Gving Emelye a second glance

"The Miller's Tale" is a perfect complement to "The Knight's Tale" in a number of ways. The Knight's story is long with specific transitions and long speeches. The Miller's story is fast-pace with no transitions and lots of quick dialogue. There is the theme of elevated and courtly love juxtaposed with a bawdy and lustful type of love. Finally, The Knight is an eloquent, though long-winded, story teller while the Miller is quick with no loose ends. What I find to be even more interesting are the women.

Emelye, we agreed, seems to be a flat and lifeless character, so to speak. She plays no real role in the action, and what action she has is just further proof of her passivity, "(For wommen, as to speken in comune, / Thei folwen alle the favour of Fortune)" (2681-82). Granted she does not want to marry, therefore, does not put much thought into it. She is the ideal woman of a courtly romance. However, Chaucer takes the untouchable woman of the courtly romance and makes her tangible, at least for Palamon. The flatness of her character is a little disappointing, but not for long.

I took another look back at "The Knight's Tale" after reading "The Miller's Tale," and I found that Emelye is not as flat anymore. She is more dynamic in a comparison with Alisoun. Yes, Alisoun is more of an active player in "The Miller's Tale," but it was too obvious what was going to happen. She is a younger wife to and older man, and she is approached and wooed by a young clerk. Were we really surprised by that? In contrast, Emelye, though passive, takes on more depth as a character. She is willing to give up what she wants for what she must do. She knows she has no choice.

The "fallen woman" theme has been quite popular for a long time. Thanks, Eve. So, it comes as no surprise that Chaucer would give us a young, lustful, trickster woman. It takes no effort to fall victim to the appetites of the flesh or the vices.

Thoughts?

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

Unicorn Tapestries and more

Hwaet.  For all of you RenFesters, I would like to let you know where you can hang out all year and get your Medieval cup filled: there is a museum in NYC called The Cloisters, which is a castle- actually four pieces of castle from different countries, all pieced together-- and is filled with Medieval art (including the Unicorn Tapestries) and gardens. There are special programs (lectures and concerts) all year long. Our family traveled up there a few years ago and heard Benjamin Bagby  http://www.bagbybeowulf.com/  recite the first third of Beowulf in Old English (with Celtic harp, no less).

I believe Hood is sponsoring a bus trip to NYC in the near future, so consider going up and enjoy this beautiful treasure of  a museum!

 http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/events-at-the-cloisters/guided-tours

Lady Fortune via 1960s

"Spinning Wheel" by  Blood Sweat and Tears. Lady Fortune makes her appearance in the psychedelic sixties. But she is the same lady. Or strumpet.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK62tfoCmuQ

Tribute to Seamus Heaney

Today the great Irish poet and Anglo-Saxon scholar Seamus Heaney passed away. My first experience with Heaney was as an undergraduate in Survey of British Literature (or Brit Lit, as we called it). An early translation of Beowulf by Heaney was included in the Norton Anthology (the year was 1977). By the time I taught Beowulf for the first time, Heaney had completed his definitive translation, published a parallel text version, and had made an audio recording of the poem, highlighting his beautiful, rich Irish voice.  Heaney truly captured Beowulf's elegiac tone, both in his translation and his reading, in contrast to Benjamin Bagby, who performs Beowulf at colleges, museums, and in castles across Europe and America. Bagby screams "Hwaet!" as he runs through the audience and begins a lively, intense and sometimes joyful performance of the poem, complete with Celtic harp (He portrays a drunken Unferth, in a way that is totally charming).  Bagby translates "hwaet" as "Listen to me", whereas Heaney translates it as merely "so".
But Heaney was not a mere translator of Old English poetry: he was a poet in his own right, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. He was a teacher and was on the faculty of both Oxford and Harvard, although Ireland was his permanent home. One of Heaney's favorite poets was Robert Frost, and he was featured in "Robert Frost, Voices and Visions", a documentary film. Heaney used to guest lecture at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf summer program for English teachers and writers who are working on their graduate degrees-- a program started by Robert Frost and some of his friends. Heaney appreciated 'the sound of sense', which was Frost's operating principle of poetry writing.  In 2011 Heaney had a stroke, and his health declined until his passing this morning.. His poem "Miracle" is based on the biblical story of  a paralytic whose friends take him to see Jesus to be prayed for to be healed. As they approach the house, the crowd is so big they cannot get even close to Jesus. Undeterred, the friends carry the paralytic to the roof and lower him down to Jesus, who heals the man and praises the friends for their faith. Heaney wrote this as a paralyzed man. Here it is for you:

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in -

Their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat. And no let up

Until he’s strapped on tight, made tiltable
and raised to the tiled roof, then lowered for healing.
Be mindful of them as they stand and wait

For the burn of the paid out ropes to cool,
Their slight lightheadedness and incredulity
To pass, those who had known him all along.

I see Beowulf as a stepping stone towards Chaucer in the history of British literature and feel it an honor to pay tribute to one of the greatest literary scholars of our day.

My Little Video

This is a video I made a few years ago for my high school students. I don't think the pronunciation is perfect, but it is close.

Did Chaucer Anticipate Luther?

Hwaet! I would like to pose an outrageous question that focuses on the clergy in The Canterbury Tales. With his sateric characterization of the prioress, the monk, the friar and the pardoner, did Chaucer anticipate the Reformation? The prioress is anything but a sister of charity. She is quite worldly, actually. She has impeccable manners, cares more for puppies than for the poor, and she has some great jewelry! The monk would rather be out riding his horse than be in his cell praying. The friar loves the women of the town and loves to trade cash for penance. The pardoner is the worst of all, selling indulgences- false trinkets-- as if they were sacred treasures belonging to St. Peter or even Jesus himself. In contrast stands the poor parson-- a model of what clegy should be. This contrast hints that Chaucer does not condem all clergy. It was for such sacrilegious crimes as the selling of penance and indulgences that Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on Wittenberg's door in 1519, 120 years after Chaucer's death. It seems as though Chaucer and Luther had similar concerns. Did Chaucer anticipate the Reformation?