^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE MAN OF LAW’S TALE
Seeing that the day is almost a quarter over, the Host urges the Man of Law to tell a story, but the lawyer claims Chaucer already has covered all the best subjects in his poems (is Chaucer self-advertising here?). Nonetheless, the Man of Law prefaces his tale with a tirade against poverty, praising rich merchants who make and hoard their money.
The tale, taken from an earlier fourteenth-century historian named Nicholas Trivet, is about Constance, the almost unbelievably long-suffering daughter of the Roman Emperor. She becomes engaged to the Sultan of Syria, a Muslim who vows to convert himself and his subjects to Christianity in order to marry Constance. It is an arranged marriage (the custom among royal families almost to this day), and Constance accepts it with great patience. The Sultan’s mother, angry at her son’s rejection of Islam, plans to have all the Christians murdered, including the Sultan, at the wedding feast. Constance is sent adrift on the sea.
She lands in Northumberland in England, and she is taken in by a constable and his wife, both pagans. Constance converts them to Christianity but a knight sent by Satan kills the wife and plants the murder on Constance. He is mysteriously struck dead when he testifies against her, and the pagan king, Alla, is converted by the miracle and marries Constance. Again an evil royal mother intervenes to have their child killed, so Constance and her son return to the sea. They end up in Rome, eventually reunited with King Alla. Constance is also reunited with her father the Emperor.
The tale is punctuated with commentary by the Man of Law, which helps us see the tale is partly intended as an allegory. Constance personifies the virtues of patience, loyalty (“constance”) and acceptance of God’s will despite incredible suffering. The allegory form, extremely popular in Chaucer’s day, exaggerates Constance’s virtues and her misfortunes to make a moral point about aspiring toward Christian perfection.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE FRIAR’S TALE
The Friar offers a tale about a summoner, his professional enemy since summoners were members of the secular clergy and he, a friar, was a member of the regular clergy, outside the secular clergy’s jurisdiction. The Host asks the Friar not to insult the Summoner but the Summoner promises to repay him.
The tale is a medieval version of spies, double agents and blackmail, just as popular with Chaucer’s audience as thrillers are with us today. A corrupt young summoner, whose job is to bring people into church court for religious offenses, has a network of stoolpigeons and prostitutes to spy on people and lure them into sin. He then extorts bribes from his victims to keep their slates clean. On his way to take money from an old woman, he meets a man as sleazy as himself, with whom he joins in partnership. The stranger–who has exactly the same characteristics as the summoner and even looks like him–admits he’s a devil. The summoner, suddenly and ironically honorable, sticks to their pact. We learn that the devil can’t damn anyone unless the curse is truly meant, so when the old woman cries, “the Devil take you,” the fiend asks if she means it. She does, unless the summoner repents, which he won’t, so he is instantly whisked off to hell. The point, says the Friar, is that summoners should become honest men.
The tale is similar to the Pardoner’s Tale in being a lesson of sorts. The character of the sex-and-tavern loving Friar, whom Chaucer pretends to admire in the Prologue, is matched by the hypocritical character in his story, who, like the Friar, can’t see that certain low-life characteristics apply to him. The joke is as much on the Friar as it is on the Summoner.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SUMMONER’S TALE
The Summoner is so furious he shakes like a leaf, and retaliates first by mentioning a friar whose vision of hell includes seeing millions of friars swarming around the Devil’s rear end.
The tale, grosser than the tale he’s trying to pay back, is of a friar who is hypocrisy personified. Visiting a rich but sick man named Thomas, the friar gives a long sermon against anger, getting angrier as he goes on; against gluttony, having just asked Thomas’s wife for an enormous meal; and in praise of poverty, while urging Thomas to give the friars all his money. He also pretends to have offered prayers he never delivered. Thomas, furious at being duped, tells the friar to reach for something hidden down his (Thomas’) pants, then farts on him. The friar, like a spoiled child, runs to the lord and tells on Thomas, but the general consensus is that Thomas should share his “wealth” with the other friars as well!
This pay-back scheme compares to the Miller and Reeve contest in one-upsmanship vulgarity. But the humor here also lies in the Summoner’s use of scholarly religious discourse as a gross subject.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE CLERK’S TALE
The Host tells the thoughtful Clerk to cheer up and tell a lively story. The Clerk agrees, saying his tale comes from the Italian poet Petrarch (who lived at the same time as Chaucer).
Griselda is a beautiful, virtuous peasant woman whom the king, Walter, decides to marry. She is obedient to his every wish, but Walter develops an over-riding need to test her patience and loyalty. First he takes their first child, a baby girl, and later their son. He lets Griselda believe the children have been killed, though in fact he has sent them to another town. Finally he says she’s too low-class, so he sends her back to her poor father–then brings her back to the palace to help in preparations for his marriage to a new, nobly-born wife! In fact, he has sent for the children’s return, and Griselda doesn’t know the new “bride” is really her daughter. Walter reveals the children’s identities, and restores Griselda to the throne, convinced at last of her patience and fortitude. Through the whole thing Griselda doesn’t complain once.
This tale, like the Man of Law’s, is a long ode (based on Petrarch’s distillation of a Boccaccio story) to a single virtue, in this case patience. Like Constance, Griselda is almost saintlike in her embodiment of virtue. But though you might be tempted to dismiss Griselda as a doormat, notice that this tale is an answer to the Wife of Bath’s argument that women should control a marriage. Griselda and Walter both exhibit single-mindedness, Walter in his determination to test his wife, Griselda in her steadfast patience. Perhaps they’re better suited to each other than we thought at first!
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE MERCHANT’S TALE
The Merchant admits his wife is hardly like Griselda; in fact, his two months of marriage have been hell. His tale, therefore, ties in with his character because it tells of the pitfalls of expecting too much of a marriage.
January, a rich knight, turns sixty and suddenly decides to marry. He lists examples of “good” women, all of whom ironically were responsible for a man’s downfall. He gets pro and con advice from two friends, Justinus (“just one”) and Placebo (“flatterer”), the “just” man arguing against and the other for. January settles on young May (the winter/spring distinction) as his bride, and enjoys his wedding night although Chaucer makes him look rather foolish. May falls for Damian, a young squire who is sick with love for her; January suddenly goes blind and won’t let May leave his side. In January’s walled garden, May arranges for Damian to climb a certain pear tree. Telling January she’s climbing the tree to get him a pear, she scampers up. Meanwhile, the gods–Pluto and his wife Proserpina–take male and female sides in the argument. Pluto has January’s sight return just as May and Damian embrace in the tree; Proserpina provides May with a fast-talking excuse, that January’s eyes are deceiving him since he is still unused to the light.
The tale echoes the Miller’s in the plot of old man/young wife and her plans for infidelity. Chaucer combines standard medieval set-ups (the age difference; the view of arguing gods, as in the Knight’s Tale; the walled garden; and the pear tree, symbolizing sex) for a tale that is almost allegorical but carries a bitter tone because of the Merchant’s own situation.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE SQUIRE’S TALE
The Squire refuses to tell a love story but says he’ll tell something as best he can.
The tale, unfinished, is a mystical one about a magical horse, mirror, ring, and sword that Gawain, an unknown knight, presents to the king of Tartary at a feast. The brass horse can fly anywhere; the mirror can show past, future, or any lover’s unfaithfulness; the ring gives the wearer knowledge of the birds’ language; the sword cuts through anything. The ring is given to Canacee, the king’s daughter, who wears it into the garden and uses it to hear a sad female hawk who has been jilted by her lover. Canacee nurses the hawk back to health. The Squire then promises to tell of the other magic gifts, of battles and the king and his sons, but the Franklin interrupts.