Crocodilian Humor: A Discussion of Chaucer's Wife of Bath

Author(s): David S. Reid

Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall, 1969), pp. 73-89
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25093113
Accessed: 17-08-2015 10:54 UTC

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CROCODILIAN HUMOR: A DISCUSSION

OF CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH
byDavid S. Reid
I
It is odd that many have found the Wife of Bath lifelike. If she is, it is not in a
that

way

sense

in our

tradition

women

and

the middle
for

really,
from

of naturalistic
is absurd

she

than

the middle

classes

their

place
So

Chaucer's.

to be

be
hardly
into the Wife
and

comedy.

we

name,
good
are
Here
her.

The

two ways

Though
that
she
man

one
"is

so

relations
beset

with

with

the

found

1. Chaucer

in human

and
disagree with
most helpful
Chaucer

Press, University

of

civilization

are not

to be baited
is different

civilization

the mellowness

of

they wholeheartedly
or if
they do,

humor;

in

if we

even

class,

enjoy
are less

they

likely that they have found a way of

have

other

view

as well,

ways

of

the
so

embarrassment,

real
that,

for

our

different

nature

of

fearing

for Chaucer's

the Wife's

her

elaborately.
the Wife,
both,

taking

not
of

to my

mind,

of

ways

mistaking

to accept
be
the opinion
entirely
prepared
. . . the brain
the most
of
characters
amazing
still

conceived,"

coarse

with

ality
coexistence

The

may
one

in her

delicate

True,

talk

that
as a

C. Curry's:

ever

has

human,

and

of

is Walter

first

an

her

misunderstand

who

mean

really

a detached

us

given
It has made

we

women
of

of
her

the
of
place
was
Chaucer

about

us.

humanist

idea

accept.

figment
take
many

are middle

those

old-fashioned

And

Chaucer.

us more

before

our

that

than frank about it. It seems much more

misunderstanding
not
ethos
has

tells

and

baited;

it can

that went
humanity
Chaucer's
curmudgeonly

That

we

But

In short

changed.

and

Tale.

would
a

grotesque,

of his courtly,

classes.

ought

has

invention

and

the words

about

he shared the enjoyment

civilized:
baiting
think

terms

human

to her
the Prologue
gallimaufry,
art
and humane
of Chaucer's
mellow

anti-feminist
triumph
women

as a marvel

see her

who

those

In common

and

shameless

her five

husbands,

story
telling
an irresistible
view

of

more

that

is

she
in her

one

so

vividly
discussion

and yet

so

is fascinated

to
impulse
analyze
if
definite
locating,
possible,
elements
than
incongruent

feminine
of

and

the marital

imaginative
against
her dual
causes
are

and

his will
person
for

the

ordinarily

beings.1

the Mediaeval
2nd ed. (New York,
Sciences,
p. 91. Although
1960),
I have found his information
Professor
character,
Curry on the Wife's
for my discussion
of the Wife as a type figure.

Vol.
Review,
4, No.
Park and London.

2.

Published

by The

Pennsylvania

State

University

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74

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

The

is Bernard

second
In

the

matic

F. Huppe's:

Wife's

monologue,
time
that

reality

as

stern

ment,
portrait
stands?as

has

contains

the

censures.

an

she

But

elusive

does

literary

must

pathos
the vigor

which

makes

in

agree
of

comedy
because
of

her
an

life

her

her

granting

of

a frame

such

of

of

the Wife's

the

reader

judg
self
under

covers

apology

and

lie.

empty

at least,
the
implicitly
in
her com
appreciating
in her own
and
the re
right,
a
to
of
char
However,
speak

character,

the first,

For,
individuality.
to entertain
her

pretend
second
require

the

her,
The

underlying
not?that

only
but
also

dra

subtle,

a woman

of the two critics differ. One dallies with her; the other

status

vitality,
of
proaches

withered

constructed

not

sympathetic.

delusion

both

plex

is

has

presents

not

has
it

the attitudes

Clearly

Chaucer

Prologue
which

a moral

agent.

acter having the pathos of individuality suits the case of one, like
Criseyde, in
a
to suggest
like
in
Hell.
is
led
or,
Cavalcante,
tragedy
Accordingly Curry
have considered
the Wife
"his most
and Huppe
might
tragic figure,"3
see her
nature
on
the
of
"confirmed
damnation."4
way
unregenerate
or infernal
seem
to me.
out of the
I shall
But
question
tragic
subjectivity

Chaucer
to

as a stock

the Wife

take

as

And

word).

for
a

such

response

a lot,

misses

and

attitude
figure
it can

sort

judgment,
such
comedy
be novel.
scarcely

for.

it to

I follow
is the

This

essence

no

(I have

pantomime
not venture

call

even

churlish

of

I shall

and

outworn,

antique,

curiously

in a varied

figure
or

better

the

beyond

stock

approach
probably
seems
that what
insist
of

the Wife's

humor.

II

The Wife
are)
of

higher

to

low

consistent

modes

of
or

comedy

and

to

thorough
she would

fiction,

the

stock

appear

and within

pantomime,
of

figure

the masquerade
as
the narrator
impresario
or invite
our make
in a vivid
illusion
and

Tale,

being

stock

absurdity.

Simply

2. A Reading
of the Canterbury
3. Curry, p. 115.
4. Huppe,
p. 123.

Tales

those

What

the Wife

But
she

modes

in terms

the Wife
she

is lifelike.

belongs
Here

gives her life is the liveliness of

and

the world

of

or master

of

the
on

burlesque

comedy
in which

pilgrimage,

ceremonies,

all

these

of

her

these
conspire

believe.

a figure

In terms of pantomime,

to see
attempt
a
monstrosity.

in our

it is hard to speak of verisimilitude.

pantomime:
Prologue
are set,

If (as neither Curry nor Huppe

is a stock figure and an absurdity.

were

we

like the Wife

because

they

(State University

are

owes her liveliness to her

stock

of New

figures,

York,

the

1964),

pilgrims

p. 108.

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DAVID S. REID
have a perennial
to

"Preface

even

and

kind,

of Monks

and

ever

is

the

altered."

"their

Fables,"
in

and

same,

true

comic

of
soul,

comprehensive

it

to

has

Wife,

the

with

One

in Anthony

finds

the

Powell's
Donna

Byron's
he has

tirade

from

drawn

comic.

recognizably
and
humors
Chaucer's

be

not

for mankind

though

everything
is of course

Dryden
almost

conservative

highly
same

as

Probably a

or

pack
in

figures

to be

stock

Jonson's

Even

of

comedy
are

tricks

Like

stock.

comedy.
overwhelms
caught
by her husband,
to utter
him with
and shames
his

Julia,
time

is

if he were

is this accidental.

social

had

and Nuns;

sounds

talking of the shuffling of a pack of cards. Nor

character

other

mankind.

yet

it in his

put

in man
remaining
names
those
than

still

are called
by
they
and Lady Abesses,
out
of nature,
lost

Canons,
nothing
seems

this

are

characters

general

though

England,
and
Friars,

Certainly
Chaucer's

praising

and always seem lifelike. As Dryden

vitality

the

75

him

jealous
a matter
is not
of
simply
vitality
us to
comic
and
lives. Her
works
upon
jokes'
long
figures'
having
absurdity
we call someone
a "real
when
her seem
real. Outside
make
character,"
fiction,
a
it is a type we
and rather
humorous
card simply
because
recognize,
typical.
us as unreal
in fact,
strike
because
make
of the
Such
may,
people
they
play
so that we
not know
to call
and
do
whether
normal
them
everyday,
larger
than

or

life

into

the

of

suspicions

But

to

them,

their

feel their life is a hoax

thieves.

Similarly

vitality

is our willingness

demonic
of

us

or
genial,
us
and makes

a demonic

her

standing
humor.
genial
we
Because
us

from

crocodilian.
we

know

call

her

the Miller,
men
in

in

turn

just
She

by
by

At

husbands.

about

gains
and

age
the

she

same

time,

slew for

the Wife

their

us all

the

jolly,

any

becomes

nature.

On

we

her.

are

But
at

So we

like

it also
her

delighted

pleases

own
to

us

game
by
see her

other

and

her
She

to hear

elicits
rather

the

common
find

given
is a

she

she

her

Silver,

John

has
rate,

response

take

hearty

in witness

together
tradition

At

reality.

to

lays hold
is not
Wife

exaggeration
life. The

comic

long

of

Long
and

in us.

beaten
we

with

cunning,
as heartless
as herself.

sympathy
Pardoner
like

her

or

binds
a

displacement,
of how

is low

girl
lively
and
nearly

her

sense

folk

the

because

indeed

may

as

figures

oddity,
them

it is that

in a comic

and

Summoner,

tormented

endow

question
one hand we
enjoy
and
like Falstaff
be,

yet,

we

though

cartoon

such

or

and

Perhaps
archaic

involved

to

them,

them and be taken in by them. Whether

distortion,

recognize
is unnatural

are

human.

lends

them

humanity.
in a rude
and

her
And

lainous.

what

to play with

is their

is equivocal,
On
the

with

play

What

figure.
common

to her

we

game

like that of the bladders of wine Apuleius

fiction,

it

us
It
them
makes
unreality
lively.
inveigles
to
with
them
make
them
real and lifelike.

very

conspiring
the

by

in

the Wife's

However,

smaller.

up
playing
are animated

They

truth.

jolly

vil
and
to

appeals

of

old

jealous
to see her done
her
get

off

last
with

triumphantly.

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two
it

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

76
The

we

sympathy

nature

her

accord

is

and

licence,

was

licence

in

the

nature of pilgrimages. The host resembles a sort of prudent lord of misrule,

and the Wife's Prologue is in the carnival spirit of the outing. Falstaff was
rejected by the court and Bottom laughed out of it, both dismissed with the
audience's
ously,

or

sneaking
sympathy
was
since
the pilgrimage

for

gratitude

the

dance

to a shrine

journey

as well

led. Now
they
as a
holiday

obvi
and,

moreover, a figure of "Thilke parfit glorious pilgrymage / That highte Jeru

salem celestial" (I 50-51),5 it would be fitting if Chaucer had brought such
as

figures

anti-masque,
as far as her

grand

are

endings
unshaken

Yet,

she

with

treated with

or

to
no

since

works

a way
the
tion.

that
very
The

absence

of

apparently
or humor.
formula

fied

ing
the

manifold
Her

type may

is implied
by
the Prologue
matter

her

horoscope
of distortion
rules

5. Citations
Robinson,

from
2nd

five

into
is cast
or

Wemen

and the Wedo.

one

lifelikeness

is

this

that

singles
individuals

out

all womanhood
is shrewish
not

and

and

together,
and

vigorous
in one

person,

can

reduced

in the General

be obvious

in such

features

categorized

be

is

figure

pseudo-class
fiction.
lively

her

abstracts

are

type

is a

case

makes
and

the most

forth

because

in the Wife's

distor

lively
and
to

yet
a

Prologue,

all

single
but

so on

is
ampli
exhaustively
en
of a burlesque
spirit
and probably
from
Romance,
clerical,
popular
a shrew's
the same perverse
learn
confession.
With

husbands,
to

drawn

is crammed

It

heterogeneous
likeness
calls
to

as

fund

finds
the same
sport:
literary
or Milton's
for
Eve,
instance,
Cleopatra,
in the
is the
comic
of
guise
"Archewyf,"

in

It

comprise
nature

in

cyclopaedia,
traditions

trod.

synecdoche.

seems

that

what

purely

ever

fun,

as well

is butt

and

medieval

superindividual
But
the class

a class.

like

the most

Wife

to have

represent
such woman

Caricature

sort

means

seems

She

shrew.

left

belongs
vulgar
perennial
in the Merchant's
Tale
and Chaucer
Justinus
as a dreadful
wives.
is a
She
warning
against
of woman-evil
Dunbar,
Chaucer,
following

brought
together
In short,
the Wife

Bloom.

meant

her

she

to

she

Hence

the

of

any

by
of material

Molly

figure

a scandal

As

such sardonic relish in his Tua Mariit

is she

is

misrule

is that she is good

lifelike

being

execration.

of

mothers-in-law,

type

compendious

sort

is a

jocularity.
a Bukton
cite

Envoi

and

conclusion,

proper

topsy-turvy.

is that

Along
anti-feminist

Nor

such

reason for the Wife's

joker.

in his

of

if one

another

of

inversion

the

in that

in a
rejection,
the
kind
of
nothing
their happy
Indeed,

followed
reckoning,
by repentance
But
rather
anti-pilgrimage,
design.
axe concerned.
and
Tale
Prologue

or

happens

or

to a

the Wife

her

gat

Tale.

teeth,

as a formula

for
in

disfigurement

in my
Chaucer
ed. (Boston,
1957).

text

are

and

in

There,

the

a shrew.
the

The

unfair

to The

way

Complete

formula
that

Works,

operates

by

"machinery"

ed.

Fred N.

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77

DAVID S. REID

if one
imagines
point
is bourgeoise,
everything
by
can
and
and the wealth
the satirical
of botched
under
aspect
appear
botching,
to lecherous
nature
the influence
of Mars
is disfigured
under
of a Venerean
same
covers
her
The
formula
and
misrule.
ness,
bickering,
nagging,
cheating,
as fits
romance
is
teller. This
is under
Venus
the
but Mars
tale. The
it,
spoils
animates
not
is a sly and
Part
the Wife,
of what
bathos.
but
then,
tragedy
if
be an obsession
which
would
indeed
of an idee fixe,
elaboration
malicious
as a hard

case

it were

a comic

not
is not

It

not

does

her

of

figure

for

the

of

wayfaring
and
the

head.

the Wife's

Similarly,

of her are as conventionalized

expect
It is to the
it can make.
of moves

as the
that

play

she is handled we

should

comedy.

is

it

and

pantomime,

sophisticated

the

places

stock

the kind of comic stage which gives her life. The

itself, though it is also a pregnant metaphor for human life and the

figure
pilgrimage

masks

occasion

other

Wife

handled.

on

of the Wife

the

sorts

of

any refinements
General
Prologue

The

we

the

deftly

of her and the wit and finesse with which

is made
look

turns

and

other

of

of pantomime

comic

the

and

a chessman

It

subtle

complexity
if Titania

It is a stock incongruity
character

the

she

or
but her presentation.
complex
in the character
of that
fayness
an ass's
in love with
him wearing
falls

is

that

Bottom,

humor,

genial

misses

Because

fate.

convention.

make-up
some

argue

her

dealt

lot

one

So

"Philistines."

Arnold's

characterizes

her

It

pilgrims.

so

seems

God,
as

is a

are

them,

among

of

become,

it were,

masquerade

the

beguilingly
life and soul

of

the world,

of

representative

the

festive

for

the
of

Estates

that

the Wife

of

scene

the

with

along

the

type

the

figures,
and
Realm

of

Christian pilgrims. They are disguised as a crowd of people in the Inn at

Southwark. I think it is this disguise we delight in when we stress the individ
of

the

is

to us

presented
as a crowd
them
are

told when
a

given
fairly
and
individual.

as
of

each

had

an

are
the

types.
us
confront

very

moment

to

in fact
of

us

The

we

itinerary.
reason
this

Formally,
the descriptions

most
Actually
pilgrims.
satire
and
physiognomic
as in a dream
Yet,
allegory,
enigmatically
the Wife's

are asked

or

transparently

"hippes

large"

in

of

the

to take

Merchant,

are
figures
narrator
meets
the

in

as

are
living

clues
the

form

ap

Prologue
is drawn
from
and

handbooks,

are meant

them

We
we

the General
detail

those

its

a mer

that

Lawyer,

interest,

individual

to individuate
pear
sources
as homiletic
acterizes

come

identity.
they
is
and the fiction
supported
pilgrims,
circumstantially.
meet
and where,
and in the links between
the Tales

they
detailed
For

if

us

For
their
individuality.
in terms
the world
of

Their
constitutes
incognito
pilgrims.
true
since we
of
think
do not
especially
not
it
does
Estates.
And,
therefore,
automatically
are
a
"of beside
Bath"
and a wife
chant,
lawyer,
this
accidental
shift
and Wife.
from
But,
apart
quite
uality
this

so

to what
of

to reveal

char
really
the persons

a mask.
her

such

So,

boisterous

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at

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

78

and masterful
seems

to

particularity

the

with

the

Unlike

book

second

to
put

persons
One

forthright.
teenth
century
employed
More
than
scene

social

of

reality

fact,

and

such
many

(Scott's

is

persons

the

So we

See

descrip

invests the
the

sets

genre

out

to

or mixture

foible,

the most

or

lifelike

as

than

see

in the
describe

but

case

characterizing
"character"
drawing

or heard,
us

bring

an

tone

gradations
for
instance)

and

folk he is respectful, with

it is such

urbanity

kind

observation

of

description
it seems

the

Chaucer's.

his world

in nine

class

of

degrees

irony

by Arnold.
us that the

that

up

conventions

The

to

"Populace"
that satisfies

conjures
of

deference

the
and

in the field full of folk

of the people
that

more

characters

low

according
in the

and

"Philistines,"

so

who
has

something
hap
that with
and words
gestures
to touch
our hand."8
it with

and with

of

men

certain

that

gentle

patronizing,

of

of

is

unworldly,
of

urbanity

The
the discussion
in Ralph
Baldwin,
of
Unity
(Copenhagen,
1955), pp. 35-57.
it is worth,
that
7. I put this view, for what
against
expressed
"Chaucer
the Pilgrim," PMLA, LXIX
that
928-36,
(1954),
tone is often
The
naive, but so is Pandarus',
yet
falsely
and ironic man are akin, but the ironic
Buffoon
simpleton.
while
that he could
if he chose,
and so
you
enlighten
6.

the

contrast,

By

even

take

rather

has. With

also

or

vice,

and

observation

is lacking
are
types

of

Prologue,
as a
for the
disguise
type.6
a
tone
is that of
since
his role
courtly
In the discussion
in the
of pleasantries
Federico
of
Courtier,
Fregoso
speaks

almost

perhaps,
and one

In Langland's

urbanity
of his

or

the General

seen

"Barbarians,"

else,
anything
is authentic,

condescension.
where

novels

rules

existence

have

similar

the

picturesque.
illusion.
That

species

narrate

laudatory

finds

against

such

"we

which

the narrator certainly

class

the

no

The

Castiglione's

entertainingly
or that
they
our eyes
it before

Urbanity
middle

of
portraits
individual

them

accentuated

has
for

disregard

of

illustrating

"urbanity"

that she

such particularity

Chaucer

and casual jotting down of detail

humanity?virtue,
time or place.

and

gracefully

apparent

the masquerade
ceremonies.7

gives
of
of

or

"festivity"

they

the
to use

master

courteous

pened

particular
as
traits

attempt
narrator

The

an

And

flesh.

singularity
creates

of

type

general
to no

individual.
not

the

by

figures

"character"

belonging
circumstantial

does

in

seemingly unordered

pilgrims
Theophrastan
a
draw

us

before

of

tion. The

they disguise her with

disposition,

stand

the

though,
General

in

the

Canterbury

Tales

by E. Talbot Donaldson,
the narrator
is a buffoon.
no one takes him for a
man "lets you see all the
a mock
makes
of you"

The Origin
ed. Theodore
H. Gaster
(Francis M. Cornford,
of Attic Comedy,
[New
that the ironic man's
is put on; it is
naivete
York,
p. 120). One
1961,]
recognizes
an affectation
rather than an impersonation.
Socrates's
enemies
resented
it as an air
of superiority;
in the case of the narrator
one takes it as part of his festivity
and
urbanity.
trans. Charles S. Singleton
8. The Book of the Courtier,
(New York,
1959), p. 141.

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DAVID S. REID

Prologue,
what
people
as a
men
urbane

on

the other
are

or

privileges
entertainment.

of

the world

spectacle

the Lawyer,

the Merchant,
their

suggests
to view

is a

This

is

courtly

worthy

as

hypocrisy
innuendo.

sermons

Granted

on what

narrator's

game.

So with

and

Chaucer's

he

to
It

moralities.
audience

and

of

conditions

of

the
"festivity":
the Wife
of Bath,
out

singles

for

praise;

are

no

had

on

satire

courtly
is made

apparent
to consult

need

class

middle

only
through
commentaries

was

implied by costly headwear on Sunday or by West Country

still it would have interfered with their enjoyment of their inferior's

weaving,
if

vices

to

the

the world
and

callings
they
presented
the commons.
Their
is
respectability
weaver
a
is
the
Wife
and, perhaps,

of
representatives
as wife,
pinchbeck:
parishioner,
as much
the malice
Here
belongs

rogue.

of

sorts

the

respectability
in their various

status

course

of

a sense

it is their
and

substance

were

us

immediately

It also

like.

observation

through
as if
they

hand,

79

the

had

point

been

in

made

than

other

any

bland

courteously

manner.

Set in this higher pantomime

Tale,

bafflingly
for the
an

complex
sort of
higher

entire

disregard
sense

She makes

It is not

is farce.

which

In her Prologue,
as

mouth

one

women's.

Yet,

even

entertainment.
bands

jaloux,"
source

of

jest. Her
so that,

By

of burlesque

"wo

a sort

An
chagrin.
I
how
"Baar

and

is manipulated

psychological

knockabout

mariage"
to be
comedy
as a villain,
herself

comedy
of reflexive

example

is a

in

at

probability.

is,

absolution

irony
is the
she

is the

in

a comic

as much
the Wife

of
bogey
is the object

farcical

scene

is put into her

anti

of
farrago
her
expense

and

she would

confession

is quite

with

comedy.

the

it receives

womanhood
slippery
at the very moment

his

or

is

that

exposed
Her
shrew's

gains.
verve
that
the

and
problematic
or moral
or
ironies,

psychological
in a novel.
She

expects

to her

becomes

is her own impresario. Since what

the

she

for

of the Wife's Prologue

she

conventions

expect

if

Besides,

as of wives.
as

jester

of
might

self-exposure
with
such

put

in terms

the Wife

lore,

and

naturalistic

illustration

feminist

licence

one

comedy

only

that

surprising
if one looks

creature

for

is the comedy

at

fact,

the

manages
the
of
she

the
gain
so enormous

in her

listeners'

expense
to be

as much

of

or "le

anti-feminist
his

jibes,

sketches

hus

she

is the

of
by way
To forestall

olde housbondes
in honde."
illustrating
stiffly myne
a
as her
she recites
his abuse
The
her is
husband,
jealous
injury.
joke
against
that she exposes
to her listeners
as the monster
herself
in his
But
this
thought.
a
on her
is also
since
her
side
that monster
is what
her
makes
joke
being
husbands
If she is false,
ridiculous.
her
mocks
is a
them.
There
effrontery
to be made
similar
to
about
her
The
cruel
point
Jankin.
marriage
laughter

against the widow hungry for youth and served by it as she had served her old
husbands cannot stand up against her final
triumph. And the Wife's getting
the

better

of

the mean

and

callow

Jankin

is a better

joke

than what

he

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reads

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

80
her

that

from

If her

the

joke

lady
is a low

she

burlesque
or

annual

the

Lysistrata

Wemen

Marriit

and

of wives.

the

rule

her

sermon.

of

one

a number
is "to

topic
a "chanson

of
something
meanness

expects
the monotonous

are

there

declared

her

wife

the Wife's

his

of

de mal

remedy
of

just."9 But, though the Wife utters complaints

than

her

she

husbands,

to be

shows

the

in Dunbar's
the woe

for

Tua

The

marriage,
conduct

...

injustice

is so un

he

of this kind, it is herself,

source

of woe.

of

is in mariage,"
the lines of "Oh

that

along

the

to
the

in

in the

pratfalls
of wo

speke
mariee"

. . . / It's

lust

different;

belonging
in
strike

sex

proposes

like

she been,
been

Also

slapstick.
women's

the

the first

marriages

Further,

Since

is

comment

Had
have

is

there

place,

Johnson's

would

is a bur

it

then

opinion.
case

anti-order?like

spirit.

the first

Dr.

conservative

allegory,
her
learning

the Wedo?is

In

women

against

suggests,

joyeux."
on whom

the

character,

tradition

Pardoner

"sermon

of

an

and

the

satire

So

his.

is the master

she

woman,

preaching
the weight

with

wife,

since

as

the

of

spirit

the

speaks

Melibeus'

the

the

about

doubtless

but,

in

of

anthology
of which

of marriage,
is a sermon,

confession

sermon

lesque

misogynist's

boring
farce

in the

dissolves

rather

she boasts

Indeed,

that

she has been their whip and tribulation.

In

the

section

before

tion

about

does

is

the
only
I Cor.

the

the

letter

wife?parodies
to
letter

her

that

the
is
has

spirit,
a sort
Paul's

inordinately.

a cackle

a
from

and
For,

the

of

and

a farcical

gives
sermon

for

authority
moves

a reasonable

from
one

to allow

carnival.
it. But

behind

She

a gross

letter

to marry

love
of
and

seems
One

her

reason

to be

for

speaking
consult

need

only
she
ribald
gloss
three main
topics
the

between
rising

and

husband
from

soberly

ludicrous

the

interpretation.
to

Permission
the Wife

of
ques

the Wife

What
is the

This

But

no

course,

remarriage.
twist.

theologian
the Wife.

virginity,
instead

of

was,

in letter.
is respectable
treatment
Her
of
spirit.

of marriage
edification.

she

seems

Scripture

by
case

there

excesses

the

Whatever

buffoonery.

is made

she

(D 1-162),

interruption

teaching
sometimes

tone:

its

states
Christian

result

instance,

times

Christian

subverts

the

remarriage,

sion

see

to

of

Christianity,
of marriage

status

canonical
to

vii

Pardoner's
sort

in medieval

give
simply
of the
inconsistency
to be overwhelmed

gives

The

the

a clerical

of
the mouthpiece
the ascetic
tradition

the

multiplies

puzzlement
to
Solomon's
citing

over

for

remarry,

how

permis
many

extravagant

case:
Lo,

he

hadde

kyng,
wyves

daun
mo

Salomon:
than

oon.

that is in Marriage,"
"To Speak of Woe
Lowell,
p. 82.
1956),
to Chaucer
Cf. D. W. Robertson,
(Princeton,
Jr., A Preface

9. Robert
10.

the wise

heere

I trowe

Life
1962),

Studies

(New York,

pp. 317-31.

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81

DAVID S. REID
As

it were

God

wolde

me

unto

leveful

To be refresshed half so ofte as he!

(D 35-38)
The

to

allusions
irony.

pedantic
The

riage.

remarry:

epistle

instance,

Jerome

and,
is not

octogamy

even

The

Wife

than

changes
One
rejoicing.

unspiritual

unspiritual
more
than

one

can

be

having
fornicator

repentant

rather
of mar

ideal

spiritual
into most

pleading
on those

add

Jovinianum"

rigorously

its higher
sarcasm

heaps
is better

damned.11

for

converts

remarriage
since

certainly

simultaneously,

Adversus

"Epistola
contends

however,

Wife,
For

liberties.

Jerome's

The

the

word
grotesque
cannot
say that

enough
husband

to

forgiven,
and sar

to a source
the Wife
of
permission
or
she
them.
havoc
with
with
Church
rather,
Jerome;
teaching
plays
disagrees
to
to
and
in
with
the
the permission
exhortation
virginity
Again,
dealing
case
it seems
is Pauline
that
she is arguing
with
her
Indeed,
marry,
enough.
castic

that,
modesty
disarming
its own
excellences
with

while
even

virginity
if they are

is

perfection,
inferior:

marriage

is also

a state

is greet perfeccion,
Virginitee
continence
eek with
devocion,

And
But

that

Crist,

is welle,

of perfeccion

Bad nat every wight he sholde go selle

Al that he hadde, and gyve it to the poore
And in swich wise folwe hym and his foore.
He

to hem

spak

that wolde

lyve

....

parfitly

(105-11)
her

adds her application

the Wife

Then

discussion

in the

collapses

of the teaching, and the edifying

with

exuberance

which

she

embraces

trend of
imperfec

tion:
And

leve,

youre

by

lordynges,

that

am

nat

I.

Iwol bis towe the flour of al myn age

In the

actes

and

in

fruyt

of mariage.

(112-14)
In

same

the

wife

have

her

pound

of

disguised
by being
our
Anglo-Teutonic
made
of church
being
11.

I. 14, 15

treatment
of the love between
husband
and
gives Paul's
of the marriage
and the Wife will
Paul
debt,
spoke
gloss.
an
The
is not
of course
flesh.
early
expression,
burlesque
a bad mouth,
in
"the
of
sexual
insurrection
of
great
put

she

way,

preposterous

{PL, XXIII,

race"

or

teaching
233,

of

any other
is a sort of

protest.
goliardic

What

is behind

the

scholasticism.

234).

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play

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

82
The

is also

Tale

Wife's

broadside

opening

against
are

There

follow.

lends

the

second

the

beldame

have

set

the

is a mirror

wife,
story

in two,

and

in both

image
cases

part

inverts

the

first.

answer
the

the

the

rape)

knight
in the

of

transformation

women's

it consists
the

first.

the

By

an
taking
one
If
problem.
then
the second
part

rapes

in

the maiden
and

second;

the

ties

such

and

high,

and

The

female.

as age

invites

the

success

the

rather

tale

resolves

structural

as

polarity
combination

equivocal
mediates

the

between

the

it an

for

burlesque

the

beautiful

problems

ambiguous
and,

good
the Wife

as

be

would
fortune.
tells
of

impossibilities

disastrous,
This
it, one

romance.

but

equivocal
senses
that
In her mouth,

correct

the

nature
she

of

the

the miracu
in favour
of Mars
other

answer
the

Tale

is in ambush

6f
and

low
and, presumably,
youth,
beauty,
ugliness
as well.
But
and poverty
and plenty
this beautiful
impossibility
2
romance
to the
The
is
solution
dilemma.
knight's
sphinxlike:

equivocal
to solve
fail

to
it is

beldame's

and

and

his

analysis:
in
featured

the

transformation

part,
of

of his answer

(crudely
as well

riddles

first

the

fatal

and take her in his arms). Through

beldame
is

of women

means

promise
second

dominance
in

her
as a

problems,
to marry

promising
the court

riddle

his

two

of

of

a
problem,
is a
there
about
women,
problem
In other
the second
rule.
respects

pattern

(featured

which

mastery,
male

Venus,

the

This

masculine

to wed

the knight

compelling

to him.

puts

hag

of
polarities
and feminine

upon

figured
knight's

with

the
him

upon

is to

jocularity
the Tale
Moreover,

bathos.

fulfilling
him with

is women's

solution
Whereas

The

way.

anti-feminist

skeleton

part containing
In both
parts

first.

subdued
a mock-romance

that

to the first riddle is righted by the happy outcome

dilemma

lous

But

confronts

each

the

advances

makes

hag

life.

that

into

solving
answer
to

the

learns

and

the

of

consequence

his

it clear

lapses
In

untuning.

a more

in

though
makes

where

points
romance

sly

knight
saves

and

of

the

the

being
the

him

and
to

itself

undesirable
divides

several
in

breaks

Prologue
whole

burlesque,
Friar

the

polari
birth
is an
to
brings
is apt

behind

is Cinderellalike

what

in her Tale is gargoyle d.

Clearly
courtly
woman

the
love,

tale
and

is a
the

courtly

one.

transformation

The
of

sovereignty
the beldame

of women
into

is an article

a beautiful

of

young
is not

a
But
the Wife
love
of
for
the
knight.
eligible
on it.
she is let loose
is garbled
because
game
Possibly
courtly
Emma
in her a fourteenth
whose
century
Bovary,
imagina
envisaged
romance
in the
tion
The
after all, been made
had
excited.
had,
point
courtly
romances.
it
is
At
the
Rome's
clear
from
undone
about
any rate,
tag
by
being

courtly,
Chaucer

12.

her

makes
and

See Claude

the

Levi-Strauss,

(New York,
1963),
vations
(pp. 225-26)
paper.

"The

Structural
Structural
Study of Myth,"
Anthropology
on the Sphinx
n. 6 (pp. 230-31)
and the obser
later in this
theme
I shall take up the trickster

esp.
pp. 206-31,
on Cinderella.

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DAVID S. REID

in which

uncourtly
is closer

imitation

and
"Pyramus
The
burlesque
had

Tale

analogue
of women's

and

Thisbe,"
intention
current.

that

the Wife

and

Jankin

returns

cludes

the Wife
The

the

to

clearer

"Tale

be well

may

lecture
the

instance,
est

unica

atque

of wive's

of

than
to
is

the

happy

in

the

but

widow,

of

virtus"

beldame.

of

fine

were

sentiments

three

other

taken

as

ing of

authorities

in her

envoy

to her Tale

sends

never

she

thus

In

parfit
Housbondes
And

they
joye;

grace

unto
lyve
and Jhesu

meeke,
t'overbyde

yonge,
hem

rules.

gave
widdershins.

hir
Crist

is not

base

and

ugly.
as rich as

Indeed

the
On

the

reminds
for

"gentillesse,"

theme

the Romance

for

lecture

"nobilitas

tradition.

sola

And

yet

and hedgehogs.

the
On
Loathly
Lady.
to
I
lecture
be
is,
think,
ugliness)
were
old
and
banished
age,
ugliness
even
in favor
the
of their
admission,

sober

Prologue
romance

of

plea

her

and

age,
(poverty,
points
comic
gate
crashing.
Poverty,
so
from
the garden
of love,
arguments
one on
serious
disconcert
the
poverty,

And

as a

intended

old

be

are

Both
is old

it is as if a game of croquet were being played with flamingoes

The

peculiar
law of

the

to spy the Wife behind

Prologue.
The
irreproachable.

argument
is a
commonplace

the Wife's
the
high
doctrine

well
might
conventions

beldame

the Wife's
is

was

the

surely

transformation.

mischief

to

the

is poor. So it is hard not

and miraculous

courtly
the Wife's

play,
heartless.

women
in her
by
played
to
her
and
grace;
marriage
ex
her
of
What
Tale.
ending

ladies'

represented
nor beautiful;

the

This

gentled.

of

furnished

supremacy

according
in the part

finds

young
as a
burgher's

off

exegetical
beldame's

the

place
one

rather

version

is also

her

was

seems

rate,

any

that

in Bottom's

courtly
of Florent"

illustrates,

the Wife's

However,

finds
joke

At

tale

woman's
this,

one

courtly
if some

confusion.
the

fashions.

travesty
the

that
Tale
and
Prologue
manners
sort of
of
comedy

the

courtly

of

Gower's

echo
quizzical
romance
from

a lady; the beldame

of

be

brings
which

is neither

Wife

beldame's
one

to

there,

Possibly

of

parody

Wife

as

would

love. Remembering
courtly
more
the rule
Tale
of

The

Franklin's

to

aspire
kind

and,

been

domestic

born.

courtly

adapt

people
to
the

the
matter

from

sovereignty,
out
In her
she made
Prologue
it her
that under
shrewishness

concern.
love,

to

how

knew

Chaucer

Prioress

the

of

portrait

83

Finally,
matter

as the Wife's
just
a ludicrous
twist,

gloss
so the

lyves ende
us sende

and

fressh

that we

abedde,
. . .

wedde.

(1257-60)
III
Faced
purpose,

with

antic
either

comedy
or
critical

of

the Wife's

edifying,

to

sort,
justify

one
one's

usually

looks

enjoyment.

for
But

a didactic
I am

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at a

CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

84
to

loss

find

such

any

moral

strategy

in

camouflaged

the Wife's

or

Prologue

Tale.
The
a

Tale

is not

a criticism

and

fantastic

game,
an

high
the game

by making
or a social
game

love
parody

anti-game

of

jeopardy
de Meun.

It

piece
so a

to

is

of

the

contrast,
of
a

conveys

discussion

of marriage

the

Tales

other

romance

by

on

the
a

being

is like

of

spectre

her
to

in order

in the love

of marriage
and
of the Duenna

in

that

not

game,

as a

game
But

confounding.
be aped

to

scorn

in

of

about

is farce,

which

Tale,
it

lacks

by
rogue

generous

also
lacks
comedy
recent
in more
so

the

of

the mouth

being

and

womanhood,

the

is topsy-turvy
Juvenal's
is concerned

weight.

of

anything

that

literature.

To

Marriage
too
is
really

end

splendor,
II" of

recognition

called

"gentillesse"

class

its

moral

simply
from
its sheer
invective
apart
the age;
and
Pope's
"Epistle

paradoxically

the Wife's

Further,

they

the

of

to

belongs

love.13

superfluities

women

gaff

but

remedy
to her
for the Prologue
a satire
on women
As
bathos.
by

is
ask

love),
played
the Wife's
role

the

blow

As

Satire,"

thinks

intrusion
for

love was

Courtly
Wife

so. The

being
one

by laughing at the low imitation. And

or Nature,

of Reason

love.

courtly

its

it. Whether

manners,

high

a
sacred
parody
(of
and Nature,
of Reason

Jean

of
of

the Wife's

itself

game,

standards

conscious

their authority

establish

the

game,
to

is necessary

of
quite

the
their

would

Group
slender

to be

with

characters

of

human

nature.

for

a serious

pass

my mind,
as well.

and
"Sixth

is true

this
The

of

Franklin's

a mirror

for middle

is to be
says all there
marriages.
Ethically,
to discover
said on
the subject.
But
in the Wife's
an
of
married
vice
exposure
on married
lecture
virtue
the
decorum
of
farce.
Besides,
goes
oblique
against
cant.
it sounds
not
like
it does
the Wife's
follow
because
However,
that,
or some
to be didactic
fails
it is anti
of
imitation,
pantomime
high mode
are to be
A moral
moral.
is necessary
ethos
if its inversions
funny.
Similarly,
like
sermon
on the
the Feasts
and of Asses,
of Fools
the
burlesque
depends
decorum

it overturns.

intention

in such
of

Comedy
clusion,
than

of

the

may

leave

satire

and

It would

topsy-turvy
farcical
one
the

Parson's

grotesque

end

ridiculous

in which

to

to find

be

whose
The

doubtless

as absurd

be quite
as it would

mode,
uneasy.

Tale

there

is

find

a heretic

an

or

immoral

one.

edifying
the preposterous
solely
as a form
of imitation
is no

allegory

are

con
rather

attended

by

a kind of licence and by a primitive and

undignified conviviality, which are
No
is inherently priggish, but the
doubt
the
of
literature
study
disturbing.
Wife's

13.

world

is crooked,

the

comedy

of

her marriages

Cf. the ambiguous

roles of Ovid's Dipsas
I, "Elegy
(Amores
in the pseudo-Ovidian
"De Vetula"
(Edward K. Rand, Ovid
York,
p. 130).
1963],

is as cruel

and

banal

as

and of the nurse

VIII")
and his Influence
[New

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85

DAVID S. REID
a Punch

and Chaucer's
is a way
of feasting
show,
Judy
urbanity
one
as unac
cannot
the
And
the Wife
the base
dismiss
upon
yet
ugly.
nor
to
to modern
the
her
the
world
with
medieval
taste,
relegate
ceptable
to an age of stricter
that
her
and
hierarchies
pantomime
explanation
belongs
one
one
more
For
conventions.
in this way,
robust
if one
her
rejects
thing,
as
reinstates
antic
is
for
in
her
the
the
fun,
actually
good
only
improved
guise
or another,
For
in one
of the antique.
all comedy,
form
the
involves
another,
those

of

and

and

the

trite,

generously,
to
urbanity
one's
attitude

the

and

banal,

indecorous;

can

she

hardly
the
upon
play
to such
comedy

since

and,

out

go

season.

of
the

gross,

the Wife

and

distorted,

is ambivalent;
and
Prologue

that

so

these
incorporates
in the nature
simply
the cruel.
Necessarily

It is also

is what

of

one.

tickles

is a coarse
of the Wife's
Tale
and can and
comedy
joke
on those
to be
terms. But
is
more?
it
Antic
is,
enjoyed
ought
comedy
nothing
a mimetic
one
in fact,
in its own
to
it
mode
is used
right,
though
finding
or slander,
or
to satire,
one way
subservient
In order
to show
in
parable.
a revel or celebration
it is an imitation,
which
and not
I shall
of
simply
folly,
to relate
it to the
and
ethos
of
In
the
Chaucer's
attempt
age.
courtly
religious
a Realist
most
and
aristocratic
of
frame
whether
terms,
mind,
general
given
The

we

care

to characterize
us with

confronts
since

she

is
comedy
naughty
and value,
derisive
and

of

and

because

So
displaced.
of imitating

is a mode

shaping
tradition,

is an

bed
misrule

image
looks
like

Bromyard,
hearers
how
of

upon

an

top.'

14. G. R. Owst,

a wheel

creaturely

the

literally
with

than

form
in

anti-reality
involvement
with
in

and

rewards

fate

of

those

to

depicted
her hands,

inMedieval

him
to

to

satire
and

scurrility
women.

that

Fortune

and Pulpit

of

parody,

base

humor

clerical

the

in more

bane
of

antic

that

to the wishes
of
contrary
"14 I do
wish
not, of course,

Literature

of

and

attitude,

reality
is mere

it were?antic

envious

comedy

intractable

and
genial
ambivalent

However,
took

precious
emblem
Worldly
it is

the

as

because

the Wife's

of

which

grotesque

she

Estate,

abortion

matter,

neoplatonic

Prologue

womanhood.

the

the

the

special

demands.

her

madness,

or Third

with

Folly,
relate
the Wife's

can

from

turning

the wheel
the

one

comparing
'sometimes

a woman

shifts

our

in our

like Erasmus'

bugbear
like Lear's
of

naught,

And

rather

essentially
mischievous

it is

anti-reality
antic
licence
comedy,
More
specifically,
It is obvious
titudes.
her

stuff?the

experience.
is expressed

that

reality,
Like

or

because

bathos

the world

void

or womanhood,

flesh,

by

to confusion.

form
brings
or
form
of

privation

version,

the Wife

a mischievous

love

had

ridicule

The
of

who

contrary

of

flesh,

in
the

of

her
her

the world.
reminds

wife,

at

and

usury

the

love

religious
a share

thus

"So
his

in the form
the walls
upon
as most
often
who,
happens,
on
is
who
it or sits
propelled

suggest

England

Chaucer

(Oxford,

is

1961),

contributing

p. 239.

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CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

86
to De

Contemptu
bouleversements

If the
ness

of

the

farce

of

the

At

the

fortune,
and

bathos

its

upon

illusions

confusion,

pantomime
the world,

of

can

they

find

the

possibilities.
deciduous
in the

expression

is
in a context
the material
satire
from
clerical
of
placed
one
can
women
and marriage.
Here
the
of
against
speak
as part
teases
the earnest
reader
that
of courtly
flyting.
an
is
of courting,
if
the
of the canker
in the
Wife
and,
image
a kind
of stalking
horse.15

badinage
tone
of

duplicity

is part
is also

Flyting
she

rose,

are

flesh

he draws

but

satire,
of

"Archewyf."
same
time,

the

courtly

Mundi

The

to another

also
comedy
belongs
directed
the Third
against

Wife's

this

case

ing

stock

because
in

is base;

she

and

the

tradition
The

Wife

the

gross,

of

courtly

is both

are

rogue
and

disgraceful,

flyting,
and
laugh
the

in

anarchic,

I sup
an
a
and
this
be
of
class
of
the
pose
way
expression
antagonism
might
putting
a
commons
in their
And
it
is
it
also
form
of
for
yet
place.
disorderly
courting,
stance
to be enter
for a pawky,
bonhommous
and
calls
for condescension
Even
tained.
if she is anti-pastoral,
the Wife
still calls for a version
of pastoral
is not
her
because
of
attitudes.
This
the
is
in
comedy
simply
Prologue
placed
the
life of an old
and
low
but
also
famous
like
town,
because,
provincial
unbound

the world

Estate.

Elinour

Skelton's
comedy
Sir David
mother

fabliaux

Lindesay's
Bonnie
Besse,

and

the

Rumming,
to

belong

of

as much

popular,
Ane

courtly

the Wife

of

figure
as

Thrie

and
or

to Romance

the

of

Satyre

jig,

entertainment.

Estatis,

her

clerical,
Solace

sort

of

low
In

tradition.
relates

of

his

Of twelf geir auld sho learnit to swyfe:

Thankit be the great God on lyue,
maid

Scho

But
Quhen

me

Was

never

Of

fatheris
Of

four

fatheris

dout,
ane was
man

or

fyue:

this

is na mowis.

deid,

sho gat ane vther:

sic ane mother.

had

sho maid
lawit men

me
and

ane

futher,

leirit.

(162-69)16
It

is of

course
who

heroine

that

possible
her
began

career

both
at

and

Chaucer
twelve.

But

Lindesay

since

Solace's

drew
lines

on

some

closely

folk
resem

ble the Wife's

For,

lordynges,

sith

I twelve

yeer

was

of

age,

be God that is eterne on lyve,

at chirche door I have had fyve,
Housbondes
_ (4-6)
Thonked

15.
16.

See Francis L. Utley,

Sir David Lindesay's

Rib (Columbus,
The Crooked
Part IV, EETS, OS 37

Works,

pp. 30-34.
1944),
1869).
(London,

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DAVID S. REID
was
if Lindesay
Chaucer's
naturally
as

it looks
is how

to Chaucer.

indebted

In that

Again,

is in marriage:

that

and

unruly
Here
end."

on

"Amorous

ing

popular
The
Alysoun.

408

At

burden

is

expense,
the

of Chaucer's

evidence

possibly
it seems

rate,

in

townys
He
the wife's
tongue.
by
dies.
she
Chaucer's
Wife,

exasperated
unlike
which,

of

any

tells

is

457

Carols,"

tradition.

so

"Kyrie,

ear

the

of wifely
domination,
"at
of an incident

of widows,

shrews,

particular
who
husband

the

a blow

the

Among

is

it

her

strikes

of
In

members.

of

farce
popular
of Marriage"

one finds that all treat of the

Richard L. Greene, The Early English Carols,11

woe

is relevant

what

case,

into Lindesay's
passes
turns
to the "Carols
if one

invention

and misrule.

counsellors

evil

87

to

involve

modify
and

Jankin

an

runs,

kyrie,"
merie,

syngyt
Jankyn
With
"aleyson."

on the name
a pun
is probably
of the
that "aleyson"
suggests
a
to
the Wife's
There
is also
of situation
resemblance
fleeting
admiring
girl.
at her fourth
In the carol
the
husband's
funeral.
pretty
Jankin's
legs and feet
and there
is at a Yule
procession
girl
note

Greene's

at the
Angnus
beryot
Jankyn
He
but sayd nowt,
twynkelid,
But

it would

be

to

absurd

the
and

paxbrede
on myn

to establish

try

fot

with

he

trede.

a few

tenuous

such

parallels
nor
is it
popular
actually
as
is
the
is
in
What
of
shrews
that,
farce,
important
comedy
important.
and mystery
the Wife's
manifold
interlude,
patent,
jig, ballad,
play makes
to the humor
In Chaucer
comic
of the people.
the popular
femininity
belongs
that

becomes

comedy
comedy
low
from
There

is seen

the Wife's
ual
the

and

Prologue

composition,
element

survival

and

of

but
of
folk

of

country
custom

Tale,
the

so

and

of

for

the Wife;

that

sophistication
a
by
courtly
an urbane
enjoyment

is

is attended

and

simply
sense
of

that

the

distance

of them.
by
or
nature
of the pastoral
of
popular
talking
not of Chaucer's
it is a question,
individ
though
in which
it was
tradition
is
formed.
That
literary
for

matter,
or

tradition

Part

sophisticated.
as

popular
low comedy,
reason
is a further
life

on

drew

Chaucer

one

which,

of

belief.

might
speculate,
The
provenance

is a
of

random

the

pagan
jealous
and May,
Winter's
is
with
Summer
January
lusty wife,
flyting
custom
the May
and
the folk
in
the
comic
tradi
Game,
persisted
possibly
The
of the
like the harvest
looks
tion.18
transformation
Lady
Loathly
figure
or the
or some
of crone
and maiden,
of the year,
other
seal of
rejuvenation
husband

17.
18.

and

1935).
(Oxford,
See E. K. Chambers,

The Mediaeval

Stage

(London,

1903),

I, 170.

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CROCODILIAN HUMOR: CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BATH

88
and

health
a

source

and what

wealth;
of

Yet

Romance.19

the one
shapes,
in Mozart's
other

various
the

the

grotesque

anti-masque

the

marvellous,

of

the

Tale,

The

recalls

that

quaint
both.

The

Wife's

farce

or

romance,

since

either

one

Prologue,
is attended
or

distances

on

the other

Rape

and

at

any

the

romantic.

The
of

the
sophisticated
play
the Lock,
in fact combines

same

the

to

point

of such matter

of
is
farcical.
purely
and
of rejection

ironies
and,

repudiates

hand,

the

by

can

configurations

makes

or The

Ass

Golden

if one

farcical

the

which

inexhaustibly
and Dorothea,

Casaubon

wonder

might

in

up

crop

to be

allowed

be

might

Eliot's

Still the medieval

and

humor

superstition
motifs

both

in George

Papagena,

their ubiquity.

thing beyond
are

instance

for

as

is rejected
since

Either

mode,

condescension
it

what

licenses

time,

shows.
One
Trickster,
bounds

might
in

female
antic

her

the

class

her

Prologue

hermetic

cast

in her

'finding
the
from

the

seed

paradox
and

opposite."20
of
versals

his
the

of

type

nature

agent

the Wife

that

seems

. . . into
riches,
thieving'
narrow
of
confines
law,

and

to
love,

custom,

ask

for

poetry,

the

witness
Tale.

C. G.

same

time,

the

all

circumstance,

fate,"2

re

comic

it is a

Moreover,

the ways

its

into

"transformation,
and

of

like

a conversion

also,
in her

transformation

breaker

Trickster,
at

the

Hermes,

and

and,

of

enantiodromia,
in

of

aspect

confusion

sly buffoonery.
outcast
and the base

latent

the

the
of

The

an

of
is

under

comedy
true. As

is

shares

humor

it

This

it

garb,
is a

"shadow,"
Jung's
within
"contains

Wife's

through
of

escape
for

the

the root of
becomes
by which
cupidity
us
and
the base
is natural.
draws
feminine
the eternal
all morality,
upwards,
it is that she is fool's
about
Chaucer's
is
clear
if one
Wife,
But,
gold.
thing
does
to ask for a hermetic
transformation
to say that
she seems
So
certainly
nature
can
one
had been
transformed.
her as if her antic
not mean
talk about

Romantic

transvaluation

of

all values,

in
in Northern
and the Corn Maiden
See the chapter on 'The Corn Mother
Europe,"
Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden
1,131-70.
Perhaps
1912),
Bough, Part V (London,
of the Wife's Tale,
of the hag in those analogues
the enormous
"King
appetite
cited by G. H.
and Dame Ragnell,"
of Sir Gawen
"The Weddynge
and
Henry"
is an echo of the
Tale
The Wife of Bath's
pp. 9-16,
1901),
(London,
Maynadier,
the
of the year, compare
of the Farm
Famine
(Frazer, p. 140). On the rejuvenation
com
and see Frazer's
Perenna
of Mars to Anna
III, 675-96)
marriage
(Ovid, Fasti,
See also Levi-Strauss,
in the Fasti of Ovid
III, pp. 121-27.
1929),
mentary
(London,
n. 6 for another
the terrain of Shan
line. This
is, of course,
inviting
pp. 230-31,
should be recog
is that those elements
for my argument
is important
dyisms. What
in the fertility myth
It does not matter whether
nized as "country."
they originate
of that school might well
the theories
school.
and ritual of the Cambridge
Indeed,
as a source of romance
and
matter
of such country
the perennial
illustrate
vitality
fancy.
in Paul Radin, The Trickster
of the Trickster
20. "On the Psychology
(London,
Figure"

19.

21.

1956),p;211.
Karl Kerenyi,

"Trickster

in Relation

to Greek

Mythology,"

Radin,

p. 190.

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DAVID S. REID
it

Nevertheless,

is only
sort

to

sympathetic
and
surprising
has
received

the

elaborate

must

valuation

act
and

of

If

asks

for

the Wife

and

the

if it can

way.
in her

account

is a rogue,

the

values
literary
I can
the
explain
she
enthusiastic
press

should

she

she

is a

special

case,

the

trans

the

say

and more

extravagant
of

so

in

that

redeeming,

terms,

own
of

epitome

find

it is an

the

irony,
She

revolution

she

criticism.

Either

the Wife.

paradoxical

godlike
baffled

transformation

hermetic

crooked.

becomes

of

of

post-Coleridgean

in

vital.
Except
rigibly
as that
extenuated
being

terms

indeed

virtues

redeeming,
are
somehow
following

be

a historical

in

judgments

some

in

89

or

irony,
must

the Wife
is spoken
scandal;

run
as

of

than

its values
in

the

the

incor
is

she

therefore,

Her

individual.

irreducibly
a
have divined
it
only
by
can
of creative
and we, who
her
read,
imagination;
only
approach
a
So she is enfranchised.
amazed.
Obviously
squinneying
appraisal
secret,

and,

Chaucer

therefore,

could

like this is sheer critical waggishness.

It is as if the Wife's pantomime had
invaded criticism and invested her with burlesque dignities. True, it is hard to
speak of the Wife without duplicity, and some in the spirit of pantomime
have

written
to

wish
sort

of

thing
To

spoil

condescending
on the Wife's,

posture

those

mind,

values

on

insist,
moral

so

that

the

as
entertainingly
should
recognize
the critics'
part.

one

But

irony
and her

in her

excellent

Chaucer's

as well

perceptively
the sport.

on

upside
her

approve

are

crookedness
other

the

the

her;
sport

nor

is taken
as

fully

one

would

it is: a

for what
it becomes

Otherwise

world

roguery

seriously.
or find
human

im
To

my
some

askew.

on

hand,

misses
insight
a bad
lot, and

down

about

the

penetration
the Wife.
about

point

and

of

seriousness
Chaucer

Obviously
he saw to it she set
obviously
everything
running
so
in fact,
that
in question.
is not
The
counter-clockwise;
obviously,
insight
a
is blatant
Wife
it requires
and
stare to evade
very
enough,
special
recogniz
she is: a
of the rogue
of wife
from a more
ing her for what
fashioning
figure
than well
vein
of low
art
worked
was
What
Chaucer's
added
comedy.
range
meant

and
mean

her

for

suppleness
it
that

of

It

confusion.

is pander's
of
the
Pilgrimage,
to spy
presume

art.

is an

urbane
one

can

art.
see

That,

of

course,

does

the

not

the
amidst
Indeed,
urbanity,
a
of
It
suspension
against
judgment
eternity.
into
that final
the
of
the
of
unmasking
masquerade
one
world.
it is itself
since
of the masks,
a sense
the
But,
expresses
urbanity
of human
to the
finitude
and of belonging
of
pantomime
creaturely
indignity.
as well
as
in a Christian
is the human
and
That,
sense,
genial
perspec
worldly
tive of the
Tales.
Canterbury
festivity
not
does

University

as

of British Columbia

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