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Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale and Flanders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Dorothy Macbride Norris
Dorothy Macbride Norris*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
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Extract

Chaucer scholars have long wondered why the scene of the Pardoner's Tale was laid in Flanders. Since the Pardoner treats two themes, the evils of drinking and of cupidity, why has the poet localized such a story in this vicinity? Was it for artistic reasons, was it because of a lost original, or did he have an ulterior motive? Certain facts connected with fourteenth-century Flanders tend strongly to justify Chaucer's choice; in fact, to make his selection seem a deliberate one. Not only was Flanders notorious for these two evils—Professor Manly has already pointed out the aptness of localizing the drinking theme there—but England in the 1380's and 90's might well have profited politically and economically by a glance at her unfortunate neighbor across the Channel.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 1933 , pp. 636 - 641
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 J. M. Manly, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (New York: Henry Holt, 1928), p. 617.

2 W. W. Skeat, Works of Chaucer, v, 275.

3 Manly, op. cit., p. 617.

4 J. W. Thompson, Economic and Social History of the Later Middle Ages (New York: Century, 1931), pp. 60, 61.

5 W. H. Claflin, Holland and Belgium (New York: Collier, History of the Nations Series, 1907), xiii, 30.

6 P. J. Blok, History of the Netherlands (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1898), p. 264.

7 Henri Pirenne, Belgian Democracy, (London: Longmans Green, 1915), p. 154.

8 W. Warburton, Edward III (New York: Scribners, 1895), pp. 55–62.

9 Claflin, op. cit., p. 31.

10 Warburton, op. cit., p. 62.

11 Ibid., pp. 65–76.

12 H. S. Lucas, The Low Countries and the Hundred Years' War (University of Michigan Studies, 1929), pp. 378, 379.

13 Ibid., pp. 428, 429.

14 The intimacy between the royal family and the Van Arteveldes is apparent from the fact that James was godfather to none other than John of Gaunt, and Philippa, in return, acted as godmother to Philip, son of James. B. C. Hardy, Philippa of Hainault and Her Times (London: John Long, 1910), pp. 114, 115.

15 Warburton, op. cit., pp. 102, 103.

16 Léon Van der Essen, A Short History of Belgium (University of Chicago Press, 1916), pp. 71, 72.

17 Blok, op. cit., p. 262.

18 Lucas, op. cit., pp. 558–592.

19 Blok, op. cit., p. 273.

20 G. M. Wrong, The Crusade of 1383 (London: James Parker, 1892), pp. 19, 20.

21 John Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and Adjoining Countries (P. F. Collier Ed., New York, 1901), i, 167.

22 Claflin, op. cit., pp. 34, 35.

23 Wrong, op. cit., pp. 18–25.

24 S. Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt (London: Constable, 1904), p. 271.

25 Wrong, op. cit., pp. 47–50.

26 George Unwin, The Gilds and Companies of London (London: Metheun, 1925), p. 137.

27 E. P. Kuhl, “Chaucer's Burgesses,” Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, xviii, ii (Dec. 1916).—I wish here to express my appreciation to Professor Kuhl for his generous assistance and suggestions in gathering and preparing material for this paper.

28 Manly, op. cit., p. 17.

29 S. Armitage-Smith, op. cit., pp. 266–268.

30 Ibid., pp. 270, 271; Wrong, op. cit., pp. 55–83.

31 Unwin, op. cit., pp. 138–140.

32 Nonnes Preestes Tale, ll. 4584, 4586.

33 Besant, Medieval London, i, 206.—Italics mine.

34 Ibid., p. 209.

35 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1385–89, pp. 100, 324; Calendar of Close Rolls, 1381–85, pp. 265, 551; 1385–89, pp. 46, 389, 412.

36 Leslie Hotson, “The Tale of Melibeus and John of Gaunt,” Studies in Philology (1921), p. 433.

37 Unwin, op. cit., pp. 127–154; Kuhl, op. cit.