Jill Mann - Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire - The Literature of Social Classes and The General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales (1973) PDF
Jill Mann - Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire - The Literature of Social Classes and The General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales (1973) PDF
Jill Mann - Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire - The Literature of Social Classes and The General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales (1973) PDF
CHAUCER AND
MEDIEVAL ESTATES SATIRE
The Literature of Social Classes and
the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
JILL MANN
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521200585
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
rreiace page xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Note on References xvii
i Introduction i
Estates and Estates Literature 3
The Estates Form 4
The Estates Content and Social Stereotypes 7
The Role of Work in the Prologue Portraits 10
3 Estates Ideals 55
The Parson 55
The Ploughman 67
The Clerk 74
7 'Scientific'Portraits 145
The Pardoner 145
The Franklin 152
The Miller 160
The Reeve 163
9 Conclusions 187
Appendices 203
A Estates Lists 203
B Chaucer, Langland and Goiver 207
Notes 213
Selected Bibliography and List of Works Cited 295
Index 323
Preface
XI
PREFACE
There are many whom it is appropriate to thank here for their help and
encouragement. My longest-standing debt is to those who taught
me medieval literature as an undergraduate at St Anne's College, Oxford
- Mrs D. Bednarowska, Miss E. Griffiths and Mrs P. Ingham. I have to
thank Miss Pamela Gradon, my supervisor while I was registered as an
Oxford research student, not only for suggesting the subject of this
study to me, but also for her patience and helpfulness during the years
that I was working with her, and for reading parts of the manuscript
after our formal relationship had ceased. The last eighteen months of
my work on this book were done in Cambridge under the supervision
of Peter Dronke, to whom I am indebted for unfailing interest, stimu-
lating comment, and great generosity with books, advice and time.
In these warm thanks Ursula Dronke must also share. I am also grateful
to Dr D. S. Brewer for reading and commenting on parts of this study,
and for his prompt invitation, when I arrived in Cambridge, to the
medieval graduate seminar, to which, as to the Cambridge Medieval
Society, I read a paper on this subject, and received helpful comments.
In slightly different form, this study was submitted for a Cambridge
Ph.D., and I must also thank its examiners, D. A. Pearsall and A. C.
Spearing, for stimulating comment. Clare Hall, Cambridge, awarded
me a Research Fellowship in 1968, and gave me welcome financial
support.
Finally, I should like to thank my husband, to whom I owe not
only intellectual debts, but also the recognition that my work was as
important as his.
J.M.
xu
List oj Abbreviations
xm
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Haureau, NE
B. Haureau, Notices et Extraits de Quelques Manuscrits Latins de la
Bibliotheque Nationale
Hist. Htt.de la France
Histoire littiraire de la France par les religieux binidictins de la congregation
de Saint-Maur
JEGP Journal ofEnglish and Germanic Philology
Latin Stories
A Selection ofLatin Stories from Manuscripts ofthe Thirteenth and
Fourteenth Centuries, ed. T. Wright
Lit. and Pulp.
G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England, 2nd edition
Map Poems
The Latin Poems Commonly Attributed to Walter Mapes, ed. T. Wright
MED Middle English Dictionary, ed. H. Kurath and S. M. Kuhn, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 1954- (in progress)
MLN Modern Language Notes
MLR Modern Language Review
MO Mirour de I'Omme, ed. G. C. Macaulay, John Gower: The French
Works, Oxford, 1899
MP Modern Philology
NE Notices et Extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale, et autres
bibliotheques
Niermeyer
Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, 1954-
NQ Notes and Queries
NR Nouveau Recueil de Contes, Dits, Fabliaux et Autret Pieces Inedites des
XIIIC, XIV, et XV* Siecles... d'Apris les MSS. de la Bibliotheque du
Roi, ed. A. Jubinal
OED The Oxford English Dictionary . . . a corrected re-issue of A New English
Dictionary on Historical Principles, ed. J. A. H. Murray, H. Bradley,
W . A. Craigie, C. T . Onions, Oxford, 1933
PL Patrologiae Cursus Completus, series latina, ed. J. P. Migne
PMLA Publications ofthe Modern Language Association of America
PoisiesPop.Lat.
Poisies Populaires Latines du Moyen Age, ed. E. du MeVil
PPl Piers Plowman, ed. W . W . Skeat
PPl Crede Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, ed. W . W . Skeat
PPS Political Poems and Songs, ed. T. Wright
PQ Philological Quarterly
PSE The Political Songs ofEngland From the Reign of John to that ofEdward II,
ed. T. Wright
xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Religious Orders
D. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, vol. I
RES Review ofEnglish Studies
RR Le Roman de la Rose, ed. F. Lecoy
SA W. F. Bryan and G. Dempster, Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales
SATF Socie*te* des Anciens Textes Franc,ais
SP Studies in Philology
SS Nigel de Longchamps: Speculum Stultorum, ed. J. H. Mozley and
R.R.Raymo
TLS Times Literary Supplement
Tobler-Lommatzsch
Altfranzosisches Wb'rterbuch, A. Tobler andE. Lommatzsch, Berlin,
1925-
Trans. Am. Phil. Assoc.
Transactions ofthe American Philological Association
UTQ University of Toronto Quarterly
VC Vox Clamantis, ed. G. C. Macaulay,/o/m Gower: The Latin Works
Wagenknecht
Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. E. Wagenknecht
Wells, Manual
J. E. Wells, A Manual ofthe Writings in Middle English 1050-1400
ZfDA Zeitschriftfur Deutsches Alterthum
XV
Note on References
xvn
I
Introduction
11
INTRODUCTION
This passage has numerous parallels in the Prologue - simple references
to the everyday activities and the special qualifications demanded by
the profession or 'estate' of each pilgrim. We hear of the Squire riding
and singing, jousting, dancing, drawing and writing poetry. We hear
of the Wife's cloth-making, of the Merchant's bargains and dealings
in exchange. We hear of the Franklin's public offices as sheriff, 'con-
tour', knight of the shire, Justice of the Peace. We hear of the Cook
roasting, simmering, broiling and frying, of chicken and marrow-bones,
'poudre-marchant tart and galyngale', 'mortreux' and 'blankmanger'.
We are reminded of the knowledge and skill that each profession
calls for, whether it is the Yeoman's skill in woodcraft, the close watch
kept by the Reeve on the weather, the farm-animals and the tricks of
his underlings, the Sergeant of Law's memorising of every statute
and all the law-suits since the Conquest, or the Doctor's grounding in
astronomy, the humours, and an astonishing number of medical
authorities. We have a sense of professional jargon - whether it is the
'fee simple' and 'termes' of the lawyer, the Shipman's 'lodemenage',
or the Merchant's 'chevyssaunce'.27 All of this contributes relatively
little to our sense of the individual psychology of the pilgrims, but it
contributes a great deal to our sense of their working lives.
Chaucer's ostensible purpose in introducing this material is to assure
the reader that each pilgrim is superlatively skilled in his trade; its
presentation is marked by the casual use of hyperbole which we saw
in the Knight's portrait. This hyperbole is a natural part of Chaucer's
'romance style'28 and so we accept it as part and parcel of the Chaucerian
idiom. Some critics have tried to account for it more precisely, as one
of the conversational elements in Chaucer's style,29 or as a characteristic
of Chaucer the impressionable pilgrim,30 as part of Chaucer's en-
thusiastic appreciation of people, or of the literary convention of
magnifying character.31 It is clear that the hyperbole cannot be taken
at face value; even an author's manipulation of coincidence could
hardly account for a random assembly of people all of whom are the
best exponents of their craft in the country or out of it. In my view, the
apparently redundant eulogies of professional skills are simply a means
of enumerating professional duties and qualifications. The naturalness
of this sort of expression in a romance style, and its conversational tone,
enable us to accept it, but its motivation is to direct our attention to the
social and occupational functions, habits and qualities of the Prologue
figures.
Chaucer keeps reminding us of 'all trades, their gear and tackle and
12
THE ROLE OF WORK
14
THE ROLE OF WORK
manor; it is his estate which makes them out of place, and so is basic
to our appreciation of the portrait.34 Thus where a critic like Hulbert
sees the socially repiesentative features of the pilgrims as parallel with
features belonging to universal human types - 'typical traits of
temperament, appearance and manners' - 1 would see the estate as
fundamental to most of these features as well.35
The chapters which follow will document the claim that the features
of the Canterbury pilgrims are overwhelmingly those which were
traditionally associated with their estates. The content of the Prologue
therefore proclaims it to be an estates satire as much as the form.
But we must note one paradoxical aspect of the Prologue's estates
content. The neutral and detailed enumeration of the daily duties of
each occupation increases our awareness of the estate, rather than the
individual - but this sort of enumeration is rarely found in estates
literature itself. Where the satirists use concrete detail, it is not neutral,
but illustrative of failings; where they are not criticising failings, they
offer generalised moral advice rather than instruction in a trade.
We do gain some acquaintance with the daily activities of some
estates, in the development (on the whole late) of satire on different
classes of artisans; the outlining of the various ways in which they can
default in their craftsmanship or selling techniques gives us some idea
of the details of their trades.36 But there is nothing like Chaucer's
continued insistence on the assembly of skills, duties and jargon that
characterises an estate. This type of information is given only in the
Prologue; elsewhere in the Canterbury Tales we find plentiful use of
estates satire of the traditional sort, but nothing of this sense of daily
work. Chaucer's introduction of this apparently 'colourless' material
points to his intentions. It does not work against the assumption that
the Prologue figures are estates types, since the new material helps to
realise them in precisely this way. But it shows how Chaucer is con-
cerned to develop certain implications of the estates form - its stress on
specialisation, on the skills, duties and habits which separate one class
of society from another - rather than to remain content with its
traditional aims of moral criticism, whether humorous or solemn. The
implications of this for the kind of society presented in the Prologue
will emerge later.
To this paradox we can add another. In contrast to the usual view
that Chaucer took typical figures as a point of departure and added
new details which transformed them into individuals, I have suggested
that Chaucer deliberately invented new material which reinforced
C.A.M.E.S.—B
INTRODUCTION
the impression of the type.37 Yet I do not wish to dissent from the
general critical consensus that the Canterbury pilgrims give us an
extraordinarily vivid impression of their existence as individuals. While
examining what they have in common with their estates counterparts,
I shall also examine the means by which Chaucer persuades us that
they are individuals. Both lines of inquiry seem to me to lead to an
increased understanding of, and admiration for, Chaucer's art in the
Prologue.
16
2
THE MONK
17
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
his estate, he would inevitably be associated with gluttony. Despite
wide differences in date and place of origin, a whole succession of
writers attribute to monks the enjoyment of good food and drink.
In the twelfth-century Speculum Stultorum of Nigel of Longchamps,
for example, it is already so much taken for granted as to be revealed
in an aside; the monk Fromundus comes to answer a knock slowly,
as when he is called to prayer,
20
THE MONK
the mire of the world through which he must pass. But too many
monks prefer Testroit cauchier' - the fashionable tight shoes, which
witness to the monk's 'pensee confuse*. Along with the fine shoes
is mentioned the 'grys' that Chaucer puts into his portrait of the
Monk:
Cloistriers, ki tes dras et ton pie*
Dou point del ordre as despointie
Et au point dou siecle apointie,
Ki te kerra dou vair, dou gris,
Ke tu n'en aies covoitie?24
Cloisterer, who have made your clothing and footwear out of harmony with
your order, and have adapted them to the world, who will believe that you
haven't coveted fur of squirrel?
'The Simonie' also uses footwear and fur together, as details illustrative
of monastic comfort.
This is the penaunce that monekes don for ure lordes love:
Hii weren sockes in here shon, and felted botes above;
He hath forsake for Godes love bothe hunger and cold;
But if he have hod and cappe fured, he nis noht i-told
in covent;
Ac certes wlaunknesse of wele hem hath al ablent.25
The strongest evidence that the detail was a familiar part of the monastic
stereotype is its incidental occurrence in a poem which is a pedlar's
recital of his wares:
Si ai bottes de mostier maintes
Netes, polies, et bien paintes.26
I have also boots for monasteries, very neat, polished and well stitched.
There is nothing strikingly individual, therefore, about the Monk's
'purfil' of 'grys', about his *ful curious pyn' of gold or his supple
boots.27
Nor is Chaucer original in giving his Monk a taste for fine horses.
Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable.
. . . his hors in greet estaat.
His palfrey was as broun as is a berye. (168, 203, 207)
Such a taste was associated with monks and clerics in general; we
think of Langland's criticism of 'bisschopes baiardes' (iv 124), and the
passage (quoted later in this chapter) about 'Religion' being 'A priker
on a palfray' (x 292fT.) - a phrase which finds an echo in Chaucer's
23
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
vocabulary (189, 191). Already in the mid-fourteenth-century Belgian
writer, Gilles li Muisis, we have an association between monks and
fine horses, and in particular, the repeated mention of 'palefrois'. The
topic arises in a context of the luxurious food and clothing of present-
day monks: he asks,
Sains Benois avoit-il dras les plus precieus,
Palefrois sur lesquels gent fussent envieus?
Avoit-il cescun jour des mais delicieus? . . .
Ches abbes et ces moines rewardes cevauchant,
Che samble qu'anemy les voisent encauchant.
Compagnies gras mainent, se s'en vont exauchant.
Palefrois et sommiers mainent es compagnies;
Cevalier et bourgois en ont grandes envies.28
Did St Benedict have suchfineclothes, or palfreys of which people were jealous?
Did he have delicious meals every day? . . . Look at these abbots and monks
riding about-it seems that devils spur them on. They lead great retinues
to raise their status. They lead troops of palfreys and pack-horses which knights
and burgesses covet.
VOmme closely parallels the many horses 'in stable' and 'Grehoundes...
swift as fowel in flight* of the Prologue Monk:
Et pour delit tient plus avant
A la rivere oiseals volant,
La faulcon et l'ostour mue,
Les leverers auci courant
Et les grantz chivals sojournant,
Ne fait que femme mariee. (21,043-8)
And for his pleasure he has as well birds flying to hunt at the water's edge,
falcon and goshawk in coops, [swift-] running dogs and great horses kicking
their heels - all he lacks is a wife.
Chaucer's portrait may also be hinting at a double motive for the
Monk's hunting, if we read the words Venerie' and 'prikyng' in the
light of the 'love-knotte' on the Monk's pin, and see in them a double
entendre.21 In this the Monk would not be unusual;32 other texts link
hunting with the cleric's opportunities for seducing women, 33 and
we can also find elsewhere the punning technique which links the two
activities. In a Latin poem beginning 'In vere virencia', young clerics
greet their approaching holiday with enthusiasm and propose to enjoy
the love of their girls after all their labour. The last stanza suddenly
introduces the prospect of hunting:
In agris appetimus leporem venari.34
We long to hunt the hare in thefields,(trans. Dronke, p. 401)
There is a clear pun on 'lepos' (charm, attractiveness) and 'lepus'
(hare); their hunt for an animal will turn into a hunt for Beauty. Yet,
like the suggestion of gluttony, Chaucer's pun is characterised by an
obliqueness which is greater in degree and different in kind. The Latin
pun follows a clear reference to sexual behaviour, and can confidently
be related to it. Chaucer's puns are the only indication we have of the
Monk's sexual licence. That is, this characteristic of the Monk exists
only (as far as we are concerned) in the language with which the
narrator describes him; it is transferred from a factual status to a
linguistic one.
Chaucer's consistency in transferring estates features from factual
to linguistic status encourages the belief that the distinction is no mere
quibble, but is significant for both his establishment of the pilgrims as
individuals, and his larger purpose in the Prologue. The consistency
can be illustrated by his reduction of the 'oiseals volant' of Gower's
25
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
hunting monk to the level of a simile describing the Monk's grey-
hounds - 'swift as fowel in flight*. It is equally evident in Chaucer's
description of the Monk's jingling harness:
And whan he rood, men myghte his brydel heere
Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd as cleere
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle. (169-71)
The implication seems to be that the Monk hears the chapel bell
while he is out riding, so that the simile serves to point to a possible
distaste for church services. This would be to play offa surface similarity
(between the sound of the two bells) against a real disparity (between
church services and hunting), in exactly the manner of a Latin satiric
pun such as Nigel of Longchamps makes in a similar context:
Silvarum sancta plusquam loca sancta frequentat,
Latratusque canum canonis pluris habet. (SS 2795-6)
He [the bishop] spends more time in woods than sacred place,
And values dogma less than sound of dogs, (trans. Regenos, p. 128)
The linguistic similarity between 'canis' and 'canon' implies that in
the mind of the cleric there is little to choose between them - can a change
of two letters mean damnation? The obliteration of the real distinction
between the two, by means of the pun, mirrors the fact that the
distinction is not consciously felt by the cleric satirised. Gower and
Langland both use metaphor to produce a similar effect. Gower says
of the hunting curate:
26
THE MONK
- it is as if the one skill will serve instead of the other. Chaucer's lines
at first seem like this-the preference of one bell over the other
becomes a matter of taste, not of conscience, and thus suggests that the
real disparity between the two is not felt by the Monk. But then we
realise that the lines are no more than a suggestion. Gower or Langland
leave us in no doubt that hunting is a substitute for church services or
parochial activity; in Chaucer the comparison which suggests this has
nevertheless only the factual basis of a simile - the two activities are
associated in language, not necessarily in actuality, and the language is
the narrator's, not the Monk's. The narrator is made prominent because
the emphasis is not on the facts about the Monk, but on the way we
get to know him, working on hints and suspicions of a reality different
from the superficial one, whose existence is obscured by the Monk's
very unconsciousness of it.
We might say that whereas other satirists play off the cleric's view
of a certain piece of behaviour against their own views as orthodox
moralists, Chaucer in this instance unites his point of view with the
Monk's to the extent that we lose the opportunity for any other
standpoint. To say this is not the same as to claim that Chaucer (or the
'naive narrator') takes the Monk at face value. But it is to suggest
that Chaucer's method is frequently to remind us of traditional satire
while discouraging or circumventing the moral judgements it aimed to
elicit. And one way in which Chaucer circumvents moral judgement
is to show us the Monk from his own point of view. This is implicit
in much of the description; we might well feel that the admiration for
the Monk's appearance, and the contempt for the ghost-like pallor
of others, reflects his own self-approval. Such a feeling would be
'carried over' from the long central passage of the description in which
we see the Monk's viewpoint on his life.
29
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
Gilles li Muisis twice uses the proverb to give weight to his frequent
complaints about monks leaving their cloisters.44 Nearer home, for
Chaucer, is Gower's use of the proverb in the Vox Clamantis:
Non foris a claustris monachus, nee aqua fore piscis
Debet, tu nisi sis, ordo, reuersus eis.
Si fuerit piscis, qui postpositis maris undis
Pascua de terra querat habere sua,
Est nimis improprium piscis sibi ponere nomen,
Debeo set monstri ponere nomen ei.
Sic ego claustrali dicam, qui gaudia mundi
Appetit et claustrum deserit inde suum.45
A monk ought not to be out of the cloister, as afishought not to be out of water,
unless the order of things is turned upside down for them. If there were a fish
who, abandoning the sea-waves, sought to obtain its food on land - it's wrong to
give it the name offish; I ought rather to give it the name of monster! I shall
say as much to the monk who longs for the joys of the world and therefore
leaves his cloister.
He expresses the same idea, this time giving it the authority of 'Austyn',
in the Mir our de I'Omme:
The vice we're reading about has now been introduced into the religious
orders, and creates a new observance of taking recreation instead of contem-
plation.
He that is a ffracer, a grete bragger, a grete swerer or a grete fy ^tter, soche men
ben callyd 'manly men'.54
33
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
But while Chaucer makes us aware that the word is susceptible of
both favourable and unfavourable interpretations, he gives us no help
in deciding which to choose. Ambivalence also characterises Chaucer's
handling of another strain of ironic vocabulary - that which deals
with monastic lordliness'. We have already seen how this aspect of the
Monk emerges in his hunting activities: all his equipment is of the best,
his horse is 'in great estaat', and he shows a lordly disregard for
expenditure -'for no cost wolde he spare' (192). This aspect of the
hunting cleric is also prominent in other writers. The French version
of Matheolus' Lamentations comments that the hunting parson imitates
squires ('Ressembler veut aux damoiseaux').55 'The Simonie' complains:
And thise abbotes and prioures don ajein here rihtes;
Hii riden wid hauk and hound, and contrefeten knihtes,
Hii sholde leve swich pride, and ben religious.56
Handlyng Synne points out that hunting is improper for clerics, and
appropriate only to the aristocracy,57 and we have seen how Langland's
figure of Religioun rides about with his dogs 'as he a lorde were';
And but if his knaue knele' that shal his cuppe brynge,
He loureth on hym and axeth hym' who taujte hym curteisye.
(PP/X310-11)
Gower's picture of a monk who is, like Chaucer's, a greedy 'outridere'
who enjoys his horseback rides over the countryside, also stresses
a lordly open-handedness with money and a 'seignoral' attitude to the
world.
Cil moigne n'est pas bon claustral
Q'est fait gardein ou seneschal
D'ascun office q'est forein;
Car lors luy fait selle et chival
Pour courre les paiis aval,
Si fait despense au large mein;
II prent vers soy le meulx de grein,
Et laist as autres comme vilein
La paille, et ensi seignoral
Devient le moygne nyce et vein:
De vuide grange et ventre plein
N'ert pas Tacompte bien egal.
Du charite q'est inparfit,
'Tout est nostre', ly moignes dist,
Qant il est gardein du manoir:
En part dist voir, mais c'est petit. (MO 20,953-68)
34
THE MONK
That monk is not a good cloisterer who is made keeper or steward of any
outside post. For then he needs saddle and horse, to ride through the countryside,
and he spends open-handedly. He takes for himselfthe best of the crop, and leaves
the chaff for others, as peasants, and so the silly vain monk acts like a lord. With
an empty barn on one side and a full belly on the other, the scores aren't exactly
equal. With impaired charity the monk says 'All is ours!', when he is guardian
of the manor; there is some truth in what he says, but not much.
General aristocratic pretensions on the part of monks are the butt
of a satiric tradition which also exploits for ironic effect semantic
ambivalence similar to Chaucer's - that is, the tensions existing between
the uses of the same word in circles of different social or moral status.
We have seen how the Roman de Carite ironically pays tribute to the
'courtoisie' of modern monks, and it goes on to describe how they live
like 'castelains'.58 'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse' praises the members of
the order for virtues which are not obviously religious ones:
Quar en l'Ordre est meint prodoume
E meinte bele e bonne dame.69
For in the Order is many a worthy man and many a fair and good lady, (trans.
Aspin, p. 138)
The word 'preudhomme' is not inappropriate to monks -Gilles li
Muisis constantly insists that monks should be 'preudhommes'- 60
but it is a word which is also frequently applied to secular lords,61 and
it is therefore tempting to think that the author of the Anglo-Norman
poem is ironically playing off two appropriate contexts for the word.
This semantic irony is not of course applied solely to monks; Gilles
uses it when discussing gluttons:
Et qui plus en poet boire, c'est grans chevalerie:
Tout chou ne tienent mie que che soit gloutenie. (11, p. 92)
And whoever can drink the most of it - that is great prowess! They don't think
of it as gluttony at all.
This strain of irony has obviously influenced Chaucer's presentation
of his Monk as 'manly', 'a lord' and 'a fair prelaat' (172, 200, 204).
Yet Chaucer's irony works in a different way from all the others.
Gower, for example, tells us firmly how we are to interpret his monk's
words ('En part dist voir') and points up the fact that 'despense au
large mein' is not the same as 'charite'. And in the other portraits
too, although we glimpse a worldly view of 'courtoisie' or nobility
or manliness, our perception is firmly governed by the indications that
35
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
it is a false conception of the word. With Chaucer, we cannot be so
confident about what is truth and what is illusion. It would not be
easy to agree in what sense the Monk is 'manly' or how far this quality
is to be admired in him, while the judgement that he is 'to been an
abbot able' ostensibly belongs to the narrator, not to him. As in the
earlier instances, we have to distinguish between what is presented as
fact, and what is merely suggested by the narrator's choice of vocabulary.
Thus, Chaucer doesn't say that the Monk imitates a lord, but simply
refers to him as a lord; his lordliness, like his unchastity, has linguistic
rather than actual status.
The parallels with other estates writers show that the characteristics of
Chaucer's Monk were readily associated with his estate over a long
period of time, and in several countries, and that the details used to
illustrate them are not peculiar to Chaucer's 'individual' portraits, but
were equally common in generalised accusations.62 But the parallels
also serve to define Chaucer's style more clearly. We have seen that
most estates satirists are not humourless sermonisers. The tradition
boasts sophisticated literary techniques - debate, dramatic presentation,
paradox, irony - which Chaucer develops. What is distinctive about
his satire, however, is the way that he uses the 'facts' made familiar
by other satirists to suggest their application to his Monk, while he
himself does not give us as many as has been thought. Does the Monk
neglect services? Is he sexually licentious? Do we correctly infer his
gluttony from his appearance and his fondness for swan? We realise
slowly that much of the 'information' that we have been led to derive
from the portrait rests on very shaky evidence. Even where the
Monk's behaviour is clear to us - his love of hunting and his contempt
for the cloister - ambiguity is introduced by giving us the Monk's
defence of his activities, in such a way as to perplex us again. Is his
rebellion against 'texts' and 'rules' genuine, or a hollow pretence
meant only to allow him to do as he pleases? We may well suspect the
latter - my point is only that we cannot know whether he even believes
his own opinion; even less can we know what final judgement lies
behind the narrator's hearty endorsement of it. Our reactions are also
complicated by the narrator's enthusiasm for the Monk's clothing,
horses and dogs, for we are obliged to admit that this enthusiasm is
relevant to the same degree that his moral disapproval would have
been. It is very pleasant to imagine the company of such a sleek,
gleaming lordly prelate - above all, he is 'fair'.63 The language of the
36
THE FRIAR
THE FRIAR 65
The Monk is 'fair'; the Friar is 'merye', 'swete', 'plesaunt' and 'worthy*.
Once again, the epithets cannot be read as entirely ironical. It is a sug-
gestion that, on one plane, these qualities really exist in the Friar that
Chaucer brings to the traditional material of anti-mendicant satire.
This can be shown from the way Chaucer treats a traditional
feature of the mendicant stereotype - his persuasive tongue. Chaucer
repeatedly stresses the winning nature of his Friar's speech and manner;
he is pre-eminently skilled in 'daliaunce' and 'fair langage' (211), his
absolution and his In principio are intoned pleasantly (222, 254), and as
a final touch,
Somwhat he lipsed, for his wantownesse,
To make his Englissh sweete upon his tonge. (264-5)
A similar 'gift of the gab' is one of the most prominent features of the
mendicant stereotype. Often it is seen as an instrument of outright
deception;66 at other times, the friar is not deceiving his client, but
acting as his accomplice in the aim of keeping life 'pleasant'. There
is in Chaucer no hint of more bitter satiric comments on the friars'
lies and hypocrisy, such as one writer's pointed reference to
the similarity between 'mendicant' and 'mendacious'. 67 But many
37
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
other writers lay equal stress on the blandness and pleasantness of friars'
talk; in Gower's Mirour de I'Omme the friars 'Ipocresie' and 'Flaterie' are
hand in glove (2i,249ff.). Mendicant flattery appears in Latin in the
'Viri fratres, servi Dei', where friars 'titillate the ears of the great',68
and the Vox Clamantis describes those friars
qui verba colorant,
Qui pascunt aures, aurea verba sonant,
Verbis frondescunt, set non est fructus in actu,
Simplicium mentes dulce loquendo mouent.69
who colour their words, and stuff our ears with the sound of their golden
phrases. They blossom forth in words, but there is no fruit in their actions; they
sway the minds of the naive by their sweet speaking.
In the Roman de la Rose, Amis refers to the mendicants who are 'strong
in body' ('poissanz de cors') - as Chaucer's Friar is 'strong . . . as a
champioun' - and yet
se vont par tout enbatant,
par douces parolesflatant.(i 8070-2)
go thrusting their noses into everything,flatteringwith their soft speech.
Faus Semblant likewise cloaks deception with 'softe. . . and plesaunt'
words. 70 Similarly, Gilles li Muisis sees the friars' success as founded on
their 'bielles paroles':71 'Les gens par biel parler sevent enollyer'.72
('They know how to butter people up with their fine talk.') In the
Mirour de I'Omme, besides the two accomplices 'Ipocresie' and 'Flaterie'
who go about to cajole and flatter ('Pour blandir et pour losenger'),
and who also grant a pleasant confession and absolution,73 we have a
denunciation of the ready tongue ('langue liberal') and the fine and
elaborate speech ('parole belle et queinte') of the friars, and an echo of
the biblical warning against people whose speech is too gentle ('debon-
naire'), and whose hand is too ready to give blessing.74
Other writers stress the 'queinte' rather than the 'belle' aspect of
the friar's speech: 'Ful wysely can thai preche and say.'75 For Langland,
mendicant eloquence most often takes the form of 'hiegh clergye
shewynge',76 over-subtle preaching and 'glosing',77 although it is
with the picture of one 'frere Flaterere' throwing the church into
confusion that Piers Plowman comes to an end (xx 31 iff.). For the author
of Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, the 'glauerynge wordes' of the friars
are primarily a tool in their seduction of women. 78
There is both unity and variety in the development of this feature
38
THE FRIAR
And thereafter both English and Continental writers use the biblical
passage, and the desiie to be called 'master', to illustrate the friars'
pride in learning.86 We know that Chaucer was well aware of this
tradition, not only because of his reading of the Roman de la Rose,
but because the Host twice addresses the Friar as 'maister deere\ 87
and because the friar of the Summoner's Tale, although he accepts
39
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
being called 'deere maister' by the sick Thomas, protests to the lord of
the village that he is
'No maister... but servitour,
Thogh I have had in scole that honour.
God liketh nat that "Raby" men us calle,
Neither in market ne in your large halle.'88
All this seems to lay a large burden of significance on Chaucer's simple
statement that Huberd was 'lyk a maister' (261). But the allusion is of
the briefest, and this feature too has linguistic rather than factual status.
As in the Monk's portrait, we are given no firm basis for moral
judgement.89
The satire on the friar's ready tongue also leads the satirist, in another
direction, to the stereotyped notion of the friar as womaniser. It is a
small step from descriptions of the blandishment of women to descrip-
tions of their seduction. Not only, as Arnold Williams has noted, 90
can charges of spiritual seduction readily become charges of bodily
seduction, but also it is easy to see how a class enjoying freedom to
travel about and to have secret conferences with women would quickly
take on the role assigned to the commercial traveller in modern anec-
dote. There are several different approaches to this topic. Some writers
make lechery the prime motivation; 91 others see women simply as
more gullible victims for friars than men, as they are for Boccaccio:
Costoro colle fimbrie ampissime avvolgendosi, molte pinzochere, molte
vedove, molte altre scioche femine e uomini d'awiluparvi sotto s'ingegnano,
ed 6 lor maggior sollicitudine che d'altro esercizio.92
They enlarge widely the borders of their garments, and strive to entangle in
them many beghines, many widows, and many other foolish women and men,
and this, more than any other activity, is their greatest endeavour.
Gower describes the friar practising his persuasion on women, in a
passage whose influence on Chaucer is obvious:
Maisque la dame ait poy 011 nient,
Ja meinz pour ce ne s'en abstient
Clamer, prier et conjurer;
La maile prent s'il n'ait denier,
Voir un soul oef pour le souper,
Ascune chose avoir covient. (MO 21,376-81)
Even if the lady has little or nothing, not for that does he cease to cry, beg and
conjure. He takes a ha'penny if there isn't a penny - even a single egg for his
supper - he must have something.
40
THE FRIAR
41
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
lechery with the presentation of his role as 'businessman'. The picture
of the friar as business adviser, controlling the lord's family and drawing
up his will (to the friar's own advantage) can be found in Latin satire, 96
but the major influence on the treatment of this topic is the portrait of
Faus Semblant, who boasts:
Si m'entremet de corretages,
je faz pes, je joig manages,
seur moi preign execucions
et vois en procurations.
Messagiers sui et faz enquestes.97
Also I busy myself with broking, I arbitrate quarrels, I marry people. I act as
executor and procurator. I am a messenger and conduct inquiries.
Most of the many later treatments of this topic model themselves on
this passage,98 so that we are not surprised to fmd that Chaucer's Friar
likewise arranges marriages and settles disputes:
He hadde maad ful many a marriage
Of yonge women at his owene cost...
In love-dayes ther koude he muchel help. (212-3, 25*0
But we are surprised to find that, so far from making a profit out of the
marriages he arranges, the Friar actually pays for them himself; as
with the love-knot on the Monk's pin, Chaucer uses one feature of the
stereotype to suggest another. Are they not women he has seduced
whom he is anxious to marry off well? 99 Is there not, perhaps, even a
double entendre in the mention of the 'love-days' following on the claim
that the Friar can 'rage' so successfully? Playful high spirits are not
what one would most enthusiastically recommend in an arbitrator
of quarrels, but in another sort of 'love-day' their relevance would be
clear.
Apart from a possible wish to use the opportunity for a double
meaning, Chaucer's specific reference to 'love-days' (official days for
legal reconciliation) 100 seems due to Langland's contempt for them and
those who arrange them, 101 although Langland associates them with
'Religion' in general rather than friars in particular. It is also Langland
who talks of'charite' turning 'chapman and chief to shryue lordes', 102
and this may be a reference to the friar as pedlar - another of his 'busi-
ness activities'. A Middle English poem describes this aspect of mendi-
cant life in detail; like Chaucer, it mentions 'knyves | And pynnes'
and links the feature with an appeal to 'faire wyves':
42
THE FRIAR
. . . ne San Domenico ne San Francesco, senza aver quattor cappc per uno,
non di tintillani ne d'altri panni gentili ma di lana grossa fatti e di natural
colore, a cacciare il freddo e non ad apparere si vestissero.107
Neither St Dominic nor St Francis, without having four copes instead of one,
not dyed in grain or of otherfinecloth, but of coarse undyed wool, dressed for
show, but to keep out the cold.
For Langland too, the friar is inseparable from his 'coueitise of copis',
to gain which he believes they will follow Antichrist.108 He too implies
that fine clothing matches the friars' self-importance:
His cope J>at bi-clypped him ' wel clene was it folden,
Of double worstede y-dyjt * doun to the hele;
His kyrtel of clene whijt' clenlyche y-sewed;
Hyt was good y-now of ground# greyn for to beren.109
Whether or not the author has taken the detail from Chaucer, this
passage shows very clearly that it can help to realise a type just as well
as to suggest a particular individual.
One feature of Chaucer's portrait which does not figure prominently
in the satiric stereotype of the friar is his musical ability, on which
Chaucer lays stress. A great deal of Huberd's attractiveness lies in the
description of his 'murye note':
44
THE FRIAR
J>ei studien on ]pe holy day aboute experymentis or wiche craft or veyn songis
and knackynge and harpynge, gyternynge & daunsynge & ojpere veyn triflis to
geten )pe stynkyng loue of damyselis.111
45
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
And over al, ther as profit sholde arise,
Curteis he was and lowely of seruyse.
Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous. (249-51)
The narrator's modification in the first of these lines suddenly alters
the meaning of what he is reporting and the angle from which we
view it, so that the comment becomes a direct parody of the description
of the * Curteis... lowely and servysable' Squire. The same sort of
shift occurs in an earlier reference to the Friar's avarice:
He was an esy man to yeve penaunce,
Ther as he wiste to have a good pitaunce. (223-4)
The shifts in Chaucer's lines effect shifts in our attitude to the Friar,
from complaisance to cynicism, and back again. But most other writers
adopt a consistently cynical attitude to the traditional mercenariness of
friars -
Quos mendicandi uexat tantummodo feruor,
Spirituum cura nulla molestat eos.114
Whom the passion for begging harasses while the care of souls doesn't trouble
them at all.
The author of 'Le Dit des Patenostres' is equally blunt: 'they know
how to spy out their own profit on all sides' ('bien scevent partout leur
profit espier'),115 while Faus Semblant boasts openly
En aquerre est toute m'entente,
mieuz vaut mes porchaz que ma rente.116
My whole aim is to make a profit - my earnings are more than my stipend.
- a proverbial expression which becomes a mark of other clerical
villains besides Huberd.117 Gilles li Muisis, on the other hand, has a
pair of lines denouncing mendicant avarice which, like Chaucer's,
give with one hand what they take away with the other.
De donner as ouvrages, c'est bien leur volentes,
Mais qu'il aient pitances avoecque chou plentes.118
They are very willing to provide funds for good works, so long as they mean-
while have abundant provisions.
But Chaucer may well have learned the effectiveness of this satiric
technique from Boccaccio. The story of Fra Alberto da Immola in the
Decameron describes how this new-made friar
46
THE FRIAR
comincio a far per sembianti una aspra vita e a commendar molto la penitenzia
e Tastinenzia, ne mai carne mangiava ne bevea vino, quando non n'avea che gli
piacesse.119
began to adopt the appearance of a harsh life, and to praise highly penance
and abstinence; nor did he eat meat or drink wine - when there wasn't any he
liked.
Yet, when set in its context, Chaucer's alteration of the angle from
which we view the Friar's conduct does not 'explode' his genial
manner with the same finality that characterises the deflation of the
mendicants in Boccaccio and Gilles le Muisis. It is with the Friar's
'harpynge' and twinkling eyes that the portrait closes. Whether the
sinister or the pleasant aspects of the Friar predominate in our final
impression of him will obviously be influenced by subjective matters;
our attitude will depend on whether we would prefer villainy to be
frankly, if brutally, practised, and on whether we are more amused
or shocked by the cunning invitation to ignore such unpleasant matters
as sin and sickness. But however this is decided, I think it is mistaken to
assume that the pleasantness of the Friar's facade is stressed merely as
a contrast with the unpleasant reality; the pointer to some other
purpose is contained in the observation that Chaucer so often renders
our grasp of 'reality' uncertain.
The same complexity characterises Chaucer's presentation of the
Friar's eagerness to make money from hearing confessions. This also
is traditional. The 'debonnaire' confessor 'Flaterie' provides a 'plesaunt'
absolution which, like the Friar's, is dependent on the amount of
money given him rather than any signs of contrition:
Ipocresie tielement
Du dame et seignour ensement
Quiert avoir la confessioun;
Mais Flaterie nequedent
Par Tordinance du covent
En dorra l'absolucioun,
Car il ad despensacioun
Solonc recompensacioun,
Que vient du bource du riche gent,
Qu'il puet donner remissioun
Sanz paine et sanz punicioun,
Pour plus gaigner de leur argent.120
Thus Hypocrisy seeks to become confessor to both lord and lady, but neverthe-
less it is Flattery who, according to the rule of the convent, will give absolution.
C.A.M.E.S.—C 47
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
For he has a dispensation, depending on the reward which proceeds from the
purses of the rich, to grant remission of sins without penance or punishment,
with the aim of gaining more of their money.
Other writers emphasise the contemptible nature of the bribes for
which the friars will excuse the most enormous sins. 'Lesse then a
payre of shone' will absolve a man for having slain all his kin,121 for
'sixe pens' you can 'sle thi fadre, and jape thi modre', 122 and for a
'seme of whete' a friar offers to absolve Lady Meed for the falseness
and lechery of fifty years.123 Langland's dreamer is advised:
have no conscience' how thow come to gode;
Go confesse the to sum frere' and shewe hym thi synnes
For whiles Fortune is thi frende' freres wil the louye. (PPl xi 52-4)
and in the final Passus, 'Frere Flaterere' removes the plasters which the
parson had laid on Contrition, and offers absolution 'for a litel syluer';
Thus he goth and gadereth' and gloseth there he shryueth,
Tyl Contricioun hadde clene forjeten * to crye and to wepe.124
This passage reminds us of the quarrel with the secular clergy to
which the friars' eagerness for the lucrative work of confession is sup-
posed to have contributed. Friars are consistently presented in literature
as hating and being hated by the clergy.
Oves alienas tondunt
Et parochias confundunt.125
They shear theflockof others, and throw the parishes into confusion.
'Thai travele ^erne and bysily,.. . | To brynge doun the clergye', says
another writer,126 and Langland's figure of Wrath describes how he
has so successfully grafted lies on to 'limitoures' that now people
confess to them rather than to their parsons -
And now persones han parceyued' that freres parte with hem,
Thise possessioneres preche' and depraue freres,
And freres fyndeth hem in defaute * as folke bereth witnes.127
Chaucer incorporates these traditional features into the portrait of his
Friar, but he presents them from the Friar's own viewpoint:
For he hadde power of confessioun,
As seyde hymself, moore than a curat,
For of his ordre he was licentiat.
Ful swetely herde he confessioun,
48
THE FRIAR
But the reasons given for the Friar's preference of the company of inn-
keepers are not related to the demands of his stomach:
For unto such a worthy man as he
Accorded nat, as by his facultee,
To have with sike lazars aqueyntaunce.
It is nat honest, it may nat avaunce,
For to delen with no swich poraille,
But al with riche and selleres of vitaille. (243-8)
The sudden modification of 'It is nat honest' into 'it may nat avaunce'
parallels the shift in the reader's response between the first and second
line of an earlier reference to the company the Friar keeps:
Ful well biloved and famulier was he
With frankeleyns over al in his contree,
And eek with worthy wommen of the toun. (215-17)
Such a preference for the rich over the poor was traditionally attri-
buted to friars, and the motive is often seen as profit - 'it may nat
avaunce'.
Dantibus adplaudunt care,
Sed, qui nihil possunt dare
Vel replere eis manum,
Illos mittunt ad plebanum . . .
Per verborum apparatum
Aures pruriunt magnatum.
Valde diligenter notant,
Ubi divites aegrotant,
Ibi currunt nee cessabunt,
Donee ipsos tumulabunt,
Sed ad casas miserorum
Nullus ire vult eorum.138
They praise highly those who give to them, but those who cannot give them
anything or fill their hands, they send to the parish priest . . . They titillate
the ears of the rich through their fine array of words. They note with great
assiduity where the rich fall sick, and run there, not stopping their visits
until they have buried them. But none of them will go to the houses of the
poor.
The profit that friars make from associating with rich people is
frequently visualised as funeral fees or legacies,134 but just as often the
rich man's home is desirable as the place 'where they see most smoke
from the kitchen' ('oil il verront plus fumer la cuisine'),135 and the
51
THE ANTI-CLERICAL TRADITION
Franklin's portrait leads us to suspect that this may be the cause of the
Friar's cultivation of franklins. This is the motive assumed by Langland,
who urges the nobility
to fare as a fitheler or a frere' for to seke festes
Homelich at other mennes houses' and hatyen her owne. (PPl x 92-3)
But with respect to poor people this is shameful - 1 don't like that sort of con-
fession. If there isn't some special reason, I don't have poor people in my charge,
for their position is neither pleasing nor respectable.
54
3
Estates Ideals
THE PARSON
This image is a sine qua non of any treatment of the priest's estate,
especially in Latin and French, where a pun on 'pastor' is possible, and
it is, by the same token, an inevitable feature of Chaucer's description.
It is so commonplace elsewhere that it seems superfluous to provide
examples, but a few which include comment on 'mercenaries' and the
'wolf will illustrate the convention. The Speculum Stultorum lists the
three sorts of creature who are found near the parochial sheepfold:
The comments of'Ecce dolet Anglia' are typical of the use of the image:
Pastorum pigritia greges disperguntur...
Christi grex dispergitur, lupus insanivit;
Pestisque diffunditur, agnos deglutivit...
Heu! nunc mercenarii, nee veri pastores,
Rectores vicarii mutaverunt mores.6
Through the shepherds' laziness theflocksare scattered . . . Christ's flock is
scattered, the wolf makes his ravages; disease is rife, the lambs are devoured....
Alas! now mercenaries, no longer true shepherds, rector-vicars have changed
their ways.
Chaucer's imagery resembles these conventional exploitations of the
biblical passage in its easy, unexplained reference to the Parson's
'sheep', to the 'wolf and to the 'mercenary'. His use of the pastoral
image to discuss absenteeism is anticipated in a Goliardic Latin poem,
although here the priests go off not to 'chaunteries' but to the court.
Nam cum regum curias pastores sequuntur,
pastorale regimen et jus postponuntur;
pastoris absentia greges disperguntur,
morsuque laetifero dispersi laeduntur.7
For when pastors run after kings' courts, their pastoral guidance and duty are
abandoned. The flocks are scattered by the shepherd's absence, and once
scattered, are wounded with a fatal bite.
Gower also uses the metaphor for absenteeism in the Mirour de I'Omme,
although, for the sake of rhyme, the 'wolf becomes a bear (20,302-4).
In Chaucer's use of the image, the concrete and realistic aspects of
the metaphor are brought out by his insistence on the shit-covered
sheep, and the flock 'encombred in the myre'; conventional phraseology
is transformed into vivid and down-to-earth expressions. Some
writers had already explored other realistic aspects of the image for
similarly vivid effects. The Roman de Carite stresses the physical sick-
ness of the flock:
Pastre garde se berbis saine,
Et s'ele enferme, il le resaine.
Mais mercheniers dit: * Asses tousse;
Cui caut se muert ou lous Ten maine?'8
The shepherd keeps his sheep healthy, and if one falls sick, he cures it. But the
hireling says 'He's coughing a lot - who cares if he dies or is dragged away by
the wolf?'
57
ESTATES IDEALS
Thus the language in which Chaucer describes his Parson does not
animate him as an individual personality; it links him with ideals of
virtue formulated and popularised by the Bible and medieval satirists.
Finally, we come to an important set of features which loom large
in the traditional conception of the priest. The first of these appears in
the stress Chaucer lays on the Parson's example:
The notion that it was a priest's duty to set an example is given great
prominence in estates satire, and a large number of images are used to
express it with vividness. Walter of Chatillon discusses the effects of
example in terms of light:
63
ESTATES IDEALS
Where are those who should rule the church in Christ, who should wish to
exist in doing good, shining with the light of example so that the nations should
rejoice and exult together?
Yet if the Roman was the source of Chaucer's images, it could not
have been his only source for the concept. Of all the other writers
who stress the necessity of clerical example, we may quote only the
attractive sermon story of a priest who walked through a puddle,
observing to his parishioners that they followed his example no better
than his precepts.42
In the Parson's portrait, setting a good example is combined with
practising what he preaches:- 'first he wroghte, and afterward he
taughte' - and Chaucer later repeats this statement on its own (527-8).
This too is a commonplace of clerical satire.43 The author of'Le Dit
des Patenostres' ironically begs the clergy not to practise the virtue
they preach:
In several writers this topic is, as in Chaucer, linked with the priest's
example.
Vos habent pro speculo legem ignorantes
Laid, qui fragiles sunt et inconstantes.
Quidquid vident laici vobis displicere
Dicunt proculdubio sibi non licere;
Sed quidquid vos opere vident adimplere,
Credunt esse licitum et culpa carere.44
You are a mirror to those who are ignorant of the law, the weak and unstable
laity. Whatever the laity see to displease you, they say is certainly forbidden to
them, but whatever they see you perform, they believe to be lawful, and free
from blame.
Langland says that if only priests would reform themselves,
Lothe were lewed men' but thei 3owre lore folwed,
And amenden hem that mysdon * more for 3owre ensamples
Than for to prechen and preue it noujt' ypocrysie it semeth.45
So we not only find the same ideas and images in other writers as in
Chaucer, but we find them linked together in similar ways. The
coherence of Chaucer's Parson pre-dates his individual creation.
The links extend further, to embrace the priest's function as teacher.
Again, this is a feature twice introduced by Chaucer-in the long
passage already quoted, which describes how the Parson's teaching
followed on his actions, and in another near the opening of the
portrait:
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Cristes gospel trewely wolde preche;
His parisshenes devoutly wolde he teche. (480-2)
Learning is here subordinated to teaching, as it traditionally was in the
conception of the priest; in fact several writers stress only the priest's
duty to teach his flock without mentioning the need for him to be
'lerned',46 while the opposite is almost never true.47 A Latin poem
fuses with ease the topics of learning, teaching and setting an example:
Sacerdoti convenit
legem sacram scire,
Plebem vita, moribus,
verbiserudire.48
It isfittingfor a priest to know the holy law, to instruct the people by his life,
morals and words.
65
ESTATES IDEALS
THE PLOUGHMAN
The first thing we learn about the Ploughman is that he is the Parson's
brother. The relationship is not a clue to the background and social
status of the Parson, but symbolic of a connection between their two
estates. The estates of priest and peasant had already been particularly
linked, both in their functional aspects, and in an emotional identifica-
tion of their 'Christ-like' virtues. It is the perversion of the functional
interchange of services that concerns Nigel of Longchamps, when, in
the middle of an attack on clerical luxury, he directs our attention to
the oppressed peasant, who
Uritur alget eget sitit esurit ulcere plenus,
Qui dedit, unde suam cuique levare famem. (SS 2715-16)
He's hot, cold, needy, thirsty, hungry, bruised,
Who gave whence each his hunger might relieve.
(trans. Regenos, p. 126)
The relationship between Chaucer's Parson and his Ploughman
reverses this situation; the Parson's reluctance to exact his tithes is
67
ESTATES IDEALS
73
ESTATES IDEALS
THE CLERK
The Clerk is an ideal representative of the life of study. Yet the phrase
'the eternal student' aptly sums up our impression, not only of his
willingness to go to learning and edifying others, but also of his slight
remoteness from the world of social ends - an impression which is not
completely effaced by the picture of him readily edifying his acquain-
tances. His conformity with the ideal is faultless, but it was an ideal
even more likely in medieval than in modern times to be associated
with an 'ivory tower'.
Such an impression does not affect our admiration for the way in
which the Clerk performs the role of the ideal scholar. He is no novice
in study; Chaucer assures us that it is 'longe ygo' since he entered on
'logyk' (286) - an assurance that may be an inversion of satiric com-
plaints that mere beginners now boast themselves learned. 98 Study
dominates the Clerk's life; he takes 'moost cure and moost heede' of
it (304), and spends all his meagre income on 'bookes and on lernynge'
(299-300):
For hym was levere have at his beddes heed
Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophic,
Than robes riche, orfithele,or gay sautrie. (293-5)
The clerk in 'Hora nona sabbati' is another who apparently spends a
great deal on books, and with whom Aristotle is a favourite author;
the servant who accompanies him is weighed down,
Dorso ferens sarcinam ventre tensam lato,
Est hie Aristoteles, Socrates et Plato."
carrying on his back a bundle, with its capacious belly at full stretch; here is
Aristotle, Socrates and Plato.
This is the ideal; the 'normal' is given in the complaint of 'Le Dit des
Mais', of which Chaucer's lines are an almost exact reversal:
A Paris viegnent clerc et lai por estudier,
. . . plusieur leur loez miex aimment oublier
Et bouclers ot motez, et les gens plaidier,
74
THE CLERK
Sans livre vont souvent itel clerc a Tescole,
Et ceulz qui prestre sont et qui portent estole,
Mais pis leur concubine tiennent il en geole
Et les dez la taverne souvent qui mains afole.100
To Paris come clergy and laity to study . . . Several like better to forget their
dues to their relatives in favour of goblets with songs, and people gossiping.
Such clerks often go to the schools without books - both priests and deacons.
But worse, they keep their concubines safely locked away, and the dice of the
tavern, which drive many mad.
Tavern-haunting, drinking and gambling,101 whoring, 102 playgoing103
and aimless wandering104 are the activities associated with students by
other estates writers. 'Robes riche, or fithele or gay sautrie' are not used
by them as illustrations of student dissipation, but these are clearly
the props of the goliard-clerk,105 and they reappear in connection with
Nicholas and Absalon, the clerks of the Miller's Tale.106
The stress on 'bookes and on lernynge' is what we might expect
in the portrait of a scholar. More surprising, at first, is the emphasis
on the 'moral vertu' which is the content of the Clerk's conversation,
and which seems to determine the tone of his character. Estates writers,
however, give as much attention to the moral as to the intellectual
qualities of clerks. The Sermones nulli parcentes advise scholars, if they
wish for advancement,
toto nisu studeatis
in virtutibus pollere,
iam doceri, iam docere,
semper qualiter sincere
possitis domino placere. (p. 29, 500-4)
Strive with all your might to excel in virtues. Constantly be now learning, now
teaching, how you can truly please God.
Gower also presents study as a moral discipline, the expression of other-
worldly values:
Nuper erant mundi qui contempsere beati
Pompas, et summum concupiere bonum;
Et quia scire scolas acuit mentes fore sanctas,
Scripture studiis se tribuere piis.
Non hos ambicio, non hos amor urget habendi,
Set studio mores conuenienter emit:...
Moribus experti dederant exempla futuris,
Que sibi discipulus debet habere scolis.
(VC m 2121-6,2133-4)
75
ESTATES IDEALS
Once there were saintly men who despised the trappings ofthe world, and yearned
for the highest good. And since acquaintance with the schools stimulated their
minds to holiness, they gave themselves over to the devout study of scripture.
It was not ambition, nor the love of possession that urged them; virtue aptly
went hand in hand with study:... 'Qualified' in virtue they gave examples to
posterity of what a student in the schools ought to possess.
He complains that nowadays the scholar reads about virtue, but his
own actions are vicious (2139-40). The criterion by which Gower
judges a good teacher is his degree of virtue, rather than his degree of
learning (2057-8). And in the Mirour de VOmme his criteria for a good
clerk are also moral rather than academic.107 So the Clerk's 'moral
vertu' is quite in keeping with his professional role.
But closer comparison between these writers reveals that Chaucer,
significantly, stresses the Clerk's skill rather than the functions of that
skill. The Sermones anticipate Chaucer's balanced phrase, 'And gladly
wolde he lerne, and gladly teche' (308), in their exhortation 'iam doceri,
iam docere',108 but they go on to specify the subject of the learning
and teaching, which is how to please God. Gower stresses study as a
means of attaining the end, which is the 'summum bonum', 109
whereas in Chaucer's portrait study itself has become the end: 'Of
studie took he moost cure and moost heede'. Of the ultimate purpose
of his study we do not hear. What is the specific content, the 'hy
sentence', of his edifying conversation? It hardly seems to matter.
Chaucer's admiration is directed towards the Clerk's proficiency in
his professional functions, not towards the purpose of those functions.
We are taken into a specialised world, where 'estates' values are the
important ones.
I had better say again that I do not think Chaucer's aim in this is
moral criticism of the Clerk. His devotion to the fulfilment of his
estates role is beyond question. It is borne out by our impression of his
earnestness - a quality itself appropriate for his estate, as may now be
shown. Our impression largely arises from Chaucer's statement that
the Clerk 'looked hoi we, and therto sobrely' (289). Latin estates
writers variously define the manner which befits the scholar: it can
be 'gravitas'110 ('seriousness'), or 'rigiditas'111 ('severity'), or the gentler
ideal of 'Totum regit saeculum':
Clericos simplicitas decet puellaris.112
A maidenly innocence isfittingfor clerks.
And Gower praises students of old for their patient spirit ('animus
76
THE CLERK
78
THE CLERK
Grammar sows seeds, but is always poor; law and medicine, on the other hand,
rake in purses.
And his imitators take up the theme:
Expedit pauperibus adhaerere legi;
Insudare nimium artibus elegi.
The poor should stick to law; I have chosen to waste too much sweat on the
arts.
A rich logician is rarer than a black swan, and anyone who wants his
study to be profitable will turn to Galen or Justinian.125 Gilles li
Muisis carries this tradition into the vernacular; he too complains that
'lucrative sciences' are cultivated, and comments that so long as clerics
can earn money by these means, they don't worry about their lack
of a benefice.126 This traditional contrast between the logician and the
lawyer or doctor throws an interesting light on the relationship between
the Clerk's portrait and the Sergeant of Law's, which immediately
follows it in the Prologue. The self-important Sergeant, with his many
'fees and robes' (317) presents an obvious contrast with the poor
and modest Clerk. The 'reverence' displayed in the Clerk's conversa-
tion (305) is a very different thing from the 'reverence' evident in the
Sergeant's manner (312) - it has already been noted that this word
suggests the same implicit contrast between the Parson and the
Sergeant.127 There is another implicit contrast between the Clerk and
the Doctor of Physic in the import of the two 'professional'jokes about
gold (297-8 and 443-4). These contrasts are no more than hints
suggested by echoes in the vocabulary, or the contrasting impressions
produced by each portrait, but they reflect and repeat the conventional
contrast between the estates of these characters. The echoes in vocabulary
are particularly interesting, since they share the characteristics of the
ambivalent vocabulary in the portraits of the Monk and Friar; we are
presented with a 'moral' sense for the word 'reverence' which can be
quite at odds with its 'social' sense. The effect of the contrast is not to
suggest that we use one sense as a standard by which to reject the other,
but to show us how the concept has a different meaning according to
our point of view; each pilgrim is presented in his own vocabulary.
Though this is not typical of estates writing, it can again be seen as
Chaucer's own refinement of the notion of specialised estates worlds.
The Clerk's appearance is obviously linked with the traditional
poverty of his estate: he 'nas nat right fat' and
Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy. (288-90)
80
THE CLERK
they expected reward from God, and always could expect that they would get
benefices.
J>ei dreden sore |>at bi J)is singuler cure ordeyned of synful men J>ci schulden
be lettid fro betre occupacion & fro more profit of holi chirche . . . for |>ei han
cure & charge at |>e fulle of god to helpe here brejxren to heune ward, boj>e bi
techynge, preiynge & ensaumple 3euynge; & it semeth J>at J>ei shullen most
esily fulfille |>is bi general cure of charite, as dide crist and his apostlis, J)ou3e
]pei bynden hem not to o synguler place as a tey dogge.144
83
ESTATES IDEALS
A passage like this certainly does not warrant our saying that Chaucer's
Clerk is criticised for his secular studies,148 but it is noteworthy that such
dislike of the classical authors is based on a laymen's hostility for
something the need for which he doesn't understand, while their
defence is made in terms of 'professional necessity':
Fructus ibi maximus est utilitatis;
Ex his multa discimus quae vos ignoratis.149
There is the greatest profit of a useful sort in them; from them we learn many
things of which you are ignorant.
The laity are not given such detailed treatment as the clergy in estates
satire, but lawyers and doctors were technically clerics, and therefore
appear regularly in estates lists. They are not, however, described in
much detail; thus the tradition for lawyers is full but remarkably
unified.2
Before examining this tradition, we should observe how Chaucer,
with typical hyperbole, stresses the Sergeant's qualifications as a repre-
sentative of his estate. He starts in a low key; the Sergeant had 'often...
been at the Parvys' (310) - where lawyers met their clients; 3 he is not
only representative of sergeants (a superior order of barrister), 4 but
also ofjudges:
Justice he was ful often in assise,
By patente and by pleyn commissioun. (314-15)
86
THE SERGEANT OF LAW
mox superbiunt
et crescunt sibi dentes,
collaque erigentes.
Incipiunt perpropere
Terras et domos emere,
et redditus placentes;
nummosque colligentes,
Pauperes despiciunt,
Et novas leges faciunt,
vicinos opprimentes. (PSEp. 230)
Soon they become arrogant and 'grow teeth', holding their heads in the air.
They immediately start buying lands and houses, and leasing rents, piling up
money. They spurn the poor, and establish new laws which oppress their
neighbours.
87
THE OMISSION OF THE VICTIM
Gower also describes how the lawyer schemes to increase his estates
at the expense of his neighbours, and addresses him:
Agrorum fines longos extendere queris,
Nee reputas vite tempora curta tue.9
You seek to extend the already long boundaries of your lands, and do not
reckon on the short limits of your life.
And 'The Simonie* also claims that however poor are entrants to
legal offices, in a short time
It is true that charges of corruption are the most frequent and most
fully developed items in estates treatments of judges and lawyers, 18
and that 'sergeants du loy' or 'seriauntz' are specifically mentioned in
this connection by Gower and Langland.19 But although these sources
may have influenced Chaucer in selecting a Sergeant for description,
the fact that he has not taken over the complaints about bribery and
89
THE OMISSION OF THE VICTIM
The doctor's link with the lawyer assures him a regular place in estates
satire,24 and descriptions of his chicanery and malpractice are frequent.
Chaucer's portrait of the Doctor of Physic shows the same shift in
emphasis as the Sergeant's; the victims of quackery and greed are
removed to the periphery of our attention, and instead Chaucer
enlarges on the technical details of the Doctor's daily activities. The
irony of the portrait, and the complexity of our reactions, are produced
by transforming the features which other writers attack into evidence
of professional skill.
Of medieval complaints about the inefficiency, and indeed dangerous-
91
THE OMISSION OF THE VICTIM
alleguoie Galien
Et si monstroie oeuvre ancienne
Et de Rasis et d'Avicenne,
Par Constantin, par Tholome
(Plusieurs fois les ay or nomme),
Par Senecque, par Alixandre,
Et a tous les faisoie entendre
Qu'estoie drois phisiciens
Et maistre des praticiens.29
I cited Galen, and expounded old works of Razis and Avicenna, Constantine
and Ptolemy, (I named them several times), of Seneca and Alexander, and I gave
every one to understand that I was a true doctor, and a master practitioner.
Is Chaucer, perhaps, hinting that the Doctor, like Renart, is more
familiar with medical names than with medical works, by opening his
list with the legendary figure of Aesculapius, whose authentic writings
are non-existent?30 Chaucer's list is also even longer than Renart's, or
any of those other writers; as usual he goes one better than the tradition.
The source of the extra names need not concern us ; 31 wherever Chaucer
derived them, their inclusion only re-inforces the impression of
specialist learning which the list usually evokes.
Renart's professional 'front' is of further interest in illustrating the
reason Chaucer gives for the Doctor's particular excellence.
In al this world ne was ther noon hym lik,
To speke of phisik and of surgerye,
For he was grounded in astronomye.
He kepte his pacient a ful greet deel
In houres by his magyk natureel.
Wei koude he fortunen the ascendent
Of his ymages for his pacient.
He knew the cause of everich maladye,
Were it of hoot, or coold, or moyste, or drye,
And where they engendred, and of what humour.32 (412-21)
Not all the medical authorities that the Doctor knew so well would
agree that a good doctor needed to be grounded in magic, even if it
were 'natureel'.33 But Renart is in no doubt that if one wants to speak
about medicine in an impressive way, astrological knowledge has an
important role to play:
Et avec le phisicien
Faisoie Tastronomien.
Je nommoie signes et poins
93
THE OMISSION OF THE VICTIM
94
THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC
melancolious, ou fious,
ou corpeus, ou palasimous.
Qui les oroit de colerique
despondre, ou de fleumatique! (Bible 2565-72)
They find a defect in everyone; if he has a fever or a dry cough they say he is
phthisic, or has glanders or dropsy, is melancholy or has the piles, is corpulent (?)
or paralytic. If you were to hear them going on about choler, or phlegm!
None of these authors is necessarily attacking medical or astrological
theories as such; they are protesting against the dubious uses to which
a specialist knowledge can so easily and exasperatingly be put. Chaucer
may wish to evoke such complaints about being blinded with science,
but he does not himself repeat them; the Doctor's portrait claims the
delighted admiration for this Verray parfit praktisour' which Renart's
gusto in fraud also, but subordinately, suggests.
We are also expected to admire the Doctor's arrangements with
apothecaries:
Ful redy hadde he his apothecaries
To sende hym drogges and his letuaries,
For ech of hem made oother for to wynne -
Hir frendshipe nas nat newe to bigynne. (425-8)
What could be more sensible than this situation, in which 'mutual
profit' is ensured? Other writers, however, would see this as a travesty
of the ideal co-operation between estates. For Gilles li Muisis, doctor and
apothecary are united in their interest in the patient's money; he says
of the doctor,
S' on li promet argent, il vos visitera,
A l'apoticarie connoistre vous fera,
Par sen varlet des boistes asses envoiera:
Se bien ne li payes, de tout il cessera. (1 p. 112)
If he is promised money he will visit you, and will introduce you to the
apothecary's medicine. He will send you by his boy many boxes of pills - but
he will stop altogether if you don't pay him well.
Renart says that no-one had any joy of his medical practice except the
apothecary, the priest, and the maker of shrouds.37 Gower spells out in
detail the whole process of collusion:
Phkicien de son affaire
En les Cites u q'il repaire
Toutdis se trait a l'aquointance
De l'espiecer ipotecaire;
95
THE OMISSION OF THE VICTIM
Each is afraid of losing money, and therefore they grieve at their expenditure,
sad, anxious and mortified, for avarice holds them back, and doesn't let them
open their pursues.
So great is the doctor's avarice, says Gower, that
Phisicien d'enfermete,
Ly mires de la gent blesce,
Sont leez, q'ensi gaigner porront.48
The doctor is glad when people fall sick, the surgeon when they are wounded,
for so they will be able to make a profit.
The macabre juxtaposition of the 'gent blesce' and the 'lee* doctor
seems to lie like a shadow behind Chaucer's line - 'He kepte that he
wan in pestilence.' But his reference to the disease, rather than to the
diseased, preserves the poise of the portrait, and our attention is quickly
diverted by the humorous 'excuse' for the Doctor's avarice. This is
merely the latest version of a long line ofjokes about gold. The father
of them all may well be the one in the 'Gospel According to the Mark
of Silver'; the pope, seeing that his subordinates have received bribes
from a cleric, while he has none, falls 'sick, nigh unto death'.
Dives vero misit sibi electuarium aureum et argenteum, et statim sanatus est.47
The rich man however sent him medicine of gold and silver, and straightway
he was made whole.
The bitter tone of the Latin satirist disappears in Chaucer's adaptation
of the joke. We 'accept' the explanation because it saves us from
having to think too hard about the less attractive aspects of the Doctor;
we choose to concur in the surface amiability of the portrait.
For we have no evidence that the Doctor is a grasping charlatan,
despite our suspicions. Similarly we may be tempted to link Chaucer's
statement that the Doctor's study of the Bible was scanty (438) with
the proverbial atheism of the medical profession.48 Yet as Curry
says,
he may be a pious man who has no time for reading the Bible or a rank materialist
who contemns religion - we are not sure. In fact, we cannot be absolutely sure
about anything in the Doctor's character. Chaucer has created him so. And it
is this very uncertainty as to his honesty, his honour, his sincerity, and his learning
which lends a certain life-like complexity to his character and actions; it is this
human contradictoriness which the author . . . seizes upon and develops by
suggestion. (Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, p. 36)
98
THE MERCHANT
THE MERCHANT
THE GUILDSMEN
Guildsmen's eagerness for office as much as their fitness for it. 78 And
what follows makes our feelings even more complex:
And eek hir wyves wolde it wel assente;
And elles certeyn were they to blame.
It is ful fair to been ycleped 'madame',
And goon to vigilies al bifore,
And have a mantel roialliche ybore. (374-8)
The 'vigil' was traditionally the scene for more feminine weaknesses
than a delight in precedence,79 but what Chaucer gives us in these
lines is more than traditional comedy at the expense of pride. 80 He
brings into the open the 'hidden motive' for acquiring a public position,
innocently pointing out the advantages of importance in a way that
emphasises the basis of the social hierarchy in pride as well as order and
service to the community. This portrait, like those of the other
'bourgeois' estates, illustrates the nature of social 'worthiness'. But we
shall be missing Chaucer's point if we merely contrast it with moral
'worthiness' and criticise the pilgrims on this basis. The moral state
of the Guildsmen is not something on which we're given evidence;
what Chaucer suggests is that our own concept of 'wisdom' or of 'a
solempne and greet fraternitee' might, if we examined it closely
enough, be based on the same assumptions as this one. The narrator's
hearty sympathy with the attitude of the wives is merely the explicit
expression of an attitude that is present, if submerged, in our everyday
views on society.
The demonstration is not made in any bitter or cynical mood,
however. The Guildsmen's 'array' testifies to their sense of their own
status:
Ful fressh and newe hir geere apiked was;
Hir knyves were chaped noght with bras
But al with silver; wroght ful clene and weel
Hire girdles and hir pouches everydeel. (365-8)
The details may be Chaucer's own, 81 but the technique in these lines
clearly derives from satire on a hankering for fine knives and girdles. 82
But Chaucer is not disgusted by their 'fressh and newe geere' as Lang-
land is by the 'pisseres longe knyves' of contemporary priests (xx 218 j .
As in the Monk's portrait, there seems to be justice in Chaucer's choice
of epithet when he assures us that each is a 'fair burgeys*.
105
5
Independent Traditions: Chivalry and Anti-Feminism
THE KNIGHT
The Knight and the Squire are representatives of chivalry, but in
different aspects. The Knight is a 'worthy man', the Squire a 'lovyere
and a lusty bachelere*. The difference does not merely derive from
their individual personalities, nor even from their difference in age; it
reflects differing aspects of the ideal of chivalry itself.
Before pointing up the difference, however, we shall examine those
characteristics of the Knight which are equally relevant to any chivalric
ideal. First, his 'worthynesse', which Chaucer makes into the key-note
of his portrait (43, 47, 50, 64, 68).2 The repetition of this word is
paralleled in Gower's insistence that the knight should be 'bonus* or a
'prodhomme'. 3 And the other virtues to which the Knight is devoted
are, like this one, appropriate to his estate:
he loved chivalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie. (45-6)
106
THE KNIGHT
The particular elements in this list may well derive from Watriquet
de Couvin's praise of his dead master, the constable Gautier de
Chatillon.
Prouesce faisoit esveillier,
Courtoisie, honneur et largesce
Et loiaute, qui de noblesce
Toutes les autres vertus passe.4
He awoke from their sleep valour, courtesy, honour, generosity and loyalty,
which surpasses in nobility all other virtues.
But it is doubtful whether this selection had any final or original sig-
nificance even for Watriquet, who produces differing groups of
knightly virtues even within the same poem. 5 For both writers, the
aim is to suggest an ideal knight by associating him with several recog-
nised chivalric virtues, and this aim is also responsible for similar lists
or selections of virtues in estates satire and works on chivalry. The
Chessbook, for example, lists 'Sapientia, fidelitas et liberalitas, fortitudo,
misericordia' ('wisdom, loyalty and generosity, courage, pity'), 6 and
Gower refers to knights as those
Equos habere cupiunt fortes et veloces, non tamen coloratos aut phaleratos.11
They wish for strong and swift horses, not with gay colours or trappings.
In contrast to this ideal stands that of Ramon Lull, which, in the words
of Caxton's translation, considers a knight to be 'oblyged and bounden
.. .to honoure his body in beyng well cladde and nobly', 14 although
here too the importance of good horses for the knight is emphasised.15
In general, the satirists concur with the preferences of St Bernard,
without necessarily exhibiting his ascetic rigidity. Thus they criticise
knights who plunder
propter superbiam,
ut equos habeant et vestem nobilem.16
out of pride, so that they may have horses and fine clothing.
'The Simonie' expresses the satirist's ideal:
Knihtes sholde weren weden in here manere,
After that the ordre asketh also wel as a frere;
Nu ben theih so degysed and diversliche i-diht,
Unnethe may men knowe a gleman from a kniht,
wel neih. (PSE, p. 335, 253-7)
The significance of the Knight's armour-stained tunic extends further
than the indication of his ascetic dedication; it plays an important role
in our 'realistic' impression of his existence. In this function it is partly
anticipated by St Bernard's reading of hot and dusty campaigning
from the knight's appearance. It is not the de-glamourising tendency
of the description which is important - armour rusty with wear
appears in such courtly works as the Teseida and Gawain and the Green
Knight11 - it is that Chaucer's statement again evokes a time-dimension,
a past which not only leads up to but determines the reality 'observed'
in the present. This time-dimension is present elsewhere in the portrait;
Chaucer does not merely tell us that the Knight honoured chivalric
virtues, he tells us that he has loved them 'fro the tyme that he first
bigan | To riden out'. And again the past which is evoked, and
which has left its mark on the individual pilgrim, is the daily routine
of professional life; it is an 'estates' past.
We have seen that Chaucer's Knight shows certain affinities with the
religious and ascetic role outlined for the crusading orders by St
Bernard;18 indeed, it is possible that Chaucer meant to suggest his
109
CHIVALRY AND ANTI-FEMINISM
association with such an order, that of the Teutonic Knights. 19 But
Chaucer is not writing a tract on chivalry, and the influence of the
crusading ideal does not imply its total dominance. Thus Chaucer's
stress on the Knight's service to his lord seems to lie outside it.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse. (47-9)
These lines reflect the stress by both chivalric and estates writers on a
knight's duty to his earthly lord. 20
Fideles debent esse milites principibus. Militis enim nomen amittit, qui servare
fidem principi non novit.21
Knights must be loyal to their princes. For he forsakes the name of knight, who
has not known how to keep faith to his prince.
Yet we hear no more of this earthly lord, or how his service requires
the Knight's participation in a multitude of campaigns in foreign
countries. Perhaps Chaucer is after all thinking of the Knight as a
fighter for God, for all his battles are against the heathen.
At Alisaundre he was whan it was wonne.
Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
Aboven alle nacions in Pruce;
In Lettow hadde he reysed and in Ruce,
No Cristen man so ofte of his degree.
In Gernade at the seege eek hadde he be
Of Algezir, and riden in Belmarye.
At Lyeys was he and at Satalye,
Whan they were wonne; and in the Grete See
At many a noble armee hadde he be.
At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene,
And foughten for oure feith at Tramyssene
In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo.
This ilke worthy knyght hadde been also
Somtyme with the lord of Palatye
Agayn another hethen in Turkye. (51-66)
This list of campaigns has been the most important stimulus in the
search for real-life originals of the Knight - a search unrewarded by any
convincing success, not because of the impossibility of finding any
real fourteenth-century knights whose careers are similar, but on the
contrary because of the frequency with which suitable candidates present
no
THE KNIGHT
22
themselves. And if we look at the way in which the Knight's career
is presented, rather than the historical events involved in it, we shall
find that the fact that it takes the form of a list of places tells us some-
thing about the origins and connotations of the Knight's portrait.
Such lists, although not part of the estates treatment of the knight,
have an important role in the literary tradition of the chansons de geste.
Even a cursory examination of these poems shows that frequently a
knight's career is summarised, either by himself or by the narrator,
by a list of the important places where he has fought successfully. Thus
at the moment of his death, Roland speaks of his sword, Durendal,
and the countries he conquered with its aid:
Jo Ten cunquis e Anjou e Bretaigne,
Si Ten cunquis e Peitou e le Maine,
Jo Ten cunquis Normendie la franche,
Si Fen cunquis Provence e Equitaigne
E Lombardie e trestute Romaine,
Jo Ten cunquis Baiver' e tute Flandres
E Burguigne e trustute Puillanie,
Costentinnoble, dunt il out la fiance,
E en Saisonie fait il 90 qu'il demandet,
Jo Ten cunquis e Escoce e Irlande
E Engletere, que il teneit sa cambre.23
With this I won Anjou and Brittany, with this I conquered Poitou and Maine,
with this I won Normandy the free, Provence, Aquitaine, and Lombardy and
all Romagna. I conquered with it Bavaria and all Flanders, Burgundy and the
whole of Apulia, Constantinople, whose homage he [Charlemagne] had, and
in Saxony he does what he requires. I won with it Scotland, and Ireland and
England, which he held as his domain.
'religious' writer than Chaucer, Langland does not put forward the
knight's duty to campaign against the heathen, because he sees too
clearly the demands of his role in a social structure at home. The
absence of such a sense of social structure in the general ethic of the
Prologue was commented on in the discussion of the other estates ideals.
If we examine the Knight's portrait closely, we see that the immediate
ends of his professional activities are undefined. Is their aim conversion
of the heathen?40 or their extermination, to make way for the
permanent occupation of the Holy Land by Christians?41 The Knight's
role, as it is described in his portrait, is merely to fight, win, and
move on. One might say that his campaigns have a religious character,
but not a religious aim.**
Chaucer's Knight is a 'verray parfit gentil knyght', but, like the other
pilgrims, he is a professional specialist, and the relevance of his profession
to the lives of the rest is not made clear.43
THE SQUIRE
Already here we have the neat hair and the flowing sleeves which
appear in the Squire's portrait, although St Bernard ridicules the
ample robes of worldly knights, rather than the shortness of their
gowns. Nicholas Bozon also associates carefully-arranged coiffures
with dandyish squires, who are 'besotted with women' ('asote.. .des
femmes'), and, presumably in the desire to impress them, are always
smoothing down their hair.58 Other writers also use carefully-arranged
hair as sign of foppishness in general,59 and the 'sieves longe and
wyde' are a symbol of aristocratic vanity for many satirists beside St
Bernard.60 Short gowns are satirised by writers who associate them
with both lovers and knights.61 Yet the 'lokkes' of the Squire curl only
as if they were 'leyd in presse'.62 It seems as if the Squire was born a
dandy; we cannot be sure that we have a warrant to criticise him for
crimping and combing his hair through personal vanity. Again,
Chaucer puts the possible failing on to a linguistic level - this time an
apparently innocent simile. And where we are in no doubt, as with the
profuse embroidery, which Geoffroi de Charny tells us adorns a knight
less than virtue,63 our moral reaction is thwarted by a sensuous one; the
embroidery is not presented critically, but enthusiastically, by means of
a comparison that evokes the spring-time setting of romantic love.
The attitude to a gay appearance was not always negative, even in
estates writings. 'Make yourself gay' ('Te maintien ioliement') is Jean
de Conde's advice to squires.64 And corresponding to a different aspect
of the Squire's estate, the Roman de la Rose advises the lover:
Mayntene thysilf aftir thi rent,
Of robe and eke of garnement;
For many sithe fair clothyng
A man amendith in myche thyng.
And loke alwey that they be shape,
What garnement that thou shalt make,
Of hym that kan best do,
With all that perteyneth therto.
Poyntis and sieves be well sittand,
Right and streght on the hand . . .
And kembe thyn heed right jolily.66
Chaucer's Squire resembles not only the Romans Amant, but also
the unmarried gallant who is described with enthusiasm in MatheoW
Lamentations:
II chante, il saute ou il chevauche,
Asse's plus grant qu'il n'est se hauce,
119
CHIVALRY AND ANTI-FEMINISM
Souvent fait ses cheveus laver,
Recroquillier, pignier, graver;
II porte chalices semelees
Et robes estroites ou lees.66
He sings, leaps or rides; he makes himself taller than he is. He has his hair often
washed, curled, combed and parted. He wears well-soled shoes and gowns that
are tight orflowing[lit: wide].
Chaucer's Squire, it will be noted, is fond of the same kind of activities
as Matheolus' lover:
Syngynge he was, orfloytynge,al the day;
He was as fressh as is the month of May . . .
Wei koude he sitte on hors and faire ryde.
He koude songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and weel purtreye and write. (91-2, 94-6)
And both resemble in this the Lover of the Roman de la Rose, who is
advised by Amour:
Whereof that thou be vertuous,
Ne be not straunge ne daungerous.
For if that thou good ridere be,
Prike gladly, that men may se.
In armes also if thou konne,
Pursue til thou a name hast wonne.
And if thi voice be faire and cler,
Thou shalt maken [no] gret daunger
Whanne to synge they goodly preye;
It is thi worship for t'obeye.
Also to you it longith ay
To harp and gitterne, daunce and play;
For if he can wel foote and daunce,
It may hym greedy do avaunce.
Among eke, for thy lady sake,
Songes and complayntes that thou make;
For that wole meven in hir herte,
Whanne they reden of thy smerte.67
Amour suggests to the Lover that he should cultivate one of these
accomplishments; with the hyperbole that characterises his estates
presentations, Chaucer endows his Squire with all of them. And he
also takes over the Romans appreciation of the charm of youth,
gaiety and love; admiration of the Knight's ascetic ideal of chivalry
does not mean, within the Prologue's terms, rejection of that of his son.88
120
CHIVALRY AND ANTI-FEMINISM
127
6
Descriptive Traditions: Beauty and the Beast
The rhetorical descriptio does more than provide the form of the
Prologue portraits; its conventional uses contribute something to their
content. In this chapter, I shall discuss the portraits of the Prioress
and the Summoner. The links between the Prioress' portrait and des-
criptions of romantic heroines have been fully recognised,1 but it is not
usually realised that the Summoner is linked in a similar way with
conventional descriptions of ugliness. In what follows I shall not
only discuss these links with the descriptio tradition, but shall try to show
how Chaucer incorporates the descriptive material into his presentation
of the estate.
THE PRIORESS
In this the Prioress also resembles the streoetype of the worldly nun. As
early as the eleventh century, we find a Latin song in which a nun
laments the tediousness of singing divine office, and describes the
luxuries she longs for.
Fibula non perfruor,
flammeum non capio,
strophum assumerem,
diadema cuperem,
heumisella!-
monile arriperem
si valerem,
pelles et herminie
libetferre.18
I have no brooch to enjoy, can wear no bridal-veil; how I'd long to put on a
ribbon or a coronet - woe is me! - I'd get a necklace if I could, and wearing ermine
furs would be lovely.
The author of the Middle English Ancrene Wisse warns religious women
against rings, brooches, girdles, gloves, and attention to their wimples. 19
Pleating or 'ipinchunge' of the wimple is specifically disapproved of.20
In estates writing, we find Gilles li Muisis, for example, associating
nuns with an elaborate manner of dress ill-fitted to their professions of
humility.21 The specific details of the Prioress' clothing - 'pynched*
wimple, fine cloak and elaborate rosary with its gold brooch-fit
easily into this tradition.
However, such resemblances are in a sense misleading, for in each
case the context of these descriptions is concerned with sexual sins.
The nun in the Latin song is dying for a young man to come and rescue
her, and although the titivating nuns in the Ancrene Wisse illustrate
the sin of Pride, it is clearly assumed that their efforts are designed to
attract masculine admiration. 22 This emphasis also characterises much
of the other literature featuring nuns, such as the twelfth-century
Latin Council ofRemiremont (in which nuns debate the respective merits
of knights and clerks as lovers),23 or Old French nuns' complaints. 24
And nuns' sensuality is also assumed in passages which parallel other
features in Chaucer's portrait - such as the description of the nuns in
the Speculum Stultorum, who, like the Prioress, sing divine office
diligently - but 'so that you would think them sirens' (2377-8). As
Lowes has noted, Chaucer carefully omits any suggestion of sexuality,
and stresses instead the Prioress' reverence for 'curteisie'. The woman
who is imperfectly submerged in the nun is not the greedy shrew or the
130
THE PRIORESS
133
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Noble men & gentile ne beored nanes packes. ne ne feared wid trussews ne wid
purses, hit is beggilde riht to beore bagge on bac. burgeise to beore purs, nawt
godes spuse \>e is leafdi of heouene. (p. 87, fol. 45*1,19-23)
The Latin and Old French poems about nuns' lovers take on, in this
light, a new significance; they may concentrate on the sexual longings
of nuns, but they also envisage the favoured suitor as a courtly lover,
and it is assumed that he must possess qualities of virtue, wealth and
breeding.38 Correspondingly, in the serious ideal, it is Christ, in his
role as the nun's heavenly Bridegroom, who is discussed in terms
appropriate to a courtly lover.39 This was perhaps only natural when
there were such convents as Remiremont, where a girl had to have
four noble ancestors on both her father's and her mother's side to be
able to enter.40
For such girls, presumably, arose the tradition of translating the role
of the courtly heroine into a religious sphere. Two examples of this
are particularly illuminating, since they describe estates ideals. First, in
Latin, we may take one of the 'sermones. ad status' (sermons to the
estates) of Guibert of Tournai, a Franciscan who died in 1284,41 and
whose works were widely diffused.42 His sermon 'Ad moniales et
religiosas' is based largely on texts from the Song of Songs and the
Book of Wisdom, and takes beauty ('pulchritudo') as its theme. 43
Christ, himself the fairest, wishes to find in the nun a beautiful bride.
But we are not to think that this is physical beauty ('Non est pulchritudo
corporalis de qua laudatur'): as painters overlay a rough colour wash
with finer colouring, so we use physical beauty as a ground for the
finer colours of spiritual beauty. A woman's beauty-and here
Guibert significantly breaks into the more courtly language of French
('dame bele et auenant') - consists of three elements: 'bel corsaige',
'beau visage', 'beau langage' (beauty of body, face and speech). Each
is divided into three further sections; for example, the beauty of the
body lies in feet, hands and stature. And each of these features is
134
THE PRIORESS
So handsome nor so gracious a lord as God is can you never have. Everyone
ought to know this: that a lover so ardent, so true, so gentle, so pleasing as God
is, you cannot have.
As the courtly lady adorns her body, the nun must adorn her soul; as
135
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
the lady looks in her mirror, the nun must examine herself in the
mirror of her conscience (248-89).
The imagery in which Gautier clothes his counsel is appropriately
delicate and romantic. Of Virginity and Chastity he says
Mout sont sobres, blanches et netes
Et plus assez que violetes
Defuient tai, fumier et fane.
Mout sont lor chainze bel et blanc
Et bien ride et bien lie
Soefflairantet delie. (pp. 145-6,400-6)
Very modest, white and clean are they, and more than violets do they shrink
from dirt, filth and mud. Their linen is fair and white, well pleated and tied,
sweet smelling and fine and delicate.
The pleated linen referred to here is probably the wimple, since
'liier' has a precise meaning 'to tie on the wimple*.47 The parallel with
the Prioress* 'pynched' wimple is striking. Flower-imagery runs
through the whole poem; the nuns are told, for example, that their
flesh is sweeter than violet, rose or 'eglentiers' - the eglantine whose
name Chaucer has given his Prioress. Moreover they, like her, are
'simples' (785). (The application of this adjective to religious women
is not confined to Gautier; Gilles li Muisis uses Chaucer's very phrase
when he says that nuns used to be 'coyes, simples, estrinnes' - 'serene,
innocent, withdrawn'.48) Gautier encourages the nun to sing a popular
love-song, in which a girl thanks her mother for marrying her well
('hautement'); it is the woman wedded to an earthly lord who is the
'mal mariee' (iO94ff). In this set of images, the devil plays the role of
the old bawd; like La Vieille and Pandarus, he knows so much of
'la vieille dance' that he is quick to take advantage of any wavering
(429). And Gautier seems to be trying to assuage the aristocratic nun's
longing for the luxuries of her class as he itemises the details which
must be translated into spiritual adornment:
Voz indesfleurs,vous violetes,
Qui les grans plices d'erminetes,
Qui la soie, le vair, le gris
Avez laissiez por les dras bis... (p. 180,1059-64)
You purpleflowers,you violets, who have abandoned long ermine cloaks, silk,
squirrel and miniver, in favour of dun-coloured robes...
Both Guibert and Gautier see the nun not just as the bride of Christ,
but as his courtly mistress. They attempt to turn aristocratic fastidious-
136
THE SUMMONER
ness into spiritual scruple, and not to discourage a girl from romantic
dreams, but to attach them to a new hero.
Chaucer's Prioress has returned the imagery of such writers as
Guibert and Gautier to its original context. Her portrait operates as a
kind of three-dimensional pun; the imagery has become reality, but the
ambiguity about the omnipotent 'Love' commemorated on her
brooch,49 was already present in the tension between the ideal of
the nun and the language in which it was recommended. The 'curteisie'
which the Prioress venerates is worldly, not spiritual; instead of refine-
ment of the soul, we have, not even the Knight's ideal of honour,
but 'cheere of court'. Her role as the feminine counterpart of the
Squire reveals the inapplicability of his type of'curteisie' in a religious
sphere.50 Thus in understanding better the estates ideal of the nun,
we also understand better the object of Chaucer's satire in the Prioress'
portrait. And it is the use of the estates ideal which teaches us the
relativist character of each pilgrim's values; 'curteisie' is not an absolute,
but an ideal that each pilgrim defines for himself.
THE SUMMONER
could be separated from the others (lit.: it formed only one single hair). The
forest of his eyebrows, and his unalleviated stupidity, disfigure his eyes, which
are buried in the hollow of his forehead.
And Matthew of Vendome gives a model description of a strikingly
ugly woman, who is similarly afflicted by a skin disease.
Corpore terribilis, contactu foeda, quietas
Cervicis scabies non sinit esse manus,
Dum latitat scabies rigido servata galero,
Debita deesse sibi pabula musca dolet.
Pelle, pilis caput est nudum, ferrugo rigescit
Fronte minax, turpis, lurida, sorde fluens...
Non parcit scabies collo vicina, quod horret
Nodis.59
Horrible in body, disgusting to the touch, her hand will not let the scurf on the
nape of her neck rest in peace. When the scabs are kept hidden by her rigid
[with dirt?] hat, theflygrieves at losing its due food. Her head is bare of skin or
hair; the dirt stiffens; louring of visage, vile, filthy, dripping with pus . . .
The encroaching scabs do not spare her neck, which bristles with knobs.
The 'harlot'-like aspect of the Summoner, which is conveyed by
these conventional means, has clear connections with the stereotyped
idea of his calling. For purposes of comparison, his estate can be
defined in a general way as that of a consistory court official.60 These
officials are consistently seen as oppressors of the poor, who will wink
at sexual misdemeanours only if bribed, but are themselves guilty of
fornication.61 The section devoted to archdeacons in the Apocalipsis
Goliae describes how they too mercilessly persecute those who do not
buy them off, and make priests' concubines their especial victims. 62
The oppression of the poor man who cannot afford to bribe the
consistory court is emphasised in 'Crux est denarii'. 63 'The archdeacon
and dean are worse than pagans', says Etienne de Fougeres; they should
remove priests' concubines, but the acceptance of'v sols' converts them
to the view that
'Bon est Tostel ou fame habite.'64
'The lodging with a woman in it is a good one.'
The victim of this dishonesty is given a voice in an English poem; he
is a peasant accused of seducing a girl, and expresses his hatred for all
the court officials, including the 'somenours syexe of>er seuene', of
whom he says
hyrdmen hem hatiej), ant vch mones hyne.65
139
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
They will afterwards purge themselves, as justice teaches, from their disgrace,
and when their purses are well scoured, their conscience will be clean of
sins.
The joke still flourishes in Chaucer's time, for Gower, among others,
uses it in both his estates works. 73 While Chaucer equates the purse
with hell (and may in this be thinking of Dante74), Gower, in another
variation, identifies it with a man's soul.
Ne sai ce que la loy requiert,
Mais merveille est de ce q'il quiert
Dedeinz ma bource m'alme avoir. (MO 20,197-202)
I don't know what the law requires, but it's a wonder that he [the dean] seeks to
secure my soul in my purse.
Chaucer takes over the disgust of these writers for the lie perpetrated
by the Summoner. And yet he increases our sense of the Summoner's
viewpoint, even as he sharply distinguishes it from that of the narrator. 75
For once again, it is the pilgrim himself who is aware of, and repeats,
the satire on his class. As the Monk knows his anti-monastic satire, and
the Parson knows the estates writing on his calling, so the Summoner
is aware of the satire on corrupt officials. And this convinces us of his
reality as of theirs.
The same transformation of the material of traditional satire into
the attributes of a realistic character can be observed in Chaucer's
presentation of the Summoner's drunkenness. It is significant that the
derisory bribe which will dissuade him from harassing lechers is a
'quart of wyn', for he loved
to drynken strong wyn, reed as blood;
Thanne wolde he speke and crie as he were wood.
And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn,
Thanne wolde he speke no word but Latyn.
A few termes hadde he, two or thre,
That he had lerned out of som decree -
No wonder is, he herde it al the day;
And eek ye knowen wel how that a jay
Kan clepen 'Watte' as wel as kan the pope.
But whoso koude in oother thyng hym grope,
Thanne hadde he spent al his philosophic;
Ay 'Questio quid iuris wolde he crie. (635-46)
In this vivid picture the conflation of two traditional ideas can be
discerned. The first is that of the talking bird who is trained to repeat
142
THE SUMMONER
C.A.M.E.S.—F 143
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
144
7
'Scientific' Portraits
THE PARDONER
Males grow effeminate, and the horse becomes a mare - you can look for this
from men right down to animals...
a new kind of marriage basely joins man to man; the reviled woman is not
allowed near the threshold.
In 'A la feste sui venuz', we find the charge in the context of the anti-
clerical satire of a Feast of Fools; the 'baculifer' is exhorted not to give
gifts to lechers and those who 'refuse to do battle in the field of nature'. 7
In 'Fallax est et mobilis', Walter accuses rulers of the church of this
vice:
Ex hiis esse novimus plures Sodomeos,
deas non recipere, set amare deos.8
Of these we have known many to be sodomites, not admitting goddesses, but
giving their love to gods.
Yet the fact that this complaint occurs in the midst of a protest against
the selling of offices and favours by ecclesiastics (also the context in
'Stulti cum prudentibus'), suggests that for Walter the literal nature
of the charge is less important than its use as an image of the perverted
nature of cash-basis relations.
It has been suggested that Chaucer is attacking the same target as
Walter; that the Pardoner's relationship with the Summoner is in-
tended to satirise the complicity of the church authorities in the abuse
146
THE PARDONER
147
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
THE FRANKLIN
153
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
what he will eat, in what wine he will revel - of Vienne, or of Soissons. 'These
French wines are too weak. Has no sea-food arrived? Fresh herrings or cod,
salmon or pike? When will my delay be over? Or a piece ofvenison, or partridge
in season
'Baken mete* is placed on the groaning table of Waster, 28 and the
spicy sauces on which the Franklin is so insistent are a sign of good
living in both Guiot de Provins and Renart le Contrefait.29
Most of these details also occur in Gower's satire on different forms
of Gluttony, in which, as in Renart, the description of the sin shows
signs of becoming the description of an individual sinner, whether its
subject is 'Ingluvies* -
Ne luy soumst un soul capoun,
Aincois le boef ove le moltoun,
La grosse luce et le salmoun,
A son avis tout mangeroit. (MO 7746-9)
A single capon isn't enough for him - rather, in his own opinion, he could
completely devour beef and mutton, a large pike and salmon.
or 'Delicacie' -
Ne vuil les nouns del tout celer
Des vins q'il ad deinz son celer . . .
Si nous parlons de sa cuisine,
. . . n'est domeste ne ferine
Du bestial ne d'oiseline
Qe n'est tout prest deinz eel office:
La sont perdis, la sont perdice,
La sont lamprey, la sont crevice . . .
Ly delicat ne tient petit
Pour exciter son appetit;
Diverses salses quiert avoir
Et a son rost et a son quit,
Dont plus mangut a son delit.
Selonc que change son voloir,
Son parlement fait chascun soir,
Et as ses Coecs fait assavoir,
Qu'ils 1'endemein soient soubgit
Tieu chose a faire a leur povoir,
Du quoy le corps pourra valoir. (MO 7813-47)
I have no wish to conceal the names of the wines in his cellar . . . If we speak of
his kitchen . . . there is no bird or beast, wild or domesticated, which is not all
ready in that workroom. There are partridges, male and female, there are
154
THE FRANKLIN
lampreys and shellfish. The gourmet sets no little store by arousing his appetite;
he seeks to procure different sauces for his roast and boiled meat, so that he can
eat more pleasurably. According as his desires change, he has a consultation every
evening and informs his cooks that they should be obedient next day in making
such-and-such a thing from which his body will profit, as best they can.
The pike, the partridges, the sauces, the well-stocked cellar, the varia-
tion of different foods,30 re-appear in the Franklin's portrait - and the
'sop in wyn' of which he is so fond in the morning is enjoyed at the
same hour by greedy town ladies:
Et en gernache au matinez
Font souppes de la tendre mie.31
And in the morning they make a sop of soft bread in Malmsey (vernage).
The details of the Franklin's diet are therefore not unusual, but the
effect of Chaucer's description is totally different from normal gluttony
satire - the nauseating enumeration of dish after dish, and the emphasis
on the vomiting and excretion by which the overloaded stomach
relieves itself.32 Moreover, Gower's description of 'Delicacie' already
shows up one way in which the Franklin's portrait fuses satire on
gluttony and estates satire; Chaucer's picture of the tyrannised cook
suggests not only the description of the glutton giving detailed
orders for his meals, but also estates satire on the exacting demands
that masters of his class make of their servants. Nicholas Bozon's
Emperor Pride asks Vavasours' to serve him in this way:
'Sachez, fet il, ceo est mon desir
Ke daungerous seez a servire.
Le quel vos serchauntz comunement
Facent bien ou malement,
Jeo vous pry ne enparnez
Ke largement ne seyent blamez.'35
'Know' he said, 'that it is my desire that you should be pernickety about service.
Whatever your servants normally do, whether badly or well, I beg you do not
spare to find a lot of fault with them.'
I shall return later to the 'estates' sources of the Franklin's portrait.
The Franklin is the first pilgrim of whose complexion we are in-
formed:
Whit was his berd as is the dayesye;
Of his complexioun he was sangwyn. (332-3)
15s
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
The traditional view of the sanguine man's character undoubtedly has
points of resemblance with that of the Franklin:
The sangyne by kynde... shall haue a goode stomake, good dygescion, and good
delyveraunce . . . he shall be fre and lyberall.34
But 'good digestion* hardly suggests the snowing meat and drink of
Franklin's household. Why did Chaucer link the sanguine man and the
gourmet? 35 The connection between this humour and a liking for one's
food is not automatic; in the Mirour de I'Omme it is the phlegmatic
man who is tempted by gluttony, while the sanguine man is inclined
to lechery, pride and gaiety (14,701-2). The clue may lie in the fact that
of all humours, the sanguine is the most attractive. Chaucer uses it,
that is, to persuade us of the healthy and generous nature of the
Franklin's gourmandise; he associates the mountains of food, not with
a diseased and queasy glutton, but with a fresh-complexioned man
with an excellent stomach. The 'scientific' tradition does not dictate
the content of the portrait, but has a subordinate role in the techniques
by which Chaucer determines our attitude to the character.
Chaucer also characterises the Franklin by reference to two strangely-
assorted personalities - Epicurus and St Julian.
To lyven in delit was evere his wone,
For he was Epicurus owene sone,
That heeld opinioun that pleyn delit
Was verray felicitee parfit.
An housholdere, and that a greet, was he;
Seint Julian he was in his contree . . .
Was nowhere swich a worthy vavasour. (335-40, 360)
The classical philosopher appears in Latin satire as a type ofgood living,36
and Gower's comment on him hardly differs-except for its critical
tone - from Chaucer's:
Trop fuist du Foldelit apris
Uns philosophes de jadys,
Qui Epicurus noun avoit.
Car ce fuist cil q'a son avis
Disoit que ly channels delitz
Soverain des autres biens estoit. (MO 9529-34)
A philosopher of olden times, called Epicurus, was too well instructed in sensu-
ality - for it was he who said that in his opinion the pleasure of thefleshwas
sovereign over other goods.
156
THE FRANKLIN
157
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
For he wolde be callid manly and worchypfull; and also in holdyng of grete
festes, feding riche men. And the pore man stondythe at the gate with an
empti wombe . . . And then ther schall be grete praysyng of hym-how
worchypfull an howseholder he i s . . . And }it thei that stonde a-bowte him
wil flater hym and preyse him an hundrythe tymes more than he is worthi;
and so berithe him on honde that he is the beste man in al a cuntre.40
John Clanvowe concurs in this view of what the world calls
worthiness:
J>e world holt hem worsshipful ^>at been greet werryours and fi^teres and |)at
distroyen and wynnen manye londis and waasten and ^euen muche good to
hem that haan ynou^ and Jpat dispenden oultrageously in mete in drynke in
dooming in buyldyng and in lyuyng in eese slou]3e and many ooj?ere
synnes / 41
Is Chaucer ironically adopting the view of the Franklin and his
friends on what makes a 'worthy vavasour'? We may suspect it, but
we are not allowed to know. Just as no-one is visualised as the victim
of the Merchant's possible fraud, so the beneficiaries of the Franklin's
hospitality remain shadowy and undefined. Again we are invited to
admire the means, the superlative way in which the Franklin pursues a
life-style, rather than the ends towards which it is directed.
The Franklin's portrait ends with an account of his public offices.
At sessiouns ther was he lord and sire;
Ful ofte tyme he was knyght of the shire . . .
A shirreve hadde he been, and a contour. (355-9)
This list of occupations links the Franklin closely with estates satire,
where similar lists of legal and administrative jobs are a conventional
way of introducing satire on the corruption of their officers.42 The
first appearance of such a list is, as far as I know, in the Roman de la
Rose: Faus Semblant reveals that
baillif, bedel, prevost, maieur:
tuit vivent pres que de rapine. (1111,510-11)
Bailiffs, beadles, provosts and mayors live almost entirely off extortion.
In the English translation, 'countours' have been substituted for
'maieur' (6812-13). But if Chaucer was responsible for pillorying
'contours' here, he was by no means the first satirist to do so; 43 he
was simply varying the list as other writers did. Rutebeuf repeats
Jean de Meun's list, minus the beadles,44 but in the Roman de Fauvel
158
THE FRANKLIN
we find a new inclusion - the sheriff's office, which the Franklin has
held: 'Viscontes, prevos et baillis' are ready to curry Fauvel (43-4). In
the 'Dit des Mais' the list has grown longer:
Baillif, prevost, viscomte, official, vicaire,
Ont moult a. escouter, et a faindre, et a taire;
Mais si s'en scevent bel et de legier retraire
Quant il voient les dons saillir en leur aumaire. (NR1 p. 189)
Bailiffs, provosts, sherriffs, legal officials and deputies have much to listen to, to
dissimulate and keep quiet about. But they know how to get out of it well and
swiftly when they see gifts pouring into their lockers.
It is also significant for the Franklin's portrait that this list is preceded
by mention of *Cil qui au parlement sont pardevers les contes' ('tho se
who are at parliament with the nobles'), and followed by a discussion
of civil and ecclesiastical lawyers. 45 The list can also be found in English
satire, where 'Iustyses, shryues, and baylyuys' are seen as oppressors
of the poor.46 'The Simonie' advises the king not to tax the poor, but
to look for wealth
At justices, at shirreves, cheiturs and chaunceler. (PSEp. 338, 322)
- for they are the ones who make money out of their offices. Con-
tinuing on this theme, the author adds to his list 'baillifs and bedeles',
And contours in benche that stonden at the barre,
Theih wolen bigile the in thin hond, but if thu be the warre.47
Although the composition of these lists varies from author to author,
their form is always recognisable. The estates mentioned are uniformly
associated with corrupt practices and the oppression of the poor, so
that no separate stereotype-traditions prevented Chaucer, from
selecting several of these offices and attributing them all to one figure.
But Chaucer, in line with his practice elsewhere in the Prologue,
carefully removes any hint of corruption or extortion from his
account of the Franklin's public offices. They are presented merely as
evidence for his status as a 'worthy vavasour'. The Franklin may be
oppressive; we are not to know that. What we are allowed to see is
his social face, his hospitality and good 'temper'. If his love of food is
a vice, it is above all a pleasant one. To secure this reaction to his
portrait, Chaucer transforms what for other writers are the burden-
some preparations, the loading of the stomach, the selfish guzzling,
the restless search for titillating variety, into a hymn to 'pleyn delit'.
159
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
THE MILLER
The miller is another figure who is rare in estates satire. But he does
appear in Langland, and as with the Summoner and the Pardoner,
it seems to be the influence of Piers Plowman which has secured him a
place in the Prologue.
Even in Piers Plowman there are only two brief references to a typical
miller, but in both cases he is given the same name, and this helps to
fix his image more firmly in the reader's mind. In Passus n, 'Munde
the mellere' is among the signatories to Meed's marriage-document
( i n ) . The notion of the miller's dishonesty that led Langland to place
him in this list may well correspond to that described by Chaucer:
Although the point of the Latin tag is not clear, the passage suggests
that Langland associates millers with a low kind of entertainment.
This is particularly interesting since Chaucer's Miller is also a popular
raconteur and a buffoon.
160
THE MILLER
From mulne & from cheapinge, from smidde & from ancre hus me tidinge
bringed.52
The jangling' in which the Miller is adept can cover all types of
utterance from formal story-telling to gossip.63 'Janglers' are frequently
attacked by Langland,54 and among his scornful references we may
note one in particular. Activa-vita disassociates himself from low
minstrels; for he can
THE REEVE
The lords grow poorer, while they grow richer.66 'Thefe is reve' is the
succinct, proverbial comment of the 'Sermon of Four Wise Men', 67
and in another English poem, we hear the 'hyne' lament that
Jse kueade/and J>e ontrewe reuen.prouos. and bedeles. and seruons. |>et
stele]? / J)e amendes. and wy]pdra3e|> \>e rentes / of hire lhordes . . . |>et
makejp / J>e greate spendinges. and yeuej> largeliche / |>e guodis of hare
lhordes / wyj)-oute hare Wytende '/ and wyjs-oute hare wylle.69
Langland also classes the reeve among those who over-reach themselves
by being too clever:
But elsewhere he sees the reeve as the victim of the lord's greed.
Chaucer's Reeve is feared and hated like the rest of his class, and we
feel his unpleasantness the more in viewing him through the eyes of
the 'hynes' who are so afraid of him - although Chaucer removes
the possibility of our seeing them as innocent victims. They are
paralysed with fear because the Reeve knows about their malpractices;
again winner and loser are united on the question of values. The question
of right and wrong does not enter into their relationship; it is deter-
mined by the question of who can outwit the other.
This significant deviation from the depiction of the innocent victim
alerts us to the fact that Chaucer clothes the Reeve's behaviour in the
same kind of ambiguities as he has used throughout the Prologue. Can
the auditor find no fault in the Reeve because of his scrupulous
efficiency, or because he adroitly covers up his embezzlement? The
same doubt attaches to the statement that no-one could claim he was
liable for debt. Does the other peasants' fear of him reflect more on
their dishonesty, or on his cruelty? Whose is the 'owene good' which
the Reeve lends to his lord-is it the Reeve's, or the lord's own
property? The suggestion of dishonesty runs right through the portrait,
but its phraseology is constantly as ambiguous as the statement that the
Reeve could please his lord 'subtilly' - cleverly or deceitfully?71
It seems that our impression of the Reeve's malice and harshness
derives at least as much from his appearance - the thinness, the close-
shaven face and cropped hair, the 'tukked' clothing, suggest a tight
repressiveness that gives nothing away - as from any evidence of fraud
or cruelty. One may see this portrait as similar in function to those of
the Summoner and Pardoner: an experiment in showing how a person's
appearance and his degree of sociability significantly affect our attitude
to him.
The rest of the portrait is occupied by information of two main
sorts. The first is a series of 'personal' details of different kinds.
165
SCIENTIFIC PORTRAITS
His wonyng was ful faire upon an heeth;
With grene trees yshadwed was his place . . .
In youthe he hadde lerned a good myster;
He was a wel good wrighte, a carpenter.
This Reve sat upon a ful good stot,
That was al pomely grey and highte Scot.
A long surcote of pers upon he hade,
And by his syde he baar a rusty blade.
Of Northfolk was this Reve of which I telle,
Biside a toun men clepen Baldeswelle. (606-7, 613-22)
Some of these details follow naturally enough from the Reeve's work -
the farm-horse called by the Norfolk name of Scot is an example. 72
As for the Reeve's Norfolk origins, it is interesting that a tradition of
associating special characteristics with different counties envisages
Norfolk people as crafty and treacherous.73 But Chaucer is, after all,
more precise than this; he mentions the town of 'Baldeswelle'. It is
impossible to prove that Chaucer was not pointing to an individual
reeve in this reference,74 but I feel a search for 'Rainalde the reue •
of Rotland sokene' might prove just as fruitful. Both Langland and
Chaucer use specific names to give an illusion of concrete reality. And
the other details about the Reeve also contribute to this illusion. 75
But our sense of the Reeve's character is more subtly produced by
Chaucer's careful ambiguities, which imply a depth, an unknowable
quality to the Reeve's astuteness.
And against the 'personal* details, we can set the long enumeration
of the Reeve's daily duties:
Wel koude he kepe a gerner and a byune;
Ther was noon auditour koude on him wynne.
Wel wiste he by the droghte and by the reyn
The yeldynge of his seed and of his, greyn.
His lordes sheep, his neet, his dayerye,
His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrye
Was hoolly in this Reves governynge,
And by his covenant yaf the rekenynge,
Syn that his lord was twenty yeer of age. (593-601)
This tells us little about the individual Reeve, but a great deal about
his profession. And again he has a professional past: he has kept the
accounts since his lord was twenty, in his youth he was a carpenter.
The time-dimension in the portrait is that of the estate. He seems to have
professional loves and hates too, for he rides at the end of the cavalcade,
166
THE REEVE
167
8
New Creations
THE COOK
THE SHIPMAN
The shipman plays a very minor role in estates literature. The Chessbook
includes sailors in its section on labourers and workmen, stressing
the need for 'loyalty, prudence and courage' among these classes
(col. 433-4). Fidelity is especially necessary for sailors since they are
entrusted with human lives, but courage is the most important quality
for them. If they were to show fear in a storm, the laymen on board
would despair and cease from efforts to save themselves.
Sit ergo in eis fortitudo animi, que est considerata periculorum susceptio. (col.
443-4)
Therefore let them have courage of spirit, which consists in the deliberate
undertaking of dangers.
The detail is effective not just because it helps us to visualise the Ship-
man, but because it too gives him a history, and helps us to feel how
it has made him what he is.
The sailor is also associated with fraud. 'Viri fratres' says curtly
170
THE SHIPMAN
is aware of his own actions and moral assumptions. His point of view
dominates his portrait. It is, for example, by the Shipman's own
standards that he is judged a 'good fellow*; the proof has nothing to
do with lechery, as it does in the Summoner's portrait, but is consti-
tuted by evidence of his professional skill in thieving. Behind the
phrase lies the adolescent assumption that pilfering is daring and a
sort of practical joke. The fact that we are adopting the Shipman's
point of view also means that we do not concern ourselves with the
identity or actions of his victims. The battles in which he fights may or
may not have been provoked by him, and may or may not have been
motivated by piracy. From the Shipman's point of view, all that
matters is that he 'hadde the hyer hond\ Again, we are not allowed to
evaluate his actions fully.
In this way Chaucer persuades us yet again that we are dealing with
a real personality. But the characteristics he attributes to this personality
are based on his estate. First of all, we have his professional knowledge
and expertise.
But of his craft to rekene wel his tydes,
His stremes, and his daungers hym bisides,
His herberwe, and his moone, his lodemenage,
Ther nas noon swich from Hulle to Cartage . . .
He knew alle the havenes, as they were,
Fro Gootland to the cape of Fynystere,
And every cryke in Britaigne and in Spayne. (401-4, 407-9)
Then we have the 'personal' details, which also seem to grow out of
his working life; he is as unhappy on horseback as sailors traditionally
are (390), and he lives in the West Country, the area traditionally
inhabited by freebooters (3 8 8-9). u We are told the name of his ship
(410), and the details of his clothing - the. knee-length gown of
'faldyng',12 and the dagger round his neck. Such details are striking,
and bear out, among other things, our sense of the 'rough-and-ready'
aspect of the Shipman's character. But this sense itself derives far more
from the fact that Chaucer shows us the world through his eyes.
THE YEOMAN
173
NEW CREATIONS
THE MANCIPLE
174
THE MANCIPLE
and gives us a sense of his personality. But in the last portrait we have
examined as in all the others, it is through the job, the estate, that he
does so.
C.A.M.E.S.—G *75
Excursus: The 'General Prologue' and the
'Descriptio' Tradition
L'objet principal du genre oratoire que les anciens ont appele* demonstratif est
Te*loge et le blame, et le moyen par lequel on y atteint est la description . . . En
apparence, l'idee est accessoire; elle est, en fait, d'importance considerable: elle
explique que dans toute la litterature du moyen age, la description ne vise que
tres rarement a peindre objectivement les personnes et les choses et qu'elle
soit toujours dominee par une intention affective qui oscille entre la louange et
la critique. {Les Arts Poetiques, p. 76)
The description seems at first to be that of the girl the writer adores;
178
THE DESCRIPTIO TRADITION
only with the last three lines of this passage are we deliberately sur-
prised with the information that the writer is indifferent to the girl's
love for him, and instead prefers the boy who in turn languishes
hopelessly for her. Chaucer was, in fact, far from being the first
writer who could skilfully adapt the rhetorical descriptio to an individual
literary function, or make satirical play of its formal character.
Beside this evidence of sensitivity in the handling of the conventional
portrait, we may also notice innovations in its content in Benoit de
Ste-Maure's portrait-gallery of the heroes and heroines of the Trojan
war. Benoit's use of descriptio before this point in the Roman de Troie is
appropriate in conventional ways: Jason's physical beauty is described
at the moment when Medea sees him for the first time, while his war-
like appearance is conveyed through the description of his arming
for the exploit of the Golden Fleece (1265-79, 1815-42). But the
portrait-gallery achieves a far from conventional effect. Lumiansky
has correctly noted that Lowes' comment on the lack of individuality
in Benoit's portraits is unjust; that Benoit, like Chaucer, combines
physical and temperamental traits in his portraits, and also like Chaucer,
organises structural groupings of characters based on blood-relationship
and contrast of personalities. Further, some of the portraits outline
distinct personalities which the characters have already revealed, or arc
later to reveal in the course of the action.12
However, it seems to me that there are even more important simi-
larities than these between the techniques of Benoit and Chaucer.
This can be seen in the portrait of Hector:
De pris toz homes sormontot,
Mais un sol petit baubeoit.
D'andous les ieuz borgnes esteit,
Mais point ne li mesaveneit. (5329-32)
In worth he surpassed all men, but he had a slight stammer. He squinted in both
eyes - but it didn't make him at all unattractive.
The construction of these four lines is as interesting as their content; our
attitude to Hector goes through rapid modifications as we hear, first,
the testimony to his worth, next, of his stammer and squint, and finally,
the assurance that this did not make him unattractive. The successive
modifications are marked by the word 'Mais' at the beginning of the
line. This use of 'Mais', introducing features which contradict our
first, or even our second, impressions, is fairly frequent in Benoit's
portraits,13 and is paralleled in Chaucer's Prologue, where 'But' is also
179
EXCURSUS
used to preface modifications, drastic or subtle, to what has gone
before.
But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his shyne a mormal hadde he. (385-6)14
The last line quoted from Benoit's portrait - 'Mais point ne li
mesaveneit' - is similar to places in the Prologue where Chaucer steps
in with an assurance that seems genially to deny the implications of
what he has just said:
Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve,
Withouten oother compaignye in youthe, -
But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe. (460-2)
The effect of Benoit's modifications is to ensure reactions similar to
those produced by the 'complex' Canterbury pilgrims: a sense of the
co-existence of attractive and unattractive features, and the impossibility
of adopting any single attitude to the person described.
It is also interesting that Benoit jumbles together, in inconsequential
fashion, conventional items of eulogy and gratuitous pieces of informa-
tion which have no relevance to the progress of the action. Hector's
stammer is one example of this, and there is another in the portrait of
Priam:
Le nes e la boche e le vis
Ot bien estant e bien asis;
La parole aveit auques basse,
Soef voiz ot e douce e quasse.
Mout par esteit bons chevaliers,
E matin manjot volentiers. (5297-302)
His nose, mouth and face were handsome and well set; his speech was rather low,
his voice gentle, soft and weak. He was indeed a good knight, and ate heartily
in the mornings.
In the same way, Chaucer offers gratuitous information, which gives
the impression of accurate reporting, in an inconsequential order
suggestive of an observer jotting down his impressions. In Benoit,
these features are clearly the result of an attempt to create an 'historical'
impression; he frequently refers to his source in Dares, and states he
can go no further in describing an episode than Dares warrants. 15 At
the opening of the portrait-series this 'historical' accuracy is emphasised
by the explanation that Dares was able to describe the leading
180
THE DESCRIPTIO TRADITION
figures on both sides of the war because he deliberately went about
observing them in times of truce.16 Benoit's particular reasons for
giving his story a historical atmosphere, or the fact that the content of
Benoit's portraits is to some extent determined by his source-material,
do not preclude Chaucer's learning from him.
The rhetorical tradition of descriptio was one line of tradition which
presented Chaucer with numerous models of sophisticated and flexible
usage. A second line of tradition, as Patch has indicated, is that repre-
sented in moral and allegorical treatises, which depict vices and virtues.
The descriptions of the Seven Deadly Sins in the Ancrene Wisse are
perhaps the most vivid examples of this tradition in English until
Piers Plowman, which abounds in rich and dramatic description of
representative figures. Although Patch overstates his case, we may for
the moment simply note and accept his point that in this tradition
also there are techniques that Chaucer uses:
there is sometimes a dramatic quality, sometimes a bit of quoted speech. It is
only necessary to set them going with personal names and freer action in order
to have something like the human comedy of the Canterbury Tales.17
The third line of tradition in descriptio, which has not, so far as I know,
received any comment in connection with Chaucer, is that contained
in physiological works. Some idea of this kind of description may be
gleaned incidentally from Curry's book on Chaucer and the Medieval
Sciences', Curry is interested in the content of the descriptions of the four
humours, but it becomes clear from the quotations that he gives that
the vehicle for this information is the descriptio form. This can be
verified, for example, in the English version of the Secreta Secretorum
(p. 220). An interesting and little-known example of this tradition
can be found already in the twelfth century in the Causae et Curae of
Hildegard of Bingen, which gives a series of portraits of the four
humours as they determine character and appearance in both men and
women.18 As has been noted, these portraits attain integrity and
authenticity by virtue of the fact that they are primarily constructed
around an account of the sexual behaviour of each type. 19 A quotation
from the description of choleric men will show the nature of Hilde-
gard's treatment.
Quidam autem masculi sunt, qui viriles existunt, et hi cerebrum forte et spissum
habent. Cuius exteriores venulae, quae pelliculam eius continent, aliquantum
rubeae sunt. Et color faciei eorum aliquantum rubicundus velut in quibusdam
imaginibus videtur, qui rubeo colore colorantur, et spissas ac fortes venas
181
EXCURSUS
habent, quae ardentem sanguinem cerei coloris portant, et spissi circa pectus
sunt atque fortia brachia tenent; sed valde pingues non sunt, quoniam fortes
venae et fortis sanguis ac fortia membra carnes eorum in multa pinguedine
non permittunt. . . viri isti . . . femineam formam tarn valde amant, quod se
continere non possunt, quin sanguis eorum magno ardore ardeat, cum aliquam
feminam viderint vel audierint vel cum earn in cogitationibus suis ad memoriam
suam duxerint, quia oculi eorum velut sagittae sunt ad amorem feminae, cum
earn viderint, et auditus eorum velut validissimus ventus, cum earn audierint,
et cogitationes eorum quasi procella tempestatum, quae contineri non potest,
quin super terram cadat.... Qui si coniunctionem feminarum habent, tune sani
et laeti sunt; si autem eis caruerint, tune in semet ipsis arescunt et quasi moribundi
vadunt, nisi aut ex supernuitate somniorum aut cogitationum aut perversitate
alterius rei spumam seminis sui de se excutiant.20
There are some men who are virile and have a strong, thick brain, the veins on
the outside of their heads containing the brain tissue are rather red. And the
colour of their faces is reddish - as is seen in some statues which are stained
with red colour - and they have thick, strong veins, which carry their hot,
wax-coloured blood, and they are thick-chested and have strong arms, but they
are not very fat, since the strength of their veins, blood and limbs does not permit
their flesh to be very f a t . . . these men . . . love the female form so greatly that
they cannot restrain their blood from being inflamed with great passion, when
they see or hear a woman, or recall one in their thoughts, because their eyes are
like arrows directed at a woman's love when they see her, and their hearing is
like a mighty wind, when they hear her, and their thoughts are like a tempestuous
hurricane, which cannot be restrained from falling upon the earth. . . . If they
have intercourse with women, then they are well-balanced and happy, if how-
ever they are without them, then they dry up in themselves and go about as if
dying, unless they can discharge the foam of their seed through the excesses of
their dreams or of their thoughts, or through the abuse of some other thing.
18(5
9
Conclusions
187
CONCLUSIONS
Avarice the Doctor of Physic').6 Baldwin attempts a sort of ad hoc
isolation of what he calls the 'radix traits' of the characters:
the Knight can be described by 'worthynesse', the Squire by 'youth', the
Yeoman by 'forester', and the Prioress by 'noblesse oblige'. The Wife of Bath
may be summed up by 'archwife' of disposition, eye and conversation; the
Monk by 'game' . . .; the Friar by 'wantonnesse', the Merchant by 'facade',
and the Parson by 'pastoral activity'.7
195
CONCLUSIONS
but it can also be read non-ironically, as a reference to social status:
For unto swich a worthy man as he
Acorded nat, as by his facultee,
To have with sike lazars aqueyntaunce.
It is nat honest, it may nat avaunce,
For to deelen with no swich poraille. (243-7)
The reference to social status seems to be the only one in the portrait of
the Merchant, who 'was a worthy man with alle' (283). By the time
we reach the Franklin's portrait, the word is used with a vague hearti-
ness which seems to indicate little beside the narrator's approval:
'Was nowher swich a worthy vavasour' (360).25 This attempt to use
words with something of the different emphases and connotations
that they have in conversation rather than precise and consistent mean-
ing, produces an impression of the complexity of the characters, for it
too makes it difficult to pass absolute judgement on them. The shifting
meaning given to the vocabulary parallels, and indeed, helps to
produce, the shifting bases from which we approach the characters.
And the ambivalence reflects not merely their moral ambiguity, but also
our own; the shifting semantic values we give to words reveals in us
relative, not absolute, standards for judging people. The characters
whose own values are absolute are described in absolute terms; the
others inhabit a linguistic realm which is more applicable to our
everyday unthinking acceptance of different criteria.
The irony in this word-play has a more important role than to serve
as a comic cloak for moral criticism. Chaucer uses it to raise some very
serious questions. For example, in the Knight's portrait, the word
'curteisie' is associated with an absolute ideal to which one may devote
one's whole life (46).26 In the literary genre of the chanson degeste, from
which the Knight seems to have stepped, this ideal provides the whole
sphere of reference for action. The Squire's 'curteisie' (99), on the other
hand, is linked with other characteristics, such as his devotion to love,
and his courtly accomplishments, which make it seem not so much an
exacting ideal, as part of a way of life for someone who occupies a
particular social station.27 The 'curteisie' in which the Prioress 'set
ful muchel hir lest' (132) should be spiritual courtesy, as we have seen,
but it has become in her case embarrassingly worldly; instead of striving
to please a heavenly spouse by spiritual grace, she has become the
female counterpart of the type represented by the Squire. At the same
time as another idealistic and religious meaning of 'curteisie' is being
196
CONCLUSIONS
evoked, the concrete manifestations of 'cheere of court' (139-40) -
personal adornment and accomplished manners - are shown to be in
sharp opposition to it. We are left with a sense of the contradictory
values implied by the term. Is it a religious value or a secular one?
Is it an absolute value, or merely appropriate to a certain social class
or age-group? Is the refined behaviour involved in the conception to
be defined as consideration of others, or as ritualised manners? The
different uses of the word reflect not only our shifting attitude to the
characters, but also to the ideal itself.
This I take to be the essence of Chaucer's satire; it does not depend
on wit and verbal pyrotechnic, but on an attitude which cannot be
pinned down, which is always escaping to another view of things and
producing comedy from the disparateness between the two. In some
cases, the disparateness is indeed that between truth and illusion:
And over al, ther as profit sholde arise,
Curteis he was, and lowely of servyse. (249-50)
For he hadde power of confessioun,
As seyde hymseif, moore than a curat. (228-9)
The necessity that the illusion should be seen through, should be dis-
persed, explains why we have the presentation of characters who are
by any standards truly admirable, the use of words like 'worthy' to
indicate moral as well as purely social values, and the use of unpleasant
imagery to describe characters who are also morally unpleasant.
But in other instances we are not allowed to disperse the illusion,
because we have only suspicions to set against it. What 'true' appel-
lation are we to oppose to the description of the Franklin as a 'worthy
vavasour' ? Do we know that his feasts are selfish ones from which the
poor are excluded? Do we feel his pleasant appearance to be belied
by his character? And what about the Merchant - 'Ther wiste no
wight that he was in dette' - and yet we do not know either that his
prosperity is a hollow pretence. Or the Reeve - 'Ther koude no man
brynge him in arrerage' - because he was honest, or because he was
skilled at covering up his fraud?
I should say that all these ambiguities, together with the 'omission
of the victim' and the confusion of moral and emotional reactions,
add up to Chaucer's consistent removal of the possibility of moral judgement.
In other words, our attention is being drawn to the illusion; its occasional
dispersal is to demonstrate that it is an illusion, but the illusion itself is
made into the focal point of interest. A comment of Auerbach on the
197
CONCLUSIONS
irony of the Libro de Buen Amor of the Archpriest Juan Ruiz enables us
to express this in other terms:
What I have in mind is not so much a conscious irony of the poet, though that
too is plentiful, as a kind of objective irony implicit in the candid, untroubled
coexistence of the most incompatible things.28
The General Prologue leads us to discover in ourselves the coexistence
of different methods of judging people, the coexistence of different
semantic values, each perfectly valid in its own context, and uses this
to suggest the way in which the coexistence of the people themselves
is achieved. The social cohesion revealed by the Prologue is not the
moral or religious one of Langland's ideal, but the ironic one of the
'candid, untroubled coexistence of the most incompatible things'.
It is remarkable that many of the methods through which Chaucer
achieves this significance for the Prologue are also those through which
he persuades us of the individuality of the pilgrims. Thus, important
for both irony and 'characterisation' in the Prologue is what may be
called the lack of context. In estates satire, the estates are not described
in order to inform us about their work, but in order to present moral
criticism; the removal of this purpose in the Prologue results, as Rose-
mary Woolf has noted,29 in the presentation of class failings as if they
were personal idiosyncrasies, and thus gives us a sense of the individuality
of the figures. Similarly the lack of narrative context, which would
provide an apparent motive for mentioning many items of description
by giving them storial significance,30 creates the illusion of factual
reporting in the Prologue, which has been convincingly related to
Boccaccio's use of this technique in the Decameron.
Gratuituous information... creates wonderfully the illusion of factual reporting.
What other reason could there be for volunteering such a point if not that it
actually happened?31
And the illusion of factual reporting in turn aids the creation of irony;
there is no obligation to 'place* the pilgrims on a moral scale if one is
simply reporting on their existence.
Yet the fascination of the actual is not quite the same for Chaucei and
Boccaccio. The aim of the Prologue is not to describe human beings in
the same spirit as that in which Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi painted
people,
Just as they are, careless of what comes of it
. . . and count it crime
To let a truth slip,
198
CONCLUSIONS
In order to show the distinction, the characterisation of the pilgrims
may be briefly compared with Chaucer's great achievement in Troilus
and Criseyde: the characterisation of Criseyde.
Coghill has made a useful distinction between Chaucerian characters
who are presented through description, 'the selection and adding up
of outward detail into the prime number that makes a human being',
and those who grow out of speech and action, such as the Host. 32
This distinction can be taken further. Pandarus is a character who
grows out of speech and action, but this is almost entirely observed
from the outside. We do not see very far into the workings of his mind,
and his inward attitude to such an apparently important matter as
his own unrequited love-afFair is left undefined. With Criseyde, on the
other hand, we are introduced to the minute-by-minute workings of
her mind, to a complex notion of her psychological processes, and to a
character subject to the influence of time. This development begins
at the moment when she is first acquainted with Troilus's love for her,
and deliberates on what to do. Her plea to Pandarus to stay, when he
is marching out in anger with a threat of suicide because of her first
reaction of dismay, proceeds from a whole range of motives - fear,
pity, concern for her reputation, the consciousness that she has responded
cruelly to what is, on the surface, an innocent request.33 The significance
of the two stanzas in which these turbulent reactions are described lies
in their mixed nature. Her responses are both calculating and instinctive,
selfish and charitable. No single motive can be isolated as the 'true' one.
This is equally true of Criseyde's deliberations, when left alone, on
whether to accept Troilus's love. Troilus's high social rank, his hand-
someness, his bravery, his intelligence and virtue, his suffering on her
behalf, are all admitted as influences, and conversely, fear of un-
pleasantness, of betrayal, of what people will say (n 659-65, 701-28,
771-805). Criseyde is alternately overwhelmed at the honour done to
her and conscious that she well deserves it (735-49). She tries to deter-
mine coolly and rationally what will be the best course of action, and
is then swayed by a song, a nightingale and a dream (82off., 9i8ff.,
925ff.). This is a situation in which the workings of Criseyde's mind
tell us more about her than the actual thoughts she entertains. We have
an extraordinarily realistic presentation of the complicated responses
and decisions of human beings. One further touch is worth noting; in
Book iv, Criseyde earnestly assures Troilus that the reason for her
yielding to him was neither pleasure, his high rank, nor even his
bravery, but 'moral vertu, grounded upon trouthe' (1667-73). The
199
CONCLUSIONS
fact that we have seen a very different situation in Book n does not
mean that Criseyde is insincere. It is a true statement with regard to the
present - the time dimension not only alters the character and our view
of her, it retrospectively validates her selection of one single aspect of a
complex past. There is no single 'truth* in the sphere of human motives.
There is no ambiguity or depth of character comparable to this in
the Prologue. The state of the Merchant's finances is knowable, although
we do not know it, in a way that the state of Criseyde's mind is not
knowable. There is some ambiguity of mind indicated by external
devices, such as the motto on the Prioress's brooch. But comparison
with the characterisation of Criseyde reveals even more clearly that
the complexity of the Prologue portraits consists much more in our
attitude to them than in their own characteristics. Bronson seems to be
saying something like this in claiming that we are much more deeply
involved with the narrator than with any of the characters in the
General Prologue, Tor he is almost the only figure in his "drama" who
is fully realised psychologically and who truly matters to us'. 34 The
centre of interest in the Prologue is not in any depiction of human
character, in actuality for its own sake; it is in our relationship with the
actual, the way in which we perceive it and the attitudes we adopt to
it, and the narrator stands here for the ambiguities and complexities
that characterise this relationship.
If we draw together the results of this discussion, we find that the
ethic we have in the Prologue is an ethic of this world. The constant
shifting of viewpoints means that it is relativist; in creating our sense
of this ethic the estates aspect is of fundamental importance, for it
means that in each portrait we have the sense of a specialised way of
life. A world of specialised skills, experience, terminology and interests
confronts us; we see the world through the eyes of a lazy Monk or a
successful Merchant, and simultaneously realise the latent tension
between his view and our own. But the tension is latent, because
the superficial agreement and approval offered in the ironic comment
has this amount of reality - it really reflects the way in which we get
on with our neighbours, by tacit approval of the things we really
consider wrong, by admiring techniques more than the ends they work
towards, by regarding unethical behaviour as amusing as long as the
results are not directly unpleasant for us, by adopting, for social
reasons, the viewpoint of the person with whom we are associating,
and at the same time feeling that his way of life is 'not our business'.
To say that the General Prologue is based on an ethic of this world is
200
CONCLUSIONS
not to adopt the older critical position that Chaucer is unconcerned
with morality. The adoption of this ethic at this particular point does
not constitute a definitive attitude but a piece of observation - and
the comic irony ensures that the reader does not identify with this
ethic. Chaucer's inquiry is epistemological as well as moral. This is
how the world operates, and as the world, it can operate no other way.
The contrast with heavenly values is made at the end of the Canterbury
Tales, as critics have noted,35 but it is made in such a way that it cannot
affect the validity of the initial statement - the world can only operate
by the world's values. One's confidence in seeing this as the movement
of the Canterbury Tales is increased by the observation that this parallels
the movement in Troilus and Criseyde: consistent irony throughout
the poem, the coexistence of incompatible things, the sharp demon-
stration of their incompatibility in the Epilogue and yet the tragic
consciousness that their coexistence - indeed in the case of Troilus
their unity-is as inevitable as their incompatibility. And yet the
differences between the two works are significant. The narrator in the
Troilus is led by the conclusion of his story to reject his own - and
our - experience of the beauty and nobility of what has gone before.
Although we do not accept his Epilogue as the only valid response
to the experience of the Troilus, this emotional rejection plays a large
part in establishing the tragic finality of the work. The Canterbury
Tales do not have the same sort of finality. The 'final statement' in the
Tales comes not from the narrator, but from the Parson, who has not
participated as we have in the worlds of the other pilgrims. In rejecting
the world of the Miller, for example, he is not rejecting something
for which he has felt personal enthusiasm - such as the narrator of the
Troilus feels at the consummation of the love-affair. And because the
final statement is given to the Parson, the narrator of the Canterbury
Tales remains an observer who can sympathetically adapt to or report
a whole range of experiences and attitudes to them. The relation
between the General Prologue and the Parson's Tale is more subtle than
a simple opposition between cupiditas and caritas.™
The Prologue presents the world in terms of worldly values, which
are largely concerned with an assessment of facades, made in the light
of half-knowledge, and on the basis of subjective criteria. Subjectivity
characterises both the pilgrims' attitude to the world, and the world's
(or the reader's) attitude to the pilgrims. But at least in their case, it
must be repeated that their views on the world are not individual ones,
but are attached to their callings-in medieval terms, their estates.
201
CONCLUSIONS
The Prologue proves to be a poem about work. The society it evokes
is not a collection of individuals or types with an eternal or universal
significance, but particularly a society in which work as a social
experience conditions personality and the standpoint from which an
individual views the world. In the Prologue, as in history, it is specialised
work which ushers in a world where relativised values and the
individual consciousness are dominant.
202
Appendix A List of the order in which the estates are
presented in some representative poems
Speculum Stukorum
Court of Rome: kings: spiritual pastors: abbots and priors: laity.
Chessbook
King: queen: judges: knights: vicars and legates of the king: peasants:
smiths and mariners: notaries and cloth makers: merchants and
changers: physicians, spicers and apothecaries: taverners, inn-keepers
and victuallers: keepers of towns, customs men and toll-gatherers:
ribalds, dice-players, messengers and couriers.
Apocalipsis Goliae
Bishops (pope: bishop: archdeacon: deacon): archdeacon: deacon:
officials of ecclesiastical courts: priests: clergy: abbots and monks.
'Frequenter cogitans*
Bishops: (usurers): merchants: knights: peasants: bishops, priests,
presbyters: monks, abbots.
Vox Clamantis
in Prelates: priests, clergy generally: pope: curates: clerks.
iv Monks: nuns: friars.
v Knights: women: ploughmen and peasants: hired workers:
burgesses - merchants, artisans.
VI Lawyers: sheriffs, jurors, bailiffs: king.
Mirour de VOmme
Court of Rome: cardinals: bishops: archdeacons, officials and deans:
curates: annuellers: clerks: monks: friars: emperors: kings: lords:
knights and men of arms: lawyers: judges: sheriffs, reeves and jurors:
merchants: trades-people and craftsmen (doctors): victuallers:
labourers.
'The Simonie'
Court of Rome: archbishop: bishop: archdeacon: priests: abbots,
205
APPENDIX A
priors, monks, friars: officials and deans: doctors: earls, barons,
knights and squires: justices, sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs: lawyers:
merchants.
General Prologue
Knight: Squire: Yeoman: Prioress: Second Nun and three(?) Priests:
Monk: Friar: Merchant: Clerk: Sergeant of Law: Franklin: Guilds-
men - Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapicer: Cook:
Shipman: Doctor of Physic: Wife of Bath: Parson: Ploughman:
Miller: Manciple: Reeve: Summoner: Pardoner.
206
Appendix B Chaucer, Langland and Gower
Many of the parallels between the Prologue and the Mirour de VOmme
were pointed out long ago by Fliigel, and more recently, John Fisher
has argued strongly for the influence of Gower on Chaucer.2 In view
of Fisher's detailed and convincing argument, although he does not
include all the parallels I have noted between Gower and Chaucer,
I shall only briefly distinguish between what Chaucer probably took
from the Mirour de I'Omme, and what is attributable to the Vox
Clamantis.
Almost all the characters in the Prologue before the Ploughman,
appear in the Vox or the Mirour or both. With a few exceptions
(Yeoman, Cook, Shipman), it almost looks as if Chaucer was following
a typical estates scheme, such as Gower uses, up to this point, and
then concluded with four figures from Piers Plowman, plus one
CA.M.E.S.—H 207
APPENDIX B
212
Notes
CHAPTER I
1. As by G. L. Kittredge, Chaucer's Poetry, Chapters 5 and 6.
2. As by J. M. Manly, Some New Light on Chaucer.
3. As by D . W . Robertson, A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives,
pp. 242-8, and W . C. Curry, Chaucer and the Mediceval Sciences, Chapters
1-5-
4. In a brief article ('The Plan of the Canterbury Tales', MP 13 (May 1915),
45-8), H. S. V. Jones claimed the importance of estates literature for the
Prologue, but did not substantiate his claim at length, or consider its further
implications. The more usual critical approach can be illustrated from F. N .
Robinson (ed.) The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, p. 3, introductory notes to
the General Prologue:
213
NOTES TO PAGES 2-5
for the Prologue and is uninterested in analysing literary style. I shall not
specifically signal a literary parallel which has already been brought to
attention by Fliigel or Bowden, unless I would have failed to notice it
otherwise, and I make here the acknowledgement of a general debt to
these scholars (and those whose articles lie behind Bowden's book) for their
explanation of historical detail.
6. Originally published in 1926.
7. He specifies the five Guildsmen, the Squire, Yeoman, Manciple and Plough-
man (New Light, p. 253).
8. Manly implies (New Light, pp. 294-5) that Chaucer's satire had a moral
purpose, but he does not try to show how the selection and treatment of the
pilgrims is determined by any particular or consistent moral standpoint.
9. The Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, pp. 6-7.
10. And it is this word which is picked up in Lydgate's reference to the
Canterbury pilgrims:
(Siege of Thebes ed. A. Erdmann, EETS e.s. 108 (London, 1911), p. 2, 18-
?3.)
11. 'Chaucer's Pilgrims' reprinted in Wagenknecht, p. 23. Cf. Clawson, 'The
Framework of the Canterbury Tales', reprinted in Wagenknecht, p. 13,
'Chaucer's group of pilgrims is not schematically representative of English
society, but covers well enough the main social elements', and H. R. Patch,
On Rereading Chaucer, pp. 176-7. Baum takes exception to Hulbert's
statements on the grounds that 'society is too complex to be generalised so
easily' (Chaucer, A Critical Appreciation, p. 68) - to which it might be replied
that society itself is complex but people's schematic ideas of it are far simpler.
12. In Search of Chaucer, p. 60.
13. Langland is as always the exception; he incidentally portrays female retailers,
brewers, and so on (PPl v, 215-27). Estates literature sometimes classifies
women further according to marital status - maid, wife, widow - but the
attributes, as opposed to the duties, of each group are very similar.
14. Chaucer and the French Tradition, p. 170. Muscatine is referring to the portrait-
gallery form.
15. See, for example, W. W. Lawrence, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales, pp.
55-7, who says that the Prologue 'does not follow the favourite procedure of
classifying mankind according to feudal principles and setting forth the
distinctive marks of each class, as in the estates of the world literature'.
214
NOTES TO PAGES 6 - 9
The romantic fixation which revolves around the beauty of perfect form,
in art or elsewhere, i s . . . a logical target for satire. The word satire is
said to come from satura, or hash, and a kind of parody of form seems to
run all through its tradition . . . A deliberate rambling digressiveness... is
endemic in the narrative technique of satire. . . An extraordinary number
of great satires are fragmentary, unfinished, or anonymous (Anatomy of
Criticism, pp. 233-4).
22. For social stereotypes, see Krech, Crutchfield and Ballachey, Individual in
Society (New York, 1962), pp. 3off.
23. It is an estates tradition to protest that one is simply writing down what
everyone else says; Gower, for example, does this in the Vox Clamantis,
and Gilles li Muisis throughout his works. C. S. Lewis has commented on
Skelton's exploitation of this tradition in Colin Clout and Why Come Ye
Not to Court? (English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford, 1954), p.
139.)
215
NOTES TO PAGES 9~I2
216
NOTES TO PAGES I 2 - l 6
us an idea of the importance of plain, non-satirical, information about the
professions in the Prologue.
28. For the general idea that Chaucer's individual style, 'lively, conversational,
emphatic, dramatic, stuffed with doublets and alternatives, asseverations
that are mild oaths, expletives and parentheses', derives from the Middle
English rhyming romances, see pp. 2ff. of D. S. Brewer's article, 'The
Relationship of Chaucer to the English and European Traditions', in
Brewer (ed.), Chaucer and Chaucerians.
29. E.g., R. W. V. Elliott, Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, p. 49, and
R. M. Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk: The Dramatic Principle in the Canterbury
Tales, p. 20.
30. E.g., R. Woolf, 'Chaucer as a Satirist in the General Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales', Critical Quarterly, 1 (1959), 152.
31. Malone, Chapters on Chaucer, p. 167.
32. In an attempt to discover whether the Merchant belonged to the Staplers
or Adventurers, for example (Bowden, Commentary, p. 147). Manly tried
to relate the places to Chaucer's experience (New Light, p. 198).
33. There can be different stereotypes for a social class besides the 'ideal' and
the 'normal*. For example, a knight's role can be conceived as part of a
national system of justice, or part of aggressive religious proselytisation
abroad.
34. This has been recognised by R. Preston, Chaucer, p. 168, and by J. Speirs,
who writes of the presentation of the ecclesiastics:
The art is in seeing exactly what each is in relation to what each ought to
b e . . . That the criticism is implied itself implies an audience which
shared the same social and moral standards as the poet. The art is as much
in what is left unsaid as in what is said; and what is said consists in the
simple juxtaposition of statements which it is left to the audience to
know how to relate (Chaucer the Maker, pp. 103-4).
35.'Chaucer's Pilgrims', Wagenknecht, p. 23. Similarly, Baldwin recognises
the role of the stereotype ('the recognised status of class') in the portraits -
'One had only to mention knight, friar, miller, reeve, for instance, for a
compendium of traits to be invoked by the very name' - but he thinks that
an equally important role was played by 'nuclear personal characterisation
within that class' (Unity of the Canterbury Tales, pp. 42 and 50).
36. See, for example, Renart le Contrefait, n, p. 41,26,355fF.; the section devoted
to 'ceaux qui vivont du mestier et d'artifice' in the Mirour de VOmme
(25,5Oiff.) and the confession of Avarice in Piers Plowman (v 2ooff.).
37. Cf. Robertson, Preface to Chaucer, p. 248: '[Chaucer's] interest was not in the
"surface reality" but in the reality of the idea.'
217
NOTES TO PAGES 1 7 - 1
CHAPTER 2
1. For a wide selection of contemporary generalisations about the medieval
religious orders, see Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, 11, appendices 34
and 36.
2. 881-2. The speed with which monks run to their meals had been noted in
Nigel's source, the Ysengrimus (ed. E. Voigt (Halle a.S., 1884), p. 31, 1
433-4). Gower reproduces the comparison (VC rv 79-82). It seems to have
been a commonplace; Owst quotes one of Robert Rypon's sermons to
the effect that some clerics 'run swifter to the cookhouse than to mass*
(Lit. and Pulp., p. 272).
3. 'Dum pater abbas filiam', Map Poems, pp. i84ff.
4. p. 33, st. 90-9; see also MO 20,893-904, which has strong resemblances to
the Latin poem.
5. *Nuper ductu serio plagam ad australem', Map Poems, pp. 243 ff. Cf.
also the debate 'Dum Saturno conjuge partus parit Rhea', where gluttony
plays a minor role in the changes brought by the White Monk (ibid., p.
242, 147), but the debate itself is so heated because both monks are 'vino
crapulati' (ibid., p. 238, 43).
6. MO 20,877-80; VC iv 57-8, 65-6. A contrast can also be made between
past asceticism and present degenerateness; cf. Roman de Cariti, p. 78
CXLVI 8f£, and MO 20,857-65, 20,869-70.
7.2087-8 (the Black Monks eat meats and fats), 2129-32 (the Cistercians
debate whether the prohibition of quadrupeds includes birds), 2259--60
(the Augustinian Canons eat fat meats). See also 969-72, where Burnellus
proposes to punish the monks who have insulted him, by restricting
their diet to raw vegetables, and forbidding wine.
8. 'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse', ed. Aspin, p. 134, 95-100. See also 56-8, 61-70,
79-94.
9. Apocalipsis Goliae, p. 33, st. 88; VC iv 131-2, 141-2.
10. The use of spices is also incorporated into the descriptions of elaborate
cooking methods, for which see 'Nuper ductu serio', Map Poems, p. 248,
161-8; Magister Golyas de quodam abbate, ibid., pp. xlii-iii; VC iv 69-70
(Stockton - Major Latin Works of John Gower, p. 414 - compares this
passage with the Pardoner's Tale, vi (C)538); MO 20,871-6, where
the elaborate cooking preparations become part of the monk's defence of
his gluttony: meat chopped and pounded 'isn't really meat'. Cf. Langland's
Doctor of Divinity, who will 'prove' that 'blancmangere' and 'mortrewes'
are 'noither fisshe ne flesshe' but 'fode for a penaunte' (PPl xm 89-92.
Unless otherwise assigned, quotations from Piers Plowman are from the B
text).
11. See 'Nuper ductu serio', Map Poems, p. 247,134,145-8 ('panes cum potibus
dulce pigmentatis. . . | Placentas, artocreas, et cornutas micas, | crispas,
218
NOTES TO PAGES 19-20
fabas mysticas, pastillos et picas' - 'Bread with sweetly-spiced drinks...
Cakes, meat pies, croissants, pastries, sacred beans, rolls, p i e s . . . ' . Beans
were sacred to the Pythagoreans: see Pauly's Real-Encyclopadie, ed. G.
Wissowa, vol. 3 (Stuttgart, 1899) col. 619, and cf. the proverb cited by
Kervyn de Lettenhove in his edition of Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 329, s. Feve:
'Manger febves, n'est moindre faute faire, | Que de manger la teste de son
pere'. See also Magister Golyas de quodam abbate, ibid., pp. xlii-iii, VC
iv 67-8; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 49, 1267-77; Roman de Cariti, p. 78
CXLVI 1 1 - 1 2 ;
12. See SS 2129-32; Magister Golyas de quodam abbate, Map Poems, p. xlii
('pavones, cignos, grues et anseres, gallinas et gallinaceos, id est gallos
castratos... Fasianos... perdices, et columbas' - 'Peacocks, swans, cranes
and geese, hens and poultry-cocks, that is castrated c o c k s . . . pheasants,
partridges and doves'. My italics. The 'excuse* is made:
Abstinetne ab omni carne? Non, sed a quadrupedibus tantum.
Comeditne volatilia pennata? Non, sed si fuerint deplumata et cocta
tune vescitur ipsis, quia oriuntur ab aquis.
Does he abstain from all meat? No, only from quadrupeds. Does he
eat winged fowl? No, but if they have been plucked and cooked, then
he eats them because they come from the water);
MO 20,897 ('Le perdis et la pulletrie').
13. Ed. Bennett and Smithers, pp. 141-2, 102-4, 107-10.
14. See 'Nuper ductu serio' Map Poems, pp. 248-9, 189-92; Gilles li Muisis,
1 pp. 18, 146, 148, 151, 176; MO 20,865-6 (where a reference to 'la crasse
pance' is followed by the mention of 'pellic^uns', thus giving us an idea of
what an easy-living monk would like) and 7927. Note also that Gilles li
Muisis associates gluttony especially with monastic officers, such as
Chaucer's Monk was (1, p. 161); the Lamentations of Matheolus, which were
only translated into French after Gilles wrote, had already described the
abbot who retires to his room to feast alone (p. 279, Lat. 4523ff., Fr.
393fF. For monks in general, see ibid. p. 278, Lat. 4497!?., Fr. 34irF.).
i$.PSE p. 330, 151-62. For proverbs on monastic gluttony, see Walther,
Proverbia Sententiaeque 19,506-7. For monastic gluttony as a feature of
comic anecdote, see Nos LI and LIX in Latin Stories. For historical evidence
of this failing, see D. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, pp. 100,
105, 107.
16. N.B. Knowles's remark that 'the fact that one of the dubia to be put to
Rome ca. 1275 concerned the lawfulness of eating the flesh of birds
suggests that this was not currently considered to be a breach of the Rule'
(Religious Orders, p. 20).
17. The comparisons appear to be deliberately chosen for this portrait; they
are not commonplace. 'Not worth a hen' is found elsewhere in Chaucer
219
NOTES TO PAGES 2O~3
(but not before him), but the reference to a 'pulled hen' (according to
OED, chicken in a rich white sauce) is only here, and after Chaucer. The
comparison with an oyster is found only here. (See OED, MED, and
Chaucer Concordance.)
18. For the bald head I have found no parallel. The gleaming eyes may, as
McPeek suggested with reference to the friar (Speculum 26 (1951), 334),
derive from such a description as that of the abbot terrifying his assembled
monks with his 'eyes rolling to and fro like a wandering planet' ('oculos
hue illuc devagantes quasi planeta erratiens'), in the Magister Golyas de
quodam abbate (Map Poems, p. xli).
19. SS 2089-90. See also 2137-8, 2228, 2259, which refer to the luxurious
clothing of different monastic orders. Walter of Chatillon inverts the
topic and asks who now imitates the camel-hair garments and simple food
ofjohn the Baptist (No v v. 15). The feature is so firmly linked with monks
that even though in the De Nugis Curialium Walter Map is attacking
Cistercian miserliness, he still hints at a forbidden diet and a plurality of
tunics (dist. 1, cap. xxxni, p. 37, 14-20, and cap. xxv, p. 44, 20). See also
'Dum Saturno conjuge', Map Poems, p. 241, 137-8, p. 242, 148.
20. 'Nuper ductu serio', Map Poems, p. 244, 37-8. See also the opening of the
attack (pp. 244-5, 17-24) where Zoilus comments on the fine tunic visible
beneath Maurus' robe.
21.20,866-8. 'Mole leine' is also used as an example of luxury: see 5312-16.
Gilles li Muisis frequently complains of monastic luxuries in dress,
and is occasionally quite specific in describing the new 'curieuses viestures':
The old robe was frieze, burnet is a luxury dress. Woven cloths, purses
with locks - should our monks wear such things?
(See also 1 pp. 146, 147, 150, 152, 170.)
22. See, however, 'La Vie du Monde', Rutebeuf (1 p. 397, 69-70) which
complains that the wealth of the Church is being spent 'en joiaux et en
vair et en gris'.
23. Magister Golyas de quodam abbate, Map Poems, p. xli.
24. p. 74 cxxxix 6ff. The whole passage goes from p. 71 CXXXIII to p. 75
CXLI.
Cf. the thirteenth-century Latin criticism of an abbot quoted by Bowden
(Commentary, p. 114 and n. 30): 'He wore boots so smoothly stretched
without crease, it was as if he had been born with them' ('Ocreas habebat in
cruribus quasi innatae essent sine plica porrectas'). Since the Monk's
boots are supple, we may assume they are also tight; supple leather would
follow the ankle more closely. But it is not important to prove this, only
220
NOTES TO PAGES 23-4
to show that footwear was one of the items traditionally 'read* as an
indication of monastic strictness or laxity. See also the chapter on the
Prioress, and the Wife of Bath. Fine shoes are also provided for in the
Order of Fair-Ease. Although 'well-fitting shoes and leg coverings'
together with 'becoming robes' and 'fat, gently ambling palfreys'
('Soudlers & chauses bien seantz'; 'robes bien avenauntz'; 'gros palefrois
bien amblantz') are there associated with Hospitallers, who are not
monks but knights, the inclusion of the knightly orders in the list of those
that furnish rules for the Order of Fair-Ease may well mean that the features
were readily attributed to monks also. In particular it is tempting to see in
Chaucer's line - 'His bootes souple, his hors in greet estaat' - an echo of
this poem in which the line on the fine shoes is immediately followed by
the reference to 'gros palefrois' (ed. Aspin, p. 134, 73-5).
25. PSEip. 330, 145-50.
26. 'Du Mercier' (Inc: 'Moult a ci bele compagnie'), ed. F. W. Fairholt,
Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume, p. 11. Fairholt ascribes the poem to
the thirteenth century.
27. 'Purfil', fur trimming, is a favourite sign of vanity in Langland (though not
specifically associated with monks): see PPl iv 116 and v 26.
28.1pp. 157-9-
The Lamentations of Matheolus also mention riding 'fat horses' among
reproaches of clerical luxury (p. 176, 6i8fF., Lat. 257ifF.), and Thomas
Wimbledon complains of clerical spending on 'fatte palfreies... houndes
. . .hawkes' (Medieval Studies 28 (1966), p. 182).
Fine horses are also included in the 'ideal' monastic orders of Burnellus
the Ass (SS 20576*.) and of Fair-Ease ('L'Ordre de Bel Ayse', ed. Aspin,
p. 134, 75), although they are derived from the knightly orders of the
Templars and Hospitallers, where they are more appropriate.
29.E.g., SS 27898*.; PPl iv 124-5 (prelate): 'Totum regit saeculum', Map
Poems, p. 232, 122-3 (rector): VC in 14871!; Roman de Cariti, p. 42, st.
LXXVHI iofF.; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 174, Fr. 541; MO 20,314-16;
'The Simonie', PSE p. 327, 73-7; PPl v 422-6 (parson): the thirteenth to
fourteenth-century poem 'In vere virencia' (ed. Dronke, Medieval Latin
and the Rise of European Love-Lyric (Oxford, 1968), 11, pp. 4ooff.); Handlyng
Synne, p. 108, 30856°. (clerk).
For sermon uses of the topic, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 260, 264, 270,
279.
For historical evidence on hunting monks and the keeping of hawks
and hounds, see Knowles, Religious Orders, pp. 88, 100, 102, 103, 108.
Gilles li Muisis's treatment of hunting deserves special mention. In an
account of the customs of St Martin - that is, in describing his own
experiences - he mentions that it was a custom for the prior,
si li plaisoit, qu'il avoit se quinsaine pour chevaucher ou aler en riviere
221
NOTES TO PAGES 24-9
et esbannyer la il li plaisoit, et on li livroit clievaus et son despense.
(ip. 132)
if he wanted, he should have a fortnight to ride out or go hunting by the
water and enjoy himself where he wanted, and he was given horses and
his expenses.
Gilles does not criticise this practice; it is just part of'the good old days'.
But when he is writing moral satire, he criticises the abbot who loves to
ride about (1 p. 153), and warns that the cellarer must not have 'brakes, ne
faukenier' (1 p. 165). He also complains that livings are not awarded to
'les boins clers' but to
This inconsistency colours much of his satire; he laments the decay of the
monasteries, not as centres of ascetic life, but as 'great houses' with large
incomes.
30. 'In vere virencia', ed. Dronke, Medieval Latin, 11 p. 401, 30; VC m 1495-6;
PPl v 422-6.
31. See Hoffman, Ovid and the Canterbury Tales, pp. 32-3, and P. F. Baum
'Chaucer's Puns', PMLA 71 (1956), 242 and 243. The Host assumes that
the Monk is a man of sexual prowess (vn 1945 [B2 3135]).
32. For the general treatment of the lechery of monks, see CB 1 No 39 v.
7, 5-8; De Nugis Curialium, p. 39, dist. 1 cap. xxni 7-20 (homosexuality)
and p. 49, cap. xxv 1-31; Apocalipsis Goliae, p. 35 st. 102, 2; 'Sompno et
silentio plusquam satis usa', Map Poems, pp. 56-7, 49-52; 'Dum Saturno
conjuge partus parit Rhea', ibid., p. 241, 139-44; VC iv 329-30, 43iff.;
'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse', ed. Aspin, p. 133, 31-52; MO 21,050 and 2i,i45ff.;
'The Land of Cokaygne', ed. Bennett and Smithers, pp. 142-3, I33ff.
The monk of the Shipman's Tale is also an 'outridere' who makes the most
of his opportunities for sexual satisfaction.
33. See VC in I5i5ff.; 'The Simonie', PSE p. 327, 73-6.
34. Ed. Dronke, Medieval Latin, 11 p. 401, 30.
35.6583—94 (my italics). In the French, these lines are an interpolation, and
appear in only a few MSS. (See Robinson's note.)
36. 20,885-90. For the use of the proper name Robin in contexts of idle
amusement and self-indulgence, see Romaunt of the Rose (Eng. version)
6337 m& 7453 > -P-Pf VI 75'> Troilus and Criseyde v 1174.
37.1pp. 142, 152, 157-8,244.
38.1pp. 177-8.
222
NOTES TO PAGES 29-3I
39.1 No 39 v. 7 1-2. This comment was proverbial: see Walther (ed.),
Proverbia Sententiaeque Latinitatis Medii Aevi, Nos 19,504-5.
40. 'Nuper ductu serio', Map Poems, p. 245, 69-70.
41.1pp. 18, 150, 188.
42.961; see also 967-8. Cf. 2637-8: if 'munera' were abolished, monks would
no longer leave their cloisters to work in royal palaces.
43. 'Frequenter cogitans de factis hominum', Poesies Pop. Lat.t p. 134.
44.1pp. 147, 182; n p. 146.
45. For the whole passage see iv 277-304.
46. PPl x 292fF. Langland first introduces the topic in Reason's sermon (iv
120-1) and recurs to it in the speech of Ymaginatif (xn 36fF.). Note that
most of these passages from Gower and Langland contain the names of
saints and church fathers as authority, and cf. the 'placing* of the Monk's
contempt for claustration as part of his general contempt for 'seint Maure
or seint Beneit' and 'Austyn'.
47. Walter Map had already described the brazen self-defence of Cistercians:
Si de singulis queras inposturis, racio tarn probabiliter est, ut arguere
possit evangelium falsi. (De Nugis Curialium, dist. 1 cap xxv p. 42,
8-9)
Inquire into any one of their frauds, and an answer is ready so plausible
that he who sees it might accuse the very gospel of error, (trans. James
p. 46)
48. p. 78, CXLVI, I-7.
Guiot de Provins also ironically identifies himself with the more 'genteel'
order of regular canons:
L'ordre des chanoines rigleiz
poroie je soffrir asseiz,
qu'il sont molt natement vestu,
et bien chauciet et bien pau.
11 sont dou siecle plainnement,
il vont per tout a lor talant.
Ic'est l'ordre saint Augustin
qui fut cortois, per Saint Martin,
plus que ne fut Sainz Beneois,
se m'est avis, et plus adrois.
(Bible, p. 61, 1641-50; cf. also 1689-94)
I could well tolerate the order of regular canons, for they are very
decently clothed, and well shod and well fed. They are wholly of the
world, going everywhere they wish. This is the order of St Augustine,
who, by St Martin! was more refined than St Benedict, as I think, and
shrewder as well.
223
NOTES TO PAGES 32-6
49.7921-5. Cf. 21,080-2: 'Chascuns s'en fuyt de la penance . . . Sanz garder
la viele observance* - 'Everyone runs away from hardship . . . Without
observing the old rule.'
50. 'Cum sint plures ordines', Map Poems, p. 45, 2ifF. C£. the passage from
Matheolus's Lamentations cited above (p. 279, Lat. 4523 ff., Fr. 393ff.).
The meaning of the phrase 'keepere of the celle' (a subordinate monastery)
is not a precise one, but, taken together with line 167, it clearly enables us
to associate the Monk with comments on abbots, priors, etc.
51. 'Noctis crepusculo brumali tempore', Map Poems, pp. 188-9, 43~9-
52.1 p. 145. Cf. 1 pp. 18, 149, 185 - all of which refer to the monk's desire to
have monastic office, which will make life easier for him.
53. Chaucer's acquaintance with the tradition of proud and self-indulgent
monastic officers can be demonstrated from the Host's later address to
the Monk:
It is a gentil pasture ther thow goost.
Thou art not lyk a penant or a goost:
Upon my feith, thou art som officer,
Som worthy sexteyn, or som celerer,
For by my fader soule, as to my doom,
Thou art a maister whan thou art at hoom;
No povre cloysterer, ne no novys,
But a governour, wily and wys,
And therwithal of brawnes and of bones,
A wel farynge persone for the nones.
(vn 1933-42 [B2 3123-32])
Cf. also the monk in the Shipman's Tale (vn 62-7 [B2 1252-7]).
54. Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 45.
55. p. 174, Fr. 542.
56. PSE p. 329, 121-3. My italics.
57. p. 108, 3o8sff.
58. pp. 78-9, CXLVI-CXLVII.
59. Ed. Aspin, p. 132, 16-17.
60.1 pp. 158, 165, 178, 198 etc. See also Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 45, 1125,
and Rutebeuf, 1 p. 398, 90.
61. See the examples given in Godefroy and Tobler-Lommatzsch, s.v.
62. There are two characteristics associated with monks which Chaucer omits
from his portrait; both are features which are not 'attractive' sins, although
it would have been possible for Chaucer to transform them into testimonies
of 'professional skill'. For association of monks with greed and avarice
see: SS 959-61; CB 1 No 11, p. 15, 4; Walter of Chatillon No v p. 76,
v. 13, 3-4; De Nugis Curialium, dist. 1 cap. xvi pp. 25-6, cap. xxv p. 41,
I9ff., and p. 46, 6-9; 'Sompno et silentio plusquam satis usa', Map Poems,
P- 55, 29-34; VC TV 231-2; Latin Stories, p. 30 No xxvm; 'L'£tat du
224
NOTES TO PAGES 36-7
Monde', Rutebeuf, 1 p. 384, 2of£, and 'La Vie du Monde' ibid., p. 398,
85fF.; PPl in 131-2, xv 407-18.
For association of monks with envy and quarrelsomeness see: SS
1011-12; Apocakpsis Goliae, p. 35 st. 97-9; 'Frequenter cogitans' Pohies
Pop. LaL, pp. 133-4; VC iv 175-8; MO 3i94fF., 20,9i3fF., 21,077^
Langland (sarcastically?) represents the cloister as free from strife (PPl
x 302-3, v 169).
63. Speirs comments on the Monk: 'In what sense is he 'a fair prelat'? . . . in
the worldly, the corporal, not spiritual sense.' (Chaucer the Maker, p. n o ) .
Speirs sees Chaucer's irony as a way of making traditional criticism of the
Monk; in my view, the irony operates at the expense of the reader, who
is used to judging by worldly standards, as well as at the expense of the
Monk.
64. Bible, p. 43, 1086-8.
65. The following are the aspects of the friar's stereotype whose use in
traditional satire we shall explore: the exercise of persuasive eloquence,
which may be a means of deception; a sense of self-importance, usually
based on learning; lechery; skill and practice in secular business; fine
clothing; the Friar's musical skill; strong mercenary motives; venality in
hearing confessions; the mendicant quarrel with the secular clergy; a
preference for the company of the rich and powerful.
66. See, for example, 'Totum regit saeculum' which ironically approves of
this deception: 'quid culpantur dum sic per figmenta lucrantur?' - 'how
are they to be blamed when their tall stories make them so much money?'
(Map Poems, p. 232, 92); 'Viri fratres, servi Dei': 'Fere omnes sunt tru-
fantes' - 'they are almost all tricksters' (AFIxxxin, p. 270, n o ) ; Sermones
nulli parcentes, which implies the cunning eloquence of the friars in the
exhortation: 'sit in ore non vel ita | lingua semper stabilita.' - 'Let your
words be yea or nay [after Matt. 5: 37] and your tongue always held
in check.' (p. 44, 1069-70); 'Ecce dolet Anglia': 'fratrum dolositas
jungit caput caude' - 'the friars' cunning joins head to tail' (PPS 1, p.
281).
For vernacular literature, see Boccaccio, who, like Langland, often
makes friars his 'villains', and will turn aside from a story to describe
'quanta e quale sia la ipocresia de' religiosi' - 'how great and of what
kind is the hypocrisy of the religious' (Decameron, Second Story, Fourth
Day, p. 479, 5). Cf. 'Le Dit des Patenostres': 'Dire souvent le bien aucun
font a rebours' - 'some of them often get the truth the wrong way round
in their talk' (NR 1 p. 241). For Langland, 'faitour' or 'cheat' is the idea
associated with 'frere' (PPl 11 182, vi 74, C x 208). In Meed's wedding
procession, friars are in the 'longe carte' of Liar (11 181-2), and when the
procession breaks up, 'Falsenesse' flees to the friars for protection (210).
Cf. also v 136-8, xx 237-8. See also Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 67,1402-4.
225
NOTES TO PAGES 37~9
For late sermon evidence, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 95-6 (Hypocrisy
is wedded to the friars).
67. SS Appendix A, p. 183.
68. AH xxxm, p. 270, 125-6. See the quotation below.
69. iv 1065-8. See also io69f£, and 103 5fE, where Gower describes a repre-
sentative figure.
7O.Eng. version 6210. Fr. version, n 11044. Although the figure of Faus
Semblant is not meant exclusively as a representation of friars, he has such
clear connections with this branch of the 'fals religious' that Jean de
Meun's treatment of him exercised a strong influence on later anti-
mendicant satire. Note that the English version of the Roman has * Abit ne
makith neithir monk nefrere (6192) where the French only has 'la robe ne
fet pas le moine' (11,028).
71.1 p. 257. Cf. 1 p. 269.
72.1 p. 280. See also Renart le Contrefait, 1 p. 5, 359ff.
73.2i,24off., 2i,249fT.
74.21,233-6; 21,582-5. The biblical reference is to Rom. 16: 17, 18.
75. 'Preste, ne monke, ne 3k chanoun', PPS 1 p. 268. (This poem is printed
by Wright from MS Cotton Cleopatra B 11, fol. 26 v, which contains
another poem that can be dated 1382 from internal evidence. Thus our
poem is probably late fourteenth century. See PPS 1 p. 253.)
76. PPl xv 75-7.
77. See PPl Prol. 58-61, x 71-5, and the description of the sophistical argu-
ments of the Doctor of Divinity, who is, according to the C text, 'a man
ylike a frere' (C xvi 30). Langland also clearly has friars in mind when
speaking of the advent of 'fals prophetes fele * flatereres and gloseres'
who will rule the affairs of kings and earls (xix 216-17). Cf. also Gilles li
Muisis, 11 p. 124; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 38, 388-9. Chaucer's acquain-
tance with this tradition is demonstrated by his use of it in the Summoner's
Tale (m (D) I788ff. and I9i9ff.).
78. p. 3, 51. The specific reference here is to the Carmelites, but the Ploughman
later applies the remark to friars in general (p. 29, 767).
79. 'Daliaunce' could mean 'Serious, edifying or spiritual conversation;
communication' according to MED (2); in this sense, according to OED,
it is used in the fifteenth century of Martha and Christ (s.v.i). However,
MED classes GP 211 under the meaning 'Polite, leisurely, intimate
conversation or entertainment. . .chatting, Smalltalk, gossip' (1). What
we know of the Friar might suggest yet another meaning - 'Amorous
talk or to-do; flirting, coquetry; sexual union' (MED 3). Dictionary
definitions are, of course, almost bound to ignore the ironic undercurrents
of a word, and I think Chaucer is deliberately keeping all three meanings
in view. Contrast the following passage from Wycliff, where the context
firmly excludes any ambiguity from the word: 'freris. . .chesen to ete
226
NOTES TO PAGES 39-4.O
wi]p riche men where J>ei may fare lustfulliche, & haue heere daliaunce
wi]p wymmen for here leccherose lyues' (ed. Matthew, p. 309).
80. For mendicant pride in general, see SS Appendix A, p. 184 (a contrast
between the Minorites's name and their desire for self-aggrandisement);
RR n 11,007-9 (Eng. version 6171-3); Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 2506°.; PPl
xv 75-7; PPl Crede 75-6, 250-7, 354-81, 546-84. (Some of these passages
include a treatment of pride in learning and intellect.)
For pride in learning, see 'Totum regit saeculum', 90 (Map Poems, p.
231)-the line echoes Walter of Chatillon's satire on intellectual pride
(No vi, p. 85, v. 13, 1); Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 113, 258-60,11 pp. 40, 149.
For the association of'hiegh clergye' with friars, see, besides the references
above and those in n. 101, Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 109, 190, 257-8, 268-9.
81. Matt. 23: 1-10.
82. See D. Wiesen, St Jerome as a Satirist, pp. 80-1.
83. See the appendix to 'Missus sum in vineam' (Walter of Chatillon, No vi,
p. 87, vv. 18 a-b). These six stanzas are possibly not by Walter; see Strecker's
introduction to the poem, p. 81.
84. Collationes Monasticae, PL vi, col. xix. Francis is referring to Christ's words
in the passage from Matthew.
85.6917-19. The whole passage (6889-922; Fr. 11 11,575-602) is based on
Matt. 23.
86. See VC iv 813?.; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 270; MO 2i,493ff.; PPl Crede
497-500, 550-84.
87.m(D) 1300 and 1337.
88. Ibid., 1781 and 2185-8. As with the Monk and the proverb about the fish
out of water, Chaucer gains a new 'realistic* slant by making the cleric
aware of anti-clerical satire.
89. Equally elusive is the hint given in Chaucer's description of the Friar as
'a ful solempne man* (209). If we follow OED in seeing 'of great dignity
or importance* (46) as the meaning here, we can derive the suggestion
that the Friar is as status-conscious as the rest of his class. But the preceding
adjectives, 'wantowne* and 'merye*, suggest the meaning 'festive, merry*
as another possibility. (This sense is not recognised in OED, but is given
in the glossaries of the editions of Chaucer of Skeat and Robinson, s.v.
The Chaucer Concordance shows that Chaucer uses the word and its
associates 'solemnity* and 'solemnly' most often in connection with
feasts and celebrations. See, for example, iv(E) 1125, i(A) 870, iv(E) 1709,
nfB1) 691.)
90. 'Chaucer and the Friars', reprinted in Schoeck and Taylor, p. 80. Williams*s
article shows how Chaucer*s portrait is influenced by the traditional anti-
mendicant satire originated by William of St Amour's attacks on the friars,
and continued by Archbishop FitzRalph of Armagh. While Williams uses
much of the same material as this chapter, he is not concerned with the
227
NOTES TO PAGES 4O-I
literary implications of Chaucer's use of anti-mendicant satire, but rather
to prove that Chaucer reflects the attitude of the secular clergy, who 'must
have dominated the thinking of the upper-class, governmental circles in
which Chaucer moved* (p. 81).
On the question of spiritual, as opposed to bodily seduction, it should
be noticed how often satire describes the corruption of church and society
in sexual images - prostitution, homosexuality, and so on. See Walter of
Chatillon, No 1 p. 7, v. 13, 4, No rv p. 70, v. 27, No vm p. 102, v. 11,
No xin p. 124, v. 7, and Philip the Chancellor's 'Bulla fulminante' (AH
xxi p. 126), where the story of Danae's seduction symbolises pecuniary
corruption. This is a range of analogies exploited in the twentieth century
by Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
91. See, for example, 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 231, 83 (sar-
castically) 'In them purity flourishes'; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 92,
Lat. i263fF. (Beghines have affairs with friars); Sermones nulli parcentes,
1073-80 (friars are exhorted to flee the company of women, but apparently
recognising this to be impossible, the author despairingly adds that at least
they should refrain from touching them); SS Appendix A p. 185 (Minorites
wear no breeches so as to be constantly ready for love-making), and p. 187
(the letters 'me' in the Carmelites'sname refer to their fornication- 'mechus
habetur'); Decameron, Seventh Story, Third Day, p. 389, 38 (friars attack
lust in others, so that when they give it up, the friars can have the women
all to their own use); Roman de Fauvel, p. 35, 858-63; 'Preste, ne monke,
ne jit chanoun', PPS 1 pp. 265-6 (were the author head of a household,
no friar would enter unless he were gelded,
For may he til a woman wynne,
In priveyte, he wyl not blynne,
Er he a child put hir withinne,
And perchaunce two at ones.);
PPl Crede 44, 82-5, 766-7; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 42, 511-12. Chaucer
satirises this aspect of the ubiquitous 'lymytour' in the Wife of Bath's
Tale (m(D) 865-81).
92. Decameron Seventh Story, Third Day, p. 388, 35. For other occasions on
which friars' confessions or preaching are described as directed at women,
see MO 21,301-10 and 21,249-64; PPl m 35fF.; PPl Crede 48-52, 59-63,
77-9-
93. VC iv 835-6, 863-4. 'Titivil' was originally the name of a devil employed
to collect words missed or mumbled in divine service, and to carry them
off to be registered against the offender. Hence the name was applied to
devils in the mystery plays, and thus to scoundrels in general. (P. Harvey,
The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 4th ed. rev. D. Beagle (Oxford
1967), s.v.)
228
NOTES TO PAGES 4I-5
94. The meaning involved is OED 3, 'To behave wantonly or riotously; to
take one's pleasure; to play', which can be interpreted more or less in-
nocently according to the context. Most of the early uses quoted by OED
seem to occur in a sexual context.
95. 'Wantowne' can mean both jovial. . .waggish' (OED 3a) or 'lascivious,
unchaste, lewd' (OED 2); OED assigns the former meaning to this quo-
tation, but the suggestion of the latter cannot be excluded.
96. 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 232, 91-6. This view of the friar
is connected with the satire on their close association with the great, and
the influence over their actions which could be exerted in confession. For
this, see, in addition to the references given below in discussion of the
venality of mendicant confessions, Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 25 and 11 p. 41;
PPl Crede, p. 29, 770-4; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 40, 461-5. For historical
evidence that Dominicans, at least, were royal confessors, see Knowles,
Religious Orders, p. 167.
97. RR n 11,649-53 (Eng. version 6971-8).
98. See VC iv 831-4; Roman de Fauvel, pp. 35-6, 879ff.; 'Le Dit des Mais'
NR 1 p. 185; MO 21,385-96; PPl Crede, p. 14, 358.
99. See K. Young, 'A Note on Chaucer's Friar', MLN 50 (1935), 83-5.
100. See J. W. Spargo, 'Chaucer's Love-Days', Speculum 15 (1940), 36-56.
101. PPl v 427-8, x 307, 19-22. The features described in the last passage sug-
gest that Langland is talking about friars, although he does not explicitly
name them.
Wycliff(ed. Matthew, pp. 234 and 242) and Gower (MO 23,683^)
mention love-days in connection with lords and knights. Wycliff also
connects them with priests (ibid., p. 172).
102. PPl Prol., 64-5.
103. 'Preste, ne monke, ne jit chanoun', PPS 1 p. 265.
104. SS Appendix A, p. 184. See also p. 185 on the comfort of Franciscan dress.
105. 'Preste, ne monke, ne jit chanoun', PPS 1 p. 267.
106. Decameron, Seventh Story, Third Day, p. 388, 34.
107. Ibid., Third Story, Seventh Day, p. 219, 12. See also Second Story,
Fourth Day, p. 479, 5-7; First Story, Seventh Day, p. 202, 6.
108. PPl Prol. 61, xx 57.
109. p. 9, 227-30. My italics. For more description of rich mendicant clothing,
see p. 28,734-41, and p. 21, 550-3. The latter passage elaborates the biblical
criticism of the scribes and the Pharisees making broad their phylacteries
and enlarging the borders of their garments (Matt. 23), which Boccaccio
had already used in the same way (see the quotation on p. 40).
For further reference to friars' rich clothing, see 'Le Dit des Patenostres',
NR 1 p. 241: 'Les grans chaperons ont par villes et par bours' - 'They
wear their wide copes in cities and towns'; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 362.
n o . Third Story, Seventh Day, p. 217, 7.
229
NOTES TO PAGES 45-8
i n . Ed. Matthew, p. 8. The passage comes from Of the Leaven of the Pharisees,
which according to Matthew was written ca. 1383 (ibid., p. 1).
112. This was suggested to me by Peter Dronke.
113. The expression 'viellatores Dei' comes from a thirteenth-century Latin
sermon. For this, and the whole subject of religious jongleurs', see
Menendez Pidal, Poesia Juglaresca y Origenes de las Literaturas Romanicas,
p. 8, n. 3 and pp. 7iff.
114. SS Appendix A, p. 183. For other references to the avarice of friars, see
££6963-4:
We ben the folk, without lesyng,
That all thing have without havyng.
(Fr. 1111,647-8). This parody of 2 Cor. 6: 10 is repeated by Gilles li Muisis,
1 p. 201, and Gower, MO 21,193-204; see also 21,217-22. See also 'L'£tat
du Monde', Rutebeuf, 1 p. 384, 40-6; 'Le Dit des Mais', NR 1 pp. 184-5;
'The Simonie', PSEp. 331,165-7; Winner and Waster, 161-2; PPl Prol. 59.
i i 5 . N £ i p . 241.
116. RR 11 11,535-6 (Eng. version 6837-8).
117. See Wakefield Pageants, ed. Cawley, p. 82, 160-2, where it is applied to
the 'prelate' Caiaphas. For the interpretation of the expression, and
evidence for its proverbial nature, see E. A. Greenlaw, 'A Note on
Chaucer's Prologue', MLN 23 (1908), 142-4, and a letter from G. L.
Kittredge, ibid., p. 200; also a letter from J. D. Bruce, MLN 24 (1919),
118-19.
118.1 p. 191. See also 1 p. 257, and 269: 'Leur pourchac pour leur ordenes
valient une contet' - 'Their earnings are worth an earldom to their orders.'
The verbal resemblances between Gilles and Chaucer are probably due
to the influence of the Rowan de la Rose on both, but they serve to demon-
strate that Chaucer's Friar belongs to a literary tradition.
119. Second Story, Fourth Day, pp. 480-1, 9-10. My italics.
120. MO 2i,277ff. See also VC iv 757-62, and Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 148.
121. 'Preste, ne monke, ne }it chanoun', PPS 1 p. 266.
122. 'Of thes frer mynours me thenkes moch wonder', PPS 1 p. 270. This
poem also comes from MS Cotton Cleopatra B11 (fol. 64 v), for the dating
of which, see above.
123. PPl in 38-40.
124. Ibid., xx 36iff. See also PPl Crede, where each friar in turn offers to absolve
the narrator from his ignorance of the creed - for a fee - and the Plough-
man comments explicitly on this characteristic (468, 634-6, 711-16).
125. 'Viri fratres, servi Dei', AFJXXXIII p. 270, 117-18.
126. 'Preste, ne monke, ne 3k chanoun', PPS 1 p. 267.
127. PPl v 141-5. See also 418 (Sloth sleeps until service is over and then goes to
the friars for confession). Langland introduces the topic into his first
mention of the friars (Prol. 66-7).
230
NOTES TO PAGES 49~5I
For other references to the conflict of interest, see Matheolus' Lamenta-
tions, p. 92, Lat. 128iff. (not in French); VC iv 889-936; Gilles li Muisis,
1 p. 191; MO 2i,469ff.; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 39, 408-14. The friar
in the Summoner's Tale claims to be more skilled in confession than a
secular cleric (m(D) 1816-18).
128. Ed. Aspin, p. 137, 211-18.
129. RR 11 12,309-21 (Eng. version j6jjf[.). See also 11,557-68 (Eng. version
68696".).
130. There is, of course, a subtler irony of situation here, since the 'moralist'
who discovers with horror that Faus Semblant does not fear God (11
11,497-8, Eng. version 6799-800) is the God of Love. Jean de Meun's
irony is not achieved in the same way that Chaucer's is, but it has a com-
plexity I am aware of having to ignore in concentrating on Chaucer.
131. See SS Appendix A pp. 183, 186, 187; RR II 11,013-16, 11,203-6, 11,527-
30, 11,693-729; 'Le Dit des Mais' NR 1 pp. 184-5; Inferno, Canto xxvn
92-3; Decameron Third Story, Seventh Day, p. 218, 10-11; Winner and
Waster, 175; PPl C x 207-8; PPS 1 pp. 264, 270; PPl Crede 53-4, 72-3,
92-3, 221-6, 762-5. (Some of these references are primarily to the corpu-
lence which reveals gluttony.)
Chaucer gives a satiric treatment of mendicant gluttony in the Sum-
moner's Tale (ni(D) 1838-50).
132. SS Appendix A, p. 188.
133. 'Viri fratres, servi Dei', AH xxxm p. 270, 119-32. See also 'Totum regit
saeculum', Map Poems, p. 231, 87: 'pauperes et exules hos adhaerent
tuti' - 'the poor and exiled cling to them with safety' (sarcastically meant),
and p. 232, 94: 'divitis familiam totam gubernabit'-'he will rule the
whole family of the rich man'; SS Appendix A p. 184 (Burnellus, a dumb
animal, is tempted to become a friar because they are mute in face of the
sins of the rich); PPl xi 54-7, xv 78-9, 82-6, xx 231-4 (cf. xv 335-6, of all
religious): PPl Crede 364-9, 770-4; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 38, 386,
p. 41, 474fF.
134. See VC iv 735-40; RR 11 11,211-30; 'La Vie du Monde' Rutebeuf, 1
p. 398, 103-4; 'Le Dit des Patenostres', NR 1 p. 241; MO 21,469-76;
'The Simonie', PSE pp. 331-2, 181-92; PPl xi 63fF., xm 7-10; PPl Crede
469-70.
135.'Le Dit des Mais', NR 1 p. 185 (see also ff.). See also RR, where Faus
Semblant boasts of living with those who
gon and gadren gret pitaunces,
And purchace hem the acqueyntaunces
Of men that myghty lyf may leden;
And feyne hem pore, and hemsilf feden
With gode morcels delicious,
And drinken good wyn precious.
231
NOTES TO PAGES 52-4
(6175-80; Fr. 11 n,onff.). See also MO 21,356-60, a description of 'Ipo-
cresie', mollified by a good dinner, excusing the sins of his hosts.
136. Ed. Aspin, pp. 136-7, 178-92.
137. RR 11 11,542-6 (Eng. version, which does not use the same vocabulary,
6852-7).
138. The 'moral' sense of the word * worthy* is OED 2: 'Distinguished by good
qualities, entitled to honour or respect on this account; estimable/ Sense
3 shows how 'estimable' shades into merely 'respectable': 'Holding a
prominent place in the community; of rank or standing/
139. Only two features commonly mentioned in connection with friars are
omitted by Chaucer. The first is their quarrelsomeness, a trait also omitted
from the Monk's portrait. The Friar later gives dramatic proof of this
characteristic in his quarrel with the Summoner, and the Summoner's
Tale provides a good example of an angry friar (ni(D) 2152-69). For this
feature, see 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 231, 88 (sarcastic);
SS Appendix A, p. 187; VC rv 1037-8; PPl v 136!?.; PPl Crede 525-7,
631-3,645-9.
The splendour of friars' buildings is also traditionally satirised. This
topic also appears in the Summoner's Tale, where the friar claims that he
only wants the dying man's money 'for to buylden cristes owene chirche'
(ra(D) 1977). See also VC iv 1149-52; RR n 11,285-6, 11,526, 11,675-7;
Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 252; MO 21,403-4; Winner and Waster, 299; PPl v
48-50; 'Of thes frer mynours me thinkes moch wonder', PPS 1 p. 270;
PPl Crede 118-20, i6off.
For estimation of the historical accuracy of these comments, see
Knowles, Religious Orders, pp. 142 and 187, where it is suggested that
although Franciscan buildings were probably unassuming until at least
1270, thereafter there is construction of large convents and churches
without a comparable increase in the numbers of friars.
The influence of Gower and Langland on this portrait can be discerned
in so apparently trivial a detail as the fact that the Friar is a 'limitour',
or beggar within assigned limits. Both Gower and Langland mention
'limitoures' with disgust (MO 21,654-8; PPl v 13 8, xx 344). For a discussion
of the meaning of the word 'limitour', see an article by A. Williams in
SP 57 (i960), 463-78.
140. The most apparently 'individualising' detail of Chaucer's Friar - his being
given the name of Huberd (269) - may have character connotations which
make it appropriate for his estate. E. Reiss tries to establish an association
between the 'man in the moon', the name Huberd, and friars (JEGP 62
(1963), 481-5) - an attempt which I find less convincing than Muscatine's
article relating the name to 'Hubert l'escoufle', the kite who hears the
confession of Renart the fox (MLN 70 (1955), 169-72).
141. Later I shall develop the theme of the 'double standards' discernible in the
232
NOTES TO PAGES 55-7
Prologue, but I should say at once that I am not trying to prove that
Chaucer was a sort of fourteenth-century anarchist; it makes all the
difference that the tone of the Prologue is comic, not cynical or tragic. The
tensions between different versions of an ideal, or between different
ideals operating within the same social context, are 'accepted' - perhaps
because Chaucer assumed them to be an inevitable consequence of human
fallibility - in the adoption of the comic mode to describe them. And
Chaucer is not prepared to abandon or diminish the appeal of the
traditional medieval ideals, as we shall see in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 3
i . D . S. Brewer, Chaucer, p. 135. For medieval expression of this ideology,
see, for example, Chesshook col. 395-6:
Sic enim sunt artes disposite, ut nulle sibi sufficiant, sed sua aliis
communicando prevaleant.
For skills are distributed in such a way that they are not sufficient for
themselves, but thrive by passing on their own commodities to others.
2. Satirists make little alteration in their treatment of the different ranks of
the clergy; in this chapter, therefore, material taken from discussion of the
duties and failings of bishops will sometimes be used alongside that drawn
from the treatment of parish priests.
3. From John 10: 1-16.
4. See also 496, 504, 506, S07S.
5.2681-2; see also 2673-708 as a whole.
6. PPS 1 pp. 279-80. For other examples of this traditional metaphor in
discussions of the clergy's role, see Walter of Chatillon, No 1, p. 5, v. 8;
'Frequenter cogitans', Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 129; 'Cum declinent homines';
Map Poems, p. 166, 105; CB1 No 36, p. 58, v. 3a; ibid., No 39, p. 62, v. 1,
5-6; ibid., No 43 p. 84, v. 3; ibid., No 91, v. 8; Apocalipsis Goliae, p. 22, vv.
34» 36; 'Viri venerabiles', Haureau, NE vi pp. 14-15, passim; 'A legis
doctoribus', Map Poems, p. 43, 21-2; 'Cum sint plures ordines', ibid., p. 44,
17-20; VC m 20, 81-2, I75ff.; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 35, 8i3fF.;
Roman de Cariti, p. 35 LXIV-LXV, p. 37LXVII1; 'La Vie du Monde', Rutebeuf,
1
p- 397» 60; Roman de Fauvel, p. 25, 6o9ff., p. 29, 695ff.; 'Le Dit des Mais'
NR 1 p. 183; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 344-5, 348, 349, 374, 377; Matheolus'
Lamentations, p. 276, 288ff. (Lat. 4455ff.); MO I9,484ff.; Handlyng Synne,
p. 160, 48i9ff., p. 337, io,88iff. For sermon references, see Owst, Lit. and
Pulp., pp. 241, 244, etc.
7. 'Cum sint plures ordines', Map Poems, p. 44, 17-20.
8. p. 65 cxxn 1-4. For conventional uses of the image of sickness, see pp.
63-8, passim.
233
NOTES TO PAGES 58-9
Wycliff also gives a 'realistic' turn to the image, (De Officio Pastorali, ed.
Matthew, p. 439):
J>e JDridde offiss Jsat fallij) to persouns is to greese Jser scabbid sheep & to
telle hem medicyn of goddis lawe wherby J>at ]pey may be hool; & ^if
J)es herdis faylen in Jpes J^re, J>ey ben hirid hynes or woluys.
9.1 p. 108. Is there also a pun on sheep noises in a and 6?
Chaucer's description ofhow his 'lerned' Parson stays at home and teaches
his parishioners inverts such complaints about the ignorance of the
substitutes appointed by absentee parsons.
10. p. 31 v. 76:
Ecce vicario persona primitus
committit animas et iura spiritus
sibique retinet causas et reditus,
quas audax devorat et inperterritus.
See, the parson hands over to the vicar the souls and spiritual rights,
retaining for himself the properties and rents, which, bold and undaunted,
he devours.
11. Lamentations, p. 174, 535fF. (Lat. 2539fF.); VCm 1353-4; MO 2O,245ff.
12. PPl Prol. 83-6. Later he refers to the secular posts taken on by the clergy
(92-6). Cf. Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 66, 1353-7 - also a reference to the
attraction of the courts. For sermons, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 247, 261,
271.
13. Map Poems, p. 233, 125-6.
14. For treatment of clerical avarice and simony, see Walter of Chatillon, No
1 pp. 5-6, vv. 8-9; ibid., No iv especially pp. 64-8, vv. 6-21; ibid., No
vm especially pp. 101-2, vv. 6-9; ibid., No xvi p. 144 v. 23, 2; No xvn
p. 151 v. 6, 10; SS 104-5; 'Cum declinent homines', Map Poems, p. 166,
109-24; CB1 No 33, p. 55, v. 3, 4-7; ibid., No 91, v. 8; Apocalipsis Goliae,
p. 29 v. 65; 'Viri venerabiles', Haureau, NE vi p. 15; 'Rumor novus',
Map Poems, p. 180, 3: 'Hora nona sabbati' NE 32, 1, p. 292; Sermones
nulli parcentes, p. 27, 409-11; VC in almost passim; 'Ecce dolet Anglia'
PPS1 p. 280, 37-40; Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 122, 2i3ff.;
Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 39, 96ofF.; Roman de Carite', p. 46 LXXV 1-7;
Roman de Fauvel, p. 29, 695ff.; 'Le Dit des Patenostres' NR 1 p. 240:
Matheolus' Lamentations, pp. 177-8, 626ff. (Lat. 25746°.); MO 20,281-2;
PPl Prol. 86, 1 188-9, xi 274-7, XIII 11, xv 122-7, xx 219. For sermon
references see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 241, 244, 245, 248, 258, 276-7. The
wealth of material is due to the obsession of medieval satirists with financial
corruption, which itself seems due to the difficulties, both ideological and
practical, caused by the shift to a monetary economy. See J. A. Yunck,
The Lineage of Lady Meed: the development of medieval venality satire (Notre
Dame, Indiana, 1963).
234
NOTES TO PAGES 59~6l
235
NOTES TO PAGES 61-4
Livre des Manieres, p. 124, 325:?.; 'La Vie du Monde', Rutebeuf, 1 p. 397,
57; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 108, 358; MO 19,085-6, 19,093-8, 19,468-71;
Handlyng Synne, p. 160, 4819!?.; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 49, 746ff.
30.2 Tim. 4: 2. See also Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 358, and Thomas Wimbledon's
sermon of 1388 (Medieval Studies, 28 (1966), 180), where this text is quoted
in connection with priests.
31. MO 19,097; see also 19,0851?., 19,468-71. For sermon references to clerical
toleration of the sins of the rich, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 246, 253, 261,
274-5. See also the Punctuation Poem, Secular Lyrics, ed. Robbins, No
n o , p. 101: 'Who is most riche*with them ]pey wyl be sewer'.
32. CB 1 No 33 p. 54 v. 2, 1-3.
33. Haureau, NE vi p. 15. A shorter list appears in Flacius Illyricus's version of
'Tempus acceptable': priests should be 'merciful, generous, humble,
worthy' - 'pios, largos, humiles, dignos'. (Map Poems, p. 54, 65-8. This
stanza is not in the version printed in AH xxxm pp. 292!?.) See also Mum
and the Sothsegger, p. 48, 7O2fF., whose language seems to be influenced
by both Chaucer and Langland:
For prestz been not perillous but pacient of |>aire werkes,
And eeke J)e plantz of pees and ful of pitie euer,
And chief of al charite y-chose a-fore other.
(Cf. PP/1150.)
34. Cf. 2 Tim. 2: 24-5, 4: 5; Tit. 2: 12; Pet. 3: 8-9, 5: 8.
35. Cf. also 2 Cor. 8 : 9 ; Rev. 2: 9.
36. No vni p. 101, v. 4. The last line is based on Ps. 66: 5.
37. No xvn p. 150 v. 4, 4-8.
38. For the clergy's example as a light to the laity, see VC m 1071-80; 'Heu!
quia per crebras', Gower, p. 355, 16-21; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 343. For the
clergy as a mirror to the laity, see SS 2709-10; Roman de Carite, p. 33
ix; Roman de Fauvel, p. 28, 670-1.
39. The image of the blind leading the blind comes from Matt. 15: 14; for its
use see VC HI 1064; Roman de Fauvel, p. 33, 824; Myrc's Instructions, p. 1,
1-6. For 'sicut populus, sic sacerdos', see Hosea, 4: 9, and PPl xv, between
115 and 116. Walter of Chatillon uses both quotations in one line (No iv
p. 70 v. 27, 2).
40. 'Defluit in subditos vitiorum macula' - 'The stain of their vices flows
into their inferiors' (No iv p. 64 v. 5, 4).
41. p. 34 LXII 10, and p. 38 LXXI 9-11. See G. L. Kittredge, 'Chaucer and the
Roman de Carite", MLN12 (1897), col. 113-15. Kittredge suggests the origin
of the gold image in Gregory's Pastoral Care, and gives further references to
Hrabanus Maurus, Alanus de Insulis, and others. Kittredge notes that the
similes occur in the same order in Chaucer and the Roman, but although he
says it is not impossible for Chaucer to have known the Roman, he prefers
236
NOTES TO PAGES 64-6
to suppose a common source for both. This seems to me to be complicating
matters unnecessarily; as Fliigel notes, Chaucer's acquaintance with the
Roman is not to be established on a single passage (Anglia, 26 (1901), 500),
but in the course of this study other striking parallels with the Roman are
noted. (See, for example, the chapter on the Monk.)
42. Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 241. For other sermon references, see ibid., pp. 267,
271,273-4. For estates treatments, besides those given above, see SS173 5ff.;
'Frequenter cogitans' Poisies Pop. Lat., p. 133; 'Quam sit lata scelerum'
PSEp. 33; 'Viri fratres, servi Dei' AHxxxm p. 269, 75-8; KCm 1751-2,
1893-4; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 35, 830; Roman de Carite, p. 32 LvnifF.
(a whole series of images on this theme); 'Mult est diables curteis', ed.
Aspin, p. 119,17-18; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 83,108, n o , 347, 367, 369, 370,
372, 384,11 p. 8; MO I9,o69ff., 19,3391!, 2O,447ff., 2O,629ff., 20,746; PPl
xv9off., 385, 426-9.
43. See SS 2667-8; CJ51 No 33, p. 55, v. 6; VCui 209-18; Etienne de Fougeres,
Livre des Manieres, p. 125, LXXXIV; Roman de Carite, p. 32 LVHI 9; Gilles
li Muisis, 1 pp. 350, 381, 11 p. 15; MO 19,350-1, 21,697-708; PPl rv 122,
v 42-5, 266-71, xni 115-17.
The idea is biblical; see Matt. 4: 23 and 5:19. It can of course be applied
to any class in authority: see SS 2333-4 (on secular canons); 'Viri fratres,
servi Dei' AH xxxm p. 270 113-14 (on friars); Chessbook, col. 285-6 (on
knights); Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 44, 1045-56; Decameron Seventh
Story, Third Day, p. 390, 43; RR 11 11,581-8; PPl xm 79 (all on friars);
Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 78, 1747-8 (on bishops). The topic was not,
therefore, exclusively linked with priests, but its occurrence in any
treatment of priests was well-nigh inevitable.
44. 'Viri venerabiles, sacerdotes Dei', Haureau, NE vi p. 14.
45. PPl xv 106-8. See also Gower's similar linking of the two ideas; VC in
689-90, 1037-40; MO 19,069-80.
46. See 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 232,117-18; 'Viri venerabiles',
Haureau, NE vi p. 14 ('gentium doctores' - 'teachers of the people') and
p. 15 ('subditos docentes' - 'teaching their inferiors'); 'Ecce dolet Anglia'
PPS 1 p. 279; Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 124, 32iff.,
p. 125, 329ff.; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 108, 380; Matheolus' Lamentations,
p. 179, 705 (Lat. 2611), p. 180, 758ff. (Lat. 263 iff.).
47. The only example I have found is Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 368.
48. 'Tempus acceptable' AH xxxni p. 293, v. 14, 1-4. Cf. for the links
between learning and teaching, Roman de Fauvel, p. 33, 808-9; Gilles li
Muisis, 1 pp. 370-1.
49. E.g., 'The Simonie' PSE p. 328, 97-108.
50. PPl v 422-8. See also Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 269, 279, and Gower's
comments on the futility of being a 'lerned man' if one does not teach
or set a good example:
237
NOTES TO PAGE 66
Cil q'ad science et point ne cure
De nous precher, et en ordure
Sa vie meine nequedent,
Au fume que noz oils oscure
Resemble, qant nous fait lesure
De son malvois essamplement. (MO 21,733-8)
He who is learned and makes no effort to preach to us, and at the same
time leads his life in filth, is like the smoke that blurs our vision, when he
harms us by his bad example.
238
NOTES TO PAGES 68-9
'The Simonie' PSE p. 327, 70, 82, 91-3; PPl in 148-51, xv 129-30. For
sermons, see Owst, Lit and Pulp., pp. 244fF.
53. 'Two Notes on Piers Plowman: n. Chaucer's Debt to Langland', Medium
Aevum, 4 (1935), 89-94. F°r discussion of Chaucer's more general indebted-
ness to Langland, see my Appendix B.
Coghill points out that the similarities between the two ploughmen have
a special importance, since other resemblances between the two authors
may be due to independent observation of 'fraudulent pardoners, friars,
chantry-seeking priests and the like' ('Two Notes', pp. 90-1), whereas
virtuous ploughmen were not such an everyday phenomenon.
54. See 'Frequenter cogitans', Poe'sies Pop. Lat., p. 132; Sermones nulli parcentes,
pp. 41 and 42, cap. xxv and xxvi; VC v 579, 615, etc.
55. See 'Viri fratres, servi Dei' AH xxxni p. 270, 173; VC v 593.
56. See Chessbook, col. 377—8f£; 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 235,
193ff. 'Cultor' and 'laborarius' were also possible terms in Latin; see, for
example, VC v 629, and the chapter heading to v, chapter x.
57. See Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 131, 676; 'Li Manages des
Filles au Diable' NR 1 p. 286.
58. See fitienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 131, 678; 'Nous lisons une
istoire', ed. Montaiglon and Raynaud, 11 p. 265; 'Des Vilains', Anecdota
Literaria, ed. Wright, pp. 536°. (This poem, which begins 'Or escoutez un
autre conte | A toz les vilains doint Dex honte', is printed by Wright from
MS Berne 354 fol. 57V. - a large fourteenth-century MS. See H. Hagen,
Catalogus Codicum Bernensium (Berne, 1875), p. 340.)
59. See Roman de Cariti, p. 81 CLI 4; Roman de Fauvel, p. 45, 1139; 'Le Dit
des Mais' NR 1 p. 192; 'Le Dit des Planetes', ibid., p. 378.
60. See OED, s.v.
61. Luke 9: 62. The earliest reference to Christ as a ploughman is probably
that found in the Byzantine Greek Hymnos-Akathistos, which hails the
Virgin Mary as 'yecopyov yecopyovaoc (frcAocvdpcoTrov - 'nourisher of the
loving ploughman*. (The ninth-century Latin version translates this as
'agricolam agricolans humanum'.) See G. G. Meersseman, Der Hymnos
Akathistos im Abendland (Freiburg, 1958), pp. 108-9. I am grateful to
Peter Dronke for this reference.
62. PPl v 630-1. The link between these three virtues may ultimately be due to
the influential passage on Charity in 1 Cor. 13.
63. PPl v 568-73.
64. Ed. Arnold, in, 207, quoted by E. Fliigel, 'Gower's Mirour de l'Omme
und Chaucer's Prolog', Anglia, 24 (1901), 504.
65. See 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 235,197-200. For the tradition
of exalting agricultural labour, see Fliigel, 'Chaucer's Prolog', p. 504,
notes 1-4.
C.A.M.E.S.—I 239
NOTES TO PAGES 69-70
66. For the traditional abuse of peasants, see F. Novati, Carmina Medii Aevi
(Florence, 1883), pp. 25fF.
67. The sense of 'true* involved here is OED 2: 'Honest, honourable, upright,
virtuous, trustworthy*. Fliigel (Chaucer's Prolog', p. 504) aptly compares
with Chaucer WyclifFs statement that no life is as pleasing to God as that
of a 'trewe plow man' (ed. Matthew, p. 321).
For Langland's connection of 'treuthe' and 'lewte' with ploughmen,
see PPl 1119-22, C text 144-6. (These passages are not noted by Coghill,
whose suggested parallels for GP 531 are not very convincing.) 'Treuthe'
is especially important in Passus 1. For a discussion of lewte' and its mean-
ing for Langland, see E. T. Donaldson, Piers Plowman: The C-Text and
its Poet (2nd edition, London, 1966), pp. 6s&.
68. NE 31, 1, p. 134, 46. For details of this poem, see p. 288 n. 32.
69. Col. 393-4.
70. Livre des Manieres, p. 131, 708.
71. 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', p. 183, 214.
72.p. 45, 1139. See also Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 288, 663 (not in Latin):
labourers living off their %ial labour' are worthy of praise. In the thirteenth-
century German poem Meier Helmbrecht, Helmbrecht's peasant father
claims to be 'getriuwe, gewaere' - 'honest, upright' (p. 11, 253). Thomas
Wimbledon's sermon of 1388 urges the 'laborer or crafti man' to work
'trewli' (Medieval Studies, 27 (1966), p. 179).
73. Col. 329-40, 381-2.
74. Ed. Aspin, p. 119 v. 5. See also £tienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres,
p. 131, 676-81; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 288, 661-3 (Lat. 4677-8); and
the stress on the virtue of labour in PPl Crede p. 29, 785ff.
75. See VC v 577-88; 'Le Dit des Mais', NR 1 p. 193; 'Le Dit des Planetes',
ibid., pp. 378-9; MO 26,434.
76. Livre des Manieres, p. 131, CLXX-CLXXII.
77. PPl iv 147-8. See the interesting parallel in Meier Helmbrecht, p. 12, 266-7;
'ich sol ouch dir uf dinen wagen | nimmer mist gevazzen' - 'Never more
shall I load dung on to your cart for you'. The other tasks of the peasant
which are listed in Meier Helmbrecht are carrying sacks (264), driving oxen
(269), sowing oats (270), threshing (315), driving stakes (318), hedging (323).
78. PPl v 552-3. This and the previous parallel with Langland were noted by
Coghill, 'Two Notes'.
79. See MED, s.v., sense 1.
80. See'Frequenter cogitans', Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 132; Matheolus' Lamenta-
tions, p. 288, 67off., (Lat. 468iff.). Cf. Meier Helmbrecht, p. 12, 257-8; 'ich
han gelebet mine zit | ane haz und ane nit' - *I have lived all my life without
hatred or envy.'
81. See 'Li Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 p. 287; 'Le Dit des Planetes1,
ibid., p. 379; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 289, 684fF. (Lat. 4689-90).
240
NOTES TO PAGES 70-2
82. See Chessbook, col. 403-4; Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 42, 969-72. See also
E. Lommatzsch, Gautier de Coincy als Satiriker (Halle a.S., 1913), p. 72.
Note that the complaints that the peasant never works more than he has
to, and the complaints that he won't stop working for religious holidays,
exist side by side; social stereotypes were no more self-consistent in the
Middle Ages than they are today.
83. Rather of Verona gives tithing honestly, and working hard, as general
Christian duties (PL 136, Praeloquia, 1 col. 149). This illustrates the meagre
development of differentiated treatments of the third estate before the
fourteenth century; specialised features and duties were attached much
earlier to the different orders of the clergy.
84. Livre des Manieres, p. 132, 733ff. See also Lommatzsch, Gautier de Coincy,
p. 72.
85. See the Wakejield Pageants, ed. Cawley, pp. 3ff.; the surviving plays are,
however, too late to be used as sources for Chaucer.
86. PPl vi 93-5. This parallel is noted by Coghill, 'Two Notes', p. 94.
87. For further illustration, see Roman de Carite, p. 105, cxcvra 3-4; 'Li
Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 p. 287; Matheolus' Lamentations, p.
288,664-5 (Lat. 4678-80). For sermons, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 365-6.
88. See Matt. 22: 40.
89. See 'Frequenter cogitans', Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 132; VC v 577ff.; Roman
de Carite', p. 105 cxcvm 1-4; 'Le Dit des Planetes' NR 1 p. 379; 'Des
Vilains', Anecdota Literaria, ed. Wright, p. 53; MO 26,434.
90. PPl vn 504. This parallel is noted by Coghill ('Two Notes', p. 93), who
also compares GP 538 ('Withouten hire, if it lay in his myght') and PPl
565-7, where Piers refuses payment from the pilgrims. The similarity is
however slight, since the payment is there offered for Piers' services as
guide to Treuthe, not for his labour.
91. PPl vi 204-39. This passage is not noted by Coghill, but is in my view
an important influence on the Ploughman's portrait, because of the
combined emphasis on 'swynk', on 'dykynge and deluynge' (250), and
on charity to the poor. For this combination, note also v 548, where
Piers says he has promised to serve Treuthe 'the while I swynke myghte',
three lines before talking about 'dykyng and delvyng'.
92. As early as the eleventh-century romance, Ruodlieb, we find a portrayal of an
idealised peasant who distributes food to the needy of his village, in a scene
whose 'sacramental quality' has been noted by Peter Dronke. (Ed. H.
Zeydel, vn iff.; Poetic Individuality in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1970), p.
106. Nicholas plays the 'sautrie' (1 (A) 3213c) and Absalon plays the 'rubible'
and the 'giterne' (1 (A) 3331-3)-
107.20,801-20. See also feienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 124, 3i7fF.,
where the bishop is advised to ordain clerks who are 'sage* and 'de bones
mors' ('wise* and 'of virtuous character').
108. Another anticipation has been noticed in John of Salisbury's Policraticus
b y j . Fleming (ELN 2 (1964), 5-6).
109. Cf. PPl xn 99-114, where Langland says that 'letterure' is the key to
salvation.
n o . C £ i N o 6 p. 8, 33.
i n . SS 1190-1.
112. Map Poems, p. 233, 145. Cf. an article by H. E. Ussery citing a passage
from William of Wheatley which says a clerk ought to be like 'a virgin
newly-espoused' (Tulane Studies in English, 15 (1967), 1-18). The same
metaphor can be discerned behind the description of Ruodlieb's nephew,
who, has 'so tender and maidenly ('virginea') a face', that no-one can tell
whether he is clerk, woman or schoolboy (Ruodlieb, p. 118, xra, 4). This
metaphor appears in Chaucer in the Prologue to the Clerk's Tale:
'Sire Clerk of Oxenford', oure Hooste sayde,
'Ye ryde as coy and stille as dooth a mayde
Were newe spoused, sittynge at the bord.' (rv (E) 1-3)
Chaucer makes the image more concrete and in so doing gives it a comic
touch, but the Latin poem shows that the metaphor was, originally, neither
his nor comic. The phrase is given another twist altogether in the descrip-
tion of Nicholas in the Miller's Tale, who is 'lyk a mayden meke for to
see'(i(A) 3202).
113.NE32,1 p. 293.
114. For the clerk's pride in his learning, see Walter of Chatillon, No VI, p. 86,
v. 18; SS 1205-6, 1999-2003; De Planctu Naturae, Anglo-Latin Satirical
Poets, n prose vn, p. 494; Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 30, 529-30; VC HI
2130, 2137-8; Renart le Contrefait, n p. 29, 25,193-210; Gilles li Muisis, 1
p. 263; MO 1447-52; Handlyng Synne, p. 108, 3078-82.
115. The phrase is from 'Meum est propositum', ed. Strecker, Studi Medievali,
n.s. 1 (1928), p. 387, v. 9, 4.
116. Appendix to 'Missus sum in vineam', No vi p. 87, w . i8feff. For comment
on the authorship, see ibid., p. 81. This passage provides a background
against which the Host's words to the Clerk have precise relevance:
Youre termes, youre colours, and youre figures,
Keepe hem in stoor til so be that ye endite
Heigh style, as whan that men to kynges write.
Speketh so pleyn at this tyme, we yow preye,
That we may understonde what ye seye. (CT iv (E) 16-20)
243
NOTES TO PAGE 79
117. MO 20,818-20. See also on this topic Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 37, 340-5.
The idea probably derives from Prov. 10: 19: 'In multiloquio non deerit
peccatum.' Brevity and simplicity of speech are also recommended to
priests (see CB 1 No 33, p. 55, v. 6, 2; 'Viri venerabiles', Haureau, NE
vi p. 15, Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 393). They are also generally recommended:
see Ancrene Wisse, p. 39, fol. iSa, nfF.; Gilles li Muisis, n p. 74.
118. 'Vix nodosum valeo', ed. P. Leyser, Historia Poetarum et Poematum tnedii
aevi (1721), p. 1096, v. 27, 4. The Roman de Fauvel also takes it for granted
that clerks are 'povres' and 'sans rente* (p. 6, 73). See also PPl x 159-60:
ryde forth by Ricchesse * ac rest thow naujt therinne,
For if thow couplest the ther-with * to Clergye comestow neuere.
The poor clerk is a stock figure in medieval stories; see the 'Gospel accord-
ing to the Mark of Silver* CB 1 No 44 p. 86, and Latin Stories, No LXXXII,
p. 73.
119. See Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 571. Note also the picture of Poverty in
Robert Holcot's commentary on the Twelve Prophets: 'quasi una domina,
vulta letata, philosophis maritata\ Thomas Ringstead follows Hugh of St
Victor in listing six requirements for serious study: humility, inquiry,
silence, poverty and a foreign land. Ringstead's idea of study is also that
it is a means to salvation: 'Secunda clavis apperiens est assiduitas studii
inquirendo, dum modo tamen ad Christum per opera fructuosa ipsa
studii aviditas referatur.'-'The second unlocking key is diligent intel-
lectual inquiry, so long as such eagerness in study is related to Christ
through its fruit in action/ (This information is derived from B. Smalley,
English Friars and Antiquity in the Early Fourteenth Century (Oxford, i960),
pp. 178, 216).
120. No xi p. 113, v. 3, 4.
121. NE 32,1, p. 293.
122. See especially Walter of Chatillon, No vi p. 86 v. 16, 4: 'nam sine divitiis
vita est quasi mortis imago' - 'for life without riches is as an image of
death*. (The line is adapted from the Proverbs of Dionysius Cato where it
reads 'sine doctrina vita'.)
123. See 'Hora nona sabbati' NE 32 1, passim; 'Nous lisons une istoire', ed.
Montaiglon and Raynaud, n p. 264 (where the young man looking for a
profession is first attracted by the 'tres aisies, tres delicieux' ('very comfort-
able, very sumptuous') life of the clergy, but then repelled by the hard-
ships he would have to undergo when training for this life as a student.
The 'clericus' of the twelfth-century debate poem 'Anni parte florida',
who enjoys every luxury, is clearly a member of the beneficed clergy,
not a student. (CB 1 No 92; for a discussion of the poem see Raby, Secular
Latin Poetry, n pp. 29ifF.)
124. No m p. 45, v. 20, 4.
244
NOTES TO PAGES 8o-2
125/Meum est propositum', ed. Strecker, Studi Medievally n.s. 1 p. 387 v. 8,
1-2, pp. 390-1, vv. 21-2. See also the whole poem.
126.1 pp. i n and 262fF. See also Thomas Wimbledon's sermon of 1388:
men 'puttej).. . here sones rajsere to lawe syuyle and to {)e kyngis court
to writen lettres or writis J>an to philosophic oj)er deuinitie' (Medieval
Studies, 28 (1966), p. 181).
127. For the two senses of the word, see OED s.v., la and 3. For Chaucer's uses
of it, see the Chaucer Concordance, s.v.; it is especially frequent in the
Melibeus, the Tales of the Parson and the Prioress, and the Clerk's Tale.
Note also the Sergeant's own introduction to his Tale:
If thou be povre, farwel thy reverence! (n (B1) 116)
Other uses of the word in the General Prologue also bring out the disparity
between moral and social status; see 141 and 525.
128. Ed. Strecker, Studi Medievali, n.s. 1 p. 387, v. 5.
129. NE 32,1, pp. 290, 292. See also complaints that modern scholars fuss about
their appearance: VC in 2131; Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 46, 642-3.
130. SS 1185; Walter of Chatillon, No vi p. 85, v. 11, 4; 'Hora nona sabbati'
NE 32,1, p. 294.
131. See 'Meum est propositum', ed. Strecker, Studi Medievali n.s. 1, p. 388,
v. 12, 4; 'Hora nona sabbati' NE 32, 1, p. 293; and a complaint that
modern scholars ride about unlike the poor students of old, Mum and the
Sothsegger, p. 46,643.
132. 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', p. 178, 39-40.
133.1pp. 106,278.
134. Handlyng Synne, p. 44, 1209-10. The obligation to pray for benefactors
applied to all recipients of alms: see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 561.
135. Nicholas in the Miller's Tale also lives off his obliging friends (1 (A) 3220)*
136. Map Poems, p. 234, 157. Cf. however 149-50, where the author seems to
regard a secular administrative post as inevitable for clerks, and exhorts
them to perform their duties honestly and obediently.
137. PPl x 469-70. See also Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 46, 644ff. Involvement in
secular business is also imputed to other educated classes, such as friars
(see Chapter 2) and priests (see, for example, PPl Prol. 92-6).
138. See Walter of Chatillon, No iv p. 65, vv. 9 and 15; ibid., No vi p. 83, v. 6;
ibid., No ix p. 106, w . 6-7 fnon est, qui pro paupere spondeat scolari' -
'there is no one to sponsor the poor student'); CB1 No 5 p. 5, v. 3; 'Ecce
dolet Anglia', PPS 1 p. 280 ('Favor non scientia promovet rectores'-
'influence, not learning, wins promotion to rector'); Roman de Fauvel,
p. 6, 73, p. 33, 8o5fF.; 'Le Dit des Mais' NR 1 pp. 181-2; 'Dis des Estas
dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 178, 56-8; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 107,
363; MO i6,o8iff.; 'The Simonie', PSE p. 326, 55-60. On the scholar
who studies only for the sake of a rich living, see VC m 2107-10.
245
NOTES TO PAGES 82~5
139. Livre des Manieres, p. 123 LXVI 261-4.
140. See Pantin, The English Church in the Fourteenth Century, pp. 107$".
141. Anglia, 24 (1901), pp. 480-2.
142. See the complaints cited by Helen Waddell {The Wandering Scholars,
6th edition, pp. iO4fF.) about the length of time which scholars devote to
studying 'logyk' and secular authors, when they should have mastered
theology and gone out into the parishes.
143. Ed. Matthew, p. 250:
^if siche curatis ben stired to gone lerne goddis lawe & teche here
parischenys J?e gospel, comynly J>ei schullen gete no leue of bischopis
but for gold; & whanne J>ei schullen most profite in here lernynge J^an
schulle J>ei be clepid horn at J>e prelatis wille.
CHAPTER 4
1. It is a feature not confined to this group of portraits, but is the most
interesting aspect to emerge from comparison between them and the
traditional satire of their estates.
2. The outlines of the lawyer's stereotype remain the same whether he is
judge or simple apprentice, ecclesiastical or civil lawyer. This is well
illustrated by the ease with which Langland moves from one group to
another in satirising legal corruption:
Men of lawe lest pardoun badde'tbat pleteden for mede,
For the sauter saueth hem nou^t * such as taketh ^iftes,
And namelich of innocentz* that none yuel ne kunneth;. . .
Pledoures shulde peynen hem * to plede for such, an helpe,. . .
Ac many a Iustice an Iurore" wolde for Iohan do more,
Than pro dei pietate* leue thow none other! (PPl vn 39-45).
3. 'The Parvys' is usually taken to be the porch of St Paul's, but it may be
the court or colonnade at Westminster (see Robinson's note, and Sir John
Fortescue, De laudibus legum Anglie, ed. S. B. Chrimes (Cambridge, 1942),
p. 205); the reference may be to hearing the disputations of students, but it
is much more likely that it is to consultations with clients. G. L. Frost
('Chaucer's Man of Law at the Parvis', MLN 44 (1929), 496-501) explains
the comment as a reference to investiture ceremonies for new sergeants.
This is an entirely hypothetical meaning for the phrase, and I think it is
better to take it as a reference to the scene of the Sergeant's regular working
activities, and as an under-statement: thus it would mean no more than
'He (of course) knew the Parvis inside out.' For a similar presentation of the
prosaic daily activities of a pilgrim, see the Ploughman's portrait, 'He hadde
ylad of dong ful many a fother.' There is nothing extraordinary about this,
and I think there is probably nothing extraordinary about the Sergeant's
having often been at the Parvis.
4. See OED s.v., 6a. From this order the Common Law judges were chosen.
5. The 'patente' would be an open letter of authorisation from the king, and
the 'pleyn commissioun' would give him jurisdiction in all kinds of cases.
(See Bowden, Commentary, p. 167.)
6. 'Fee simple' was perpetual tenure of land without limitation to any particular
class of heirs.
7. 'In termes' is explained by OED as 'in express words, expressly, plainly,
"in so many words" ' (s.v. Term, 146). This does not fit the context very
well, and I prefer to accept R. C. GofFin's interpretation of the phrase as a
247
NOTES TO PAGES 87-9
reference to legal jargon: 'the plural use in Chaucer always suggests clerkly
jargon of some sort'. ('Notes on Chaucer* MLR 18 (1923), 336-7). For
confirmation of GofFin's statement, see Chaucer Concordance, s.v.
8. This poem, printed in PSE pp. 224fF., is found in several manuscripts, two
of them English and at least two of them thirteenth-century. It belongs to
the school of Walter of Chatillon (Strecker, ZfDA 64 (1927), 188).
9. VC vi 357-8. Cf. also 343-4.
10.PSE p. 338, 327. The reference is to justices. . .shirreves, cheiturs, and
chaunceler' (322). See also a sermon reference to judges 'buying lands,
building mansions, and laying up a fortune' (Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 346).
For historical evidence of the land-buying of a fourteenth-century lawyer,
see M. Eliason, 'The Peasant and the Lawyer', SP 48 (1951), 523-4.
11. OED classes 'purchasour' in this passage under sense 1, 'One who acquires
or aims at acquiring possessions; one who "feathers his nest" ', although
'many explain purchasour as "conveyancer", which is possible' - in which
case it would presumably have sense 2: 'One who acquires land or property
in any way other than by inheritance*. 'Purchas' (noun and verb) and
'purchasyng' are used by Chaucer in neutral or honourable situations, but
they also, significantly, recur in sinister contexts: see GP 256, 608, Friar's
Tale m (D) 1449, 1451, 1530. See also Parson's Tale x (I) 740-5, 1065-70.
(Chaucer Concordance s.v.) The uses seem to be particularly suspect when the
object of the 'purchas' is not indicated.
12. Handlyng Synne, p. 196, 6049-50.
13. See MO 6220-2, 2415-16, 24,745-7; Winner and Waster, 149-52 (the
enlistment of lawyers in Winner's army); PPl xiv 286-7. Most often the
rich lawyer is linked with the rich doctor, as we saw in discussion of the
Clerk; see Walter of Chatillon, No in p. 45 v. 20; 'Meum est propositum'
ed. Strecker, Studi Medievali n.s. 1 (1928), p. 391, v. 22; Sertnones nulli
parcentes, p. 28, 465-70; 'Crux est denarii potens in saeculo', Map Poems,
p. 225, 61-4; VC vi 121-4; RR 1 5061-4; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. i n ; MO
24,289-312.
14. See Walter of Chatillon, No in, p. 45, v. 22, 2; VC vi 391-2; Matheolus'
Lamentations, p. 285, $6jf£. (Lat. 46i4fT.), and Lommatzsch, Gautier de
Coincy, p. 58 and n. 1.
15. PPl m 293-4. See also xx 137-8, where Coueityse corrupts civil law, and
arranges divorces for 'a mantel of menyuere'.
16. For 'medlee', see OED s.v. I, 'Of a mixed colour; variegated, motley',
and M. C. Linthicum ' "Faldyng" and "Medlee" \JEGP 34 (1935), 40-1.
Sir John Fortescue (De laudibus legum Anglie, ed. S. B. Chrimes, Chapter 51),
writing in the fifteenth century, says that sergeants wear 'stragulata vestis* -
'a striped gown' which is laid aside by justices. (See Fliigel, 'Chaucer's
Prolog', p. 492. See also J. H. Fisher, John Gower: Moral Philosopher and
248
NOTES TO PAGES 89-91
Friend of Chaucer (London, 1965), pp. 55-6.) 'Medlee' is not necessarily
striped material, but see Bowden, Commentary, p. 171.
The Sergeant's belt with its thin bars has a parallel in Nicholas Bozon's
description of 'Joye du pecche", who has a similar belt with a purse attached
(like Chaucer's Franklin). But the difference is that Bozon gives each
item an allegorical significance which characterises the sin (Le Char d'Orgueil,
p. 23, civ 413-16). Chaucer's originality shows not in his inclusion of these
concrete details, but in the way he sets them free from moralising associations.
17. Cf. Wycliff's reference to bribes of 'money & fees & robis' (ed. Matthew,
p. 234).
18. See CB1 No 5, p. 6, v. 16; ibid., No 39, p. 62, v. 3; 'Quam sit lata scelerum',
PSE p. 31; 'Tempus acceptable' AH xxxra p. 293, vv. 8-10; CB 1, No 1,
p. 1; 'Beati qui esuriunt' PSE pp. 224ff.; 'Crux est denarii potens in saeculo',
Map Poems, p. 225,29ff., 62ff.; VC vi Chapters I-IV; 'Heu! quia per crebras',
Gower, p. 356, 55-62; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 85, 244off.; RR1 5o6iff.,
8201-3; 'L'Etat du Monde', Rutebeuf 1, p. 386, 87-8; 'La Vie du Monde',
ibid., p. 397, 61-4; 'Le Dit des Patenostres' NR 1, p. 240; 'Le Dit des Mais',
ibid., p. 189; 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 181, 143-56;
Renart le Contrefait, n pp. 27-8,25,026-75; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 112, n p. 155;
Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 282, 48ofF. (Lat. 4559ft); 'The Simonie' PSE
p. 339; PPln 60, m 157, rv 152-3, vn 39-45, xx 131-8; Thomas Wimbledon's
sermon, Medieval Studies, 28 (1966), 184; 'Syngyn y wolde', PPS 1 pp.
272-3. For sermons, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 339-49. See also
Lommatzsch, Gautier de Coincy, pp. 56-7.
19. See VC vi 249-52; MO 6220S., 24,378ff.; PPl Prol. 210-15, in 293-4.
20. pp. 28-9, 471-6. See also, for example, CB 1 No 1, p. 1, v. 2, 3-4, v. 3,
5-6, v. 5, 6-7; ibid., No 39 v. 3; Gilles li Muisis, n p. 155.
21. The adjective 'busy' seems to have had a wider range of connotations than
in modern English; as well as implying industriousness or diligence, it
could also be used to suggest fussing about worldly affairs, or thoughtless
activity - the opposite of virtuous contemplation. See MED s.v. 1, especially
the quotations from the Ancrene Wisse and the Ayenbite of Inwyt, its use
(sense 2) in re-tellings of the biblical story of Martha and Mary, and in
Wycliff, 'men shulden not be bisi to J)e morowe'. Cf. Chaucer's Parson's
Tale (x (I) 473-4):
Certes, the commendacioun of the people is somtyme ful fals and ful
brotel for to triste; this day they preyse, tomorwe they blame./God
woot, desir to have commendacioun eek of the peple hath caused deeth
to many a bisy man.
and, for another ambiguous use, the reference in the Summoner's Talc
(m (D) 1940) to the 'chaste bisy freres'. The suggestion of a cultivated
'front of importance is also present in Skelton's irritated repetition 'Busy,
249
NOTES TO PAGES 91-2
busy, busy' (followed by the comment 'too wise is no virtue') in Speke
Parrot.
22. PPl xv 5-9. See also Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 285, 569-70: 'Et de nobles
robes se parent, | Affin que plus sages apparent.' - 'And they dress in fine
gowns so as to appear wiser.' (Lat. 4614-15); MO 24,377-8: 'pour son pris |
Le noun voet porter de sergant' - 'for the sake of his prestige he wants to bear
the name of sergeant'; Thomas Wimbledon's sermon of 1388 (Medieval
Studies, 28 (1966), 183): 'J^ey J>enkeJ> not J)at J>ey beJ3 pore mennys
brejseryn, but J>ey wenej) to passe hem in kynde as |>ey passed in worldly
worschipe' (of kings, princes, mayors, sheriffs, justices).
23. This pair of adjectives is interpreted by W. Heraucourt (Chaucers Wertwelt
(Heidelberg, 1939), p. 93, quoted by Bowden, Commentary, p. 166) as less
complimentary than the pair 'worthy and wys'. However, 'war and wys'
are found in perfectly respectable contexts, such as an elegy on the death of
Edward I {PSE p. 246, v. 2) where the king is described as 'in werre war
ant wys'. See also Handlyng Synne, p. 256, 8084. In Mum and the Sothsegger,
p. 77, 1716, the phrase seems to indicate the self-interested prudence of
Chaucer's Sergeant.
24. In view of this link, it is rather surprising that the Doctor's portrait does not
immediately follow the Sergeant's, but for the traditional connection that
likewise exists between the Sergeant's estate and the Franklin's, see Chapter
7, p. 159, n. 45.
25. See, for example, SS 105-18; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 89, 25470°.; 'Le
Dit des Patenostres' NR 1 p. 241; 'Le Dit des Mais', ibid., p. 191; Renart le
Contrefait, n p. 28, 25,125^, p. 44, 26,647^; Matheolus' Lamentations,
p. 286, 6l9fF. (Lat. 4648ff.); 'The Simonie' PSE p. 333, 21 iff.; PPl n 223-4,
vi 275-6, xx 171-8. For sermons, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 349-50. See
also Lommatzsch, Gautier de Coincy, p. 61.
26. For identification of these authorities and their works, see Bowden,
Commentary, pp. 2ooff.
27. See RR n 15,929-31 ('Ypocras.. .Galian.. .Rasi, Constantin, Avicenne');
Renart le Contrefait, n p. 11, 23,388-97 ('Ypocras.. .Galien. . .Ruffm,
Constantin, Tholomee [Ptolemy], Alixandres [of Tralles], Avisain, Platon,
Ancises [Alkindi?], etjasaine, [Aboul Hassan], Senecque, Galien, Constantin/
According to Raynaud and Lemaitre, Aboul Hassan was author of a
treatise on astronomy. For the scientific works of Seneca and Ptolemy, see
L. Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science (London, 1923-),
vol. 1, Chapter 3; for Plato, see ibid., pp. 25-6; for Alexander of Tralles
pp. 566ff., and for Alkindi, pp. 642-9. For the other medical authorities,
see Bowden, Commentary.
28. p. 287,623-31 (Lat. 4652-5). I have not been able to decide on a satisfactory
meaning for 'temps' in this passage; it might be a reference to administering
medicine when the astrological influences are favourable, or it might be
250
NOTES TO PAGES 93-4
a reference to the different stages of a disease which require different
methods of treatment. For the argument that the second of these is what
Chaucer also means by 'houres', see P. Aiken, 'Vincent of Beauvais and
the "Houres" of Chaucer's Physician', SP 53 (1956), 22-4. For 'Isaac',
see M. Neuburger and J. Pagel, Handbuch der Geschichte der Medizin, vol.
1 (Jena, 1902), p. 128.
29. Renart le Contrefait, 11 p. 28, 25,078-86.
30. A 'Liber de membris' went under the name of Aesculapius, and is cited by
Bartholomaeus Anglicus and Albertus Magnus (Thorndike, History of
Magic, vol. 2, pp. 431-2; see also p. 496), but the article by Robbins cited in
the next note shows that Chaucer is very unusual in citing Aesculapius as a
medical authority.
31. For differing estimates of Chaucer's acquaintance with the works of these
and other medical authorities, see J. L. Lowes, 'The Loveres Maladye of
Hereos', MP 2 (April 1914), 1-56; A. G. Nicholls, 'Medicine in Chaucer's
Day', Dalhousie Review 12 (1932), 218-30; Curry, Chaucer and the Medieval
Sciences, pp. xxi-ii, and the articles by P. Aiken on Chaucer and Vincent
of Beauvais in Speculum 10 (1935), 281-7; PMLA 51 (1936), 316-19, and
SP 33 (1936), 40-4. R. H. Robbins refutes Aiken's statement (repeated by
Robinson and Bowden) that the Speculum Naturale of Vincent of Beauvais
contains all the Doctor's authorities; several of them post-date Vincent,
and so could not have been mentioned by him. After an examination of the
authorities cited in medical manuscripts, Robbins concludes that Chaucer's
list represents what an educated doctor of the period would have cited, with
the exception of Rufus of Ephesus, who is virtually unknown in English
MSS. ('The Physician's Authorities', Studies in Language and Literature
in Honour of Margaret Schlauch (Warsaw, 1966), pp. 335-41; Robbins'
comparative tables show that Chaucer is also exceptional in citing Aes-
culapius, though he does not comment on this).
32. For a commentary on these processes of medieval medicine, see Curry,
Chaucer and the Mediceval Sciences, Chapter 1.
33.Avicenna, for example, mentions medical astrology only to dismiss it
along with other supernatural processes (O. C. Gruner, A Treatise on
the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna, incorporating a translation of the First Book
(London, 1930), p. 149). Rather of Verona, in his Praeloquia, prescribes
knowledge of 'potions, herbs and animals' for doctors; 'auguries, enchant-
ments and superstitions' belong to the realm of 'mathematici' (PL 136
col. 152). For the varying positions on medical astrology in the Middle
Ages, see T. O. Wedel, The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology (Yale
Studies in English 50 (1920, repr. 1968), pp. 54, 65-7, 73, 88).
34. Renart le Contrefait, n p. 28,25,091-101,25,111-22. See also p. 44,26,719^:
to take a medicine unnecessarily injures health,
251
NOTES TO PAGES 94-7
Car toutes choses, che scavons,
Ont temps par mois et par saisons,
Telle chose est cest an nuisable,
Qui encor sera profitable
Selon la constellacion
Et selon la complexion.
For all things, as we know, have their time, their month or season. A
thing may be harmful now, and profitable at some other time, according
to the stars and the humours.
p
36. Bible, p. 91, 26i4ff.
37. Renart le Contrefait, 11 p. 28, 25,127-31.
38. MO 25,645-63. The apothecary sometimes appears by himself in estates
satire, as he does in 'Le Dit des Patenostres' (NR1 p. 245): 'aposticaires | Qui
vendent les cyrops et les bons laituaires' - 'apothecaries who sell syrups and
good electuaries'. But doctors and apothecaries were closely linked as a
rule: the Chessbook deals with physicians, spicers and apothecaries in the
same section (col. 5 SpfF.); 'Le Dit des Mais' deals with 'apoticaires'
immediately after 'phisiciens', and in similar terms (NR 1 p. 191). In Piers
Plowman, an account of Liar's sojourn with 'leches' is followed by his
removal to 'spicereres' (11223-6). Gower's satire on physicians is stimulated
by his discussion of dishonesty among spicers (MO 25,62iff.). 'The Simonie',
on the other hand attributes the fraudulent practice with drugs to the
doctor himself (PSE p. 332, 223ff.).
39. Bible, pp. 91-2, 2610-36.
40. Renart le Contrefait, n p. 28, 25,087-9. See also p. 44, 26,729fF., where he
also opts for 'chauldes sausses et confis' ('hot sauces and preserves') instead
of medicine.
41. The actual vocabulary of GP 435-7 seems to be drawn from Gower's
treatment of gluttony in MO. The fourth daughter of 'Gule', called
'Superfluite", gobbles down food and
Sanz digester, sanz avaler
Laist sa viande a realer,
Par ou entra par la revait.
D'ice pecche par duete
Le noun est Superfluete,
Q'est l'anemye de mesure. (8338-43; my italics)
without digesting, without swallowing, lets her meat come back again -
it returns the way it entered. The right name of this sin is Superfluity,
who is the enemy of moderation.
See also the description of 'Mesure', whose first daughter is 'Diete':
Le ventre vit en grant quiete
252
NOTES TO PAGES 97-9
Qui se governe par Diete.
Et vit solonc bonne attemprance
De sa pitance consiiete;
Car qui se paist au droite mete,
Son corps du sante bien avance. (16,249-54; my italics)
The stomach that is ruled by Diet lives in great peace. And it lives, in
accordance with self-control, on the food it is accustomed to. For
whoever feeds on the right food, increases the health of his body.
253
NOTES TO PAGES 99-IOI
1388, Medieval Studies 28 (1966), 179. For sermon references, sec Owst,
Lit. and Pulp., pp. 353-61.
50. Anti-mercantile satire is extended by describing at length the different
kinds of dishonesty practised with different kinds of merchandise, rather
than by describing different traits of the merchant's stereotype. See Etienne
de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 134, 8iyff.; Renart le Contrefait, 11 p. 45,
26,85iff; MO 25,237ft; PPl v 201-27.
51. VC v 706; see also Rather of Verona, Praeloquia, PL 136 col. 159; 'Frequenter
cogitans', Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 131; Chessbook, col. 529-50; Sermones nulli
parcentes, pp. 38-40, 845-92; VC v Chapter xn; 'Le Dit des Mais' NR 1
p. 191; MO 6505-16; Handlyng Synne, p. 193, 5945ff.; Winner and Waster,
190; PPlv 2ooff.
52. VC v 7O3ff. See, for other references to usury, 'Viri fratres' AH xxxm
p. 270, 170-2, p. 271, 199-200; 'Heu! quia per crebras', Gower, p. 356,
65-6; Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 132, 807-8, p. 134, 825-8,
p.135, 88off.; 'Li Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 p. 286; 'L'Etat du
Monde', Rutebeuf, 1 p. 387, 130-4; 'La Vie du Monde', ibid., p. 400, 9-10;
Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 287, 64iff. (Lat. 466off.); PPl xix 346-7. For
sermons, see Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 300, 353, 360.
53. 'Ecce dolet Anglia', PPS 1 p. 279. See also p. 281.
54. Fliigel quoted a statute of 1350 to show that money exchange by private
individuals was illegal ('Chaucer's Prolog*, p. 474); a new examination of
the evidence by B. A. Park ('The Character of Chaucer's Merchant', ELN
1 (1964), 167-75) shows that the Merchant was probably within the law in
selling French ecus. But even Park admits that there were opportunities for
sharp practice in the business of money exchange.
55. PPl v 249; see also XHI 392-4.
56. Renart le Contrefait, u p. 41, 26,362.
57.11 pp. 65, 72. The Chessbook takes it for granted that merchants should be
money-exchangers ('pecuniarum commutatores', col. 529-30).
58. 'Le Dit des Planetes' NR 1 p. 378.
59. Gower gives a rather obscure explanation of the practice, MO 7237-48.
For the two senses of the word, see MED s.v., sense 3, 'The act of acquiring
something, or what one acquires; acquisition, gain, profit. . .', and 6(a),
'The borrowing of money, esp. on security or/and at interest. . .(&) the
lending of money at interest, esp. also at high interest; usury'. Cf. also its
use to indicate the technicalities of the merchant's business in the Shipman's
Tale (vn 325-48 [B 2 * 1515-38]), and by Wycliff, who says that merchants
steal 'bi usure, under colour of treujse J>at ]pei clepyn chevysaunce, to blynde
wij) J)e puple' (ed. Arnold, m p. 88).
60. For the traditional presentation of merchants as solemn and self-conscious
of manner in French fabliaux, see G. Stillwell, 'Chaucer's "Sad" Merchant',
RES 20 (1944), 1-18. The merchant stereotype in estates literature was
254
NOTES TO PAGES I O I - 2
certainly influenced by his role in fabliau, for some satirists dwell on the
likelihood of his being cuckolded while abroad on business. (See Etienne de
Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 134, 84iff.; Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 38,
See also Winner and Waster, 375-7 ('Prowde marchandes of pris'), and
Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 352.
62. MO 25,362-3. Since Chaucer's Merchant is so concerned about Middel-
burgh, where the wool staple was situated, we may assume him to be a
wool-merchant too.
63. Sermon of 1388, Medieval Studies, 28 (1966), 182; cf. Owst, Lit. and Pulp.,
p. 352.
64. See O. E. Johnson, 'Was Chaucer's Merchant in Debt?: A Study in
Chaucerian Syntax and Rhetoric', JEGP 52 (1953), 50-7, and the article by
G. Stillwell cited below.
65. MO 25,813-30. The Chessbook had warned merchants against contracting
debts they were unable to pay (col. 549-52).
66. In stressing this I concur with G. Stillwell ('Chaucer's Merchant: No
Debts?' JEGP $j (1958), 192-6), who points out that Chaucer directs our
attention 'not so much to the Merchant's actual financial status as to his
manner of giving a certain impression of his status' (p. 194). Stillwell com-
pares him in this respect with 'those other ironically described middle-class
figures of the Prologue, the Lawyer, the Five Guildsmen, and the Physician*.
I am very glad of this confirmation of my selection of this as a unifying
feature of these particular portraits - a selection which was made before I
read Stillwell's article. However, I would disagree with Stillwell's opinion
that Chaucer is hostile to the Lawyer and Merchant, and is attacking their
facade; this is still to read the portraits in terms of individual moral criticism.
255
NOTES TO PAGES 102-5
67. For a suggestion that the Merchant's concern over a free sea-route hints at
possible embezzlement, piracy and manipulation of his financial interest,
see J. K. Crane, 'An Honest Merchant?', ELN 4. (1966), 81-5.
68.A. S. Walker, 'Note on Chaucer's Prologue, MLN 38 (1923), 314. The
plague of pirates was 'at its height' between 1385 and 1386.
69. See Bowden, Commentary, pp. 150-1, and pp. 53-4 above on fine shoes as
a sign of wealth. For the association of the merchant with foreign travel,
see Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 133, 809-16; Gilles li Muisis,
11 p. 57; MO 25,244ff.; PPl xin 392-3.
70. One other feature with which the merchant is sometimes associated is
ungodliness - blaspheming and neglecting the Sabbath. See 'Viri fratres'
AH xxxiii p. 271, 181; Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 135,
873-84; 'Le Dit des Planetes', NR 1 p. 387; Matheolus' Lamentations,
p. 287, 635-6.
71. Although there are references to 'draperes' and 'weueres' in PPl (Prol. 219,
v 209-18).
72. For attempts to identify the fraternity, see the articles by A. B. Fullerton,
MLN 61 (1946), 515-23; J. W. McCutchan, PMLA 74 (1959), 313-17;
T. J. Garbaty, JEGP 59 (i960), 691-709. The difficulty in establishing even
what kind of fraternity the Guildsmen belonged to - craft guild or parish
association - makes it at least worth considering that Chaucer did not
intend it to be precisely identified.
73. For an attempt to find meaning in the list, see E. P. Kuhl, Trans, of the
Wisconsin Acad. of Sciences, Arts and Letters 18 (1916), 652-75, and for ob-
jections to Kuhl's argument, see Fullerton, MLN 61 (1946), 515-23.
74. See 'Viri fratres' AH XXXIII p. 270, 167-73J 'Totum regit saeculum', Map
Poems, p. 234, 161-76; VC v, Chapters XI-XVI; Etienne de Fougeres,
Livre des Manieres, p. 133, 80iff.; 'Li Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 p.
286.
75. Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 38, 825-34, and fF.
76. VC v Chapters xin-xiv; MO 25,5Oiff. Cf. 'L'Etat du Monde', Rutebeuf 1
p- 387, 135-46; PPl v 2ooff.
77. See the passages from estates works already cited in the notes to this
section.
78. Cf. P. Lisca ('Chaucer's Guildsmen and their Cook', MLN 70 (1955), 321-4):
'It is certainly doubtful that Chaucer considered property and a socially
ambitious wife sufficient qualifications for a lawgiver, or that these really
constitute "wisdom".' Lisca notes the frequency of this use of a 'modifying
context' in the Prologue.
79. See Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 138, iO73ff., where the rich
lady hopes to meet her lover at the vigil. The Wife of Bath shows off her
fine clothes at 'vigilies' (m (D) 555-9).
80. They may be compared with Gower's lines on 'Vaine gloire', who is a
256
NOTES TO PAGES IO5-7
worldly lady who exerts herself 'Pour estre appelle cheventeine' - 'to be
called mistress* (MO 1201-9).
81. Skeat, in his edition, notes that the ordinary tradesman or craftsman was
forbidden to wear a knife ornamented with a precious metal, and that the
Guildsmen must therefore be of a superior estate; alternatively, as Bowden
suggests (Commentary, p. 183), they are doing something they shouldn't.
Significantly, we can't be sure which interpretation is correct.
82. Langland criticises priests who wear daggers and 'a gerdel of syluer' (PPl
xv 120-1). See also Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 369.
CHAPTER 5
1. For an important recent study of medieval knighthood, see J. Bumke,
Studien zum Ritterbegriffim 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (Beihefte zum Euphorion 1,
(Heidelberg, 1964)).
2. The meaning of 'worthy' here is OED 2: 'Distinguished by good qualities,
entitled to honour or respect on this account; estimable'. 'Worthy' is often
applied to knights by Chaucer; see Chaucer Concordance, s.v.
3. See VC 475-96; MO 23,653^
4. Dits, ed. Scheler, p. 44, 30-3. Watriquet flourished in the early part of the
fourteenth century (ibid., pp. viii, xii). For circumstances that make it
possible that Chaucer would have been interested in Watriquet's writings,
see Bowden, Commentary, pp. 46-7. However, the Dit du Conestable
survives in only one mid-fourteenth-century MS (Scheler, p. xvii), and
Bowden allows that both writers may have been using the 'same common
medieval conception of an ideal' (p. 49). For her discussion of Chaucer's
list in relation to Watriquet's, see pp. 47-9. The similarities between the
two passages were first pointed out by W. H. Schofield (Chivalry in English
Literature (Cambridge, Mass., 1912), pp. 30-3).
Watriquet's 'Prouesce' can correspond to Chaucer's 'chivalrie'; see
MED s.v., 4 and 5. The phrase 'to love chivalry' seems to be used by Chaucer
in contexts where the exercise of arms is involved (see Knight's Tale 1 (A)
2106, 2184). Similarly, 'loiaute" stands for Chaucer's 'trouthe' (OED 1,
'faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty'), and 'largesce' for 'fredom' (MED 2,
'generosity, liberality'). Chaucer uses such lists of virtues to characterise
other knightly heroes; in Troilus and Criseyde, Hector is said to possess
'alle trouth and alle gentilesse, | Wisdom, honour, fredom and worthi-
nesse' (n 160-1), and in the Knight's Tale, Arcite praises Palamon for all the
proper qualifications of a knightly lover - 'trouthe, honour, knyghthede, |
Wysdom, humblesse, estaat, and heigh kynrede, | Fredom' (1 (A) 2789-91).
5. The most important group is 'Proesce', 'Largesce', 'Courtoisie' and
'Loiaute', who were 'engendered' by him on 'Honour', and are now
'orphaned' (ed. Scheler, pp. 53-4) but Gautier is also praised for being
257
NOTES TO PAGE 107
'courtois, humbles, douz et frans' (p. 50, 213), and 'Largesce, Courtoisie,
Honneurs' and 'Noblesce' are said to have lost their names with his death
(p. 50, 222-3).
6. Col. 225-6.
7. MO 24,085-7. For other estates passages that mention traditional chivalric
virtues, see Etienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 129, 5936!; 'Dis des
Estas dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 179, 86-9; Gilles li Muisis, n p. 54.
See also the French version of Ramon Lull's work on chivalry, Lordre de
chevalerie (printed in P. Allut, itude sur Symphorien Champier (Lyons, 1859)),
pp. 281 and 293. Lull wrote the Libre de I'orde de cavalleria in 1275 or 1276;
it was an influential work and was translated into French, probably by way
of a lost Latin version, in the fourteenth century. (See M. De Riquer,
Historia de la Literatura Catalana, Part Antiga (Barcelona, 1964), vol. 1, pp.
256-63). The French version was known in England; one of the three
surviving fourteenth-century MSS is English in origin. (For a list of the
MSS, see M. Rumni, 'Un ignoto MS della traduzione francese del "Libre
de Cavalleria" di Raimondo Lullo', Estudios Lulianos, 2 (1958), p. 77.)
Lull's text was expanded in the French version, which was on the whole
very accurately translated by Caxton (see Byles's edition, pp. xlvifF.). I
quote Caxton's translation after quotations of the French version.
8. The implied opposition between the two qualities leads Bowden to trans-
late 'worthy' here as 'brave' (Commentary, p. 49; she also cites Roland and
Oliver as illustrations of the need to combine the two virtues). This is
perhaps too narrow; Chaucer frequently uses these adjectives together
in knightly contexts, with apparently little consciousness of their being
opposites (see Parlement ofFoules, 395, Hous of Fame, 1438, 1756, Troilus
and Criseyde, n 180, 317, CTn (B1) 579, Romaunt of the Rose 1197).
9. Le Livre de Chevalerie, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, in Oeuvres de Froissart
(Brussels, 1873), vol. 1 part in, pp. 505-6. For the MS of the work, and the
life of Geoffroi de Charny, whose death is described by Froissart, see A.
Piaget, 'Le Livre Messire Geoffroi de Charny', Romania, 26 (1897), 394-411.
The 'Livre' of which Piaget prints a part is another work of Geoffroi's on
chivalry, in verse; towards the end there is a list of chivalric virtues which
includes those of the Knight.
Honneur, bonte y trouveras,
Prouesce, vaillance y verras,
Et courtoisie,
Hardiesce si n'i faut mie,
Loyaute y maine grant vie,
Et puis largesce. (p. 410, 74off.)
You will find in it [the exercise of war] honour, excellence; valour,
courage will you see there, and courtesy. Daring is in no way lacking,
and faithfulness flourishes there, and generosity too.
258
NOTES TO PAGES I08-II
10. Dits, ed. Scheler, p. 44, 42-5.
11. PSE p. 335, 258-64. For the association of humility with the ideal of the
knight, see Lordre de chevalerie, p. 290. It is possible that 'meekness' as a
knightly virtue derives from St Bernard's ideal role for the Templars, which
miraculously unites the 'fortitudo' or 'bravery' of the soldier with the
'mansuetudo' or 'mildness* of the monk (PL 182, col. 927).
For the attribution of increased 'vilanie' to contemporary knights, see
Roman de Fauvel, p. 62, 1623-6; Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 54.
12. De Laude Novae Militiae, PL 182, col. 923.
13. Ibid., col. 926.
14. Lordre de chevalerie, p. 319; 'tout chevalier est tenu a honnorer son corps &
estre bien vestu & noblement'. For analysis of the different knightly ideals
of St Bernard and Ramon Lull, see A. Oliver, 'El "Llibre del Orde de
Cavalleria" de Ramon Lull y el "De Laude Novae Militiae" de San
Bernardo', Estudios Lulianos, 2 (1958), 175-86.
15. Lordre de chevalerie, pp. 289, 319.
16. 'Frequenter cogitans', Pofcies Pop. Lat.t pp. 131-2. See also Gilles li Muisis*
n p. 55 and Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 332, 334, 337.
17. In the assembly of knights to Theseus's tournament, Evandro has a shield
which is rough with use ('assai rozzo per lavoro'), and is himself rust-marked
with armour and sweat ('rugginoso | deH'arme e del sudor' - ed. S. Battag-
lia (Florence, 1938) st. 38 and 40). Sir Gawain's armour is also cleaned of
rust (ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, rev. N. Davis (Oxford, 1958),
2017-20).
18. The Sermones nulli parcentes go so far as to recognise crusaders as a separate
estate, and attack them for worldly habits (pp. 24-5).
19. The Teutonic Order was responsible for the campaigns in Prussia, Lithuania
and Russia (see Manly, 'A Knight Ther Was', repr. Wagenknecht, pp.
55ff.). A. S. Cook suggests that the Knight 'began the board' in Prussia at
the Order's table of honour ('Beginning the Board in Prussia', JEGP 14
(1915), 375-88).
20. Skeat, in his edition, takes the phrase to refer to the Knight's service of the
king.
21. Chessbook, col. 235-6. Cf. Lordre de chevalerie, pp. 280, 282. Geoffroi de
Charny also gives fighting for one's lord as one of the motivating forces of
chivalry (Livre de Chevalerie, p. 465).
22. See Manly, 'A Knight Ther Was', repr. Wagenknecht, pp. 46-59, and
New Light, pp. 255-7, and A. S. Cook, 'The Historical Background of
Chaucer's Knight', Trans. Connecticut Acad. of Arts and Sciences, 20 (1916),
196-237. For criticism of such attempts at identification, see Z. S. Fink,
'Another Knight Ther Was', PQ 7 (1938), 321-30.
For the popularity of crusading campaigns among English knights, see
259
NOTES TO PAGES H I - 1 4
also D . Sandberger, Studien tiber das Rittertum in England, Historische Studien,
vol. 310 (Berlin, 1937), Chapter 6.
23. Chanson de Roland, ed. F. Whitehead (Oxford, 1965), 2322-32.
24. Ed. M. A. Pey (Paris, 1859), p. 241, 7986-9. 'Biaulande' - Ville, sur mer,
peut-etre Nice a 1'origine' (Langlois). For the date of the poem, see Grober,
Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie, 11, i, p. 798. See also Li Charroi de
Nymes, ed. M. W . J. A. Jonckbloet, in Guillaume d'Orange, Chansons de
Geste des XIe et XIIe Siecles (La Haye, 1854), vol. 1, p. 104, 1175-89 (what
looks like a list of campaigns is here ironically 'disguised' as the journeys of
a merchant), and La Prise d'Orenge, ibid., p. 113,21-4 (both twelfth century);
Gui de Bourgogne, ed. F. Guessard and H. Michelant, (Paris, 1859), p. 3,
62-73, and La Chevalerie d'Ogier de Danemarche, ed. M. Eusebi (Milan,
1963), p. 210, 4447-52 (both thirteenth century).
25. Oeuvres, 11 pp. 208-10, 1416-55.
26. Le Confort d'Ami, ni p. 103,2924-9; see also p. 116, 3278-86, where Machaut
again talks about going to seek honour and prowess ('honneur et vasselage')
abroad:
Soit en Castelle ou en Grenade,
Qui est une voie moult sade,
En Alemaigne, en Rommenie
Ou en Prusse ou en Lombardie.
whether it is in Castille or in Granada - which is a very agreeable road -
in Germany, in Romagna, in Prussia or in Lombardy.
27. See GeofFroi de Charny, Livre de Chevalerie, p. 468; M. McKisack, The
Fourteenth Century (Oxford, 1959), p. 248, n. 5.
28. Although we are left to infer that he has fought for a heathen as well, from
11. 64-6. For possible identification of the 'lord of Palatye', see the articles by
Manly and Cook cited above.
29. See Pontijicale Romanum, ed. J. Catalani (Rome, 1738), 1 pp. 419 and 424,
and Monumenta Liturgica, PL 138 col. 1121. This phrase is not always in-
cluded in the liturgies for the dubbing.
30. 'Mult est diables curteis', ed. Aspin, p. 119 v. 4.
31. PSE p. 334, 248-51. See also 'Le Dit des Patenostres', NR 1 p. 242; Gilles li
Muisis, n pp. 18, 20, 53; Lordre de chevalerie, pp. 309-10. Fighting pagans is
a duty also urged on kings and nobles; see 'Viri fratres, servi Dei', AH
xxxm p. 270, 153-4; Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 34, 668-76; 'Heu! quia
per crebras', Gower, pp. 355-6, 31-4; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 288, 314. See
also Dante, Inferno, Canto xxvm 85-9. For the view that the Holy Land
should be re-conquered by preaching rather than fighting, see Map, De
Nugis Curialium, p. 30, dist. 1, cap. xx, nff. This was a view also held by
Ram6n Lull, in contradiction to the passage cited above, which is in his
text (Oliver, 'Libre del Orde de Cavalleria', pp. 183-4).
32. 'Le Dit des Planetes', NR 1 p. 377; MO 23,895.
260
NOTES TO PAGE 114
33. See Pontificate Romanum, and Monumenta Liturgica, PL 138, and Hittorp,
De Divinis Catholicis Ecclesiae Ojficiis (Paris, 1624), col. 178.
Odo of Cluny (878/9-942) seems to have been the first to put forward
this role for knights; see his Vita Sancti Geraldi, PL 133, col. 646 C. For a
discussion, see W. Braun, Studien zum Ruodlieb (Berlin, 1962), pp. 35fF. The
definition of 'Pure religion and undefiled' as compassion for orphans and
widows is, of course, apostolic (James 1: 27), and is applied to an ideal
king in JEKncs life of St Edmund (G. I. Needham (ed.) Lives of Three
English Saints, (London, 1966), p. 44, 21-2).
34. See 'Le Dit des Planetes', NR 1 p. 377; Lordre de chevalerie, pp. 278-9
(defending the faith against 'miscreants'), 281 (preserving justice), 282
(maintaining the land), 285 (defending widows, orphans, and the weak),
286 (guarding roads and peasants, punishing robbers and criminals), 309-10
(fighting abroad against the enemies of the cross).
35. For the contradictory notions involved in different aspects of the knightly
role, see S. Painter, French Chivalry (Baltimore, 1940); D. Rocher,
' "Chevalerie" et Litterature "Chevaleresque" ' (1), Etudes Germaniques, 21
(1966), 167.
36. See for example, the poems which unite the ideal of knightly love with that
of the crusade, discussed in Peter Dronke, The Medieval Lyric (London,
1968), pp. 127-8, 138-9.
37. D. Rocher, '"Chevalerie" et Litterature "Chevaleresque"' (11), Etudes
Germaniques 23 (1968), 349-50.
38. See 'Viri fratres, servi Dei' AHxxxm p. 270, 159-62; Chessbook, col. 273-
7; VC v 5; fitienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 128, 537fF.; Roman
de Cariti, p. 22, XL 6ff., p. 27, LI, 4-8; 'Le Dit des Planetes' NR 1 p. 377;
Gilles li Muisis, n p. 130; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 281, 452-5 (Lat.
4539ff.); MO 23,593-611; Lordre de chevalerie, pp. 281, 282, 285, 286;
PPl 1 94-8; Thomas Wimbledon's sermon of 1388, Medieval Studies, 28
(1966), 179. Cf. Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 338.
Some writers also stress the knight's duty to fight in a just war, not
necessarily against the heathen: see 'Toturn regit saeculum', Map Poems,
p. 232, 97-102; Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 36, 755-6; VC v 13-14, 489-92;
MO 23,611.
39. See Rather of Verona, Praeloquia, PL 136 col. 149; 'Frequenter cogitans',
Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 132; 'Viri fratres' AH xxxm p. 270, 162-4; 'Totum
regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 232,105-8; VC v 519-20, 543-8 *,fitiennede
Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 128, 54iff.; 'L'Etat du Monde', Rutebeuf,
1 p. 388, 154; 'Li Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 pp. 285-6; Roman de
Fauvel, p. 42, 1056-8 and ff.; 'Le Dit des Mais' NR 1 pp. 188-9; 'Dis des
Estas dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 180, 104-9; Gilles li Muisis, n pp.
16-20, 54-5; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 114, 2463-4 (Lat. 1677-8), p. 281,
476fF. (Lat. 4552-6); MO 23,732-48; Lordre de chevalerie, p. 286; Handlyng
261
NOTES TO PAGES II5-16
Synne, p. 81, 2264-5, 2275-8; PPl vi 39-45; Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 95-6,
337-8.
40. If this was a real historical aim of the crusading knights, it was not very
satisfactorily fulfilled; Walsingham's account of the taking of Vilna
reports that there were 4000 dead and 8 converts to the Christian faith
(Cook, 'Chaucer's Knight', p. 199).
41. See St Bernard, De Laude Novae Militiae, PL 182, col. 924-5.
42. This can well be consistent with the presentation of the Knight as an ideal
representative of chivalry; Daniel Rocher ('Chevalerie' (11), especially
pp. 354-7) has noted that the different aspects of chivalry as it is treated in
literature represent attempts to tie it to different functions, and that such
attempts are possible precisely because adventure, or fighting itself, is the
only essential feature of chivalry. This attitude certainly seems to underlie
the Livre de Chevalerie of GeofFroi de Charny; having listed many causes
which will lead knights to prowess in arms - such as defence of lords or
friends, desire for profit or advancement, love of a lady - he then describes
those who are the best of all, who love arms and fighting for their own sake -
who are, that is, what might be called 'academic enthusiasts' (Oeuvres de
Froissart, 1 part in, pp. 472ff.).
43. In an interesting article ('The Worthiness of Chaucer's Knight', MLQ 25
(1964), 66-75), Charles Mitchell argues that the Knight is not on the same
plane of virtue as the Parson, and brings out the 'amoral' tendency of
Chaucer's praise of him. While much of what I argue agrees with Mitchell's
approach, he does not apply the concept of function to the pilgrims, nor
does he develop the implications of his observation that the meanings of
'worthy, virtuous, good' overlap with one another.
44. See Roman de Fauvel, p. 9, 149-52; Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 130.
45. The Chessbook implies the relative ages of the two in stressing the need for
the knight to undergo a long period of training before he is dubbed (col.
229-30). The squire was not necessarily a young man: from the twelfth to
the thirteenth century on, there was a growing reluctance to be knighted,
because of the expense of arms (F. L. Ganshof, *Qu'est-ce que la chevalerie?',
Revue Ginerale Beige 25 (November 1947), 80-1).
46. Jean de Conde ('Dis des Estas dou Monde', pp. 181-2, 167-9) also exhorts
'Escuijers et siergans':
Soies courtois sans vilenie
Deboinnaires sans felenie
Si siers haus et bas liement.
Be considerate, free from bad manners, affable, without malice, and serve
high and low cheerfully.
47. The meaning of 'lusty' here is 'healthy, strong, vigorous' (OED $a).
'Lusty bacheler' or 'lusty knight' are frequent in Chaucer: see CT 1 (A)
262
NOTES TO PAGES I l 6 - l 8
2111; ix (H) 107; Anelida and Ardte 86; Troilus and Criseyde, 1165, iv 1485.
However, Chaucer sometimes uses the word in contexts where it can
take on sexual overtones (see the Wife of Bath's Prologue, in (D) 605,
and her Tale, 883); thus, it may be that lines 97-8 of the Prologue suggest
what kind of Vigour' characterises the Squire.
48. For comment on the Squire's campaigns - against the French, rather than
the heathen - see Bowden, Commentary, pp. 83-4.
49. See Geoffroi de Charny, Livre de Chevalerie, Oeuvres de Froissart, 1 part in,
p. 469.
50. 'Totum regit saeculum', Map Poems, p. 232, 100.
51. PPS 1 p. 276. The lines can be paraphrased as follows:
When men take rest, refreshed in sleep at night, such fellows stay up,
ready to perform wicked acts. Often they burn in frigid (heartless?) love;
if I kiss their sweethearts, [I find that] their nose runs.
52. Livre de Chevalerie, p. 464.
53. p. 297. Caxton's translation (p. 63) reads:
A man lame / or ouer fatte / or that hath any other evyl disposycion in
his body / For whiche he may not vse thoffyce of chyualrye is not
suffysaunt to be a kny^t.
54. p. 294. Caxton's translation (p. 57) reads:
If by beaute of facion / or by a body fayr grete or wel aourned / or by
fayr here / by regard / or for to holde the myrrour in the hand / and by
the other Iolytees / shold a squyer be adoubed knyght of vylayns.. .
- you might as well make peasants knights.
55.11 p. 154. Cf. Nicholas Bozon, La Lettre de I'Empe'reur Orgueil, p. 68, 215-18;
Pride sends these orders to chaplains:
'Gardez', fet il 'la chevelure,
Et mettez la coyfe par desure,
Fetis tailler la vesture
A fur de esquier a mesure.'
'Look after your hair', he said, 'and perch your coif on top; have your
clothing cut just like a squire's.'
56. 'The Simonie', PSE p. 335, 271-2, p. 336, 283-5. Line 284 is difficult to
interpret; Wright glosses 'raye' as 'cloth, garment' and 'overthuert' as
'crosswise', but does not explain the whole. Ross glosses 'ray' as 'banner'
in his edition (Anglia, 85 (1957), 183), without giving his reasons. I suggest
that the writer is complaining about short gowns, and that 'ray' has its usual
meaning of'striped cloth' (OED sb. 4,1). In a long gown, the garment might
well be cut so that the weft, and the stripe, would run from top to bottom;
a short gown could be cut so that the warp ran from top to bottom, and the
263
NOTES TO PAGES Il8-2O
stripe would then run crosswise, or 'overthuert'. For squires and fine
clothing, see also Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 337.
57. De Laude Novae Militiae, PL 182, col. 923.
58. Le Char d'Orgueil, p. 26, cxvm 469-72.
59. See De Planctu Naturae, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets 11 p. 495; 'Anglia faex
hominum' (a poem from the fourteenth-century MS Cotton Titus A xx),
PPS 1 p. 92. Part of Meier Helmbrecht's splendid and 'upper- class* appearance
is due to his curly hair (p. 1, 11).
60. See 'L'en puet fere et defere', PSE p. 255, ('pride hath sieve'); Mum and
the Sothsegger, p. 17, 152, p. 18, 196, p. 19, 234; Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp.
409-10, and especially p. 369: a 'wrecchid cnave' must have a 'costli gowne
with bagges hangyng to his k n e . . . and gaili hosid and schood as thou^ it
were a squyer of a cuntre*. Bag-sleeves, which have their fullness caught in
at the wrist, differ from the older fashion for loose-flowing sleeves, which
are probably what the Squire wears. (See D. C. Calthrop, English Costume,
(London, 1906) vol. 2, pp. 46-7, 72; I. Brooke, English Costume of the Later
Middle Ages (London, 1935), p. 38.) The satire on exaggerated sleeves is as
appropriate to the one fashion as to the other.
61. See Gilles li Muisis, 11 pp. 46, 153 (where short gowns are associated with
increasing sexual licentiousness); MO 20,677-9 (where the priest is asked
whether he has assumed 'ce courte cote* - 'this short gown* - to impress
'Katelote*); Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 277, n. 2, where such fashions are
said to make priests look like knights. See also the Parson*s Tale, which in
the section on Pride criticises both 'embrowdynge' and
x (I) 417, 421. As Robinson notes, Chaucer is much more detailed here
than Peraldus.
62. 'As if they had been pressed by a curling-iron' (Bowden, Commentary, p.
81).
63. Livre de Chevalerie, p. 530. Again, Geoffroi tells us that it is right for young
people to dress nicely, provided they do not carry it to excess or spend a
lot of money (p. 528).
64. 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', p. 182, 170.
65.2255-64, 2284; Fr. version 1 2129-36, 2157. The last line in the French
reads 'Cous tes manches, tes cheveus pigne' - 'sew your sleeves, comb your
hair'.
66. p. 54, 559ff. (Lat. pp. 53~4> 749ff-)-
67.2311-28. (Fr. version 1 2183-98. Chaucer leaves out Amours' advice to
'saillir' or 'leap', and adds the advice to 'make* songs.) See also Geoffroi de
Charny, Livre de Chevalerie, p. 480 (the good knight shouldn't spend his
264
NOTES TO PAGES 120-2
time playing dice or tennis, but should converse, dance and sing with
ladies), and Nicholas Bozon, La Lettre de I'Empereur Orgueil, p. 68, 224-6
(Pride advises chaplains to imitate squires and sing carols in their company).
68. One last aspect of these two portraits which may refer itself to traditional
satire is the accompaniment of the Yeoman. It is not clear whether the
Yeoman is the servant of the Squire or the Knight; the 'he' in lines 101-2
might be either:
A Yemen hadde he and servantz namo
At that tyme, for hym liste ride so.
But a sermon quoted by Owst, complaining about the huge entourages of
knights and squires, shows why Chaucer stresses that there are 'namo
servantz' with them (Lit. and Pulp., p. 337).
69. For bibliography and discussion of anti-feminist literature in the Middle
Ages, see A. Wulff, Die Frauenfeindlichen Dichtungen in den Romanischen
Literaturen des Mittelalters, bis zum ende des XIII Jahrhunderts, Romanistische
Arbeiten I F (Halle a.S., 1914), and, for English literature, F. L. Utley, The
Crooked Rib: An Analytical Index to the Argument about Women in English
and Scots Literature to the end of the Year 1568 (Columbus, 1944).
70. This has been noted by H. S. V. Jones ('The Plan of the Canterbury Tales',
MP 13 (May 1915), 46).
71. pp. 42-3 (nuns pp. 30-2).
72. 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', p. 183,23 iff.; cf. a poem like 'Ecce dolet Anglia',
which does not list the estates, but refers to the weakness of women in
exactly the same way as it does to the dishonesty of merchants and the
cunning of the friars (PPS1 p. 281). Some writers break down the class into
smaller units - virgin, wife, widow, and so on (e.g. Rather of Verona's
Praeloquia, PL 136, Book n, already deals separately with 'mulier', Vidua'
and Virgo'). And women can even have an estates poem all to themselves,
as is shown by a little twelfth-century poem 'Fuge cetus feminarum',
which explains the drawbacks of loving each class of women in turn -
virgin, wife, widow, beghine, nun (ed. W. Wattenbach, Anzeigerfur Kunde
der deutschen Vorzeit, 17 (1870), col. 10).
73. See RR n 12,751 and GP 461, JRJR 1 3908 and GP 476. For satire on widows,
see Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 8, 293ff. (Lat. iO4fF.), and Handlyng Synne,
p. 333, io,729ff.
74.ip. 215, u p . 178.
jS.Livre des Manieres, p. 138, 1054. See also Matheolus' Lamentations, pp.
24-5, 775ff- (Lat. 35iff.).
76. PPl vi 9-14. See also v 215-18.
77. It is also interesting to note that the bawd's trade is carried on under cover
of that of the seamstress in Rojas' La Celestina, written at the end of the
fifteenth century (ed. J. Cejador (Madrid, 1913), p. 70); a girl can make the
excuse that she wants to see about some sewing, and arrange to meet, or
265
NOTES TO PAGES 122-4
collect a letter from, her lover. This makes it perhaps possible that the
'remedies of love' of which the Wife knows include the particular 'remedy'
of the 'vetula', patching up maidenheads (Peter Dronke's suggestion).
It is also worth noting the ambiguity of the phrase 'remedies of love'
itself; are they remedies^ love, to ensure successful love-affairs, or are they
remedies against love, in the sense of Ovid's title, to ensure that she is
not so carried away as to lose her domination over a man?
78. See, for example, Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 23; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 113,
2437Jff. (Lat. 166iff.) St Jerome describes how a widow in particular, feeling
herself uncurbed by any husband, gives vent to her pride (Wiesen, St
Jerome as a Satirist, p. 124).
79-1 p- 839 (c£ 11 p. 185); n p. 77.
80. Lettre de I'Empereur Orgueil, p. 69, 255-64. Bozon also presents two pictures
of ladies hanging back, apparently with a false parade of courtesy, to let
others pass {ibid. 267-72, and Le Char d'Orgueil, p. 16, Lxxn).
Si. Lamentations, p. 82, 1431-40. This passage is not in the Latin. See also
Deschamps' Miroir de Manage (Oeuvres ix, p. 109, 3262ff.), where an old
woman tries to persuade her son-in-law to let his wife go to church, where
(she claims) the ladies show examples of such good behaviour that each
hangs back in favour of her social inferiors. (The parallel was noted by
G. L. Kittredge, 'Chauceriana', MP vn (1910), p. 475.)
82. See 'Frequenter cogitans', Poesies Pop. Lat., p. 133 (monks are 'like women'
when they quarrel); 'Sit Deo gloria', Map Poems, p. 79, 35-6, p. 82, 133-4
(for details of this poem, see next note); 'Totum regit saeculum', ibid.,
p. 235, 204; Gilles li Muisis, n p. 177; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 7, 25iff.
(Lat. 80), p. 22, 699-700 (Lat. 313), p. 48, 4iff. (Lat. 669ff.); MO 4092-5,
4264-7; Handlyng Synne, p. 112, 3215-16, p. 347, 11,229-30. See also
Secular Lyrics ed. Robbins, p. 36, 23-4, 29-31, and pp. 38-40, and Owst,
Lit. and Pulp., p. 42 and n. 10.
83. 'Sit Deo gloria, laus, benedictio!', Map Poems, p. 81, 98-101. This poem is
early thirteenth century, and survives in about sixty MSS; for a discussion,
see P. Lehmann, Die Parodie im Mittelalter mit 24 ausgewahlten parodistischen
Texten (2nd edition, Stuttgart 1963), pp. 117-18.
84. Lamentations, p. 73, ioo4ff. (Lat. ioi2ff.). The Lendi was a great church
festival and annual market held at St-Denis in Paris on 11 June (see Tobler-
Lommatzsch, s.v.). See also on women's fondness for pilgrimages, Des-
champs' Miroir de Manage (Oeuvres ix 807-9, 3500-15, 3729-31), cited in
this connection by J. L. Lowes, 'Illustrations of Chaucer', Romanic Review,
2 (1911), 120-1.
85. See OED s.v. Wander, v., 36 ' . . .to fall into error (moral or intellectual)',
and for discussion of the possible pun here, D. S. Biggins, NQ n.s. 7 (i960),
129-30.
86. Manly suggested that the Wife was out of date in following this fashion
266
NOTES TO PAGES I24-5
for kerchiefs (New Light, pp. 23 off.), but see also his edition of the Canterbury
Tales (London, n.d.), p. 527, where he implies that the wife is in fashion.
For disagreement with Manly's statement that the Wife is behind the
times, see Bowden, Commentary, p. 227, n. 8, and D. E. Wretlind, MLN
63 (1948), 381-2. Wretlind is, however, occasionally misleading; e.g. he
implies that Manly cites F. W. Fairholt, Costume in England: a history of
dress from the earliest period till the close of the 18th century (London, 1846) in
New Light to show that huge head-dresses were out of date, whereas the
reference to Fairholt actually occurs in support of the opposite point of
view in Manly's edition of the Tales, loc. cit. Wretlind also suggests that the
definition 'head-dress', 'hat', for which he cites OED, is the appropriate
meaning for 'coverchief here; OED in fact gives 'head-dress', but not
'hat' for either 'coverchief or 'kerchief. The Chaucer Concordance shows
that 'coverchief is for Chaucer most often a handkerchief or piece of cloth,
but that he also uses the word for the head-dresses of the court ladies
before whom the knight in the Wife of Bath's Tale is arraigned, without
any hint that this is an archaic touch to fit the Arthurian setting (in (D)
1017-18). I believe that the Wife's head-dresses were fashionable, and they
are an example of Chaucer's topical illustration of long-established estates
characteristics.
87. See Wulff, Die Frauenfeindlichen Dichtungen, p. 83.
88. See 'Sit Deo gloria', Map Poems, p. 83, 170-1; RR 11 13,267-8 (La Vieille
advises that the girl should wear them); Nicholas Bozon, Le Char d'Orgueil,
p. 15, LXV 259-60; 'Li Manages des Filles au Diable' NR 1 p. 287; 'Li
evesques parisiens | Est devins et naturiens', ed. Fairholt, pp. 29ff. (a
thirteenth-century poem; see Hist. Litt. de la France, xxm p. 248); Gilles li
Muisis, 11 pp. 25, 33, 166; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 115, 25i4ff. (Lat.
1695), p- 129, 3015 (Lat. 1900), p. 183, 877ff. (Lat. 2679) (contrasted with
the simple veil of old); Handlyng Synne, p. 112, 3223-4. See also Owst,
Lit. and Pulp., pp. 96, 399ff. For an illustration of this fashion, see F. W.
Fairholt, Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume jrom the 13th to the igth century,
Percy Society 27 (London, 1849), p. 30.
89. See VC v 345: 'Crinibus et velis tinctis caput ornat' - 'She adorns her head
with false hair and dyed veils'; Nicholas Bozon, Le Char d'Orgueil, p. 15,
LXVI 262; 'Lord that lenest us lyf, ed. C. Brown, English Lyrics of the Xlllth
Century (Oxford, 1932), p. 134 ('a fauce filet').
However, Matheolus' Lamentations also complain that women want
*un nouveau cuevrechief for each feast (p. 129, 3032).
90. Handlyng Synne, p. 119, 3445, p. 279, 8883. For general satire on women's
head-dresses, see Nicholas Bozon, La Lettre de VEmpereur Orgueil, p. 67,
166, p. 69, 268; Secular Lyrics, ed. Robbins, p. 36, 37-40; PPl Crede, p. 4, 84.
91.11 9234-5. Cf. PPl v 30-1.
92. RR 11 9259-61. Cf. 9275-7, and 13,312.
267
NOTES TO PAGES 125-7
93. See Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 28, and Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 401, n. 10. See also
my comments on the Monk and the Prioress.
94. Chaucer and the Medieval Sciences, pp. ioyfF.
95. Thus, according to Curry, the Wife's 'suspiciously red or florid complexion
. . .indicates that the woman is immodest, loquacious, and given to
drunkenness* (Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, p. 108). This description
would hardly help a medieval satirist to distinguish her from the rest of
her sex. They would have been similarly surprised at the notion that only
women with 'gat-teeth* were 'envious, irreverent, luxurious by nature,
bold, deceitful, faithless, and suspicious* (p. 109). Even the 'excessive
virility* indicated by her large hips (p. 108) can be linked with the traditional
image of a virago reducing men to submission ('Sit Deo gloria', Map
Poems, p. 83, 149-50). Medieval physiognomy is clearly connected with
contemporary character-analysis of other sorts, and the combination of
traits which a physiognomist finds convincingly life-like clearly either
reflects or establishes stereotypes which appear also outside his work.
As a final demonstration we may take part of the account of the character
of the woman born when 'the first face of Taurus is in the ascendent':
She shall be lightly given to affairs of the heart, having a lover for the
greater part of her life;. . . She shall be inconstant, changeable, speaking
(or gossiping) with fluency and volubility, now to this one, now to that,
(pp. 95-6)
Despite the more 'individual* traits of which the rest of it is composed, the
traditional medieval image of women has clearly influenced this description.
96. See the two descriptions of Adam de la Halle*s wife Marie, seen through the
eyes of the lover and the husband respectively, in the Jew de la FeuilUe (pp.
28-38, 81-174), and the similar double view of woman in Matheolus'
Lamentations, p. 18, 575ff. (Lat. 24iflf.). This 'dual description' goes back at
least to the eleventh century, for it occurs in Ruodlieb (ed. Zeydel, p. 126,
xv, 3ff.).
97. MO 17,893-901. For the ugly old woman who paints herself up, see also
Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 70,884ff. (Lat. 966ff.), p. 94, i8o7ff. (Lat. I362ff.),
and Jerome's description of painted crones (Wiesen, St Jerome as a Satirist,
p. 129). Gower also has a figure called La Maquerelle, who is too old to
attract men and so satisfies her lust by acting as a bawd (MO 944off.).
98. See 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 183, 237; Gilles li Muisis,
11 p. 177; Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 48, 4iff., and the traditional proverb
quoted below, p. 129, n. 9.
268
NOTES TO PAGES 1 2 8 - 9
CHAPTER 6
1. See J. L. Lowes, Convention and Revolt in Poetry (2nd edition, London,
1930), pp. 41-5-
2. For detailed comparison with descriptions of romantic beauties, see J. L.
Lowes, 'Simple and Coy: A Note on Fourteenth Century Poetic Diction',
Anglia, 32 (1910), p. 441, n. 3, and also D. S. Brewer, 'The Ideal of Feminine
Beauty in Medieval Literature', MLR 50 (1955), 257-69. See also the
similarities in Adam de la Halle's description of his wife as he used to see her
(Jeu de la FeuilUe, pp. 30-2);
Ele avoit front bien compasse,
Blanc, onni, large, fenestric,. . .
Si noir oeil me sanloient vair,.. .
A deus petis plochons jumiaus,
Ouvrans et cloans a dangier
En rewars simples amoureus;
Puis se descendoit entre deus
Li tuiaus du nes bel et droit,. . .
Li bouke apres se poursievoit,
Graille as cors et grosse ou moilon,
Freske et vermeille comme rose. (91-120)
She had a well-proportioned forehead, white, smooth, broad, open. . .
Her black eyes seemed to me to be crystal. . . with two little twin lids
opening and shutting as she pleased in innocent, alluring glances. Between
them descended the ridge of her lovely straight nose. . . then came her
mouth, thin at the ends and full in the middle, fresh and red as a rose.
3. For the romantic aura attached to this name, see Lowes, 'Simple and Coy'
p. 440, n. 1.
4. Ibid., pp. 442ff.
5.11 I3,377ff.; the parallel was noted by Lowes, 'Simple and Coy', p. 441.
6. Singing divine office is the one duty of nuns which estates writers mention,
although in the course of satirising them; see SS 2377-8; Guiot de Provins,
Bible, p. 77, 2172-3 (nuns sing service but perform no fruitful actions).
7. The way in which the Prioress's appearance and behaviour contravenes
her duties as a nun and head of a convent has been amply demonstrated by
Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries (Cambridge, 1922), p. 76, and
Medieval People (New York, 1963), Chapter 4; for a (not very convincing)
attempt to defend the Prioress, see Sister Mary Madeleva, Chaucer's Nuns
and Other Essays (Appleton, 1925). Part of my discussion will aim at showing
that the Prioress's profession is not directly at odds with an ideal of'curteisie';
the incongruity lies rather in the way in which she understands the term.
8. See WulfF, Die Frauenfeindlichen Dichtungen, p. 81.
269
NOTES TO PAGES I29-3O
9. Decameron, First Story, Third Day, p. 318,2. See also 'Le Dit des Patenostres',
NR 1 p. 243, which addresses 'Beguines. . . Filles-Dieu, nonnains, veuves et
mariees' corporately; Gilles li Muisis analyses the duties of nuns in terms of
the proverb 'Flere, loqui, nere, statuit Deus in muliere' - 'God assigned to
women weeping, talking and spinning' (1 p. 213).
10. The phrase is applied to the Prioress by Lowes, Convention and Revolt in
Poetry, p. 41.
n . See SS 237iff.; VC iv 579-94; 'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse', ed. Aspin, p. 133,
31-52; 'Le Dit des Mais', NR 1 pp. 185-6; Gilles li Muisis, 1 pp. 215-16;
Decameron, First Story, Third Day, and Second Story, Ninth Day; 'The
Land of Cokaygne', ed. Bennett and Smithers, pp. 143-4, 147-76; PPl v
160-1.
12. See SS 2393-4; 'Viri fratres' AH XXXIII p. 270, 103-5; Sermones nulli
parcentes, p. 31, 561-4; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 75, 2098-107; Gilles li
Muisis, 1 p. 214; PPl v 162-5.
13. See Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 75, 2109-12.
14. See Sermones nulli parcentes, pp. 31-2, 581-8.
15. Ibid., p. 31, 569-72.
16. See SS 2381-2; Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 213 (he thinks the nun should make use
of her feminine lacrimosity to weep for the sins of mankind) and p. 216.
Cf. the Prioress's ready tears at the sight of a suffering animal (144-5).
17. See Sermones nulli parcentes, p. 31, 565-8; RR 11 9915-20.
18. 'Plangit nonna fletibus', ed. Dronke, Medieval Latin, 11 p. 357, 19-27; see
also his discussion.
19. p. 215, fol. 113/;, 22-8, especially:
wummon seiQ J)e apostle, schal wreon hire heaued. wrihen he sei5
nawt wimplin.
25. SS 2389-90. For the 'straight' use of this convention, see Jew de la Feuillie,
p.^34, 151-2.
26. 'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse', ed. Aspin, p. 132, 17.
27. p. 31, 549-56. The text then shifts into an anti-feminist mood, however;
correction is said to be useless, because a woman always does what is
forbidden her (see also VC iv 575-6; Guiot de Provins, Bible, p. 75, 2O98ff.).
28. The similarity between the two descriptions has been noted by J. A. W.
Bennett ('Chaucer's Contemporary', in Hussey (ed.), Critical Approaches
to Piers Plowman, p. 318).
29. Robinson seems to be right in concluding that the reference to 'English
French' is disparaging of the Prioress's efforts to be courtly; besides the
references which he gives, see D. Legge, Anglo-Norman Literature and its
Background{Oxford, 1963), pp. 65,217,236,358. See also De Nugis Curialium,
p. 271, for a reference to 'Marlborough French' (cited by C. H. Livingston
in 'The Fabliau "Des Deux Anglois et de L'Anel" ', PMLA 40 (1925),
217-24, which discusses yet another joke at the expense of the French
spoken by the English), and PPl v 23 8-9, for a humorous reference to French
'of the ferthest ende of Norfolke'.
It is possible that the Prioress's oath is also a sign of breeding - a very
genteel way of swearing; however, I think the point of the line is not
to tell us which saint the Prioress swears by, but rather that she swears at
all.
30. As J. M. Steadman has noted, Chaucer uses an account of the Prioress's
flouting of the rule against pets to suggest her contravention of other
rules as well; unless (perhaps) the 'rosted flessh' was poultry, it should not
have been on her table ('The Prioress' Dogs and Benedictine Rule', MP
54 (1956), 1-6).
This use of incidental suggestion is exactly what we have noted in the
other Prologue portraits as a way of hinting at shortcomings without
providing a firm basis for criticism.
31.2797-8. See also VC ni 1499-1502, and Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 327.
32. Le Char d'Orgueil, p. 22, c 397-400.
33. The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry, ed. T. Wright (EETS o.s. 33,
London, 1868) pp. 28-9. (The translation of this work into English was not
made until the fifteenth century, but the French original was written in
1372.)
34. The quotation is from the late fourteenth-century version of Sir Launfal
(ed. A. J. Bliss (London, i960), p. 80, 965); in Marie de France's Lanval
(ed. A. Ewert (Oxford, 1965), p. 72, 574), written in the twelfth century,
the fairy mistress has one greyhound.
35. See Chapter 9 for a discussion of 'curteisie' in the Prologue.
36. Ed. E. V. Gordon, (Oxford, 1953), p. 17, 432ff. God's love is called 'amour
fine' in the Roman de Fauvel (p. 90, 2493), and in Gilles li Muisis (1 p. 211).
C.A.M.E.S.—K 271
NOTES TO PAGES I34-6
Langland attributes God's care for man's food, drink and clothing to his
'curteisie' (PPl 1 20).
37. Ed. Gollancz, 1057-68; cf. RR 1 7689-706.
38. See the Council of Remiremont, Nachrichten von der koniglichen Gesellschaft
der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen (1914), p. 13,142ff. and Bartsch, Altfranzosische
Romanzen, No 34, 8.
39. See Dronke, Medieval Latin, 1 p. 229. Cf. Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 222; Ancrene
Wisse, p. 198, fol. 1050, i8ff.
40. Cf. Gilles li Muisis, 1 p. 216, complaining about the high-flown airs assumed
by nuns, and admitting that ladies of birth ('Dames emparentees') have
some excuse, but should not go too far.
41. See Smalley, English Friars, p. 41.1 have been unable to check Miss Smalley's
reference; all other reference works I have consulted given the date of
Guibert's death as 1270. Guibert taught at Paris where, according to the
Histoire Litteraire, he was one of the most distinguished thirteenth-century
theologians (xix p. 138). The Sermones ad status were written after 1261
(A. Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire Frangaise au Moyen Age, Spe'cialement au
XIII6 Siecle (Paris, 1868), p. 140).
42. See Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire Frangaise, p. 469, he lists nine MSS of the
sermones ad status', all those that he dates are fourteenth century. They were
also printed at Louvain in 1473, at Lyons in 1511, and at Paris in 1513. I
cite the 1511 edition. Guibert's works were known in England; he is
mentioned in the fourteenth-century Dominican Robert Holcot's com-
mentary on the Book of Wisdom (Cap. vi, lect. 75).
43. It begins (fol. clxvff.) with Wisdom 4:1: 'Quam pulchra est casta generatio
cumclaritatef
44. 'Pulchritudo genarum vel faciei signat simplicitatem vt quando facies est
alba sicut lilium et rubea sicut rosa. isti enim duo colores permixti
faciunt faciem pulchram quia vera simplicitas reddit animam castam et
verecundam.' (fol. clxv v)
Guibert then compares the nun to the turtle-dove in simplicity (as does
Gautier de Coincy, ed. Nurmela, p. 165, 785; the image of the dove - but
not its simplicity - is a feature of the Song of Songs).
45. Song of Songs 7: 1. (fol. clxv v ).
46. Ed. T. Nurmela, Annales Academiae Sdentiarum Fennicae, Ser. B xxxvm
(Helsinki, 1937). The poem was written for the nuns of Notre-Dame at
Soissons between 1223 and 1227 {ibid., p. 14), and survives, wholly or
partially, in twenty MSS, one of which is English (London BM Harley
4401, foil. 133-40, thirteenth century).
47. See Tobler-Lommatzsch, s.v.
48. n p. 170; cf. his repeated insistence that nuns ought to be 'coyes* (1 pp. 213,
272
NOTES TO PAGES 137-8
216, 218, 228). Gilles also applies 'simple et coyes' to virtuous secular girls
(n p. 109).
49. As Bowden observes, the best comment on this is J. L. Lowes':
Now it is earthly love which conquers all, now heavenly; the phrase
plays back and forth between the two. . . Which of the two loves does
'amor' mean to the Prioress? I do not know; but I think she thought she
meant love celestial.
(Convention and Revolt in Poetry p. 45.) F. Manley has seen a similar ambiguity
in the 'smal coral' of which the Prioress's rosary is made; coral, originally a
charm against the evil eye, also served to ward off the devil, but at the same
time was thought to be a love-charm (MLN 74 (1959), 385-8).
50. The modulations in the meaning of 'curteisie' in the portraits of Knight,
Squire and Prioress, and the ambivalent nature of the concept itself, are
admirably discussed by Mitchell, 'Chaucer's Knight'.
51. Moreover, Chaucer presents some of the features which might indicate
the Prioress's failings as 'involuntary' in the same way that the Squire's
curly hair is; as Schoeck comments, 'the Prioress could not help being
beautiful' ('Chaucer's Prioress: Mercy and Tender Heart', R. J. Schoeck and
J. Taylor (eds.), Chaucer Criticism (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1960-1) p. 247).
52. H. Morris notes that cherubin are usually blue in iconographic tradition
('Some Uses of Angel Iconography in English Literature', Comparative
Literature, 10 (1958), 36-44).
For red faces in descriptions of ugly people, see A. M. Colby, The Portrait
in Twelfth Century French Literature (Geneva, 1965), p. 77.
53. See Curry, Chaucer and the Medieval Sciences, pp. 37ff.; P. Aiken, 'The
Summoner's Malady', SP 33 (1936), 40-4; T. J. Garbaty, 'The Summoner's
Occupational Disease', Medical History, 7 (1963), 348-58. Garbaty's argument
that the Summoner is suffering from a form of syphilis derives some support
from a passage in Handlyng Synne where prostitutes are said to pass on
'meseles' (pp. 237-8, 7447"5o).
D. Biggins (NQ n.s. 11 (1964), 48) quotes post-Chaucerian evidence for
the view that onions, garlic and leeks are sexually arousing.
54. See R. E. Kaske, 'The Summoner's Garleek, Onyons and eek Lekes',
MLN 84 (1959), 481-4, showing that an exegetical tradition derived from
Num. 11: 5. We can bear out Kaske's interpretation with examples from
moral satire; see Map, De Nugis Curialium, dist. 1 cap. 1, p. 2,16-18; VC m
85-6.
55. See Handlyng Synne, p. 317, io,i59ff. (a story of a parish priest who was
allowed to see in his parishioners' faces their moral state; some are marked
with 'meselrye'). Cf. p. 357, n,465ff., where deadly sin is said to be a
'mesyl'. See also M. W. Bloomfield, The Deadly Sins (Michigan, 1952), pp.
177, 196.
273
NOTES TO PAGES I38-4.I
56. 'Of rybaudz y ryme\ ed. Boddeker, p. 137, 41-8. The poem is from MS
Harley 2253, and was written before 1310 (Wells). The last two lines of the
quotation can be translated: 'he is delousing a sycophant, and putting shoes
on a rogue [i.e. himself]'.
57. It is certainly older than the twelfth century, however, for the description
of the ugly old husband of a young wife in Ruodlieb is just such a set-piece
(ed. Zeydel, p. 92, vn 98ff.).
58. Ed. Cohen, La Comedie Latine, 1 pp. 136-7,171-4. Cf, in the Geta, Mercury's
description of Geta to himself, especially 336: 'Eterna scabie leditur atra
cutis' - 'his dark skin is afflicted with permanent scurf (ibid. p. 48, 335ff.).
59. Ars Versijicatoria, ed. E. Faral, Les Arts Poetiques du XIIe et du XIIIe Siecle
(Paris, 1962), p. 131, 5ff. Cf. also the portrait of the married man in
Matheolus' Lamentations, pp. 54-5, 276-308 (Lat. 753ff.).
60. For the summoner's official duties and connection with the consistory
courts of the bishop and the archdeacon, see L. A. Haselmayer, 'The
Apparitor and Chaucer's Summoner', Speculum, 12 (1937), 43-57* The best
description of the kind of cases dealt with by these courts is provided by the
Friar's Tale (111 (D) 13 01-16). The summoner's office was not introduced
into England until the thirteenth century, and, given the conservative
nature of estates satire, it is perhaps comprehensible that he does not figure
in it much before Langland.
61. As early as the tenth century, this complex of characteristics is associated
with 'procuratores' ('governors' or ministers) by Rather of Verona (PL 136,
col. 164).
62. p. 24, vv. 44-5. See also vv. 56fF. on the 'officiales'.
63. Map Poems, p. 225, 73-88.
6\.Livre des Manieres, p. 123, 2338*. Line 241 presents difficulties of text and
translation, but the sense of the passage as a whole is clear.
65. 'Ne mai no lewed lued libben in londe', ed. Boddeker, p. n o , 36-40. The
poem is from MS Harley 2253, and is of the reign of Edward I (Wells).
66. PSE p. 326, 49-54, p- 332, 194-8.
67. On the sexual meaning of 'pulling finches', see the articles by G. L. Kitt-
redge, MP 7 (1910), 475-7, and E. E. Ericson, English Studies 42 (1961), 306.
68. Summoners are consistently presented in connection with Meed: see PPl
n 58, in 133, iv 167. For consistory court officials, see also in 141-5.
69. PPl 11 168-76. Cf, on the consistory court in general, xv 234-6.
70. Cf. Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 115, 2516 (not in Lat.), where women's
'horns' are said to frighten 'enfans petis'.
71. This point is not really affected whether the 'girles' are feminine or of both
sexes; on this point see M. W. Bloomfield, 'Chaucer's Summoner and the
Girls of the Diocese', PQ 28 (1949), 503-7.
72. Ed. Lehmann, Parodistische Texte, p. 189,1442-4. The piece is taken from a
274
NOTES TO PAGES 142-4
larger poem written towards the end of the thirteenth century by a
Franciscan called Peter.
73. VCm 194-202; MO 20,108-9. These parallels are noted by Fliigel, 'Chaucer's
Prolog', p. 505. Cf. Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 65: 'Et s'auncun se meffont, en
leur bourse les pendent/ - 'And if anyone misbehaves themselves, they hang
them in their purses/ - and Matheolus' Lamentations, p. 282, 502-4 (not in
Latin), of judges:
Si com le vin en la taverne
Nous sont les jugemens vendus
Et sont a la bourse pendus.
Verdicts are sold to us like wine in taverns, and hanging takes place in
purses.
Cf. also Owst, Lit. and Pulp., pp. 43, 280.
74. See Inferno, xix 69-72, noted by H. R. Patch, 'Chauceriana', Englische
Studien, 6$ (1931), 351. But in Chaucer the equation of purse and hell
signifies the way in which the sinner, not the simoniac himself, is punished.
75. Unlike some commentators (see Robinson's note), I take line 661 as seriously
meant; however, A. C. Cawley {Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society, 8 (1957), 174-5) has a point when he observes that the
threat of a significavit is rather an anti-climax after the threat of eternal
damnation.
76. See Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 18, 2, cited by P. Brown, Augustine
of Hippo (London, 1967), p. 142; 'The Simonie', PSE p. 328, 104-9, and
Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 27.
77. Winner and Waster, 26.
78. p. 34, v. 96. On the empty garrulity of birds, see also Matheolus' Lamenta-
tions, p. 150, 3680 (Lat. 2251), and PPl xn 252, where Langland says that
when the rich man cries to Christ, his 'ledne' sounds 'lyke a pyes chiteryng*.
79. See Robinson's note; PPl xra 89; 'Syngyn y wolde', PPS 1 p. 277, and
Lehmann, Die Parodie im Mittelalter, pp. 134, 148.
80. MO 8149-52. Gower's reference to the laity's ignorance of French would
apply to most people outside the court and some ecclesiastical circles at this
date; see A. C. Baugh, A History of the English Language (2nd edition,
London, 1959), Chapter 6, esp. pp. I7iff., and Froissart's report that
Parliament, in view of the imminent war with France, decreed in the
autumn of 1337 that lords, barons, knights, and citizens should instruct
their children in the French language, so that they might be more efficient
in the campaigns {Chronicles, selected and translated by G. Brereton (London,
1968), Book 1, p. 58).
81. On the origin of the phrase in a legal writ, see J. W. Spargo, 'Questio Quid
Iuris', MLN 62 (1947), 119-22.
82. Cf. Sir John Clanvowe, The Two Ways:
275
NOTES TO PAGES I45~7
But now swiche as been synful men and wacches of Ipc feend been
cleped of the world goode felawes | For J>ei ]pat woln waaste |>e goodis
J)at god hath sent hem | in pryde of the world | and in lustes of here
flessh and goon to J>e tauerne | and to J)e bordel | and pleyen at ]?e dees
waaken loonge anyjtes | and sweren faste and drynken | and ianglen
to muche | scoornen | bakbiten iapen glosen boosten lyen fijten and
been bandes for here felawes | And lyuen al in synne and in vanitee ]pei
been hoolde goode felawes | .
(Eng. Phil. Studies, 10 (1967), 49-50). At first, Clanvowe and Chaucer seem
to be making the same satiric point, but I think there is a subtle difference;
in Clanvowe's text, it is essential that we adhere to his point of view, in
order to be convinced of the inappropriateness of calling such people 'good
fellows'. Chaucer's text allows that it is appropriate to call the Summoner
a good fellow in one sense, though it is not a very honourable one.
CHAPTER 7
1. For the sexual double entendre in 'burdoun', D. Biggins, NQ n.s. 6 (1959),
435-6, and B. D. H. Miller, NQ n.s. 7 (i960), 404-6. The disclosure of the
homosexual relationship prompts the question whether the Summoner's
garland is a parody of that which the lover is advised to wear in the Rowan
de la Rose (1 2149-52).
2. See Curry, Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, Chapter 3.
3. Ibid., p. 58. Some 'Proverbial Verses' of the thirteenth century take a
'LiJ^er lok and tuinkling' to be one of the 'toknes of horelinge'; the word
has a feminine ending, but doubtless the feature applied to either sex
(Wright and Halliwell (eds.) Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. 2, p. 14).
4. See E. C. Schweitzer jr, 'Chaucer's Pardoner and the Hare', ELN 4. (1967),
247-50. The immediate point of the comparison is that, according to
Vincent of Beauvais and Bartholomeus Anglicus, hares sleep with open
eyes.
5. For early medieval treatments of sodomy, and its role as the central theme
of Alanus de Insulis' De Planctu Naturae, see E. R. Curtius, European
Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, (trans. W . R. Trask, N e w York, 1953),
pp. 113-18.
6. No iv, p. 70, v. 27, 3-4, and v. 28, 3-4.
7. No xiii, pp. 124-5, v. 7, 3-4. See Strecker's commentary for the similarities
between the 'Feast of the Staff' and the Feast of Fools.
8. No vin, p. 102, v. 11, 1-2.
9. See A. L. Kellog and L. A. Haselmayer, 'Chaucer's Satire of the Pardoner',
PMLA 66 (1951), 251-77. For a view that the relationship has personal
significance and shows that Chaucer was thinking of a real pardoner who
276
NOTES TO PAGES 148-9
was homosexual, see G. G. Sedgewick, 'The Progress of Chaucer's Pardoner',
MLQ 1 (1940), 431-58.
10. See Alanus de Insulis, De Planctu Naturae, Prose vn, Anglo-Latin Satirical
Poets, n pp. 495-6 (carefully-combed hair, plucked eyebrows, shaved faces);
Handlyng Synne, p. 112, 3199-200 (pride in one's hair); Mum and the
Sothsegger, p. 19, 235 (beardless fops). Cf. Wiesen, St Jerome as a Satirist,
p. 58 (arranging one's hair, plucking hair), and 216 (the deacon Sabinianus
carefully arranging the few hairs he has over his skull, plucking his hair);
Owst, Lit. and Pulp., p. 275 (flowing locks, like a woman's, associated with
priests). For beardlessness and sexual impotence, see Hildegard of Bingen's
Causae et Curae, p. 75, 26-8.
11. See Winner and Waster, 410 (women are 'nysottes of J>e new gett'); Handlyng
Synne, p. 112, 3212 (though here it is 'berded buckys' who follow ']pe
newe gyse'), p. 118, 3391, 3401.
12. PPlv 529-31.
13. Chaucer may also have noted Dante's attack on givers of pardons in the
course of his criticism of those who preach for profit (Paradiso, xxix,
H5ff.). The pardoners here are attached to St Anthony's hospital-the
fraternity pilloried by Guiot de Provins and Boccaccio (see below).
14. See PPl 11 108, 219-22, v 648-9. It is possible that there is yet another link
between PPl and Chaucer's Pardoner, in Langland's. scorn for 'al the
pardoun'of Pampiloun and Rome' (xvn 252). Bloomfield points out that
the hospital of St Mary Rouncivale at Charing Cross was a branch of the
order of Nuestra Seiiora de Roncesvalles - which was in the diocese of
Pamplona ('The Pardons of Pamplona and The Pardoner of Rounceval',
PQ 35 (1956), 66-8).
Chaucer's choice of Rouncivale as the Pardoner's base may have been
stimulated, as S. Moore has suggested, by a recent scandal over pardoners
falsely claiming to represent this hospital ('Chaucer's Pardoner of Roundval',
MP 25 (1927), 59-66); in this case it would bear out what we have
noticed of the topical situation in which Chaucer conceives of his estates
stereotypes.
i$.Ibid., 81.
Cf. the vivid picture of 'Nummus' or 'Money' as an avaricious cleric in
'In terra summus', CB 1 No 11, p. 16, 42-5:
Vidi cantantem Nummum, missam celebrantem;
Nummus cantabat, Nummus responsa parabat;
Vidi, quod flebat, dum sermonem faciebat,
Et subridebat, populum quia decipiebat.
I saw Money singing, and celebrating mass; Money sang, and made the
responses. I saw that he wept while he preached the sermon, and smiled,
because he was deceiving the people.
277
NOTES TO PAGES 150-52
Gilles li Muisis also describes monks singing well to attract 'pittances' (1
p. 166).
16. The particular association of false relics with a pardoner does not seem
to be based on historical reality; Kellogg and Haselmayer note that the
evidence suggests that pardoners did not often carry relics ('Chaucer's Satire',
p. 275).
17. See Lehmann, Die Parodie im Mittelalter, pp. 25fF.
18. This was an order of hospitallers founded in the late eleventh century to
care for those suffering from 'St Anthony's fire' - a sort of epilepsy.
(See Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, ed. J. Hofer and K. Rahner (2nd
edition, Freiburg, 1957) s.v. Antoniusorden, 6.) Such hospitals depended
on alms for funds, which they obtained in the manner described by Guiot,
and later by Boccaccio (see below). But the 'selling' of pardons was another
way in which it was possible to raise money; this is what the Pardoner is
(supposedly) doing for St Mary's hospital, and what Dante had criticised
the brothers of St Anthony for doing. The satire of the hospitallers of St
Anthony therefore provides a background for the Pardoner's portrait.
19. Bible, p. 72, 1994-2006.
20. Les Miracles de Notre Dame de Soissons versifies par Gautier de Coincy, ed.
L. Lindgren, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Ser. B. cxxix.
Gautier's original was a Latin story (for which see Lindgren, p. 16) written
by Hugues Farsit in the twelfth century. Gautier's Miracles were fairly
popular; Lindgren used six MSS for his edition.
21. Tenth Story, Sixth Day, p. 183, 45.
22. For sermon references to pardoners, see G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval
England (Cambridge, 1926), pp. iO9ff. (on pardoners carrying false relics),
and Lit. and Pulp., p. 372, and n. 3. The description of pardoners in the second
of these references bears an interesting resemblance to the stereotype of
friars; in fact Owst's first quotation on p. 373, describing 'ronners over
contreys', seems to me equally likely to refer to friars (unless pardoners are
named in a passage he does not quote). Cf. PPl Crede, p. 4, 82, on friars:
'J^ey ouer lond strakej)'. But the 'lepers over londe' in Owst's next quotation
are explicitly pardoners. The stereotypes of the two classes develop from the
same basis; thus Chaucer's Pardoner, like his Friar, owes something to Faus
Semblant (see D. S. Fansler, Chaucer and the Roman de la Rose (New York,
1914), pp. 162K).
23. They are barely mentioned in PPl (xix 39), and appear in an estates list
in Mum and the Sothsegger, p. 50, 788; also p. 54, 945-6, where a franklin's
fine house is described. Late evidence such as this seems to confirm the
correspondences between Chaucer's portrait and the popular view of
franklins (although it may of course be reflecting Chaucer's influence).
Cf. the mid-fifteenth century 'Fest for a Franklen' in John Russell's Boke of
Nurture, ed. Furnivall (EETS o.s. 32, London, 1868), pp. 170-1.
278
NOTES TO PAGES 152-5
24. For a discussion, see G. H. Gerould, 'The Social Status of Chaucer's Franklin',
PMLA 41 (1926), 262-79.
25. The 'sop in wyn' varied in the luxuriousness of its ingredients; E. Birney
thinks that the Franklin's sop was fairly spartan, and was intended to settle
his stomach after the excesses of the night before (NQ n.s. 6 (1959), 345-7).
But although the Franklin might need his sop in such a case, would he be
quite so enthusiastic about it? See also the quotation from Gower on 'sops',
below.
26. To discuss the Franklin's connection with gluttony satire does not contradict
the assumption of an estates framework for the Prologue. The sample lists of
estates which are given in Appendix A show that writers felt no embarrass-
ment at shifting from professional types to sins-types, and back again; the
term 'estate' can cover all aspects of the situation in which a man finds him-
self - marital, moral, professional. Frederick Tupper, the strongest pro-
ponent of the theory that the CT are based on the Sins tradition, has noted
that this tradition is inextricably involved with that of estates satire ('The
Quarrels of the Canterbury Pilgrims', JEGP 14 (1915), 256). For the
argument that sins-literature is the basis of the CT, see F. Tupper, PMLA
29 (1914), 93-128; JEGP 13 (1914), 553-65, 15 (1916), 56-106, and, for a
refutation, J. L. Lowes, PMLA 30 (1915), 237-71.
27. De Planctu Naturae, Prose vi, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, 11 p. 487. Cf. CB
I No 11, p. 16, 29-30 ('Money' eats peppered fish and drinks French wines);
RR 11 11710-21 (friars can be bribed by numerous foods, including pike).
The greedy Pope described by Gower, like the Franklin, provides for his
table from his own estate (VC in 833-5).
28. Winner and Waster, 335. See also the rest of the passage for other delicacies.
29. Bible, p. 57, 1536-7 (the Grandimontanes eat garlicky fish, strong sauces
and hot pepper dressings), p. 92, 2634-5 (Guiot rejects medicine in favour of
good food, good wines and 'fors sauces' (strong sauces); Renart le Contrefait,
II p. 44, 26,737 (hot sauces and preserves are better than medicine). 'Sauce'
can mean 'condiment' or spice as well as 'sauce' in both Latin and English
(see Du Cange, s.v. Salsa, and OED s.v. Sauce, 1). Highly-spiced or salted
foods and sauces are said by satirists of gluttony to be used to increase the
appetite: see John of Hauteville Architrenius (written in 1184), Anglo-Latin
Satirical Poets, 1 pp. 265-6; Alanus de Insulis, De Planctu Naturae, Prose vi,
ibid., 11 p. 488; MO 7957-62. Nearly all Chaucer's uses of the word 'sauce'
seem to occur in a context of gluttony satire: CT vi (C) 545; VII 2834
(B 2 * 4024); 'The Former Age' 16.
30. It has been suggested that the Franklin's change of diet according to the
season is based on the requirements of health in the humours (J. A. Bryant
jr, 'The Diet of Chaucer's Franklin', MLN63 (1948), 318-25). But Gower's
reference to the gourmet's liking for variety seems to provide a better
motivation for the Franklin. Cf. the gourmets in the Architrenius, who also
C.A.M.E.S.—K* 279
NOTES TO PAGES I55-8
like variety - here in the course of the meal (Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets,
p. 264).
31. MO 7907-8. Cf. Gilles li Muisis's complaint that children are now spoilt
by being given a sop for breakfast ('au matinet le soupe', 11 p. 26).
32. See De Planctu Naturae, Prose vi, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, 1 pp. 485-7;
MO 7783-4, 8105-6, 8333-40, 8349-50, 8521-32, 8588-604; PPl v 346-51.
33. Lettre de VEmpireur Orgueil, p. 66, 145-50. See also Handlyng Synne, p. 232,
7244-58, (criticising rich men who tyrannise their cooks). For another
reference to the glutton's toiling cook, see VC iv 69-70.
34. Secreta Secretorum, pp. 219-20.
35. Perhaps the association was unconsciously made through the fact that both
traditionally had red faces, although the red and white of the sanguine
man is more pleasant than the bright red of the glutton. See Hildegard
of Bingen, Causae et Curae, p. 72, 8-11; Secreta Secretorum, p. 222, and a
late fifteenth-century poem on the humours, ed. Robbins, Secular Lyrics,
No 77, p. 72, 3 (for the sanguine man), and 'Totum regit saeculum', Map
Poems, p. 235, 206; PPl xni 99 (for the glutton).
36. See CB 1 No 8 p. 10, v. 8, 3; ibid., No 5, p. 6, v. 11; ibid., No 92 p. 95,
v. 15, 4; 'Hora nona sabbati', NE 32, 1, p. 294.
37. m Prose 2, 77-82.
38. See Nicholas Bozon, Le Char d'Orgueil, p. 25, cxv, 459; Renart le Contrefait,
n p. 148, 36,765-6; Handlyng Synne, p. 214, 6635ff., especially 6751-2;
Winner and Waster, 329-30, 375-83; PPl x 94-100.
39. See VC HI 107-10, 113-14; MO 8401-508.
40. Lit. and Pulp., pp. 311-12. The parallel with the Franklin is noted by
Owst.
41. The Two Ways, Eng. Phil. Studies, 10 (1967), 47, 457ff. This treatise, which
was probably written in 1391, survives in only one MS, University College
Oxford 97. (See pp. 33-4.)
42. On the existence of numerous men in late-fourteenth-century England who
had held the posts mentioned in the Franklin's portrait, see K. L. Wood-
Legh, 'The Franklin', RES 4 (1928), 145-51. According to Tout, the
parliament of November 1372 passed a law forbidding lawyers and sheriffs
to be returned as knights of the shire, because they acted for private interests
(Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England (6 vols., Man-
chester, 1920-33), vol. 3, p. 282). A critic with a 'historical' viewpoint
might use this as evidence for the Franklin's behaviour in office; I should
prefer to point to Chaucer's significant silence on such a matter.
43. See £tienne de Fougeres, Livre des Manieres, p. 124, 308 (Christ will damn
false witnesses and false 'conteors'). 'Contour' can mean either 'An accountant;
esp., an official who oversees the collecting and auditing oftaxes for a shire. . .
etc' (MED la), or 'a pleader in court, a lawyer' (ic). Despite the fact that
some Chaucer MSS have the form 'accomptour' at this point (see the
280
NOTES TO PAGES 158-61
Manly-Rickert edition) in the Prologue, I think there is a strong probability
that the word has its legal meaning, since this is clearly how it is used
by £tienne and by the author of 'The Simonie' in the passage quoted
below.
44. 'L'Etat du Monde', 1 p. 386, 93fT.
45. This connection of the legal and administrative offices seems to lie behind
the Franklin's friendship with the Sergeant of Law (GP 331). See also
Thomas Wimbledon's sermon of 1388, Medieval Studies, 28 (1966) 183,
where 'makes, and schyreuys, and justices' are grouped together. Similarly,
in MS Lambeth 179, the poem on legal corruption, 'Beati qui esuriunt'
(fol. 136&), is followed by a poem 'De vicecomitibus' (Inc. 'Quam duri
sunt pauperibus quis potest enarrare'; see M. R. James, Descriptive Catalogue
of the Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace (Cambridge, 1930).)
46. Handlyng Synne, p. 218, 6793.
47. PSE p. 339, 343. Gower also lists together sheriffs, bailliffs, and jurors at
the assizes (VC vi; heading of Chapter vi; MO 248).
48. See OED s.v. Miller, ifc. For other proverbs incorporating the notion of
the miller's dishonesty, see M. P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in
England (Ann Arbor, 1950), M954-9, B. J. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences
and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), M560-1, and H. Bachtold-
Staubli, Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (10 vols., Berlin, 1927-
42), s.v. Miiller, esp. 4a, n. 15.
If the miller's habit of tolling more than once was not proverbial before
Chaucer, it certainly became so after him (Whiting, M561).
49. For a discussion of Chaucer's Miller in relation to the popular image of
his class (illustrated mostly from fifteenth-century German texts), see
G. F. Jones, 'Chaucer and the Medieval Miller', MLQ 16 (1955), 3-15.
50. MED gives 'buffoon' as the meaning of 'goliardeys', and explains this
use of'ianglere' as 'a raconteur, teller of dirty stories; ?also a professional
entertainer' (d). The word 'goliardeys' is apparently used elsewhere in
Middle English only by Mannyng (Handlyng Synne, p. 156, 4701), and
Langland (PPl Prol. 139).
51. For evidence that bagpipes were thought of as a 'low', peasant's, instrument
in the Middle Ages, see G. F. Jones, 'Wittenweiler's Becki and the Medieval
Bagpipe', JEGP 48 (1949), 209-28. For the suggestion that they are a symbol
of gluttony and lechery, see E. A. Block, 'Chaucer's Millers and their
Bagpipes', Speculum 29 (1954), 239-43, and K. L. Scott, 'Sow-and-Bagpipe
Imagery in the Miller's Portrait', RES 18 (1967), 287-90, especially 289,
and n. 1.
Scott points out a connection between sows and bagpipes, which she
attributes to the similarity in the noises they make. (It surely derives also
from the appearance of a swollen-teated sow.) This association may give
rise, as Scott thinks, to the sow-imagery in the Miller's portrait, but the
281
NOTES TO PAGES l 6 l - 2
association of 'ribauds' with pigs is easily made; Langland says gluttons
and 'iangeleres* breed like 'burgh-swyn' (PPl n 92-8).
52. p. 48, fol. 23a, 18-19. In Apuleius's Golden Ass, it is at the millhouse that
tales are told.
This mill itself is used as an image for a wagging tongue by Chaucer and
other writers; see CT iv (E) 1200, x (I) 406; E. Lommatzsch, Gautier de
Coincy, p. 60 (on the Last Day, advocates' tongues will become a 'clapete de
moulin a vent' - 'clapper [of the hopper?; see Tobler-Lommatzsch, s.v.
Clapete] of a windmill'; Ayenbite oflnwyt, ed. Morris, p. 58 (tongues full
of idle words are like *J>e cleper of ]pe melle'), and p. 255 (unchecked speech
is like the water pouring through a mill without a sluice).
(The autograph copy of the Ayenbite (MS BM Arundel 57) tells us that
it was finished in 1340.)
53. For its use with reference to gossip, see Handlyng Synne, p. 182, 5591,
pp. 291-2, 926ifF.; PPl 1194. For the meaning 'entertainer', see PPl x 30-44,
a piece of invective against 'Harlotes. . . Iaperes. . . Iogeloures. . . and
Iangelers of gestes'; significantly, Langland's second reference to the miller
occurs at the end of this passage.
54. Besides the above, see PPl Prol. 35-6, xx 142-3, 296-7. See also the
reference to 'Robyn the rybaudoure' and his 'rusty wordes' (vi 75); is it
coincidental that the Miller's name is Robin? (CT 1 (A) 3129). For satiric
criticism of'ianglers', see 'Dis des Estas dou Monde', Jean de Conde, p. 182,
190-205:
Ne te faices teil appieller
C'on die, tu soies gengleres. . .
Et ne te laisses pas lacier
D'ordure ne de ribaudie.
Don't earn yourself such a name that anyone should say you are a
j angler. . . And don't let yourself get drawn into filth or ribaldry.
55. For reports of people from the fourth to the nineteenth century who pro-
vided entertainment by breaking down doors with their heads, see the
articles by B. J. Whiting in MLN 52 (1937), 417-19, and 69 (1954), 309-10,
by A. N. Wiley, MLN 53 (1938), 505-7, and F. L. Utley, MLN 56 (1941),
534-6.
56. p. 126, 3685-7. The Anglo-Norman version (see ibid.) mentions 'iugelurs. . .
ribauz. . . luturs': Mannyng has mis-translated the last word as 'fighters'
instead of 'lute-players'.
57. Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, pp. 79fF. Curry suggests, among other
things, that the Miller is 'shameless, immodest, loquacious, irascible, a
glutton, a swaggerer and an impious fornicator' - a character well suited to
a 'jangler'.
58. E.g. the swaggering traitor in Ruodlieb, v 58sfF. (noted by G. F. Jones
282
NOTES TO PAGES 162-4
Mediaeval Miller', n. 3), and Matthew of Vendome's picture of his detractor
Rufinus (Arnulf of Orleans), especially his lechery and 'sterile and barren
garrulity' (Ars Versificatoria, ed. Faral, Les Arts Poitiques, pp. 109-10, and
p. 2, n. 3).
59. See Colby, The Portrait in Twelfth Century French Literature, pp. 73-81.
60. The miller of the Reeve's Tale resembles the Miller of the Prologue very
closely; both wrestle, wear swords and are spoiling for a fight, have flat
noses (if we interpret the pilgrim's wide nostrils in this way), and are
thieves (1 (A) 3925-41). Is this because the Reeve is maliciously describing
the individual pilgrim, or because both are typical millers?
61. Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, p. 72. He also says (without giving
evidence) that the cropped hair and close-shaven face indicate a man of
low estate, and especially an obedient and humble servant.
62. 'Offyiftes large, in love hath grete delite', ed. Robbins, Secular Lyrics, No
77, p. 72, 11. The choleric man is not always described as thin: Hildegard
of Bingen mentions his red face, thick chest, and strong arms (Causae
et Curae, p. 70, 15-22).
63. p. 226. On p. 135, however, 'smale leggis' are interpreted as a sign of
'vnconyngnesse'; their significance was obviously not fixed, although
the evidence brought by Curry might suggest the strength of the lechery
interpretation {Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, p. 75).
64. Secreta Secretorum, p. 226, ('of sharp witte'), and cf. a fourteenth-century
poem on the humours which describes the choleric man as 'fraudulent &
suttyll' ('Sluggy & slowe, in spetynge muiche', ed. Robbins, Secular Lyrics,
No 76, p. 72, 11).
65. As Robinson notes, the reeve (the servile representative of the peasants)
was theoretically subordinate to the bailiff (the lord's appointee), but
in fact many manors did not have a full hierarchy of officers, and reeves
fulfilled several offices. See H. S. Bennett, 'The Reeve and the Manor
in the Fourteenth Century', EHR 41 (1926), 358-65. Bennett shows that
'bailiff' was a term applied to several manorial offices (p. 359); this would
explain why a 'bailiff' is classed with 'herdes' and 'hynes' in GP 603. Because
of his intimate knowledge of local affairs, the reeve would in any case
effectively wield greater power than the bailiff, who was an outsider.
66. The historical situation was probably very different; peasants were
extremely reluctant to take on the office of reeve because they had to
make good themselves any deficits in their accounts at the end of the year
(Bennett, 'The Reeve').
67. 'L'en puet fere et defere', PSE p. 255. For other versions of the 'sayings
of the four philosophers', and the diffusion of the proverb, see S. J. H.
Herrtage, Gesta Romanorum (EETS e.s. 33, London, 1879), pp. 497-9,
and G. Holmstedt, Speculum Christiani (EETS o.s. 182, London, 1933)
pp. clxxxiii-cxc.
283
NOTES TO PAGES 164-7
68. 'Ich herde men vpo molde', ed. Boddeker, p. 103, 16. See also Handlyng
Synne, p. 177, 54072*. (on lords' counsellors, 'wykked legystrys. . . fals
a-countours... stywardes').
69. p. 37, see also p. 39.
70. x 469-70. The way in which Langland classes clerks and reeves together
in this quotation is interesting in view of the fact that Chaucer twice
compares the Reeve with a cleric. He is 'tukked as a frere' and 'dokked
lyk a preest'; is Chaucer hinting at the pretensions of his class to 'clergy'?
Bennett ('The Reeve') says that reeves were unlettered, and gives parallels
for the oral rendering of accounts by illiterate men, but perhaps Chaucer's
Reeve wanted people to think he could understand the book-work for
which he was responsible.
71. See OED s.v. Subtly, 1 and 3. The ambiguity of Chaucer's phrasing is
reflected in different estimates of the Reeve among critics; Manly saw
him as a 'rascal' and 'sly' (New Light, pp. 92, 94), while G. B. Powley
thought he was merely 'the competent but worldly servant of a manor'
(TL5 (14 July 1932), 516).
72. See Skeat's note on the line, and G. E. Evans, Where Beards Wag All (London*
1970), p. 162.
73. Two sets of verses on the Characteristics of Counties describe Norfolk as
'full of giles' and 'ful of wyles' (Wright and Halliwell (eds.), Reliquiae
Antiquae, vol. 1, p. 269 and vol. 2, p. 41). Both these pieces are fairly
late; the first is from MS BM Harley 7371, whose contents seem to belong
to the seventeenth century, the second was printed by Thomas Hearne in
his introduction to the fifth volume of Leland's Itinerary. A much earlier
Latin poem describes the inhabitants of Norfolk as the worst of any people:
'gens vilissima, | Plena versutiis, fallax et invida' - 'the basest of people,
full of tricks, deceitful and malicious'. ('Exiit edictum quondam a Caesare',
ed. Wright, Early Mysteries and Other Latin Poems (London, 1838), pp. 93ff.
This poem exists in several MSS, including one of the thirteenth and two
of the fourteenth centuries. See Walther's Initia, 6074, and Hist. litt. de la
France, vol. 12, p. 145.)
74. For suggestions as to the manor concerned and Chaucer's way of knowing
about it, see Manly, New Light, pp. 84fE, G. B. Powley, TLS (14 July 1932),
516, and L. J. Redstone, TLS (27 October 1932), 789.
75. For an attempt to interpret some of these details as symbolic of the Reeve's
old age, see B. Forehand 'Old Age and Chaucer's Reeve', PMLA 69
(i954)» 984-9. The details might be taken as appropriate if we knew
the Reeve was old, but they do not seem to suggest it strongly by them-
selves.
76. See Tupper, 'Canterbury Pilgrims', pp. 26sfF. Tupper claims that the
enmity between the Reeve and the Miller is 'thoroughly traditional', but
284
NOTES TO PAGES 168-74
his evidence shows only that a clash of interests was likely, not that it was
proverbial.
CHAPTER 8
1. See above, pp. 153-5.
2. rv 69-70. See also the Pardoner's Tale (vi (C) 538-9), where a similar list
is *put back' into a context of gluttony satire.
3. m 79-81. Cf. with these passages the Host's words in the Cook's Prologue,
1 (A) 4346-52.
4. Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, pp. 48ff. However, the medical
authorities quoted"by Curry attribute mormals to generally intemperate or
unclean habits, such as one might still today connect with skin disease,
rather than any specific pattern of behaviour. For evidence that the mormal
would smell strongly, see A. S. Cook, MLN 33 (1918), 379, and for the
argument that it is a running, not a dry sore, see H. Braddy 'The Cook's
Mormal and its Cure', MLQ 7 (1946), 265-7.
5. 'As I walked vppone a day', ed. C. Brown, Religious Lyrics of the XVth
Century (Oxford, 1939), No 178, p. 276, 109.
6. The effect has been commented on by J. Swart, 'The Construction of
Chaucer's General Prologue*, Neophilologus, 38 (1954), 127-36.
7. See above, p. 155 n. 32. Alanus de Insulis says that gluttonous habits produce
diseases ('morbos pariunt', De Planctu Naturae Prose vi, Anglo-Latin
Satirical Poets, n p. 487).
8. AH xxxm p. 270, 173-6.
9. Quoted, with slight corrections from the Cambridge MS, from Pantin,
English Church in the Fourteenth Century, Appendix 1, p. 273. The treatise
instructs the priest to question people according to their estate, and so
provides a useful list of the sins that each estate is prone to. It is dated
1344, and was apparently written for an English audience (see p. 205). It
survives in two MSS: BM Harley 3120, and Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge 148.
10. 'He drowned his prisoners' (Robinson's note).
11. See Bowden, Commentary, p. 193.
12. See Linthicum, ' "Faldyng" and "Medlee" \JEGP 34 (1935), 39-41.
13. 'The descryuing of mannes membres*, ed. J. Kail, Twenty-Six Political and
Other Poems (EETS o.s. 124, London, 1904), Part 1, p. 65.
14. He was the patron saint of foresters (see Robinson's note).
15. Bowden calls him 'likable' (Commentary, p. 88).
16. E. Birney has suggested that the joke about 'God's grace* is the Manciple's,
and that elsewhere it is the Manciple's view on the world that Chaucer is
presenting ('Chaucer's "Gentil" Manciple and his "Gentil" Tale', Neuphilolo-
gische Mitteilungen, 61 (i960), 257-67).
285
NOTES TO PAGES I76-7
EXCURSUS
1. The term 'descriptio', which I use in preference to 'effictio' and 'notatio'
(the terms used in, for example, the Rhetorica ad Herennium), is the one
adopted by both Matthew of Vendome (Ars Versijicatoria, ed. Faral, Les Arts
Poetiques, p. 118, 38), and Geoffrey of Vinsauf (Poetria Nova, ibid., p. 214,
554).
2. Les Arts Poetiques, pp. 75ff. For correction of some of Faral's statements
about the organisation of the portraits in literature, see Colby, The Portrait
in Twelfth Century French Literature, pp. 5-7.
3. Les Arts Poetiques, p. 80.
4. The Golden Mirror: Studies in Chaucer's Descriptive Technique and its Literary
Background (Lund, 1955). For the discussion of descriptions of people, see
pp. i67ff.
5.R. M. Lumiansky, 'Benoit's Portraits and Chaucer's General Prologue',
JEGP 55 (1956), 431-8, and H. R. Patch, 'Characters in Medieval Literature',
MLN 40 (1925), 1-14.
6. Matthew of Vendome, Ars Versijicatoria, p. 135, 74.
7. A list of representative examples of the first sort is given by Haselmayer,
SA p. 4, n. 3. See also his article, 'The Portraits in Troilus and Criseyde'
PQ 17 (1938), 220-3. For portraits of ugly people, see SA, p. 5, n. 4, and
Schaar's additions in The Golden Mirror, pp. 3o6fF.
8. SA, p. 5, n. 4. The distinction between the two kinds of'realism' is pointed
out by Schaar, The Golden Mirror, p. 306.
9. 'En fait, dans les exemples qu'en offre la litterature, [la description] est
souvent oiseuse; chez beaucoup d'auteurs. . .elle fait plus d'une fois hors-
d'oeuvre et n'a d'autre raison d'etre que l'observance d'une tradition
routiniere. . . Le but de la description est de mettre en lumiere les carac-
teristiques. . . de la personne dont on p a r l e . . . La formule empeche la vie
de se manifester, et, en fin de compte, c'est contre la verite meme que se
tournent les preceptes des anciens qui avaient ete la proclamation de ses
droits.' (Les Arts Poitiques, pp. 77-9.)
'The traditional motive in medieval verse and rhetorical manuals for
using the portrait was the creation of an elaborate poetic amplification.
Even though it was a non-organic artistic entity, poets never employed it in
unexpected places. Descriptions of men and women were given when they
first appeared in the action of a story, or when an account of their beauty
could explain the attraction of one character for another. Although purely
artificial in effect, the verse portrait was used with a certain dramatic
and psychological propriety.' (PQ 17, p. 220) Cf. Haselmayer's article in
RES 14 (1938), 310-14, 'The Portraits in Chaucer's Fabliaux': 'The portrait
or effictio was a device of medieval rhetoric and was employed universally
by poets in a variety of art forms in order to produce a surface impression
286
NOTES TO PAGES I78-81
of elaborate and decorative brilliance. . . Artificial in representation, it did not
attain any elasticity of form or freedom of diction in the many centuries of
its poetic use/ (My italics.)
Even in antiquity, the figure was put to more interesting uses than these
writers suggest. The Rhetorica ad Herennium has a brief, but vivid and
distinctive example of effictio (the portrayal of appearance) and a brilliant
example of notatio (character delineation), depicting the behaviour of a
man who wishes to be thought rich (ed. Caplan, iv 5ofF.). The development
of the figure in this way shows how its possibilities had always been realised,
but this particular example cannot strictly be cited as a precedent for the
techniques of the Prologue, since the conception which dominates the portrait
is a man's 'studium', or ruling passion, rather than his work and social
status. It is interesting to note that, in this work, the list of types that can be
described refers almost entirely to outlines of innate character - 'the envious
or pompus man', etc. (iv 51, 65fF.), wheras a similar list in Matthew of
Vendome classifies entirely by external situation - cleric or emperor, girl
or old woman, etc. (Les Arts Poetiques, p. 120, 46).
10. Ed. A. Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, v (Teubner, Leipzig, 1888), pp.
320-1, 85-98. For evidence of Chaucer's acquaintance with this elegy, see
G. L. Kittredge, 'Chaucer and Maximian', Am. Jour. Phil. 9 (1888), 84-5.
11. PL CLXXI, col. 1655. I have corrected the punctuation slightly. The poem
goes on to marvel at the paradox that vice (homosexual love) can make one
virtuous (chaste with regard to women). (For the translation of 'membra
cum succo', see Donatus' Commentary on Terence, ed. P. Wessner (Teubner,
Leipzig, 1902), vol. 1, p. 339, adEun 113,27: 'sud plenum est interior pinguedo
membrorum' (318). I am grateful to Dr Michael Lapidge for this reference.)
12. JEGP 55, pp. 431-6.
13.1, p. 268, 5178; p. 269, 5184, 5195; p. 270, 5206, 5210; p. 271, 5223, 5231;
p. 273, 5260; p. 274, 5279; p. 275, 5286.
14. Cf. General Prologue 446, 659, and a whole series in the Pardoner's portrait.
Chaucer also uses 'But' in a different way in the Prologue, for conversational
liveliness, suggesting a contrast or opposition which the material does not
really warrant (see 142, 182, 284, 401, 692).
15. In fact, although he is often simply elaborating Dares, at some points,
such as the Jason-Medea episode, he is introducing new material. Cf.
Dares' De Exddio Troiae Historia, ed. F. Meister (Teubner, Leipzig, 1873),
translated, together with Dictys Cretensis, by R. M. Frazer, The Trojan War,
(Bloomington and London, 1966).
16.1, pp. 263-4, 5093-106. This statement is taken from Dares.
17. MLN 40, p. 11.
18. pp. 70-6 (men), and pp. 87-9 (women).
19. R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy (London,
1964), pp. nofF.
287
NOTES TO PAGES l82-6
20. pp. 70-1. For cases where Chaucer's portraits show particular affinities
with the tradition represented by Hildegard, see the chapters on the Franklin
and the Pardoner.
21. Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences, Chapter 4.
22. Bowden, Commentary, pp. i74fF.
23. Lowes, Convention and Revolt in Poetry, pp. 41-5.
24. See the quotations from Faral and Haselmayer above, and The Golden
Mirror, pp. 325ff.
25. Later, Matthew lists eleven attributes by means of which a person can be
described: 'nomen, natura, convictus, fortuna, habitus, studium, affectio,
consilium, casus, facta, orationes' (Les Arts Poetiques, p. 136, 77). This
list is derived from Cicero's De Inventione, 1 24-5 [Opera Rhetorica, vol. 1,
ed. G. Friedrich (Teubner, Leipzig, 1884), and as Cicero himself says, some
of these aspects of a person are only with difficulty defined, or distinguished
from each other (p. 140, 16-22). Matthew illustrates each aspect by one- or
two-line quotations from classical authors, rather than by lengthy portraits.
Despite the fact that this analysis seems to invite a 'realistic' approach to
portraiture, it does not seem likely that it would have influenced Chaucer
so much as the fully-developed examples of literary portraiture.
26. Les Arts Poetiques, pp. 122-5, 51-2. Matthew himself discusses the way in
which the individual names in these portraits stand for types (p. 132, 60).
27. pp. 123-4, 52, 9-42. See my discussion of the Clerk and Friar for this
tradition in connection with scholars.
28. Matthew himself, echoing Aeneid, vi 853, comments that the role of a priest
is 'Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos' (p. 133, 65). See also the section
on the Parson.
29. Les Arts Poitiques, p. 121, 50, 11-12.
30. Ibid., 17-18.
31. E.g. as an example of description a patria Matthew gives:
Aurum Roma sitit, dantes amat, absque datore
Accusativis Roma favere negat. (ibid., p. 137, 82)
32. 31, 1, pp. I32ff. The MS in which it is found is No 115 of St-Omer (fols.
97ff.), a large and important thirteenth-century collection of Latin verse,
from the abbey of Clairmarais, near St-Omer, where it was probably
written (ibid., p. 50). There is no evidence of this poem being known or
copied anywhere else, but this is unimportant; I am not trying to establish
that Chaucer was influenced by it, simply that the union between formal
description and estates material could be made by a writer as easily as the
union between formal description and the Seven Deadly Sins.
33. Ibid., p. 134, 33-50.1 have re-punctuated slightly.
288
NOTES TO PAGES 187-8
CHAPTER 9
1. E.g., G. L. Kittredge says Chaucer endows each pilgrim 'with an individuality
that goes much beyond the typical', although he adds, 'If we had only the
Prologue, we might, perhaps, regard the Pilgrims as types' (Chaucer and
his Poetry, p. 154). R. K. Root's statement that 'It is by their successful
blending of the individual with the typical that the portraits of Chaucer's
Prologue attain so high a degree of effectiveness' (Poetry of Chaucer, p. 161),
is quoted approvingly by J. R. Hulbert ('Chaucer's Pilgrims', repr.
Wagenknecht, p. 24). W. H. Clawson comments: 'Each of the pilgrims... is
revealed in such sharp and clear detail that we feel personally acquainted
with him or her as an individual, and at the same time we recognise him
as representative, not only of a social class, but of a type of character which
may be recognised in any country and in any age.' ('Framework of the
Canterbury Tales', repr. Wagenknecht, pp. 13-14). R. Baldwin says that
Chaucer sensed, 'as did none of his contemporaries, the person as an artistic
compromise between the extremes of type and individual' (Unity of the
Tales, p. 43). P. F. Baum repeats, 'Each figure is in its way a type and also an
individual' (Chaucer, p. 67).
2. Poetry of Chaucer, p. 161.
3. Pace Root, she is not, but is typical of commonplace traits in a medieval
(and, apparently, modern) stereotype of woman.
4. Geoffrey Chaucer, p. 163.
5. Root side-steps this difficulty by saying that 'The details enumerated nearly
always suggest at once the individual and the type' (Poetry of Chaucer, p. 161).
6. Chaucer the Maker, pp. 103-20.
7. Unity of the Canterbury Tales, p. 49.
S.OfSondryFolkp. 22.
9. See for example, G. H. Cowling, Chaucer (London, 1927), p. 153: 'other
portraits are so realistic that they must have been drawn from life'.
10. Writers who assume that individualisation consists in the addition of details
to a generalised outline include Patch, 'Characters in Medieval Literature',
p. 13: 'The man of the fourteenth century would have recognised many an
old friend here, with, however, just the proper touch - a peire of bedes,
a garment, or a feature-to combine the individual with the typical.';
Hulbert, 'Chaucer's Pilgrims', repr. Wagenknecht, pp. 25 and 27; 'When
one considers that the Monk is a man of wealth (the references to the cost of
his hunting and his expensive dress), keeper of a cell, lover of hare-hunting,
and likely to become an abbot, one recognises elements which are not
generally typical.'; Baum, Chaucer, p. 67: 'Each figure i s . . . an individual in
that each is given particular marks: the Cook's ulcer, the Franklin's colour-
ing, the Shipman's barge, the Reeve's identification with Norfolk, the
Pardoner's with Rouncival, and so on'; Fisher, John Gower, p. 293, talks of
289
NOTES TO PAGES 189-91
the 'brilliant individualising strokes (juxta Bathon, deafness, weaving, spurs)'
in the Wife's portrait.
Benjamin Boyce recognises that 'Chaucer chose his pilgrims first on a
basis of social and professional, not moral, classification', and seems to imply
that the professional type is basic to the portraits, and the moral and
astrological or physiological classifications subsidiary - but he too thinks
that Chaucer 'vitalised the types', in Kittredge's phrase, 'by using concrete
details': 'why else the Summoner's "Questio quid iuris," the Wife's
deafness, the Prioress' brooch, and, worst of all, that shocking mormal
on the Cook's shin?' (The Theophrastan Character in England to 1642 (London,
1967), pp. 58-62.)
D. W. Robertson offers an exception to this critical consensus; he
comments on 'the use of iconographic details as a means of calling attention
to an underlying abstract reality' (Preface to Chaucer, p. 247). He does not,
however, consider the estates type in his discussion of this underlying
abstract reality, nor does he suggest how our impression of the individuality
of the characters is produced.
11. Rosemary Woolf has made a similar critical point with special reference to
the role of the narrator, whose 'obtuse innocence' causes him to accept
the immoral premises from which the pilgrims speak. The narrator relates
general facts about the classes 'as though they were both inoffensive and
idiosyncratic, and in this way both the satiric point and the illusion of
individuality are achieved.' (My italics.) Again, she comments, 'to search for
historical prototypes of the characters is to be deceived by the brilliant
accuracy of Chaucer's sleight-of-hand, whereby he suggests an individuality
which is not there' ('Chaucer as a Satirist', p. 152). (I am much indebted to
Miss Woolf's article, although I should like to modify some of its state-
ments.) D. S. Brewer also implies that our 'sense of individuality' in the
pilgrims derives more from techniques such as 'including snatches of conver-
sation, and. . . describing in many cases the opinion, usual activities, or
dwelling place of a person' than from concrete details (Chaucer, p. 134).
E. T. Donaldson also calls our sense of the reality of the Prologuefiguresan
'illusion' but declines to suggest how it is produced (Chaucer's Poetry:
an anthology for the modern reader (New York, 1958), p. 874).
12. Poetry of Chaucer, p. 161.
13. For observations on the way in which a growing sense of individual motives
and points of view in the twelfth century is connected with the growing
importance of the estates concept in the same period, see J. Le Goff, 'Metier
et profession d'apres les manuels de confesseurs au Moyen Age', in Beitrdge
zum Berufsbewusstsein des Mittelalterlichen Menschen, ed. P. Wilpert,
Miscellanea Medievalia, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1964), pp. 44-60.
14. An exception might seem to be the presence of the victim in the Friar's
portrait, in the form of the 'sike lazars' he neglects; we come very close
290
NOTES TO PAGES I9I-4
to abandoning the Friar's viewpoint here, but do not quite do so because
the whole passage is clothed in the Friar's own terminology, not the
narrator's, and we see the lepers from the Friar's point of view, not vice
versa. In the Reeve's portrait, the situation is reversed; we do see the Reeve
from the point of view of the 'hynes'.
15. M. F. Bovill, "The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: a comparative
study' (unpublished, Oxford B. Litt. thesis, 1966), p. 60.
16. This is the distinction usually drawn; see, for example, Baum, Chaucer, p.
70, who says we are struck by the 'earnestness of the one and the detachment
of the other. . . Langland is not amused. His sense of humour is as keen as
Chaucer's, but unlike Chaucer's it is often bitter and barbed; it does not
titillate. It exposes the comic and ridiculous without smile or laughter.'
Cf. also Woolf, 'Chaucer as a Satirist', pp. 154-5.
17. The lack of correlation between the moral status of the pilgrims and our
response to them, seems to be implied in Patch's statement that Chaucer
'didn't necessarily like best' his ideal characters (On Rereading Chaucer,
p. 155).
18. Other comparisons could be made. Are we prepared to accept, for example,
that Chaucer thinks it morally worse for the Pardoner to be a homosexual
than for the Shipman to be a murderer? Is it worse for the Reeve to terrify
his underlings than for the Wife of Bath to be sexually promiscuous? The
impossibility of answering these questions indicates that there is no syste-
matic moral scale determining our likes and dislikes in the General Prologue;
attempts to find the moral grounds on which, for example, the Pardoner
can be shown to be the worst of the pilgrims as well as the most disgusting,
are strained and unconvincing (see G. Ethel, 'Chaucer's Worste Shrewe:
the Pardoner', MLQ 20 (1959), 211-27).
19. This paradoxical situation characterises the whole work: see especially p.
45 fol. 216, 26ff., and p. 55, fol. 276, nff.
20. PPl v 82-3 and 192. Even with Langland, this is not always true; the
Doctor of Divinity who is as 'rody as a rose' is a case in point (xm 99).
21. See especially E. T. Donaldson's article, 'Chaucer the Pilgrim', reprinted
in Speaking of Chaucer (London, 1970), pp. 1-12.
22. The concentration on means rather than ends has been held by sociologists
to be characteristic of the social ethic of societies dominated by economic
markets, and particularly of capitalism. See Max Weber, Economy and
Society (trans. G. Roth and C. Wittich, 3 vols., New York, 1968), especially
vol. 3, p. 1188: 'under capitalism... a person can practice caritas and brother-
hood only outside his vocational life'. The ideology of capitalism has taken
as its starting-point the division of labour, and implicitly assumed that
the sum of each group's activities will be the social good. Therefore it
has not considered it necessary to analyse the nature of this good or the
way in which it was to be achieved. This raises the question of whether
291
NOTES TO PAGES I94-6
Chaucer felt the need to alter estates literature in order to express his
consciousness that market relationships were assuming a new importance
in his society, although the ironic tone which characterises the Prologue
suggests that Chaucer is not encouraging the adoption of a capitalist ethic.
Similar social characteristics have been especially associated with the city in
a classic article by Louis Wirth (American Journal of Sociology, 34 (1938),
293
NOTES TO PAGES 207-12
estates works, battle-poems and satires all begin this way. See, for example,
'Quant vei lo temps renovellar' PSE p. 3, and 'Serpserat Angligenam
rabies quadrangula gentem', ibid., p. 19, a poem on the taking of Lincoln
which beings with a lyrical spring description tending to the conclusion
that in spring a Frenchman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of war. Among
satiric works, see the Apocalipsis Goliae, the Metamorphosis Goliae (ed.
Huygens, Studi medievali, Ser. 3, in (1962), p. 765), the debates 'Dum
Saturno conjuge' (Map Poems, pp. 237ff.) and 'Hora nona sabbati' (NE
32, 1 pp. 289fF.), the Vox Clamantis and Piers Plowman. One might even
ask whether the opening of the Metamorphosis Goliae - 'Sole post Arietem
Taurum subintrante' - is echoed in Chaucer's opening in the season when
the sun 'Hath in the Ram his halve cors yronne'. The spring description
is sometimes burlesqued in satire, but not necessarily for its associations
with love: see SS 4496°., and 'Or vint la tens de May, que ce ros panirra',
PSE pp. 63 ff. (R. Baldwin discusses the tradition of the spring-opening
(Unity of the Canterbury Tales, pp. 2iff.), and comments that 'even the
satirist' uses it, but does not follow up this remark.)
APPENDIX B
1. Printed in K. Sisam (ed.), Fourteenth-Century Verse and Prose (Oxford 1921),
pp. 160-1.
2. Fliigel, 'Chaucer's Prolog', and Fisher, John Gower, Chapter 5. For line
references of the detailed correspondence between the two writers, see these
works, supplemented by my discussion of the Prologue portraits.
3. Chaucer had already used this technique to good effect in Troilus and
Criseyde (1132-3, v 826).
4. Langland's concern with the world is later expressed in a different way
when the pilgrimage to Truth is delayed for the ploughing of Piers's half-
acre (vi 3ff.).
5. See, besides the portraits of the Seven Deadly Sins in Passus v, the description
of Hawkin, xni 224ff., especially 3ooff.
6. The original notion seems to derive from New Testament passages; see
Matt. 7:13-14, and Heb. 11:13-16. It is, of course, the basis of Deguileville's
Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine and is found incidentally in other authors
(e.g., Gilles li Muisis, 11 p. 6 7 - one of many instances).
7. For a discussion of Sercambi's possible influence on the Canterbury Tales,
see SA pp. 20-81.
8. Professor Bennett makes this suggestion in the article cited below.
9. John Gower, pp. 204, 301.
10. Respectively, in 'Two Notes', pp. 89-94, and' Chaucer's Contemporary',
in Hussey (ed.), Piers Plowman, pp. 310-24.
294
Selected Bibliography and List of Works Cited
295
LATIN
The earliest estates work used in this study is the Praeloquia of Rather,
Bishop of Verona from 931 onwards (PL 136). After holding his bishopric
for a few years, Rather was deposed for his supposed implication in an
attempt by a Bavarian Duke to seize the kingdom of Italy, and im-
prisoned in Pavia, where he composed the Praeloquia, a moral treatise
which is also a self-justification. For a discussion of Rather and this
work, see Auerbach, Literary Language and its Public, pp. I33ff. Auerbach
judges that Rather was 'by far the most interesting and important
Latin writer of his time' (p. 152), and it may well be that his original
mind devised the question-and-answer form by which he introduces
the duties of each estate, rather in the manner of the later sermones ad
status.
The next important group of texts all belong to the great flowering
of Latin secular literature in the twelfth century. Walter of Chatillon
(ed. Strecker), 'one of the most important figures among the secular
poets of the Middle Ages', was also one of the most influential (Raby,
Secular Latin Poetry, vol. 2, pp. 190-204; see also K. Strecker, 'Walter
von Chatillon, der Dichter der Lieder von St Omer', ZfDA 61 (1924),
197-222). The surviving MSS attest the steady popularity of Walter's
writing: of those listed and dated by Strecker, ten are of the thirteenth
century, one of the thirteenth to the fourteenth century, and five of the
fourteenth century. Nine of the twenty-three manuscripts listed by
Strecker are English. Not all of these MSS contain a complete collection
of Walter's poems, and poems No vm ('Dilatatur inpii regnum
Pharaonis'), and No xvn ('Versa est in luctum') do not occur in any
English MS. Poems No 1 ('Tanto viro locuturi'), 11 ('Propter Sion non
tacebo'), m ('In domino confido'), iv ('Stulti cum prudentibus'), v
('Multiformis hominum'), vi ('Missus sum in vineam') and XVIII
('Dum Galterus egrotaret') seem, from the surviving MSS, to have
had the widest circulation in England.
Walter had a large number of imitators, and several of the other
297
BIBLIOGRAPHY
poems used in this study belong to his school. They are all discussed
by Strecker in 'Walter von Chatillon und seine Schule', ZfDA 64
(1927), 97-125 and 161-89.
The Speculum Stultorum (ed. Mozley and Raymo) was written by an
Englishman, Nigel of Longchamps, in 1179-80, and was from the outset
a favourite source of quotation and anecdote for medieval authors (see
Mozley and Raymo's edition, pp. 2 and 8). It reached the height of its
popularity in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, to
which period all but one of the many extant manuscripts belong.
Boccaccio, Gower and Chaucer all knew and used the work (see
Mozley and Raymo, be. cit., and CT vn 3312-16). The interpolation
on the friars (Mozley and Raymo, Appendix A) was of course inserted
later, and is extant in one fourteenth-century manuscript and three
fifteenth-century ones (ibid., p. 8).
The De Planctu Naturae of Alanus de Insults (ed. Wright, Anglo-Latin
Satirical Poets) is another twelfth-century Latin work known to Chaucer
who refers to it by name in the Parlement of Foules (316-17; see also
Kittredge, 'Chaucer and Alanus de Insulis', p. 483). Although Alanus'
work is moral satire rather than estates satire, it has close links with
some of the material and techniques of estates writers, and therefore
provides useful supplementary evidence at points.
Much of the twelfth-century satire in Latin is attributed by later
periods to Walter Map; although these attributions are unlikely to be
true, we have one authentic work of his, the De Nugis Curialium
(ed. James), written between 1181 and 1193 (see James, p. xxviii). This
work exists in only one late fourteenth-century manuscript, and was
apparently neglected by other authors until the seventeenth century.
However, the MS (Bodley 851: SC 3041) is a large and important
one, which also contains several Goliardic poems, including the
Apocalipsis Goliae, the Speculum Stultorum, the Geta and a large part of
Piers Plowman (see Skeat's edition, Introduction, p. lxxi).
Numerous twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Latin satires are
collected in the Carmina Burana (ed. Hilka and Schumann), the famous
MS now Munich Clm 4660, which is of the first third of the thirteenth
century (see B. Bischoff, Faksimile-Ausgabe der Handschrift der Carmina
Burana und der Fragmenta Burana (2 vols., Munich, 1967), vol. 2, pp. 27-8).
298
BIBLIOGRAPHY
on a formal estates basis, with one chapter for each class. Karajan
thought that the Latin poem was thirteenth-century, although the
German translation is probably a century later (ZfDA 2 (1842), 9).
Finally, we have the major Latin estates work of John Gower, the
Vox Clamantis (ed. Macaulay), composed around 1374-85 (see Fisher,
John Gower, Chronology of the Writings of Gower and Chaucer).
This is a work which Chaucer, from his friendship with Gower,
almost certainly knew well, but as we have seen, it is not the only
piece of Latin estates writing that he knew or was likely to have known.
Apocalipsis Goliae
Inc. 'A tauro torrida lampade Cinthii', ed. Strecker. This poem was
one of the most popular Latin satires of the Middle Ages; it survives
in almost seventy MSS. By far the largest number of these MSS
originate in England, and it is quite probable that the author was
English. There is no way of dating the poem precisely, but style and
content assign it to 'the era of Alanus, Walter of Chatillon and
Walter Map' (Strecker, p. 8).
Metamorphosis Goliae
Inc.: 'Sole post Arietem Taurum subintrante', ed. Huygens, Studi
medievali ser. 3, m (1962), pp. 764ff. (also in Map Poems, pp. 2iff.).
Survives in two MSS, one English, of the thirteenth-century (BM
Harley 978), and the other fourteenth-century and French (St-Omer
710).
f
Rumor novus Angliae partes pergiravit'
'De Convocatione Sacerdotum', Map Poems, pp. i8off.
An English poem, written ca. 1200 (see Lehmann, Die Parodie im
Mittelalter, pp. ii2iff.). It survives in two MSS (one of the thirteenth
and one of the fourteenth century).
304
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FRENCH
The earliest French estates work discussed in this study is the Livre des
Manieres. It was probably written by titienne de Fougeres, bishop of
Rennes, formerly chaplain of the English king, Henry II (see Langlois,
La Vie en France, pp. 1-2). The work, which was written in the 1170s
(ibid.t p. 7), survives in only one MS (see Kremer, p. 76). There is,
however, evidence that it had some influence on at least one later
305
BIBLIOGRAPHY
{
Li Manages des Filles au Diahle'
Inc.: 'Seignour, cis siecles ne vaut rien', ed. Jubinal, NR 1 pp. 283fF.
A thirteenth-century poem (see Hist. litt. de la France, xxm, p. 118)
contained in two thirteenth-century MSS, one of which (Paris,
Arsenal 3142) also includes the Roman de Carite.
(
Mult est diables curteisy
'Sur Les £tats du Monde', ed. Aspin, pp. n6ff.
From MS Gonville and Caius College Cambridge 43 5, and probably,
like the MS, of the first half of the thirteenth century (Aspin, loc. cit).
ENGLISH
The first work in English to concern us is the Ancrene Wisse (ed. Tolkien).
The rule which is the basis of this work was first written ca. 1200,
and the version that we now have can be dated ca. 1225-35 (see G.
Shepherd, Ancrene Wisse, Parts 6 and 7 (London, 1959), pp. xxiii-iv).
There are several English MSS of this work, and versions of it in French
and Latin. For its popularity, and some evidence of its influence, see
H. E. Allen, 'Some Fourteenth Century Borrowings from "Ancren
Riwle" ', MLR 18 (1923), 1-8, partially corrected in MLR 19 (1924),
95. The Ancrene Wisse is, however, only of incidental use to us since
moral satire is only a part of it.
309
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'Land ofCokaygne'
Inc.: 'Fur in see bi west Spayngne', ed. Bennett and Smithers, pp.
I38ff.
Of Irish origin, and written in the thirteenth century (ibid., p. 138).
Only in one MS (BM Harley 913).
OTHER WORKS
I have cited two major Italian works, the Divine Comedy and Boccaccio's
Decameron. For Chaucer's knowledge of Dante, seej. L. Lowes 'Chaucer
and Dante', MP 14(1916-17), 705!?. His acquaintance with the Decameron
is disputed. H. M. Cummings thought it unlikely (The Indebtedness of
Chaucer's Works to the Italian Works of Boccaccio, Univ. of Cincinnati
Studies, x (1916), Chapter 9), as did Mario Praz (a paper reported in
English Studies, 9 (1927), 81-2). On the late arrival of the Decameron at
popularity in England, see W. Farnham, 'England's Discovery of the
Decameron , PMLA 39 (1924), 123-39. For the view that Chaucer did
know the Decameron, see T. H. McNeal, 'Chaucer and the Decameron ,
MLN 52 (1938), 257-8, and M. F. Bovill, 'The Decameron and the
Canterbury Tales' (unpublished Oxford B. Litt. thesis, 1966).
Two important scientific works used in the discussion are the
Causae et Curae of Hildegard of Bingen (ed. Kaiser), and the Secreta
Secretorum. Hildegard's twelfth-century work survives in only one
MS, and its usefulness therefore lies in its illustration of the diversity of
the scientific tradition, and the development of a portrait form based on
311
BIBLIOGRAPHY
312
II
313
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Fairholt, F. W. (ed.) Satirical Songs and Poems on Costumefrom the 13th to the igth
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Flacius Illyricus, M. (ed.) Varia doctorum piorumque virorum De corrupto Ecclesiae
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Gautier de Coincy La Chastee as Nonains de Gautier de Coinci, ed. T. Nurmela,
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Guiot de Provins Oeuvres, ed. J. Orr, Manchester, 1915.
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Hardwick, H. C. A Poem on the Times ofEdward II ['The Simonie'], Percy
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Incites des XIIle, XIVe et XVe Siecles. . . d'Apris les MSS. de la Bibliotheque
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Langosch, K. (ed.) Hymnen und Vagantenlieder, Darmstadt, 1961.
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The Book ofthe Ordre ofChyualry translated by W. Caxton, ed. A. T. P. Byles,
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Machaut, Guillaume Oeuvres, ed. E. Hoepffiier, SATF, 3 vols., Paris, 1908-21.
Mannyng, Robert Robert ofBrunne's Handlyng Synne with those parts ofthe
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Ill
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Robinson, F. N. (ed.) The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd edition, London, 1957.
Skeat, W. W. (ed.) Chaucer: Complete Works, 7 vols., Oxford, 1894-7.
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320
BIBLIOGRAPHY
321
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The index contains the names of the medieval authors and literary works, and of the
modern critics and scholars, discussed or referred to on points of importance. On the
whole the list of contents is taken to be a sufficient guide to the material covered by the
book, but some analysis of references to medieval ideas about different social classes has
been included, as have a few references to key literary techniques and to Middle English
words whose usage is especially interesting.
The references will be found to take slightly differing forms, due to the separation of
text and notes. If a work or writer is identified within the text, the page-number of the
text alone is given. If a work or writer is discussed or quoted in the text, but only identi-
fied by the note, the page-number of the text and the number of the identifying note
are given. If a work or author is merely cited in a note to support or clarify a general
statement in the text, the page-number on which the note appears, and the number of the
note, are given.
For medieval estates works, the index should be supplemented by reference to Part I
of the bibliography.
3*3
INDEX
Carmina Burana: N o . I, 249 n. 18, Cleanness, 133-4
n. 20; No. 5, 245 n. 138, 249 n. 18, clerks: as beginners boast of their
280 n. 36; No. 6, 76 n. n o , 242 learning, 74; expenditure on books,
n. 98, nn. 101-2; No. 8, 280 n. 36; 74-5; study of pagan classical
No. 11, 224 n. 62, 253 n. 44, authors, 74, 83-5; indulgence in
277 n. 15, 279 n. 27; No. 33, idle entertainments, 75; duty to
234 n. 14, 237 n. 43, 244 n. 117; study morality, 75-6, 84; duty to
No. 36, 235 n. 21, 233 n. 6, balance learning and teaching, 76;
235 n. 27; No. 39, 29 n. 39, purpose of their study, 76; gravity
222 n. 32, 233 n. 6, 249 n. 18; or sobriety befitting for, 76-7;
No. 43, 233 n. 6; No. 91, 233 n. 6, pride in learning, 77-8; character
234 n. 14, 235 n. 21; No. 92, 244 of their speech, 77-9; poverty of,
n. 123, 280 n. 36; see also 'Gospel 79-81; contrast between poverty
According to the Mark of Silver' of Arts student and riches of lawyer
Chanson de Roland, La, i n , 258 n. 8. or doctor, 79-80; dependence on
chansons de geste, i n , 260 n. 24 relatives, 81-2; duty to pray for
Chaucer, Geoffrey: Knight's Tale, benefactors, 81-2; involvement in
257 n. 4, 262-3 n« 475 Prologue to secular business, 82; difficulty in
Miller's Tale, 282 n. 54; Miller's acquiring benefices, 82-3;
Tale, 75, 103, 242 n. 101, 243 n. 106, unattractiveness of a benefice for,
n. 112, 245 n. 135; Reeve's Tale, 83; cold endured by, 246 n. 150;
283 n. 60; Prologue to Cook's Tale, long hours worked by, 247 n. 150
285 n. 3; Prologue to Man of Law's Coghill, N., 68, 70, 199, 212, 240 n. 67,
Tale, 245 n. 127; Man of Law's Tale, n. 78, 241 n. 86, n. 91
258 n. 8; Prologue to Wife of Bath's confessional manuals, 9, 171
Tale, 256 n. 79, 263 n. 47; Wife of 'conscience', 133, 171
Bath's Tale, 228 n. 91, 269 n. 86; consistory court officials: as oppressors of
Friar's Tale, 248 n. 11, 274 n. 60; the poor, 139; corruptibility and
Summoner's Tale, 39-40, 226 n. 77. lechery of, 139-41
231 n. 127, n. 131, 232 n. 139, 'contours', 158
238 n. 52, 249 n. 21; Prologue to cooks, influence on Chaucer of Langland's
Clerk's Tale, 243 n. 112, n. 116; treatment of, 169
Clerk's Tale, 245 n. 127, 282 n. 52; Council of Remiremont, 130, 134 n. 38
Pardoner's Tale, 218 n. 10, 279 n. 29, Cowling, G. H., 289 n. 9
285 n. 2; Shipman's Tale, 222 n. 32, Crux est denarii, 139, 248 n. 13, 249 n. 18,
224 n. 53, 254 n. 59; Prioress' Tale, 253 n. 44
245 n. 127; Melibee, 245 n. 127; Cum declinent homines, 233 n. 6, 234 n. 14,
Prologue to Monk's Tale, 222 n. 31, 238 n. 52
224 n. 53; Nun's Priest's Tale, Cum sint plures ordines, 32 n. 50, 57 n. 7,
279 n. 29; Parson's Tale, 122, 190, 233 n. 6, 238 n. 52
201, 245 n. 127, 248 n. 11, 249 n. 21, Curry, W. C , 98, 125, 146, 162, 163,
253 n. 41, 264 n. 61, 282 n. 52; 181-2, 213 n. 3, 251 nn. 31-2, 273
Hous of Fame, 258 n. 8; Anelida and n. 53, 276 n. 2, 283 n. 63
Arcite, 263 n. 47; Parlement of 'curteisie', 31-2, 35-6, 133-7, 196-7
Foules, 258 n. 8; Troilus and
Criseyde, 199-200, 222 n. 36,
257 n. 4, 258 n. 8, 263 n. 47, 293 Dante Alighieri, 142, 231 n. 131, 260
n. 30, 294 n. 3; The Former Age, n. 31, 277 n. 13, 278 n. 18
279 n. 29 Debemus cunctis, 69, 185-6
Chessbook, 69 (bis), 71, 92, 104, 107, Decameron - see Boccaccio, Giovanni
n o n. 21, 170, 203, 233 n. 1, De Nugis Curialium - see Map, Walter
237 n. 43, 239 n. 56, 241 n. 82, De Planctu Naturae - see Alanus de
242 n. 96, 252 n. 38, 254 n. 51, Insulis
n. 57, 261 n. 38, 262 n. 45 Deschamps, Eustace, 242 n. 96, 266 n. 81,
choleric man, the character of the, 163, n. 84
181-2 descriptio, the tradition of, 128, 138-9,
Clanvowe, Sir John, 158, 275-6 n. 82 176-86
class-hierarchy, medieval view of, 6 'Des Vilains' - see Or escoutez
Clawson, W. H., 214 n. 11, 215 n. 21, disease, as an image of moral corruption,
289 n. 1 138,169
324
INDEX
Dit des Mais, Le, 51 n. 135, 74-5, 81, 114, franklins: rarity of their appearance in
159, 229 n. 98, 230 n. 114, 231 n. estates literature, 152
131, 233 n. 6, 239 n. 59, 240 n. 75, Frequenter cogitans, 29 n. 43, 109 n. 16,
245 n. 138, 249 n. 18, 250 n. 25, 203, 225 n. 62, 233 n. 6, 235 n. 29,
252 n. 38, 253 n. 44, n. 49, 254 n. 51, 237 n. 42, 239 n. 54, 240 n. 80, 241
261 n. 39, 270 n. 11 n. 89, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 51, 261
Dit des Patenostres, Le, 46, 60, 64, 205, n. 39, 266 n. 82
225 n. 66, 229 n. 109, 231 n. 134, friars: skill in eloquence of, 37-9,
234 n. 14, 249 n. 18, 250 n. 25, 40-1, 48; deceitfulness of, 37, 40;
252 n. 38, 260 n. 31, 270 n. 9 pride and sense of status, 39, 43-4;
Dit des Planetes, Le, 69, 114 n. 32, pride in learning, 38, 39-40, 49-50;
239 n. 59, 240 n. 75, n. 81, 241 n. 89, lechery of, 38, 40-2; desire to be
253 n. 49, 256 n. 70, 261 n. 34, n. 38 called 'master', 39-40; involvement
doctors: inefficiency of, 91-2; knowledge in secular business, 41-2; fine
of medical authorities, 92-3; clothing of, 43-4; musical skill of,
knowledge of astronomy, 93-4; 44-5; mercenary nature of, 45-6,
ability to make electuaries, 94; 51; venality in hearing confessions,
knowledge of the 'humours', 94-5; 47-9; quarrel with the secular
relationship with apothecaries, 95-6; clergy, 48-9; preference for the
avarice of, 95-6, 97; advice on diet, rich over the poor, 38, 51-2;
96-7; clothing of, 97; atheism of, 98; gluttony of, 50-2; tavern-haunting of
associated with lawyers, 79-80, 91, 50-1; quarrelsomeness of, 232 n. 139;
248 n. 13 splendour of their buildings, 232 n.
Donaldson, E. T., 240 n. 67, 290 n. 11, 139
291 n. 21
Dronke, P., 241 n. 92, 261 n. 36, 270 Gautier de Coincy, 135-7, 150-1,
n. 18, n. 23, 272 n. 39 241 n. 82, n. 84, 242 n. 96 (bis),
*Du Mercier', 23 n. 26 248 n. 14, 249 n. 18, 250 n. 25,
Dam pater abbas, 18 253 n. 44, 272 n. 44, 282 n. 52
Dum Saturno conjuge, 218 n. 5, 220 n. 19, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, 177, 286 n. 1
222 n. 32, 294 n. 36 Geoffroi de Charny, 107, 117-18, 119,
259 n. 21, 260 n. 27, 262 n. 42,
Ecce dolet Anglia, 57, 99 n. 53, 225 n. 66,
263 n. 49, 264-5 n. 67
234 n. 14, 237 n. 46, 238 n. 52, Gilles li Muisis: on monks, 24, 29 (bis),
245 n. 138, 265 n. 72. 30, 33» 35, 219 n. 14, 220 n. 21,
Elliott, R. W. V., 217 n. 29 221-2 n. 29, 278 n. 15; on friars,
38, 46, 50, 226 n. 77, 227 n. 80 (ter),
fetienne de'Fougeres: Livre des Manihes, n. 86, 229 n. 96, n. 109, 230 n. 114,
estates structure of, 204; on n. 120, 231 n. 127, 232 n. 139; on
priests, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, n. 27, priests, 58, 233 n. 6, 235 n. 21,
235-6 n. 29, 237 n. 43, n. 46, 238 236 nn. 29-30, 237 nn. 42-3,
n. 52 (bis): on peasants, 69, 70, 71, nn. 46-8, 238 n. 52 (bis), 244 n. 117;
239 nn. 57-8, 240 n. 74, 242 n. 96 on clerks and scholars, 80, 81, 82,
(bis); on clerks, 82, 243 n. 107; 222 n. 29, 243 n. 114, 245 n. 138,
on merchants, 253 n. 49, 254 246 n. 145, 262 n. 44; on lawyers,
n. 50, n. 52, 255 n. 60, 256 nn. 248 n. 13, 249 n. 18, n. 20; on
69-70; on the bourgeoisie, 256 n. 74; doctors, 95, 248 n. 13, 253 n. 44;
on knights, 258 n. 7, 261 nn. 38-9; on apothecaries, 95; on merchants,
on women, 122, 256 n. 79; on 102, 253 n. 49, 256 n. 69, 259 n. 16;
consistory court officials, 139; on on knights, 116, 258 n. 7, 259 n. 11,
'contours', 280 n. 43; on vigils,
256 n. 79 260 n. 31, 261 nn. 38-9; on squires,
118, 262 n. 44; on women, 122 (bis),
266 n. 78, n. 82, 267 n. 88, 268
Faral, E., 176-7, 185, 288 n. 24 n. 98; on nuns, 130, 136, 270 n. 9,
Fisher, J. H., 212, 248 n. 16, 289-90 n. 10 nn. 11-12, n. 16, n. 22, 272
Fliigel, E., 69, 83,213 n. 5,237 n. 41, 239, nn. 39-40; on manorial officials,
nn. 64-5, 240 n. 67, 246 n. 143, 163-4; on gluttony, 219 n. 14, 280
248 n. 16, 254 n. 54, 275 n. 73 n. 31; on 'punishing purses', 275
foppery, tradition of satire on, 118-19, n. 73; on clothing, 72, 264 n. 61,
148 268 n. 93; on money-changing,
325
INDEX
Gilles li Muisis—cont. n. 120, 231 n. 127, n. 134, 232
ioo; on brevity of speech, 244 n. 139 (bis); on bishops and priests,
n. 117; on crusading, 260 n. 31; 58 n. 11, 60, 61 n. 27, 63, 64,
on God's love as 'amour fine', 233 n. 6, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, n. 29,
271 n. 36; claim to represent 'vox 236 n. 39, 237 nn. 42-3, n. 45, 238
populi', 215 n. 23; on life as a n. 50, n. 52 (bis); on the hunting
pilgrimage, 294 n. 6 curate, 26-7, 60, 221 n. 29, 222
gluttony, traditional satire on, 153-5, n. 30, n. 33, 271 n. 31; on peasants,
169; among monks, 17-20, 32; 239 nn. 54-6, 240 n. 75, 241 n. 89;
among friars, 50-2 on clerks, 75-6, 76-7, 82, 242 n. 98,
'Gospel According to the Mark of Silver', nn. 101-2, n. 104, 243 n. 114,
98, 244 n. 118 245 n. 129, n. 138; on lawyers,
Gower, John 88 n. 9, 89 n. 19, 90, 248 nn. 13-14,
Heu! quia per crebras, 204, 238 n. 52 249 n. 18; on doctors, 253 n. 46;
(bis), 249 n. 18, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 52, on merchants, 99 n. 51, 99 n. 52,
260 n. 31 104 n. 76, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 52,
Mirour de VOmme: estates structure of, 255 n. 61; on the bourgeoisie, 256
205; on monks, 21-2, 24-5, 28-9, n. 74; on trades, 104 n. 76; on
30, 32 n. 49, 34-5, 218 n. 4, n. 6, knights, 106 n. 3, 117, 122, 261 n.
n. 10, 219 n. 12, n. 14, 222 n. 32, 38 (bis), n. 39; on women, 122, 267,
225 n. 62; on friars, 38 (bis), 40, n. 89; on nuns, 131, 270 n. 11, 271
47-8 n. 120, 227 n. 86, 229 n. 98, n. 27; on sheriffs, bailiffs and jurors,
230 n. 114, 231 n. 127, n. 134, 281 n. 47; on cooks, 168-9, 280
232 n. 135, n. 139 (bis); on priests, n. 33; on gluttons, 168-9, 279 n. 27,
57, 58 n. 11, 59-60, 61 n. 31, 233 280 n. 33; on 'punishing purses',
n. 6, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, 236 n. 29, 142 n. 73; on hospitality, 280 n. 39;
237 nn. 42-3, 238 n. 52 (bis), 264 claim to represent 'vox populi',
n. 61; on the hunting parson, 221 215 n. 23; metaphorical use of
n. 29; on peasants, 240 n. 75, 241 onions and leeks, 273 n. 54;
n. 89, n. 95; on scholars and clerks, spring-opening of, 294 n. 36;
76, 78-9 n. 117, 237-8 n. 50, 243 relationship with the Prologue,
n. 114, 245 n. 138; on lawyers, 88, 207-8
89 n. 19, 248 n. 13 (bis); on doctors, Guibert of Tournai, 134-7
95-6, 98 n. 46, 248 n. 13; on Guiot de Provins: Bible, estates
apothecaries, 95-6; on merchants, structure of, 204; on monks, 37,
100, 101 n. 62, 102 n. 65, 253 n. 49, 219 n. 11, 224 n. 60; on regular
254 nn. 50-1, 256 n. 69; on trades, canons, 223 n. 48; on priests, 233
104 n. 76, 217 n. 36; on knights, n. 6, 234 n. 14, 237 n. 42, 238 n. 52;
106 n. 3, 107 n. 7, 114 n. 32, 117, on clerks and scholars, 84; on
157, 229 n. 101, 261 n. 38 (bis)t lawyers, 249 n. 18; on doctors,
n. 39; on women, 126 n. 97, 256-7 94-5, 96, 250 n. 25; on nuns, 269
n. 80, 266 n. 82; on consistory n. 6, 270 nn. 12-13, 271 n. 27; on
court officials, 142; on sheriffs, vavasours, 157; on the
bailiffs and jurors, 281 n. 47; on hospitallers of St. Anthony, 150,
gluttony, 154-5 n. 31, 252-3 n. 41, 277 n. 13; on relics, 150; on sauces,
279 n. 29, 280 n. 32; on 154
Epicurus and St Julian, 156-7; on
'punishing purses', 142 and n. 73; on
bargains and 'chevyssaunce', 100, Handlyng Synne - see Mannyng, Robert
254 n. 59; on love-days, 229 n. 101; 'harlots', tradition of satirising, 138-9,
on the magical powers of drink, 161-2, 282 n. 53
143 n. 80; on the magical powers of Haselmayer, L. A., 176-8, 274 n. 60,
gold, 253 n. 47; on hospitality, 280 286 n. 7, 288 n. 24
n. 39; relationship with the Heu! quia per crebras - see Gower, John
Prologue, 207-8, 213 n. 5 Hildegard of Bingen, 181-2, 277 n. 10,
Vox Clamantis: estates structure of, 280 n. 35, 283 n. 62
204; on monks, 28, 30-1, 218 n. 2, homosexuality, moral satire of, 146;
n. 6, nn. 9-10, 219 n. 11, 222 n. 32, used as image of financial
224-5 n. 62 (bis); on friars, 38, 41 corruption, 146; use in the General
n. 93, 227 n. 86, 229 n, 98, 230 Prologue, 146-7
326
INDEX
Hora nona sabbati, 66, 74, 77, 79, 81, 84 Lehmann, P., 266 n. 83, 275 n. 79,
n. 149, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 22, 238 n. 52 278 n. 17; Parodistische Texte, 274
{bis), 242 n. 102, 244 n. 123, 245 n. 72
nn. 130-1, 246 n. 146, n. 150, 280 Ven puetfere et defere, 164 n. 67, 264
n. 36, 294 n. 36 n. 60
Hulbert, J. R., 4, 15, 289 n. 1, n. 10 'lewte', 69
Livre des Manieres - see feienne de
Ich herde men, 164 n. 68, 242 n. 96, Fougeres
284 n. 68 'L'Ordre de Bel Ayse\ 18 n. 8, 35, 49,
In vere virenda, 25, 221 n. 29, 222 n. 30 52, 131 n. 26, 221 n. 24, n. 28,
irony, characteristics of Chaucer's, 194-8 222 n. 32, 270 n. 11
Lordre de Chevalerie, 109 nn. 14-15,
115, 118, 258 n. 7, 259 n. 11, n. 21,
j anglers, tradition of satirising, 161 260 n. 31, 261 n. 34, nn. 38-9
Jean de Conde, 69, 81, 119, 121, 204, lords, their duty to be hospitable, 157-8
245 n. 138, 249 n. 18, 253 n. 49, 258 lovers: sleeplessness of, 116-17; attractive
n. 7, 261 n. 39, 262 n. 46, 268 n. 98, appearance appropriate for, 119-20;
282 n. 54 accomplishments and activities
Jean de Meun - see Roman de la Rose
Jeu de la Feuillee, 151, 268 n. 96, 269 n. 2, appropriate for, 119-20
271 n. 25 Lowes, J. L., 128-9, 179. 187, 251 n. 31,
John of Hauteville, 279 n. 29, 279-80 266 n. 84, 269 nn. 1-3, n. 5, 270
n. 10, 273 n. 49, 279 n. 26, 288
n. 30 n. 23
Jones, H. S. V., 213 n. 4, 265 n. 70 Lull, Ramon, 109, 258 n. 7, 260 n. 31
Lumiansky, R. M., 177, 179, 188-9,
Kittredge, G. L., 213 n. 1, 230 n. 117, 217 n. 29
236-7 n. 41, 266 n. 81, 274 n. 67, Lydgate, John, 214 n. 10
287 n. 10, 289 n. 1, 290 n. 10
Knight of la Tour Landry, 132
knights: virtues appropriate for, 106-8; Machaut, Guillaume, 112-13
type of clothing and horses Magister Golyas de quodam abbate,
appropriate for, 108-9, 118-19; 22 n. 23, 218 n. 10, 219 nn. n - 1 2 ,
crusading duties of, 109-10, 113-14; 220 n. 18
duty to be loyal to their overlords, Malone, K., 215 n. 17, 217 n. 31
n o ; lists of campaigns used to Manly, J. M., 2, 4, 184, 192, 213 n. 2,
demonstrate the bravery of, 111-13; 216 n. 26, 217 n. 32, 259 n. 19,
dubbing ceremony for, n 3-14; n. 22, 260 n. 28, 267 n. 86, 284
duty to protect the church, the n. 71, n. 74
helpless and their tenants, 114; Mannyng, Robert: on hunting clerics,
oppression and injustice of, 114; love 34; on priests, 59 n. 17, 61 n. 28,
as an ideal for, 116-17; physical 233 n. 6, 236 n. 29, 238 n. 52; on
fitness necessary for, 118; descriptio clerks and students, 82 n. 134,
applied to, 186 221 n. 29, 243 n. 114; on
merchants, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 51;
Lamentations - see Matheolus on knights, 261-2 n. 39; on women,
'Land of Cokaygne, The', 19, 222 n. 32, 124 n. 90, 265 n. 73, 266 n. 82, 267
270 n. n n. 88; on justices, sheriffs and
Langland, William, 8, 166, 191-2, 193; bailiffs, 159 n. 46; on manorial
and Chaucer, 68, 73, 208-12; see officials, 284 n. 68; on tyranny
also Piers Plowman over cooks, 280 n. 33; on fops, 277
Latin Stories, 219 n. 15, 224 n. 62, 238 nn. 1 0 - n : on 'jangling', 282 n. 53;
n. 52, 244 n. 118 on jugglers and wrestlers, 161 n. 56;
Lawrence, W. W., 214 n. 15 on 'purchasours', 88 n. 12; on
lawyers: technically clerics, 86; as buyers disease as a sign of sin, 273 n. 53,
of land, 87-8; wealth of, 89; n. 55; on hospitality, 280 n. 38;
receiving robes as payment, 89; 'war and wys' in, 250 n. 23;
clothing of, 89; corruption of, 'goliardeys' in, 281 n. 50
89-90; self-importance of, 91; manorial officials: oppression of their
associated with doctors, 79-80, 91, underlings, 163-4; dishonesty of,
248 n. 13 163-4; cunning of, 164
327
INDEX
Map, Walter, 220 n. 19, 222 n. 32, 223 Mum and the Sothsegger: on friars, 225
n. 47, 224 n. 62, 260 n. 31, 271 n. 29, n. 66, 226 n. 77, 228 n. 91, 229
273 n. 54 n. 96, 231 n. 127, n. 133; on priests,
Marbod of Rennes, 178-9 234 n. 12, 235 n. 18, 236 n. 29, n. 33;
Manages des Filles au Diable, Li, 239 n. 57, on bishops, 237 n. 43; on clerks and
240 n. 81, 241 n. 87, 253 n. 49, students, 242 n. 101, 244 n. 117,
254 n. 52, 256 n. 74, 261 n. 39, 267 245 n. 129, n. 131, n. 137; on
n. 88 franklins, 278 n. 23; on fops, 264
Matheolus, Lamentations: estates structure n. 60, 277 n. 10; 'war and wys' in,
of, 205; on monks, 219 n. 14, 224 250 n. 23
n. 50; on friars, 228 n. 91, 231 Muscatine, C , 5, 232 n. 140
n. 127; on priests, 58, 221 n. 28, Myrc, John, 235 n. 18, 236 n. 39, 238
233 n. 6, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, 237 n. 52
n. 46, 238 n. 52 (bis); on hunting mystery plays, 71
parsons, 34, 221 n. 29; on
peasants, 240 n. 72, n. 74, nn. 80-1, narrator, Chaucer's use of the, 194-5,
241 n. 87; on lawyers, 248 n. 14, 201, 209; Langland's use of the, 209
249 n. 18, 250 n. 22; on doctors, Ne mai no lewed lued, 139 n. 65
92, 97-8, 250 n. 25; on merchants, Nigel of Longchamps - see Speculum
253 n. 49, 254 n. 52, 256 n. 70; on Stultorum
knights, 261 nn. 38-9; on bachelors, Noctis crepusculo, 32-3 n. 51
119-20; on married men, 274 n. 59; Non te lusisse pudeat, 59, 6 1 , 62
on women, 123, 124, 265 n. 73, Norfolk people, traditional view of, 166
n. 75, 266 n. 78, n. 82, 267 nn. Nous lisons une istoire, 205, 238 n. 52,
88-9, 268 nn. 97-8, 274 n. 70; on 239 n. 58, 242 n. 96, 244 n. 123
*punishing purses', 275 n. 73; on nuns: associated with same characteristics
chattering birds, 275 n. 78 as secular women, 129; fondness for
Matthew of Vendome, 139, 184-5, fine clothing and adornment, 130;
283 n. 58, 286 n. 1, n. 6, 287 n, 9 described in 'romantic' terms, 131;
Maximian, 177-8 snobbery of, 131, 272 n. 40;
Meier Helmbrecht, 240 n. 72, n. 77, 'curteisie' in relation to, 131,
n. 80, 241-2 n. 95, 264 n. 59 133-7; unhappy with their lot, 270
Memoriale Presbiterorum, 171 n. 24
merchants: associated with fraud and Nuper ductu serio, 18 n. 5, 21 n. 20, 29
dishonesty, 99-100; avarice of, 99; n. 40, 218 nn. 10-11, 219 n. 14
usury practised by, 99-100; as
money-changers, 100-1; involved Ojrybaudz y ryme, 138 n. 56
in 'chevyssaunce', 100-1; talk Ofthesfrer mynours, 48 n. 122, 232 n. 139
about their profits, 101; self- Offyiftes large, 163 n. 62
importance of, 101; debts of, 102; Or escoutez, 239 n. 58, 241 n. 89
blasphemy of, 256 n. 70 Owst, G. R. - see sermons
Meum est proposition, 77 n. 115, 80
n. 125, 81, 245 n. 131, 248 n. 13, pardoners, influence on Chaucer of
253 n. 42 Langland's treatment of, 149
millers: dishonesty of, 160; association Patch, H. R., 177, 181, 214 n. 11, 275
with musical entertainment, 160-1 n. 74, 289 n. 10, 291 n. 17
Mohl, R., 3 Pearl, 133
monks: love of good food, 18-20, 32; peasants: duty to pay tithes, 59, 71;
luxurious clothing of, 21-3; love association with priests, 67-8, 73;
of horses and hunting, 23-7, 34; oppression and suffering of, 67,
lechery of, 25; contempt for patristic 72-3; duty to be patient, 68-9;
and monastic authority, 27-9, 31-3; duty to live peacefully, 68-9; duty
laziness of, 29; refusal to stay in to have charity, 68-9, 71-2; duty
the cloister, 29-31; behaviour as to be honest and loyal, 69; holiness
monastic officers, 32-3; 'aristocratic' of their estate, 69; duty to labour,
habits of, 31-2, 34-6; greed and 69-70; lists of duties of, 70;
avarice of, 224 n. 62, envy and quarrelsomeness of, 70; irreligion of,
anger of, 225 n. 62 70-1; avarice of, 71; clothing of,
Mult est diables curteis, 69-70,113—14 72; descriptio applied to, 186;
n. 30, 205, 237 n. 42, 242 n. 96 traditional abuse of, 69 n. 66
328
INDEX
Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, 38, 44, 50, priests: pastoral imagery associated
72, 227 n. 80, n. 86, 228 n. 91, 229 with, 56-8; absenteeism, of 57-8;
n. 96, n. 98, 230 n. 124, 231 n. ignorance of, 58, 66; charity to
131, nn. 133-4, 232 n. 139, 240 the poor, 58-60; avarice of, 59;
n. 74, 242 n. 96, 267 n. 90, 278 exaction of tithes, 59; parish-
n. 22 visiting of, 60; lechery of, 60,
Piers Plowman, 3, 236 n. 33; on monks, 238-9 n. 52; as huntsmen, 24, 60;
23-4, 30-1, 34, 225 n. 62; on friars, duty to combine gentleness and
38, 41, 42 n. 102, 44, 48 nn. 123-4, severity, 61; moral qualities
n. 127, 52, 225 n. 66, 227 n. 80, 230 appropriate for, 62; influence of
n. 114, 231 n. 131, nn. 133-4, 2 3 2 biblical texts on the stereotype of,
n. 139 (bis), 237 n. 43; on bishops, 62-3; duty to set an example, 63-5;
23, 235 n. 22; on priests, 58 n. 12, duty to practise what they preach,
65 n. 45, 105, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, 64-5; duty to teach, 65-6; fine horses
236 n. 39, 237 nn. 42-3, 238-9 of, 235 n. 22; material luxury of, 238
n. 52 (bis), 257 n. 82; on hunting n. 52
parsons, 26-7, 221 n. 29, 222 n. 30; proverbs, 29-31, 46, 121-2, 160, 164,
on peasants, 68-9, 70, 71 (bis)-2 219 n. 15, 223 n. 39, 244 n. 122,
nn. 90-1, 72-3; on clerks and 253 n. 42, 270 n. 9, 276 n. 3
scholars, 77, 78, 82 n. 137, 242 n. 98,
nn. 101-2, 243 n. 109, 244 n. 118; Quant sit lata scelerum, 237 n. 42, 238
on lawyers, 89 n. 15, n. 19, 91 n. 22, n. 52, 249 n. 18
247 n. 2, 248 n. 13, 249 n. 18; on
doctors, 96-7 (bis), 250 n. 25, 252 Rather of Verona, 203, 241 n. 83, 251
n. 38, 253 n. 44; on merchants, 100, n. 33, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 51, 261
253 n. 49, 254 nn. 50-2, 256 n. 69; n. 39, 265 n. 72, 274 n. 61
on trades, 217 n. 36, 256 n. 76; on reeves: dishonesty of, 164; cunning of,
drapers and weavers, 256 n. 71; 164; see also manorial officials
on knights, 114, 261 n. 38, 262 n. 39; relics, tradition of satirising false, 150-2
on women, 122, 214 n. 13, 267 Renart le Contrefait, 92-4, 95, 96, 100,
n. 91; on nuns, 131, 270 nn. 11-12; 153-4 (bis), 217 n. 36, 226 n. 72,
on summoners and consistory court 242 n. 96, 243 n. 114, 249 n. 18,
officials, 140 n. 68, 141; on pardoners 250 n. 25, n. 27, 253 n. 49, 254 n. 50,
149; on franklins, 278 n. 23; on 280 n. 38
millers, 160-1; on reeves, 164; on 'reverence', 67, 80
cooks, 169; on gluttony, 218 n. 10, Rhetorica ad Herennium, 286 n. 1, 287 n. 9
280 n. 32, 282 n. 51; on love-days, Robertson, D. W., 213 n. 3, 217 n. 37,
42; on pedlars, 42 n. 102; on 290 n. 10
'treuthe' and 'lewte', 69; on God's Roman de Cariti, 22-3, 29, 31-2, 35, 57,
'curteisie', 272 n. 36; on money- 64, 218 n. 6, 219 n. 11, 221 n. 29, 233
changing, 100; on 'chevyssaunce', n. 6, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21, n. 27, 237
100; on 'vernycles', 148 n. 12; on nn. 42-3, 239 n. 59, 241 n. 87, n. 89,
janglers, 161, 282 n. 51, n. 53; on 261 n. 38; and Chaucer, 236-7 n. 41
'purfiT, 221 n. 27; on 'English Roman de Fauvel, 69, 159, 228 n. 91,
French' 271 n. 29; on chattering 229 n. 98, 233 n. 6, 234 n. 14, 236
birds, 275 n. 78; on the magical n. 39, 237 n. 48, 239 n. 59, 244
powers of drink, 275 n. 79; on n. 118, 245 n. 138, 253 n. 49, 259
hospitality, 280 n. 38; descriptio in, n. 11, 261 n. 39, 262 n. 44, 271
181, 211; use of name Robin in, n. 36
222 n. 36, 282 n. 54; 'goliardeys' in, Roman de la Rose (and its English
281 n. 50; spring opening of, 294 translation): on monks, 28; on
n. 36; see also Langland, William friars, 38, 42 n. 97, 46 n. 116, 49
Plangit nonna jletibus, 130 n. 18 n. 129, 50, 52-3 n. 137, 230 n. 114,
ploughman, influence of Langland on 231 n. 131, n. 134, 231-2 n. 135,
Chaucer's presentation of a, 68-9, 232 n. 139, 237 n. 43, 279 n. 27;
70-2; Christ as, 239 n. 69 on priests, 238 n. 52; on lawyers,
Preste, ne monke, 38 n. 75, 42-3 n. 103 248 n. 13, 249 n. 18; on doctors,
and n. 105, 48 n. 121, n. 126, 228 248 n. 13, 253 n. 44; on women,
n. 91, 231 n. 131 121, 124, 125 n. 92, 126, 267 n. 88;
Preston, R., 217 n. 34 on nuns, 270 n. 17; on administrative
329
INDEX
Roman de la Rose—cont. n. 119; on lawyers, 248 n. 10,
officials, 158; on pleasing one's 249 n. 18; on doctors, 250 n. 25;
lover, 119, 120, 129, 133, 276 n. 1; on merchants, 254 n. 49, n. 52, 255
on gluttony, 279 n. 27; on lists of n. 61, n. 63; on knights, 259 n. 16,
medical authorities, 250 n. 27; 261 n. 38, 262 n. 39, 265 n. 68;
on table manners, 129; use of name on squires, 264 n. 56, 265 n. 68; on
Robin in, 222 n. 36; verbal women, 266 n. 82, 267 n. 88; on
resemblances in, to Chaucer, 38, pardoners, 278 n. 22; on fops,
I2i, 230 n. 118, to Gilles li Muisis, 264 nn. 60-1, 277 n. 10; on
230 n. 118; influence on stereotype hospitality, 157-8; on 'punishing
of pardoner as well as friar, 278 purses', 275 n. 73; on beggars,
n. 22 245 n. 134; on daggers, 257 n. 82;
romance traditions, medieval, 12, 109, on tight shoes, 268 n. 93; on feeling
128-9, 131, 133-5, 193 for animals, 271 n. 31; on
Romaunt of the Rose - see Roman de la chattering birds, 275 n. 76;
Rose 'manliness' in, 33, 158; 'worchyp' in,
Root, R. K., 187, 189, 215 n. 17, 289 157-8; see also Wimbledon, Thomas
n. 1, n. 5 sheriffs, 158-9
Ruodlieb, 241 n. 92, 243 n. 112, 268 shipmen, fidelity and courage necessary
n. 96, 274 n. 57, 282 n. 58 for, 170; associated with fraud and
Rutebeuf, 159, 205, 220 n. 22, 224 n. 60, murder, 170-1
224-5 n. 62, 230 n. 114, 231 n. 134, 'Simonie, The'; estates structure of,
233 n. 6, 236 n. 29, 249 n. 18, 205-6; on monks, 19, 23, 34; on
253 n. 49, 254 n. 52, 256 n. 76, 261 friars, 230 n. 114, 231 n. 134; on
n. 39 pnests, 59 n. 15, 237 n. 49, 238-9
n. 52; on hunting parsons, 221
sailors - see shipmen n. 29, 222 n. 33; on clerks, 245
St Bernard, 108-9, n 8 , 259 n. 11, n. 14 n. 138; on lawyers, 88, 159, 249
St Francis, 39, 45 n. 18; on doctors, 250 n. 25, 252
St Jerome, 39, 246 n. 146, 266 n. 78, n. 38; on merchants, 253 n. 49;
268 n. 97, 277 n. 10 on knights, 108, 109, 114; on
sanguine man, the character of the, 156 squires, 118 n. 56, 148; on
Schaar, C , 177, 286 nn. 7-8 sheriffs and administrative officials,
Secreta Secretorum, 156 n. 34, 163, 181, 159; on 'contours', 281 n. 43; on
280 n. 35, 283 n. 64 consistory court officials, 140; on
Secular Lyrics, 235 n. 21, 236 n. 31, fops, 148; on chattering birds,
266 n. 82, 267 n. 90, 280 n. 35, 275 n. 76
283 n. 62, n. 64 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 109
Sermones nulli parcentes: estates structure Sir Launfal, 133
of, 204; on friars, 225 n. 66, 228 Sit Deo gloria, 123 n. 83, 266 n. 82, 267
n. 91, 237 n. 43; on priests, 234 n. 88, 268 n. 95
n. 14, 238 n. 52 (bis); on peasants, Skelton, John, 215 n. 23, 249-50 n. 21
69, 71, 72, 239 n. 54, 241 n. 82; social stereotypes in estates literature,
on clerks and scholars, 75, 76, 81, the role of, 8-10; inconsistency of,
242 nn. 101-2, 243 n. 114; on 241 n. 82
lawyers, 90, 248 n. 13; on doctors, Sompno et silentio, 222 n. 32, 224 n. 62
248 n. 13, 253 n. 44; on merchants, Speculum Stultorum: estates structure of,
253 n. 49, 254 n. 51, 255 n. 60; on 203; on monks, 18 (bis), 21 n. 19,
the bourgeoisie, 104 n. 75; on 29, 219 n. 12, 221 n. 28, 224 n. 62;
knights, 261 n. 38; on crusaders, on secular canons, 237 n. 43; on
259 n. 18, 260 n. 31; on women, friars, 37 n. 67, 43 n. 104, 46 n. 114,
121; on nuns, 131, 270 n. 12, nn. 14- 50 n. 132, 227 n. 80, 228 n. 91,
15, n. 17 231 n. 131, n. 133, 232 n. 139; on
sermons, 8; on monks, 218 n. 2; on hunting bishops, 26, 132, 221 n. 29;
friars, 226 n. 66; on priests, 64, on priests, 56, 234 n. 14, 235 n. 21,
233 n. 6, 234 n. 12, n. 14, 235 n. 18, 237 nn. 42-3, 238 n. 52 (bis); on
236 n. 31, 237 n. 50, 238-9 n. 52 peasants, 67; on clerks and scholars,
(bis), 242 n. 100, 264 n. 61; on 76 n. i n , 81 and n. 130, 242 n. 104,
hunting clerics, 221 n. 29; on 243 n. 114, 247 n. 150; on doctors,
peasants, 241 n. 87; on clerks, 244 250 n. 25; on merchants, 99; on
330
INDEX
Speculum Stultorum—cont. Walter of Chatillon: No. 1, 228 n. 90,
nuns, 130, 131 n. 25, 269 n. 6, 270 233 n. 6; No. in, 79 n. 124, 248
nn. 11-12, n. 16; spring description nn. 13-14, 253 n. 42; No. iv, 146
n, 294 in. 36 n. 6, 236 n. 39, 228 n. 9O,.236 n. 39,
Speirs, J., 187-8, 217 n. 34, 225 n. 63 245 n. 138; No. v, 220 n. 19, 224
squires: relationship to knights, 115; n. 62, 238 n. 52; No. vi, 77-8,
duty to learn carving, 115; duty to 81 n. 130, 227 n. 80, n. 83, 243
be humble, 115; dandyism of, n. 114, 244 n. 122, 245 n. 138,
118-19; see also knights 246-7 n. 150 (bis); No. vra, 63 n. 36,
summoners, influence on Chaucer of 146 n. 8, 228 11. 90, 235 n. 21,
Langland's presentation of, 140-1; 238 n. 52; No. ix, 245 n. 138;
see also consistory court officials No. xi, 79 n. 120, 242 n. 98;
Swart, J., 215 n. 17, 285 n. 6 No. XIII. 146 n. 7, 228 n. 90;
Syngyn y wolde, 116 249 n. 18, 275 n. 79 No. XVII, 64 n. 37
'war and wys', 250 n. 23
Tatlock.J. S. P., 6 Watriquet de Couvin, 107-8
Tetnpus acceptabile, 6$ n. 48, 235 n. 29, Wiesen, D. - see St Jerome
236 n. 33, 249 n. 18 William of Blois, 138-9
Totum regit saeculum: estates structure of, Williams, A., 40, 232 n. 139
204; on friars, 225 n. 66, 227 n. 80, Wimbledon, Thomas, 101, 221 n. 28,
228 n. 91, 231 n. 133, 232 n. 139; 236 n. 30, 240 n. 72, 245 n. 126,
on priests, 58, 59, 60, 237 n. 46, 246 n. 148, 249 n. 18, 250 n. 22,
238 n. 52; on hunting rector, 221 253-4 n. 49, 261 n. 38, 281 n. 45
n. 29; on peasants, 69 n. 65, 239 Winner and Waster, 154 n. 28,
n. 56, 242 n. 96; on clerks, 76, 82, 230 n. 114, 231 n. 131, 232 n. 139,
242 n. 101, n. 103; on merchants, 248 n. 13, 254 n. 51, 255 n. 61,
253 n. 49; on the bourgeoisie, 275 n. 77, 277 n. 11, 280 n. 38
256 n. 74; on knights, 116 n. 50, women: importance of male attitude to,
261 nn. 38-9; on women, 266 n. 82; 121; weaving and spinning as
on gluttony, 280 n. 35 appropriate activities for, 121-2;
tradesmen: general failings attributed to, pride of, 122-3; desire for the best
103-4; different crafts listed, 104; seats in church, 122-3'»love of
association with fraud, usury and pilgrimages, 123-4; lechery of,
avarice, 104 123-4; large head-dresses of, 124-5;
'treuthe', 69, 257 n. 4 tight shoes of, 125; dichotomy in
Tupper, F., 279 n. 26, 284 n. 76 literary treatments of, 126;
loquaciousness of, 126-7; in estates
literature, 12-13, 121
vavasours, 155, 157 Woolf, R., 198, 217 n. 30, 290 n. 11,
Virifratres, servi Dei, 38, 48 n. 125, 51 291 n. 16
n. 133, 170-1, 203-4, 225 n. 66, 'worchyp', 157-8
235 n. 21, 237 nn. 42-3, 239 n. 55, 'worthynesse', 53, 106-7, 196-7
253 n. 49, 254 n. 52, 256 n. 70, n. 74, Wycliff, John, 45, 69, 83, 226 n. 79,
260 n. 31, 261 nn. 38-9, 279 n. 12 229 n. 101, 234 n. 8, 240 n. 67,
Viri venerabiles, 61, 62, 65 n. 44, 233 249 n. 17, n. 21, 254 n. 59
n. 6, 234 n. 14, 237 n. 46, 244 n. 117
yeomen in estates literature, rarity of,
Wakefield Pageants, 230 n. 117, 241 n. 85 172-3