. 31* 6 Leger Brosnahan, Does the Nun's Priest's Epilogue Contain a Link?" SP, 58 (1961), 473. 7 Brosnahah, p. 482. 8 Margaret Schlauch, The Marital Dilemma in the Wife of Bath's Tale," PLMA, 61 (1946), 430. S. S. Hussey, Chaucer: An Introduction (London: Methuen and Co., 1971), p. 124. 10 Helen Storm Corsa, Chaucer: Poet of Mirth and Morality (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964), p. 218. Bernard F. Huppe, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (New York: State University of New York", 1964), p. 221. 12Hupper, p. 176. 13"Trevor Whittock, A Reading of the Canterbury Tales (Cambridge: University Press, 1955"), p. 2 36. 14 Whittock, p. 113. 15 Robert A. Pratt, "The Development of the Wife of Bath" in Studies in Medieval Literature: In Honor of Professor Albert Croll Baugh, ed. MacEdward Leach (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961), p. 65. D. W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives (Princeton: PTinceton University PTess, 19b2), p. 37b-77. 175 17 Richard P. Jones, "A Conjecture on the Wife of Bath's Prologue," JEGP, 24 (1925), 527- 18 Germaine Dempster, A Period in the Development of the Canterbury Tales Marriage Group and of Blocks B and c," MA"68 (135517 n^9- " -^Dempster, pp. 1042-59. 20 Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957), P- 207- 21 Muscatine, p. 238. 22 Muscatine, p. 242. 23 Samuel B. Hemingway, "Chaucer's Monk and Nun's Priest," MLN, 31 (1916), 482, 483. v 24 Carleton Brown, "The Evolution of the Canterbury 'Marriage Group,'" PLMA, 48 (1933), 1041-59, especially 1050-51. -''John S. Kenyon, "Further Notes on the Marriage Group in the Canterbury Tales," JEGP, 15 (1916), 287. J. Burke Severs, "Chaucer's Originality in the Nun's Priest's Tale," SP, 43 (1946), 36-37. George Clark also notes the antifeminism in the Nun's Priest's Tale ("Chauntecleer and Deduit," ELN, 2 U965], P- 171). ^Severs, p. 40. 28 Joseph R. Roppolo, ,i The Converted Knight in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale," CE, 12 (1951), 269, 265. 29^Dempster, p. 1150. 5°Kenyon, p. 286. 31 Kenyon, p. 286. 32 William Witherle Lawrence, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), p. 135T~ -^Frederick Tupper, "Saint Venus and the Canterbury Pilgrims," Nation, 97 (October 16, 1913) 355; see also 354-56. 176 ^Dempster, p. 1142. -^Tupper, p. 355. 36 Severs, p. 37 • 37 1 Muscatine, p. 204. 38 Lawrence, p. 125. -^Robert S. Haller, "The Wife of Bath and the Three Estates," Annuale Mediaevale, 6 (1965), 59- 40 Robert P. Miller, "The Wife of Bath's Tale and Mediaeval Exempla," ELH, 32~~(T5o3"), W^ "'"Dempster, pp. 1149-50. 42 Arthur T. Broes, ,1 Chaucer's Disgruntled Cleric: The Nun's Priest's Tale," PMLA, 78 (1963), 162. 43Huppe', pp. 183, 129-35. 44 Huppe', p. 189. 45 Haller correctly reviews the similarities and contrasts between the Knight's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale. I read his article after writing this chapiter (see p. 54, especially fn. 21). 46 Roppolo, p. 263. 47 John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1968), p. T6T. 48 Lawlor, p. 132. 49 Muscatine, p. 204. Robert 0. Payne, The Key of Remembrance (New H^ven, London: Yale University Press, 1963), p. 66. ^50 Edward Wagenknecht, The Personality of Chaucer (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, T95B"), p. 77• 51 Theodore Silverstein, "Wife of Bath and the Rhetoric of Enchantment; or, How to Make a Hero See in the Dark," MP, 53 (1961), 173. 5%evill Coghill, The Poet Chaucer (London, New York, 177 Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1949), p. 142. 53john Livingston Lowes, The Art of Geoffrey Chaucer (London: Humphrey Milford Amen House, 1931), p. 20. 54 Robert A. Pratt, "The Order of the Canterbury Tales," PLMA, 66 (1951), 1158. 55 ^Dempster, p. 1149. 56 Kenyon, p. 285. 57 See Richard L. Hoffman, "Ovid and the Wife of Bath's Tale of Midas," N & Q, 211 (1966), 48-50. 58 George Lyman Kittredge, Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," in Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticsm, ed. Edward Wagenknecht (London, Oxford, New York: 0~xford University Press, 1959), p. 211. 59 -^Charles Dahlberg, "Chaucer's Cock and Pox," JEGP, 53 (1954), 287, 238. . 60 Miller, p. 452. Roppolo, p. 268. °^Haller, pp. 57-58. 63-Trosa, p. 212. 64 Haller has anticipated me in using this term to describe Alys. (See p. 55)• 65 Bruce A. Rosenberg, "The Contrary Tales of the Second Nun and the Canon's Yeoman," CR, 2 (1968), p. 283. Tupper, p. 355. 67 Wayne Shumaker, Alisoun in Waunder-Land: A Study in Chaucer's Mind and Literary Method," ELH, 18 (1951), 87. 68 Pratt, "The Development of the Wife of Bath," pp. 62-63. 69 According to what I have researched, the only comment which might suggest a correlation is made by Standish Henning where he quotes Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Re rum (London, 1535) : "But theTorce of 178 Taurus unhappily is to make men walk 'in vayne [i.e., in vanity] and in ydelnesse' (sig. X2V)." ("Chauntecleer and Taurus," EM, 3 [1965], P. 2) . 7°Severs, pp. 37-38. 71Whittock, p. 230. 72 T. W. Craik, The Comic Tales of Chaucer (London: Methuen, 1964), p. 77. 73 Paull P. Baum, Chaucer: A Critical Appreciation (Durham, N. C: Duke University Press, 195b), p. 134. 74 On another level, this poor widow makes comment on the extravagance of the exquisite Prioress. 75 J. Burke Severs, "The Tales of Romance," in Companion to Chaucer Studies, ed. Beryl Rowland (Toronto, New York, Condon: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 235« ' Muscatine, pp. 271-72, fn. 106. 77 Robert M. Lumiansky, "The Nun's Priest in The Canterbury Tales," PMLA, 68 (1953), 896-906. 'Walter Clyde Curry, "More about Chaucer's Wife of Bath," PMLA, 37 (1922), 47. 79 Arthur K. Moore, "The Pardoner's Interruption of the Wife of Bath's Prologue," MLQ, 10 (1949), 52. Lawrence, p. 138. 0-1 0 William Witherle Lawrence, "The Marriage Group in the Canterbury Tales," MP, 11 (1913), 257-58. 82 Albert C. Baugh, Chaucer's Major Poetry, (New York: Appleton-Ceintury-Crofts^ 1963), p"^ 381 and Works, ed. Robinson, p. 755* 85Baugh, p. 331. 0/1 See also Matthew 13:24-30 in which "wheat" and j^, "weeds" also refer to persons.

179 Chapter Six: Conclusion

Having explored four pairs of tales with a spider's eye, we are now in a position to draw some generalizations from a more removed perspective. The five pairing principles which Chaucer follows when he links the Shipman's Tale with the Prioress's Tale, the Wife's performance with the Friar's, and the stories of the Clerk and Merchant, he also follows in pairing the two stories juxtaposed by the "Bradshaw shift" — the Nun's Priest' s Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Because . of the wealth of internal evidence we may give resounding affirmation to the "Bradshaw shift." We can review this evidence in the. chart on the following page. Under the first pairing principle, let us note that twice the moral of one tale functions to "quite" the moral of the preceding story. As the Prioress's moral "quites" the Shipman's story, so the Wife's moral "quites" the Nun's Priest's Tale. We also observe that this agon principle is not monotonously employed by Chaucer, for the Clerk's and Merchant's morals function in unison to supplement each other. Seven themes are integral to the stories paired by the "Bradshaw shift." This thematic affinity is more extensive than in any of the three pairs of linked 130 c o ^ —1 $H -P •P -P -P • -P > hO bO rH bO bO CD cd en C CH C C C C rH EH •H o •H -P •H co I tH X5 >s ■P 1 hO 2 ) c ■p 3 :» ■P cfl 73 M CO 3 CU M co x /a> 3 CD CO O M 3 CO tH CD CU cd CO n) rH •H cfl o cO cd ■H O cd cd o M M SH ■H O > u C -H ■H Si) M bO bO •H M +J c ■H a> •P i-l cd -P Cd rH CO •P ■H cu rH -P co cfl cfl -P c X> U CU C S X> CQ !H C rH H X3 c cfl s CM •H o CO •H x: O O CO cO fe o CU rH CO o CD o >M o CM s -p O U 3 C co •H •H -P 4) c E — +J o rH x: -P •P 5i rH o co 3 ti c co cO -P co CD Cfl CQ 3 ■p •H CO -H rH CD CD M 3 rH CO •H > C -P c ■P CD - O O f>> e CD -P Ctf CD rH •H -H O CO o CD O H bJO Opl+> CD P> -H O 73 rH Cfl -P bO iH Q. 3 M 0) o cd u cd -H rH M -H cd CD cO cfl -P •H M CO c X! X3 3 73 X, rH a *vH CO oS co M CO C E CO CQ x: •p a c 3 -p SH o co Q. o a, >3 M CD *H *H CD iH co c/) O Cu o • OH w 3 4-> CO X! CU CD •• S bO ",E rH C c CO o CEn EH cfl cfl En cd cfl o •H OlrH -P O 6 CU ^ TH CD PL. ■rH M O eg H fH r2 £.§glhs 4-> cd 1 rH SU CD CD iH M -P o M JH fH M •—* o c o o O CU r\ a .H T-3 ■r-3 c -p ^ in P £ cO CO •H c cd o E 6 s \-{ X5 rH CM O CM bO

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183 Bibliography: List of Works Consulted

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191 Hoffman, Richard L. "Ovid's Priapus in the Merchant's Tale." ELN, 3 (1966), 169-72. "The Wife of Bath and the Dunmow Bacon." N&Q, 208 (1963), 9-H- . "The Wife of Bath as Student of Ovid." N&Q, 209 (1964), 287-38. Holland, Norman N. "Meaning as Transformation: The Wife of Bath's Tale." CE, 28 (1967), 279-90. Holman, C. Hugh. "Courtly Love in the Merchant's and the Franklin's Tales." ELH, 18 (1951), 241-52. Hornstein, Lillian Herlands. "The Wyf of Bathe and the Merchant: Prom Sex to 'Secte'. CR, 3 (1968), 65-67. ~~ Hostia, Sister Mary. "The Prioress and Her Companion." CE, 14 (1953), 351-52. Hotson, J. Leslie. "Colfox vs. Chauntecleer." In Chaucer: Modern EssaysTn Criticism, ed. Edward WagenknechtTI Eoindon, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959, 1971, PP« 98-116. Howard, Donald R. "The Conclusion of the Marriage Group: Chaucer and the Human Condition." MP, 57 (i960), 223-32. Huppe, Bernard F. "Rape and Woman's Sovereignty in the Wife of Bath's Tale." MLN, 63 (1948), 378-31. A Reading of the Canterbury Tales. New York: State University of New York, 1954. Huseboe, Arthur R. "Chaucerian Puns on 'Brotel'." NDQ, 31 (1963), 35-37. Hussey, Maurice, A. C. Spearing, James Winny. An Introduction to Chaucer. Cambridge: University Press, 1965, pp. 1-114. Hussey, S. S. Chaucer: An Introduction. London: Methuen, 1971, PP. 97Pl2b; 150-32; 188-222. Immaculate, Sister Mary. . "Piends as 'servant unto man' in the Friar's Tale." PQ, 21 (1942), 240-44.

192 Jones, Claude. "Chaucer's taillynge ynough." MLN, 52 (1937), 570. Jones, Richard F. "A Conjecture on the Wife of Bath's Prologue." JEGP, 24 (1925), 512-47. Jordan, Robert M. Chaucer and the Shape of Creation: The Aesthetic Possibilities of Inor"ganic~Strueture . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1^671 PP« 1-60; 111-51; 198-226. The Non-Dramatic Disunity of the Merchant's Tale." PMLA, 78 (1963), 293-99. Joselyn, Sister M. "Aspects of Form in the Nun's Priest's Tale." CE, 25 (1964), 566-71. Kaske, Robert E. "January's "aube'." MLN, 75 (i960), 1-4. <~~ Kauffman, Corinne E. "Dame Pertelote's Parlous Parle." CR, 4 (1969), 41-48. Kean, P. M. The Art of Narrative: Chaucer and the Making of EnglisPT^Poetry, vol. 2~I London, Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972, pp. 48-239* Kee, Kenneth. "Tivo Chaucerian Gardens." MS, 23 (1961), 154-62. Kellogg, Alfred L. "Chaucer's 'Friar's Tale': line 1314." N&Q, 204 (1959), 190-92. V-_ . "Susannah and the Merchant's Tale." Speculum, 35 (i960), 275-79- Kenyon, John S. "Further Notes on the Marriage Group in the Canterbury Tales." JEGP, 15 (1916), 282-88. "Wife of Bath's Tade 1159-62." MLN, 54 (1939), 133-37. Kirby, Thomas A. "A Note on the Irony of the Merchant's Tale." PQ, 21 (1942), 433-35- Kittredge, George Lyman. Chaucer and His Poetry. Cambridge": Harvard University Press, 1915, 1933, pp. 1-36; 146-218.

193 Kittredge, George Lyman. "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage." In Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism, ' ed. Edward Vagenknecht. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959, pp. 138-215. Klinefelter, Ralph A. "Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, 2843." Explicator, 10 (1952), item~32^ Knoepflmacher, U. C. "irony Through Scriptural Allusion: A Note on Chaucer's Prioresse." CR, 4 (1^70), 180-33. Koban, Charles. "Hearing Chaucer Out: The Art of Persuasion in the Wife of Bath's Tale." CR, 5 (1971), 225-39. ~~ KOkeritz, Helge. "The Wyf of Bathe and 'al hire secte'." PQ, 26 (1947), 147-51. Kuhl, Ernest P. "Notes on Chaucer's Prioress." PQ, 2 (1923), 302-9. ~~ Lavers, Norman. "Freud, The Clerk's Tale, and Literary Criticism." CE, 26 (1964), 180-87. Lawlor, John. Chaucer. London: Hutchinson University Library, ,19b«, pp. 9-18; 105-63. Lawrence, William V/itherle. Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. New York: Columbia University Press, 1950. ,, "Chaucer's Shipman's Tale." Speculum, 33 (1958), 56-68. "The Marriage Group in the Canterbury Tales." MP, 11 (1913), 247-58. . "The Wife of Bath and the Shipman." MLN, 72 (1957), 37-38. t Lecompte, I. C. "Chaucer's Noone Prestes Tale and the Roman de Renard." MP, 14 (1917J, lbl^TJT Legouis, Emile. Geoffrey Chaucer, trans. L. Lailavoix. New York: Russell and Russell, 1913, 1961, pp. 136-204. Lenaghan, R. T. "The Nun's Priest's Fable." PMLA, 78 (1963), 300-?. 194 L Levy, Bernard W. "The Quaint World of the Shipman's Tale." S3F, 4 (1967), 112-18. "The Wife of Bath's Queynte Fantasye." CR, 4 (1969), 106-22. Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance LiteralTure"^ Cambridge: UniversityTress, 1964, pp. 1-lbO; 216-23* Lowes, John Livingston. The Art of Geoffrey Chaucer. London: Milford, 193T7 3^52. "Chaucer and the Seven Deadly Sins." PMLA, JO (1915), 257-71. . . Geoffrey Chaucer and the Development of His Genius. Cambridge, Massachusetts Riverside Press, 1934, pp. 193-246. "Simple and Coy: A Njpte on Fourteenth Century Poetic Diction." Anglia",' 3g (1910), 440-51. ^ Lumiansky, Robert M. "The Nun's Priest in The Canterbury Tales." PMLA, 68 (1953), 896-906. . . of_ Sondry Folk: The Dramatic Principle in the Canterbury Tales. Fustin: University of Texas Press, 1955, pp. 71-32; 117-29. McCall, John P. "Chaucer and John of Legnano." Speculum, 40 (1965), 484-89. "The Clerk's Tale and the Theme of Obedience." MLQ, 27 (19667T~260-69. McClintock, Michael W. "Games and the Players of Games: Old French Fabiaux and the Shipman's Tale." CR, 5 (1970), 112-36. — McGalliard, John C. "Chaucerian Comedy: The Merchant's Tale, Jonson, and Moliere." PQ, 25 (1946], 343-70. "Chaucer's Merchant's Tale and Deschamps' Miroir de Mariage." PQ, 25 (1946), 193-220. Mahoney, John. "Alice of Bath: Her 'secte' and 'gentil text'." Criticism, 6 (1964), 144-55. 195 Main, William W. "Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, 2257- 2261." Explicator, 14 (T555), item 13 • - Malone, Kemp. Chapters on Chaucer. Baltimore: Johns 1 ; Hopkins Press, 195l7~pp. 1-18; xl44-235. "The Freres Contree." MLR, 26 (1931), 75-77. "Patient Griseldus." RR, 20 (1929), 340-45. "The Wife of Bath's Tale." MLR, 57 (1962), 481-91. Mann, Lindsay. "'Gentilesse' and the Franklin's Tale." SP, 63 (1966), 10-29. Manning, Stephen. "The Nun's Priest's Morality and the Medieval Attitude toward Fables." JEGP, 59 (i960), 403-16. Margulies, Cecile S. "The Marriages and the Wealth of the Wife of Bath." MS, 24 (1962), 210-16. Mariella, Sister 0. S. B. "The Parson's Tale and the Marriage Group." MLN, 53 (1933), 251-56. Mathew, Gervase. "Marriage and Amour Courtois in Late Fourteenth-Century England.n In Essays Presented to Charles Williams, ed. C. S. Lewis. Grand Rapids: William B. Erdmans, 1947, 1966, pp. 128-35. Matthews, William. "Eustache Deschamps and Chaucer's Merchant's Tale." MLR, 51 (1956), 217-20. Miller, Milton. "Definition by Comparison: Chaucer and Lawrence." 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205 Vita

On August 29, 1938 I was born to Robert L. and Luetta F. Koepke. I am the younger of their two daughters who were born in F}.int, Michigan. After living in New York and West Virginia, we moved to Ohio where I graduated from Worthington High School in Worthington, Ohio in 1956. I spent my first two college years at Miami University, r i Oxford, Ohio, but then transferred to Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduating cum laude in i960. To complete educational requirements, I also attended Geneva College during the summer of 1961. My husband, Keith Alan, and I were married on August 22, 1959; we have two children—Keith Koepke born November 9, 1962 and Molly .McGinley, born October 17, 1965. I have teaching experience on five levels: elementa- ry (as Assistant to the Head of the Lower School of the Ellis School,for Girls in Pittsburgh, I96O-6I); junior high school (as an English teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools, 1961-62); senior high school (as student teacher in the Beaver Falls Area Schools and as substitute teacher in the Bethlehem Public Schools); college (currently as Adjunct Professor of English at the Northampton County" ' Area Community College); and adult (as instructor for var- ious adult groups in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh). I also began graduate work in the English Department of Lehigh University in the Spring of 1971* 206