Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1997 The ounselC Group: Rhetorical and Political Contexts of Court Counsel in "The aC nterbury Tales". Marc S. Guidry Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Guidry, Marc S., "The ounC sel Group: Rhetorical and Political Contexts of Court Counsel in "The aC nterbury Tales"." (1997). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6422. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6422 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]. 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THE COUNSEL GROUP: RHETORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS OF COURT COUNSEL IN THE CANTERBURY TALES 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 Marc S. Guidry B.A., Loyola University New Orleans, 1987 May 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9736017 UMI Microform 9736017 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For Monique, My Muse ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments No book is self-authored. A book by a "single author" is a collection of human experiences and voices channelled through one writer's word processor. This dissertation is such a collection, and it gladly shares in the knowledge and life- moments of others. This dissertation evolved out of a conference paper entitled, "The Politics of Court Counsel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." which I read at the 30th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the spring of 1995. I would like to thank Liam Purdon for organizing the panel session at which I read and inviting me to write a paper for the panel. Many other scholars have played a formative role in the development of this dissertation, chief among whom is my director, Jesse Gellrich. The idea of treating Chaucer's use of court counsel as a rhetorical topos was that of Dr. Gellrich. He also helped me to combine the historical and poetic materials into cohesive chapters and contributed one of the key concepts of the entire work—that orality and literacy are interactive modes of discourse in Ricardian poetry and that each mode constantly tries to "displace" the other (i.e. each mode tries to assimilate the other to its own form). My undergraduate professor in medieval English literature, Julian Wasserman, also played a major role in shaping this dissertation. Julian was a great motivator whose love for Middle English literature and belief in my abilities encouraged me to iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. complete this project, especially at the beginning when I did not believe that I could do it. Other scholars I wish to thank are: James Olney, whose notion that professional writers use language autobiographically to create "metaphors of self," that is, to configure their lives according to literary patterns, has deeply influenced my work; Richard Johnson, whose mentoring during my undergraduate career will never be forgotten and who introduced me to the wonderful world of the oral-written communication cycle; Ted Cotton, who taught me how to read a text closely and who, along with Robert McMahon, helped me develop the motif of the "councils of the Gods" in the Tales: and the late Josephine Roberts, whose bibliographic work on Richard n was a great aid to this study and whose kindness to the graduate students of L.S.U. went beyond professionalism to become true charity. I must refer the reader to the bibliography for the other numerous scholarly contributions to my work. Most of all, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support and love, without which this dissertation would be nothing. My father's incredible enthusiasm for literature, my mother's firm belief in me, my brother John's and my friend Tom's and my friend David's camaraderie, as well as my grandparents' humble guidance, have all made their mark upon my work. The muse of this work has been my wife Monique, whose tender love has given it meaning. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Dedication.......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................vi Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Youth and the Melibee .............................................................................41 2 Factionalism and the Man of Law's Tale ...............................................109 3 Tyranny and the Clerk's Tale ................................................................168 4 The Counsellor-King and the Knight's Tale .........................................228 5 False Counsel and the Merchant's Tale .................................................305 Afterword...................................................................................................................... 366 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 368 Vita................................................................................................................................. 392 V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract The Counsel Group: Rhetorical and Political Contexts of Court Counsel in the Canterbury Tales argues that counsel-taking is one of the most important themes in Chaucer's masterwork. Court counsel—which includes giving the ruler or lord political advice, making laws and treaties, and passing judicial sentence—was a major form of medieval discourse that recurs throughout Ricardian poetry. Indeed, the modem principle of consultative government has its roots in the medieval discourse of counsel and consent. As a diplomat in the service of Richard n, member of parliament, and acquaintance of several leading members of the king's council, Chaucer was well positioned to appreciate the political importance of court counsel. As a poet and translator, he was trained to evaluate the deep rhetorical structure of political speech. Richard II was deposed in 1399, and one of the main charges made against him in the articles of his deposition was that he refused to take the counsel of his subjects. However, the conciliar crisis that led to his deposition was complex and turned on the political factionalism between the royal and baronial parties. Both groups fought for control of the king's standing council and parliament, which held the keys to political power. The counsel group explores the rhetorical understructure