I am fascinated by the old
man. On first read he seemed like a personified death (which did not seem to be
too great a stretch considering death has already been personified by the
tavern keeper and the three friends) come to toy with these three fools. Yet,
on a second read I am not so sure. Apparently this man is extremely old and
looks it. One of the riotoures asks him why he is so old, either the asker is
super short sighted and dumb (well… I suppose he is) or the man looks like he
has been walking from Flanders to India and back for a couple hundred years (I made
that number up). It is probably a mixture of both. From his following speech,
it seems like this man has trouble dyeing, though I have to say is situation is
a little confusing. I am having a hard time telling how much is literal and how
much is poking fun and the fool’s impertinent question.
The line that is throwing
me off is 727, “Ne deeth, allas, ne wol nat han my lif!” I am pretty sure I know
each individual word, but when combine with the triple negative and separated
subject it gets tricky. Right now I am operating under the reading that he is
saying death will not have his life, which is why he spends his time knocking
on the ground saying “Leeve modor, leet me in!” (731). He wants to die but
cannot for whatever reason. If this is the case then it presents an interesting
moral for the story. The presence of this old is not so much about drinking and
gluttony (as much as the pardoner pushes that), it seems like he is really
there to show the value of a timely death. It is foolish to try and “sleen this
false traitour Deeth” (699); for one thing it is impossible and second because
it is a bad idea to begin with.
First of all, I cracked up all through your post (Flanders to India and back) and made the other people in the commuter lab wonder.
ReplyDeleteMy next thought was Judas wondering the Earth unable to die, but I don't know if that's a modern myth.
Alright, there is a gloss to lines 728-738 based on an elegy by Latin poet Maximian:
Take me, my mother, pity the sufferings of your child. I seek to rest my tired limbs in your bosom. Children shudder at me; I have lost the appearance I once had. Why do you allow your offspring to become loathsome? I have nothing to do with the living; I have used up the gift of life. Return my lifeless limbs to their native soil, I beg. What profit is there in dragging wretches through varied tortures? It's not the sign of a motherly heart to allow this. (translated by Mann)
My last thought (for now) is Christ. Death doesn't choose who he takes, God does. So all those negative descriptions of Death really reflect on God. Lines 708-709 refer to something listed under the notes to lines 474-475, which talks about the belief that swearing by God's body parts re-enacts the torture and crucifixion of Christ. The old man does say that it is God's will that he is still alive. But then the old man asks the mother to let him in, instead of accepting God's will or praying to God. How does the old man know that death in the object of gold awaits them? I think it has to go back to the myth of Judas or some other wandering Jew (and the notion that they would recognize money as the source of all evil).
OR
I guess it could be like the old man in Marlowe's Faust. He's old and not in a good way. He's keeps getting grouchier. He's supposed to be a warning to Faust. Faust doesn't listen and demons tear apart the man's body. Maybe the message would be something like "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24 KJV. The message of the old man being there are no short cuts, no easy paths paved by greed. I don't know.
Looking forward to hearing more in class.
The old man is long confused as death by many, but there is no proof of this. I agree, he's another who seems to embody qualities of death, in that he's had a long life and still hasn't been taken by Death. However, I think he could still be an agent of death, in that he directs the three to the tree where the bushels of gold are kept, and utters the prophecy that there the three will meet death, which they do!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew!