Page 139 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes they are relics. The literary landscape is strewn with body parts, and missing, absent bodies: beginning
with the anonymous corpse carried past at the beginning of his tale. Bones, stomachs, coillons–
words for body parts cover the page, almost as a grim reminder of the omnipresence of death in this
tale.
The General Prologue, suggesting that the Pardoner resembles a “gelding or a mare”, hints that the
Pardoner may be a congenital eunuch or, taken less literally, a homosexual, and, as the Host seems
to suggest at the end, might well be without his “coillons”, a Middle English word meaning both
“relics” and “testicles”. All of the “relics” in this Tale, including the Pardoner’s, evade the grasp of
the hand. The Pardoner thus can be categorized along with the other bizarrely feminized males in
the Tales, including Absolon, Sir Thopas, and, if we believe the Host, Chaucer (the character).
And of course, at the center of the tale, there is a search for somebody called “Death” which, naturally,
does not find the person “Death”, but death itself. It is a successful–but ultimately unsuccessful–
search. All that is left over at the center of the Tales is the bushels of gold, sitting under a tree
unclaimed. The root of the tale, as its moral similarly suggests about the root of evil, is money: and
money was, to a medieval reader, known to be a spiritual “death”. Notably, moreover, in the tale,
both “gold” and “death” shift from metaphor to reality and back again; a neat reminder of the
ability of the Tales to evade our grasp, raising difficult questions without ever answering them.

15.2 The Shipman’s Tale

15.2.1 The Shipman’s Tale Text
A rich merchant, who lived at St. Denis, foolishly took a beautiful woman for his wife. She drained
his income by demanding clothes and other fine array to make her appear even more beautiful. There
was also a fair, bold young monk, perhaps only thirty years old, who was always at the merchant’s
house. Indeed, he was as welcome there as it is possible for any friend to be. The monk was generous
with his money, and always brought gifts for his lord and for the servants, according to their degree.
One day, as he was going to make a journey to Bruges, the merchant invited John to visit him and
his wife before he departed. The monk and the merchant had a merry time together, eating and
drinking for two days. On the third day, on which the merchant was ready to depart for Bruges, he
awoke early and went to his counting-house to balance his books. John was also awake early and
went into the garden to pray. The wife went into the garden, worried that something was bothering
the monk. He in turn worries about her; he thinks that she did not sleep well, for the merchant kept
her up all night having sex–and she admits, in turn, that in fact she has no lust for her husband.
John realizes that there is more to this, and promises to keep everything she tells him secret.
The wife complains that her husband is the “worste man that ever was sith that the world bigan”
(the worst man ever to have existed since the world began”). She also tells him that she owes a debt
of one hundred franks, which, if she does not pay (and her husband finds out about it) will disgrace
her. The wife begs the monk to lend her the money.
The noble monk tells the wife that he pities her, and promises to “deliver” the wife “out of this
care”, and bring her one hundred franks. With that, he caught her by the thighs, embraced her hard,
and kissed her many times. The two then parted, and the wife went to her husband in his counting-
house, begging him to leave his accounts. The merchant refused, explaining to her that it was essential
that he managed his business carefully, as many merchants went bankrupt.
The three dined together that evenings, and after dinner, the monk took the merchant to one side,
and asked him to lend him one hundred franks–and the merchant humbly and generously agreed,
telling him to pay it again when he could afford to. He fetched the sum and took it to the monk, and
no-one in the world but the two of them knew of the loan. That evening, the monk returned to the
abbey, and, the next morning, the merchant travelled to Bruges to conduct his business.

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