Studies in Chaucer's Imagery. William Allen Tornwall Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1956 Studies in Chaucer's Imagery. William Allen Tornwall Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Tornwall, William Allen, "Studies in Chaucer's Imagery." (1956). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 159. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/159 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDIES IN CHAUCER’S IMAGERY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by William A1. 'Tornwall B. S. Delta State Teachers College, 1937 M. A. University of Alabama, 19^3 June, 1956 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to thank Professor Thomas A. Kirby, who directed this dissertation, for his encouragement, assistance, and invaluable criticism. I wish to express my gratitude also to Professors Joan C. Miller, William J. Olive, Nathaniel N. Caffee, Melvin R. Watson, and Elliott D. Healy for their critical comment and helpful suggestions. My thanks are due finally to the library staff, and especially to Mrs. Anne J. Dyson of the Reference Library, for assistance in obtaining the materials for this dissertation. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................... ii ABBREVIATIONS USED FOR CHAUCER'S WRITINGS iv ABSTRACT vii I. ON THE STUDY OF CHAUCER'S IMAGERY . 1 II. CHAUCER'S IMAGERY AND THE COLORS OF RHETORIC 20 III. THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE SUBJECT MATTER IN CHAUCER'S IMAGERY .......... 85 IV. CHAUCER'S TREATMENT OF DERIVED IMAGERY. 164 V. THE IMAGERY IN CHAUCER'S PORTRAITS. 208 1. The Imagery Exclusive of the Canterbury Tales •••••••. 208 2* The Imagery of the General Prologue •••••••••••• 232 3* The Imagery of the Canterbury Tales Excluding the General Prologue 276 VI. CHAUCER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD IMAGERY . 316 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... * . 339 VITA 354 iii ABBREVIATIONS USED FOR CHAUCER»S WRITINGS1 Adam Adam Scriveyn Anel Anelida and Arcite Astr A Treatise on the Astrolabe Bal Compl A Balade of Complaint BD The Book of the Duchess Bo Boece Buk Lenvoy de Chaucer a Bukton CkT The Cook*s Tale C1T The Clerk*s Tale Compl d* Am Complaynt d*Amours CT The Canterbury Tales CYT The Canon* s Yeoman * s Tale Form Age The Former Age F ort Fortune FranklT The Franklin * s Tale FrT The Friar*s Tale Gen Prol The General Prologue Gent Gentilesse HF The House of Fame KnT The Knight * s Tale Lady A Complaint to his Lady The abbreviations are essentially those given by F. N. Robinson, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1933)» pp« 71*6-71*7 ♦ iv LGW The Legend of Good Women MancT The Manciple’s Tale Mars The Complaint of Mars Mel The Tale of Melibee MercB Merciles Beaute MerchT The Merchant’s Tale MillT The Miller’s Tale MkT The Monk’s Tale MLT The Man of Law’s Tale NPT The Nun’s Priest’s Tale Par dT The Pardoner’s Tale ParsT The Parson’s Tale PF The Parliament of Fowls PhysT The Physician’s Tale z m The Complaint unto Pity PrT The Prioress’s Tale Purse The Complaint of Chaucer to Rom The Romaunt of the Rose RvT The Reeve’s Tale Scoe Lenvov de Chaucer-a Sco&an SecNT The Second Nun’s Tale ShipT The Shipman’s Tale SaT The Sauire’s Tale Sted Lak of Stedfastnesse SumT The Summoner’s Tale Thop Sir Thopas Tr Troilus and Criseyde Yen The Complaint of Venus WBT The Wif e of Bath* a Tale Worn Nob Womanly Noblesse Worn Noe Against Women Unconstant vi ABSTRACT This investigation of Chaucer’s figurative imagery is based upon an examination of all the poems exclusive of the somewhat doubtful Romaunt of the Rose, The dis cussion is presented in an introductory chapter and a series of related essays, each of which treats a different aspect of the poet’s figurative language. The first essay, "Chaucer’s Imagery and the Colors of Rhetoric," shows that Chaucer makes use of all the figurative devices recommended in the medieval treatises on rhetoric, though such colors as translatio. allegoria. and similitudo are found to be of much greater importance for the expression of imagery than most of the others. The second essay, "The Appropriateness of the Subject Matter in Chaucer’s Imagery," demonstrates that although his images characteristically contain a mixture of subject matter more or less fitting to his informal, con versational style, the materials in the imagery of the House of Fame. of the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. and of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales are appreciably influenced by the character of the poems. Further, it is shown that the imagery in the Reeve’s and the Wife of Bath’s prologues reflects the background vii and occupation of the speakers and that in the tales of the Knight, the Miller, the Reeve, and the Nun’s Priest the subject-matter in the figures is especially fitting not only to the character of the poems but to the narrators as well. The next study, "Chaucer’s Treatment of Derived Imagery,'-*>• illustrates the poet’s widely diverse methods of adaptation, which range all the way from the occasion al instances in which images are shortened to the large number in which they are greatly extended, from those that closely reproduce a model to those that give independent development to a mere hint or suggestion, from the few which render an image less specific to the many that are made more definite. The striking origin ality which Chaucer so often achieves in his treatment is discovered to result for the most part from his numerous additions of concrete details. The fourth essay, "The Imagery in Chaucer’s Portraits,” shows that the descriptive passages of this kind commonly contain an astounding abundance of imagery in all periods of Chaucer’s poetry and that this imagery is of a func tional character. Moreover, the imagery thus employed is found to manifest a development through the successive poems both in the particular functions which it serves and in its degree of suggestive power. viii The final essay, "Chaucer’s Attitude Toward Imagery,” attempts to demonstrate that the poet’s scattered and fragmentary comments on poetic art, though insufficient to construct a complete and hard-and-fast theory of imagery, seem to indicate (1) that Chaucer does not look with disfavor upon figurative language and the colors in general as some scholars have supposed, (2) that he sanctions a functional use of imagery, (3) that he favors materials which are at least in a general way appropriate to the character of a poem and to a narrator, (4) that he considers old books the chief source of images, though he recognizes the importance of oral materials and first-hand observation, and (5) that he realizes the value of visualizing imagination in the creation of imagery. These critical ideas are found to accord with the conclusions reached in the preceding essays con cerning Chaucer’s actual practices. ix c h a p t e r I ON THE STUDY OF CHAUCER'S IMAGERY Since many studies might be made of Chaucer's imagery it la desirable to explain at the onset the method and purpose of this particular investigation. The subject, as every student of literature knows, is complex and presents numerous difficulties. There is, to begin with, the matter of definition. To the psychologist and some literary critics, an image is a mental reproduction of a sensation belonging to any of the senses. According to this definition, the image may be presented in either liter or figurative language. But, as understood by other literary critics, an image is never direct statement; it is always sense experience presented indirectly in metaphor and its related forms. Many students have adopted the 1 atter definition, and it is the conception of imagery on which the present investigation is based. Even within the narrowed borders set by this definition numerous lines of approach may be followed; yet all of these fall into three main divisions: they are concerned with the form, or the subject matter, or the function of the imagery. The present work, which is based on an examination of the images in all of Chaucer's poems exclusive of the somewhat doubtful Romaunt of the Rose»^ Is concerned with certain aspects of imagery in each of these divisions. The discussion is presented in a series of related essays, the first of which deals with Chaucer*s imagery in its relation to the medieval colors of rhetoric; the second with the appropriateness of the subject matter in the images; the third with the treatment of borrowed and proverbial images; the fourth with the use of imagery in Chaucer’s portraits; and the last with Chaucer’s attitude toward imagery. The subject of these studies has not, of course, gone without some amount of critical notice* Here might be mentioned the work of the nource-huxsters who , though not concerned especially with imagery, have* often called attention to figures of speech which Chaucer derives from other poets and from the store of proverbial imagery For references to the variety of opinions about Chaucer’s atxthorship of the Romaunt. see A.

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