Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 2010 The rT anscendent Comedy of the "Canterbury Tales": Harmony in "Quyting," Harmony in Fragmentation John Zedolik Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Zedolik, J. (2010). The rT anscendent Comedy of the "Canterbury Tales": Harmony in "Quyting," Harmony in Fragmentation (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1403 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE TRANSCENDENT COMEDY OF THE CANTERBURY TALES: HARMONY IN “QUYTING,” HARMONY IN FRAGMENTATION A Dissertation Presented to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By John J. Zedolik, Jr. May 2010 Copyright by John J. Zedolik, Jr. 2010 THE TRANSCENDENT COMEDY OF THE CANTERBURY TALES: HARMONY IN “QUYTING,” HARMONY IN FRAGMENTATION By John J. Zedolik, Jr. Approved April 6, 2010 ________________________________ ___________________________________ Anne Brannen Bernard Beranek Associate Professor of English Associate Professor of English (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Linda Kinnahan Professor of English (Committee Member) ________________________________ ____________________________________ Christopher M. Duncan Magali C. Michael McAnulty School of Liberal Arts Chair, Department of English Professor of Political Science Professor of English iii ABSTRACT THE TRANSCENDENT COMEDY OF THE CANTERBURY TALES: HARMONY IN “QUYTING,” HARMONY IN FRAGMENTATION By John J. Zedolik, Jr. May 2010 Dissertation supervised by Anne Brannen The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer has been a controversial work for many years due in part to its tonal variety which leads to questions of genre and the work’s purpose. Ambiguity regarding the work’s hypothetical finished state, due to its actual fragmented condition, also contributes to critical controversy. Thus the dissertation analyzes certain tales and these tales’ relationships to other tales to arrive at an argument that sees the Canterbury Tales as indeed fragmented, but harmoniously complete. The most important critical point in the dissertation is the “quyting”—paying- back or balancing—which one tale and teller perform upon another tale and teller or other tales and tellers. Thus each chapter looks at how a pilgrim specifically balances the Canterbury Tales by telling a tale contrasting in tone, outcome, or genre to a preceding tale in the same fragment or to another tale in a separate fragment. Additionally, the iv chapters analyze specifically how a taleteller, a member of the tale-telling “game” during the pilgrimage, often takes comedic revenge upon the teller (a fellow pilgrim) of the preceding tale or a taleteller from a separate fragment. Finally, chapters focus also on how the fragmented state of the Canterbury Tales allows further “quyting” that helps make the work what it is as a whole. The analysis produces the argument that the “quyting” between tales and between tellers, and the Canterbury Tales’s fragmented state produces comedy as a whole due to the pragmatic harmony—necessary to comedy—that arises from the “quyting” of tales and tellers. The harmony that this “quyting” produces allows the Canterbury Tales as a whole to transcend the non-comedic nature or genre of some of its individual tales. Moreover, the fragmented state of the Canterbury Tales allows the reader to “quyt” the author, thus allowing imaginative freedom and thereby harmony between reader and author. The great comedy extends beyond the pages to readers themselves who now exist beyond the bounds of Chaucer’s world of the late fourteenth century. The comedy of the Canterbury Tales continues to transcend limitations. v DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my mother, MaryAnne Zedolik, who took the time to teach me to read; my late uncle, Gerald Kuhar, whose interest in my literary pursuits as an adolescent has proven continually inspiring; and especially my wife, Lisa Seligman, who has been a constant, enthusiastic support through every challenge in this process. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to acknowledge Professor Bernard Beranek and Professor Linda Kinnahan for taking the time to sit on my committee and read several drafts of my dissertation. Their insights and advice have been invaluable in my crafting this final version of the dissertation, a version that I hope does justice their knowledge and intelligence. I would especially like to thank my committee chair, Professor Anne Brannen, who has guided me through this long process with intelligence, kindness, and encouragement. Without her presence, this dissertation would have not been possible, and I owe her a debt of gratitude I hope I may pay off some day. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iv Dedication.......................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgment .............................................................................................................. vii Chapter One: The Comedy of the Canterbury Tales...........................................................1 Chapter Two: The General Prologue: A Place to Start, not to Stay..................................17 Chapter Three: The First Fragment: Sweet and Sour “Quyting” and the..........................28 Harmony It Generates Chapter Four: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale: Unexpected Comedy....................59 in a Biographical Narrative and Moralistic Romance Chapter Five: The Friar’s Tale and the Summoner’s Tale: Open Bitterness, ...................89 Open “Quyting” and Satire for the Sake of a Greater General Comedy Chapter Six: The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale: Complicated “Quytings” ..................120 within a Complex Comedy Chapter Seven: The Shipman’s Tale, Sir Thopas, the Prologue of the Monk’s...............160 Tale, and the Prologue of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale: Smooth and Subtle “Quytings” Preparatory to Ultimate Comedic Fulfillment Chapter Eight: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale: Comedic Fulfillment in an ..............................201 Apparently Silly Fable about a Cock and a Fox Chapter Nine: Conclusion: Harmony in Comedy, Harmony in Fragmentation ..............236 References........................................................................................................................255 viii Chapter One- The Comedy of the Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories, prologues, and links whose variety sometimes baffles both reader and critic regarding its genre. In fact, a reader or critic might even say that the Canterbury Tales “are” a collection of disparate tales and miscellany. I say disparate because the tales themselves offer a wide variety of medieval genres: romance, fabliau, parody, saint’s lives, beast epic, and sermon, to name some of the represented genres. Beyond the variety of genres the Canterbury Tales contains, the outer dramatic framework of the pilgrimage, the dramatic interplay between the pilgrims, the introductions, prologues, and epilogues to the individual tales further expand the variety of the work as a whole. Thus the Canterbury Tales contains variety in genre but also variety in its narrative modes and components. It is almost as if Chaucer wrote this work with its multi-layered and multi-faceted structure in order to defy classification. However, if one looks closely, one main bond unites the work: the Canterbury Tales is a comedy,1 whose humorous and non-humorous tales move toward a final, if sometimes problematic harmony, which transcends the non-humorous natures of some of the tales and the rancor which remains between pilgrims in the story-telling “game.” Humor and comedy are, of course, not the same thing. Humor is speech, situation, or action that generates laughter or is meant to generate laughter in the audience or reader. However, humor is only an element of moment, so to speak, in a work of art. Conversely, comedy is an overarching form to which humor may contribute. A humorous element within a work of fiction also may eventually work toward satire, parody, or other 1 The major project of this dissertation will be the argument that the Canterbury Tales as whole is a comedy. I am responding to the lack of criticism I perceive in this argument of the Canterbury Tales as a whole. Many critics note its humor and the comedy of its individual tales, but I have not found criticism 1 genre of comic fiction—not necessarily comedy. Medieval considerations regarding humor show the localized quality of humor. For example, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, an Englishman writing (in Latin) in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century states that “humor proceeds from lightness of heart. And a joke is a youthful thing and is agreeable to those who are in their green years. And a joke is a ‘light’ thing to which the more sprightly age applies itself easily. And third, the action is light. Therefore let everything to do with it be light” (101). Thus, for Geoffrey of Vinsauf,