1. The Shipman’s Tale the last of the fabliaux: “The Lover’s Gift Regained” “an immoral tale told by an immoral man”—Donald Howard "the neatness of the tale is appallingly satisfactory”—Derek Pearsall "sensitivity to other values besides cash has been submitted to appraisal and, having been found nonconvertible, has been thrown away” –E.T. Donaldson "But to what extent does the Canterbury Tales as a whole represent an effort to define a form of life that at once derives from mercantile canons of value and disguises that derivation, that projects, in a classic bourgeois fashion, a class- specific version of reality as if it were reality per se?... Chaucerian poetry does indeed, profoundly and even self-consciously, embrace the ideology of commerce. But it embraces it through an act of dehistoricization, representing it not as a specific historical form of social life but as life itself.” –Lee Patterson

2. the merchant: The thridde day, this marchant up ariseth, And on his nedes sadly hym avyseth, And up into his countour-hous gooth he To rekene with hymself, wel may be, Of thilke yeer how that it with hym stood… (75-79) the wife and the monk: This faire wyf gan for to shake hir heed And seyde thus, "Ye, God woot al," quod she. "Nay, cosyn myn, it stant nat so with me; For, by that God that yaf me soule and lyf, In al the reawme of France is ther no wyf That lasse lust hath to that sory pley. For I may synge ‘allas and weylawey That I was born,’ but to no wight," quod she, "Dar I nat telle how that it stant with me.” (112-120) Puns, Double Entendres, and Collapsing Distinctions in the Shipman’s Tale I

3. the merchant to his wife: "Wyf," quod this man, "litel kanstow devyne The curious bisynesse that we have. For of us chapmen... Scarsly amonges twelve tweye shul thryve Continuelly, lastynge unto oure age.” (224-229) the merchant: The morwe cam, and forth this marchant rideth To Flaundres-ward; his prentys wel hym gydeth Til he came into Brugges murily. Now gooth this marchant faste and bisily Aboute his nede, and byeth and creaunceth. (299-303) the wife and the monk: This faire wyf acorded with daun John That for thise hundred frankes he sholde al nyght Have hire in his armes bolt upright; And this acord parfourned was in dede. In myrthe al nyght a bisy lyf they lede Til it was day… (314-319) Puns, Double Entendres, and Collapsing Distinctions in the Shipman’s Tale II

4. The end of the tale:For I wol paye yow wel and redily Fro day to day, and if so be I faille, I am youre wyf; score it upon my taille, And I shal paye as soone as ever I may…. Ye shal my joly body have to wedde; By God, I wol nat paye yow but abedde! Forgyve it me, myn owene spouse deere; Turne hiderward, and maketh bettre cheere." This marchant saugh ther was no remedie, And for to chide it nere but folie, Sith that the thyng may nat amended be. "Now wyf," he seyde, "and I foryeve it thee; But, by thy lyf, ne be namoore so large. Keep bet thy good, this yeve I thee in charge." Thus endeth my tale, and God us sende Taillynge ynough unto oure lyves ende. Amen (414-434) Puns, Double Entendres, and Collapsing Distinctions in the Shipman’s Tale III

5. Affective Piety From Cultures of piety: medieval English devotional literature in translation, Anne Clark Bartlett, Thomas Howard Bestul (Cornell University Press, 1999) p.2

6. Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages I 1096 Massacres of c. 10,000 Jews in Northern France and Germany on the eve of the First Crusade 1215 Fourth Lateran Council mandates the wearing of badges (enacted in England, 1218) 1239 Papal condemnation of the Talmud (mass book-burnings in Paris in 1242 and throughout the century) 1290 Jews expelled from England (other expulsions in France [1306, 1394], Germany)

7. Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages II Anti-Semitic charges, after 1144 1.Ritual murder (re-enactment of crucifixion), from 1144 (Prioresse’s Tale and analogues: www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/ ~chaucer/canttales/priort/pri-anal.htmlwww.courses.fas.harvard.edu/ 2. Ritual cannibalism (the “blood libel”), from early 13 th c. (see Gregory X’s letter on this accusation: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g10-jews.html)http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g10-jews.html 3. Host desecration, from late 13 th c. (Croxton Play of the Sacrament, 15 th c.) 4. Well-poisoning (i.e., causing the Black Death), after 1348

8. 1144 Norwich 1168 Gloucester 1181 Bury St. Edmunds 1183 Bristol 1192 Winchester 1202 Lincoln 1222 Stanford 1225 Winchester 1232 Winchester 1244 London 1255 Lincoln (“St. Hugh of Lincoln”) 1276 London 1279 Northampton Ritual murder charge episodes in England