Page 141 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes

What makes the monk Don John unattractive as a person?

Like the Wife of Bath, this wife has realized the inherent value of her sexual attractiveness: and in a
way that seems to a modern reader uncomfortably close to prostitution, she bears out the Wife’s
dictum that the “bele chose” is in fact an excellent bargaining tool for women to get what they want
from men. As the Man of Law’s Tale suggested, the female is a pawn in business transactions, and
yet, what the Wives (of bath, and of the Merchant in this tale) realize that Constance never even
considers, is their own potential profitability. If women’s bodies are valuable, these two women
seem to say, then why shouldn’t we be the ones to profit from our bodies?

Self Assessment

Short Answer Type Questions:
1. How doe the youngest reveler plan to kill the other two?
2. What characteristics does the Pardoner reveal in his prologue?
3. How is Don John’s loan actually repaid and by whom?
4. Does the Merchant learn of the arrangement between his wife and Don John?
5. Does the husband, who is a Merchant, appear to be miserly or just careful?
One also notices the importance attached in these business dealings to giving one’s word, to
agreements sealed with kisses and with handshakes, and of one thing being verbally exchanged for
another before the words become actions–a reminder, perhaps, of the issues of contracts raised by
the Franklin’s Tale.
Chaucer ties up these concerns, as so often, in a single pun: “taillynge”, which means “credit” (and
which the narrator wishes upon the company at the end of the tale) is a close relation to “telling”
(i.e. telling a tale) but also punningly relates to “tail”, Middle English slang for the female genitals.
A woman’s “tail” becomes an endless credit note: she will pay her husband, she says, in bed. Women,
in this tale, and in the Wife of Bath’s are playing by patriarchal rules in order to beat the men; and
the fact that they do beat the men might have been an uncomfortable shift of powers to many of
Chaucer’s medieval readers.

15.3 Summary

• The Host pronounced the tale a piteous one to listen to, and prayed to God that he protect the
Physician’s body.
• The company protests that the Pardoner not be allowed to tell them a ribald tale, but insists
instead on “som moral thyng” - a request which the Pardoner also grants.
• Next, the Pardoner tells the company how he tells his congregation “olde stories” from long
ago, “for lewed peple loven tales olde”.
• The Pardoner has–in recent years–become one of the most critically discussed of the Canter-
bury pilgrims.
• The monk was generous with his money, and always brought gifts for his lord and for the
servants, according to their degree.
• Despite its relative brevity, the Shipman’s Tale interrogates and complicates several key is-
sues raised in earlier tales.

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