Appius's name!

So I remember when we were reading The Physician's Tale, Diane speculated on Appius's name being related to bees and apiaries. I came across an interpretation while researching and thought I'd share!

In an article I was reading, it says, "Appius, whose very name resonates with the deponent Latin verb apiscor (a rare form of the compound dipiscor) meaning 'to reach after,' 'to seize,' 'to get possession of,' 'to percieve.'"

Obviously, I think this is a really fitting name for him.

(Article referenced is "Chaucer's Maiden's Head: 'The Physician's Tale' and the Poetics of Virginity" by R. Howard Bloch.)

Meg's comments on "Shocking or not" by Jessica

OK--First I think you have to know the history from which I draw when reading "The Prioress' Tale".

Thus, when the Jews first began to be accused of being bloodthirsty,
this was linked only to their desire to damage and weaken Christian
society, which, on the contrary, was strengthened by the alleged martyrdom of the
young victims, who soon after their death began to have miracles attributed to
them. The sacrificed children, although apparently despised and tormented by
their executioners, thus shared the same redemptive destiny of Christ.
On one side, therefore, there was the alleged wickedness of the Jews; while on
the other the innocence and purity that diffused from the children’s bodies,
affecting the whole of Christendom, was emphasised. We have to see how, from
these premises, ideas about the crime developed, and how the portrayal of Jews as
murderously greedy people was motivated, not only as a result of their assumed
moral turpitude, but also by their supposed peculiar physiological and religious
necessities.
It was on the continent in the same century in which the Ebstorf map was
drawn, that the blood libel legend made its first vague appearance in an
accusation of ritual murder of Christians by Jews. In 1235, thirty-four Jews were
executed by the crusaders at Fulda, having been accused of killing the five sons of
a miller, whose blood they then poured into sacks sealed with wax, which they
burned as part of a magical rite (Strack 1909, 178 and 277; Trachtenberg 1983, 132;
Introvigne 2004, 21–8).We do not know anything regarding the nature of the rite,
but we can try to interpret the action, inferring that the drying up, the
consummation of the blood by fire, symbolised both destruction and
purification—an attempt to annihilate the Christian life enclosed in the fluid
without being tainted by it. As Trachtenberg has emphasised, many of the earlier
accusations against Jews were only vaguely supported and the ritual use of dead
children was not specified as something Jews engaged in, although there was
mention of the “abstraction of the blood and other parts of the body,” and
reference to the head of a Bernese boy, Rudolph, said to have been severed by Jews
in 1294 (Strack 1909 186–8; Trachtenberg 1983: 126; 135–7). It is probable that the
blood libel legend, as we understand it, began when the idea of ritual murder
became entwined with the crime of host desecration, which was first attributed to
the Jews in Belitz, a German town close to Berlin, where in 1243, all the Jews of the
community were burned at the stake. The host was believed to have been stolen
either for magical purposes or to be ritually mutilated so that it would bleed
copiously. In the fourteenth century, when the notion that Christian blood was
required by Jews for mock crucifixions during the celebration of Passover, came to
the fore, the picture was complete, the boundary had been crossed. Jews were
believed to be shedding, stealing and finally employing the substance of life to
empower themselves (Trachtenberg 1983, 114 and 134–5) (Matteoni)

That quoted, I guess it's time for my personal thoughts.

I am probably numbed out to certain forms of violence to children based on my personal history. I tend not to react as much. I do agree that the search of the mother was incredibly moving. I'm so glad people pointed it out because I totally missed it--perhaps because I had numbed out to the violence. My two most moving lines are:

"This povre widwe awaiteth al that night/After hir litel child, but he cam noght" (586-587).  and
"She goth, as she were half out of hir minde" (594).

I've felt that feeling of fear, of being half out of my mind, about my own son.

I think the idea of the boy naively singing the song in the Jewish quarter was actually designed to make the Jews look bad. It assumes that they would not be forgiving towards a child. "They will kill you if you even sing a song, they are bad people." Maybe the moral is that when people use language no one understands (I don't know if the Jews spoke Latin but the boy didn't understand what he was singing), when communication is impossible, death follows.

I think I have more sympathy for Virginia because I have an easier time picturing a father killing a daughter to save her from rape than picturing Jews sacrificing a boy for singing a song. And we get to see things from the father's point of view. We never get to see the Jews as people, just as the other.





WORKS CITED

Matteoni, Francesca. "The Jew, the Blood and the Body in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe." Folklore 119.2 (2008): 182-200. Print.

Shocking or not

It seemed that we were split in class regarding what was shocking and not in regards to "The Prioress's Tale." In Chaucer's time, the content would not have been quite as shocking as it is to us. However, the description of the child being thrown into an excrement pit would have raised a few eyebrows. The murder of an "innocent," regardless of ignorance, child would also have shocked a few people, especially those with young children.

When relating this tale to "The Physician's Tale," the ability to be shocked does decrease. Virginia, a completely innocent girl, is killed just because of the judge's obsession with her. She is not ignorant by any means like the child in "The Prioress's Tale," so we are apt to feel more sympathy for her than the child. Regardless, the fact that one victim is more innocent than the other does not greatly impact the shocking nature of the tales.

That being said, I think Virginia deserves at least a little more sympathy than the child just due to the fact that she was completely innocent of anything and could not help the fact that she was gifted, or cursed, with beauty.

The only character I feel bad for in "The Prioress's Tale" is the mother. I agree with Dr. Mitchell-Buck; the three stanzas devoted to the mother's distress are quite moving. Still, where was the person telling the child not to go through that part of town singing Christian hymns? He was told what it was about, but no one instructed him on what it would mean to sing that among the Jewish.

The Physician's Tale

We had a difficult time on Thursday determining the moral or the lesson of "The Physician's Tale." In the "Introduction to The Pardoner's Tale," the host provides a bit of insight, I think. He begins by pointing out,

"This was a fals cherl and a fals justice.
As shameful deeth as herte may devyse
Come to thise juges and hire advocatz!" (289-291)

He makes sure to voice his disapproval of the tale itself in how the action plays out. He calls the cherl and the judge false men (deceitful, not liars) and questions where Virginia's advocates were in order to save her. At least, that's how I read it. However, he later goes on to state,

"Wherfore I seye al day that men may see
That yiftes of Fortune and of Nature
Been cause of deeth to many a creature.
Hire beautee was hire deth, I dar wel sayn." (294-297)

Could it be that what appears to be a blessing can actually be a curse? That seems to be a simple explanation. We look at beauty as a blessing for people: the prettier the girl, the more marriage prospects, pretty girls get a lot of attention, etc. In Virginia's case, her beauty led to her death because of the inappropriate attention from the judge. However, this may be too simple an explanation. Are we meant to question the undue importance stressed on superficiality even present in Chaucer's day? Remember, the judge does not like her because of her morality; that would actually prove to be a problem for him in what he wants from her. It could be assumed that if the judge was attracted to her morality and virtues instead of her beauty, he might have gone about more virtuous means of attaining her. Thoughts?

From The Physician

Dear English 318,

OK, OK, Right now you not only don't like me, you hate my story. Well, let me tell you why you are wrong.

Me:

Yes, I'm cheap, greedy, don't read the Bible much, and send my patients to my friend the alchemist (who sends me his patients). However, I do have a lot of knowledge, the knowledge I'm supposed to have. I do watch over my patients. And don't you think my friend the alchemist and I are pretty successful in keeping our patients alive? I mean, otherwise, how would our scam work? It's bad to kill off customers. And if I keep gold I got during the plague, you do realize I had to expose myself more to plague victims than the rich people who hid in the country or their castles.

My Story:

First of all, you should thank me for telling such a short story. Seriously, at this time in the semester, are you really upset that you didn't have more reading and thinking to do?

Look at my words starting on p. 442 lines 111-117.

For which the fame out sprong on every side
Bothe of hir beautee and hir bountee wide,
That thurgh that land they preised hire echone
That loved vertu, save envye allone,
That sory is of oother mennes wele,
And glad is of his sorwe and his unheele--
The Doctour maketh this discripcioun.

Think of how many patients I've seen that envy other people's good fortune and are glad when other people suffer more than they do. Remember what I said about the best teachers? Either the truly pure and innocent, or those that have experienced life. Well, I'm not a good person, but I am experienced in life. I have knowledge to teach.

So what have I to teach you in my story?

First of all, who knows better than I how important it is to have supporters. When people support you, you stay strong and healthy. When people corrupt you or turn against you, you are more likely to engage in risky behavior and / or die. Think about how many times I've seen this with the plague. People take risks with other people and die. People are abandoned by their supporters and die. Even being rich or powerful can't always get you what you want. Even virtue can't protect you from evil or death. Bad things happen to good people.

Finally, how many stories have we had so far that glorified women who killed themselves in order to remain virgins or because they lost their virginity. Go ahead, I dare you to count them. And always these women are praised. But no one really thinks about them. What I did? I showed you in detail what it looks like when a father kills his daughter, with her agreement, to keep her from losing her virginity. Didn't like it, did you? Maybe people ought to rethink all those "noble" examples of women.

Well, that's it for now. Unless...well, I wasn't planning to tell anyone, but I have a cure for the common cold. All you have to do is provide a little gold--some for the recipe, some for the payment. Isn't gold worth not getting colds anymore?

http://www.thadguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/cure-for-cold.png


The Physician

Wow now I'm sad

I loved the Franklin's Tale so much. It was beautiful, and happy, and everyone was a good person (well, the clerk not so much, but he was nice in the end) and I really enjoyed that story. There were several passages that I highlighted because the wording was just so beautiful.

And then we go to the Physician’s Tale. WOW, was that a change in pace.

The ending didn’t seem to fit. The Physician warns against sinning in the end, but it seemed more like he was saying that if you sin, than someone will come up with a plan to steal your daughter and you’ll have to kill her. But unless I missed it, there wasn’t a sin which was talked about in relation to the Knight. He was even described as “fulfild of honour, and of worthinesse,/And strong of freendes, and of greet richesse” (lines 3 and 4.)

The sin committed in this tale was committed by the judge and the churl. However, the focus wasn’t on them. It was on the Knight and his daughter.

I was very confused by this tale. And saddened. I want more happy stories L