Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. A

Question 1

The Anglo Saxon Period / Old English

Answer 1

Time Period: 658-1100 (1066 William the Conqueror)

Roughly, from collapse of Roman Empire in Britain to Norman Conquest

Traits: Germanic Language, Heroic Past

Characteristics: Organized by alliteration rather than rhyme. Driven by stressed syllables rather than regular alterations between stressed and unstressed syllables.

Question 2

Anglo Saxon Literature and Author Examples

Answer 2

Beowulf

Bede: Caedmon’s Hymn

Question 3

The Middle Ages

Answer 3

Time Period: 1100-1500 (Early Middle English-1100-1300, Late Middle English-1300-1500)

Rougly from Norman Conquest to Renaissance and Reformation.

Traits: Religious, Romantic focus, “Courtly Love”, Arthurian

Characteristics: After the Norman Conquest, thus French is very influential.

Question 4

Middle Ages Literature and Author Examples

Answer 4

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, Troylus and Criseyde

Pearl Poet: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

William Langland: Piers Plowman (Contemporary of Chaucer)

John Gower: Confessio Amantis, “The Lover’s Confession” (Contemporary of Chaucer, not likely to appear on test)

Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte D’Arthur

Question 5

Courtly Love

Answer 5

Medieval literary conception of love that emphasized chivalry and nobility. Found in most Middle Age authors: Chaucer, Dante, Sir Thomas Mallory, and so on. Stages: attraction to lady through sight, worship from afar, declaration of love/devotion, virtuous rejection by lady, wooing, lovesickness/approaching death from rejection, heroic deeds that win lady’s heart, consummation, endless subterfuge keeping love a secret.

Also, consider Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Question 6

Bede and “Caedmon’s Hymn”

Answer 6

• Bede 673-735
• Poem first recorded by the Venerable Bede in Eccleseastical History of the English People which tells of Anglo-Saxon conquest of England
• Bede tells story of Caedmon, illliterate cowherd, miraculously received the gift of song, entered the monastery, and became the founder of a school of Christian poetry
• Applies language of “vain and idle” with paegan heroic verse with Christian themes.
• After receiving gift of song, Caedmon is encouraged to take up monastic vows, which he does.

Question 7

Old English to Middle Ages Timeline

Answer 7

• 43-c. 420 Roman invasion and occupation of Britain
• ca. 450 Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
• 871-899 Reign of King Alfred
• 1066: Norman conquest
• 1154-1189 Reign of Henry II
• ca. 1200 Beginnings of Middle English literature
• 1348 Bubonic Plague
• 1360-1400 Chaucer, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain
• 1422-1485 Wars of the Roses White Roses-York vs. Red Roses-Lancaster. Won by Lancaster, beginning of the Tudor Dynasty
• 1485 Henry VII and beginning of Tudor Dynasty, arbitrary but convenient date. William Caxton Prints Malory’s Le Morte de Arthur, one of first books printed in England

Question 8

Beowulf

Answer 8

• Oldest of great long poems written in English
• Major characters paegan Danes and Geates
• Hrothgar is king and Beowulf is thane–warrior. Relationship is based less on subordination than respect
• In this society, if a member of kinsmen were killed, a man had moral obligation to kill slayer or to exact the payment of wegild.
• Grendel has killed many danes and Hrothgar’s anguish is due largly to his inability to exact revenge
• Story centers around Beowulf’s three major fights: vs. Grendel in Heorot, vs. Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair, and vs. the dragon when Beowulf dies. Beowulf goes from young abitious warrior to old king
• Poem contains many references to Bible, such as Grendel being of “Cain’s clan”

Question 9

Geoffrey Chaucer

Answer 9

• Chaucer: 1343-1400
• Most important works include The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde (Cressida)
• Affected by changing social structure and growing middle class.
• Member of King Edward III’s court, went on diplomatic missions to Spain, France, and Italy.
• Court of Edward, and thus aristocracy, had a lot in common with France, thus poetry Chaucer consumed was in French, still the fashionable language
• Role as civil servant brought Chaucer into contact with people from all social strata and new literary currents from the continent (was fluent in French, Italian, and Latin)

Question 10

William Langland

Answer 10

• Langland 1330-1387
• Most important work Piers Plowman

Question 11

John Gower

Answer 11

• Gower 1330-1408
• Most important work is Confessio Amantis / “The Lover’s Confession”
• Written in English despite the Latin title

Question 12

Sir Thomas Mallory

Answer 12

• Mallory 1405-1471
• Most important work Le Morte de Arthur

Question 13

Margery Kempe

Answer 13

• Kempe 1373-1438
• The Book of Margery Kempe
• Book written at time of statute for burning heritics including people who wrote religious works in vernacular rather than Latin.

Question 14

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Answer 14

• Date ca 1375-1400
• Written with “Bob and Wheel” at end of each stanza. Rhyming pattern a b a b a
  
  • Oh many broad hills and high Britain he sets, most fair/Where war and wrack and wonder/By shifts have sojurned there,/And bliss by turns with blunder/In that land’s lot had share.
• Part of “Alliterative Revival”
• Arthurian story, but focuses on Sir Gawain. Told in 4 Parts
• Part 1: Green Knight rides in to Camelot during Christmastide
• Beheading Game proposed by Green Knight, in which knight allows his head to be cut off for a return blow a year and day later. Gawain accepts. Cuts off head. Knights reminds Gawain to find the Green Chapel
• Part 2: Spring, Summer, and Fall come and go. Everyone sees it is time for Gawain to go. He dresses and takes his leave.
• Gawain rides north until Christmas Eve. Comes across a castle. Lodges there. Feasting. The Lord tells Gawain how to find the Green Chapel, only two miles away. Lord makes a proposition: Lord will give Gawain what he wins at hunting, Gawain must also give what Gawain earns to the Lord. Gawain agrees.
• Part 3: Gawain is in bed and the Lord’s wife comes into his room. Temptation scene. Gawain denies her, but she talks him into kissing her.
• Lord returns with game from hunting. Gawain gives him a kiss, as per their agreement. Lord leaves again, wife comes to Gawain and they kiss again. Lord returns, he and Gawain swap awards again. Gawain asks again to go to the Green Chapel, Lord agrees.
• Gawain and wife meet again. She gives him a silk sash to wear, and she makes him hide it from the Lord. Gawain never gives the Lord the sash.
• Part 4: Gawain gets ready and goes to the Green Chapel. Finds the Green Knight, and bears his neck to him. Knight seems like he will swing, but doesn’t. Green Knight reveals he is the Lord from other castle. “Gave me my wife’s kisses, but not the sash.” Gawain gets embarrassed. He says he will wear the sash to remind him of his disgraces and to lower his pride. How Arthur’s knights came to wear the green sash

Question 15

Piers Plowman

Answer 15

• Written

Question 16

The Canterbury Tales

Answer 16

• Written ca 1386-1400
• Printed by William Caxton in 1476
• Medieval society split into three estates: nobility, clergy, commoners. By late 14th century, these categories became layerd into comples and unstable social strata.
• Originally conceived as 120 tales. Each pilgrim told two stories on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. Chaucer actually completed twenty-two.
• Common device during Middle ages to link collections of stories. See Confessio Amantis
• Represents wide spectrum of ranks and occupations. The variety of tales are assigned to appropriate narrators and juxtaposed to bring out contrasts in genre, style, tone, and values
  
  • E.g. the “Knight’s Tale” of courtly love comes before the “Miller’s Tale”of the seducation of an old carpenter’s young wife by a student.
• Chaucer tells two fictions at once: the individual tale and that of the pilgrim to whom he has assigned it. He does this through the prologue as well as through the “links”–the interchanges among pilgrims connecting the stories.
  
  • E.g. the “Miller’s Tale” offends the reeve who assumes the story is directed at him. He thus tells a story satirizing an arrogant miller

Question 17

Troilus and Criseyde (Cressida)

Answer 17

• Written ca 1385
• Adaptation of Boccacio’s Il Filostrato (The Love Stricken)
• Story of how Trojan Prince Troilus loved and finally lost Criseyde to the Greek warrior Diomede

Question 18

The General Prologue

Answer 18

Whan that April with his showres soote

The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every vine in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendered is the flowr;

Whan Zephyrus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,

And smale fowles maken melodye

That sleepen al th night with open ye–

So priketh hem Nature in hir corages–

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seeken straunge strondes

To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond to Canterbury they wende,

The holy blisful martyr for to seeke

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seke.

• Chaucer sets up the tales to follow by introducing each of the pilgrims and telling of their dress, indiciating their social status and character-profiles of all levels of English life. For instance, the Monk who loves hunting and doesn’t fully devote himself to the scriptures indicates his level of devotion and trustworthiness
• Order of the pilgrim’s representations indicate their social rank:
  
  • Knight and Squire-true aristocrats, Prioress, Monk, and Friar-should belong to low status but has begged so well he is moved up
  • Next, status dictated only by commercial wealth: Merchant-illegally sold French coin in England, Seregant of Law-bought foreclosed properties, Clerk-loves studying and gentle manners, and Franklin
  • Next order is guildsmen/craftsmen: Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, and Tapestrymaker, none of which tell a tale
  • Middle Class: the Cook-may be ranked too high, Shipman-immense knowledge of the world, Physician-less revered in middle ages, Wife of Bath-many other pilgrimages including Jerusalem
  • Next is virtuous poor who represent all Christian virtues: Parson-goes to visit all corners of his parsonage and rebukes sinners etc., Plowman-collects manuer but never fails to help his neighbor dig ditches without charge and pays his tithes
  • Final group is immoral lower class: Manciple-buys food for lawyers at court, Miller-vulger and steals from customers and can break down a door by bashing his head against it, Reeve-tells dirty stories and steals from master, Summoner-takes bribes, lowest of all Pardoner-sells fake pardons and fake relics
• Pilgrims agree to the host’s proposition to tell tales and the winner gets dinner, paid for by all participants upon their return to the Tabard inn.

Question 19

The Knight’s Tale

Answer 19

• Written before beginning The Canterbury Tales
• Story of Palamon and Arcite. Best friends taken prisoner at seige and destruction at Thebes by Theseus, ruler of Athens. They see from prison tower Emily who is taking an early morning walk. They fall in love and after a bitter rivalry they are reconciled in a tournament in which Emily is the prize. Arcite wins but is thrown from his horse and lay dying. He makes noble speech encouraging Palamon and Emily to marry.
• Tale is a combination of classical setting and mythology, romance, and themes of fortune and destiny. There is a guiding force behind everything that happens.
• Consider Theseus’s relationship to two wars: Amazons-who lack male wisdom, and Creon-whose anger and cruelty cloud his judgement. Theseus embodies chivalry.
• Part 1: Duke Theseus conquerors Thebes and captures Arcite and Palamon. Arcite, on request of a friend, is released. He feels Palamon has the better situation because he can see Emily every day. Palamon feels Arcite has the better chance to win Emily as a free man. Part 1 Ends with the Knight asking readers to judge who has the worse situation.
• Part 2: Arcite decides to return to Athens to see Emily and live in a lower station. He gets a job serving Emily, does well, and people murmur Theseus should increase his rank. Palamon escapes prison. Palamon and Arcite meet. Palamon is angry Arcite deceived the Duke (unknightly?). They become sworn enemies and agree to fight. Theseus rides out on a hunt and sees the fight. Theseus arranges a tournament fifty weeks from the day to see who wins Emily’s hand.
• Part 3: Theseus prepares a huge arena. In his description, Knight tells in shrine to Mars of paintings of murders of Ceasar, Nero, Antony, although they were not born yet. (role of Fate, destiny). Palamon and Arcite arrive with armies. Comprable to the Iliad? Emily prays to Diana to be freed from the love of both men–she does not desire to be a wife.Diana appears and says she will be married to one of the men. There is a quarrel in the heavens after Mars agrees to help Arcite. Saturn intervenes.
• Part 4: The tournament. One of Arcites allies hit Palamon with his sword.Palamon captured and Arcite wins. However, Pluto shakes ground at Saturns request, spooks Arcite’s horse, Arcite falls and dies. Theseus suggests Palamon and Emily marry (in a political move?) and they consent.

Question 20

The Miller’s Tale

Answer 20

• Belongs to a genre known as “fabliaux,” a short story in verse that deals satirically–often grossly, fantastically, and humorously–with intrigues and deceptions about sex or money. The rich old man with the young beautiful wife is a common trope.
• One of the tales Chaucer anticipates in the prologue that will offend the sensibilities of his genteel audience.
• Note the similarity between Miller’s tale and Knight’s tale: both deal with a love triangle.
• Notice incongruity in tale: Nicholas’s chivalrous words paired with his bold actions grasping Alison by the “queinte”. Absalom’s concern with good smells–he is an incense thrower– and kissing Alison’s ass. He is squeemish of farting, and Nicholas farts on him.
• In prologue, Miller is drunk and falling off horse; compare with the decorum of the knight. The Miller’s behavior offends the Reeve when Miller says his story will be about a cuckolded carpenter. Miler says “A husband should not be inquisitive of God’s secrets or his wife’s”
• Miller’s tale: A carpenter takes boarders into his home, one of which is a cleric named Nicholas. He is slick, has love affairs, and supplements his income by borrowing from friends. The carpenter’s wife is very young with the “body of a weasel.”
• Carpenter goes away and cleric seduces the wife. Wife goes to worship at church and the parish clerk, Absalom, sees her and wants to have her, too. He attempts to woo her with song and gifts.
• Nicholas decides it is time to trick the carpenter. He stays in his room feigning illness. Carpenter breaks down the door. Nicholas fools Carpenter, telling him a flood is coming and reminds him of Noah trying to get his wife aborard the Ark. The Carpenter makes preparations, falls asleep on the roof, and Alison and Nicholas spend the night together.
• The next day, Absalom decides to try and get a kiss from Alison because he has not seen John–the carpenter–all day. He goes to Alison’s window, asks for a kiss, and she sticks her ass out the window. Absalom knows something is amiss because “a woman has no beard.”
• Absalom is angered and goes to a blacksmith called Gervase and gets a hot iron. He goes back to Alison’s window and asks for another kiss. Nicholas sticks his ass out the window and farts. Absalom burns his ass. Nicholas calls for water. Carpenter wakes up and cuts the tubs thinking the flood has come. Alison and Nicholas tell everyone the carpenter has gone crazy and everyone goes along with them because “clerics will surely stick together.”

Question 21

The Reeve’s Tale

Answer 21

• The Reeve takes the Miller’s tale personally–he is a carpenter by trade–and retaliates with his own fabliaux about a miller whose wife and daughter are seduced by two clerks.
• The miller is married into a noble family, but he remains lowly as the tale shows. His wife had relatives among the nobility and the village parson planned on making their daughter his heir. He was prideful and scornful. He stole from people without remorse.
• Two students go to the miller’s home. They plan on playing a joke on him, but the miller unties their horse and steals grain from them. The students spend all day tracking down their horse and ask the miller for a place to sleep. The miller agrees, but the entire time he mocks the students and ridicules their education “Make a mile out of this twenty foot room with your talking.” In fact, they do make a hotel of sorts i.e. a brothel. Miller drinks too much, and everyone goes to sleep in the same room. Allan seduces the daughter as compensation for all of the trouble, and John tricks the miller’s wife into sleeping with him by moving a cradle to the foot of his bed. There is a scuffle and, in the dark, the miller is beaten and Allen and John ride away with their horse, grain, a free meal, and having seduced the wife and daughter of the miller. Ends with a proverb “Those who do evil can not expect good in return.”
• Notice difference in tone between Miller’s Tale and Reeve’s Tale. The Reeve is old and bitter and thus his tale is not funny at all and quite bitter as compared with the drunk Miller.
• Note the puns on grinding and grinding corn as slang for sexual intercourse. Also see similar play on words in Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale.

Question 22

The Cook’s Tale

Answer 22

• Incomplete tale, only 55 lines.
• Begins as another fableaux.
• Considered the end of Fragment I.
• Prologue: The cook loves the Reeve’s story: he feel sthe miller got what he deserved. Host, Harry Bailly teases the cook about the bad food he served the guests: there are flies in his shop, he has served people twice warmed meat pies, and so on. A true joke is no joke, says the cook, agreeing with the Host. He is going to tell a similar story.
• Tale is about a food apprentice, Perkin, who is lively and fun, likes to gamble with dice, and stole from his master. His master remembers the old adage “don’t let one bad apple spoil the barrel” so he discharges Perkin. Perkin seeks help from a friend, because all thieves have someone who helps them steal, and Perkin sends his belongings to a friend’s home who had a wife that whores for a living. Tale ends.

Question 23

The Man of Law’s Tale (Sargent of the Law)

Answer 23

• The Host notes the day is a quarter over, and in legal jargon asks the Sargent of the Law to fulfill his contract to tell a tale to the group. Interestingly, the Sargent says Chaucer has told all of the interesting stories “Though he is ignorant of meters and skillful rhyming, and he will tell a story in prose rather than rhyme.
• Note: this is ironic/odd because the tale is told in seven line stanzas of iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ababbcc–called Rhyme Royal. See also Troilus and Criseyde.
• Constance is epitome of patience and trust in God. Theme is that there is power and safety in Christian constancy (religious patience). Notice contrasts between the wealth of the world–the Syrian merchants–and the wealth of the spirit–summed up in Constance.
• Prologue: the Man of Law begins by admonishing poverty and the state to which it reduces humans. It is better to die than to live in poverty. Your brother hates you, and so on. Merchants and nobles are in an enviable position because they never feel the sting of poverty. Man of Law says he heard this tale from a merchant, and will repeat it now.
• Part 1: Merchants from Syria go to Rome and hear of the beauty of the emperor’s daughter, Constance. They tell the Sultan, who decides he would convert to Christianity so he can have Constance and requires his followers do the same. Constance grieves at leaving her family and Rome but being a dutiful daughter, consents. The sultan’s mother would rather die than give up her faith (we will not be accepted by christians and then we’ll go to hell on top of that) so she plans to pretend to accept Christianity and then kill the Christians at a feast.
• Part 2: At the feast, the sultan’s mother and her conspirators kill all the Christians including the sultan. Constance is placed on a well provisioned ship–by the grace of God–and floats for a year and a day until she lands in Northumbria. It is a pagan land, so she keeps faith a secret until she converts Hermangild’s wife. When Hermangild sees the two women perform a miracle, he converts. A knight, manipulated by Satan, kills Hermangild’s wife and leaves the murder weapon with Constance. King Alla sentences Constance to death on condition the knight swear on the Holy Bible, and his eyes burst from his head. Everyone converts to Christianity. While the King is away, Constance has a son. A letter is sent which gets swapped by the King’s mother who is evil, saying the son is a hideous monster. The king gets the letter, is sad, but writes back an acceptance letter. Queen swaps this one out too, and Constance is put back on a boat with provisions and her son.
• Part 3: King Alla kills his mother for her treason. Constance’s boat is accosted by a thief. Constance, empowered by God, throws the man overboard. She is then accosted by a Roman vessel and she works in the home of a Senator. King Alla goes to Rome for penance and the senator tells Alla of the virtuous woman in his home. Alla, Constance, and the son Maurice are reunited. Alla arranges for Emperor to meet Constance. They are all reunited.
• Epilogue: Host praises the tale. Asks Parson to tell one. Parson rebukes him for swearing. Shipman says Parson won’t tell the tale because he has a jolly tale to tell. There is no Latin or legal jargon in his words.
• Note: the Norton places Wife of Bath’s Tale after Man of Law. In early manuscripts, they disagree on the order of tales.

Question 24

The Shipman’s Tale

Answer 24

• This tale originally assigned to Wife of Bath, thus feminine pronouns at the beginning.
• A merchant and his beautiful wife have a monk as a friend–almost like family–Don John. Don John is invited to their home–St. Denys–and the wife tells Don John the merchant will not give her money for clothes. Don John borrows money from merchant, merchant leaves, Don John gives wife money in exchange for a night together. Husband comes home and Don John tells husband he gave the 100 francs to the wife. Husband asks wife about it, she says she took the repayment from Don John and bought clothes with it. She has sex with him to make him forget about it.
• Consider theme of social rank, power, and positioning. Why would merchant not give wife money but gladly give Sir John money? Don John was knighted, and thus higher social rank. Don John gives money to servants in the house, and he also calls merchant brother or cousin, giving him prestige and rank by association.
• Key line is when merchant tells wife she doesn’t understand merchants: they must put a happy face on everything. Ironic, because the wife understands this concept very well.

Question 25

The Prioress’s Tale

Answer 25

• Prioress: a woman who is the head of a certain house of nuns.
• Story of a boy who is very devout and prays to Mary whenever he sees her picture. He walks to school through a Jewry (ghetto) singing. He hears a song in Latin from his older classmates and it touches his heart and he tries to learn it. A classmate tells him it is about Mary. He walks home singing the song, but (according to the tale) the Jews hearts are Satan’s wasp nest. Satan puts it in their heart that the boy sings a song that dishonors their religion. Someone kills the boy and throws him into a pit where the Jews defacate and so on. The mother is beside herself and she is looking for her son. She hears the Latin song coming from the boy and he is found. Jews punished. An abbot asks the boy how he can sing if his throat is cut. Boy says there is a kernel on his tongue the Virgin Mary put there and when it is removed he will go to heaven. Abbot removes the kernel, boy goes to heaven, abbot cries.
• Story is appropriate to Prioress’s social station. Shows power of meek and poor who trust in Christ. Compare Jews–concerned with worldly wealth–to Christians–concerned with spiritual wealth.
• Note: consider the portrayal of Jews and historical Christian hatred of Jews. Shylock in Merchant of Venice, Fagin in Oliver Twist, Rebecca in Ivanhoe.

Question 26

Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Topas

Answer 26

• Everyone is sad after hearing the Prioress’s tale, and the host tells jokes to cheer the group. He tells Chaucer to tell a tale, and Chaucer says he will tell the best rhyme he knows
• Sir Topas is the knightliest knight you’ve ever seen, and he rides a long time and rests. During his rest, he dreams of the Elf Queen and decides to ride to the end of the earth in search of her. The knight meets a three headed giant who tells the knight he cannot pass because it is the realm of the Elf Queen. Topas rides away and prepares himself for battle, feasting and listening to songs.
• The host interrupts here telling him his rhyme is not worth a turd. He asks Chaucer to tell something in prose instead. Chaucer agrees, but says he may tell proverbs the pilgrims have heard before.
• Prioress’s concern with virginity, purity, meekness, and innocence is reflected in Topas–the stone also a symbol of purity.
• Note also–this tale is hacneyed. Everyone forever has heard of such tales of knights seeking adventure. Ironic Chaucer tells host that this is the best he can come up with. Also ironic when he says he will instead tell a “little” tale in prose, which turns out to be long and tedious.

Question 27

Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee (Melibeus)

Answer 27

• Chaucer’s second chance at a tale.
• Melibee, his wife Dame Prudence, and daughter Sophie, are wealthy and happy. When Melibee is in the field, three thieves break in and badly injure his daughter. The three men are captured. Melibee is distraught. Dame Prudence advises that Melibee invite over friends and people learned in the law to advise him. He does. People quote passages the entire time. In the end, Melibee follows Dame Prudence’s advice to be merciful.
  *

Question 28

The Monk’s Tale

Answer 28

• After Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee. Host tells him to tell a story, “Should I call you Don John?” reference to Shipman’s tale. Monk says he will tell many stories of tragedy, where one falls from a high station to a miserably low one.
• Lucifer–once high angel, fallen to depths of hell, now Satan.
• Stories of Adam, Samson–“men should not tell their business to their wives if it involves secrets”, Hercules–“Dejanira (mistress) gave him a poisoned shirt that made the flesh fall from his bones”
• Nebuchadnezzar–“he was egotistical and scoffed at God, but God made him lose his wits and act like an animal, eating hay and so on, and God gave him back his mind”
• Belshazzar–“Nebuchadnezzar’s son. Similar to story of father. Belshazzar loses kingdom and lives with asses, kingdom restored, then God tells him his reign is over. Friends made in time of fortune will become enemies in time of misfortune.”
• Zenobia–“Queen of Palmyra. Rebuffs company of men, but finally gets married to prince Odenatus. She only has sex with him once in order to procreate. She had two sons. Ended up getting conquered”
• Nero–“Burned Rome for his amusement. Fortune decides to remove him from his throne. People rebel, he gets afraid, and kills himself.”
• Monk ends stories saying: “Tragedies have no other content than the cries and laments in song to show that Fortune will always attack with unexpected strokes those kings who are proud. For when men trust in her, then she fails them and covers her bright face with a cloud.”
• All wealth and power in the world are illusion, nothing can prevent the inevitable decline of the proud.

Question 29

The Nun’s Priest Tale

Answer 29

• Tale is a bestiary–beast tale–in which animals act like human beings. This is a comment and critique on man’s foibles.
• Told in mock epic style where a trivial event is treated heroically. See also Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” in which events are spurned on by the theft of a lock of hair.
• Prologue begins with Knight asking Monk to stop; he dislikes hearing about men who had wealth and station and then fell. Host agrees; there is no gaity or fun in such tales. He asks Monk to tell a happier story, but Monk is in no mood to joke. Nun’s priest takes up the challenge.
• Story is about a cock and hen, Chancticleer and Partlet. Widow lives in wood with two daughters. She had many animals, one of which was a rooster named Chancticleer. He crowed better than all other coks. He had seven hens, the most beautiful of which was Demoiselle Parlet. She had the heart of Chancticleer tightly locked.
• Chancticleer has a dream that disturbs him and he tells Parlet. A hound tried to kill him and he has a nightmare. Parlet falls out of love with him because she cannot love a coward. They debate the significance of dreams. Wife tells him he only needs a laxitive. Chanticleer feels better and he has an adventure.
• In March, Chanticleer with his wives knew the sun was in the sign of Taurus. A fox is waiting among the herbs for him. Fox flatters Chanticleer, telling him he only came to hear him sing. Chanticleer closes his eyes, raises up on his toes, and Sir Russell–the fox–attacks Chanticleer and carries him to the woods. Chanticleer and the Fox are chased by the people. Reminiscent of Achilles chasing Hector. Chanticleer tricks the fox into opening his mouth and he flies into a tree. The host comments on the Priest’s physique and says he would need more than seven women–he’d need seventeen.
• In discussion of theological issues, Lady Perlet assumes Chanticleer’s dream is due to constipation. Chaunticleer invokes classical sources to show the significance of dreams. Total loss of human dignity.
• Contrast between “rich” Chaunticleer and poor widow. She lives comfortable, poor Christian life. This is harder for Chaunticleer who has responsibilities. After all, the sun won’t rise if he does not crow.
• Light hearted analysis of human pride.

Question 30

Wife of Bath’s Tale

Answer 30

• In creating Wife of Bath, Chaucer drew upon a centuries-old tradition of anti-feminist writings nurtured by medieval church. Wife of Bath asserts her female “experience” and defends her rights and justifies her life as a five-time-married woman. In her polemical wars with medieval clerks and her matrimonial wars with her five husbands, Wife of Bath seems to confirm accusations that women are associated with irrational, material, earthly and lower side of humanity. However, she also succeeds in satirizing the shallowness of the stereotypes of women and marriage.
• Note: she begins questioning why we–specifically women–cannot have more than one husband. She gives example of King Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Also, note that previously the Priest’s tale and the host suggested he have 17 women.
• Prologue (Extremely long): Before beginning, the Wife of Bath shares information from her life. She has been married five times and she has gained soverignty over all of them. At fourth husband’s funeral, she cannot keep her eyes of a clerk. She likes options, like a mouse who keeps more than one mousehole open in case one collapses. Jenkyl hits her one day and she pretends to die. He feels terrible, and she gains control over him. The Friar interrupts and says how long the tale was. The Summoner admonishes the Friar. Host intervenes and Wife Begins her tale.
• In King Arthur’s court, there is a knight who rapes a girl. Queen and ladies of the court ask to be given control over knights fate. They say he has a year and a day to answer the question “What do women most want in the world?” He goes on a search, and finds an old woman who says she will tell him the answer if he promises to give her what she wants to be demanded at anytime. He agrees and the knight returns home with the answer. The Queen and ladies ask what his answer is. The knight says “Women want to have complete control over their husbands and love affairs and to be masters of their men.” The old woman says she wants the knight to marry her and he must accept. The knight is repulsed by the woman and tells her it is because of her ugliness, old age, and low social station. She tells him gentility is not a matter of appearances but virtue. She gives a choice; young beautiful but it is a chance as to her virtue or old and ugly but virtuous. The knight lets her decide and she decides both. She turns into a young beautiful woman and they live happily ever after.
• Wife of Bath contradicts views about women. She cites scripture and appeals to common sense to support her argument.
• The Wife of Bath’s Tale is referred to technically as an exemplum, a story told to illustrate an intellectual idea.
• Throughout the Wife’s tale, traditional values and headships, that is leadership and supremacy, are reversed or overthrown. Arthur submits to Guinevere, the knight is a rapist and saved by an old hag, logic and scripture are subordinate to experience. Tale ends with knight giving up choice to wife, which is the true correct decision leading to happy ending.

Question 31

The Friar’s Tale

Answer 31

• Friar: a member of male religious order. Like a monk.
• Prologue: The Friar gives the Summoner dirty glances and tells the group he will tell a story about a Summoner and “I trust none of you will get offended.” Host tries to keep the peace, but Summoner tells Friar to go ahead.
• An archdeacon uses spies–such as whores–to find out who is doing evil in his parish. In the employ of the archdeacon is a summoner who uses underhanded means and blackmails people he deals with. One day he meets a yeoman and both reveal they are bailiffs. They agree to be friends and partners until they die. The Summoner asks the yeoman’s name, and he says “I am a fiend, my dwelling is in hell.” The Summoner says he made the bargain before he knew but he will honor the pact. The two set off. They come on a cart stuck in the mud and the farmer says the devil can take his cart and everything in it. The Summoner encourages the fiend, but the fiend says the curse was not from the heart. They come to an old woman’s home. She refuses to pay the Summoner’s bribe and says “the devil can take my pot and you unless you repent.” The devil asks if she is sincere–which she is–and he takes the summoner to hell.
• In spite of the personal animosity between the Friar and the Summoner, the greater quarrel is about the importance and validity of their respective professions.

Question 32

The Summoner’s Tale

Answer 32

• A summoner is someone the medieval church hires to call people before the ecclesiastical court for their spiritual crimes, like adultery or heresy, the punishment for which can be excommunication
• Prologue: Summoner very angry at Friar. Tells an anecdote about an angel who took a Friar to hell. The Friar sees no other friars until the angel takes him to Satan. Satan lifts his tail and like bees from a hive friars swarm out of the Devil’s ass. The friar recognizes the ass because of his true nature.
• A friar goes around promising prayers and possible salvation for anything his parishoners will give. Friar tells old man, Thomas, he and his friar brethren have been praying for him. Thomas’s wife comes in, Friar kisses and fondles her. She says her son died. Friar says he knew because he had a premonition. Friar turns to Thomas and gives a lecture about the importance of avoiding excessive wealth. Thomas says he has something for the Friars and that it is hidden between his butt. The Friar reaches down, and Thomas farts in his hand. The Friar is enraged and goes to a lord, “I will not divide what cannot be divided.” A servant comes up with an idea for how to share the sound and smell of the fart.
• Summoner portrays all friars of being guilty of simony–using the church for one’s personal gain.
• The Friar’s concern with portioning out the fart equally also shows his devotion to earthly possessions rather than spiritual matters