Unfinished Business: The Termination of Chaucer's "Cook's Tale"
Author(s): Jim Casey
Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 41, No. 2 (2006), pp. 185-196
Published by: Penn State University Press
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
THE TERMINATION OF CHAUCER'S
COOK'S TALE
byJim Casey
The
"unscheduled
termination" of Chaucer's Cook's Tale has long baffled
I of the Canterbury
and readers alike.1 At the end of Fragment
critics
the
Tales,
story
one
after
concludes
suddenly
of
the
most
provocative
a woman who "heeld for contenance
lines in all the tales, describing
/ A
notes
hir
and
for
sustenance"
(I 4422).2 Douglas Gray
swyved
shoppe,
that the abrupt end of the Cook's Tale may have resulted from a variety of
circumstances:
There are a number of ways in which the incompleteness
of The
for: that more of it existed, but has
Cook's Tale may be accounted
been
lost (but the Hengwrt
scribe seems to have decided
that
no
was
there
that
more);3
was
Chaucer
We might
add
an
being
work,
context
"incomplete"
concluding
of
Fragment
story,
in a manner
I.6 Many
by means
the ending
explore
evidence
manuscript
Tale
remain
existed,
even
as a
critics,
puzzling
must
on a text
textual
admit
that no
a
within
appropriate
the
or
circumstance
that the Cook's Tale, rather
understood
wholly
of
we
and
conjectural,
be
of an imagined
discussions
the tale based
structing
never
to this list the possibility
can
some
by
it,4 or that for some reason he
other prevented
from completing
decided not to do so.5
within
over
the
base-text,
larger
the
thematic
sudden
close,
new
but without
provenance
the
impossibility
longer
than
frame
exists,
of
the
of
Cook's
recon
and perhaps
copy.
It seems more
extant fragment
Critics
while
Burrow
useful to look at the tale that does exist, examining
the
of the Cook's Tale to find clues regarding
its termination.
thematic closure have done this, but their arguments,
advocating
seem somehow
As John
insufficient.
theoretically
appealing,
notes,
the
presence
of
"thematic
patterns"
does
not
satisfactorily
explain the tale's sudden end: "One business of criticism, certainly, is to
see thematic patterns in carpets, but I doubt whether
the completion
of
THE
CHAUCER
Copyright
?
REVIEW, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2006.
State University,
2006 The Pennsylvania
University
Park,
PA.
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186
THE CHAUCER REVIEW
a pattern can properly be held to justify the
off of a
breaking
case
before
in
it
has
the
of
The
Cook's
The
Tale."7
story?almost
begun,
not
with
the
Cook's
Tak
is
that
it
does
Not
problem
feel complete.8
only
does the tale fail to resolve narratively;
it also lacks the markers
of
such
so
conclusion
suggests,
common
to Chaucer's
of
arguments
other
thematic
tales.
as
Thus,
completeness
John
solve
not
"do
Hines
the
that more
is needed by the Cook's Tak as a narrative product:
it
problem
lacks
marked
the
the
conclusion
that
all
tales
conspicuously
preceding
have had, either in a conclusion
the tale or in the form of an
within
of the tale
endlink."9 It is possible, of course, that the abrupt completion
should be read as humorous, mocking
either the Cook's lack of skill as
a
or
storyteller
his
nature.
taciturn
The
seems
former
because
unlikely
the fragmentary
tale is itself compelling.
As for the latter possibility,
ifwe
are meant
to laugh at the Cook's brusque,
then
finish,
inadequate
why
does
Chaucer
back
after
make
that
so
him
man's
earlier,
gregarious
tale?
is
Why
on
the Reeve
clawing
closure
no
there
or
the
to
summation
a potentially
And why is there no reaction
comic component?
emphasize
from the other pilgrims?
on the Canterbury Taks, several critics quote Frank
Commenting
statement
Kermode's
one
of
the
"We
of
Paasche
Grudin
be
course,
that
an
denied
to
have
they
end."10
to Chaucer,
a desire
such
that
suggests
of
cannot,
books
of this statement
the applicability
questions
been
that
charms
great
for
it is
end;
Burrow
but Michaela
closure
may
not
(c.
1385),
have
ahistorical:
By
time
the
Pandarus
the
(2.260),
cliche. After
in Troilus
Chaucer,
say
to
Criseyde,
relation
between
and
"th'ende
structure
all, do not readers,
Criseyde
is
tales
every
and
has
strengthe"
is surely
closure
a
for a satisfying
like lovers, hope
consummation?l!
resists the
this prevalent
cliche, however, Chaucer
consistently
Despite
the reality of a world that, sadly,
restrictive finality of closure, mimicking
how throughout
Grudin demonstrates
has far too little consummation.
to
narrative appearing
the Canterbury Taks, "The illusion of realism?the
be
unfinished
asserts
that
it
because
sense
innovative
of
medieval
is
closure,"12
aesthetics
interrupted?underscores
is to say, his
that
room
little
had
Chaucer's
anti-closure.13
for
Kolve
"modern"
such
to imitate
suspicions of literary closure because medieval writers sought
sense
of the
work
of
the
the perfect, and thus perfected
(in
completed)
in her book-length
Divine Creator.14 But Rosemarie
McGerr,
study of
closure
assumptions
in Chaucer,
demonstrates
regarding
the
that,
development
modern
despite
of
literary
and
postmodern
earlier
openness,
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JIM CASEY 187
form
of open
models
Middle
a
larger
medieval
these
For
in Chaucer's
Manuscript
Fragment
this
tale maked
cokes
be
note
scribal
but
knowledge,17
na moore."
Chaucer
assumed
have
others,
among
on
certain
based
those
Tale might
famous
the
in
than
the
to closure
"resistance
poems
Cook's
the
then,
of
tradition
literary
that
of
any
as one
read
of
late
plays
other
the
of
Hengwrt
of the Cook's Tale.16
the potential
openness
challenges
I ends with the Cook's Tale, and below line 4422 the scribe has
"Of
written,
stresses
narrative
however,
critics,
the
within
she
Perhaps,
poet."15
books."
"open
many
Blake,
existed
Furthermore,
Ages.
role
that
M.
C.
the
scribe
Seymour,
and
Gray
made
who
this
has
N.
F.
note
examined
I
that if Fragment
information
the bibliographic
argues
thoroughly,
as is
were circulating
in booklet form before Hengwrt was transcribed,
likely, then the last leaves of the copy-text may quite easily have been
lost:
one
of the motives
behind
the commissioning
of MS
one
to
have
been
within
preserve
binding copies of
Hengwrt may
the Canterbury Tales which were known to be already subject to
in booklet
form. The claim that of this cokes tale maked
hazard
Indeed,
Chaucer
Seymour
copy-text
namoore
believes
was
may
not
therefore
be
that the tale continued,
"lost
very
early
in
the
true.18
but
that the final quire of the
manuscript
so
tradition,
that
the
or Westminster
c. 1405, was unable
in London
scribe, writing
Hengwrt
to find or hear of it."19 Seymour proposes
that, having looked unsuccess
fully
for
the
the
tale,
scribe
added
his
note
later.
the darkest brown
Possibly. The ink used for the note does not match
to the
ink of the Cook's Prologue and Tale but corresponds,
instead,
the Wife
lightest brown ink of Section 2 (quires 9 through 12, including
of Bath's
Summoner's
and
Prologue
Prologue
and
Tale,
the
Tale).
In
Friar's
fact,
of
and
Prologue
the
manuscript's
Tale,
five
and
the
different
shades of ink, the lightest brown ink appears only in Section 2 and the
Cook's Tale note.20 It is quite clear, then, that the scribe added the note
the Cook's Tale. He almost certainly did not
only after he had completed
as
add the note as part of the "finishing touches to the manuscript,"21
Burrow
has suggested.
Were
this the case,
the note most
likely
in the ink of yellowish
would
have been
shade
(used sporadically
the work, notably for the opening
title, two links in section
throughout
and
for
of
Section
The
of
the lighter brown ink in
4,
3).
presence
parts
note
the
and
Section
demonstrates
2
only
quite clearly that the scribe
wrote the note immediately before beginning
Section 2, during his work
on the section, or immediately
following. Clearly, the scribe completed
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188 THE CHAUCER REVIEW
the tale with no
and
M.
B.
as
meal
he
later to add
explicit and returned
Parkes
that
imagine
obtained
separate
wrote
scribe
the
of
portions
the note. A.
the
piece
manuscript
this were
If
copy.22
I. Doyle
the
case,
to
then perhaps
the scribe placed no note initially because he hoped
obtain the rest of the tale. Seymour argues that by the time the scribe
he had established
the
began work on the Ellesmere
Manuscript,
existence
of
the
tale's
continuation
but
been
had
to
unable
a
obtain
copy of the complete
story, as evidenced
by the absence of a note and
note
is not the only important
the blank space after the tale.23 Yet the
two
between
the
difference
Seymour admits that Hengwrt
manuscripts.
are not identical, despite
the meticulous
and Ellesmere
work of their
scribe: "textually [MS Hengwrt]
lacks thirteen groups of lines found in
Ellesmere
and elsewhere. The order of some of its tales differs from that
If we agree with Charles Owen
that Hengwrt
of MS Ellesmere."24
and
were
Ellesmere
copied
by
a
we
then
editor,"25
competent
"remarkably
assume
in the manuscripts
from
that the differences
resulted
may
More
if
Linne
rather than happenstance.
careful decisions
importantly,
in
of the scribe mentioned
is correct
in her identification
Mooney
"Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn" as Adam Pinckhurst,
then these alterations would have been made by a scribe familiar with
Chaucer,
even
perhaps
under
working
authorial
In the case of the Cook's Tale, assigning
Ellesmere
complicates
the Adam
suggests,
as
taken
and
Are
then
so,
are
we
dence
note
have
may
were
there
to
been
the
been
working
long
claim
"Of
there
no
important
relationship
this
tale
cokes
by the author
in
the
or revision?
removed,
rather
later
between
Mooney
maked
in
But
if this
Ellesmere?
the
two texts?
as
manuscript
placed,
na
Chaucer
himself.
under
be
Chaucer
If this is the case,
than
and
early date might
between
differences
as
If,
note
corresponding
found
variations
correction
traditionally
poem's
to Hengwrt
matters.
clarifies
than
confirmed
is
other
of authorial
may
the
why
read
have
a
of
then
scribe,
moore"
Scriveyn
evidence
the
Why
rather
supervision.26
Pinckhurst
then
evi
the
Chaucer's
direction.27
on Hengwrt
was working
and
is right, and Pinckhurst
If Mooney
of
transmis
scenario
then
before
Ellesmere
1400,
Seymour's
perhaps
It is unlikely, though possi
sion, with its lost quire, seems less plausible.
Pinckhurst
another
that
ble,
scribe) working
(or
during Chaucer's
lifetime would have copied the tale as we have it, looked unsuccessfully
for
an
ending,
placed
the
erroneous
note,
later
realized
his mistake,
and
then been unable to obtain a complete
copy of the tale from Chaucer or
in
found
incorrect
the apparently
his estate. Moreover,
readings
as Seymour proposes) make
even
the
note,
including
Hengwrt
(perhaps
little sense if we imagine that Chaucer oversaw the transcription.28
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JIM CASEY189
even without
factor of Adam
the complicating
Moreover,
considering
not
we
without
need
Pinckhurst,
accept
Seymour's
position
question
lack of a note in
lost. The
of the Cook's Tale has been
that a portion
the existence of
Ellesmere
does not prove that the scribe had discovered
a completed
Cook's Tale. On the contrary, Iwould suggest that the lack of
a note
tale,
proves
not
his
certainty
similar
situations
consider
the
scribe's
the
only
seems
scribe
that
to have
as
uncertainty
was more.
there
of
sought
correct
the
In
this
Hengwrt,
for
the Monk's
copy
of
state
regard,
such
in
uncertainty
more
described
instance,
by Seymour,
of the Squire's Tale:
conclusion
to
the
scribe's
of
the
we
might
as when
Tale,
misreading
or
the
of
the
In the Squire's Tale too the scribe failed to recognise
initially the
a
left
blank
and
dramatic
page (f.l37v),
originally
interruption
he later filled with
the Franklin's
which
hurriedly
Prologue
to the Merchant
whose
tale he had already written on
adapted
leaves.29
subsequent
the
Our careful scribe does make mistakes.
Perhaps he misunderstood
dramatic conclusion
of the Cook's Tale in Hengwrt
and furnished no simi
lar note in Ellesmere
because he suspected
that the first note might be
in error.
No
other
For
In fact,
acceptable.
both
the placement
narrative
later
were
to the Manciple's
sleeping
ment.
The
Host
that
does
that
to Chaucer,
interaction
Tale, Harry
so
Cook
that
of
Hengwrt,
the
Cook's
Tale
was
perfectly
the Canterbury Tales suggests that
evidence within
of the Cook's Tale and something
of its present
important
and
conversation
to
similar
have inserted the Tale of Gamelyn immediately
tale. This indicates that from the very begin
as to what followed and that, like Chaucer's
to some.
Cook's Tale was unacceptable
I believe
however,
Chaucer,
a note
contains
manuscript
and several other scribes
the unfinished
following
was confusion
there
ning
Tale of Sir Thopas, the first
the man
not
say
since
Bailly
may
another
bids
tell
tale,
the
his
between
his
a
tale
but
tale
pilgrims.
appears
In the
companions
for
the
rather
to
inform
Prologue
to wake
company's
tells
them,
the
enjoy
"Do hym come forth, he knoweth his penaunce;
For he shal telle a tale, by my fey,
it be nat worth a bo tel hey."
Although
(IX 12-14)
This
passage
Fragment
Additionally,
has caused confusion
in
because
the Cook's Tale appears
occurs
before
the
Tale.
I, which
obviously
Manciple's
with meschaunce?"
Bailly asks, "Is that a cook of Londoun,
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190
THE CHAUCER REVIEW
(IX 11), as if seeing the Cook for the very first time. These two passages
have led Larry D. Benson
and others to suggest that "Perhaps Chaucer
to cancel the Cook's Prologue
intended
and the fragmentary
Cook's
It may
Tale."30
be,
that
however,
the
Mancipk's
the
suggests
Prologue
and that Bailly's address to the Cook depends
opposite,
greatly on the
In the Mancipk's Prologue, the Host is in high
earlier tale and prologue.
"to jape and pleye" (IX 4). He
spirits, as is indicated when he begins
awakens the napping Cook and harangues
him:
"Hastow had fleen al nyght, or artow dronke?
Or hastow with som quene al nyght yswonke,
So that thow mayst nat holden up thyn heed?"
(IX 17-19)
The Manciple
(IX 81) and calls the Cook a
joins in the "bourde"
"breeth
ful soure stynketh" (IX 32).31
whose
"dronken wight"
(IX 35)
so
is
drunk
that he falls off his horse and
The Cook becomes
but
angry
must be helped
back on. Only when
the Manciple
gives him more
the
is the Cook content
alcohol
again. Obviously,
Bailly is mocking
even
his
sexual
with
Cook's drunkenness,
suggesting
impotence
perhaps
observation
that the Cook cannot hold up his own head.
the punning
Notice, however, that the Host also suggests that the Cook might need
sleep
because
he
has
the
spent
with
night
a
"quene."
With
this
insinua
tion, the Host seems to refer back to the Cook's aborted tale, implying a
between
the immoral Perkyn and the Cook, who would have
correlation
spent
his
youth
under
an
indenture
similar
to
that
of
the
young
reveler.32
too that the husband of the quean in the Cook's Tak
We might remember
as a thief s accomplice.
"A theef
So when Bailly observes,
is described
are
we
reminded
that
ful
robbe
and
bynde" (IX 8),
lightly
myghte hym
man
kind
of
who
the
with
has
residence
taken
might prey
up
just
Perkyn
on the drunken,
sleeping Cook.33 The Host stresses, too, the fact that
the setting of Perkyn's drinking,
of Ware is a "cook of Londoun,"
Hogge
adventure.
and
Finally, the Host has already resigned
whoring
dicing,
"nat worth
himself to the fact that the Cook's narrative will be worthless:
the quality of the
a botel hey" (IX 14). Perhaps Bailly merely predicts
inebriation will prompt the
tale from the Cook's present state?Hogge's
telle his tale"
"I trowe he lewedly wolde
later assessment,
Host's
will
be common
that
the
tale
knows
Cook's
he
(IX 59)34?or
perhaps
and
vulgar
because
of
his
experience
with
the
earlier
tale.
Thus,
to the Cook's Tak in the Mancipk's
although Bailly does not refer overtly
or four times, suggesting
to
three
the
he
allude
does
that,
story
Prologue,
for it to retain its
intended
the tale, Chaucer
rather than cancelling
I.
place at the end of Fragment
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JIM CASEY 191
As
for
conclusion
the
it seems
itself,
clear
that
the
scribe's
Hengwrt
note purporting
of the completeness
of the Cook's Tale can
knowledge
not be trusted without reservation.
If the tale actually did continue,
then
for
offers
the
best
the
lost,
ending being
although
Seymour
explanation
he bases much of his argument on the assumption
that the copy-text and
would have been
manuscript
the case. Of the hypothetical
has
of
not,
while
fabliau,
have
others
son
prodigal
seem
to
from
scholars
prevented
movement"35
"degenerative
course,
the
noting
of similar size, and this may not have been
lost ending, we can know nothing. The loss
or
story
the
ignore
a
fact
proposed
morality
that,
of
a
morally
Yet
tale.36
Fragment
rich
the
as
unsatisfactory
Some
speculating.
I, have
conclusion,
lost-portion
it is, the
tale
critics,
a
predicted
such
as a
theories
all
does
a
have
kind of ending. It seems remarkably fortuitous
that the extant fragment
as "an ideal couplet at which to
would end with what Benson describes
rather
stop"37
And
yet
the
than
tale
an
with
fails
thought
incomplete
as a narrative.
satisfy
to
or
a mundane
sentence.
So what are we to make of the Cook's Tale} How can it be complete
at the same time? The accumulation
and incomplete
of sins within
it
and the startling vulgarity of the final line may cause one to suspect that
to interrupt the tale of Perkyn's misadventures,
as he
Chaucer
intended
does the Tale of Sir Thopas, the Squire's Tale, and the Monk's Tale. Thus,
not completed
the tale may be complete
for Chaucer,
although
by the
we may never know what Chaucer
Cook. Ultimately,
had in mind for
the
Cook's
and
the
new
Tale. Without
commentary
must
textual
all
evidence,
like
remain,
many
speculation
of Chaucer's
is suspect,
stories,
open.
University
Tuscaloosa,
(james.
of Alabama
Alabama
casey @ua.
edu)
1. V A. Kolve,
Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative:
The First Five Canterbury Tales
(Stanford,
1984), 257.
are from The Riverside Chaucer, ed.
2. All quotes
3rd edn.
(Boston,
Larry D. Benson,
1987).
3. M.
must
have
C. Seymour
finished
been
on the assumption
size, he suggests elsewhere
"a completed
Cook's Tale
Based
that because
"Chaucer
left no work uncompleted,"
CkT
argues
at 259).
("Of This Cokes Tale," Chaucer Review 24 [1990]: 259-62,
that the copy-text
and manuscript
would have been of similar
that the placement
lost its final
had
of the tale in Hengwrt
makes
in the scribe's copy-text"
leaves
it possible
that
("Hypothesis,
Studies 68 [1987]:
to that of MerTin
and the Hengwrt
of the Canterbury Tales," English
Hyperbole,
Manuscript
at 216). He sees the
situation
of C&jTas parallel
214-19,
bibliographical
where
the primary
lines.
copy-text of MerT seems to have lacked the last hundred
Hengwrt,
These
lines existed
but not in the scribe's copy-text.
he suggests
that "the
Furthermore,
absence
of such a note
that [the scribe]
[MS Hengwrt's
explicit] in MS Ellesmere
suggests
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192 THE CHAUCER REVIEW
time later, aware that Chaucer
had completed
the tale, though he was still
the complete
copy" ("Cokes Tale," 260).
4. J. M. Manly and Edith Rickert
concede
that the end of the tale may have been
lost;
if CkT was not completed,
of Chaucer
the unlikelihood
it
however,
they maintain
ending
at this point:
wrote
to believe.
is difficult
"That Chaucer
thus far and stopped
voluntarily
was
then, a short
to obtain
unable
not only a master
master
but too thoroughly
of his story
of matchless
technique
to stop. Only
illness or some other
insurmountable
could
sudden
interference
have prevented
him from going
on" (The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 6 vols.
[Chicago,
nature
Nor
the incomplete
of the original
later
would
1940],
3:446).
preclude
common
As John Burrow
"Such was indeed
has noted,
in the
reproduction.
practice
to publish
texts left fragmentary
at the time of an author's
Middle
death, with or
Ages:
He
seems
material
without
continuations
Chaucer
13 [1991]:
by other hands"
17-37, at 17).
5. Douglas
Gray, "Explanatory
as to why Chaucer might
of theories
to censor
himself.
too closely
William
F. Woods
("Poems
without
Endings,"
Studies
in the Age
of
are a number
in Riverside Chaucer, 853. There
Notes,"
to leave the tale uncompleted
or
have chosen
either
that
Chaucer
abandoned
the
tale
because
it
suggests
Brembre
and John of
between
Nicholas
in the
other guilds
("Society and Nature
Northampton
at 203). Donald
R.
Cook's Tale," Papers on Language
and Literature 32 [1996]:
189-206,
a
to
but
with
similar
the
the
removed
Howard
scenario
proposes
theory
lost-quire
ending
to be transcribed,
but too scurrilous
and so went
it was finished
intentionally:
"Possibly
or someone
out
it
of an early
else
Chaucer
it,
ripped
Possibly
suppressed
underground.
of the Reeve's
Tale,"
(The
copy leaving only what was on the same folio with the ending
idea certainly, but
Idea of the Canterbury Tales [Berkeley,
1976], 244). This is an interesting
resembled
the political
controversy
that pitted
the victuallers
against
as John
Scattergood
to those
admonition
the situation
Robert
M.
76). And
notes,
of the two preceding
tales
scurrility
to "Turne over the leef and chese another"
the
offended
and
Chaucer's
(I 3177)
makes
("The Cook's Tale," in Sources and Analogues
of the Canterbury Tales, ed.
at
and Mary Hamel,
2 vols. [Cambridge,
U.K., 2002-2006],
1:75-86,
as an explanation
for
the
incom
intervention
authorial
seemingly
imagine
unlikely
Correale
if we
never cancelled
or revised
of
the portion
also wonder
tale, we might
why Chaucer
plete
of CT in general
has been
Pearsall
that closure
the tale that remains.
Derek
suggests
in 'The Canterbury
Tales': Old Endings,
Closure
by revision
("Pre-empting
"pre-empted"
in Essays in Ricardian Literature: In Honour
New Beginnings,"
ofJ. A. Burrow, ed. A.J. Minnis,
Charlotte
basing
which
C. Morse,
his
has
and Thorlac
on
reading
no division
references
between
Richard
Beadle,
1997], 23-38).
[Oxford,
once belonging
to Sir John Selden
to a lost manuscript
the story as a feint
and the tale, describes
the prologue
Turville-Petre
to respond
to Harry Bailly without
him yet ("T wol nat telle it vit':
fully answering
designed
a
to Shakespeare: Essays inHonour
in
the
Cook's
Chaucer
Selden
Version
of
and
Lost
Tale,"
John
Beadle
and Richard
U.K.,
1992],
[Cambridge,
Takamiya
of Shinsuke Ando, ed. Toshiuki
uses "whilom" and a
since Chaucer
calls this explanation
55-66).
unlikely,
Scattergood
two of the
of place and characters
(as in CkT) to open several tales, including
description
he notes that nearly all
the tale and the one that follows. Furthermore,
three that precede
"an emphatic
in oure
citee"
dwelled
"A prentys whilom
scribes began
(I 4365) with
too saw CkT as a story, rather than a "feint" (77).
that
decorative
they
capital,"
implying
to
solution
is the Cook's
reductive
that the wife's
6. E. G. Stanley
argues
shop
solved the problem
of herbergage"
the "argument
(I 4329) and that, having
posed by the
to say: "The last few lines of The
has nothing more
of hospitality,
the Cook merely
dangers
the lodger be a thief, no loss
Cook's Tale give the recipe for carefree herbergage:
though
if the landlady
the lodger be a swiver, no danger
puts him up; though
is her husband"
to lose if the pimping
landlord
and no honour
("Of This Cokes
at 59). E. D. Blodgett
also
Poetica 5 [1976]:
Chaucer
Na Moore,"
Tale Maked
36-59,
if a thief
in cahoots
is a whore,
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JIM CASEY 193
the tale as an example
understands
instead of herbergage,
nature;
essentializing
in terms of pryvetee, suggesting
that the brevity of
and the
"the feebleness
of the Cook's memory"
("Chaucerian
Pryvetee
to Time," Speculum 51 [1976]: 477-93,
at 491). Olga Burakov
the tale
contends
or not)
to biblical
fall and the sin "of
is connected
themes,
specifically Adam's
describes
however,
Blodgett
CkT results from
Opposition
(complete
of
the Cook's
the tale
a
("Chaucer's The Cook's Tale," Explicator 61 [2002]: 2-5, at 2).
authority"
higher
sees a pattern of increasingly
active and autonomous
by women
participation
female
that the threat of increased
I, suggesting
agency might
explain why
as a Unifying
Motif
in Fragment A of The
ends where he does
Chaucer
("Male Competition
at 324).
Canterbury Tales" Chaucer Review 24 [1990]: 320-28,
note that the entire
tale
7. Burrow,
"Poems without
32. Indeed, we might
Endings,"
defying
Emily Jensen
in Fragment
is only fifty-eight
lines long, just over
the Cook's drunkenness.
describes
8.
1984)
Piero
Boitani
that many
complains
of Chaucer's
half the
in Chaucer
length
and
of
the later episode
the Imaginary
World
of Fame
inMancPro
that
(Totowa,
N. J.,
works
unsatisfactory,
ambiguous,
provide
"disturbing,
conclusions"
several of Chaucer's
(208). For CAT specifically,
incomplete
problematic,
("The Cook's Tale," 77), have
points out, "hate a vacuum"
copyists, who, as Scattergood
in various ways. In twenty-five manuscripts,
the spurious Tale of Gamelyn
filled the lacunae
lines
offer no transition,
but most
scribes have added
has been inserted; eight manuscripts
in favor of one more
Other manuscripts,
rather
the tale of Perkyn
appropriate.
deferring
than adding
the Tale of Gamelyn, end CAT with a moral
similar to the "sentence"
(VI 224)
For example, MS Bodley
of the Physician.
686 concludes,
"Remembre
you what myschefe
cometh
of mysgovernaunce"
(Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative,
276). Daniel
J.
notes that alterations
of the copy-text were common,
the fact that Chaucer's
revealing
in Bodley
686 Pinti sees the revisionary
voice of the scribe,
authority was not sacrosanct;
to completion,
who
"creates a vision of the Cook's Tale that not only pretends
and even
as a
the tale's themes
in significant
but also re-imagines
moralization,
ways and functions
Pinti
on the idea of Chaucerian
in the fifteenth
commentary
authority
century"
("Governing
at 380). For David Boyd,
the Cook's Tale in Bodley
686," Chaucer Review 30 [1996]: 378-88,
the revisionary
686 acts to vindicate
the maintenance
of power relations,
Bodley
providing
an "opportunity
for containing
the transgressive
the social order"
and justifying
("Social
Texts: Bodley
686 and the Politics
of the Cook's
Tale," Huntington
Library Quarterly 58
[1995]: 81-97, at 95). Most manuscripts,
conclusion
of CkT in MS Rawlinson
horedom
shal make
seek to complete
rather than revise. The
a typical moral
"And thus with
ending:
and bryberye
thei used till thei honged
/ Togeder
hye; / For who so evel byeth
a sory sale. / And
an ende of my tale" (Burrow, "Poems without
thus I make
however,
141 offers
23).
Endings,"
9. John Hines,
The Fabliau
in English
158.
(New York, 1993),
10. Frank Kermode,
The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory
of Fiction
(New York,
1967), 23.
11. Michaela
Paasche
"Discourse
and
the Problem
of Closure
in The
Grudin,
at 1159.
107 (1992):
1157-67,
Canterbury Tales" PMLA
1161.
12. Grudin,
"Discourse,"
13. Phyllis Braxton,
"Closure
in the 'Canterbury Tales,'" PMLA 108 (1993):
1170-71,
criticizes
this discussion
of closure,
that Grudin
the importance
of
arguing
ignores
Chaucer's
on CT. This seems to me
and the effect of this audience
gendered
readership
to be not
but ironic. Very aware of issues of gender
issues in the tales,
only incorrect,
cites such critics as Caroline
on the way closure
who has commented
in
Dinshaw,
Tr is connected
to a "masculine
in which
the dominant
male-centered
reading"
ideologies
"achieve
their vision of wholeness
constraint"
exclusion,
elimination,
by unacknowledged
the reading
that Braxton
(Chaucer's Sexual Politics
[Madison, Wise,
1989], 51). For me,
Grudin
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194
to force
attempts
onto
containment
hegemonic
of Chaucer's
patriarchy
14. Kolve, Chaucer
15. Rosemarie
THE CHAUCER REVIEW
the
both
tale and Grudin's
analogous
time.
and
to the oppressive
article
engages
closure
that
in a restrictive
she attributes
and
to the
the Imagery
280-82.
ofNarrative,
Chaucer's Open Books: Resistance
P. McGerr,
to Closure
inMedieval
Discourse
157.
Fla., 1998),
(Gainesville,
16. Peter Robinson
the limitations
of Hengwrt.
to the
In answer
acknowledges
or not we can trust the
he offers a very qualified,
'Yes, in
manuscript,
it has a text, but itmay not have all the text
"It has the best text, where
parts," concluding,
which Chaucer
wrote, nor have it all in the best order, nor spell the text as Chaucer
spelt
it" ("Can We Trust the Hengwrt
in Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays
Manuscript?,"
of whether
question
inHonour
Lester
at 214).
[Sheffield,
1999],
194-217,
ofNorman Blake, ed. Geoffrey
17. Gray, "Explanatory
"On Editing
the Canterbury
Notes,"
853; and N. F. Blake,
in Medieval
Studies for J. A. W. Bennett: Aetatis Suae LXX, ed. P. L. Heyworth
(Oxford,
and "The Relationship
Between
the Hengwrt
and Ellesmere
101-9,
Manuscripts
1-18.
Canterbury Tales," in Essays and Studies 32 (1979):
18.
Seymour,
19.
Seymour,
Scholars
20.
to confirm
2000),
detail.
1981),
of the
217.
"Hypothesis,"
"Of This Cokes Tale," 260.
need not travel to the National
this information.
reproduces
Tales,"
high-quality
as I did,
in Aberystwyth,
Library of Wales
Stubbs, The Hengwrt Chaucer Digital Facsimile
(Leicester,
scans of the
the ink situation
and discusses
in
manuscript
Estelle
"Poems without
20.
Burrow,
Endings,"
A. I. Doyle
"A Paleographical
in The Canterbury
and M. B. Parkes,
Introduction,"
Tales: A Facsimile and Transcription
with Variants from the Ellesmere
of theHengwrt Manuscript
ed. Paul G. Ruggiers
(Norman, Okla.,
1979), xix-1.
Manuscript,
21.
22.
"Of This Cokes Tale," 260.
214.
Seymour,
"Hypothesis,"
"The Alternative
of The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's
25. Charles Owen,
Text
Reading
at 243. Manly
and the Early Manuscripts,"
PMLA 97 (1982): 237-50,
and Rickert
also see
as "editorially
Ellesmere
but recent editors and critics have challenged
this
sophisticated,"
see George
on
in Editing Chaucer: The Great
Kane's
and Rickert
notion;
chapter
Manly
Tradition, ed. Paul G. Ruggiers
(Norman, Okla.,
1984), 207-29.
"Chaucer's
For a caution
26. Linne R. Mooney,
Scribe," Speculum 81 (2006): 97-138.
23.
Seymour,
24.
see Brendan
the attribution,
"Adam Scriveyn and the Falsifiers
of
O'Connell,
regarding
of Chaucer's
Dante's
Wordes," Chaucer Review 40 (2005):
Interpretation
Inferno: A New
at 39-40.
39-57,
see Mooney,
"Chaucer's
and Ellesmere,
27. On the dating of Hengwrt
Scribe," 97-98,
115,119-20.
unto Adam,
in "Chaucers Wordes
Chaucer
His Owne
chides Adam
28. Certainly,
for the scribe's "negligence
and rape" (line 7). But the poem also indicates
that
Scriveyn"
a substantial
"to correcte
and eke to rubbe and scrape" (line 6) both
effort has been made
to imagine
that similar care would have been taken with CT
Trand Bo. It seems reasonable
note
the blank page following
the false
29. Seymour,
217. We might
"Hypothesis,"
If
C&T are analogous
lacunae.
of SqT, perhaps
this and the blank space following
ending
CAT might
that the tale was
so, then the space following
signify the scribe's understanding
as Seymour
existed
over, not that more
somewhere,
argues.
30.
31.
Notes,"
Larry D. Benson,
"Explanatory
the tone of this Prologue
Although
contain
an
between
cookshop
edge.
Constance
men
Hieatt
and manciples
in Riverside
seems
Chaucer, 952.
the Manciple's
jesting may
the antagonistic
professional
relationship
in
for the Nones,"
("A Cook They Had With Hem
playful,
discusses
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JIM CASEY195
and Robert T. Lambdin
Chaucer's Pilgrims, ed. Laura C. Lambdin
1999],
[Westport, Conn.,
note just how many
at 203) and we might
the Cook's
lines are spent cataloguing
199-209,
out that the Host's
Hieatt
drunkenness.
reflect professional
conflict,
points
play might
were
in competition
with one
all victuallers
and pie-men
since
cooks,
tavern-keepers,
another.
mormal malum
that the Cook's
32. Walter
Curry notes
as resulting
from "disgraceful
with diseased
association
viewed
and
mortuum
have
been
(Chaucer
filthy women"
that "the medical
objects
Sciences
[New York,
1960],
51). Jill Mann
or unclean
to generally
habits
quoted by Curry attribute mormals
intemperate
than to any specific behaviour"
(Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire: The Literature
to the Canterbury Tales [Cambridge,
Classes and the General Prologue
U.K.,
1973],
theMediaeval
authorities
. . . rather
would
and
of Social
"unclean
285n),
yet we can see how even nonspecific
one who has
in a cook, particularly
distasteful
already
to his "blankmanger"
(I 387).
posed
behaviour"
with
had his mormal
would
queans
disturbingly
be
juxta
33. Of course,
the Cook may be speaking metaphorically,
and Perkyn and his friend
to thievery for the
may not be actual thieves, but they have been connected
clearly enough
a lowke, / That
to be remembered:
"And for ther is no theef withoute
allusion
helpeth
hym to wasten and to sowke / Of that he brybe kan or borwe may, / Anon he sente his bed
and
his
array
a compeer
/ Unto
(14415-20).
Hieatt
points
disport"
34.
acquaintance
between
out
that
the
two"
of his owene
sort,
/ That
lovede
remarks
about
the
Bailly's
("A Cook,"
203), and perhaps
were not allowed
and cookshops
dys,
Cook
and
revel,
"assume
there was more
and
a prior
than a
to sell ale or wine
Pie-men
(205),
acquaintance.
is drunk all the time. We have been told that at Bailly's Tabard,
yet Hogge
"Strong was the
the Cook's drunken
wyn, and wel to drynke us leste" (I 750). Perhaps Bailly has witnessed
ness before.
passing
The Idea of the Canterbury Tales, 245. The Knight
Howard,
begins with a courtly
then the Miller
tells of the carpenter John's
then the Reeve
tells of
cuckolding;
and violent
then the Cook begins
"jape" played on Symkyn by Aleyn and John;
a woman
his tale, telling of dice, drinking,
riot and theft, eventually
ending with
swyving
for sustenance.
35.
romance;
the joyless
a "'moral' voice
Kolve argues
that CkT provides
new
[that] speaks in a language
Tales so far" (Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative,
270), and Hieatt
Canterbury
like Perkyn would have impeded
the Cook's professional
that, since an apprentice
suggests
we should expect
the tale to end with a moral:
"Thus Hogge's
attitude
toward
endeavors,
is not one of approval,
his central character
and presumably
if we had a complete
tale to
we would
one way or another"
find that Perkyn got his comeuppance,
examine,
("A Cook,"
36.
to The
an assumption
seems
to ignore Chaucer's
of the Cook. Hogge
of
depiction
more
to Perkyn-like
than to prudish moralizing.
prone
certainly appears
debauchery
In fact,
the Cook's
to the Reeve's
enthusiastic
reaction
in the derk"
"jape of malice
204).
Ware
Such
his (at best) amoral understanding
of the man's
of a "litel
story, and his promise
ethics or morality.
On
the
(I 4343) of his own seem to preclude
any tale involving
examination
of the Indenture
in 1396
of Apprenticeship
hand, Haldeen
Braddy's
between
of Northhampton
son of Gilbert
and Thomas
Edward of
Edward,
John Hyndlee
(I 4338),
jape"
other
Wyndesore,
three of
illegally,
support
might
the agreements
2) the apprentice
Indenture:
shall not
lend
premise.
Braddy notes that Perkyn breaks all
shall not absent
himself
1) the apprentice
out goods
and chattels
of the master
without
or dice-like
shall not visit taverns, prostitutes,
to
3) the apprentice
games
time to the master
Modern Language Notes 58 [1943]:
("Chaucerian
Minutiae,"
at 18).
that under
the agreement
of the Indenture,
the
Braddy notes
Interestingly,
permission,
the loss of
18-23,
term of
the "moral voice"
in the
and
apprenticeship
could
be
doubled
if the apprentice
violated
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any
of
the
three
196
THE CHAUCER REVIEW
indenture,
as a bad apple. As a side note,
is released
(19), yet Perkyn
as "A deed between
two or more
which
the OED describes
covenants,
indented
or
strictures
similar
executed
serrated
for
that an
with mutual
their tops or edges correspondingly
copies, all having
a condition
somewhat
and security,"
identification
provides
we could
situation envisioned
and
If
others.
by Seymour
only
to the bibliographical
section of CkT, matching
of the tale would be solved.
Benson,
parties
in two or more
find a second
mystery
37.
it strikes me
Riverside
Chaucer,
the serrations
of swyving
for sustenance,
9.
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then
the