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The Reeve's Tale

A Comparative Study of Chaucer's Narrative Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Walter Morris Hart
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Extract

“Comme tout le monde avait lu le même conte dans Boccace, … les éloges des critiques anglais étaient inépuisables en l'honneur de Chaucer, qui, dans son imitation, avait su ajouter, disait-on, d'heureuses circonstances au récit de Boccace. Nous savons aujourd'hui que tout ce mérite d'inventeur qu'on lui attribuait consiste à avoir fort bien copié notre fabliau.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , 1908 , pp. 1 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1907

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References

page 1 note 1 Victor Le Clerc, Histoire Littéraire de la France, xxiii, 143.

page 1 note 2 Cf. Varnhagen, Die Erzählung von der Wiege, in Englische Studien, ix, 240 ff. Varnhagen shows that of the extant analogues the fabliau of Le Meunier et les ii Clers (Montaiglon-Raynaud, Recueil Général et Complet des Fabliaux, v, 83 ff.; Chaucer Society, Originals and Analogues, i, 93 ff.) most closely resembles Chaucer. This may or may not be Chaucer's source, but it is convenient to regard it as such. The later English version, A verie merie Historie of the Milner of Abington (Varnhagen, op. cit.), is not involved in the present discussion. The fabliau of Gombert (Montaiglon-Raynaud, i, 238 ff.; Originals and Analogues, i, 87 ff.), reproduced by Boccaccio (Decameron, ix, 6) and La Fontaine (Contes, ii, 3), contains only the cradle motive, not that of the cheating miller.

page 3 note 1 The average length of the fabliaux is 300–400 lines. See Bédier, Les Fabliaux, p. 32, and, on the virtue of brevity in the fabliaux, p. 347.

page 3 note 2 “Le fabliau n'a point, comme le roman, 1' allure biographique. Il prend ses héros au début de l'unique aventure qui les met en scène et les abandonne au moment où cette aventure finit.” Bédier, p. 32. “Un Fabliau est le récit d'une aventure toute particulière et ordinaire; c'est une situation, et une seule à la fois ...” Montaiglon-Raynaud, i, viii.

page 4 note 1 “Nul délayage, mais une juste proportion entre les diverses seènes” is a common characteristic of fabliau narrative. See Bédier, p. 357.

page 4 note 2 Bédier, p. 358.

page 5 note 1 About. 45,—144 out of the 322 lines.

page 6 note 1 The authors of the fabliaux were often themselves clercs. Hence not only their favorable attitude toward members of their own class, but also their attitude toward women. “Cette haine des femmes, faite de mépris, de curiosité, de crainte, de désir, ne s'explique-t-il pas plus aisément par les mœurs de ces moines manqués que par les idées ascétiques des religieux bouddhistes?”—Bédier, p. 398.

page 7 note 1 Bédier, pp. 334, 393.

page 7 note 2 One should note that for trop the Hamilton ms. has mout. Cf. Engl. Stud., ix, 242.

page 8 note 1 Bédier, p. 357.

page 8 note 2 A dangerous negative, of course, since the Old French vocabulary has lost, for us, most of its color and connotation. Yet the facts that the fabliaux made, in general, no literary pretensions of any sort, that, like ballads, they were composed to be heard, not read, and had to depend upon immediacy of effect, that they were closely related to the popular or folk manner of telling a story, and that the examples of fabliau wit which we do recognize (like the story of La Male honte [90]), are as obvious as they are feeble,—these facts lead one to think that the negative generalization is justified.

page 9 note 1 Moulton, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, p. 382.

page 9 note 2 Histoire Littéraire de la France, xxiii, 143 f. Cf. Bédier, p. 311. The fabliaux are merely “mos pour la gent faire rire; ” moral purpose is never more than accessory.

page 10 note 1 See J. Loth, Die Sprichwörter und Sentenzen der Altfranzösischen Fabliaux.

page 10 note 2 Bédier, p. 37. Cf. Loth, p. 1.

page 10 note 3 The fabliau does not “former de suite ni de série.” Montaiglon-Raynaud, i, viii. But the fact that the story of the Miller of Trumpington is one of the Canterbury Tales, heightens its effect, without in any way changing its form. Though one of a series of tales, it is none the less a fabliau.

page 11 note 1 The Miller “at wrastling. ... wolde have alwey the ram” (v. 548); Simkin could “wel wrastle and shete” (v. 3928). The Miller bore “a swerd and bokeler .... by his syde” (v. 558); Simkin carried “a long panade,” “and of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade;” he carried “a Ioly popper ” and “a Sheffeld thwitel ” (vv. 3929 ff.). The Miller could “wel. ... stelen corn, and tollen thryes” (v. 562); Simkin was “a theef .... for sothe of corn and mele” (v. 3939), and because of the maunciple's illness

“stal bothe mele and corn

An hundred tyme more than biforn;

For ther-biforn he stal but curteisly,

But now he was a theef outrageously “ (vv. 3995 ff.).

The Miller wore “a whyt cote and a blew hood” (v. 564); Simkin was “as eny pecok. ... proud and gay” (v. 3926). The Miller could “a baggepype. ... blowe and sowne” (v. 565); Simkin could “pypen. ... and fisshe” (v. 3927). When he insisted upon telling his tale, the Miller “for-dronken was al pale” (v. 3120). No doubt the Reeve glanced at him significantly as he described Simkin: “ Ful pale he was for-dronken, and nat reed” (v. 4150).

page 11 note 2 Skeat points out Chaucer's mistakes. “Of course this is what we should expect; the poet merely gives a Northern colouring to his diction to amuse us; he is not trying to teach us Northern grammar. The general effect is excellent, and that is all he was concerned with.”—Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, v, 121 f.

page 12 note 1 The peculiar vividness of the present tense in descriptions is noteworthy. In the present instance it implies that skeptical readers may verify the tale by examination of brook and bridge and mill. In narration, on the other hand, the present tense is leas vivid, perhaps because it is, necessarily, artificial. For the modern reader it is associated with second-hand summaries and abstracts. Cf. “A microscopic boy upon a cosmic horse came slowly down the road leading to the town watering trough. ... The watering trough is at the curb line of the street, in front of the post-office.” —Atlantic Monthly, 88, 409.

page 13 note 1 See Skeat's identification of the scene, v, 116.

page 13 note 2 Dead sleep fell upon the carpenter, in the Miller's Tale, “aboute corfew-tyme, or litel more” (v. 3645),—8 or 9 p. m., “ People invariably went to bed very early.”—Skeat, v, 108.

page 14 note 1 Varnhagen, pp. 256, 262, calls attention to the “ganz abweichende, vortreffliche motivirung bei Chaucer” at this point.

page 15 note 1 Op. cit., p. 262.

page 15 note 2 The Miller's Tale (v. 3647) and the Pardoner's Tale (v. 554) furnish suggestive commentary.

page 15 note 3 A Nation reviewer defines animalism as a “species of realism which deals with man considered as an animal, capable of hunger, thirst, lust, cruelty, vanity, fear, sloth, predacity, greed, and other passions and appetites that make him kin to the brutes, but which neglects, so far as possible, any higher qualities which distinguish him from his four-footed relatives, such as humor, thought, reason, aspiration, affection, morality and religion.”—The Nation, lxiii, 15. There is humor, thought, reason, even a kind of morality in what Aleyn says.

page 16 note 1 They are in good company here, Boland exclaims:

“Or guart chascuns que granz cols i empleit,

Male cançun ja chantee n'en seit!“ (vv. 1013 f.).

And one thinks of Helena, in All's Well, and Gretchen, in Faust.

page 16 note 2 In the fabliau it occurs to the clerk to misplace the cradle only after seeing the miller's wife leave the room. Chaucer's change is not an improvement, thinks Varnhagen (pp. 263 f.), and regrets that the manuscripts do not justify an assumption of error in transmission. But John is a shade better than the French clerk, something more than a creature of mere animal impulse. He is a skilful intriguer, who plans his revenge carefully, counts on what he foresees. Chaucer's change increases the effect of suspense, since the reader does not know why the cradle is moved. Of course John must risk the wife's missing the cradle before she leaves the room. But is there greater danger of this than of the failure of the trick upon her return? The fabliau of Gombert agrees with Chaucer's source here, and Boccaccio follows Gombert. It is interesting to note that La Fontaine (in Le Berceau, Contes, ii, 5) makes the same change that Chaucer makes. Undoubtedly Chaucer had his reasons for the change, whatever they were.

Varnhagen calls attention to Chaucer's omission of the pulling of the child's ear: “ Eine mutter, welche dadurch zu einem fehltritte, freilich ohne es zu wissen, gebracht wird, dass sie zu ihrem schreienden kinde geht, so etwas mochte Chaucer doch bedenklich erscheinen.” Pathos, introduced at this point, or at any point, in the story, would manifestly destroy the unity of impression. Yet the French clerk's act is not out of keeping with the cruelty of the fabliaux, which may, of course, go much further than this.

page 17 note 1 Cf. the discussion of Poetic Justice, pp. 28 f., below.

page 17 note 2 MR, 34, about 7500 words.

page 17 note 3 The most usual length of the short story is 3000 to 5000 words. Cf., C. R. Barrett, Short Story Writing, p. 17.

page 18 note 1 Cf., Whitcomb, The Study of a Novel, p. 36.

page 18 note 2 The remaining 54 lines, or 13, is character-description.

page 18 note 3 Cf., vv. 4136 ff., with the passage from the fabliau quoted p. 4, above.

page 19 note 1 Cf., the lines quoted p. 4, above. Chaucer has about 350 words where the fabliau has about 160. The effective awakening of the wife by Simkin's fall is peculiar to Chaucer.

page 19 note 2 See vv. 3995 ff., 4146 ff.

page 20 note 1 His careful motivation, pp. 14 ff., above, his emphasis of the comic effects in character and in plot, pp. 22 ff., below, and his emphasis of poetic justice, pp. 283 ff., below, should be noted in this connection.

page 20 note 2 About .37, 151 out of 404 lines, or about 1250 words, as contrasted with about 790 words in the fabliau.

page 20 note 3 “A sustained, realistic conversation of even three speakers is much more difficult to compose than dualogue, is a sign of true dramatic imagination, and a distinguishing mark of great novelistic technic. The complexity of its structure is due chiefly to the great possible variety in sequence and length of speeches, and of connectives and comment.” Whitcomb, The Study of a Novel, pp. 18 f. Chaucer's group conversations are not sustained, but they have realism and variety. Cf., however, T. E. Price, Troilus and Oriseyde, Pub. Mod. Lang. Asso., xi, 315: “For trio-scenes, in which a third person stands by to check the freedom of dramatic expansion, Chaucer shows a special aversion.” He uses group scenes “to mark the attainment of some definite stage of action, and to give the summary of the situation.” This is a fair description of the group conversations in the Reeve's Tale.

page 21 note 1 Cf., p. 5, above.

page 21 note 2 Price, loc. cit., and the passage quoted, p. 26, below.

page 21 note 3 Cf., passage quoted, p. 26, below.

page 22 note 1 It is hardly necessary to point out the comic “incongruity” in the repetition of this feature in the daughter's face.

page 23 note 1 Cf., v. 3955.

page 23 note 2 “Die Nonnenklöster, die Stätten des Friedens und der Rühe, erscheinen als Sitze sinnlichster Lust. Vor allem wird das Gebot der Keuschheit wenig respectiert. ... Selbst die Äbtissin, die ohne Nachsicht die Unregelmässigkeiten der Nonnen bestraft, ist nicht frei von Vorwurf.” Preime, Die Frau in den altfranzösischen Fabliaux, p. 80. Preime finds no lack of evidence in support of these statements. Cf., Pfeffer, Beiträge zur Kenntniss. des altfranzösischen Volkslebens, meist auf Grund der Fabliaux, i, 27.

page 24 note 1 Usually introduced by the phrase “he coude,” or “wel coude he,” this method is very characteristic of Chaucer. For examples see the General Prologue, vv. 94 f., 106, 122 ff., 130, 189 ff., 210 ff., 236 f., 258, 278, 325, 382 ff., 490, 547 ff., 562, 565, 608, etc.; the Miller's Tale, vv. 3193, 3200, 3326, etc.; the Friar's Tale, vv. 1325 f.; the Nun's Priest's Tale, vv. 4040 ff.

page 24 note 2 Cf., vv. 3951 ff.

page 24 note 3 It adds just one detail to what we know of them, makes them more real and more amusing in effect, therefore; dialect alone does not individualize.

page 24 note 4 Cf., vv. 4163 ff., A 3647, C554.

page 25 note 1 John knew the way, spoke first to the miller, devised the plan of standing by the hopper, discovered the loss of the horse, and suggested laying down swords and running after him, called Aleyn a “ fonne,” counseled prudence but carried out a more daring intrigue and involved Aleyn in the catastrophe, while he himself escaped. Aleyn made the preparations, said he would stand by the trough (thus following John's lead), conceived the plan of getting even with Simkin, mistook Simkin for John. There is thus nothing like the clearly-intended contrasts between Nicholas and Absolon, in the Miller's Tale, or between Arveragus and Aurelius, in the Franklin's Tale.

page 25 note 2 Satirical purpose is exceptional in the fabliaux. Cf., Bédier, pp. 326 ff.

page 25 note 3 Pp. 14 ff. above.

page 25 note 4 Cf., pp. 7 f. above.

page 26 note 1 P. 15, above.

page 26 note 2 Cf., p. 8, above.

page 28 note 1 Cf., p. 9, above.

page 29 note 1 See p. 15, above.

page 31 note 1 Cf., Bédier, pp. 37 ff.

page 31 note 2 A very different person of a toun from the character described in the General Prologue.

page 31 note 3 See Preime, pp. 66 ff., Bédier, pp. 336 f., Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux, I, 300, n. 1., and Pfeffer, I, 23 ff.

page 31 note 4 The numbers are those affixed to the fabliaux in the Montaiglon-Raynaud collection.

page 32 note 1 P. 23, above.

page 32 note 2 Cf., p. 12, above.

page 32 note 3 Pp. 436 ff.

page 32 note 4 Op. cit., iii, 40 ff.

page 33 note 1 The Englishmen, in addition to their inability to pronounce the French words, “ne manquent pas ... de confondre les conjugaisons françaises et ne connaissent guère le genre des substantifs qu'ils emploient.” MR. ii, 332.

page 33 note 2 See, however, Professor Matzke's interesting discussion of Some Example of French as Spoken by Englishmen in Old French Literature, Modern Philology, iii, 47 ff. Cf. Bédier, pp. 442 f.

page 34 note 1 For further accounts of customs see Pfeffer, iii, i, von den Fahrenden, and iii, iv, von Essen und Trinken.

page 35 note 1 Cf. p. 15, above.

page 36 note 1 Quoted, pp. 4 and 18 f. above.

page 38 note 1 P. 36, above.

page 38 note 2 Alexander's regrets for his mistress, vv. 200 ff.; Arigtote's love for her, vv. 326 ff.

page 39 note 1 Though he permits himself to be saddled and bridled, and ridden by the fair Indian, his power of dialectic does not desert him. When Alexander ridicules him, he replies: “ You see that I am justified in fearing the effect of love upon you, who are in all the ardor of youth, when it has the power thus to accoutre me, who am full of years. I have joined example to precept. See that you profit by them.”

page 40 note 1 Cf. Preime, Die Frau: Äussere Eigenschaften, pp. 17 ff.

page 40 note 2 Bédier, p, 306.

page 41 note 1 iii, 33 ff.

page 41 note 2 ii, 30 f.

page 41 note 3 P. 33, above.

page 41 note 4 Cf. the descriptions of Messire Guillaume, in the Vair Palefroi (3), and of the jongleur, in Saint Pierre et le Jongleur (117).

page 41 note 5 In the completeness of its “lines of emotion” this fabliau is comparable with the Franklin's Tale. See vv. 118 ff., 169 ff., 202 ff., 313 ff., 320 ff., 419 ff., 469 ff., 559 ff., 710 ff., 743 f., 785 ff., 862 ff., 893 ff., 935 f., 1042 ff., 1135, 1177 ff., 1284 f.

page 42 note 1 Cf. ten Brink, English Literature, ii, 154 f., and Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, iii, 363 f.

page 42 note 2 In the Universal Cyclopædia.

page 44 note 1 Consciously, since the point of view is admirably preserved in other of the Canterbury Tales, notably in the Pardoner's. The little clergeon's point of view is realized with marvelous sympathy but is not maintained throughout the Prioress's Tale.