3. the Sergeant and Man of Law As Gower
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3. The Sergeant and Man of Law as Gower The Identity of the Sergeant and Man of Law Much of what we have discussed so far is closely bound up with the demotion of the Sergeant of the Law to a mere Man of Law, a matter that we have noted before as an instance of Chaucer changing his mind on a pilgrim’s stature. In the Man of Law’s case this is a demotion from being one of the mightiest men of the realm to what is implied by his being a “man of law” – just a lawyer. Instead of being one of the truly great, he is someone whose claim to being a man of culture is made a point of sport by the errors that he makes.1 Joseph Hornsby writes that sergeant was still used loosely in Chaucer’s day and might be applied to “a pleader in another court as well the more prestigious king’s sergeant”.2 True, but Chaucer’s portrait in the Gen- eral Prologue is uncompromising: his Sergeant is precisely such a prestigious personage. It is here that we stand to get our best taste of the spirit of Chaucer’s acknowledgement. If we are reading it right, it is not a truly accommodating one, yet precisely the sort of response that one ex- pects in well-fought duel. The point, in elaboration of an earlier sug- gestion by Fisher, is that the Man of Law, as presented in the Intro- duction, could well be a tongue-in-cheek portrait of Gower. Fisher re- jects his own notion because he believes it to be inconsistent with the sketch provided by the General Prologue.3 As it is, the inconsistency that he claims to see is just not there, which leaves the field wide open to accepting the Sergeant as a sardonic sketch of Gower from the very first. Yet let us be clear on two things here. One is that, however wel- come such corroboration, it does not constitute a linchpin for this study’s main argument and my readers are welcome to reject it as they 1 On the Man of Law’s errors, cf Fisher, pp 287-89; Scala: 17; Rodney Delasanta, ‘Great Reverence’: 288-310. 2 Joseph Hornsby, ‘A Sergeant of the Lawe, War and Wyse’, in: Laura C. Lambdin and R.T. Lambdin eds, Chaucer’s Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales (Westport CT/London: Greenwood, 1996): 116-34, at 122. 3 Fisher, p 287. 124 | The Sergeant and Man of Law as Gower like. The other point is more intricate. If we accept the identification, we must also allow for a complex and ironic interplay of voices, ef- fected in much the way that a ventriloquist plies his profession. Thus, there is a range of voices, whereby it is sometimes Chaucer speaking through the Sergeant/Man of Law, sometimes his Gower caricature and sometimes a bit of both. The notion of a pilgrim’s portrait drawn from actual life is a familiar one to Chaucer students. While most of his characters seem to be fictional, there are some notable exceptions. The Host is the most obvious instance but in other instances, too, there have been attempts, some of them convincing and others less so, to relate Chaucer’s des- criptions to actual contemporaries.4 There is an apparent contradiction here with the concept of estates satire drawn from stock models. But some reflection learns us that real life is riddled with people possess- ing traits and mannerisms that do come close to the satirical, not to mention the consideration that in writing for a small coterie it must have been both tempting and rewarding to hold up familiar figures for a good laugh. In any case, it is a natural thing for an author to flesh out his fictional characterizations by drawing on ideosyncratic traits en- countered in his contacts with actual people. In the Man of Law’s case Thomas Pynchbek has been put forward, who “served as a justice of assize between 1376 and 1388 and who was known for his acquisition of land, as well as for his learning; in 1388, as chief baron of the Ex- chequer, he signed a writ for Chaucer’s arrest in a case of debt”. This and a perceived pun on his name in the shape of “pynche” are the chief grounds for this identification.5 A good look at the portrait of the Sergeant of the Law makes us wonder about the felicity of this identification. The General Prologue is all about estates satire. If and when in using such satire Chaucer used real-life persons to base his descriptions on, we may assume that he took care to steer away from treading on the toes of the truly high and mighty. Herry Bailly of the Tabard would not have had any problem with his part, as this was great advertising and well-suited to attract curious customers. Much the same thing goes for the Shipman, 4 Benson, p 6. 5 Benson, p 811. It is not impossible, of course, that Chaucer should have based his portrait on Gower yet thrown in some aspects of Pynchbek for good measure. In fact, his use of “pynche” may well be a play of words contrasting Gower’s activities with those of a true Sergeant of the Law. .