her a "welle of gentilesse"; he showed "humble chere" and a "hewe of trouthe," plesaunce," "busy peyne." " Right so this god of love, this ypocrite, Doth so his cerimonies and obeisaunces, And kepeth in semblant alle his observaunces That sowneth into gentillesse of love. In the lines quoted it is interesting to note once more, along with the conventional love ideas, the transfer of terms of religion to love. In the further description of their relations, the falcon tells of the tercelet's "service" (524), of his humility (544), of his reverence for her (545), of his obedience, and of his "truth," —all of which characterized the courtly lover in his position of inferiority before the lady. Finally, she speaks of the tercelet as being "gentil born, fresh, and gay, goodly for to seen, humble and free," all of which were the regular qualities ascribed to the courtly lover. The Franklin's Tale The situation in the love affair of the Franklin's Tale is precisely that of the accounts of many of the troubadours. Here is a woman who is married, and happily married too, to a knight; but her beauty inflames another man with passion. He suffers in silence as long as he can bear it; then he mentions his love to her and begs for her favor. The end of his love is purely physical gratification, and she recognizes the fact and listens patiently to his requests. But unlike the ladies in most of the early stories Dorigen does not grant the desired favors to the importunate lover. This feature may have been in the original "lay" from which Chaucer professes to have taken his story. If it was not, the poet has departed from what may be called the more usual plan of such stories for the special purpose of putting before the reader a picture of the ideal love of man and wife. For the real interest in the tale is not in the love story of Aurelius, or in the wooing of Dorigen by Arveragus, but in the discussion of the question of " sovereignty" which the Wife of Bath had started a short time before. In those episodes which deal with love the usual conventional ideas are employed. The familiar winged god is mentioned in the lines: Whan maistrie comth, the god of love anon Beteth hise winges and farewel! he is gon! The conventional secrecy in love affairs is observed by Aurelius. The lover, as usual, is his lady's servant. Arveragus, it is said, loved and dide his payne To serve a lady in his beste wyse; and at last, this lady for his "worthinesse" and for his "obeysaunce" had pity on him and accepted him as her husband. Whereupon he swore that he would never take upon himself the "maistrye" over her, But hir obeye, and folwe hir wil in al As any lovere to his lady shal.. The idea of the lover's fear to speak his love to his lady appears in the lines: For she was oon the faireste under sonne, That wel unnethes dorste this knight, for drede, Telle hir his wo, his peyne, and his distresse. Similarly, though Aurelius loved Dorigen better than any other creature for two years, never dorste he telle hir of his grevaunce; Withouten coppe he drank al his penaunce. As the love of Aurelius for Dorigen was unsuccessful, there are many statements devoted to this lover's woes and sorrows and amorous pains. He made songs, complaints, roundels, and virelays in which he lamented that he dorste not his sorwe telle But languissheth as a furie dooth in helle; And dye he moste, . . . as dide Ekko. He addresses his lady: Madame, reweth upon my peynes smerte When she puts on him the task of removing the rocks along the shore, recognizing the impossibility of his performing it, He to his hous is goon with sorweful herte; His brother puts him to bed, where In languor and in torment furious Here again, in the case of the Franklin's Tale, the examples quoted do not comprise all the conventions of which Chaucer has made use. But they are enough to show that, as a basis for the love stories involved in the narrative, he has employed nothing but ideas which had been long familiar in love literature. Further comment on the tale seems unnecessary. Working with the courtly commonplaces, the poet has so managed them as to make the story real. Aurelius's passion appears as genuine and earnest as is the grief which Dorigen feels at being forced to be untrue to her husband. " CHAPTER V CONCLUSION With the Franklin's Tale, Chaucer's employment of the courtly-love ideas ceases. One question now suggests itself, an answer to which would be very interesting, were it possible to get it: What was Chaucer's own attitude toward these conceptions, of which he made such a large use in his poetry?" The writer wishes to state frankly that he does not believe it is possible to answer this question finally and definitely. It is difficult to tell what Chaucer's ideas are on any subject, so predominantly dramatic is his poetic work. Indeed, the question just stated would not be raised, were it not that others have felt that they could see in the poet's works evidence of a spirit of irony and satire against the courtly ideas. We have already, in connection with our study of Pandarus, considered the opinions of Ebert and ten Brink upon this subject. Another expression, more recent, and more cautious, is the following: "His [Chaucer's] attitude towards the chivalric ideal of love was, upon the whole, a critical one." 1 Still later, certain remarks of Mr. Tatlock 2 seem to indicate that he sees in the Knight's Tale a tendency on the part of the poet to poke fun at the courtly love therein portrayed. But all such statements seem to be unwarranted, and Mr. Tatlock, oddly enough, himself supplies the corrective for them. He says, in the connection just noted: "Satire is easier to suspect than to prove, especially in a poem written when ideas of what is ludicrous and the connotations of words were so different from 1 Billings, Middle English Metrical Romances, New York, 1901, p. xxxi. 2 Chron. and Devel., Appendix C, pp. 232-233. what they are now."1 We cannot say that Chaucer did not laugh to himself at some of the vagaries of lovers of his time. But we may suspect that the actions of courtly lovers then were no more ridiculous than are the actions of lovers of our day to people with a lively sense of humor. Extravagant as the courtly love may seem to us, this was the only kind of love there was at that period (except the grosser passion of the fabliaux which we do not consider here). Only in so far as love is always a fit subject for satire, was the chivalrous love ridiculous in an age when chivalrous ideas obtained. But, aside from the question as to Chaucer's inclination to display levity at the extravagance of lovers, the most casual consideration of his poems will show the improbability of his deliberately satirizing the courtly love. In all the early lyric poems, which are purely conventional in both sentiment and language, there is nothing that remotely suggests satire or irony. And the same is true of those later lyric poems, where there is indeed fun in full measure. The Book of the Duchess abounds, as we have seen, in the courtly ideas and sentiments. Yet far from satirizing these ideas, the poet uses them to pay a graceful and delicate compliment to his patron. Consider again the Parlament of Foules. Here, if anywhere in the whole range of Chaucer's poetry, we might feel justified in saying that the courtly ideas were being satirized-if we judge entirely from the contents of the poem. Nothing can be plainer than that the goose and the duck openly ridiculed the courtly sentiments of the royal tercelet. But are we to identify Chaucer with the goose and the duck? Clearly not. The occasion which the poem was written to celebrate (and scholars agree that it has reference to the courtship of the royal couple) precludes the possibility of any satirical purpose on the part of the author. We have already examined the sympathetic treatment of the chivalrous love in 1 Chron. and Devel., Appendix C, p. 233 |