Tag Archives: chaucer

Part VI

Thus far I have spent the last few sections of this discussing the integrity of Fragments IV and V, attempting to demonstrate their completeness as one unit. As you can tell if you have been reading along, my progress has slowed. The problem is, I am running out of resources. I have digital copies of some manuscripts, and pictures of various parts of others, but the problem with independent research is that I have no access to massive data bases. If I was only doing a literary analysis that would hardly be a problem, but the nature of this project relies heavily on visualization, meaning that until I can get a better idea of the original works, I am a bit stumped.  Even within this section I will be focusing more on traditional literary analysis, with fewer references to the manuscripts.

After my argument for combining Fragments IV and V, I will refer to my previous (and brief) mention that several stories within these sections must follow the Wife of Bath, meaning that both Fragments must follow her as units. Further, Fragment III, containing the Wife, must remain intact as is, comprised of the Wife, Friar, and Summoner. As I inquired in the previous section, why? Part of the answer is very simple, and I will address this first.

Immediately preceding the Wife’s Tale the Friar and Summoner break out into an argument that will find it’s way into the prologues of the other two tales within this fragment, serving as the link between all three tales. Several other tales have endlinks or interruptions that introduce another character or form a connection, but here, among all three tales (four if you count the Wife’s Prologue, as I will do), it is always the same characters, binding not just two stories together, but an entire fragment from beginning to end. Yes, as was seen in the Merchant’s, Franklin’s and Squire’s prologues and endlinks, scribal insertions often occurred, but when they did, there were generally brief, lacking depth  and hardly adding anything to the stories. This is an argument that does add (albeit not to the stories themselves) to the overarching theme of the tales; commentary among members of the pilgrimage gave the frame narrative of a journey a certain three dimensional quality as opposed to a linear prologue-tale-prologue-tale mechanical organization. It also serves to remind the readers that there were other characters there. Much like the Host acts as an active audience member to the pilgrims’ stories, so too do the commentaries prompt us to reflect on what we have read.

On the topic of scribal insertion/authority, in the few places where the scribes interchanged the names of the pilgrims within endlinks or prologues (Merchant, Squire, Franklin), the disparity between who was being named and their statements made it immediately apparent that something was not right. With a little digging it was generally ascertained where the error occurred, especially when there was an absolute lack of contextual support for a revision of what may have been the original, and which made most sense.

Also, importantly, these three tales have never been separated from each other in any of the manuscripts. While manuscript consensus is not necessarily indicative of an absolute ordering, it does strongly imply that copies of these tales have never been received in a different order and quite possibly as one long piece making it impossible to recopy them in any other way. As scribes shuffled loose stories around, none would amend a continuous portion of text.

Moving away from the physical aspect of the quires containing the tales, I want to focus on the structural similarities within Fragment III, much like I had done with the components within Fragment IV and V. Since the Wife’s Prologue is quite lengthy (even more so than some of the tales), I will treat it as a tale, especially in light of the contextual parallels that are found between it and the three tales in this fragment. What I hope to present at the end of this is an illustration of four quarters that not only complement each other in completing the fragment through structural similarities, but remain in constant conversation, tying all the stories, including the Wife’s Prologue, together.

Unlike the tables I have tried constructing in previous posts, with four pieces it would be impossible, so I will outline the structure step by step.

Wife’s Prologue: WBP          Wife’s Tale: WBT          Friar’s Tale: FrT              Summoner’s Tale: SumT

The first set of similarities is among introductions, and obviously most tales and prologues throughout the Tales  have introductions, making this first section appear superfluous. However, I want to draw attention to the endings of each introduction where the similarities between these four segments are strictly characteristic of Fragment III.

WBP: Alisoun introduces herself in her infamous “experience, though noon auctoritee” speech.  Before she begins her list of husbands and marital vignettes, she attacks the institution of marriage as it is preached (not practiced), and the traditional conventions associated with it. Marriage, a beautiful concept when taken more loosely, is the subject of her harangue in its strict state that prohibits any joy a woman might have.

WBT: In her tale the Wife introduces the Knight, and immediately tells us of his conundrum, namely that he raped a maiden and is about to have his head lopped off. Interestingly that entire part gets glossed over and instead the Wife narrates a grievance against the imposition of chastity.

FrT: The Friar in his tale introduces his two main characters, the Archdeacon and Summoner. Unlike the Wife’s Prologue, and Tale in which she railed against concepts (as outrageous as they may be), here the Friar directly offends the Summoner to the point where the latter interjects.

SumT: The Summoner retaliates against the Friar and tells a bawdy tale involving the humiliation of friars to where the Friar interjects (which conveniently brings me to my next point).

Once all four tales have had their introductions, before the body of any tale, there is an interruption. Yet unlike the other tales where interruptions halt the tales completely, here the story tellers continue on either on their own or with encouragement from the Host.

WBP: The Pardoner interrupts the Wife’s tirade against the sanctity of marriage. Even though he only does so to praise her words, she advises that he has not heard all she has to tell (and indeed she has about 700 more lines before she even begins her story).

WBT: After she harshly reprimands the Pardoner for interrupting her prologue no one else dares stop Alisoun in her story, however, at one point (as several others have also pointed out in their criticism), she uncharacteristically steps out of the role of narrator. After introducing her Knight in King Arthur’s court she uses the first and second person pronouns for the brief section. This is the only point in the story where this appears, and only continues for a few stanzas. While it is not an interruption per se, and not even very distracting (often not caught on the first read), it is an intrusion into her narrative.

FrT: As the Friar and Summoner are on a retaliatory path, as the Friar introduces his lecherous summoner, the pilgrim Summoner interjects. He does not openly show offense, but if we learned anything from the Miller and Reeve previously, we can already deduce what tale the Summoner will tell. Also, if the Host had not called for “pees” the two may well have gone back and forth over the depiction of summoners.

SumT: Yes, the Summoner begins a tale about a corrupt friar, and the Friar interrupts his tale. Once again the Host calls out for “pees” and the tale resumes.

The third set of structural similarities is concerned with each character’s pursuit. Unlike several other tales that simply tell a story, or convey a moral, here each one is actually in search for something whether tangible or not.

WBP: Alisoun makes it clear that despite having had five husbands at church’s door, she is in search for number six, and uses her marital stories to illustrate what she is and is not looking for in a mate.

WBT: The Knight of this tale is in search for the answer to the question of what women want. In a sense this is almost a direct answer to the Wife’s Prologue; if all of her previous marriages were combined, her ultimate goal, much like the Knight tells the queen, is sovereignty.

FrT: The summoner travels around looking for money and how to obtain it from people.

SumT: The friar goes from home to home, much like the summoner in the previous tale, searching for monetary gain. Even as the means are different (here people give money out of charity and perhaps due to trickery, but for the previous summoner it was out of fear), the end is the same.

Once the tales are told each has an ambiguous conclusion.

WBP: After telling the audience all about her husbands, especially those who were cruel, the Wife claims she has obtained “by maistrie, al the soveraynetee.” However, in the last few lines of her prologue she relates what a “trewe” wife she was to her husband, kinder than any woman from “Denmark to Inde,” which seems a complete negation of her previous sentiments.

WBT: In her tale, practically a parallel to her prologue,the Wife asserts that the Knight was taught a good lesson about the “governance” women hold. And the woman in the story, much like the Wife, chooses to use her power in the end to make the man happy and surrender to his desires as the old crone turns into a beautiful maiden and swears loyalty to the Knight.

FrT: The Friar ends his tale with his summoner being taken off to Hell and a brief reminder that we should not sin lest we also end up there. However, the lesson that is more apparent (especially when regarding the Friar in terms of how he was introduced in the General Prologue, along with keeping in mind Chaucer’s propensity for making unstated commentary) is that there is a difference between verbalized speech and actual meaning. Much like the man with the cart who the devil would not haul away because he did not mean it when he sent his cart to Hell, the old woman does mean it when she sends the summoner to Hell, but under this same premise we are invited to analyze the sincerity of the Friar’s words as he preaches virtue in the ending lines. As the Friar endeavored to defame the Summoner with his tale, he managed to draw attention to himself.

SumT: The Summoner’s tale is a bit more subtle in the secondary meaning. While the Friar is obviously attacked as a charlatan taking advantage of a grieving family, the Summoner finishes by praising Jankin, a churl, for his wit and rhetoric comparable to the likes of “Euclide or Ptholomee,” and much like the Friar had done at the end of his tale, the Summoner draws attention to himself; he not only applauds those traits that the Friar feels belong to him, but puts them onto a man who’s other attributes (that are far more disagreeable) parallel the Summoner instead.

When looking at the stories piece by piece their structures overshadow their disparity in genre and superficial style. Fragment III, unlike any other fragment is a mini tapestry that weaves the Wife, Friar and Summoner in and out on too many occasions to argue against their coherence. So while on the surface it is difficult to see why these characters might be so right together considering they come from different social classes, tell tales of different genres, and the Wife’s Prologue stands out more so than the others, they remain intact on the page because they were clearly written together. As for why they were written together, there are many theories, and I have one myself, but in truth, only Chaucer knows.

So far I have managed to cover four out of the ten fragments. Some, like Fragment I, don’t necessarily warrant explication in the sense of ordering as I can’t imagine anyone disputes the Tales start with the General Prologue. The same can be said about Fragment X, except there is some debate as to what comprises that fragment along with the Retraction. In the next part of this I want to look at the Man of Law’s relationship to his own fragment (II) along with his influence on Fragment III, and I want to explore how his tale has moved throughout the various manuscripts.

Part V

In continuing my argument for the consolidation of Fragments IV and V in the Canterbury Tales, I left off discussing the connection between the Merchant’s and Squire’s tales, contingent upon the Merchant’s endlink appearing within manuscripts. Thus far I have established that the Merchant follows the Clerk, who is in turn followed by the Squire.

However, at the first line of the introduction to the Squire’s Tale, some manuscripts, including Hengwrt and Petworth, read “Sire Frankleyn” instead of “Squire.” The heading in Hengwrt states, “Here folwen the wordes of the worthy Hoost to the Frakeleyn,” and the Franklin’s Tale follows. The variations among the ordering of the tales in various manuscripts indicates that there was no predominant ordering to be had and thus the tales were introduced in the order in which the scribes wrote them. Again, referring to the Ellesmere and Hengwrt, only after haphazard copying is the manuscript edited to create the Ellesmere with the ordering edited to reflect content along with common sense.

If the Host’s invitation to the next story teller is to the Franklin, and it reads “Sire Frankeleyn, com neer, if it youre wille be,” then it is extrametrical. For an author who so meticulously oversees his form, as can be surmised from the General Prologue down to the structural similarities between tales that I outlined in the previous section of his project, it is most bizarre that this line should stick out so obviously. Surely Chaucer did not momentarily forget how to count only to resume flawlessly in subsequent lines. Chances are, as the tales were being copied in no particular order other than the one in which they were received, the scribe noticed introductions or words of encouragement for the other tale tellers, and lacking one here, he improvised before reading the actual tale which would have given him some clues.

The lines directly following the “Franklin’s” invitation to tell a tale are: “and sey somwhat of love, for certes ye/ Konnen theron as much as any man.” (with obvious variations on spelling between manuscripts). While the Host is often off the mark when drawing his conclusions on the various tales, he is not so removed that he would ask the grumpy Franklin to tell a sappy love story – a topic much better suited to the Squire, “a lovyere, and a lusty bacheler”… merrily riding along, covered in “fresh floures, whyte adn rede.” That sounds much more like someone who should be telling love stories. And that is exactly what he does. Following in the footsteps of the Knight’s Tale of Arcite and Palimon, two courtly lovers who all but botch the concept of chivalry, the Squire tells an even more absurd tale of love, as only a young man could. In fact, the tale is so terrible, it is not left unfinished as some scholars speculate, but is rather interrupted by the real Franklin who had just about had enough.

Note: the stipulation that the tale was unfinished is due to the fact that it does indeed stop mid sentence. While it can be argued that it was left unfinished because it was honestly a terrible tale, the notion that the tale was purposefully interrupted seems more feasible; the tale had been bad for quite some time, and not looking as though it would get any better, thus if it was meant to be abandoned altogether Chaucer would have done so much sooner. It is more likely that it went on and on as it did to demonstrate cause for its interruption – the Franklin just couldn’t stand it anymore (and the audience would thank him kindly). Yet, since the Franklin stops the Squire and offers nothing but praise for a tale well told, there have been many who have accepted the Franklin’s words at face value, refusing to take diplomacy, common courtesy, or downright sarcasm into account, using his apparent praise to argue that the Squire’s Tale is unfinished, and not interrupted. However, if the tale displeased him, no one should expect the Franklin, a man with a public persona and agenda for social ascension, to outright tell the noble boy to shut up.

Another clue (right at the beginning) that the introduction by the Host to the Squire, is actually intended to the Squire and not the Franklin, has to do with the way in which the words are read, keeping in mind Chaucer’s love for word play.

The Host intuits that the teller of the next tale “konnen theron as much as any man” on the subject of love. The obvious reading is that he knows as much as any other man and therefore has a means for telling a tale on the subject. However, a dual connotation is that he knows as much as *a* man, implying that the teller is not in fact yet a man, but a boy. Much of Chaucer’s language is generally (and often intentionally) ambiguous, making it extremely difficult to discern absolute meaning, but in conjunction with the previous pieces of this argument, it is difficult to ignore the possibility of the second reading.

Further, a look at the way these tales were physically written provides the last clue to their ordering. According to Cooper’s analysis of the manuscript’s binding, in the Hengwrt, the Merchant’s endlink and Franklin’s Prologue are written on an inserted leaf. Also, simply looking at pictures one can tell that there is far more room in between the two then there is text – half the page is empty. Thus the scribe wrote the pieces in anticipation of… well, I don’t know what. There are theories of what he may have been waiting for, but all seem very far fetched attempts at answering a rather mysterious question. What was he waiting for? I personally believe he didn’t even know, but left the blank space because something about the current ordering of the tales was askance – the blank space is less of a mystery of “what” and rather an indication as to his hesitancy in placing the Franklin’s Prologue after the Merchant’s endlink. As evidence, when the same scribe later copied the Ellesmere, the Merchant – Squire – Franklin piece was rearranged as we have it now, and the manuscript flows smoothly with no indication of a break. In other words, he was far more sure of himself here, and felt no need to leave empty space.

Returning to context, this is the heading at the top of the next leaf:

Heere folwen the wordes of the

Frankeleyn to the Squire, and the

wordes of the Hoost to the Frankeleyn (spelling again varies, I am using Ellesmere).

Several manuscripts such as Christ’s Church, Corpus Chrisi, and New College omit these lines altogether. (Note: This is actually a rather important point, but unfortunately I don’t have access to digital images of the Christ’s Church manuscript, so I am relying on others’ transcripts… if I ever make more of this project, this will have to be better looked into, and I think to fully flesh out the evidence I should also look closer at Petworth and Lansdowne, if not others). Hengwrt (and perhaps other manuscripts) use the Squire’s endlink to introduce the Merchant’s Tale, and the word “Marchantes” replaces “Frakeleyn.” So, why do these other manuscripts omit these lines altogether? It might not make it correct, but consensus among a majority of manuscripts would heavily tilt the argument towards acceptance of one or the other. However, so few manuscripts seem to have these words, the only evidence we can rely on for accuracy once again looks at rhyme and meter.

Where Ellesmere’s “That knowe I wel, sir, quod the Frankelyn” (only a little below the lines quoted a paragraph earlier), is looked at in terms of Hengwrt’s “That knowe I wel sir, quod the Merchantes certeyn,” it is an obvious attempt to maintain the rhyme, and in doing so, the line becomes extrametrical. This time it is better masked than the previous time that an extrametrical unit was introduced, due to the rhyme of the words, but when read within the surrounding text something about the line just stands out, and upon a second (or perhaps third or fourth) look, it is discovered.

In addition, since Chaucer typically introduced the themes of the tales within their headlinks, or the endlinks of the previous tales, in this case it would seem more likely that the theme of “gentillesse,” as it is introduced, is better fitted to the Franklin’s Tale, rather than the Merchant’s that appears to be the exact opposite of the concept.

Since the Franklin’s Tale does follow the Squire’s, we can begin comparing them to figure out why they were placed together (assuming Chaucer didn’t just happen to write them that way). McCall makes an interesting argument that the Franklin’s and Squire’s Tales belong together because they are both organized along temporal lines. Unlike the Bradshaw shift (mentioned in Part I of this project), that is an entire argument based on less than a handful of references to place names, this argument holds some weight as no other tales contain as many references to time, aside from the General Prologue. According to McCall (and the text, of course), the Squire’s Tale begins on March 15th and ends roughly two months later where the Franklin’s Tale begins on May 6th and ends in December. While this is even more proof that the Squire’s Tale was meant to be interrupted and not simply left unfinished, that is not my purpose here, (and I will probably have to reassess and rework this in earlier). McCall then states that the two tales contain key words in which the Squire’s Tale emphasizes youth and the Franklin’s Tale focuses on the old. But this argument can be taken so much further, and demonstrate parallels between the tales which indicate that Chaucer wrote each with the other in mind, and thus they must be linked together. Just like I had looked at the Clerk’s and Merchant’s tales earlier for contextual parallels that proved one would not simply follow the other, but do so closely, here I will look at different parallels, drawing the same conclusion. The structural similarities are too great for the tales to be separated.

First, I will outline these similarities in a “table,” but just like last time, it may or may not appear as a table on your end since I don’t know how to do it properly in the blog. Secondly, I am certain I am missing references, and will reread both tales again to pick up any missing words from my list here. These are simply the most obvious.

Squire’s Tale                                            Franklin’s Tale

“Ides of March”                                       “Frosty… December”

“Phebus… ful joly was”                        ” Phebus wax old”

***both of these are only one line below the previous example

“exaltacioun”                                           “declynacion”

“Ares”                                                          “Capricorn”

***exact same monthly references as the first example used

“sonne sheene”                                         “shoon ful pale”

“yonge grene”                                           “destroyed… grene”

“songen”                                                      “crieth”

 

The similarities are not solely in stray words, but these help illustrate how the stories reflect each other, and are almost a continuation. In the first, while not finished, the young woman laments her lover leaving her for another, while in the second, the man returns from war to find his wife has promised herself to another. We do not know the outcome of the first, but in the second, despite, and perhaps due to, the Franklin’s excessive desire towards appearing noble, the characters in the tale, including Dorigen, conduct themselves with utmost chivalry (the implications, and the outcome, are something to be discussed elsewhere another time). In every sense, the Franklin’s Tale appears to act as a second half, or a completion of the Squire’s Tale. Of course this leads to a completely different argument as to why the Squire’s Tale may not have been completed. (Obviously this project appears to need better organization because I seem to be jumping all over the place, and I am really trying not to – however, if I want to pursue this to its end, all of these little “extra” things should at some point be addressed).

Yet, in light of every clue presented in favor of the Franklin’s Tale following the Squire’s it must be noted that not as much evidence, if any, exists to the contrary. In fact, for every instance that I have so far noted where the ordering is different, there appears to be no reasoning behind it, and other scholars, far more advanced and invested than me, have also failed to find evidence in support of a different ordering. Even those who argue against the Squire-Franklin combination (very few, and an almost non existent argument in recent years), still do not offer an alternative.

The Clerk, Merchant, Squire, and Franklin, are simply meant to be together, in one long sequence, and dividing them into fragments, aside from creating an easy way of numerating them, is unnecessary.

Similar combinations of fragments also exist. The evidence may not be as strong, but enough remains in existence to argue the consolidation of fragments VI and VII, and IX and X.

However, next time I actually want to move backwards within the manuscripts and look at the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. A lot has already been done on her, so I will be brief; what I wish to look at is why she is (constantly) placed within the same fragment as the Friar and Summoner. Judging from their descriptions in the General Prologue it seems she is the odd one out of this Fragment, but there is in fact a reason to place her where she is, and why she has maintained that place among manuscripts.

Part IV

In Part III of my analysis I began making the suggestion that Fragment IV and V of the Canterbury Tales among different manuscripts should be consolidated to reflect the relationship between the Clerk’s and Merchant’s tales, along with the relationships that unfold once the Merchant’s Tale finishes. While I made the argument between the relationship of the Merchant’s and Clerk’s tale in light of content and structural similarities, I will further explore how the Merchant’s Tale speaks in the same way to the Squire’s and Franklin’s tales, outlining the necessity of building an uninterrupted narrative comprised of the Clerk, Merchant, Squire and Franklin.

The first, and also easiest way of doing so would be to first look at the distinction in tale ordering between the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts with a discussion of what consists of scribal invention, and relying on common sense to decipher the original composite.

The Merchant’s and Squire’s endlinks follow each tale in both manuscripts, but they are used to introduce different tales. The importance of this will become evident as the analysis continues.

A table would best depict the differences, but for the purposes of this blog, I think I can present it in list form as well.

Ellesmere ordering: Merchant’s Prologue, Merchant’s Tale, Merchant’s endlink to the Squire, Squire’s Tale, Squire’s endlink to the Franklin, Franklin’s Tale.

Hengwrt ordering: Squrie’s Tale (with no introduction), Squire’s enlink to the Merchant, Merchant’s Tale, Merchant’s endlink to the Franklin, Franklin’s Tale.

As can be seen, Hengwrt has a different organization, and seems to be missing a component, the Squire’s introduction (which would only make sense if it followed another tale within the group). As was seen in earlier parts of this analysis, since Hengwrt was a sort of prototype manuscript, it is feasible that certain pieces came in later. Not to mention, as was discussed last time, it appears most probable that the scribe copied the pieces as they were received, only editing for content after the fact. If both of these ideas are taken into consideration we can trace how one manuscript morphed into the other. However, what is interesting to note is that in this section, unlike any other, the scribe attempted to make the pieces fit as he was writing them by fabricating links. However, in a larger context, as I will explain, the added links make little sense, and metrically speaking are poorly written in an obvious attempt to create relationships that simply were not there.

Ellesmere is one of the few manuscripts that contains the Merchant’s endlink, however, when other manuscripts include it, it never moves away from the Merchant. Due to the Host’s reference to the deceitful wife of the Merchant’s Tale (May), as well as his naming of the Merchant in the Merchant’s endlink, it shows its position to be right. Further, most critics will agree that the stanza is Chaucerian, and not a scribal invention, so the fact that it is omitted from numerous manuscripts is not because it was believed to be inaccurate, but probably because it did not yet exist, or was not attached to all of the extant copies of the Merchant’s Tale. Further, its omission from the different manuscripts is the probable motive for separating the Merchant and the Squire; without the endlink from the Merchant’s Tale, there is little binding the two. Yet once the connection is found, the case can be made as to why they belong in one group.

Several editions, including the Riverside Chaucer sever the Merchant’s endlink from the tale, with a notation of the beginning of a new fragment right before the Squire’s Tale. This is a modern editorial invention and has no historical precedent. All manuscripts that contain the Merchant’s endlink combine the Merchant’s Tale and Squire’s Tale into one group, using the flow of the stories as reasoning for keeping them together; The Ellesmere manuscript simply announces the Squire’s Tale as soon as the Merchant’s endlink finishes, with no announcement of a new fragment.

This is still a very roughly laid out idea in need of refinement as I am sure some things that make sense in my head are not coming across on paper (or blog). However, if you follow the order of edits between the manuscripts, it should become slightly more clear even if not yet convincing. I am not going to clean this area up yet, but rather proceed with the argument, and in the next section discuss the merit of the Squire-then Franklin ordering as opposed to Squire-then Merchant, relying on context to guide the analysis.