Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on References
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Anti-Clerical Tradition in Estates Satire
- 3 Estates Ideals
- 4 The Omission of the Victim
- 5 Independent Traditions: Chivalry and Anti-Feminism
- 6 Descriptive Traditions: Beauty and the Beast
- 7 ‘Scientific’ Portraits
- 8 New Creations
- Excursus: The ‘General Prologue’ and the ‘Descriptio’ Tradition
- 9 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography and List of Works Cited
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on References
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Anti-Clerical Tradition in Estates Satire
- 3 Estates Ideals
- 4 The Omission of the Victim
- 5 Independent Traditions: Chivalry and Anti-Feminism
- 6 Descriptive Traditions: Beauty and the Beast
- 7 ‘Scientific’ Portraits
- 8 New Creations
- Excursus: The ‘General Prologue’ and the ‘Descriptio’ Tradition
- 9 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography and List of Works Cited
- Index
Summary
The portraits discussed in this chapter – Pardoner, Franklin, Miller, Reeve – represent an ad hoc selection rather than a group intimately related in material or treatment. But these four descriptions have all been interpreted in the light of medieval scientific lore, and they therefore form a convenient basis for considering to what extent there is a separate ‘scientific’ tradition which might modify our view of the stylistic origins of the Prologue. The question becomes an important one in connection with these pilgrims because their estates figure in satiric literature in only a minor way. We shall find, however, that Chaucer uses other aspects of this literature, and the estates stereotypes of popular culture, for the basis of his portraits.
THE PARDONER
The introduction of the Pardoner at once reveals that the ‘lecherous’ Summoner is also a homosexual.
With hym ther rood a gentil Pardoner
Of Round vale, his freend and his compeer,
That streight was comen fro the court of Rome.
Ful loude he soong ‘Com hider, love, to me!’
This Somonour bar to hym a stif burdoun;
Was never trompe of half so greet a soun. (669–74)
This is not our only evidence: Chaucer also gives a detailed account of the Pardoner's effeminate appearance, culminating in a statement of what is by now obvious:
A voys he hadde as smal as hath a goot.
No berd hadde he, ne nevere sholde have;
As smothe it was as it were late shave.
I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare.
(688–91)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire , pp. 145 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1973
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