Chaucer's "Squire's Tale" and the Decline of Chivalry
Author(s): Stanley J. Kahrl
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Winter, 1973), pp. 194-209
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25093230 .
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CHAUCER'S SQUIRE'STALE AND THE
DECLINE OF CHIVALRY
by Stanley f. Kahrl
Romances
difficult works to assess prop
appear to be extraordinarily
seems
The
to
in
of tone.
erly.
be,
difficulty
part at least, a matter
are
we
how
to
take
Chevalier
of
the
the
vicissitudes
de
Just
seriously
la Charette,
a hero, or a fool? In discussing
for example?
Is Lancelot
Gawain
and the Green Knight, Morton
Bloomfield
admitted
puzzle
ment
at the style of that poem,
and proposed
that we might
have
romance. Whether
or not this is so,
there an example of a humorous
he is certainly right in asserting
is not a simple genre
that "romance
but
a
highly
complex
one.
.
. . There
are
comic
as
well
as
serious,
as well as objective,
religious as well as amorous, psychological
epi
sodic as well as tightly organized
romances. The romance genre is by
no means a unified monolithic
type."1
If we have trouble assessing
the great romance, how much more
at sea are we when we are faced with
ex
less effective
obviously
of
as
the
such
Chaucer's
Tale.
unfinished
Here
form,
amples
Squire's
of the tale as a "per
opinion varies from F. N. Robinson's
description
fect expression
of the joy and wonder
and simple human
feeling
which
to
numerous
charm
the
metrical
gives
romances,
enduring
in form, of medieval
to D.A. Pear
many of them defective
Europe,"
sail's sense of a "vivid incoherence
about the tale."2 Gardiner
Stilwell
was perhaps
the first to recognize
that admiration
for the tale as an
romance derives
from the laudatory
comments
example of medieval
of Spenser, Milton,
and Warton,
rather than from a reading of the
tale itself, and that those who find the tale
do so from a
unsettling
sense that Chaucer
had "difficulty
in maintaining
unity of tone."3
More
in the article cited above, as well as Robert
recently, Pearsall,
S. Haller and John P. McCall
have proposed
that the person who has
in
a
and that many
proper tone is not Chaucer,
difficulty
maintaining
of the stylistic gaucheries
of the tale are in fact quite deliberately
1. Morton
W.
"Gawain
and the Green
76
Bloomfield,
PMLA,
Knight,"
(1961),
17. I am indebted
to this study
for a number
of suggestions
which
seemed
to a study of Chaucer's
Tale.
pertinent
Squire's
2. F. N. Robinson,
ed. The Works
2nd. ed. (Boston,
of Geoffrey
Chaucer,
1957),
as Story-Teller,"
"The Squire
p. 9, and D. A. Pearsall,
34
84.
UTQ,
(1964),
3.
in Tartary,"
"Chaucer
24 (1948),
181.
RES,
The
Chaucer
sity Press,
Review,
University
Vol.
Park
7, No. 3. Published
and London.
by The
Pennsylvania
State
Univer
STANLEY
195
J. KAHRL
included by Chaucer
for a particular
of
effect, that is, the portrayal
the Squire as a rather inept story-teller.4
I would propose
further that
because
Chaucer
has so carefully
his
associated
the Squire with
in
both
the
General
with
verbal
echoes
and
father,
through
Prologue5
in his tale,6 we are permitted,
that if the
indeed forced to conclude
a
is
Tale
in
of
celebration
the
chivalric
classical
order
world,7
Knight's
the Squire's Tale presents
exoticism
and
the growing
toward
impulse
disorder at work in the courts of late medieval
Europe.8
The Squire's taste for the exotic is of course immediately
apparent
in the subject matter of the tale. In the introduction
to his edition of
the Squires Tale, A. W. Pollard had stated in 1899: "The genesis of
the Squire's Tale has bafHed investigation
more
than any other, and
the fact that it is unfinished,
that the six hundred
lines which we pos
sess leave us still at the threshold
of the story, suggests
that we are
one
rare
here in the presence
of
of
at a more or
Chaucer's
attempts
less original plot. He seems, if we may hazard a guess, to have read or
heard several Eastern
tales, and to have formed the ambitious
pro
of
into a single story, which would have required
them
ject
combining
thousand
to this
lines for its proper development."9
many
Subsequent
statement came the great period of source hunting
in Chaucer
scholar
ship; yet at the end of this period, one of those most active in search
for the Squire's Tale, H.S.V.
ing for sources or analogues
Jones, was
forced to admit that Chaucer
"worked
inventively
apparently
a free hand."10 However,
the efforts of the researchers
had
in
to many
turned up a number of "striking parallels
of its features
stories of oriental origin."11
still
with
4.
S. Haller,
Robert
"Chaucer's
Tale
and the Uses
of Rhetoric,"
Squire's
MP,
62
in Wonderland,"
P. McCall,
and
"The
(1965),
285-93,
John
Squire
1 (1966),
I am particularly
to the suggestions
103-09.
indebted
of
ChauR,
which
of this study.
See also Joyce E.
form the basis
for one section
Haller,
A Reassessment
'The Finished
of the Squire's
Peterson,
Tale,"
Fragment:
ChauR, 5 (1970), 62-74.
5.
See,
for
example,
Arthur
W.
Hoffman,
"Chaucer's
to Pilgrimage:
Prologue
Two Voices," ELH, 21 ( 1954 ), 1-16.
6.
The
parallels
can
be
in Robinsons
found
notes,
in such
and
places
as R. M.
Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk (Austin, Texas, 1955), pp. 179-80.
7.
The
classic
exposition
of
this
interpretation
tine, Chaucer and the French Tradition
8.
to which
be added
may
pp.
175-90;
especially
and the Shape
of Creation
Mass.,
(Cambridge,
of this phenomenon
The
best
discussion
general
The Waning
9.
10.
11.
is
of the Middle Ages
that
given
Charles
by
(Berkeley and Los Angeles,
Robert
M.
Jordan,
152-84.
pp.
1967),
is still that
of
Musca
1957),
Chaucer
J. Huizinga,
(London, 1924), despite the fact that it is
with
France
and Burgundy
rather
than England.
concerned
primarily
Tale
A. W.
pp. vii-viii.
Pollard,
ed., The Squire's
1899),
(London,
in Sources
H. S. V. Jones,
and Analogues,
"The Squire's
pp. 357-76.
Tale,"
most
to the establishment
studies
of
Ibid., p. 357. The
contributing
directly
as follows:
these parallels
fall into three groups,
John
(a) Pr?ster
legends:
196
THE
DECLINE
OF
CHIVALRY
are worth noting briefly, are as follows. The
The parallels, which
gifts sent by "The kyng of Arabe and of Inde" (F 110) to Cambyus
the exception
of the brass horse, are similar to those de
kan, with
as
to
scribed
sent
the Emperor
Emmanuel
by Pr?ster
John,
being
in
and India
the twelfth-century
the King of Arabia
styling himself
The
Johannis ad Emmanuelem
regem Graecorum.
Epistola Presbyteri
to the last of three gifts offered by
brass horse is similar in operation
three suitors to the three daughters
of Marcadigas,
king of Sartaigne,
in the romance of Cl?omad?s.
son, uses the
Cl?omad?s,
Marcadigas'
to Clarmon
in
his
horse in a series of adventures
marriage
culminating
to
Haldeen
the
of
dine, daughter
Tuscany.
Braddy has
Finally,
king
made a strong case for believing
that lines 1-346 are simply an intro
duction
to a common Eastern
type of tale known as the "box within
a box" story, in which
an animal exemplum
(in the Squire's case, the
tale of the "faucon peregryn")
acts as a frame for a series of in
a
to acquire
Thus Canacee
could be expected
tercalary
episodes.
faithless lover in the sequel, were the tale to follow the standard form.
The trouble is that the Squire does not seem to be able to follow
any form at all. It is the Squire, not Chaucer, who has "formed the
ambitious
[several Eastern
tales] into a single
project of combining
a coherent narrative
the ability to maintain
story," without
possessing
thread. As McCall
says, "The elaborate but meaningless
way in which
the Squire deals with the magical
his
of
tale is closely
paraphernalia
linked with his whole
He
in
creates,
fact, a series of
performance.
sources for the
not
without
fulfillment."12
will
We
find
expectations
of this tale because Chaucer's
elements
is
inter
Squire
clearly more
an esoteric
a coherent
ested in creating
effect than in constructing
narrative.
To take but a single detail, in Cl?omad?s
the ugly suitor Crompars,
who offers the youngest daughter
the marvelous
steed in order to mar
fails to tell Cl?omad?s
where
the stop button for the
ry her, maliciously
horse is when Cl?omad?s
to test it out, thus sending him off
demands
on a lengthy journey. For the Squire, the mere existence
of the mar
J. L.
Univ.
"The Squire's
Tale
and the Land
of Pr?ster
Lowes,
John," Washington
Studies
on the Magical
A. Clouston,
"Notes
I, Pt. 2 (1913),
1-18; W.
in Chaucer's
Elements
Tale
and Analogues,"
in F.
Squire's
J. FumivalTs
of John Lane's
edition
Continuation
Chaucer
of Chaucer's
Tale,"
"Squire's
Soc, 2nd. Ser., 24 & 26 (London, 1888-90);
H.
S. V.
(1905),
Jones,
346-59;
"Some
"The
'Enchanted Horse/
"
Observations
Cl?omad?s,
upon
the M?liacin,
(b) the romance of Cl?omad?s:
the
Squire's
Tale,"
and the Arabian
PMLA,
of
Tale
20
the
JEGP, 6 (1907), 221-43; "The Cl?omad?s and Related
23
and
PMLA,
Folk-Tales,"
(1908),
557-98;
(c)
Haldeen
"The Oriental
of Chaucer's
Braddy,
Origin
31
'The Genre
of Chaucer's
MLR,
11-19;
(1936),
(1942), 279-90.
12. McCall, ChauR, 1 (1966),
105.
Canacee
and
Canacee-Falcon
Squire's
Tale,"
the
Falcon:
Episode,"
41
JEGP,
STANLEY
J. KAHRL
197
velous pins is enough. Thus, at the end of the lengthy,
inconsequen
tial debate over the workings
of the horse on the part of the "lewed
a considerable
for the disclosure
of
peple," which provides
build-up
the horse's workings:
and after an afternoon
and supping
of dancing
has passed,
even
adding further to the suspense, King Cambyuskan
to
musters
to
sufficient
descend
the courtyard
tually
curiosity himself
and view the horse. The stranger knight goes to the horse
to seyne,
seyde, 'Sire, ther is namoore
But, whan yow list to ryden anywhere,
Ye mooten
trille a pyn, stant in his ere,
I shal telle yow bitwix us two.
Which
Ye moote nempne hym to what place also,
Or to what contr?e, that yow list to ryde.
And whan ye come ther as yow list abyde,
And
Bidde hym descende,
and trille another pyn,
For therin lith th'effect of al the gyn,
And he wol doun descende
and doon youre wille,
And in that place he wol abyde stille. . . .
Or, if yow liste bidde hym thennes goon,
anoon
Trille this pyn, and he wol vanysshe
Out of the sighte of every maner wight,
And come agayn, be it by day or nyght,
Whan
that yow list to clepen hym ageyn
In swich a gyse as I shal to yow seyn
Bitwixe yow and me, and that ful soone.
to doone.
Ride whan yow list, ther is namoore
(F 314-34)
Not
does Cambyuskan
learn precisely
the location of the con
is the effect of all this?
there are three, not two. And what
causes the horse to
sends the bridle
Cambyuskan
(which apparently
to
his
with
dance
the magic
treasury
together
[312-13])
healing
sword and the warning mirror, and then the Squire tells us that "The
I noot in what manere,
hors vanysshed,
/ Out of hir sighte; ye gete
namoore
of me"
the third pin's function?
(342-44). Has he forgotten
In any case, seldom has there been such a build-up
for so little effect.
included apparently
for their exotic effect alone are
Other details
not hard to find. Only Canacee's
ring, of all the gifts, seems to have
only
trols, but
Yet the gifts form the basis for all the
any point for the narrative.
a link between
narrative
"action" of Part One. The ring itself provides
Part One and Part Two, in that through its assistance Canacee
under
in what Braddy
stands the tale of the falcon, but otherwise
nothing
to do with
has anything
the first section of
calls the "introduction"
the "boxes." The falcon is sitting in a tree "for drye as whit as chalk"
198
THE
OF
DECLINE
CHIVALRY
Johan
(490), a detail possibly
Presbyteri
by the Epistola
suggested
in the later narrative.
nis,13 but certainly not functional
Of course the clearest
of the Squire's penchant
for the
indication
exotic
is his choice of an Eastern
in
of
the
land
setting?"Sarray,
was
known
has
what
Bethurum
summarized
Tartarye"
(9). Dorothy
of the realm of Cathay
from such sources as Marco Polo's account of
4 Inter
his travels, or from the travel account of Sir John Mandeville.x
est in the East in Chaucer's
travelers'
day was real, and there were
that interest. But travelers'
reports to stimulate
reports,
fascinating
as equal in value to
have been, hardly qualified
though they might
in The Discarded
the matter
of Rome. C.S. Lewis,
stressed
Image,
or Caesar, or, we might
the fact that Hector, Aeneas, Alexander,
add,
are far more representative
Troilus and Theseus,
heroes of the Middle
"It looks as if
Ages than the knights errant of romance and ballad.
were
the Romances
and such Ballads
[as The Wife
of Usher's Well]
in the Middle
as
ever
re
since, truancies,
Ages,
they have remained
on
can
live only
the margin of the mind,
freshments,
things that
things
on their not being
whose very charm depends
'of the centre.' "15
one might
While
of the Round
debate
the fact that the knights
Table are not "of the centre," there can be no question
that those of
are
not
at
Now
there
all.
choice
of such
the
Cambyuskan
Squire's
exotic subject matter
is of some importance.
Robert O. Payne has
to the Prologue
to The Legend
called attention
quite properly
of
as a text establishing
a
Good Women
views on the means
Chaucer's
uses
a
we
to
know
that
the
Since
poet
good poetry.16
Squire
produce
is a poet?"He
is
koude
and wel
endite"
songes make
(A 95)?it
worth
quoting
the relevant
cited by Payne:
passage
mote we to bokes that we fynde,
that olde thynges ben in mynde,
Thourgh whiche
And to the doctryne of these olde wyse
in every skylful wyse,
Yeven credence,
Thanne
And
trowen
on
these
olde
aproved
storyes.
. . .
And if that olde bokes weren
aweye,
Yloren were of remembrance
the keye.
Wel oughte us thanne on olde bokes leve,
There as there is non other assay by preve.
(LGW, G 17-28)
As Payne says, "the books in which
are not simply storehouses.
brance
13.
14.
15.
16.
the past is preserved
They have?whether
for remem
rightly or
Sources
and Analogues,
pp. 359-60.
Jones,
to her edition
See the introduction
of the Squire's
Tale
(London,
vii-xvii.
The Discarded
Image
pp. 9-10.
(Cambridge,
1964),
to Remembrance
The Key
and London,
(New Haven
p. 64.
1963),
1967),
pp.
STANLEY
199
J. KAHRL
. . . they
and evaluated
the past.
wrongly?selected
supply the re
with a history unified and significantly
membrance
ordered."17 Chau
cer stressed that this historical matter which
from books
he derived
was the fit subject for poetry
at
rather than verbal reports because
the
least you can believe what
you read in books. To paraphrase
no one living in the
lines of the Legend
of Good Women,
opening
an
back
of Chaucer's
report
eye-witness
day had brought
England
in helle" (G 2); the only authority
of the "joye in hevene
and peyne
re
we can trust in such cases is the old books on the subject. Chaucer
iterates
the point
later in the Prologue:
But wherfore
that I spak, to yeve credence
To bokes olde and don hem reverence,
Is for men shulde autoritees beleve,
There as there lyth non other assay by preve.
(G 81-84)
As we have
for Chaucer.
fall into that
are
There
long known,
Mandeville's
not experience,
authority,
albeit
Travels,
fascinating
"is right
reading,18
ynogh"
hardly
category.
two specific indications within
the tale that the Squire's
was
in
his
novel
in
fact to outdo the more
setting
choosing
purpose
romances.
Some time ago B. J.Whiting
traditional Arthurian
pointed
and the
out the parallels
between
the Squire's Tale and Sir Gawain
feasts
in the descriptions
of the opening
Green Knight, particularly
of the two poems and the entry of the stranger to
at the beginning
in Arthurian
the feast, as well as the fact that "one who read widely
as
no
clear
and con
with
come away from
other work
romance would
as
after
have
he
would
an impression of Gawain's
centrated
courtesy
of
to
Gawain's
reference
The
down Gawain."19
courtesy,
putting
the
that
assertion
stranger knight's message
course, is to the Squire's
. . . That Gawayn,
with
and obeisaunce
was of "so heigh reverence
out
comen
of
were
/
he
his olde curteisye,
Fairye,
/ Though
ayeyn
a
word"
with
Ne koude hym nat amende
(F 93, 95-97). Whiting's
else he may have
whatever
that Gawain,
study has demonstrated
a
of
was
anyone more courteous
courtesy;20
paragon
been,
certainly
to Lancelot
the
reference
a
indeed. Similarly,
(F
be
would
paragon
17. Ibid., p. 64.
The Bodley
18. A convenient edition of these travels is that of M. C. Seymour,
Version of MandevilWs Travels, EETS, OS 253 (London, 1963).
19.
20.
in Chaucer's
and His
Appearance
His
Courtesy
Reputation,
"Chaucer
See also C. O. Chapman,
234.
9
(1947),
Tale," MedSt,
Squire's
521-24.
68
MLN,
(1953),
A Conjecture,"
and the Gawain-Poet:
see Richard
recent
view,
different
a somewhat
For
215-30.
pp.
Whiting,
29
"Gawain:
Green,
136-37.
His
"Gawain s Shield and the Quest
for Perfection," ELH,
(1962),
200
THE
DECLINE
OF
CHIVALRY
at Cambyus
that the dances
and "dissymulynges"
suggests
283-90)
the Squire viewed
his
How
kan's court outdid
those at Arthur's.21
clear.22 Two direct quotes
father's tale is not altogether
(cf. A 1761
and F 479, also A 3041-43 and F 593-94)
do suggest that he had it
same
very much in mind, possibly with the
object in view.
in
to surpass other
the choice of subject matter, whether
Originality
or
tales
its
for
own
sake,
was
not,
as we
have
already
seen
from
the
a virtue in
evidence
of the Prologue
to the Legend
of Good Women,
In
was
one
Chaucer's
virtues.
Nor
it
of
medieval
the
eyes.
poetic
in
the
first
of
the
the
five
of
divisons
rhetoric
classical
ventio,
period,23
had considerably
in importance
decreased
by the time of Geoffrey
of Vinsauf s Poetria nova in the thirteenth
In one of the
century.24
of
first modern
studies recogniging
the importance
of a knowledge
the
that
rhetoric for the study of Chaucer,
M.
J.
Manly
proposed
reason for the lack of emphasis
on inventio by medieval
rhetoricians
was that "Practically
All
the tales
said.
been
had
everything
already
had been told, all the songs had been sung, all the thoughts of the
mind
and feelings of the heart expressed.
The modern
writer,
they
senti
familiar
held, could only tell a thrice-told
tale, only echo
ments."25
essay would
agree with
Anyone
reading Manly's
Payne
that Manly
did not like rhetoric or rhetoricians.26
Thus his explana
a good deal of
still accepted,
must be greeted with
tion, though
and more
scepticism. C. S. Lewis,
recently, Robert M. Jordan, have
for the medieval
fascina
suggested much more positive
explanations
tion with
insists that medieval
"thrice-told
tales." Jordan
Christian
as did Plato:
aesthetic
the same postulate
"The
theory begins with
a
of
that
of
is
the
which
is,
finitude,
postulate
[in
universe]
perfection
is central to Plato's mode of thought and has
and divisible,
knowable
little to do with direct observation
of the
and measurement
relatively
21.
The
to Lancelot
a "modesty
reference
involves
to which
I shall
topos,"
return
later. Pearsall
34 [1964],
com
that the "implicit
(UTQ,
87) believes
between
and Lancelot
to the
parison
[the Squire]
("and he is deed")
gives
more
a tinge
assumed
than
of fatuously
self
Squire's
modesty
admiring
on the other
the modesty
at face value,
but
regard."
Haller,
hand,
accepts
does
that 'lie is modeling
and his
support my view
himself,
tale, on the old
22.
M.
(MP, 62 [1965],
"The Function
romances"
Neville,
JEGP, 50
24.
25.
26.
is one of tone.
again,
in the Canterbury
Scheme,"
167-79, feels that the Squire is trying to please
the
his father,
to do so by doubling
and attempts
or tripling
the
In Miss
is holding
Neville's
the Squire
to the "olde
view,
an attitude
of Gawain
and Lancelot,
to the Franklin.
which
curteisye"
appeals
See E. R. Curtius,
Literature
and the Latin Middle
tr. Willard
European
Ages,
R. Trask
pp. 68ff.
1953),
(New York,
p. 43.
Payne,
PB A,
"Chaucer
and
the Rhetoricians,"
12
from
(1926),
95-113,
quoted
Chaucer
Schoeck
and Jerome Taylor
Criticism,
I, ed. Richard
(Notre
Dame,
p. 269.
Ind., 1960),
pp. 9-19.
Payne,
"gentils"
Knight's
23.
(1951),
as did
effects.
The problem,
289).
of the Squire's
Tale
STANLEY
J. KAHRL
201
the function
it becomes
cosmos."27 Given a finite knowable
universe,
of the artist "not to express himself and not to express a new, unique
of his
way of viewing
reality, but to shape and adorn the materials
art" so that reality might be more clearly perceived.28
Or, as Lewis
was already
there. The only diffi
puts it, "The achieved
perfection
culty
was
to make
an
adequate
response."29
is hardly
the Squire's response
to his exotic subject matter
aware
the
to
of
be
at
first glance,
seems,
prob
adequate. He himself
the beauty
it comes time to describe
lem. Quite early in his tale, when
the Squire demurs as follows:
of Canacee,
Even
But for to telle yow al hir beautee,
It lyth nat in my tonge, n'yn my konnyng;
so heigh a thyng.
I dar nat undertake
is
insufficient.
eek
Myn Englissh
It moste been a rethor excellent,
for that art,
That koude his colours longynge
If he sholde hire discryven
every part.
I am noon swich, I moot
speke as I can.
(34-41)
at face value, however.
Like lines
in the
couched
this is a "modesty
278-90, invoking Lancelot,
topos,"
a figure used, by the way, "ad jocum excitan
form of an occupatio,
to Geoffrey
of Vinsauf.
defines
dum," according
occupatio
Geoffrey
as the color of rhetoric used "when we say that we do not want
to
say what we are saying."30 Manly noted that this figure was particul
in the Squire's Tale,31
and cited as examples
the pas
arly prevalent
to
to de
and
the
the
refusal
reference
sage above,
Lancelot,
Squire's
D. A. Pearsall
scribe the birthday
has
feast held by Cambyuskan.
one
more
out
is
time-con
that
of
the
feasts
"Not
pointed
describing
but he feels that the
of the medieval
romancer,"
suming activities
in the number
convention
limits
of
of
well
the
Squire goes
beyond
on
reasons he offers for not telling of this particular
feast.32 Haller,
the other hand accepts the list of reasons at face value, but suggests
We
27.
28.
29.
30.
must
not
take
this
statement
p. 16.
Ibid., p. 9.
as well
stresses
was
that the response
to
also meant
p. 204. Payne
Lewis,
the past:
"As a body
include
of source material
and as a significant
process,
the past was
to be
available
in the
and
animated
immediately
amplified
a part of present
best art so that it might
become
moral
experience"
(p. 81 ).
nos nolle
est quando
dicimus
Documentum
dicere
dicimus.,,
"Occupatio
quod
et arte dictandi
et versificandi,
de modo
ed. Les
II, 3, 167 in Edmond
Faral,
Jordan,
arts po?tiques du Xlle et du Xllle
31. Manly, PBA, 12 (1926), 282.
32.
31
UTQ,
Pearsall,
(1964),
see Curtius,
topos,
pp. 83-85,
were
like may
consult William
don,
1931).
(It has
recently
si?cle (Paris, 1924), p. 317.
a general
85. For
discussion
of the modesty
to learn what
407-13.
Those
the feasts
wishing
E. Mead,
The English
Medieval
Feast
(Lon
been
reprinted.)
202
THE
DECLINE
OF CHIVALRY
his use of the
"since the Squire is yet to begin any narration,
serves
it and can
to
knows
little
he
show that
purpose
except
figure
use it. It is [a] set piece which
serves to delay the beginning
of the
me
more
seems
criti
to
the
thirteen
valid
another
lines."33
This
story
it in at
cism. The Squire does
the figure. He uses
indeed know
least two other places, once in beginning
the descriptio
of the pere
that
falcon?
grine
For ther nas nevere yet no man on lyve,
If that I koude a faucon wel discryve,
That herde of swich another of fairnesse,
as of gentillesse
As wel of plumage
Of shap, of al that myghte
be.
yrekened
(423-27)
This
the non-description
of Canacee.34
And he uses it once
parallels
the tale of the falcon itself, where
it is used somewhat more ap
the falcon, on hearing
There
that she and her love must
propriately.
within
says,
part,
Wher me was wo, that is no questioun;
I kan nat make of it discripsioun;
For o thyng dar I teilen boldely,
I knowe what
is the peyne of deeth therby.
. . .
(579-82)
I have said that the assessment
of romances
involves us in a deter
mination
of tone. The Squire's use of the rhetorical figure of occupatio
serve as an excellent
will
instance
of the problem.
It will be in
to return for the moment
structive
to his first disclaimer
of poetic
reason
and
the
not
he
for
ability
analyze
gives
just such
presenting
a descriptio
as he has already given for Canacee's
father Cambyus
kan. For here we may particularly
feel the tone of voice we are to
to
in
the
Tale.
He
first tells us that neither
his
respond
Squire's
nor
is
his
to
his
task.
Of
his
actual
lack
"tonge"
"konnyng"
adequate
of skill we have already had some indication;
that
yet it is doubtful
a writer
a modesty
As for the
is, in fact, modest.35
using
topos
that he is referring
to his
"tonge," it seems at least possible
the
us
which
he
two
tells
language,
particularly
English
language,
lines later "is insufficient" for so "heigh a thyng" as the
of
description
a lady. One wonders whether
his French,
still the language of court,
Squire's
33. MP, 62 (1965), 288.
34.
See
also
the
"drunk
been told for me"
35.
As Haller
says,
reader's
attention
scene"
which
opens
Pt. Two:
"Hire
dremes
shul
nat
now
to
call
the
(357).
"as with
all such
to the skill which
modesty
he does
in poets,
it
indeed
show"
serves
(p.
287).
STANLEY
203
J. KAHRL
as the Prioress knew, was felt to be sufficient for a descriptio
of a
lady in the high style of poetry.36
The hint of snobbery here is more than borne out by the numerous
to the speculations
references
of the "lewed peple" on the
sneering
nature of the marvelous
are given
These
gifts (189-262).
speculations
at some length and include a deal of learned lore, but all couched
in
a markedly
tone.37 The crowd's murmurings
are like
supercilious
those of a swarm of bees as they "maden skiles after hir fantasies"
their talk is repeatedly
called "janglyng"
(202-6),
(220, 257, 261);
in fact, their entire activity is summed up as meaningless!
Of sondry doutes thus they jangle and trete,
As lewed peple demeth comunly
Of thynges that been maad moore
subtilly
Than they kan in hir lewednesse
comprehende;
They demen gladly to the badder ende.
(220-24)
a good dose of anti-intel
this snobbery
is laced with
Furthermore,
lectualism.38
The Squire reports that some of the "prees" offered as
sources of explanation
for the magic mirror
the writings
of
possible
Ibn al -Haitham,
called in Latin Alhazen,
his translator Witelo,
and
are the writers
Aristotle.39
to cite on "queynte mirours"
These
and
says the Squire, "As knowen
"perspectives,"
they that han hir bookes
herd" (234-35). Heard
not too attentively
at that, for the Squire
is
not even
in matters
interested
to know how
scientific
sufficiently
is tempered
metal
One would
think that at least on that
(236-46).
he,
subject
as
a warrior,
would
take
more
than
a
passing
interest.
It
is clear that as far as the Squire
are simply too subtle for the most
is concerned,
the wonderful
gifts
advanced
learning of the ordinary
that the wonders
will be self-explanatory
to the
folk; "he assumes
in
his
and
useless
remain,
story, meaningless
they
gentils,
though
to the
The proper,
off-hand,
paraphernalia."40
"gentil"
approach
exotica of romance must be that of Cambyuskan,
whose
casual re
sponse we have already noted.
to the other aspects
of
Returning
we
note
it
that
closes
with
may
topos,
see Chaucer's
own
tone in the opening modesty
a clear reference
to the art of
36.
On
37.
so far as to make
the Squire's
"a lesser mani
snobbery
in basing
his morality
"on a distinction
between
vul
a bit far. See her dis
this seems
but
and elegance,"
garity
carrying
things
5 (1970),
68-70.
ChauR,
cussion,
see Pearsall,
34 ( 1964),
On this point
87-88
and Haller,
UTQ,
ibid, 290.
note
to 1. 232.
See Robinson,
Works,
p. 290.
Haller,
the other
799-805.
Joyce Peterson
festation"
38.
39.
40.
hand,
of his
goes
"sin,"
disclaimer,
Troilus
and
Criseyde,
IV,
204
THE
DECLINE
OF CHIVALRY
rhetoric, of which we have said a good deal already. The Squire dis
for that art" for
"colours longynge
of the proper
claims knowledge
on
instances of the
a
other
of
the
the
evidence
lady. Merely
describing
is sus
this disclaimer
that we have already noted,
color occpuatio
is in fact quite
that the Squire
indication
pect. An even clearer
to the Horatian
is his reference
the colors of rhetoric
familiar with
that a
a
Middle
rhetorical
Ages,
injunction,
by the
commonplace
In
of
his
words
the
should accord with
speech.
aspect
speaker's
wonder
the
who
of
the
the stranger knight
presents
speech
describing
ful gifts, the Squire tells us that
And, for his tale sholde seme the bettre,
to his wordes was his cheere,
Accordant
As techeth art of speche hem that it leere.
( 102-4)41
on the word
then goes on to make the rather forced paranomasia
as
in the
as
"was
doubtless
Haller
says,
embarrassing
"style" which,
not
as
is
it
is
the
now."42
fourteenth
century
Squire
only
Clearly
acquainted with the colors of rhetoric, but proud of that acquaintance.
this point. Of
We need not assume that the other pilgrims missed
In the
interest is the Franklin's
response to this occupatio.
particular
uses exactly the same figure, with
to his tale, the Franklin
Prologue
He
for his "rude speche"
himself
obvious,
irony. After excusing
heavy
he too disclaims
be it noted),
any knowl
(not his colloquial English,
on the
edge of rhetoric, and then goes on to place heavy emphasis
words "colors of rhetoric," even to the point of using a pun of his own.
Colours
But
Or
ne knowe
swiche
elles
colours
swiche
I none, withouten
as
as men
in
growen
dye
or
the
drede,
mede,
peynte.
of rethoryk been to me queynte;
spirit feeleth noght of swich mateere.
Colours
My
(F 723-27)
is the Franklin
than was the Squire.
telling the truth any more
different
of rhetoric
Harrison,
seventy
Benjamin
counting
figures
used in the course of the Franklin's
Tale, conclusively
disapproved
lack of rhetorical
the Franklin's
the Franklin's
expertise.43
Perhaps
aping of the Squire in his use of this figure is a result of his admira
Nor
41.
42.
43.
an example
a teacher's
see Geoffrey
For
of such
of Vinsauf's
instruction,
de arte versificandi,
Documentum
p. 318).
II, 3, 171 (Faral,
62
cites Matthew
of Vendome's
290. Haller
Ars versificatona,
MP,
(1965),
of this figure.
for a discussion
For
of the
p. 169),
III, 9 (Faral,
examples
see Haller,
of rhetoric
other figures
used by the Squire,
passim.
of Chaucer's
"The Rhetorical
55-61.
Inconsistency
SP, 32
Franklin,"
(1935),
STANLEY
205
J. KAHRL
tion for the young man,44
that he
though I find it hard to believe
would
to the Squire's snobbery.
have been insensitive
I would
argue
that the interruption
is deliberate,45
to save the Squire from
possibly
further entangling
in a tale he was manifestly
to un
himself
unable
to set both the matter
also because
he wished
of
fold, but possibly
true eloquence
The
and also true gentility
Franklin
says
straight.46
that he admires
the Squire's eloquence
(678), yet he seems to be
the Squire
trying to outdo him in the use of colors of rhetoric, which
as badly as he has handled
in his tale.47
handled
the exotic elements
The Franklin would have equal reason to offer a different definition
of the concept
of gentilesse,
which
the Squire has handled
equally
to appear only in Part Two of the Tale,
badly.48 The term begins
of it accords with the snobbery we have already
though the handling
are first told that the peregrine
in Part One. We
noted as present
as of gentillesse"
falcon is undescribable
"As wel of plumage
(426).
as she waits under the
wonders
hawk's
the
Canacee,
perceiving
pain,
tree with her skirt held out for the hawk to drop into it, whether
the
is suffering
hawk
"for sorwe of deeth or los of love? / For, as I
trowe, thise been causes two / That causen most a gentil herte wo"
After
fallen from the tree, and
the falcon has shrieked,
(450-52).
with
Canacee
the
missed
she
Canacee's
revives, complimenting
lap,
soone in gentil herte"
line "That pitee renneth
much-used
(479) as
44.
See,
e.g.,
Russell
A. Peck,
"Sovereignty
and
the Two
Worlds
of
the Franklins
Tale," ChauR, 1 (1967), 259.
45.
46.
47.
As support
note
is interrupted
for this theory,
that the Squire
after
shortly
the beginning
the end,
of a new
section
of a
of his tale, at the end, or near
at the
"till"
is interrupted
clause.
of Sir Thopas
Chaucer's
tale
likewise
I am in
the end of a "till" clause.
of the "second
beginning
fit," at or near
a con
to Robert
out this correspondence.
For
debted
E. Kaske
?Forpointing
see M. Neville,
Charles
50 (1951),
167ff. Most
JEGP,
recently
trary opinion,
as deliberate.
for the Franklin's
F. Duncan,
interruption
Jr. has also argued
"
of the
See
The Gentle
'Straw for Youre Gentilesse':
Franklin's
Interruption
161-64.
5 (1970),
ChauR,
Squire,"
more
he does not do so has recently
See Peck,
That
become
and
apparent.
in the Franklin's
31
Alan T. Gaylord,
"The Promises
ELH,
Tale,"
(1964),
331-65.
to those examples
in addition
cited
the ridiculous
See,
prosopopoeia,
above,
or personification,
of the figure
of sleep with
his "galpyng
mouth"
(347-56),
or the misunderstanding
62
of the
MP,
290-91;
Haller,
(1965),
not to delay
too long before
the "knot" of a tale
injunction
reaching
discussed
p. 291.
(401-8),
by Haller,.
means
What
in Chaucer
has
been
discussed
S.
gentilesse
recently
by D.
in Chaucer,"
"Class distinction
43
Brewer,
Spec,
(1968),
290-305,
especially
to the Squire's
297ff. With
and
the conclusions
reached
respect
snobbery
it is interesting
later in this paper,
to note
that Brewer
that "It is prob
feels
so well
the Knight
and the Parson
fulfill
their functional
ably because
ideal,
seem
rather
than for any gentilesse,
no class-feeling,
to have
that they
and
are no respecters
of persons"
( 303 ).
cited
by
Horation
48.
206
THE
DECLINE
OF
CHIVALRY
for her intuitive perception.
She goes on to reiterate that
explanation
kitheth
herte
only "gentil
(483), and then tells a tale of
gentillesse"
and love which concludes with a long exemplum
illustrating
gentilesse
in
that even gentilesse
is no protection
"newefangelnesse"
against
as a prelude
to the disclosure
that the peregrine's
love (600-20),
lover, the tercelet, had forsaken her for a kite.
as presented
muddle
The exemplum
by the Squire is a complicated
2 of Boethius'
of Book
Consolation
III, metrum
of Philosophy.49
use of the fair chain of Love
to
Boethius' poem celebrates Nature's
induce all created beings to seek their proper end. For example,
says
no matter how well you feed a caged wild bird, it
Lady Philosophy,
will
food the
leave the cage and foul its unnatural
immediately
moment
it has a chance for freedom. For men the equivalent
of the
unnatural
learn from
food is "moneye, or honours." These Man must
to be drawn
the example of the animal world
to spurn. The sententia
to his knyde,
from the exemplum
is that "'alle thyng, repeirynge
/
"
with
the
Gladeth hymself
What
does
the
Squire
exemplum,
(608-9).
is to turn it on its head. The tercelet, who only "semed welle
however,
of aile gentillesse"
(505), like all men loved "of propre kynde newe
in cages fede"
doon that men
/ As briddes
(610-11).
fangelnesse,
The Squire's peregrine
is saying, in other words,
that Nature
("propre
causes birds, and men,
to be fickle, or at any rate, not to
kynde")
she identi
love the "sugre, hony, breed and milk"
(614) with which
fies herself, preferring
instead "novelries"
(619). More
importantly,
of blood ne may hem bynde"
"No gentillesse
(620).
here. In the first place,
There are a number of problems
the pere
Second
grine has identified herself with the false goods of Boethius.50
the
the
has
turned
she
that
ly,
exemplum
by saying
"up-so-doun"
bird's
natural
food?"wormes"?is
an
example
of
"newefangelnesse,"
in fact in the original exemplum
it was an example of the tradi
the
and
the
true
thus
road to happiness.
tional,
appropriate,
Thirdly,
she has violated
her own principle
that "gentil herte kitheth gentil
she is "gentil," but failed to recognize
lesse." Either
that the tercelet
was not (remember,
he only had the "appearance"
of gentilesse,
and
besides, his choice of a low-bred bird seems proof that he was in fact
a "churl"), or she is not "gentil," a patent absurdity
since the Squire
of gentility.
if
already has told us that she is a paragon
Finally,
in love, what earthly good
is no guarantee
of steadfastness
gentilesse
is it? It is this point,
it seems to me, that the Franklin picks up and
tries to set right. Whatever
other errors his characters make,
they are
when
49.
50.
pp. 342-43.
Works,
Robinson,
I do not draw quite
So indicated
the same
p. 292.
by Haller,
nor do I see the
the Squire's
that Haller
exemplum
does,
as does Peterson
5 [1970],
drawn
(ChauR,
rigidly
72-7r4).
conclusions
from
case
as quite
so
STANLEY
207
J. KAHRL
even though
it is not the
to an abstract value,
steadfast
genteelly
abstract value of love.
that the Squire's Tale is
By now it should be sufficiently
apparent
characterized
It remains only
and a taste for exoticism.
by disorder
to indicate what Chaucer may have intended
the tale to represent,
to suggest the general
it may be an exemplum.
sententia
of which
In the first of two chapters
in The Waning
of the Middle
Ages en
titled "Verbal and Plastic Expression
Huizinga
proposed
Compared,"
that "In the poetry
the relation of the es
of the fifteenth
century
is reversed. The poet is generally
sential to the accident
free as re
is
his
from him.
novel
gards
principal
subject;
something
expected
As to accessories,
is
down
there is a
he
tied
however,
by tradition;
conventional
from which,
each detail,
way of expressing
though he
can
be
unconscious
of
he
deviate."51
This
may
it,
appears to
hardly
be precisely
the situation we find in the Squire's Tale. The subject
is novel and, to reiterate,
matter
is leading nowhere. The details are
conventional
but handled without
grace or a feeling for their fitness
in a particular
context. This is precisely
the reverse of what we have
been taught to see in the Knight's
Tale, where
every de
virtually
as carefully
as are the struc
is organized
scriptio, every occupatio,
tured elements
storie. / And
of Theseus'
lists to provide
"a noble
for to drawen to memorie"
worthy
(A 3111-12),
precisely what Chau
cer had said, in the Prologue
to the Legend
should
of Good Women,
be the task of the artist.
We are seeing here, then, an example of formlessness where
form in
life no longer follows function. To be specific, the Knight's
"campaign
refer to a series of crusading
ribbons"
campaigns which were among
the last to be fought "in his Lordes werre"
( to remove the Chaucerian
under
the
ideals
of
In an essay on
ambiguity)
original
chivalry.
its
in
Place
and
Hearnshaw
cited Chaucer's
"Chivalry
History," F.J.C.
ideals?"Trouthe
and honour, fredom and curteisie"
Knight's
(A 46)?
as those of chivalry
at its best, in the period
from 1100 to 1300.52
Hearnshaw
that the crusading
ideal of aiding the helpless,
proposed
and fighting
the Infidel, was in fact a practical
solution to the prob
lem of what to do with the feudal knight whose
function as a military
force precenting
Christendom
had atrophied.
police
anarchy within
The first chivalric orders were those of the Hospitallers,
the Templars,
with
last
whom
and the Teutonic
the
of
Chaucer's
Knights,
Knight
had served ("Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
/
apparently
in Pruce" [A 52-54] ). To the first goal of chivalry
alle nacions
Aboven
51. Waning
52.
The
essay
whole
the
Hearnshaw's
of the Middle Ages, p. 259.
is the
subject,
article
introductory
entitled
appears
in an excellent
series
piece
ed. Edgar
Chivalry,
Prestage
on pp. 1-33.
of
articles
treating
(London,
1928).
208
THE
DECLINE
OF CHIVALRY
was
the distinctive
the idea of "gallantry" making
qualities
...
at their
in "the Golden Age of Chivalry
knight
and love; at their worst,
best, honour,
ferocity,
superstition,
piety,
and lust."53 No one pretends
that the ideal was ever realized more
in practice. Yet quite evidently
than occasionally
up until the end of
III in
in
into
the
the thirteenth
and
France,
reign of Edward
century
were
One
of
last
the
still
these
ideals
figures to
operative.
England,
was
in
Pierre
de
fact
seek to continue
the crusading
Lusignan,
spirit
instituted the Order of the Sword in collabora
king of Cyprus, who
and toured
tion with his idealistic
de M?zi?res,
chancellor,
Phillipe
new
a
the
Infidel.
crusade
for
volunteers
against
Europe
seeking
was
at
sack
he
the
for
that
Chaucer's Knight
crusade,
present
joined
in dismal
and
of Alexandria
in 1365. It ended
failure, however;
soon
was
in
assassinated
Pierre
hero
de
after,
Lusignan
Philippe's
1369. From then on, the crusades were dead.
If the Knight was one of the last of the defensores
fidei, his son
was certainly cast in the mold of one of the "new men" of the court
of Richard
II. His
the miserable
"crusade" was
affair led by the
later added
of the chivalric
for purely political
reasons, ostensibly
against the
bishop of Norwich
to relieve the
in northern France, but more particularly
Clementists
French pressure on Flanders.
In neither aim was it successful.54
The
new recruits to the expedition,
London
of
appren
consisting
largely
tices and others of the same sort, could hardly be considered
"gentil,"
as "an undisci
and in fact are described
by Professor McKisack
in
The
loot."55
interested
rabble,
only
Squire's participation
plined
in armed raids, or "chyvachie
in Artoys,
and Pycar
/ In Flaundres,
is a good example of much of the highly unchivalrous
die" (A 85-86)
Years' War.
fighting of the Hundred
in his book The Indian Summer
Arthur B. Ferguson,
of English
suggests that "the vitality of the chivalric tradition depended
Chilvary,
of those points of contact between
the ideal
upon the preservation
and the actual in the world of affairs. As soon as they were broken,
the current of reality that is necessary
for the life of the social ideal
ceased to flow."56 One means
of maintaining
that contact had been
the function of the crusading
cites as the causes
knight. Hearnshaw
of the decline
of chivalry
advent
of
which
the
unques
gunpowder,
the nature of war, the increased use of indentured
tionably changed
53.
54.
55.
56.
Ibid., p. 18.
see May
For a full description
of the campaign,
The Fourteenth
McKisack,
1307-1399
also Alan
"A 85
Century
pp. 427-33;
(Oxford,
1959),
Gaylord,
88: Chaucer's
the Glorious
and
45
Squire
PMASAL,
Campaign,"
(1959),
I am indebted
to McCall's
comment
341-61.
1 [1966],
for
(ChauR,
109)
to my attention.
this detail
calling
McKisack,
(Durham,
p. 432.
N. C,
1960),
p.
xv?.
STANLEY
209
J. KAHRL
of the undisciplined
III, in place
knights,
particularly
by Edward
at
levies
feudal
disastrous
and
French
defeats
(the
Cr?cy, Poitiers,
later Agincourt
from
reliance
stemmed
the
continued
French
largely
on the feudal knights
rather than professional
indentured
knights
and finally
backed by efficient bowmen
and foot-soldiers),
(and this
is of particular
interest considering
of the Frankeleyn
"the wordes
to the Squier")
the indiscriminate
not "gentil"
of
persons
knighting
were
such as "wealthy burgesses
to pay
by birth,
(who
prepared
for the titular honour.)"57
With
the loss of its function,
heavily
a sort of game, whose
in
"Chivalry had thus become
participants,
order to forget reality, turned to the illusion of a brilliant, heroic ex
istence. From their earliest youth the aspirants were
in the
trained
rules of this elaborate
social convention,
which
for them was more
than the athletic contests of modern
youth."58 The results
absorbing
on
romances
in
of this training, heavily
the
dependent
proliferating
can
seen
in
Chau
from
be
the
mid-fourteenth
century on,59
England
is tempted
to believe
that Chaucer,
like Shake
II's
to
the
of
Richard
reassert
the
speare, perceived
futility
attempt
full panoply
of a feudal court. Certainly
he did not build
lists for
tournaments
can be,
for very long. Yet such speculation
Richard's
is certain is that the Squire's Tale
after all, only speculation. What
in miniature
of the symptoms
of the waning
contains
of the
many
middle
ages.
cer's
Squire.
One
The Ohio State University
57.
as
L. Kilgour,
The Decline
p. 25. See also Raymond
of Chivalry
in the French
Literature
of the Late Middle
Ages
Mass.,
(Cambridge,
who
the breakdown
also notes
of
of chivalry
caused
1937),
by the extension
to the bourgeoisie.
chief
in the fifteenth
"The
century
knighthood
complaint
to be that the state was
too lax in punishing
seemed
the assumption
by the
Chivalry,
Shown
bourgeois
lost most
peculiarities
innocuous?
58.
59.
dress
had
class of knightly
and ornaments,
that chivalry
indicating
to maintain
its position
its prestige
and was
trying
by certain
so
costume
then
Is the Squire's
of garb"
gay
31-32).
(pp.
of
ch. 5.
Ibid., p. 8. See also Huizinga,
in The Parlement
for example,
the life of Youth
See,
of the Thre Ages,
246
M.
Y. Of?ord,
after he has
EETS,
who,
1959),
(Oxford,
jousted
says that
hawked,
to the courte
Than
that I come
kayre
fro,
to lappyn
in myn
With
armes,
ladys full louely
and comforthe
And clyp
myn
thaym and kysse
thaym
hert;
to daunsen
in thaire chambirs;
And
than with
damesels
dere
to rede and rekken
Romance
Riche
the sothe
of kynges
Of kempes
and of conquerours,
wanne
How
and welthe
tha[y] wirchipe
full noblee,
in thaire
lyues.
(Thornton,
11. 246-52)
ed.
and