Lions, Tigers, and Prayers.

Lions, Tigers, and Prayers.

            I was thinking back on the Knight’s Tale and something Meg pointed out to me. It was that as Palamon and Arcite fight in the forest glade they are compared to animals. I could make statements about representing ferocity or the fact that animals were used all the time in heraldry (well actually I do want to talk about heraldry but not yet) that pertain to that passage, but what I realized that the two knight keep those descriptions. Both in the forest and in the arena Palamon is a “wood leon” (1656 and 2629-2632) and Arcite is always “cruel tigre” (1657 and 2626-2629). Actually here are the two passages.

            Thou mightiest wene that this Palamoun

            In his fighting were a wood leon,

            And as a cruel tigre was Arcite. (1655-1657)

 

And then the arena.

            Ther nas no tigre in the vale of Galgopheye,

            Whan that hir whelp is stole whan is lite,

            So crule on the hunte as is Arcite,

            For jalous herte, upon this Palamoun;

            N’in Belmarye ther nis so fel leon,

            That hunted is, or for his hunger wood,

            Ne of his praye desireth so the blood

            As Palamon to sleen his foo Arcite. (2626-2633).

Now certainly the last description is more elaborate than the first, but it is the same comparison. I think I am willing to attribute to Chaucer enough skill that he could have come up with something else if he really wanted to. Or if we want to stick with the idea that this story is in character of the knight, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and thousands of lines of poetry and say that he could have thought of something else too. So, it seems that this is deliberate consistency and might say something about the character of both.

            Palamon is the mad, it would seem both angry and crazy (wood and desireth so the blood) lion. In heraldry the lion is a beast of nobility and kings. Then to make it crazy creates a blunt, straightforward, but unstoppable force. This seems to be exactly who Palamon is. We know he was quite angry about Arcite’s confession of love in the tower. We also know he is as brutally honest as a cudgel because he turned himself and Arcite in as soon as Theseus asked. This would explain his application to Venus. Love is what he wants so love is what he asks.

            Arcite is the tiger. I don’t know a whole lot about the tiger in heraldry but in this description he is a “cruel tigre.” And not only cruel but cruel “For jalous herte” (2629). The term cruel in combination with “hunt” seems to imply some amount of cunning. This is also a perfect description of character. As he dies Arcite confesses that he fought with his cousin for “jalousye” (2784-2785). He also seems to exhibit a certain amount of conniving. He sneaks into Theseus household, argues his way out of bonds of brotherhood, and I think prays to mars because of it. He thinks that an application to love will be vain because it’s the victor who weds Emelye. So, in an effort to cheat the system he pleads to the god of war.

There, that’s me going on and on. I’m sorry there is no audio visual to go with this. I can only present this awesome illustration of sir Gawain and the Green Knight that Meg and I couldn’t work into our presentation.

 

And God save al this faire compaignye!

 

 

http://theoddmentemporium.tumblr.com/post/21645666420/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-by-john-howe