Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Connections between Jankin's tale and Alisoun's tale?

OK, so here's the deal. I think that there is a lot of correlation/interconnectedness/play between the story of Jankin, Alisoun's hubby #5, and Alisoun's tale. But it will take someone smarter than me to put it all together. So here's the table of correlations(ish) that I made (oh, and you who would yell at me for name spelling show me Chaucer's official name spelling first) (oh, and I wouldn't trust these quotes to be perfect, because Word kept trying to "help" me fix my spelling):



This is a comparison of Alisoun’s tale of her 5th husband, and her Tale.
Alisoun’s tale of her 5th husband
WOB’s Tale
Alisoun spends much time talking about why lack of chastity is OK
Starts by telling how Arthur’s Britain has been replace by Britain where limitours accost women.
Alisoun to 3 good husbands 257-262
Thow seyst, some folk desire us for richesse,
Somme for oure shap, and somme for oure fairnesse,
And some for she kan either sing or daunce,
And some for gentillesse and daliaunce,
Somme for hir hands and hir armes smale—
Thus goth all to the devel, by thy tale!
I think this sounds like how the knight would have originally evaluated women.
Also, compare first list of women’s likes that  knight gets…
919—949
Richesse
Honour
Jolynesse
Rich array
Lust abed
Being widowed or wed
(compare next list with things antifeminists list as faults of women)
Flattery
Being free
Being thought wise
Be trustworthy
265-302 —goes on to say “thou sayest” basically that ugly women are always looking for sex, no man wants to suffer by having an ugly wife, and women show their worst side after marriage
Still matches knight’s first views.

998—knight starts seeing really ugly old lady
503—finally introduces 5th husband
882—introduces knight
505-507—tells 5th hubby’s crime (very shortly after introducing him
884-888—tells knight's crime

894-898—Guinivere asks for mercy

904-905—knight gets sentence.
530-542—tells how she tells all 4th hubby’s secrets to best friend
951-982—Midas story
543-626—Alisoun and clerk meet while 4th hubby is gone all the way to wedding #5

632-636—the crime, ripping out a page, being hit, becoming deaf
OK, bear with me, but there are some ways to connect this with the rape of virginity. Taking hearing away, ripping pages away (neither of which can be replaced). Bodily violence.
Jankin’s stories….Alisoun is frozen unable to escape stories.
Knight’s wanderings…Knight is unable to stay still but forced to wander to hear stories
669 —introduces Jankin’s book

711—starts telling why she was beaten for a book

715-774—Jankin’s list of bad female lovers and wives
Also the list above from 919-949: lists of what women want, as opposed to what women as evil objects are
775-787—Jankin’s proverbs “bet is”--is this comparable to Alisoun’s “thou sayest”?

790-793—Alisoun rips out three pages and hits Jenkin on the cheke
1055-1082--Loathly lady forces knight to marry her
795-807—Jankin hits Alisoun and feels really bad
1083-1212--Knight pouts in bed while lady lectures him on gentillesse
808-809—Alisoun hits back
1219—1227—Loathly lady gives knight the choice
811-812
But at the laste, with muchel care and wo,
We fille accorded by us selven two.
1228-1229—Knight thinks hard
But ate laste he seide in this manere:
813-814
He yaf me al the bridel in min hond,
To have the governaunce of hous and lond,
1230-1231—
My lady and my love, and wif so deere,
I put me in youre wise governaunce.
819-821—remember we said that this was the hubby giving her power but also reminding her that their reputation was in her hands…
And that he seide, “Min owene trewe wif,
Do as thee lust the terme of al thy lif;
Keep thin honour, and keep eek min estaat,”
1232-1233—
Cheseth youreself which may be moost pleasaunce,
And moost honour to yow and me also.
822-825—
After that day we hadden nevere debaat.
God help me so, I was to him as kinde
As any wif from Denmark unto Inde,
And also trewe, and so was he to me.
1240-1244—
For, by my trouthe, I wol be to yow bothe-
This is to seyne, ye, bothe fair and good.
I pray to God  that I mote sterven wood,
But I to yow be also good and trewe
As evere was wif, sin that the world was newe.
826-827—
I pray to God that sit in magestee,
So blesse his soul, for his mercy deere!
1257-end
Prays for young, meek husbands that wives can outlive. And to shorten the lives of bad husbands with the plague.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, Meg- you put a lot of thought and work into this chart! This is so helpful. It is amazing (to use an overused word- sorry) to look at these passages side and side, and it does seem fair to infer that Chaucer wrote these two pieces (the prologue and the tale) in parallel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is so cool! I never would have considered comparing the two side by side. I think my favorite parallel you point out here is the connection between the WOB telling her friend all her husband's secrets and the story of King Midas. It's almost completely the same and yet I didn't catch the similarity between those two instances.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have been reading all of your blogs, and you are really good at mapping all this out so we can all see it in a simpler former, so thank you for that. I like that you were drawing parallels between the prologue and tale because I keep debating in my head whether they match or not, but it's easy to see when the information is side by side.

    ReplyDelete