re: Leave Order Out of the Pot

Leave Order Out of the Pot

The canon’s yeoman is not the first scientist/magician we have met throughout the Canterbury Tales and yet the treatment of alchemy seems unique among collection of physicians, magicians, and illusionists. Probably one of the best (and most concise) descriptions of the foolery that is alchemy comes in the “Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale,” starting around line 906 and ending at 931. This is the moment the yeomen describes the catastrophe that occurred when their clay pot broke. He describes the explosion of the contents as such:

   Alchemist Pic Link

They percen so, and thurgh the wal they goon,
and somme of hem sinken into the ground—
Thus han we lost betimes many a pound—
And somme ar scattered al the floor aboute,
Somme lepe into the roof. Withouten doute, (911-915)

To add to the chaos of molten who-knows-what scattered about the room we then get alchemists scattered about the room blaming each other for the mishap. From their conversation it seems like they actually have no idea what happened. It was a fault of the fire, no the fire tender; actually it was the wrong kind of wood. Finally the master alchemist chimes in, “I am right skier that the pot was crased. / Be as be may, be ye nothing amased” (934-935), in other words, “cheer up. If the pot broke it was obviously already damaged; let’s try again our mix of explosive, molten stuff!” The overwhelming, overarching point of the Yeoman and his tale aside, this scene is beyond ridiculous even without knowing how ridiculous alchemy is from a scientific standpoint. Considering this outlook on alchemy, which is almost inseparable from other aspects of medieval science, I thought it interesting that the other appearances of similar things in the CT are put in a sober light. The wife of the knight in the WOB’s tale has both a sharp reason and the ability to shape shift. The physician gets probably the saddest and most sobering tale in the whole collection. Every wondrous gift in “The Squire’s Tale” seems cool beyond belief but also based on (what were then) reasonable ideas. And while the illusionist in “The Franklin’s Tale” may charge a lot of money, he delivers on his promised spells and they work fantastically.

            In trying to understand this difference, I looked back at the illusionist in “The Franklin’s Tale.” His process for creating his spells is completely different from the alchemists’. Where all of their emphasis is on the varying combinations of ingredients they add, the illusionist spends all of his time waiting, “That night and day he spedde him that he kan / To waite a time of his conclusioun” (“The Franklin’s Tale” 1262-1263). Further, he finally creates his spell when “at laste he hath his time yfounde” (1270). It seems then is that for the illusionist timing is literally everything. He knows enough about how the heavens move and how that affects the earth that he need only attempt is spell in its proper place for it to work. It might be a stretch, but this seems to tie into the theme of knowing your place and doing it well that is exemplified by several other tales in this text. Perhaps the reason that alchemy is not treated seriously is because almost by its nature it is trying to disrupt the order of things instead of using them, making gold of lead. That may not be a 100% true all the time but it seems to be part of what Chaucer is doing with alchemy.