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Unit 15: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Non-detailed Study): Discussion and Analysis-VII

The next Sunday, the monk returned to St. Denis, with head and beard all clean and freshly shaved, Notes
and–to get to the point–the wife agreed with the monk that, in exchange for the hundred franks, the
monk could have sex with the wife all night, a promise which the two of them eagerly fulfilled. The
next morning, the monk rode home to his abbey, or wherever pleased him.
The merchant returned home, and, delighted to see his wife, told her about his business transactions-
and, when he came into town, he went straight to see his friend, the monk. The monk was delighted
to see him, and, after talking about his business trip, the monk told the merchant that he had left his
thousand franks with his wife. The merchant went home happy, and his wife met him at the gates–
and the two of them had a happy night in bed, until the wife waylaid him, teasing him wantonly.
Finally, the merchant told her he was a little angry with her because she had not told him she had
received his money from the monk.
However, the wife was not frightened or taken aback by this, but said quickly and boldly that she
had indeed received gold from the monk. The wife then argued that she should be allowed to keep
the gold, to pay for good hospitality and to do with as she pleased; and, in return for him giving her
his money, she would give him her body: “I wol nat paye yow but abedde”. And the merchant saw
that there was no other option but to agree.
The merry words of the Host to the Shipman and to the lady Prioress
“Wel seyd”, the Host compliments the Shipman, cursing the monk, and warning the men in the
company to beware of similar tricks. The monk, the Host interprets, tricked both the man and his
wife. Moving forward, the Host then looks for the next tale-teller, and courteously asks the Prioress
whether she might tell the next tale: “Gladly”, she assents, and begins her tale.

Analysis

Despite its relative brevity, the Shipman’s Tale interrogates and complicates several key issues raised
in earlier tales. After the darker reaches of the Physician’s and Pardoner’s Tales, the Shipman’s Tale
returns to fabliau origins, presenting a reasonably simple “trick” story, complicated by Chaucer in
the telling.
Primarily, the tale continues the idea, previously raised in The Wife of Bath’s tale, that money, sex,
and women are closely inter-connected. It is interesting that, in the second fragment, the Shipman
promises to tell his tale, mentioning his “joly body” (attractive figure). Scholars have argued that, in
fact, the lines about the Shipman’s “joly body” were intended to be adapted into the mouth of the
Wife of Bath, and it is the Wife of Bath’s Tale which immediately follows the Shipman’s promise.

The bawdy fabliau of the Shipman’s Tale is usually assumed to have been intended to
be The Wife of Bath’s tale before the version we currently have was composed.

Moreover, the Shipman’s would not be an unlikely tale for the Wife to have told. At the end, when
the Host concludes that the monk tricked both the merchant and his wife, he seems not to have
realized the victor at the very end of the tale. Rather like in the Miller’s and the Franklin’s Tales, we
are asked to consider each of the participants at the very close of the tale, and decide who we think
has come off best. It is clearly not the merchant, though he has made huge profits in his business
dealings, and had his loan repaid, and, though (as the Host argues) the monk has had sex with the
wife, remained friends with the merchant, and got off scot-free, it is the wife herself who seems to
triumph. Not only has she had enjoyable sex with both the merchant and the monk, but she is one
hundred franks better off; and she coerces her husband into agreeing to “pay” in return for sleeping
with her.

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