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7 - ‘A Dede of Men’: Chaucer's Narrative of Rape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Corinne Saunders
Corinne Saunders
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

‘Another synne of Leccherie is to bireve a mayden of hir maydenhede, for he that so dooth, certes, he casteth a mayden out of the hyeste degree that is in this present lif/ and bireveth hire thilke precious fruyt that the book clepeth the hundred fruyt. I ne kan seye it noon ootherweyes in Englissh, but in Latyn it highte Centesimus fructus./ Certes, he that so dooth is cause of manye damages and vileynyes, mo than any man kan rekene; right as he somtyme is cause of alle damages that beestes don in the feeld, that breketh the hegge or the closure, thurgh which he destroyeth that may nat been restoored./ For certes, namoore may maydenhede be restoored than an arm that is smyten fro the body may retourne agayn to wexe./ She may have mercy, this woot I wel, if she do penitence; but nevere shal it be that she nas corrupt.’

… therwithal she wepte tenderly

And quok for fere, pale and pitously,

Ryght as the lamb that of the wolf is biten;

Or as the culver* that of the egle is smiten [*dove]

And is out of his clawes forth escaped,

Yit it is afered and awhaped,* [*confounded]

Lest it be hent* eft-sones; so sat she. [*seized]

But utterly it may non other be.

By force hath this traytour don a dede,

That he hath reft hire of hire maydenhede,

Maugre hire hed, by strengthe and by his myght.

Lo! here a dede of men, and that a ryght!

(The Legend of Good Women, vii, 2316–27)
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Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England , pp. 265 - 310
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2001

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