(Disclaimer here that poetry is really really really NOT my forte, but I found this to be really interesting and wanted to see where I could go with this.)
So far in the Canterbury Tales, we've had two different rhyme schemes. For all of the narrative, and most of the tale, the rhyme scheme has been aabbccddee (etc.) We have three tales which then deviate from this rhyme scheme (The Man of Law's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, and The Prioress's Tale.) The rhyme scheme for these is a rhyme royal (ababbcc).
Sir Thopas introduces a new rhyme scheme, which is aabccb. This rhyme scheme is called a Spanish Sestet or Sextilla. Usually though, each line has 8 syllables, though it's been done in Tetrameter or Pentameter before. Chaucer's lines don't seem to have a cohesive syllable count though (unless I'm reading my Middle English wrong!)
If we look at the words used by the Host to describe Chaucer's rhyming, we begin to see a connection between Chaucer's poetry and the English language (at this period in history.) The Host says it is "drasty," or poor in quality, crude, according to the Middle English Dictionary. (lines 923 and 930), "dogerel," or worthless, according to the MED (line 925), "nat worth a tord" (line 930), and even curses the rhyme to the devil! (924.) These descriptions of Chaucer's poetry being low class are similar to how the upper class would think of English at the time.
I'd like to propose that Chaucer is making a connection between his rhyme scheme in Sir Thopas, and the English language. While we can obviously see that Sir Thopas is beautifully constructed in form, the Host cannot see this. At this time when English was considered the language of the lower class, Chaucer is showing with the Canterbury Tales that it is not a low, churlish language, but a beautiful one. However, there are people who cannot see the beauty in it, much like the Host cannot see the beauty in the Spanish Sestet or Sextilla.
(Not to mention the irony of using a Spanish rhyme form to show beauty in the English language.)
(My information about the Spanish Sestet or Sextilla comes from here: http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/2013Challenge/form03.html)
First of all, there have been such times that I have dreamed of telling someone their rhyming is not worth a turd.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that Chaucer, or Chaucer alone, was fighting to show that English could be cool for the upper class. There were things like GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, and works by John Gower. Also, in the GP, The Squire is noted for being able to compose music and words (I guess I'm assuming in English). I agree with you that Chaucer is showing that "Sir Thopas" shows great talent in its form. Maybe Chaucer was a medieval Dr. Seuss (I'm giving sextilla the modern sound like tortilla). I do not like a Sextilla. Even in a Thopas schema. I do not like a couplet too. Although it's written through and through. Rhyme royals are reading jobs. It seems like work for scholar snobs. I do not like medieval rhymes. I do not like them anytime.