Finishing Medieval…. …and transitioning to Early Modern

Visualizing the Wife of Bath’s Tale

Medieval Antifeminism Women were outside the three estates They were considered in terms of physiology and spirituality to be incomplete men Eve

Women vs. Books Were largely excluded from Latin education (lerned) Like most of the laity (lewed) got their spiritual guidance from men Were viewed as incapable of higher intellectual understanding…..

But… Were expected to teach their children to pray Taught their daughters household accounting and record-keeping Handled all minor medical needs Did serve as schoolteachers in some times and places Burned at stake as Lollards for teaching the Bible in English

Chaucer’s Wife Has been married multiple times (better to marry than to burn?) Misquotes Scripture and “auctoritees” but is accurate on ones that count for her (gentilesse, for instance) Defies men (and therefore God) But still earns our sympathy, respect, and even admiration

Thematic Issues Should/did women accept men’s authority over them? Could individuals study to earn their own salvation, or did they have to go through the established Church and clerics? Again, can good moral lessons (e.g. gentilesse, patient poverty) come through a flawed or incomplete channel? How would people in Chaucer’s world have thought about the Wife? Would they have liked her or feared her as a bad example?

The Parson’s Tale and Chaucer’s Retractions

The Parson’s Tale Introduces a prose “how to” manual for recognizing your sins and correcting them Tone of Prologue is melancholy, tinged with regret and fear Parson makes joke about alliterative verse (probably referring to Piers Plowman) Lines follow line 70 in the manuscripts; last word of poetry in the Canterbury Tales manuscripts is ‘grace’, Chaucer’s enduring concern.

The Retraction Begs forgiveness for compositions that celebrate “worldly vanitees” Thanks God for the ability to compose saints’ lives and moral stories Conventional expression of his lack of abilities but his good intentions

How do these two pieces change our perception of Chaucer? Sense of urgency, real need for salvation No humor, irony, satire—these are “straight” works Shows how vested in the belief system he was— it really meant something to him and he really feared for those who failed to understand the moral judgments he was asking them to make