The Delta Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 4 Spring 2007 Fabricating a Fabliau: Façade and Finance in the Shipman's Tale Rebecca Welzenbach '07 Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/delta Recommended Citation Welzenbach '07, Rebecca (2007) "Fabricating a Fabliau: Façade and Finance in the Shipman's Tale," The Delta: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/delta/vol2/iss1/4 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. Welzenbach '07: Fabricating a Fabliau: Façade and Finance in the Shipman's Tale Fabricating a Fabliau: Fa~ade and Finance in the ion of The Delta, the English Shipman's Tale he success of the first edition, our Rebecca We1zenbach ltain the high standards of quality t first edition while also improving Of all the bawdy tales, or fabliaux, in Chaucer's :rial. Due to the standards Canterbury Tales (Cl), the Shipman's Tale (ShT) tends to litorial board, the efforts ofthis alienate the most readers and critics, many of whom find it who submitted their work, we lifeless and plain compared to other, more colorful tales like the :ssful on both counts. Miller's (MilT), Reeve's (RvT) and Merchant's (MerT) tales. Read as it usually is, as a fabliau that reduces sexual any high quality submissions, which relationships to the level of commerce, the ShT seems flat and challenging. We followed a blind lacks a moral standard by which to judge the characters­ r to ensure that the editorial board anticlimactic and amoral, it is neither a tale of"most solaas" lely on the criteria established in our nor of"best sentence." However, Herry Bailey, who judges each story based on these criteria, lauds the tale, and so we must dig deeper than the surface to unearth its moral and Ind analytical papers unified around a entertainment value. I suggest an alternative approach to the ~ paper must be cohesive, well­ straightforward reading of this fabliau: rather than the substance lere applicable, properly cited using ofthe tale, the fabliau serves as the form. By telling a story of Ie we will only publish excellent trade in the familiar guise of a fabliau, which the audience diverse representation of work so would inevitably associate with deception and adultery, the n covers many time periods, genres, Shipman takes a stand on the morality of financial exchange, lodologies. relegating it to the realm ofjaping and swyving, which elevates the tale to a level of "best sentence" that is absent from the like to thank everyone who fabliau on its own. Further, the Shipman, by drawing a ideration. We are also grateful to comparison between merchants and monks who cheat their : Hymer at Printing Services for their friends both financially and sexually, all while apparently lat of The Delta, as well as to Student presenting an honest and just merchant as the hero of his tale, ng for our publication. Thanks to quytes the Merchant pilgrim, who represents the class of his .making our blind selection process biggest business rivals. In this way the tale also acquires a ratulations to the Alpha Eta Pi playful aspect of"most solaas," and becomes a valuable :a. winner ofthe National contribution to the pilgrims' tale-telling contest. rd. Thank you also to Rachel :mr cover. And, last but not least, l. The Shipman's Tale: a Critical Castoff or his guidance and support In her chapter on the ShT tale in The Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, Helen Cooper's first comment on the ShT is to point out the problematic feminine pronouns in cond edition of The Delta, the first 15 lines as evidence for the common argument that the tale was originally written for the Wife of Bath (278). Thus, before commencing her analysis, she effectively divorces the tale from its final narrator. She adds that "teller and tale have less connection here than in any other ofthe Canterbury Tales" 5 Published by Digital Commons @ IWU, 2007 1 The Delta, Vol. 2 [2007], Iss. 1, Art. 4 (278). The evidence for the tale's original designation for the understood, I suggest the oppositl Wife of Bath is compelling, and seems to satisfy many critics. genre as a frame to make a moral William Lawrence suggests that Chaucer's placement of the exchange, or at least on the men 1 tale with the Shipman was simply an afterthought, even a the immoral, deceptive, and selfi5 mistake because "for the moment there was too much joyous audiences expect to find in a fabli writing still to be done, and too many business distractions" Tale is more complex than mereJ' (Lawrence, "Chaucer" 68). However, to quote G.L. Kittredge, Canterbury series to the simple t~ '''Chaucer always knew what he was about'" (qtd. in Chapman 4). In reading ShT tale we should look further than the II. Fulfilling Fabliau Conventio conclusion that Chaucer simply dumped the tale with the than the Sum of its Parts Shipman for lack of a better place. There is no quibbling among It is reasonable to do as Cooper does, explaining the the ShT differently than any ofth mysterious feminine pronouns in lines such as "He moot us examination ofthe differences bel clothe, and he moot us arraye" (ShT 7.12), which refer fabliaux such as the MilT, RvT ar inclusively to wives as a population, as editorial work left that the ShT must be written for a unfinished by Chaucer, perhaps after reassigning the tale from interpretation. As Peter Nicholsor the Wife of Bath. In any case, this supposition makes more Tale and the Fabliaux," "[w]hile ( sense than Robert L. Chapman's colorful depiction of this in this poem is evident, it does nOI section as an opportunity for the Shipman to impersonate a his other tales... It has none ofth woman, performing this part of the tale "in a piping falsetto" the other fabliaux" (583). This sto (5). However, when dealing with the reassignment of the ShT, I bones. Unlike the other tales, the I would not go so far as to say that Chaucer's "full interest was Shipman's tale are anonymous ani not engaged when he made this shift" (Lawrence, "Chaucer" deliberately generic name. Furthel 68). While the argument for the tale's connection to Alisoun of "A rich gnof...he was a carpenter' Bath is convincing, it is a mistake to end the analysis of the tale millere...as any pecok he was pro here, if only for the reason that Chaucer himself did not. It is or "[a] worthy knyght, that born v. important to examine this tale in the context it holds today, and as his main character, the ShT rev· not simply assume that, because the tale may have had a former is relevant for the commercial ove place, its final one holds no meaning. but also because, unlike the other In order to find substantive meaning in the ShT, it is merchant is the stock social positi. necessary to look beyond the surface of the fabliau itself. As the generic French fabliau (Hellm; John Finlayson writes, "[c]riticism which approaches [the tale] replaces the clerks and apprentice~ as a dramatic story oversimplifies and confesses is also typical ofthe original Fren. disappointment" (336). Although Finlayson will ultimately Chaucer is drawing attention not t make a different argument than I do, we begin from the same but to the conventional positions f observation: that this tale, as is, reads a bit flat when compared of the deceived husband, the faith; to those that that come before. Rather than tacking another­ lover (here, as often, a cleric)" (LE less entertaining-fabliau on to the string of tales before it, the Lawrence and Cooper both attest 1 Shipman takes advantage ofthe conventions ofthe well-known story, which contrasts with the dig genre, using the fabliau as a device to comment on the trickery commentary by the tellers ofthe () and immorality inherent in economic exchange. Rather than impeded, as elsewhere in Chaucer equating marriage and sex with commodities as is usually digressions, by citation of learned https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/delta/vol2/iss1/46 2 Welzenbach '07: Fabricating a Fabliau: Façade and Finance in the Shipman's Tale Ie tale's original designation for the understood, I suggest the opposite: the Shipman uses the fabliau g, and seems to satisfY many critics. genre as a frame to make a moral comment on financial its that Chaucer's placement ofthe exchange, or at least on the men who practice it, by tying it to the immoral, deceptive, and selfish themes that readers and l simply an afterthought, even a noment there was too much joyous audiences expect to find in a fabliau. Therefore, the Shipman's ld too many business distractions" Tale is more complex than merely "as close as any in the ). However, to quote G.L. Kittredge, Canterbury series to the simple telling of a story" (Cooper 281).