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Chaucer's Man of Law as Interpreter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Ghaungey Wood
Ghaungey Wood*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin Madison
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Extract

As Professor D. W. Robertson, Jr., has pointed out, the Man of Law's reiterated concern for the ‘fruyt’ of his story as opposed to its ‘chaf is a clear invitation to the audience both to seek the ‘sentence’ of the story and to judge whether or not the Man of Law is successful in his interpretation of his own material. Indeed, the Man of Law stands high among the Canterbury pilgrims in the degree of his involvement with his story, and he is presented to us as one who cannot simply tell a tale, but who feels obliged to react to it sympathetically, to comment on it, and even to interpret it for us. Thus, when it comes time for the Man of Law to tell a tale, he selects the story of Custance, whose humble faith in God's Providence is rewarded by numerous deliverances from death and from fates-worse-than-death, and, lest we miss the terror of impending doom or the moral of Custance's deliverances, the Man of Law intrudes repeatedly in order to emphasize and interpret. These interpretations and emphases are scarcely the serene summations of ‘sentence’ we might expect this providential tale to elicit from an educated man, but are rather a commentary on the narrator's and not the heroine's emotional reactions to the vicissitudes of the story. The Man of Law's specific and general interpretations of the story, as a consequence, become interesting both for their relevance, or lack of it, to the tale, and for their ability to disclose by their degree of pertinence much about the Man of Law's understanding of things providential.

Type
Articles
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Traditio , Volume 23 , 1967 , pp. 149 - 190
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Robertson, D. W. Jr., A Preface to Chaucer (Princeton 1962) 366. For ‘fruyt’ and ‘chaf’ as literary terms, see the Preface 315–317. The citations from the Man of Law's Tale are of lines 411 and 701–706 in The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer , ed. Robinson, F. N. (Boston 1957). Subsequent references will be to this edition and will be cited in the text. A portion of this paper was read at the English Department Colloquium at the University of Wisconsin, November, 1965. Google Scholar

2 In recent years one critic has spoken of the ‘incongruous’ romantic manner when coupled with a ‘sentimental’ tale, another has styled the tone as midway between ‘low seriousness and levity,’ a third has seen Chaucer exposing himself to the charge of ‘poor art’ in having an ‘irreconcilable dualism of purpose,’ and another has called the tale a ‘drama of Providence.’ (Duffey, Bernard I., ‘The Intention and Art of the Man of Law's Tale,’ ELH 14 (1947) 192–193. Baum, Paul F., ‘The Man of Law's Tale,’ MLN 64 (1949) 13. Block, Edward A., ‘Originality, Controlling Purpose, and Craftsmanship in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale,’ PMLA, 68 (1953) 616. Yunck, John A., ‘Religious Elements in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale,’ ELH 27 (1960) 256–257.Google Scholar

3 Gaylord, Alan T., ‘The Promises in The Franklin's Tale,’ ELH 21 (1964) 332. Haller, Robert S., ‘Chaucer's Squire's Tale and the Uses of Rhetoric,’ MP 72 (1965) 285–286. Professor Robertson has suggested that many of the characters on the pilgrimage are blind to the implications of their own tales in such a way that the tales themselves become subtle comments on their narrators. (Robertson, , Preface 275). For other studies on this kind of interplay between tale and teller see Huppé, Bernard F., A Reading of the Canterbury Tales Albany, New York 1964), and recent articles by Olson, Paul A. Google Scholar

4 Chaucer shows his knowledge of Biblical statements about testing when he has the Clark refer us to the Epistle of James 1.12–13. (CIT 1153–55) Other examples may be found widely, particularly in the didactic books of the Vulgate. For an important reference in the Fathers, see St. Augustine, , On Christian Doctrine , trans. Robertson, D. W. Jr. for the Library of Liberal Arts (New York 1958) I. xvi. 15.Google Scholar

5 The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer , ed. Skeat, Walter W. (Oxford 1894) III. 141. The Second Nun's Tale is an instructive case where a seeming discrepancy between the character, a nun, and her self-description as an ‘unworthy sone of Eve’ (SecNT 62) has been satisfactorily reconciled. See Robinson's, notes to his edition. Robinson's remark that the Man of Law's statement is analogous to the Prologues to the Tale of Melibee, the Monk's Tale, and the Parson's Tale does not consider the fact that in none of the suggested analogues does anyone say he speaks in prose.Google Scholar

6 This has been argued by Sullivan, William L., ‘Chaucer's Man of Law as a Literary Critic’ MLN 68 (1953) 7. Sullivan also remarks upon the Man of Law's concern for wealth (p. 3). For an argument that the references to Canace, etc., are not in fact to Gower, see Bowen, Robert O., ‘Chaucer: The Man of Law's Introduction and Tale,’ MLN 71 (1956) 165.Google Scholar

7 It may be that the Man of Law's desire not to be likened to the Pierian sisters who lost their contest with the Muses is also intended by Chaucer to be a slur on the Man of Law's powers of interpretation. The Man of Law clearly says that he doesn't want to be like the Pierian sisters who lost in a tale-telling contest, and he has remarked just previously that Chaucer has told all the love stories and left him with only second-rate alternatives. In the Metamorphoses there is a marked analogy to the situation here, for the Pierian sisters lose the contest with a tale of strife, while the Muses win with a tale depending heavily on ‘… illa, quibus superas omnes, cape tela, Cupido.’ In the Muses' story Love incites Dis to capture Proserpina, and it is Love that impels Alpheus to give chase to Arethusa in the second major incident of the story. (Metamorphoses 5. 294–678.) Thus, Chaucer may be underlining the Man of Law's curious idea that love stories are intrinsically superior to stories of other kinds, regardless of the execution of them.Google Scholar

8 This is undoubtedly an aspersion not only on the Man of Law but on lawyers generally, based on the prevalent medieval view that lawyers had material ambitions equal to or in excess of their legal goals. See Bowden, Muriel, A Commentary on the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (New York 1948) 168–171. The relationships between the Merchant and the Man of Law and between their tales deserve further study. In addition to the fact that the Man of Law admires merchants we may remark upon the fact that the two men are dressed similarly, one wearing ‘mottelee’ and the other ‘medlee.’ (Gen Prol 271, 328).Google Scholar

9 Cf. Huppé, , Reading 96, where the merchants' dependence on Fortune, the throw of the dice, and their travelling without a spiritual goal is contrasted to the Custance story.Google Scholar

10 Huppé, , Reading 94, 96. Huppé is assuredly right in remarking that Innocent's anathematization of poverty, which Christ praised, is not intended as a condemnation of poverty per se, but as a condemnation of poverty as it may be misused to lead to envy and malice. However, Huppé's ascription of irony to Innocent's apostrophe to the bliss of merchants is wide of the mark. The irony is Chaucer's, for the paraphrase of Innocent does not include the apostrophe to merchants, which is an addition to Innocent, and we are supposed to see in it the Man of Law's error in interpreting Innocent's attack on poverty as though it implied praise of wealth.Google Scholar

11 This work was extremely popular. There are more MSS extant of it than of the Consolation of Philosophy, and the fact that quite a few MSS have been turned up in recent years suggests that even more may be found. See Lotharii, cardinalis (Innocent III), De miseria humane conditionis , ed. Maccarone, Michele (Lugano 1955) x and n. 1, and Howard, Donald R., ‘Thirty New Manuscripts of Pope Innocent III's De miseria humanae conditionis “De contemptu mundi,”’ Manuscripta 7 (1963) 31–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 ‘Si vero paternitas vestra suggesserit, dignitatem humane natureChristo favente describam, quatinus ita per hoc humilietur elatus ut per illud humilis exaltetur.’ (Innocent, , De miseria , 3.)Google Scholar

13 The idea, of course, was widely known in many contexts, one of the more important of which is in St. Augustine, , On Christian Doctrine , I. 3–4.Google Scholar

14 There are some other citations of Innocent III by the Man of Law that deserve brief mention. Of the four quotations from Innocent III in the story proper, three seem present simply for emphasis on the evils of the world. Chaucer, however, is careful not to let the Man of Law step out of character, and as a consequence his concern for wealth is maintained by the excision of ‘ardor avaritie’ from an otherwise complete list of emotions that impel one to destroy the peace of a day. (lines 1135–38) See Innocent, , De miseria , I. 21, p. 29.Google Scholar

15 ‘Proh pudor! secundum fortunam existimatur persona, cum potius secundum personam sit estimanda fortuna. Tam bonus reputatur ut dives, tam malus ut pauper, cum potius tam dives sit reputandus ut bonus, tam pauper ut malus. Dives autem superfluitate resolvitur et iactantia effrenatur, currit ad libitum et corruit ad illicitum, et fiunt instrumenta penarum que fuerant oblectamenta culparum. Labor in acquirendo, timor in possidendo, dolor in amitendo, mentem eius semper fatigat, sollicitat et affligat: “Ubi est thesaurus tuus, ibi est et cor tuum.”’ (Innocent, , De miseria I xv, p. 21.)Google Scholar

16 Wimbledon, T., A Famous Middle English Sermon (MS. Hatton 57, Bod. Lib.) Preached at Paul's Cross, London, on Quinquagesima Sunday, 1388 , ed. Sundén, K. F., Göteborgs Hogskolas Årsskrift 21 (1925) Pt. 2 no. 5, p. 5. For a fine analysis of the problems related to the use of temporalia as set forth in another fourteenth century poem, Piers Plowman, see Robertson, D. W. Jr. and Huppé, Bernard F., Piers Plowman and Scriptural Tradition (Princeton 1951) 48.Google Scholar

17 Cf. Sullivan, , ‘The Man of Law as Literary Critic,’ 2–3.Google Scholar

18 This process of undercutting is often carried out very subtly. For example, the Man of Law is concerned about the monetary arrangements for Custance's proposed marriage to the Sultan, while Custance herself never alludes to the subject. ‘And he shal han Custance in mariage, / And certein gold, I noot what quantitee; / And heer-to founden sufficient suretee.’ (lines 241–243) The Man of Law's distress when this financially satisfactory marriage does does not take place is not dissimilar from the anguish of the women who carry on at Arcite's untimely death in the Knight's Tale, crying, ‘Why woldestow be deed, … / And haddest gold ynough and Emelye?’ (KnT 2835–36) There is neither bride payment nor dowry when Custance later marries Alla.Google Scholar

19 For the work's citation by Boccaccio and its general popularity, see Curtius, Ernst Robert, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages , trans. Trask, Willard R., Harper Torchbooks (New York 1963) 111, n. 17.Google Scholar

20 Curtius, , European Literature 112. Gilson, Etienne, ‘La Cosmogonie de Bernardus Silvestris’ Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 3 (1928) 5–24. Theodore Silverstein, ‘The Fabulous Cosmogony of Bernardus Silvestris’ MP 46 (1948) 92–116. On Bernard's determinism see Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York 1923–56) II 102. Both Gregory and Garin assume Bernard's determinism without much argument. (Gregory, Tullio, Anima Mundi [Florence 1955] 216–218. Garin, Eugenio, Studi sul platonismo medievale [Florence 1958] 21). There has also been a debate about the meaning of Bernard's Mathematicus, which has been traditionally seen as an attack on astrology, but which Thorndike believes to be otherwise. (Thorndike, , Magic and Science II 108).Google Scholar

21 Hawkins, Sherman, ‘Mutabilitie and the Cycle of the Months,’ in Form and Convention in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser , ed. Nelson, William (New York and London 1961), 78. There is an excellent introduction to the nature and importance of Boethius' arguments on fate and freewill in the translation by Prof. Green. (The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Richard Green for the Library of Liberal Arts [Indianapolis and New York 1962] xiv-xix).Google Scholar

22 Professor Thorndike further argues that this admission of co-existence is merely an instance of perversity in a writer who otherwise regularly believed in astral determinism. (Thorndike, , Magic and Science II 104–106) It is perhaps the use of the word ‘coexistence’ that is confusing here, for in Boethius (which Thorndike himself cites as a clear parallel of Bernard Silvestris) there is not so much a paradoxical, antagonistic co-existence of fate, free-will, and Providence, as there is a submission of fate to a providential order that takes into account the will. Thorndike's citation from Bernard is not convincing proof of paradoxicality, for when read in context the passage he cites says that Parcae receive instruction from Providence, through ‘Urania,’ as to what is under their sway and what is not: ‘Mens humana mihi tractus ducenda per omnes / Aethereos, ut sit prudentior / Parcarum leges et ineluctabile fatum / Fortunaeque vices variabilis. / Quae sit in arbitrio res libera quidve necesse, / Quid cadat ambiguis sub casibus.’ (Silvestris, Bernard, De mundi universitate , ed. Barach, C. S. and Wrobel, J. [Innsbruck 1876] Bk. II 4. 31–36). Thorndike quotes only lines 33–35.Google Scholar

23 ‘In huius operis primo libro qui Megacosmus dicitur, id est maior mundus, Natura ad Noym, id est Dei providentiam, de primae materiae, id est hyles, confusione querimoniam quasi cum lacrimis agit et ut mundus pulcrius expoliatur petit.’ (De mundi universitate, Breviarium). For further remarks on the concept of beautification see Gilson, , ‘Cosmogonie,’ 7 and n. 4.Google Scholar

24 ‘Ea igitur noys summi et exsuperantissimi Dei est intellectus et ex eius divinitate nata natura. In qua vitae viventis imagines, notiones aeternae, mundus intelligibilis, rerum cognitio praefinita. Erat igitur videre velut in speculo tersiore quicquid generationi, quicquid operi Dei secretior destinarat affectus. Illic in genere, in specie, in individuali singularitate conscripta, quicquid hyle, quicquid mundus, quicquid parturiunt elementa. Illic exarata supremi digito dispunctoris textus temporis, fatalis series, dispositio saeculorum. illic lacrimae pauperum fortunaeque regum. illic potentia militaris, illic philosophorum felicior disciplina. Illic quicquid angelus, quicquid ratio conprehendit humana. Illic quicquid caelum sua conplectitur curvatura. Quod igitur tale est, illud aeternitati congruum, idem natura cum Deo nec substantia disparatum. Huiusce igitur sive vitae sive lucis origine vita, iubar et rerum endelechia quadam velut emanatione defluxit.’ ( De mundi universitate I 2. 152–169).Google Scholar

25 ‘In caelo divina manus caelique ministris / Omne creaturae primitiavit opus.’ ( De mundi universitate , I 3. 3–4).Google Scholar

26 ‘Caelestis pars militiae numerosus ad astra / Angelus obsequitur sub michaele suo. / Angelus inferior gradus est ordire priores. / In hierarchias concidit ordo novem.’ ( De mundi universitate , I 3. 27–30).Google Scholar

27 Ibid. I 3. 31–56.Google Scholar

28 ‘In Deo, in noy scientia est, in caelo ratio, in sideribus intellectus. In magno vero animali cognitio viget, viget et sensus causarum praecedentium fomitibus enutritus. Ex mente enim caelum, de caelo sidera, de sideribus mundus. Unde vivaret, unde discerneret, linea continuationis excepit. Mundus enim quiddam continuum, et in ea catena nihil vel dissipabile vel abruptum. Unde illum rotunditas forma perfectior circumscribit.’ ( De mundi universitate , I 4. 74–81). Bernard takes his hierarchies rather far, and extends them, in Book II, to man. However, in man the right order has been overthrown by the Fall (here phrased philosophically): ‘Et gravis in nostra carne tyrannus amor’ [II 14. 152]), so that although the sense of touch properly comes last in the hierarchy of the senses, it is not entirely under the control of the reason: ‘Militat in thalamis, tenero deservit amori / Tactus, et argute saepe probare solet. / Aut castigato planum sub pectore ventrem, / Aut in virgineo corpore molle femur.’ (II 14, 105–108) Cf. St. Paul's statement about a law in his members at war with the law in his mind. (Romans 7. 23) We are scarcely dealing here with a ‘touch of pagan sensuality,’ Gilson, M. to the contrary notwithstanding. (Gilson, , ‘Cosmogonie,’ p. 6, n. 3.) Curtius points out that the work closes with a remark on the fitting use of the male organs when that use accords with what is needful, and then makes the astonishing statement that the entire book is ‘bathed in the atmosphere of a fertility cult, in which religion and sexuality mingle.’ (Curtius, , 111–112).Google Scholar

29 ‘Ceptra Phorenei fratrum discordia Thebe fflamam Phetontis Deucalionis Aque In stellis Priami species Audacia Turni Sensus Vlixeus Herculeusque vigor.’ ( The Text of The Canterbury Tales , ed. Manly, John M. & Rickert, Edith [Chicago 1940] 3. 493).Google Scholar

30 For Phoroneus as a lawgiver see St. Augustine, , De civ. Dei. 18.3. For Phoroneus as the ‘first man’ see Timaeus, 22. This is scarcely a novel concept. Boethius was only one of many who argued that an apparent contrariety in things was in truth harmoniously joined by ‘love’ (Bk II m. 8). On the concepts of the harmony of this world and its relationship with heaven see Spitzer, Leo, Classical and Christian Ideas of World Harmony (Baltimore 1963) passim. Google Scholar

31 For a brilliant exposition of this theme see Singleton, Charles S., Dante Studies 2: Journey to Beatrice (Cambridge, Mass. 1958) 86–99.Google Scholar

32 Cf. de Conches', Guillaume commentary on the Timaeus. (Parent, J. M., La doctrine de la création dans l'école de Chartres [Paris and Ottawa 1938], p. 142). This is not to be confused with the ‘natural justice’ given to human nature in Adam. For further remarks on the several kinds of justice see Freccero, John, ‘Dante's Pilgrim in a Gyre,’ PMLA 76 (1961) 177, n. 48.Google Scholar

33 ‘Quae membris animam numeri proportio iungat, / Ut res dissimiles uniat unus amor’ ( De mundi universitate , II, 8, 27–28). Cf. Boethius, , Consolation, Bk II m. 8.Google Scholar

34 ‘Ecce, inquit, mundus, o natura, quem de antiquo seminario, quem de tumultu veteri, quem de massa confusionis excepi. Ecce mundus, operis mei excogitata subtilitas, gloriosa constructio, rerum specimen praedecorum, quem creavi, quem formavi sedula, quem ad aeternam ideam ingeniosa circumtuli mentem meam propriore vestigio subsecuta.’ ( De mundi universitate II 1. 4–10.)Google Scholar

35 ‘Induxi rebus formas, elementa ligavi / Concordem numero conciliante fidem. / Ascripsi legem stellis iussique planetas / Indeclinatum currere semper ita… . Unde Atropos, Clotho, Lachesis, iurata Providentiae Fatoque germanitas, similem sed dissimili loco mundanae administrationis diligentiam curamque sortitae. Orto sphaeram firmamenti Atropos, planetarum erraticam Clotho, Lachesis terrena disponit.’ ( De mundi universitate , II 2. 9–12 and II 11. 51–56).Google Scholar

36 ‘Est quoque alia sanctior et uenerabilior historia, quae perhibet ortu stellae cuiusdam non morbos mortesque denuntiatas sed descensum dei uenerabilis ad humanae conseruationis rerumque mortalium gratiam.’ Timaeus: A Calcidio Translatus Commentarioque Instructus , ed. Waszink, J. H. in Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi, Plato Latinus , ed. Klibansky, Raymond (London and Leyden 1962) IV, CXXVI, pp. 169–170.Google Scholar

37 Some of the confusion about this passage stems from a misunderstanding of the word ‘ascendant.’ In modern times our simplified astrological materials are usually represented in terms of the month of one's birth and in terms of the sign of the zodiac that the sun is in during the appropriate portion of that month. In the Middle Ages, however, both horoscopes and elections had as their most important feature the sign that was ascending in the east at a particular moment in the daily, not yearly course of the heavens. Thus while the sun is in the sign Aries for about a month at the beginning of spring, the sign Aries is in the ascendant position for about two hours every day. This is the ‘ascendant’ referred to in the poem, and all other computations must proceed from this. For Skeat's remarks on the passage see the notes to his edition, V 148–152. For Alchabitius, one of the few astrologers named by Chaucer, on the ‘sex tortuose ascendentia,’ see Alcabitii ad Magisterium Iudicorum Astrorum Isogoge: Commentario Ioannis Saxonij declarata (Parisiis 1521, sig. a2 r). Other references abound.Google Scholar

38 Professor Curry has argued that the planets move into the divisional houses successively, from the first to the twelfth, in the same way that they move through the signs (and associated houses) of the zodiac. (Curry, Walter Clyde, Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences , revised and enlarged [New York 1960] 172–175). However, Anglicus, Robertus, commenting on Sacrobosco's De Sphaera, says that a sign ‘which at its rising was in the first house begins after its rising to be in the twelfth house… .’ (Thorndike, Lynn, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators [Chicago 1949] 220). Similarly in Chaucer, the sun is said to have left the ‘angle meridional’ (SqT, 263) while Leo continues to rise. If the sun is in an angle called the meridian angle it certainly seems that the planets move through the angles, cadents, and succedents in their daily, not annual motion, which would mean that, like the signs discussed by Robert Anglicus, they would travel through the divisional houses from the first to the twelfth to the eleventh. The whole matter of ‘equal’ and ‘unequal’ houses is vexing semantically, since the houses of the zodiac can be considered ‘equal’ houses in one sense, while the divisional houses are ‘equal’ in one sense and ‘unequal’ in another. Al-Biruni says that they are equal divisions of the visible heavens formed by great circles passing through the prime vertical. Because the zodiac is not in the same plane, these equal divisions of the heavens are unequal divisions along the course of the zodiac. (Al-Biruni, , The Book of Instruction in the Elements of Astrology …, trans. Ramsey Wright, R. [London 1934] 149, n. 3). For medieval confounding of the two kinds of houses, see The Astronomical Works of Thabit B. Qurra , ed. Carmody, Francis J. (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1960) 175.Google Scholar

39 ‘Any planet within the house of the ascendant.’ (NED, s.v. ‘ascendant,’ B, I, 1.) Chaucer quite clearly says that an ascendant is fortunate when no unfortunate planet is in it or is in aspect to it. The Lord of the Ascendant is fortunate or unfortunate depending upon where he is in aspect to the ascendant sign and in relation to the angles and the other planets. Thus, the Lord of the Ascendant need not be in the ascending sign, and Mars can be both Lord of the tortuous, ascendant sign Aries (one of his two houses) and yet be located elsewhere, perhaps in Scorpio (his other house), which may coincide with the cadent eighth house (a house of the other kind), the house of death. ‘A “fortunat ascendent” clepen they whan that no wicked planete, as Saturne or Mars or elles the Tayl of the Dragoun is in the hous of the ascendent, ne that no wicked planete have noon aspect of enemyte upon the ascendent… . The lord of the ascendent, sey thei that he is fortunat whan he is in god place fro the ascendent, as in an angle, or in a succident where as he is in hys dignite and comfortid with frendly aspectes of planetes and wel resceyved; and eke that he may seen the ascendent …’ (A Treatise on the Astrolabe II 4).Google Scholar

40 Professor Curtiss has argued against the supposition that Mars is the Lord of the Ascendant on the grounds that (a) Mars is said to have slain this marriage in line 301, and (b) the Lord of the Ascendant is said to be fallen helpless in line 303, so the weak Lord of the Ascendant should not be identified with the powerful Mars. (Curtiss, Joseph T., ‘The Horoscope in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale,’ JEGP 26 [1927] 28). The sense of the passage, however, is that the diurnal rotation of the First Moving has forced the planets into their present positions, and we should therefore read line 303 to mean that Mars has fallen helplessly rather than that he has fallen into a state of helplessness. Professor Browne has argued that Mars cannot be the Lord of the Ascendant because the Lord of the Ascendant is the ‘celestial guardian,’ while Mars is at the same time the atazir, which means ‘evil genius.’ (Browne, William Hand, ‘Notes on Chaucer's Astrology’ MLN 23 [1908] 53.) Professor Browne adduces no evidence in support of his definition of Lord of the Ascendant, which is in conflict with Chaucer's definition, which declares that the Lord of the Ascendant can be either malevolent or benevolent.Google Scholar

41 Skeat, , Works , III, 150. Professor Curtiss objected to identifying the darkest of the twelve houses of the zodiac with the darker of the two houses of Mars. (Curtiss, ‘The Horoscope,’ 29.) There does not seem to be any objection to Skeat's reading ‘darkest’ as ‘darker,’ which is not overly bold, and there is in fact some manuscript authority for understanding ‘the’ darkest house as ‘his’ darkest house, the variant occurring in several MSS. (Manly, & Rickert, , Text V 468.) Professor Browne's objection that Scorpio cannot be Mars' darkest house because it is one of his own houses, in which he is powerful, neglects the fact that Mars is a ‘wicked planet’ in Chaucer's phrase, and where powerful will be powerful to do evil, which would make either of his houses ‘dark’ because of and not in spite of his power there. (Browne, , ‘Notes on Astrology,’ 53.) It seems most probable that Chaucer intended us to understand that Mars, the Lord of the Ascendant sign Aries, has moved into the darkest of the twelve divisional houses, the house of death, which happens to be coincident with his zodiacal house Scorpio, which was a house in which he was noted for mischief (See Skeat's references). No literal meaning of ‘darkest’ house can be applied to Scorpio since it is Mars' ‘day house’ as opposed to his ‘night house’ in Aries.Google Scholar

42 Skeat, , Works III 150–151. Curry, , Chaucer and the Sciences 182–187. The Canterbury Tales , ed. Manly, John Matthews (New York 1928) 587. See n. 43, infra, for an illustration of the confusion over ‘significator nativitatis.’ Google Scholar

43 ‘Athazir est significator natiuitatis, deferens significationem nati ad quodlibet signum, eundo per signa & domus. Discordes sunt similiter in cognoscendo significatorem: quia Ptolemaeus dicit quod significator est planeta habens maiorem potentiam in gradu ascendentis, qui est nominatus almutez… .’ (Haly, Albohazen, De judiciis astrorum [Basileae 1551] sig. Bg3 r).Google Scholar

44 For ‘knyt’ as descriptive of a relationship other than conjunction see The Complaint of Mars , lines 50–51.Google Scholar

45 ‘Porro si dominus octauae infortunauerit dominum ascendentis, maxime ipsomet in octaua existente, accidet naui impedimentum & destructio, quod erit secundum naturam infortunij illius.’ (Haly, Albohazen, De judiciis , sig. K4 v.) Google Scholar

46 ‘Continet autem haec domus mortem, eius conditiones, causas, infirmitates, morbos varios, & casus nunquam satis praeuisos: etiam si natus sit moriturus in opulentia & divitijs, uel in indigentia & labore: etiam si morietur in terra sua uel extra … uel si fuerit Luna cum Marte in octaua, maxime in natiuitate nocturna … significant quod natus interficietur ferro, uel truncabitur ei caput, aut morietur mala morte & turpi… . Praeterea si quando Luna in natiuitate nocturna iuncta fuerit … uel fuerit in coniunctione Martis… . mors erit propter ignem: sed si quando Mars fuerit in octaua domo damnificans dominum octaue domus, mors nati erit ex ferro.’ (Haly, Albohazen, De judiciis , sig. S4 r and S5 v.) ‘Quando Aries fuerit ascendens, Mars qui est dominus eius, erit significator mortis, eo quod Scorpio erit in octaua domo, cuius etiam Mars est dominus … Quando Mars in octaua domo fuerit, aut octauam domum impedierit, natus ferro morietur.’ (Albubatur, , De natiuitatibus [Norimbergae 1540] sig. r3 v and s1 v.) Alchabitius overtly quotes Albohazen Haly. (Alchabitius Abdylaziz, Libellas ysagogicus [Venetiis 1511 / 12], sig. f5 v.) Google Scholar

47 Beichner, Paul F. C.S.C., ‘Chaucer's Man of Law and Disparitas Cultus,’ Speculum 23 (1948) 72–73.Google Scholar

48 I have been anticipated in much of my research here in studies of Donne and Dante. Professor Chambers, A. B., in a brilliant study of Donne's ‘Goodfriday, Riding Westward,’ has shown that Donne plays upon two spiritual orientations: first the east to west rational movement is opposed to the west to east irrational movement, and then this whole idea is contrasted to the ‘good’ east with its rising Sun of Justice, and its opposed west. (Chambers, A. B., ‘Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward: The Poem and the Tradition,’ ELH 28 [1961] 31–53). Chambers' article has a wealth of documentation ranging from the Timaeus through Plutarch, Philo, Proclus, and Chalcidius down to a variety of late medieval figures. Professor John Freccero, in an equally learned and impressive study, has analyzed many of these and some other materials and has related them to the directions in Dante's Commedia. (Freccero, John, ‘Dante's Pilgrim in a Gyre,’ PMLA 76 [1961] 168–181.) See also the same author's ‘Donne's “Valediction Forbidding Mourning”,’ ELH 30 (1963) 335–376. In addition to these discoveries I have found a commentary in Pierre Bersuire, and can add a passage in Arnulph of Orleans, for which I am indebted to Professor Robertson, D. W. Jr. Similar material has also been pointed out by Prof. Garin, and there is no doubt that much more will be found.Google Scholar

49 Aristotle, , On the Heavens , trans. Guthrie, W.K.C., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1939) Bk. II, 2, pp. 139–147. Because of this dictum artists represented the world with the antarctic pole at the top of the picture and the arctic pole at the bottom well into the Renaissance. See the woodcut of an armillary sphere in de Sacrobosco, Johannes, De sphaera (Paris 1538).Google Scholar

50 Timaeus , ed, Waszink, IV 28 (for Timaeus, Bk. I) and IV 148 (for the Commentary).Google Scholar

51 ‘Duo sunt motus in anima unus rationalis alter irrationalis: rationalis est qui imitatur motum firmamenti, qui fit ab oriente in occidentem, et e contrario irrationalis est qui imitatur motum planetarum qui moventur contra firmamentum. Dedit enim deus anime rationem per quam reprimeret sensualitatem, sicut motus irrationalis VII planetarum per motum firmamenti reprimitur… . Vel intencio sua sit nos ab amore temporalium immoderato revocare et adhortari ad unicum cultum nostri creatoris, ostendendo stabilitatem celestium et varietatem temporalium.’ (Arnulph, of Orleans, , Commentary on the Metamorphoses , in ‘Arnolfo D'Orleans un Cultore di Ovidio nel Secolo xii,’ ed. Ghisalberti, F., Memorie del R. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e lettere, 24 [1932] 181). For similar terminology see Alanus de Insulis and Pseudo-John the Scot. (de Insulis, Alanus, Liber de Planctu Naturae, PL, 210.443. Pseudo-John the Scot in Saecvli Noni Avctoris in Boetii Consolationem Philosophiae Commentarivs , ed. Silk, E. T., Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome, 9 [1935] 34–35.) Sacrobosco uses the terms ‘rational,’ ‘irrational,’ and ‘sensual’ in his discussion of astronomy, which was very widely used as a text, and which has been suggested as one of Chaucer's sources for the Treatise on the Astrolabe. (Thorndike, Lynn, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators [Chicago 1949] 123. Veazie, Walter B., ‘Chaucer's Text-book of Astronomy; Johannes de Sacrobosco,’ Colorado Univ. Studies, Series B, Studies in the Humanities, I [1939–41] 169–182.) Pseudo-Bede refers to the ‘rational motion of the firmament' with reference to Chalcidius’ commentary, and Guillaume de Conches talks of the rational and sensual movements of the soul and compares the human soul to the Anima mundi when commenting on Bk. III, m. 2,3 of Boethius' Consolation. (Pseudo-Bede, , De mundi coelestis terrestrisque constitutione liber, PL 90. 900. de Conches, Guillaume, Commentary in Charles Jourdain,‘ Des Commentaires Inédits de Guillaume de Conches et de Nicolas Triveth sur la Consolation de Philosophie de Boèce,’ Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale XX 2 [1865] 75ff. Garin, Eugenio, Studi sul Platonismo Medievale [Florence 1958] 41, and n. 1.) Google Scholar

52 ‘Vel die moraliter, quod caelestes viri ad reprimendum ardorem & zelum justiciae, rebellionem inferiorum orbium, i. e. carnalium appetituum, in seipsis sentiunt ac per crystallinam sapientiam, ardorem istum prudenter compescunt’ (Bersuire, Pierre, Opera Omnia [Coloniae Agrippinae 1730–31] I 108, col. 1).Google Scholar

53 The First Moving is God's primary agent in the Providential Order, and only an Aristotelian distinction separates the First Moving from the First Mover, apostrophized in the Knight's Tale, 2987 ff., which is in turn modelled upon the famous eighth metre of Book II of Boethius, on the stability of heaven (Cf. Huppé, Reading 99).Google Scholar

54 The priority of Gower's version to Chaucer's seems to be agreed upon today, but Chaucer's story is probably directly descended from Trivet's version. The Man of Law's violence to the source can be demonstrated, however, by reference to either version. For the history of opinion on these matters see Schlauch, Margaret, Chaucer's Custance and Accused Queens (New York 1927) 132–134, and her chapter on the Man of Law's Tale in Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , ed. Bryan, W. F. and Dempster, Germaine (Chicago 1941) 155–206. For convenience I have used her texts of Trivet and Gower and have cited them in my text by page and line reference respectively.Google Scholar

55 Miss Schlauch's characterization of the story as a ‘romantic digression’ in Trivet's Chronicle is not convincing. The story of Custance would undoubtedly have been considered excellent reading for a nun, and neither romantic nor a digression. The story of St. Cecelia, told by Chaucer's nun, is similar in many ways.Google Scholar

56 Professor Yunck's conclusions about the tone of the Man of Law's version seem wide of the mark. While the story is indeed about Providence, the term ‘drama of Providence’ is misleading, for the idea that God's Providence is the protagonist and that ‘the antagonists are the stars and the devil …’ is to come dangerously near the Man of Law's worldly perspective. (Yunck, John A., ‘Religious Elements in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale,’ ELH 27 [1960] 249–261).Google Scholar

57 ‘Mes [la] lettre ly fist retourner a dolour, e ly fist noun creable; quar le roys, quant auoit lez lettres regarde, hastiuement suppris de grant dolour e parfond pensee, defendi al messager, a grantz manaces de peine, que riens de sa femme ne del enfaunt parlat …’ (Trivet, , 173). The king has no outward reaction in Gower.Google Scholar

58 Boethius, , Consolation , Bk. I, m. 5. There is no similar utterance in either Trivet or Gower.Google Scholar

59 The difference in tone in Trivet is quite marked: ‘Puis le rey — pur le grant amour qil auoit a la pucele, e pur lez miracles par dieux moustrez — le rey Alle se fist baptizer del euesqe Lucius, auant nome: et esposa la pucele, qe conseut del rey [vn] enfaunt madle.’ (Trivet, , p. 172). There is no comment on Custance's queenship in Gower.Google Scholar

60 ‘E pur lour conunes sur cest maundement tous se acorderent e en tenps maunderent la pucele hors de la mesoun son piere e hors de sa conisaunce, entre estraunges barbaryns a grant doel e lermes e crie e noise e pleinte de toute la citee de Rome’ (Trivet 166). Gower omits the incident.Google Scholar

61 ‘Mes puis qil aueyent suffisauntment defendu la ley Iesu Crist encountre les paens qi ne sauoient plus countredire, comenserent de preiser la pucele Constaunce qui les auoyt conuertu, de trop haute e noble sen e sapience e de graunde merueilouse biaute e gentirise e noblesce de saunc… . E Hermingild homblement e deuoutement escota la doctrine de la fei par la bouche Constaunce, que lui aprist la puissaunce dieu en la fesaunce de tut le mound….’ (Trivet 165 and 169). Gower refers to Custance's ‘wordes wise’ (line 606) in the conversion of the merchants, and says that Hermengyld's conversion comes about because Custance ‘tawhte the creance / Vnto this wif so parfitly.’ (lines 754–755) This change and several others discussed here have been noticed by Professor Duffey in his article ‘Intention and Art.’ For an opposing view of Custance's character, which, however, adduces only one example in evidence of Custance's ‘vitalization,’ see Jones, Claude E., ‘Chaucer's Custance’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 64 (1963) 175–180.Google Scholar

62 Trivet, , 170. Gower, , ll.775–778.Google Scholar

63 ‘Mes Dieux, a qi ele auoit done son qoer denfaunce, ne la voleit suffrir assentir a tiel mal. Douant quant cist Theolous par dures manaces la voleit aforcer. ele refreynt sa par resoun…’ (Trivet, , 175. Italics mine). Custance then goes on to trick her adversary into losing his balance. In Gower she also employs a ruse, with the added comment that God gives her the strength to accomplish her plan. (Gower, , lines 1107–25)Google Scholar

64 ‘E apoy apres vn demi aan, Constaunce, que en grant honur e amur estoit a tute la terre, returna a Rome pur la nouele qe ele oy de la maladie son piere; le tressime jour apres sa venue, morust Tyberie seintement deyns lez bras sa fille, e rendi lalme a dieu’ (Trivet, 181). In Gower she ‘was noght there bot a throwe,’ before her father died, and she herself died the next year. (Gower, , lines 1580–94.)Google Scholar